Vows, Precepts, and the Placement of Letters
Part 8 gathers six shorter chapters. A vision of the maṇḍala built entirely from the practitioner's own body; eight further secret seals; a six-month practice schedule moving through the five elements in turn; the letter A as the heart of every mantra; a complete map of Sanskrit letters onto every part of the body, from throat to genitals; and, closing the Part, this sūtra's most sustained treatment of ethics — the ten precepts, each paired with its own bodhisattva exception.
The Inner Heart Maṇḍala
爾時大日世尊入於等至三昧，觀未來世諸眾生故，住於定中。即時諸佛國土地平如掌，五寶間錯……無量菩薩隨福所感宮室殿堂意生之座，如來信解願力所生。法界幖幟大蓮華王出現，如來法界性身安住其中，隨諸眾生種種性欲令得歡喜。……說如是音聲已，還入如來不思議法身。
爾時世尊復告執金剛祕密主言：「善男子！諦聽內心漫荼羅。祕密主！彼身地即是法界自性，真言密印加持而加持之，以本性清淨故、羯磨金剛所護持故，淨除一切塵垢，我人、眾生、壽者、意生、儒童、造立者等株杌過患。方壇四門，西向通達，周旋界道。內現意生八葉大蓮華王，抽莖敷蕊綵絢端妙。其中如來一切世間最尊特身，超越身語意地至於心地逮得殊勝悅意之果。於彼東方寶幢如來、南方開敷華王如來、北方鼓音如來、西方無量壽如來，東南方普賢菩薩、東北方觀自在菩薩、西南方妙吉祥童子、西北方慈氏菩薩。一切蕊中，佛菩薩母六波羅蜜三昧眷屬而自莊嚴。下列持明諸忿怒眾、持金剛主菩薩以為其莖，處于無盡大海。一切地居天等，其數無量而環繞之。」
At that time the World-Honored One Mahāvairocana entered the samādhi of equal attainment, and, so as to survey the beings of ages yet to come, abided in that absorption. At once every buddha-land's own ground became level as the palm of a hand, inlaid throughout with the five jewels…measureless bodhisattvas, according to the merit each had accrued, appeared upon palaces, halls, and thrones born purely of mind, born of the Tathāgata's own confident understanding and the power of his vow. The emblem of the dharma-realm, a great lotus-king, then appeared, and the Tathāgata's own dharma-realm-natured body abode within it, bringing joy to beings according to each of their own natures and desires…Having given voice to this sound, he returned once more into the Tathāgata's own inconceivable dharma-body.
At that time the World-Honored One said again to Vajrapāṇi, Lord of Secrets: "Good son, listen closely to the inner heart maṇḍala. Lord of Secrets, that ground of the body is itself the dharma-realm's own nature; empowered by the secret seal of mantra, and, because its fundamental nature is pure and protected by the vajra of ritual action, it is purified of every speck of defilement — the faults, stump and root alike, of self, person, being, life, mind-born notion, the young scholar, and the maker. The square altar has four gates, opening toward the west, with a boundary-path circling all around. Within, an eight-petal great lotus-king born of mind appears, its stem rising, its filament and pistil unfolding, gloriously and finely adorned. Within it dwells the Tathāgata's own body, most honored throughout the whole world, passing beyond the grounds of body, speech, and mind to reach the very ground of the heart, and attaining there the fruit of surpassing delight. To the east, the Tathāgata Ratnaketu; to the south, the Tathāgata Saṃkusumitarāja; to the north, the Tathāgata of the Drum's Sound; to the west, the Tathāgata Amitāyus; to the southeast, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva; to the northeast, Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva; to the southwest, the youth Mañjuśrī; to the northwest, Maitreya Bodhisattva. Within every filament, the mother of every buddha and bodhisattva, the six pāramitās, adorns herself with her own retinue in samādhi. Below, arrayed as the very stem, are every wrathful vidyā-holder and Vajrapāṇi, lord of the vajra family, standing amid a boundless great ocean, encircled by every earth-dwelling deity beyond number."
This chapter's "inner heart maṇḍala" restates the central eight-petal court of Part 2 with one significant substitution: where the outer maṇḍala names the north buddha as Akṣobhya, this inner version names him "the Tathāgata of the Drum's Sound" (鼓音如來, Divyadundubhimeghanirghoṣa) — the more standard identification in the fully developed Womb Maṇḍala tradition, and a small, precise example of how this sūtra itself is not perfectly uniform in every deity name from chapter to chapter, a variation worth noting honestly rather than silently harmonizing. The chapter's deeper claim is structural: this is the same maṇḍala already given in full iconographic, letter, and mudrā form across Parts 2, 5, and 6, now relocated entirely inside the practitioner's own body — "that ground of the body is itself the dharma-realm's own nature" — collapsing the distance between an externally painted maṇḍala and the practitioner contemplating it that this sūtra has been narrowing since Part 1's claim that mind, space, and bodhi are three names for one thing.
Eight Secret Seals
Eight further mudrās follow, each paired with the shape its own contemplated maṇḍala should take — a triangle, the letter VA, a moon-disc, a half-moon, a rainbow, and further forms — closing with the Buddha's own instruction that these particular eight should be given only to a disciple already initiated, "gentle and pliant in nature, diligent and firm, who has made a surpassing vow, reveres their teacher, remembers kindness received, is pure within and without, and would relinquish their own body and life in seeking the Dharma."
謂以智慧三昧手作空心合掌，而散風輪地輪如放光焰，是世尊本威德生印。其漫荼羅三角而具光明。彼真言曰：「南麼三曼多勃馱喃 㘕落 莎訶」
……即以此印，屈其火輪，餘相如前，是世尊陀羅尼印。其漫荼羅猶如彩虹，而遍圍之垂金剛幡。彼真言曰：「南麼三曼多勃馱喃 勃馱陀羅尼 娑沒㗚底沫羅馱那羯履 馱囉也薩鑁 薄伽嚩底 阿迦囉嚩底 三麼曳 莎訶」
Forming a hollow-centered joined palm with both hands, and spreading the wind- and earth-fingers as though releasing flames of light — this is the seal of the World-Honored One's own original majestic power. Its contemplated maṇḍala is a triangle, radiant with light. Namaḥ samanta-buddhānāṃ raṃ raḥ svāhā.
…With this same seal, bending the fire-finger, the rest as before — this is the World-Honored One's own dhāraṇī-seal. Its contemplated maṇḍala is like a rainbow, hung all around with vajra banners. Namaḥ samanta-buddhānāṃ buddha-dhāraṇī smṛti-bala-dhāraṇa-karī dhāraye svāhā svāhā svāhā samaye svāhā.
The eight seals of this chapter each pair a specific hand-position with a specific visualized shape — triangle, crescent, rainbow, moon-disc, half-moon — extending the correspondence already established in Part 5's five-syllable body meditation (square, circle, triangle, half-moon, jewel) to a further, more restricted set of eight secret forms. The Buddha's closing qualification for who may receive them repeats, almost verbatim, the qualities Part 2 already required of a worthy disciple before initiation — reverence, firmness, remembered gratitude, inner and outer purity — a consistency this collection's translation notes track as one of this sūtra's recurring structural habits: ethical fitness, stated once early on, is assumed and reapplied rather than re-derived each time a more advanced teaching is introduced.
Six Months of Vidyā-Holder Practice
「最初金輪觀， 住大因陀羅，當結金剛印， 飲乳以資身。行者一月滿， 能調出入息，次於第二月， 嚴正水輪中，應以蓮華印， 而服醇淨水。次於第三月， 勝妙火輪觀，噉不求之食， 即以大慧力，燒滅一切罪， 而生身意語。第四月風輪， 行者常服風，結轉法輪印， 攝心以持誦。金剛水輪觀， 依住於瑜伽，是為第五月， 遠離得非得。行者無所著， 等同三菩提，和合風火輪， 出過眾過患。復一月持誦， 亦捨利非利，梵釋等天眾， 摩睺毘舍遮，遠住而敬禮， 一切為守護，皆悉奉教命。彼常得如是， 人天藥叉神，持明諸靈仙， 翊侍其左右，隨所命當作。」
"In the very first month, contemplating the golden earth-wheel, abiding in the great vajra seat, one should form the vajra seal, and nourish the body with milk alone. Once the practitioner has completed this first month, able to regulate the breath moving in and out, then, in the second month, dwelling reverently within the water wheel, one should form the lotus seal, and drink only pure, unmixed water. Next, in the third month, contemplating the supreme and wondrous fire wheel, one eats only food that has not been asked for, and, through the power of great wisdom, burns away every offense, giving rise thereby to a purified body, mind, and speech. In the fourth month, the wind wheel: the practitioner constantly subsists on wind alone, forming the dharma-wheel seal, gathering the mind for recitation. Contemplating the vajra water-wheel, abiding in yoga, this is the fifth month, transcending both attainment and its absence. The practitioner, attached to nothing, becomes equal to the threefold bodhi, uniting the wind and fire wheels, passing beyond every fault. A further month of recitation follows, relinquishing both benefit and its absence — Brahmā, Indra, and the host of gods, mahoragas and piśācas, stand at a distance and bow in reverence, all offering their protection, every one submitting to this command. Such a one constantly gains this: humans, gods, yakṣas, spirits, vidyā-holders, and every numinous sage attend at their left and right, ready to act at their bidding."
This six-month schedule maps the same five elements already given bodily placement in Part 5 onto a sustained practice regimen, one element per month — earth, water, fire, wind, and a fifth month uniting water and vajra — each paired with an increasingly severe ascetic discipline: milk alone, then only water, then only unrequested food, then subsisting on breath itself. The sixth and final month drops the elemental sequence entirely and asks instead for "relinquishing both benefit and its absence" — a deliberate loosening of the whole preceding structure, so that six months of increasingly demanding physical austerity resolve not in a still more extreme practice but in the release of the very distinction between gain and loss the ascetic months might otherwise have reinforced. That the chapter's title names this a vidyā-holder's "禁戒" (precepts or restraint) rather than merely a meditation schedule marks the fasting itself as a form of moral discipline in its own right, continuous with the ethical precepts given fuller treatment later in this same Part.
The Master's True Wisdom, and the Letter A
「所謂阿字者， 一切真言心，從此遍流出， 無量諸真言，一切戲論息， 能生巧智慧。……由彼本初字， 遍在增加字，眾字以成音， 支體由是生，故此遍一切， 身生種種德，今說所分布， 佛子一心聽。以心而作心， 餘以布支分，一切如是作， 即同於我體。安住瑜伽座， 尋念諸如來，若於此教法， 解斯廣大智，正覺大功德， 說為阿闍梨，是即為如來， 亦即名為佛。……阿字第一命， 嚩字名為水，囉字名為火， [合*牛]字名忿怒，佉字同虛空， 所謂極空點，知此最真實， 說名阿闍梨。故應具方便， 了知佛所說，常作精勤修， 當得不死句。」
"The letter A is the very heart of every mantra: from it flow forth measureless mantras without exception; every idle discourse is stilled by it, and it is able to give rise to skillful wisdom…From this fundamental, primordial letter, present throughout every added letter, every syllable is formed into sound, and every limb of the body is born from it — thus, pervading everything, it gives rise to every quality within the body. I shall now explain how it is distributed; children of the Buddha, listen with a single mind. With the mind, one makes the mind itself; the rest is distributed among the body's own limbs — carrying this out in just this way, one becomes identical with my own body. Abiding in the yogic seat, holding every Tathāgata in mind, whoever, within this teaching, understands this vast wisdom, this great merit of perfect awakening, is called a master — and this very one is the Tathāgata, and is called, too, a buddha…The letter A is the very first life-force; the letter VA is called water; the letter RA is called fire; the letter HŪṂ is called wrath; the letter KHA is equal to space — namely, the point of utmost emptiness. Whoever knows this as the truest reality is called a master. One should therefore be complete in skillful means, fully understanding what the Buddha has taught, and, constantly practicing with diligence, will attain the phrase of deathlessness."
This chapter's closing five-syllable list (A as life-force, VA as water, RA as fire, HŪṂ as wrath, KHA as space) is a variant of the A-VA-RA-HA-KHA system given full bodily placement in Part 5, substituting the wrathful HŪṂ for the more common HA at the fourth position — a reminder that this sūtra's own five-element formula is not perfectly fixed even within a single text, and that later systematized traditions harmonized variants such as this one into the single canonical sequence now most commonly taught. The chapter's more striking claim comes earlier: whoever genuinely understands the letter A as the heart of every mantra "is called a master — and this very one is the Tathāgata, and is called, too, a buddha." This is among the most direct statements in the sūtra of what later Shingon doctrine would call sokushin jōbutsu stated as a claim about the master's title itself, not only about a state of attainment: on this chapter's own logic, "ācārya" and "buddha" name the same thing once this single letter is truly known.
Placing the Letters on the Body
Chapter Seventeen carries out, in complete and systematic form, what Part 5 and the previous chapter each gestured toward more briefly: a full map of Sanskrit consonants and vowels onto every part of the practitioner's own body, from the throat down through the torso and limbs to the eyes, ears, and cheeks, closing with the same two syllables — AṂ for attained bodhi, AḤ for parinirvāṇa — that closed the four-transformation teaching of Part 4.
「復次祕密主！ 諸佛所宣說， 安布諸字門，佛子一心聽。迦字在咽下， 佉字在齶上，誐字以為頸， 伽字在喉中，遮字為舌根， 車字在舌中，若字為舌端， 社字舌生處，吒字以為脛， 咤字應知髀，拏字說為腰， 荼字以安坐，多字最後分， 他字應知腹，娜字為二手， 馱字名為脇，波字以為背， 頗字應知胸，麼字為二肘， 婆字次臂下，莽字住於心， 耶字陰藏相，囉字名為眼， [口*邏]字為廣額，縊伊在二眥， 塢烏為二脣，翳藹為二耳， 污奧為二頰，暗字菩提句， 噁字般涅槃，知是一切法， 行者成正覺，一切智資財， 常在於其心，世號一切智， 是謂薩婆若。」
"Furthermore, Lord of Secrets, listen with a single mind to the placement of these letter-gates, as every buddha has taught it. The letter KA is below the throat; the letter KHA is at the roof of the mouth; the letter GA forms the neck; the letter GHA is within the throat; the letter CA is the root of the tongue; the letter CHA is the middle of the tongue; the letter JA is the tip of the tongue; the letter JHA is where the tongue arises; the letter ṬA forms the shin; the letter ṬHA should be known as the thigh; the letter ḌA is spoken of as the waist; the letter ḌHA is the seat on which one sits; the letter TA is the very lowest part; the letter THA should be known as the belly; the letter DA is the two hands; the letter DHA is called the ribs; the letter PA forms the back; the letter PHA should be known as the chest; the letter MA is the two elbows; the letter BA, next, the underarms; the letter BHA dwells at the heart; the letter YA is the mark of the hidden organ; the letter RA is called the eyes; the letter LA is the broad forehead; short and long I are the two corners of the eyes; short and long U are the two lips; short and long E are the two ears; short and long O are the two cheeks; the letter AṂ is the phrase of bodhi; the letter AḤ is parinirvāṇa. Knowing this to be the truth of every dharma, the practitioner accomplishes perfect awakening; the very substance of all-wisdom ever dwells within their heart — this the world calls all-wisdom, this is what is meant by sarvajña."
This chapter's letter-by-letter map follows, with only minor variation, the same alphabetical order as the forty-two gateways of Part 3 — but where that earlier chapter assigned each letter a specific doctrinal meaning (KA for freedom from action, DA for the ungraspability of giving, and so on), this one assigns each letter a specific bodily location instead, so that a practitioner who has learned both chapters holds, for any given syllable, both what it means and where on the body it belongs. The sequence deliberately runs from the throat downward through the trunk and limbs before returning to the face — throat and mouth, then torso, then hands and arms, then the lowest points of the body, then finally the eyes, ears, and cheeks — closing, as Part 4's four-transformation teaching also closed, on AṂ and AḤ: attained bodhi and parinirvāṇa, the map's own final destination after every other letter has found its place.
Skillful Means, and the Ten Wholesome Ways
Chapter Eighteen turns from ritual and visualization to the sūtra's most sustained treatment of ethics: the classical ten wholesome courses of action (十善業道) — already familiar from Part 1's account of a practitioner's very first steps — reframed here specifically for a bodhisattva equipped with skillful means. Each precept is stated first as an ordinary prohibition, then given its own exception: a specific circumstance in which the same act, performed from compassion rather than self-interest, remains within the precept rather than breaking it.
| Precept | The basic prohibition | The bodhisattva's skillful-means exception |
|---|---|---|
| Not taking life | Set aside weapons; hold no intent to kill; guard another's life as one's own. | May act among beings, without a mind of enmity, so as to free them from the retribution their own evil karma would otherwise bring. |
| Not taking what is not given | Give rise to no thought of taking what belongs to another. | Seeing a being hoarding through miserliness, refusing to cultivate the merit of giving, may act — without thought of self or other — to break that miserliness, and the being later comes to praise the gift and gain excellent qualities from it. |
| Not sexual misconduct | Give rise to no desire toward another's spouse or protected kin. | May act to gather and protect beings fit to be liberated, as their circumstances require. |
| Not false speech | Never lie, even to save one's own life — to do so would deceive the very bodhi of every buddha. | (No exception given: this precept alone, the text states, admits none.) |
| Not harsh speech | Speak to every being with a gentle mind, in words suited to their kind. | May, on seeing a being fixed on a cause leading to an evil destiny, use harsh words deliberately, in order to break that course before it ripens. |
| Not divisive speech | Never speak so as to sow discord or cause harm between beings. | May, for a being attached to one fixed view, speak words that seem divisive so as to draw them away from it and onto the single path — the path of the wisdom of all-wisdom. |
| Not idle or frivolous speech | Speak words fitted to time and place, bringing about real benefit and gladdening the ear. | May lead with playfulness or laughter to arouse a being's own desire and joy, and thereby settle them in the Dharma — words that appear to carry no benefit, yet do not entangle the bodhisattva in birth-and-death. |
| Not covetousness | Give rise to no defiled intent toward what another possesses or enjoys. | Should rejoice at another's own generosity, thinking "how truly excellent" — repeatedly encouraging it, rather than causing beings to lose what wealth they have. |
| Not ill will | Cultivate patience everywhere, unmoved by anger, regarding friend and enemy with an equal mind. | (No exception given: a bodhisattva's own fundamental purity, the text states, admits no genuine ill will at all.) |
| Not wrong view | Abandon wrong view and practice right view; fear the consequences of one's acts in future lives; hold no harm, no crookedness, no flattery; keep a heart upright and settled in the Three Jewels. | (No exception given: wrong view is named "the mother of every unwholesome dharma," able to sever every one of a bodhisattva's own good roots — not to be indulged even in jest.) |
「過去諸正覺， 及與未來世，現在仁中尊， 具足智方便，修行無上覺， 得無漏悉地，亦說餘學處， 離於方便智。當知大勤勇， 誘進諸聲聞。」
"The Perfectly Awakened Ones of the past, and those of the age to come, and the honored ones of the present, all complete in wisdom and skillful means, cultivate unsurpassed awakening, and attain undefiled siddhi; they also teach a further set of precepts, apart from this wisdom of skillful means — know that the Greatly Diligent One teaches this second set only to draw śrāvakas gradually onward."
The four precepts this chapter gives no exception for — false speech, ill will, and wrong view, together with the four root offenses named at the chapter's close (slandering the Dharma, abandoning bodhicitta, miserliness, and harming beings) — mark the outer limit of skillful means as this sūtra understands it: every other precept can, in the right hands and for the right reason, be set aside for a being's own benefit, but these remain fixed, because what they protect (truthfulness itself, a heart free of genuine malice, and right view as the root of every wholesome quality) is not the kind of thing skillful means can compromise without undermining the very compassion it claims to serve. The chapter is explicit that this reading of the ten precepts is not the only one the Buddha teaches — a plainer, exception-free version exists as well, offered specifically to śrāvakas "so as to draw them gradually onward" — making clear that the skillful-means framework given here is calibrated to a bodhisattva's own more demanding standard of accountability (self and other both weighed, in every exception, before the precept is set aside) rather than a general loosening of ethical discipline for anyone who might invoke it.
The chapter also distinguishes lay from monastic bodhisattvas explicitly, in a passage this page has not translated at length for space: a lay bodhisattva may hold worldly rank, preside over a household, and even employ the arts of dance, drama, and public performance as skillful means of gathering beings through the four means of attraction — provided the same five basic precepts (against killing, stealing, false speech, sexual misconduct, and wrong view) remain intact underneath. This sūtra's ethics, in other words, were never framed as requiring monastic withdrawal from ordinary life; a king, a parent, or a performer is given, in this same chapter, exactly the same path toward buddhahood already described for the ascetic vidyā-holder fasting through six months of elemental practice.
The Ground Made Level, and a Body That Appears
Before the inner maṇḍala is described, chapter thirteen stages the scene: the buddha-fields flatten out, the ornaments appear, and a body that is the accumulated result of measureless kalpas of the six perfections comes into view and speaks a verse about storehouse-consciousness. The chapter ends with the udāna that accompanies the disciple’s entry.
即時諸佛國土地平如掌，五寶間錯，懸大寶蓋，莊嚴門標，眾色流蘇其相長廣，寶鈴、白拂、名衣、幡珮綺絢垂布而校飾之，於八方隅建摩尼幢。八功德水芬馥盈滿，無量眾鳥鴛鴦鵝鵠出和雅音。種種浴池時華雜樹敷榮間列芳茂嚴好。八方合繫五寶瓔繩。其地柔軟猶如綿纊，觸踐之者皆受快樂。無量樂器自然諧韻，其聲微妙人所樂聞。
……時彼如來一切支分無障礙力，從十智力信解所生，無量形色莊嚴之相，無數百千俱胝那由他劫布施、持戒、忍辱、精進、禪定、智慧諸度功德所資長身即時出現。彼出現已，於諸世界大眾會中發大音聲而說偈言：「諸佛甚奇特， 權智不思議，無阿賴耶慧， 含藏說諸法。若解無所得， 諸法之法相，彼無得而得， 得諸佛導師。」
……「爾時行者為成三昧耶故，應以意生香華燈明塗香種種餚膳，一切皆以獻之。」優陀那曰：「『真言者誠諦， 圖畫漫荼羅，自身為大我， 囉字淨諸垢。安住瑜伽座， 尋念諸如來，頂授諸弟子， 阿字大空點，智者傳妙花， 令散於自身，為說內所見， 行人宗奉處，此最上壇故， 應與三昧耶。』」
……聖天之位威神所同，自真言道以為幖幟，圖具漫荼羅如本尊相應。若依法教，於真言門修菩薩行諸菩薩應如是知，自身住本尊形堅固不動。知本尊已，如本尊住而得悉地。
At that moment the lands of the buddha-fields became level as a palm, inlaid with the five jewels; great jeweled canopies hung overhead, the gate-posts were adorned, and tassels of every color stretched long and broad; jeweled bells, white whisks, famed robes, banners and pendants hung down in splendor to set it off; and at the eight quarters and corners maṇi banners were raised. Water of the eight virtues, fragrant, filled it to the brim; birds beyond number — mandarin ducks, geese, swans — sent out harmonious and elegant sounds. Bathing pools of every kind, with seasonal flowers and mingled trees, stood in flourishing and fragrant array. At the eight quarters strings of five jewels were joined and hung. The ground was soft as floss, and whoever touched or trod upon it received pleasure. Instruments beyond number sounded in natural harmony, their tones exquisite and delightful to hear.
Then that Tathāgata’s body — the unobstructed power in each of his limbs, born of the faith and understanding of the ten powers, adorned with forms and colors beyond measure, nourished by the merit of giving, discipline, patience, diligence, meditation and wisdom across incalculable hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas — appeared at once. Having appeared, in the great assembly of all the worlds he sent out a great sound and spoke this verse: “How extraordinary are the buddhas, whose skill-in-means and wisdom are inconceivable; with a wisdom that has no ālaya, they hold it in store and declare the dharmas. If one understands that there is nothing to be attained, that being the dharma-aspect of dharmas, then attaining by way of non-attaining, he attains the buddhas, the Guides.”
…“Then, in order to accomplish the samaya, the practitioner should present everything — incense and flowers produced by mind, lamps, unguents, and every kind of fine food.” The udāna says: “The mantra practitioner, being truthful, draws the maṇḍala, takes his own body as the Great Self, and with the syllable RA purifies every stain. Abiding on the seat of yoga, recollecting the Tathāgatas, he bestows upon the disciples’ crowns the syllable A with the point of great space; the wise one hands them the exquisite flower and has them scatter it over their own bodies, then tells them what has been seen within, the place the practitioner reveres. Because this is the highest altar, the samaya should be given.”
…The stations of the holy ones are equal in majesty, and each takes its own way of mantra as emblem; he draws the maṇḍala complete, answering to his own deity. If they follow the teaching of the rule, bodhisattvas who practice by the gate of mantra should know it thus: their own bodies abide in the form of the deity, firm and unmoving. Having known the deity, abiding as the deity does, they attain accomplishment.
Reading note — after Yixing
“With a wisdom that has no ālaya, they hold it in store and declare the dharmas” (無阿赖耶慧，含藏說諸法) is a compressed and deliberately awkward line: the buddhas store without a storehouse. Yixing reads it as this sūtra’s way of taking up the Yogācāra vocabulary of ālaya-vijñāna while refusing the substrate it implies — the function is kept and the container denied.
How Long Does a Vow Last?
Chapter fifteen is Vajrapāṇi asking a practical question in verse — when does a vidyā-holder’s discipline reach its term? — and getting an answer that gives both a doctrinal criterion and a calendar.
爾時金剛手復以偈頌請問大日世尊持明禁戒，為真言門修菩薩行諸菩薩故。「云何成禁戒？ 云何住尸羅？云何隨所住， 修行離諸著？修行幾時月， 禁戒得終竟？住於何法教， 而知彼威德？離時方作業， 及法非法等，云何而速成？ 願佛說其量。先佛所宣說， 令得於悉地，我問一切智， 正覺兩足尊，為未來眾生， 仁中尊證知。」
是時薄伽梵毘盧遮那哀愍眾生故而說偈言：「善哉勤勇士， 大德持金剛！所說殊勝戒， 古佛所開演。緣明所起戒， 住戒如正覺，令得成悉地， 為利世間故。等起自真實， 不生疑慮心，常住於等引， 修行戒當竟。菩提心及法， 及修學業果，和合為一相， 遠離諸造作，具戒如佛智， 異此非具戒。得諸法自在， 通達利眾生，常修無著行， 等礫石眾寶。乃至滿落叉， 所說真言教，畢於時月等， 禁戒量終竟。……不善為障者， 羅剎七母等，見持真言者， 恭敬而遠之。見是處光明， 馳散如猛火。隨所住法教， 皆依明禁故，等正覺真子， 一切得自在。調伏難降者， 如大執金剛，饒益諸群生， 同於觀世音。經逾六月已， 隨所願成果，常當於自他， 悲愍而救護。」
Then Vajrapāṇi again asked Mahāvairocana in verse about the vidyā-holder’s discipline, for the sake of bodhisattvas practicing by the gate of mantra: “How is the discipline accomplished? How does one abide in śīla? How, according to where one abides, does one practice free of all attachment? For how many months is it practiced before the discipline reaches its term? Abiding in what teaching does one know its majesty? Apart from time, place and works, and from dharma and non-dharma alike, how is it swiftly accomplished? May the Buddha declare its measure. What the former buddhas declared brought beings to attainment; I ask the All-Knowing, the Perfectly Awakened, honored among those who walk on two feet — for beings of the future, may the Honored among men bear witness.”
Then the Blessed One Mahāvairocana, out of pity for living beings, spoke these verses: “Well asked, diligent and brave one, greatly virtuous vajra-holder! The excellent discipline you speak of was set forth by the buddhas of old. The discipline that arises in dependence on the vidyā — abiding in it as the Perfectly Awakened do — brings one to attainment, for the benefit of the world. When what arises equally is one’s own truth, and no doubting mind arises, and one abides always in meditative composure, then the practice of discipline reaches its term. The awakening-mind, and the Dharma, and the fruit of the works one trains in — joined together into a single aspect, far removed from all contriving: to be furnished with discipline is to have the Buddha’s own wisdom, and what differs from this is not being furnished with discipline. He gains sovereignty over all dharmas, penetrates them, and benefits living beings; he practices always without attachment, holding gravel and jewels to be equal. And when the full lakṣa of the mantra teaching declared has been completed, and the months and the rest have run out, the measure of the discipline reaches its term. Those who obstruct through unwholesomeness, the rākṣasas and the seven mothers and the rest, seeing one who holds mantra, revere him and keep away; seeing the light of that place, they scatter as from a raging fire. According to the teaching one abides in, all of it depends on the vidyā-discipline; and so the true sons of the Perfectly Awakened all gain sovereignty. In taming the hard to subdue, he is like the great Vajradhara; in benefiting the multitude, he is the same as Avalokiteśvara. When six months have passed, the fruit is accomplished according to his vow; and toward himself and others alike he should always be compassionate and protecting.”
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The question asks for a term and gets two answers that do not obviously agree: the discipline ends when the mind no longer doubts and abides continuously in composure, and it ends when the recitation count and the months are complete. The chapter sets them side by side without ranking them, which is the same doubled register the whole sūtra keeps — a criterion of realization and a criterion of performance, both binding.
What a Master Knows
Chapter sixteen asks what makes someone an ācārya, and answers with a single syllable and a list of everyone it belongs to — a list that runs from bodhisattvas through Brahmā and Viṣṇu and Maheśvara down to the sun and moon, Yama, and the local earth-spirit.
爾時持金剛者次復請問大日世尊諸漫荼羅真言之心，而說偈言：「云何為一切， 真言實語心？云何而解了， 說名阿闍梨？」爾時薄伽梵， 大毘盧遮那，慰喻金剛手， 善哉摩訶薩，令彼心歡喜。復告如是言：「解祕中最祕， 真言智大心，今為汝宣說， 一心應諦聽。……祕密主何等， 一切真語心？佛兩足尊說， 阿字名種子，故一切如是， 安住諸支分，如相應布已， 依法皆遍授。……菩薩及梵天， 毘紐摩醯羅，日月天水天， 帝釋世間主，黑夜焰摩等， 地神與妙音，梵志及常浴， 亦名梵行者，漏盡比丘眾， 吉祥持祕密，一切智見者， 法自在財富。若住菩提心， 及與聲智性，不著一切法， 說名遍一切。即是真語者， 持吉祥真言，真實語之王， 持執金剛印。所有諸字輪， 若在於支分，當知住眉間， [合*牛]字金剛句，娑字在脣下， 是謂蓮華句。我即同心位， 一切處自在，普遍於種種， 有情及非情。」
Then the vajra-holder next asked Mahāvairocana about the heart of the mantras of all the maṇḍalas, speaking this verse: “What is the heart of the true and real speech of all? And understanding what, is one called an ācārya?” Then the Blessed One, great Mahāvairocana, consoled Vajrapāṇi — “Well done, mahāsattva” — and gladdened his mind, and said further: “What is most secret among secrets, the great heart of mantra-wisdom, I shall now declare to you; listen single-mindedly. Lord of Secrets, what is the heart of all true speech? The Buddha, honored among those who walk on two feet, says: the syllable A is called the seed. Therefore all of it is thus; it abides in each of the limbs, and when it has been spread in the proper correspondence, it is bestowed everywhere according to the rule. Bodhisattvas and Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśvara, the sun and moon gods and Varuṇa, Indra lord of the world, Black Night and Yama and the rest, the earth-spirit and Sarasvatī, the brahmins and the ever-bathing ones who are also called practitioners of the holy life, the community of monks whose outflows are ended, the auspicious holders of the secret, those who see with the knowledge of all, sovereign over Dharma and rich in it — if one abides in the awakening-mind, and in the nature of the wisdom of sound, and clings to no dharma at all, that is what is called pervading everything. This is the one who speaks truly, who holds the auspicious mantra, the king of true speech, who bears the seal of Vajradhara. As for all the wheels of letters, if they are set upon the limbs: know that abiding between the brows is the syllable HŪṆ, the vajra phrase; the syllable SA beneath the lips is what is called the lotus phrase. I am identical with the station of the heart, sovereign in every place, pervading all kinds of beings, sentient and insentient alike.”
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The list is doing real work, not padding. Having said that the syllable A is the seed of all true speech, the chapter enumerates every class of being whose speech might claim to be true — buddhist and non-buddhist, divine and human, ascetic and monastic — and then supplies the condition that decides among them: abiding in the awakening-mind, in the nature of the wisdom of sound, and clinging to nothing. Viṣṇu is on the list and is not thereby excluded; he is simply subject to the same test.
The Ten Precepts, and Where Each One Bends
Chapter eighteen gives the ten wholesome ways of action as bodhisattva precepts, and after each one adds a clause — 有餘方便, “there is a further skillful means” — describing the circumstance under which a bodhisattva does the opposite. Vajrapāṇi then asks the obvious question: the hearers teach these ten, and so do worldly people and non-buddhists; what is the difference?
爾時執金剛祕密主白佛言：「世尊！願說諸菩薩摩訶薩等具智慧方便所修學句，令歸依者於諸菩薩摩訶薩無有二意、離疑惑心，於生死流轉中常不可壞。」……祕密主！菩薩持不奪生命戒所不應為，持不與取及欲邪行、虛誑語、麁惡語、兩舌語、無義語戒，貪欲、瞋恚、邪見等皆不應作。祕密主！如是所修學句，菩薩隨所修學，則與正覺世尊及諸菩薩同行，應如是學。
爾時執金剛祕密主白佛言：「世尊！薄伽梵於聲聞乘亦說如是十善業道，世間人民及諸外道亦於十善業道常願修行。世尊！彼有何差別？云何種種殊異？」……「祕密主！若聲聞乘學處，我說離慧方便，教令成就開發邊智，非等行十善業道，彼諸世間復離執著我故，他因所轉。菩薩修行大乘入一切法平等，攝受智慧方便，自他俱故，諸所作轉。是故祕密主！菩薩於此攝智方便入一切法平等，當勤修學。」
……「祕密主！彼諸菩薩盡形壽持不奪生命戒，應捨刀杖、離殺害意，護他壽命猶如己身。有餘方便，於諸眾生類中隨其事業，為解脫彼惡業報故，有所施作非怨害心。」「復次祕密主！菩薩持不與取戒，若他所攝諸受用物，不起觸取之心，況復餘物不與而取。有餘方便，見諸眾生慳悋積聚不修施福，隨其像類害彼慳故，離於自他為彼行施，因讚時施獲妙色等。祕密主！若菩薩發起貪心而觸取之，是菩薩退菩提分，越無為毘奈耶法。」
……「復次祕密主！菩薩盡形壽持不妄語戒，設為活命因緣，不應妄語，即為欺誑諸佛菩提。祕密主！是名菩薩住於最上大乘。若妄語者，越失佛菩提法。」……「復次祕密主！菩薩受持不麁惡罵戒，應當以柔軟心語、隨類言辭攝受諸眾生等。何以故？祕密主！菩提薩埵初行，利樂眾生。或餘菩薩見住惡趣因者，為折伏之而現麁語。」「復次祕密主！菩薩受持不兩舌語戒，離間隙語、離惱害語，犯者非名菩薩。不於眾生起離坼之心，有異方便，若彼眾生隨所見處生著，如其像類說離間言語令住於一道，所謂一切智智道。」「復次祕密主！菩薩持不綺語戒，以隨類言辭時方和合出生義利，令一切眾生發歡喜心、淨耳根道。何以故？菩薩有差別語故。或餘菩薩以戲笑為先，發起眾生欲樂，令住佛法。雖具出無義利語，如是菩薩不著生死流轉。」
……「復次祕密主！菩薩應當持不瞋戒，遍一切處常修安忍、不著瞋喜，於怨及親其心平等而轉。何以故？非菩提薩埵而懷惡意。所以者何？以菩薩本性清淨故。」……「復次祕密主！菩薩應當捨離邪見、行於正見，怖畏他世，無害無曲無諂，其心端直，於佛法僧心得決定。是故祕密主！邪見最為極大過失，能斷菩薩一切善根，是為一切諸不善法之母。是故祕密主！下至戲笑，亦當不起邪見因緣。」
……「祕密主！應知菩薩有二種。云何為二？所謂在家、出家。祕密主！彼在家菩薩受持五戒句，勢位自在，以種種方便道隨順時方自在攝受求一切智，所謂具足方便示理舞伎天祠主等種種藝處，隨彼方便以四攝法攝取眾生，皆使志求阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。謂持不奪生命戒及不與取、虛妄語、欲邪行、邪見等，是名在家五戒句。」……「有四種根本罪，乃至活命因緣亦不應犯。云何為四？謂謗諸法、捨離菩提心、慳悋、惱害眾生。所以者何？此性是染，非持菩薩戒。」
Then Vajradhara, the Lord of Secrets, said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! May you declare the phrases of training in which the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, furnished with wisdom and means, train themselves — so that those who take refuge may have no divided intention toward the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas and may be free of a doubting mind, and may be indestructible always amid the turning of birth and death.” …Lord of Secrets! What a bodhisattva holding the precept against taking life should not do; and holding the precepts against taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, false speech, harsh speech, divisive speech, and meaningless speech; and greed, anger, and wrong view — none of these should he do. Lord of Secrets! Training in these phrases of training as he does, the bodhisattva walks together with the Perfectly Awakened World-Honored One and with all the bodhisattvas; so should he train.
Then Vajradhara, the Lord of Secrets, said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! The Blessed One teaches these same ten wholesome ways of action in the vehicle of the hearers; and the people of the world and the non-buddhists likewise always vow to practice the ten wholesome ways of action. World-Honored One, what difference is there? In what respects do they differ?” …“Lord of Secrets! As for the training of the hearer’s vehicle, I say it is apart from the means of wisdom: its teaching brings about the opening of a partial knowledge, and it is not the equal practice of the ten wholesome ways. And those of the world, again, because they are apart from grasping at a self, are turned by causes outside themselves. The bodhisattva, practicing the Great Vehicle, enters the equality of all dharmas and takes up wisdom and means; and because self and other are both included, all his works are turned. Therefore, Lord of Secrets, in this gathering-in of wisdom and means and this entering into the equality of all dharmas, the bodhisattva should diligently train.”
…“Lord of Secrets! Those bodhisattvas hold for life the precept against taking life; they should lay down knife and staff, be free of any intent to kill, and guard the lives of others as their own. There is a further skillful means: among the classes of living beings, according to their deeds, and in order to release them from the retribution of evil acts, something may be done — but not from a mind of enmity or harm.” “Further, Lord of Secrets: the bodhisattva holds the precept against taking what is not given. If a thing is in another’s possession and use, he does not give rise to a mind that would touch and take it — still less take other things not given. There is a further skillful means: seeing beings who are stingy and hoard and do not cultivate the merit of giving, in order to injure that stinginess according to the kind of case, apart from self and other he gives on their behalf, so that through praise and timely giving they obtain fine form and the rest. Lord of Secrets! If a bodhisattva gives rise to a greedy mind and touches and takes, that bodhisattva has fallen back from the factors of awakening and transgressed the unconditioned Vinaya.”
“Further, Lord of Secrets: the bodhisattva holds for life the precept against false speech. Even for the sake of staying alive he should not speak falsely, for that would be to deceive the awakening of all the buddhas. Lord of Secrets, this is what is called a bodhisattva abiding in the highest Great Vehicle. One who speaks falsely transgresses and loses the Dharma of the Buddha’s awakening.” …“Further, Lord of Secrets: the bodhisattva receives and holds the precept against harsh and abusive speech, and should gather in living beings with gentle-minded speech and words suited to their kind. Why so? Lord of Secrets, because the bodhisattva’s first practice is to benefit and gladden living beings. Yet some other bodhisattva, seeing one who abides in the causes of the evil destinies, may display harsh speech in order to break him down.” “Further, Lord of Secrets: the bodhisattva receives and holds the precept against divisive speech, keeping clear of words that open a rift and words that vex and harm; one who transgresses is not called a bodhisattva. He does not give rise to a mind that would split beings apart. There is a different skillful means: if those beings have grown attached wherever they look, then according to the kind of case he may speak divisive words, so as to settle them in a single way — that is, the way of the knowledge of all knowledge.” “Further, Lord of Secrets: the bodhisattva holds the precept against frivolous speech, and with words suited to their kind, joined to the time and the place, brings forth good and benefit, making all beings give rise to a glad mind and purifying the path of their hearing. Why so? Because the bodhisattva has a differentiated speech. Yet some other bodhisattva may put jest first, rousing beings’ delight in order to settle them in the Buddha’s Dharma; and though he utters words without evident benefit, such a bodhisattva is not attached to the turning of birth and death.”
…“Further, Lord of Secrets: the bodhisattva should hold the precept against anger, cultivating patience always and everywhere, attached neither to anger nor to delight, his mind turning equally toward enemy and kin. Why so? Because one who harbors malice is not a bodhisattva. And why is that? Because the bodhisattva’s own nature is pure.” “Further, Lord of Secrets: the bodhisattva should abandon wrong view and walk in right view, fearing the world to come, without harm, without crookedness, without flattery, his mind upright, settled with certainty upon Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha. Therefore, Lord of Secrets, wrong view is the very greatest of faults: it can cut off all a bodhisattva’s roots of goodness, and it is the mother of every unwholesome dharma. Therefore, Lord of Secrets, not even in jest should the cause of wrong view be given rise to.”
…“Lord of Secrets! Know that bodhisattvas are of two kinds. Which two? The householder and the renunciant. Lord of Secrets, that householder bodhisattva receives and holds the five precept-phrases; sovereign in position and power, by every kind of skillful path he accords with the time and place, freely gathering in and seeking the knowledge of all — that is to say, furnished with means, he may display reasoning, dance and music, preside over a shrine, and practice every sort of art; and by those means, with the four gathering practices, he gathers in living beings and brings them all to aspire to unsurpassed perfect awakening. Holding the precepts against taking life, taking what is not given, false speech, sexual misconduct, and wrong view — these are called the householder’s five precept-phrases.” …“There are four root offenses which are not to be transgressed even for the sake of staying alive. Which four? To slander the dharmas, to abandon the awakening-mind, to be stingy, and to vex and harm living beings. Why so? Because their nature is defilement, and they are not the holding of the bodhisattva precepts.”
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
The answer to Vajrapāṇi’s question is not that the bodhisattva keeps the ten precepts better. It is that the hearer keeps them “apart from the means of wisdom” and the worldly person is “turned by causes outside himself,” while for the bodhisattva self and other are both included, so that every act is turned from within. The precepts are identical; what differs is what is doing the keeping.
The exception clause — 有餘方便, “there is a further skillful means” — attaches to killing, stealing, harsh speech, divisive speech and frivolous speech, but conspicuously not to false speech, which is refused even to stay alive, nor to wrong view, which is refused even in jest. The four root offenses listed at the end are of the same order: no clause bends them. A reader looking for where this text will not move should look there.
Two More Precepts, and the Householder’s Question
The remaining passages of chapter eighteen: the precept on sexual conduct with its own exception, the rule against covetousness, and then the question that the chapter has been inviting all along — how a bodhisattva can hold a throne, live in a palace among wives and children, and enjoy heavenly pleasures without fault.
金剛手！今說善巧修行道。若菩薩摩訶薩住於此者，當於大乘而得通達。……祕密主！應當諦聽，吾今演說差別道一道法門。
……「復次祕密主！菩薩持不邪婬戒，若他所攝，自妻、自種族標相所護，不發貪心，況復非道二身交會。有餘方便，隨所應度攝護眾生。」……是故祕密主！於此法門應如是知，捨離不真實語。
……何以故？無有菩薩生著心故。若菩薩心有染思，彼於一切智門無力而墮一邊。又祕密主！菩薩應發起歡喜，生如是心：『我所應作。』……數自慶慰，勿令彼諸眾生損失資財故。
……云何菩薩王位自在、處於宮殿，父母妻子眷屬圍繞，受天妙樂而不生過？」……菩薩受持如所說善戒，應具諦信當勤修學，隨順往昔諸如來學處，住有為戒，具足智慧方便，得至如來無上吉祥無為戒蘊。
Vajrapāṇi! I shall now declare the way of skillful practice. If a bodhisattva-mahāsattva abides in this, he will gain penetration within the Great Vehicle. …Lord of Secrets! Listen closely; I shall now declare the gateway of the differentiated way and of the one way.
…“Further, Lord of Secrets: the bodhisattva holds the precept against sexual misconduct. Toward one in another’s keeping, toward his own wife, toward those guarded by the marks of his own clan, he gives rise to no lustful mind — still less to union of two bodies by an improper way. There is a further skillful means: he gathers in and protects living beings according to what each requires for deliverance.” …Therefore, Lord of Secrets, in this teaching it should be known thus: abandon what is not true speech.
…Why so? Because there is no bodhisattva who gives rise to a clinging mind. If a bodhisattva’s mind has defiled thought, he is without strength at the gate of the knowledge of all and falls to one side. And further, Lord of Secrets: the bodhisattva should give rise to gladness, and produce this thought: “This is what I am to do.” …Again and again he congratulates and consoles himself, so as not to let those living beings lose their goods and property.
…“How is it that a bodhisattva may hold a royal throne in sovereignty, dwell in a palace surrounded by father and mother, wife and children and kin, and enjoy exquisite heavenly pleasures, without fault arising?” …The bodhisattva, receiving and holding the good precepts as declared, should be furnished with true faith and train diligently, according with the trainings of the Tathāgatas of the past; abiding in the conditioned precepts and furnished with wisdom and means, he reaches the Tathāgata’s unsurpassed and auspicious mass of unconditioned precepts.
Reading note — Ru-Yi Meditation Center
“Abiding in the conditioned precepts … he reaches the unconditioned mass of precepts” is how the chapter ends its argument about the householder. The precepts one can actually keep are conditioned and are not the goal; they are how the goal is reached. The throne, the palace and the family are permitted on the same terms as the tooth-stick and the altar — conditioned things, used.
Part 8 Complete
This closes Part 8: the maṇḍala rebuilt entirely inside the practitioner's own body, eight further secret seals, a six-month elemental fast, the letter A named as identical with the master's own title of "buddha," a complete map of the alphabet onto the body from throat to genitals, and the sūtra's fullest treatment of precepts — most of them subject to compassionate exception, four of them held absolutely fixed. Part 9 gathers the remaining thirteen chapters of this sūtra's main teaching — the hundred-syllable mantra sequence, further doctrinal chapters, the fire-offering rite in full, and the closing entrustment that ends the text's core thirty-one chapters.
Continue to Part 9 — The Hundred Syllables, and the Closing Entrustment →