The Distinction of Fruit Begins
The eleventh and final distinction between śrāvaka and bodhisattva realization — the distinction of fruit — proves rich enough to unfold into ten further distinctions of its own. This part examines the first five: transformation of basis, the full perfection of every buddha-quality, the five marks of purity, the three bodies, and nirvāṇa itself as the bodhisattva uniquely realizes it.
The Ten Distinctions of Fruit
其果差別復有十種，謂轉依差別、功德圓滿差別、五相差別、三身差別、涅槃差別、證得和合智用差別、障清淨差別、和合作業差別、方便示現成等正覺入般涅槃差別、五種拔濟差別。
The distinction of fruit itself further unfolds into ten: the distinction of transformation of basis, the distinction of the full perfection of every quality, the distinction of the five marks, the distinction of the three bodies, the distinction of nirvāṇa, the distinction of the united function of realized wisdom, the distinction of the purification of obstruction, the distinction of united activity, the distinction of skillfully manifesting complete awakening and entry into final nirvāṇa, and the distinction of the five kinds of rescue.
1. Transformation of Basis, and the Full Perfection of Every Quality
轉依差別者，謂染不染一切種所依麁重永斷故、一切無上功德所依永轉故。功德圓滿差別者，謂力、無所畏、不共佛法等無邊功德永成滿故。
The distinction of transformation of basis: every coarse heaviness underlying both defiled and undefiled states, in every one of its forms, is permanently severed, and the basis for every unsurpassed quality is thereby permanently transformed.
The distinction of the full perfection of every quality: the powers, the fearlessnesses, the qualities exclusive to a buddha, and every other boundless quality without exception are permanently and fully perfected.
These first two fruits pick up directly from the treatise's own earlier account of transformation of basis in Part 67, now specified as the bodhisattva's own culminating attainment rather than the arhat's: every coarse heaviness underlying every state whatsoever — not merely the afflicted states an arhat leaves behind, but the subtler residues underlying even undefiled activity — is here permanently removed, clearing the ground for a further perfection unique to buddhahood itself: the full and complete attainment of every quality named later in this same chapter, from the ten powers through the qualities exclusive to a buddha.
2. The Five Marks of Purity
五相差別者，謂清淨等五相差別。一清淨差別，謂永斷一切煩惱并習氣故。二圓淨差別，謂遍修治佛淨土故。三身差別，謂法身圓滿故。四受用差別，謂一切時處大集會與諸菩薩受用種種大法樂故。五業差別，謂隨其所應起種種變化，遍於十方無量無邊諸世界中作諸佛事故。
The distinction of the five marks: purity, thorough purity, body, enjoyment, and activity.
First, the mark of purity: every affliction, together with its habitual imprint, is permanently severed. Second, the mark of thorough purity: every buddha-land is thoroughly cultivated and perfected. Third, the mark of body: the dharma-body is fully perfected. Fourth, the mark of enjoyment: at every time and in every place, within the great assembly, one enjoys every kind of great dharma-happiness together with the other bodhisattvas. Fifth, the mark of activity: in accordance with what is needed, one manifests every kind of transformation, carrying out buddha-deeds throughout the immeasurable, boundless world-systems of the ten directions.
T1606 offers little further gloss on this fivefold mark, since its terms are largely self-explanatory against the treatise's own prior discussions — purity as the removal side, already familiar from the culminating path; thorough purity extending that same removal outward into the cultivation of an entire pure land; body, enjoyment, and activity together sketching the three distinct dimensions of a buddha's own subsequent presence, soon to be named directly in the very next distinction as the three bodies themselves.
3. The Three Bodies, and Nirvāṇa
三身差別者，謂證得圓滿自性、受用、變化身故。涅槃差別者，謂於無餘涅槃界為欲利樂一切有情，一切功德無斷絕故。
The distinction of the three bodies: the essential-nature body, the enjoyment body, and the transformation body are all fully and perfectly realized.
The distinction of nirvāṇa: even within the sphere of nirvāṇa without remainder, every quality continues without interruption, precisely in order to benefit and bring happiness to every sentient being.
The three bodies name the buddha's own threefold mode of being: the essential-nature body is the buddha's own true, undifferentiated nature — suchness itself, fully realized; the enjoyment body is the refined form in which a buddha is perceived by advanced bodhisattvas within a pure land, the very source of the "great dharma-happiness" already named in the fifth mark above; and the transformation body is the form a buddha manifests within the ordinary world to teach and guide beings still in need of such guidance, the very activity already named in that same fifth mark. The distinction of nirvāṇa then makes explicit what has been implicit throughout this entire distinction of fruit: unlike an arhat's own nirvāṇa without remainder, where every activity of benefiting others simply ceases, the buddha's own realization of that very same sphere is never a cessation of activity at all — every quality already perfected continues without interruption, precisely because the entire path was undertaken from the very outset for every sentient being's own sake, not for one's own release alone. This is the non-abiding nirvāṇa, already named as the bodhisattva's own distinctive aspiration back in Part 84, now shown as the buddha's own final and permanent condition.
Part 98 Complete
The first five of the ten distinctions of fruit are now examined. Part 99 turns to the remaining five — the united function of realized wisdom, the purification of every obstruction, activity carried out in perfect unison across all buddhas, the skillful display of awakening and final nirvāṇa, and the five specific kinds of rescue a buddha provides.
Continue to Part 99 — The Distinction of Fruit Complete →