Why the Arhat Still Has Fear
The treatise now argues that refuge in Dharma and Saṅgha is only ever a partial refuge — quoting the Śrīmālā Sūtra's own account of why even an arhat still has fear — before explaining the six respects in which the Three Jewels genuinely resemble a jewel, and opening the treatise's account of four inconceivable aspects of the tathāgatagarbha itself.
The Arhat's Fear, and Why Dharma and Saṅgha Are Not the Ultimate Refuge
又為可化眾生令次第入，以是義故，依於世諦示現明說立三歸依。此明何義？偈言：
可捨及虛妄， 無物及怖畏，
二種法及僧， 非究竟歸依。
此偈明何義？法有二種。何等為二？一所說法、二所證法。所說法者，謂如來說修多羅等名字章句身所攝故。彼所說法證道時滅，如捨船栰。偈言：可捨故。所證法者，復有二種，謂依因果二種差別，以依何法證何法故。此明何義？所謂有道有為相攝。若為有為相所攝者，彼法虛妄。偈言：及虛妄故。若虛妄者彼法非實，若非實者彼非真諦，非真諦者即是無常，若無常者非可歸依。又復若依彼聲聞道所得滅諦，彼亦無物猶如燈滅，唯斷少分諸煩惱苦。若如是者則是無物，若無物者云何為他之所歸依？偈言：無物故。僧者凡有三乘之人，三乘人中依聲聞僧常有怖畏，常求歸依諸佛如來求離世間。此是學人所應作者，未究竟故、猶進趣向阿耨多羅三藐三菩提故。所言怖畏者，云何怖畏？以阿羅漢雖盡有漏而不斷一切煩惱習氣，彼於一切有為行相極怖畏心常現在前。是故《聖者勝鬘經》言：阿羅漢有恐怖。何以故？阿羅漢於一切無行怖畏想住，如人執劍欲來害己，是故阿羅漢無究竟樂。何以故？世尊！依不求依，如眾生無依彼彼恐怖，以恐怖故則求歸依。如是阿羅漢有怖畏，以恐怖故歸依如來。故彼若如是有怖畏者，彼人畢竟為欲遠離彼怖畏處求無畏處。以是義故，依遠離彼怖畏之處，名為學者當有所作欲得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提無畏之處，是故聲聞法僧二寶是少分歸依，非究竟歸依。偈言：二種法及僧，非究竟歸依故。
Furthermore, for the sake of leading beings capable of being transformed to enter the path in due order, the three refuges are set forth and clearly explained in dependence on worldly, conventional truth. What does this clarify? A verse says:
What can be discarded, and what is false; what is nothing at all, and what still has fear —
these two, Dharma and Saṅgha, are not the ultimate refuge.
What meaning does this verse make clear? Dharma is of two kinds. What are the two? First, the taught Dharma; second, the realized Dharma. The taught Dharma refers to what is included within the body of names, phrases, and letters — the sūtras and so on that the Tathāgata has spoken. This taught Dharma is set aside once the path is realized, like abandoning a raft. The realized Dharma is likewise of two kinds, distinguished as cause and result, depending on which dharma realizes which. What does this clarify? It refers to the path, which belongs to the conditioned mark. If it belongs to the conditioned mark, then this dharma is false. If it is false, then this dharma is not real; if it is not real, then it is not the true truth; if it is not the true truth, then it is impermanent; and if it is impermanent, it cannot be taken as a refuge. Furthermore, the cessation-truth attained by way of the śrāvaka path is likewise nothing at all, just like a lamp going out, severing only a fraction of affliction and suffering. If this is so, then it is nothing at all — and if it is nothing at all, how could it serve as anyone's refuge?
As for the Saṅgha: among the people of the three vehicles generally, the śrāvaka Saṅgha still constantly has fear, constantly seeking refuge in the buddhas, the tathāgatas, seeking to leave the world behind. This is what a learner still has left to do, since it is not yet ultimate, and one must still advance toward unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. What is meant by "fear"? What kind of fear is this? Although an arhat has exhausted every contamination, he has not severed every habitual trace of affliction, and so a mind of extreme fear toward every conditioned activity remains constantly before him. Hence the Noble Śrīmālā Sūtra says: "The arhat has fear. Why is this? The arhat dwells in a state of dread toward every unaccomplished action, the way a person dreads someone holding a sword who is coming to kill him — and for this reason the arhat has no final happiness. Why is this? World-Honored One, one relies on what itself needs no refuge; just as beings without any refuge feel one fear after another, and it is precisely their fear that makes them seek refuge — so too the arhat, having fear, takes refuge in the Tathāgata because of that very fear." Therefore, one who has fear in this way ultimately wishes to leave that place of fear behind, and seeks the place free of fear. For this reason, in dependence on leaving that place of fear behind, the learner is said still to have something left to do, wishing to attain the fearless place that is unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. It is for this reason that, for the śrāvaka, the Jewel of Dharma and the Jewel of Saṅgha are only a partial refuge, not the ultimate refuge.
The quoted Śrīmālā passage matches this site's own translation of the identical lines in its Six Teachings, Secretly Aimed at the Mahāyāna All Along section almost verbatim — down to the sword-simile and the logic of "one relies on what itself needs no refuge." What this treatise adds is the systematic reasoning the sūtra itself states more compactly: the taught Dharma (words, sūtras) is discarded like a raft once its purpose is served, the realized Dharma of the śrāvaka path is conditioned and therefore impermanent and unfit as a refuge, and the cessation such a path reaches is "nothing at all, just like a lamp going out" — severing only a fraction of affliction rather than reaching anything positive. Refuge, on this treatise's own logic, requires something permanent and unconditioned to rest on; nothing conditioned, however genuinely attained, can ever qualify.
Six Ways the Three Jewels Resemble a Jewel
此明何義？偈言：
眾生歸一處， 佛法身彼岸，
依佛身有法， 依法究竟僧。
此偈明何義？如向所說，諸佛如來不生不滅寂靜不二，離垢法身故，以唯一法身究竟清淨處故。又三乘之人無有救者、無歸依者，以唯有彼岸無始本際畢竟無盡是可歸依恒可歸依，所謂唯是諸佛如來故。如是常恒清涼不變，故可歸依。《聖者勝鬘經》中廣說應知。
問曰：以何義故佛法眾僧說名為寶？答曰：偈言：
真寶世希有， 明淨及勢力，
能莊嚴世間， 最上不變等。
此偈明何義？所言寶者有六種相似，依彼六種相似相對法故佛法眾僧說名為寶。何等為六？一者世間難得相似相對法，以無善根諸眾生等百千萬劫不能得故。偈言：真寶世希有故。二者無垢相似相對法，以離一切有漏法故。偈言：明淨故。三者威德相似相對法，以具足六通不可思議威德自在故。偈言：勢力故。四者莊嚴世間相似相對法，以能莊嚴出世間故。偈言，能莊嚴世間故。五者勝妙相似相對法，以出世間法故。偈言：最上故。六者不可改異相似相對法，以得無漏法世間八法不能動故。偈言：不變故。
What does this clarify? A verse says:
Beings take refuge in the one place — the far shore of the Buddha's own dharmakāya;
in dependence on the Buddha's own body there is the Dharma,
and in dependence on the Dharma, the ultimate Saṅgha.
What meaning does this verse make clear? As stated before, the buddhas, the tathāgatas, are unborn and unceasing, quiescent and non-dual, a dharmakāya free of every stain — because this single dharmakāya alone is the ultimate, pure place. Furthermore, for the people of the three vehicles, there is no other savior, no other refuge, since only this far shore — beginningless, at the original limit, ultimately inexhaustible — is what can be taken as refuge, an ever-lasting refuge, namely the buddhas, the tathāgatas alone. Being thus ever-constant, cool and tranquil, and unchanging, it can be taken as refuge. This is explained at length in the Noble Śrīmālā Sūtra, and should be understood accordingly.
Question: For what reason are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha called "jewels"? Answer: A verse says:
A true jewel is rare in the world, bright and pure, and possesses might;
it adorns the world, is supreme, and unchanging, and so on.
What meaning does this verse make clear? What is called a jewel resembles six things, and it is on the basis of these six points of resemblance that the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha are called "jewels." What are the six? First, resembling something rare in the world, since beings without roots of goodness cannot obtain it even across hundreds of thousands of ten-thousands of kalpas. Second, resembling being free of stain, since it is free of every contaminated dharma. Third, resembling possessing might, since it is complete with the six superknowledges and inconceivable, sovereign majestic power. Fourth, resembling adorning the world, since it is able to adorn what is beyond the world. Fifth, resembling being supreme and wondrous, since it is a supramundane dharma. Sixth, resembling being unable to be altered or changed, since, having attained the uncontaminated dharma, the eight worldly dharmas cannot move it.
Having just argued that Dharma and Saṅgha are not, in the end, refuges distinct from the Buddha, the treatise now collapses all three into "the one place" (一處) directly — the Buddha's own dharmakāya, with Dharma and Saṅgha both grounded in dependence on it rather than standing beside it as equal partners. This is the identical move this site's own Śrīmālādevī Sūtra reading notes describe, following Jizang's commentary, as the "collapse into refuge in the Tathāgata" — three descriptions of one substance rather than three independent things one of which happens to subsume the others. The "six ways of resembling a jewel" that follow function as an etymological justification for the whole chapter's own vocabulary: every one of the "Three Jewels" genuinely earns the name jewel on six separate, independently verifiable grounds, not merely by rhetorical convention.
Four Inconceivable Aspects of the Tathāgatagarbha, Part One and Two
問曰：依何等法有此三寶，而依此法得有世間及出世間清淨生起三寶？答曰：為彼義故說兩行偈：
真如有雜垢， 及遠離諸垢，
佛無量功德， 及佛所作業。
如是妙境界， 是諸佛所知，
依此妙法身， 出生於三寶。
此偈示現何義？偈言：
如是三寶性， 唯諸佛境界，
以四法次第， 不可思議故。
此偈明何義？真如有雜垢者，謂真如佛性未離諸煩惱所纏，如來藏故。及遠離諸垢者，即彼如來藏轉身到佛地得證法身，名如來法身故。佛無量功德者，即彼轉身如來法身相中所有出世間十力、無畏等，一切諸功德無量無邊故。及佛所作業者，即彼十力等一切諸佛法自然常作無上佛業，常不休息、常不捨離、常授諸菩薩記。彼處次第有四種法不可思議，是故名為如來境界。何等四處？偈言：
染淨相應處， 不染而清淨，
不相捨離法， 自然無分別。
此偈明何義？真如有雜垢者，同一時中有淨有染，此處不可思議。不可思議者，信深因緣法，聲聞辟支佛於彼非境界故。是故《聖者勝鬘經》中，佛告勝鬘言：天女！自性清淨心而有染污，難可了知。有二法難可了知，謂自性清淨心難可了知，彼心為煩惱所染亦難了知。天女！如此二法，汝及成就大法菩薩摩訶薩乃能聽受，諸餘聲聞辟支佛等唯依佛語信此二法故。偈言：染淨相應處故。及遠離諸垢者，真如非本有染、後時言清淨，此處不可思議，是故經言：心自性清淨。自性清淨心本來清淨，如彼心本體，如來如是知。是故經言：如來一念心相應慧得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提故。偈言：不染而清淨故。
Question: In dependence on what dharma do these Three Jewels exist, and in dependence on what dharma does the arising of these Three Jewels — pure, whether mundane or supramundane — come about? Answer: For the sake of this meaning, two verses are spoken:
Suchness mixed with stain, and suchness free of every stain;
the Buddha's immeasurable virtues; and the Buddha's own activity.
Such a wondrous domain is known only by the buddhas —
and it is in dependence on this wondrous dharmakāya that the Three Jewels arise.
What meaning does this verse reveal? A verse says:
The nature of these Three Jewels in this way is the domain of the buddhas alone,
since, in this order, four dharmas are inconceivable.
What meaning does this verse make clear? "Suchness mixed with stain" refers to the buddha-nature of suchness not yet freed from being wrapped in every affliction — the tathāgatagarbha. "Suchness free of every stain" refers to that same tathāgatagarbha, having transformed its own body and reached the ground of buddhahood, realizing the dharmakāya, called the Tathāgata's own dharmakāya. "The Buddha's immeasurable virtues" refers to the immeasurable, boundless supramundane virtues — the ten powers, fearlessnesses, and the rest — present within the mark of that same transformed body, the Tathāgata's own dharmakāya. "The Buddha's own activity" refers to how the ten powers and the rest, every buddha-dharma, spontaneously and constantly perform the unsurpassed buddha-work, forever without ceasing, forever without abandoning it, forever giving predictions to bodhisattvas. In these matters, in order, there are four dharmas that are inconceivable, and it is for this reason that they are called the domain of the Tathāgata. What are these four matters? A verse says:
The place where defilement and purity correspond; being undefiled and yet pure;
the dharma of never being separated from one another; and being spontaneous, without discrimination.
What meaning does this verse make clear? "Suchness mixed with stain" means that, at one and the same time, there is both purity and defilement — and this is inconceivable. It is inconceivable because it is a matter of faith in a profound causal principle, one that is not within the domain of śrāvakas or pratyekabuddhas. Hence, in the Noble Śrīmālā Sūtra, the Buddha says to Śrīmālā: "Heavenly one! That the mind, pure by its own nature, should nonetheless be defiled is difficult to understand. There are two dharmas difficult to understand: that the mind pure by its own nature is difficult to understand, and that this same mind, being stained by affliction, is likewise difficult to understand. Heavenly one, these two dharmas can be received only by you, and by bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who have accomplished the great Dharma; every other śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha can only believe these two dharmas in reliance on the Buddha's own word." "Suchness free of every stain": suchness was never, at its root, defiled, only later to be called pure — and this too is inconceivable. Hence a sūtra says: mind is pure by its own nature. The mind pure by its own nature is, from the very beginning, pure, exactly as that mind's own essence is — and this is what the Tathāgata knows to be so. Hence a sūtra says: "The Tathāgata, through the wisdom corresponding to a single moment of mind, attains unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening."
This passage names, for the first time in the treatise, the exact identity claim this site's Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra and Śrīmālādevī Sūtra both build toward: "suchness mixed with stain" is the tathāgatagarbha, and "suchness free of every stain" is the dharmakāya — the identical reality under two names, tracking only whether it has yet been uncovered. The treatise then reframes this same identity as one item in a fourfold list of what is "inconceivable" about a buddha's domain, and it is worth noticing precisely what work "inconceivable" is doing here: not that these four matters are permanently beyond comprehension, but that they exceed the domain śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas can reach on their own terms — the Buddha himself addresses the paradox directly to Śrīmālā as someone capable of receiving it, "you, and bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who have accomplished the great Dharma," while everyone else "can only believe... in reliance on the Buddha's own word." This is the identical structure this site's own Śrīmālā reading notes already flag: trust in the Buddha's authority functions as a complete, legitimate relationship to a teaching one has not personally verified, not merely a placeholder for real understanding.
Part 6 Continues
The fourfold account of what is inconceivable about a buddha's domain continues in Part 7, with its most famous image — an entire sūtra, the size of a great trichiliocosm, compressed within a single mote of dust — and the treatise's own transition into its longest and most important chapter, on the tathāgatagarbha present in every being.
Continue to Part 7 — A Sūtra Compressed Into a Mote of Dust →