The Buddha's Reply: A Hundred and Eight Statements
The Buddha answers by first echoing Mahāmati's entire chain of questions back in condensed verse — topic by topic, in the same order, right down to a startling digression into units of measure (how many motes of dust make a body, how many pecks make a bushel) that the commentary reads as a deliberate demonstration: the Buddha will answer literally anything asked of him before turning to what actually liberates. That turn comes in the second half of this page, where the questions collapse into a fixed structure — a hundred and eight terms, each paired with its own negation — the sūtra's own promised "hundred and eight matters" finally delivered as a formula rather than a list.
The Buddha Echoes Every Question Back
無上世間解， 聞彼所說偈，
大乘諸度門， 諸佛心第一。
(此心如樹木堅實心，非念慮心也)。
「善哉善哉問！
大慧善諦聽， 我今當次第，
如汝所問說。 生及與不生，
涅槃空剎那， 趣至無自性，
佛諸波羅蜜。 佛子與聲聞，
緣覺諸外道， 及與無色行，
如是種種事。 須彌巨海山，
洲渚剎土地， 星宿及日月，
外道天修羅， 解脫自在通，
力禪三摩提， 滅及如意足，
覺支及道品， 諸禪定無量。
諸陰身往來， 正受滅盡定。
三昧起心說， 心意及與識，
無我法有五， 自性想所想，
及與現二見， 乘及諸種性，
金銀摩尼等， 一闡提大種，
荒亂及一佛， 智爾焰得向。
眾生有無有， 象馬諸禽獸，
云何而捕取？ 譬因成悉檀，
及與作所作， 欝林迷惑通。
心量不現有， 諸地不相至，
百變百無受。 醫方工巧論，
伎術諸明處， 諸山須彌地，
巨海日月量。 下中上眾生，
身各幾微塵， 一一剎幾塵，
弓弓數有幾， 肘步拘樓舍，
半由延由延。 兔毫窓塵蟻，
羊毛䵃麥塵， 鉢他幾䵃麥，
阿羅䵃麥幾， 獨籠那佉梨，
勒叉及舉利， 乃至頻婆羅，
是各有幾數。 為有幾阿㝹，
名舍梨沙婆。 幾舍梨沙婆，
名為一賴提。 幾賴提摩沙，
為摩沙陀那。 幾摩沙陀那，
名為陀那羅。 復幾陀那羅，
為迦梨沙那。 幾迦梨沙那，
為成一波羅。 此等積聚相，
幾波羅彌樓。 是等所應請，
何須問餘事？ 聲聞辟支佛，
佛及最勝子， 身各有幾數。
何故不問此？ 火焰幾阿㝹，
風阿㝹復幾， 根根幾阿㝹，
毛孔眉毛幾？ 護財自在王，
轉輪聖帝王， 云何王守護？
云何為解脫？ 廣說及句說，
如汝之所問。 眾生種種欲，
種種諸飲食， 云何男女林，
金剛堅固山？ 云何如幻夢，
野鹿渴愛譬？ 云何山天仙，
揵闥婆莊嚴， 解脫至何所，
誰縛誰解脫？ 云何禪境界，
變化及外道？ 云何無因作？
云何有因作？ 有因無因作，
及非有無因？ 云何現已滅？
云何淨諸覺？ 云何諸覺轉，
及轉諸所作？ 云何斷諸想？
云何三昧起？ 破三有者誰？
何處為何身？ 云何無眾生，
而說有吾我？ 云何世俗說，
唯願廣分別。 所問相云何，
及所問非我？ 云何為胎藏，
及種種異身？ 云何斷常見？
云何心得定？ 言說及諸智，
戒種性佛子， 云何成及論？
云何師弟子， 種種諸眾生，
斯等復云何？ 云何為飲食，
聰明廣施設？ 云何樹葛縢？
最勝子所問。 云何種種剎，
仙人長苦行？ 云何為族姓，
從何師受學？ 云何為醜陋？
云何人修行？ 欲界何不覺、
阿迦膩吒成？ 云何俗神通？
云何為比丘？ 云何為化佛？
云何為報佛？ 云何為如如，
平等智慧佛？ 云何為眾僧？
佛子如是問， 箜篌腰鼓花，
剎土離光明， 心地者有七。
所問皆如實， 此及餘眾多，
佛子所應問， 一一相相應。
遠離諸見過， 悉檀離言說，
我今當顯示， 次第建立句。
佛子善諦聽， 此上百八句，
如諸佛所說。
The Peerless Knower of the World,
having heard the verses he had spoken,
recognized in them the various gateways of the Great Vehicle's salvation,
foremost among the hearts of every buddha.
(This "mind" is like the solid heartwood of a tree — not the mind of thought and deliberation.)
"Good, good — these are fine questions!
Mahāmati, listen well: I will now answer, in order, just as you have asked. Arising, and non-arising; nirvāṇa, emptiness, and the momentary; advancing toward the state without own-nature; the Buddha, and all the perfections; the Buddha's children and the śrāvakas, the pratyekabuddhas and the various tīrthikas, and the practices of the formless realm — all such matters as these. Mount Sumeru, the great ocean, the mountains; the islands, the lands, and the earth; the constellations, the sun and the moon; the tīrthikas, the gods, and the asuras; liberation, mastery, and the superknowledges; the powers, the dhyānas, the samādhis; cessation, and the bases of miraculous power; the limbs of awakening and the factors of the path; the immeasurable kinds of meditative absorption.
The aggregates, the body, coming and going; the attainment, and the absorption of cessation.
Rising from samādhi and speaking of mind; mind, will, and consciousness; the five dharmas of no-self; own-nature, and the perceiving and the perceived, and the two views now manifesting; the vehicles, and the various lineages; gold, silver, maṇi-gems, and the like; the icchantika, and the great elements; the world thrown into disorder, and the one buddha who was every buddha before him; wisdom, and how the object of knowledge is approached.
Sentient beings, existing and not existing; elephants, horses, and every kind of beast — how are they captured? The simile, the cause, the accomplished siddhānta; the act, and what is done by it; the dense forest, delusion, and penetration.
The measure of mind that does not manifest as existing; the grounds, none reaching into another; the hundred transformations, the hundred non-graspings; the treatises of medicine and the crafts; the arts, and the fields of knowledge; the mountains, Mount Sumeru, the earth; the measure of the great ocean, the sun, and the moon. Sentient beings of the lower, middle, and higher kinds — how many motes of dust make up each one's body? How many motes of dust make up a single land? How many spans make a single bow-length — the cubit, the bow, the krośa, the half-yojana, the yojana? The mote of dust on a hare's fur, the mote on a sunbeam, the nit; the mote on a sheep's fleece, and the barley-grain of dust; how many barley-grains of dust make a half-peck, how many make a peck; a bushel, ten bushels, a hundred thousand, a hundred million, and on up to a trillion — how many are there of each? How many motes make one mustard-seed-weight? How many mustard-seed-weights make one grass-seed-weight? How many grass-seed-weights make one bean-weight? How many bean-weights make one grain-weight? How many grain-weights make one ounce-weight? How many ounce-weights make one catty-weight? And these, piled up together — how many catty-weights make one Mount Sumeru? These are the things you ought to have asked — why ask about anything else? The śrāvaka, the pratyekabuddha, the Buddha, and his foremost children — how many motes of dust make up each of their bodies?
Why did you not ask this: how many motes make a flame of fire? How many motes make the wind? How many motes make each sense-faculty? How many motes make a single pore, or a single eyebrow-hair? The king who guards his wealth, the wheel-turning sovereign king — how does a king guard his realm?
What is liberation? I will answer in extended discourse and in condensed verse, just as you have asked. The various desires of sentient beings, the various kinds of food and drink; what is the forest of men and women, the mountain hard and firm as vajra? What is the illusion, the dream, the simile of the deer's thirst? What are the mountains, the gods, the sages, adorned with gandharvas? To what place does liberation lead? Who is bound, and who is liberated? What is the domain of the dhyānas, the transformations, and the tīrthikas? What is action without a cause?
What is action with a cause? Action both with and without a cause, and action neither with nor without a cause? How does what has manifested then cease?
How is awareness purified? How does awareness turn, and how does it turn what it has done? How are all conceptions cut off?
How does one rise from samādhi? Who breaks through the three realms of existence?
In what place, and with what body? How is it that there is no sentient being, and yet one speaks of a self and what is mine? How is conventional speech used — I beg you to explain this fully. What is asked concerning marks, and what is asked concerning no-self? What is the womb, and the various different kinds of birth? What is the view of annihilation, and the view of eternalism?
How does mind attain concentration? Speech, and the various kinds of wisdom; moral discipline, lineage, and the Buddha's children; what is a doctrinal conclusion, and what is a treatise?
What are master and disciple, and the various kinds of sentient beings — how are all of these? What is food and drink, and how is intelligence provisionally established at large? What is a tree, and a creeping vine?
These are the questions of the Buddha's foremost children. What are the various kinds of lands, and the sage's long ascetic practice? What is a clan and a lineage, and from what master is it learned? What is ugliness?
How does a person practice? Why is awakening not accomplished in the desire realm, but accomplished in Akaniṣṭha? What is worldly superknowledge?
What is a monk? What is a transformation buddha?
What is a reward buddha? What is the buddha of suchness, the buddha of equality and wisdom? What is the saṅgha?
The Buddha's children ask thus: of the lute, the slender-waisted drum, the flower; of lands apart from all light; and of the seventh ground of mind.
Everything you have asked accords with reality — this, and the many other things the Buddha's children ought to ask, each matching its own answer.
Far removed from every fault of view, the siddhāntas apart from all speech — I will now reveal them to you, establishing the statements in order.
Buddha's children, listen well: these hundred and eight statements above are what every buddha has taught.
The commentary marks nearly every line of this reply with the single word 領 — "receiving back" or "echoing" — matching it to the specific question from the previous page it answers: "領破三有及何處身" for one line, "領無眾生及世俗說" for the next, and so on almost without a break. This confirms directly what the previous page's reading note inferred from the structure alone: the Buddha's first move is not to answer but to demonstrate that he has heard every single question, in the order it was asked, before answering any of them. Only after that complete echo does the text turn, at "遠離諸見過" (far removed from every fault of view), to the actual hundred and eight statements — which the commentary notes explicitly are not a further echo but "以四悉檀當作百八句顯示建立," the four siddhāntas now recast as a hundred and eight fixed formulas.
On the digression into units of measure — bow-lengths, krośas, motes of dust on a hare's fur, bushels of barley-dust, mustard-seed-weights piling up into a full Mount Sumeru — the commentary treats it as literal Abhidharma-style enumeration rather than metaphor, and supplies the full technical correspondence: 二尺為一肘, 四肘為一弓, 五百弓為一拘樓舍 (krośa), 十拘樓舍為一由延 (yojana); a sevenfold chain of dust-motes from the finest 微塵 up through 窓塵, 兔毛頭塵, 羊毛頭塵, 牛毛頭塵, 蟣 (nit), 虱 (louse), to 芥 (mustard seed) and 大麥 (barley grain), each unit seven times its predecessor; and a second, weight-based chain running 阿㝹 (mote) → 舍梨沙婆 (mustard-seed) → 賴提 (grass-seed) → 摩沙 (bean) → 陀那羅 (a coin-grain, 銖) → 迦梨沙那 (an ounce, 兩) → 波羅 (a catty, 斤) → and finally 彌樓, Mount Sumeru itself as the outer limit of accumulated weight. Zongle and Ruqi do not treat this as padding: it is precisely the kind of question 是等所應請 — "the very thing you ought to have asked" — because it demonstrates that the Buddha's omniscience extends to literally anything, mundane measurement included, before the text pivots to the one hundred and eight statements that actually matter for liberation.
The Hundred and Eight Statements Themselves
「不生句，生句。常句，無常句。相句，無相句。住異句，非住異句。剎那句，非剎那句。自性句，離自性句。空句，不空句。斷句，不斷句。邊句，非邊句。中句，非中句。常句，非常句(凡有三常，此常梵音與上常音異也)。緣句，非緣句。因句，非因句。煩惱句，非煩惱句。愛句，非愛句。方便句，非方便句。巧句，非巧句。淨句，非淨句。成句，非成句。譬句，非譬句。弟子句，非弟子句。
師句，非師句。種性句，非種性句。三乘句，非三乘句。所有句，無所有句。願句，非願句。三輪句，非三輪句。相句，非相句。有品句，非有品句。俱句，非俱句。緣自聖智現法樂句，非現法樂句。剎土句，非剎土句。阿㝹句，非阿㝹句。水句，非水句。弓句，非弓句。實句，非實句。數句，非數句(此物之數也)。數句，非數句(此數，霜縷反)。明句，非明句。虛空句，非虛空句。雲句，非雲句。工巧伎術明處句，非明處句。風句，非風句。地句，非地句。心句，非心句。施設句，非施設句。自性句，非自性句。陰句，非陰句。眾生句，非眾生句。慧句，非慧句。涅槃句，非涅槃句。爾焰句，非爾焰句。外道句，非外道句。荒亂句，非荒亂句。
幻句，非幻句。夢句，非夢句。焰句，非焰句。像句，非像句。輪句，非輪句。揵闥婆句，非揵闥婆句。天句，非天句。飲食句，非飲食句。婬欲句，非婬欲句。見句，非見句。波羅蜜句，非波羅蜜句。戒句，非戒句。日月星宿句，非日月星宿句。諦句，非諦句。
果句，非果句。滅起句，非滅起句。治句，非治句。相句，非相句。支句，非支句。巧明處句，非巧明處句。禪句，非禪句。迷句，非迷句。現句，非現句。護句，非護句。族句，非族句。仙句，非仙句。王句，非王句。攝受句，非攝受句。實句，非實句。
記句，非記句。一闡提句，非一闡提句。女男不男句，非女男不男句。味句，非味句。事句，非事句。身句，非身句。覺句，非覺句。動句，非動句。根句，非根句。有為句，非有為句。無為句，非無為句。因果句，非因果句。色究竟句，非色究竟句。節句，非節句。欝樹藤句，非欝樹藤句。雜句，非雜句。說句，非說句。毘尼句，非毘尼句。比丘句，非比丘句。處句，非處句。字句，非字句。大慧！是百八句先佛所說，汝及諸菩薩摩訶薩，應當修學。」
"The not-arising statement, the arising statement. The eternal statement, the impermanent statement. The mark statement, the markless statement. The abiding-and-changing statement, the not-abiding-and-changing statement. The momentary statement, the not-momentary statement. The own-nature statement, the apart-from-own-nature statement. The empty statement, the not-empty statement. The cut-off statement, the uncut statement. The extreme statement, the not-extreme statement. The middle statement, the not-middle statement. The constant statement, the not-constant statement (there are, in fact, three kinds of "constant"; this "constant" is a different word in the Sanskrit from the "eternal" above, though rendered by the same character). The condition statement, the not-condition statement. The cause statement, the not-cause statement. The affliction statement, the not-affliction statement. The craving statement, the not-craving statement. The skillful-means statement, the not-skillful-means statement. The skillful statement, the not-skillful statement. The pure statement, the not-pure statement. The accomplished statement, the not-accomplished statement. The simile statement, the not-simile statement. The disciple statement, the not-disciple statement.
The master statement, the not-master statement. The lineage statement, the not-lineage statement. The three-vehicles statement, the not-three-vehicles statement. The existing statement, the nonexistent statement. The vow statement, the not-vow statement. The three-wheels statement, the not-three-wheels statement. The mark statement, the not-mark statement. The existent-class statement, the not-existent-class statement. The together statement, the not-together statement. The statement of the bliss of the present dharma realized by one's own noble wisdom, the not-bliss-of-the-present-dharma statement. The land statement, the not-land statement. The atom statement, the not-atom statement. The water statement, the not-water statement. The bow statement, the not-bow statement. The real statement, the not-real statement. The number statement — as a quantity — the not-number statement. The counting statement — as an act — the not-counting statement. The knowledge statement, the not-knowledge statement. The space statement, the not-space statement. The cloud statement, the not-cloud statement. The statement of crafts, arts, and fields of knowledge, the not-field-of-knowledge statement. The wind statement, the not-wind statement. The earth statement, the not-earth statement. The mind statement, the not-mind statement. The provisional-establishment statement, the not-provisional-establishment statement. The own-nature statement, the not-own-nature statement. The aggregate statement, the not-aggregate statement. The sentient-being statement, the not-sentient-being statement. The wisdom statement, the not-wisdom statement. The nirvāṇa statement, the not-nirvāṇa statement. The object-of-knowledge statement, the not-object-of-knowledge statement. The tīrthika statement, the not-tīrthika statement. The disorder statement, the not-disorder statement.
The illusion statement, the not-illusion statement. The dream statement, the not-dream statement. The mirage statement, the not-mirage statement. The reflection statement, the not-reflection statement. The wheel statement, the not-wheel statement. The gandharva statement, the not-gandharva statement. The god statement, the not-god statement. The food-and-drink statement, the not-food-and-drink statement. The desire statement, the not-desire statement. The view statement, the not-view statement. The perfection statement, the not-perfection statement. The precept statement, the not-precept statement. The sun-moon-and-constellations statement, the not-sun-moon-and-constellations statement. The truth statement, the not-truth statement.
The fruit statement, the not-fruit statement. The cessation-and-arising statement, the not-cessation-and-arising statement. The remedy statement, the not-remedy statement. The mark statement, the not-mark statement. The limb statement, the not-limb statement. The skillful-field-of-knowledge statement, the not-skillful-field-of-knowledge statement. The dhyāna statement, the not-dhyāna statement. The delusion statement, the not-delusion statement. The manifestation statement, the not-manifestation statement. The guarding statement, the not-guarding statement. The clan statement, the not-clan statement. The sage statement, the not-sage statement. The king statement, the not-king statement. The embracing statement, the not-embracing statement. The real statement, the not-real statement.
The prediction statement, the not-prediction statement. The icchantika statement, the not-icchantika statement. The statement of women, men, and those who are neither, the not-women-men-and-neither statement. The taste statement, the not-taste statement. The phenomenon statement, the not-phenomenon statement. The body statement, the not-body statement. The awakening statement, the not-awakening statement. The movement statement, the not-movement statement. The faculty statement, the not-faculty statement. The conditioned statement, the not-conditioned statement. The unconditioned statement, the not-unconditioned statement. The cause-and-effect statement, the not-cause-and-effect statement. The Akaniṣṭha statement, the not-Akaniṣṭha statement. The season statement, the not-season statement. The tree-and-vine statement, the not-tree-and-vine statement. The mixed statement, the not-mixed statement. The teaching statement, the not-teaching statement. The vinaya statement, the not-vinaya statement. The monk statement, the not-monk statement. The place statement, the not-place statement. The syllable statement, the not-syllable statement. Mahāmati! These hundred and eight statements are what every past buddha has taught; you, and all the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, should diligently study them."
Zongle and Ruqi read the paired form itself — every statement immediately followed by its own negation — as the entire teaching device, not decoration around it: 一一相相應, each one matching its own counter-term, so that no single term in the list can be grasped and held onto without its own denial standing directly beside it. Their preamble to the whole list, citing the Ten-Fascicle Laṅkāvatāra's parallel passage where Mahāmati explicitly asks "何者是一百八句" (what are the hundred and eight statements) and the Buddha replies simply "所謂生句、非生句" (namely, the arising-statement and the not-arising-statement), makes the pattern explicit as a template applied uniformly across everything the sūtra has just spent two pages surveying — land and lineage, precepts and pearls, kings and icchantikas, the conditioned and the unconditioned. The commentary's own summary names what unifies such an otherwise miscellaneous list: 有事有理、有性有修、有真有妄、有迷有悟、有教有行、有因有果、有體有用、有即有離、有亡有照 — there is phenomenon and there is principle, nature and cultivation, truth and falsehood, delusion and awakening, teaching and practice, cause and effect, essence and function, identity and separation, negation and illumination — "一經大旨舉在是矣," the entire sūtra's central point is contained in this very structure.
The commentary also preserves a piece of textual history worth keeping visible rather than silently resolved: counted individually, the Song translation's own list runs to only a hundred and four pairs, four short of the number the text itself announces. Zongle and Ruqi note precisely where the Tang translation (T672) supplies the missing four — splitting "有品句非有品句" into two separate pairs, dividing "緣自聖智現法樂句非現法樂句" into two, doing the same to "滅起句非滅起句," and adding an additional "決定句非決定句" after the closing "說句非說句" — while adding immediately afterward that the exact count is, in the end, beside the point: "所問所領皆無倫次，故不可以定數開合而論之," what was asked and what was echoed back follow no fixed order to begin with, so the number was never meant to be settled by any one way of splitting the pairs. The commentary treats the discrepancy as evidence of how the number 108 functions here — as a symbolic total matched to the 108 afflictions, not a checklist to be counted out to the last item.
Part 2 Complete
This closes the sūtra's long threshold: the assembly at Mount Laṅkā, Mahāmati's homage and his chain of questions, and the Buddha's answer in two movements — first a complete echo of everything asked, then the same ground recast as a hundred and eight paired statements, each term immediately met by its own denial. Part 3 turns from this scaffolding to the sūtra's first sustained doctrinal argument: Mahāmati's question about how the eight consciousnesses arise and cease, and the Buddha's answer distinguishing the truly real consciousness, the manifesting consciousness, and the consciousness that discriminates objects — the opening move in an account of the ālayavijñāna that this site's Awakening of Faith collection has already cited more than once.
Continue to Part 3 — Three Kinds of Consciousness, and Seven Kinds of Own-Nature →