The Body That Practices — Karmic Birth and Transformation-Birth

Fifth, on the body practice depends on: according to the Hīnayāna, there is only the karmic body of birth and death, all the way to the ultimate stage — the Buddha himself is no different — and this is a real body, not a transformation. In the Initial Teaching, for the śrāvakas turning their minds toward the Mahāyāna, the karmic body of birth and death is likewise said to continue all the way to the ultimate stage, the buddha-body included — but here it is a transformation, not a real body. As for the direct path, there are two accounts. The first is by way of provisional position: in order to show the difference between the exertion-requiring and the effortless, the coarse and the subtle positions among the Ten Grounds, it is said that the karmic body of birth and death continues through the seventh ground, while the transformation-body appears from the eighth ground onward. The second is in terms of real retribution: it holds that the karmic body of birth and death continues all the way up to the diamond-like stage, since the seeds of the afflictive obstruction within the Ten Grounds are not yet permanently severed, and so are retained right up to the diamond-like stage. Given that this obstruction of affliction is still present, how could one not receive the karmic body of birth and death? Hence the Daśabhūmika Sūtra says: "up through the tenth ground, there is still an intermediate-state existence" — this is exactly what is meant.

Question: all bodhisattvas from the eighth ground upward have permanently subdued the afflictive obstruction, so that it no longer operates at all, since the fruit of outflow-free wisdom continues without interruption — just like an arhat, who has no active affliction whatsoever. How, then, could such a bodhisattva still receive the karmic body of birth and death? Answer: an ordinary person takes rebirth by way of active affliction moistening his karma; a sage does not. He takes rebirth only by retaining the seeds of affliction for that purpose. Hence the Abhidharmasamuccaya says: all sages take continuous rebirth solely by the power of the latent tendencies. And the Mahāyānasaṃgraha says: he differs from the ordinary person in that his higher mind is permanently subdued, and differs from the two vehicles in that he retains those seeds. Explanation: a sage's rebirth is not moistened by active affliction, and yet he still retains the seeds — how, then, could he fail to receive the karmic body of birth and death? If it is said that, from the eighth ground onward, the transformation-body is received solely on the condition of the cognitive obstruction, then the retained seeds of affliction would be entirely without use — why, then, would this not simply eliminate all the seeds of affliction outright at the very start of the eighth ground? Since this is evidently not the case, how could that position hold? If, however, one is speaking of a śrāvaka who has turned toward bodhi and already cut off the afflictive obstruction, then such a person may indeed receive the transformation-body on the condition of the cognitive obstruction alone, and this would apply uniformly across all the positions.

Question: if that is so, then why do the sacred teachings say that, from the eighth ground onward, the transformation-body is received on the sole basis of the cognitive obstruction? Answer: this is stated only in order to display, by way of a provisional comparison with the two vehicles, their relative superiority and inferiority. This provisional comparison, drawn from the various sacred teachings, may be briefly analyzed, according to the differing positions involved, into ten gates.

First: it is said that the arhat is simply identical to the Buddha, with no further division of position — as the Vinaya says, once the Buddha had brought the first five disciples to liberation, it was said that, the Buddha included, there were then six arhats in the world; and the arhat sits together with the Buddha, and so on. One should know that this is spoken according to the Hīnayāna teaching. Second: the arhat is also distinguished separately within the buddha-ground itself — as the Abhidharmasamuccaya says, upon attaining bodhi, one suddenly cuts off both the afflictive and cognitive obstructions at once, suddenly accomplishing arhatship and tathāgatahood together. Here, although the term "arhat" names only the exhaustion of affliction, it is spoken of at the very point of buddha-fruition, dividing great from small, precisely in order to give rise, among the śrāvakas, to a superior aspiration. Third: the tenth ground is named arhatship, since the buddha-ground surpasses it and is not the same — as the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, in speaking of the four kinds of reliance, says that the arhat abides on the tenth ground. This distinguishes great from small by way of cause differing from fruit. These first two gates are spoken according to the mind-turning teaching within the Initial Teaching. Fourth: through the seventh ground, one is provisionally likened to an arhat; from the eighth ground onward, one is provisionally likened to the bodhisattva position — as the Renwang Sūtra says, the far-going bodhisattva subdues the causes and effects habituated within the three realms and extinguishes their karma, and only in his final body abides in the arhat-position of the seventh ground. This distinguishes great from small by way of a position of self-mastery not yet attained within the cause. This is spoken according to the direct path within the Initial Teaching. Since, here, the śrāvaka is provisionally likened up to the seventh ground, both the afflictive obstruction and the karmic body of birth and death continue together up to this position; from the eighth ground onward, this is provisionally likened to the bodhisattva, whose position and practice surpass what came before — and so only the cognitive obstruction and the transformation-body remain.

Fifth: the first, second, and third grounds are provisionally likened to the mundane world, since the four mundane dhyānas and the like are attained there; the fourth ground is provisionally likened to the stream-enterer and the like, since the limbs of the path are attained there, this being the very first transcendence of the world; the fifth ground is provisionally likened to the śrāvaka-arhat, since the truth of the four noble truths is attained there; the sixth ground is provisionally likened to the pratyekabuddha, since the dharma of the twelve links of dependent origination is attained there; from the seventh ground onward, it is provisionally likened to the bodhisattva, since the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas is attained there — this is as the Sūtra of the Original Acts explains. All of the above is spoken solely in terms of the three-vehicle teaching, since the One Vehicle's own dharma has not yet been distinguished out from it. Sixth: the mundane and the two vehicles are, as before, matched up through the sixth ground; the seventh ground is provisionally likened to the three-vehicle bodhisattva, since self-mastery is not yet attained there; from the eighth ground onward, it is provisionally likened to the One Vehicle's own dharma, since self-mastery is then attained — as the Mahāyānasaṃgraha and similar texts explain. This is spoken in terms of the shared marks of the One Vehicle and the three vehicles alike. Seventh: already within the first ground, one has surpassed the mundane world and the two vehicles — as the Daśabhūmika-śāstra and similar texts explain. This is spoken in terms of the boundary of comparative realization within the three vehicles. Eighth: the three worthy positions before the grounds have already surpassed the stage of the two vehicles — as the Awakening of Faith explains; and the Renwang Sūtra says that, within the lineage-by-habituation, there are ten kinds of mind that have already transcended every wholesome stage of the two vehicles. This is spoken in terms of the Final Teaching's own account of non-retrogression. Ninth: after the fulfillment of the mind of faith, one has already surpassed the Hīnayāna, the three vehicles, and all the rest — as the "Chapter of the Worthy Leader" explains. This is spoken in terms of the One Vehicle. Tenth: from the very stage of the ordinary person, at the moment one first generates the mind, one has already surpassed the two vehicles — as the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra explains: an arhat-monk, recognizing that a novice has generated the mind, defers to him and places him first, and so on. This applies commonly to both the One Vehicle and the three vehicles. Because there exist provisional correspondences of this kind, the various statements, earlier and later, may all be understood on this model.

According to the Final Teaching: before the grounds, the bodhisattva retains affliction and receives the karmic body of birth and death; within the first ground, he permanently severs the seeds of all afflictions at once, without distinguishing the discriminated kind from the innate kind. Within the cognitive obstruction, he also severs one portion of its coarse, active manifestations. Hence, from the grounds onward, he receives the transformation-body, all the way to the diamond-like stage. The remaining meaning is explained below, under eliminating affliction. Question: if no affliction is retained from the grounds onward, how can great compassion still engage and gather beings through shared action? Answer: before the grounds, and within the Initial Teaching, the power of vow and wisdom is still weak, and so affliction is retained to assist the vow in receiving rebirth. Here it is not so: because the power of vow and wisdom is superior, rebirth is undertaken together with beings freely and at will.

Question: it is said that bodhisattvas through the eighth ground fall, in brief, into two types — one in whom compassion predominates, one in whom wisdom predominates. The compassion-predominant type retains affliction and receives the karmic body of birth and death; the wisdom-predominant type subdues affliction and receives the transformation-body. What is the meaning of this? Answer: this account, I fear, does not really hold up. Why is this? If compassion predominates, the accompanying wisdom must be inferior — and compassion guided by inferior wisdom would be mired in wrong views. How could compassion mired in views be called predominant? Even were compassion and wisdom perfectly equal, this still would not be called "compassion predominant" — how much less so when inferior wisdom guides compassion, and this is nonetheless called predominant! Likewise, if wisdom predominates, the accompanying compassion must be inferior — and wisdom guided by inferior compassion would be mired in quiescence. How could wisdom mired in quiescence be called predominant? Since bodhisattvas, from the very outset, differ from the ordinary person and the lesser vehicles, compassion and wisdom guide each other and are cultivated together in every single thought-moment, like the two wheels of a cart, like the two wings of a bird — how, then, could one speak of either as increasing relative to the other? One should know that it is because the Initial and Final Teachings differ in coarseness and subtlety that two kinds of birth-and-death are spoken of — not because compassion and wisdom increase relative to each other.

As for the claim that some are "wisdom-predominant," having permanently subdued their afflictions out of a Hīnayāna-habituated fear of them — if this occurs before the grounds, while suchness has not yet been realized, it may, in terms of prior habituation, allow for a type of this kind, since ripening is not yet complete. But from the first ground onward, practice and understanding are already ripened, and bodhisattvas equally realize, equally practice, equally cultivate, and equally cut off the very same things — how, then, could such a difference exist? Hence the Awakening of Faith says: bodhisattvas on the grounds are, in lineage, in the arising of the mind, and in practice, entirely without difference from one another. In this teaching, moreover, the transformation-body on the grounds is provisionally correlated with position in four distinct ways, as further indicated below. According to the Sudden Teaching, since all stages and positions whatsoever cannot be spoken of, the body one depends on likewise cannot be spoken of, and may be understood on this same model — as explained at length in the Nāgaśrī chapter of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra. According to the Perfect Teaching, the transformation-body is not spoken of at all — there is only the karmic body of birth and death, all the way up to the stainless samādhi just before the Tenth Ground, since, upon reaching that position, one attains the flesh-eye of universal sight, and thereby knows this is still the karmic body. So too with Sudhana and others, who exhaust the causal stage entirely within the karmic body. Question: why does this teaching not speak of the transformation-body at all? Answer: bodily forms above the level of the World of Worlds and the like are already so extremely subtle as to surpass even the heavenly beings, and ought properly to be classed together with the transformation-body. But because this teaching does not distinguish coarse and subtle marks within birth-and-death at all, treating them together, as a single whole, under the single heading of affliction — and because this whole boundary is suddenly overturned all at once after the fulfillment of faith — it is therefore not spoken of separately here. The rest may be understood on this model.