Where a Buddha Teaches
And How Many Bodies a Buddha Has攝化境界・佛身開合
Gate Nine's ninth and tenth sub-topics, closing the entire gate: first, how far a buddha's own domain of teaching and transformation actually extends — from the Hīnayāna's single defiled world, through an inconceivable Indian cosmology of world-oceans and world-seeds, to Vulture Peak and finally to Huayan's own Lotus Womb World-Ocean; then, how many bodies a buddha is said to have — one, two, three, four, or, in the Perfect Teaching's own final word, ten.
The Text
Where a Buddha Teaches — The Hīnayāna's Single World
第九明攝化分齊者。若依小乘中。唯此娑婆雜穢處。是佛報土。於中此閻浮提是報佛所依。餘百億等是化境分齊也。
Ninth, explaining the boundary of the domain of teaching and transformation: according to the Hīnayāna, only this defiled and mixed Sahā world is the buddha's own reward-land; within it, this very Jambudvīpa is what the reward-body buddha relies upon, while the remaining hundred million worlds and the rest constitute the boundary of the domain transformed.
若三乘中。法性土及自受用土。今此不說。其釋迦佛隨他受用實報淨土。或有說在摩醯首羅天化身充滿百億閻浮提是所化分齊。如梵網經及對法論等說。當知此約始教說。何以故。為二乘教以釋迦身為實報。今即翻彼顯其是化故。於彼天別立實報。又恐二乘不信界外有實淨土故。寄界內最勝處說。其化身但充滿百億等。亦順彼說也。
Within the three vehicles, there is the dharma-nature land and the land of self-enjoyment, neither of which is discussed here. As for Śākyamuni Buddha's own pure land of real reward for the enjoyment of others, some say it is located in the Maheśvara heaven, with a transformation-body filling a hundred million Jambudvīpas as the boundary of what is transformed. So the Brahmajāla Sūtra, the Abhidharmasamuccaya, and the like say. One should understand that this is spoken according to the Initial Teaching. Why is this? Because the teaching for the two vehicles takes Śākyamuni's own body as the real reward-body, this account now turns that around to show it is instead a transformation-body, and separately establishes the real reward in that Maheśvara heaven. And, fearing that the two vehicles would not believe that a real pure land exists beyond this world-system, it speaks instead of the most excellent place still within this world-system, and says merely that the transformation-body fills a hundred million such worlds and the rest — this too accords with their own account.
The Final Teaching — Beyond the Three Realms, and an Inconceivable Cosmology
或有說釋迦佛報土在三界外。如涅槃經云。西方去此三十二恒河沙佛土。有世界名無勝。是釋迦佛實報淨土。此約終教說。以不隨下說故。為顯娑婆唯是化故。是故當知。色頂之身亦非實報。
Some say that Śākyamuni Buddha's own reward-land lies beyond the three realms altogether. As the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra says: "To the west of here, past thirty-two Ganges-sands' worth of buddha-lands, there is a world called Unsurpassed — this is Śākyamuni Buddha's own real reward pure land." This is spoken according to the Final Teaching, since it does not accommodate itself to the lower account, in order to make clear that the Sahā world is nothing but a transformation. One should therefore understand that even the body dwelling at the summit of the form realm is likewise not the real reward-body.
或說化境非但百億。如大智論中。以三千大千世界為一數。數至恒河沙。為一世界性。又數此至恒河沙。為一世界海。數此又至無量恒河沙。為一世界種。數此又至無量十方恒河沙。為一佛世界所化分齊也。此亦約終教說。以攝化漸廣於前故。又唯約須彌山世界說。以居此界故。未說樹形等世界。故。非一乘也。
Some say that the domain transformed is not merely a hundred million worlds. As the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra explains: taking a three-thousandfold great-thousand world system as a single unit, and counting these up to a number equal to the sands of the Ganges, one obtains a single world-nature; counting these world-natures again up to the sands of the Ganges, one obtains a single world-ocean; counting these again up to measureless Ganges-sands, one obtains a single world-seed; and counting these again up to measureless Ganges-sands in all ten directions, one obtains the boundary of a single buddha-world's domain of transformation. This too is spoken according to the Final Teaching, since its domain of teaching and transformation grows progressively vaster than what came before. Yet it still speaks only of a Mount Sumeru-centered world-system, since it still dwells within this kind of world-system, not yet speaking of tree-shaped worlds and the like — hence it is not yet the One Vehicle's own account.
The escalation across this sub-topic is the entire argument: one defiled world, then a hundred million worlds, then a reward-land placed thirty-two Ganges-sands of buddha-lands away, then a nested cosmology of world-natures, world-oceans, and world-seeds each multiplied by measureless Ganges-sands. Every step keeps to the same basic Indian cosmological vocabulary — the three-thousandfold great-thousand world system, Mount Sumeru, the Ganges as the standard measure of the immeasurable — while simply widening the multiplier. Only with Vulture Peak and the Lotus Womb World-Ocean, in the sections that follow, does the vocabulary itself finally change.
The One Vehicle's Common Teaching — Vulture Peak, and a Hidden Reward-Body
或說釋迦報土在靈鷲山。如法華云。我常在靈山等。法華論主釋為報身菩提也。當知此約一乘同教說。何以故。以法華中亦顯一乘故。其處隨教即染歸淨故。說法華處即為實也。如菩提樹下說華嚴處即為蓮華藏十佛境界。法華亦爾。漸同此故是同教也。然未說彼處即為十華藏及因陀羅等故非別教也。
Some say that Śākyamuni's own reward-land is Vulture Peak. As the Lotus Sūtra says, "I am always on Vulture Peak," and the like, which the author of the treatise on the Lotus Sūtra explains as the bodhi of the reward-body. One should understand that this is spoken according to the One Vehicle as its own Common Teaching. Why is this? Because the Lotus Sūtra, too, makes the One Vehicle manifest — and so its own place, according with the teaching given there, likewise turns from defilement to purity, and the place where the Lotus Sūtra is spoken is thereby made real. Just as the place beneath the bodhi tree, where the Avataṃsaka Sūtra is spoken, is precisely the domain of the ten buddhas of the Lotus Womb World, the Lotus Sūtra's own place is exactly the same — and, gradually converging with this, it is thereby a Common Teaching. Yet since it has not gone so far as to say that this same place is itself the ten Lotus-Treasury worlds and Indra's Net and the rest, it is not the Separate Teaching.
或有說此釋迦身。即為實報受用之身。如佛地經初說。此釋迦佛即具二十一種實報功德。彼論釋為受用身也。此亦約同教說。何以故。此釋迦佛。若三乘中但為化身。若別教一乘。以為究竟十佛之身。今此方便勸彼三乘。顯釋迦身非但是化。恐難信受故。彼經中。為約說佛果深功德處。明佛身隨教即權歸實。說為報身。即方便顯說華嚴一乘法時此釋迦身亦隨彼教即究竟十佛法界身也。是故以彼為同教攝也。
Some say that this very body of Śākyamuni is precisely the body of real reward and enjoyment. As the opening of the Buddhabhūmi Sūtra explains, this Śākyamuni Buddha is complete with twenty-one kinds of real reward-virtues, which the treatise on that sūtra explains as the enjoyment-body. This too is spoken according to the Common Teaching. Why is this? For this same Śākyamuni Buddha, within the three vehicles, is only a transformation-body; yet, within the One Vehicle as its own Separate Teaching, he is the ultimate body of the ten buddhas. Here, as a skillful means of persuading the three vehicles, it is shown that Śākyamuni's own body is not merely a transformation, since they might otherwise find this difficult to believe. Within that sūtra, with reference to the place where buddhahood's own deep virtues are expounded, the buddha's body, according with the teaching, is shown turning from the provisional to the real, and is spoken of as the reward-body — which is to say, at the very moment the Huayan One Vehicle Dharma is disclosed as a skillful means, this same body of Śākyamuni, according with that teaching, is precisely the ultimate dharma-realm body of the ten buddhas. For this reason it is subsumed under the Common Teaching.
The Sudden Teaching, and the Separate Teaching's Ten Bodies
或有說此釋迦身即是法身。如經云。吾今此身即是法身。此約頓教寄言而說。以相盡離念故。若別教一乘此釋迦牟尼身。非但三身亦即是十身。以顯無盡。
Some say that this very body of Śākyamuni is precisely the dharma-body. As scripture says, "This very body of mine is precisely the dharma-body" — this is spoken according to the Sudden Teaching, borrowing language to express it, since every mark is exhausted and every thought departed. According to the One Vehicle as its own Separate Teaching, this body of Śākyamuni Muni is not merely the three bodies but is precisely the ten bodies, so as to make manifest their inexhaustibility.
The Ten Buddhas' Own Domain — Three Kinds of World-Ocean
然彼十佛境界所依有二。一國土海圓融自在。當不可說。若寄法顯示。如第二會初說。二世界海有三類。一蓮華藏莊嚴世界海。具足主伴通因陀羅等。當是十佛等境界。二於三千界外。有十重世界海。一世界性。二世界海。三世界輪。四世界圓滿。五世界分別。六世界旋。七世界轉。八世界蓮華。九世界須彌。十世界相。此等當是萬子已上輪王境界。三無量離類世界皆遍法界。如一類須彌樓山世界數量邊畔。即盡虛空遍法界。又如一類樹形世界。乃至一切眾生形等。悉亦如是皆遍法界互不相礙。此上三位並是一盧舍那十身攝化之處。仍此三位本末圓融相收無礙。何以故。隨一世界即約麁細有此三故。當知與三乘全別不同也。
Yet what the domain of these ten buddhas rests upon has two aspects. First, the ocean of lands, perfectly fused and self-mastering, which lies beyond what words can say; if one borrows a dharma to display it, it is as spoken at the opening of the second assembly of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Second, the world-ocean is of three kinds. First, the adorned Lotus-Treasury World-Ocean, complete with host and retinue and pervaded throughout by Indra's Net and the rest — this is precisely the domain of the ten buddhas. Second, beyond the three-thousandfold world-system, there are ten layers of world-ocean: first, a world-nature; second, a world-ocean; third, a world-wheel; fourth, a world perfectly complete; fifth, a world distinguished; sixth, a world revolving; seventh, a world turning; eighth, a lotus world; ninth, a Sumeru world; tenth, a world of marks — these correspond to the domain of a wheel-turning king ruling over ten thousand sons and more. Third, measureless worlds of every different kind, all of them pervading the entire dharma-realm — just as, taking a single kind of Sumeru-mountain world-system, its very number and boundary already exhausts empty space and pervades the entire dharma-realm; and just as a single kind of tree-shaped world, and, further, every shape belonging to any sentient being, does likewise, each pervading the entire dharma-realm without any mutual obstruction. These three positions given above are all, alike, the domain of the single Vairocana's own ten bodies and their activity of teaching and transformation; and these same three positions, root and branch, are perfectly fused, mutually gathering one another in without obstruction. Why is this? Because within any single world-system there is, according to its coarser or subtler aspect, already all three of these — one should understand that this is entirely different from anything in the three vehicles.
The Lotus-Treasury World-Ocean, "complete with host and retinue and pervaded throughout by Indra's Net," names the same architecture of mutual interpenetration examined at length in the Gaṇḍavyūha, where Sudhana encounters it directly — most vividly in Maitreya's tower, a single structure that opens onto measureless further towers, each containing the whole of the others without displacing any of them. What this passage adds is the claim that this same architecture is not confined to one privileged world-ocean: the tree-shaped worlds, the worlds shaped like every kind of sentient being, and the nested world-natures and world-seeds already surveyed in the Final Teaching's cosmology are declared, here, to be root and branch of a single, perfectly fused whole — "entirely different from anything in the three vehicles" not because the numbers are larger, but because no amount of vastness in the three vehicles' own cosmology was ever meant to interpenetrate this way.
How Many Bodies — The Meaning of Dharma-Body, Across Four Teachings
第十佛身開合者有二。先義後數。義中先約法身。或唯真境界為法身。如佛地論五種法攝大覺地。清淨法界攝法身。四智攝餘身。此約始教說。或唯妙智為法身。以本覺智故。修智同本覺故。如攝論無垢無罣礙智為法身。金光明中四智攝三身。以鏡智攝法身故。或鏡智合為法身。以境智相如故。如梁攝論云。唯如如及如如智獨存名為法身。此上二句約終教說。或境智俱泯為法身。如經云。如來法身非心非境。此約頓教說。或合具前四句。以具德故。或俱絕前五。以圓融無礙故。此二句如性起品說。此約一乘辯。
Tenth, on the opening and combining of the buddha-bodies: this has two topics, first meaning, then number. Within meaning, first with reference to the dharma-body: some say that only the real object-realm is the dharma-body — as the Buddhabhūmi-śāstra's five dharmas subsuming the ground of great awakening explain, the pure dharma-realm subsumes the dharma-body, while the four wisdoms subsume the remaining bodies. This is spoken according to the Initial Teaching. Some say that only the sublime wisdom is the dharma-body, since it is the wisdom of original enlightenment, and the cultivated wisdom is identical with original enlightenment — as the Mahāyānasaṃgraha says, the stainless, unobstructed wisdom is the dharma-body, and in the Golden Light Sūtra the four wisdoms subsume the three bodies, since the mirror-wisdom subsumes the dharma-body. Some say that the mirror-wisdom, combined together with its object, is the dharma-body, since object and wisdom are mutually identical as suchness — as the Liang Mahāyānasaṃgraha says: "Only suchness itself, together with the wisdom of suchness, exists alone, and this is called the dharma-body." These two accounts above are spoken according to the Final Teaching. Some say that object and wisdom, both alike effaced, are the dharma-body — as scripture says, "The tathāgata's dharma-body is neither mind nor object." This is spoken according to the Sudden Teaching. Some say that all four of the preceding accounts are held together at once, since it is complete with every virtue; or that all five of the preceding are alike cut off, since it is perfectly fused and unobstructed. These two accounts are as the "Arising of the Nature" chapter explains. This is discussed with reference to the One Vehicle.
Śākyamuni's Body, Read Five Ways
次別約釋迦身明者。此釋迦身。或是化非法報。如始教說。或有是報非法化。如同教一乘及小乘說。但深淺為異也。或是法非報化。如頓教說。或亦法亦報化。總如三乘等說。或非法非報化。如別教一乘。是十佛故也。
Next, explaining specifically with reference to the body of Śākyamuni: this body of his is, some say, a transformation-body and neither dharma- nor reward-body — so the Initial Teaching says. Some say it is a reward-body and neither dharma- nor transformation-body — so the One Vehicle as its own Common Teaching and the Hīnayāna both say, differing only in depth. Some say it is the dharma-body and neither reward- nor transformation-body — so the Sudden Teaching says. Some say it is dharma-, reward-, and transformation-body all at once — so the three vehicles generally say. Some say it is neither dharma-, reward-, nor transformation-body — so the One Vehicle as its own Separate Teaching says, since it is instead the body of the ten buddhas.
Placing the Hīnayāna and the One Vehicle's own Common Teaching side by side in the second position — both calling Śākyamuni's body a reward-body, "differing only in depth" — is a small but telling instance of this treatise's general method. The two teachings sit at opposite ends of the entire doxographical scale, yet Fazang is untroubled by using the same word for both, because what varies is not the label but everything the label is understood to carry. A reward-body glimpsed by the Hīnayāna and a reward-body disclosed by the Lotus Sūtra's own gradual convergence toward the One Vehicle are, formally, "the same answer" and, in substance, worlds apart.
The Numbers — One Buddha Through Four
數開合者或立一佛。謂一實性佛也。此約頓教。或立二佛。此有三種。一生身化身。此約小乘說。二生身法身。謂他受用與化身合名生身。自受用身與法身合名法身。如佛地論說。此約始教說。三自性法身應化法身。如本業經說。此約終教說。或立三身佛。如常所說。此通始終二教說。或立四佛此有三種。一於三身中受用身內分自他二身故有四。如佛地論說。此約始教。二於三身外別立自性身。為明法身是恒沙功德法故。是故梁攝論云。自性身與法身作依止故。三亦於報身內福智分二故有四。如楞伽經云。一應化佛。二功德佛。三智慧佛。四如如佛。此約終教說。
As for the opening and combining by number: some establish a single buddha, namely the buddha of a single real nature. This is spoken according to the Sudden Teaching. Some establish two buddhas, and this is of three kinds. First, the birth-body and the transformation-body — so the Hīnayāna says. Second, the birth-body and the dharma-body: that is, the enjoyment-body for others, combined with the transformation-body, is together named the birth-body, while the body of self-enjoyment, combined with the dharma-body, is together named the dharma-body — as the Buddhabhūmi-śāstra explains. This is spoken according to the Initial Teaching. Third, the essential-nature dharma-body and the responsive-and-transformed dharma-body — so the Sūtra of the Bodhisattva's Original Acts says. This is spoken according to the Final Teaching. Some establish the three-bodied buddha, as is commonly taught. This is spoken according to both the Initial and Final Teachings together. Some establish four buddhas, and this too is of three kinds. First, dividing the enjoyment-body, within the three bodies, into the two bodies of self and other, thereby making four — as the Buddhabhūmi-śāstra explains. This is spoken according to the Initial Teaching. Second, separately establishing an essential-nature body apart from the three bodies, in order to make clear that the dharma-body is a dharma of virtues as numerous as the Ganges' sands — hence the Liang Mahāyānasaṃgraha says that the essential-nature body serves as the basis for the dharma-body. Third, further dividing the reward-body into its aspects of merit and wisdom, thereby making four — as the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra says: first, the responsive-and-transformed buddha; second, the buddha of merit; third, the buddha of wisdom; fourth, the buddha of suchness-and-suchness. This is spoken according to the Final Teaching.
Ten Buddhas, to Make Manifest the Inexhaustible — Gate Nine Complete
或立十佛以顯無盡。如離世間品說。此約一乘圓教說也。
Some establish the ten buddhas, so as to make manifest their inexhaustibility — as the "Detachment from the World" chapter explains. This is spoken according to the One Vehicle as its own Perfect Teaching.
A single sentence closes an escalation that has run the length of this entire sub-topic: one body, two, three, four, and finally ten — the same rhetorical arithmetic already seen in Part 22's marks, where thirty-two became eighty-four thousand became an inexhaustible ocean. Ten, once again, does not mean a literal headcount beyond four; it means totality, the number this treatise consistently uses when a scheme stops being extendable by counting and becomes instead a way of saying "complete, and without remainder." The "Detachment from the World" chapter's own ten buddha-bodies — commonly systematized elsewhere as the bodies of sentient beings, of lands, of karmic retribution, of śrāvakas, of pratyekabuddhas, of bodhisattvas, of tathāgatas, of wisdom, of the dharma-realm, and of empty space itself — extend buddhahood's own body past even the reward- and dharma-bodies of the three vehicles, out into every conceivable category of existence at once.
This closes Gate Nine of Fazang's treatise: the ten sub-topics on what the One Vehicle's teaching actually delivers, running from the storehouse consciousness's own workings across the Five Teachings, through spiritual lineage and the icchantika debate, the stages and positions and how long they take to traverse, the body practice depends on, the long anatomy of eliminating affliction across Parts 17–20, whether the two vehicles ever turn back, and now, in this final part, whether buddhahood is permanent, how many marks it bears, how far its teaching reaches, and how many bodies it has. Each sub-topic told the same story from a different angle: the three vehicles' careful, countable, sequential accounts are true and necessary as skillful means, and each one is also, from the One Vehicle's own vantage, already gathered into something that was never sequential or countable to begin with. Gate Ten, which begins with Part 24, turns from what the teaching delivers to the deepest structure underlying it — the Three Natures, the six meanings of a cause, the Ten Mysterious Gates, and the Six Characteristics — the treatise's own account of principle itself.