Fourteen Deeds of a Buddha

Fourth, the mark of freedom from obstruction: obstruction is of three kinds. The obstruction of affliction — freed from this, one attains the arhat liberated through wisdom. The obstruction to meditative concentration — freed from this, one attains the arhat liberated in both respects, and likewise the pratyekabuddha. The obstruction to omniscience — this is broken by the bodhisattva path, and, freed from it, one attains perfect enlightenment. Though these three obstructions are present across the three stages, the Tathāgata's dharmakāya is never stained by them. Fifth, the mark of the purity of the dharmakāya's own realm: there are four similes, each carrying four meanings. As to the first set: the dharmakāya's unchangingness is like gold; thusness's purity is like water; the ultimate truth's signlessness is like space; and mahāparinirvāṇa's manifest clarity is like a sunbeam. As to the second set: supernatural transformation is like gold; compassion's moistening is like water; the self-nature's never abandoning sentient beings is like space; and prajñā's liberating purity is like a sunbeam. As to the third set: the cause's original, unstained purity is like gold; the supreme path's cleansing is like water; liberation's freedom from entanglement is like space; and the fruit's own essence made manifest is like a sunbeam. As to the fourth set: bliss's own beneficial nature is like gold; the pure essence's cleanness is like water; the virtue of permanence's indestructibility is like space; and the meaning of self's freedom from attachment is like a sunbeam.

Question: "What does each of these five marks reveal?" Answer: "The first, the unconditioned, reveals the sense of category, since the Tathāgata's dharmakāya takes the unconditioned as its categorial mark. The second, neither one nor different, reveals the sense of characteristic, showing that the Tathāgata's own characteristic is neither one nor two. The third, freedom from the two extremes, reveals the sense of foothold — 'foot' referring to the whole of the bodhisattva's noble path, 'instep' to what that path depends upon; by relinquishing both extremes, one can rely on the middle way and reach the dharmakāya. The fourth, freedom from every obstruction, reveals that the dharmakāya's virtue is free of all defilement. The fifth, the dharmakāya's own purity, reveals that its fruit is stainless, limpid, and still." Furthermore, the sequence of these five marks may be understood proceeding either from first to last or from last to first: the first reveals permanence, the second the truly real, the third the antidote, the fourth liberation, and the fifth inherent purity. And their sequence of meanings runs: on account of self-nature, the unconditioned; on account of non-discrimination, neither one nor different; on account of the domain of sagely wisdom, freedom from the two extremes; on account of inherent purity, freedom from every obstruction; and on account of ultimate accomplishment, the dharma-realm's purity. These are the five marks.

Next, the five virtues are: immeasurability, uncountability, inconceivability, having no equal, and ultimate purity. As to immeasurability, there are four senses: immeasurable because of the vastness of time involved; immeasurable because of the greatness of its function; immeasurable because there is neither excess nor deficiency; and immeasurable because it has no middle point. As when the Buddha asked Śāriputra: "Are you able to fully comprehend the Tathāgata's virtues in their true measure?" Śāriputra answered: "I am not, World-Honored One." The Buddha asked further: "How, then, do you come to have faith in the Tathāgata's virtues?" Śāriputra answered: "I now, relying on my status as a śrāvaka, am able to observe the Tathāgata's virtues of discipline and the rest, and everywhere I look, a sense of wonder arises. It is like a person walking through a heavenly garden who, along the way, sees a jewel-adorned tree, and a sense of wonder arises in him — I am exactly the same, World-Honored One. Or it is like a person standing outside a great city, seeing the people going in and out, every one of them admirable, and so reasoning: everyone within this city must be admirable as well. I am exactly the same: relying on my status as a śrāvaka, I observe the Tathāgata's virtues and find nothing there but wonder, knowing it through faith."

As to uncountability: are these immeasurable virtues one, or many? Their number is inexhaustible, surpassing even the sands of the Ganges. As the Aśvavatī Sūtra says in verse: "If a person had a thousand heads, and each head a hundred mouths, and each mouth a hundred tongues, and each tongue a hundred voices — even then, describing but one portion of the ten powers, an entire eon would not suffice to exhaust it." As to inconceivability: because it lies beyond the domain of ordinary reflective cognition. As to having no equal: because it is not shared in common attainment even with the three vehicles of śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas. As to ultimate purity: because the ground of ignorance is permanently extinguished without remainder. These are the dharmakāya's five virtues.

Next, as to the sambhogakāya: its power and function are vast and great. This body has, at its root, three virtues: great prajñā, great meditative concentration, and great compassion. Great prajñā has non-discriminating sagely wisdom as its essence. Great meditative concentration has effortlessness as its essence, already free of any thought of entering or emerging from concentration. Great compassion has the ability to extract and to rescue as its essence. It is in order to bring sentient beings' own aspirations to full completion that these three are needed: for the joy of the Dharma, for the six supernatural powers, and for extraction and rescue. Hence great compassion extracts beings from the suffering of the three evil destinies and establishes them among humans and gods; great concentration manifests the six supernatural powers, giving rise to faith and delight; and prajñā allows one to receive the joy of the Dharma, bringing liberation to maturity. This is called the sambhogakāya.

Next, as to the nirmāṇakāya: great compassion is its root, meditative concentration is what allows it to appear in transformation, and prajñā endows it with five capacities — to give rise to revulsion, to bring about entry into the noble path, to cause the abandonment of former attachments, to inspire faith and delight in the great Dharma, and to enable the reception of the prediction of unsurpassed enlightenment. These three great dharmas, at the causal stage, perfume and cultivate suchness, and establish the original vow — and it is by means of this vow that, once beyond the path, one is able, through all three bodies, to perform the work of benefiting sentient beings. Hence the nirmāṇakāya appears within this world of the five defilements, performing fourteen deeds: manifesting its original birth-story; manifesting birth in Tuṣita heaven; descending from that heaven into the intermediate state; entering the womb; leaving the womb; learning worldly skills; the youthful prince's games; going forth from home; ascetic practice; approaching the bodhi tree; defeating Māra's army; attaining buddhahood; turning the wheel of the Dharma; and entering final nirvāṇa. These fourteen deeds appear throughout this world of the five defilements, continuing until sentient beings are exhausted, and serve five purposes: first, to teach impermanence, suffering, no-self, emptiness, and the stillness of nirvāṇa, giving rise, through the sound of this correct teaching, to a sense of dread toward the three realms of existence; second, having given rise to this dread, to bring about entry into the noble path of the two vehicles; third, having entered the noble path, to give rise to the aspiration for ultimate nirvāṇa — and, in order to break through the excessive pride this aspiration can produce, to teach the true Dharma of the Lotus and similar Mahāyāna sūtras, causing sentient beings to relinquish their former attachment, and, taking up compassion, prajñā, and the four means of attraction, to bring them to maturity within the unsurpassed vehicle; fifth, once matured, to bestow upon them the prediction of unsurpassed enlightenment. These are the deeds of the nirmāṇakāya.

Next, with respect to these three bodies, each one, individually, has its own single virtue: the dharmakāya, being subtle, has profundity as its virtue; the sambhogakāya, being complete with majestic power, has vastness as its virtue; and the nirmāṇakāya, being able to rescue ordinary beings and every other kind of sentient being, has gentleness as its virtue.