The Jewel in the Mud, and the Gate of the City
The bodhisattva stage continues through two further parables: a priceless beryl jewel buried a thousand years in mud yet never losing its inner purity, and a traveler who reaches the very gate of a magnificent city, one foot already across the threshold, and turns back for the sake of the one son he left behind.
The Beryl Jewel Washed Clean After a Thousand Years
又菩薩摩訶薩以如實智知如來法身不生不滅故，得如是菩薩摩訶薩功德法體。此修多羅句向前已說，自下次說大毘琉璃摩尼寶喻。佛言：大海慧！譬如無價大毘琉璃摩尼寶珠，善治善淨善光明，墮在泥中住一千年。彼摩尼寶經千年後乃出彼泥，出已水洗，洗已極淨，極淨洗已然後極明，即不失本清淨無垢摩尼寶體。
大海慧！菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，如實知見一切眾生自性清淨光明淨心而為客塵煩惱所染。大海慧！諸菩薩等生如是心：彼諸煩惱不染眾生自性淨心，是諸煩惱客塵虛妄分別心起。而彼諸菩薩復生是心：我今畢竟令諸眾生遠離客塵諸煩惱垢，為之說法。如是菩薩不生怯弱心，轉於一切眾生生增上力，我要畢竟令得解脫。
菩薩爾時復生是心：此諸煩惱無有少體。菩薩爾時復生是心：諸煩惱無體、諸煩惱羸薄，是諸煩惱無有住處。如是菩薩如實知諸煩惱虛妄分別而有、依邪見念而有，以正見者諸煩惱垢不能得起。
菩薩爾時復生是心：我應如實觀諸煩惱更不復生，以不生煩惱故生諸善法。菩薩爾時復生是心：我若自起諸煩惱者，云何而得為諸煩惱所縛眾生說法令離諸煩惱縛？菩薩爾時復生是心：以我不著諸煩惱故，是故得為諸煩惱縛眾生說法。我應修行諸波羅蜜，結使煩惱相應善根，為欲教化諸眾生故。
Furthermore, because the bodhisattva-mahāsattva, through true wisdom, knows that the Tathāgata's dharmakāya is neither born nor ceases, he attains this very essence of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's meritorious qualities. This passage of sūtra has already been explained above; next, the simile of the great beryl maṇi-jewel will be explained. The Buddha said: "Sāgaramati! It is like a priceless great beryl maṇi-jewel, well-polished, well-purified, and brilliantly radiant, that falls into mud and remains there a thousand years. After a thousand years, that maṇi-jewel is taken out of the mud; once taken out, it is washed with water; once washed, it becomes utterly clean; once utterly clean and washed, it then becomes utterly radiant — yet it never once lost its original pure and stainless nature as a maṇi-jewel.
"Sāgaramati! Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas are likewise: they truly know and see that the mind of every sentient being, pure and radiant by its own nature, is stained by adventitious affliction. Sāgaramati! Bodhisattvas give rise to this thought: 'These afflictions do not stain the mind that is pure by its own nature — these afflictions are adventitious, arising from a mind of false discrimination.' And those bodhisattvas further give rise to this thought: 'I shall now, ultimately, cause every sentient being to become apart from the stain of adventitious affliction,' and so teach them the Dharma. In this way the bodhisattva gives rise to no thought of timidity, but instead redoubles his resolve toward every sentient being: 'I must, ultimately, cause them to attain liberation.'
"At that time the bodhisattva further gives rise to this thought: 'These afflictions have not even the slightest substance.' At that time the bodhisattva further gives rise to this thought: 'Afflictions have no substance, afflictions are weak and feeble, afflictions have no abode.' Thus the bodhisattva truly knows that afflictions exist only through false discrimination, exist only in dependence on wrong views and thoughts, and that where there is right view, the stain of affliction cannot arise.
"At that time the bodhisattva further gives rise to this thought: 'I should truly observe the afflictions so that they no longer arise — for it is by not giving rise to affliction that every wholesome dharma is produced.' At that time the bodhisattva further gives rise to this thought: 'If I myself gave rise to afflictions, how could I possibly teach the Dharma to sentient beings bound by affliction, so as to free them from the bonds of affliction?' At that time the bodhisattva further gives rise to this thought: 'Precisely because I am not attached to any affliction, I am able to teach the Dharma to sentient beings bound by affliction. I should practice the pāramitās — the wholesome root associated with the bond of affliction — for the sake of teaching and transforming every sentient being.'"
The jewel simile and the sequence of inward reflections it introduces work as a matched pair: the jewel establishes, from outside, that a thousand years of mud never altered the gem's essence, and the seven-fold chain of thoughts then walks the bodhisattva's own reasoning to the same conclusion from inside — afflictions have "not even the slightest substance," are "weak and feeble," have "no abode." The final turn is the sharpest: if the bodhisattva let afflictions actually arise in himself, he could no longer teach beings bound by affliction how to be free of them. Only by holding, without flinching, to the affliction's essential unreality can he speak convincingly of freedom to someone still convinced afflictions are solid.
The Śrīmālā Sūtra on Conditioned and Unconditioned Nirvāṇa
又復云何名為世間？以三界相似鏡像法故。此明何義？依無漏法界中有三種意生身應知。彼因無漏善根所作名為世間；以離有漏諸業煩惱所作世間法故，亦名涅槃。依此義故，《聖者勝鬘經》言：世尊！有有為世間，有無為世間。世尊！有有為涅槃，有無為涅槃故。又有為無為心心數法相應法故，故說名為淨不淨時。此義於第六菩薩現前地說，彼諸漏盡無障礙般若波羅蜜解脫現前修行大悲，以為救護一切眾生故不取證。如《寶鬘經》中依漏盡故說入城喻。
Again, why is it called "the world"? Because the three realms are like the reflection in a mirror. What does this clarify? It should be understood that, within the uncontaminated dharma-realm, there are three kinds of mind-made body. What is produced from the cause that is uncontaminated wholesome roots is called "the world"; and since it is apart from what is produced by contaminated karma and affliction, this same worldly dharma is also called nirvāṇa. In dependence on this meaning, the Noble Śrīmālā Sūtra says: "World-Honored One! There is a conditioned world, and there is an unconditioned world. World-Honored One! There is a conditioned nirvāṇa, and there is an unconditioned nirvāṇa." Moreover, because this is a dharma associated with mind and mental factors, both conditioned and unconditioned, it is called the time of mixed purity and impurity. This meaning is taught with reference to the sixth bodhisattva ground, the Ground of Manifestation, where the unobstructed prajñāpāramitā-liberation of one who has exhausted every contaminant is present, yet who practices great compassion and, for the sake of rescuing and protecting every sentient being, does not take up the realization. As the Ratnamālā Sūtra says, with reference to the exhaustion of contaminants, in the parable of entering the city:
Calling the very same worldly dharma both "the world" and "nirvāṇa" depending on its cause — contaminated karma versus uncontaminated wholesome roots — is the same "one substance, differing only in name" logic the treatise applies elsewhere to birth and to buddha-nature. The Śrīmālā citation on conditioned and unconditioned nirvāṇa matches this site's own Śrīmālā translation closely; here it is enlisted to explain how a bodhisattva can remain active within a world that, for an unawakened being, is unrelievedly saṃsāric.
The Ratnamālā Sūtra: The Gate of the City
彼經中言：善男子！譬如有城，縱廣正等各一由旬，多有諸門，路嶮黑闇甚可怖畏，有人入者多受安樂。復有一人，唯有一子，愛念甚重，遙聞彼城如是快樂，即便捨子欲往入城。是人方便得過嶮道到彼城門，一足已入一足未舉，即念其子，尋作是念：我唯一子，來時云何竟不與俱？誰能養護令離眾苦？即捨樂城還至子所。善男子！菩薩摩訶薩亦復如是，為憐愍故修集五通，既修集已垂得盡漏而不取證。何以故？愍眾生故捨漏盡通，乃至行於凡夫地中。
善男子！城者喻於大般涅槃。多諸門者，喻於八萬諸三昧門。路嶮難者，喻諸魔業。到城門者，喻於五通。一足入者，喻於智慧。一足未入者，喻諸菩薩未證解脫。言一子者，喻於五道一切眾生。顧念子者，喻大悲心。還子所者，喻調眾生。能得解脫而不證者，即是方便。善男子！菩薩摩訶薩大慈大悲不可思議。
如是善男子！菩薩摩訶薩大方便力，發大精進、起堅固心，修行禪定得證五通。如是菩薩依禪通業善修心淨，無漏滅盡定現前，如是菩薩即得生於大悲之心，為救一切諸眾生故，現前無漏智通而迴轉不取寂滅涅槃，以為教化諸眾生故，迴取世間乃至示現凡夫人地。於第四菩薩焰地中，為自利益善起精進，為利益他善起堅固心漏盡現前。於第五菩薩難勝地中，依止五通自利利他，善熟心行無漏滅盡定現前。是故於第六菩薩地中，無障礙般若波羅蜜起漏盡現前。是故於第六菩薩現前地中得漏盡自在，說名清淨。
是菩薩如是自身正修行，教化眾生令置彼處，得大慈悲心，於顛倒眾生生救護心，不著寂滅涅槃，善作彼方便現前世間門，為眾生故現前涅槃門。為菩提分滿足故，修行四禪迴生欲界，以為利益地獄畜生餓鬼凡夫種種眾生示現諸身，以得自在故。
That sūtra says: "Good son! It is like a city, equal in length and breadth, each side one yojana, with many gates, its roads perilous, dark, and utterly terrifying — yet whoever enters it receives great happiness. There is a certain man who has only one son, deeply loved and cherished. Hearing from afar of that city's such happiness, he leaves his son behind and sets out to enter the city. By skillful means, this man makes his way past the perilous road and reaches the gate of that city. One foot has already crossed the threshold, the other not yet lifted, when he suddenly thinks of his son, and reflects: 'I have only this one son — how, when I set out, did I fail to bring him with me? Who will care for and protect him, and free him from every suffering?' At once he abandons the happy city and returns to where his son is. Good son! The bodhisattva-mahāsattva is likewise: out of compassion, he cultivates and gathers the five supernormal powers, and having cultivated and gathered them, on the very verge of attaining the exhaustion of contaminants, does not take up the realization. Why is this? Out of compassion for sentient beings, he sets aside the power of exhausting contaminants, and continues to act even within the very ground of ordinary beings.
"Good son! The city is a metaphor for great parinirvāṇa. The many gates are a metaphor for the eighty-four thousand gates of samādhi. The perilous road is a metaphor for the workings of Māra. Reaching the city gate is a metaphor for the five supernormal powers. The one foot that has entered is a metaphor for wisdom. The one foot not yet entered is a metaphor for the bodhisattva's not yet realizing liberation. The only son is a metaphor for every sentient being of the five destinies. Turning back to think of the son is a metaphor for the mind of great compassion. Returning to where the son is, is a metaphor for taming sentient beings. Being able to attain liberation yet not realizing it — this is itself skillful means. Good son! The great loving-kindness and great compassion of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva is inconceivable.
"Thus, good son, by the power of the bodhisattva-mahāsattva's great skillful means, he arouses great diligence, gives rise to a firm mind, practices meditative concentration, and realizes the five supernormal powers. In this way, the bodhisattva, in dependence on the working of meditative power, well cultivates the purity of mind, and the uncontaminated cessation-concentration becomes present before him; thus the bodhisattva gives rise to a mind of great compassion, and for the sake of rescuing every sentient being, brings the uncontaminated power of wisdom into presence, yet turns back and does not take up tranquil nirvāṇa, and, for the sake of teaching and transforming every sentient being, turns back to take up the world, even to the point of manifesting within the very ground of ordinary beings. On the fourth bodhisattva ground, the Ground of Blazing Radiance, for his own benefit he well arouses diligence, and for the benefit of others he well arouses a firm mind, and the exhaustion of contaminants becomes present. On the fifth bodhisattva ground, the Ground Difficult to Conquer, resting upon the five supernormal powers, benefiting both himself and others, well ripening the practice of mind, the uncontaminated cessation-concentration becomes present. Hence, on the sixth bodhisattva ground, the unobstructed prajñāpāramitā gives rise to the exhaustion of contaminants becoming present. Hence, on this sixth ground, the Ground of Manifestation, he attains mastery over the exhaustion of contaminants — this is called purity.
"Such a bodhisattva, rightly practicing in this way himself, teaches and transforms sentient beings, establishing them in that same attainment; possessed of a mind of great loving-kindness and compassion, he gives rise to a mind of rescue and protection toward beings caught in inverted views, is not attached to tranquil nirvāṇa, and skillfully brings forth, by that same skillful means, the gate of the world, while, for the sake of sentient beings, bringing forth the gate of nirvāṇa. For the sake of fulfilling the factors of enlightenment, he practices the four dhyānas and turns back to be reborn in the desire realm, manifesting every kind of body for the benefit of the various beings of hell, the animal realm, the hungry ghosts, and ordinary humans, by the power of his mastery."
The parable's most exact detail is the posture at the threshold: "one foot has already crossed, the other not yet lifted." This is not a man who has merely heard of the city and chosen not to enter — he has walked the perilous road, arrived, and physically begun crossing over. The turning back is thus not a failure of nerve or a lesser attainment, but the maximum possible nearness to liberation compatible with still choosing to return. Mapped onto the bodhisattva grounds, this same threshold recurs concretely at the sixth ground, where the "unobstructed prajñāpāramitā" gives the power to realize cessation but the bodhisattva "does not take up the realization" — the treatise's abstract account of the time of mixed purity and impurity turns out to have one exact, nameable location in the path.
Part 15 Complete
Part 16 completes the treatise's account of the third and final time — the time of complete purity, the stage of buddhahood — where the four-fold analysis of permanence, constancy, coolness, and unchangingness culminates in a third verbatim citation of the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra, before the chapter opens its ninth point: non-differentiation, and the teaching that dharmakāya, tathāgata, noble truth, and nirvāṇa are one substance under four names.
Continue to Part 16 — One Substance, Four Names →