Distinguishing the Unsurpassed Vehicle — Twelve Excellences, and the Practice of Intention
This page carries the first half of Ru-Yi's translation of Part Seven of the Madhyāntavibhāga — by far the treatise's longest chapter, split here across two pages. The chapter's seventh and final topic, "the unsurpassed vehicle," rests on three kinds of supremacy: correct practice, the object relied on, and realization through cultivation. This page covers correct practice's first two of six forms — supreme practice, the twelve excellences that lift all ten perfections above their ordinary, worldly counterparts, and the practice of intention, sustained by three kinds of wisdom and ten concrete ways of engaging the Dharma text itself.
Translation Method
As in Parts 1 through 6, the Chinese source is Xuánzàng's translation of Maitreya's root verses with Vasubandhu's prose commentary beneath each, read with Kuījī's 辯中邊論述記 (T1835). This final chapter runs to twenty-nine verses — nearly as many as the rest of the treatise combined — so it is split here into two pages at a natural seam in Vasubandhu's own argument: this page covers the first two of six "correct practices"; Part 8 covers the remaining four, together with the chapter's other two kinds of supremacy and the treatise's closing explanation of its own title. See also this site's note on translation method.
1. Three Kinds of Supremacy
The chapter opens by naming the three things that together make the Great Vehicle "unsurpassed": how it is practiced, what it takes as its object, and what its cultivation ultimately realizes.
總由三無上， 說為無上乘，
謂正行、所緣， 及修證無上。
Altogether through three kinds of supremacy,
it is called the unsurpassed vehicle —
namely, the supremacy of correct practice, of the object relied on,
and of realization through cultivation.
論曰：此大乘中總由三種無上義故名無上乘。三無上者，一正行無上、二所緣無上、三修證無上。此中正行無上者，謂十波羅蜜多行。
What does this mean? Within this Great Vehicle, it is altogether through three kinds of supreme meaning that it is called the unsurpassed vehicle. The three supremacies are: first, the supremacy of correct practice; second, the supremacy of the object relied on; third, the supremacy of realization through cultivation. Here, the supremacy of correct practice is the practice of the ten perfections.
2. Six Correct Practices, Named
Before examining any single perfection, the treatise names six distinct ways the ten perfections, taken together, are practiced — the framework the rest of this page, and all of Part 8, will fill in one at a time.
正行有六種， 謂最勝、作意、
隨法、離二邊、 差別、無差別。
Correct practice has six kinds:
supreme practice, the practice of intention,
the practice according with the Dharma, the practice free of the two extremes,
differentiated practice, and undifferentiated practice.
論曰：即於十種波羅蜜多隨修差別有六正行，一最勝正行、二作意正行、三隨法正行、四離二邊正行、五差別正行、六無差別正行。
What does this mean? Precisely within the practice of the ten perfections, there are, according to their distinct modes of cultivation, six correct practices: first, supreme practice; second, the practice of intention; third, the practice according with the Dharma; fourth, the practice free of the two extremes; fifth, differentiated practice; sixth, undifferentiated practice.
3. Supreme Practice: Twelve Excellences Shared by All Ten Perfections
The first correct practice names twelve respects in which every one of the ten perfections, as a bodhisattva practices it, exceeds any superficially similar worldly virtue — from the sheer scope of what is renounced, to the specific bodhisattva ground each excellence first becomes fully possible.
最勝有十二， 謂廣大、長時、
依處及無盡、 無間、無難性、
自在、攝、發起、 得、等流、究竟，
由斯說十度， 名波羅蜜多。
Supremacy has twelve kinds:
vastness, long duration,
a [proper] basis, and inexhaustibility,
uninterruptedness, freedom from difficulty,
mastery, being embraced, initiation,
attainment, outflow, and consummation —
by these, the ten perfections
are called pāramitās.
論曰：最勝正行有十二種，一廣大最勝、二長時最勝、三依處最勝、四無盡最勝、五無間最勝、六無難最勝、七自在最勝、八攝受最勝、九發起最勝、十至得最勝、十一等流最勝、十二究竟最勝。
What does this mean? Supreme practice has twelve kinds: first, the supremacy of vastness; second, of long duration; third, of a proper basis; fourth, of inexhaustibility; fifth, of uninterruptedness; sixth, of freedom from difficulty; seventh, of mastery; eighth, of being embraced; ninth, of initiation; tenth, of attainment; eleventh, of outflow; twelfth, of consummation.
論曰：此中廣大最勝者，終不欣樂一切世間富樂自在，志高遠故。長時最勝者，三無數劫熏習成故。依處最勝者，普為利樂一切有情為依處故。無盡最勝者，迴向無上正等菩提無窮盡故。無間最勝者，由得自他平等勝解，於諸有情發起施等波羅蜜多速圓滿故。無難最勝者，於他有情所修善法但深隨喜，令自施等波羅蜜多速圓滿故。
Here, the supremacy of vastness means one never delights in any worldly wealth, pleasure, or mastery, since one's aspiration is set so high and so far. The supremacy of long duration means it is accomplished only through habituation over three incalculable eons. The supremacy of a proper basis means it takes universally benefiting and delighting all sentient beings as its basis. The supremacy of inexhaustibility means it is dedicated to unsurpassed, perfect bodhi, and so is never exhausted. The supremacy of uninterruptedness means: through attaining the confident understanding that oneself and others are equal, one's generosity and the other perfections, aroused on behalf of all sentient beings, swiftly reach completion without interruption. The supremacy of freedom from difficulty means: by simply, deeply rejoicing in the wholesome deeds other sentient beings cultivate, one's own generosity and the other perfections swiftly reach completion without the difficulty [of having to perform every deed oneself].
論曰：自在最勝者，由虛空藏等三摩地力，令所修施等速圓滿故。攝受最勝者，無分別智之所攝受，能令施等極清淨故。發起最勝者，在勝解行地最上品忍中。至得最勝者，在極喜地。等流最勝者，在次八地。究竟最勝者，在第十地及佛地中，菩薩如來因果滿故。由施等十波羅蜜多皆有如斯十二最勝，是故皆得到彼岸名。
The supremacy of mastery means: through the power of the Space-Treasury and other absorptions, the generosity and other perfections one cultivates swiftly reach completion. The supremacy of being embraced means: embraced by non-discriminating wisdom, one's generosity and the other perfections are brought to utmost purity. The supremacy of initiation is located in the highest degree of forbearance within the ground of resolute practice. The supremacy of attainment is located in the ground of Utter Joy. The supremacy of outflow is located in the next eight grounds. The supremacy of consummation is located in the tenth ground and the buddha-ground, since there both the bodhisattva's and the tathāgata's cause and effect are complete. Since the ten perfections — generosity, and the rest — all possess these same twelve excellences, they are, every one of them, given the name pāramitā, "gone to the far shore."
Kuījī reads these twelve less as twelve separate properties than as a single argument for why "perfection" is the right word at all: an ordinary person's generosity, however genuine, is small in scope, brief, self-directed, exhaustible, effortful, and produces only an ordinary result — the exact opposite of every term in this list. What actually earns a perfection its name, Kuījī stresses, is never the outward deed itself, since a bodhisattva and an ordinary donor may give an identical gift; it is entirely these twelve qualities of mind and motivation layered onto the deed — vast aspiration, three incalculable eons of habituation, universal benefit as its basis, dedication that never runs dry, equanimity that removes interruption, rejoicing in others' good removing difficulty, absorption-born mastery, wisdom's embrace, and a precise developmental location on the bodhisattva path from the ground of resolute practice all the way to buddhahood itself.
十波羅蜜多， 謂施、戒、安忍、
精進、定、般若、 方便、願、力、智。
The ten perfections are:
generosity, morality, patience,
diligence, meditative concentration, wisdom,
skillful means, the vow, power, and gnosis.
論曰：此顯施等十度別名。施等云何各別作業？頌曰：
饒益、不害、受、 增德、能入、脫、
無盡、常起、定、 受用成熟他。
What does this mean? This gives the ten perfections' individual names. What is the individual function of generosity, and each of the others? A verse: benefiting; not harming; enduring [harm]; increasing virtue; causing entry [into the true Dharma]; liberating; [being] inexhaustible; constantly arising; [being] fixed; and experiencing [the Dharma] while maturing others.
論曰：此顯施等十到彼岸各別事業，如次應知。謂諸菩薩由布施波羅蜜多故，於諸有情普能饒益。由淨戒波羅蜜多故，於諸有情不為損害。由安忍波羅蜜多故，他損害時深能忍受。由精進波羅蜜多故，增長功德。由靜慮波羅蜜多故，起神通等能引有情令入正法。由般若波羅蜜多故，能正教授教誡有情令得解脫。由方便善巧波羅蜜多故，迴向無上正等菩提，能令施等功德無盡。由願波羅蜜多故，攝受隨順施等勝生，一切生中恒得值佛，恭敬供養常起施等。由力波羅蜜多故，具足思擇、修習二力伏滅諸障，能令施等常決定轉。由智波羅蜜多故，離如聞言諸法迷謬，受用施等增上法樂，無倒成熟一切有情。
This gives the individual function of each of the ten perfections, in order. Through the perfection of generosity, bodhisattvas are able to universally benefit all sentient beings. Through the perfection of pure morality, they never harm sentient beings. Through the perfection of patience, they deeply endure it when others cause them harm. Through the perfection of diligence, they cause their own virtues to increase. Through the perfection of meditative concentration, they arouse the superknowledges and the like, able to draw sentient beings into the true Dharma. Through the perfection of wisdom, they are able to correctly instruct and admonish sentient beings, bringing them to liberation. Through the perfection of skillful means, they dedicate [all this] to unsurpassed, perfect bodhi, causing the virtue of generosity and the rest to become inexhaustible. Through the perfection of the vow, they draw in an excellent rebirth that accords with the practice of generosity and the rest, so that in every life they constantly meet buddhas, and constantly arouse generosity and the rest in honoring and making offerings to them. Through the perfection of power, they possess in full both the power of reflective judgment and the power of cultivation, subduing and eliminating every obstruction, so that generosity and the rest constantly proceed with certainty. Through the perfection of gnosis, they are free of the confusion that clings only to what is heard and said, personally experience the excellent joy of generosity and the rest as Dharma, and mature all sentient beings without inversion.
4. The Practice of Intention: Three Kinds of Wisdom
The second correct practice is simply sustained reflection on the Great Vehicle's teaching itself — carried out through the classical three kinds of wisdom born of hearing, reflecting, and meditative cultivation.
菩薩以三慧， 恒思惟大乘，
如所施設法， 名作意正行。
Bodhisattvas, with three kinds of wisdom,
constantly reflect on the Great Vehicle,
upon the dharmas as they have been set forth —
this is called the practice of intention.
論曰：若諸菩薩以聞思修所成妙慧，數數作意思惟大乘，依布施等如所施設契經等法，如是名為作意正行。此諸菩薩以三妙慧思惟大乘有何功德？頌曰：
此增長善界， 入義及事成。
What does this mean? Where bodhisattvas, with the excellent wisdom accomplished through hearing, reflecting, and meditative cultivation, again and again turn their intention to reflect on the Great Vehicle, in dependence on the scriptures and other texts that set forth generosity and the rest as they truly are — this is called the practice of intention. What virtue is gained by these bodhisattvas reflecting on the Great Vehicle with these three kinds of excellent wisdom? A verse: this causes the realm of good roots to grow, causes entry into its meaning, and brings the task to completion.
論曰：聞所成慧思惟大乘，能令善根界得增長。思所成慧思惟大乘，能正悟入所聞實義。修所成慧思惟大乘，能令所求事業成滿，謂能趣入修治地故。
Reflecting on the Great Vehicle with the wisdom accomplished through hearing causes the realm of good roots to grow. Reflecting on the Great Vehicle with the wisdom accomplished through reflection enables correct insight into the true meaning of what has been heard. Reflecting on the Great Vehicle with the wisdom accomplished through meditative cultivation causes the task one seeks to accomplish to reach completion — meaning it enables entry into, and the cultivation and purification of, the [bodhisattva] grounds.
5. Ten Dharma-Practices, the Companion of Intention
Reflection alone is not the whole of the practice of intention; ten concrete ways of engaging with the Dharma text itself accompany it, and the chapter closes this section by explaining why the Great Vehicle alone, among the three vehicles, promises immeasurable merit for practicing them.
此助伴應知， 即十種法行。
This practice's companion, it should be known,
is precisely the ten dharma-practices.
論曰：應知如是作意正行，由十法行之所攝受。何等名為十種法行？頌曰：
謂書寫、供養、 施他、聽、披讀、
受持、正開演、 諷誦及思、修。
What does this mean? It should be known that this practice of intention is embraced by ten dharma-practices. What are these ten dharma-practices? A verse: copying it out; making offerings [to it]; giving it to others; listening [to another's recitation]; reading it oneself; upholding it in memory; correctly expounding it to others; reciting it aloud; reflecting on it; and cultivating it in meditation.
論曰：於此大乘有十法行，一書寫、二供養、三施他、四若他誦讀專心諦聽、五自披讀、六受持、七正為他開演文義、八諷誦、九思惟、十修習行。十法行獲幾所福？頌曰：
行十法行者， 獲福聚無量。
Regarding this Great Vehicle, there are ten dharma-practices: first, copying it out; second, making offerings; third, giving it to others; fourth, when another recites or reads it, listening with focused, attentive mind; fifth, reading it oneself; sixth, upholding it in memory; seventh, correctly expounding its text and meaning to others; eighth, reciting it aloud; ninth, reflecting on it; tenth, the practice of cultivating it in meditation. How much merit is gained by practicing these ten dharma-practices? A verse: one who practices these ten dharma-practices gains an immeasurable mass of merit.
論曰：修行如是十種法行，所獲福聚其量無邊。何故但於大乘經等說修法行獲最大果，於聲聞乘不如是說？頌曰：
勝故、無盡故， 由攝他不息。
Practicing these ten dharma-practices, the mass of merit gained is boundless in measure. Why is it said that practicing these dharma-practices with regard to the Great Vehicle's scriptures gains the greatest result, while nothing of the kind is said of the śrāvaka vehicle? A verse: because it is supreme, and because it is inexhaustible, through embracing others without rest.
論曰：於此大乘修諸法行，由二緣故獲最大果，一最勝故、二無盡故。由能攝益他諸有情，是故大乘說為最勝。由雖證得無餘涅槃，利益他事而恒不息，是故大乘說為無盡。
Practicing these dharma-practices with regard to this Great Vehicle gains the greatest result through two conditions: first, because it is supreme; second, because it is inexhaustible. Because it is able to embrace and benefit all other sentient beings, the Great Vehicle is said to be supreme. Because, even having realized nirvāṇa without remainder, one's work of benefiting others never rests, the Great Vehicle is said to be inexhaustible.
Kuījī reads "inexhaustible" here as the same non-abiding nirvāṇa this treatise has already named twice before — in Part Two's fifth obstruction, and again in Part Four's account of what distinguishes a bodhisattva's cultivation from the two vehicles'. A śrāvaka who attains nirvāṇa without remainder is, in the most literal sense, finished: nothing further happens. A bodhisattva who realizes the very same cessation does not stop there, since compassion for other beings never runs dry — which is precisely why engaging the Great Vehicle's own text, in any of these ten ways, participates in an activity that has, in Kuījī's phrase, no closing point at all.
Part Seven, First Half, Complete
This closes the first half of Ru-Yi's translation of Part Seven: two of the six correct practices that make up the unsurpassed vehicle's supremacy of practice — supreme practice, whose twelve excellences lift every one of the ten perfections above its worldly counterpart, and the practice of intention, sustained by three kinds of wisdom and ten concrete dharma-practices, uniquely fruitful in the Great Vehicle because its compassion, like non-abiding nirvāṇa itself, never comes to rest. Part 8 continues directly with the remaining four correct practices — including the treatise's famous ten inversions and ten vajra-verses — before turning to the chapter's other two supremacies and the treatise's own closing account of its name.
Continue to Part 8 — Distinguishing the Unsurpassed Vehicle, Part Two →