The Tathāgata's Unshared Qualities
Chapter Nine catalogues the sixty-four qualities of buddhahood in full: ten powers of knowledge, four kinds of fearlessness before any assembly, and eighteen unshared dharmas — qualities said to belong to a buddha and no one else, not even the most advanced bodhisattva. Four similes govern the whole chapter: the vajra scepter, the lion, empty space, and the moon reflected in water.
Chapter Nine: The Sixty-Four Qualities
論曰：已說無垢真如法身，次說依彼無垢真如法身一切功德，如摩尼寶不離光明形色諸相，如來法身無量無邊自性清淨無垢功德亦復如是。以是義故，依佛功德次說二偈：
自利亦利他， 第一義諦身，
依彼真諦身， 有此世諦體。
果遠離淳熟， 此中具足有，
六十四種法， 諸功德差別。
此偈示現何義？偈言：
於自身成就， 住持諸佛法，
故攝第一身， 為他身住持。
諸如來世尊， 故有世諦體，
佛無量功德， 初身攝應知。
十力四無畏， 大丈夫相等，
彼受樂報體， 第二佛身攝。
此偈明何義？明十力等六十四種佛身功德。此云何知？依彼義故，略說二偈：
佛力金剛杵， 破無智者障，
如來無所畏， 處眾如師子，
如來不共法， 清淨如虛空，
如彼水中月， 眾生二種見。
自此已下功德品中餘殘論偈，依此二偈次第示現彼十力等六十四種如來功德，如《陀羅尼自在王經》廣說應知。
The treatise says: the stainless dharmakāya of true suchness has already been explained; next, the qualities that depend on that stainless dharmakāya of true suchness will be explained. Just as a maṇi-jewel is never separate from its light, its shape, its color, and its every mark, the Tathāgata's dharmakāya, likewise, is never separate from its immeasurable, boundless, stainless qualities, pure by its own nature. For this reason, in dependence on the Buddha's qualities, two verses are next spoken:
Benefiting both self and others, the body of the truth of ultimate meaning —
in dependence on that body of ultimate truth, there is this essence of worldly, conventional truth.
The fruit, freedom from taint, and full ripening — within these, there is completely present
the sixty-four kinds of dharma, the distinctions among these qualities.
What meaning do these verses reveal? A verse says:
Accomplished within his own person, sustaining every buddha-dharma —
hence subsumed under the first body, and sustaining, for the sake of others, a further body.
The World-Honored Tathāgatas therefore have this essence of worldly truth;
it should be understood that the Buddha's immeasurable qualities are subsumed under the first body.
The ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, the marks of a great being, and the rest —
these belong to the essence that receives bliss, the reward-body, subsumed under the second buddha-body.
What meaning does this verse make clear? It clarifies the sixty-four kinds of buddha-body qualities, the ten powers and the rest. How is this known? In dependence on that meaning, two verses briefly state:
The Buddha's powers are like a vajra scepter, breaking through the obstruction of the unwise;
the Tathāgata's fearlessness, amid the assembly, is like a lion;
the Tathāgata's unshared dharmas are pure like empty space;
and, like the moon reflected in water, sentient beings see it in two different ways.
From here on, the remaining treatise-verses of this chapter reveal, in dependence on these two verses and in due order, these sixty-four kinds of the Tathāgata's qualities — the ten powers and the rest — as explained at length in the Dhāraṇīśvararāja Sūtra, this should be understood.
The chapter's opening move quietly divides the sixty-four qualities between the dharmakāya and the reward-body: the qualities "accomplished within his own person" belong to the first body, while the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and the marks of a great being belong to the second, the body "that receives bliss." This matches the liberation-body/dharmakāya distinction from Chapter Eight — one set of qualities describes what a buddha simply is, the other describes what becomes visible and active once that realization engages with an audience of beings capable of perceiving it.
The Ten Powers and the Four Fearlessnesses
初依十力故，說二偈：
處非處果報， 業及於諸根，
性信至處道， 離垢諸禪定。
憶念過去世， 天眼寂靜智，
如是等諸句， 說十種力名。
又依四無畏故，說三偈：
如實覺諸法， 遮諸閡道障，
說道得無漏， 是四種無畏。
於所知境界， 畢竟知自他，
自知教他知， 此非遮障道。
能證勝妙果， 自得令他得，
說自他利諦， 是諸處無畏。
First, in dependence on the ten powers, two verses are spoken:
The fruit and retribution of what is and is not the case; karma; and the faculties;
the natures and dispositions of beings; the paths leading to every destination; meditative concentrations free of taint;
the recollection of past lives; the heavenly eye; and the wisdom of tranquility —
such terms as these name the ten powers.
Furthermore, in dependence on the four fearlessnesses, three verses are spoken:
Truly awakening to every dharma; teaching what obstructs the path;
teaching the path to the attainment of the uncontaminated — these are the four kinds of fearlessness.
Regarding the domain to be known, ultimately knowing it for oneself and for others,
knowing it oneself and teaching others to know it — this is not what obstructs the path.
Able to realize the supreme, wondrous fruit, attaining it oneself and causing others to attain it,
teaching the truth that benefits self and others — these are fearlessness in every domain.
The ten powers move from the most general kind of knowledge — what is and is not causally possible — through increasingly specific knowledge of individual beings' karma, faculties, dispositions, and paths, to the most personal knowledge of all: one's own past lives and the exhaustion of one's own contaminants. The four fearlessnesses then reframe this same knowledge as a teacher's confidence rather than a private attainment: fearlessness names not the absence of any real challenge, but the settled assurance that comes from having verified, for oneself, exactly what one now teaches others.
The Eighteen Unshared Buddha-Dharmas
又依十八不共佛法故，說八偈：
佛無過無諍， 無妄念等失，
無不定散心， 無種種諸想，
無作意護心， 欲精進不退，
念慧及解脫， 知見等不退。
諸業智為本， 知三世無障，
佛十八功德， 及餘不說者。
佛身口無失， 若他來破壞，
內心無動相， 非作心捨心。
世尊欲精進， 念淨智解脫，
知見常不失， 示現可知境。
一切諸業等， 智為本展轉，
三世無障閡， 廣大智行常。
是名如來體， 大智慧相應，
覺彼大菩提， 最上勝妙法。
為一切眾生， 轉於大法輪，
無畏勝妙法， 令彼得解脫。
Furthermore, in dependence on the eighteen unshared buddha-dharmas, eight verses are spoken:
The Buddha is without fault, without contention, without the fault of false mindfulness and the like,
without a scattered, undetermined mind, without discriminations of every kind,
without a mind requiring deliberate protection; his aspiration, diligence,
mindfulness, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge-and-vision are never regressed from.
Every karmic activity has wisdom as its root, knowing the three times without obstruction —
these are the Buddha's eighteen qualities, along with others not here stated.
The Buddha's body and speech are without fault; even if another comes to disrupt him,
no mark of agitation arises within his mind — this is a mind that does not act deliberately, a mind of equanimity.
The World-Honored One's aspiration, diligence, mindfulness, purity, wisdom, and liberation,
and knowledge-and-vision are ever unfailing, manifesting a knowable domain.
Every karmic activity, wisdom as its root, unfolding continuously,
unobstructed with regard to the three times, this vast wisdom-activity is constant.
This is called the Tathāgata's own essence, corresponding to great wisdom,
awakened to that great bodhi, the most supreme, wondrous Dharma.
For the sake of every sentient being, he turns the great wheel of the Dharma,
the fearless, supreme, wondrous Dharma, causing them to attain liberation.
The eighteen unshared dharmas are traditionally grouped into three sets of six: six kinds of freedom from error in conduct, six kinds of unfailing spiritual faculty, and six kinds of unobstructed wisdom-activity spanning the three times — a structure this verse compresses into a single flowing list. Their common thread is best captured in the description of the Buddha's response to disruption: "even if another comes to disrupt him, no mark of agitation arises within his mind." This is not equanimity as effortful restraint but the natural absence of anything left to disturb — a mind, in the treatise's own phrase, that "does not act deliberately," because there is no gap between how it appears and what it actually is.
Part 27 Complete
Part 28 continues Chapter Nine with the traditional list of the thirty-two marks of a great being, from the wheel-marks on the soles of the feet to eyes the color of deep blue lotus petals, before the treatise turns to explain each of the four governing similes — beginning with the vajra scepter that shatters the armor, walls, and trees of ignorance.
Continue to Part 28 — Thirty-Two Marks, and the Vajra Scepter →