Following the Buddha's Learning, and According with All Beings
常隨佛學、恆順眾生
Vairocana's own past life of flaying his skin for paper and splitting his bone for a pen to record a single verse of Dharma, and this chapter's longest and most quoted vow: to treat every kind of sentient being, without exception, exactly as one would treat a buddha — because, as the parable of a tree in a wasteland makes literal, awakening itself has no roots except in beings.
- This part covers
- The eighth vow, always following the Buddha's learning — Vairocana's own path from first aspiration to nirvana, including his past-life sacrifice of skin, bone, and blood to record the Dharma — and the ninth vow, according constantly with all sentient beings, this chapter's longest single vow, ending in the parable of a bodhi tree rooted in every sentient being and watered by great compassion.
- Why it matters
- These two vows are, on Chengguan's own account, the self-benefiting and other-benefiting halves of a single practice — and the ninth vow's closing claim, that "awakening belongs to sentient beings" and that no bodhisattva could become a buddha without them, is this chapter's most direct statement of why the entire path exists for the sake of beings rather than despite them.
1. Eighth Vow — Always Following the Buddha's Learning
「復次，善男子！言常隨佛學者：如此娑婆世界毘盧遮那如來，從初發心精進不退，以不可說不可說身命而為布施；剝皮為紙，折骨為筆，刺血為墨，書寫經典，積如須彌，為重法故，不惜身命，何況王位、城邑、聚落、宮殿、園林一切所有，及餘種種難行、苦行，乃至樹下成大菩提，示種種神通，起種種變化，現種種佛身，處種種眾會：或處一切諸大菩薩眾會道場，或處聲聞及辟支佛眾會道場，或處轉輪聖王、小王眷屬眾會道場，或處剎利及婆羅門、長者、居士眾會道場，乃至或處天龍八部、人、非人等眾會道場。處於如是種種眾會，以圓滿音，如大雷震，隨其樂欲，成熟眾生，乃至示現入於涅槃。如是一切，我皆隨學。如今世尊毘盧遮那，如是盡法界、虛空界十方三世一切佛剎所有塵中一切如來皆亦如是，於念念中，我皆隨學。如是虛空界盡、眾生界盡、眾生業盡、眾生煩惱盡，我此隨學無有窮盡，念念相續，無有間斷，身、語、意業無有疲厭。」
"Furthermore, good son, as for always following the Buddha's learning: consider Vairocana Tathāgata in this very Sahā world. From his first arousing of the aspiration he pressed forward with diligence and never turned back, giving away bodies and lives beyond number, and beyond number again; he flayed his own skin for paper, split his bones for a pen, and drew his own blood for ink, to write out the scriptures, piling them as high as Mount Sumeru — for the sake of honoring the Dharma he never spared body or life, let alone a throne, a city, a village, a palace, a garden, or anything else he possessed — and he undertook every other kind of difficult and painful practice besides, until at last, beneath a tree, he accomplished great awakening. He displayed every kind of spiritual power, brought forth every kind of transformation, manifested every kind of buddha-body, and appeared in every kind of assembly: in the assembly-halls of great bodhisattvas, of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, of wheel-turning kings and lesser kings with their retinues, of kṣatriyas, brahmins, elders, and householders, and even of the eight kinds of heavenly beings and dragons, humans and non-humans. In every one of these assemblies, with a voice complete and perfect, like a great peal of thunder, he ripened sentient beings according to what they longed for, until finally he manifested his entry into nirvana. All of this, I follow and learn in every particular. And just as the World-Honored One Vairocana did this, so too do all the tathāgatas, in thought after thought, throughout every fine mote of dust in every buddha-land of the ten directions and three time periods, filling the whole Dharma realm and the realm of space — and all of this I follow and learn. And so it continues until the realm of space is exhausted, the realm of sentient beings is exhausted, their karma is exhausted, and their afflictions are exhausted — this following and learning of mine can never be exhausted, thought after thought continuing without a break, my deeds of body, speech, and mind never growing weary."
Chengguan traces this vow's most startling image — Vairocana flaying his own skin for paper, splitting bone for a pen, drawing blood for ink — to a specific story he cites from the Sūtra of the Samādhi that Gathers All Merit. In a past life, as a forest sage named Most Excellent, the Buddha-to-be searched every town and village for anyone able to teach him the Dharma. A demon, testing him, offered a single verse of a buddha's own teaching — on the condition that the sage flay his own skin for paper, draw his blood for ink, and split his bone for a pen to write it down before hearing it. The sage agreed at once, reasoning that he had already endured mutilation countless times over countless lifetimes for no purpose at all, and would gladly trade a body that was never going to last regardless for the wondrous Dharma. At the sight of his resolve, the demon — whose trial had been the real obstacle all along, not the mutilation itself — fled in dismay, and a buddha named Sovereign of Pure Fame appeared, healed the sage's body on the spot, and taught him the samādhi in full.
Chengguan draws two lessons from the story, offered as two different ways of reading it. Read at face value, it teaches that anyone who genuinely honors the search for the Dharma will find that the teaching never actually disappears and the teacher never actually withholds it, however forbidding the search may look from outside. Read contemplatively, it teaches something sharper: examined closely, the skin and bone given away in the story have no fixed self at all — so what the sage actually surrenders is never anything more solid than an idea of a self that was never really there to lose. On this second reading, the vow's real content is not a call to literal self-mutilation, but the recognition that nothing genuinely one's own stands between a practitioner and the Dharma except the belief that something does.
2. Ninth Vow — According Constantly with All Sentient Beings (I)
「復次，善男子！言恆順眾生者：謂盡法界、虛空界十方剎海，所有眾生種種差別，所謂：卵生、胎生、濕生、化生，或有依於地、水、火、風而生住者，或有依空及諸卉木而生住者，種種生類、種種色身、種種形狀、種種相貌、種種壽量、種種族類、種種名號、種種心性、種種知見、種種欲樂、種種意行、種種威儀、種種衣服、種種飲食，處於種種村營、聚落、城邑、宮殿，乃至一切天龍八部、人、非人等，無足、二足、四足、多足，有色、無色，有想、無想、非有想、非無想，如是等類，我皆於彼隨順而轉，種種承事，種種供養，如敬父母，如奉師長，及阿羅漢乃至如來，等無有異。於諸病苦為作良醫，於失道者示其正路，於闇夜中為作光明，於貧窮者令得伏藏，菩薩如是平等饒益一切眾生。何以故？菩薩若能隨順眾生，則為隨順供養諸佛；若於眾生尊重承事，則為尊重承事如來；若令眾生生歡喜者，則令一切如來歡喜。」
"Furthermore, good son, as for according constantly with all sentient beings: throughout every ocean of lands filling the whole Dharma realm and the realm of space in the ten directions, sentient beings differ in every conceivable way — born from eggs, born from wombs, born from moisture, born by transformation; some living dependent on earth, water, fire, or wind, some dependent on space or on grasses and trees — every kind of species, every kind of body, every kind of shape and appearance, every kind of lifespan, lineage, and name, every kind of temperament, understanding, desire, intention, and demeanor, every kind of clothing and food, dwelling in every kind of hamlet, village, city, or palace — down to all the eight kinds of heavenly beings and dragons, humans and non-humans, the footless, the two-footed, the four-footed, and the many-footed, those with form and those without form, those with perception, those without perception, and those neither with nor entirely without perception. Toward every being of every such kind, I accord with them and turn according to their needs, serving them in every way and making offerings to them in every way — honoring them exactly as I would honor my own father and mother, exactly as I would revere my own teachers and elders, arhats, and even tathāgatas, with no distinction whatsoever. For those afflicted with sickness and suffering I become a skilled physician; for those who have lost their way I point out the correct path; in the darkness of night I become a light; for those in poverty I cause them to discover a hidden treasure. In this way the bodhisattva benefits all sentient beings equally. Why is this? If a bodhisattva is able to accord with sentient beings, this is itself according with and making offerings to all buddhas; if one honors and serves sentient beings, this is itself honoring and serving the Tathāgatas; if one brings joy to sentient beings, this itself brings joy to every tathāgata."
Chengguan meets the natural objection to this vow's central claim — that pleasing a sentient being is not merely similar to pleasing a buddha, but identical to it — with an image drawn from earlier in the Avataṃsaka's own account of the ocean of fragrant water that supports Mount Sumeru and the four continents. That ocean, utterly calm and clear, holds within it the reflected image of every mountain, every sun and moon, every being and every dwelling in the world above it. Mistake the reflection for a separate being, or the world above for something apart from the sea that mirrors it, and the mistake is not a small one — it means missing not only what the reflection is, but what the ocean itself is, since (as the sūtra elsewhere uses this same ocean's ten qualities to describe the ten bodhisattva grounds) the reflected image and the water's own nature were never actually two things to begin with. A buddha's enlightenment, on Chengguan's reading, works exactly this way: sentient beings are not separate from it, any more than a reflected mountain is separate from the sea holding its image. Serving a sentient being is therefore not a substitute for serving a buddha, and not merely equivalent to it in effect — it simply is serving a buddha, described from the one angle at which the two could ever appear to be different things at all.
3. Ninth Vow — According Constantly with All Sentient Beings (II): The Bodhi Tree in the Wilderness
「何以故？諸佛如來以大悲心而為體故。因於眾生而起大悲，因於大悲生菩提心，因菩提心成等正覺。譬如曠野沙磧之中有大樹王，若根得水，枝葉、華果悉皆繁茂。生死曠野菩提樹王，亦復如是。一切眾生而為樹根，諸佛菩薩而為華果，以大悲水饒益眾生，則能成就諸佛菩薩智慧華果。何以故？若諸菩薩以大悲水饒益眾生，則能成就阿耨多羅三藐三菩提故。是故菩提屬於眾生，若無眾生，一切菩薩終不能成無上正覺。善男子！汝於此義應如是解。以於眾生心平等故，則能成就圓滿大悲，以大悲心隨眾生故，則能成就供養如來。菩薩如是隨順眾生，虛空界盡、眾生界盡、眾生業盡、眾生煩惱盡，我此隨順無有窮盡，念念相續，無有間斷，身、語、意業無有疲厭。」
"Why is this? Because all buddhas and tathāgatas take great compassion as their very substance. It is because of sentient beings that great compassion arises; it is because of great compassion that the mind of awakening arises; and it is because of the mind of awakening that perfect awakening is accomplished. It is like a great tree king standing in a wilderness of sand and waste: if its roots receive water, its branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit all flourish in abundance. The bodhi tree king in the wilderness of birth and death is exactly the same. All sentient beings are its roots; all buddhas and bodhisattvas are its flowers and fruit. By nourishing sentient beings with the water of great compassion, one is able to bring the flowers and fruit of the buddhas' and bodhisattvas' wisdom to completion. Why is this? Because if bodhisattvas nourish sentient beings with the water of great compassion, they are thereby able to accomplish unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. And so awakening belongs to sentient beings — without sentient beings, no bodhisattva could ever accomplish unsurpassed, perfect awakening. Good son, you should understand this point exactly so: because one holds an equal mind toward all sentient beings, one is able to bring great compassion to its complete fulfillment; and because one accords with sentient beings through this great compassionate mind, one is able to accomplish the offering made to the Tathāgatas. Thus does the bodhisattva accord with sentient beings. And so it continues until the realm of space is exhausted, the realm of sentient beings is exhausted, their karma is exhausted, and their afflictions are exhausted — this according of mine can never be exhausted, thought after thought continuing without a break, my deeds of body, speech, and mind never growing weary."
Chengguan maps this vow's central parable element by element, so that what reads as a simple image becomes a precise diagram of the whole path. The "wilderness," stretching out with nothing to depend on, is the ordinary condition of birth and death; the "sand and waste" within it, unable to nourish anything at all, is the absence of any root of goodness; the "tree king" itself is the Dharma of awakening — its branches and leaves are wisdom and meditative stability, its flowers are the bodhisattva's own cultivation, and its fruit is the buddhas who have already realized this same path to completion. Sentient beings are the roots, holding the whole tree in the ground; great compassion is the water without which no root, however deep, can support any growth whatsoever.
Read this way, the vow's most provocative line — that "awakening belongs to sentient beings," and that no bodhisattva could ever become a buddha if sentient beings did not exist — is not rhetorical excess but the parable's literal conclusion. A tree's fruit does not compete with its roots for importance, or exist as some separate reward standing apart from them; the fruit is simply what the roots become, once properly watered. This, on Chengguan's reading, is also why great compassion is named the very substance (體) of every buddha rather than merely one quality among others: water is not one ingredient in a fruit's ripening alongside several interchangeable others, but the single condition without which nothing else in the tree — root, branch, leaf, or flower — can do its own work at all.