Crookedness, Compliance, and the Bodhisattva's Path
The Buddha continues teaching Mahākāśyapa in matched sets of four: the crookednesses of mind a bodhisattva must remove, the marks that show compliance with the path, four evils against four wisdoms, deviations from right teaching, the bodhisattva's own fourfold path, and the difference between a companion who helps and one who only seems to.
The Mind's Four Crookednesses, and Four Marks of Compliance
「復次迦葉！心有四曲，菩薩當除。云何為四？一者，猶豫疑於佛法；二者，憍慢不語、恚怒眾生；三者，他所得利心生慳愱；四者，毀呰誹謗不稱譽菩薩。是謂迦葉！心有四曲，菩薩當除。
「復次迦葉！菩薩有四順相。云何為四？一者，所犯發露而不覆藏，心無纏垢；二者，真言致死終不違真；三者，所說而不相奪，一切侵欺呵罵輕易撾捶縛害，一切是我宿命所作，不起恚他、不生使纏；四者，堅住不信他說，至信佛法亦不信之，內清淨故。是謂迦葉！菩薩有四順相。」
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! The mind has four crookednesses that a bodhisattva must remove. What are the four? First, hesitation and doubt toward the Buddha's Dharma; second, pride that refuses to speak, and anger toward other beings; third, a mind of envy and stinginess arising at another's gain; fourth, disparaging and slandering, refusing to praise a bodhisattva. These, Kāśyapa, are the four crookednesses of mind that a bodhisattva must remove.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva has four marks of compliance with the path. What are the four? First, disclosing openly whatever wrong one has committed, without concealing it, so that the mind holds no entangling stain; second, holding to true speech even at the cost of death, never once departing from truth; third, never quarreling over what is said — regarding every instance of being wronged, cheated, cursed, belittled, beaten, bound, or harmed as the fruit of one's own past lives, and so never giving rise to anger toward another, nor to any entangling affliction; fourth, standing firm and not simply believing whatever others say — not accepting even what is claimed to be the Buddha's own Dharma without first testing it for oneself, since only inward purity can confirm it. These, Kāśyapa, are the four marks of a compliant bodhisattva."
The fourth mark of compliance is the hardest of the four to render, and worth flagging honestly rather than smoothing over: the Chinese reads roughly "standing firm, not believing what others say; even what is trusted as the Buddha's Dharma, also not believing it — because of inward purity" (堅住不信他說，至信佛法亦不信之，內清淨故). Read as a call to blind skepticism this would sit oddly beside the third item's own instruction to hold true speech at the cost of death. Read instead as a call to verify rather than merely accept — testing even a teaching reputed to be the Buddha's own word against one's own inward purity, rather than taking it on hearsay — it fits naturally alongside the sūtra's later insistence, in Part 5, that a bodhisattva's own true observation must be direct rather than borrowed. The third item's own logic is worth sitting with on its own terms: treating every instance of being wronged as the fruit of one's own past karma is not fatalism so much as a discipline for where anger is allowed to land — never on the person delivering the wrong, always inward, onto the causal chain that produced the occasion for it.
Four Evils, Four Wisdoms, and Four Deviations
「復次迦葉！菩薩有四惡。云何為四？一者，多聞調譺、行不如法，不順教誡；二者，離於正法不敬師長，不消信施；三者，失戒、定、慧，癡惘受施；四者，見於調御智慧菩薩，不敬、貢高而輕慢之。是謂迦葉！菩薩有四惡。
「復次迦葉！菩薩有四智：一者，未聞者聞，行如法；二者，依義不以文飾；三者，順教戒善語，所作皆善、孝順師尊，得戒定慧而食信施；四者，見於調御智慧菩薩，興善敬心。是謂迦葉！菩薩四智。
「復次迦葉！菩薩有四差違。云何為四？一者，未悉眾生便謂親厚，菩薩差違。二者，眾生不能堪受微妙佛法而為說之，菩薩差違。三者，愛樂上妙為說下乘，菩薩差違。四者，眾生正行皆得妙法，而相違反，菩薩差違。是謂迦葉！菩薩有四差違。」
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva has four evils. What are the four? First, being learned yet given to mockery, acting contrary to the Dharma, and not complying with instruction; second, being far from the true Dharma, disrespecting one's teachers and elders, and being unable to properly digest the offerings given in faith; third, having lost precept, concentration, and wisdom, yet accepting offerings while confused and unaware; fourth, on seeing a bodhisattva who has mastered wisdom, showing him no respect, but treating him with pride and contempt. These, Kāśyapa, are the four evils of a bodhisattva.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva has four kinds of wisdom. First, hearing what one has not yet heard, and acting in accordance with the Dharma; second, relying on the meaning rather than on ornamented language; third, complying with instruction and speaking wholesome words, so that everything one does is good, being filial and obedient toward one's teachers, and accepting the offerings given in faith only once precept, concentration, and wisdom have been attained; fourth, on seeing a bodhisattva who has mastered wisdom, giving rise to a wholesome, reverent mind. These, Kāśyapa, are a bodhisattva's four kinds of wisdom.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva has four deviations. What are the four? First, taking a being to be close and dear before one has come to truly know them at all — this is a bodhisattva's deviation. Second, teaching the Buddha's subtle and wondrous Dharma to a being unable to bear receiving it — this is a bodhisattva's deviation. Third, teaching the lesser vehicle to one who delights in and longs for the supreme — this is a bodhisattva's deviation. Fourth, acting contrary to beings whose own right conduct would have let them attain the wondrous Dharma — this is a bodhisattva's deviation. These, Kāśyapa, are a bodhisattva's four deviations."
The four evils and four wisdoms are mirror images of one another item for item — accepting offerings while confused mirrors accepting them only once precept, concentration, and wisdom are genuinely attained; contempt toward a wise bodhisattva mirrors reverence toward one — but the four deviations that follow break the pattern deliberately. None of the four deviations is a vice in the way the four evils are; each is a mismatch between a well-meaning act and its actual target — over-familiarity before real acquaintance, a teaching pitched above or below what the listener can use, resistance offered to someone whose own conduct had already earned better. The sūtra's implicit claim is that good intentions do not exempt a bodhisattva from the specific discipline of reading who is actually in front of them — a mismatched gift, however sincerely given, is still a deviation.
The Bodhisattva's Path, and Good and Bad Companions
「復次迦葉！菩薩有四道。云何為四？一者，等心為一切眾生；二者，勸一切眾生學佛智慧；三者，為一切眾生而說正法；四者，令一切眾生順於正行。是謂迦葉！菩薩四道。
「復次迦葉！菩薩有四惡知識。云何為四？一者，聲聞但自饒益；二者，緣覺少義少事；三者，世俗師典專在言辯；四者，習彼但得世法不獲正法。是謂迦葉！菩薩四惡知識。
「復次迦葉！菩薩有四善知識。云何為四？來乞求者是菩薩知識，長養道故；為法師者是菩薩知識，多聞長養般若波羅蜜故；勸出家學道者是菩薩善知識，長養一切諸善根故；諸佛世尊是菩薩善知識，長養一切諸佛法故。是謂迦葉！菩薩四善知識。
「復次迦葉！有四像菩薩。云何為四？一者，貪利不求功德；二者，但自求樂不為眾生；三者，但自除苦不為眾生；四者，欲得眷屬不樂遠離。是謂迦葉！四像菩薩。」
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva has a fourfold path. What are the four? First, a mind equal toward every being; second, encouraging every being to study the Buddha's own wisdom; third, teaching the true Dharma for the sake of every being; fourth, bringing every being to comply with right conduct. These, Kāśyapa, are a bodhisattva's fourfold path.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva has four bad companions. What are the four? First, a śrāvaka, who benefits only himself; second, a pratyekabuddha, whose concern and activity are slight; third, a worldly teacher of scripture, intent only on clever argument; fourth, one who, by studying such companions, gains only worldly things and never attains the true Dharma. These, Kāśyapa, are a bodhisattva's four bad companions.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva has four good companions. What are the four? One who comes asking and begging is a bodhisattva's good companion, because he nourishes the path; one who is a Dharma-teacher is a bodhisattva's good companion, because his learning nourishes prajñāpāramitā; one who encourages another to go forth from home and study the path is a bodhisattva's good companion, because he nourishes every root of goodness; and every buddha, every World-Honored One, is a bodhisattva's good companion, because he nourishes every buddha-dharma. These, Kāśyapa, are a bodhisattva's four good companions.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! There are four counterfeit bodhisattvas. What are the four? First, one greedy for profit who does not seek genuine virtue; second, one who seeks happiness only for himself, not for the sake of other beings; third, one who removes only his own suffering, not for the sake of other beings; fourth, one who wants to gain a following and takes no delight in solitude. These, Kāśyapa, are the four counterfeit bodhisattvas."
The list of four good companions contains a real surprise: a beggar who comes asking for something is named as a bodhisattva's good companion in exactly the same list, and for the same structural reason, as a buddha — "because he nourishes the path" (長養道故). Nothing in the text ranks the four items by importance, and nothing marks the first as a lesser case than the fourth. The implicit claim is sharp: an occasion to practice giving is not a lesser gift than a teaching, if what actually nourishes the path in each case is functionally the same. The four counterfeit bodhisattvas that close this part supply the test for everything Parts 1 and 2 have been building toward: every fault named so far — pride, stinginess, dishonesty, contempt — ultimately traces back to one of these four self-directed motives. A bodhisattva who has avoided every specific vice on the list but still practices toward his own profit, his own happiness, his own relief, or his own following has not yet become the thing the name describes.
Part 2 Complete
This closes Part 2. Part 3 completes the sūtra's long run of "four dharmas" catalogues — true virtues, the four great treasuries, transcending every Māra, embracing all good, immeasurable merit — before drawing everything together into the Thirty-Two Dharmas that earn a bodhisattva the name outright.
Continue to Part 3 — The Thirty-Two Dharmas of a True Bodhisattva →