Apart from the Four Extremes
Mahāmati asks for the teaching that lets a bodhisattva leave behind identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence — the very positions, the Buddha says, that every outsider without exception is caught within. The answer comes as a dozen similes in quick succession: a herd of thirsty deer chasing a mirage, a mirage-city of gandharvas, a dream one wakes from and still cannot let go of, a painted image mistaken for having height, floating hairs seen by a diseased eye, a whirling firebrand's illusory ring, a bubble mistaken for a jewel, a tree's reflection in water, a mirror's images, wind and water producing sound, heat-shimmer on bare ground, and a corpse animated by sorcery — twelve images, each showing the same thing: something appears, is neither simply real nor simply unreal, and yet an entire philosophy can be built on insisting it must be one or the other.
Twelve Similes Against the Four Extremes
爾時，大慧菩薩摩訶薩復白佛言：「世尊！唯願為說離一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常，一切外道所不行，自覺聖智所行，離妄想自相共相，入於第一真實之義。諸地相續漸次上上增進清淨之相，隨入如來地相，無開發本願。譬如眾色摩尼境界無邊相行，自心現趣部分之相一切諸法。我及餘菩薩摩訶薩，離如是等妄想自性自共相見，疾得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，令一切眾生，一切安樂，具足充滿。」
佛告大慧：「善哉，善哉！汝能問我如是之義，多所安樂，多所饒益，哀愍一切諸天世人。」佛告大慧：「諦聽，諦聽！善思念之！吾當為汝分別解說。」大慧白佛言：「善哉，世尊！唯然受教。」
佛告大慧：「不知心量愚癡凡夫，取內外性，依於一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常，自性習因計著妄想。譬如群鹿，為渴所逼，見春時炎，而作水想，迷亂馳趣，不知非水。如是愚夫，無始虛偽妄想所熏，三毒燒心，樂色境界，見生住滅，取內外性，墮於一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常想，妄見攝受。如乾闥婆城，凡愚無智而起城想，無始習氣計著想現。彼非有城非無城，如是外道無始虛偽習氣計著，依於一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常見，不能了知自心現量。譬如有人，夢見男女為馬車步，城邑園林山河浴池種種莊嚴，自身入中，覺已憶念。大慧！於意云何？如是士夫，於前所夢憶念不捨，為黠慧不？」大慧白佛言：「不也。世尊！」佛告大慧：「如是凡夫，惡見所噬，外道智慧，不知如夢自心現量，依於一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常見。譬如畫像，不高不下，而彼凡愚，作高下想。如是未來外道惡見習氣充滿，依於一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常見，自壞壞他。餘離有無無生之論，亦說言無。謗因果見，拔善根本，壞清淨因。勝求者，當遠離去，作如是說：『彼墮自他俱見、有無妄想已，墮建立誹謗。以是惡見，當墮地獄。』譬如翳目見有垂髮，謂眾人言：『汝等觀此而是垂髮，畢竟非性非無性，見不見故。』如是外道妄見悕望，依於一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常見，誹謗正法，自陷陷他。譬如火輪非輪，愚夫輪想，非有智者。如是外道惡見悕望，依於一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常想，一切性生。譬如水泡，似摩尼珠，愚小無智，作摩尼想，計著追逐。而彼水泡，非摩尼非非摩尼，取不取故。如是外道惡見妄想習氣所熏，於無所有，說有生；緣有者，言滅。
「復次，大慧！有三種量、五分論，各建立已，得聖智自覺。離二自性事而作有性妄想計著。大慧！心、意、意識身心轉變，自心現攝所攝，諸妄想斷。如來地自覺聖智修行者，不應於彼作性非性想。若復修行者，如是境界，性非性攝取想生者，彼即取長養，及取我人。大慧！若說彼性自性共相，一切皆是化佛所說，非法佛說。又諸言說，悉由愚夫悕望見生，不為別建立趣自性法，得聖智自覺三昧樂住者，分別顯示。譬如水中有樹影現，彼非影非非影，非樹形非非樹形。如是外道見習所熏，妄想計著，依於一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常想，而不能知自心現量。譬如明鏡，隨緣顯現一切色像而無妄想。彼非像非非像，而見像非像。妄想愚夫而作像想。如是外道惡見，自心像現，妄想計著，依於一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常見。譬如風水和合出聲，彼非性非非性。如是外道惡見妄想，依於一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常見。譬如大地無草木處，熱炎川流，洪浪雲湧。彼非性非非性，貪無貪故。如是愚夫，無始虛偽習氣所熏，妄想計著，依生住滅、一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常，緣自住事門，亦復如彼熱炎波浪。譬如有人，呪術機發。以非眾生數，毘舍闍鬼方便合成，動搖云為。凡愚妄想，計著往來。如是外道惡見悕望，依於一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常見，戲論計著，不實建立。大慧！是故欲得自覺聖智事，當離生住滅、一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常等惡見妄想。」
Then Mahāmati Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva again said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I beg you to teach how one leaves behind identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence — positions no outsider is able to move beyond, but which the domain of self-realized noble wisdom does move beyond — leaving behind the false thought of own mark and shared mark, and entering into the very meaning of ultimate reality. [Teach as well] the marks of ever-increasing purity through which one advances, ground after ground in succession, entering the very mark of the Tathāgata's own ground, [acting there] without any need for deliberate exertion toward one's own original vow — like a wish-fulfilling jewel of boundless color and activity, [reflecting] every dharma as the very portion of reality one's own mind manifests and approaches. May I, and the other bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, leave behind this very false-thought view of own-nature, own mark, and shared mark, and swiftly attain unsurpassed, complete enlightenment, so that every sentient being may be brought, fully and completely, to every kind of ease and happiness."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Excellent, excellent! That you are able to ask me of such a meaning brings ease and benefit to many, out of compassion for every god and every person in the world." The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Listen well! Listen well! Consider this carefully — I shall explain it to you point by point." Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "Excellent, World-Honored One! I gladly receive your teaching."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Ordinary people, ignorant, not knowing the measure of mind, grasp at an inner and an outer nature, and, relying on the habituated force of own-nature, become attached to false thought concerning identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence. It is like a herd of deer, driven by thirst, who see the shimmer of a spring mirage and form the notion of water, and, deluded and confused, race toward it, not knowing it is not water at all. Just so, ordinary people, habituated by beginningless, false thought, their minds burning with the three poisons, delighting in the domain of visible form, seeing arising, abiding, and ceasing, grasp at an inner and an outer nature, and fall into the notion of identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence, falsely seeing themselves as grasping something real. It is like the city of the gandharvas: the ignorant and unwise, lacking wisdom, form the notion of a city there, [when in truth] it is only the beginningless habituated force of attachment that makes such a notion appear — that [city] is neither an existing city nor a nonexistent one. Just so, the outsiders, through their beginningless, false, habituated force of attachment, relying on identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence, are unable to understand the very measure of their own mind's manifestation. It is like a person who dreams of men and women, of horses and carriages walking by, of towns, gardens and groves, mountains, rivers, and bathing pools, adorned in every kind of splendor, and who enters into all of it in the dream itself; upon waking, he remembers it. Mahāmati, what do you think — if such a person, with respect to what he had dreamed before, clung to the memory of it without letting go, would that be wise?" Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "No indeed, World-Honored One." The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Just so, ordinary people, devoured by evil views, and the wisdom of the outsiders, fail to know that, like a dream, [what appears] is their own mind's manifestation, and instead rely on identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence. It is like a painted image, neither raised nor sunken [in actual relief], and yet the ignorant and foolish form the notion that it has height and depth. Just so, the outsiders of ages to come, filled with the habituated force of evil views, relying on identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence, destroy both themselves and others. There are, further, those who, apart from [the outsiders' own view], hold to a doctrine of non-arising free of existence and non-existence, and yet they too speak only of 'nothingness' — slandering the view of cause and effect, uprooting the very root of goodness, and destroying the pure cause [of liberation]. One who seeks what is truly excellent should keep far away from such people, saying of them: 'having fallen into the view of self, of other, and of both together, and into the false thought of existence and non-existence, they have thereby fallen into [both] false assertion and slander — and on account of this evil view, they will fall into hell.' It is like a person with a diseased eye who sees floating strands of hair, and says to the people around him, 'look at this' — yet those floating strands, in the end, neither truly exist nor truly do not exist, since [some] see them and [others] do not. Just so, the outsiders, with their false views and vain hopes, relying on identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence, slander the true Dharma, sinking themselves and dragging others down with them. It is like a whirling firebrand, which is not, in truth, a ring of fire at all, though the ignorant form the notion of a ring — no one of any wisdom does so. Just so, the outsiders, with their evil views and vain hopes, relying on identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence, give rise to the notion that every [fixed] nature is thereby produced. It is like a bubble of water resembling a maṇi-jewel: the young and unwise, lacking wisdom, form the notion that it is a jewel, and become attached to it, chasing after it — yet that water-bubble is neither truly a jewel nor truly not a jewel, since it may be grasped and yet cannot [truly] be grasped. Just so, the outsiders, habituated by the force of evil views and false thought, speak of arising where there is, in truth, nothing at all, and speak of cessation with respect to what is, in truth, only a [passing] condition.
"Furthermore, Mahāmati, there are those who, having each established the three kinds of valid cognition and the five-part syllogism, [claim thereby to] attain self-realized noble wisdom — yet, apart from the two own-natures [imagined and dependent], they merely form the false thought of attachment to something that positively exists. Mahāmati, [only] once mind, will, and consciousness, body and mind, have themselves turned and transformed, and every false thought bound up with one's own mind's manifestation of the grasped and the grasper has been cut off, [has one reached] the practitioner of self-realized noble wisdom at the ground of the Tathāgata — such a one does not, with respect to any of this, form the notion that something either positively exists or does not exist at all. If, on the other hand, a practitioner gives rise to the notion of grasping at such a domain as either positively existing or not existing, he has thereby grasped at what merely nourishes a self, and has grasped at a person, at an 'I.' Mahāmati, if one speaks of the own mark and shared mark of that own-nature [as though it were something to be positively asserted or denied], all of this is what the transformation buddha teaches, not what the dharma-body buddha teaches. And every such account of speech arises entirely from the vain hopes and views of the ignorant — it is not taught by way of some separately established doctrine of own-nature, [meant] for one who dwells in the very bliss of self-realized noble samādhi, to be discriminated and displayed to him [as something further to grasp]. It is like the reflection of a tree appearing in water: that reflection is neither a true reflection nor not a true reflection, neither the form of a tree nor not the form of a tree. Just so, the outsiders, habituated by the force of their own views, become attached through false thought, relying on identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence, unable to know the very measure of their own mind's manifestation. It is like a bright mirror, which, following its conditions, displays every kind of form and image without any false thought of its own — those images are neither truly images nor not truly images, and yet, seeing an image, [one mistakes it] for not being an image at all; it is the ignorant, caught in false thought, who form the notion of a real image there. Just so, the outsiders, through their evil views, [caught in] the image manifested by their own mind, become attached through false thought, relying on identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence. It is like wind and water combining to produce a sound: that sound is neither truly [a fixed] nature nor not a nature at all. Just so, the outsiders, through their evil views and false thought, rely on identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence. It is like a stretch of bare ground, without grass or trees, where the heat-shimmer streams like a river, surging like great waves and billowing like clouds: that shimmer is neither truly a nature nor not a nature at all, since [one may either] crave it or not crave it. Just so, ordinary people, habituated by the beginningless, false force of habit, become attached through false thought, relying on arising, abiding, and ceasing, on identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence, within the very gateway of their own abiding condition — resembling, once again, that same heat-shimmer's surging waves. It is like a person animated by the working of sorcery: though he is not, in truth, one of the ranks of sentient beings at all, a piśāca demon has been skillfully joined to him by [the sorcerer's] means, so that he moves and acts as though alive, and the ignorant and foolish, caught in false thought, become attached, taking him for one who truly comes and goes. Just so, the outsiders, through their evil views and vain hopes, relying on identity and difference, both together and neither, existence and non-existence, both together and neither, permanence and impermanence, engage in idle speculation and false attachment, establishing what is not real as though it were. Mahāmati, it is for this reason that one who wishes to attain the very matter of self-realized noble wisdom should leave behind the evil views and false thought of arising, abiding, and ceasing, of identity and difference, both together and neither, of existence and non-existence, both together and neither, and of permanence and impermanence."
The commentators spell out the four-cornered structure the sūtra's own prose leaves compressed into the single phrase "一異、俱不俱、有無非有非無、常無常" — one and different, both and neither, existent and nonexistent, both and neither, permanent and impermanent, both and neither: "一異四句者，合云一、異、亦異亦不異、非異非不異，俱即亦異亦不異，不俱即非異非不異也" — "the identity-and-difference tetralemma, spelled out in full, reads: identical, different, both identical and different, neither identical nor different — where 'both' means 'both identical and different,' and 'neither' means 'neither identical nor different.'" The same fourfold pattern repeats for existence/non-existence and for permanence/impermanence, giving twelve total positions collapsed into the sūtra's shorthand of three paired terms — and the commentators are blunt about the stakes: "此三四句各有宗計，一切外道正坐此見" — "each of these three tetralemmas has its own school of thought built upon it; every single outsider doctrine, without exception, sits squarely within one of these twelve positions." The dozen similes that follow are not decorative variety; they are aimed, one after another, at showing that whatever a hearer's own favored position happens to be among these twelve, it can be dissolved by the same method applied to a mirage, a dream, or a painted image.
On why the similes deliberately repeat and overlap rather than presenting twelve cleanly distinct cases, the commentators note the pattern explicitly when they reach the verse restating this section: several similes appear in slightly different form more than once, because the point being illustrated — something appears, and yet resists being pinned down as either simply real or simply unreal — is the same point every time, approached from a new angle each time a hearer might still be holding onto one specific residual doubt. The floating-hair simile is characteristic of the whole method: "以見有垂髮，故言非無性，以不見有垂髮，故言非性" — "because [the afflicted eye] does see the floating strands, one cannot simply say they lack any nature at all; because [an unafflicted eye] does not see them, one cannot simply say they have a nature either" — the very structure of the example forces both horns of the dilemma to fail simultaneously, which is exactly why no single answer among "exists," "does not exist," "both," or "neither" can ever close the question the outsiders keep insisting must have one of those four answers.
The Closing Verses
爾時，世尊欲重宣此義而說偈言：
「幻夢水樹影， 垂髮熱時炎，
如是觀三有， 究竟得解脫。
譬如鹿渴想， 動轉迷亂心，
鹿想謂為水， 而實無水事。
如是識種子， 動轉見境界，
愚夫妄想生， 如為翳所翳。
於無始生死， 計著攝受性，
如逆㨝出㨝， 捨離貪攝受，
如幻呪機發， 浮雲夢電光。
觀是得解脫， 永斷三相續，
於彼無有作， 猶如炎虛空。
如是知諸法， 則為無所知，
言教唯假名， 彼亦無有相。
於彼起妄想， 陰行如垂髮，
如畫垂髮幻， 夢乾闥婆城。
火輪熱時炎， 無而現眾生，
常無常一異， 俱不俱亦然。
無始過相續， 愚夫癡妄想，
明鏡水淨眼， 摩尼妙寶珠，
於中現眾色， 而實無所有。
一切性顯現， 如畫熱時炎，
種種眾色現， 如夢無所有。」
Then the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse:
"An illusion, a dream, a reflection in water or in a tree, floating strands of hair, the shimmer of summer heat —
observing the three realms of existence in just this way, one attains ultimate liberation.
Just as a deer's own thirst gives rise to the notion of water,
a mind stirred and confused,
the deer takes the mirage for water,
when in truth there is no water there at all.
Just so, the seed of consciousness itself,
stirring, sees an object-realm before it;
the ignorant give rise to false thought,
as if afflicted by a diseased eye.
Within beginningless birth-and-death,
one becomes attached to the nature of what is grasped —
like drawing out one wedge by driving in another,
leave behind the craving that grasps at it.
Like a figure animated by sorcery, a drifting cloud, a dream, a flash of lightning —
observing this, one attains liberation,
forever cutting off the three continuities;
with respect to them there is nothing at all that is done,
just like a shimmer of heat in empty space.
Knowing every dharma in just this way
is itself to have nothing further to know;
the teaching of words is only a borrowed name,
and even that name has no mark of its own.
It is with respect to this that false thought arises,
the aggregates and their activity like floating strands of hair;
like a painted image, floating hairs, an illusion,
a dream, a city of gandharvas.
A wheel of fire, the shimmer of summer heat —
with nothing there at all, they still appear to living beings;
permanence and impermanence, identity and difference,
both together and neither, are just the same.
The beginningless fault continuing on and on
is nothing but the ignorant's own foolish false thought;
a bright mirror, clear water, an unclouded eye,
a fine and wondrous maṇi-jewel —
every kind of form appears within them,
and yet, in truth, there is nothing there at all.
Every [fixed] nature appears in just this way,
like a picture, like the shimmer of summer heat;
every kind of form appears,
just like a dream where nothing at all is there."
The commentators note that this closing verse is not a simple line-by-line recap, and map out exactly how it reworks the preceding prose: "偈中幻夢、水樹影等，乃通頌上文，但譬喻有重複，文相交互" — "the illusion, dream, water, and tree-reflection similes in this verse restate the passage above as a whole, but the similes are repeated and interwoven rather than matched one to one." Some images recur up to four times across the prose and verse together (the diseased eye, floating hair, and dream), some only twice, and several appear here for the first time with no prose counterpart at all — the wedge that drives out another wedge, the drifting cloud, the flash of lightning, clear water, and an unclouded eye. Rather than reading this as imprecision, the commentators treat the accumulation itself as the argument: no single image is being offered as the definitive analogy for how appearance relates to reality, because the sūtra's whole point is that no single fixed account — not even a favored simile — should be allowed to harden into one more position to grasp.
On the line "如是知諸法，則為無所知" ("knowing every dharma in just this way is itself to have nothing further to know"), the commentators draw out the shift in what "knowing" even means at this point in the teaching: "未知諸法如幻，是有強覺之知，已知如幻則無所知矣" — "before one knows that every dharma is like an illusion, one's 'knowing' is a forced, effortful cognition; once one has known them to be like an illusion, there is no further 'knowing' of that kind left to have." The twelve similes are not building toward a thirteenth, correct doctrine to finally grasp firmly — they are building toward the point at which grasping itself, correct or otherwise, is no longer the operative activity at all.
Part 14 Complete
This closes Part 14: a dozen interwoven similes, from a thirsty deer's mirage to a sorcerer's animated figure, all showing that whatever position a hearer takes among the twelve extremes of identity, existence, and permanence, some ordinary appearance already resists being pinned down the same way. Part 15 turns to the Buddha's own account of how he actually teaches, given as a positive method rather than one more thing to negate: freedom from the four extremes married to a caravan-leader's careful step-by-step guidance through the Hundred and Eight Statements, and the four kinds of dhyāna, from the meditation practiced by the ignorant up to the dhyāna of the Tathāgata himself.
Continue to Part 15 — The Four Kinds of Dhyāna →