He Wakes, and the Effort Ends
The eighth ground is entered, and everything stops. Three similes explain the stopping — a monk in the absorption of cessation, a dreamer swimming a river who wakes, a being born into the Brahmā world — and then the buddhas themselves have to appear, because a bodhisattva who has stopped this thoroughly will not start again on their own.
Three Similes for Stopping
Effortful practice, which has carried the bodhisattva through seven grounds, is now simply laid down. The similes are chosen with care — none of them is an image of achievement, and all three are images of something ceasing on its own.
「佛子！菩薩成就此忍，即時得入第八不動地，為深行菩薩難可知無差別，離一切相、一切想、一切執著，無量無邊，一切聲聞、辟支佛所不能及，離諸諠諍，寂滅現前。譬如比丘，具足神通，得心自在，次第乃至入滅盡定，一切動心、憶想分別悉皆止息。此菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，住不動地，即捨一切功用行，得無功用法，身、口、意業念務皆息，住於報行。
"Child of the Buddha! When a bodhisattva has accomplished this forbearance, at that very moment they attain entry into the eighth ground, Acalā, the Immovable Ground. As a bodhisattva of profound practice they are hard to know and without differentiation; apart from all characteristics, all notions, and all attachment; measureless and boundless, beyond the reach of any śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha; free of all clamor and contention, with quiescence standing directly present. It is like a monk who, complete in the spiritual powers and having attained mastery of mind, enters in due order into the absorption of cessation, in which every stirring of mind, every recollection and discrimination, comes entirely to rest. This bodhisattva mahāsattva is likewise: abiding on the Immovable Ground, they at once lay down every practice of effortful application and attain the dharma of being without effortful application, so that the exertions of body, speech and mind all come to rest, and they abide within the practice belonging to their own karmic recompense.
譬如有人，夢中見身墮在大河，為欲渡故，發大勇猛，施大方便；以大勇猛、施方便故，即便覺寤，既覺寤已，所作皆息。菩薩亦爾，見眾生身在四流中，為救度故，發大勇猛，起大精進；以勇猛、精進故，至不動地；既至此已，一切功用靡不皆息，二行、相行悉不現前。佛子！如生梵世，欲界煩惱皆不現前；住不動地亦復如是，一切心、意、識行皆不現前。此菩薩摩訶薩，菩薩心、佛心、菩提心、涅槃心尚不現起，況復起於世間之心！
It is like a person who in a dream sees their own body fallen into a great river, and, wishing to cross it, rouses great courage and applies great skillful means; and because of that great courage and those means applied, they wake — and, having woken, everything they were doing comes to rest. So too the bodhisattva: seeing the bodies of beings within the four floods, and wishing to rescue and ferry them across, they rouse great courage and raise up great effort; and because of that courage and effort they arrive at the Immovable Ground — and having arrived, there is no effortful application that does not come to rest, and neither the twofold practice nor the practice of characteristics stands present before them any longer. Child of the Buddha! Just as, for one born into the Brahmā world, no affliction of the desire realm stands present, so it is for one abiding on the Immovable Ground — no activity of mind, of thought, or of consciousness stands present. For this bodhisattva mahāsattva, even the bodhisattva-mind, the buddha-mind, the mind of awakening and the mind of nirvāṇa do not arise — how much less any mind of the world!
以大勇猛、施方便故，即便覺寤 — because of that great courage and those means applied, they wake. The dreamer's effort is not wasted and it is not rewarded either; it is what ends the conditions under which effort was needed. Nothing in the simile suggests the river was crossed. The whole force of it lies in 所作皆息 — everything they were doing comes to rest — and in the fact that the sleeper does not decide to wake.
菩薩心、佛心、菩提心、涅槃心尚不現起 — even the bodhisattva-mind, the buddha-mind, the mind of awakening and the mind of nirvāṇa do not arise. The list is arranged to remove any place to stand. A reader inclined to think that something exalted survives the stopping is told, in four items, that it does not; and only then is the worldly mind mentioned, as an afterthought.
The Buddhas Appear
What follows is one of the most remarkable passages in the chapter. The buddhas do not congratulate; they interrupt. Their first two admonitions set out what is still missing and who is still suffering.
「佛子！此地菩薩本願力故，諸佛世尊親現其前與如來智，令其得入法流門中，作如是言：『善哉善哉！善男子！此忍第一，順諸佛法。然善男子！我等所有十力、無畏、十八不共諸佛之法，汝今未得，汝應為欲成就此法勤加精進，勿復放捨於此忍門。又善男子！汝雖得是寂滅解脫，然諸凡夫未能證得，種種煩惱皆悉現前，種種覺觀常相侵害，汝當愍念如是眾生。
"Child of the Buddha! Because of the power of this ground's bodhisattva's original vows, the buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, appear before them in person and bestow upon them the Tathāgata's wisdom, causing them to enter the gateway of the Dharma-stream, and they speak in this way: 'Excellent, excellent! Good man! This forbearance is foremost, and accords with the dharmas of the buddhas. Yet, good man, all that we possess — the ten powers, the fearlessnesses, and the eighteen unshared dharmas of the buddhas — you have not yet attained; and you should, in order to accomplish these dharmas, apply diligent effort, and not let go of this gateway of forbearance. Again, good man, though you have attained this liberation of quiescence, ordinary beings have not been able to realize it; every kind of affliction stands present before them, and every kind of thought and examination constantly assails and harms them. You should look with pity upon such beings as these.
善哉善哉…然善男子 — Excellent, excellent… Yet, good man. The praise is given in full before the "yet", and the "yet" does not withdraw it. What the buddhas dispute is not the attainment but its sufficiency, and the argument they make is a strange one to address to someone who has just stopped discriminating — they argue by listing what he lacks.
勿復放捨於此忍門 — do not let go of this gateway of forbearance. Note that they do not ask him to leave the eighth ground's stillness. The instruction is to keep it and to be roused within it, which is the exact difficulty the rest of this ground exists to resolve.
Part 456 Complete
This continues Acalā, the Immovable Ground, the eighth of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-eight. Part 457 completes the buddhas' admonitions — the original vow to be remembered, the dharma-nature that abides whether or not a buddha appears in the world, the measureless bodies and lands the buddhas ask him to look at — and reaches the plain statement that without this rousing, the bodhisattva would enter final nirvāṇa then and there and forsake the work of benefiting beings.