Only the Noble Path Pulls It Out
The remaining thickets are opened. The one on latent tendencies ends with the only thing that removes them, and the one on taking birth repeats the sūtra's most economical account of how a next existence gets sown — a field, water, darkness, a seed.
Faculties, and What Sleeps
The faculties are read in degrees and in histories; then understanding, nature and desire are dispatched in a single line each, because the pattern is by now established; and then the latent tendencies, which get twelve aspects and no abbreviation.
又知諸根軟中勝相、先際後際差別無差別相、上中下相、煩惱俱生不相離相、乘非乘定不定相、淳熟調柔相、隨根網輕轉壞相、增上無能壞相、退不退差別相、遠隨共生不同相；略說乃至八萬四千，皆如實知。又知諸解軟中上、諸性軟中上、樂欲軟中上；皆略說乃至八萬四千。又知諸隨眠種種相，所謂：與深心共生相、與心共生相、心相應不相應差別相、久遠隨行相、無始不拔相、與一切禪定解脫三昧三摩鉢底神通相違相、三界相續受生繫縛相、令無邊心相續現起相、開諸處門相、堅實難治相、地處成就不成就相、唯以聖道拔出相。
They know too the aspects of the faculties — the aspect of being soft, middling or surpassing; the aspect of difference and of no difference between an earlier and a later time; the aspect of high, middling and low; the aspect of being born together with affliction and not separate from it; the aspect of being of a vehicle or not of a vehicle, fixed or unfixed; the aspect of being ripened and made gentle and pliant; the aspect of turning lightly and perishing along the net of the faculties; the aspect of being so strengthened that nothing can destroy them; the aspect of the difference between regressing and not regressing; and the aspect of following along from afar and of being born together yet not alike — spoken of in brief on up to eighty-four thousand of them, all known exactly as they are. They know too the understandings as soft, middling and high, the natures as soft, middling and high, and what is delighted in and desired as soft, middling and high — all of them spoken of in brief on up to eighty-four thousand. They know too the many aspects of the latent tendencies — namely, the aspect of being born together with the profound mind; the aspect of being born together with mind; the aspect of the difference between being associated and not associated with mind; the aspect of following along from the far distant past; the aspect of never having been pulled out since the beginningless past; the aspect of being contrary to every dhyāna, liberation, samādhi, samāpatti and spiritual penetration; the aspect of binding one to the succession of births continuing through the three realms; the aspect of causing a boundless succession of minds to arise; the aspect of opening the gates of the sense-fields; the aspect of being solid and hard to treat; the aspect of being accomplished or not accomplished according to ground and place; and the aspect of being pulled out only by the noble path.
與一切禪定解脫三昧三摩鉢底神通相違相 — contrary to every dhyāna, liberation, samādhi, samāpatti and spiritual penetration. The list of attainments here is deliberately complete, and the claim is that a latent tendency opposes all of them without being removed by any of them. Only 聖道, the noble path, pulls it out — and the verb 拔, to pull up by the root, is the one used of weeds.
Birth Sown, Habit Perfumed
Then the last three thickets, and the sentence that gives the ground its name — the knowing was never for its own sake.
又知受生種種相，所謂：隨業受生相、六趣差別相、有色無色差別相、有想無想差別相、業為田愛水潤無明暗覆識為種子生後有芽相、名色俱生不相離相、癡愛希求續有相、欲受欲生無始樂著相、妄謂出三界貪求相。又知習氣種種相，所謂：行不行差別相、隨趣熏習相、隨眾生行熏習相、隨業煩惱熏習相、善不善無記熏習相、隨入後有熏習相、次第熏習相、不斷煩惱遠行不捨熏習相、實非實熏習相、見聞親近聲聞獨覺菩薩如來熏習相。
They know too the many aspects of the taking of birth — namely, the aspect of taking birth according to karma; the aspect of the differences among the six destinies; the aspect of the difference between having form and being formless; the aspect of the difference between having perception and being without perception; the aspect in which karma is the field, the water of craving soaks it, the darkness of ignorance covers it, and consciousness is the seed that grows the sprout of a next existence; the aspect of name-and-form being born together and not separate; the aspect of delusion and craving seeking and longing, so that existence continues; the aspect of clinging with beginningless delight to the grasping of desire and to birth into desire; and the aspect of a greedy seeking that falsely supposes it has left the three realms. They know too the many aspects of the habitual tendencies — namely, the aspect of the difference between acting and not acting; the aspect of perfuming according to one's destiny; the aspect of perfuming according to beings' conduct; the aspect of perfuming according to karma and affliction; the aspect of perfuming that is wholesome, unwholesome or indeterminate; the aspect of perfuming that follows one into a next existence; the aspect of perfuming in due sequence; the aspect of perfuming that, affliction being uncut, follows one far off and is not let go; the aspect of perfuming by what is real and what is not real; and the aspect of perfuming by seeing, hearing and drawing near to śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas and tathāgatas.
又知眾生正定邪定不定相，所謂：正見正定相、邪見邪定相、二俱不定相、五逆邪定相、五根正定相、二俱不定相、八邪邪定相、正性正定相、更不作二俱離不定相、深著邪法邪定相、習行聖道正定相、二俱捨不定相。佛子！菩薩隨順如是智慧，名：住善慧地；住此地已，了知眾生諸行差別，教化調伏，令得解脫。
They know too the aspects of beings as fixed in rightness, fixed in wrongness, or unfixed — namely, the aspect of right view as fixed in rightness; the aspect of wrong view as fixed in wrongness; the aspect of being neither of these two as unfixed; the aspect of the five heinous deeds as fixed in wrongness; the aspect of the five faculties as fixed in rightness; the aspect of being neither of these two as unfixed; the aspect of the eightfold wrong path as fixed in wrongness; the aspect of the right nature as fixed in rightness; the aspect of doing neither any longer, being apart from both, as unfixed; the aspect of deep attachment to wrong dharmas as fixed in wrongness; the aspect of practicing and cultivating the noble path as fixed in rightness; and the aspect of laying both of these down as unfixed. Child of the Buddha! A bodhisattva who accords with such wisdom as this is said to abide on the Ground of Excellent Wisdom; and abiding on this ground, they comprehend the differences in the conduct of beings, and teach them, tame them, and cause them to obtain liberation.
業為田，愛水潤，無明暗覆，識為種子 — karma the field, the water of craving soaking it, the darkness of ignorance covering it, consciousness the seed. Part 441 gave this same image on the sixth ground, where it explained how existence is produced. Here it appears in a list of things a teacher must be able to see in a particular person. The doctrine has not changed; its use has.
熏習 — perfuming. The word is borrowed from storing cloth with incense: nothing is added to the cloth, and yet what has been near it stays in it. Note that the last item makes the mechanism work in the other direction too — seeing and hearing and drawing near to buddhas perfumes a person exactly as affliction does.
Part 466 Complete
This continues Sādhumatī, the Ground of Excellent Wisdom, the ninth of the Ten Grounds, in fascicle thirty-eight. Part 467 turns from what this bodhisattva knows to what they do with it — expounding the dharma of every vehicle according to a hearer's faculties and habits, becoming a great Dharma-master who guards the Tathāgata's treasury, and taking up the four unobstructed knowledges of dharma, meaning, expression and delight in speaking.