The Ground Free of Defilement
Fascicle thirty-five opens, and the mood has changed entirely. Vajragarbha, who spent the whole of the last fascicle being persuaded to speak at all, is now applauded by an assembly that leaps into the air to scatter flowers. Vimuktacandra asks for the second ground, and this time gets it immediately — ten profound minds by which it is entered, and then the first four of the ten courses of wholesome action that constitute it.
The Second Ground
The fascicle opens in verse with the assembly's response to what they have just heard. Their praise answers, at last, the objection Vajragarbha raised at the very start of the chapter — he said the world could not receive this, and here is a room that plainly has.
十地品第二十六之二
第二地
諸菩薩聞此，最勝微妙地，其心盡清淨，一切皆歡喜。
皆從於座起，踊住虛空中，普散上妙華，同時共稱讚：
「善哉金剛藏！大智無畏者！善說於此地，菩薩所行法。」
解脫月菩薩，知眾心清淨，樂聞第二地，所有諸行相，
即請金剛藏：「大慧願演說，佛子皆樂聞，所住第二地！」
Chapter Twenty-Six, The Ten Grounds, Part Two
The Second Ground
The bodhisattvas, hearing of this most supreme and subtly wondrous ground, their minds made wholly pure, all of them rejoiced. They rose together from their seats and, leaping upward, stood within open space; scattering supreme and wondrous flowers everywhere, they praised him together with one voice: "Excellent, Vajragarbha, you of great wisdom and fearlessness! Well have you spoken of this ground, the dharma of a bodhisattva's practice." Vimuktacandra Bodhisattva, knowing the assembly's mind to be pure, and glad himself to hear of the second ground and all the characteristics of its practice, at once made his request to Vajragarbha: "You of great wisdom, we beg you to expound it! The children of the Buddha all delight to hear of the second ground and of abiding within it."
爾時，金剛藏菩薩告解脫月菩薩言：「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩已修初地，欲入第二地，當起十種深心。何等為十？所謂：正直心、柔軟心、堪能心、調伏心、寂靜心、純善心、不雜心、無顧戀心、廣心、大心。菩薩以此十心，得入第二離垢地。
Then Vajragarbha Bodhisattva said to Vimuktacandra Bodhisattva: "Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva mahāsattva who has already cultivated the first ground and wishes to enter the second should give rise to ten kinds of profound mind. What are the ten? Namely: an upright mind, a mind made pliant, a capable mind, a mind well tamed, a mind of stillness, a purely good mind, an unmixed mind, a mind without longing regard, a broad mind, and a great mind. By these ten minds a bodhisattva gains entry into the second ground, Vimalā, the Ground Free of Defilement.
Notice how short the request is this time. In fascicle thirty-four, getting Vajragarbha to speak took three prose requests, four verse appeals, a unison plea from the entire assembly, and finally light from between the Buddha's brows. Here Vimuktacandra asks in four lines and the answer begins in the next sentence. Whatever had to be established has been established, and the chapter can now proceed at its own pace.
無顧戀心 — a mind without longing regard — is the most specific of the ten. The other nine name qualities to have; this one names the absence of a backward glance. It belongs to a ground being entered by someone who has just been described as giving away a throne, and it marks the difference between having relinquished something and still turning to look at it.
By Nature Far Removed
The second ground is constituted by the ten courses of wholesome action, and the sūtra takes them one at a time. Each follows the same shape — what the bodhisattva does not do, then how far short of it they stop, then an exclamation measuring the distance between that and the act itself.
「佛子！菩薩住離垢地，性自遠離一切殺生，不畜刀杖，不懷怨恨，有慚有愧，仁恕具足，於一切眾生有命之者，常生利益慈念之心；是菩薩尚不惡心惱諸眾生，何況於他起眾生想，故以重意而行殺害！性不偷盜，菩薩於自資財，常知止足，於他慈恕，不欲侵損；若物屬他，起他物想，終不於此而生盜心，乃至草葉不與不取，何況其餘資生之具！
"Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva abiding on the Ground Free of Defilement is by nature far removed from all killing. They keep no blade or cudgel and harbor no enmity or resentment; they have a sense of shame and a sense of conscience, and are complete in benevolence and forbearance. Toward every sentient being that possesses life they constantly give rise to a mind of benefit and of loving thought. This bodhisattva does not so much as trouble beings with an ill-willed mind — how much less would they, conceiving of another as a being, deliberately and with weighty intent carry out killing! By nature they do not steal. In their own goods and resources the bodhisattva constantly knows contentment; toward others they are kind and forbearing, wishing to encroach upon nothing. If a thing belongs to another, conceiving of it as another's property, they never give rise to a thieving mind toward it; even a blade of grass or a leaf they will not take if it is not given — how much less any other requisite of living!
性不邪婬，菩薩於自妻知足，不求他妻，於他妻妾、他所護女、親族媒定及為法所護，尚不生於貪染之心，何況從事！況於非道！性不妄語，菩薩常作實語、真語、時語，乃至夢中亦不忍作覆藏之語，無心欲作，何況故犯！
By nature they do not commit sexual misconduct. The bodhisattva is content with their own spouse and does not seek another's; toward another's wife or consort, toward a woman under another's protection, toward one betrothed through kin or through a matchmaker, and toward those protected by the Dharma, they do not so much as give rise to a mind of covetous defilement — how much less engage in the act, and how much less by improper means! By nature they do not speak falsely. The bodhisattva constantly speaks what is true, what is real, and what is timely; even within a dream they cannot bear to speak a concealing word, having no mind to do so — how much less deliberately transgress!
性自遠離 — by nature far removed — is the phrase that distinguishes this ground from ordinary moral effort, and it opens every one of the ten courses. The bodhisattva is not described as refraining from killing; they are described as being at a distance from it. What the first ground achieved by resolve, the second has as disposition.
Each course is then measured by where the bodhisattva stops rather than by what they avoid. They do not merely refrain from killing — they will not trouble a being with an ill-willed thought. They do not merely refrain from theft — they will not take a leaf ungiven. They do not merely refrain from lying — they cannot bear a concealing word inside a dream. In each case the actual prohibition is left far behind, and the exclamation 何況 asks the reader to notice how far.
Part 414 Complete
This opens fascicle thirty-five and the second of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 415 with the remaining six courses of wholesome action — refraining from divisive speech, harsh speech, and frivolous talk, and from covetousness, ill will, and wrong views — each given the same treatment, before the sūtra turns to what such conduct is for and to the states these ten courses lead to when practiced at each degree of intensity.