The Thirty-Two Dharmas of a True Bodhisattva
The long run of "four dharmas" catalogues that opened this sūtra now reaches its own conclusion: four true virtues built from paradox, the bodhisattva's treasuries and immeasurable practices of merit, and a direct statement that the name "bodhisattva" is never earned by the name alone — spelled out in full as the Thirty-Two Dharmas that actually earn it.
Four True Virtues, and the Bodhisattva's Treasuries
「復次迦葉！菩薩有四真功德。云何為四？一者，解空而信行報；二者，解無吾我大慈眾生；三者，雖樂泥洹不捨生死；四者，行布施欲化眾生，不望其報。是謂迦葉！菩薩四真功德。
「復次迦葉！菩薩摩訶薩有四大藏。云何為四？一者，值佛出現於世；二者，聞說六度無極；三者，見法師心中無礙；四者，不放逸樂住山林。是謂迦葉！菩薩有四大藏。
「復次迦葉！菩薩有四法越度眾魔。云何為四？一者，不捨菩薩心；二者，心不礙一切眾生；三者，不染著一切諸見；四者，不輕慢一切眾生。是謂迦葉！菩薩四法越度眾魔。
「復次迦葉！菩薩摩訶薩有四法，攝受一切善法。云何為四？一者，常止山澤心無欺詐；二者，有恩無恩心常忍辱；三者，念報四恩、棄捨身命為眾生故；四者，求法而無厭足，具一切善根故。是謂迦葉！菩薩摩訶薩四法攝受一切善。
「復次迦葉！菩薩摩訶薩有四無量福行。云何為四？一者，法施心無悕望；二者，見有犯戒興大悲心；三者，願一切眾生樂菩薩心；四者，見有羸劣不捨忍辱。是謂迦葉！菩薩四無量福行。」
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva has four true virtues. What are the four? First, understanding emptiness while still trusting in the working of karmic result; second, understanding that there is no self, while still holding great loving-kindness toward beings; third, delighting in nirvāṇa while still not abandoning saṃsāra; fourth, practicing giving in order to transform beings, without hoping for any reward. These, Kāśyapa, are a bodhisattva's four true virtues.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva has four great treasuries. What are the four? First, encountering a buddha appearing in the world; second, hearing the six boundless perfections taught; third, meeting a Dharma-teacher whose mind holds no obstruction; fourth, being free of negligence, and delighting to dwell in mountain forests. These, Kāśyapa, are a bodhisattva's four great treasuries.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva has four dharmas by which he passes beyond every Māra. What are the four? First, never abandoning the bodhisattva mind; second, a mind that holds no obstruction toward any being; third, being untainted by, and unattached to, any view whatsoever; fourth, holding no contempt for any being. These, Kāśyapa, are the four dharmas by which a bodhisattva passes beyond every Māra.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva has four dharmas by which he embraces every wholesome dharma. What are the four? First, constantly dwelling in mountain forests, his mind free of deceit; second, a mind of constant patience, whether toward one who has shown him kindness or one who has not; third, mindful of repaying the four kindnesses, giving up body and life for the sake of beings; fourth, seeking the Dharma without ever being satisfied, so as to be complete in every root of goodness. These, Kāśyapa, are the four dharmas by which a bodhisattva-mahāsattva embraces every wholesome dharma.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva has four immeasurable practices of merit. What are the four? First, giving the Dharma with a mind that hopes for nothing; second, arousing great compassion upon seeing one who has broken the precepts; third, vowing that every being should delight in the bodhisattva mind; fourth, on seeing one who is weak or feeble, never abandoning patience toward them. These, Kāśyapa, are a bodhisattva's four immeasurable practices of merit."
The four true virtues are built entirely from paired terms that sound, on first hearing, like they cannot both be held at once: understanding emptiness while still trusting karmic result, understanding no-self while still holding great compassion for a self one no longer takes to be ultimately real, delighting in nirvāṇa while refusing to abandon saṃsāra. This is the sūtra's earliest signal of the "middle way" teaching Part 5 will make explicit — a bodhisattva does not resolve these pairs by picking a side, and the sūtra calls holding both at once, without collapsing either into the other, "true" virtue rather than a compromise between two truer extremes. The four dharmas for passing beyond Māra likewise turn out, on inspection, to be a condensed restatement of nearly everything Parts 1 and 2 have already covered — not abandoning the bodhisattva mind, holding no obstruction toward beings, avoiding attachment to any fixed view, and holding no contempt for anyone — as if to say that Māra's own leverage depends entirely on a bodhisattva lapsing into one of the specific faults already catalogued, and nothing more exotic than that.
The Thirty-Two Dharmas of a True Bodhisattva
「復次迦葉！非以菩薩名故稱為菩薩，行法行等行禪分別故，乃稱菩薩。
「復次迦葉！菩薩摩訶薩成就三十二法得稱菩薩。云何為三十二？一者，至心饒益眾生；二者，欲逮薩芸若智；三者，自謙不毀他智；四者，不慢一切眾生；五者，信心一切眾生；六者，愛念一切眾生；七者，至竟慈愍眾生；八者，等心怨親；九者，眾生求於泥洹益以無量福；十者，見眾生歡喜與語；十一者，已許無悔；十二者，大悲普遍一切眾生；十三者，求法多聞無厭；十四者，己之所犯知以為過；十五者，見他所犯諫而不怒；十六者，修行一切威儀禮節；十七者，施不望報；十八者，忍辱無礙；十九者，精進求一切善根；二十者，修習禪定出過無色；二十一者，以權攝慧；二十二者，四恩攝權；二十三者，有戒無戒等以慈心；二十四者，至心聞法；二十五者，專止山澤；二十六者，不樂世榮；二十七者，不樂小乘樂大乘功德；二十八者，遠惡知識親善知識；二十九者，成就四梵居止；三十者，依猗智慧；三十一者，眾生有行無行終不捨離；三十二者，所說無二敬重真言，菩薩之心最為在前。是謂迦葉！菩薩摩訶薩成就三十二法得稱菩薩。」
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! It is not by the mere name 'bodhisattva' that one is called a bodhisattva; it is by practicing the Dharma, practicing equanimity, and practicing meditative discernment that one is truly called a bodhisattva.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! A bodhisattva-mahāsattva who accomplishes thirty-two dharmas earns the name bodhisattva. What are the thirty-two? First, benefiting beings with a wholehearted mind; second, wishing to attain the wisdom of all-knowing; third, being modest and never disparaging another's wisdom; fourth, holding no contempt for any being; fifth, having faith in every being; sixth, cherishing every being; seventh, having ultimate compassion and pity for beings; eighth, a mind equal toward friend and foe alike; ninth, benefiting beings who seek nirvāṇa with immeasurable merit; tenth, speaking joyfully with beings whenever he meets them; eleventh, never regretting a promise once made; twelfth, great compassion reaching every being everywhere; thirteenth, seeking the Dharma and hearing it widely without ever being satisfied; fourteenth, recognizing one's own wrongdoing as a fault; fifteenth, admonishing another's wrongdoing without anger; sixteenth, practicing every dignified deportment and courtesy; seventeenth, giving without hoping for reward; eighteenth, patience without any obstruction; nineteenth, diligence in seeking every root of goodness; twentieth, cultivating meditative absorption that goes beyond even the formless realms; twenty-first, using skillful means to gather in wisdom; twenty-second, using the four kindnesses to gather in skillful means; twenty-third, a mind of loving-kindness equal toward the disciplined and the undisciplined alike; twenty-fourth, hearing the Dharma with a wholehearted mind; twenty-fifth, dwelling exclusively in mountain forests; twenty-sixth, taking no delight in worldly glory; twenty-seventh, taking no delight in the lesser vehicle, but delighting in the virtues of the Mahāyāna; twenty-eighth, staying far from bad companions and drawing near to good ones; twenty-ninth, accomplishing the four Brahmā-abodes; thirtieth, relying on wisdom; thirty-first, never abandoning beings, whether they act rightly or not; thirty-second, holding what is said in undivided, respectful regard as true speech, with the bodhisattva mind always foremost. These, Kāśyapa, are the thirty-two dharmas by which a bodhisattva-mahāsattva accomplishes and earns the name bodhisattva."
The sūtra states its thesis before it states the list: "it is not by the mere name 'bodhisattva' that one is called a bodhisattva" (非以菩薩名故稱為菩薩) — a direct rejection of the idea that a title, a robe, or a formal designation could ever substitute for the conduct that title is supposed to name. This is worth reading against the four kinds of śramaṇa this sūtra will describe in Part 8, where the identical structure recurs at the level of monastic identity: three counterfeit versions of the role, and only a fourth that actually is what its name claims. Here as there, the sūtra treats the gap between name and substance as the single most important thing to get right.
The number itself is unlikely to be accidental. Thirty-two is also the traditional count of the physical marks of a great being (mahāpuruṣa-lakṣaṇa) said to appear on a buddha's body — and reading this list as its ethical counterpart is hard to avoid: where the thirty-two physical marks are said to be the visible result of specific virtuous deeds accumulated over many lifetimes, this thirty-two-item list supplies the deeds themselves, still in progress, not yet cashed out into any mark on the body at all. The list itself functions as a kind of summary of everything the sūtra has taught so far — nearly every item recognizably restates a fault or virtue already catalogued in Parts 1 and 2, now gathered into a single continuous enumeration rather than scattered across a dozen separate fourfold sets.
Part 3 Complete
This closes Part 3, and with it the sūtra's long opening run of catalogues on bodhisattva conduct. Part 4 turns to an entirely different register: a great chain of similes for bodhisattva virtue, drawn from the four elements, the moon and sun, the lion and the elephant, the lotus growing in mud, and rivers running to the sea — closing with the Buddha's own charge to study this sūtra and observe things truly.
Continue to Part 4 — The Elements, the Moon, the Lion, and the Lotus →