The Higher Training in Concentration
Part Seven covered the higher training in morality; Part Eight covers the second of the three — concentration — through six ways it surpasses a śrāvaka's, ten difficult practices that mark a bodhisattva's path, and, at its center, a set of riddling scriptural sayings in which the Buddha describes true giving, true discipline, and true wisdom in terms that sound, on the surface, like their exact opposites.
Translation Method
As in Parts 1 through 7, the Chinese source is Xuánzàng's translation of Asaṅga's root text (T1594), read with Vasubandhu's commentary (T1597), also translated by Xuánzàng. See also this site's note on translation method.
1. Six Ways a Bodhisattva's Concentration Surpasses a Śrāvaka's
如是已說增上戒殊勝，增上心殊勝云何可見？略由六種差別應知：一、由所緣差別故，二、由種種差別故，三、由對治差別故，四、由堪能差別故，五、由引發差別故，六、由作業差別故。所緣差別者，謂大乘法為所緣故。種種差別者，謂大乘光明，集福定王，賢守，健行等三摩地，種種無量故。
Having thus spoken of the excellence of the higher training in morality, how may the excellence of the higher training in concentration be seen? It should be understood, briefly, through six kinds of distinction: first, distinction of object; second, distinction of variety; third, distinction of antidote; fourth, distinction of capacity; fifth, distinction of what it draws forth; sixth, distinction of activity. Distinction of object: taking the Great Vehicle's own teaching as its object. Distinction of variety: through absorptions such as the Light of the Great Vehicle, the King of Concentrations That Gathers Merit, the Worthy Protector, and the Heroic Advance, of manifold, immeasurable kinds.
對治差別者，謂一切法總相緣智，以楔出楔道理，遣阿賴耶識中一切障麁重故。堪能差別者，謂住靜慮樂，隨其所欲即受生故。引發差別者，謂能引發一切世界無礙神通故。
Distinction of antidote: through the wisdom that takes the general characteristic of all dharmas as its object, according to the principle of driving out one wedge with another, dispelling every coarse and heavy obstruction within the ālayavijñāna. Distinction of capacity: abiding in the joy of meditative concentration, one is able to take rebirth wherever one wishes. Distinction of what it draws forth: it is able to draw forth unobstructed supernormal powers throughout every world-system.
作業差別者，謂能振動，熾然，遍滿，顯示，轉變，往來，卷舒，一切色像皆入身中，所往同類，或顯或隱，所作自在，伏他神通，施辯念樂，放大光明；引發如是大神通故。
Distinction of activity: it is able to shake all worlds, to blaze, to pervade with light, to reveal, to transform one substance into another, to travel in an instant, to contract and expand — drawing every form and image into one's own body; appearing, in whatever place one visits, in a form matching that place's own beings; becoming visible or invisible at will; acting with complete mastery; eclipsing the supernormal powers of others; bestowing eloquence upon those who ask questions and mindfulness and joy upon those who listen; and emitting great light — drawing forth supernormal powers as great as these.
Vasubandhu's most memorable gloss here is the "wedge that drives out a wedge" — a carpenter's technique for removing a stuck wedge by driving a second, finer wedge in alongside it. He reads this as a precise description of how meditative wisdom actually works on the deep, "coarse and heavy" seeds embedded in the ālayavijñāna since beginningless time: the subtler wisdom that takes the shared, general nature of all dharmas as its object is what finally dislodges the coarser, deeply lodged habituation those seeds represent — not by brute force, but by working with the same underlying structure the obstruction itself occupies. The long catalogue of supernormal activities that closes this section — shaking worlds, traveling instantly, contracting vast spaces into an atom without loss, appearing in a form matching wherever one visits — is, Vasubandhu notes, entirely absent from śrāvaka attainment; these are not incidental magical flourishes but direct expressions of a concentration whose scope has become genuinely unlimited.
2. Ten Difficult Practices
又能引發攝諸難行十難行故。十難行者，一自誓難行，誓受無上菩提願故。二不退難行，生死眾苦不能退故。三不背難行，一切有情雖行邪行而不棄故。四現前難行，怨有情所現作一切饒益事故。五不染難行，生在世間不為世法所染污故。
Concentration, moreover, is able to draw forth and embrace all difficult practices, of which there are ten. First, the difficult practice of self-vowing — vowing to take up the aspiration for unsurpassed awakening. Second, the difficult practice of not retreating — the many sufferings of saṃsāra being unable to turn one back. Third, the difficult practice of not forsaking — never abandoning any sentient being, even one who behaves wrongly. Fourth, the difficult practice of direct presence — actually doing every beneficial thing for a being who is one's own enemy. Fifth, the difficult practice of remaining unstained — being born into the world yet not stained by worldly things.
六、勝解難行，於大乘中雖未能了，然於一切廣大甚深生信解故。七、通達難行，具能通達補特伽羅法無我故。八、隨覺難行，於諸如來所說甚深祕密言詞能隨覺故。九、不離不染難行，不捨生死而不染故。十、加行難行，能修諸佛安住解脫一切障礙，窮生死際不作功用，常起一切有情一切義利行故。
Sixth, the difficult practice of resolute conviction — though not yet able to fully understand the Great Vehicle, still giving rise to conviction in its every vast and profound teaching. Seventh, the difficult practice of penetration — being fully able to penetrate the selflessness of both persons and dharmas. Eighth, the difficult practice of following the awakened meaning — being able to follow and awaken to the profound, hidden words spoken by the tathāgatas. Ninth, the difficult practice of neither leaving nor being stained — neither abandoning saṃsāra nor being stained by it. Tenth, the difficult practice of sustained effort — cultivating the buddhas' own abiding in freedom from every obstruction, and, to the very end of saṃsāra, without any further exertion, constantly bringing forth every kind of benefit for every sentient being.
Vasubandhu singles out the ninth as capturing the whole list's underlying difficulty in one phrase: "neither leaving nor being stained" — remaining fully engaged within saṃsāra, never withdrawing from it into a private nirvāṇa the way a śrāvaka's path culminates, while somehow never being tainted by it either. The other nine, he says, are comparatively easier to grasp on their own terms, but together they describe a single sustained posture: a vow taken and never abandoned, regardless of suffering encountered, beings who disappoint, enemies who deserve resentment, or a worldly life lived in full contact with ordinary temptation — a bodhisattva's concentration is what makes holding this posture, across countless lifetimes, actually possible rather than merely aspirational.
3. The Buddha's Hidden Words: What True Giving Actually Means
The eighth difficult practice — following the Buddha's own hidden, riddling words — is now demonstrated directly, with a series of paradoxical questions and answers about the perfection of generosity.
復次，隨覺難行中，於佛何等祕密言詞彼諸菩薩能隨覺了？謂如經言：「云何菩薩能行惠施？若諸菩薩無少所施，然於十方無量世界廣行惠施。云何菩薩樂行惠施？若諸菩薩於一切施都無欲樂。云何菩薩於惠施中深生信解？若諸菩薩不信如來而行布施。云何菩薩於施策勵？若諸菩薩於惠施中不自策勵。」
Furthermore, regarding the difficult practice of following the awakened meaning — which of the Buddha's hidden words are bodhisattvas able to follow and awaken to? It is as the sūtra says: "How does a bodhisattva actually practice giving? By a bodhisattva giving not the slightest thing, and yet widely practicing giving throughout countless worlds in the ten directions. How does a bodhisattva delight in giving? By a bodhisattva having, toward every act of giving, no craving-desire whatsoever. How does a bodhisattva gain deep, resolute conviction in giving? By a bodhisattva practicing giving without [needing to] believe in the Tathāgata [to be told to do so]. How does a bodhisattva exert effort in giving? By a bodhisattva, in the act of giving, exerting no [self-conscious] effort at all."
「云何菩薩於施耽樂？若諸菩薩無有暫時少有所施。云何菩薩其施廣大？若諸菩薩於惠施中離娑洛想。云何菩薩其施清淨？若諸菩薩殟波陀慳。云何菩薩其施究竟？若諸菩薩不住究竟。云何菩薩其施自在？若諸菩薩於惠施中不自在轉。云何菩薩其施無盡？若諸菩薩不住無盡。」如於布施，於戒為初，於慧為後，隨其所應當知亦爾。
"How does a bodhisattva revel in giving? By a bodhisattva never once, even for a moment, having given some small thing [as a fixed, countable act]. How is a bodhisattva's giving vast? By a bodhisattva, in the act of giving, being free of the notion of scattering [attention outward]. How is a bodhisattva's giving pure? By a bodhisattva having uprooted stinginess entirely. How is a bodhisattva's giving ultimate? By a bodhisattva not abiding in any final state [of having finished giving]. How is a bodhisattva's giving self-mastered? By a bodhisattva, in the act of giving, not being turned by any lack of mastery [over what obstructs it]. How is a bodhisattva's giving inexhaustible? By a bodhisattva not abiding in nirvāṇa [as a śrāvaka does, which alone would make giving finite]." Just as with giving, so too, correspondingly, from moral discipline at the beginning through to wisdom at the end, should the same pattern be understood.
Vasubandhu unpacks each riddle in turn, and the pattern that emerges is consistent: every apparent contradiction resolves once "giving" is read at two levels at once — a bodhisattva "gives nothing" in the sense of clinging to no fixed act, no fixed gift, and no fixed self who gives, while, precisely because of that freedom from clinging, actually giving without limit across countless worlds. "Delighting in giving" without craving means the delight is free of the ordinary attachment that usually accompanies generosity, not that the bodhisattva feels nothing. "Not believing in the Tathāgata" to give means the giving flows from the bodhisattva's own settled nature, needing no external instruction to prompt it. Two entries — the "vast" and "pure" giving — turn on wordplay Vasubandhu explains directly: 娑洛 (sāra) carries a surface sense of "solid, firm" but a hidden sense of "scattered," so "leaving the notion of sāra" means leaving scatteredness, not solidity, while giving grounded in concentration; and 殟波陀 similarly hides "uprooted" beneath a surface sense of "arising," so "殟波陀 stinginess" means stinginess pulled out by the root, not stinginess arising. And "inexhaustible" giving depends on not settling into a śrāvaka's final nirvāṇa, since only a bodhisattva who remains within saṃsāra indefinitely can go on giving without ever reaching a last, final act. The same double-level reading, the text notes, applies identically to every other perfection from moral discipline through wisdom, though only giving is worked out here in full.
4. The Riddle Extended: Even the Ten Unwholesome Actions, Reread
The same hidden-word technique is now applied to the most startling case of all: the ten classical courses of unwholesome action, each reread so that its name still applies, but its meaning is entirely transformed.
云何能殺生？若斷眾生生死流轉。云何不與取？若諸有情無有與者自然攝取。云何欲邪行？若於諸欲了知是邪而修正行。云何能妄語？若於妄中能說為妄。云何貝戍尼？若能常居最勝空住。云何波魯師？若善安住所知彼岸。
What is true "killing"? Cutting off sentient beings' own flow of birth and death. What is true "taking what is not given"? Naturally taking hold of what no being [ultimately] gives. What is true "sexual misconduct"? Knowing that all desires are themselves misconduct, and thereupon practicing what is right. What is true "false speech"? Being able to name as false what is, in fact, false. What is true "divisive speech"? Constantly abiding in the most excellent emptiness. What is true "harsh speech"? Being well established at the far shore of the knowable.
云何綺間語？若正說法品類差別。云何能貪欲？若有數數欲自證得無上靜慮。云何能瞋恚？若於其心能正憎害一切煩惱。云何能邪見？若一切處遍行邪性皆如實見。
What is true "idle speech"? Correctly teaching the Dharma's own many distinct categories. What is true "covetousness"? Repeatedly wishing to personally realize unsurpassed meditative concentration. What is true "ill will"? Rightly directing hatred, in one's own mind, against every affliction. What is true "wrong view"? Truly seeing, everywhere, the pervasive, mistaken nature [of the discriminated, attached-to appearance] exactly as it is.
Two entries again hide wordplay behind their names, and Vasubandhu supplies the key: 貝戍尼 (paiśunya, ordinarily "divisive speech, speech that sows discord") carries a hidden sense built from syllables suggesting "the most excellent" and "constant emptiness," so the riddle's answer — constantly abiding in the most excellent emptiness — matches the hidden, not the surface, meaning. Likewise 波魯師 (pāruṣya, ordinarily "harsh speech") hides a sense of "abiding at the far shore," matched by the riddle's answer about the knowable's own far shore. The closing entry, on "wrong view," Vasubandhu ties directly back to Part 3's three natures: truly seeing the pervasive, mistaken nature of things means seeing straight through the discriminated, attached-to appearance projected onto the dependent nature — which is to say, seeing correctly, not wrongly, despite the entry's name. Across all ten, the same principle from the giving riddles applies: the Buddha's ordinary moral vocabulary, read with its hidden meaning intact, describes not license to actually harm but the deepest form of the corresponding virtue — cutting off the true cycle of suffering counts as the deepest "killing," seeing through desire's falseness counts as the deepest chastity, and so on.
5. Eight Paradoxical Sayings About the Profound Buddha-Dharmas
甚深佛法者，云何名為甚深佛法？此中應釋：謂常住法是諸佛法，以其法身是常住故；又斷滅法是諸佛法，以一切障永斷滅故；又生起法是諸佛法，以變化身現生起故；又有所得法是諸佛法，八萬四千諸有情行及彼對治皆可得故；
As for the profound buddha-dharmas: what is meant by "profound buddha-dharmas"? This should be explained: permanence is itself a buddha-dharma, since the dharma-body is permanent. Cessation is itself a buddha-dharma, since every obstruction is permanently extinguished. Arising is itself a buddha-dharma, since the transformation body appears through arising. Having something attainable is itself a buddha-dharma, since the eighty-four thousand conducts of sentient beings, and their antidotes, are all things that can genuinely be found and attained.
又有貪法是諸佛法，自誓攝受有貪有情為己體故；又有瞋法是諸佛法，又有癡法是諸佛法，又異生法是諸佛法，應知亦爾；又無染法是諸佛法，成滿真如一切障垢不能染故；又無污法是諸佛法，生在世間諸世間法不能污故：是故說名甚深佛法。
Having craving is itself a buddha-dharma, since one vows to take beings with craving as one's own very self. Having ill will is itself a buddha-dharma, and having delusion is itself a buddha-dharma, and being an ordinary, unenlightened being is itself a buddha-dharma — these, too, should be understood in just the same way. Being without any stain is itself a buddha-dharma, since suchness is brought to full completion, unstainable by any obstruction. And being unsullied is itself a buddha-dharma, since, though born into the world, one is unsullied by any worldly thing. This is why these are named the profound buddha-dharmas.
Each pairing here holds together two things ordinary logic would treat as flat contradictions, and Vasubandhu resolves each the same way — by pointing to which of the three bodies of a buddha (a subject Part 11 will treat in full) the statement actually describes. "Permanent" and yet, elsewhere, "arising" are both true at once because the permanent dharma-body and the arising transformation body are simply different aspects of buddhahood, not competing claims about one single thing. The most startling pair — "having craving, ill will, and delusion are themselves buddha-dharmas" — is glossed not as buddhas literally possessing afflictions, but as a buddha's vow to take on, as one's own concern, every affliction-bound being without exception, embracing them as inseparable from one's own compassionate purpose; in this specific technical sense, and no other, "having craving" belongs among the buddha-dharmas. Read this way, the entire list is less a set of genuine paradoxes than a demonstration of exactly the reading skill the "hidden words" passages above were teaching: statements that sound contradictory become coherent the moment the right technical frame — which body of a buddha, which level of truth — is correctly supplied.
6. Concentration's Own Further Activity
又能引發修到彼岸，成熟有情，淨佛國土，諸佛法故，應知亦是菩薩等持作業差別。
Concentration, moreover, is able to draw forth the cultivation of the perfections, the bringing of sentient beings to maturity, the purification of buddha-lands, and the buddha-dharmas themselves — and this, too, should be understood as a further distinction of a bodhisattva's meditative activity.
This closing line returns, after the extended detour through riddles and paradox, to concentration's own practical fruit: it is what actually sustains every other part of the path, since it is in dependence on concentration that the perfections are carried through, beings are matured through skillfully deployed supernormal powers, buddha-lands are purified according to the practitioner's own resolve, and the buddha-dharmas themselves are gathered and completed. Concentration, on this account, is not a separate meditative specialty alongside the rest of the path, but the sustaining ground that everything else in the bodhisattva's activity actually depends on.
Part Eight Complete
This closes Part Eight of Ru-Yi's translation: the higher training in concentration — its six-fold excellence, ten difficult practices, the Buddha's own hidden words on giving and on the ten courses of action reread, and eight paradoxical sayings about the profound buddha-dharmas, each resolved by seeing which body of a buddha is actually being described. Part Nine turns to the third and final higher training: non-discriminating wisdom, examined across fourteen distinct approaches.
Continue to Part 9 — The Higher Training in Wisdom →