The Jewel of Dharma
The second of the Three Jewels is the cessation-truth itself — inconceivable, non-dual, without discrimination — and the treatise defends this claim by quoting, directly and at length, two sūtras already translated on this site: the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra on why the dharmakāya is "cool and tranquil," and the Śrīmālā Sūtra's own extended account of the tathāgatagarbha.
The Root Verse, and Its Eight Virtues
論曰：依彼佛寶有真法寶，以是義故次佛寶後示現法寶。依彼法寶故說四偈：
非有亦非無， 亦復非有無，
亦非即於彼， 亦復不離彼。
不可得思量， 非聞慧境界，
出離言語道， 內心知清涼。
彼真妙法日， 清淨無塵垢，
大智慧光明， 普照諸世間。
能破諸曀障， 覺觀貪瞋癡，
一切煩惱等， 故我今敬禮。
此偈示現何義？偈言：
不思議不二， 無分淨現對，
依何得何法， 離法二諦相。
此偈略明法寶所攝八種功德。何等為八？一者不可思議、二者不二、三者無分別、四者淨、五者顯現、六者對治、七者離果、八者離因。離者，偈言：
滅諦道諦等， 二諦攝取離，
彼各三功德， 次第說應知。
The treatise states: In dependence on the Jewel of Buddha there is the true Jewel of Dharma, and it is for this reason that, following the Jewel of Buddha, the Jewel of Dharma is now revealed. In dependence on this Jewel of Dharma, four verses are spoken:
Neither existent nor non-existent,
nor both existent and non-existent,
neither identical with them nor apart from them.
It cannot be grasped by thought, is not the domain of the wisdom gained from hearing;
it goes beyond the path of language,
known within, in the mind, as cool and tranquil.
That true, wondrous sun of the Dharma, pure and free of dust and stain,
the light of great wisdom, universally illuminating every world.
Able to break through every obscuring cloud, awakening insight into greed, hatred, delusion, and every affliction —
for this I now bow in reverence.
What meaning does this verse reveal? A verse says:
Inconceivable, non-dual, without discrimination, pure, manifesting, and counteracting —
in dependence on what is what dharma attained,
the mark of the two truths as the dharma of release.
This verse briefly explains the eight kinds of virtue included within the Jewel of Dharma. What are the eight? First, inconceivable; second, non-dual; third, without discrimination; fourth, pure; fifth, manifesting; sixth, counteracting; seventh, the result of release; eighth, the cause of release. As for release, a verse says:
The cessation-truth and the path-truth, these two truths, together comprise release —
each of them, in order, should be known to possess three virtues.
The Jewel of Dharma repeats Part 2's method exactly — a fourfold verse of homage, an eightfold summary, a further sorting — but sorts its eight virtues differently: not into self-benefit and other-benefit, but into the cessation-truth (what is realized) and the path-truth (what is practiced to realize it), three virtues assigned to each. "Inconceivable, non-dual, without discrimination" describe the cessation-truth itself; "pure, manifesting, counteracting" describe the path that reaches it. The remaining two virtues — the result of release, and the cause of release — name the pairing between the two triads directly, making explicit what the earlier Buddha-jewel chapter left the reader to infer for its own self-benefit/other-benefit pairing.
Why the Cessation-Truth Is Inconceivable
此偈明何義？前六功德中，初三種功德，不思議、不二及無分別等，示現彼滅諦攝取離煩惱應知。餘殘有三句，淨、顯現、對治，示現彼道諦攝取斷煩惱因應知。又證法所有離，名為滅諦。以何等法修行斷煩惱名為道諦？以此二諦合為淨法，以二諦相名為離法應知。偈言：
不思量無言， 智者內智知，
以如是義故， 不可得思議。
清涼不二法， 及無分別法，
淨顯現對治， 三句猶如日。
此偈明何義？略明滅諦有三種法，以是義故不可思議應知。以何義故不可思議？有四義故。何等為四？一者為無、二者為有、三者為有無、四者為二。偈言：非有亦非無，亦復非有無，亦非即於彼，亦復不離彼故。滅諦有三種法應知者，此明何義？滅諦非可知，有三種法。何等為三？一者非思量境界故，偈言：不可得思量，非聞慧境界故。二者遠離一切聲響名字章句言語相貌故，偈言：出離言語道故。三者聖人內證法故，偈言：內心知故。
What meaning does this verse make clear? Of the first six virtues, the first three — inconceivable, non-dual, and without discrimination — should be known as revealing the cessation-truth, which comprises release from affliction. The remaining three — pure, manifesting, and counteracting — should be known as revealing the path-truth, which comprises the cause that severs affliction. Furthermore, whatever release the realized dharma possesses is called the cessation-truth. Whatever dharma is cultivated in practice to sever affliction is called the path-truth. These two truths together constitute the pure dharma, and the mark of these two truths together should be known by the name "the dharma of release." A verse says:
Not to be thought upon, without words, known by the wise through their own inward wisdom —
and it is for this reason that it cannot be grasped by thought.
The dharma that is cool and tranquil, and non-dual; the dharma without discrimination;
and the three lines of pure, manifesting, and counteracting — these are like the sun.
What meaning does this verse make clear? It briefly explains that the cessation-truth possesses three further dharmas, and for this reason should be known as inconceivable. For what reason is it inconceivable? There are four reasons. What are the four? First, it is not non-existence; second, it is not existence; third, it is not both existence and non-existence; fourth, it is not duality. A verse says: neither existent nor non-existent, nor both existent and non-existent, neither identical with them nor apart from them. "The cessation-truth should be known as possessing three further dharmas" — what does this clarify? The cessation-truth cannot be known, yet possesses three further dharmas. What are the three? First, because it is not the domain of thought — the verse says: it cannot be grasped by thought, is not the domain of the wisdom gained from hearing. Second, because it is far removed from every sound, echo, name, phrase, and verbal mark — the verse says: because it goes beyond the path of language. Third, because it is a dharma realized inwardly by the noble ones themselves — the verse says: because it is known within, in the mind.
The four reasons the cessation-truth "cannot be known" as a fixed position — not non-existence, not existence, not both, not the pairing itself treated as one further thing — are the identical fourfold refusal this site's Kāśyapaparivarta uses throughout its own middle-way teaching, and the same structure Nāgārjuna's Middle Treatise applies systematically across nearly every one of its own chapters. Here the same move is compressed into a single technical definition rather than argued at length: the cessation-truth is inconceivable specifically because none of the four standard logical positions can be predicated of it, not because it is simply mysterious or beyond all description in some vaguer sense.
Two Sūtras Quoted Directly: Cool and Tranquil, and the Tathāgatagarbha
又滅諦云何不二法者，及云何無分別者，如《不增不減經》中如來說言：舍利弗！如來法身清涼，以不二法故、以無分別法故。偈言：清涼故。何者是二而說不二？所言二者，謂業、煩惱。言分別者，所謂集起業煩惱因及邪念等。以知彼自性本來寂滅、不二無二行，知苦本來不生，是名苦滅諦，非滅法故名苦滅諦。是故經言：文殊師利！何等法中無心意意識行？彼法中無分別，以無分別故不起邪念，以有正念故不起無明，以不起無明故即不起十二有支，以不起十二有支故即名無生。
是故《聖者勝鬘經》言：世尊！非滅法故名苦滅諦。世尊！所言苦滅者，名無始無作無起無盡離盡，常恒清涼不變自性清淨，離一切煩惱藏所纏。世尊！過於恒沙不離不脫不異不思議佛法畢竟成就，說如來法身。世尊！如是如來法身，不離煩惱藏所纏，名如來藏。如是等《勝鬘經》中廣說滅諦應知。
Furthermore, as to how the cessation-truth is a non-dual dharma, and how it is a dharma without discrimination — as the Tathāgata says in the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra: "Śāriputra! The Tathāgata's dharmakāya is cool and tranquil, because it is a dharma without duality, and a dharma without discrimination." The verse says: because it is cool and tranquil. What is the duality of which it is said to be free? What is called "two" here refers to karma and affliction. What is called "discrimination" refers to the accumulated causes of karma and affliction, and false thought, and the rest. Because one knows that their own nature was, from the very beginning, quiescent, non-dual, without any dual activity — knowing that suffering was, from the very beginning, unborn — this is called the truth of the cessation of suffering; and because it is not a matter of destroying anything, it is called the truth of the cessation of suffering. Hence a sūtra says: "Mañjuśrī! In what dharma is there no activity of mind, will, or consciousness? Within that dharma there is no discrimination; because there is no discrimination, no false thought arises; because right mindfulness is present, no ignorance arises; because no ignorance arises, none of the twelve links of existence arise; and because none of the twelve links of existence arise, this is called the unborn."
Hence the Noble Śrīmālā Sūtra says: "World-Honored One! It is not because of destroying some dharma that it is called the truth of the cessation of suffering. World-Honored One! What is called the cessation of suffering is named: without beginning, unmade, unarisen, inexhaustible, free of exhaustion, ever-constant, cool and tranquil, unchanging, pure by its own nature, free of being wrapped in the store of every affliction. World-Honored One! Beyond the sands of the Ganges, inseparable, unreleased, undifferent, an inconceivable buddha-dharma, ultimately accomplished — this is called the Tathāgata's dharmakāya. World-Honored One! This same dharmakāya, not separate from being wrapped in the store of affliction, is called the tathāgatagarbha." The Śrīmālā Sūtra explains the cessation-truth at such length as this, and should be understood accordingly.
Both citations here are sūtras already translated in full on this site, and both are quoted essentially verbatim. The Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra line — "the Tathāgata's dharmakāya is cool and tranquil, because it is a dharma without duality, and a dharma without discrimination" — matches this site's own translation of that exact passage in its Lamp, Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, and a Dharmakāya That Never Changes section word for word, down to the same reasoning about karma and affliction as the "two" being denied. The Śrīmālā Sūtra passage that follows is the same "non-destructive" definition of the cessation-truth this site's own Śrīmālādevī Sūtra reading notes already flag as one of the sūtra's most philosophically important claims — that liberation is never the annihilation of something real, but the uncovering of a quality that was "unborn" and therefore never needed destroying in the first place. Seeing both texts quoted here, side by side, as supporting evidence for the identical technical point confirms exactly the kind of citation pattern this treatise's own translation notes predicted before this project began: it treats these two sūtras as making one continuous argument, not two separate claims that happen to resemble each other.
The Sun-Simile, and the Root of Every Affliction
又以何因得此滅諦如來法身？謂於見道及修道中無分別智，三種日相似相對法應知。偈言：彼真妙法日故。何等為三？一者日輪清淨相似相對法，以遠離一切煩惱垢故。偈言：清淨無塵垢故。二者顯現一切色像相似相對法，以一切種一切智能照知故。偈言：大智慧光明故。三者對治闇相似相對法，以起一切種智對治法故。偈言：普照諸世間故。
又以何者是所治法？所謂依取不實事相虛妄分別念，生貪瞋癡結使煩惱。此明何義？愚癡凡夫依結使煩惱，取不實事相念故起於貪心，依瞋恚故起於瞋心，依於無明虛妄念故起於癡心。又復依彼貪瞋癡等虛妄分別，取不實事相念起邪念心，依邪念心起於結使，依於結使起貪瞋癡。以是義故，身口意等造作貪業瞋業癡業，依此業故復有生生不斷不絕。如是一切愚癡凡夫，依結使煩惱集起邪念，依邪念故起諸煩惱，依煩惱故起一切業，依業起生。如是此一切種諸煩惱染、業染、生染，愚癡凡夫不如實知、不如實見一實性界。如彼如實性，觀察如實性而不取相，以不取相故能見實性。如是實性，諸佛如來平等證知。又不見如是虛妄法相，如實知見如實有法真如法界。以見第一義諦故，如是二法不增不減，是故名為平等證智。是名一切種智所治障法，應如是知。以起真如智對治法故，彼所治法畢竟不復生起現前。偈言：能破諸曀障，覺觀貪瞋癡一切煩惱等故。又此得滅諦如來法身，因於見道中及修道中無分別智，廣說如《摩訶般若波羅蜜》等修多羅中言：須菩提！真如如來、真如平等無差別。如是等應知。已說法寶，次說僧寶。
Furthermore, by what cause is this cessation-truth, the Tathāgata's dharmakāya, attained? It is by the non-discriminating wisdom present within the path of seeing and the path of cultivation — and this should be known through the threefold comparison to the sun. The verse says: because it is that true, wondrous sun of the Dharma. What are the three? First, the comparison to the sun's disk being pure, because it is free of every stain of affliction — the verse says: because it is pure and free of dust and stain. Second, the comparison to its manifesting every form and image, because the wisdom of all modes and of all things is able to illuminate and know them — the verse says: because it is the light of great wisdom. Third, the comparison to its counteracting darkness, because it gives rise to the dharma that counteracts through the wisdom of all modes — the verse says: because it universally illuminates every world.
And what is the dharma to be counteracted? It is grasping at the mark of unreal things through false discrimination and thought, giving rise to greed, hatred, delusion, and their entanglements. What does this clarify? Foolish, ordinary beings, in dependence on the entanglement of affliction, grasp at the mark of unreal things and so give rise to a greedy mind; in dependence on anger, give rise to a hateful mind; in dependence on ignorance's own false thought, give rise to a deluded mind. And further, in dependence on this false discrimination of greed, hatred, and delusion, grasping at the mark of unreal things gives rise to a mind of false thought; in dependence on this false thought, entanglement arises; in dependence on entanglement, greed, hatred, and delusion arise. For this reason, one creates, through body, speech, and mind, karma of greed, of hatred, and of delusion, and in dependence on this karma, rebirth after rebirth continues without break or end. Just so, every foolish, ordinary being, in dependence on the entanglement of affliction, accumulates and gives rise to false thought; in dependence on false thought, every affliction arises; in dependence on affliction, every karma arises; in dependence on karma, rebirth arises. Just so, this defilement of every kind of affliction, this defilement of karma, this defilement of rebirth — foolish, ordinary beings do not truly know, and do not truly see, the one, real realm of true nature. Observing that true nature exactly as it truly is, without grasping at any mark, one is able, precisely through not grasping at any mark, to see the real nature. This real nature is realized and known equally by every buddha, every tathāgata. And by not seeing such a false dharma-mark, one truly knows and sees the real dharma that actually exists — suchness, the dharma-realm. Because one sees the truth of the first principle, these two dharmas neither increase nor decrease — and it is for this reason that this is called equal, realized wisdom. This is called the obstructing dharma counteracted by the wisdom of all modes, and should be understood accordingly. Because the dharma that counteracts through the wisdom of suchness has arisen, the dharma it counteracts will, in the end, never again arise or appear before one. The verse says: because it is able to break through every obscuring cloud, awakening insight into greed, hatred, delusion, and every affliction. Furthermore, this attainment of the cessation-truth, the Tathāgata's dharmakāya, through the non-discriminating wisdom present within the path of seeing and the path of cultivation, is explained at length, as in sūtras such as the Mahāprajñāpāramitā, which says: "Subhūti! Suchness and the Tathāgata, suchness being equal, without any difference." This should be understood in just this way. Having thus explained the Jewel of Dharma, next comes the explanation of the Jewel of Saṅgha.
The chain traced here — false grasping gives rise to greed, hatred, and delusion; these give rise to further false thought; false thought gives rise to entanglement; entanglement gives rise back to greed, hatred, and delusion; all of this together produces karma, and karma produces rebirth — describes a self-reinforcing loop rather than a simple one-directional cause-and-effect sequence, closely paralleling the forward chain of dependent origination this site's Kāśyapaparivarta already translates from ignorance through birth and death. What breaks the loop, on this treatise's account, is strikingly simple to state though evidently not simple to do: "observing that true nature exactly as it truly is, without grasping at any mark, one is able, precisely through not grasping at any mark, to see the real nature." The phrase "these two dharmas neither increase nor decrease" (不增不減) at this passage's close is worth noticing as more than incidental word choice — it directly echoes the title of the very sūtra just quoted a few lines earlier, suggesting the treatise reaches for that sūtra's own central technical phrase even where it is not issuing a direct citation.
Part 3 Complete
This closes the treatise's account of the Jewel of Dharma. Part 4 turns to the third and final Jewel — the Saṅgha — beginning with the claim that ordinary beings' own pure mind is what the Saṅgha's own wisdom actually sees, not any external community of persons.
Continue to Part 4 — The Jewel of Saṅgha →