Scattering Discrimination, and the Perfection of Wisdom's Own Teaching
Scattering discrimination, the last of the ten kinds already examined in Part 119, unfolds into ten further kinds of its own — and the treatise turns directly to the Perfection of Wisdom scripture's own teaching to Śāriputra, read here phrase by phrase as a single sustained antidote addressing every one of the ten in turn.
1. The Ten Kinds of Scattering Discrimination
此復十種，一無性分別、二有性分別、三增益分別、四損減分別、五一性分別、六異性分別、七自性分別、八差別分別、九隨名義分別、十隨義名分別。
This is, further, of ten kinds: discrimination grasping at non-existence, discrimination grasping at existence, discrimination through exaggeration, discrimination through denigration, discrimination grasping at sameness, discrimination grasping at difference, discrimination grasping at own-nature, discrimination grasping at distinction, discrimination that follows the name to grasp at the meaning, and discrimination that follows the meaning to grasp at the name.
2. The Perfection of Wisdom's Own Teaching, in Full
如是十種分別，依般若波羅蜜多初分宣說。如經言：舍利子！是菩薩實有菩薩，正不隨觀菩薩。正不隨觀菩薩名正不隨觀般若波羅蜜多、正不隨觀菩提、正不隨觀行、正不隨觀不行。所以者何？名自性空非空性、色自性空非空性，乃至識自性空非空性。何以故？此色空性非即色，亦不離色別有空性。色即是空性、空性即是色，乃至識亦爾。何以故？此唯有名，所謂此是菩薩名。此是菩薩、此是般若波羅蜜多、此是菩提、此是色乃至此是識。由彼自性無生無滅無染無淨，菩薩行般若波羅蜜多時正不隨觀生，乃至正不隨觀淨。何以故？於所計度彼彼諸法假立客名，由隨客名而起言說，隨如是如是言說起如是如是執著。菩薩於如是一切名正不隨觀，正不隨觀故不生執著。
These ten kinds of discrimination are addressed in the opening section of the Perfection of Wisdom. As the scripture states:
"Śāriputra! This bodhisattva genuinely exists as a bodhisattva, and yet correctly does not fixate upon a bodhisattva. To correctly not fixate upon a bodhisattva is likewise to correctly not fixate upon the perfection of wisdom, to correctly not fixate upon awakening, to correctly not fixate upon practice, and to correctly not fixate upon non-practice. Why is this so? Because the name's own-nature is empty, and this is not itself a further, separate emptiness-nature; because form's own-nature is empty, and this is not itself a further, separate emptiness-nature — and so on through consciousness as well.
"Why is this so? Form's emptiness-nature is not simply identical with form, nor is it something separate from form standing apart from it. Form is itself emptiness-nature, and emptiness-nature is itself form — and so on through consciousness as well. Why is this so? All of this is name alone: that this is called a bodhisattva, that this is a bodhisattva, that this is the perfection of wisdom, that this is awakening, that this is form — and so on through consciousness. Because their own-nature is unborn, unceasing, undefiled, and unpurified, when a bodhisattva practices the perfection of wisdom, that bodhisattva correctly does not fixate upon arising — and so on through correctly not fixating upon purification.
"Why is this so? With respect to whatever various dharmas are conceptually constructed, a guest-name is provisionally assigned to each; following that guest-name, verbal expression then arises; and following each such verbal expression, a corresponding attachment then arises in turn. A bodhisattva, with respect to every one of these names, correctly does not fixate upon them — and because of correctly not fixating, no attachment arises."
3. How Each Phrase Counteracts a Specific Distortion
T1606 matches each phrase of this teaching to the specific distortion among the ten it directly counteracts, and read this way, the entire passage becomes a carefully constructed sequence rather than simply a string of paradoxical-sounding statements.
Against discrimination grasping at non-existence: "this bodhisattva genuinely exists as a bodhisattva" — the word "genuinely" affirms existence, ruling out the mistake of denying that the bodhisattva exists at all.
Against discrimination grasping at existence: "correctly does not fixate upon a bodhisattva," through "correctly does not fixate upon non-practice" — these phrases remove both the person and the dharmas from any fixed, substantially existing status, ruling out the opposite mistake of taking that existence as ultimate.
Against discrimination through exaggeration: "the name's own-nature is empty" — removing the unreal, merely conceptually-constructed own-nature that exaggeration falsely projects onto things.
Against discrimination through denigration: "and this is not itself a further, separate emptiness-nature" — since even after the conceptually-constructed own-nature is removed, the name's own status as a name remains present at all times, and so cannot be denigrated into complete non-existence either.
Against discrimination grasping at sameness: "form's emptiness-nature is not simply identical with form" and so on through consciousness — since form and the rest are the discriminated nature, while emptiness-nature is the perfected nature, and the two own-natures are genuinely distinct, ruling out collapsing them into one and the same thing.
Against discrimination grasping at difference: "nor is it something separate from form standing apart from it," through "emptiness-nature is itself... consciousness" — since the discriminated nature has, in itself, no characteristic mark of its own to be found, apart from that very absence there is nothing further to call "emptiness" either, ruling out treating the two as entirely separate, unrelated things.
Against discrimination grasping at own-nature: "all of this is name alone: that this is form" and so on through consciousness — since, apart from the very act of designation, no fixed own-nature belonging to what is designated can actually be found.
Against discrimination grasping at distinction: "their own-nature is unborn," through "correctly does not fixate upon purification" — removing the distinguishing characteristics of arising, ceasing, defilement, and purification that this kind of discrimination falsely fixes upon.
Against discrimination that follows the name to grasp at the meaning: "with respect to whatever various dharmas are conceptually constructed, a guest-name is provisionally assigned to each; following that guest-name, verbal expression then arises" and so on — describing exactly how this particular error actually occurs.
And against discrimination that follows the meaning to grasp at the name: "a bodhisattva, with respect to every one of these names, correctly does not fixate upon them; and because of correctly not fixating, no attachment arises" — since, following the meaning correctly understood, no further attachment to the name itself, as though it possessed some fixed reality, is ever generated.
Read in this light, the Perfection of Wisdom's famously paradoxical language on the bodhisattva and on emptiness is not a set of loosely connected statements but a precisely targeted sequence, each clause dismantling one specific way discrimination scatters into error — a direct, practical demonstration of the very skill in false discrimination this section of the treatise has set out to describe.
Part 120 Complete
Scattering discrimination's own tenfold division, and the Perfection of Wisdom's own teaching as its direct antidote, are now examined. Part 121 turns to skill in non-discrimination — three kinds, one belonging to the ordinary being, one to the śrāvaka, and one to the bodhisattva alone — together with the treatise's own careful account of the five characteristics genuine non-discriminating wisdom must be free of.
Continue to Part 121 — Three Kinds of Non-Discrimination →