What Deliverance Depends On
Having seen what the conditioned is and what a buddha's wisdom is, the bodhisattva looks at beings and finds ten reasons for pity. Then comes the passage that gives this Part its name — a question about method, answered by reasoning backward, one dependency at a time, from the wish to bring beings to nirvāṇa all the way down to something surprisingly ordinary.
Ten Kinds of Pity, Ten Undertakings
The ten reasons for pity begin with circumstances anyone would recognize — loneliness, poverty — and end somewhere quite different. The list's second half is not about hardship at all.
菩薩如是見如來智慧無量利益，見一切有為無量過患，則於一切眾生生十種哀愍心。何等為十？所謂：見諸眾生孤獨無依，生哀愍心；見諸眾生貧窮困乏，生哀愍心；見諸眾生三毒火然，生哀愍心；見諸眾生諸有牢獄之所禁閉，生哀愍心；見諸眾生煩惱稠林恒所覆障，生哀愍心；見諸眾生不善觀察，生哀愍心；見諸眾生無善法欲，生哀愍心；見諸眾生失諸佛法，生哀愍心；見諸眾生隨生死流，生哀愍心；見諸眾生失解脫方便，生哀愍心。是為十。
Having thus seen the measureless benefit of a tathāgata's wisdom and the measureless faults of everything conditioned, the bodhisattva gives rise to ten kinds of pity toward all sentient beings. What are the ten? Namely: seeing beings alone and without refuge, they give rise to a mind of pity; seeing beings poor and destitute, they give rise to a mind of pity; seeing beings burning in the fires of the three poisons, they give rise to a mind of pity; seeing beings shut up in the prisons of the several modes of existence, they give rise to a mind of pity; seeing beings forever covered over and obstructed by the dense thicket of the afflictions, they give rise to a mind of pity; seeing beings who do not contemplate well, they give rise to a mind of pity; seeing beings who have no desire for wholesome dharmas, they give rise to a mind of pity; seeing beings who have lost the dharmas of the buddhas, they give rise to a mind of pity; seeing beings following the current of birth and death, they give rise to a mind of pity; seeing beings who have lost the means of liberation, they give rise to a mind of pity. These are the ten.
菩薩如是見眾生界無量苦惱，發大精進，作是念言：『此等眾生，我應救，我應脫，我應淨，我應度；應著善處，應令安住，應令歡喜，應令知見，應令調伏，應令涅槃。』
Having thus seen the measureless suffering and torment of the realm of beings, the bodhisattva gives rise to great effort and speaks this thought: 'These beings — I should rescue them, I should set them free, I should purify them, I should ferry them across; I should place them in a good place, should cause them to abide securely, should cause them to rejoice, should cause them to know and see, should cause them to be tamed, should cause them to reach nirvāṇa.'
The list turns at its sixth item. Loneliness, poverty, burning, imprisonment, and the thicket of afflictions are all things being done to a person. 不善觀察 — not contemplating well — is not. From there the remaining five are all incapacities rather than afflictions: no desire for what is wholesome, the buddhas' dharmas lost, drifting with the current, the means of liberation gone. The most pitiable condition in the list is not suffering but being unable to want what would help.
The ten undertakings that follow are worth reading as a sequence rather than a heap. Rescue, freeing, purifying, and ferrying are things done to someone; being settled, gladdened, brought to knowledge, and tamed are things that happen in them; and nirvāṇa is last. The bodhisattva's work is described as moving steadily from acting upon a person toward the person acting.
Reasoning Backward
The bodhisattva asks a practical question — by what means? — and answers it in a chain of five links, each stated as a dependency rather than a step. Read forward, the chain says what a person must actually do; read backward, as the sūtra gives it, it says what nothing can be done without.
菩薩如是厭離一切有為，如是愍念一切眾生，知一切智智有勝利益，欲依如來智慧救度眾生，作是思惟：『此諸眾生墮在煩惱大苦之中，以何方便而能拔濟，令住究竟涅槃之樂？』
The bodhisattva, thus turning away in revulsion from everything conditioned, thus taking pity upon all beings, and knowing that all-knowing wisdom itself holds surpassing benefit, wishes to rely upon a tathāgata's wisdom to rescue and deliver beings; and they consider thus: 'These beings have fallen into the great suffering of the afflictions — by what skillful means can they be drawn out and rescued, and made to abide in the bliss of ultimate nirvāṇa?'
便作是念：『欲度眾生令住涅槃，不離無障礙解脫智；無障礙解脫智，不離一切法如實覺；一切法如實覺，不離無行無生行慧光；無行無生行慧光，不離禪善巧決定觀察智；禪善巧決定觀察智，不離善巧多聞。』
And then they think: 'To deliver beings and cause them to abide in nirvāṇa is not apart from unobstructed liberating wisdom; unobstructed liberating wisdom is not apart from the awakening to all dharmas as they truly are; the awakening to all dharmas as they truly are is not apart from the light of wisdom that neither acts nor arises; the light of wisdom that neither acts nor arises is not apart from the skillful and decisive contemplating wisdom of meditative absorption; and the skillful and decisive contemplating wisdom of meditative absorption is not apart from skillful and extensive learning.'
菩薩如是觀察了知已，倍於正法勤求修習，日夜唯願聞法、喜法、樂法、依法、隨法、解法、順法、到法、住法、行法。
Having contemplated and understood in this way, the bodhisattva redoubles their diligent seeking and cultivation of the true Dharma, wishing day and night for nothing but to hear the Dharma, to delight in the Dharma, to take pleasure in the Dharma, to rely upon the Dharma, to follow the Dharma, to understand the Dharma, to accord with the Dharma, to arrive at the Dharma, to abide in the Dharma, and to practice the Dharma.
The chain's destination is the surprise. A question about how to bring all beings to nirvāṇa descends through liberating wisdom, through awakening to things as they are, through a wisdom that neither acts nor arises, through the discernment that meditation makes possible — and lands on 善巧多聞, skillful and extensive learning. Hearing, studying, being well taught. The most exalted undertaking in the sūtra turns out to rest on the most ordinary discipline there is.
Each link is phrased as 不離, not apart from, rather than as "comes from" — which keeps the relation from being read as a ladder to be climbed and left behind. Learning does not produce meditation and then become unnecessary; the wisdom at the top is never at any point separate from the study at the bottom.
The ten Dharma-verbs that close the passage trace the same movement in miniature. Hearing, delighting, taking pleasure — then relying, following, understanding — then according, arriving, abiding, practicing. The list begins with something done to a listener and ends with something the listener does, which is the shape the ten undertakings had as well.
Part 422 Complete
This continues Prabhākarī, the third of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 423 as the sūtra says what this seeking of the Dharma actually costs — nothing precious withheld, no reverence unperformed, no hardship refused; a single unheard line of the Buddha's Dharma worth more than a world filled with treasure, more than a wheel-turning king's throne — and the bodhisattva declares they would throw themselves down from the Brahmā heaven into a world of fire to receive it.