Part 107 of the collection · Fascicle 18 of 80 · 明法品第十八(續) · T279

Ten Inexhaustible Treasuries

Fulfilling the ten pure vows brings ten inexhaustible treasuries — and with them, the ability to read exactly what each living being needs and teach precisely that: impurity for the greedy, loving-kindness for the angry, the equality of the Dharma for the proud.

Translator: Ru-Yi Meditation Center Status: Part 107 — the ten inexhaustible treasuries Source: Taishō T279 (Śikṣānanda, Tang, 695–699 CE)

The Ten Inexhaustible Treasuries

Chinese Source

「佛子!菩薩滿足如是願時,即得十種無盡藏。何等為十?所謂:普見諸佛無盡藏、總持不忘無盡藏、決了諸法無盡藏、大悲救護無盡藏、種種三昧無盡藏、滿眾生心廣大福德無盡藏、演一切法甚深智慧無盡藏、報得神通無盡藏、住無量劫無盡藏、入無邊世界無盡藏。佛子!是為菩薩十無盡藏。」

Ru-Yi Translation

"Son of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva fulfills such vows as these, they at once attain ten kinds of inexhaustible treasury. What are the ten? Namely: the inexhaustible treasury of universally seeing every buddha; the inexhaustible treasury of retaining every dhāraṇī without forgetting; the inexhaustible treasury of resolving and understanding every dharma; the inexhaustible treasury of great compassion that saves and protects; the inexhaustible treasury of every kind of samādhi; the inexhaustible treasury of vast and expansive merit that fulfills living beings' own hearts; the inexhaustible treasury of the most profound wisdom that expounds every dharma; the inexhaustible treasury of spiritual powers obtained as karmic recompense; the inexhaustible treasury of abiding through immeasurable kalpas; and the inexhaustible treasury of entering boundless worlds. Son of the Buddha, these are the bodhisattva's ten inexhaustible treasuries."

Teaching Each Living Being What Fits Them

Chinese Source

「菩薩得是十種藏已,福德具足,智慧清淨;於諸眾生,隨其所應而為說法。佛子!菩薩云何於諸眾生,隨其所應而為說法?所謂:知其所作,知其因緣,知其心行,知其欲樂。貪欲多者,為說不淨;瞋恚多者,為說大慈;愚癡多者,教勤觀察;三毒等者,為說成就勝智法門;樂生死者,為說三苦;若著處所,說處空寂;心懈怠者,說大精進;懷我慢者,說法平等;多諂誑者,為說菩薩,其心質直;樂寂靜者,廣為說法,令其成就。菩薩如是隨其所應而為說法。為說法時,文相連屬,義無舛謬;觀法先後,以智分別;是非審定,不違法印;次第建立無邊行門,令諸眾生斷一切疑;善知諸根,入如來教;證真實際,知法平等;斷諸法愛,除一切執;常念諸佛,心無暫捨;了知音聲,體性平等;於諸言說,心無所著;巧說譬諭,無相違反,悉令得悟一切諸佛隨應普現平等智身。」

Ru-Yi Translation

"Once the bodhisattva has attained these ten treasuries, their merit is fully endowed and their wisdom is pure; toward every living being, they teach the Dharma in accordance with what fits them. Son of the Buddha, how does the bodhisattva teach the Dharma to living beings in accordance with what fits them? Namely: knowing what they have done, knowing their causes and conditions, knowing their mental conduct, knowing what they desire and delight in. For one of much greed and desire, they teach impurity; for one of much anger and hatred, they teach great loving-kindness; for one of much foolishness and delusion, they teach diligent contemplation; for one in whom the three poisons are equal, they teach the Dharma-gate that accomplishes supreme wisdom; for one who delights in birth-and-death, they teach the three kinds of suffering; if one clings to a fixed place, they teach that every place is empty and quiescent; for one whose mind is indolent, they teach great diligence; for one who harbors pride, they teach the equality of the Dharma; for one of much flattery and deception, they teach the bodhisattva's own honest and upright mind; for one who delights in stillness, they broadly teach the Dharma, causing them to accomplish it. The bodhisattva teaches the Dharma to living beings in accordance with what fits them in just this way. When teaching the Dharma, their words connect together in sequence, their meaning free of any error; they contemplate the Dharma's own proper order, discriminating it with wisdom; they carefully determine what is right and what is wrong, never contradicting the Dharma-seal; they establish, in due sequence, boundless gates of practice, causing living beings to cut off every doubt; skillfully knowing every faculty, they cause beings to enter the Tathāgata's own teaching; realizing the true reality-limit, they know the equality of the Dharma; cutting off every attachment to dharmas, they remove every form of grasping; forever holding every buddha in mind, their mind never once lets go of them; understanding sound itself, whose very nature is equal; toward every kind of speech, their mind clings to nothing at all; skillfully speaking in similes, never contradicting one another, they cause everyone to awaken to every buddha's own wisdom-body, universally manifesting in accordance wherever needed."

Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center

The diagnostic pairing here — greed answered with teachings on impurity, anger with loving-kindness, delusion with diligent contemplation — is one of the oldest structures in Buddhist pedagogy, tracing back to the earliest accounts of the Buddha's own teaching method: matching the remedy to the specific affliction rather than delivering one fixed teaching to everyone. The chapter frames it here as something a bodhisattva does only after attaining the ten treasuries — diagnosis this precise requires the wisdom those treasuries provide.

Part 107 Complete

This closes Part 107. Chapter 18 continues in Part 108.