Six Mysterious Gates — Indra's Net, the Subtle, the Secret, the Pure, the Ten Times, the One Mind
Gates Four Through Nine of the Ten Mysterious Gates因陀羅網境界門・微細相容安立門・祕密隱顯俱成門・諸藏純雜具德門・十世隔法異成門・唯心迴轉善成門
Six gates in one sustained run — the most purely image-driven stretch of the whole treatise. Fazang moves from a single mote of dust holding endless buddhas, through a bundle of arrows laid out side by side, through the secret choreography of one being entering samādhi as another rises from it, to the nine times folding into ten, and finally to the claim underlying every gate so far: that all of this is nothing but the workings of a single, self-pure mind.
Gate 4 — Indra's Net
The fourth gate gives Huayan Buddhism its single most famous image, though Fazang is careful to note that it describes nothing new — only the same interpenetration already established, seen through a different simile: worlds reflecting worlds reflecting worlds, the way a net strung with jewels at every knot reflects every other jewel in each one.
第四者因陀羅網境界門。此但從喻異前耳。此上諸義體相自在。隱顯互現重重無盡。故此經云。於一微塵中。各示那由他無數億諸佛於中而說法。於一微塵中。現無量佛國須彌金剛圍。世間不迫迮。於一微塵中。現有三惡道天人阿脩羅各各受果報。此三偈即三世間也。
Fourth is the gate of the range of Indra's Net 因陀羅網境界門. This differs from what came before only in the simile used. All the meanings discussed above, in their substance and characteristics, are autonomous; hidden and revealed, they mutually manifest one another, layer upon layer, without end.
Hence the sūtra says: "Within a single mote of dust, there are shown nayutas upon nayutas — an uncountable number — of buddhas, each teaching the Dharma within it." "Within a single mote of dust, boundless buddha-lands appear — Mount Sumeru, the surrounding iron mountains, the whole world — with nothing cramped or crowded." "Within a single mote of dust, the three evil destinies appear, together with devas, humans, and asuras, each receiving the fruit of its own karma." These three verses correspond to the three kinds of world — the world of sentient beings, the world of their vessel, and the world of the buddhas' own wisdom.
又云。一切佛剎微塵等。爾所佛坐一毛孔。皆有無量菩薩眾。各為具說普賢行。無量剎海處一毛。悉坐菩提蓮華座遍滿一切諸法界。一切毛孔自在現。又云。如一微塵所示現一切微塵亦如是。餘者云云無量。廣如經辯。此等並是實義非變化成。此是如理智中如量境也。其餘變化等者不入此例。何以故。此並是法性家實德。法爾如是也。非謂分別情識境界。此可去情思之。
It also says: "As many buddhas as there are motes of dust in every buddha-land sit within a single pore of skin, and within it are boundless assemblies of bodhisattvas, each one fully expounding Samantabhadra's practice. Oceans of lands beyond measure, set within a single pore, are all seated upon lotus-thrones of awakening, filling the entire dharma-realm — appearing, autonomously, within every single pore." It also says: "Just as it is shown within a single mote of dust, so it is, likewise, within every mote of dust." Sayings of this kind are without measure; the sūtra's own text may be consulted at length.
All of this is real meaning, not something produced through magical transformation. This is a realm exactly as it truly is, within wisdom exactly as it truly accords with principle. Other things produced through transformation do not fall under this case. Why? Because all of this is the real virtue proper to the household of the nature of dharmas — it is simply, naturally so of itself. It is not to be taken as a realm of discriminating, sentient consciousness. One should set aside ordinary feeling and consider it thus.
Fazang's own name for this gate, 因陀羅網境界門, is the origin of "Indra's Net" as a set phrase in later Buddhist writing across every language it has been carried into. The traditional elaboration — not spelled out here, since Fazang treats the name as already vivid enough — pictures a net stretched across the god Indra's palace, a jewel tied at every knot, each jewel reflecting all the others in its polished surface, and each of those reflections in turn reflecting all the others, without any final, unreflecting jewel to stop the regress. This site's own Gaṇḍavyūha narrates the identical structure as an actual scene rather than an argument: Sudhana, in Maitrāyaṇī's hall, sees "in every pillar of lapis lazuli, every wall of diamond, every mirror of maṇi-jewel... the whole dharma-realm, and every tathāgata... the way the moon appears within clear water" — jewel reflecting jewel reflecting jewel, exactly as Fazang describes here in the abstract.
Take seriously the closing caution, because it is the whole difference between this teaching and a special-effects display: Fazang insists this is not "magical transformation" 變化 — not an illusion conjured for a dazzled audience — but "the real virtue proper to the household of the nature of dharmas," simply how reality actually is when seen without the distortions of "discriminating, sentient consciousness." A magic trick has a hidden mechanism and a person who knows how it works; Indra's Net, on this account, has no such hidden mechanism to expose, because there was never a trick to begin with.
How Deep Does the Reflection Go?
Two questions test the limits of the image — is this a single layer of reflection, or does it truly regress without end, and if so, how can anything at all be picked out as a starting point?
問上一塵中現無量佛剎等者。此但是一重現而已。何故乃云重重現耶。答此方說華嚴經時。云一切微塵中亦如是說彼微塵中說華嚴經時。亦云一切微塵中亦如是說。如是展轉即重重無盡也。宜準思之。
Question: Above, when it is said that boundless buddha-lands appear within a single mote of dust, this is only a single layer of appearing — why, then, is it said to appear layer upon layer? Answer: When the Avataṃsaka Sūtra is being taught here in this world, it is likewise said to be taught, in just the same way, within every single mote of dust. And within that mote of dust, when the Avataṃsaka Sūtra is being taught there, it is likewise said to be taught, in just the same way, within every single mote of dust as well. Unfolding on and on like this, it becomes layer upon layer without end. This should be considered accordingly.
問若據此文重重無盡。有何分齊云何辯其始終等耶。答隨其智取。舉一為首餘則為伴。據其首者即當中。餘者即眷屬圍繞。如上教義等。並悉如是自在成耳。反前相即相入自在等。皆悉如是攝一切法無窮法界並悉因陀羅成也。
Question: Given that this passage describes layer upon layer without end, what bounds does it have, and how can beginning and end be distinguished within it? Answer: This is determined entirely by the understanding one brings to it: whichever one is raised up becomes the head, and the rest become its retinue. Whatever serves as the head stands at the center; the rest surround it as its attendant company. Teaching and meaning, and all the topics discussed above, are every one of them autonomously constituted in just this way. Set against the mutual identity, mutual inclusion, and autonomy discussed earlier, all of this — the gathering-in of every dharma, the boundless dharma-realm — is, every bit of it, constituted through Indra's Net.
The answer to "how deep does it go" is: there is no floor. The sūtra being taught within a mote of dust is itself, again, being taught within every mote of dust inside that teaching — and so on without a final, ungrounded layer at the bottom. This is exactly the same structure this site's Gaṇḍavyūha renders as Maitreya's Tower, the single largest episode in that entire collection: a tower "arisen from a bodhisattva's own vows," holding within itself the entire cosmos, towers within towers, each one as vast as the one containing it. And Fazang's answer to "where, then, does it start or end" is characteristically unbothered by the question: there is no fixed, privileged starting point built into reality itself — only whichever point a particular act of understanding chooses to treat as the head, with everything else arranging itself as retinue around it. Pick a different starting point, and the whole net rearranges itself around that instead, without anything about the net itself having changed.
Gate 5 — The Subtle, Like a Bundle of Arrows
Fazang now distinguishes a second, easily confused kind of "everything is present at once" — not the endless mirrored regress of Indra's Net, but everything set out side by side in a single instant, the way an archer's whole quiver is visible in one glance.
五者微細相容安立門。此上諸義。於一念中具足始終同時別時前後逆順等一切法門。於一念中炳然同時齊頭顯現無不明了。猶如束箭齊頭顯現耳。故此經云。菩薩於一念中。從兜率天降神母胎。乃至流通舍利法住久遠。及所被益諸眾生等。於一念中皆悉顯現。廣如經文。又云。一毛孔中無量佛剎。莊嚴清淨曠然安住。又云。於一塵內。微細國土。一切塵等悉於中住。宜可如理思之。
Fifth is the gate of the subtle, mutually compatible and established 微細相容安立門. All the topics discussed above, within a single thought-moment, are replete with every dharma-gate — beginning and end, same time and different times, before and after, counter-flow and with-flow. Within a single thought-moment, they appear radiantly, all together, side by side, every one of them perfectly clear — just as a bundle of arrows, laid out together, is seen side by side all at once.
Hence the sūtra says: "A bodhisattva, within a single thought-moment — from descending from Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb, all the way through to the distribution of his relics and the long abiding of the Dharma, together with all the beings thereby benefited — displays it all within that single thought-moment." The sūtra's own text may be consulted at length. It also says: "Within a single pore, boundless buddha-lands, adorned and pure, dwell there spaciously at ease." It also says: "Within a single mote of dust, subtle lands — and every other mote of dust as well — all dwell there." This should be considered according to principle.
How Is the Subtle Different from Indra's Net?
A single, pointed question separates the two gates that could easily be mistaken for one another.
問是義與上因陀羅何別耶。答重重隱映互現。因陀羅攝齊頭炳然顯著微細攝。此等諸義並別不同。宜細思之。
Question: How does this meaning differ from Indra's Net discussed above? Answer: Appearing layer upon layer, hidden and reflected, mutually manifesting one another, belongs to what is gathered under Indra's Net; appearing radiantly, side by side, all at once, clearly manifest, belongs to what is gathered under the subtle. These meanings are each genuinely distinct from one another, and should be considered carefully.
Fazang's own image gives the cleanest version of the distinction: a bundle of arrows bound together and displayed "side by side" shows every arrow at once, in a single glance, with nothing hidden and nothing needing to be unfolded further to be seen — that is the subtle. Indra's Net, by contrast, shows nothing directly at all; every jewel is seen only by way of what it reflects of every other jewel, an endless relay of showing rather than a single, flat display. Both describe total, instantaneous presence, but one is presence by direct, simultaneous display — the descent from Tuṣita, the birth, the awakening, the death, and the distribution of relics, all equally visible in one thought-moment — and the other is presence by infinite mutual mirroring. A reader who keeps this distinction in mind will find gates 4 and 5 stop blurring into a single vague impression of "everything is everywhere," and start reading as two precisely different claims.
Gate 6 — The Secret: Concealed and Revealed, Accomplished Together
The sixth gate turns to something one being does openly while another does the same thing invisibly — and insists that concealment and disclosure are not opposites here, but two faces of a single event.
六者祕密隱顯俱成門。此上諸義隱覆顯了。俱時成就也。故此經云。於此方入正受。他方三昧起。眼根入正定。色塵三昧起等云云。又云。男子身中入正受。女子身中三昧起等云云。於一微塵入正受。一毛端頭三昧起。如是自在此隱彼顯。正受及起定同時祕密成矣。
Sixth is the gate of the secret, hidden and revealed, both accomplished together 祕密隱顯俱成門. All the topics discussed above, hidden-and-covered and revealed-and-manifest, are accomplished together, at the very same time. Hence the sūtra says: "Entering samādhi in this world, and rising from samādhi in another world; the eye faculty entering right concentration, while form-dust rises from samādhi" — and so on. It also says: "Entering samādhi within a man's body, and rising from samādhi within a woman's body" — and so on. "Entering samādhi within a single mote of dust, and rising from samādhi at the tip of a single hair." In this way, autonomously, this is hidden while that is revealed — entering samādhi and rising from concentration are accomplished simultaneously, in secret.
又此經云。十方世界有緣故。往返出入度眾生。或見菩薩入正受。或見菩薩從定起。又云。於彼十方世界中。念念示現成正覺轉正法論入涅槃現分舍利度眾生。如是無量。廣如經辯。又如佛為諸菩薩受記之時。或現前受記。或不現前祕密受記等。如上第一錢中十錢名為顯了。第二錢望第一錢中十即為祕密。何以故。見此不見彼故。不相知故。雖不相知見。然則成此彼成故。俱名成也。應如此準思之。
The sūtra also says: "Because of connections throughout the ten directions of worlds, going and returning, going out and entering in, to save sentient beings — one may see a bodhisattva entering samādhi, or see a bodhisattva rising from concentration." It also says: "Within those worlds of the ten directions, moment after moment, he manifests the accomplishment of true awakening, turns the wheel of the true Dharma, enters nirvāṇa, distributes his relics, and saves sentient beings." Sayings of this kind are without measure; the sūtra's own text may be consulted at length.
So too, when a buddha bestows a prediction of awakening upon a bodhisattva: sometimes the prediction is given openly, in the presence of the assembly; sometimes it is given secretly, not in anyone's presence. As with the first coin discussed earlier, where the ten coins contained within it were called "manifest," so the second coin, considered against the ten within the first, is "secret." Why? Because one sees this but does not see that; they do not know of one another. Yet although they do not know or see one another, the completion of the one is exactly what completes the other — and so both alike are called "accomplished." This should be considered accordingly.
Fazang reaches back to the coin simile from Parts 28–29 to gloss this gate, and the move is worth making explicit: from the first coin's own point of view, the ten coins it contains are fully "manifest" — visible, accounted for, displayed. But from the second coin's point of view, that same containment inside the first coin is "secret" — real, and in fact required for the second coin to be what it is, yet simply not visible from where the second coin stands. Nothing paradoxical is being claimed; this is closer to the ordinary observation that two people can each be fully engaged in real, effective activity without either one witnessing the other's — except Fazang's point is that their mutual invisibility to each other is not a failure of connection but the very shape the connection takes. Entering samādhi here and rising from it there are not two events loosely correlated; they are a single accomplishment, seen once from the concealed side and once from the revealed side.
Gate 7 — Every Storehouse, Pure and Mixed Alike
The seventh gate shows that the very same act can be described, with equal truth, as a single unmixed practice or as containing every other practice at once — depending only on which "gate" one views it through.
第七諸藏純雜具德門。此上諸義或純或雜。如前人法等。若以人門取者。即一切皆人故名為純。又即此人門。具含理事等一切差別法故名為雜。又如菩薩入一三昧唯行布施無量無邊更無餘行故名純。又入一三昧即施戒度生等。無量無邊諸餘雜行。俱時成就也。如是繁興法界純雜自在。無不具足者矣。宜準思之。
Seventh is the gate of every storehouse, pure and mixed, each replete with virtue 諸藏純雜具德門. All the topics discussed above are, in one respect, pure, and in another, mixed. Take, for instance, person and dharma, discussed earlier: if one takes hold of it through the gate of person, then everything is person, and so it is called pure; yet this very gate of person also fully contains principle, phenomenon, and every other kind of distinct dharma, and so it is called mixed.
Again, when a bodhisattva enters a single samādhi and practices giving alone — boundlessly, with no other practice at all — this is called pure. Yet, entering that same single samādhi, giving, upholding precepts, saving beings, and every other kind of practice, boundless and without limit, are accomplished together, at the very same time. In this way, flourishing throughout the dharma-realm, pure and mixed are equally autonomous, and nothing whatsoever is left incomplete. This should be considered accordingly.
The bodhisattva giving alms is the clearest illustration. Watched from one angle, this is a single, "pure" practice: giving, and nothing but giving, cultivated without limit. Watched from another angle, that same single act of giving is already "mixed" — already, at the very same moment, an exercise of every other pāramitā at once, since a giving offered without any lapse in ethical conduct, patience, effort, concentration, or wisdom is already, in its performance, an instance of all of them together. Neither description corrects the other; a single samādhi genuinely is both a pure, single-pointed practice and a mixed storehouse containing every practice, and which face of it comes forward depends only on which gate — the gate of "purity" or the gate of "mixture" — one happens to be looking through.
Gate 8 — The Ten Times, Nine Folded into One
The eighth gate applies the same interpenetration to time itself: past, present, and future each already contain their own past, present, and future, and these nine, taken together as one further totality, make ten.
八者十世隔法異成門。此上諸雜義遍十世中。同時別異具足顯現。以時與法不相離故。言十世者。過去未來現在三世。各有過去未來及現在。即為九世也。然此九世迭相即入故。成一總句。總別合成十世也。此十世具足別異。同時顯現成緣起故。得即入也。
Eighth is the gate of the ten times, distinctly established across dharmas held apart 十世隔法異成門. All the mixed meanings discussed above pervade the ten times, appearing at once, fully and distinctly, because time and dharma are never separate from one another. What is meant by "the ten times" is this: the three times of past, future, and present each themselves contain a past, a future, and a present — making nine times in all. These nine times, in turn, mutually identify with and mutually include one another, thereby constituting a single, total statement; the total and the particular together make up the ten times. These ten times, replete with their own distinctness, appear all at once and constitute dependent origination — and it is exactly for this reason that they can be mutually identical and mutually inclusive.
故此經云。或以長劫入短劫。短劫入長劫。或百千大劫為一念。一念即百千大劫。或過去劫入未來劫。未來劫入過去劫。如是自在時劫無礙。相即相入渾融成矣。又此經云。於一微塵中。普現三世一切佛剎。又云。於一微塵中。普現三世一切眾生。又云。於一微塵中。普現三世一切諸佛事。又云。於一微塵中。建立三世一切佛轉法輪。如是云云無量。廣如經文。此普攝上諸義門。悉於十世中自在現耳。宜可思之。
Hence the sūtra says: "Sometimes a long kalpa enters a short kalpa, and a short kalpa enters a long kalpa; sometimes a hundred thousand great kalpas become a single thought-moment, and a single thought-moment is exactly a hundred thousand great kalpas; sometimes a past kalpa enters a future kalpa, and a future kalpa enters a past kalpa" — in this way, autonomously, time and kalpas are without obstruction, mutually identical and mutually inclusive, fused into one.
The sūtra also says: "Within a single mote of dust, all the buddha-lands of the three times universally appear." It also says: "Within a single mote of dust, all the sentient beings of the three times universally appear." It also says: "Within a single mote of dust, all the deeds of the buddhas of the three times universally appear." It also says: "Within a single mote of dust, the turning of the Dharma-wheel by all the buddhas of the three times is universally established." Sayings of this kind are without measure; the sūtra's own text may be consulted at length. This universally gathers in all the topics discussed above, each appearing autonomously within the ten times. This should be considered.
The arithmetic is worth spelling out plainly, since Fazang states it in a single dense line. Start with the three ordinary times — past, present, future. Each of those three, considered on its own, itself has its own past, present, and future: the past has a past-of-the-past, a present-of-the-past, and a future-of-the-past, and so on for the present and the future in turn. Three times three gives nine. Fazang then adds one further time — the whole totality of these nine considered as a single, unified "now" — bringing the count to ten: nine particular times plus the one total time that holds them all together. This is the same "total and particular" pairing that will get its own full treatment as the first two of the Six Characteristics in Parts 33 and 34, here applied specifically to time. The upshot is the sūtra's own most quoted line on the subject: a single thought-moment and a hundred thousand kalpas are, rightly understood, exactly the same duration — not because time is unreal, but because no single "now" was ever sealed off from every other "now" to begin with.
Gate 9 — The One Mind, Turning
The ninth and final gate of this run states outright what has been implicit throughout: every one of the preceding eight gates describes the workings of a single mind, not a collection of separate metaphysical facts.
九者唯心迴轉善成門。此上諸義。唯是一如來藏。為自性清淨心轉也。但性起具德故。異三乘耳。然一心亦具足十種德。如性起品中說十心義等者。即其事也。所以說十者。欲顯無盡故。如是自在具足無窮種種德耳。此上諸義門。悉是此心自在作用。更無餘物名唯心轉等。宜思釋之。
Ninth is the gate of the one mind turning about, well accomplished 唯心迴轉善成門. All the topics discussed above are nothing but the turning of the single tathāgatagarbha 如來藏, the mind pure in its own nature. It is only because nature's own arising is replete with virtue that this differs from the three vehicles. Yet this one mind is also replete with ten kinds of virtue, exactly as the chapter on the arising of buddha-nature speaks of the meaning of the ten minds — this is exactly that matter. The reason ten is spoken of is the wish to manifest inexhaustibility; in this way it is autonomously replete with boundless and various virtues. All the gates of meaning discussed above are, every one, the autonomous function of this very mind — there is nothing else at all called "the turning of mind alone" beyond this. This should be pondered and explained.
This gate is the quiet keystone of the whole run, and it is easy to read past its real force. Fazang is not adding a ninth mysterious phenomenon alongside Indra's Net, the subtle, the secret, and the rest; he is saying that all eight of the preceding gates were never separate cosmological facts about coins, motes of dust, and kalpas in the first place — they are all, without remainder, "the autonomous function of this very mind," the tathāgatagarbha turning. This is also exactly the phrase Fazang uses to mark Huayan's distance from the three vehicles: an ordinary Yogācāra account of consciousness treats the storehouse consciousness as accumulating and releasing seeds in a causal sequence; "nature's own arising" 性起 — the doctrine that things arise directly out of the pure nature of mind itself, rather than merely out of accumulated causes and conditions — is what Fazang says makes this One Vehicle account genuinely different in kind, not merely more elaborate in degree.
With Gate 9 closed, only the tenth and final Mysterious Gate remains, together with Fazang's own summary of the entire Ten Mysterious Gates section — the subject of Part 32.