Three Similes for a Buddha's Correspondence
The chapter's fifth point, correspondence, explains how the causes and fruits of buddhahood are never separated from one another — through the ocean's vessel, jewels, and water, and a lamp's light, warmth, and color. The sixth point, manifestation, then sorts every being into exactly three stages on the way from inverted seeing to none at all.
The Ocean's Vessel, Jewels, and Water
又依相應義故，說一偈：
大海器寶水， 無量不可盡，
如燈明觸色， 性功德如是。
此初半偈示現何義？偈言：
佛法身慧定， 悲攝眾生性，
海珍寶水等， 相似相對法。
此偈明何義？以有三處故，次第有三種大海相似相對法，於如來性中依因畢竟成就相應義應知。何等三處？一者法身清淨因、二者集佛智因、三者得如來大悲因。法身清淨因者，信修行大乘器相似相對法，以彼無量不可盡故。偈言：佛法身故，海相似相對法故。集佛智因者，般若三昧珍寶相似相對法。偈言：慧定故，珍寶相似相對法故。得如來大悲因者，大慈悲心水相似相對法。偈言：悲攝眾生性故，水相似相對法故。又修行智慧三昧門寶相似相對法，以彼無分別不可思議有大勢力功德相應故。又修行菩薩大悲水相似相對法，以於一切眾生柔軟大悲得一味等味相行故。如是彼三種法，此三種因和合，畢竟不相捨離，故名相應。
Furthermore, in dependence on the meaning of correspondence, a verse is spoken:
Like the great ocean's vessel, jewels, and water, immeasurable and inexhaustible;
like a lamp's light, warmth, and color — the virtues of this nature are just so.
What meaning does the first half of this verse reveal? A verse says:
The Buddha's dharmakāya, wisdom, concentration, and compassion that embraces beings' own nature —
these resemble the ocean's vessel, jewels, and water.
What meaning does this verse make clear? Because there are three aspects, in order there are three similes resembling the great ocean, and it is by these that the meaning of correspondence — the causes that ultimately accomplish the Tathāgata's own nature — should be known. What are the three aspects? First, the cause of the dharmakāya's own purity; second, the cause that gathers a buddha's own wisdom; third, the cause of attaining the Tathāgata's own great compassion. The cause of the dharmakāya's own purity resembles the ocean's own vessel, since faith in and practice of the Mahāyāna is immeasurable and inexhaustible, just as this vessel is. The cause that gathers a buddha's own wisdom resembles the ocean's own jewels, prajñā and samādhi being like precious jewels. The cause of attaining the Tathāgata's own great compassion resembles the ocean's own water, the mind of great loving-kindness and compassion being like water. Furthermore, cultivating the gate of wisdom and samādhi resembles a jewel, since it is without discrimination, inconceivable, and possesses the virtue of great power. Furthermore, cultivating a bodhisattva's great compassion resembles water, since, toward every being, this gentle great compassion attains a single, equal flavor. Just so, these three dharmas — these three causes — are joined together, never ultimately separated from one another, and this is called correspondence.
The ocean simile makes a claim about inseparability rather than merely offering three pleasant images: a vessel, jewels within it, and water filling it are not three independent things that happen to coexist, but three aspects of a single body of water that cannot be pulled apart from one another without ceasing to be an ocean at all. Applied to faith, wisdom, and compassion, the same claim follows — these three practices "are joined together, never ultimately separated from one another," which is the treatise's own definition of what "correspondence" actually names, rather than a looser sense of things simply going well together.
A Lamp's Light, Warmth, and Color
後半偈者，示現何義？偈言：
通智及無垢， 不離於真如，
如燈明煖色， 無垢界相似。
此偈明何義？有三處，次第三種燈相似相對法於如來法界中依果相應義應知。何等三處？一者通、二者知漏盡智、三者漏盡。此以何義？通者，有五通光明相似相對法，以受用事能散滅，彼與智相違，所治闇法能治相似相對法故。偈言：通故、明故。知漏盡智者，無漏智煖相似相對法，以能燒業煩惱無有餘殘，能燒相似相對法故。偈言：智故、煖故。漏盡者，轉身漏盡色相似相對法，以常無垢清淨光明具足相無垢相似相對法故。偈言：無垢故色故。又無垢者，以離煩惱障故。清淨者，以離智障故。光明者，如自性清淨體，彼二是客塵煩惱。如是略說六種無漏智，離煩惱無學身所攝法。於無漏法界中彼此迭共不相捨離，不差別法界平等畢竟，名相應義應知。
What meaning does the latter half of this verse reveal? A verse says:
The superknowledges and wisdom, and the stainless — never apart from suchness —
resemble a lamp's light, warmth, and color, the stainless realm.
What meaning does this verse make clear? There are three aspects, and in order there are three similes resembling a lamp, and it is by these that the meaning of correspondence — the fruit, within the Tathāgata's own dharma-realm — should be known. What are the three aspects? First, the superknowledges; second, the wisdom that knows the exhaustion of contamination; third, the exhaustion of contamination itself. The superknowledges resemble a lamp's own light, since their function is able to dispel and extinguish darkness, which is opposed to wisdom, resembling how the antidote treats the very darkness to be treated. The wisdom that knows the exhaustion of contamination resembles a lamp's own warmth, since it is able to burn away karma and affliction entirely, without any residue, resembling that which burns. The exhaustion of contamination itself, the transformed body free of contamination, resembles a lamp's own color, since it is ever stainless, pure, and radiant, complete with every stainless mark. Furthermore, "stainless" means free of the obstruction of affliction; "pure" means free of the obstruction of knowledge; "radiant" is like the essence pure by its own nature, of which those two obstructions are only adventitious afflictions. Thus, briefly stated, these six kinds of uncontaminated wisdom belong to the body of one beyond further training, free of affliction. Within the uncontaminated dharma-realm, these various aspects, mutually and reciprocally, are never separated from one another — the undifferentiated dharma-realm's ultimate equality — and this should be known as the meaning of correspondence.
Where the ocean simile described the causes leading toward buddhahood, the lamp simile describes its fruit, and the internal logic runs the same way: a lamp's light, warmth, and color are not separable properties that a lamp merely happens to display together, but three descriptions of what one and the same flame is doing at once. The superknowledges, the wisdom that recognizes contamination has ended, and the actual state of being free of contamination are, on this treatise's account, exactly this inseparable — not three achievements reached in sequence, but three names for a single accomplished condition seen from three angles.
Three Kinds of Person: Grasping Inversion, Leaving Inversion, Leaving Conceptual Proliferation
又依行義故，說一偈：
見實者說言， 凡夫聖人佛，
眾生如來藏， 真如無差別。
此偈示現何義？偈言：
凡夫心顛倒， 見實異於彼；
如實不顛倒， 諸佛離戲論。
此偈明何義？向明如來法界中一切法真如清淨明同相，依般若波羅蜜無分別智法門等，為諸菩薩摩訶薩說。此以何義？略明依三種人。何等為三？一者不實見凡夫、二者實見聖人、三者畢竟成就如來法身。是名三種行應知。應云何知？謂取顛倒、離顛倒、離戲論。如是次第，此以何義？取顛倒者，謂諸凡夫三種虛妄想心見故。偈言，凡夫心顛倒故。離顛倒者，以聖人遠離虛妄想心見故。偈言：見實異於彼故。離戲論者，正離顛倒及諸戲論，以煩惱障智障及煩惱習氣，諸佛如來根本永盡故。偈言：如實不顛倒，諸佛離戲論故。自此以下即依此行，餘四種義廣差別說應知。
Furthermore, in dependence on the meaning of manifestation, a verse is spoken:
Those who see reality say: ordinary being, noble one, buddha —
beings possess the tathāgatagarbha, and suchness admits of no distinction.
What meaning does this verse reveal? A verse says:
The ordinary being's mind is inverted;
one who truly sees reality is different from this;
truly, without inversion — the buddhas are free of conceptual proliferation.
What meaning does this verse make clear? What was explained before — that, within the Tathāgata's own dharma-realm, every dharma has the identical mark of the pure clarity of suchness — is now taught for bodhisattva-mahāsattvas by means of the dharma-gate of prajñāpāramitā's non-discriminating wisdom. What does this mean? Briefly, it explains this in dependence on three kinds of person. What are the three? First, the ordinary being, who does not see truly; second, the noble one, who sees truly; third, one who has ultimately accomplished the Tathāgata's own dharmakāya. These should be known as the three kinds of manifestation. How should this be known? As grasping inversion, leaving inversion, and leaving conceptual proliferation entirely. In this order, what does this mean? "Grasping inversion" refers to how every ordinary being sees through the three kinds of falsely imagined mind. "Leaving inversion" means that the noble ones are far removed from seeing through a falsely imagined mind. "Leaving conceptual proliferation" means being rightly free of inversion and of every conceptual proliferation, since the buddhas, the tathāgatas, have permanently exhausted the very root of the obstruction of affliction, the obstruction of knowledge, and their habitual traces. From this point on, in dependence on this manifestation, the remaining four points should be understood as explained through their broad distinctions.
The three-stage scheme here — grasping inversion, leaving inversion, leaving conceptual proliferation — is worth distinguishing from a simpler two-stage story of delusion followed by awakening. The noble one's stage, "leaving inversion," is explicitly not yet the final stage: a noble one has stopped mistaking what is false for true, but has not yet exhausted "conceptual proliferation" (戲論) itself, the subtler habit of framing reality in terms at all, which only a buddha has left behind entirely. This gives the ordinary-being/bodhisattva/buddha progression already met in this site's own Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra a more fine-grained account of exactly what changes at each stage — not simply "more purity" in an undifferentiated sense, but a specific, named cognitive achievement unique to each of the three.
Part 11 Complete
This closes the treatise's account of correspondence and manifestation. Part 12 takes up the seventh point, difference across time — the identical dharmakāya named "being" in its impure time, "bodhisattva" in its time of mixed purity, and "buddha" once fully purified — quoting the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra directly, twice over.
Continue to Part 12 — Being, Bodhisattva, Buddha: One Reality, Three Names →