Never Forgetting, Permanent Elimination of Habitual Imprints, and Great Compassion
Three further qualities exclusive to a buddha, each treated briefly by the treatise: perfect, unfailing recollection of every deed done and every word spoken on behalf of beings still to be guided; the permanent elimination of even the subtlest habitual imprint that could still betray a trace of affliction; and a great compassion that observes the entire world without a single moment's interruption, across every watch of the day and night alike.
1. Never Forgetting
無忘失法者，謂於一切種，隨其所作所說明記具足中若定若慧，餘如前說。
Never forgetting is the concentration and wisdom fully present within a clear, unfailing recollection, of every kind, of whatever has been done or said, the remainder exactly as already stated.
T1606 explains that this quality is specifically demonstrated in the sphere of a buddha's own activity in guiding and transforming beings: the concentration and other factors present within a perfect, unfailing recollection of whatever has actually been done or said in that ongoing work of guidance — nothing spoken to any being, at any time, is ever subsequently lost or misremembered.
2. Permanent Elimination of Habitual Imprints
永斷習氣者，謂一切智者於非一切智所作不現行具足中若定若慧，餘如前說。
Permanent elimination of habitual imprints is the concentration and wisdom fully present within the omniscient one's own condition, in which nothing unbecoming of omniscience manifests, the remainder exactly as already stated.
T1606 explains that this quality concerns the very subtlest residue an arhat may still carry even after every affliction proper has been severed: bodily or verbal conduct that, while no longer actually afflicted, still faintly betrays the imprint of a formerly present cognitive obstruction — the kind of small, involuntary mannerism that can still mark even a liberated being as having once been bound by affliction. In the omniscient one alone, every such trace, down to its very last habitual imprint, fails to manifest at all — a completeness of purification this quality names directly.
3. Great Compassion
大悲者，謂於緣無間苦境大悲住具足中若定若慧，餘如前說。
Great compassion is the concentration and wisdom fully present within an abiding in great compassion that takes the uninterrupted field of suffering as its object, the remainder exactly as already stated.
T1606 clarifies exactly what distinguishes this great compassion from the ordinary compassion already examined among the four immeasurables in Part 100: its object is every sentient being throughout all three realms of existence, taken up without a single moment's interruption and encompassing every kind of suffering those beings undergo — a scope neither limited to particular beings nor confined to particular occasions, but sustained continuously, in every direction and at every moment, without pause.
Part 110 Complete
Never forgetting, the permanent elimination of habitual imprints, and great compassion are now examined. Part 111 turns to the eighteen qualities exclusive to a buddha — beginning with the six ways a buddha is free of the small errors that can still touch even an arhat, from momentary lapses of conduct to any decline whatsoever in aspiration, effort, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, or liberation.
Continue to Part 111 — The Eighteen Exclusive Buddha-Qualities Begin →