A Pleasure Garden of Dharma
The list of offences finishes, and the bodhisattva draws a conclusion that changes what the ten wholesome courses are. They are not a set of prohibitions to keep but a garden — something to love, to enjoy, and to live inside, and to settle other people inside as well. Ten kinds of mind toward beings follow, and then a series of reflections, each naming exactly what beings are caught in and what should be done about it.
The Last Five, and the Garden
The remaining offences complete the pattern established in Part 416, each fruit being the offence met from the other side. Then the bodhisattva states what to do with all of this, and the image chosen is not one of restraint.
惡口之罪亦令眾生墮三惡道；若生人中，得二種果報，一者常聞惡聲，二者言多諍訟。綺語之罪亦令眾生墮三惡道；若生人中，得二種果報，一者言無人受，二者語不明了。貪欲之罪亦令眾生墮三惡道；若生人中，得二種果報，一者心不知足，二者多欲無厭。瞋恚之罪亦令眾生墮三惡道；若生人中，得二種果報，一者常被他人求其長短，二者恒被於他之所惱害。邪見之罪亦令眾生墮三惡道；若生人中，得二種果報，一者生邪見家，二者其心諂曲。』
The offence of harsh speech likewise makes beings fall into the three evil destinies; and should they be born among humans, they obtain two kinds of fruit — the first, constantly hearing ill sounds; the second, speech that brings much dispute and quarreling. The offence of frivolous speech likewise makes beings fall into the three evil destinies; and should they be born among humans, they obtain two kinds of fruit — the first, words that no one accepts; the second, speech that is not clear. The offence of covetousness likewise makes beings fall into the three evil destinies; and should they be born among humans, they obtain two kinds of fruit — the first, a mind that does not know contentment; the second, many desires and no satisfaction. The offence of ill will likewise makes beings fall into the three evil destinies; and should they be born among humans, they obtain two kinds of fruit — the first, being constantly searched by others for their faults; the second, being forever troubled and harmed by others. The offence of wrong views likewise makes beings fall into the three evil destinies; and should they be born among humans, they obtain two kinds of fruit — the first, birth into a household of wrong views; the second, a mind that is fawning and crooked.'
佛子！十不善業道能生此等無量無邊眾大苦聚，是故菩薩作如是念：『我當遠離十不善道，以十善道為法園苑，愛樂安住，自住其中，亦勸他人令住其中。』
Child of the Buddha! The ten courses of unwholesome action are able to produce such measureless and boundless heaps of great suffering as these. Therefore the bodhisattva thinks in this way: 'I should stand far from the ten unwholesome courses, and make the ten wholesome courses a pleasure garden of Dharma — loving it, delighting in it, and dwelling there securely; dwelling within it myself, and urging others as well, causing them to dwell within it.'
法園苑 — a pleasure garden of Dharma — is the sūtra's own summary of what the second ground has been describing, and it quietly reverses the register of everything that came before. A garden is not a boundary one stays inside of; it is somewhere one goes on purpose. The three verbs attached to it are loving, delighting, and dwelling securely, and none of them belongs to the vocabulary of restraint.
The two fruits of wrong views are worth pausing on. Birth into a household of wrong views is circumstantial — one inherits the surroundings one made. But 其心諂曲, a mind fawning and crooked, is the more exact of the pair. Holding views one has not tested makes a person pliable in the wrong way, needing to please rather than to see, and the sūtra treats that habit of mind as the natural residue of the offence rather than as a separate fault.
Ten Minds, and What Beings Are Caught In
The ten minds run from ordinary benevolence to two that are startling — regarding beings as oneself, and standing toward them as a teacher. Each reflection that follows has the same two-part shape: an exact diagnosis, then a single sentence of what the bodhisattva undertakes to do.
「佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩復於一切眾生生利益心、安樂心、慈心、悲心、憐愍心、攝受心、守護心、自己心、師心、大師心，作是念言：『眾生可愍，墮於邪見、惡慧、惡欲、惡道稠林。我應令彼住於正見，行真實道。』
"Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva further gives rise, toward all sentient beings, to a mind of benefit, a mind of peace and ease, a mind of loving-kindness, a mind of compassion, a mind of pity, a mind that gathers in, a mind that guards and protects, a mind that holds them as oneself, a mind of a teacher, and a mind of a great teacher; and they speak this thought: 'Beings are pitiable, fallen into a dense thicket of wrong views, evil understanding, evil desires, and evil paths. I should cause them to abide in right view and to walk the true and real path.'
又作是念：『一切眾生分別彼我，互相破壞，鬪諍瞋恨，熾然不息。我當令彼住於無上大慈之中。』又作是念：『一切眾生貪取無厭，唯求財利，邪命自活。我當令彼住於清淨身、語、意業正命法中。』
And they think further: 'All beings discriminate between other and self, breaking one another down, quarreling in anger and resentment, blazing without cease. I should cause them to abide within unsurpassed great loving-kindness.' And they think further: 'All beings grasp greedily and are never satisfied, seeking only wealth and gain, sustaining themselves by wrong livelihood. I should cause them to abide in the dharma of right livelihood, in pure action of body, of speech, and of mind.'
又作是念：『一切眾生常隨三毒，種種煩惱因之熾然，不解志求出要方便。我當令彼除滅一切煩惱大火，安置清涼涅槃之處。』又作是念：『一切眾生為愚癡重闇，妄見厚膜之所覆故，入陰翳稠林，失智慧光明，行曠野險道，起諸惡見。我當令彼得無障礙清淨智眼，知一切法如實相，不隨他教。』
And they think further: 'All beings constantly follow the three poisons, and by these every kind of affliction blazes up in them; they do not understand how to set their will upon the means of deliverance. I should cause them to extinguish the great fire of every affliction, and settle them in the cool place of nirvāṇa.' And they think further: 'All beings are covered over by the heavy darkness of delusion and by the thick film of false seeing, and so they enter a dense thicket of shadow, lose the light of wisdom, walk the perilous road through the wilderness, and give rise to every evil view. I should cause them to obtain the unobstructed and pure eye of wisdom, to know all dharmas as they truly are, and not to follow another's teaching.'
自己心 — a mind that holds them as oneself — sits eighth in the list, after the ordinary benevolent attitudes and before the two teacherly ones. It is doing something the others cannot. Benefit, ease, kindness, pity, and protection all preserve the distinction between the one helping and the one helped; this one removes it. Placed where it is, it reads as the condition that makes the two that follow safe: one may stand toward another as a teacher only after having stopped standing apart from them.
Each reflection diagnoses before it resolves, and the diagnoses are precise rather than general. Beings do not merely suffer — they divide self from other and then break each other down; they do not merely err — they cannot see how to want deliverance. The last of them is the sharpest: what obstructs is not absence of light but a film over the eye, 妄見厚膜, so the remedy asked for is an eye rather than a lamp.
Note the closing phrase, 不隨他教 — not following another's teaching. It is the same credential Vimuktacandra used of the assembly in Part 401 and that the verse gave in Part 412 as 自悟不由他. Here it appears as something the bodhisattva wants for beings themselves. What is being aimed at is not that they should believe what they are told, but that they should not need to.
Part 417 Complete
This continues the second of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 418 with the reflections still running — beings on the perilous road of birth and death, about to fall into the hells, caught in the net of evil views and lost in the thicket of delusion, following a wrong path and taking what is not deliverance for deliverance, like a blind person with no guide — and what the bodhisattva undertakes for them.