A Name, and Form That Is Not Form
Sudhana asks three questions at once: the Dharma-gate's own name, how long she has held it, and how long until she attains buddhahood. She names it — Awakening Sentient Beings and Nurturing Roots of Goodness According to What Is Fitting to Transform — and explains awakening itself as the direct realization that every dharma is equal, and that form, rightly understood, is not form at all, even while boundless forms continue to be manifested.
A Name, and the Meaning of Awakening
爾時，善財說偈讚已，白言：「天神向所顯現不思議法，此法門者名為何等？發道心來為幾時耶？久如當成無上菩提？」
答言：「善男子！此法門者名隨應化覺悟眾生長養善根。善男子！我入此法門，覺悟一切諸法平等，知一切法真實之相，遠離世間，無所染著，解一切色非一、非異，了色非色，而能顯現無量諸色；
At that time Sudhana, having finished praising her in verse, said: "O deva, the inconceivable Dharma you have just manifested — what is this Dharma-gate called? How long has it been since you raised the mind of the path? And how long until you attain unsurpassed bodhi?"
She answered: "Good son, this Dharma-gate is named Awakening Sentient Beings and Nurturing Roots of Goodness According to What Is Fitting to Transform. Good son, when I enter this Dharma-gate, I awaken to the equality of every dharma, know the true mark of every dharma, depart far from the world, am stained by nothing, understand that every form is neither one nor different, and understand that form is not form, and yet am able to manifest boundless forms;"
Fazang notes that, of Sudhana's three questions, only two receive an answer: 此中亦問法根深厚相，通有三問：一問名義、二問發心久近、三問幾時成佛。答中不答後問，故唯二答 — "here too he asks about the depth of this Dharma's own root, with three questions in all: first, asking its name and meaning; second, asking how long since raising the mind; third, asking how long until buddhahood. Within the answer, the last question is not answered, and so there are only two answers." The question of when she herself will become a buddha is simply passed over — not evaded, exactly, but left unaddressed, as though the account itself has more urgent things to explain first.
Of the name itself, Fazang writes: 初答名義中，先名者，身隨應化智善開覺，令物增善，故云長養 — "within the first answer, on name and meaning: first, the name — the body, according with the wisdom of what is fitting to transform, skillfully opens awakening, causing beings to increase in goodness; hence 'nurturing.'" He then divides the explanation of meaning into four, the first of which is here: 我入此下顯義用中四：初釋覺悟義，謂了法平等是正證故 — "beginning with 'when I enter this,' the meaning and function are revealed in four parts; the first explains the meaning of 'awakening' — namely, that understanding the equality of every dharma is itself direct realization." The paradox stated here — form that is "not form," and yet capable of manifesting "boundless forms" — is not a contradiction the text resolves before moving on; it is, rather, the very premise on which the vast catalogue of forms in the next part depends.
Part 107 In Progress
The Dharma-gate has been named, and awakening itself defined as understanding form as not-form while still manifesting form without limit. Part 108 turns to what this produces directly: a catalogue of a hundred kinds of form this teacher manifests, each named in turn.
Continue to Part 108 →