Vows Six Through Ten
The remaining five vows widen the bodhisattva's reach to every world-system and every buddha-land, unite him with the entire community of bodhisattvas as one body, commit him to a life in which not one word or deed is ever wasted, and close with the tenth vow's own account of the seven things a buddha's enlightenment actually does — and a precise explanation of why exactly these ten vows, and no others, complete the set.
Vows Six Through Eight
經曰：又發大願，所謂無餘一切世界廣大無量麁細亂住、倒住正住，如帝網差別，十方世界無量差別入皆現前知故。廣大如法界究竟如虛空，盡未來際盡一切劫數一切世界數，信入無有休息。
論曰：第六大願，無餘一切世界者有三種相，隨入如是世界，智皆現前知：一者一切相；二者真實義相；三者無量相。一切相者，如經「廣大無量乃至正住」故。廣大無量者，一千世界二千世界三千世界故。細者，隨何等世界意識身故。麁者，隨何等世界意識色身故。亂住者，非次第住故。倒住者，不造舍宅住故。正住者，造舍宅住故。是名一切相。如帝網差別者，真實義相故，如業幻作故。
無量相者，十方世界無量差別入故，無量相故。真實義相者，唯智能知。餘相者，可現見故。
經曰：又發大願，所謂一切佛土一佛土、一佛土一切佛土，一切國土平等清淨，一切佛土神通莊嚴光相具足，離一切煩惱成就清淨道，有無量智慧眾生悉滿其中，入佛上妙平等境界故，隨諸眾生心之所樂而為示現故。廣大如法界究竟如虛空，盡未來際盡一切劫數佛國土數，清淨一切佛土無有休息。
論曰：第七大願淨佛國土相有七種：一者同體淨，如經「一切佛土一佛土、一佛土一切佛土」故。二者自在淨，如經「一切國土平等清淨」故。三者莊嚴淨，如經「一切佛土神通莊嚴光相具足」故，光明莊嚴眾寶等莊嚴故。四者受用淨，如經「離一切煩惱成就清淨道」故。五者住處眾生淨，如經「有無量智慧眾生悉滿其中」故。
六者因淨，如經「入佛上妙平等境界」故。七者果淨，如經「隨諸眾生心之所樂而為示現」故，顯智神力等故。
經曰：又發大願，所謂一切菩薩同心同行故，共集善根無怨嫉故，一切菩薩平等一觀故，常親近諸佛菩薩不捨離故，隨意能現佛身故，自於心中悉能解知諸佛神力智力故，得不退隨意神通故，悉能遊行一切世界故，一切佛會皆現身相故，一切生處普生其中故，成就不可思議大乘故，具足行菩薩行故。廣大如法界究竟如虛空，盡未來際盡一切劫數一切行數，入大乘道無有休息。
論曰：第八大願不念餘乘故，如經「一切菩薩同心同行」故。菩薩行有十種：一者共集善根無怨嫉故；二者一切菩薩平等一觀故；三者常親近諸佛菩薩不捨離故；四者隨意能現佛身故；五者自於心中悉能解知諸佛神力智力故；六者得不退隨意神通故；七者悉能遊行一切世界故；八者一切佛會皆現身相故；九者一切生處普生其中故；十者成就不可思議大乘故，具足行菩薩行故。於中初句顯功德行故，第二住寂靜等觀故，第三聚集解說論佛法故，第四隨心示現成佛故，第五自發勝心念如來法身故，第六得常不退神通故。餘四者以通業得名：一、往餘世界；二、自餘異身示現；三、同生往故；四、入不可思議大乘故。
Sūtra: He further arouses this great vow: so as to hold present before him, in full awareness, every world-system without exception, vast, boundless, coarse and subtle, chaotically arrayed, inverted, and rightly arrayed, differentiated like Indra's net, throughout the immeasurable and manifold entryways of the ten directions' world-systems. Vast as the dharma-realm, ultimate as space itself, unto the very end of future time, throughout every eon and the numbers of every world-system, this faith and entry never resting.
Commentary: This is the sixth great vow. "Every world-system without exception" has three kinds of mark, and, entering into such world-systems, wisdom holds them all present before it, in full awareness. First, the universal mark; second, the mark of true meaning; third, the boundless mark. The universal mark is as the sūtra says, "vast and boundless... down to... rightly arrayed." "Vast and boundless" means a thousand world-systems, two thousand world-systems, three thousand world-systems. "Subtle" means beings whose bodies, in whatever world-system, are of consciousness alone. "Coarse" means beings whose bodies, in whatever world-system, are of form and consciousness together. "Chaotically arrayed" means not arrayed in sequence. "Inverted" means arrayed without dwellings built right-side up. "Rightly arrayed" means arrayed with dwellings built right-side up. This is called the universal mark. "Differentiated like Indra's net" is the mark of true meaning, since it is like the working of karmic illusion.
The boundless mark means that the immeasurable and manifold entryways of the world-systems of the ten directions are boundless in mark. The mark of true meaning can be known only by wisdom. The other marks can be directly seen.
Sūtra: He further arouses this great vow: so as to make every buddha-land one buddha-land, and one buddha-land every buddha-land, every land equally pure, every buddha-land complete in the adornment of spiritual power and radiant marks, free of every affliction, accomplished in the pure path, filled entirely with sentient beings of boundless wisdom, entering the buddhas' supreme and equal domain, and manifesting in accordance with whatever each sentient being's mind delights in. Vast as the dharma-realm, ultimate as space itself, unto the very end of future time, throughout every eon and the numbers of every buddha-land, purifying every buddha-land without ever resting.
Commentary: This seventh great vow, purifying the buddha-lands, has seven marks. First, the purity of shared essence — as the sūtra says, "every buddha-land one buddha-land, and one buddha-land every buddha-land." Second, the purity of self-mastery — as the sūtra says, "every land equally pure." Third, the purity of adornment — as the sūtra says, "every buddha-land complete in the adornment of spiritual power and radiant marks," adorned with light and with every manner of jewel. Fourth, the purity of enjoyment — as the sūtra says, "free of every affliction, accomplished in the pure path." Fifth, the purity of the sentient beings who dwell there — as the sūtra says, "filled entirely with sentient beings of boundless wisdom."
Sixth, the purity of cause — as the sūtra says, "entering the buddhas' supreme and equal domain." Seventh, the purity of fruit — as the sūtra says, "manifesting in accordance with whatever each sentient being's mind delights in," making manifest the power of wisdom and spiritual power.
Sūtra: He further arouses this great vow: so as to unite mind and unite practice with every bodhisattva; to gather roots of goodness together with them, free of resentment or envy; to view every bodhisattva with the same, equal regard; to constantly draw near to the buddhas and bodhisattvas without ever departing from them; to manifest a buddha's body at will; to fully understand, within his own mind, every buddha's spiritual power and wisdom-power; to attain irreversible spiritual powers exercised at will; to be able to travel throughout every world-system; to manifest his own bodily form within every buddha's assembly; to be born universally in every place of birth; to accomplish the inconceivable Great Vehicle; and to fully practice the bodhisattva's own practice. Vast as the dharma-realm, ultimate as space itself, unto the very end of future time, throughout every eon and the numbers of every practice, entering the path of the Great Vehicle without ever resting.
Commentary: This eighth great vow means not dwelling on any other vehicle — as the sūtra says, "unite mind and unite practice with every bodhisattva." A bodhisattva's practice is of ten kinds. First, gathering roots of goodness together with others, free of resentment or envy. Second, viewing every bodhisattva with the same, equal regard. Third, constantly drawing near to the buddhas and bodhisattvas without ever departing from them. Fourth, manifesting a buddha's body at will. Fifth, fully understanding, within his own mind, every buddha's spiritual power and wisdom-power. Sixth, attaining irreversible spiritual powers exercised at will. Seventh, being able to travel throughout every world-system. Eighth, manifesting his own bodily form within every buddha's assembly. Ninth, being born universally in every place of birth. Tenth, accomplishing the inconceivable Great Vehicle, fully practicing the bodhisattva's own practice. Of these, the first clause makes manifest the practice of virtue; the second, abiding in a still and equal contemplation; the third, gathering together to discuss and expound the buddha-dharma; the fourth, manifesting the accomplishment of buddhahood in accordance with one's mind; the fifth, arousing a supreme mind that recollects the Tathāgata's own dharma-body; and the sixth, attaining spiritual powers that are constant and never regress. The remaining four are named for their function as spiritual powers held in common: first, traveling to other world-systems; second, manifesting in a form other than one's own; third, being born together with others; and fourth, entering the inconceivable Great Vehicle.
On the seventh vow's sevenfold purity, Huiyuan draws out a distinction between the third mark, "the purity of adornment," and the second, "the purity of self-mastery," that could otherwise look redundant — both concern how a land appears — by way of a well-chosen simile: 淨有二種：一者相淨，眾寶莊嚴無諸瑕穢；二自在淨，如摩尼珠美惡斯現 — "purity is of two kinds: the purity of appearance, adorned with every jewel and free of any blemish; and the purity of self-mastery, like a maṇi jewel in which both beauty and ugliness can appear." A land purified in the first sense simply looks flawless throughout, a fixed and uniform beauty; a land purified in the second sense is like a jewel that can reflect back whatever is shown to it, beautiful or otherwise, without the reflecting itself ever being compromised — 淨穢圓通無礙無障，故曰自在, "purity and defilement pass through it without any obstruction at all, and this is why it is called self-mastery." The distinction matters because it explains how the same purified land can accommodate radically different beings with radically different karmic conditions without contradiction: the land's own purity is not a fixed cosmetic state that excludes anything impure, but a capacity to display whatever appears without itself ever being stained by it.
On the eighth vow, Huiyuan separates the ten clauses of bodhisattva solidarity into two distinct registers: the first six describe practice and virtue directly — shared roots of goodness, equal regard, constant proximity to teachers, and the mind's own recollection of a buddha's qualities — while the final four are 以通業得名, "named for their function as spiritual powers held in common": traveling to other world-systems, appearing in forms other than one's own, being born together with fellow bodhisattvas, and entering the Great Vehicle's own inconceivable scope. The vow as a whole, on this reading, moves from an inward solidarity of mind and motive in its opening clauses to an outward, almost logistical solidarity of shared spiritual capability in its closing ones — uniting bodhisattvas is not only a matter of feeling the same way about the path, but of being equipped, quite literally, to travel and appear together across the same vast field of activity.
Vows Nine and Ten, and Why Exactly Ten
經曰：又發大願，所謂乘不退輪行菩薩行故，身口意業所作不空，眾生見者即必定佛法故，聞我音聲即得真實智慧故，心喜恭敬即斷煩惱故，得如藥樹王身故，得如如意寶身故，行大菩薩行故。廣大如法界究竟如虛空，盡未來際盡一切劫數一切行數，所作利益不空無有休息。
論曰：第九大願顯不空行菩薩行，復行菩薩行，顯乘不退輪行菩薩行故。於中不空有二種：一、作業必定不空，身口意業所作不空故。如是次第三句說應知，眾生見者即必定佛法故者，明身業不空；聞我音聲即得真實智慧者，明口業不空；心喜恭敬即斷煩惱者，明意業不空。二、作利益不空，一切眾生有二種苦：一、種種諸苦；二、貧窮苦。對治是二，如經「得如藥樹王身」故，得如如意寶身故。
經曰：又發大願，所謂於一切世界處成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提故，於一凡夫道不離一切凡夫道處，示身初生、坐道場成佛道、轉法輪度眾生、示大涅槃，現諸佛境界大神通智力，隨一切眾生界所應度者於念念中示得佛道度諸眾生滅苦惱故，以一三菩提遍知一切法如涅槃性故，以一音說令一切眾生心皆歡喜故，示大涅槃而不斷菩薩所行故，示大智慧地發起一切法故，法智通、如意神通、幻通遍一切世界故。廣大如法界究竟如虛空，盡未來際盡一切劫數成三菩提數，求大智慧大神通等無有休息。諸佛子！菩薩如是安住菩薩歡喜地，發諸大願，起如是大方便、如是大行，以十願門為首生如是等，滿足十百千萬阿僧祇大願。是菩薩住菩薩歡喜地，起如是等願。
論曰：第十大願起大乘行。云何大菩提？云何作業？大菩提者，如經「成阿耨多羅三藐三菩提」故。作業者，有七種：一、示正覺業；二、說實諦業；三、證教化業；四、種種說法業；五、不斷佛種業；六、法輪復住業；七、自在業。初業者於一凡夫道不離一切凡夫道處乃至示大涅槃故。一凡夫道者，一閻浮提義。閻浮提凡夫道者，可化眾生住處名為凡夫道。第二業者，現諸佛境界大神通智力故，隨一切眾生界所應度者，於念念中示得佛道，度諸眾生滅苦惱故，隨諸世界一切可化者隨心示現佛身。示現佛身者，除諸難處彼彼勝處生，示除苦斷集證滅修道。第三業者，以一三菩提觀法無我一切法性淨涅槃，令眾生信解故。第四業者，以一音聲隨種種信解可化眾生，一時皆令心歡喜故。第五業者，示現大涅槃而不斷菩薩所行力故。第六業者，復佛智地一切修多羅等，所說法軌則不失故。第七業法智通者，觀一切法無性相故。如意神通者，自身現生住滅脩短，隨心自在故。幻通者，轉變外事無不隨意故。初法智通不住世間故，如意神通幻通不住涅槃故。何故唯說此十大願？初願功德行滿足故，第二願智慧行滿足故，次五願為教化眾生故，一以何身、二以何心、三何者眾生、四眾生住何處、五自身住何處能教化眾生，後三願顯自身，一得地挍量勝故、二得菩薩地盡挍量勝故、三得一切地盡究竟故。此三示現如實教化眾生故。發諸大願者，隨心求義故。起如是大方便者，成彼所作方便勇猛故。如是大行者，彼所作行成就故。菩薩住此地漸次久習起此三行，非一時故。何以故？此十大願，一一願中有百千萬阿僧祇大願以為眷屬故。如經「諸佛子！菩薩如是安住菩薩歡喜地發諸大願，起如是大方便、如是大行，以十願門為首，生如是等滿足十百千萬阿僧祇大願。是菩薩住菩薩歡喜地，起如是等願」故。何故名大願？光明善根轉勝增廣故。此挍量菩薩願勝，有二種勝聲聞辟支佛：一、常勤修習無量行故，二、與一切眾生同行故。同行者，十盡句示現。
Sūtra: He further arouses this great vow: so as to ride the irreversible wheel and practice the bodhisattva's practice, so that the deeds of his body, speech, and mind are never in vain — so that sentient beings who see him are thereby made resolute in the buddha-dharma; so that those who hear his voice thereby attain true wisdom; so that those whose minds delight and revere him thereby cut off affliction; so as to attain a body like the king of medicine trees; so as to attain a body like the wish-fulfilling jewel; so as to practice the great bodhisattva's practice. Vast as the dharma-realm, ultimate as space itself, unto the very end of future time, throughout every eon and the numbers of every practice, this benefit he brings about never being in vain, never resting.
Commentary: This ninth great vow makes manifest the bodhisattva's practice of never being in vain, and further practices the bodhisattva's practice, making manifest the practice of riding the irreversible wheel. Here, "never in vain" is of two kinds. First, that his deeds are resolutely never in vain: the deeds of body, speech, and mind are never in vain. The three clauses that follow, in this same order, should be understood accordingly: "sentient beings who see him are thereby made resolute in the buddha-dharma" makes manifest that the deeds of the body are never in vain; "those who hear his voice thereby attain true wisdom" makes manifest that the deeds of speech are never in vain; and "those whose minds delight and revere him thereby cut off affliction" makes manifest that the deeds of mind are never in vain. Second, that the benefit he brings about is never in vain: every sentient being has two kinds of suffering — manifold suffering, and the suffering of poverty. The antidote to these two is as the sūtra says, "so as to attain a body like the king of medicine trees," and "so as to attain a body like the wish-fulfilling jewel."
Sūtra: He further arouses this great vow: so as to attain unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment in every world-system; within a single ordinary person's path, without departing from every place of the ordinary person's path, to manifest his own birth, his sitting at the seat of enlightenment and attaining buddhahood, his turning of the Dharma-wheel to deliver sentient beings, and his manifesting of great nirvāṇa; to manifest the great spiritual power and wisdom-power of every buddha's own domain; in accordance with whatever sentient beings, throughout the realm of sentient beings, are ready to be delivered, to manifest, in thought after thought, the attainment of buddhahood, delivering sentient beings and extinguishing their suffering; through a single, complete enlightenment, to know completely every dharma as being of the nature of nirvāṇa; through a single voice, to cause the minds of every sentient being to rejoice; to manifest great nirvāṇa without ever breaking off a bodhisattva's own practice; to manifest the ground of great wisdom, giving rise to every dharma; and to pervade every world-system with the spiritual power of wisdom regarding dharmas, the spiritual power of wish-fulfillment, and the spiritual power of transformation. Vast as the dharma-realm, ultimate as space itself, unto the very end of future time, throughout every eon and the numbers of every complete enlightenment, seeking great wisdom and great spiritual power without ever resting. Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva who thus abides in the bodhisattva's Ground of Joy arouses these great vows, gives rise to such great skillful means and such great practice, and, taking these ten gateways of vow as his head, gives rise to vows such as these, complete in ten hundred thousand myriad asaṃkhyeyas. This bodhisattva, dwelling in the bodhisattva's Ground of Joy, arouses vows such as these.
Commentary: This tenth great vow gives rise to the practice of the Great Vehicle. What is great enlightenment? What is its karmic activity? Great enlightenment is as the sūtra says, "attains unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment." Its karmic activity is of seven kinds: first, the activity of manifesting correct enlightenment; second, the activity of teaching the true truths; third, the activity of realization and teaching; fourth, the activity of teaching in manifold ways; fifth, the activity of never breaking off the buddha-lineage; sixth, the activity of restoring the Dharma-wheel to its standing; and seventh, the activity of self-mastery. The first activity is "within a single ordinary person's path, without departing from every place of the ordinary person's path... down to... manifesting great nirvāṇa." "A single ordinary person's path" means a single Jambudvīpa. "The ordinary person's path in Jambudvīpa" means the dwelling-place of the sentient beings to be transformed, called the ordinary person's path. The second activity is "manifesting the great spiritual power and wisdom-power of every buddha's own domain," and "in accordance with whatever sentient beings, throughout the realm of sentient beings, are ready to be delivered, manifesting, in thought after thought, the attainment of buddhahood, delivering sentient beings and extinguishing their suffering" — in accordance with every world-system, manifesting a buddha's body, in accordance with each mind, for all who can be transformed. "Manifesting a buddha's body" means being born free of every difficult circumstance, in this or that supreme circumstance, manifesting the removal of suffering, the cutting off of its origin, the realization of its cessation, and the cultivation of the path. The third activity is "through a single, complete enlightenment, contemplating the selflessness of dharmas, the pure nirvāṇa-nature of every dharma," causing sentient beings to believe and understand. The fourth activity is "through a single voice," in accordance with the manifold faith and understanding of the sentient beings to be transformed, causing every one of their minds, all at once, to rejoice. The fifth activity is manifesting great nirvāṇa without ever breaking off the power of a bodhisattva's own practice. The sixth activity is restoring the ground of a buddha's wisdom, so that whatever the sūtras and the like teach, its rule is never lost. The seventh activity, the spiritual power of wisdom regarding dharmas, means contemplating that every dharma is without any fixed nature or mark. The spiritual power of wish-fulfillment means that one's own person manifests birth, abiding, and cessation, long or short, entirely according to one's own mind. The spiritual power of transformation means transforming external things entirely according to one's own will. The first, the spiritual power of wisdom regarding dharmas, does not abide in the world; the spiritual power of wish-fulfillment and the spiritual power of transformation do not abide in nirvāṇa. Why does the treatise speak of only these ten great vows? The first vow fulfills the practice of merit; the second vow fulfills the practice of wisdom; the next five vows are for the sake of teaching and transforming sentient beings — first, with what body; second, with what mind; third, who are these sentient beings; fourth, where do sentient beings dwell; fifth, where must one's own person dwell in order to teach and transform sentient beings — and the last three vows make manifest one's own person: first, attaining the comparative excellence of the grounds; second, attaining the comparative excellence of the exhaustion of the bodhisattva grounds; and third, attaining the ultimate exhaustion of every ground. These three make manifest teaching and transforming sentient beings just as it truly is. "Arouses these great vows" means seeking their meaning in accordance with the mind. "Gives rise to such great skillful means" means accomplishing the courage of the skillful means for what is to be done. "Such great practice" means the practice that accomplishes what is to be done. A bodhisattva dwelling in this ground gives rise to these three kinds of practice gradually, over long cultivation, not all at once. Why is this? Because within each and every one of these ten great vows there are a hundred thousand myriad asaṃkhyeya great vows as its retinue — as the sūtra says, "Sons of the Buddha! A bodhisattva who thus abides in the bodhisattva's Ground of Joy arouses these great vows, gives rise to such great skillful means and such great practice, and, taking these ten gateways of vow as his head, gives rise to vows such as these, complete in ten hundred thousand myriad asaṃkhyeyas. This bodhisattva, dwelling in the bodhisattva's Ground of Joy, arouses vows such as these." Why are these called great vows? Because the radiant root of goodness turns ever more excellent, increasing and expanding. This comparative excellence of a bodhisattva's vow surpasses the śrāvaka and the pratyekabuddha in two ways: first, through constantly and diligently cultivating boundless practice; second, through sharing the same practice with every sentient being. This shared practice is made manifest through the ten inexhaustible clauses.
The treatise itself closes the whole set of ten vows with a rare piece of explicit architectural commentary — why exactly ten, and why these ten — and it repays reading as carefully as any individual vow: 初願功德行滿足故，第二願智慧行滿足故 — "the first vow fulfills the practice of merit, the second vow fulfills the practice of wisdom" (offering to every buddha builds merit; upholding and realizing every teaching builds wisdom) — 次五願為教化眾生故 — "the next five vows are for the sake of teaching and transforming sentient beings," and are themselves organized as five sequential questions a teacher must answer before any actual teaching can happen: with what body does one appear (the third vow, attending every buddha's own life-events as the model), with what mind (the fourth, spreading the bodhisattva practice), who exactly are these sentient beings (the fifth), where do they dwell (the sixth, surveying every world-system), and where must the bodhisattva himself dwell in order to reach them (the seventh, purifying buddha-lands to receive them). The final three vows then 顯自身, "make manifest one's own person" — union with the whole bodhisattva community, a life in which no word or deed is ever wasted, and the tenth vow's own account of buddhahood — mapped respectively onto three successive stages of comparative excellence: excelling other bodhisattva grounds, excelling even the completion of every bodhisattva ground, and the ultimate exhaustion of every ground at buddhahood itself. Merit and wisdom first, then the five practical questions any act of teaching requires answering, then three vows tracking the bodhisattva's own trajectory to its very end — ten vows, and Huiyuan is explicit this is not an arbitrary round number but a structure with no room left for an eleventh.
Huiyuan reads the tenth vow's sevenfold buddha-activity as pairing naturally with the two remaining spiritual powers named at its close: the "spiritual power of wisdom regarding dharmas" (knowing that no dharma has any fixed nature) stands apart from the "spiritual power of wish-fulfillment" and the "spiritual power of transformation," precisely because it operates in the opposite direction from the other two — 初法智通不住世間故，如意神通幻通不住涅槃故 — "the first, the spiritual power of wisdom regarding dharmas, does not abide in the world; the spiritual power of wish-fulfillment and transformation do not abide in nirvāṇa." Wisdom regarding dharmas is what keeps a buddha from being caught by the world even while acting within it; the other two spiritual powers are what keep that same buddha from disappearing into static nirvāṇa even while realizing it — together describing an activity that is neither worldly entanglement nor withdrawal into stillness, but something sustained in the narrow space between the two. With the tenth vow's own closing line — that this shared practice with all sentient beings will now be shown through the ten inexhaustible clauses — the treatise turns directly into the passage that follows.
Part 11 Complete
This closes Part 11, and with it all ten great vows: from offering to every buddha without exception through the tenth vow's sevenfold account of a buddha's own activity — together with the treatise's own explanation of why exactly these ten, organized as merit, wisdom, five practical questions of teaching, and three stages tracking the bodhisattva's path to its very end. Part 12 turns to the ten inexhaustible clauses that sustain these vows for as long as the realm of sentient beings itself endures, and to the section of comparative excellence's remaining two divisions: the excellence of practice, and the threefold fruit of comparative excellence that will finally close out Pramuditā, the Ground of Joy.
Continue to Part 12 — The Ten Inexhaustible Clauses →