Neither Permanent Nor Annihilated
Within the realm and dharma-realm of omniscience, Sudhana understands dedication as neither permanent nor annihilated, neither arising nor ceasing, and not produced without cause. Abandoning every view of existence and inverted delusion, he penetrates deeply into dependent origination and sees every conditioned dharma as a mirror's own image.
Seeing Every Conditioned Dharma as a Mirror's Own Image
「一切智境界法界，解了迴向非常、非斷，非生、非滅，非無因作。捨離有見、諸顛倒惑，謂從自在而生諸法；本有實性，次第而出；離我、我所，深達緣起；入諸法界，見有為法，猶如鏡像。離有無見，不生、不滅；」
In the realm and dharma-realm of omniscience, he understood dedication as neither permanent nor annihilated, neither arising nor ceasing, and not produced without cause. Abandoning views of existence and every inverted delusion, he understood that dharmas arise from their own sovereign power, their own inherent real nature coming forth in due sequence; free of self and what belongs to self, he penetrated deeply into dependent origination; entering the entire dharma-realm, he saw every conditioned dharma as like a mirror's own image. Free of views of existence and non-existence, neither arising nor ceasing;
The fourfold negation — neither permanent nor annihilated, neither arising nor ceasing — echoes the classical Madhyamaka formula for describing how phenomena actually exist, applied here specifically to dedication (迴向), the practice of directing one's own merit toward others' awakening. Fazang reads the mirror-image simile that follows as resolving an apparent tension: dharmas that are neither permanent nor annihilated can still appear vividly and function causally, exactly as a mirror's own reflection is neither the object itself nor simply nothing.
Part 278 Complete
This stage of Sudhana's own understanding is now given in full. Part 279 completes his contemplation with the classic similes of seal, lightning, dream, echo, and illusion, closing this entire approach to the tower.
Continue to Part 279 →