No Being Apart from the Buddha's Wisdom
The nine similes reduce to three real substances behind them — dharmakāya, suchness, and the tathāgatagarbha itself — and the chapter draws out their most far-reaching consequence: not one sentient being exists apart from the Tathāgata's wisdom, exactly as no colored form exists apart from empty space.
Three Real Substances Behind the Nine Similes
此偈明何義？謂依法身、自性清淨心、如來藏等三種實體，有諸佛等九種譬喻相似相對法應知。三種實體者，偈言：
法身及真如， 如來性實體，
三種及一種， 五種喻示現。
此偈明何義？初三種喻示現如來法身應知。三種譬喻者，所謂諸佛美蜜堅固，示現法身。偈言：法身故。一種譬喻者，所謂真金示現真如。偈言：真如故。又何等為五種譬喻？一者地藏、二者樹、三者金像、四者轉輪聖王、五者寶像，能生三種佛身，示現如來性。偈言：如來性故。
What meaning does this verse make clear? It means that, in dependence on three real substances — the dharmakāya, the mind pure by its own nature, and the tathāgatagarbha — it should be understood that there are the nine similes of the buddha and the rest, corresponding to them. As for the three real substances, a verse says:
Dharmakāya and true suchness, and the real substance that is tathāgata-nature —
three, and one, and five similes reveal them.
What meaning does this verse make clear? It should be understood that the first three similes reveal the Tathāgata's dharmakāya. The three similes are: the buddha, the honey, and the firm kernel, which reveal the dharmakāya. The verse says "dharmakāya." The one simile is: true gold, which reveals suchness. The verse says "true suchness." And what are the five similes? First, the treasure in the earth; second, the tree; third, the golden image; fourth, the universal monarch; fifth, the jeweled image — these can produce the three kinds of buddha-body, revealing tathāgata-nature. The verse says "tathāgata-nature."
The treatise's 3+1+5 division of the nine similes is not arbitrary: the first three (buddha in the flower, honey in the bees, kernel in the husk) all picture something already whole and complete, merely surrounded; the fourth (gold in filth) pictures something whose nature cannot be altered no matter how it is covered; and the remaining five all involve a further step of development — a treasure must be dug up, a sprout must grow, a statue must be unwrapped, a child must be born, an image must be released from its mold. This maps directly onto the treatise's three-substance framework: the dharmakāya is what is simply revealed once obstruction is removed, suchness is what never changes regardless of covering, and tathāgata-nature as cause is what actively unfolds into the three buddha-bodies through the path.
Two Kinds of Dharmakāya, and the Honey of a Single Flavor
又法身者，偈言：
法身有二種， 清淨真法界，
及依彼習氣， 以深淺義說。
此偈明何義？諸佛如來有二種法身。何等為二？一者寂靜法界身，以無分別智境界故。如是諸佛如來法身，唯自內身法界能證應知。偈言：清淨真法界故。二者為得彼因，謂彼寂靜法界說法，依可化眾生說，彼說法應知。以依真如法身有彼說法，名為習氣。偈言：及依彼習氣故。彼說法者，復有二種：一細、二麁。細者，所謂為諸菩薩摩訶薩演說甚深祕密法藏，以依第一義諦說故。麁者，所謂種種修多羅、祇夜、和伽羅那、伽陀、憂陀那、尼陀那等，名字章句種種差別，以依世諦說故。是故偈言：
以出世間法， 世中無譬喻，
是故依彼性， 還說性譬喻。
如美蜜一味， 微細法亦爾，
修多羅等說， 如種種異味。
Furthermore, regarding the dharmakāya, a verse says:
The dharmakāya has two kinds: the pure, true dharma-realm,
and, in dependence on that, its habitual traces — explained in terms of the deep and the shallow.
What meaning does this verse make clear? Buddhas and tathāgatas have two kinds of dharmakāya. What are the two? First, the body that is the tranquil dharma-realm, being the domain of non-discriminating wisdom. It should be understood that such a dharmakāya of the buddhas and tathāgatas can be realized only by one's own inner body, the dharma-realm itself. The verse says "the pure, true dharma-realm." Second, for the sake of attaining that cause, that tranquil dharma-realm teaches the Dharma, teaching in dependence on beings capable of being transformed — it should be understood that this is that teaching of the Dharma. Because this teaching of the Dharma exists in dependence on the dharmakāya of true suchness, it is called a habitual trace. The verse says "and, in dependence on that, its habitual traces." That teaching of the Dharma is, moreover, of two kinds: subtle and coarse. The subtle is what is proclaimed for bodhisattva-mahāsattvas — the extremely profound, secret treasury of the Dharma, spoken in dependence on the truth of ultimate meaning. The coarse is the various sūtras, geyas, vyākaraṇas, gāthās, udānas, nidānas, and the rest, with their various distinct names and passages, spoken in dependence on worldly, conventional truth. Hence a verse says:
Because the transcendent Dharma has no likeness within the world,
it is therefore explained, in dependence on that very nature, through similes drawn from that same nature.
Just as sweet honey is of a single flavor, the subtle Dharma is likewise —
yet the sūtras and the rest express it as though it were of every different flavor.
The claim that transcendent truth "has no likeness within the world" and so must be "explained, in dependence on that very nature, through similes drawn from that same nature" is close to a methodological confession from the treatise itself about its own procedure: the nine similes of flower, bees, husk, and the rest are not incidental decoration but the only available way to gesture at something the treatise elsewhere insists is, strictly speaking, beyond conceptual elaboration (as documented in the reading note to Part 3's discussion of the cessation-truth). The honey simile then makes a further, subtler point: the sūtras' many differing formulations of the Dharma are not really different teachings any more than describing honey by its color, its viscosity, or its sweetness yields three different substances — one flavor, described several ways.
No Sentient Being Apart from the Buddha's Wisdom
此偈明何義？諸佛美蜜及堅固等三種譬喻，此明如來真如法身有二種義：一者遍覆一切眾生、二者遍身中有無有餘殘，示現一切眾生有如來藏。此以何義？於眾生界中無有一眾生離如來法身在於法身外、離於如來智在如來智外，如種種色像不離虛空中。是故偈言：
譬如諸色像， 不離於虛空，
如是眾生身， 不離諸佛智。
以如是義故， 說一切眾生，
皆有如來藏， 如虛空中色。
以性不改變， 體本來清淨，
如真金不變， 故說真如喻。
此偈明何義？明彼真如如來之性，乃至邪聚眾生身中自性清淨心無異無差別，光明明了，以離客塵諸煩惱故。後時說言如來法身，如是以一真金譬喻，依真如無差別、不離佛法身故，說諸眾生皆有如來藏，以自性清淨心雖言清淨而本來無二法故。是故經中佛告文殊師利言：文殊師利！如來如實知見自身根本清淨智，以依自身根本智故，知諸眾生有清淨身。文殊師利！所謂如來自性清淨身，乃至一切眾生自性清淨身，此二法者無二無差別。是故偈言：
一切諸眾生， 平等如來藏，
真如清淨法， 名為如來體。
依如是義故， 說一切眾生，
皆有如來藏， 應當如是知。
What meaning does this verse make clear? These three similes — the buddha, the sweet honey, and the firm kernel — clarify that the Tathāgata's dharmakāya of true suchness has two meanings: first, that it pervades and covers every sentient being; second, that it is present throughout their bodies without any remainder, revealing that every sentient being possesses the tathāgatagarbha. What is this meaning? Within the realm of sentient beings, there is not one sentient being apart from the Tathāgata's dharmakāya, standing outside the dharmakāya, or apart from the Tathāgata's wisdom, standing outside that wisdom — just as forms of every color are never apart from empty space. Hence a verse says:
Just as forms of every color are never apart from empty space,
so too the bodies of sentient beings are never apart from the wisdom of the buddhas.
For this reason it is said that every sentient being
possesses the tathāgatagarbha, like color within empty space.
Because this nature does not change, its essence pure from the very beginning,
like true gold that does not alter, the simile of true suchness is spoken.
What meaning does this verse make clear? It clarifies that this nature of true suchness, of the Tathāgata, is, even within the bodies of sentient beings fixed in wrong views, a mind pure by its own nature, without difference, without distinction, radiant and clear, because it is apart from every adventitious affliction. Later this is called the Tathāgata's dharmakāya. Thus, by means of this one simile of true gold, in dependence on true suchness being undifferentiated, never separate from the Buddha's dharmakāya, it is said that every sentient being possesses the tathāgatagarbha — because, though the mind pure by its own nature is called pure, it is, from the very beginning, without a second dharma. Hence, in a sūtra, the Buddha tells Mañjuśrī: "Mañjuśrī! The Tathāgata truly knows and sees his own root, pure wisdom, and, in dependence on this root wisdom of his own, knows that every sentient being possesses a pure body. Mañjuśrī, what is called the Tathāgata's own pure body by nature, and, likewise, every sentient being's own pure body by nature — these two dharmas are without duality, without distinction." Hence a verse says:
Every sentient being, equally, possesses the tathāgatagarbha —
the pure dharma of true suchness is called the Tathāgata's own substance.
In dependence on this meaning, it is said that every sentient being
possesses the tathāgatagarbha — this should be understood accordingly.
The space-and-color simile makes a claim stronger than mere universal presence: it is not that buddha-wisdom happens to reach every being, but that a being's very existence is unintelligible apart from it, the way a colored form is not merely near space but constituted within it. The passage's most striking phrase is "even within the bodies of sentient beings fixed in wrong views" (邪聚眾生) — this site's translations elsewhere note debates over whether icchantikas retain buddha-nature (see the reading note to Part 10); here the treatise extends the identical undifferentiated purity explicitly to beings in the worst possible spiritual condition, leaving no exception on record.
Part 19 Complete
Part 20 explains the second of the three real substances behind the nine similes — buddha-nature as cause, pictured through the treasure buried in the earth and the tree that bears fruit — and the resulting three buddha-bodies, before turning to the Śrīmālā Sūtra's account of the tathāgatagarbha as the very foundation on which both saṃsāra and nirvāṇa depend.
Continue to Part 20 — The Foundation of Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa →