Four Kinds of Blindness, and the Jewel in the Pool
The tathāgatagarbha remains hidden from four kinds of being, each for a different reason: the ordinary person clings to a self that is not there, while the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha invert the matter entirely, cultivating impermanence, suffering, no-self, and impurity exactly where permanence, bliss, self, and purity actually apply — illustrated by the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra's parable of bathers who dive again and again for a lost jewel, each surfacing with a tile or a pebble mistaken for the real thing.
Four Kinds of Being Blind to the Tathāgatagarbha
此偈明何義？略說一切眾生界中有四種眾生，不識如來藏如生盲人。何等為四？一者凡夫、二者聲聞、三者辟支佛、四者初發菩提心菩薩。如《聖者勝鬘經》中說言：世尊！如來藏者，於身見眾生非其境界。世尊！如來藏者，於取四顛倒眾生非其境界。世尊！如來藏者，於散亂心失空眾生非其境界故。
此明何義？身見眾生者，謂諸凡夫，以彼凡夫實無色等五陰諸法而取以為有我我所，虛妄執著我我所慢，於離身見等滅諦無漏性甘露之法信亦不能，何況出世間一切智境界如來藏能證能解，無有是處。
What meaning does this verse make clear? Briefly stated, within the realm of every sentient being, there are four kinds of being who, like one born blind, do not recognize the tathāgatagarbha. What are the four? First, the ordinary person; second, the śrāvaka; third, the pratyekabuddha; fourth, the bodhisattva who has newly given rise to the mind of enlightenment. As the Noble Śrīmālā Sūtra says: "World-Honored One! The tathāgatagarbha is not the domain of beings caught in the view of self. World-Honored One! The tathāgatagarbha is not the domain of beings who cling to the four inverted views. World-Honored One! The tathāgatagarbha is not the domain of beings whose scattered minds have lost sight of emptiness."
What does this clarify? "Beings caught in the view of self" refers to ordinary persons: because, where there is really no self or what belongs to a self within the five aggregates of form and the rest, they grasp them as a self and what belongs to a self, falsely clinging to the conceit of self and what belongs to a self — such persons cannot even have faith in the uncontaminated, nectar-like dharma of the truth of cessation, apart from the view of self, much less realize and understand the tathāgatagarbha, the domain of transcendent omniscience — there is no possibility of this.
The Four Inverted Views of the Śrāvaka and Pratyekabuddha
又取四顛倒諸眾生者，所謂聲聞辟支佛人，以彼聲聞辟支佛等，應修行如來藏常，而不修行如來藏以為常，以顛倒取一切法無常，修行如來藏無常，樂無常修行，以不知不覺故。應修行如來藏樂，而不修行如來藏以為樂，以顛倒取一切法皆苦，修行如來藏苦，樂苦修行，以不知不覺故。
應修行如來藏我，而不修行如來藏以為我，以顛倒取一切法無我，修行如來藏無我，樂無我修行，以不知不覺故。應修行如來藏淨，而不修行如來藏以為淨，以顛倒取一切法不淨，修行如來藏不淨，樂不淨修行，以不知不覺故。如是聲聞辟支佛等，一切不能如實隨順法身修行。以是義故，第一彼岸常樂我淨法，非彼聲聞辟支佛等所知境界。如是樂顛倒無常苦無我不淨相等，彼如來藏非其境界。
Furthermore, "beings who cling to the four inverted views" refers to śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas: because these śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, though they should cultivate the tathāgatagarbha as constant, do not cultivate the tathāgatagarbha as constant — inverting things, they grasp every dharma as impermanent, cultivating the tathāgatagarbha as impermanent, delighting in the cultivation of impermanence, because they neither know nor perceive it. Though they should cultivate the tathāgatagarbha as blissful, they do not cultivate the tathāgatagarbha as blissful — inverting things, they grasp every dharma as suffering, cultivating the tathāgatagarbha as suffering, delighting in the cultivation of suffering, because they neither know nor perceive it.
Though they should cultivate the tathāgatagarbha as self, they do not cultivate the tathāgatagarbha as self — inverting things, they grasp every dharma as without self, cultivating the tathāgatagarbha as without self, delighting in the cultivation of no-self, because they neither know nor perceive it. Though they should cultivate the tathāgatagarbha as pure, they do not cultivate the tathāgatagarbha as pure — inverting things, they grasp every dharma as impure, cultivating the tathāgatagarbha as impure, delighting in the cultivation of impurity, because they neither know nor perceive it. Thus śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are, in every respect, unable to truly cultivate in accordance with the dharmakāya. For this reason, the supreme far-shore dharma of permanence, bliss, self, and purity is not a domain known by śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. Thus, delighting in the inverted marks of impermanence, suffering, no-self, and impurity, that tathāgatagarbha is not their domain.
This passage is the treatise's most direct statement of a genuine tension: the śrāvaka's teaching of impermanence, suffering, no-self, and impurity is itself the antidote to the ordinary person's opposite errors, yet applied without qualification to the tathāgatagarbha, it becomes its own inversion. The treatise's resolution, consistent with the four pāramitās discussed in Part 9, is not that the śrāvaka's teaching is false for its intended target — the five aggregates genuinely are impermanent, suffering, without self, and impure — but that mechanically extending the identical formula to the tathāgatagarbha itself, without distinguishing what it applies to, produces a second, subtler form of exactly the error it was meant to cure.
The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra: The Jewel in the Pool
如是之義，《大般涅槃修多羅》中池水譬喻廣明，此義應知。彼經中言：迦葉！譬如春時，有諸人等在大池浴乘船遊戲，失琉璃寶沒深水中。是時諸人悉共入水求覓是寶，競捉瓦石草木沙礫，各各自謂得琉璃珠，歡喜持出乃知非真。是時寶珠猶在水中，以珠力故水皆澄清，於是大眾乃見寶珠故在水下，猶如仰觀虛空月形。是時眾中有一智人，以方便力安徐入水即便得珠。汝等比丘！不應如是修集無常苦無我想不淨想等以為真實，如彼諸人各以瓦石草木沙礫而為寶珠，汝等應當善學方便在在處處常修我想常樂淨想。復應當知，先所修集四法相貌悉是顛倒，欲得真實修諸想者，如彼智人巧出寶珠，所謂我想常樂淨想故。
This meaning is explained at length in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, in the parable of the pool of water — this meaning should be understood. That sūtra says: "Kāśyapa! It is like when, in springtime, a group of people are bathing in a great pool, riding boats and playing, and a beryl jewel is lost, sinking into the deep water. At that time, everyone together enters the water to search for that jewel, competing to grasp tiles, stones, grass, wood, sand, and gravel, each thinking he has found the beryl jewel, joyfully bringing it out only to discover it is not the real thing. At that time, the jewel is still in the water, and by the jewel's own power the water becomes entirely clear, whereupon the great crowd finally sees the jewel still there beneath the water, just as one looking up sees the moon's form in the sky. At that time, among the crowd, there is one wise person who, by skillful means, calmly and gently enters the water and at once retrieves the jewel. You monks! You should not, in this way, cultivate the perceptions of impermanence, suffering, no-self, and impurity and take them to be ultimately true, like those people each taking a tile, a stone, grass, wood, sand, or gravel to be the jewel — you should instead learn skillful means well, and everywhere, constantly cultivate the perception of self, permanence, and purity. You should further know that the marks of the four dharmas cultivated before were entirely inverted; one who wishes to cultivate perceptions that are truly real should be like that wise person skillfully drawing out the jewel — namely, the perception of self, permanence, bliss, and purity."
This citation matches this site's own Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra translation of the identical parable. Its psychological precision is easy to miss on a first reading: the frantic bathers do not fail to find anything — each surfaces triumphantly certain he has the jewel, and only discovers otherwise afterward. The wise person's method is not more effort but the opposite: entering "calmly and gently," disturbing the water least, so that the jewel's own light — which was never actually lost — becomes visible again. Applied to the four kinds of blindness just described, the moral is exact: what obstructs sight of the tathāgatagarbha is not its absence but the agitation of the very mind searching for it.
Part 21 Complete
Part 22 completes Chapter Six with the fourth kind of blindness — the newly resolved bodhisattva's scattered mind, which mistakes emptiness itself for a thing to be attained — the treatise's careful distinction between the empty and the not-empty tathāgatagarbha, and the chapter's closing verses comparing partial vision of buddha-nature to the sun glimpsed through thin cloud.
Continue to Part 22 — The Empty and the Not-Empty Tathāgatagarbha →