The Perfect Teaching, and How the Four Teachings Interlock
The treatise closes with the fourth and final Teaching of Content — the one teaching, Zhixu insists, in whose terms the six identities can actually be discussed as identities at all, since the other three teachings' own "six" never quite reach the point of knowing mind, buddha, and sentient beings as without distinction. This page covers the perfect teaching's own definitions, its six identities (where the Tripiṭaka and shared teachings' utmost fruit turns out to be merely equal to its own identity in resemblance), the great cart and the ten modes of contemplation, the fivefold scheme of transfer, grafting, convergence, gathering, and borrowing that binds all Four Teachings into a single structure, and the treatise's own closing dialogue on tangled vine and why, in the end, there was never any real dharma to find.
The Perfect Teaching, Defined
圓教謂圓妙(三諦圓融不可思議)圓融(三一相即無有缺減)圓足(圓見事理一念具足)圓頓(體非漸成)故名圓教。所謂圓伏(圓伏五住)圓信(圓常正信)圓斷(一斷一切斷)圓行(一行一切行)圓位(一位一切位)圓自在莊嚴(一心三諦為所莊嚴一心三觀為能莊嚴)圓建立眾生(四悉普益)此教詮無作四諦(陰入皆如。無苦可捨。無明塵勞即是菩提。無集可斷。邊邪皆中正。無道可修。生死即涅槃。無滅可證)亦詮不思議不生滅十二因緣(無明愛取煩惱即菩提。菩提通達。無復煩惱。即究竟淨。了因佛性也。行有業即解脫。解脫自在。緣因佛性也。識名色六入觸受生老死。苦即法身。法身無苦無樂。是大樂不生不死是常。正因佛性也。故大經云。十二因緣名為佛性)亦詮稱性六度十度(施為法界。一切法趣施。是趣不過等)亦詮不思議二諦(幻有幻有即空皆為俗。一切法趣有趣空。趣不有不空為真。真即是俗。俗即是真。如如意珠。珠以譬真。用以譬俗。即珠是用。即用是珠。不二而二分真俗耳)亦詮圓妙三諦(非惟中道具足佛法。真俗亦然。三諦圓融一三三一。如止觀說)
The perfect teaching: it is perfectly sublime (the three truths are perfectly fused, inconceivable), perfectly fused (the three and the one are mutually identical, without any lack), perfectly complete (perfectly seeing that principle and phenomena are, in a single thought, complete), and perfectly sudden (its substance is not brought about gradually) — hence it is named the perfect teaching. That is to say: perfect subduing (perfectly subduing the five categories of dwelling-affliction), perfect faith (perfect, constant, correct faith), perfect severance (severing one is severing all), perfect practice (practicing one is practicing all), perfect stage (one stage is every stage), perfect self-mastery and adornment (the one mind's three truths as what is adorned, the one mind's three contemplations as what adorns), and perfectly establishing sentient beings (universally benefiting through the four siddhāntas).
This teaching expounds the Four Noble Truths of the unconditioned (the aggregates and sense-bases are all suchness — there is no suffering to be abandoned; ignorance and the dust of affliction are themselves bodhi — there is no accumulation to be severed; extremes and deviance are all the correct middle — there is no path to be cultivated; birth-and-death is itself nirvāṇa — there is no cessation to be realized). It also expounds the inconceivable twelve links of dependent origination, without generation-and-extinction (ignorance, craving, and grasping — the afflictions — are themselves bodhi; bodhi penetrates through, with no further affliction remaining — this is the ultimate purity, the complete cause, buddha-nature. Volitional formations and becoming — karma — are themselves liberation; liberation is self-mastery — this is the conditioning cause, buddha-nature. Consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense-bases, contact, feeling, birth, and aging-and-death — suffering — are themselves the Dharma-body; the Dharma-body has neither suffering nor happiness, and this great happiness, unborn and undying, is the constant — this is the correct cause, buddha-nature. Hence the great sūtra says: "the twelve links of dependent origination are named buddha-nature.") It also expounds the six and ten pāramitās matching the nature exactly (giving is itself the dharma-realm; all dharmas converge in giving, and this convergence goes no further — and so for the rest). It also expounds the inconceivable two truths (illusory existence, and illusory existence itself being empty, are both together the conventional; all dharmas converge in existence, converge in emptiness, and converge in neither existence nor emptiness, which is the real; the real is itself the conventional, the conventional is itself the real — like a wish-fulfilling jewel: the jewel itself illustrates the real, its function illustrates the conventional; the jewel itself is the function, the function itself is the jewel — not two, and yet divided into two as the real and the conventional). It also expounds the perfectly sublime three truths (it is not only the middle that is complete with the buddha-dharmas — the real and the conventional are likewise so; the three truths are perfectly fused, three as one and one as three — as explained in the Mo-ho Chih-kuan).
On "perfectly establishing sentient beings," Zhixu contrasts the perfect teaching's reach with what came before: though the Tripiṭaka, shared, and distinct teachings each likewise discuss benefiting beings through the four siddhāntas, the capacities they actually gather in are never universal. The perfect teaching's practitioner, having plumbed the very source of mind-nature and penetrated to the very bottom of the dharma-realm, is already perfect in his own practice — and so this fourfold benefit becomes universal as well. Establishing the provisional for the sake of the real, and opening the provisional to reveal the real, provisional and real are simply not two, each used as the occasion fits — like a single rain that moistens and nourishes the whole earth equally, without favoring one plant over another.
On the inconceivable two truths, Zhixu unpacks what "all dharmas converge in existence, converge in emptiness, converge in neither existence nor emptiness" actually means for the three-thousand-realms doctrine this site's other Tiantai pages already track: the three thousand realms of nature-and-characteristics are all, together, named the conventional; yet each and every one, without exception, is already the true mark of reality, and so is equally named the real. Outside the three thousand there is no true mark of reality apart from them — hence the conventional is always already the real, what is "brought about in actual phenomena" being itself what is "inherently possessed in principle." Outside the true mark of reality there are no three thousand apart from it — hence the real is always already the conventional, what is "inherently possessed in principle" being itself what is "brought about in actual phenomena." These two aspects of the three thousand dwell together in a single thought — one may equally say they dwell together in a single mote of dust, or in a single name. As with a single thought, so with every thought; as with a single mote of dust, so with every mote of dust; as with a single name, so with every name: the real and the conventional are not two, and yet the real and the conventional remain each perfectly, distinctly itself.
The Six Identities: Where the Other Three Teachings Actually Top Out
開示界外利根菩薩。令修一心三觀(照性成修。稱性圓妙。不縱不橫。不前不後。亦不一時)圓超二種生死。圓證三德涅槃。正約此教。方論六即(前三雖約當教各論六即。咸未究竟。以藏通極果。僅同此教相似即佛。別教妙覺。僅同此教分證即佛。又就彼當教。但有六義。未有即義。以未知心佛眾生三無差別故也。是故奪而言之。藏通極果別十迴向。皆名理即。以未解圓中故。登地同圓。方成分證)理即佛者。不思議理性也。如來之藏。不變隨緣。隨緣不變。隨拈一法。無非法界。心佛眾生三無差別。在凡不減。在聖不增。
名字即佛者。聞解也。了知一色一香無非中道。理具事造兩重三千。同在一念。如一念一切諸念。亦復如是。如心法一切佛法及眾生法。亦復如是。
觀行即佛者。五品外凡位也。一隨喜。二讀誦。三講說。四兼行六度。五正行六度。圓伏五住煩惱。與別十信齊。而復大勝。
相似即佛者。十信內凡位也(名與別十信同。而義大異)初信任運。先斷見惑。證位不退。與別初住通見地藏初果齊。二心至七心。任運斷思惑盡。與別七住通已辦藏四果齊。而復大勝。故永嘉云。同除四住。此處為齊。若伏無明。三藏則劣也。八心至十心。任運斷界內外塵沙。行四百由旬。證行不退。與別十向齊。
分證即佛者。十住十行十向十地等覺聖位也(名亦同別。而義大異)初住斷一分無明。證一分三德(正因理心發。名法身德。了因慧心發。名般若德。緣因善心發。名解脫德)一心三觀。任運現前。具佛五眼。成一心三智。行五百由旬。初到寶所。初居實報淨土。亦復分證常寂光淨土。證念不退無功用道。現身百界。八相作佛。與別初地齊。二住至十住。與別十地齊。初行與別等覺齊。二行與別妙覺齊。三行已去所有智斷。別教之人不知名字。
究竟即佛者。妙覺極果。斷四十二品微細無明永盡。究竟登涅槃山頂。以虛空為座。成清淨法身(一一相好等真法界)居上上品常寂光淨土。亦名上上品實報無障礙淨土。性修不二。理事平等。
It is revealed for bodhisattvas of sharp faculties beyond the three realms, having them cultivate the one mind's three contemplations (illuminating the nature to accomplish cultivation, matching the nature exactly, perfectly sublime — neither vertically successive nor horizontally simultaneous, neither before nor after, nor all at one time), so as to perfectly transcend the two kinds of birth-and-death, and perfectly realize the nirvāṇa of the three virtues. It is precisely in terms of this teaching that the six identities are properly discussed at all. (Although the preceding three teachings each discuss the six identities within their own terms, none of them are truly ultimate: the Tripiṭaka and shared teachings' own utmost fruit is merely equal to this teaching's own identity in resemblance for a buddha; the distinct teaching's subtle enlightenment is merely equal to this teaching's own identity in a portion of the truth for a buddha. And within those teachings' own terms, there is only the sense of the "six," not yet the sense of "identity," since they do not yet know that mind, buddha, and sentient beings are, the three of them, without distinction. Hence, stripping this away and speaking plainly: the Tripiṭaka and shared teachings' own utmost fruit, and the distinct teaching's own ten dedications, are all simply named identity in principle — since they have not yet understood the perfect middle; only upon ascending to the grounds do they become equal to the perfect teaching, and only then does identity in a portion of the truth actually form.)
Identity in principle for a buddha: this is the inconceivable nature of principle. The tathāgatagarbha does not change yet follows conditions, follows conditions yet does not change; whatever single dharma one takes up, none is other than the dharma-realm. Mind, buddha, and sentient beings — the three are without distinction; in the ordinary person it is not diminished, in the sage it is not increased.
Identity in name for a buddha: this is understanding through hearing. One clearly knows that a single form, a single scent, is nothing other than the middle way; the two aspects of the three thousand realms — inherently possessed in principle, and brought about in actual phenomena — are together present in a single thought. As with a single thought, so with every thought; as with the dharma of mind, so with every dharma of buddhas and of sentient beings alike.
Identity in contemplative practice for a buddha: this is the outer-ordinary stage of the five grades. First, rejoicing along with others' merit; second, reading and reciting; third, expounding the Dharma; fourth, practicing the six pāramitās in addition; fifth, practicing the six pāramitās as one's main concern. One perfectly subdues the five categories of dwelling-affliction, equal to the distinct teaching's ten faiths, yet far surpassing them.
Identity in resemblance for a buddha: this is the inner-ordinary stage of the ten faiths (the name is the same as the distinct teaching's ten faiths, but the meaning is vastly different). At the first faith, spontaneously and effortlessly, one first severs the afflictions of view, realizing non-regression in one's stage — equal to the distinct teaching's first abiding, the shared teaching's ground of vision, and the Tripiṭaka teaching's first fruit. From the second mind through the seventh mind, spontaneously and effortlessly, one severs the afflictions of habituated thought completely — equal to the distinct teaching's seventh abiding, the shared teaching's ground of the task accomplished, and the Tripiṭaka teaching's fourth fruit, yet far surpassing them; hence Yongjia says, "Equally removing the four abodes of affliction, at this point they are equal — but in subduing ignorance, the Tripiṭaka teaching falls short." From the eighth mind through the tenth mind, spontaneously and effortlessly, one severs the dust-and-sand afflictions both within and beyond the three realms, traveling four hundred yojanas, realizing non-regression in practice — equal to the distinct teaching's ten dedications.
Identity in a portion of the truth for a buddha: these are the ten abidings, ten practices, ten dedications, ten grounds, and equal enlightenment, the noble stages (the names are again the same as the distinct teaching's, but the meaning is vastly different). At the first abiding, one severs a portion of ignorance and realizes a portion of the three virtues (the correct cause's principle-mind manifesting is named the virtue of the Dharma-body; the complete cause's wisdom-mind manifesting is named the virtue of prajñā; the conditioning cause's wholesome mind manifesting is named the virtue of liberation). The one mind's three contemplations appear spontaneously and effortlessly; one is complete with the buddha's five eyes, accomplishing the one mind's three kinds of wisdom. One travels five hundred yojanas, arriving for the first time at the treasure-place, dwelling for the first time in the pure land of the real reward, and also partially realizing the pure land of eternally tranquil light, realizing non-regression in mindfulness and the effortless path, manifesting a body across a hundred worlds, accomplishing buddhahood through the eight aspects — equal to the distinct teaching's first ground. From the second abiding through the tenth abiding, equal to the distinct teaching's ten grounds. The first practice is equal to the distinct teaching's equal enlightenment; the second practice is equal to the distinct teaching's subtle enlightenment. From the third practice onward, the wisdom and severance thus possessed are not even known by name to a practitioner of the distinct teaching.
Identity in the ultimate for a buddha: this is the utmost fruit of subtle enlightenment. Severing all forty-two categories of subtle ignorance, forever exhausting them, one finally climbs to the very summit of nirvāṇa's mountain, taking empty space itself as one's seat, becoming the pure Dharma-body (each and every mark of excellence equal to the true dharma-realm), dwelling in the highest-of-the-highest grade pure land of eternally tranquil light — also named the highest-of-the-highest grade pure land of the real reward, free of obstruction. Nature and cultivation are not two; principle and phenomena are equal.
On "perfectly realizing the nirvāṇa of the three virtues," Zhixu maps the three virtues named already in this treatise's opening line onto three named nirvāṇas, and uses the mapping to state plainly why only the perfect teaching's six identities deserve the name "identity": the virtue of the Dharma-body is named the nirvāṇa of intrinsic purity; the virtue of prajñā is named the nirvāṇa of perfect purity; the virtue of liberation is named the nirvāṇa of expedient purity — yet these are simply the one mind, not arranged vertically or horizontally, nor separate from one another, and this is why it is named perfect realization. The Tripiṭaka and shared teachings do not know the Dharma-body at all; they possess only a cultivated emptiness of the person, and their prajñā purifies only views and habituated thought, never attaining liberation in every respect. The distinct teaching holds that the Dharma-body is originally possessed, prajñā is accomplished only through cultivation, and liberation is fulfilled only at the very end — passing through a sequence, each virtue at its own remove — and so this, too, is not named perfect realization. Only the perfect teaching's own three virtues are simultaneously present from the very first identity onward, which is exactly why the base text insists that a Tripiṭaka arhat's "six" or a distinct-teaching buddha's "six" never rises to the level of true "identity" at all — they lack the very three-virtues-at-once structure that makes calling each stage already, in principle, "it" meaningful in the first place.
The Great Cart, and the Ten Modes of Contemplation
此教名最上佛法。亦名無分別法。以界外滅諦為初門。當體即佛。而能接別接通。接別者。上根十住被接。中根十行被接。下根十向被接。按位接即成十信。勝進接即登初住。接通已如通教中說。故曰。別教接賢不接聖。通教接聖不接賢。以別若登地。乃名為聖。證道同圓。不復論接。通八人上。便名為聖。方可受接。若乾慧性地二賢。僅可稱轉入別圓。未得名接。若藏教未入聖位。容有轉入通別圓義。已入聖後。保果不前。永無接義。直俟法華。方得會入圓耳。十法成乘者。一觀不思議境(其車高廣)二真正發菩提心(又於其上張設幰蓋)三善巧安心止觀(車內安置丹枕)四以圓三觀破三惑遍(其疾如風)五善識通塞(車外枕亦作軫)六調適無作道品七科三十七分(有大白牛肥壯多力等)七以藏通別等事相法門。助開圓理(又多僕從而侍衛之)八知次位。令不生增上慢。九能安忍。策進五品。而入十信。十離法愛。策於十信。令入十住乃至等妙(乘是寶乘。遊於四方。直至道場)上根觀境。即於境中具足十法。中根從二展轉至六。隨一一中得具十法。下根須具用十也。又復應知。說前三教為防偏曲。文意所歸。正歸於此。
This teaching is named the most excellent Buddha-dharma; it is also named the dharma without differentiation, taking the truth of cessation beyond the three realms as its initial gate — its very substance is itself buddhahood. And it is able to graft on both the distinct and the shared teachings. As for grafting the distinct teaching: the highest capacity is grafted at the ten abidings, the middling capacity at the ten practices, the lowest capacity at the ten dedications. Grafted according to one's stage, one becomes equal to the ten faiths; grafted with an advance in progress, one ascends to the first abiding. Grafting the shared teaching has already been explained within the shared teaching's own section. Hence it is said: the distinct teaching grafts the worthy but does not graft the noble; the shared teaching grafts the noble but does not graft the worthy — for once the distinct teaching's practitioner ascends to a ground, he is then named noble, his realization of the path identical with the perfect teaching, and grafting is no longer discussed for him; the shared teaching's practitioner, once above the eighth-stage practitioner, is then named noble, and only then may he be grafted on. As for the two worthy stages of dry wisdom and nature: these can only be said to transfer into the distinct or perfect teaching — they cannot yet be said to be grafted. As for the Tripiṭaka teaching: before entering the noble stage, there is room for it to transfer into the shared, distinct, or perfect teaching's meaning; but once it has entered the noble stage, it holds fast to its fruit without further advance, forever without any sense of grafting — it must wait directly for the Lotus Sūtra before it can finally be gathered into the perfect teaching. As for the ten modes of contemplation that form the vehicle: first, contemplating the inconceivable object (its carriage is tall and broad). Second, truly and correctly arousing the bodhi-mind (a canopy is further spread out above it). Third, skillfully and adeptly settling the mind through calming-and-contemplation (a vermilion cushion is placed within the carriage). Fourth, using the perfect three contemplations to comprehensively break through the three delusions (it moves as swift as the wind). Fifth, skillfully distinguishing passage from blockage (an axle-cushion, too, is fitted outside the carriage). Sixth, harmonizing the thirty-seven categories of the unconditioned path (there is a great white ox, fat, sturdy, and mighty, and so forth). Seventh, using the phenomenal dharma-gates of the Tripiṭaka, shared, and distinct teachings to help open up the perfect principle (there are, moreover, many attendants in escort). Eighth, knowing the sequence of stages, so as not to give rise to overweening pride. Ninth, being able to bear patiently, spurring the five grades forward into the ten faiths. Tenth, departing from attachment to the Dharma, spurring the ten faiths onward so as to enter the ten abidings and on to equal and subtle enlightenment (riding this jeweled vehicle, one travels to the four directions, arriving directly at the place of enlightenment). For the highest capacity, contemplating the object already contains all ten modes complete within it. For the middling capacity, from the second mode one proceeds by turns up through the sixth, and within any single one of these, all ten modes come to be complete. For the lowest capacity, all ten must be used in full, one by one. One should, moreover, know that the reason the preceding three teachings were taught was to guard against one-sidedness and distortion — the true intent of the text returns, in the end, to this teaching alone.
Zhixu's own commentary on the ten modes of contemplation is by far the longest single passage in his whole commentary, and works through why every mode is anchored to "the current single thought of mind" rather than to some grander object like "the Buddha" or "all sentient beings": beginners find the Buddha's own dharma too exalted and sentient beings' dharma too vast, so the object of contemplation is drawn in to the present aggregates, then to the aggregate of consciousness alone, and finally to the sixth consciousness's current single thought specifically, since it alone is close at hand and yet already the whole matter — whenever a thought actually arises, it necessarily falls into one of the ten dharma-realms, and whichever single realm it falls into is never a mere fragment of mind but the entire substance of mind, since there is no "hundred realms, thousand suchnesses" apart from it. Zhixu then walks capacity by capacity through what happens when a practitioner cannot simply awaken on the spot at mode one: the upper-middle capacity moves on to mode two, truly arousing the bodhi-mind, reflecting that if the buddhas have already awakened while I and other sentient beings remain caught in delusion, this itself spurs the four universal vows; if the mind still cannot settle even once aroused, mode three's skillful settling works through excessive stillness and excessive agitation as a matched pair, each corrected by the other; if the practitioner still holds some residual conceptual grasp on the object even once settled, mode four's fourfold investigation (self, other, both, neither) is applied, first to the object of "three thousand in a single thought" directly, and if that still fails, in succession to the provisional-by-composition, the provisional-by-continuity, and the provisional-by-mutual-relativity; the passage closes by insisting that this entire ten-step structure is not ten different techniques but one continuous "skillful means with no skillful means," each mode simply naming what becomes necessary once the mode before it does not, by itself, complete the breakthrough. Zhixu treats this passage — not the Tripiṭaka, shared, or distinct teachings' own versions of the ten modes translated on the previous pages — as the treatise's actual destination: those three exist, as the base text itself says here, only to guard capacities too dull for this one against distortion.
Transfer, Grafting, Convergence, Gathering, and Borrowing
附轉接同會借說 轉○藏七賢得轉入通別圓○通乾慧性地。得轉入別圓○別十信得轉入圓○此三皆不名接。以僅在初心脚跟未牢。故但名轉。
接○通八人見地薄地離欲已辦支佛。得接入別圓○別住行向。得接入圓○根有利鈍故。接有遲速。如以好桃李接彼平常桃李。故名為接。
同○別十地證道同圓。不復名接。但存教道之粗。以待法華開會成妙○別初住通見地藏初果等。亦得約所斷惑名同。
會○開藏七賢通乾慧性地別十信。即圓五品○開藏初果通見地別初住。即圓初信○開藏四果通已辦別七住。即圓七信○開別十向。即圓十信○開別十地。即圓十住(初在法華)。
借○欲接通入別。先借別明通。如云歡喜地斷見惑。遠行地斷思惑等○欲含別於通。必借通明別。如云須陀含若智若斷。是菩薩無生法忍等○欲接別入圓。先借圓明別。如云初住能現八相。猶有微苦等○欲含圓於別。先借別明圓。如云三賢十聖住果報等。
Appended: On Transfer, Grafting, Convergence, Gathering, and Borrowing.
Transfer: the Tripiṭaka teaching's seven worthy stages may transfer into the shared, distinct, or perfect teaching. The shared teaching's ground of dry wisdom and ground of nature may transfer into the distinct or perfect teaching. The distinct teaching's ten faiths may transfer into the perfect teaching. None of these three are named grafting, since one's footing at this initial stage of mind is not yet firm — hence they are simply named transfer.
Grafting: the shared teaching's ground of the eighth-stage practitioner, ground of vision, thinned ground, ground free of desire, ground of the task accomplished, and pratyekabuddha ground may be grafted into the distinct or perfect teaching. The distinct teaching's abidings, practices, and dedications may be grafted into the perfect teaching. Since capacities are sharp or dull, grafting comes slow or swift — like grafting a fine peach or plum branch onto an ordinary peach or plum tree; hence it is named grafting.
Convergence: the distinct teaching's ten grounds, in their realization of the path, converge with the perfect teaching — no longer named grafting, only retaining the coarser terminology of its own teaching-path while awaiting the Lotus Sūtra to open and gather it into the subtle. The distinct teaching's first abiding, the shared teaching's ground of vision, the Tripiṭaka teaching's first fruit, and the like, may also, in terms of the affliction severed, be named convergent.
Gathering: opening the Tripiṭaka teaching's seven worthy stages, the shared teaching's ground of dry wisdom and ground of nature, and the distinct teaching's ten faiths, they are the perfect teaching's five grades. Opening the Tripiṭaka teaching's first fruit, the shared teaching's ground of vision, and the distinct teaching's first abiding, they are the perfect teaching's first faith. Opening the Tripiṭaka teaching's fourth fruit, the shared teaching's ground of the task accomplished, and the distinct teaching's seventh abiding, they are the perfect teaching's seventh faith. Opening the distinct teaching's ten dedications, they are the perfect teaching's ten faiths. Opening the distinct teaching's ten grounds, they are the perfect teaching's ten abidings. (This gathering first occurs in the Lotus Sūtra.)
Borrowing: to graft the shared teaching into the distinct teaching, one first borrows the distinct teaching's terms to clarify the shared teaching — as when it is said that the ground of joy severs the afflictions of view, or the far-reaching ground severs the afflictions of habituated thought, and so forth. To include the distinct teaching within the shared teaching, one must borrow the shared teaching's terms to clarify the distinct teaching — as when it is said that whatever knowledge or severance belongs to stream-entry or non-returning is really the bodhisattva's own patience of non-arising, and so forth. To graft the distinct teaching into the perfect teaching, one first borrows the perfect teaching's terms to clarify the distinct teaching — as when it is said that the first abiding is able to manifest the eight aspects, yet still has subtle suffering, and so forth. To include the perfect teaching within the distinct teaching, one first borrows the distinct teaching's terms to clarify the perfect teaching — as when it is said that the three worthy stages and ten noble stages still dwell in a retributive reward-body, and so forth.
Closing Dialogue: Tangled Vine, and No Real Dharma
問曰。但依圓教直指人心見性成佛。豈不痛快直捷。何用此葛藤為。答曰。六祖大師不云乎。法法皆通。法法皆備。而無一法可得。名最上乘。倘有一法未通。即被此法所縛。倘有一法未備。即被此法所牽。既被縛被牽。故於不可得之妙法。誤認為葛藤耳。臨濟云。識取綱宗。本無實法。汝乃欲捨葛藤而別求實法耶。永明大師云。得鳥者網之一目。不可以一目而廢眾目。收功者。棋之一著。不可以一著而廢眾著。法喻昭然。胡弗思也。
問曰。藏通同詮真諦。何故藏以四果為究竟。通必佛地為究竟耶。答曰。藏教正為二乘。通教正為菩薩故也。問曰。一般斷見思惑。何故藏通名聖。別圓名賢。答曰。藏通詮真。故見真即得名聖。別圓詮中。故見中方得名聖。見真僅可名賢也。問曰。藏四加行通性地。既稱相似。何故僅齊別圓觀行。答曰。藏通聖位。既成別圓內凡。則藏通內凡。僅成別圓外凡。復何疑哉。
教觀綱宗(畢)
Question: If one simply relies on the perfect teaching to point directly at the human mind, see the nature, and become a buddha — is this not already thoroughly satisfying and direct? What use is all this tangled vine? Answer: Does not the Sixth Patriarch himself say: every single dharma penetrates through, every single dharma is complete, and yet not a single dharma can be found — this is named the supreme vehicle. Were there a single dharma not yet penetrated, one would be bound by that very dharma; were there a single dharma not yet complete, one would be dragged along by that very dharma. Being thus bound and dragged, one comes to mistake this wondrous, unobtainable Dharma for mere tangled vine. Linji says: grasp the guiding thread of the teaching — there was never any real dharma to begin with. Would you, then, cast aside the tangled vine in search of some separate "real dharma"? Great Master Yongming says: what catches the bird is a single mesh of the net, yet one cannot, on that account, discard all the other meshes; what wins the game is a single move of the stones, yet one cannot, on that account, discard all the other moves. The teaching and its illustration are perfectly clear — how can one fail to reflect on this?
Question: the Tripiṭaka and shared teachings alike expound the truth of the real — why, then, does the Tripiṭaka teaching take the fourth fruit as its own ultimate, while the shared teaching must take the buddha ground as its own ultimate? Answer: the Tripiṭaka teaching is directed principally at the two vehicles, while the shared teaching is directed principally at the bodhisattva — this is why. Question: both alike sever the afflictions of view and habituated thought — why, then, are the Tripiṭaka and shared teachings' practitioners named noble, while the distinct and perfect teachings' practitioners of the same rank are named merely worthy? Answer: the Tripiṭaka and shared teachings expound the real, and so seeing the real already suffices to be named noble; the distinct and perfect teachings expound the middle, and so only seeing the middle suffices to be named noble — seeing the real alone can only be named worthy. Question: the Tripiṭaka teaching's four practices of intensified effort and the shared teaching's ground of nature are both already called "resemblance" — why, then, are they merely equal to the distinct and perfect teachings' own identity in contemplative practice? Answer: since the Tripiṭaka and shared teachings' own noble stage already amounts only to the distinct and perfect teachings' own inner-ordinary stage, then the Tripiṭaka and shared teachings' own inner-ordinary stage amounts only to the distinct and perfect teachings' own outer-ordinary stage — what further doubt could there be?
The Jiaoguan Gangzong is complete.
Zhixu's own commentary appends, after its treatment of the ten modes of contemplation, a section not answering any specific line of the base treatise: "On the Substance of the Three Kinds of Loving-Kindness" (附三慈體相), working through how loving-kindness toward sentient beings, loving-kindness toward dharmas, and objectless loving-kindness are each cultivated differently — and to different depth — by each of the Four Teachings in turn, closing with the observation that compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity all follow this identical fourfold pattern. Since this passage answers no line of T1939 itself, it falls outside what this page translates in full; readers of the commentary directly will find it immediately following the passage on the ten modes of contemplation translated above.
The Jiaoguan Gangzong Is Complete
This closes the Jiaoguan Gangzong in full: the inseparable pairing of teaching and contemplation, the Five Periods and the Eight Teachings, and all Four Teachings of Content worked out in complete doctrinal detail — the Tripiṭaka teaching's generation-and-extinction, the shared teaching's embodied emptiness and its grafting into the teachings beyond it, the distinct teaching's fifty-two sequential stages, and the perfect teaching in whose terms the six identities are properly discussed at all — together with the fivefold scheme of transfer, grafting, convergence, gathering, and borrowing that binds every teaching in the treatise into one interlocking structure, and the closing dialogue on why, when all is said and done, there was never any real dharma to find.
See the collection's index page for all five parts, and the translation notes for the full terminology glossary, including which renderings this project inherited from this site's three earlier Tiantai meditation projects and which are coined here for the first time.