Answering the Fear of Emptiness
This page closes the sūtra. Kṣitigarbha explains why he is called the Skillful Reassurer, answering in turn three kinds of fainthearted mind — one who fears the path is too long, one who mistakes a teaching of emptiness for nihilism, and one who mistakes a teaching of already-perfect buddha-nature for a license to stop practicing — before the sūtra names itself in four ways and closes with its whole assembly's rejoicing.
Why the Path Feels Impossibly Long
爾時，堅淨信菩薩摩訶薩問地藏菩薩摩訶薩言：「汝云何巧說深法，能令眾生得離怯弱？」地藏菩薩摩訶薩言：「善男子！當知初學發意，求向大乘，未得信心者，於無上道甚深之法，喜生疑怯。我常以方便，宣顯實義而安慰之，令離怯弱，是故號我為善安慰說者。云何安慰？所謂鈍根小心眾生，聞無上道最勝最妙，意雖貪樂，發心願向。而復思念求無上道者，要須積功廣極，難行苦行，自度度他，劫數長遠，於生死中久受勤苦，方乃得獲。以是之故，心生怯弱。我即為說真實之義，所謂一切諸法，本性自空，畢竟無我，無作無受，無自無他，無行無到，無有方所，亦無過去現在、未來。乃至為說十八空等，無有生死、涅槃一切諸法定實之相而可得者。又復為說一切諸法如幻如化，如水中月，如鏡中像，如乾闥婆城，如空谷響，如陽焰，如泡，如露，如燈，如目[目*壹]，如夢，如電，如雲。煩惱生死，性甚微弱，易可令滅。又煩惱生死，畢竟無體，求不可得。本來不生，實更無滅。自性寂靜，即是涅槃。如此所說，能破一切諸見，損自身心執著想故，得離怯弱。」
Then the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Firm and Pure Faith asked the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Kṣitigarbha: "How is it that you skillfully expound the profound Dharma in such a way that it can free sentient beings from fainthearted weakness?" The bodhisattva-mahāsattva Kṣitigarbha said: "Good son! You should know that those newly setting their minds on awakening, seeking to move toward the Great Vehicle, who have not yet attained a mind of faith, are prone to give rise to doubt and fainthearted fear before the profound Dharma of the unsurpassed path. I constantly, by skillful means, proclaim and make manifest the true meaning, in order to reassure them and free them from this fainthearted weakness — this is why I am called the One Who Skillfully Reassures and Explains.
"How do I reassure them? As for beings of dull faculties and fainthearted disposition, on hearing that the unsurpassed path is the most excellent and most wondrous, though their intention delights in it and they set their minds to move toward it, they then reflect: whoever seeks the unsurpassed path must accumulate merit to the very furthest extent, undertake difficult and painful practices, liberate themselves and liberate others, through kalpas measureless and distant, long enduring diligent hardship amid birth-and-death, before finally attaining it. Because of this, their mind grows fainthearted and weak. For them I then expound the true meaning: that all dharmas are, by their very nature, empty of themselves, ultimately without self, without doing and without undergoing, without self and without other, without any going and without any arriving, without any location whatsoever, and without past, present, or future. I go on to expound, among other things, the eighteen kinds of emptiness, teaching that there is no fixed, real mark of birth-and-death or of nirvāṇa, of any dharma at all, that can be found. I further teach that all dharmas are like an illusion, like a conjured thing, like the moon reflected in water, like a form reflected in a mirror, like a gandharva's city, like an echo in an empty valley, like a mirage, like a bubble, like dew, like a lamp's flame, like a spot before the eye, like a dream, like lightning, like a cloud. Affliction and birth-and-death are, by their very nature, extremely weak and feeble, and easily extinguished. Moreover, affliction and birth-and-death are, in the end, without any substance at all, and cannot be found however one seeks them — from the very beginning they have never arisen, and in truth there is nothing further to extinguish. Their own nature is still and quiet, and this stillness is itself nirvāṇa. Teachings such as these are able to break through every view, and diminish one's own attachment to notions of body and mind — and so one is freed from fainthearted weakness."
Zhixu notes that the fourteen similes in this passage — illusion, conjured thing, moon in water, mirror-image, gandharva's city, valley echo, mirage, bubble, dew, lamp-flame, afterimage, dream, lightning, cloud — condense, without adding or omitting anything, three separate stock sets of similes scattered across other scriptures (commonly given as six, nine, or ten items apiece). His sharper point is about classification: although this passage's language of "not empty" and "conditioned appearance" already gestures toward the other two truths, he keeps the whole section filed under the "Gate of Emptiness," because its entire operative purpose here is to counteract a fainthearted mind's attachment to the path's difficulty as something solidly, oppressively real — "對治實有法執" ("countering the attachment to dharmas as really, substantially existing"). A path imagined as an immovable mountain of kalpas to climb is, on this reading, itself just one more mistaken solidification of something that, examined closely, was never that kind of thing to begin with.
Why the Buddha Speaks of Emptiness At All
「復有眾生，不解如來言說旨意故而生怯弱。當知如來言說旨意者，所謂如來見彼一實境界故，究竟得離生老病死眾惡之法，證彼法身常恒清涼不變異等無量功德聚。復能了了見一切眾生身中，皆有如是真實微妙清淨功德，而為無明闇染之所覆障，長夜恒受生老病死無量眾苦。如來於此起大慈悲意，欲令一切眾生離於眾苦，同獲法身第一義樂。而彼法身，是無分別離念之法。唯有能滅虛妄識想不起念著，乃所應得。但一切眾生，常樂分別取著諸法，以顛倒妄想故而受生死。
「是故如來為欲令彼離於分別執著想故，說一切世間法，畢竟體空無所有。乃至一切出世間法，亦畢竟體空無所有。若廣說者，如十八空。如是顯示一切諸法，皆不離菩提體。菩提體者，非有、非無、非非有、非非無、非有無俱，非一、非異、非非一、非非異、非一異俱。乃至畢竟無有一相而可得者，以離一切相故。離一切相者，所謂不可依言說取。以菩提法中，無有受言說者，及無能言說者故。又不可依心念知。以菩提法中，無有能取、可取，無自無他，離分別想故。若有分別想者，則為虛偽，不名相應。
「如是等說，鈍根眾生不能解者，謂無上道如來法身但唯空法，一向畢竟而無所有，其心怯弱，畏墮無所得中。或生斷滅想，作增減見，轉起誹謗，自輕輕他。我即為說如來法身，自性不空，有真實體，具足無量清淨功業。從無始世來，自然圓滿，非修非作。乃至一切眾生身中，亦皆具足，不變不異，無增無減。如是等說，能除怯弱，是名安慰。」
"Furthermore, there are sentient beings who give rise to fainthearted weakness because they do not understand the true intention behind the Tathāgata's words. One should know that the intention behind the Tathāgata's words is this: because the Tathāgata has seen that one real realm, he has ultimately come to be free of every evil dharma of birth, old age, sickness, and death, and has realized that Dharma-body — eternal, ever cool, unchanging, a measureless mass of merit. He is, further, able to see clearly that within the body of every sentient being there is this same true, subtle, and pure merit, yet it is covered and obstructed by the dark defilement of ignorance, so that they endure, through the long night of saṃsāra, the measureless sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, and death without end. Seeing this, the Tathāgata gives rise to a mind of great compassion, wishing to free every sentient being from every suffering, and to have them equally attain the foremost bliss of the Dharma-body. Yet that Dharma-body is a dharma without discrimination, free of thought — only one who is able to extinguish false, deluded thought, and no longer give rise to grasping thought, is fit to attain it. But all sentient beings constantly delight in discriminating and grasping at dharmas, and so, through inverted false thought, undergo birth-and-death.
"This is why the Tathāgata, wishing to free them from this discriminating and grasping thought, teaches that every worldly dharma is, in the end, empty in substance, having nothing at all to it; and further, that every transcendent dharma likewise is, in the end, empty in substance, having nothing at all to it. If this is expounded at length, it is as the eighteen emptinesses. In this way it is shown that no dharma at all departs from the substance of bodhi. The substance of bodhi is neither existent nor non-existent, neither not-existent nor not-non-existent, neither both existent and non-existent; neither one nor different, neither not-one nor not-different, neither both one and different — and, in the end, there is not even a single mark to be found in it at all, because it is free of every mark. To be free of every mark means that it cannot be grasped by way of language, for within the Dharma of bodhi there is no one who receives language, and no one able to speak it. Nor can it be known by way of mental conception, for within the Dharma of bodhi there is no grasper and nothing to be grasped, no self and no other, free of every discriminating thought. Whoever holds a discriminating thought about it has thereby made it into something false, and this is not called true correspondence.
"As for sentient beings of dull faculties who, hearing teachings such as these, are unable to understand them, and suppose that the unsurpassed path — the Tathāgata's Dharma-body — is nothing but a dharma of sheer emptiness, uniformly and utterly without anything to it at all — their minds grow fainthearted and weak, fearing to fall into a state of having attained nothing whatsoever. They may give rise to a notion of utter annihilation, forming views of increase or decrease, and turn to slander the teaching, demeaning themselves and demeaning others. For them I then expound that the Tathāgata's Dharma-body is, in its own nature, not empty — it has a true and real substance, fully endowed with measureless pure meritorious deeds. From beginningless ages it has been spontaneously perfect and complete, neither cultivated nor fabricated; and, moreover, it is fully present within the body of every sentient being as well, unchanging and undiffering, without increase and without decrease. Teachings such as these are able to remove fainthearted weakness — this too is called reassurance."
Zhixu identifies the fourfold negation running through this passage — neither existent nor non-existent, neither not-existent nor not-non-existent — as resting on what he calls the Perfect Teaching's "neither-existent-nor-empty gate," and warns that readers who stop at the first half of the passage will mistake the whole sūtra for a straightforward Madhyamaka treatise on emptiness alone: "昧者不知，故判作空宗耳" ("those who do not understand this classify it simply as belonging to the 'emptiness school,' out of confusion"). The negations are not a series of denials converging on a final void; they are a refusal to let language settle into any fixed position at all, which is exactly why the passage insists bodhi cannot be grasped by speech or by conceptual thought — not because it is a blank, but because any position language could state would already be too small.
On why dull-faculty beings mishear "empty" as "nothing at all," Zhixu is direct about the rhetorical purpose being served: "遮遣情執，本為顯示法性無分別體，而鈍根隨語謬解，一向謂空" ("negating conceptual attachment was, from the outset, meant only to reveal the non-discriminating substance of dharma-nature — but a dull-faculty listener follows the words literally, and misreads it as uniform emptiness"). The corrective teaching of "not empty" that follows is not a retraction of the emptiness teaching, on his reading, but a second half deliberately withheld until the fear it exists to answer has actually surfaced — proof that the sūtra's method throughout has been to meet a specific failure of understanding with a specific remedy, rather than delivering the whole of its doctrine in one undifferentiated block.
Beyond Empty and Not Empty, Without Contradiction
「又復，愚癡堅執眾生，聞如是等說亦生怯弱。以取如來法身本來滿足，非修非作相故，起無所得想而生怯弱，或計自然墮邪倒見。我即為說修行一切善法，增長滿足，生如來色身，得無量功德清淨果報。如此等說，令離怯弱，是為安慰。而我所說甚深之義，真實相應，無有諸過，以離相違說故。云何知離相違相？所謂如來法身中，雖復無有言說境界，離心想念，非空非不空，乃至無一切相，不可依言說示，而據世諦幻化因緣假名法中，相待相對，則可方便顯示而說。以彼法身性實無分別，離自相、離他相，無空、無不空，乃至遠離一切諸相故，說彼法體為畢竟空無所有。以離心分別，想念則盡，無一相而能自見自知為有，是故空義決定真實，相應不謬。
「復次，即彼空義中，以離分別妄想心念故，則盡畢竟無有一相而可空者，以唯有真實故，即為不空。所謂離識想故，無有一切虛偽之相，畢竟常恒，不變不異，以更無一相可壞可滅，離增減故。又彼無分別實體之處，從無始世來，具無量功德自然之業，成就相應，不離不脫故，說為不空。如是實體功德之聚，一切眾生雖復有之，但為無明曀覆障故而不知見，不能剋獲功德利益，與無莫異，說名未有。以不知見彼法體故，所有功德利益之業，非彼眾生所能受用，不名屬彼。唯依遍修一切善法，對治諸障，見彼法身，然後剋獲功德利益，是故說修一切善法，生如來色身、智身。
「善男子！如我所說甚深之義，決定真實，離相違過，當如是知。」
"Furthermore, there are sentient beings, foolish and stubbornly attached, who, hearing teachings such as these, likewise give rise to fainthearted weakness — taking hold of the notion that the Tathāgata's Dharma-body is, from the outset, already fully complete, neither cultivated nor fabricated, they give rise to the notion that there is nothing at all left to attain, and so grow fainthearted and weak, or else suppose it to be something that simply happens of itself, and thereby fall into a perverse and inverted view. For them I then expound that cultivating every wholesome dharma causes increase and completion, gives rise to the Tathāgata's own form-body, and attains a measureless, meritorious, and pure fruit of retribution. Teachings such as these free one from fainthearted weakness — this too is reassurance.
"And the profound meaning I have taught in this way truly corresponds to reality, and is without any fault, because it is free of any contradiction in what is said. How does one know it is free of contradiction? It is this: although, within the Tathāgata's Dharma-body, there is no realm of language whatsoever, free of every conceptual thought — neither empty nor not empty, and, in the end, without any mark at all, unable to be shown by way of language — yet, resting on the conventional truth, within the framework of dependently-arisen, illusion-like, conventionally-named dharmas, where things stand relative to and dependent on one another, it may then be shown and expounded by skillful means. For the nature of that Dharma-body is, in reality, without discrimination, free of any mark of self, free of any mark of other, without emptiness and without non-emptiness — and, in the end, since it is far removed from every mark whatsoever, its substance is said to be ultimately empty, with nothing at all to it. Because it is free of discriminating thought, all conception and thought come to an end, and there is not a single mark that can, of itself, be seen or known to exist — this is why the meaning of emptiness is decisively true and real, and corresponds without error.
"Furthermore, within this very meaning of emptiness, because it is free of discriminating, false, and deluded thought, there is, in the end, not even a single mark that can be said to be empty — and because there is only what is truly real, this is called not-empty. That is to say, because it is free of conceptual thought, there is no falsely constructed mark of any kind; it is ultimately constant and eternal, unchanging and undiffering, since there is not even a single mark left that could be destroyed or extinguished, being free of increase and decrease. And that place of non-discriminating, real substance has, from beginningless ages, been endowed with the spontaneous deed of measureless merit, accomplished and corresponding, never separate and never detached from it — this is why it is called not-empty. Though every sentient being does in fact possess this mass of real substance and merit, they are covered and obstructed by the eclipse of ignorance, and so do not know or see it, and are unable to attain the benefit of this merit — being no different, in effect, from not having it at all, this is said to be 'not yet possessed.' Because they do not know or see that substance of the Dharma, whatever meritorious and beneficial deeds there are cannot be put to use by those sentient beings, and cannot be said to belong to them. Only by universally cultivating every wholesome dharma, counteracting every hindrance, and beholding that Dharma-body, does one then come to attain the benefit of that merit — this is why it is taught that cultivating every wholesome dharma gives rise to the Tathāgata's form-body and wisdom-body.
"Good son! As I have taught it, this profound meaning is decisively true and real, and free of the fault of contradiction. One should understand it in just this way."
Zhixu treats this third failure — mistaking "already perfect, not made" for a license to stop practicing — as the one he sees most often among his own contemporaries, and states so with unusual bluntness: "當今談圓頓者類皆墮此，亦可哀也" ("those who nowadays discuss the perfect and sudden teaching mostly fall into exactly this error — how lamentable"). He names the pattern precisely: hearing that "greed, hatred, and delusion's very nature is itself buddha-nature," some indulge desire without shame; hearing that "this illusory, empty body is itself the Dharma-body," some cherish their own defilement instead of turning from it; hearing that "hell and the heavenly palace are both equally pure lands," some settle comfortably into the mud rather than seeking any way out. Against this, the sūtra's insistence that cultivation gives rise to the Tathāgata's form-body is not a concession weakening the doctrine of original perfection — it is the doctrine's necessary other half, without which "already perfect" collapses into an excuse.
On the final proof that emptiness and non-emptiness do not contradict each other, Zhixu offers a single image that holds them together without dissolving either: the Tathāgata's form-body is like the ghee already latent in milk, or the eighty-foot banyan already latent in its tiny seed — "不可謂有，不可謂無，須藉因緣，然後得之" ("one cannot say it already exists as such, nor can one say it does not exist at all — it is only by means of the right conditions that it is finally obtained"). Empty, because nothing yet stands there to be pointed at or grasped; not empty, because the conditions that bring it forth were never adding something from outside that was not, in some sense, already there. The whole passage's four teachings — the fainthearted reassured with emptiness, the confused corrected with non-emptiness, the presumptuous corrected with the need for cultivation, and now the proof that none of this contradicts the rest — read together as one continuous answer to one continuous question: why the path is neither as impossibly long as it first appears, nor already finished before it has been walked.
The Sūtra Names Itself, and Closes
爾時，地藏菩薩摩訶薩說如此等殊勝方便深要法門時，有十萬億眾生，發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，住堅信位。復有九萬八千菩薩，得無生法忍。一切大眾各以天香花供養於佛，及供養地藏菩薩摩訶薩。
爾時，佛告諸大眾言：「汝等各各應當受持此法門，隨所住處，廣令流布。所以者何？如此法門，甚為難值，能大利益。若人得聞彼地藏菩薩摩訶薩名號，及信其所說者，當知是人速能得離一切所有諸障礙事，疾至無上道。」於是大眾皆同發言：「我當受持，流布世間，不敢令忘。」
爾時，堅淨信菩薩摩訶薩白佛言：「世尊，如是所說六根聚修多羅中，名何法門？此法真要，我當受持，令未來世普皆得聞。」佛告堅淨信菩薩摩訶薩言：「此法門名為『占察善惡業報』；亦名『消除諸障增長淨信』；亦名『開示求向大乘者進趣方便顯出甚深究竟實義』；亦名『善安慰說令離怯弱速入堅信決定法門』。依如是名義，汝當受持。」佛說此法門名已，一切眾會，悉皆歡喜，信受奉行。
占察善惡業報經卷下
At that time, when the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Kṣitigarbha had expounded these excellent, skillful, and essential teachings, ten hundred million sentient beings gave rise to the mind of unsurpassed, complete awakening, and abided in the stage of firm faith. A further ninety-eight thousand bodhisattvas attained the forbearance of the unborn. The whole great assembly, each with heavenly incense and flowers, made offerings to the Buddha and to the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Kṣitigarbha.
At that time the Buddha said to the great assembly: "Each of you should uphold this Dharma-gate, and wherever you dwell, spread it widely abroad. Why is this? Because such a Dharma-gate as this is exceedingly hard to encounter, and can bring great benefit. If a person comes to hear the name of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, and has faith in what he has taught, know that this person will swiftly be able to leave behind every hindrance that exists, and will speedily reach the unsurpassed path." Then the whole assembly together declared: "We shall uphold it, and spread it abroad in the world, and shall not dare let it be forgotten."
Then the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Firm and Pure Faith said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, in this sūtra on the Cluster of Faculties, as it has been taught, what name should this Dharma-gate be given? This teaching is truly essential — I shall uphold it, so that in ages to come it may be universally heard." The Buddha said to the bodhisattva-mahāsattva Firm and Pure Faith: "This Dharma-gate is named 'The Divination of Good and Evil Karmic Retribution'; it is also named 'The Extinguishing of Every Hindrance and the Increase of Pure Faith'; it is also named 'Opening and Showing the Expedient Means of Progress for Those Who Seek to Move Toward the Great Vehicle, and Manifesting the Ultimate and Profound True Meaning'; it is also named 'The Skillful Reassurance and Explanation That Frees One from Fainthearted Weakness and Leads Swiftly into the Decisive Stage of Firm Faith.' In accordance with these names and their meanings, you should uphold it." When the Buddha had spoken the names of this Dharma-gate, the whole assembly rejoiced greatly, and received it with faith, and put it into practice.
The Sūtra on the Divination of the Effects of Good and Evil Karma, Second Fascicle, Ends
Zhixu maps each of the sūtra's four names directly onto its structure, so that the four names read almost as a table of contents for this entire collection: "Divination of Good and Evil Karmic Retribution" for the three wheel-marks of Parts 1 through 3; "Extinguishing Every Hindrance and Increasing Pure Faith" more specifically for the repentance method taught alongside the second wheel in Part 2; "Opening and Showing the Expedient Means of Progress for Those Who Seek the Great Vehicle" for the one real realm and its two contemplations in Parts 4 and 5; and "The Skillful Reassurance That Frees One from Fainthearted Weakness" for this closing part. He treats every one of the four as simultaneously a name for the whole sūtra and a name for one movement within it — "通則一部圓詮，皆是...別則指初示占察法" ("taken generally, each names the entire perfect teaching; taken specifically, each points to one particular section") — which is his own way of insisting that a text opening with cast wooden wheels and a text closing with the negation of every conceptual extreme are, from the very first line, one single teaching rather than two loosely stitched together. The sūtra's final numbers — a hundred thousand million beings reaching firm faith, ninety-eight thousand bodhisattvas attaining the forbearance of the unborn — are, on the same reading, not an isolated flourish but this text's own closing testimony to exactly what it claimed at the start: that a method built for beings too doubtful and obstructed for direct practice can, if followed all the way through, actually deliver them to the reality it was teaching about from its very first cast.
Collection Complete
This closes Ru-Yi's translation of the Sūtra on the Divination of the Effects of Good and Evil Karma, across all six parts and both of its fascicles: three wheel-marks that measure a past karmic seed's existence, age, and eventual fruit, cast only within a rite of vow and confession and read only as a summons back into practice; a ten-part method of repentance for karma too heavy to meditate on directly; the one real realm — mind-nature itself, unborn and unceasing, whole in every being rather than divided among them; the two contemplations built directly on that foundation, Mind-Only and Suchness, together with name-recitation as an equal third door for a mind still too fearful to proceed; and Kṣitigarbha's own closing reassurance, answering the fear that the path is impossibly long, the fear that emptiness means nothing matters, and the fear — or its mirror-image presumption — that nothing is left to do at all. See the full translation notes for this collection's recurring terms, and the collection index to return to any part.