Eleven Ways Bodhisattva Realization Differs
Having named bodhisattva realization alongside the śrāvaka's and pratyekabuddha's own, the treatise now draws out exactly how it differs from the śrāvaka's in particular — eleven distinctions spanning what is taken as object, how thoroughly provisions are gathered, and what kind of birth this whole path ultimately produces.
The Eleven Distinctions
聲聞現觀、菩薩現觀有何差別？略說有十一種，謂境界差別、任持差別、通達差別、誓願差別、出離差別、攝受差別、建立差別、眷屬差別、勝生差別、生差別、果差別。
What is the difference between śrāvaka realization and bodhisattva realization? In brief, there are eleven: the distinction of object, of provisions, of penetration, of vow, of deliverance, of embrace, of establishment, of retinue, of noble birth, of genesis, and of fruit.
The First Ten, Defined
境界差別者，謂緣方廣大乘為境故。任持差別者，謂滿大劫阿僧企耶，福智資糧圓滿故。通達差別者，謂由補特伽羅法無我理增上法方便所引出世間智，俱通達二無我故。誓願差別者，謂能通達一切有情與己平等，猶如自身誓願攝益故。出離差別者，謂依十地而出離故。攝受差別者，謂無住涅槃所攝受故。建立差別者，謂善修治諸佛淨土故。眷屬差別者，謂攝受一切所化眾生為眷屬故。勝生差別者，謂如世間腹所孕子，繼父種族令不斷絕。如是菩薩紹隆佛種令不斷絕，是佛真子相故。生差別者，謂於如來大集會中生故。
- The distinction of object: bodhisattva realization takes the vast teachings of the Mahāyāna as its object.
- The distinction of provisions: its provisions of merit and wisdom are only fully perfected after a full incalculable eon of accumulation.
- The distinction of penetration: the supramundane wisdom brought forth through the exalted teaching's own skillful means, concerning the selflessness of persons, jointly penetrates both selflessness of persons and selflessness of dharmas at once.
- The distinction of vow: it is able to penetrate the truth that every sentient being is genuinely equal to oneself, and vows to embrace and benefit them exactly as one would embrace and benefit one's own self.
- The distinction of deliverance: it unfolds specifically by way of the ten bodhisattva grounds.
- The distinction of embrace: it is embraced and sustained specifically by the non-abiding nirvāṇa.
- The distinction of establishment: it establishes itself specifically by skillfully cultivating and perfecting the pure buddha-lands.
- The distinction of retinue: it gathers every sentient being still to be trained as its own retinue.
- The distinction of noble birth: just as a child conceived in the womb continues the father's own lineage without interruption, so too does the bodhisattva carry forward the buddha's own lineage without interruption — the very mark of being the buddha's genuine child.
- The distinction of genesis: it takes genesis specifically within the Tathāgata's own great assembly.
T1606 offers little further gloss beyond the treatise's own already-compact definitions, since each distinction is itself a summary pointing back to material already developed at length elsewhere in this treatise — the vast teachings of Part 78, the selflessness of both persons and dharmas established across the treatise's very earliest sections, the ten bodhisattva grounds mapped in Part 94, and the non-abiding nirvāṇa recurring throughout this treatise's account of the Mahāyāna path. Taken together, these ten distinctions sketch a single coherent portrait: a path whose object is broader, whose provisions take vastly longer to gather, whose penetration reaches further, whose vow extends to every being rather than oneself alone, and whose eventual outcome is not personal exit from saṃsāra but a lineage of genuine buddha-children, born within the Tathāgata's own assembly and carrying that same lineage forward without a break.
Part 97 Complete
Ten of the eleven distinctions between śrāvaka and bodhisattva realization are now examined. Part 98 turns to the eleventh and final distinction — the distinction of fruit — itself unfolding into ten further distinctions of its own, beginning with transformation of basis and the full perfection of every buddha-quality.
Continue to Part 98 — The Distinction of Fruit Begins →