Nine Theories of Transformation
The Buddha names nine ways the outsiders account for how things transform — in shape, in mark, in cause, in outcome, in appearance, in nature, in condition, in visible action, and in the underlying matter itself — all of them, on his account, mistaking gold reshaped into different vessels for gold whose own nature has actually changed. Mahāmati then asks for the teaching on continuity: the eleven specific ways false thought binds a being to its own account of things, illustrated by a silkworm spinning the very cocoon that traps it, and the difference between a continuity that can be cut and one that never needed cutting in the first place, because it was never truly bound to begin with.
Nine Theories of Transformation
「復次，大慧！外道有九種轉變論。外道轉變見生，所謂：形處轉變、相轉變、因轉變、成轉變、見轉變、性轉變、緣分明轉變、所作分明轉變、事轉變。大慧！是名九種轉變見。一切外道，因是起有無生轉變論。云何形處轉變？謂：形處異見。譬如金變作諸器物，則有種種形處顯現，非金性變。一切性變，亦復如是。或有外道作如是妄想，乃至事轉變妄想，彼非如非異，妄想故。如是一切性轉變，當知如乳酪酒果等熟。外道轉變妄想，彼亦無有轉變，若有若無，自心現，外性非性。大慧！如是凡愚眾生，自妄想修習生。大慧！無有法若生若滅，如見幻夢色生。」
爾時，世尊欲重宣此義而說偈言：
「形處時轉變， 四大種諸根，
中陰漸次生， 妄想非明智。
最勝於緣起， 非如彼妄想，
然世間緣起， 如乾闥婆城。」
"Furthermore, Mahāmati, the outsiders hold nine theories of transformation. The outsiders' view of transformation arises as follows: transformation of shape, of mark, of cause, of outcome, of appearance, of nature, of condition made manifest, of action made manifest, and of the underlying matter itself. Mahāmati, these are called the nine views of transformation. It is on the basis of these that every outsider gives rise to a theory of transformation involving existence and non-existence [as its two poles]. What is transformation of shape? It is the view that shape and form differ [before and after]. It is like gold reshaped into various vessels: manifold shapes and forms then appear, and yet it is not the nature of the gold that has changed. Every [instance of what appears to be a] nature transforming is just the same. There are outsiders who form just this kind of false thought, extending even to false thought about the transformation of the underlying matter itself — [in every case] this is neither truly the same as before nor truly different, [and yet they take it as one or the other] on account of their own false thought. One should understand that every such apparent transformation of nature is like curds, wine, or fruit gradually ripening: the outsiders' false thought of transformation, [examined closely,] likewise involves no real transformation at all — whether it is said to exist or not to exist, it is one's own mind's manifestation, and what is external has no fixed nature at all. Mahāmati, it is ordinary and ignorant beings, in just this way, who produce this through their own cultivated false thought. Mahāmati, there is, in truth, no dharma whatsoever that either arises or ceases — it is exactly like seeing a form arise within a dream or an illusion."
Then the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse: "Transformation of shape, of place, of time; the four great elements and the sense-faculties;
the intermediate state gradually giving rise [to a new existence] — false thought is not the same as clear wisdom.
The most excellent one's own account of dependent origination is not like that false thought at all;
and yet the world's own dependent origination is, itself, just like a city of gandharvas."
The commentators are careful that all nine outsider theories, however they differ in emphasis, share a single underlying mistake: "彼見其生滅異相，故計有轉變。而正教則曰緣生、曰如幻、曰自心現，外性非性乃不變等，然未甞定說" — "seeing the differing marks of things arising and ceasing, they conclude that real transformation is taking place. The correct teaching, by contrast, speaks of dependent arising, of things being like an illusion, of mind's own manifestation — that what is external has no fixed nature, and so is, in that sense, unchanging — yet it never asserts this as a fixed, settled doctrine either." The outsiders mistake apparent change for a change in something's underlying nature; the correct teaching neither affirms nor denies transformation as a fixed metaphysical claim, since the entire question of "does the underlying nature change or not" already presupposes a fixed underlying nature to begin with.
On the gold-and-vessels image at the heart of the section, the commentators draw out exactly what does and does not change: "金變作諸器，器雖有種種之異，而金性不變...一切法雖變而性不變，亦復如是" — "gold reshaped into various vessels produces vessels that differ from one another in manifold ways, and yet the gold's own nature does not change... every dharma, though it appears to change, has a nature that does not change, in just the same way." This is the same image used for the tathāgatagarbha earlier in this fascicle — a single substance taking on many shapes — now applied to explain why the outsiders' nine transformation-theories all mistake the shape for the substance: they track real, observable change in form while missing that nothing about the underlying nature was ever actually altered by that change at all.
Eleven Kinds of Continuity
爾時，大慧菩薩復白佛言：「世尊！唯願為說一切法相續義、解脫義。若善分別一切法相續不相續相，我及諸菩薩，善解一切相續巧方便，不墮如所說義，計著相續。善於一切諸法相續不相續相，及離言說文字妄想覺，遊行一切諸佛剎土，無量大眾，力自在神通總持之印，種種變化，光明照曜。覺慧善入十無盡句，無方便行。猶如日月摩尼四大，於一切地，離自妄想相見，見一切法如幻夢等。入佛地身，於一切眾生界，隨其所應而為說法而引導之，悉令安住一切諸法如幻夢等，離有無品，及生滅妄想，異言說義，其身轉勝。」
佛告大慧：「善哉，善哉！諦聽，諦聽！善思念之，當為汝說。」
大慧白佛言：「唯然受教。」
佛告大慧：「無量一切諸法，如所說義，計著相續。所謂：相計著相續、緣計著相續、性非性計著相續、生不生妄想計著相續、滅不滅妄想計著相續、乘非乘妄想計著相續、有為無為妄想計著相續、地地自相妄想計著相續、自妄想無間妄想計著相續、有無品外道依妄想計著相續、三乘一乘無間妄想計著相續。復次，大慧！此及餘凡愚眾生，自妄想相續。以此相續故，凡愚妄想如蠶作繭，以妄想絲自纏纏他，有無相續相計著。復次，大慧！彼中亦無相續及不相續相。見一切法寂靜，妄想不生故。菩薩摩訶薩，見一切法寂靜。復次，大慧！覺外性非性，自心現相無所有。隨順觀察自心現量，有無一切性無相，見相續寂靜故，於一切法，無相續不相續相。復次，大慧！彼中無有若縛若解，餘墮不如實覺知有縛有解。所以者何？謂於一切法有無有，無眾生可得故。
「復次，大慧！愚夫有三相續，謂：貪恚癡，及愛未來，有喜愛俱。以此相續，故有趣相續，彼相續者續五趣。大慧！相續斷者，無有相續不相續相。復次，大慧！三和合緣，作方便計著，識相續無間生。方便計著，則有相續。三和合緣識斷，見三解脫，一切相續不生。」
爾時，世尊欲重宣此義而說偈言：
「不真實妄想， 是說相續相，
若知彼真實， 相續網則斷。
於諸性無知， 隨言說攝受，
譬如彼蠶蟲， 結網而自纏，
愚夫妄想縛， 相續不觀察。」
Then Mahāmati Bodhisattva again said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I beg you to teach the meaning of the continuity of every dharma, and the meaning of liberation. Should I and the other bodhisattva-mahāsattvas rightly discriminate the mark of every dharma's continuity and discontinuity, we would skillfully understand every skillful means bound up with continuity, without falling into attachment to continuity merely on account of how it is spoken of — skilled in the mark of every dharma's continuity and discontinuity, apart from the false thought of speech and written words, journeying freely through every buddha-land, with immeasurable assemblies, power, mastery, the superknowledges, and the seal of that which holds everything together, manifesting every kind of transformation, radiant with light. Awakened wisdom rightly enters the ten inexhaustible statements, [acting] without any deliberate exertion at all — just like the sun and moon, a maṇi-jewel, or the four great elements — apart, on every ground, from the mark of one's own false thought, seeing every dharma as like an illusion or a dream, entering the very body of the buddha-ground. For the sake of every realm of sentient beings, teaching the Dharma and guiding each according to what is fitting, causing every one of them to abide securely in every dharma as like an illusion or a dream, apart from the class of existence and non-existence, apart from the false thought of arising and ceasing, distinct from the meaning fixed by mere speech — his own body thereby advances further still in excellence."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Excellent, excellent! Listen well! Listen well! Consider this carefully — I shall now explain it to you."
Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "I gladly receive your teaching."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Attachment to continuity, with respect to the meaning of every kind of immeasurable dharma exactly as it is spoken of, [takes eleven forms]: attachment to the continuity of a [fixed] mark; attachment to the continuity of a condition; attachment to the continuity of [fixed] nature or its absence; attachment to the continuity of false thought about arising and non-arising; attachment to the continuity of false thought about ceasing and non-ceasing; attachment to the continuity of false thought about a vehicle or the absence of one; attachment to the continuity of false thought about the conditioned and the unconditioned; attachment to the continuity of false thought about the own mark of each successive ground; attachment to the continuity of false thought about one's own false thought continuing without interruption; attachment to the continuity of the outsiders' own false thought resting on existence and non-existence; and attachment to the continuity of false thought about the three vehicles and the one vehicle continuing without interruption. Furthermore, Mahāmati, these, and every other kind of ordinary, ignorant being, continue on through their own false thought. Because of this continuity, the false thought of the ordinary and ignorant is like a silkworm spinning its own cocoon — binding both itself and others with the very thread of its own false thought, becoming attached to the mark of continuity, whether framed as existence or non-existence. Furthermore, Mahāmati, within all this there is, in truth, neither a mark of continuity nor of discontinuity at all: seeing every dharma as utterly still, false thought simply does not arise — a bodhisattva-mahāsattva sees every dharma as utterly still. Furthermore, Mahāmati, becoming aware that what is external has no fixed nature, that the mark manifested by one's own mind has nothing within it at all, and observing accordingly that the very measure of one's own mind's manifestation is, whether framed as existence or non-existence, marked by no [fixed] nature of any kind at all — seeing continuity itself as utterly still, one is left, with respect to every dharma, with neither a mark of continuity nor of discontinuity. Furthermore, Mahāmati, within all this there is, in truth, neither bondage nor release at all; it is only others, who fail to know this in accordance with reality, who fall into [the notion that] there is bondage and there is release. Why is this? Because, with respect to every dharma, whether held to exist or not to exist, there is, in truth, no sentient being there to be apprehended at all.
"Furthermore, Mahāmati, the ignorant have three continuities: greed, hatred, and delusion, together with craving for a pleasant future rebirth, bound up with delight and desire. Because of this continuity, there is continuity into a [further] destiny — that same continuity carries one on through the five destinies. Mahāmati, once continuity itself is cut, there is neither a mark of continuity nor of discontinuity left at all. Furthermore, Mahāmati, it is through attachment to the skillful means [mistakenly] constructed from the coming together of three conditions that consciousness continues on without interruption; through that very attachment, continuity itself exists. Once the coming together of the three conditions and consciousness itself are cut through, and the three gates of liberation are seen, no continuity whatsoever arises any longer."
Then the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse: "It is unreal false thought that is spoken of as the mark of continuity;
once one knows that very thing to be unreal, the net of continuity is thereby cut.
Not knowing every [fixed] nature for what it truly is, one is instead carried along by mere speech —
just like that silkworm, which spins its own net and thereby binds itself within it;
the ignorant, bound by their own false thought, never observe continuity for what it is."
The commentators sort the eleven kinds of continuity into world-facing and doctrine-facing categories rather than treating them as a single undifferentiated list, and are explicit that the mechanism producing all of them is identical regardless of category: "謂十界依正色心始於言說，終於無言，推其著心，蓋無適而非相續，故曰『如所說義計著相續』，所謂隨語生解也" — "throughout the ten realms of being, body and mind, environment and inhabitant, from the moment of first speaking to the point where speech finally ceases, tracing the grasping mind behind it all, there is nowhere it goes that is not, in fact, continuity — hence it says 'attachment to continuity exactly as it is spoken of,' meaning precisely that understanding is generated by following along with mere words." Whether the object of attachment is something as concrete as a five-destiny rebirth or as abstract as the distinction between the three vehicles and the one, the same root mechanism is at work: taking a verbal distinction, useful for teaching, and mistaking it for a fixed feature of reality that must then be tracked and maintained.
On the silkworm simile, the commentators draw out precisely what makes it apt beyond the obvious point about self-entanglement: the silkworm's thread is not imposed from outside but produced entirely from its own body, exactly as false thought is: "以妄想絲自纏纏他，莫能自出，卒墮於有無、斷常之見而已" — "binding both itself and others with the very thread of its own false thought, unable to free itself, it finally falls into nothing more than the view of existence and non-existence, of annihilation and permanence." On the closing distinction between continuity that has been "cut" and the deeper teaching that there was never truly any continuity or discontinuity to begin with, the commentators are careful these are two different depths of the same realization: cutting the three poisons ends the specific continuity of rebirth into the five destinies, a real accomplishment — but the fuller teaching, that "there is, in truth, neither bondage nor release at all," goes further still, dissolving even the framework in which "cutting a continuity" would be one more thing accomplished by a self that does the cutting.
Part 28 Complete
This closes Part 28: the outsiders' nine theories of transformation, all mistaking a change in shape for a change in underlying nature, illustrated by gold reshaped into vessels that never stop being gold; and the eleven kinds of continuity by which false thought binds a being to further existence, cut first by ending the three poisons' specific chain into the five destinies, and cut more fully still by seeing that bondage and release were never, in the end, real categories to begin with. Part 29 turns to a teaching Mahāmati raises next: how false thought about one thing depends on false thought about another, in a chain with no genuine own-nature anywhere within it.
Continue to Part 29 →