Why the Śrāvakas Cannot See
Ten named great śrāvakas — Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, and eight companions — sit in the very same transfigured hall, and perceive none of it: not the Buddha's own sovereign mastery, not the bodhisattvas gathered around him. Ten similes explain why, ending in one that reverses the whole comparison: it is the Tathāgata, not the śrāvakas, who cannot be seen.
What the Great Śrāvakas Do Not See, and Why
爾時，諸大聲聞舍利弗、目揵連、摩訶迦葉、離婆多、須菩提、阿泥盧豆、難陀、金毘羅、迦旃延、富樓那彌多羅尼子，如是等諸大聲聞，在祇洹林而悉不見如來自在、如來莊嚴、如來境界、如來變化、如來師子吼、如來妙功德、如來自在行、如來勢力、如來住持力，清淨佛剎，如是等事，皆悉不見。亦復不見不可思議菩薩大會，菩薩境界自在變化，菩薩眷屬隨所來方妙寶莊嚴諸師子座，菩薩宮殿三昧自在周遍觀察，菩薩奮迅勤行精進供養諸佛，菩薩授記長養善根，菩薩受身、清淨法身、智身、願身、色身相好，無量光明，圓滿莊嚴，放大光網變化身雲，菩薩充滿一切方網，菩薩諸行圓滿具足；如是等事，一切聲聞，諸大弟子，皆悉不見。何以故？
修習別異善根行故；本不修習能見如來自在善根，亦不修習淨佛土行，又不讚歎見佛自在所得功德，不於生死中教化眾生發阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心，亦不安立眾生於佛菩提，亦不守護如來種姓令不斷絕，亦不攝取一切眾生，亦不成就諸波羅蜜，不為眾生稱歎勝妙智慧眼地，亦不修習一切智行，不求諸佛離世善根，亦不出生自在淨剎，不求菩薩諸通明眼，不修菩薩境界，不壞善根，亦不出生佛力，住持菩薩大願，又亦不知諸法如幻，菩薩集會悉皆如夢，亦不修習菩薩離生聖行之心，不得普賢清淨智眼。是諸功德不與聲聞、辟支佛共；以是因緣，諸大弟子，不見、不聞、不入、不知、不覺、不念、不能遍觀、亦不生意。何以故？此是菩薩智慧境界，非諸聲聞智慧境界。是故，諸大弟子在祇洹林，不見如來自在神力，亦無三昧清淨智眼，於微細處見諸境界，亦無法門神力境界，亦無諸力勝妙功德，亦無是處智，亦無智眼，能見聞覺知及生意念，亦不樂說，不能讚歎，不能顯現，不能施與，不能勸化安立眾生於彼妙法。何以故？以聲聞乘出三界故。又以滿足聲聞之道住聲聞果，不能具足無所有智；住真實諦，常樂寂靜，遠離大悲，常自調伏，捨離眾生。是故，雖與如來對面而坐，不能覺知神變自在。
At that time the great śrāvakas — Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, Revata, Subhūti, Aniruddha, Nanda, Kapphiṇa, Kātyāyana, Pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra, and other great śrāvakas such as these — though present in Jeta's Grove, saw none of it: not the Tathāgata's sovereign mastery, not the Tathāgata's adornment, not the Tathāgata's own domain, not the Tathāgata's transformations, not the Tathāgata's lion's roar, not the Tathāgata's sublime merit, not the Tathāgata's sovereign conduct, not the Tathāgata's own strength, not the Tathāgata's sustaining power, not the pure buddha-land — none of these things did they see at all. Nor did they see the inconceivable great assembly of bodhisattvas, the bodhisattvas' own domain of sovereign transformation, the bodhisattvas' retinues with their marvelously jeweled lion-thrones arriving from every direction, the bodhisattvas' palaces surveyed on every side through sovereign mastery of samādhi, the bodhisattvas' own vigor diligently exerted in making offerings to the buddhas, the bodhisattvas receiving their predictions and nurturing their roots of goodness, the bodhisattvas' own bodies — pure Dharma-body, wisdom-body, vow-body, form-body with every excellent mark, immeasurable light, perfect adornment, releasing great nets of light and clouds of transformation-bodies — the bodhisattvas filling every direction's own net, or the bodhisattvas' every practice brought to perfect fulfillment. None of these things did any of the great śrāvakas, these great disciples, see at all. Why is this so?
Because they had cultivated a different kind of root of goodness. Originally they had not cultivated the root of goodness able to see the Tathāgata's own sovereign mastery, nor had they cultivated the practice of purifying a buddha-land; nor had they praised the merit gained through seeing the Buddha's own sovereign mastery; they had not, amid birth and death, taught and transformed sentient beings so as to raise the thought of unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening in them; nor had they established sentient beings in buddhahood; nor had they guarded the Tathāgata's own lineage so that it would never be cut off; nor had they gathered in every sentient being; nor had they accomplished the pāramitās; they had not, on behalf of sentient beings, extolled the ground of sublime, excellent wisdom's own eye; nor had they cultivated the practice of omniscience; they had not sought the buddhas' own root of goodness that transcends the world; nor had they given rise to a sovereign, pure land of their own; they had not sought the bodhisattvas' every spiritual power and radiant eye; they had not cultivated the bodhisattvas' own domain; they had not broken open their own root of goodness so as to give rise to a buddha's own power, upholding the bodhisattva's great vow; nor had they known that every dharma is like an illusion, that every gathering of bodhisattvas is entirely like a dream; nor had they cultivated the bodhisattva's own mind of sacred conduct free of birth; and they had not attained Samantabhadra's own pure eye of wisdom. These merits are not shared with śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas — and it is for this reason that these great disciples neither saw, nor heard, nor entered, nor knew, nor perceived, nor reflected upon, nor were able to survey, nor gave rise to any thought of it at all. Why is this so? Because this is the domain of a bodhisattva's own wisdom, not the domain of a śrāvaka's wisdom. And so these great disciples, present in Jeta's Grove, did not see the Tathāgata's own sovereign spiritual power; nor did they have the pure eye of wisdom born of samādhi, able to see every domain down to its finest detail; nor did they have the domain of spiritual power belonging to any Dharma-gate; nor did they have any of the sublime, excellent merit of any spiritual strength; nor did they have the wisdom proper to this place, nor the eye of wisdom able to see, hear, perceive, know, or give rise to any thought of it; nor did they delight in speaking of it, nor were they able to praise it, to manifest it, to give it, or to exhort and establish sentient beings in that sublime Dharma. Why is this so? Because the śrāvaka vehicle goes forth from the three realms — and because, having fulfilled the śrāvaka path and abiding in the śrāvaka's own fruit, they were unable to be endowed with the wisdom of what has no fixed existence; abiding instead in the truth of ultimate reality, constantly delighting in stillness, they remained far from great compassion, constantly taming only themselves, and had abandoned sentient beings altogether. And so, even seated face to face with the Tathāgata himself, they were unable to perceive his own sovereign, miraculous transformation.
Fazang divides this whole section into three movements — first naming who fails to see, then naming what they fail to see, and finally explaining why — and treats the shift from Part 1's bare count of "five hundred great śrāvakas" to these ten named individuals as deliberate: 前文通列大數五百，今此別標上首，故舉十大弟子 — "the earlier passage listed the general total of five hundred; here it singles out the foremost among them, and so names these ten great disciples." He then works through each of the ten names in turn, several by way of a family etymology rather than a doctrinal one — Śāriputra ("Śāri's son") named for a mother whose sharp, darting eyes recalled the bird after which she herself was named; Mahākāśyapa ("Great Light-Drinker") from an ancestral sage whose body's own radiance was said to drink in the light of sun and moon; Rāhula's uncle Aniruddha rendered simply "無滅," Undying. These are the same "great" śrāvakas Part 1 already introduced as possibly being great bodhisattvas in disguise — and Fazang treats that earlier possibility as still live here: precisely because śrāvakas of this stature, rather than any ordinary disciple, are shown failing to perceive what surrounds them, the chapter's point about the sheer scale of the gap is made as forcefully as it can be made.
On the deeper puzzle this raises — if these ten have no capacity for the Mahāyāna at all, how could they even be present at this gathering, sharing (as Part 2 already showed) in the assembly's own silent wish? — Fazang gives a careful answer rather than dismissing the tension: 有悕法心，前能同念；眼未開故，示之不見 — "they have a mind that longs for the Dharma, and so were able to share in that earlier wondering; but their eye is not yet open, and so they are shown here failing to see." The wanting and the not-yet-seeing are not in conflict; the first is what makes the second worth narrating at all rather than simply passing over in silence.
Ten Similes for Blindness
譬如餓鬼，裸形飢渴，舉身燒然，為諸虎狼毒獸所逼，往詣恒河，欲求水飲，或見枯竭，或見灰炭。所以者何？悉由宿行罪業障故。一切聲聞，亦復如是；雖在祇洹，不覩如來自在神力。所以者何？無明障曀，覆淨眼故。譬如有人於大會中，昏寢夢見諸天城郭，帝釋宮殿，園觀林流，眾寶莊嚴，散諸雜華，寶樹行列；妙衣覆上，諸天男女遊戲其中。自然妙音共相娛樂，受天快樂，其人自覩，安住此處，見天宮殿無量莊嚴，其餘大會，悉不知見。所以者何？覺夢異故。一切菩薩世界諸王，亦復如是，如彼夢中，無所不見。深入菩薩妙法門故；積集善根，出生一切智願故；決定明了佛功德故；正向菩薩弘誓道故；滿足一切智故；滿足普賢諸行願故；得一切菩薩圓滿地故；得一切菩薩三昧自在故；行一切菩薩無礙智故。是故，一切諸大菩薩悉覩如來不可思議神變境界，深入明達究竟彼岸，一切聲聞諸大弟子，皆不能知。譬如雪山，有諸藥草，賢明良醫，悉分別知；雖有捕獵、放牧人等，遊止彼山，悉不能知。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，具足一切智，出生一切菩薩自在，明了如來神足變化；彼諸聲聞大弟子眾，雖處祇洹，悉不覺知。所以者何？常求自安，不廣濟故。譬如地中，有諸寶藏，唯呪術者，悉能別知，記錄庫藏，以自資給，奉養父母，賑䘏親屬，拯濟貧乏；菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，以淨慧眼，入佛自在不可思議神力境界，普入無量方便大海、諸三昧海，恭敬、供養一切諸佛，守護正法，以四攝法，攝取眾生。諸大聲聞，雖處祇洹，不覩如來自在神變；譬如盲人，至大寶洲，行、住、坐、臥，不見眾寶；此諸聲聞，亦復如是，在祇洹林大法寶洲，親侍世尊，不覩如來自在神變，菩薩大眾。所以者何？不得菩薩清淨眼故，不能次第覺法界故。譬如有人以明淨藥而用治眼，於夜闇中，處在大眾，悉見眾人行、住、坐、臥，餘人不見。如來亦爾，逮得無礙清淨智眼，悉能知見一切世間，示現無量自在神變，及菩薩眾。諸大聲聞不覩如來自在神變，及菩薩眾。譬如比丘，在大會中，入一切處定，所謂：地、水、火、風、天、眾生、境界，其餘大眾，悉不能見地、水、火、風，乃至境界諸一切處；如來所現不可思議，菩薩悉見，諸大聲聞不知、不見。譬如有人，以曀身藥自塗其目，行、住、坐、臥，無能見者，唯有彼人悉能覩見；如來亦復如是，永離世間，無能見者，唯一切智菩薩境界，非諸聲聞之所能知。如人從生，有二種天，常隨侍衛，一曰同生，二曰同名，天常見人，人不見天。如來神變，亦復如是，非諸聲聞所能知見，唯諸菩薩乃能覩見。譬如比丘，於大眾中，入滅盡定，不捨諸根，亦不滅度，而不知見諸大眾事。所以者何？滅定力故。諸大聲聞，亦復如是，處祇洹林大眾之中，諸根現前，而不覩見如來神變，不入、不知、不覺、不念、不生心意。所以者何？如來境界甚深彌曠，難知、難見、難得原底，無有限量；遠離世間，不可思議，無能壞者，非諸聲聞、緣覺境界。
It is like a hungry ghost, naked, starving, and parched, its whole body burning, pursued by tigers, wolves, and venomous beasts, who goes to the Ganges River wishing to drink water, and finds there either a dry riverbed or a heap of ashes and cinders. Why is this so? Entirely because of the hindrance of past karmic wrongdoing. Every śrāvaka is exactly the same: though present at Jetavana, they did not behold the Tathāgata's own sovereign spiritual power. Why is this so? Because the haze of ignorance obscured their own pure eye.
It is like someone at a great gathering who falls into a deep sleep and dreams of the walled cities of the heavens, the palace of Indra, parks, pavilions, groves, and streams, adorned with every jewel, strewn with every kind of flower, jeweled trees standing in rows, covered over with marvelous robes, heavenly men and women at play within them, enjoying themselves together to the sound of spontaneous, marvelous music, receiving heavenly bliss — that person alone beholds himself abiding in that place, seeing the heavenly palace's immeasurable adornment, while the rest of the gathering knows and sees nothing of it at all. Why is this so? Because waking and dreaming are simply different. Every king of every bodhisattva-world is exactly the same: as in that dream, there is nothing they do not see, because they have entered deeply into the bodhisattvas' own sublime Dharma-gate; because they have accumulated roots of goodness and given rise to the vow of omniscience; because they have decisively and clearly understood the Buddha's own merit; because they are rightly turned toward the bodhisattva's own vast vow and path; because they have fulfilled omniscience; because they have fulfilled every practice and vow of Samantabhadra; because they have attained every bodhisattva's own perfected ground; because they have attained every bodhisattva's own sovereign mastery of samādhi; and because they practice every bodhisattva's own unobstructed wisdom. And so every one of these great bodhisattvas beholds the Tathāgata's own inconceivable domain of miraculous transformation, entering deeply into a clear understanding that reaches the very far shore — something none of the great śrāvakas, these great disciples, are able to know at all.
It is like the snow-covered mountains, where every kind of medicinal herb grows: a wise and skilled physician can tell every one of them apart, while hunters and herders who wander and dwell upon that very same mountain know nothing of them at all. The bodhisattva-mahāsattvas are exactly the same: fully endowed with omniscience, giving rise to every bodhisattva's own sovereign mastery, clearly understanding the Tathāgata's own spiritual feet of transformation — while the assembly of great śrāvaka disciples, though dwelling at Jetavana, perceive none of it at all. Why is this so? Because they constantly seek only their own peace, and do not extend themselves broadly to save others.
It is like the earth, in which every kind of treasure lies buried: only one who knows the proper incantation is able to distinguish and know it, recording the treasury's contents so as to provide for himself, support his parents, relieve his relatives, and rescue the poor and destitute. The bodhisattva-mahāsattvas are exactly the same: with the pure eye of wisdom they enter the Buddha's own sovereign, inconceivable domain of spiritual power, entering broadly into the great ocean of immeasurable skillful means and the ocean of every samādhi, reverently making offerings to every buddha, guarding the true Dharma, and, through the four means of attraction, gathering sentient beings in. The great śrāvakas, though dwelling at Jetavana, did not behold the Tathāgata's own sovereign, miraculous transformation.
It is like a blind man who arrives at a great island of treasure: whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, he sees none of its treasures. These śrāvakas are exactly the same: at Jeta's Grove, the very island of the great treasure of the Dharma, personally attending the World-Honored One himself, they did not behold the Tathāgata's own sovereign, miraculous transformation, nor the great assembly of bodhisattvas. Why is this so? Because they had not attained the bodhisattva's own pure eye, and so were unable to awaken, step by step, to the Dharma-realm.
It is like someone who treats his eyes with a pure, radiant medicine: in the darkness of night, standing amid a great crowd, he alone sees everyone else walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, while no one else sees him. The Tathāgata is exactly the same: having attained the unobstructed, pure eye of wisdom, he is able to know and see every world entirely, manifesting immeasurable sovereign, miraculous transformations, and the assembly of bodhisattvas with them — while the great śrāvakas behold neither the Tathāgata's own sovereign, miraculous transformation, nor the assembly of bodhisattvas.
It is like a monk in a great assembly who has entered an absorption pervading every element — earth, water, fire, wind, the heavens, sentient beings, and every domain — such that the rest of the assembly is entirely unable to see the earth, the water, the fire, the wind, or any of these domains at all; while what the Tathāgata manifests, though inconceivable, the bodhisattvas see entirely, and the great śrāvakas neither know nor see it.
It is like someone who anoints his own eyes with a body-concealing salve: whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, no one is able to see him, though he himself sees everyone else entirely. The Tathāgata is exactly the same: forever set apart from the world, no one is able to see him, save only the domain of the bodhisattva of omniscience — this is not something any śrāvaka is able to know.
As with every person from the moment of birth, there are two kinds of gods who constantly attend and guard them — one called the "born-together" god, the other the "named-together" god — these gods constantly see the person, but the person never sees these gods. The Tathāgata's own miraculous transformation is exactly the same: it is not something any śrāvaka is able to know or see, but only the bodhisattvas are able to behold it.
It is like a monk in a great assembly who has entered the attainment of cessation: without abandoning any of his faculties, and without having entered final extinction, he nevertheless knows and sees nothing of what the rest of the great assembly is doing. Why is this so? Because of the power of that very cessation-attainment. The great śrāvakas are exactly the same: present amid the great assembly at Jeta's Grove, their faculties all outwardly intact, they did not behold the Tathāgata's own miraculous transformation — they did not enter it, did not know it, did not perceive it, did not reflect upon it, and gave rise to no thought of it at all. Why is this so? Because the Tathāgata's own domain is so profound and so vast — hard to know, hard to see, its very source impossible to reach, without any limit at all; forever set apart from the world, inconceivable, and impossible for anything to destroy — that it is not the domain of any śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha.
Fazang matches all ten similes to a specific doctrinal gap, and is careful to note that the comparison flips direction partway through: the first three similes fault the śrāvakas for a shortfall of their own (cognitive hindrance, a narrow mind without compassion), the middle similes describe both sides at once, and the final similes describe the bodhisattvas' and the Tathāgata's own positive attainment rather than the śrāvakas' lack — culminating in the ninth and tenth, where it is the Tathāgata who cannot be seen, not the śrāvakas who cannot see, reversing the entire comparison at the very last moment.
| Simile | What it illustrates, per Fazang |
|---|---|
| 1. Hungry ghost at the Ganges | The cognitive hindrance (所知障) that blocks the sublime domain from view |
| 2. Waking versus dreaming | Clinging to the lesser at the cost of the greater |
| 3. Herbs on the snow-mountain | A narrow mind lacking great compassion |
| 4. Buried treasure and the incantation | Lacking the pure eye of wisdom |
| 5. The blind man on the isle of treasure | Lacking the pure eye, restated |
| 6. The body-concealing salve | Lacking deep wisdom |
| 7. Absorption pervading every element | Lacking deep samādhi |
| 8. The self-concealing medicine | Lacking deep practice |
| 9. The two attendant gods | Lacking esoteric, hidden wisdom |
| 10. The attainment of cessation | Abiding contentedly in one's own station, having ceased seeking further |
Fazang closes this whole section by confronting a question the passage itself seems to invite: do these great śrāvakas actually attain any part of this Dharma, or not? His answer turns on a distinction between two ways a cause can operate: 法界緣起略有二門，一順緣門...即佛菩薩要是知見方得攝耳；二違緣門...即二乘眾要不知見方乃攝耳 — "the Dharma-realm's dependent arising has, in brief, two gates: one is the gate of favorable condition... where only buddhas and bodhisattvas, precisely by knowing and seeing, are included; the other is the gate of adverse condition... where the śrāvaka assembly, precisely by not knowing and not seeing, is nevertheless included." Their very blindness, on this reading, is itself a kind of participation — not the same participation a bodhisattva has, but a real one — which is why Fazang insists it specifically takes śrāvakas of this stature, rather than ordinary or lesser disciples, to make the point: 要以鶖子等類諸大聲聞，或是菩薩變化所作，方顯法勝 — "it specifically takes great śrāvakas such as Śāriputra — or bodhisattvas manifesting in that very form — to make the Dharma's own supremacy fully evident." A lesser figure's blindness would prove nothing; the blindness of the wisest disciple the Buddha ever taught proves everything.
Part 4 Complete
This closes Part 4: ten named great śrāvakas, seated in the very same transfigured hall as the bodhisattvas of Part 3, perceiving none of it — and ten similes explaining why, ending with two that reverse the comparison entirely, so that it is the Tathāgata himself who cannot be seen. Part 5 turns to the ten bodhisattvas who arrived from the ten directions, and to the hymns of praise each now raises before the Buddha.
Continue to Part 5 — Ten Hymns of Praise →