The Shared Teaching, a Mirror-Image Already Empty
Part 3 turns to the second of the Four Teachings of Content. Where the Tripiṭaka teaching's analytical emptiness breaks a thing down piece by piece the way one breaks a pillar apart to find no pillar left, the shared teaching's embodied emptiness sees straight through to the pillar's own emptiness the way one sees through a pillar's reflection in a mirror — never solid to begin with. This page works through its own Four Noble Truths of no generation, its two truths (already carrying the seed of the distinct or perfect teaching within them), its nine grounds from dry wisdom through a bodhisattva ground explicitly built to refute the Tripiṭaka teaching's own account of the bodhisattva, and the scheme by which its sharper practitioners are grafted onward into a higher teaching entirely.
Shared with Both Sides
通教鈍根通前藏教。利根通後別圓。故名為通。又從當教得名。謂三人同以無言說道體法入空。故名為通。此無別部。但方等般若中。有明三乘共行者。即屬此教。詮無生四諦(苦無逼迫相。集無和合相。道不二相。滅無生相)亦詮思議不生滅十二因緣(癡如虛空。乃至老死如虛空。無明如幻化不可得故。乃至老死如幻化不可得)亦詮理六度行(一一三輪體空)亦詮幻有空二諦(幻有為俗。幻有即空為真)
The shared teaching: its dull-faculty practitioners share common ground with the preceding Tripiṭaka teaching, while its sharp-faculty practitioners share common ground with the distinct and perfect teachings that follow — hence it is named "shared." It is also named from within its own teaching: the three kinds of persons alike enter emptiness through the wordless path of embodying dharmas — hence it, too, is named "shared." This teaching has no division of the canon of its own; rather, wherever the Vaipulya and Prajñā sūtras clarify a practice common to all three vehicles, this belongs to this teaching. It expounds the Four Noble Truths of no generation (suffering has no mark of oppression; accumulation has no mark of coming together; the path has no mark of duality; cessation has no mark of generation). It also expounds the conceivable twelve links of dependent origination, without generation-and-extinction (delusion is like space, down to aging-and-death, which is like space; ignorance is like an illusion, unobtainable, down to aging-and-death, which is like an illusion, unobtainable). It also expounds the six pāramitās as principle-practice (in each and every one, the three spheres of giver, gift, and recipient are embodied as empty). It also expounds the two truths of illusory existence and emptiness (illusory existence is the conventional; illusory existence itself being empty is the real).
On why suffering has "no mark of oppression" and so on, Zhixu explains that the three realms' own retribution of form and mind — named "suffering" here — are, examined closely, like a dream or an illusion, empty in their very substance, and so free of any actually oppressive mark: this is "birth-and-death is itself nirvāṇa." Afflictions of view and habituated thought, and contaminated karma — named "accumulation" — do not arise from self, other, both, or neither, and so are free of any mark of things truly coming together: this is "affliction is itself bodhi." Having thus directly embodied that affliction is bodhi, the path needs no separate thing serving as its antidote; having thus directly embodied that birth-and-death is nirvāṇa, cessation has no separate thing that could be attained. Zhixu adds that this is still only emptiness taken directly, and so differs from the perfect teaching's direct identity with the middle.
On the twelve links "like space" and "like an illusion," Zhixu notes that the names and marks here do not differ from the Tripiṭaka teaching's own twelve links — the difference lies entirely in using the wisdom of embodied emptiness to understand that arising is itself not really arising, and ceasing is itself not really ceasing. "Delusion is like space" and the rest mean that when one carefully examines ignorance, it is found nowhere within, without, or in between — like space, it has only a name, with no substance to it at all; volitional formations and the rest follow the same pattern. "Ignorance is like an illusion, unobtainable" means that ignorance does not arise from itself, from another, from both together, or without any cause at all, since its very substance cannot be found — likened to a conjured illusion, which was never obtainable to begin with, so that one should never suppose it truly arises from self, other, both, or neither; volitional formations and the rest are the same.
Two Truths That Already Carry the Seed of the Teaching Beyond
亦詮兩種含中二諦(一者幻有為俗。幻有即空不空共為真。是通含別二諦。故受別接。二者幻有為俗。幻有即空不空一切法趣空不空為真。是通含圓二諦故受圓接)亦詮別入通三諦(有漏是俗。無漏是真。非有漏非無漏是中)亦詮圓入通三諦(二諦同前。點非漏非無漏。具一切法。與前中異)開示界內利根眾生。令修體空觀(陰界入皆如幻化。當體不可得)出分段生死。證真諦涅槃。正化菩薩。傍化二乘。亦於當教。自論六即。
It also expounds two kinds of two truths that contain the middle within them (first: illusory existence is the conventional; illusory existence itself being both empty and not-empty together is the real — this is the shared teaching's two truths containing the distinct teaching, and so it may be grafted onto the distinct teaching. Second: illusory existence is the conventional; illusory existence itself being both empty and not-empty, with all dharmas converging in this empty-and-not-empty, is the real — this is the shared teaching's two truths containing the perfect teaching, and so it may be grafted onto the perfect teaching). It also expounds the distinct teaching entering into the shared teaching's three truths (the contaminated is the conventional; the uncontaminated is the real; neither contaminated nor uncontaminated is the middle). It also expounds the perfect teaching entering into the shared teaching's three truths (the two truths are as before; but here the point "neither contaminated nor uncontaminated" is taken to contain all dharmas complete, differing from the "middle" given just above). It is revealed for sentient beings of sharp faculties within the three realms, having them cultivate the contemplation of embodied emptiness (the aggregates, elements, and sense-bases are all like illusions, unobtainable in their very substance), so as to escape the birth-and-death of limited span and realize the nirvāṇa of the truth of the real. It directly converts bodhisattvas, and incidentally converts the two vehicles. One may also, within this teaching's own terms, discuss the six identities.
Zhixu treats these two paragraphs as the technical hinge of the whole teaching, and worth pausing over precisely because they explain how a bodhisattva can be quietly upgraded out of the shared teaching without any new teaching having formally been announced. In the first "two truths containing the middle," illusory existence is the conventional, as always; but the truth of the real here is deepened into illusory existence being simultaneously empty and not-empty at once — and this space of emptiness itself already secretly holds within it a real, unchanging principle able to serve as the basis for both delusion and awakening. Since this hidden principle is precisely what the distinct teaching's own middle way names, this reading of the two truths already "contains" the distinct teaching, and a practitioner who sees this far may be grafted directly onto the distinct teaching's own path without restarting from its beginning. In the second kind, the same "empty and not-empty" real truth is read further still — not merely as a static underlying principle, but as itself the tathāgatagarbha, at once named "empty" and "not-empty": named empty, this emptiness already contains every dharma, all of them converging into it; named not-empty, this not-emptiness likewise already contains every dharma, all of them converging into it. Since this is exactly the perfect teaching's own empty, perfect middle, this second reading contains the perfect teaching, and a practitioner who sees this far may be grafted directly onto the perfect teaching instead. The two three-truths schemes that follow show the same idea from another angle: since the first "containing" reading already implicitly carries the distinct teaching's own three truths (the shared teaching's two truths simply supply "conventional" and "real," and adding "neither contaminated nor uncontaminated" as a third, merely-principled middle completes the distinct teaching's own three-truths pattern), and the second already implicitly carries the perfect teaching's, this is called "the distinct teaching entering into the shared teaching" and "the perfect teaching entering into the shared teaching," respectively.
The Six Identities, I: Dry Wisdom and Illusory Transformation
理即者。無生也。諸法不自生。亦不從他生。不共不無因。是故知無生(此四句推檢。通別圓三教。皆用作下手工夫。但先解不但中者。即成圓教初門。先聞但中理者。即成別教初門。未聞中道體者。止成通教法門)解苦無苦而有真諦。苦尚即真。況集滅道。
名字即者。幻化也。知一切法當體全空。非滅故空。生死涅槃。同於夢境。
觀行即者。一乾慧地也。未有理水。故得此名。即三乘外凡位。與藏教五停別相總相念齊。
相似即者。二性地也。相似得法性理水。伏見思惑。即三乘內凡位。與藏教四加行齊(藏通指真諦為法性。與別圓不同)
Identity in principle: this is no-generation. "Dharmas do not arise from themselves, nor do they arise from another; they do not arise jointly, nor are they without cause — hence one knows there is no generation." (This four-line investigation is used as the starting exercise by the shared, distinct, and perfect teachings alike; only, one who first understands "not merely the middle" thereby enters the perfect teaching's own initial gate, one who first hears the principle of "merely the middle" thereby enters the distinct teaching's own initial gate, and one who has not yet heard of the embodiment of the middle way at all remains simply within the shared teaching's own dharma-gate.) Understanding suffering as without suffering, one has the truth of the real: suffering itself is already the real, how much more accumulation, cessation, and the path.
Identity in name: this is illusory transformation. One knows that all dharmas, in their very substance, are entirely empty — empty not because they are extinguished, but empty of themselves; birth-and-death and nirvāṇa are alike a dream's realm.
Identity in contemplative practice: this is the ground of dry wisdom. One does not yet have the water of principle — hence this name. It is the outer-ordinary stage for all three vehicles, equal to the Tripiṭaka teaching's stilling of the mind and specific- and general-mark mindfulness.
Identity in resemblance: this is the ground of nature. One resembles having obtained the water of the dharma-nature's own principle, subduing the afflictions of view and habituated thought. It is the inner-ordinary stage for all three vehicles, equal to the Tripiṭaka teaching's four practices of intensified effort. (The Tripiṭaka and shared teachings both take the truth of the real as the dharma-nature — differing from the distinct and perfect teachings.)
On the four-line tetralemma "dharmas do not arise from themselves..." Zhixu notes that this investigation of the four possible modes of arising runs through the shared, distinct, and perfect teachings alike, though the sense of "no generation" it yields differs sharply by teaching, and gives the fuller versions of the argument reserved for the distinct and perfect teachings' own pages further on. Here, within the shared teaching alone, the four-line investigation is applied only to the six ordinary destinies' own dharmas: since a produced thing has its own seed, it is not from another; since it awaits conditions, it is not self-made; since it has no [independent] function, it is not jointly produced; since it has causal efficacy, it is not without cause — this reveals the correct principle of dependent origination without falling into any of the four extremes, and this teaching's practitioners of every capacity use it, in one degree or another, as their opening exercise. Zhixu is explicit that a practitioner who, on hearing this argument, at once understands that the resulting "no generation" is "not merely the middle" — that is, already contains all dharmas, rather than standing apart from them as a bare abstract principle — has thereby already entered the perfect teaching's own initial gate through this very door, while one who hears only of a "mere middle," a real but dharma-empty principle standing behind appearances, has entered the distinct teaching's initial gate instead; only one who does not yet hear of the embodiment of the middle way at all remains within the shared teaching's own dharma-gate proper. In this way the very same four-line exercise silently sorts practitioners into three different teachings according to how deeply each one actually understands it — the shared teaching's own "no generation" being simply the shallowest of the three readings.
The Six Identities, II: Nine Grounds, and Why a Bodhisattva Cannot Merely Subdue Affliction
分證即者。從八人地至菩薩地。有七位也。三八人地者。入無間三昧。八忍具足。智少一分。四見地者。八智具足。頓斷三界見惑。發真無漏。見真諦理。即三乘見道位。與藏須陀洹齊。五薄地者。三乘斷欲界六品思惑。煩惱漸薄。與藏斯陀含齊。六離欲地者。三乘斷欲界思惑盡。與藏阿那含齊。七已辦地者。三乘斷三界正使盡。如燒木成炭。與藏阿羅漢齊。聲聞乘人止此。八支佛地者。中乘根利。兼侵習氣。如燒木成灰。與藏辟支佛齊。九菩薩地者。大乘根性。最勝最利。斷盡正使。與二乘同。不住涅槃。扶習潤生。道觀雙流。遊戲神通。成熟眾生。淨佛國土。此與藏教菩薩不同。藏教為化二乘。假說菩薩伏惑不斷。正被此教所破。豈有毒器堪貯醍醐。
Identity in a portion of the truth: from the ground of the eighth-stage practitioner through the bodhisattva ground, there are seven stages. Third, the ground of the eighth-stage practitioner: one enters the uninterrupted samādhi, complete with the eight patiences, still lacking a fraction of the eight kinds of knowledge. Fourth, the ground of vision: complete with the eight kinds of knowledge, one instantly severs the afflictions of view throughout the three realms, brings forth the true, uncontaminated, and sees the principle of the truth of the real. This is the path-of-vision stage for all three vehicles, equal to the Tripiṭaka teaching's stream-enterer. Fifth, the thinned ground: all three vehicles sever six of the nine grades of the desire realm's afflictions of habituated thought, affliction gradually thinning — equal to the Tripiṭaka teaching's once-returner. Sixth, the ground free of desire: all three vehicles sever the desire realm's afflictions of habituated thought completely — equal to the Tripiṭaka teaching's non-returner. Seventh, the ground of the task accomplished: all three vehicles sever the fundamental afflictions throughout the three realms completely, like wood burned down to charcoal — equal to the Tripiṭaka teaching's arhat. The śrāvaka-vehicle practitioner stops here. Eighth, the pratyekabuddha ground: the middling vehicle's sharper capacity, in addition, encroaches on the residual habituation, like charcoal burned further down to ash — equal to the Tripiṭaka teaching's pratyekabuddha. Ninth, the bodhisattva ground: the Mahāyāna's own capacity, the finest and sharpest, severs the fundamental afflictions completely, the same as the two vehicles — yet does not dwell in nirvāṇa, but instead upholds residual habituation to nourish rebirth, letting the path and its contemplation flow together as one, sporting in spiritual powers, ripening sentient beings, and purifying buddha-lands. This differs from the bodhisattva of the Tripiṭaka teaching: the Tripiṭaka teaching, in order to convert the two vehicles, provisionally claims that the bodhisattva merely subdues affliction without severing it — but this is precisely what this teaching refutes. How could a poisoned vessel be fit to hold ghee?
On "how could a poisoned vessel be fit to hold ghee," Zhixu draws out what is actually being refuted: the Tripiṭaka teaching's bodhisattva, in order to keep being reborn for three incalculable eons of active practice, is said to deliberately leave affliction merely subdued rather than severed — since one who fully severs affliction as an arhat does thereby loses the very "fuel" needed to be reborn again for the sake of others. The shared teaching's own ninth stage refutes this directly: real severance of affliction and continued rebirth for others' sake are not actually in tension at all, since a bodhisattva who has severed the fundamental affliction outright can still, through his own vow, uphold its residual habituation on purpose, using that habituation itself as the very seed that nourishes further rebirth — no unsevered poison is needed to hold the ghee of continued bodhisattva practice. Zhixu adds that upholding residual habituation to nourish rebirth in just this way is what the distinct and perfect teachings' own bodhisattvas do as well, by relying on the Dharma-body itself as the true basis for their appearance in the world, "as the moon is reflected in every river," without needing affliction or karma to draw them into rebirth at all.
Buddhahood That Isn't Really Buddhahood, and the Grafting Scheme
究竟即者。第十佛地也。機緣若熟。以一念相應慧。斷餘殘習坐七寶菩提樹下。以天衣為座。現帶劣勝應身(分段生身故劣如須彌山故勝)為三乘根性。轉無生四諦法輪。緣盡入滅。正習俱除。如劫火所燒炭灰俱盡。與藏教佛果齊。
此教亦具三乘根性。同以滅諦為初門。然鈍根二乘。但見於空不見不空。仍與三藏同歸灰斷。故名通前。利根三乘。不但見空。兼見不空。不空即是中道。則被別圓來接。故名通後。中道。又分為二。一者但中。唯有理性。不具諸法。見但中者。接入別教。二者圓中。此理圓妙。具一切法。見圓中者。接入圓教。就此被接。又約三位。一者上根。八人見地被接。二者中根。薄地離欲地被接。三者下根。已辦地支佛地被接。就此三位被接。又各有按位勝進二義。若按位接。或同別十向。或同圓十信。若勝進接。或登別初地。或登圓初住。既被接已。實是別圓二教菩薩。於當教中。仍存第九菩薩地名。至機緣熟。示現成佛。乃是別地圓住。來示世間最高大身。非由通教教道得成佛也。通教尚無實成佛義。況藏教哉。藏教佛果。亦皆別地圓住所現劣應身耳。
Identity in the ultimate: this is the tenth, the buddha ground. Once conditions and capacity have ripened, with a single thought of corresponding wisdom, one severs the remaining habituation, seated beneath the seven-jeweled bodhi tree, on a seat of heavenly robes, manifesting a response-body both inferior and superior at once (inferior, since it is still a body of segmented birth; superior, as vast as Mount Sumeru). For the capacities of all three vehicles, one turns the Dharma-wheel of the Four Noble Truths of no generation; when causal connections are exhausted, one enters extinction, the fundamental affliction and its habituation both removed — like charcoal and ash both consumed by the fire at the end of an eon — equal to the Tripiṭaka teaching's own fruit of buddhahood.
This teaching, too, contains the capacities of all three vehicles, alike taking the truth of cessation as the initial gate. Yet the two vehicles of dull capacity see only emptiness, not the not-empty, and so still return to the same ashen extinction as the Tripiṭaka teaching — hence it is called "shared with what precedes." The three vehicles of sharp capacity do not see emptiness alone, but see the not-empty as well; the not-empty is itself the middle way, and so they are grafted onto and received by the distinct and perfect teachings — hence it is called "shared with what follows." The middle way, moreover, divides into two. First, the mere middle: possessing only the nature of principle, not containing all dharmas — one who sees the mere middle is grafted into the distinct teaching. Second, the perfect middle: this principle, perfect and sublime, contains all dharmas complete — one who sees the perfect middle is grafted into the perfect teaching. As for this being grafted on, it is further reckoned by three levels: first, the highest capacity, grafted at the ground of the eighth-stage practitioner or the ground of vision; second, the middling capacity, grafted at the thinned ground or the ground free of desire; third, the lowest capacity, grafted at the ground of the task accomplished or the pratyekabuddha ground. And within these three levels of grafting, there are, moreover, in each case two senses — grafting according to one's stage, or grafting with an advance in progress. If grafted according to one's stage, one becomes equal either to the distinct teaching's ten dedications or to the perfect teaching's ten faiths. If grafted with an advance in progress, one ascends either to the distinct teaching's first ground or to the perfect teaching's first abiding. Once grafted in this way, one is, in reality, already a bodhisattva of the distinct or perfect teaching — yet, within the shared teaching itself, the name "ninth, the bodhisattva ground" is still retained, until, once conditions and capacity have ripened, one manifests the attainment of buddhahood; and this is, in fact, the distinct teaching's ground or the perfect teaching's abiding, coming to display the world's own highest and greatest body — it is not that buddhahood is attained by the path of the shared teaching's own teaching. The shared teaching does not even possess the meaning of a real attainment of buddhahood — how much less the Tripiṭaka teaching! The Tripiṭaka teaching's own fruit of buddhahood, too, is nothing but an inferior response-body manifested by the distinct teaching's ground or the perfect teaching's abiding.
The Ten Modes of Contemplation
十法成乘者。一明觀境。六道陰入。能觀所觀。皆如幻化。二明發心。二乘緣真自行。菩薩體幻兼人。與樂拔苦。譬於鏡像。三安心如空之止觀。四以幻化慧破幻化見思。五雖知苦集流轉六蔽等皆如幻化。亦以幻化道滅。還滅六度等通之。六以不可得心。修三十七道品。七體三藏法無常苦空。如幻而治。八識乾慧等如幻次位。而不謬濫。九安忍乾慧位內外諸障。而入性地。十不著性地相似法愛。而入八人見地證真。利鈍分別。如前說。
As for the ten modes of contemplation that form the vehicle: first, clarifying the object of contemplation — the six destinies' aggregates and sense-bases, both the contemplating subject and the contemplated object, are all like illusions. Second, clarifying the arousing of the resolve — the two vehicles take the real as their object for their own practice alone, while the bodhisattva embodies illusion while also embracing others, giving joy and relieving suffering, likened to a reflection in a mirror. Third, settling the mind through a calming-and-contemplation that is like space. Fourth, using illusion-embodying wisdom to break through the illusion-like afflictions of view and craving. Fifth, though one knows that suffering and accumulation, the flow of transmigration, and the six coverings are all like illusions, one nonetheless uses the illusion-like path and cessation, and returning-to-cessation, and the six pāramitās, to pass through them. Sixth, using the mind of the unobtainable to cultivate the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment. Seventh, embodying the Tripiṭaka teaching's own dharmas of impermanence, suffering, and emptiness as illusion-like, treating them accordingly. Eighth, knowing the illusion-like sequence of stages from the ground of dry wisdom onward, without confusing them. Ninth, bearing patiently with inward and outward obstructions at the ground of dry wisdom, so as to enter the ground of nature. Tenth, not clinging to the resembling Dharma-attachment at the ground of nature, so as to enter the ground of the eighth-stage practitioner and the ground of vision, realizing the real — sharp and dull capacities distinguished as explained before.
Part 3 Complete
This closes Part 3: the shared teaching's own Four Noble Truths of no generation, its twelve links and six pāramitās read through embodied emptiness, the two truths that already secretly carry the distinct or the perfect teaching within them, the nine grounds from dry wisdom through a bodhisattva ground built explicitly to refute the Tripiṭaka teaching's own compromise, a buddhahood that turns out not to be real buddhahood at all, and the three-tiered scheme by which sharper practitioners are grafted onward. Part 4 turns to the distinct teaching — the bodhisattva's own long, sequential path, three incalculable eons and fifty-two stages, entered by those who see the "mere middle" rather than the perfect middle just described.
Continue to Part 4 — The Distinct Teaching →