Toh 3808The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand Lines

Summary

The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of
Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand
Lines is a detailed explanation of the Long Perfection of Wisdom
sūtras, presenting a structural framework for them that is relatively easy to
understand in comparison to most other commentaries based on Maitreya-Asaṅga’s
Ornament for the Clear Realizations. After a
detailed, word-by-word explanation of the introductory chapter common to all
three sūtras, it explains the structure they also all share in terms of the
three approaches or “gateways”—brief, intermediate, and detailed—ending with an
explanation of the passage known as the “Maitreya chapter” found only in the
Eighteen Thousand Line and Twenty-Five Thousand Line sūtras. It goes by many different titles,
and its authorship has never been conclusively determined, some Tibetans
believing it to be by Vasubandhu, and others that it is by Daṃṣṭrāsena.

Acknowledgements

This commentary was translated by Gareth Sparham under the patronage and
supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

The Translator’s Acknowledgments

I thank the late Gene Smith, who initially encouraged me to undertake
this work, and I thank all of those at 84000—Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, the
sponsors, and the scholars, translators, editors, and technicians—and all
the other indispensable people whose work has made this translation
possible.

I thank all the faculty and graduate students in the Group in
Buddhist Studies at Berkeley, and Jan Nattier, whose seminars on the
Perfection of Wisdom were particularly helpful. At an early stage, Paul
Harrison and Ulrich Pagel arranged for me to see a copy of an unpublished
Sanskrit manuscript of a sūtra cited in Bṭ3. I thank them for that
assistance.

I also take this opportunity to thank the abbot of Drepung Gomang
monastery, Losang Gyaltsen, and the retired director of the Institute of
Buddhist Dialectics, Kalsang Damdul, for listening to some of my questions
and giving learned and insightful responses.

Finally, I acknowledge the kindness of my mother, Ann Sparham, who
recently passed away in her one hundredth year, and my wife Janet
Seding.

Acknowledgement of Sponsorhip

We gratefully acknowledge the generous sponsorship of Kelvin Lee,
Doris Lim, Chang Chen Hsien, Lim Cheng Cheng, Ng Ah Chon and family, Lee Hoi
Lang and family, the late Lee Tiang Chuan, and the late Chang Koo Cheng.
Their support has helped make the work on this translation possible.

Introduction

The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of
Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen
Thousand Lines (hereafter Bṭ3) is a line-by-line explanation of
the three Long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, presenting a structural
framework common to all three sūtras that is easy for readers unfamiliar
with the Perfection of Wisdom to understand. It should not be confused with
the commentary with which it is often associated, The
Long Commentary on the One Hundred Thousand (hereafter Bṭ1),
which has the same generic name Bṛhaṭṭīkā,
the same opening verse of homage, and many similar passages. The two works
are grouped together in the Degé Tengyur and are described in Tsultrim
Rinchen’s Karchak (dkar chag) of the
Degé Tengyur as together constituting the third of the four great
“pathbreaker” traditions of interpreting the Perfection of Wisdom, which is
characterized by the “three approaches and eleven formulations” (sgo gsum rnam grangs bcu gcig).

The author of Bṭ3 has not been conclusively determined; some
Tibetans say it is by Vasubandhu, while others assert that it is by
Daṃṣṭrāsena. It goes by a variety of titles, some calling it The Long Explanation (Bṛhaṭṭīkā), some Well-Trodden Path
(Paddhati) or Commentary on the Scripture (Tib. gzhung ’grel), and others [Commentary on]
All Three Mother [Scriptures That Is a] Destroyer of Harms (Tib.
yum gsum gnod ’joms) or Long [Commentary That Is a] Destroyer of Harms
(Tib. gnod ’joms che ba).

The first half of Bṭ3 has a loose internal structure. It begins
with a detailed explanation of the introductory chapter and then provides a
brief, an intermediate, and a detailed exegesis. The brief exegesis is of
the opening statement that comes near the beginning of the second chapter in
all three versions of the sūtra, the intermediate exegesis of Chapters 2 to
21 in the Eighteen Thousand, Chapters 2 to 13
in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand, and the detailed exegesis of
the rest of all three. It ends with an explanation of the chapter spoken to
Maitreya, Chapter 83 in the Eighteen Thousand,
Chapter 72 in the Twenty-Five Thousand. Some
Tibetan writers say a small part at the end is either lost or was not
translated into Tibetan.

The earlier parts of Bṭ3 spend considerable time on each word;
later parts explain just particular words or paragraphs from longer
sections. This means that an ordinary modern reader will, at the least, be
able to identify the sections of the sūtras that Bṭ3 is explaining,
something that cannot be said of Maitreya’s better known Ornament for the Clear Realizations (Abhisamayālaṃkāra). The Ornament for the Clear Realizations is a
magnificent text, arguably a text that has exerted the greatest influence on
Tibetan Buddhism, but it is a very difficult one for a modern reader trying
to navigate for the first time one of the Long Perfection of Wisdom
scriptures.

The Work, its Tibetan Translation, and its Titles

and Monikers

The Perfection of Wisdom commentary translated here is extant as a
complete work only in Tibetan translation.
It is likely to be the
same as the work listed with the same title in the Denkarma (Tib. ldan dkar ma) and Phangthangma (Tib. ’phang thang ma) catalogs of works translated
into Tibetan (early 9th century ce). Although the Degé Tengyur catalog says that the
text was translated by the Indian preceptor Surendrabodhi and the
editor-translator monk Yeshé Dé, the extant colophons say only that these
translators edited and finalized it, perhaps suggesting that an earlier
translation served as a basis.

From the Tibetan title under which the text appears in catalogs, a
Sanskrit title has been reconstructed as Āryaśatasāhasrikāpañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāṣṭadaśasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitābṛhaṭṭīkā,
shortened to Bṛhaṭṭīkā (Bṭ3). However, there is no
Sanskrit title given either at the beginning of the Tibetan translation or
in the colophon, and although Bṭ3 was clearly written in Sanskrit by an
Indian author (as detailed below), there is no known surviving Sanskrit
manuscript of this work that might attest to its original title. Nor is
there, in any extant work in an Indic language, any obvious reference to a
text with a comparable title .

As well as its full Tibetan and reconstructed Sanskrit titles, Bṭ3
is also known by several shorter names. One is Commentary on the Scripture (gzhung
’grel), and another is Destroyer of
Harms (gnod ’joms). The origin
of these monikers is a little complicated to explain.

Indian authors who refer to this text include Haribhadra (eighth
century) and Abhayākaragupta (fl. ca.1100). Haribhadra mentions what is
thought to be this text (see below) as a work by Vasubandhu,
using the title “Well-Trodden Path” (Paddhati) but this was rendered in the Tibetan
translation of Haribhadra’s work as “Commentary on the
Scripture” (gzhung ’grel). However, later Tibetan writers do not
agree on whether “well-trodden path” is actually the name of a text.

This same title, Well-Trodden
Path/Commentary on the Scripture,
is again used by Abhayākaragupta, as mentioned below, in his Intention of the Sage, where he
specifically identifies “the Scripture” as The
Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines. It is also
used (and identified with Vasubandhu) in a lesser-known work by
Jagattalanivāsin (fl. ca. 1165), An Explanation called
“Following the Personal Instructions of the Bhagavatī”, that both
summarizes the Eight Thousand and follows the
“Commentary on the Scripture” (gzhung ’grel).

) as Bṭ1—Toh 3807, cataloged immediately
before Bṭ3, with a similar title, The Long Commentary
on the One Hundred Thousand, reconstructed in Sanskrit as
*Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitābṛhaṭṭīkā, and often confused with
Bṭ3. The verse at the beginning of both treatises, in Tibetan translation,
says:

I want to compose a Commentary on the
Scripture in which the harms have been destroyed.

When the Tibetan translators render the Sanskrit word paddhati as “Commentary on the Scripture” (gzhung ’grel), this is indeed the contextually
appropriate meaning. Still, paddhati in its most basic sense means a “path” or a
“well-trodden path” (from pad, “foot,” and dhati, derived with saṃdhi from han, “to strike”). If one takes the paddhati in Bṭ1 and Bṭ3’s verse
of homage to mean “path,” the line would then be translated this way:

For this title rendered most literally as “well-trodden path where
the thorns have been trodden down,” that is how the alternative rendering
Destroyer of Harms, nöjom (gnod ’joms), has become the
moniker commonly used for both Bṭ1 and Bṭ3 in Tibet, at least since the
fourteenth century, and particularly in Gelukpa commentaries on the
Perfection of Wisdom,

The title Destroyer of Harms is, in
the case of this text, an abbreviation for the titles Yumsum Nöjom (yum
gsum gnod ’joms), [Commentary on the] Three
Mother [Scriptures] That Is a Destroyer of Harms, also known as
Nöjom Chéwa (gnod ’joms che ba), The Longer
[Commentary] That Is a Destroyer of Harms. The latter name
distinguishes it from the other Nöjom
(Destroyer of Harms), Bṭ1, whose title is
an abbreviation for Bumkyi Nöjom (’bum gyi gnod ’joms), [Commentary on the] One Hundred Thousand Line [Scripture] That Is a
Destroyer of Harms), also known as Nöjom Chunga (gnod ’joms chung
ba), The Shorter [Commentary] That Is a
Destroyer of Harms, even though that “shorter” commentary is
actually a much longer treatise in terms of the number of folios.

The Work and its Original Author

In the absence of an original, authoritative attribution, the
identity of the author of Bṭ3 is contested. In different commentaries,
histories, and bibliographical works its author, if named at all, is
variously said to be Daṃṣṭrāsena, Vasubandhu, the master Vasubandhu, the
Middle Way master Vasubandhu, or simply the Nöjom Khenpo
(gnod ’joms mkhan po), “the Destroyer of Harms scholar.” The problem of
authorship is compounded by the text’s close association with Bṭ1 and the
monikers shared by the two works. It is by no means always clear in
discussions of the author, especially in early Tibetan Perfection of Wisdom
commentaries, whether the work being referred to is Bṭ1 or Bṭ3.

Perhaps one measure of the dearth of definitive evidence is that
the two principal candidates for authorship—each with their proponents in
the later literature—are scholars who lived many centuries apart. Vasubandhu
is the great fourth or fifth century scholar of Abhidharma and Yogācāra,
traditionally said to be the half-brother of Asaṅga. Daṃṣṭrāsena, about whom
little else is known, was a Kashmiri scholar who lived in the late eighth
and early ninth centuries.
Both have been said, variously, to be the authors of both Bṭ3 and Bṭ1. At
the same time it is not very likely that the two works have the same author,
as their style and approach are rather different.

Vasubandhu, certainly a prolific author but also one to whom a
great many works have been attributed with varying certainty, is likely to
have written at least one Prajñāpāramitā commentary. Nevertheless, no such
text is counted among the works that are considered his with the highest
degree of certainty—those cross-referenced in his own works and commented on
by his immediate successors. If nevertheless there was such a
text, the question is whether it survived as the one translated into Tibetan
as Bṭ3 (or possibly Bṭ1), or was lost.

In the eighth century, Haribhadra, in perhaps the first known
reference in an extant Sanskrit work to a commentary that might be Bṭ3,
refers in a slightly disparaging way to a work by Vasubandhu
with the title “Well-Trodden Path” (Paddhati); this title (as mentioned above in

Elevated with pride in his minute knowledge of the sides of the
division into being and nonbeing, the master Vasubandhu
attained a status that allowed him to explain the topics of the
Perfection of Wisdom in the Well-Trodden
Path/Commentary on the
Scripture.

As well as linking the name Vasubandhu with the title Well-Trodden Path, with its suggestive reference
to the introductory verse shared by Bṭ3 and Bṭ1, it is also noteworthy that
Haribhadra says that this Vasubandhu writes with only an
understanding of the Mind Only view, not the Middle Way view.

Haribhadra’s work was not translated into Tibetan, however, until
the later translation period. Earlier, when the two commentaries were
translated, no author seems to have been identified for Bṭ3. Of the two
extant early 9th century ce catalogs of works
translated into Tibetan, the Denkarma (Tib. ldan
dkar ma) makes no mention of authors for either Bṭ1 or Bṭ3,
while the Phangthangma (Tib. ’phang thang
ma) gives no author for Bṭ3, but lists Bṭ1 with an impressive
group of treatises and text summaries under the heading “sūtra and śāstra
commentaries written by King Trisong Detsen.”

We then have no apparent mention of either text until around the
start of the twelfth century when Ar Changchup Yeshé (ar byang chub ye shes, ca. 1100) records the
view that “there is a Commentary on the
Scripture by Vasubandhu that connects the Ornament for the Clear Realizations treatise with the
eight-chapter version of The Perfection of Wisdom in
Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
, but it is not
likely that it has ever been even seen by anyone.”

Some time later, Bodong Tsöndrü Dorjé (bo dong brtson ’grus rdo rje, fl. ca.
twelfth–thirteenth century), in what may be the first mention of the four
traditions of interpretation (see

) first
says that earlier commentaries say “the master Daṃṣṭrāsena’s Long Commentary on the One Hundred Thousand [i.e.
Bṭ1]” sets forth one of the four ways to interpret the Perfection of Wisdom,
and then, following Haribhadra, refers to “the Commentary on the Twenty-Five Thousand Line Perfection of Wisdom
Scripture [i.e. Bṭ3] written by Vasubandhu, who has given an
exegesis based on the Mind Only view.”

In the thirteenth century, the Narthang scholar Chomden Rikpai
Raltri (bcom ldan rig pa’i ral gri,
1227–1305), who had access to a large number of manuscripts, as part of a
general survey in his Early Survey of Buddhist
Literature (bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi
nyi ’od) places both works at the start of the section on sūtra
commentaries, attributing no author to Bṭ1 but clearly attributing Bṭ3 to
Vasubandhu. Later in the same work, he places the Commentary on the Twenty-Five Thousand Scripture among a group
of works “attributed by Tibetans to Indians,” and a few folios later says
that Bṭ1 is by “Trisong Detsen.” But in other works, perhaps of later
date, Rikpai Raltri seems also to be the first writer to mention Daṃṣṭrāsena
as the author of either of the two texts (though in this case for Bṭ1). In
his Historical Evolution of the Works of
Maitreya (byams pa dang ’brel ba’i chos
kyi byung tshul) (Kano and Nakamura 2009, pp. 131–32), and in
his summary explanation of the One Hundred Thousand
Line Perfection of Wisdom (shes rab kyi
pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag brgya pa rgyan gyi me tog), he
differentiates between Bṭ3 and Bṭ1 as being “by the master Vasubandhu and
the master Daṃṣṭrāsena.”

His student Upa Losal (dbus pa blo
gsal, ca. 1270–1355), in the catalog of the early Narthang
Tengyur, writes that Bṭ1 is “accepted as being by Daṃṣṭrāsena” but that Bṭ3
is by Vasubandhu.

Not much later in the fourteenth century, their younger
contemporary Butön (bu ston rin chen
grub, 1290–1364) goes one step further than his predecessors
in explaining the reasoning underlying the attributions he advocates. In the
list of translated texts in his History, he
notes that the Phangthangma catalog attributes Bṭ1 to the Tibetan king
Trisong Detsen, but says that two other early inventories assert that it is
of Indian origin and attribute it to Daṃṣṭrāsena. Then, regarding Bṭ3, he
acknowledges that many scholars have attributed it to Daṃṣṭrāsena, but as
evidence for it being by Vasubandhu points out that Abhayākaragupta’s (fl.
ca.1100) Intention of the Sage (Munimatālaṃkāra) copies
passages verbatim from Bṭ3 or cites them as being from “the Commentary on the Twenty-Five Thousand Scripture
(nyi khri gzhung ’grel).”

One such passage in Intention of the
Sage linking the commentary to Vasubandhu is the following:

The master Vasubandhu also in the Commentary on the Scripture says: “ ‘Armed with great
armor.’ This teaches that the intention is vast from the first thought
of awakening.”

Abhayākaragupta does also identify “the Scripture” referred to
using the Well-Trodden Path/Commentary on the Scripture as The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand
Lines. Indeed, this is corroborated by short sections of a Sanskrit
manuscript of Intention of the Sage that have
recently been edited and published by Kazuo Kano and Xuezhu Li, and these Sanskrit passages have been a useful
reference in the present translation, mentioned in several notes.

It is worth noting here that the identification of the monikers
Well-Trodden Path (Paddhati) and Commentary on the
Scripture (gzhung ’grel) with a
commentary “on the Twenty-Five Thousand
scripture,” rather than one on all three of the long sūtras, is less of a
problem for identification of the commentary than it might appear. The
commentary itself makes little mention of the individual sūtras, except in
commenting that the “Maitreya chapter” is only present in the Twenty-Five Thousand version, for not only are all
three sūtras very similar in their content but also their clear
differentiation into different versions defined in their titles by the
number of ślokas may have been a relatively late development in the
evolution of the Prajñāpāramitā literature.

The other Indian text mentioned above (

), written by Jagattalanivāsin, an
approximate contemporary of Abhayākaragupta, An
Explanation called “Following the Personal Instructions of the
Bhagavatī”, affirms very explicitly not only that the Commentary on the Scripture is by Vasubandhu, but
also that this Vasubandhu is none other than the wellknown Vasubandhu
associated with Asaṅga and Maitreya.

Dölpopa Sherap Gyaltsen (dol po pa shes
rab rgyal mtshan, 1292–1361) goes further, saying with
confidence in his Sūtra-Based Commentary
(mdo lugs ma) that both Bṭ1 and Bṭ3 are
by Vasubandhu, and not just any Vasubandhu, but by “the direct student of
the Jina Maitreya, the great chariot, the Middle Way master Vasubandhu, …
the author of the commentary on Maitreya’s Ornament for
the Great Vehicle Sūtras (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra).” In this way he unequivocally rejects the
slightly disparaging earlier characterization of him by Haribhadra. Nyaön
Kunga Pel (nya dbon kun dga’ dpal,
1285–1379), a student of both Butön and Dölpopa, repeats their attributions
for the two texts, opines that the two commentaries have not always been
properly distinguished from each other, and says that other scholars
attribute Bṭ1 to the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen and Bṭ3 to Daṃṣṭrāsena.

Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa (tsong kha pa
blo bzang grags pa, 1356–1419) is probably the most
influential proponent for attributing Bṭ1 to Trisong Detsen and Bṭ3 to
Daṃṣṭrāsena. At the beginning of his Golden
Garland (legs bshad gser
phreng), he lists a number of points in support of it (Sparham
2008–13, pp. 7–9). He also strongly disagrees with the judgment that it is
written from a Mind-Only perspective.

Shakya Chokden (shAkya mchog
ldan, 1428–1507), writing in 1454 in his Garland of Waves (bzhed tshul rba
rlabs kyi phreng ba), says “most earlier Tibetan spiritual
friends say there are four pathbreakers into the Perfection of Wisdom” and
lists the Nöjom [Bṭ1 and Bṭ3] as the third
of these four ways. Then he either cites or paraphrases “Butön Rinpoché” as
saying:

It is written in the Phangthangkamé
Catalog that Trisong Detsen has composed this Explanation of the One Hundred Thousand [Bṭ1]
in seventy-eight bundles of pages, but in both the Chimphu Catalog and the Phodrang
Tongthangden Catalog it is said to be Indian, so it was
composed by Padé. It is written that the one known as the Commentary on All Three Mother Scriptures That Is a
Destroyer of Harms [Bṭ3] in twenty-seven bundles has been
composed by Pawo (dpa’ bo), but it
is the Commentary on the Scripture composed
by Vasubandhu, because the citations from the Commentary on the Scripture in Abhayākaragupta’s Intention of the Sage
are
exactly as they are in this [Bṭ3], and because he [i.e. Vasubandhu]
makes an opening promise to compose, with “I want to compose a
commentary on that scripture in which the harms have been
destroyed.”

Evidence put forward by Tibetan scholars who support the
attribution of Bṭ3 to Daṃṣṭrāsena comes more from internal features of the
text itself than from external references to it, and in the absence of much
recorded detail about Daṃṣṭrāsena himself and his works tends to concentrate
more on refuting the possibility of Vasubandhu’s authorship more than on
attempting to substantiate Daṃṣṭrāsena’s.

There is one passage in the text
that certainly cannot
have been written by the fourth- to fifth-century Vasubandhu who wrote the
Treasury of Abhidharma
(Abhidharmakośa), Thirty Verses (Triṃśikā), and Twenty Verses (Viṃsatikā), because it
references the opinion of Śāntarakṣita, who lived some 300–400 years later.
This is among the points made by Tsongkhapa. The passage appears in the
versions of Bṭ3 in Tibetan translation in the Narthang, Kangxi, and Golden
(gser bris ma) Tengyurs, but
strikingly was omitted from the version in the Degé Tengyur.

The passage in question (

)
comes at the end of a long gloss of the words “during the last of the five
hundreds.” After
explaining that a “five hundred” is one tenth of the five thousand years the
doctrine of the Tathāgata lasts, and dividing each of the ten five
hundred-year periods into “chapters” or time periods, and associating lower
and lower attainments with each subsequent chapter, the author of Bṭ3 then
gives another opinion (

):

Some say the measure of a human lifespan can be one hundred
years. There, in the earlier fifty years, the color, shape, strength,
intellect, and so on increase, and in the later fifty years they wane.
Similarly, the end of the time period—the time of the waning of the
teaching—is like the later fifty years and hence is labeled “the last of
the five hundreds.”

Although Bṭ3 does not say so explicitly, in fact this is a citation
from Vasubandhu’s Long Commentary on Akṣayamati’s
Teaching (Akṣayamatinirdeśaṭīkā).
In the Narthang and Kangxi versions of Bṭ3, it then says:

When formulated like that [in Vasubandhu’s Long Commentary on Akṣayamati’s Teaching], the
duration of the Tathāgata’s teaching is two thousand five hundred years.
The two commentaries (ṭīkā) appear
to be contradictory. Śāntarakṣita’s intention is that the good Dharma
lasts from the Worthy One chapter up to the Meditative Stabilization
chapter. There is the explanation in the explanatory tradition and there
is this other explanation. In general, there is agreement on five
thousand years.

Clearly Vasubandhu could not reference the opinion of Śāntarakṣita.
It is presumably for this reason that the passage was removed by the editors
of the Degé Tengyur, despite its inclusion in the other, earlier versions,
and despite Tsultrim Rinchen’s Degé Tengyur dkar
chag only repeating Butön’s relatively open opinion on the
attributions of the text to Daṃṣṭrāsena and Vasubandhu.

Another possible but less obvious objection to Vasubandhu’s
authorship that has been pointed out is the commentary’s mention of “the
Subcommentary” (

), thought to be a reference to a work
by one of the two Vimuktisenas. The earlier of the two, Ārya Vimuktisena
was—at the very earliest and only according to some accounts—a late student
of Vasubandhu. Even in the unlikely event that the commentary in question
had actually been written during Vasubandhu’s lifetime, it is improbable
that Vasubandhu would have cited it.

One way of explaining the presence of these passages might be to
say that the Commentary on the Scripture known
to Haribhadra and Abhayākaragupta is by a later Buddhist writer having the
name Vasubandhu (like the Tantric Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva).
Alternatively, it might be that the kernel of Bṭ3, or the tradition of
interpretation at the heart of Bṭ3, goes back to the great Vasubandhu, who
is then said to be its author, in the same way that Nāgārjuna is said to be
the author of the Treatise on the Long Perfection of
Wisom (Mppś) (Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, Dazhidu
lun).

The problem of the authorship of Bṭ3 is therefore unlikely to be
resolved in the absence of any new evidence. Disagreement about it is
indirectly linked to controversies that have been intensely debated among
Tibetan commentators down the ages, and concern the relationship of the view
of the Madhyamaka as expressed by Nāgārjuna and his followers on the one
hand, to that of the Yogācāra of Asaṅga and Vasubandhu on the other—both
essentially based on the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras—and the interpretation
of the second and third turnings of the Dharma Wheel as definitive or
provisional. Bṭ3 itself has played a relatively minor role in these debates,
but two passages in the commentary that discuss the “three natures,”

–

and

–

are cited by Dölpopa, Shakya Chokden,
and others as evidence that the Bṛhaṭṭīka
supports an “emptiness of other” interpretation of emptiness. Tsongkhapa, in
contrast, strongly opposed all such “emptiness of other” interpretations,
while accepting that Bṭ3 puts forward a Madhyamaka view. This
introduction is not the place to present a detailed account of these complex
and enduring doctrinal debates, in which other, better known texts played
more important roles. It would be unfair to both sides of the debate to
suggest that, in evoking this work, their attribution of it to Vasubandhu or
Daṃṣṭrāsena, respectively, was influenced solely by their doctrinal
perspectives, but it would also be disingenuous to see no correlation at
all; in understanding the work’s significance, its provenance is indeed a
crucial element.

For whatever reasons, in any case, both Bṭ1 and Bṭ3 have
remained little explored, and Ornament for the Clear
Realizations has remained the principal focus of Perfection of
Wisdom studies in the Indo-Tibetan scholastic tradition. Nevertheless, we
feel that present day readers will find this helpful commentary a useful
guide to navigating the long Perfection of Wisdom sūtras and to
understanding their many features—regardless of controversies over its
author or doctrinal debates about a few of its finer points.

Structure of Bṭ3

Introduction

Bṭ3 begins with a detailed explanation of the part of the
introduction that is shared with many other scriptures, drawing, in
particular, on The Ten Bhūmis (Daśabhūmikasūtra). It explains each of the opening
words of the Perfection of Wisdom, and then gives a detailed explanation
of the epithets of those in the retinue. It references many of the
categories in the Perfection of Wisdom that it will explain in greater
detail later.

The opening section of Bṭ3 continues with an explanation of the
words in the part of the introduction unique to the Perfection of Wisdom
and ends with a presentation of the single vehicle system.

Explanation of the Doctrine

There is a brief, an intermediate, and a detailed teaching.

Brief teaching

This is the single question, “How then, Lord, should
bodhisattva great beings who want to fully awaken to all dharmas in
all forms make an effort at the perfection of wisdom?”, to which the
Lord responds by remaining silent. It raises four further questions:
What is a bodhisattva great being? What is it to want to fully
awaken to all dharmas in all forms? What does “should make an
effort” mean? And what is the perfection of wisdom?

Intermediate teaching

This is “an explanation in ultimate truth mode that takes
the knowledge of all aspects, that is, the state of the
nonconceptual perfection of wisdom, as its point of departure.” It
deals with the same four questions, first in a brief exposition and
then in a detailed exposition. The intermediate teaching is given
the general name “Subhūti’s Chapter,” and covers the sections of the
three long sūtras corresponding to the first chapter of the Eight Thousand
, which
is an explanation of the knowledge of all aspects.

The intermediate teaching’s brief exposition sets forth
four practices: the practice of the nonconceptual perfection of
wisdom, the practice of the absence of secondary afflictions on the
side of awakening, the practice of not harming beings to be matured,
and the practice of all the stainless buddhadharmas that are the
cause of maturation.

The intermediate teaching’s detailed exposition is in eight
parts:

Why bodhisattvas endeavor (they want to make
themselves familiar with the three vehicles, they want the
greatnesses of bodhisattvas, and they want the greatnesses
of buddhas) [

–

].

–

]
and the rest of chapter 2 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand.

The defining marks of those who endeavor (these are
the unfindable intrinsic nature of form and each of the
other aggregates and so forth, the unfindable intrinsic
nature of them as a collection, the unfindability of their
own defining marks, and the unfindable totality of dharmas)
[

–

].

The members of the bodhisattva community who are
engaged in the endeavor [

–

].

The instructions for the endeavor (instructions for
making an effort at names that are conventional terms making
things known, instructions for making an effort without
apprehending beings, instructions for making an effort at
not apprehending a word for something, and instructions for
making an effort when all dharmas are not apprehended)
[

–

].

The benefits of the endeavor, which are the
comprehension of the dharmas that have to be comprehended,
the elimination of those that have to be eliminated, the
fulfillment in meditation of those that have to be
fulfilled, and the direct witness by reaching those that
have to be directly witnessed [

–

].

There are six subdivisions of the endeavor: ⁽¹⁾
practice free from the two extremes; ⁽²⁾ practice that does
not stand; ⁽³⁾ practice that does not fully grasp dharmas,
causal signs, or understanding; ⁽⁴⁾ practice that has made a
full investigation; ⁽⁵⁾ the practice of method; and ⁽⁶⁾
practice for quickly fully awakening. The practice for
quickly fully awakening is the training in the meditative
stabilizations, in not apprehending all dharmas, in the
illusion-like, and in skillful means [

–

].

The last of the eight parts is the discussion that
arrives at an authoritative conclusion about the
meaning.

The last of these eight parts is a long section in Bṭ3 that
explains up to the end of chapter 21 in the Eighteen Thousand and up to the end of
chapter 13 in the Twenty-Five Thousand
and One Hundred Thousand. First there
is a list of twenty-eight or twenty-nine questions
[

],
followed by an exchange between the two principal
interlocutors—Subhūti and Śāriputra. Bṭ3’s explanations of the
responses to the twenty-eight or twenty-nine questions do not
exactly match the enumeration given in the original list. The
differences are pointed out later in this introduction and in the
notes to the translation. The response to the question, “What is the
Great Vehicle?”, occasions a detailed explanation of the
purification dharmas under twenty-one categories, starting with the
perfections, emptinesses, meditative stabilizations, and
thirty-seven dharmas on the side of awakening, and going up to the
four detailed and thorough knowledges, the eighteen distinct
attributes of a buddha, and the dhāraṇī doors. The intermediate
teaching ends with an exposition of the etymology of
vehicle, the attributes of the Great
Vehicle (that it surpasses the world, is equal to space, does not
come or go, and has no beginning or end), and its results.

Detailed teaching

This takes as its point of departure the knowledge of path
aspects, which is to say the bodhisattva’s knowledge, as distinct
from a buddha’s knowledge of all aspects, and “teaches the
conceptual and nonconceptual perfection of wisdom that is the
practice of bodhisattvas.”

The first part, up to Subhūti’s two hundred and
seventy-seven questions, divides the three long sūtras into sections
that are sometimes explicit and sometimes implicit. First it
explains what the perfection of wisdom is, how bodhisattvas should
stand in it, and how they should train in it. This section is
important in that it makes clear that all three knowledges—the
knowledges of a śrāvaka, a bodhisattva, and a buddha—are the
practice of the perfection of wisdom. This is the main insight of
the exposition in Maitreya’s Ornament for the
Clear Realizations
. It
then explains the sustaining power (adhiṣṭhāna) of a tathāgata, and the
greatness of the doctrine. Bṭ3 then gives an exegesis of benefits,
merits, rejoicing, dedication, and the praises. It also gives an
exegesis of forsaking the perfection of wisdom because of its depth
and its purity, a discursus on “the last of the five hundreds,” and
an explanation of the works of Māra. Finally, it explains the
difference between a new bodhisattva and a seasoned bodhisattva, the
signs of those irreversible from progress toward awakening, suchness
(reality), a tathāgata (realized
one), skillful means, and the argument between Subhūti and Śāriputra
over whether it is hard or not hard to become awakened.

The second part explains the responses to the two hundred
and seventy-seven questions.

Summary of the Chapters of Bṭ3

I. Introduction

I.1 Introduction common to all

sūtras

This section provides ⁽¹⁾ glosses for each of the words
or phrases that set the scene, starting with “Thus did I hear at
one time”; ⁽²⁾ glosses for each term in the string of epithets
for the “great community of monks,” one of the four branches of
the community (monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen) present for
the teaching; and ⁽³⁾ glosses for the epithets of the five types
of bodhisattvas in the retinue. The explanation of the qualities
of the worthy monks provides for a brief overview of the
practice and result set forth in the fundamental Buddhist
scriptures, and the explanation of the bodhisattvas, based on
The Ten
Bhūmis,
gives a brief overview of the five types of bodhisattva: ⁽¹⁾
bodhisattvas with a surpassing intention on the first level, ⁽²⁾
those “who stand in signlessness with effort up to the seventh
level, ⁽³⁾ those who effortlessly stand in signlessness… on the
eighth level,” ⁽⁴⁾ bodhisattvas up to the tenth level, and ⁽⁵⁾
bodhisattvas “obstructed by just a single birth.” It connects
the epithets beginning with their “understanding phenomena to be
like an illusion,” and so on, with the last of these. There is
also a detailed explanation of the four types of dhāraṇī.

I.2 Introduction unique to the

Perfection of Wisdom

This again provides glosses for each word or phrase
starting from, “Thereupon the Lord, having himself arranged the
lion throne…” The Lord demonstrates miraculous powers of
meditative stabilization, miraculous wonder-working powers, and
miraculous dharma-illuminating powers. The first is demonstrated by the Lord radiating
light, the second with his magical creation of a great tower of
flowers and its suspension in the air and so on, and the third
with his illuminating the buddhas in different worlds and
teaching a gigantic retinue. In the context of the buddhas of
the ten directions warning their bodhisattvas traveling to our
world that they should “be careful in that buddhafield,” there
is a detailed explanation of the five degenerations in
Śākyamuni’s buddhafield, that is, in the world in which we live.

I.3 Presentation of the single vehicle

system

Included in this section of the introduction is an
exposition of the opening words of the second chapter in all
three long sūtras: “When the Lord understood that the world with
its celestial beings, Māras and Brahmās, śramaṇas and brahmins,
gods, and humans, as well as bodhisattvas, most of them in
youthful form, had assembled, he said to venerable Śāriputra…”
The great śrāvaka Śāriputra is singled out, rather than a
bodhisattva, to make known that “the perfection of wisdom is a
shared discourse.” He is singled out even though he is a worthy
one, because all worthy ones are finally roused from nirvāṇa to
work for the welfare of beings. This occasions a presentation of
the single vehicle system explained in The
White Lotus of the Good Dharma (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka),
The Lion’s Roar of Śrīmālādevī
(Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanāda), The
Questions of Sāgaramati (Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā),
The Ten Dharmas Sūtra (Daśadharmakasūtra), and
in the Maitreya chapters of the Eighteen
Thousand and Twenty-Five
Thousand.

II. Summary of Contents

The Perfection of Wisdom is divided into three teachings:
brief, intermediate, and detailed. The subdivisions of the
intermediate teaching are explicitly identified under the heading
“exposition in eight parts.” These are:

why bodhisattvas endeavor,

how bodhisattvas endeavor,

the defining marks of those who endeavor,

the subdivisions of those who endeavor,

the instructions for the endeavor,

the benefits of the endeavor,

the subdivisions of the endeavor, and

the specific instruction for coming to an
authoritative conclusion about this exposition.

].

III. Explanation of the Brief

Teaching

This section provides a detailed gloss of each word of the
statement, “Here, Śāriputra, bodhisattva great beings who want to
fully awaken to all dharmas in all forms should make an effort at
the perfection of wisdom.” Here and throughout Bṭ3 the explanation
uses the terminology of the three natures characteristic of Yogācāra discourse. These are the
imaginary (Skt. parikalpita, Tib. kun brtags), dependent or other-powered
(Skt. paratantra,
Tib. gzhan dbang),
and thoroughly established or final outcome (Skt. pariniṣpanna, Tib.
yongs su grub
pa); alternatively, they are imaginary, conceptualized
(Skt. vikalpita,
Tib. rnam par brtags
pa), and true dharmic nature (Skt. dharmatā, Tib. chos nyid). Taken
together, the three natures give a full description of a phenomenon.
For instance, the commentary says [

]: “The form ordinary foolish
beings take to be defined as an easily breakable or seeable real
thing is imaginary form. The aspect in which
just that appears as real as an object of consciousness is
conceptualized form. Just the bare
thoroughly established suchness separated from those two imaginary
and conceptualized form aspects is the true dharmic nature
of form,” and [

] “Imaginary phenomena appear as
if they are standing over there away from the consciousness.
Dependent phenomena are produced dependent on conditions, like, as a
simile, ‘magical creations’ that are produced dependent on the
magician.” These are important terms used widely in Bṭ3.

IV. Explanation of the Intermediate

Teaching

This is in two parts, a brief teaching and a detailed
teaching.

IV.1 Brief teaching

This section glosses the words in the first two
paragraphs of the Lord’s immediate response to Śāriputra’s
original question in chapter 2 of all three long sūtras. The
response, a long list, is broken down into ⁽¹⁾ the practice of
the nonconceptual perfections, ⁽²⁾ the practice of the dharmas
on the side of awakening without the secondary afflictions, ⁽³⁾
the practice without harming that brings beings to maturity, and
⁽⁴⁾ the practice that brings the buddhadharmas to maturity. The
practice of the perfections is accomplished with skillful means;
the practice of the dharmas on the side of awakening is
accomplished through mastering the śrāvaka realizations;
compassion accomplishes the practice of bringing beings to
maturity; and wisdom accomplishes the practice of fully
developing the buddhadharmas.

IV.2 Detailed teaching

IV.2.A This section glosses the explanation, in chapter
2 of all three long sūtras, of the goals to which the thought of
awakening is directed. It explains in three parts the perfection
of wisdom for which bodhisattvas endeavor. By endeavoring at the
perfection of wisdom ⁽¹⁾ they want to make themselves familiar
with the three vehicles and achieve that familiarity, ⁽²⁾ they
want and achieve the greatnesses of bodhisattvas, and ⁽³⁾ they
want and achieve the greatnesses of buddhas. In the context of
explaining the line “want to destroy all residual impressions,
connections, and afflictions,” the commentary makes clear how
the same practice and the same knowledge in the mindstreams of
different beings with different motivations and insights differ.
It again connects the different goals set forth from the line
“want to enter into the secure state of a bodhisattva” with
higher and higher bodhisattva levels, and in the context of the
line “want to stand in inner emptiness,” gives a long and
detailed explanation of each of the sixteen emptinesses. The end
of this section investigates how Śākyamuni could both be without
lust and still have the wife Yaśodharā and son Rāhula.

IV.2.B This section explains in detail the passage, at
the beginning of chapter 3 in the Eighteen
Thousand and in chapter 2 of the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand, about how
bodhisattvas endeavor by “not seeing” any phenomenon, the name
of any phenomenon, seeing itself, or anything that “not seeing”
sees. It articulates the relationship between the three natures,
the conventional and ultimate realities, and the way names and
what they refer to are both connected with, but isolated from,
the ultimately real. A bodhisattva with such wisdom eclipses the
knowledge of even a billion worthy ones like Śāriputra. Still,
the wisdom gained from the basic teachings and the wisdom gained
from the Perfection of Wisdom ultimately have no intrinsic
nature and are the same. That wisdom is special because of the
intention, practice, and work, and because of the complete
awakening and turning the wheel of the Dharma that are its
result.

IV.2.C This section, under the heading “the defining
marks of those who endeavor,” explains a passage in chapter 2 of
all three long sūtras as first teaching four practices of
emptiness woven around eleven defining marks, and then teaching
a further sixteen practices of emptiness. The defining mark is
always emptiness. Glossing the line, “you cannot say… that they
‘are engaged’ or ‘are not engaged,’ ” the commentary explains
the first of the four practices, the practice of form and so on
separately, based on Nāgārjuna’s Root
Verses on the Middle Way (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā),
teaching that nothing is produced from itself and so on. The
second practice, explaining the line “do not see ‘a confluence
of form with feeling,’ ” teaches that form and so
on, as a collection that locates a bodhisattva, are empty. The
third practice, explaining the line “that emptiness of form is
not form,” is to see the defining mark of form and so on as
empty; and the fourth, explaining the line “form is itself
emptiness, and emptiness is form,” is a practice that sees the
totality of dharmas, starting with form, as emptiness. The list
of sixteen emptinesses begins with an explanation of the line,
“they do not see the practice of the perfection of wisdom as
either ‘engaged’ or ‘not engaged’ with form.”

The bodhisattva always practicing these emptinesses is
at the eighth level, has gained the forbearance for dharmas that
are not produced, and is predicted to full awakening by the
buddhas.

IV.2.D Those who endeavor at the practice are
subdivided into three types: the supreme who arrive from a
buddhafield and go to a buddhafield, the middling who arrive
from Tuṣita, and the last who arrive from among humans. These
are then divided into the forty-four or forty-five members of
the community. Following that, the commentary deals briskly with
the detailed explanation of the six clairvoyances and the five
eyes, and the remainder of chapter 2 up to the end of chapter 5
in the Eighteen Thousand, all of
which in the Twenty-Five Thousand
and One Hundred Thousand is
included in chapter 2.

IV.2.E This section is an explanation of chapter 6 in
the Eighteen Thousand, chapter 3 in
the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand. A bodhisattva,
the perfection of wisdom, and awakening ultimately do not exist,
but the names are important conventionally because otherwise
beings would be deprived of the instructions they need. The
Lord, through Subhūti, gives the instructions for making an
effort “by using names and conventional terms conventionally,”
for making an effort without apprehending beings, for making an
effort by not apprehending words for things, and for making an
effort when all dharmas cannot be apprehended.

Names for things (their conventional reality) are not
other than the ultimate reality of
things. The name bodhisattva is not found
anywhere. It is “used conventionally as a mere word and
conventional term” that is “not produced and does not stop.”
Were it produced when the actual thing referred to by the name
is produced, it would not be necessary to give it a name,
because it would be known automatically. The benefit of such
instruction is that it stops the śrāvaka’s attachment to
insight, the three doors to liberation, and the perfect analytic
understanding of the suchness of dharmas. A
bodhisattva avoids all such thought constructions.

The instruction for making an effort without
apprehending beings explains the relationship between self and
the aggregates and rejects the views of ordinary “cow-herders,”
Jains, Vaidikas, Sāṃkhyas, Parivrājakas, Ulūkas, and proponents
of Īśvara, as well as the view that the ultimate reality of a
bodhisattva is the bodhisattva.

There is a brief and then a more detailed instruction
for making an effort when all dharmas cannot be apprehended. A
“bodhisattva” during the course of practice is like the sky
that, though earlier clouded over and later cloudless, is just
the sky.

IV.2.F The benefits of the endeavor are set forth in
chapter 7 in the Eighteen Thousand,
chapter 4 in the Twenty-Five
Thousand and One Hundred
Thousand. They include comprehension of the dharmas
that have to be comprehended and those that have to be
eliminated, perfecting in meditation those that have to be
perfected, and directly witnessing those that have to be
directly witnessed.

Glossing the line, “Because that thought is no thought
because the basic nature of thought is clear light,” the
commentary says that “no thought” means no imaginary thought.
Thought itself is clear light unsullied by any stains, such as
an ordinary person’s feelings of
desire and hatred. It says, [

] “Later, even when a
buddha, because that thought is separated from the afflictive
emotions plucked out of thin air and abides in its natural
purity, those stains have absolutely not arisen, and so, like
space that is not conjoined with clouds and so on, it is clear
light and hence “not disjoined” either.”

IV.2.G This section explains chapters 8 to 10 in the
Eighteen Thousand, chapters 5
to 7 in the Twenty-Five Thousand
and One Hundred Thousand. It
subdivides the endeavor into ⁽¹⁾ practice free from the two
extremes; ⁽²⁾ practice that does not stand; ⁽³⁾ practice that
does not fully grasp dharmas, causal signs, or understanding;
⁽⁴⁾ practice that has made a full investigation; ⁽⁵⁾ the
practice of method, which is to say persevering at eliminating
the practice of causal signs and enactments and cultivating the
nonpractice of dharmas and causal signs; and ⁽⁶⁾ practice for
quickly fully awakening, which is a training in the meditative
stabilizations, training in not apprehending all dharmas,
training in the illusion-like, and training in skillful means.
The last of these is training in skillful means for the analytic
understanding of all dharmas, fulfilling the six perfections,
relying on spiritual friends, and shunning bad friends.

In the context of glossing the words “suchness,”
“unmistaken suchness,” and so on, this section explains the nine
thoroughly established phenomena: the thoroughly established
that is indestructible, that is without error, that does not
alter, that is the nature of things, that is the state causing
all purification dharmas, and that is constant, irreversible,
true reality, and beyond the path of logic.

In its explication of the passage “form is empty of
form… that emptiness of form is not form, and emptiness is not
other than form. Form itself is emptiness, and emptiness itself
is form,” there is a very clear explanation of what later
Tibetan scholars would call other-emptiness (Tib. gzhan stong). The
passage [

],
here in a slightly abbreviated form, is:

“The intention is as follows. … There are three
types of form: falsely imagined form, conceptualized form,
and the true dharmic nature of form. Among these, the form
ordinary foolish beings take to be defined as an easily
breakable or seeable real thing is imaginary
form. The aspect in which just that appears
as real as an object of consciousness is
conceptualized form. Just the bare
thoroughly established suchness separated from those two
imaginary and conceptualized form aspects is the
true dharmic nature of form. It is
empty because it is empty of the
definitions—being seeable and so on—of imaginary phenomena,
and of any form conceptualized as a form appearing in the
aspect of an object. ‘That emptiness of form is not form.’
This means the suchness empty of imaginary and
conceptualized form that is the true dharmic nature of form
marking the thoroughly established does not have form for
its intrinsic nature because it is totally isolated from
form aspects.”

The commentary says that there is a period when
suchness has stains, when dharmas are defiled and
purified because of the imaginary, and there is a period when
suchness has no stains and the production of all
dharmas is nonexistent, but the suchness is the
same.

IV.2.H The last of the eight subdivisions of the
intermediate teaching finishes the discussion of the Lord’s
original statement and comes to an authoritative conclusion in
regard to what it means. This section explains chapters 11 to 21
in the Eighteen Thousand, and
chapters 8 to 13 in the Twenty-Five
Thousand and One Hundred
Thousand.

First it is divided into the responses to twenty-eight
(or twenty-nine) questions, in a slightly different enumeration
than those found in the three long sūtras themselves, in order
to conform to the topics and narrators in the sūtra. I have
identified the later passages in Bṭ3 that correspond to each
response and the corresponding sections in the Eighteen Thousand in the notes to that
part of the translation [

–

Bṭ3 begins with an explanation of the first five
questions as: (1a) What is the meaning of the word
bodhisattva? (1b) What is the meaning
of the term great being? (1c) How are they
armed with great armor? ⁽²⁾ How have they set out in the Great
Vehicle? ⁽³⁾ How do they stand in the Great Vehicle? We have
numbered them in this way to try to retain a correspondence
between the list of responses and the later passages expanding
on each response.

Questions 6 to 10 are the five questions posed by
Subhūti: ⁽⁶⁾ How is it a great vehicle? 7) How have they come to
set out in the Great Vehicle? ⁽⁸⁾ From where will the Great
Vehicle go forth? ⁽⁹⁾ Where will that Great Vehicle stand? ⁽¹⁰⁾
Who will go forth in this vehicle?

The first of these questions occasions a detailed
explanation of twenty-one sets of purification dharmas, starting
with the perfections and emptiness, and ending with the eighteen
buddhadharmas and the dhāraṇī doors. It provides an explanation
of the twenty emptinesses, a detailed description of “the
application of mindfulness to the body alone, in six parts in
accord with the śrāvaka system,” and detailed descriptions of
the ten powers and eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha, as
well as an explanation of dhāraṇī that
supplements the earlier explanation given in the introduction
section.

It selectively glosses the purifications of the ten
bodhisattva levels that are set forth as the response to
question seven in chapter 17 in the Eighteen Thousand and chapter 10 in the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand.

Questions 8 to 10 are in chapter 18 in the Eighteen Thousand and the second part
of chapter 10 in the Twenty-Five
Thousand and One Hundred
Thousand. Glossing the line, “It will go forth from
the three realms and will stand wherever there is knowledge of
all aspects,” which is the response to question 8, the
commentary says that the Great Vehicle that goes forth beyond
saṃsāra and nirvāṇa is ultimately the same as the result. In the
context of “name,” “causal sign,” “conventional term,”
“communication,” and “designation,” this section gives the
helpful explanation that the materiality of a cow is the
name; its dewlap, hump, and so on are
its causal sign; “the one that has the red
calf,” “the one that has the white calf” are
“conventional terms”; “bring the cow
here and milk it!” is a communication; and
all expressions are designations.

Explaining the response to question 9, it says that
ultimately the Great Vehicle “will not stand anywhere,” but
still it will stand with the mark of not standing, without
error.

It clarifies the response to question 10, “Who will go
forth?”, with a brief series of judicious glosses.

The responses to the eleventh and twelfth questions
from the perspective of the resultant Great
Vehicle—awakening—are found in chapter 19 of the Eighteen Thousand, and chapter 11 of
the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand. Thus, the Great
Vehicle “surpasses the world,” and “is equal to space.”

Explaining the statements in the response to question
11, the commentary correlates “existent” and “nonexistent” with
the imaginary and thoroughly established and says that were the
imaginary to be real like it seems to be, nothing would be
possible. In the context of listing every category of phenomena,
it glosses “speech with sixty special qualities” with a citation
from the Tathāgataguhyaka
Sūtra
and says that this is the “Master’s
instruction.”

In explaining the response to question 12, Bṭ3 says
that there is a presentation of twenty-one imaginary things, and
because those that are presented do not exist in this Great
Vehicle, it is like space.

The explanation of the rest of chapter 19 of the
Eighteen
Thousand and of chapter 11
of the Twenty-Five Thousand and
One Hundred Thousand is based
on three more of Subhūti’s five statements about the Great
Vehicle: “To
illustrate, Lord, just as space has room for infinite, countless
beings beyond measure”; “you cannot apprehend the Great Vehicle
coming, going, or remaining”; and, “you cannot apprehend a prior
limit, cannot apprehend a later limit, and cannot apprehend a
middle either.” Readers can know which of the twenty-eight
responses these correspond to from the notes to the translation.
Bṭ3 enumerates twenty-six subsections for the first of Subhūti’s
statements, and says about the second that all phenomena during
the result period of the Great Vehicle are unmoving. It says
that the third statement is divided into a brief and a detailed
section that eliminate the ultimate existence of “time,”
“three,” “equal,” and “vehicle.” The detailed section has
twenty-six subsections.

The remainder of Subhūti’s twenty-eight questions and
the responses are in chapter 20 of the Eighteen Thousand and
chapter 12 of the Twenty-Five
Thousand and One Hundred
Thousand. First are the statements made by Subhūti
that are then queried by Śāriputra, and then answered by Subhūti
up to the end of the chapter.

This section of Bṭ3 says that chapter 21 of the Eighteen
Thousand, and the
equivalent chapter 13 in Twenty-Five
Thousand and One Hundred
Thousand, set out a more detailed presentation of
the results of paying attention to the nonconceptual perfection
of wisdom, beginning with these questions Śāriputra puts to
Subhūti: “How do bodhisattva great beings practicing the
perfection of wisdom investigate these dharmas? And, Venerable
Subhūti, what is a bodhisattva? What is the perfection of
wisdom? What is it to investigate?”

V. Explanation of the Detailed Teaching

This is in two parts, the first up to the two hundred and
seventy-seven questions, and the second the remainder of the
teaching up to the final, separate explanation of the Maitreya
Chapter, chapter 83 in the Eighteen
Thousand and chapter 72 in the Twenty-Five Thousand.

V.1 Part One

V.1.A This explanation of chapters 22 and 23 of the
Eighteen Thousand and of
chapters 14 and 15 of the Twenty-Five
Thousand and One Hundred
Thousand says that a bodhisattva’s perfection of
wisdom has an all-knowledge side (the knowledge of śrāvakas) and
a knowledge of path aspects side (the knowledge of
bodhisattvas). A bodhisattva stands in the perfection of wisdom
by knowing where to stand (in the emptiness of dharmas) and
where not to stand (in error). Even to stand, in the sense of
settle down on or be attached to the true nature of dharmas—or
even to the true nature of the knowledge of a buddha—is an
error. So, a bodhisattva stands by not standing. Such
instruction does not contradict the ultimate or the
conventional. A bodhisattva trains by seeing the ultimate
nonduality of all phenomena. So, training in form one trains in
the knowledge of a buddha, practicing the perfection of wisdom
without thought of increase or decrease. Subhūti can give such a
deep explanation of the perfection of wisdom because of the
“sustaining power” (adhiṣṭhāna) of the buddha. This plays on the
meaning of sustaining power as speech that
is ⁽¹⁾ on the authority of a tathāgata or through being
possessed by a tathāgata, and ⁽²⁾ the sustaining power of
emptiness in the sense that emptiness is the subject matter and
makes the speech worth listening to. The commentary says that
the authority of a tathāgata is an impossibility because of the
nonduality of the tathāgata, dharmatā, and tathatā, because
there is no object that is known or subject who knows. This
section ends with an explanation of why the perfection of wisdom
is great, immeasurable, infinite, and limitless.

V.1.B The explanation of chapters 24 to 33 of the
Eighteen Thousand and of
chapters 16 to 24 of the Twenty-Five
Thousand and One Hundred
Thousand says that the benefits of the perfection of
wisdom are not facing the problems posed by Māra, not dying an
untimely death, not meeting with perils and so on, and being
protected by the gods.

On the topic of the relative merits gained from
worshiping the perfection of wisdom and other objects of
worship, Bṭ3 says that more merit is created from taking up this
perfection of wisdom than from this billionfold world system
being “filled right to the top with the physical remains of
tathāgatas,” and that worshiping all the tathāgatas of the ten
directions and worshiping the perfection of wisdom is
equivalent. There is more merit created from taking up this
perfection of wisdom than from “as many world systems as the
sand particles in the Gaṅgā River filled right to the top with
the physical remains of tathāgatas.” There is more merit created
from giving the perfection of wisdom to others than from
personally worshiping the perfection of wisdom, and there is
more merit created from conveying the meaning of the perfection
of wisdom than the words of the physical book.

Having explained the fourteen conceptualizations, Bṭ3
goes on to say that it is only a semblance of the perfection of
wisdom when one apprehends causal signs, and that great merit
comes from engaging in practice without any apprehending of
causal signs.

The perfection of wisdom as a state of mind rejoicing
in all goodness up to the highest goodness is the source of even
greater merit, since it says that “merit from rejoicing is
highest.” This section then investigates how rejoicing without
apprehending anything can function, and it says that rejoicing
while apprehending anything is like the four errors of thinking
that suffering is happiness and so on.

Dedicating or turning over or transforming (pariṇāma) the merits
while apprehending causal signs is wrong in four ways: there
would be no connection between the rejoicing thought and the
dedicating thought; there would be no connection between the
apprehending of the entity, the wholesome root, and the bases of
meritorious action; there would be no connection between the
dedication and that to which the dedication is being made; and
there would be no dedication itself. Ultimate dedication is free
from these four errors. Here there are nine sections on
dedication free of basic immorality, and three comparisons of
the merit created from ⁽¹⁾ rejoicing in those who have set out
on the wholesome action paths and so on; ⁽²⁾ the state of the
eight noble beings; and ⁽³⁾ the highest, the bodhisattva.

V.1.C In its explanation of chapters 34 to 36 of the
Eighteen Thousand and of
chapters 25 to 27 of the Twenty-Five
Thousand and One Hundred
Thousand, Bṭ3 explains that the first turning of the
wheel of Dharma is twelve rounds of teaching that the perfection
of wisdom is like form and so on, because of nonproduction, the
absence of an intrinsic nature, the absence of an existent
thing, and so on. The perfection of wisdom is principal among
the six perfections and is found and produced within a
bodhisattva who does not settle down on any phenomenon. It then
causes the knowledge of a buddha, but without making anything
bigger or smaller.

Its explanation of the greatness of the perfection of
wisdom leads to an account of what happens to those forsaking
the good Dharma, and the fourfold explanation that because there
is no saṃsāra and no nirvāṇa the perfection of wisdom is deep
and hard to believe in, which sets the scene for the explanation
that dharmas are not bound and not freed. They are pure because
“defilement and purification do not exist.” Purity is talked
about in thirteen ways as deep, as a light and so on, and as
unlimited. In this context of an explanation of the
bodhisattva’s knowledge of path aspects, Bṭ3 explains attachment
and nonattachment (the knowledge of path aspects) and finally
the deeper attachment.

V.1.D The explanation in this section again
contextualizes references to the perfection of wisdom in
chapters 37 and 38 of the Eighteen
Thousand and in chapters 28 and 29 of the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand as being
references to a bodhisattva’s knowledge of path aspects. It says
that the benefit of purity is the absence of false projections.
Having briefly referenced the thousand buddhas and Maitreya, Bṭ3
again explains that the perfection of wisdom is extremely pure
and also explains its benefits. It says that the perfection of
wisdom does not establish anything because at the time of the
final outcome, “it is a thoroughly established phenomenon that
does not alter.” There is no false projection of a final outcome
or of any of the stages of the basis, the practice, or the
result. In explaining the statement that the perfection of
wisdom “is a great perfection,” it says that it is a great
secret in reference to dharmas, a great secret as awakening, and
a great secret as a turning of the wheel of Dharma. In each
case, all are ultimately nonexistent. The commentary then
provides selected glosses [

–

connects with the one hundred and seventy-three aspects
motivating a practitioner to practice the perfection of
wisdom.

V.1.E In its explanation of chapters 39 to 42 of the
Eighteen Thousand and of chapters 30 to 32 of the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand this section of
the commentary describes the knowledge of path practice as the
absence of a practice. Passing over a long section in the sūtra,
it says that there are three signs of the completion of the
perfection of wisdom: not seeing an increase and not seeing a
decline, seeing the marks that define the dharmas, and teaching
the inconceivable. This section also investigates the meaning of
“the last of the five hundreds” and explains some of the works
of Māra in the long section on these topics in the three sūtras.
It ends with an explanation of the perfection of wisdom as
revealing this world in eleven ways. Among the eleven, in
explaining the perfection of wisdom as revealing collected
thoughts and distracted thoughts, the commentary gives a long
and detailed explanation of the different positive and negative
states of mind, from both a conventional and ultimate point of
view.

V.1.F The explanation of chapters 43 to 45 of the
Eighteen Thousand and of
chapters 33 to 35 of the Twenty-Five
Thousand and One Hundred
Thousand begins with the last of the nine ways in
which the perfection of wisdom, like a mother, is the revealer
of the world, explaining how the mark of all dharmas is no mark.
It explains appreciation and gratitude, taking the respective
Sanskrit words in their basic and secondary sense. Having passed
over the analogies of the boat and so on, the commentary goes on
to say that the absence of apprehending anything and the absence
of pride in the six perfections indicates the presence of
skillful means. Having given an explanation of the meaning of
tshu rol
(āra) and
pha rol
(pāra), it
explains that those new to the bodhisattva vehicle train by
attending on spiritual friends, without forming ideas, and
without longing. The commentary goes on to explain the nine
qualities of “doers of the difficult” in terms of benefit and
happiness, and being a protector, refuge, resting place, final
ally, island, leader, and support. It ends with a description of
a new bodhisattva who believes in the perfection of wisdom from
the ultimate perspective: as isolated from signs of existence
and causes, and from an opposing side and antidote.

V.1.G In the first brief section of its explanation of
chapters 46 to 50 of the Eighteen
Thousand and of chapters 36 to 40 of the Twenty-Five Thousand and One Hundred Thousand the commentary
says that those bodhisattvas who believe in this deep perfection
of wisdom and first set out for awakening do so with an
integrated practice described by the six perfections. This
integrated practice is their armor, not connected with a
practice of opposing greed and so on with detachment, but as a
practice that is cognizant of the emptiness of all dharmas. This
section explains meditation or cultivation (bhāvanā) and the
opposite of meditation or disintegration (vibhāvanā) and then
explains at length true reality and the signs that a
bodhisattva’s progress toward awakening has become irreversible.
It explains how Subhūti takes after the Lord because in true
reality there is no coming or going and they cannot be
differentiated. It is the same with the true reality of all
dharmas. All dharmas are therefore, in true reality, an
undivided unity. Having explained the six ways in which a
universe shakes, this section continues with an explanation of
true reality and all its synonyms. While explaining the argument
between Subhūti and Śāriputra over whether it is hard or not
hard to become awakened, it investigates the possible meanings
of progress toward awakening being irreversible. It stresses the
centrality of a compassionate attitude toward all beings, and
then, in the section on irreversible members of the bodhisattva
community, it says there are thirty-five signs of
irreversibility.

V.2 Part Two

V.2.A This section simply provides the list of
Subhūti’s two hundred and seventy-seven questions. We have
linked the questions as listed in this text to the passages
where they can be seen in the three sūtras. The author of Bṭ3
does not specifically reference each of the questions in
explaining the responses, and also passes over some questions
without any commentary at all.

V.2.B The explanation of chapters 51 to 55 of the
Eighteen Thousand, chapters 41
to 45 of the Twenty-Five Thousand
and One Hundred Thousand, follows
relatively closely the responses to the first twenty-seven
questions. Explaining the deep places—true reality and so on—Bṭ3
says that form and so on, the defilement and purification
dharmas, are superimposed on true reality by foolish ordinary
people who imagine as real what is not real. The accumulation of
merit and being worthy of praise are not real. It explains the
response to question fourteen—“How, Lord, when they do so, will
bodhisattva great beings become absorbed for the sake of beings
in the three meditative stabilizations?”— by dealing with the
bodhisattva’s mode of cultivating the emptiness, signlessness,
and wishlessness meditative stabilizations central to the
earliest, most fundamental Buddhist practice. Even awakening is
not real in the sense that there is no increase or decrease in
true reality. It explains the analogy of the butter lamp to say
that awakening is motivated by bodhicitta, the thought of
awakening, but neither the first nor the last thought can be
shown to produce it. In true reality there is no change.

Even the meditation on emptiness is imaginary, since
nothing is lost and nothing gained. Bṭ3 explains the functioning
of cause and effect in conventional reality with the analogy of
the sameness of a dream and the waking state based on intention.
It is the superimposition of the unreal on the real that is the
cause of actions that lead to suffering.

All practices are modeled for the sake of others, even
practices like compassion and understanding true reality. All
the results gained by the practices of those in the three
vehicles are modeled, without losing concern for the world. This
is what it means to master emptiness. The section ends with an
explanation of the responses to questions 18 to 27. It is
because of the absence of an intrinsic nature in phenomena that
beings can grasp at a falsely imagined “I” and “mine” and get
caught in saṃsāra, and by seeing suchness purify
error and gain awakening.

V.2.C The explanation of chapters 56 to 63 of the
Eighteen Thousand and of
chapters 46 to 53 of the Twenty-Five
Thousand and One Hundred
Thousand passes over glorification, good qualities,
and so on as easy to understand. In response to question
28—“Lord, in what way will a thought that is like an illusion
fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening?”—this
section gives the first of two explanations of “no notion of
duality and no notion of nonduality.” In response to question
29—“Given that unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening is
extremely isolated, how will there be a realization of the
isolated by the isolated?”—it gives the second of the two
explanations. It explains briefly about those who do what is
difficult and a bodhisattva’s course of action, and then it says
that the perfection of wisdom is a state without thought
construction; it explains how cyclic existence and nirvāṇa are
possible in the absence of thought construction; it explains
something really worthwhile and something worthless; it explains
the phrase “because space is isolated”; and it explains isolation and the benefits of the
perfection of wisdom.

Question 30 is not explicitly cited. It is the point
of departure for question 31 [

]: “Lord, given that no
phenomenon is apprehended when they have stood in suchness and
practiced for suchness, how will they stand in the knowledge of
all aspects?”

The commentary passes over the praise of Subhūti, the
praise of dwelling in the perfection of wisdom, and so on as
easy to understand, and then explains how each of the six
perfections is incorporated with all the others; skillful means
and the account of the completion of the accumulations; and the
wheel-turning emperor illustration, the unprotected woman
illustration, the heroic person who heads into battle
illustration, the local ruler illustration, the river
illustration, the right hand illustration, the taste in the
ocean illustration, and the precious wheel illustration. Then
again it gives an explanation of the six perfections.

V.2.D The explanation of chapters 64 to 72 of the
Eighteen Thousand, chapters 54
to 61 of the Twenty-Five Thousand,
and of 54 to 62 of the One Hundred
Thousand presents the six perfections from a
conventional and an ultimate point of view. In the Ornament for the Clear Realizations,
these are described briefly as a serial and a unique single
instant practice. Bṭ3 explains the three meanings of
buddha, and it explains the meaning of
awakening from the point of view of its thoroughly established
nature and its imaginary, designated nature. None of the four
possibilities—that an existent or a nonexistent thing and so on
fully awakens—are authorized. Clear realization is seeing
sameness as neither existent nor nonexistent. No dharma at all
brings about any dharma at all, because dharmas are marked by
remaining the same. Still, conventionally, for the comprehension
of simple folk, this section says that the practice for
awakening is in a gradual sequence. The Tathāgata reached
awakening having practiced in a state where nothing is
apprehended and having awakened to a state where nothing is
apprehended. There is no serial practice ultimately because, as
an analogy, apprehending and not apprehending a magically
produced illusory elephant and so on happens suddenly, not
gradually. All the perfections are included in a single state of
mind as are all other wholesome dharmas.

V.2.E The explanation of chapter 73 of the Eighteen Thousand, chapter 62 of the
Twenty-Five Thousand, and
chapter 63 of the One Hundred
Thousand begins as a response to Subhūti’s one
hundred and ninety-fourth question. Under the general rubric of
the four ways of assembling a retinue, the first, giving gifts
in the sense of modeling and teaching the qualities of a buddha,
leads to an explanation of those qualities not already explained
earlier: conflict-free meditative stabilization, knowledge from
prayer, and the four total purities. This section explains each
of the ten controls and so on, and then says that the major
marks and minor signs are presented in order to engender faith
in those who take the physical body as the measure of the
greatness of a person. It then gives a detailed explanation of
some of the major marks and says in passing that the minor signs
simply buttress the major ones as indicating that a great person
is handsome. The commentary then discusses language (syllables
and so on) under the rubric of kind words, the second of the
four ways of assembling a retinue.

The remainder of the explanation is again of how the
description of the basis, the practice, and the results of
practice are based on the ultimate and conventional natures, and
of how the conventional description is employed because of
compassion for beings.

V.2.F This section contains the explanation of chapters
74 to 82 of the Eighteen Thousand,
chapters 63 to 71 of the Twenty-Five
Thousand, and chapters 64 to the end of the One Hundred Thousand. It explains the
analogy of a magical creature and says that if beings were to
know that all dharmas are like a dream, they would be liberated.
The section goes on to explain the response to Subhūti’s two
hundred and fifteenth question—“How should bodhisattva great
beings train in the perfection of wisdom?”—by explaining that
the imaginary dharmas like form and so on are employed in
explanation only because ordinary beings would not otherwise
understand the dharma-constituent (the ultimate truth). Bṭ3
explains the very limit of reality as the limit of beings, which
is to say the unlimited number and ultimate nature of beings.
Having explained that a bodhisattva gains awakening just by
standing in emptiness, it gives an explanation of the emptiness
of a basic nature as unchanging, unlocated, not coming and not
going, not perishing, not increasing or decreasing, not located
anywhere, and not obstructing anything. It ends the section by
going quickly through the rest of the chapters, giving short
glosses that contextualize selected statements and say what they
mean. Finally, the commentary explains the responses to
Subhūti’s last two questions as saying that, yes, even nirvāṇa
is magically created, and the comprehension of emptiness is a
comprehension that there is nothing made by a practitioner that
was not there before—even the emptiness of an intrinsic nature
is empty of its intrinsic nature.

VI. Explanation of the Maitreya Chapter

The chapter known traditionally as “the Maitreya Chapter,”
but called in the sūtras “The Categorization of a Bodhisattva’s
Training” (chapter 83 in the Eighteen
Thousand, chapter 72 in the Twenty-Five Thousand, and not present in the One Hundred Thousand) sets out the
dialogue between Maitreya and the Lord, investigating the
relationship between a name and what it refers to. In explaining the
dialogue, Bṭ3 equates the use of the term mere
designation with teaching emptiness because ordinary
beings apprehend the designation form as having
a real basis. Any name can be given to anything. The things to which
names are given are only known through the names, not from their own
sides, but the names and what are known through names are not
exactly the same. When looked for, these things arise from causes
and conditions, from ignorance and thought constructions that
motivate actions. These things are all the same in that they cannot
be apprehended. In true reality they are all without any difference.
Therefore, all phenomena from form up to the knowledge of all
aspects should be viewed from the perspective of three natures:
imaginary, conceptual (the term “other-powered” is not used in this
chapter), and the dharma’s ultimate nature (again, “thoroughly
established” is not used).

This leads to an explanation of how a bodhisattva enters
into nirvāṇa but then willingly takes a body and re-enters the world
for the benefit of others. It says that there is no difference
between the world and nirvāṇa, so the bodhisattva stays in the same
state and thus is not averse to being in the world. A bodhisattva
does not appropriate or forsake anything, and through the force of
clairvoyance works without end for the welfare of beings.

Citing the The Questions of
Sāgaramati and The Ten
Bhūmis, the commentary explains what it means to say
that a śrāvaka is in nirvāṇa and yet can, finally, live in the world
and amass the collections of merit to reach perfect, complete
awakening. It identifies different paths for different śrāvakas.
Those not necessarily destined to be in the śrāvaka family produce a
desire for unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening and then
actualize nirvāṇa, but without the absolutely intense admiration for
it that those who are certain to be śrāvakas feel. When they see
awakening as superior to their nirvāṇa, because of the power of a compassionate aspiration and so
on they do not become extremely repulsed by saṃsāra. They enter it
through the force of their uncontaminated wholesome roots. Others
enter into saṃsāra through the fruition of earlier prayers.

Using This Commentary with the Long

Sūtras

Readers using Bṭ3 as a guide to the Perfection of Wisdom
sūtras will encounter some citations that are not the same as the
corresponding passages in the sūtras themselves. These are noted in
cases where a reader using Bṭ3 as a guide to one or all of the
sūtras would otherwise lose the thread of the commentary. Sometimes
the notes point out different readings. Readers should also be aware
that some passages that appear as citations are more strictly
paraphrases. They are formatted as citations to help readers locate
the passages in the sūtras that are being explained.

As explained in the Introduction, the Tibetan catalogs
characterize Bṭ3 as a long explanation of all three long Perfection
of Wisdom sūtras—The Perfection of Wisdom in
Eighteen Thousand Lines (Toh 10), The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines
(Toh 9), and The Perfection of Wisdom
in One Hundred Thousand Lines (Toh 8). It also has a
secondary relevance to The Perfection of Wisdom
in Ten Thousand Lines (Toh 11), even though that version
of the long sūtras is not mentioned in the text and almost certainly
did not exist as a separate version when the commentary was written.
It is hard to identify with certainty exactly what is, and what is
not, a citation from the many versions and editions of the
Perfection of Wisdom sūtras. In the notes we
have occasionally identified corresponding passages in Edward
Conze’s Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom
(LSPW) where this might be helpful to readers.

84000 is currently preparing English translations of both
The Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five
Thousand Lines and The Perfection
of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines. Bṭ3 will serve
as a guide to all three scriptures when they all become available in
translation.

The Translation

The Long Explanation of the Noble Perfection of

Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand, Twenty-Five Thousand, and Eighteen Thousand
Lines

Introduction

We prostrate to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta.

Introduction common to all sūtras

Having reverently bowed to the Mother of
Victors,

The foremost perfection in the form of wisdom,

I want to make a Path where the Thorns Have Been Trodden Down

Because the tradition of the gurus has been of benefit to me.

Thus did I hear

and so on. Because he has been charged with protecting the form
body and the true collection of teachings, the great noble bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi, asked
in the assembly, says to noble Maitreya that this is the explanation of
the perfection of wisdom that he has heard, with “Thus did I hear.”

Why does he not say, “Thus has the Lord said”?

It is because the Lord’s tremendous teaching is not within his
own range. The Lord teaches with a single knowledge and in a
single instant, simultaneously explaining to trainees of various
statuses, intentions, behaviors, beliefs, and faculties, brought
together from various world systems, the particulars of the impermanent,
suffering, empty, selfless, unproduced, and unceasing, in a state of
primordial calm, and naturally in nirvāṇa and so on; the particulars of
aggregates, constituents, sense fields, dependent originations, and
noble truths and so on; the particulars of the applications of
mindfulness, right efforts, legs of miraculous power, and faculties and
so on; and the particulars of the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and
eighteen distinct attributes of a buddha and so on—in various languages,
and with various headings, various words, various miraculous powers,
various appearances, and various attainments of results. As it
says:

Śāntamati, the earth element
is not as big as the amount of beings known by a buddha’s knowledge,

beings in infinite, innumerable world systems in the ten directions
all gathered together—a huge amount. Śāntamati, if all those beings
were to gain a human form all at once, and all those beings were to
become endowed with the wisdom and knowledge of the elder Śāriputra,
and all that Śāriputra-like wisdom and knowledge of all those beings
were to be in a single being—if all beings were to become endowed
with the wisdom and knowledge as in that analogy, and if, Śāntamati,
all those beings were to entertain, judge, and ferret out questions
and doubts for an eon, or more than an eon, and all the doubts one
person had were not to be the doubts of a second, and, Śāntamati,
were they, having in mind all the different doubts of all the beings
as in that analogy, to go before the Lord and voice in a finger snap
those doubts and questions, the Lord would, with one thought, become
mindful of them all, and grasping all the doubts would, by uttering
one statement, remove all the doubts and questions. They would all
know their own different doubts and questions, and they would all be
overjoyed at the Lord’s answers to all their questions.

Given that such a sequence of teachings to trainees by a
tathāgata is not totally within the range of bodhisattvas, those who
recite the Dharma are not able, with their
branch sequence, to teach the full range. So those who recite the Dharma
expound whatever Dharma is within their range, and based on that say
“thus did I hear” to reveal the sequence that came into their hearing,
concluding the discourse with “the Lord said this.” They do not
say, “Thus has the Lord said.”

Ultimately the perfection of wisdom is inexpressible, so the
lord buddhas do not teach dharmas to others with collections of names,
phrases, and speech sounds. The tathāgatas are without thought
construction, are spontaneous, are always absorbed in meditative
equipoise. Nevertheless, one knows that through the force of earlier
prayers, and based on the karma of beings, there are Dharma teachings in
this way or that way given to trainees in their own languages. As it
says:

Śāntamati, on the night the
Tathāgata fully awakens to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening,
and up until the night he enters into nirvāṇa, he has not spoken and
will not speak even a single syllable. And why? Because, Śāntamati,
the Tathāgata is always absorbed in meditative equipoise. The
Tathāgata does not breathe in and does not breathe out; he does not
have applied thought and does not have sustained thought. Without
applied and sustained thought there is no speech. The Tathāgata does
not think discursively and does not sustain thought, does not make
representations, does not make projections, and does not speak,
utter, or make pronouncements, but still beings think, “The
Tathāgata is speaking.” Again, the Tathāgata is totally absorbed in
meditative equipoise and does not represent anything in verbal
projections in any way, but still beings think about the spontaneous
words, “The Tathāgata is teaching us the Dharma.” When the sounds of
the Tathāgata’s statements come from space, beings think, “This
sound has come from the mouth of the Tathāgata,”

and so on. It originates from the dharma body. Therefore, in
conclusion, when it comes in that way to a definite end, it says “that
is what [the Lord] said” as an act of reverence for the good Dharma.

At one time

means “at one time, whenever that might be.”

Why does it not say an exact time?

Because there is no need to do so. About this, there is no need
at all to say words to the effect that it was on this day, on this date,
in this month, at this time; and if it is unnecessary it is not right to
say it. As for revealing the place, which is a place of worship, it is
right to reveal the place in order that beings will increase their merit
accumulation by being able to go there, and because there are no
disputes about it.

Alternatively, it is so there will be no disputes. Thus, the
Tathāgata, appearing in various forms, during just the time span of a
single instant, discourses on Dharma in various world systems, in
various places, to a variety of trainees—bodhisattvas or others. But
given that the wanderers to be trained—bodhisattvas or others—are all
gathered as one, if you say “at that time the Tathāgata in world
system X, in region X…,” this could lead to arguments or uncertainty
that “he was in our place Y,” or “he was in our place Z.” Since they
were worried about that happening, those who recite the Dharma did not
state an exact time.

Alternatively, taking it as saying one time when he was in
Rājagṛha, given that he was in Rājagṛha many times, construe it as
saying “one time.”

The Lord (bhagavat)

the
lord

the Blessed
One

is one who has destroyed (bhagnavat) the four Māras. Or [he is a blessed
one] who “has” (vat) an
“endowment” (bhaga).
Take the endowment as these six: sovereignty, wisdom, fame, glory,
merit, and perseverance. Insofar as only a tathāgata ultimately has them
all, that one is called “the Lord” or “Blessed One.”

Dwelt at Rājagṛha—

near
Rājagṛha

there are four dwellings: the dwellings of behavior, teaching,
absorption, and retreat.

Any work, whatever it is, counted as physical is all the
dwelling of the Lord’s behavior.

Any verbal work is the dwelling of the Lord’s teaching.

And any mental work is the other two dwellings: he is always
absorbed in meditative equipoise because of being fully absorbed in the
meditative stabilizations and the four absorptions, and he is in retreat
when he views the world with great compassion, and when the gods and so
on arrive.

He dwelt at Rājagṛha

on
Gṛdhrakūṭa Hill.

on Vulture
Peak

It says two places because both the lay and religious wings
were gathered there, or to teach that the form body and the collection
of teachings assist the
teaching.

To demonstrate that the retainers are complete, it says

with a great
community of monks,

with a large
monastic gathering

and so on. The retainers are the monks and the bodhisattvas and
so on. Both are indeed very worthy of donations, but it announces the
monks first because they are honored in the world, because the Lord does
not separate from them, and because they are common to all the world. It
makes the prior general statement, “a great community of monks.” After
that it specifies

numbering five thousand monks,

numbering…five thousand monks

comprising
some five thousand monks

because there is a good connection when you teach the general
and then the specific.

Having taught that he had many retainers, to teach their
greatness it says about their perfect qualities that they were

all worthy
ones… with outflows dried up,

All of them
were arhats who had attained the cessation of contaminants

and so on.

It says all of them were worthy ones since they were all
“worthy ones,” that is to say, it is teaching that there were no
trainees or ordinary persons. They are “worthy ones” because they
have destroyed [from han, “to destroy”] the foe (ari); or [from rah, “to leave”: arahat, “one who has left”] because they will
not take rebirth in saṃsāra; or they have completed their own purpose (svārtha); or because they
are worthy [from arh,
“to be worthy”] or capable of being a teacher for others, worthy of
being in the Saṅgha Jewel, worthy of many kinds of worship by those
foremost in the three realms, and because they uninterruptedly worship
and reverence the Tathāgata by offering their practice. Hence, they were
all worthy ones.

With
outflows dried up—

who had
attained the cessation of contaminants

they are “outflows” because as four phenomena they seep onto
the unwholesome roots or soak you with filthy afflictions. The four are
the five objects, form and so on, that are sense object
outflows; the three causes of existence that are
outflows that cause existence; innate and
acquired ignorance that are ignorance outflows; and
the sixty-two wrong views that are view outflows.
Sense object outflows are dried up by the aggregates of nontrainee
morality and meditative stabilization; view outflows are dried up by the
aggregate of nontrainee wisdom. The aggregate of nontrainee liberation
dries up outflows that cause existence. The aggregate of nontrainee
knowledge and seeing of liberation dries up ignorance outflows.
Alternatively, right view at the path of seeing level, when morality is
complete, dries up view outflows; right meditative stabilization at the
non-returner path level, when meditative stabilization is complete,
dries up sense object outflows; right knowledge and liberation at the
worthy one path level, when wisdom is complete, dry up ignorance
outflows; and knowledge that they are extinct and will not arise again
at the level when liberation is complete dries up outflows that cause
existence.

Another alternative is that on the worthy one path, sense
object outflows dry up because of comprehending the cause of desire for
sense objects; ignorance outflows dry up because of comprehending the
cause of volitional factors, because it is said “ignorance is the
condition for volitional factors”; view outflows dry up because of
comprehending the cause of afflictions; and outflows that cause existence
dry up because of comprehending the causes of the aggregates.

Another alternative is that comprehending the truth of
suffering dries up view outflows because all views arise with the five
aggregates for appropriation as the objective support; the elimination
of the truth of origination dries up sense object outflows; realization
of the truth of cessation dries up outflows that cause existence; and
the development of the true path dries up ignorance outflows.

Eliminating sense object outflows vanquishes Māra as a god;
eliminating outflows that cause existence vanquishes Māra as death;
eliminating ignorance outflows vanquishes Māra as afflictions; and
eliminating view outflows vanquishes Māra as aggregates. They have
conquered the four Māras, so their “outflows are dried up.”

Without
afflictions

free of
afflicted mental states

means without defilement. The defilement of action is an
affliction because it causes affliction; the defilement of
afflictive emotion is because it afflicts; the
defilement of aggregates that have come about from karmic
maturation is an affliction in the sense of the
afflictions to come; and the defilement of birth is
because with that as a cause the afflictions come about.

Of these, when ignorance stops, volitional factors
stop
is the absence
of the defilement of action; when volitional factors stop,
consciousness, name and form, the six sense fields, contact, and
feeling stop is the absence of the defilement of karmic
maturation; and
when existence stops, birth, old age, and death
stop is the nonexistence of the defilement of birth.
Therefore, this teaches that they have eliminated what makes
suffering, that on account of which there is
suffering, that which is suffering,
and what are the causes of suffering.

Furthermore, by eliminating the defilement of action they reach
the happiness of full awakening; by eliminating the defilement of
afflictive emotion they reach the happiness free from immorality; by
eliminating the defilement of karmic maturation they reach the happiness
of tranquility; and by eliminating the defilement of birth they reach
the happiness without aggregates—that is, they reach what makes
happiness, that on account of which
there is happiness, that which is
happiness, and what is the cause of happiness. Thus, they are “without afflictions.”

“Worthy ones” teaches their quality of being objects worthy of
donations; “with outflows dried up” their quality of purity; and
“without afflictions” the absence of suffering. These are the
differences among these three.

Fully controlled—

they are “fully controlled” because the world has come under
their control; or because they themselves are shown deference by the
world because they are a delight; or because they have taken control of
their minds; or they have gained the controls. The controls are four:
control over miraculous powers, control over their faculties, control
over meditative stabilization, and control over wisdom. Their control
over miraculous powers gives them control over the world of beings, and
over the world that is their container. Their control over their
faculties calms their conduct and produces the world’s delight; their
control over meditative stabilization brings their mind under control;
and their control over wisdom cuts afflictions, action, and maturation,
freeing them from bonds so that, in control of themselves, they gain
control. Because they control their faculties, they gain the
dwelling of the level of conduct; because they control
meditative stabilization, they gain the dwelling of the gods and the
dwelling of Brahmā; because they control miraculous powers, they gain
the dwelling with the play of clairvoyance; and because they control
wisdom, they gain the dwelling of noble beings. Because
they control their faculties, they have a complete attainment of the
aggregate of morality; because they control miraculous powers, they have
a complete attainment of the aggregate of meditative stabilization;
because they control meditative stabilization, they have a complete
attainment of the aggregate of wisdom; and because they control wisdom
they
have a complete attainment of the aggregate of liberation. Morality
emancipates from the bonds of bad conduct; meditative stabilization
emancipates from the bonds of craving; wisdom emancipates from the
bonds of bad views; and liberation emancipates from the bonds of what
causes existence. So, because they are emancipated from bonds they have
self-control; and because they have self-control they gain autonomy,
hence they are “fully controlled.”

They are

with their
minds well freed

minds
thoroughly liberated

teaches that they are without any defilement on the side of
craving;

and their
wisdom well freed

their wisdom
well liberated

teaches that they are without any defilement on the side of
ignorance. Thus, they are “with their minds well freed and their wisdom
well freed.” Because they are free from attachment they have mental
freedom and hence “their minds are well freed”; because they are free
from ignorance they have the freedom of wisdom and hence “their wisdom
is well freed.” Mental freedom is the meditative stabilizations and
absorptions gained from eliminating primary and secondary afflictions on
the side of craving; the freedom of wisdom is the path of the worthy one
gained from eliminating all afflictions on the side of ignorance. There,
when they gain mental freedom they are freed from obstructions to
absorption; when they gain the freedom of wisdom they are freed from
obstructions that are afflictions. Those free in both ways are “with
their minds well freed and their wisdom well freed.”

They are

thoroughbreds

on account of being fearless. Because
of their fearlessnesses, a sūtra says “there are five thoroughbreds: a
dominant bull in a herd, free from the anxiety caused by terror of
lightning strikes and so on; an elephant and a thoroughbred horse that
do not fear battle; a thoroughbred lion that does not fear another’s
attack;
and a thoroughbred worthy one without fear of death. In short, there are
four terrors: being in terror of suffering, in terror of the fearsome,
in terror of worldly dharmas, and in terror of ignorance. Those in whom
those terrors are absent gain ease, gain a state without terrors, gain
fearlessness, and gain relief,” respectively. Because they have no pain,
lamentation, suffering, mental anguish, and so on, they have no pain and
hence are not in terror of suffering. Because they have no fear of
self-criticism, criticism from another, bad rebirth, penury,
chastisement, no epitaph, or death, they are not in terror of the
fearsome. Because they are not tainted with attaining and not attaining,
fame and infamy, praise and blame, pleasure and pain they are not in
terror of fearsome worldly
dharmas. Because they are not blocked by
ignorance, doubt, and wrong understanding they are not in terror of
ignorance. Hence they are without terror and therefore
“thoroughbreds.”

They are

great bull
elephants,

mighty
elephants

that is, they have a magnificent bearing. Some have the three
knowledges, some have gained detailed and thorough knowledge, some have
gained the six clairvoyances, some have a prediction of knowledge,
and some have a single focus—that is, they have obtained an attribute
through which they have gained a special state and hence are “great bull
elephants.”

With their
work done, their task accomplished

their tasks
accomplished, their work completed

teaches the state of full completion. What they definitely have
to do is their “work”; ancillary work is their “task.” Their main work
is freedom from all suffering, by fully completing morality, meditative
stabilization, and wisdom.
They are those “with their work done” when those are fully completed.
The
work of fully completing the different ways of gaining a livelihood—the
livelihood of those desiring little, the livelihood of those with
contentment, the livelihood of those doing the ascetic practices, the
livelihood of those who cause perfect delight and so on—is the “task,”
in the sense that it is connected with what one personally wants to do.
They are those with “their task accomplished” when those are fully
completed. Thus “with their work done, their task accomplished” teaches
the state of full completion of all that has to be accomplished.

They are those

with their
burden laid down.

their
burdens relinquished

There are four “burdens”: the burden of the aggregates, the
burden of afflictions, the burden of an avowed aim, and the burden of
practice. They are burdens because they have to be
laid down, eliminated, carried out, and completed, respectively. They
lay down the burden of the aggregates by understanding suffering; they
lay down the burden of afflictions by removing origination; they lay
down the burden of an avowed aim by having meditated on the path; and
they lay down the burden of practice by actualizing cessation. There,
they gain the happiness where there are no aggregates by forsaking the
burden of the aggregates; they gain the happiness of liberation by
forsaking the burden of afflictions; they gain the happiness of full
awakening by perfectly completing the burden of an avowed aim; and they
gain the happiness of tranquility by fully completing the burden of
practice. Hence “with their burden laid down” teaches the attainment of
happiness when the burdens have been laid down.

They are those

with their
own goal accomplished.

their own
objectives fulfilled

There are two “goals” of “their own” that are “accomplished”:
eliminating harm and reaching the goal. The elimination of all the
defiling obscurations that comes about from eliminating ignorance is
eliminating harm; the nirvāṇa that is gained
from the production of all knowledge is gaining the
goal.

They are those

with the
fetters that bound them to existence broken.

the fetters
binding them to the rebirth process completely severed

The fetters that
cause birth in existence are “cause-of-existence fetters.” They fetter
or bind one to existence and to being human. From the nine of them,
correct view without outflows eliminates three (the fetters of wrong
view, grasping-as-absolute, and doubt); attainment of absorption into
the meditative stabilization without outflows eliminates three (the
fetters of envy, jealousy, and anger), and, of the attachment that
fetters to existence, the single side included in the desire realm; and
the knowledge of the worthy one’s path eliminates three (the fetters of
pride, ignorance, and attachment to existence). Therefore, it says “with
the fetters that bound them to existence broken.”

They are those

with their
hearts well freed by perfect understanding.

their minds
thoroughly liberated through perfect instruction

Knowing is fully understanding and realizing, which is to say,
they are those “with their heart well freed by perfect realization.”
Alternatively, construe “freed” as
belief
in the teaching of the doctrine of the three vehicles, in the four
truths, in the dharmas on the side of awakening and so on, or,
alternatively, their minds are well freed by the eight
deliverances.

Those

in perfect control of their whole mind

in perfect…
control of their whole mind

supreme in
their perfection of all mental powers

are those who have perfect mastery over all the absorptions.
Alternatively, those with perfect mastery over the nine successive
absorption stations are “in perfect
control of their whole mind,” being “in”
a state of mastery over becoming absorbed in, abiding in, emerging from,
and remaining dispassionate in cessation and meditative stabilization,
by becoming absorbed and so on where they want, into what they want, and
for as long as they want; becoming absorbed in and emerging in
conforming order and nonconforming order, direct and reverse order,
going and returning; bringing together the factors of concentration,
having the objects of absorption, and having the factors and
objects; uniting factors, uniting objects, and uniting factors
and objects; and combining one, combining two, not combining two, and so
on, respectively.

Construe the stated qualities as follows:

They are all worthy ones. Why? Because their outflows are dried
up. Their outflows are dried up because they are without afflictions.
They are without afflictions because they are fully controlled. They are
fully controlled because their minds are well freed. Their minds are
well freed because their wisdom is well freed. Their wisdom is well
freed because they are thoroughbreds. They are thoroughbreds because
they are great bull elephants. They are great bull elephants because
their work is done. Their work is done because their task is
accomplished. Their task is accomplished because their burden is laid
down. Their burden is laid down because their own goal is accomplished.
Their own goal is accomplished because they are those with the fetters
that bound them to existence broken. They are those with the fetters
that bound them to existence broken because their hearts are well freed
by perfect understanding. And their hearts are well freed by perfect
understanding because they are in perfect control of their whole
mind.

Having thus taught about the monk retainers,

with nuns
numbering five hundred

five hundred
nuns

and so on teaches about the retinue of nuns, laymen, and
laywomen,

… with a
vision of the Dharma,

whom had
seen the Dharma

that is, they have witnessed the state beyond suffering. This
indicates that the laymen and laywomen are trainees.

Now, revealing the bodhisattva retinue, it says

and with an
unbounded, infinite number of bodhisattva great beings

innumerable,
inestimable…bodhisattva great beings

It does not limit bodhisattvas to a specific number because
those in all other world systems are included as well.

The teaching about their good qualities is

all of whom
had acquired the dhāraṇīs

all of whom
had attained the dhāraṇīs

and so on. There are five types of bodhisattvas: those with a
surpassing intention, those who stand in signlessness with effort, those
who effortlessly stand in signlessness, those who have entered into the
certain course of conduct, and those obstructed by just a single
birth. They are all included in these. Those with
a surpassing intention are on the first bodhisattva level; those who
stand in signlessness with effort are up to the seventh level; those who
effortlessly stand in signlessness are on the eighth level; those who
have entered into the certain course of conduct are up to the tenth level; and from then on they
are obstructed by just a single birth. They are all included in these.

They have

acquired the
dhāraṇīs.

attained the
dhāraṇīs

It is a dhāraṇī because it causes them to bear the meaning in
mind. There are four dhāraṇīs: a dhāraṇī that causes bodhisattvas to
obtain forbearance, secret mantra dhāraṇī, word or doctrine dhāraṇī, and
meaning dhāraṇī.

What is a dhāraṇī that acts as a cause for bodhisattvas to
obtain forbearance?

Bodhisattvas who have earlier completed the causes on the
devoted course of conduct level by always leading a life of isolation,
eating in moderation, restraining their senses, not starting up a
conversation with just anybody, and trying not to fall off to sleep in
order to produce a bodhisattva’s forbearance bear in mind those secret
mantra base letters, or words—tadyathā | i ṭi mi
ṭi | ki ṭi vi kṣānti | pā da ni svā hā and so on—that they
say. They wonder, “What do these secret mantra bases mean? What are the
actual meanings of the expression and what’s expressed?” After thus
contemplating for a long time they see no meaning in what is being
expressed. Seeing no meaning, they ascertain perfectly, “There is no
meaning at all being expressed in those secret mantra bases. It is
certain that just the absence of an expressed meaning is the meaning of
those secret mantra bases. The intrinsic absence of an expressed meaning
is their meaning.” They meditate on those secret mantra bases as free
from an essential expression and what is expressed. Having meditated
well on those secret mantra bases free from expression and what is
expressed, they perfectly ascertain that in the same fashion all dharmas
are free from an essential expression and what is expressed. They think,
“Just as these secret mantra bases are free from an essential expression
and what is expressed, all dharmas are similarly inexpressible, so their
basic nature is inexpressible.” Thus, they determine that all dharmas,
in their basic nature free from an essential expression and what is
expressed, are by nature inexpressible. When they have determined that,
they see that all dharmas are empty of a falsely imagined nature. When
they see that, they realize the essential inexpressible nature of all
dharmas, on account of which a great joy arises. Because of that, they
are then those who have “acquired the dhāraṇis.” Then just because of
acquiring the dhāraṇīs, with that as the cause, there immediately comes
into being for the bodhisattva a great forbearance in harmony with the
production of the first Pramuditā level, a forbearance so called because
it is able to bear the ultimate. Such a forbearance, when it arises, is
dhāraṇī knowledge. Not long after they have
produced that dhāraṇī forbearance they reach the Pramuditā
level of those with surpassing aspiration. Therefore, you
should know that this dhāraṇī forbearance is included in the devoted
course of conduct level.

What is the secret mantra dhāraṇī of bodhisattvas?

The mastery of meditative stabilization capable of exerting
controlling power is secret mantra
dhāraṇī. Thus, bodhisattvas have to accumulate knowledge
during the first incalculable eon. After the passing of that
incalculable eon they reach the first level. On that level they engage
in the purification for knowledge, and gain mastery over the
attainment of practiced meditative stabilizations and absorptions. The
force produced by the meditative stabilization faculty and the force
produced by earlier prayers exert controlling power over the secret
mantra bases, so the force of the meditative stabilization,
concentrating on “may these secret mantra bases stop all the plagues,
problems, diseases, and strife of beings,” stops plagues and problems.
That is the way those secret mantra bases exerting controlling power are
accomplished, becoming supreme and solidly efficacious. Similarly,
bodhisattva great beings stationed on the higher levels fully accomplish
for the sake of this or that need of beings the secret mantra words
exerting controlling power in whatever way necessary. Since this is the
case, they are “secret mantra dhāraṇīs,” because with such mastery of
the meditative stabilization they bear the secret mantras in mind. The
secret mantra bases that are objects of those dhāraṇī faculties are also
“dhāraṇīs” because they are the objects of those dhāraṇīs.

Among them, what is doctrine dhāraṇī?

Doctrine dhāraṇī is the recollection and wisdom that bear in mind and do not
forget, even after a long time, the infinite, incalculable, immeasurable
doctrines included in the collection of words, the collection of
phrases, and the collection of speech sounds that bodhisattvas never
understood or heard before, when they have reached the levels and are
listening to the doctrines of the buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Among them, what is meaning dhāraṇī?

Meaning dhāraṇī is recollection and
wisdom, taken as one, that bear in mind and do not forget the infinite,
incalculable, immeasurable meanings of the doctrines those bodhisattvas
have borne in mind like that for an immeasurable time.

Among them, the aforementioned dhāraṇī in the form of
forbearance is of those who have earlier completed the causes, so they
gain it on the devoted course of conduct level. They gain the remaining
three on the first level and so on, having passed beyond the first
countless eon. About them a sūtra says, “Bodhisattva great beings who
possess four dharmas are perfect in dhāraṇī.” Those who have “acquired
the dhāraṇīs” have the four dharmas. The four dharmas are “disdain for
sense objects, absence of envy, giving up everything, and joy in the
Dharma in the Bodhisattvapiṭaka and so on, which stop the four on the
side opposing the equality of self and others—excessive attachment to
sense objects, envy, miserliness, and lack of enthusiasm for the joy of
the Dharma.” According to the sequence set forth in another sūtra, on the first level they have acquired the
superior location dhāraṇī because through its
force they have become a location for all holy, special qualities; on
the second, the stainless, because through its
force they have pure morality; on the third, the extremely
stable, because through its force the perfect power of
patience free from all mental disturbances is stabilized; on the fourth,
the hard to conquer, because through its force
one is unconquerable by all Māras and opponents; on the fifth,
the good quality mind ornament dhāraṇī; on the
sixth,
the lamp for the knowledge maṇḍala; on the seventh,
the becoming distinguished; on the eighth,
the nonconceptual; on the ninth, the
infinitely-doored; and on the tenth, the
inexhaustible basket dhāraṇī. Hence, they have “acquired
the dhāraṇīs” because on each of those different levels they gain a
myriad of infinite, incalculable, immeasurable dhāraṇīs. Therefore,
because such good qualities as these are shared in common with the
devoted course of conduct level, it speaks of them like this.

Alternatively, when they have become familiar with all the
syllables in this perfection of wisdom, they become causes for the
realization of all dharmas. Thus, a is the first letter in anutpannatva,
“nonproduction,” in “all dharmas are unproduced.” When, having
superimposed the meaning of nonproduction on the a, bodhisattvas consider that it means
nonproduction, and through the practice of calm abiding and special
insight their meditation becomes perfect, then just the single letter
a appears, through the force of
habituation, in the form of the nonproduction of all dharmas. In this
manner a is the cause of the
realization of all dharmas. Thus, when they meditate on just this
a based on its meaning of
nonproduction, nonorigination, the intrinsic nature of a nonexistent
thing, noncessation, and so on, it is the cause of the analytic
realization of each dharma. Thus it says,

What are the dhāraṇī doors? The sameness of all letters and
syllables, the sameness of all spoken words, the syllable-doors, the
syllable-entrances. What then are the syllable-doors, the
syllable-entrances? The syllable a is the door to all dharmas being unproduced from
the very beginning (ādy-anutpannatvād); ra is a door to the insight that all dharmas are
without dirt (rajas),

what are the
dhāraṇī gateways

the dhāraṇī
gateways—that is to say…free of dust

and so on.

Thus, based on those syllables, wisdom and recollection arise
that realize all dharmas. Because they bear the meaning of those in mind
they are “dhāraṇīs.” The forbearance that takes the ultimate as its
objective support is produced from those dhāraṇīs as its cause. Both
that recollection and wisdom are called the forbearance
dhāraṇī.

Again, when bodhisattvas become very familiar with all the
combinations of just those syllables strung together, they become the
causes for perfectly bearing in mind the streams of Dharma expounded
swiftly and continuously by buddhas and bodhisattvas, and their
meanings. When they have become extremely familiar with those
collections of words, collections of phrases, and collections of speech
sounds, that recollection and wisdom is called doctrine
dhāraṇī and meaning dhāraṇī.

Furthermore, when bodhisattvas have perfectly meditated on just
those syllables, they bestow everything like a wish-fulfilling gem.
Thus, when the force of meditative stabilization and the force of
earlier prayers exert sustaining power over those syllables, they become
the means to do everything that has to be done—the necessary stopping of
all problems and purifying of all wrongs and so on. At that time, just
that knowledge that exerts sustaining power over the syllables is called
secret mantra dhāraṇī. Because
they are those dhāraṇīs’ necessary objective supports, the syllables are
also called dhāraṇīs.

The explanation of the man [in mantra] is “knowledge” [from the root man], and the tra is “protect” [from the
root trai], so
knowledge and compassion are mantra. The syllables
are also mantra because they are in harmony with
just them as their cause.

Among those, bodhisattvas obtain the aforementioned forbearance
dhāraṇī through the force of effort when the devoted course of conduct
level is completed. The remaining three dhāraṇīs
are produced through the power of prayer. On
the first level, even though small they are still stable.
From
then on, all those dhāraṇīs are produced at a greater and greater level
of excellence. Hence they have “acquired the dhāraṇīs.”

Those bodhisattvas who have acquired the dhāraṇīs, having
meditated well on the noble truths and the dependent originations,
gradually, on the first and second level and so on as explained in the
noble sūtra The Ten Bhūmis, with that as the cause,
become

dwellers in
emptiness

in accord
with emptiness

of a person and in the emptiness of dharmas. When they have
thus grasped and meditated on that emptiness marked as omnipresent and
so on, the emptiness gateway to liberation
opens. When they have mastered emptiness, the earlier things such as
water, wind, fire, moon, sun, mountains, oceans, lakes, woods, regions,
districts, and so on that each appeared separately as a causal sign of a
phenomenon, whatever they are, do not appear separately—they appear in
the form of signlessness. At that point the signlessness gateway to
liberation opens.

For those who thus dwell in the gateway of signlessness free
from all causal signs there is no appearance of all three realms as
three realms, and they do not desire anything there. Free from any
desire for these, they do not wish for them in their minds, at which
point the wishlessness gateway to liberation opens for them. When they
have thus taken up in meditation the emptiness door to liberation, they
dwell in the emptiness meditative stabilization. When they have thus
taken up in meditation the signlessness gateway to liberation, they are
free from any other experiential domain, so their range is the signless.
When they see the three realms as do those who have no wishes, they do
not fashion the three realms as worth wishing for. Thus, they are

Those who thus dwell well in the meditative stabilizations that
are the gateways to liberation calm all elaborations, so
for them four types of forbearance for sameness come about. They have no
conception of self and other, so they have forbearance for self and
others being the same; they have no attachment or aversion, so they have
forbearance for compounded phenomena being the same; because they are
nothing more than suchness, they have forbearance for all phenomena
being the same; and because they think nirvāṇa and saṃsāra are the same,
they have forbearance for nonabiding sameness.

From having thus produced and become habituated to the four
forbearances for sameness, ten further samenesses gradually, as
explained in The Ten Bhūmis, occur: signless sameness; markless
sameness; unproduced sameness; unoriginated sameness; isolated sameness;
calm-from-the-beginning sameness; unelaborated sameness; no forsaking or
appropriating sameness; sameness as an illusion, a dream, an apparition,
an echo, the reflection of the moon in water, a reflection in a mirror,
or a magical creation; and existent and nonexistent sameness.

The unelaborated dharma-constituent free from imaginary aspects
is not within the range of any consciousness with causal signs or
conceptualization; it is within the range of nonconceptual knowledge.
Hence all dharmas are said to be signless.
Therefore, because all phenomena have the thoroughly established for
their nature, there is signless sameness.

Imaginary phenomena in the form of language and subject matter,
the subject as the one who grasps and the object that is grasped are
totally nonexistent so the imaginary mark is no mark, hence all are the
same
insofar as they have no mark.

The ultimate thoroughly established nature is not produced from
itself and is not produced from causes and conditions, hence there is an
unproduced sameness, and an unoriginated sameness.

The nature of suchness is free from afflictions and
defilements, and free from the defilement of birth, therefore all
phenomena are essentially isolated, hence there is an isolated
sameness.

The nature of suchness is not produced earlier and does not
cease at the end, so all phenomena are unproduced and unceasing, hence
there is a calm-from-the-beginning sameness.

The subject of that ultimate nature is unelaborated perfect
knowledge because it has that as its object. All phenomena are
unelaborated, hence there is an unelaborated sameness.

That ultimate nature is unmade. Ultimately there is no
forsaking of one form of life and one set of aggregates and
appropriating another set of aggregates. So, because there is no
forsaking or appropriating, there is a no forsaking or appropriating
sameness.

Those imaginaries do not have an intrinsic nature that is dual
in nature, so they are similar to an illusion and so on,
hence there is a sameness as an illusion and so on.

The thoroughly established nature does not exist as a falsely
imagined existent nature and is not something nonexistent like a
rabbit’s horns and so on either. Therefore, it is neither, hence there
is an existent and nonexistent sameness.

Because they thus realize the ten marks of sameness, they

had acquired
forbearance for the sameness of all dharmas.

their
attainments the acceptance of the sameness of all phenomena

Those dwelling in the three meditative stabilizations that are
gateways to liberation, endowed with a realization of the tenfold
sameness, behold beings without a protector and feel great
compassion for them. Thus, those learned in the ultimate are yet seized
by compassion and confront cyclic existence when they are inclined
toward nirvāṇa. And so those who avoid cyclic existence and mentally
confront nirvāṇa with the practice of wisdom, and avoid nirvāṇa and
confront cyclic existence with the practice of compassion, gradually, as
explained in The Ten Bhūmis, come to have a proper way of paying
attention. This naturally weak and unowned compounded aggregate comes
about because of possessing afflictions, and conditions being complete,
but it cannot come about when there is no possession of afflictions and
when conditions are not complete. Hence they think, “I have to make
possession of the afflictions and completion of the conditions
nonexistent; but beings who have no protector would then come to be
ignored, so, in order to be of benefit to beings, I should not
completely and totally put an end to the compounded aggregate.” In
regard to those endowed with such wisdom and compassion dwelling in this
attention, they actualize by way of appearance “standing unattached in
the perfection of wisdom.” This knowledge is “forbearance
conforming to the practice.” Thus
standing in the perfection of wisdom, an appearance marked by standing
without attachment, standing completely in this dhāraṇī knowledge, they
even rule as wheel-turning emperors for the sake of beings, even as they
pursue life without attachment. They demonstrate many types of enjoyment
of sense pleasures, again doing so without attachment to them. They
accumulate a wealth of worldly belongings for the sake of beings,
without attachment to them. They cultivate the thirty-seven dharmas on
the side of awakening, cultivating them without attachment to nirvāṇa.
They meditate on uncompounded suchness, again meditating without
attachment to it. Because they have thus acquired the special knowledge
of dhāraṇī that makes such skillful means paramount, they are those who

had acquired
the dhāraṇī of nonattachment.

the dhāraṇī
of nonattachment

When they thus stand by standing without attachment, thinking
that both cyclic existence and nirvāṇa are the same, exerting themselves
totally for the sake of beings alone, they enter into the
concentrations, deliverances, meditative stabilizations, and absorptions
in order to help beings, but they do not take birth through their force.
They transform those concentrations, deliverances, meditative
stabilizations, and absorptions into just what will be of help to
beings. Having thus transformed them for the sake of beings they produce
the six clairvoyances: knowledge of the performance of miraculous
powers, the divine eye, the divine ear, knowledge of the ways of
thinking, knowledge that recollects previous existences, and knowledge
that makes directly known the extinction of outflows.

Among these, knowledge of the performance of
miraculous powers is of two types: transformative and
magically creative. Among these, the transformative
is causing the act of [the earth] moving, the act of [fire] burning, the
act of the rain raining, and the act of [space] being pervasive; the act of changing one thing into
something else; going, coming [through walls, etc.], shrinking or
expanding; swallowing any physical object; appearing before anyone suitable,
the act of appearing, the act of disappearing, or the act of
controlling; eclipsing an opponent’s miraculous powers; and giving
confidence, giving recollection, giving happiness, giving light, and
anything else like those. The bodhisattvas do whatever beings require.

Among them, magically created bodies are any of the many types
of magical creations that bodhisattvas demonstrate for the sake of
beings: the appearances of gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras,
garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell beings,
and of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and buddhas. They
succeed in magically creating these different appearances for the sake
of an infinite, incalculable number of beings instantaneously and
simultaneously in an infinite, incalculable number of worlds in the ten
directions.

What is magically created speech? Here bodhisattvas make
magically created sounds that are heard by gods, nāgas, yakṣas,
gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, śrāvakas, and
bodhisattvas assembled and arrayed as a retinue within the encircling
girdle of mountains, up to as far away as the first thousandfold world
system, the millionfold and the billionfold world systems, and an
infinite, incalculable number of worlds in the ten directions. With
those sounds they teach the Dharma to all beings in many ways. With
other magical creations they set them to work, cause the sky to emit the
sound of Dharma teachings, and exhort those who incline toward various
objects.

What are magically created objects? For the sake of
poverty-stricken beings, bodhisattvas magically create food, drink,
transportation, clothes, jewels, pearls, vaiḍūrya, and so
on. To the extent they are needed, to that extent they come about,
lasting as long as the power sustaining their
truth is exerted. Thus, through their knowledge of miraculous powers

they help beings. Having motivated them with miraculous wonder-working
powers, they introduce them to Buddhist doctrine. And they also help
suffering beings in many other ways.

With knowledge that recollects previous
existences they recollect the earlier behavior of beings,
know what agrees with them, and teach them Buddhist doctrine.
Alternatively, they recollect the supreme, marvelous behavior of
bodhisattvas and demonstrate it perfectly, to perfectly engender faith
in beings. They demonstrate to proponents of eternalism and nihilism
what happened previously and destroy their views. With that knowledge
they recollect their own previous existences; they also recollect the
previous suffering existences of others, and they also cause others to
recollect their previous suffering existences.

With their divine ear they hear the
pitiful sounds of suffering beings in hell, among the animals, the
ghosts, and humans, and work to relieve their pains; or they hear
different Dharma teachings in various buddhafields, or right here; or
they hear many different sounds urging them on.

With their divine eye bodhisattvas see the
variety of wholesome and unwholesome behaviors of beings in the ten
directions and do what is appropriate. They also behold many teachings
of Dharma in many retinues of tathāgatas in the many different
buddhafields.

With knowledge of others’ thoughts they
know others’ greed, hatred, and so on accompanying their thoughts and do
what is appropriate. They know the different faculties, behaviors,
dispositions, propensities, and so on of beings and teach the
Dharma appropriately.

With knowledge of the extinction of
outflows bodhisattvas know perfectly and properly that
their own and others’ afflictions are extinguished, and they know
perfectly and properly whether or not they have attained the extinction
of their own afflictions, and whether or not others have attained the
extinction of their afflictions. They also know perfectly what is and is
not the means to extinguish their own and others’ afflictions and
outflows. They know perfectly whether others’ attainment of the
extinction of outflows is an unfounded conceit or is true. Perfectly
knowing all that, bodhisattvas themselves realize the extinction of
outflows. Bodhisattvas know perfectly things with and without outflows,
and with just the knowledge of the extinction of outflows they stay
together with all the afflicted dharmas with outflows, without
themselves becoming defiled.

Bodhisattvas have these six clairvoyances in lifetime after
lifetime. Even when they are reborn as animals they do not lose them, so
they are

with
imperishable clairvoyant knowledges.

extrasensory
powers never failing

Bodhisattvas who have these six clairvoyances make an effort to
help beings, and those beings they have helped experience a
simultaneously arising pleasure, so they listen to the bodhisattva’s
speech. Even at the cost of their life they do not go against the advice
and instruction. Furthermore, they skillfully get Māra’s minions or
tīrthikas and so on who bear ill will toward them to take their advice
and instructions to heart. They even get those who are unwilling to
listen to what they have to say by threatening them with splitting
headaches and so on. Bodhisattvas always see when it is
the right time and it is not the right time and so on. Among the classes
of beings there are none who are offended by the speech of the
bodhisattvas. This is the very nature of the power of the dedication of
the merit from the four ways of gathering a
retinue
and the merit of the perfections. Hence they are

with speech worth listening
to.

with
engaging speech

To teach that bodhisattvas with these good qualities have a
pure practice it says they are

not
hypocrites

unpretentious

and so on.

It is impossible that those who have earlier entered onto a
bodhisattva level would pursue wrong livelihoods, and this is
particularly more so the case on the Vimalā level and so on. So why teach here that on the seventh level there is no pursuit
of wrong livelihoods?

There is no fault. Even though on lower levels they have
already eliminated them, behavior that is pursued with effort is
perfected here, so it has to be taught at the end. You should not take bodhisattvas
standing on the seventh level as “with afflictions” and you should not
take them as “without afflictions” either, because right there they
absolutely eliminate afflictive behavior. Thus, the purity of their
surpassing aspiration informs their physical actions, verbal actions,
and mental actions. This total nonarising of all the physical, verbal,
and mental actions that the tathāgatas criticize is a quality of the
seventh level. Hence, to demonstrate that they do not engage in the
physical actions of wrong livelihood it says they are “not hypocrites.”
Because of wanting to gain something, the demonstration of a physical
action that is a way of impressing another is called
hypocrisy.

To demonstrate that they have no impure verbal actions it says
they are

not
fawners.

without
insincerity

Acts of speech connected with gaining something, speaking
to gain something you really want, is fawning.

To demonstrate that they have no impure mental actions it says
they are

without
thoughts of reputation and gain.

without
thoughts of ulterior fame, profit, or respect

Praise, citation, renown, and “reputation” are synonymous. They
are so called because they are without thoughts of gain or respect.

Having taught that they have no impure practices, to teach that
they have purified practices it says they are

Dharma
teachers without thought of compensation.

free from
self-interest they taught the Dharma

This is said of those stirred by compassion and endowed with a
thinking mind honed by wisdom who teach Dharma to help beings.

Thus, having taught in these ways the qualities of those from
the seventh level on down who practice signlessness with effort, now it
says they are

with perfect
forbearance for the deep dharmas

the sublime
acceptance of the profound dharmas

and so on, to teach the quality of standing effortlessly in
signlessness. Thus, from the eighth level on up bodhisattvas cut the
continuum of all effort and pass beyond all causal signs and
conceptualization. They do so in a carefree way, without any effort at
all. But even though they are totally at peace and expend no energy,
they live a life for the sake of others because of the force of their
previous prayers, and they realize the practices on the side of
awakening.

To teach that on the eighth level they have gained forbearance
for the nonproduction of dharmas, it says they are those “with perfect
forbearance for the deep dharmas.” Thus,

completely free from the
conceptual discriminations of mind, thinking mind, and
consciousness, unhindered like space, with the comprehension of the
wide-open nature they have gained forbearance for the nonproduction
of dharmas. O bodhisattvas! The moment bodhisattvas with such a
forbearance for that have reached the Acalā level, they gain the
bodhisattva’s deep stations that are hard to
understand, undifferentiated, free from all causal
signs,

and so on. There are no other stations deeper than such deep
stations of bodhisattvas, so it says they have “perfect forbearance for
the deep dharmas.”

Wherever they go, bodhisattvas who have gained such forbearance
go with fearlessness and without
trepidation, be it into a retinue of persons of royal caste, brahmins,
persons of business caste, persons of low caste, gods, or Brahmās, or
into a retinue of monks, nuns, tīrthikas, or Māras, and speak without
feeling shy. And why? It is
because they have gained forbearance for the nonproduction of dharmas
and therefore fully realize the nonproduction aspect of all dharmas.
Therefore, they do not have the fear that comes from not knowing
something when in the midst of a retinue. Apart from their residual
impressions, they have eliminated all affliction, seeing it has not been
produced, so they do not have the fear that comes from the afflictions.
Hence it says they

had obtained
the fearlessnesses.

acquired
great fearlessness

To teach that they are indomitable it says they

had
transcended all the works of Māra.

had gone
completely beyond all the works of Māra

They have transcended by far and transcended even farther than
that all the works of Māra described below [

ff.], as well as the works of Māra
described in other sūtras.

They have

cut the
continuum of karmic obscuration.

interrupted
the continuity of karmic obscurations

When it comes to their future lives, apart from the sorts of
births they demonstrate because of compassion, as soon as they have
attained this forbearance they have cut the continuum of the karmic
obscurations that ripen into good or bad forms of life.

They are

skillful in
expounding the analysis of investigations into phenomena.

skilled in
analyzing and teaching the Dharma

“Phenomena” are the aggregates, constituents, and so on, or
dharmas known by special insight; the applications of mindfulness,
the right efforts, and so on, or the dharmas on the side of awakening;
the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and so on, or the buddhadharmas;
and the result of the stream enterer path and so on, or gained dharmas.
“Investigations” of them are into marks, functions, causes, results,
number, proper meditative experiences, faulty ones, elements,
defilements, purifications, comprehensions of suffering, eliminations of
origins, cessations to be actualized, and cultivations of paths. They
are also investigations into the outer dharmas: world systems arise like
this, will perish like this, have perished like this; they form like
this, they perish for that length of time, they stay like that, they last this length of time; these are hell beings, these are
birthplaces of animals, these are ghosts, these are humans, these are in
the desire realm, these in the form realm, these in the formless realm;
these are how many of the smallest earth, water, fire, and wind atoms
there are; just this is the measure of the height, breadth, width, and
depth of the earth and so on; and just these are the four continents,
just this is a thousand of them, just this is a million, and just this a
billion. Similarly, the investigations are the sort that investigate the
intentions, propensities, behaviors, beliefs, and faculties of all the
worlds: who is less at fault, who more; who is in a lineage, who is not;
who is definitely in a lineage, who is not; who is a candidate, who is
not; who is mature, who is not; and who is free and who is not. These
are the
“investigations into phenomena.” To “analyze” is to divide those
phenomena described earlier into specific categories: “these are the
aggregates, these the constituents, these the sense fields,” and so on.
There are the categories
when they have all been
categorized, when they have been divided into many specific types. To
“expound” is to teach them and make them understandable to others.
“Skill” is intelligence. “Investigation into phenomena” is detailed and
thorough knowledge of phenomena; “categorization,” or analysis, is
detailed and thorough knowledge of content; “expounding” is detailed and
thorough knowledge of languages; and “skill in expounding” is detailed
and thorough knowledge of ready speech. Thus, it says they are “skillful
in expounding the analysis of investigations into phenomena.”

Having thus taught the eighth level qualities, to teach the
qualities of the practice on the levels above, on the levels of those
who are destined, it
says they are those

with the prayer that is a vow made during an asaṃkhyeya of eons really fully
carried out.

with the
prayer…fully carried out

What is this teaching? There are no appearances of inner
physical bodies anywhere at all after the forbearance for the
nonproduction of dharmas has been gained. The body of names does not operate
in the form of intention, thinking mind, and consciousness; it remains
perfectly in the form of emptiness.

External dharmas—the three
realms—do not appear at all; they are in a state of liberation that
is the element of signlessness. For those who thus abide
perfectly extinguished in suchness, no effort, movement, false
projection, or thought construction occurs.

If those great beings thus dwell totally in nirvāṇa, in the
nonexistence of an intrinsic nature, in primordial calm, in the
intrinsic nature of the dharma-constituent, they would subsequently veer
away from the attributes that would make them a buddha and from the
welfare of beings.

Response: The
perfection of prayer that has been made complete during two incalculable
eons, together with skillful means, becomes a concordant cause of
compassion on account of which, at that time, in order not to veer away
the maturation is developed, and those bodhisattvas
again enter into the conventional. Those bodhisattvas who have entered
into the conventional apprehend all inner and outer worlds just as at an
earlier time. At that time, they practice the bodhisattva’s course of
conduct and so on.

Qualm: In that case, since at this level all affliction that is
the origin of suffering does not exist, they do not accumulate the karma
that gives rise to future lives. The force of the karma they accumulated
previously is extinguished, as it is for worthy ones, so, given that a
maturation cannot be apprehended in the absence of karma, how are they
going to appropriate another future life? And given that above that
level they are sure to swiftly and effortlessly reach the Tathāgata
level in a single countless eon, how, in that case and during that
period of time, will they abide in the form of anyone?

Response: There is no fault, because here the commentators say
that those perfections that bodhisattvas have previously completed
during the two incalculable eons—the ones they have previously, through
the perfection of skillful means, fully established in a form that is
inexhaustible, and that they have through the perfection of prayer
dedicated for the benefit of beings and perfect awakening—they all,
after forbearance has been attained, are from then on developed into the
form of a maturation. Thus, through those maturations
bodhisattvas spontaneously, for as long as cyclic existence remains,

accomplish the welfare of others and perfect complete awakening. In just
those forms that are developments of the maturations of their wholesome
roots they take other rebirths; in just those forms of the maturations
of their wholesome roots give many teachings in those lifetimes; and
their many various types of magical creations work for the welfare of
living beings, ripen the buddhadharmas, and cause them to reach the
Tathāgata level.

Therefore, this course of conduct is “a certain course of
conduct” because it has been brought about through the
force of a prayer that is a vow. The second course of conduct is certain
in regard to the welfare of beings, because it is in the form of a
maturation, and entering into it is not purposeless. Beings who have
been brought to maturity by this course of conduct are certain in regard to
the three vehicles, so it is said that all the courses of conduct done
previously for the welfare of others do not amount to even a hundredth
or even a thousandth part, and so on, of a bodhisattva’s certain course
of conduct entered into even just for the length of a single day.
Therefore, because they achieve that through the force of a prayer that
is a vow it says that they are those “with the prayer that is a vow made
during an asaṃkhyeya of eons really fully
carried out.”

“Really fully carried out” teaches “the concordant cause that
is remaining on account of the immeasurables for beings, and the
concordant cause that is standing in the clairvoyances by those who
travel to buddhafields” and so on—the good qualities that are the
concordant causes taught in other sūtras.

Among these, in regard to the concordant cause that is love,
it says they are

with smiling
countenances

Smiling

because it is in the nature of things that those who have
entered into the certain course of conduct have smiling faces in
lifetime after lifetime. That is, in order that undisciplined beings
will believe in them their countenances never ever change.

To teach the concordant cause that is compassion it says they
are

forward in
addressing others.

communicative

To teach the concordant cause that is joy it says they are

without a
frown on their faces.

their faces
without frowns of anger

It is in the nature of things that they do not feel the kind of
irritation that makes them frown, no matter what happens. When making an
effort they do not get upset like that. They do not become impatient
like that with others; they do not get disturbed.

Now, with

skillful in
communicating with others in chanted verse

skilled in
addressing others in melodic verse

and so on, it teaches the good quality of the concordant cause
that is the clairvoyances of those who travel to buddhafields. When
bodhisattvas travel to buddhafields, along the way, either in their own
form or in a magically created form, they teach and inspire others with
the Dharma by chanting it in verse. Furthermore, having come into the
presence of the tathāgatas they chant praises of them in verse and
respond to their questions in verse. This demonstrates that they have
attained perfect speech.

To teach that they have attained perfect thought it says

without feelings of
depression.

without^[5]…depression

Without
discouragement

This is to teach that some bodhisattvas stationed on lower
levels who have not completed the accumulations, and still have thought
constructions when they pay attention, feel depressed in the presence of
bodhisattvas stationed on higher levels and by tathāgatas, because their
qualities are superior. These, however, gain ten controls over lifespan,
mind, necessities, action, birth, prayer, belief, the miraculous powers,
knowledge, Dharma, and absolute purity, and never have thoughts
that feel depressed. Thus it says “without feelings of depression.”

To teach the matured four detailed and thorough knowledges
obtained by those with correct understanding it says

without
losing the confidence giving a readiness to speak.

their
inspired eloquence flowed uninterrupted

Therefore, as it is said, they are great Dharma preachers:

Stationed on the Sādhumatī
level, bodhisattvas act as great Dharma preachers, guarding the
Dharma treasury of the tathāgatas. Having reached the rank of a
Dharma preacher, in possession of an immeasurable skill in knowledge
they teach the Dharma with words produced by the four detailed and
thorough knowledges. The four unbroken detailed and thorough
knowledges are continuously and always operating in them.

And so on. It also says,

They teach the Dharma in a
skillful voice that is endowed with a million immeasurable special
properties, up to through the immeasurable doors of the divisions of
the confidence giving a readiness to speak.

Thus it says “without losing the confidence giving a readiness
to speak.”

To teach that they have gained the skill of going into
assemblies, it says they are

endowed with
fearlessness when surpassing endless assemblies.

possessed
the fearlessness that overwhelmed endless assemblies

Thus, following the order in The Ten
Bhūmis, there is an
immeasurable skill in the workings of miraculous power, immeasurable
skill in knowledge, immeasurable skill in confidence giving a readiness
to speak, immeasurable skill in the manifestation of light rays,
immeasurable skill in providing answers to questions, immeasurable skill
in speaking in a voice with special properties, immeasurable skill in
teaching the Dharma, immeasurable skill in the meditative stabilizations
and dhāraṇī doors, immeasurable skill in a secret course of conduct,
immeasurable skill in the divisions of the doors of the Dharma,
immeasurable skill in miracles, immeasurable skill in the ten
controls,
immeasurable skill in objects under a buddha’s controlling power,
immeasurable skill in speaking about practices on the side of awakening,

immeasurable skill in speaking about world systems, immeasurable skill
in speaking about the mass of beings, immeasurable skill in speaking
about the mass of those to be trained, immeasurable skill in speaking
about the dharma-constituent, immeasurable skill in purifying
buddhafields, and immeasurable skill in all objects within the range of
the buddhas that they should enter into. Bodhisattvas extremely skilled
in these twenty skills do not get anxious whatever the assembly they go
into, proceeding as the seven: as lions, brahmins, and tathāgatas;
fearless like the sky; with confidence; as the dominant bull; and
without attachment to anything. No one eclipses them, and there is no
one whom they do not eclipse, so it says of them that they are “endowed
with fearlessness when surpassing endless assemblies.”

It says they are

This teaches the concordant cause that is the perfection of
perseverance in its matured form. Thus, bodhisattvas who have gained the
matured perfection of perseverance do not entertain the idea that what
is difficult to do is indeed difficult to do. They do not feel oppressed
by what is beneficial for beings. While they strive and make an
extremely great vigorous attempt many eons pass, up
to a hundred thousand million billion eons pass, as in
the statement, “When our Lord Śākyamuni was a
bodhisattva he passed nine eons serving the buddha called
Puṣya.” Thus, while making an extremely great effort a hundred
thousand million billion eons pass, but no one can go beyond an
asaṃkhyeya of eons. Hence it
says they are “skilled in going forth during an ananta of one hundred million eons.”

It teaches these good qualities of the practice of the certain
course of conduct in that way. In order to teach the supreme qualities
of the level above, it says they are

understanding phenomena to be like an illusion, a mirage, a
reflection of the moon in water, a dream, an echo, an apparition, a
reflection in the mirror, and a magical creation.

understanding phenomena to be like an illusion…a magical
creation

comprehended
that all phenomena are like a magical display, a mirage, a
reflection of the moon in water, a dream, an echo, an optical
aberration, empty space, a castle in the sky, a phantom, or a
reflection

This teaches that they have gained the sarvadharmapravicaya
meditative stabilization, the concordant cause that is the matured
perfection of wisdom. Thus, they have realized that just as illusions
and so on are totally nonexistent, yet can be apprehended, similarly all
phenomena are just like that. Since trainees have a variety of beliefs
and aspirations it teaches with eight illustrations that are numbered
relative to certain people, or in order to eliminate eight doubts.

However, there is a qualm: If you have taken phenomena to be
nonexistent, how could you apprehend them through the power of their shapes and so on; and having
apprehended phenomena that are not apprehendable, how could minds and
mental factors come about? If phenomena do not exist, how could they
appear to arise and disintegrate? If phenomena are nonexistent, how do
the conventions of eating, drinking, giving, receiving, happiness,
suffering, and so on become accepted; how could a collection of words
and a collection of sentences and so on come about; how could things
come about from causes and conditions; how could resultant features
similar to the causes come about; and how could the activities of going
and coming and so on come about?

The illusion illustration is for this: “If
phenomena are nonexistent how could there be shapes and so on?” To
illustrate, just as a magician makes a show of a herd of elephants, a
herd of horses, chariots, and infantry, mountains, food and
drink and so on through the power of shapes,
even though they do not actually exist, similarly with all phenomena.

But how do the minds and mental factors that apprehend those
come about?

To illustrate, just as mistaken minds and mental factors
operate when beings apprehend a mirage, similarly
with all phenomena.

But how do they arise and disintegrate?

This poses no problem, because all phenomena are unproduced and
unceasing. To illustrate, just as there is the appearance of a
reflection of the moon in water when the moon appears in
the sky, and just as there is no appearance when it does not appear,
even though it has no actual reality at all,
similarly with all phenomena that appear when there are residual
impressions left by the imagination of the unreal. They do not appear
when they are not there, and hence are all unproduced and unceasing.

How do ordinary conventions come about?

To illustrate, just as eating, drinking, dressing, giving,
receiving, happiness, suffering, and so on appear in a
dream without ultimately being apprehended, similarly
with all conventions.

How do collections of words and collections of sentences come
about?

To illustrate, an echo has no essential
reality as a sound, but just as one apprehends sounds from mountains and
ravines that do not speak, similarly with the issuing forth of
language.

How do things come about from causes and conditions?

To illustrate, when the sense faculty is harmed, even though
there are no matted falling hairs, they appear; from a place with
certain particular features the city of the gandharvas and so on
appears; because of the special features of a meditation the signs of
extinction and so on appear; and because of the special features of
thought constructions overcome by desire, sorrow, fear, and so on there
are the particular appearances of conceptualized forms and so on. Even
though they come about from causes, they do not exist. Similarly, all
phenomena come about from causes but do not exist.

Given that they do not exist, how is a son produced from a
father, fruit from the pits of the fruit of mango trees and so on—how do
results similar to causes come about?

To illustrate, just as you apprehend a reflection in
a mirror from the appearance of a face and so on that is
its cause, even though it does not exist, similarly with all phenomena.

How do activities come about?

Just as magical creations appear to have
physical activities—going, coming, and so on—and verbal activities, even
though they do not exist, similarly with all phenomena.

Alternatively, there are eight marks: the mark of emptiness,
the mark of signlessness, the mark of wishlessness, the mark of the
absence of an intrinsic nature, the mark of a dependent origination, the
mark of an apparition, the mark of a falsely imagined phenomenon, and
the mark of a dependent phenomenon. Among these, the nonexistence of the
illusory elephants and so on is emptiness; a
mirage and so on that is mistaken for water and
so on is signlessness; a reflection of the moon in
water that has no standing anywhere is wishlessness; a
dream is the absence of an intrinsic nature; an
echo arises dependent on space, mountains,
caves, and so on; apparitions are appearances out
of the void; reflections in the mirror have a
standing in the face alone—they appear as if they are standing in the
mirror over there. Similarly, imaginary phenomena appear as if they are
standing over there away from the consciousness. Dependent phenomena are
produced dependent on conditions, like, as an analogy, magical
creations that are produced dependent on the magician.
You should construe them like that.

They are

skilled in
comprehending the mental attitudes, subtle knowledge

This teaches that by means of the concordant cause that is the
perfection of knowledge, the sarvasattvacittacaritānugata and the
dharmadhātupraveśa meditative stabilizations are
produced.
With
the former of these meditative stabilizations they “comprehend,” with a
single act of knowledge and in a single instant, the different
“thoughts,” “conduct,” and “beliefs” in all their variety of as many beings as there are
included in the category of being, in all world systems all gathered
together. Having comprehended them, they understand in a single instant
the means to train them and cause them to practice accordingly.

Second, when they have gained the dharmadhātupraveśa meditative
stabilization,

they understand the many
kinds of “subtle knowledge” of the tathāgatas,
worthy ones, perfectly complete buddhas; that is, knowledge that
enters into subtle conduct, knowledge that enters into subtle death
and rebirth, knowledge that enters into
subtle conception, knowledge that enters into the
subtle leaving of the womb, knowledge that enters into the subtle sports education as a
young boy, knowledge that enters into subtle renunciation,
knowledge that enters into subtle full awakening, knowledge that
enters into the subtle turning of the wheel of Dharma, knowledge
that enters into the subtle employment of sustaining power over the
lifespan, knowledge that enters into
subtle complete nirvāṇa, knowledge that enters into maintenance of
the doctrine, and
knowledge that enters into the subtle secrets of the tathāgatas.
These subtle secrets of the tathāgatas are as follows: secret of
body, secret of speech, secret of mind, secret insight into when is
and is not the right time, secret prediction of bodhisattvas, secret
attracting and subjugation of beings, secret division of vehicles,
secret distinguishing of the conduct and faculties of beings, secret
entry into doing and what is to be done, secret conduct and full
awakening, and secret comprehension of the basic
nature.

Having combined those two knowledges together it says they are “skillful in
comprehending the thoughts, conduct, and beliefs of all beings and
subtle knowledge.”

With
unobstructed thoughts

teaches obtaining the concordant cause that is the perfection
of power. Thus, when they have gained power in its essential matured
form their minds become unobstructed by anything. What are those powers?
They are the power of intention because they
are without the origination of all afflictions; the power of surpassing
intention because they have purified the levels’ knowledge; the power
of dhāraṇī because they possess the quality of nonforgetfulness; the
power of meditative stabilization because they never waver; the power of
clairvoyance because they are skillful in analyzing conduct in limitless
world systems; the power of faculties because they have gained the
fulfillment of all their desires; the power of confidence giving a
readiness to speak because they are skilled in the examination and
analysis of all the buddhadharmas; the power of prayer because they
practice without forsaking the conduct for all the buddhadharmas; the
power of perfection because they do not forsake the conduct that will
bring their own buddhadharmas to maturity, that will mature all beings,
and that will benefit all beings; the power of great love because they
do not forsake the effort to rescue all beings; the power of great
compassion because they relieve all the suffering of all beings; the
power of the true nature of dharmas because they come face to face with
the true nature of dharmas that are like illusions and so on; and the
power of the sustaining power of all the tathāgatas because omniscience
in all its aspects has become manifest. They are in possession of just
these powers that the Sūtra has described, so they have gained the true
nature of dharmas that is unobstructed by anything, and therefore it says
“with unobstructed thoughts.”

They are

endowed with
extreme patience.

their
tolerance was immense

Immediately after they have gained the sarvajñajñānaviśeṣābhiṣekavat

meditative stabilization, bodhisattvas stationed on the Dharmameghā
level receive consecration with the light rays of the tathāgatas of the
ten directions on the precious great king of lotuses. Immediately after that all the patience they have
gained earlier becomes extremely purified, and the hundred thousand
meditative stabilizations—śūraṃgama and so on—the hundred thousand dhāraṇī
doors—akṣayakaraṇḍā
and so on—and the forbearance for the immeasurable objects within the
range of the buddhas arise. This is “just a sample” of omniscience
because those have arisen.

Skilled in causing entry into reality just as it is

skilled in
causing entry into reality just as it is

skilled in
bringing forth comprehension of the true nature itself

teaches that they have gained the ten knowledges of causing
entry by means of the concordant cause that is the perfection of
knowledge:

They understand perfectly
correctly and well the knowledges that cause entry because they
understand the many kinds of knowledge of the tathāgatas, worthy
ones, perfectly complete buddhas that cause entry—that is, the
knowledge that causes entry through the way of a child, the
knowledge that causes entry through dust atoms, the knowledge that
causes entry through complete comprehension of the collection of
buddhafields, the knowledge that causes entry through the complete
comprehension of the thoughts of the collection of beings, the
knowledge that causes entry through the complete comprehension that
has gone everywhere, the knowledge that causes entry by
demonstrating conduct opposite to what is expected, the knowledge
that causes entry by demonstrating conduct that goes with the grain,
the knowledge that causes entry by demonstrating conduct that goes
against the grain, the knowledge that causes entry by demonstrating
inconceivable conduct the worldly can understand and inconceivable
conduct, and the knowledge that causes
entry by demonstrating conduct śrāvakas can understand,
pratyekabuddhas can understand, bodhisattvas
can understand, and tathāgatas can understand. Children of the
Victor! Therefore, since the omniscience of the lord buddhas is vast
and immeasurable, the knowledge that causes entry of those standing
here is immeasurable too.

This all means “skillful in the reality just as it is of all
that is unsurpassed.”

To teach the concordant cause that is the perfection of prayer
it says

Because of the prayers they have previously made—“The endless
arrays that there are in all the buddhafields such as the Sukhāvatī,
Padmavatī, and Arciṣmatī buddhafields, may mine be like
them! Or, may mine surpass them!”—and what they have caused to occur
with their great perseverance because of making those prayers, it has
now been appropriated within the form of a maturation.

With the meditative stabilization recollecting buddhas in
an infinite number of world systems constantly and always activated

with the
meditative stabilization…always activated

Constantly
and uninterruptedly they brought into being the meditative stability
of recollecting the buddhas who reside in countless world
systems

teaches the concordant cause that is the perfection of
meditative concentration. It means that because of the force of having
earlier cultivated the meditative stabilization that recollects the
buddhas, now they are everywhere, always; they are not separated from
the presence of all those buddhas in countless, infinite world systems
and effortlessly, in a mere instant, are face to face with them.

They are

skillful in
soliciting innumerable buddhas.

skilled in
requesting innumerable buddhas to teach

This means that they are skilled in going into the presence of
the lord buddhas abiding in countless, infinite world systems and
requesting them to turn the wheel of the Dharma, and in requesting those
who want to pass into complete nirvāṇa to stay for a long time.

Skillful in eliminating the various views, propensities,
obsessions, and defilements

skillful in
eliminating…obsessions, and defilements

They were
skilled in bringing about peace from the afflicted mental states
that are generated through the diverse false views of beings

teaches the concordant cause that is in harmony with the
perfection of skillful means. They see the different aspirations,
propensities, conduct, beliefs, and faculties of beings and are skilled
in persistently eliminating their views and so on as appropriate. Hence
it teaches that they know the range of the tathāgata’s powers as
well.

Skillful in accomplishing a hundred thousand feats through
meditative concentration

skillful in
accomplishing…meditative concentration

skilled in
bringing forth realization of the wisdom that revels in the
miraculous production of a hundred thousand meditative
stabilities

teaches that they have gained mastery over the matured
clairvoyances. through the power of their
meditative stabilization they are skilled in playing with the
clairvoyant knowledges in one hundred thousand ways. It says:

Having gained mastery over
such knowledge, with well-examined knowledge and clairvoyant
knowledge, as they wish, they make world systems that have
contracted expand with their sustaining power, and make world
systems that have expanded contract. With their sustaining power, as
they wish, they make defiled world systems pure, and make pure world
systems defiled; similarly, as supreme leaders, they produce world
systems that are spacious, huge, immeasurable, fine, gross,
inverted, upside-down, uniformly flat, and so on, and sustain them
with their sustaining power. With their sustaining power, as they
wish, they put an entire world system and its encircling girdle of
mountains into a single dust atom, and they display that performance
without making the dust atom any bigger. With their sustaining power
they put two, three, four, or five world systems, up to an
inexpressible world system, into a single
dust atom, all with their encircling girdles of mountains; and
without making the dust atom increase they demonstrate that
performance [in reverse]. As they wish, they display the array of two world
systems, up to the array of inexpressible world systems, in one
world system. As they wish, they display the array of one world
system in two world systems, up to inexpressible world systems. They
display in one world system as many beings as there are in world systems up to the
inexpressible, but without injuring the beings. They display as many
beings as there are in one world system in inexpressible world
systems, but without injuring the beings. As they wish, they array
beings arrayed in inexpressible world systems on a single strand of
hair, but without injuring the beings. As they wish, they display a
single array of the objects of all the buddhas on a single strand of
hair; as they wish, they display up to inexpressible arrays of the
objects of all the buddhas. They, as they wish, magically create in
a single instant as many bodies as there are dust atoms in
inexpressible world systems. They display on each of those bodies
that many arms, offer worship to the buddhas in the ten directions
with them, and with each of them strew handfuls of flowers over the
lord buddhas, as many as the grains of sand in the Gaṅgā River, and,
as with the flowers, similarly perfumes, flower garlands,
creams, powders, robes, parasols, flags, and banners. Through their
sustaining power they sustain on each of those bodies that many
heads, and through their sustaining power they sustain in each head
that many tongues. With each of those tongues they extol the
buddhas. Having produced the thought of awakening, each goes
pervading the ten directions. They also, just by the production of the thought, sustain
with their sustaining power infinite, perfect full awakening, up to
the great arrays of parinirvāṇa. With their sustaining power they
sustain infinite bodies in the three periods of time; they sustain
infinite arrays of buddhafields of infinite lord buddhas in their
bodies; they sustain in their bodies all the destruction and
unfolding of world systems. They emit the wind firmaments from a single pore of
their bodies, but still without injuring beings. As they wish, with
their sustaining power they sustain the world system as far as the
waters as a single mass of water, and on that sustain the great lotus,
pervade endless world systems with the array of light that shines
from that lotus, and display the great branched-tree of awakening,
up to exhibit the omniscience endowed with all the finest aspects.
With their sustaining power they sustain in their bodies the light
of jewels, lightning, the sun, and the moon of the ten directions,
up to all shining light. With a single puff of breath they shake
endless world systems in the ten directions but without scaring beings. And with their sustaining power they sustain in the
ten directions destruction by wind, fire, and water; and in line
with their intentions, they sustain, as they wish, the adornment of

the physical form-bases of all beings. With their sustaining power
they sustain their body in the body of the tathāgata; sustain the
body of the tathāgata in their body; sustain their own buddhafield
in the body of the tathāgata; and sustain the body of the tathāgata
in their own buddhafield. Thus they demonstrate a hundred thousand
immeasurable and innumerable, endless amusements such as these.

Therefore, it says that they are “skillful in accomplishing a
hundred thousand feats through meditative concentration.”

Thus, the magically created body of the Tathāgata dwelt at
Rājagṛha with the monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. As for the complete
enjoyment body of the Tathāgata, it dwells with the bodhisattvas who are
serving it, so it has given an exposition of the retinues of the two
tathāgata bodies.

Introduction unique to the Perfection of

Wisdom

Having fully taught the introduction common to all sūtras, now,
to teach the special feature of the introduction when this perfection of
wisdom is being explained, it says:

Thereupon
the Lord, having himself arranged the lion throne,

the Blessed
One himself arranged his seat, the lion throne

and so on. The arrangement of the seating posture has two
parts: the arrangement of the lion throne, and the arrangement of the
cross-legged posture. “Thereupon the Lord, having
himself arranged the lion throne” teaches the lion throne.

Sat down with his legs crossed, holding his body erect,

sat down
with his legs crossed, holding his body erect

sat upright
with his legs crossed, directing his attention

and so on, teaches the cross-legged posture.

Why does he himself arrange the lion throne? Because of two
things: he does so to demonstrate that a unique discourse is greatly
worthy of worship, and he does so to tame the retinues.
In many other sūtras it is as follows: they say that when the Lord is
teaching to those in the Śrāvaka Vehicle he sits on a seat arranged by
śrāvakas; when teaching to those in the Great Vehicle he sits on a seat
arranged by bodhisattvas. When it comes to this Dharma discourse, the Lord
himself arranges the seat because it is a unique discourse. It shows:
“Only I myself can be comfortable on this, so it goes without saying
only I can give the discourse.” Furthermore, here he tames many who have
to be tamed. They have different beliefs and aspirations, so he himself
arranges his seat to make a seating arrangement in harmony with them
all.

It also explains the Dharma posture in three parts: in harmony
with physical meditation he sits cross-legged because physical pliancy
has to be produced; in harmony with mental meditation the body is erect
because mental pliancy has to be produced; and in harmony with
meditative stabilization there is a direct application of mindfulness
because there has to be single-pointedness.

Why does it teach that he focuses his mind?

He is not in fact focusing his mind. It is in the nature of
tathāgatas that they abide in this way, not otherwise. Even though
tathāgatas are always in equipoise they demonstrate this conduct for
those to be trained, so it has a purpose because it causes others to
think, “If even the lords abide in such a practice it goes without
saying that we should do so as well.”

This introduction, furthermore, teaches in three ways: with miraculous powers of meditative
stabilization, miraculous wonder-working powers, and miraculous
dharma-illuminating powers. Among these, the
miraculous power of meditative stabilization is twofold based on two
meditative stabilizations: the miraculous power of the meditative
stabilization called the samādhirāja, and the
miraculous power of the meditative stabilization called the
siṃhavikrīḍita. There are also two miraculous
wonder-working powers: wonder-working by means of magical creation and
wonder-working by means of sustaining power. And there are two
miraculous dharma-illuminating powers as
well: the miraculous power of teaching in many world systems, and the
miraculous power of assembling a retinue.

Among these, starting from

up to

then the
Lord, seated on that very lion throne,

Then, while
seated on the lion throne, the Blessed One

teaches the miraculous power of the
samādhirāja meditative stabilization; and from

entered into the meditative stabilization called
“siṃhavikrīḍita”

entered into
the meditative stabilization called…siṃhavikrīḍita

up to

teaches the miraculous power of the siṃhavikrīḍita meditative stabilization. From
“exhibited an ordinary bodily form, like that…” up to

strewed
near, strewed in front, and strewed all around

sprinkled,
scattered, and showered down

and so on teaches wonder-working by means of magical creation;
then, from

formed a
towering mansion of flowers and the like, extending into the sky
above the head of the Blessed One, and as large as the great
trichiliocosm

up to

thereupon
the Lord, seated on this very lion throne

Then again,
while seated on that lion throne, the Blessed One

teaches wonder-working by means of sustaining power. Then,
from

smiled once
again

again

up to

saw… the Tathāgata Śākyamuni, together with his community
of monks and together with a retinue of bodhisattvas

saw the lord
śākyamuni…in this sahā world system

beheld…the
tathāgata, arhat, completely awakened Buddha Śākyamuni, residing
together with the community of monks and the assembly of
bodhisattvas

teaches the miraculous power of teaching in many world systems;
and from

then in the east, beyond as many world systems as the sand
particles in the Gaṅgā River

up to

when the
Lord understood that the world with its celestial beings, Māras

and so on, teaches
the miraculous power of assembling a retinue.

Now, in regard to these, the teaching about the miraculous
power of the samādhirāja meditative stabilization
is
a teaching in four parts: radiating light from the major and minor parts
of the body, radiating light from the pores of the body, radiating
natural light, and radiating light
from the tongue.

In regard to “entered into the meditative stabilization,
samādhirāja by name,” why does the Tathāgata
enter into meditative equipoise? Does he accomplish anything while not
in meditative equipoise? Does he not practice?

It is not that tathāgatas do not practice, but tathāgatas do
not delight in distraction, which is not becoming, so they are always in
meditative equipoise. Thus, being absorbed in meditative stabilization
like this is their natural state. And why has he entered into just this
meditative stabilization and not some other? Because this meditative
stabilization accomplishes all aims. Therefore, it says

in which all
meditative stabilities are gathered

This means that just this one meditative stabilization is able
to accomplish all of the activities of every other individual meditative
stabilization completely. And it says

included, and by being encompassed come to meet.

included,
encompassed, and come to meet

comprehended, pursued, and subsumed

They are “included” because of their intrinsic nature; they
“come to meet” because of their work. The good qualities of this
meditative stabilization can be known in detail from the sūtra called

With what is such a meditative stabilization accompanied? What
kind of mark does it have? It is free from applied and sustained
thought, and from joy and happiness; it is accompanied by equanimity;
and its mark is immovability.

Why, then, is it not called the “fourth concentration”?

The “fourth” is just an expression contingent on a first,
second, and third. In the absence of anything higher
that has to be produced, tathāgatas do not enter absorption into
meditative equipoises in a series, so there is no “first” and so on, and
hence it does not get the name “fourth.” The
samādhirāja is stated to be “not moving”
because it is marked by the mere partial immovability. That meditative stabilization is not enjoyed in
the form, desire, or formless realms. It is called “meditative
stabilization” because it is accompanied by equanimity without outflows
and is in the form of a single-pointed mind. Furthermore, based on
specific actions they are simply given different names such as
śūraṅgama, siṃhavikrīḍita,
samādhirāja,
sarvadharmātikramaṇa,
vilokitamūrdhan, and so on. There is no
division into different entities.

First, radiating light from the major and

minor parts of the body

he
beamed with his whole body.

he sent
forth lights from his entire body

Here, take “beamed” as unfurled, in the sense of making it
possible for light rays to emerge and radiate out from all the major
and minor limbs. Tathāgatas do not exert themselves by thinking, “I
am going to do it,” but rather, when there is a need for something,
they accomplish it through the force of their meditative
stabilization. The force of the previous prayer that is a vow has
fully taken hold of the meditative stabilization. You should know
that those who recite the Buddha’s words have such knowledge and use
such locutions as “the Tathāgata did that” and “the Tathāgata said
that” just to make it conventionally acceptable.

Sixty…hundred billion trillion rays of light issued

the “sixty” is repeated twice because there are the two
soles of his feet.

But why does it say exactly sixty? There are so many
light rays, so many to train, so many needs that it would be right
to say “a hundred thousand one hundred million billion.” So why does
it specify exactly sixty?

Understand as follows. It is said that the light rays of a
tathāgata are, by nature, in six colors: blue, yellow, red, white,
saffron, and clear light, and when light rays of those six colors
radiate out into the ten directions, because of the ten different
directions they become sixty.

But the emergence of a single light ray is capable of
accomplishing all aims, is it not? So why do light rays emerge from
all the major and minor limbs? Indeed. But still a great exertion is
exhibited in order to demonstrate a great show of respect for the
discourse.

From the śrīvatsa mark—

from
the^[3]…śrīvatsa…mark

from the
śrīvatsa

These light rays do two types of work: they do the work of
illuminating world systems and they do the work of helping beings.
The Sūtra itself teaches them sequentially.

They

became irreversible from the unsurpassed, perfect,
complete awakening.

became
irreversible from…complete awakening

became
assured of reaching unsurpassed, complete enlightenment

Second, radiating light from the pores

of the body

Thereupon all the Lord’s hair pores—

this too is just to show respect, because faith-followers
who come afterward will think, “The Tathāgata radiates light rays
like this from each of his hair pores, that is, he gives this
discourse having shown it great respect.” So, it is helpful to those
at a later time because it gives rise to faith. You should know
these light rays also do two types of work.

Third, radiating natural light

What is the difference between a tathāgata’s

natural splendor and light rays?

“The
moment they are stirred by the thought, ‘When lord buddhas teach
the Dharma, most previously have explained such a Dharma as
this,’ light rays emerge.” So, you should know that when the
light of knowledge emerges from within, light rays also arise. And
you should be aware that natural light also does the two types of
work.

Fourth, radiating light from the

tongue

The miraculous power of illumination with the tongue is
demonstrated to presage the teaching of Dharma. The radiance from
the tongue also signifies the teaching of Dharma. The emergence of
lotuses from those light rays is a sign that bodhisattvas [who
listen to the teaching] have definitely entered into flawlessness.
The buddhas emerging from them and teaching Dharma signifies that
those lotus bodhisattvas, when they bloom and grow into right and
perfect complete awakening, will teach such Dharma in the different
directions.

He

entered
into the meditative stabilization called siṃhavikrīḍita

and so on teaches the two miraculous powers of meditative
stabilization. These miraculous powers, furthermore, show the twin
aspects of cleansing the container world and helping the world of
inhabitant beings.

The activity of cleansing the container world is for
worship of the discourse. The demonstration of this cleansing is in
five parts: shaking, quaking, stirring, rising, and
sinking. Among these is shaking. Just as the
human body does not shake, but still the legs and the arms and
so on quake, so too there is shaking when a region stirs. That same
person [who has a human body] turns like a turning wheel. Like that,
when the whole disk rotates it is quaking.

With the force of wind, the trees stir. Like that, when
everything stirs on its own it is stirring.
Each of those is subdivided into three: small, middling, and large.
Of them, first there is a gentle shaking, then one more forceful
than that, a great shaking, then one even more forceful than that, a
violent shaking. Then, after that there is a quaking, but not
rapidly, then more rapidly, a great quaking, and after that very
rapidly and for a long time, a violent quaking. You should apply and
explain them like that.

Then, when the mountains at the edges—the girdle of
mountains, the great encircling girdle of mountains, and so
on—became elevated and the middle remained as it was, the edges
rose up while the middle
sank; when the middle became elevated and
the mountains remained as they were, the middle rose up while the
edges sank.

It then says

it became soft and oily, producing ease for all
beings,

It
became soft and oily…ease for all beings

Helping the world of inhabitant

beings

Then, because it was a benefit for all worlds, it says

the continuum of the hells and so on was cut,

continuums of the hells…were all cut

the
hells, the animal realms, the worlds of Yama, the states that
lack freedom, the lower realms, the evil destinies, and as many
places of unfortunate rebirth as there are, were all
interrupted

and so on. It also says

all the
places that preclude a perfect human birth disappeared

and so on. The meaning of a good situation and the freedoms
is the same because “places that preclude a perfect human birth” are
situations precluding clear realization. There are, furthermore,
eight of these: birth in hell; birth as an animal;
birth as a ghost; birth as a barbarian in a border area; birth in a
formless and thought-free existence; birth as a blind, deaf, or mute
person and so on; birth with a wrong view; and birth during an eon
when there is no buddha.

How does birth in a formless and thought-free existence
disappear?

Those reborn in just that place that does not preclude a
perfect human birth are not born there. Therefore they are also
“places precluding a perfect human birth.” They have “disappeared.”
It is not that their continuum has been cut.

It says

the lord
buddhas in other buddhafields cried out cries of delight.

“Cries of delight” (udāna) are words stirred by delight. To illustrate,
just as the upward-rising vital wind (udāna) comes out involuntarily, similarly, words stirred through delight in the
increase in Dharma are caused to rise up, as it were, so they are
“cried out.” Seeing in this buddhafield that
the lazy, the disadvantaged, and those born in states of woe have
become perfectly endowed with such excellent knowledge, “Ah!”—the
buddhas “cried out cries of delight” that the self-discipline,
calming, restraint, observance of celibacy, and so on, engaged in
when they themselves were bodhisattvas, are amazing, because through
the force of dedicating them, even those who are disadvantaged like
that have become

endowed
with such knowledge.

possessed wisdom

Self-discipline

discipline

is restraint of the sense faculties; “calming” is the
calming of afflictive emotions with meditative stabilization and so
on;

restraint

is being bound by the code of the confession and
restoration observance;

to
observe celibacy

the
practice of chastity^[2]

is to exercise restraint where it is expected of a monastic
and so on; and

nonviolence toward living creatures

nonviolence with respect to all living creatures

is to cultivate love and so on. The result of restraint of
the sense faculties is that there are no people who are blind, deaf,
dumb, and so on; the result of meditative
stabilization and so on is that

and so on. The result of being bound by the code of the
confession and restoration observance and so on is that

Those
without clothing obtained clothing. Those who were destitute
obtained wealth. Those who were hungry obtained food

and so on. The result of observing celibacy is giving up
the ten unwholesome paths of action and completing the ten wholesome
paths of action and hence being free from stain and so on. The
result of cultivating love and so on is they

considered every being in the same way as they considered
their mother, father

considering one another as just like their father,
mother

and so on, gained

ease

happiness^[3]

in assemblies, and gained

knowledge.

wisdom

When it says

his
light, color, brilliance, and glory,

light^[2]…of lustrous complexion, sparkling, gleaming, and
shining in splendor and glory

it is that his light is shining and blazing, the color is
of his beautiful skin, the brilliance his force, and glory his
pleasing shape and so on.

Why does it say “

towering over… shining
forth, gleaming, dazzling, and shedding light”?

At that time, the Tathāgata thinks about such a great
spectacle to produce respect for the Dharma discourse. The idea is
that this is said because at that time such an attitude is produced
in the minds of all beings.

Towering over with light he is

shining
forth;

adorned

towering over with color he is

gleaming;

sparkling

towering over with brilliance he is

dazzling;

gleaming

and towering over with glory he is

shedding
light.

shining

As for

with his
light,

with^[2]…light^[2]

he towers over the Brahmās because they feel proud of their
light. With

color

lustrous
complexion

he towers over the gods; with

brilliance

splendor

he towers over the classes of Māras and tīrthikas; and with

glory

he towers over humans.

Next is the demonstration of miraculous wonder-working
powers. The demonstration, furthermore, is of the miraculous
wonder-working power by means of magical creation.

Thereupon the Lord exhibited an ordinary bodily form, like
that of…