Differentiation, Stages, and Pervasion
Three short chapters close Fascicle Three. The mark of differentiation sorts sentient beings into ordinary beings, sages, and tathāgatas by their relation to buddha-nature, and further distinguishes how each group functions — through inversion, without inversion, or through the freely chosen activity of a buddha's response and transformation bodies. The mark of stages locates buddha-nature across three positions, impure, pure, and utterly pure, quoting at length from the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra. And the mark of pervasion closes the fascicle by showing that buddha-nature fills all three stages exactly as evenly as empty space fills a vessel of clay, silver, or gold.
The Mark of Differentiation
復次分別相義應知。分別者，是如來性明一切法如如清淨，是其通相，如般若等經中所說。一切法者，即三性法。如如者，俗如即真如、真如即俗如，真俗二如，無別異故。清淨者有二種：一者因中如如，未得無垢果地如如，無復垢穢故。二者因果俱淨，因中是無染清淨，至果無垢清淨故。如此等義，是佛性通相。為顯此義故，佛說般若波羅蜜等諸經。是佛性中分別眾生自有三種：一者不證見佛性，名為凡夫；二者能證見佛性，名為聖人；三者證至此理究竟清淨，說名如來。
復次約此佛性，眾生事用有三：一者顛倒為事、二者無顛倒為事、三者無顛倒無散亂有別法為正事。顛倒者，一切凡夫。無倒者，一切有學聖人。無倒散者，道後法身。有別法為正事者，是應化二身，為度眾生，皆由大悲本願力故。言顛倒者，一切凡夫有三倒，謂想見心，即皮肉心等三煩惱故。二無顛倒者，無惑無行二種倒故，即一切菩薩有學聖人。惑倒者，違逆真如故，起一切煩惱，名為惑倒。行倒者，二乘人應修常等四德，翻四顛倒、行菩提道，而今不修，但修無常苦等為解脫因，故名行倒。此明是無小乘偏修之行。離此兩倒故，說大乘有學聖人。三無倒散有別法為正事者，是滅除禪定解脫一切智等三障故。法界澄淨，澄故靜寂，淨故無垢，不捨正事，大悲本願恒化眾生，名為如來。故約此性分別眾生，是名分別相。
Next, the mark of differentiation should be understood. "Differentiation" means that the Tathāgata's nature illuminates all dharmas as equally, thus, pure — this being its general mark, as spoken of in the Prajñāpāramitā and other sūtras. "All dharmas" here means the dharmas of the three natures. "Thusness" means that conventional thusness is precisely ultimate thusness, and ultimate thusness is precisely conventional thusness — the two having no distinguishing difference. "Purity" is of two kinds: the thusness within the cause, not yet having attained the stainless thusness of the resultant stage, yet already without further defilement; and purity shared equally by cause and fruit, the cause being unstained purity, and the attainment of the fruit being stainless purity. Meanings such as these constitute buddha-nature's general mark, and it is in order to reveal this meaning that the Buddha taught the Prajñāpāramitā and similar sūtras. Within buddha-nature, sentient beings are differentiated into exactly three kinds: those who have not realized and seen buddha-nature, called ordinary beings; those who are able to realize and see it, called sages; and those who have realized this principle to its ultimate purity, called tathāgatas.
Next, with respect to this buddha-nature, sentient beings' functioning is of three kinds: functioning through inversion; functioning without inversion; and, being without inversion and without distraction, having a distinct dharma as one's proper function. "Inversion" refers to all ordinary beings. "Without inversion" refers to all sages still in training. "Without inversion and without distraction" refers to the dharmakāya beyond the path. "Having a distinct dharma as one's proper function" refers to the two bodies of response and transformation, which, for the sake of saving sentient beings, arise entirely through the power of great compassion's original vow. As to inversion: all ordinary beings have three kinds — conception, view, and mind, being the three afflictions at the level of skin, flesh, and heart. As to the second, without inversion: this is free from the two kinds of inversion of delusion and of practice, and refers to all bodhisattvas who are sages still in training. The inversion of delusion means giving rise to every affliction by acting against suchness. The inversion of practice means that, although followers of the two vehicles ought to cultivate the four virtues of permanence and the rest, reversing the four inverted views, they instead cultivate only impermanence, suffering, and the like as the cause of liberation — showing this to be the one-sided practice characteristic of the Hīnayāna. Free from both these inversions, one is called a Mahāyāna sage still in training. As to the third, without inversion and without distraction, having a distinct dharma as one's proper function: this refers to the extinguishing of the three obstructions to meditative concentration, liberation, and omniscience. The dharma-realm, being limpid and pure, never abandons its proper function, and, through the power of great compassion's original vow, constantly transforms sentient beings; this is what is called a tathāgata. It is by differentiating sentient beings with reference to this nature that this is called the mark of differentiation.
The Mark of Stages
復次階位相義應知。階位義者，於種種法門中若有分別，廣說無流法界不出六種：一自性、二因、三果、四事、五總攝、六分別。為顯無流界自體故，先說自性。依止此性故，起信樂等四種勝因。由此因故，得常住等四德之果。由佛性故，起厭惡生死、樂求涅槃事用得成。由此自性故得離欲，得離欲因名為總攝。約佛性故，故得分別三種眾生。如來所說八萬四千法門，為六種所攝，次第在三位中。三位者，一不淨位，謂眾生界。二者淨位，謂菩薩地。三者最清淨位，即是佛地。故《無上依經》說：阿難！是如來法界，無量無邊諸煩惱㲉之所隱蔽，隨生死流漂沒六道無始輪轉，我說名眾生界。阿難！是眾生界，於生死苦而起厭離、除六塵欲，依八萬四千法門諸波羅蜜所攝修菩提道，我說名菩薩。阿難！是眾生界，已得出離諸煩惱㲉、過一切苦，洗除垢穢究竟，法然清淨澄潔，為諸眾生之所願見，微妙上地、一切智地，一切無礙，入此中住，至無比能，已得法王大自在力，我說名如來。
Next, the mark of stages should be understood. As to the meaning of "stages": if one distinguishes among the various gates of teaching, broadly speaking, the outflow-free dharma-realm falls into no more than six categories — self-essence, cause, fruit, function, total inclusion, and differentiation. In order to reveal the self-essence of the outflow-free realm, self-essence is spoken of first. Depending on this nature, the four superior causes such as faith and delight arise; by means of these causes, the fruit of the four virtues such as permanence is attained; by means of buddha-nature, the functioning that gives rise to revulsion from saṃsāra and aspiration toward nirvāṇa is accomplished; by means of this self-essence, freedom from desire is attained, and the cause of freedom from desire is called total inclusion; and by reference to buddha-nature, sentient beings come to be differentiated into three kinds. The eighty-four thousand gates of teaching spoken by the Tathāgata are comprehended within these six categories, arranged in sequence across three stages: first, the impure stage, that is, the realm of sentient beings; second, the pure stage, that is, the ground of the bodhisattva; third, the utterly pure stage, that is, the ground of buddhahood. Hence the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra says: "Ānanda! This dharma-realm of the Tathāgata, concealed beneath immeasurable, boundless shells of affliction, following the current of saṃsāra, submerged in the six destinies, revolving since beginningless time — this I call the realm of sentient beings. Ānanda! This same realm of sentient beings, giving rise to revulsion toward the suffering of saṃsāra, removing desire for the six sense-objects, and, relying on the pāramitās comprehended within the eighty-four thousand gates of teaching, cultivating the path to enlightenment — this I call a bodhisattva. Ānanda! This same realm of sentient beings, having already attained liberation from every shell of affliction, having transcended every suffering, having washed away every defilement to its very end, being spontaneously pure and limpid, being what every sentient being longs to see, the subtle and supreme ground, the ground of omniscience, utterly unobstructed everywhere, entering and abiding within it, attaining unequaled capability, having attained the great sovereign power of the King of Dharma — this I call a tathāgata."
The Mark of Pervasion
復次遍滿相應知。遍滿者，凡夫聖人及諸如來無分別性。次第三位中，一顛倒虛妄、二無倒聖道、三四德究竟清淨。此三處平等通達相，並隨道理遍滿故。譬如土銀金等器中，虛空遍滿平等無差別。如來法界遍滿三位中亦復如是，是故從位次第說此遍滿。如《無上依經》說：阿難！是如來界，於三位中一切處等悉無罣礙，本來寂靜。譬如虛空一切色種不能覆不能塞，若土銀金器虛空處等悉無罣礙，是名遍滿。
Next, the mark of pervasion should be understood. "Pervasion" means that the nature shared by ordinary beings, sages, and tathāgatas admits of no discrimination. Across the three stages in sequence — inverted falseness, the sages' non-inverted path, and the ultimate purity of the four virtues — this nature is equally and thoroughly penetrating across all three, pervading them evenly, entirely in accordance with principle. It is like the empty space within vessels of clay, silver, and gold — that space pervades them all equally, without any difference. The Tathāgata's dharma-realm pervades the three stages in exactly the same way — hence this pervasion is spoken of following the sequence of the stages. As the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra says: "Ānanda! This realm of the Tathāgata, across all three stages and in every place equally, is entirely unobstructed, originally still. It is like empty space, which no variety of form can cover or block — just as, within vessels of clay, silver, and gold, the space they contain is entirely unobstructed alike." This is called pervasion.
The clay-silver-gold vessel returns here from the self-essence mark all the way back in Part 9, and the repetition is deliberate. There, the simile established that ordinary being, sage, and buddha share one undifferentiated nature, the way three different vessels share one undifferentiated space. Here, the same image is doing a related but distinct job: not that the nature is the same across the three, but that it is present in full, without partial coverage or partial obstruction, at every one of the three stages simultaneously — the space inside a clay pot is not "less empty" than the space inside a gold one. Taken together, the two uses of the simile rule out a natural but mistaken reading of the whole treatise: that buddha-nature might be something a being acquires more of as they progress, filling up gradually from ordinary being to sage to buddha. The vessel gets refined; the space inside it was never partial to begin with.
Fascicle Three Complete
This closes Fascicle Three, and with it seven of the treatise's ten marks — self-essence, cause, fruit, function, total inclusion, differentiation, stages, and pervasion. Fascicle Four opens with the ninth mark, non-change, the treatise's longest remaining chapter: nine similes — the lotus, the bee's honeycomb, the husk around rice, gold fallen in filth, a poor woman's buried treasure, and more — each illustrating one of nine layers of affliction that conceal buddha-nature without ever actually touching it.
Continue to Part 18 — Nine Similes of Non-Change →