Two Kinds of Spiritual Power
A short teaching on the two ways attachment to own-nature arises — through speech and through actual matter — leads into a longer one: the two kinds of spiritual power by which every buddha sustains a bodhisattva, first through the samādhi that lets him see every buddha's own body and hear their teaching directly, and then through the crown-anointing of a hand that carries him from one ground to the next. The page closes with Mahāmati pressing a genuinely difficult question about dependent origination — does the Buddha's own "this being, that comes to be" collapse into the very infinite regress it is meant to avoid? — before turning to whether speech itself must possess some fixed nature, simply because things that plainly do not exist, a rabbit's horns among them, are nonetheless spoken of every day.
Two Kinds of Attachment to Own-Nature
「復次，大慧！二種自性相。云何為二？謂：言說自性相計著；事自性相計著。言說自性相計著者，從無始言說虛偽習氣計著生。事自性相計著者，從不覺自心現分齊生。
"Furthermore, Mahāmati, there are two kinds of attachment to the mark of own-nature. What are the two? Attachment to the mark of own-nature through speech, and attachment to the mark of own-nature through actual matter. Attachment to the mark of own-nature through speech arises from the beginningless, false, habituated force of attachment built up through speech itself. Attachment to the mark of own-nature through actual matter arises from failing to perceive that it is one's own mind's own manifestation that draws its very boundary.
The commentators keep their gloss on this short passage as brief as the passage itself, but sharpen exactly where the remedy lies: "二種性相起各有由，如經所說。若了言說性空、諸法唯心，何計著之有哉！事即諸法也" — "the two kinds of attachment to a mark of own-nature each arise from their own specific source, exactly as the sūtra states. But once one understands that speech itself is empty of any fixed nature, and that every dharma is mind alone, what attachment could possibly remain? 'Actual matter' here simply means every dharma." The two attachments look different — one clings to words, the other to things — but the commentators treat them as symmetrical cases of the identical error: taking something that is, at bottom, only mind's own manifestation, and mistaking the boundary mind itself has drawn around it for a boundary that was already there.
Two Kinds of Spiritual Power
「復次，大慧！如來以二種神力建立，菩薩摩訶薩頂禮諸佛，聽受問義。云何二種神力建立？謂：三昧正受，為現一切身面言說神力，及手灌頂神力。大慧！菩薩摩訶薩初菩薩地，住佛神力，所謂入菩薩大乘照明三昧。入是三昧已，十方世界一切諸佛，以神通力，為現一切身面言說，如金剛藏菩薩摩訶薩，及餘如是相功德成就菩薩摩訶薩。大慧！是名初菩薩地。菩薩摩訶薩得菩薩三昧正受神力，於百千劫積集善根之所成就，次第諸地對治所治相，通達究竟至法雲地，住大蓮華微妙宮殿，坐大蓮華寶師子座，同類菩薩摩訶薩眷屬圍繞，眾寶瓔珞莊嚴其身，如黃金瞻蔔日月光明。諸最勝手從十方來，就大蓮華宮殿坐上而灌其頂。譬如自在轉輪聖王，及天帝釋太子灌頂，是名菩薩手灌頂神力。大慧！是名菩薩摩訶薩二種神力。若菩薩摩訶薩住二種神力，面見諸佛如來；若不如是，則不能見。復次，大慧！菩薩摩訶薩凡所分別三昧神足說法之行，是等一切，悉住如來二種神力。大慧！若菩薩摩訶薩離佛神力能辯說者，一切凡夫亦應能說。所以者何？謂不住神力故。大慧！山石樹木及諸樂器城郭宮殿，以如來入城威神力故，皆自然出音樂之聲，何況有心者。聾盲瘖瘂無量眾苦，皆得解脫。如來有如是等無量神力，利安眾生。」
大慧菩薩復白佛言：「世尊！以何因緣，如來、應供、等正覺，菩薩摩訶薩住三昧正受時，及勝進地灌頂時，加其神力？」
佛告大慧：「為離魔業煩惱故，及不墮聲聞地禪故，為得如來自覺地故，及增進所得法故，是故如來、應供、等正覺，咸以神力建立諸菩薩摩訶薩。若不以神力建立者，則墮外道惡見妄想，及諸聲聞眾魔悕望，不得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。以是故，諸佛如來咸以神力攝受諸菩薩摩訶薩。」
爾時，世尊欲重宣此義而說偈言：
「神力人中尊， 大願悉清淨，
三摩提灌頂， 初地及十地。」
"Furthermore, Mahāmati, it is by two kinds of spiritual power that the Tathāgata sustains a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, so that he may bow his head to every buddha and receive their teaching by asking his questions. What are the two kinds of spiritual power by which this sustaining is established? The spiritual power of the true attainment of samādhi, which manifests every buddha's body, presence, and speech directly to him; and the spiritual power of the anointing of a hand upon his crown. Mahāmati, when a bodhisattva-mahāsattva first reaches the first bodhisattva ground, he abides through the Buddha's spiritual power by entering the bodhisattva's own Mahāyāna samādhi of illuminating radiance. Having entered this samādhi, every buddha throughout the worlds of the ten directions, through his own spiritual power, manifests his body, presence, and speech directly to him — just as with Vajragarbha Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, and every other bodhisattva-mahāsattva of like accomplishment and merit. Mahāmati, this is called the first bodhisattva ground. A bodhisattva-mahāsattva, having attained the spiritual power of the bodhisattva's own true attainment of samādhi, accomplished through the accumulated roots of goodness gathered across a hundred thousand kalpas, advances by stages through every ground, remedying what is to be remedied in each, until he penetrates through to its very culmination and reaches the Ground of the Dharma Cloud. There he abides within a wondrous palace of the great lotus, seated upon a great lotus throne shaped like a jeweled lion, surrounded by an entourage of bodhisattva-mahāsattvas of like kind, his body adorned with every kind of jewel and necklace, radiant as gold, as campaka blossoms, as the light of the sun and moon. The foremost hands [of every buddha] come from the ten directions and, right there upon the great lotus palace's own throne, anoint his crown — just as when a sovereign, wheel-turning sage-king, or Śakra, lord of the gods, anoints his own crown prince. This is called the spiritual power of the anointing of a hand upon a bodhisattva's crown. Mahāmati, these are called the two kinds of spiritual power belonging to a bodhisattva-mahāsattva. If a bodhisattva-mahāsattva abides in these two kinds of spiritual power, he sees every buddha and tathāgata face to face; if he does not abide in them, he is unable to see them at all. Furthermore, Mahāmati, whatever a bodhisattva-mahāsattva discriminates and teaches by way of samādhi, the bases of supernormal power, and the rest, all of this, without exception, abides through the Tathāgata's own two kinds of spiritual power. Mahāmati, if a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, apart from the Buddha's own spiritual power, were still able to expound the Dharma on his own, then every ordinary person ought to be able to expound it too. Why is this? Because [an ordinary person] does not abide within that spiritual power at all. Mahāmati, mountains, stones, trees, every musical instrument, every city wall, and every palace, through the majestic spiritual power of the Tathāgata's own entering into a city, of themselves spontaneously give forth the sound of music — how much more, then, [does his power move] one who possesses a mind! The deaf, the blind, the mute, and every immeasurable suffering are, through it, all set free. The Tathāgata possesses spiritual powers of this kind, immeasurable in number, benefiting and bringing peace to sentient beings."
Mahāmati Bodhisattva again said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, for what cause and condition does the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Truly and Fully Enlightened One, add his own spiritual power to a bodhisattva-mahāsattva at the moment he abides in the true attainment of samādhi, and at the moment his crown is anointed upon an advancing ground?"
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "It is so as to free him from the karmic hindrance of māra, so that he does not fall into the meditative state proper to the śrāvaka ground, so that he attains the Tathāgata's own ground of self-realization, and so that he advances further in the dharma he has already attained — it is for these reasons that the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Truly and Fully Enlightened One, sustains every bodhisattva-mahāsattva through his own spiritual power. Were he not to sustain them through this spiritual power, they would fall into the outsiders' own evil views and false thought, and into the vain hopes of the śrāvakas and of every māra, and would fail to attain unsurpassed, complete enlightenment. It is for this reason that every buddha and tathāgata sustains every bodhisattva-mahāsattva through his own spiritual power."
Then the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse: "The spiritual power of the most honored among people, every great vow made utterly pure —
the crown-anointing of samādhi, from the first ground to the tenth."
The commentators name the Buddha's four stated reasons for lending his spiritual power as a structured progression rather than four loosely related benefits, and are explicit about what happens without it: "初心菩薩道力未充，不假如來神力加持，非但不能增進至如來地，亦且不能遠離聲聞魔界" — "a bodhisattva still new to the path has not yet developed the full strength of his own realization; without relying on the Tathāgata's own spiritual empowerment, he would be unable not only to advance further toward the ground of the Tathāgata, but even to keep clear of the śrāvaka's own limited domain and māra's own territory besides." The four reasons — freedom from māra's karmic hindrance, avoiding the śrāvaka's fixed meditative state, reaching the Tathāgata's own ground, and continuing to advance — trace one continuous vulnerability: a bodhisattva's own power, this early on the path, is real but not yet sufficient to protect itself, let alone to advance on its own.
On why even trees, stones, and musical instruments spontaneously produce music through the Tathāgata's spiritual power, the commentators resist reading the passage merely as a marvel to admire, drawing out instead what it implies about the Tathāgata's own effortless mode of activity: "如來大寂定中，寂而常照，稱性施設萬端無不可者，亦豈有意於其間哉" — "within the Tathāgata's own great stillness of concentration, stillness and constant illumination are one and the same; acting entirely in accord with his own nature, he sets forth every kind of activity without exception, none of it impossible for him — yet what deliberate intention could there possibly be running through any of it?" If inanimate stone and wood respond to that power without the Tathāgata directing a single thought toward them, the commentators' point is that the power itself operates without deliberation of any kind — the same "practice that requires no exertion" (無開發行) named earlier in this fascicle, extended here to explain why even a musical instrument can sound of its own accord in a buddha's presence.
Dependent Origination, and Whether Speech Itself Has a Nature
爾時，大慧菩薩摩訶薩復白佛言：「世尊！佛說緣起，如是說因緣，不自說道。世尊！外道亦說因緣，謂：勝、自在、時、微塵生，如是諸性生。然，世尊所謂因緣生諸性，言說有間悉檀、無間悉檀(悉檀者，譯義或言宗、或言成、或言默)。世尊！外道亦說有無有生，世尊亦說無有生，生已滅。如世尊所說：『無明緣行，乃至老死』，此是世尊無因說，非有因說。世尊建立作如是說：『此有故彼有』，非建立漸生，觀外道說勝，非如來也。所以者何？世尊！外道說因，不從緣生而有所生。世尊說觀因有事，觀事有因。如是因緣雜亂，如是展轉無窮。」
佛告大慧：「我非無因說，及因緣雜亂說。此有故彼有者，攝所攝非性，覺自心現量。大慧！若攝所攝計著，不覺自心現量，外境界性非性，彼有如是過，非我說緣起。我常說言：『因緣和合而生諸法』，非無因生。」
大慧復白佛言：「世尊！非言說有性，有一切性耶？世尊！若無性者，言說不生。世尊！是故言說有性，有一切性。」
佛告大慧：「無性而作言說，謂兔角龜毛等，世間現言說，大慧！非性非非性，但言說耳。如汝所說，言說自性，有一切性者，汝論則壞。大慧！非一切剎土有言說。言說者，是作耳。或有佛剎瞻視顯法，或有作相、或有揚眉、或有動睛、或笑、或欠、或謦咳、或念剎土、或動搖。大慧！如瞻視，及香積世界，普賢如來國土，但以瞻視令諸菩薩得無生法忍，及殊勝三昧。是故，非言說有性有一切性。大慧！見此世界蚊蚋蟲蟻，是等眾生，無有言說，而各辦事。」
爾時，世尊欲重宣此義而說偈言：
「如虛空兔角， 及與槃大子，
無而有言說， 如是性妄想。
因緣和合法， 凡愚起妄想，
不能如實知， 輪迴三有宅。」
Then Mahāmati Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva again said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, when the Buddha teaches dependent origination, he simply states that things arise through cause and condition, without himself stating why this is the way things arise. World-Honored One, the outsiders, too, teach cause and condition, saying that things arise from a supreme principle, from a sovereign lord, from time, or from atoms — and that every [fixed] nature arises in just this way. Yet the World-Honored One, in speaking of causes and conditions giving rise to every [fixed] nature, teaches by way of both the siddhānta with an interval and the siddhānta without one (siddhānta, in its rendered meaning, is spoken of variously as 'doctrine,' as 'accomplishment,' or as 'silence'). World-Honored One, the outsiders, too, teach that existence arises from non-existence; the World-Honored One likewise teaches that non-existence arises, and then, having arisen, ceases. As the World-Honored One himself has taught: 'in dependence on ignorance, formations arise,' and so on down to old age and death — is this not, itself, the World-Honored One's own teaching of arising without a cause, rather than a teaching of genuine causation? The World-Honored One establishes his teaching by saying, 'because this exists, that comes to exist' — not by establishing any gradual arising at all — and, [judged by this standard,] the outsiders' own teaching would seem superior, not the Tathāgata's. Why is this? World-Honored One, when the outsiders speak of a cause, what results does not itself arise from any condition at all [but simply flows from that single cause] — yet the World-Honored One teaches that, observing a cause, one finds a resulting matter, and, observing that matter, one finds, in turn, its own further cause. In this way, cause and condition become entangled with one another, turning on and on into an infinite regress."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "I do not teach arising without a cause, nor a cause and condition entangled in infinite regress. 'Because this exists, that comes to exist' means that the grasped and the grasper alike have no [fixed] nature, and that one becomes aware of this as the very measure of one's own mind's manifestation. Mahāmati, if one becomes attached to the grasped and the grasper, failing to perceive the measure of one's own mind's manifestation, [taking] the [fixed] existence or non-existence of an external object-realm [as real], then this fault you describe does indeed follow — but this is not what I teach as dependent origination. I have always taught that it is through the coming together of cause and condition that every dharma arises — never that anything arises without a cause at all."
Mahāmati again said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, is it not the case that, [since] speech itself has a [fixed] nature, everything spoken of must likewise have a [fixed] nature? World-Honored One, were there no such nature at all, speech itself could never arise. World-Honored One, it is for this very reason that speech must have a nature, and everything [spoken of] must have a nature too."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Speech is produced even where there is no [fixed] nature at all — as when one speaks, as people in the world plainly do, of 'a rabbit's horns' or 'a tortoise's hair.' Mahāmati, [what is spoken of in such cases] is neither [truly possessed of] a nature nor without one — it is merely a manner of speaking. As for what you have just said — that speech's own nature entails that everything [spoken of] must have a nature — your own argument thereby collapses. Mahāmati, it is not the case that every buddha-land even has speech at all; speech itself is merely one kind of activity among others. In some buddha-lands the Dharma is displayed simply through a gaze; in others through a gesture, a raised eyebrow, a movement of the eyes, a smile, a yawn, a clearing of the throat, a thought directed toward the land itself, or a mere stirring of motion. Mahāmati, just as with such a gaze — as in the World of Fragrance Accumulated, the buddha-land of Padmottara — it is through a gaze alone that the bodhisattvas there attain the forbearance of the unborn dharma, and the most excellent samādhis besides. It is for this reason that it is not the case that speech has a fixed nature, or that everything spoken of must have one. Mahāmati, observe the mosquitoes, gnats, insects, and ants of this very world: these beings have no speech at all, and yet each carries out its own affairs."
Then the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse: "Just like space, a rabbit's horns, and the child of a barren woman —
though nothing is there at all, still there is speech of it: false thought about a [fixed] nature is just the same.
The dharma of cause and condition coming together — the ignorant and the foolish give rise to false thought about it,
unable to know it as it truly is, and so remain turning in the dwelling-place of the three realms of existence."
The commentators are precise about exactly what Mahāmati's difficult objection is targeting, since a careless reading could easily miss that the challenge is aimed at the Buddha's own formula rather than at causation in general: "佛常說此有故彼有，則在一時，非漸次而生... 世尊說觀因有事、觀事有因，如是因緣雜亂，遂有展轉無窮之過" — "the Buddha constantly teaches 'because this exists, that comes to exist,' [seemingly describing something that happens] all in a single instant, not through any gradual arising... [yet] the World-Honored One also teaches that observing a cause one finds a resulting matter, and observing that matter one finds, in turn, its own cause — cause and condition become entangled with one another in just this way, giving rise to the fault of an infinite regress." Mahāmati is not asking the outsiders' question; he is asking whether the Buddha's own two formulas — instantaneous "this-because-that," and an endless chain of causes generating further causes — are even mutually consistent, a genuinely sharp internal challenge rather than an external one.
On the Buddha's resolution, the commentators locate it precisely in what "this exists, that comes to exist" was always meant to describe: "此即六根，彼即六塵，謂根塵相由而起。攝所攝非性等者，謂了因緣生法唯心所現，無能取所取" — "'this' refers to the six sense-faculties, 'that' to the six sense-objects — meaning that faculty and object arise in mutual dependence on one another. 'The grasped and the grasper alike have no fixed nature' means understanding that whatever arises through cause and condition is nothing but mind's own manifestation, with no truly independent grasper or grasped at all." The infinite regress Mahāmati worries about only arises if cause and effect are each already assumed to be independently, fixedly real things chasing each other backward forever; once both are seen as mind's own manifestation rather than as separately existing entities, the regress has nothing solid left to run through. On the closing question about speech and nature, the commentators press the counter-example to its logical conclusion: "因緣本無性，不妨以言說示之，豈必言說之為性耶" — "cause and condition, in themselves, have no fixed nature at all, yet this is no obstacle to using speech to point at them — why should speech itself therefore have to possess a fixed nature?" A rabbit's horns are spoken of constantly by people who know perfectly well no such thing exists; speech's capacity to refer to something never required that thing, or speech itself, to possess a fixed nature to begin with.
Part 16 Complete
This closes Part 16: the two kinds of attachment to own-nature through speech and through matter, the two kinds of spiritual power that sustain a bodhisattva through samādhi and through the crown-anointing of a hand, and a genuinely difficult internal challenge to the Buddha's own teaching of dependent origination, resolved by showing that "this-because-that" never described independently existing causes chasing one another in the first place. Part 17 turns to a new question altogether: what is meant by the sound "permanence" — and whether the Tathāgata's own permanence is a fixed thing that can be spoken of the way an outsider speaks of an eternal self.
Continue to Part 17 — The Sound "Permanence" →