Knowing the Truths
The fifth ground is where the bodhisattva comes to know the truths — the four, and then ten more, each paired with the reason it is known. And then, in seven characters, the sūtra says something it has not said about any attainment so far: that all of this is known by faith and understanding, and not yet by the wisdom that would settle it.
Fourteen Truths, and How Each Is Known
The four noble truths are named first and without elaboration, as though they needed none. What follows is a second list of ten, and then the same ten again with a reason attached to each — and the reasons turn out to be as informative as the truths.
「佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩如實知此是苦聖諦、此是苦集聖諦、此是苦滅聖諦、此是苦滅道聖諦，善知俗諦，善知第一義諦，善知相諦，善知差別諦，善知成立諦，善知事諦，善知生諦，善知盡無生諦，善知入道智諦，善知一切菩薩地次第成就諦，乃至善知如來智成就諦。
"Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva knows as it truly is: this is the noble truth of suffering; this is the noble truth of the arising of suffering; this is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering; this is the noble truth of the path that leads to the cessation of suffering. They know well conventional truth; they know well ultimate truth; they know well the truth of characteristics; they know well the truth of difference; they know well the truth of establishment; they know well the truth of things as they are; they know well the truth of arising; they know well the truth of exhaustion and non-arising; they know well the truth of the knowledge that enters the path; they know well the truth of the successive accomplishment of all the bodhisattva grounds, and on up to the truth of the accomplishment of a tathāgata's wisdom.
此菩薩隨眾生心樂令歡喜故，知俗諦；通達一實相故，知第一義諦；覺法自相、共相故，知相諦；了諸法分位差別故，知差別諦；善分別蘊、界、處故，知成立諦；覺身心苦惱故，知事諦；覺諸趣生相續故，知生諦；一切熱惱畢竟滅故，知盡無生智諦；出生無二故，知入道智諦；正覺一切行相故，善知一切菩薩地次第相續成就，乃至如來智成就諦。以信解智力知，非以究竟智力知。
This bodhisattva knows conventional truth because they accord with what beings' minds take delight in and so gladden them; they know ultimate truth because they penetrate the one real characteristic; they know the truth of characteristics because they are awake to the own-characteristic and the common characteristic of dharmas; they know the truth of difference because they comprehend the distinctions of position among dharmas; they know the truth of establishment because they well discriminate the aggregates, the elements, and the sense-fields; they know the truth of things as they are because they are awake to the suffering and torment of body and mind; they know the truth of arising because they are awake to the continuity of birth within the destinies; they know the truth of the knowledge of exhaustion and non-arising because every scalding affliction is at last extinguished; they know the truth of the knowledge that enters the path because what arises is non-dual; and because they are rightly awake to the characteristics of all formations, they know well the successive and continuous accomplishment of all the bodhisattva grounds, and on up to the truth of the accomplishment of a tathāgata's wisdom. They know these by the power of the wisdom of faith and understanding, and not by the power of ultimate wisdom.
以信解智力知，非以究竟智力知 — they know these by the power of the wisdom of faith and understanding, and not by the power of ultimate wisdom. After a page of comprehensive knowing, the sūtra adds a limit, and it is the most honest sentence on the fifth ground. Everything just listed is genuinely known, and the knowing is not yet the final kind. A text this given to superlatives stopping to mark the difference is worth noticing.
The reason attached to conventional truth is the one that most repays attention: 隨眾生心樂令歡喜故, because they accord with what beings' minds delight in and so gladden them. Conventional truth is not defined here as an inferior approximation of the ultimate. It is defined by its use — it is the truth one knows in order to meet people where they are and make them glad.
Note that the last two truths are not propositions at all. The successive accomplishment of the bodhisattva grounds, and the accomplishment of a tathāgata's wisdom, are processes; and the sūtra calls them truths, on the same list as suffering and its cessation. What can be known truly, on this account, includes how something is brought about over time.
Before and After, and Neither Has Anything
Knowing the truths does not produce detachment here. It produces an increase of compassion — and then a contemplation of time that removes the last place a self might be hiding.
「佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩得如是諸諦智已，如實知一切有為法虛妄、詐偽、誑惑愚夫。菩薩爾時，於諸眾生轉增大悲，生大慈光明。
"Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva, having gained such knowledge of the truths, knows as it truly is that all conditioned dharmas are false and deceiving, counterfeit, and deluding to the foolish. At that time the bodhisattva's great compassion toward beings increases further, and the radiance of great loving-kindness arises in them.
佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩得如是智力，不捨一切眾生，常求佛智，如實觀一切有為行前際、後際。知從前際無明、有愛，故生生死流轉，於諸蘊宅不能動出，增長苦聚；無我、無壽者、無養育者、無更數取後趣身者，離我、我所。如前際，後際亦如是，皆無所有。虛妄、貪著，斷盡出離；若有若無，皆如實知。
Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva, having gained such power of wisdom, does not abandon any being, constantly seeks a buddha's wisdom, and contemplates as it truly is the earlier limit and the later limit of all conditioned formations. They know that out of the earlier limit, through ignorance and craving for existence, birth arises and flows on through birth and death; that within the house of the aggregates one cannot stir and get out, and the heap of suffering increases; and that there is no self, no living being, no one who nurtures, and no one who takes up a body in a further destiny again and again — apart from a self and from what belongs to a self. As with the earlier limit, so with the later: neither of them has anything at all. Falsity and craving attachment are cut off and exhausted, and one is delivered; and whether there is or is not, they know it all as it truly is.
佛子！此菩薩摩訶薩復作是念：『此諸凡夫愚癡無智，甚為可愍。有無數身已滅、今滅、當滅，如是盡滅，不能於身而生厭想，轉更增長機關苦事，隨生死流不能還返，於諸蘊宅不求出離，不知憂畏四大毒蛇，不能拔出諸慢見箭，不能息滅貪、恚、癡火，不能破壞無明黑暗，不能乾竭愛欲大海，不求十力大聖導師；入魔意稠林，於生死海中，為覺觀波濤之所漂溺。』
Child of the Buddha! This bodhisattva mahāsattva further thinks thus: 'These ordinary beings, foolish and without wisdom, are greatly to be pitied. Countless bodies of theirs have already perished, are perishing now, and will perish; and though they perish thus utterly, still they cannot give rise to revulsion toward the body, but go on increasing the suffering of this contrivance. Following the current of birth and death they cannot turn back; within the house of the aggregates they do not seek a way out; they do not know to fear the four poisonous snakes of the great elements; they cannot draw out the arrows of conceit and of views; they cannot quench the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion; they cannot break the darkness of ignorance; they cannot dry up the great ocean of craving and desire; and they do not seek the great holy guide of the ten powers. They enter the dense thicket of Māra's mind, and within the ocean of birth and death are swept away and drowned by the waves of thought and examination.'
如前際，後際亦如是，皆無所有 — as with the earlier limit, so with the later; neither has anything at all. The contemplation is symmetrical on purpose. It is easy to concede that the past holds no self and to keep quietly expecting one in the future — the one who will have made progress, who will arrive. The sūtra closes that off by making the same finding in both directions.
轉更增長機關苦事 — they go on increasing the suffering of this contrivance. 機關 is a mechanism, a rigged device. The image is not of a person suffering but of a person maintaining the apparatus that produces their suffering, adding to it, while countless bodies perish around them. What is pitiable is the industry of it.
為覺觀波濤之所漂溺 — swept away and drowned by the waves of thought and examination. 覺觀 are the two factors that the first dhyāna includes and the second leaves behind, described in Part 423. Here the same pair, unstilled, is what is drowning people. The difference between a factor of absorption and a wave that drowns is entirely whether anything has been settled underneath it.
Part 434 Complete
This continues Sudurjayā, the fifth of the Ten Grounds. Chapter 26 continues in Part 435 as the reflection turns from what beings cannot do to what the bodhisattva therefore will — they are alone and destitute, without refuge, island, or shelter, without a guide and without eyes; and so the bodhisattva undertakes to cultivate merit and wisdom for their sake, 獨一發心, arousing the mind alone and seeking no companion.