The Ten Abodes Continue, an Unmoved Mind
The fifth abode directs every wholesome root the bodhisattva cultivates entirely toward the liberation of living beings, deepened by contemplating living beings themselves as boundless, immeasurable, and ultimately empty. The sixth abode then names ten specific pairs of praise and blame, existence and non-existence — through which the bodhisattva's own mind must remain settled and unmoved.
The Fifth Abode: Fully Endowed Skillful Means
Every wholesome root this bodhisattva cultivates is directed entirely toward living beings — rescuing, benefiting, comforting, and ultimately delivering them to nirvāṇa itself — deepened further by understanding living beings as boundless, immeasurable, and, in the end, without any fixed nature of their own at all.
「佛子！云何為菩薩具足方便住？此菩薩所修善根，皆為救護一切眾生，饒益一切眾生，安樂一切眾生，哀愍一切眾生，度脫一切眾生，令一切眾生離諸災難，令一切眾生出生死苦，令一切眾生發生淨信，令一切眾生悉得調伏，令一切眾生咸證涅槃。佛子！此菩薩應勸學十法。何者為十？所謂：知眾生無邊、知眾生無量、知眾生無數、知眾生不思議、知眾生無量色、知眾生不可量、知眾生空、知眾生無所作、知眾生無所有、知眾生無自性。何以故？欲令其心轉復增勝，無所染著；有所聞法，即自開解，不由他教故。」
"Son of the Buddha! What is meant by the bodhisattva's Abode of Fully Endowed Skillful Means? Every wholesome root that this bodhisattva cultivates is entirely for the sake of rescuing and protecting every living being, enriching and benefiting every living being, bringing peace and happiness to every living being, feeling pity and compassion for every living being, delivering every living being to liberation, causing every living being to be freed from every calamity, causing every living being to escape the suffering of birth-and-death, causing every living being to give rise to pure faith, causing every living being to be entirely tamed and subdued, and causing every living being to realize nirvāṇa. Son of the Buddha! This bodhisattva should be urged to study ten further dharmas. What are these ten? Namely: knowing that living beings are boundless; knowing that living beings are immeasurable; knowing that living beings are countless; knowing that living beings are inconceivable; knowing that living beings have immeasurable forms; knowing that living beings cannot be measured; knowing that living beings are empty; knowing that living beings have nothing at all that is done; knowing that living beings have nothing at all to them; and knowing that living beings have no nature of their own at all. Why is this? It is in order to cause his own mind to become ever more excellent, with nothing at all to be stained or attached to; so that, whatever Dharma he hears, he opens and understands it entirely of himself, and not by means of another's teaching."
The Sixth Abode: The Rectified Mind
Ten pairs of opposed claims — the Buddha praised or disparaged, living beings limited or unlimited, the Dharma-realm formed or destroyed, existing or not existing — are named one after another, each time with the same refrain: the bodhisattva's own mind, toward the Buddha's own Dharma, remains settled and unmoved by any of them.
「佛子！云何為菩薩正心住？此菩薩聞十種法，心定不動。何者為十？所謂：聞讚佛、毀佛，於佛法中，心定不動；聞讚法、毀法，於佛法中，心定不動；聞讚菩薩、毀菩薩，於佛法中，心定不動；聞讚菩薩、毀菩薩所行法，於佛法中，心定不動；聞說眾生有量、無量，於佛法中，心定不動；聞說眾生有垢、無垢，於佛法中，心定不動；聞說眾生易度、難度，於佛法中，心定不動；聞說法界有量、無量，於佛法中，心定不動；聞說法界有成、有壞，於佛法中，心定不動；聞說法界若有、若無，於佛法中，心定不動。是為十。佛子！此菩薩應勸學十法。何者為十？所謂：一切法無相、一切法無體、一切法不可修、一切法無所有、一切法無真實、一切法空、一切法無性、一切法如幻、一切法如夢、一切法無分別。何以故？欲令其心轉復增進，得不退轉無生法忍；有所聞法，即自開解，不由他教故。」
"Son of the Buddha! What is meant by the bodhisattva's Abode of the Rectified Mind? This bodhisattva, hearing ten kinds of things, remains settled and unmoved in mind. What are these ten? Namely: hearing the Buddha praised or the Buddha disparaged, his mind, toward the Buddha's own Dharma, remains settled and unmoved; hearing the Dharma praised or the Dharma disparaged, his mind, toward the Buddha's own Dharma, remains settled and unmoved; hearing bodhisattvas praised or bodhisattvas disparaged, his mind, toward the Buddha's own Dharma, remains settled and unmoved; hearing the practice of bodhisattvas praised or disparaged, his mind, toward the Buddha's own Dharma, remains settled and unmoved; hearing it said that living beings are limited or unlimited in number, his mind, toward the Buddha's own Dharma, remains settled and unmoved; hearing it said that living beings are defiled or undefiled, his mind, toward the Buddha's own Dharma, remains settled and unmoved; hearing it said that living beings are easy or hard to deliver, his mind, toward the Buddha's own Dharma, remains settled and unmoved; hearing it said that the Dharma-realm is limited or unlimited, his mind, toward the Buddha's own Dharma, remains settled and unmoved; hearing it said that the Dharma-realm is formed or destroyed, his mind, toward the Buddha's own Dharma, remains settled and unmoved; and hearing it said that the Dharma-realm either exists or does not exist, his mind, toward the Buddha's own Dharma, remains settled and unmoved. These are the ten. Son of the Buddha! This bodhisattva should be urged to study ten further dharmas. What are these ten? Namely: that every dharma is without any mark; that every dharma is without any substance; that every dharma cannot be cultivated; that every dharma has nothing at all to it; that every dharma is without any true reality; that every dharma is empty; that every dharma is without any nature of its own; that every dharma is like an illusion; that every dharma is like a dream; and that every dharma is free of discrimination. Why is this? It is in order to cause his own mind to advance ever further, attaining the non-regressing acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas; so that, whatever Dharma he hears, he opens and understands it entirely of himself, and not by means of another's teaching."
The sixth abode's list of ten pairs is worth noticing for how it escalates: it moves from praise and blame of the Buddha, the Dharma, and bodhisattvas — matters of opinion any practitioner might expect to encounter — to metaphysical claims about whether the Dharma-realm itself is formed or destroyed, existent or non-existent, questions that sound like they ought to matter enormously. The bodhisattva's mind is asked to remain equally unmoved by both kinds of provocation, treating even the deepest metaphysical dispute as no more capable of disturbing settled understanding than ordinary gossip. This is the abode where the fruit of Part 75's contemplative work — the Abode of Cultivating Practice's ten marks applied to every dharma — becomes stability rather than mere insight.
Part 76 Complete
This closes Part 76. Chapter 15's teaching of the Ten Abodes continues in Part 77 with the seventh and eighth abodes — Non-Regression and Youthful Innocence.