Without an Upright Mind, No True Meaning
The catalogue continues: it is like a person who constantly upholds ambrosia in mindfulness, undistracted, and is thereby able to discern every dharma; a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise, upholding the ambrosial true Dharma of the mind of bodhi with undistracted right mindfulness, and thereby able to teach and transform every sentient being, causing them to be endowed with every great vow, perfecting the very body of wisdom. It is like a plow that has no proper yoke, which cannot be put to use at all; the mind of bodhi is likewise, and apart from an upright mind, it holds no true meaning within the tathāgata's own Dharma.
Undistracted Mindfulness and the Plow's Necessary Yoke
「善男子！譬如有人常持甘露，專念不散，而能分別一切諸法。菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，持菩提心甘露正法，正念不散，而能教化一切眾生，令具大願，成智慧身。
「善男子！譬如犁無有扼則不堪用。菩提之心亦復如是，離正直心，於如來法，無有實義。
"Good man, it is like a person who constantly upholds ambrosia in mindfulness, undistracted, and is thereby able to discern every dharma. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: upholding the ambrosial true Dharma of the mind of bodhi with undistracted right mindfulness, he is thereby able to teach and transform every sentient being, causing them to be endowed with every great vow, and perfecting the very body of wisdom.
"Good man, it is like a plow that has no proper yoke, which cannot be put to use at all. The mind of bodhi is likewise: apart from an upright mind, it holds no true meaning at all within the tathāgata's own Dharma."
This second simile is unusual within the catalogue for stating a genuine condition rather than an unconditional praise: unlike nearly every other simile so far, which describes what bodhicitta unconditionally accomplishes, this one states what bodhicitta requires in order to accomplish anything at all — an upright mind (正直心), without which it becomes as useless as an unyoked plow. Fazang reads this as a deliberate corrective inserted partway through an otherwise unrelenting catalogue of praise, guarding against the possible misreading that bodhicitta alone, detached from the sincerity that must accompany it, would suffice on its own.
Part 379 Complete
Two more similes are now given in full. Part 380 turns to the wheel-turning king's own crown, called Elephant-Treasury, whose washing sends the four armies coursing through open sky.
Continue to Part 380 →