A Jewel Still Needs Polishing
Part 9 is the third and final section of the treatise's "part of explanation": distinguishing the marks of the path bodhisattvas advance toward. Three stages of resolve are named — faith perfected, understanding and practice, and realization — each unfolded with its own practices, its own dangers, and its own scriptural passages that need reconciling with what the treatise has already established. The section closes with two of the treatise's hardest questions: how omniscience is possible once ignorance is gone, and why a buddha, present everywhere without exception, is still not seen by most of the world.
Faith Perfected
分別發趣道相者，謂一切諸佛所證之道，一切菩薩發心修行趣向義故。略說發心有三種。云何為三？一者、信成就發心，二者、解行發心，三者、證發心。
信成就發心者，依何等人、修何等行，得信成就堪能發心？所謂依不定聚眾生，有熏習善根力故，信業果報，能起十善，厭生死苦、欲求無上菩提，得值諸佛，親承供養修行信心，經一萬劫信心成就故，諸佛菩薩教令發心；或以大悲故，能自發心；或因正法欲滅，以護法因緣，能自發心。如是信心成就得發心者，入正定聚，畢竟不退，名住如來種中正因相應。若有眾生善根微少，久遠已來煩惱深厚，雖值於佛亦得供養，然起人天種子，或起二乘種子。設有求大乘者，根則不定，若進若退。或有供養諸佛未經一萬劫，於中遇緣亦有發心，所謂見佛色相而發其心；或因供養眾僧而發其心；或因二乘之人教令發心；或學他發心。如是等發心悉皆不定，遇惡因緣，或便退失墮二乘地。
復次，信成就發心者，發何等心？略說有三種。云何為三？一者、直心，正念真如法故。二者、深心，樂集一切諸善行故。三者、大悲心，欲拔一切眾生苦故。
As for distinguishing the marks of the path advanced toward: this concerns the path realized by all buddhas, and the meaning of all bodhisattvas' resolving their minds, practicing, and advancing toward it. Stated briefly, the resolving of the mind is of three kinds. What are the three? First, the resolve of faith perfected. Second, the resolve of understanding and practice. Third, the resolve of realization.
As for the resolve of faith perfected: in dependence on what kind of person, and cultivating what kind of practice, does one attain faith perfected and become capable of resolving the mind? It is that, in dependence on sentient beings of the indeterminate group, who, through the power of habituated roots of goodness, believe in the ripening of karma, are able to give rise to the ten wholesome actions, become wearied of the suffering of birth-and-death, and desire to seek unsurpassed bodhi; who come to encounter buddhas, personally serving and making offerings to them while cultivating the mind of faith — once faith is perfected after ten thousand kalpas, the buddhas and bodhisattvas instruct them to resolve the mind; or, through great compassion, they are able to resolve the mind of themselves; or, because the true dharma is about to disappear, through the causes and conditions of protecting the dharma, they are able to resolve the mind of themselves. Sentient beings such as these, whose faith has been perfected and who thereby attain the resolve of mind, enter the rightly settled group, never to retreat again — this is called abiding within the seed of the Tathāgata, corresponding to the proper cause. If there are sentient beings whose roots of goodness are still slight, whose afflictions, over a long time, have grown deep and thick, they may, even upon encountering a buddha and making offerings, still give rise only to the seed of rebirth among gods and humans, or to the seed of the two vehicles. And should any of them seek the Mahāyāna, their faculties remain undetermined, sometimes advancing, sometimes retreating. Some, having made offerings to buddhas for less than ten thousand kalpas, may still, upon encountering some condition within that time, resolve their minds — resolving their minds upon seeing a buddha's form; or resolving their minds through making offerings to the monastic community; or resolving their minds through instruction from someone of the two vehicles; or resolving their minds by imitating another. All such resolves of mind are entirely undetermined; upon encountering an evil condition, they may retreat and fall away into the stage of the two vehicles.
Furthermore, as for the resolve of faith perfected: what kind of mind does it resolve? Stated briefly, there are three kinds. What are the three? First, the direct mind, which rightly contemplates the dharma of suchness. Second, the profound mind, which delights in gathering every kind of wholesome practice. Third, the mind of great compassion, which wishes to relieve the suffering of all sentient beings.
Fazang notes that the treatise adopts a specific, narrower version of the standard threefold grouping of sentient beings by spiritual determination: bodhisattvas from the tenth abiding stage onward, never to retreat, are the rightly settled group; those who have not even entered the ten stages of faith, disbelieving cause and effect, are the wrongly settled group; and everyone in between — still within the ten stages of faith, wanting the great fruit but not yet resolved — is the indeterminate group this whole section addresses. For that middle group's instability, he reaches for the *Yingluo Sūtra*'s own image: 十信菩薩如空中毛 — a bodhisattva still within the ten faiths is like a hair adrift in open sky, carried wherever the nearest wind happens to blow. This is who "sometimes advancing, sometimes retreating" actually describes: not the wrongly settled, who were never headed anywhere to begin with, and not the rightly settled, who no longer can retreat, but exactly this middle group, capable of real progress and real relapse both, depending entirely on which condition it happens to meet next.
Fazang also catches a phrase easy to misread on its own terms: "經一萬劫信心成就故...教令發心" does not mean that ten thousand kalpas of practice culminate in entering "the ten faiths," as the wording might suggest to an unwary reader — it means entering the stage immediately after the ten faiths are complete, the initial abiding stage (十住初發心住). He supports this with the *Humane Kings Sūtra*'s own terminology for exactly this transition: 習種性有十心，已超二乘一切善地 — the habituated-seed nature already possesses these ten kinds of mind, and has already surpassed every wholesome ground of the two vehicles. The ten thousand kalpas describe how long it takes to complete the ten faiths, not how long one remains within them — a distinction with real consequences for how the rest of this section's timeline should be read.
Why a Jewel Still Needs Polishing
問曰：「上說法界一相、佛體無二，何故不唯念真如，復假求學諸善之行？」
答曰：「譬如大摩尼寶體性明淨，而有鑛穢之垢。若人雖念寶性，不以方便種種磨治，終無得淨。如是眾生真如之法體性空淨，而有無量煩惱染垢。若人雖念真如，不以方便種種熏修，亦無得淨。以垢無量遍一切法故，修一切善行以為對治。若人修行一切善法，自然歸順真如法故。略說方便有四種。云何為四？一者、行根本方便。謂觀一切法自性無生，離於妄見，不住生死。觀一切法因緣和合，業果不失，起於大悲修諸福德，攝化眾生不住涅槃，以隨順法性無住故。二者、能止方便。謂慚愧悔過，能止一切惡法不令增長，以隨順法性離諸過故。三者、發起善根增長方便。謂勤供養、禮拜三寶，讚歎、隨喜、勸請諸佛，以愛敬三寶淳厚心故，信得增長，乃能志求無上之道。又因佛法僧力所護故，能消業障，善根不退，以隨順法性離癡障故。四者、大願平等方便。所謂發願盡於未來，化度一切眾生使無有餘，皆令究竟無餘涅槃，以隨順法性無斷絕故，法性廣大，遍一切眾生，平等無二，不念彼此，究竟寂滅故。
菩薩發是心故，則得少分見於法身。以見法身故，隨其願力能現八種利益眾生。所謂從兜率天退，入胎，住胎，出胎，出家，成道，轉法輪，入於涅槃。然是菩薩未名法身，以其過去無量世來有漏之業未能決斷，隨其所生與微苦相應，亦非業繫，以有大願自在力故。如修多羅中，或說有退墮惡趣者，非其實退，但為初學菩薩未入正位而懈怠者，恐怖令使勇猛故。又是菩薩一發心後，遠離怯弱，畢竟不畏墮二乘地。若聞無量無邊阿僧祇劫勤苦難行乃得涅槃，亦不怯弱，以信知一切法從本已來自涅槃故。
Question: "Above it was said that the dharma-realm has a single mark, and that the essence of a buddha is not two — why, then, does one not simply contemplate suchness alone, but must further avail oneself of seeking and studying every kind of wholesome practice?"
Answer: "It is like a great, wish-fulfilling jewel, its essence bright and pure, and yet covered in ore and grime. If a person merely contemplates the jewel's own nature, without applying skillful means to polish and refine it in various ways, it will, in the end, never become pure. Just so, the dharma of suchness in sentient beings has an essence empty and pure, and yet is covered by immeasurable, defiling afflictions. If a person merely contemplates suchness, without applying skillful means to habituate and cultivate it in various ways, it will likewise never become pure. Because such defilement is immeasurable, pervading every dharma, one cultivates every kind of wholesome practice as its antidote. For if a person practices every wholesome dharma, he naturally returns to and accords with the dharma of suchness. Stated briefly, there are four kinds of skillful means. What are the four? First, the skillful means of the root of practice. This means contemplating that all dharmas, in their own nature, never arise, apart from false views, so as not to abide in birth-and-death; and contemplating that all dharmas are the coming together of causes and conditions, karma and its fruit never lost, so as to give rise to great compassion, cultivate every kind of merit, and gather in and transform sentient beings, without abiding in nirvāṇa — according with the dharma-nature's freedom from abiding. Second, the skillful means capable of stopping. This means shame and repentance for one's own faults, able to stop every unwholesome dharma from increasing further — according with the dharma-nature's freedom from every fault. Third, the skillful means of arousing and increasing roots of goodness. This means diligently making offerings, paying homage to the Three Jewels, praising, rejoicing in others' merit, and entreating the buddhas — and, through a mind of deep and sincere love and reverence for the Three Jewels, faith is thereby increased, so that one becomes able to aspire, with resolve, to the unsurpassed path. Further, protected by the power of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, one is able to dissolve the hindrance of karma, and roots of goodness do not retreat — according with the dharma-nature's freedom from the hindrance of delusion. Fourth, the skillful means of the great vow of equality. This means vowing that, to the very end of future time, one will transform and bring across all sentient beings without exception, causing every one of them to attain, ultimately, nirvāṇa without remainder — according with the dharma-nature's freedom from interruption, since the dharma-nature is vast and immense, pervading all sentient beings equally, without duality, without any thought of this one or that one, ultimately still.
Because a bodhisattva resolves this mind, he then attains a partial seeing of the dharma-body. Because he sees the dharma-body, he is able, in accordance with the power of his vow, to manifest eight kinds of benefit for sentient beings — that is: descending from Tuṣita heaven, entering the womb, abiding in the womb, leaving the womb, going forth from home, attaining the path, turning the wheel of the dharma, and entering nirvāṇa. Yet such a bodhisattva is not yet called the dharma-body, because the defiled karma he has accumulated over immeasurable past ages has not yet been definitively cut off; wherever he is born, he still corresponds with subtle suffering — though this is not karmic bondage either, since he possesses the free power of his great vow. As for the sūtras that sometimes speak of such a bodhisattva retreating and falling into an evil destiny — this is not an actual retreat, but is only meant, for the sake of beginning bodhisattvas who have not yet entered the correct stage and who have grown lax, to instill fear so as to spur them on to vigor. Further, once such a bodhisattva has resolved his mind, he leaves cowardice and weakness far behind, and is, in the end, never afraid of falling into the stage of the two vehicles. Even hearing that nirvāṇa is attained only after immeasurable, boundless asaṃkhyeya kalpas of diligent, difficult practice, he does not grow fainthearted, because he believes and knows that all dharmas are, from the very outset, nirvāṇa itself.
Fazang organizes the four skillful means by function rather than leaving them as a flat list of four: 初一不住道，次二自利行，後一利他 — the first is the practice of non-abiding itself, the middle two are practices for one's own benefit, and the last is practice for the benefit of others. The "root" skillful means (contemplating non-arising while still cultivating merit) is foundational precisely because it holds both halves of the middle way at once — not abiding in birth-and-death through wisdom, and not abiding in nirvāṇa through compassion — while stopping evil and cultivating good, the middle pair, are two sides of one's own moral cultivation, and the great vow of equality, standing alone at the end, is the entire structure turned outward toward every other sentient being without exception. Four skillful means, on this reading, are really one insight (non-abiding) applied in three directions: to oneself defensively, to oneself constructively, and to everyone else.
Fazang is careful to flag the qualifier "然是菩薩未名法身" as doing real work, not as a throwaway caveat: a bodhisattva capable of manifesting all eight great deeds of a buddha's life — descending from Tuṣita, entering the womb, awakening, turning the wheel of dharma — has still only seen the dharma-body 少分 (in part), and has not yet become identical with it, since residual karma from immeasurable past ages remains uncut. He also resolves the apparent scriptural contradiction the treatise itself anticipates, citing the *Yingluo Sūtra* by name for the specific bodhisattvas in question — Pure-Eyed Deva-son, Prince Dharma-Talent, Śāriputra — each said there to have "retreated into an unwholesome destiny among ordinary people" before reaching the seventh abiding stage, upon meeting a bad companion. Fazang's verdict: 是權語，非實退 — this is provisional, expedient language, not an actual retreat, spoken only to keep complacent beginners from growing lax. The scripture is not describing what really happens to an advanced bodhisattva; it is describing what an anxious beginner needs to hear in order not to become one of the beings who actually could fall away.
Understanding, Practice, and Realization
解行發心者，當知轉勝。以是菩薩從初正信已來，於第一阿僧祇劫將欲滿故，於真如法中，深解現前，所修離相。以知法性體無慳貪故，隨順修行檀波羅蜜；以知法性無染，離五欲過故，隨順修行尸波羅蜜；以知法性無苦，離瞋惱故，隨順修行羼提波羅蜜；以知法性無身心相，離懈怠故，隨順修行毘梨耶波羅蜜；以知法性常定，體無亂故，隨順修行禪波羅蜜；以知法性體明，離無明故，隨順修行般若波羅蜜。
證發心者，從淨心地乃至菩薩究竟地，證何境界？所謂真如，以依轉識說為境界，而此證者無有境界，唯真如智名為法身。是菩薩於一念頃能至十方無餘世界，供養諸佛、請轉法輪，唯為開導利益眾生。不依文字，或示超地速成正覺，以為怯弱眾生故；或說我於無量阿僧祇劫當成佛道，以為懈慢眾生故。能示如是無數方便不可思議，而實菩薩種性根等，發心則等，所證亦等，無有超過之法。以一切菩薩皆經三阿僧祇劫故，但隨眾生世界不同，所見所聞根欲性異，故示所行亦有差別。又是菩薩發心相者，有三種心微細之相。云何為三？一者、真心，無分別故。二者、方便心，自然遍行，利益眾生故。三者、業識心，微細起滅故。又是菩薩功德成滿，於色究竟處示一切世間最高大身。謂以一念相應慧，無明頓盡，名一切種智，自然而有不思議業，能現十方利益眾生。」
As for the resolve of understanding and practice: one should understand that it is ever more excellent. Because this bodhisattva, from his first true faith onward, is now nearing the completion of the first asaṃkhyeya kalpa, a profound understanding of the dharma of suchness now stands manifest before him, and what he cultivates is apart from every mark. Because he knows that the essence of the dharma-nature is without stinginess or greed, he practices, according with this, the pāramitā of giving. Because he knows that the dharma-nature is undefiled, apart from the faults of the five desires, he practices, according with this, the pāramitā of moral discipline. Because he knows that the dharma-nature is without suffering, apart from anger and vexation, he practices, according with this, the pāramitā of patience. Because he knows that the dharma-nature is without any mark of body or mind, apart from laziness, he practices, according with this, the pāramitā of vigor. Because he knows that the dharma-nature is constantly settled, its essence without disturbance, he practices, according with this, the pāramitā of meditative concentration. Because he knows that the essence of the dharma-nature is bright, apart from ignorance, he practices, according with this, the pāramitā of wisdom.
As for the resolve of realization: from the ground of the pure mind up to the very end of the bodhisattva grounds, what realm is realized? It is suchness. Speaking in terms of the perceiving-turned consciousness, one calls it an object-realm; yet, for the one who actually realizes it, there is, in truth, no object-realm at all — only the wisdom of suchness itself, which is called the dharma-body. Such a bodhisattva is able, within a single instant of thought, to reach every world of the ten directions without exception, to make offerings to the buddhas and entreat them to turn the wheel of the dharma, doing so only in order to guide and benefit sentient beings, not in dependence on words. He may show himself leaping over the grounds and swiftly attaining true awakening, for the sake of fainthearted, weak sentient beings; or he may say that he will, only after immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas, attain the path to buddhahood, for the sake of lax and lazy sentient beings. He is able to show inconceivable skillful means without number in this way, and yet, in reality, all bodhisattvas' innate natures and faculties are equal, their resolve of mind equal, and what they realize equal as well — there is no dharma by which one truly surpasses another, since all bodhisattvas alike pass through three asaṃkhyeya kalpas. It is only that, according to the differences among the worlds of sentient beings — what they see, what they hear, and the differences in their faculties, desires, and natures — the way this is shown to them differs as well. Further, as for the mark of such a bodhisattva's resolve of mind, there are three subtle marks of mind. What are the three? First, the true mind, being without discrimination. Second, the skillful-means mind, spontaneously pervading everywhere, benefiting sentient beings. Third, the karmic-consciousness mind, subtly arising and ceasing. Further, when such a bodhisattva's merit and virtue have come to complete fulfillment, he shows, in the highest heaven of form, the supreme and greatest body in all the world. This is because, through the wisdom that corresponds in a single instant of thought, ignorance is at once utterly exhausted — this is called omniscience — and he spontaneously possesses inconceivable karmic activity, able to manifest throughout the ten directions for the benefit of sentient beings."
Fazang notes the six pāramitās here are each derived the same way the tathāgatagarbha's own qualities were derived back in Part 7 — not as six independently chosen virtues, but as six practices each aligned with a specific feature of the dharma-nature already understood: giving accords with the dharma-nature's freedom from stinginess, discipline with its freedom from the five desires' defilement, patience with its freedom from anger, vigor with its freedom from any fixed mark of body or mind to grow tired in, concentration with its constancy, and wisdom with its inherent brightness. The pattern first established for how the tathāgatagarbha's positive qualities relate to what they negate now reappears as the very structure of practice itself — each perfection is what naturally follows once its corresponding feature of suchness is genuinely, not merely intellectually, understood.
On the "three asaṃkhyeya kalpas" every bodhisattva alike passes through despite the wildly different timelines different sūtras describe, Fazang reads the treatise's own resolution as consistent with everything Parts 6 and 8 have already established about skillful means calibrated to an audience: showing an instant leap to buddhahood answers to fainthearted beings who need encouragement, while insisting on immeasurable kalpas of hardship answers to complacent beings who need a check on their own laziness — 而實菩薩種性根等，發心則等，所證亦等 (while in reality bodhisattvas' natures, resolve, and realization are all equal) is the constant beneath both presentations, never itself variable. And on the closing image of a bodhisattva's threefold subtle mind — true mind, skillful-means mind, and karmic-consciousness mind, still present even at the very summit of the path — this recalls the "unmoved water beneath moving waves" image from Part 3 one final time: even a bodhisattva whose merit is fully complete still carries, in Fazang's own earlier words about the ālayavijñāna, the last, subtlest trace of the wind that has not yet fully stilled — which is precisely why, as the next question in this section will ask, even a being this advanced is still called "bodhisattva" and not yet simply "buddha."
Omniscience, and Why the Mirror Sometimes Stays Dark
問曰：「虛空無邊故世界無邊，世界無邊故眾生無邊，眾生無邊故心行差別亦復無邊。如是境界不可分齊，難知難解。若無明斷無有心想，云何能了，名一切種智？」
答曰：「一切境界，本來一心離於想念，以眾生妄見境界故心有分齊，以妄起想念不稱法性故不能決了。諸佛如來離於見想無所不遍，心真實故，即是諸法之性。自體顯照一切妄法，有大智用無量方便，隨諸眾生所應得解，皆能開示種種法義，是故得名一切種智。」
又問曰：「若諸佛有自然業，能現一切處利益眾生者，一切眾生若見其身、若覩神變、若聞其說，無不得利。云何世間多不能見？」
答曰：「諸佛如來法身平等遍一切處，無有作意故。而說自然，但依眾生心現。眾生心者猶如於鏡，鏡若有垢，色像不現。如是眾生心若有垢，法身不現故。」
已說解釋分。
Question: "Because space is boundless, worlds are boundless; because worlds are boundless, sentient beings are boundless; because sentient beings are boundless, the distinctions among their mental activities are likewise boundless. Such an object-realm cannot be measured or limited — it is hard to know, hard to understand. If ignorance is extinguished, there is no thought of mind left at all — how, then, can one comprehend it, and be called omniscient?"
Answer: "Every object-realm is, from the very outset, the one mind, apart from thought and conception. It is only because sentient beings falsely perceive object-realms that mind comes to have limits at all; and it is because false thoughts and conceptions arise, not according with the dharma-nature, that comprehension cannot be attained. The buddhas, the tathāgatas, are apart from any perceiving and any conceiving, pervading everywhere without exception; because mind is truly real, it is precisely the very nature of all dharmas. Its own essence illuminates every false dharma of itself, and, possessing the function of great wisdom and immeasurable skillful means, it is able, in accordance with what each sentient being is capable of understanding, to open up and reveal every kind of dharma-meaning — and it is for this reason called omniscience."
A further question: "If the buddhas possess spontaneous activity, able to manifest everywhere for the benefit of sentient beings, then all sentient beings, whether seeing their bodies, witnessing their miraculous transformations, or hearing their teaching, should gain benefit without exception — how is it, then, that so much of the world is unable to see them?"
Answer: "The buddhas' dharma-body, the tathāgatas', is equal, pervading every place, without any deliberate intention — and this is why it is spoken of as spontaneous. Yet it manifests only in dependence on sentient beings' own minds. A sentient being's mind is just like a mirror: if the mirror is tarnished, no form or image appears within it. Just so, if a sentient being's mind is tarnished, the dharma-body does not appear within it."
This concludes the part of explanation.
Fazang reads the omniscience question as making an assumption the answer directly rejects: it assumes that knowing boundless objects requires a correspondingly boundless catalog of separate mental contents, one thought for each thing known — precisely the model of knowing this treatise has spent eight pages dismantling. His gloss: 只由內盡妄想心故，能外廣知也 — it is only by exhausting false, discriminating thought within that one comes to know without limit outward; a buddha's knowledge is not a bigger version of a sentient being's piecemeal knowing, achieved by somehow holding more objects in mind at once, but a different kind of knowing altogether, made possible precisely by having nothing left standing between mind and "the very nature of all dharmas" it already is.
The closing mirror image restates, in a shorter form, the same point Part 7's citation from the *Mahāyānasaṃgraha* already made about the moon and the cracked vessel — a buddha's presence is never actually withheld from anyone; only the capacity to reflect it is sometimes absent. Fazang adds one clarification worth keeping precise: 鏡有垢者，明無感佛之機，非謂煩惱現行 — a "tarnished mirror" here means the specific absence of the condition capable of eliciting a buddha's response, not simply the presence of affliction as such, since even a being still caught up in active affliction can, on occasion, see a buddha, as the treatise's own commentarial tradition records happening to figures far from spiritually advanced. What blocks the reflection is not defilement in general, but whatever, in a given moment, keeps the specific channel between a being's aspiration and a buddha's activity from opening at all.
Part 9 Complete
This closes Part 9, and with it the entire "part of explanation" that Part 2 opened seven pages ago: revealing the true meaning, countering wrong attachments, and now distinguishing the marks of the path — faith perfected, understanding and practice, and realization, each stage's own dangers named and resolved. Part 10, the treatise's final page, turns from explanation to instruction: the "part on cultivating the practice of faith," where four kinds of faith and five concrete practices — giving, moral discipline, patience, vigor, and calming-and-contemplation — are laid out for the reader who has followed the doctrine this far and now wants to know, simply, what to actually do.
Continue to Part 10 — Four Kinds of Faith, Five Practices, and the Benefits of This Treatise →