Every World Is Illusion-Dwelling
The two children name their shared liberation, Dwelling in Illusion, and begin a precise catalogue: every world, every sentient being, every dharma, the three realms, and the whole cycle of birth, aging, death, sorrow, and suffering are each illusion-dwelling — each for its own distinct, stated cause.
World, Beings, Dharmas, the Three Realms, and Birth-and-Death — Each Illusion-Dwelling, Each for Its Own Cause
「時，童子、童女告善財言：「善男子！我等證得菩薩解脫，名為幻住。以斯淨智觀諸世間皆幻住，因緣生故；一切眾生皆幻住，業煩惱所起故；一切法皆幻住，無明有愛等展轉緣生故；一切三界皆幻住，顛倒智所生故；一切眾生生滅，生、老、死、憂悲、苦惱皆幻住，虛妄分別所生故；……」
At that time, the boy and the girl said to Sudhana: "Good man, we have realized the bodhisattva's own liberation named Dwelling in Illusion. Through this pure wisdom, we behold: every world is illusion-dwelling, because it arises from causes and conditions; every sentient being is illusion-dwelling, because they arise from karma and the afflictions; every dharma is illusion-dwelling, because it arises through the mutual conditioning of ignorance, existence, craving, and the rest; the three realms in their entirety are illusion-dwelling, because they arise from inverted cognition; the arising and ceasing of every sentient being — birth, old age, death, sorrow and grief, suffering and affliction — are all illusion-dwelling, because they arise from false discrimination … [the catalogue continues]"
Each item in this catalogue pairs a claim of illusion with a specific causal chain rather than a bare assertion — the world is illusion-dwelling not simply "because everything is empty" but because it "arises from causes and conditions," precisely tracing dependent origination as the mechanism producing the appearance mistaken for solid reality. Fazang reads this precision as the liberation's own distinguishing feature: "illusion" here names not vagueness but exact causal analysis, applied item by item to the full range of what exists.
Part 245 In Progress
Five of the catalogue's items are now given in full. Part 246 continues with lands, śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and bodhisattva assemblies, closing on the children's own self-limitation.
Continue to Part 246 →