The Merit of Faith
The treatise's final chapter turns from doctrine to practice: what merit accrues to a person who simply hears a single phrase about buddha-nature, buddha-bodhi, the buddha-dharma, and buddha-activity, and believes it? Three times over, the same comparison is drawn — against giving away every treasure in the universe, against a lifetime of perfect moral discipline, against mastery of the highest meditation — and each time, faith in this single teaching is said to surpass it.
Chapter Eleven: The Merit of Comparative Faith
論曰：向說四種法，自此已下明有慧人於彼法中能生信心。依彼信者所得功德，說十四偈：
佛性佛菩提， 佛法及佛業，
諸出世淨人， 所不能思議。
此諸佛境界， 若有能信者，
得無量功德， 勝一切眾生。
以求佛菩提， 不思議果報，
得無量功德， 故勝諸世間。
The treatise says: the four dharmas explained above — from here on it is explained that a wise person can give rise to faith with regard to these dharmas. In dependence on the qualities attained by one who has such faith, fourteen verses are spoken:
Buddha-nature, buddha-bodhi, the buddha-dharma, and buddha-activity —
even transcendent, purified persons cannot conceive of these.
If there is one able to have faith in this domain of the buddhas,
that person attains immeasurable qualities, surpassing every sentient being.
By seeking buddha-bodhi, the inconceivable fruit and retribution,
one attains immeasurable qualities, and therefore surpasses everything in the world.
Faith Surpasses Giving, Precepts, and Meditation
若有人能捨， 摩尼珠珍寶，
遍布十方界， 無量佛國土。
為求佛菩提， 施與諸法王，
是人如是施， 無量恒沙劫。
若復有人聞， 妙境界一句，
聞已復能信， 過施福無量。
若有智慧人， 奉持無上戒，
身口意業淨， 自然常護持。
為求佛菩提， 如是無量劫，
是人所得福， 不可得思議。
若復有人聞， 妙境界一句，
聞已復能信， 過戒福無量。
若人入禪定， 焚三界煩惱，
過天行彼岸， 無菩提方便。
若復有人聞， 妙境界一句，
聞已復能信， 過禪福無量。
無慧人能捨， 唯得富貴報，
修持禁戒者， 得生人天中。
修行斷諸障， 非慧不能除，
慧除煩惱障， 亦能除智障。
聞法為慧因， 是故聞法勝，
何況聞法已， 復能生信心。
If there is a person able to give up maṇi-jewels and every treasure,
scattering them throughout the worlds of the ten directions, throughout immeasurable buddha-lands,
giving them to every Dharma-king in the quest for buddha-bodhi,
and this person gives in this way for immeasurable kalpas as countless as the sands of the Ganges —
yet if there is another person who hears even a single phrase of this wondrous domain,
and, having heard it, is able to have faith in it, that merit surpasses the merit of that giving immeasurably.
If there is a wise person who upholds the unsurpassed moral precepts,
whose actions of body, speech, and mind are pure, spontaneously and ever guarded and upheld,
seeking buddha-bodhi in this way for immeasurable kalpas,
the merit this person attains is inconceivable —
yet if there is another person who hears even a single phrase of this wondrous domain,
and, having heard it, is able to have faith in it, that merit surpasses the merit of upholding precepts immeasurably.
If a person enters meditative concentration, burning away the afflictions of the three realms,
surpassing the gods, yet going to the far shore without the skillful means of bodhi —
yet if there is another person who hears even a single phrase of this wondrous domain,
and, having heard it, is able to have faith in it, that merit surpasses the merit of meditation immeasurably.
A person without wisdom who is able to give up wealth attains only the fruit of riches and honor;
one who cultivates and upholds the moral precepts attains birth among humans and gods.
In cultivating the severing of every obstruction, without wisdom it cannot be removed —
wisdom removes the afflictive obstruction, and is also able to remove the cognitive obstruction.
Hearing the Dharma is the cause of wisdom; for this reason, hearing the Dharma is supreme —
how much more so, having heard the Dharma, being further able to give rise to faith in it.
The comparison is not a devaluation of giving, moral discipline, or meditation — the treatise elsewhere treats all three as genuine pāramitās — but a claim about what each one lacks on its own: giving without wisdom yields only wealth, discipline without wisdom yields only a fortunate rebirth, meditation without wisdom, however deep, "goes to the far shore without the skillful means of bodhi," meaning it can suppress affliction without ever touching the cognitive obstruction that keeps a being from full awakening. Only wisdom removes both obstructions, and hearing the teaching that begins to generate that wisdom is named the root of everything that follows — which is why the chapter measures faith not against ordinary generosity, but against the most extreme, cosmic-scale versions of giving, discipline, and meditation imaginable, and still finds a single moment of genuine faith heavier.
Why Wisdom Alone Removes Both Obstructions
此十四偈，以十一偈略釋應知。偈言：
身及彼所轉， 功德及成義，
示此四種法， 唯如來境界。
智者信為有， 及信畢竟得，
以信諸功德， 速證無上道。
究竟到彼岸， 如來所住處，
信有彼境界， 彼非可思議。
我等可得彼， 彼功德如是，
唯深信勝智， 欲精進念定。
修智等功德， 無上菩提心，
一切常現前， 以常現前故，
名不退佛子， 彼岸淨功德，
畢竟能成就。 五度是功德，
以不分別三， 畢竟及清淨。
以離對治法， 施唯施功德，
持戒唯持戒， 餘二度修行，
謂忍辱禪定， 精進遍諸處。
慳等所治法， 名為煩惱障，
虛分別三法， 是名為智障。
遠離彼諸障， 更無餘勝因，
唯真妙智慧， 是故般若勝。
彼智慧根本， 所謂聞慧是，
以聞慧生智， 是故聞為勝。
It should be understood that these fourteen verses are briefly explained by eleven further verses. A verse says:
The body, and its transformation, and its qualities, and its accomplishment —
these reveal the four dharmas, the domain of the Tathāgata alone.
The wise have faith that it exists, and faith that it can ultimately be attained;
by this faith in these qualities, they swiftly realize the unsurpassed path.
Ultimately reaching the far shore, the abode of the Tathāgata —
having faith that this domain exists, even though it is beyond conception.
"We too can attain that" — such are these qualities:
only through deep faith, supreme wisdom, aspiration, diligence, mindfulness, and concentration,
cultivating wisdom and the other qualities, does the unsurpassed mind of bodhi ever remain present before one.
Because it is ever present, one is called an irreversible son of the Buddha, and the pure qualities of the far shore
are, in the end, able to be accomplished. The five other pāramitās are qualities that depend on wisdom,
since wisdom does not discriminate among the three factors — ultimately and purely.
Apart from wisdom as the antidote, giving is merely the quality of giving, upholding precepts is merely upholding precepts;
as for the remaining two pāramitās, patience and meditative concentration, and diligence, these too pervade every place.
What is counteracted, stinginess and the rest, is called the afflictive obstruction;
the false discrimination of the three factors is called the cognitive obstruction.
Apart from freedom from these obstructions, there is no other superior cause;
only true, wondrous wisdom suffices — for this reason, prajñā is supreme.
The root of that wisdom is precisely the wisdom born of hearing;
because wisdom born of hearing gives rise to further wisdom, hearing is therefore supreme.
"The false discrimination of the three factors" names a subtlety familiar from the perfection-of-wisdom literature: even generous giving becomes a form of the cognitive obstruction if the giver still discriminates giver, gift, and recipient as three separate, solid things, rather than seeing all three as empty of inherent existence. This is why the verse insists that all five other pāramitās "are qualities that depend on wisdom" — not that giving, discipline, patience, diligence, and meditation are unimportant, but that wisdom is what keeps any of them from quietly hardening back into the very obstruction they were meant to overcome.
Part 32 Complete
Part 33 completes the treatise with its final movement: the three criteria by which any teaching should be judged — its dharma, its meaning, and its mark — followed by the treatise's most severe warning, that slandering this deep teaching is worse than any ordinary crime, before closing with verses honoring those who teach it and a dedication of merit.
Continue to Part 33 — The Treatise's Closing Verses →