What It Means to Embrace the True Dharma
Every vow a bodhisattva could make, Śrīmālā has already said, folds into one: embracing the true Dharma. Now she explains what that single practice actually consists of — through clouds, a water-mass, an earth that bears four burdens and holds four treasures, and finally an outright identity with the six pāramitās themselves.
One Vow Contains Every Vow
爾時，勝鬘白佛言：「我今當復承佛威神，說調伏大願真實無異。」佛告勝鬘：「恣聽汝說。」勝鬘白佛：「菩薩所有恒沙諸願，一切皆入一大願中，所謂攝受正法。攝受正法，真為大願。」
佛讚勝鬘：「善哉善哉！智慧方便甚深微妙，汝已長夜殖諸善本，來世眾生久種善根者，乃能解汝所說。汝之所說攝受正法，皆是過去、未來、現在諸佛已說、今說、當說。我今得無上菩提，亦常說此攝受正法，如是我說：『攝受正法所有功德不得邊際，如來智慧辯才亦無邊際。何以故？是攝受正法有大功德有大利益。』」
勝鬘白佛：「我當承佛神力，更復演說攝受正法廣大之義。」佛言：「便說。」勝鬘白佛：「攝受正法廣大義者，則是無量，得一切佛法，攝八萬四千法門。譬如劫初成時，普興大雲，雨眾色雨及種種寶。如是攝受正法，雨無量福報及無量善根之雨。
Then Śrīmālā said to the Buddha: "I will now, relying once more on the Buddha's own majestic power, speak of the true and unchanging vow of self-discipline." The Buddha said to Śrīmālā: "Speak freely, and let me hear it." Śrīmālā said to the Buddha: "Every one of the Ganges-sands of vows a bodhisattva might make all enter into a single great vow — namely, embracing the true Dharma. Embracing the true Dharma is truly the great vow."
The Buddha praised Śrīmālā: "Excellent, excellent! Your wisdom and skillful means are profound and subtle indeed. Through the long night of countless ages you have already planted every root of goodness; only beings of the future who have likewise cultivated roots of goodness for a long time will be able to understand what you have said. What you call embracing the true Dharma has been spoken by every buddha of the past, is spoken by every buddha of the present, and will be spoken by every buddha of the future. Now that I have attained unsurpassed bodhi, I too constantly speak of this embracing the true Dharma, and I say just as you do: 'The virtue that belongs to embracing the true Dharma has no limit at all, and the Tathāgata's wisdom and eloquence likewise have no limit. Why is this? Because this embracing of the true Dharma carries great virtue and great benefit.'"
Śrīmālā said to the Buddha: "Relying on the Buddha's spiritual power, I will further explain the vast meaning of embracing the true Dharma." The Buddha said: "Then speak." Śrīmālā said to the Buddha: "The vast meaning of embracing the true Dharma is immeasurable: it obtains every buddha-dharma, and gathers in all eighty-four thousand teachings. It is like the great clouds that arise when a kalpa first forms, raining down every kind of colored rain and every kind of treasure; just so, embracing the true Dharma rains down immeasurable blessings and an immeasurable rain of roots of goodness."
Jizang defines "embracing" (攝受) itself before he lets any simile explain it: true embracing is the state in which neither wisdom nor its object is grasped as a separate thing — "if wisdom illuminates and principle is illuminated, that is not yet called embracing; only when the one who sees and what is seen are both at rest is it called embracing the true Dharma" (能所並冥，境智俱寂，乃名攝受正法). He frames this with the same paradox already met in Part 1 — not-two-yet-two, two-yet-not-two — citing the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra's line that a bodhisattva "corresponds with prajñā, yet does not see any correspondence or non-correspondence," and the *Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom*'s formula for the middle way itself: "true reality is not prajñā, yet it gives rise to prajñā — dependence is one extreme, contemplation is the other extreme; though these are two extremes, this itself is called the middle way." Embracing the true Dharma, on this reading, is not one more virtuous activity among others so much as the name for right contemplation exercised at all — which is also why Śrīmālā can say, a few lines on, that it is identical with the six pāramitās rather than merely productive of them.
The Water-Mass, and the Earth's Two Fours
「世尊！又如劫初成時，有大水聚，出生三千大千界藏及四百億種種類洲。如是攝受正法，出生大乘無量界藏：一切菩薩神通之力；一切世間安隱快樂；一切世間如意自在；及出世間安樂劫成，乃至天人本所未得，皆於中出。
「又如大地持四重擔。何等為四？一者大海，二者諸山，三者草木，四者眾生。如是攝受正法善男子善女人，建立大地，堪能荷負四種重任，喻彼大地。何等為四？謂離善知識、無聞非法眾生，以人天善根而成熟之；求聲聞者授聲聞乘；求緣覺者授緣覺乘；求大乘者授以大乘。是名攝受正法善男子善女人建立大地，堪能荷負四種重任。世尊！如是攝受正法善男子善女人建立大地，堪能荷負四種重任，普為眾生作不請之友，大悲安慰哀愍眾生，為世法母。
「又如大地有四種寶藏。何等為四？一者無價，二者上價，三者中價，四者下價，是名大地四種寶藏。如是攝受正法善男子善女人建立大地，得眾生四種最上大寶。何等為四？攝受正法善男子善女人，無聞非法眾生，以人天功德善根而授與之；求聲聞者授聲聞乘；求緣覺者授緣覺乘；求大乘者授以大乘。如是得大寶眾生，皆由攝受正法善男子善女人得此奇特希有功德。世尊！大寶藏者，即是攝受正法。」
"World-Honored One! And it is like the great mass of water that arises when a kalpa first forms, giving rise to the treasury-realm of the three-thousandfold great chiliocosm and to four hundred million kinds of continents; just so, embracing the true Dharma gives rise to the immeasurable treasury-realm of the Mahāyāna: the spiritual power of every bodhisattva; the peace and happiness of every world; the mastery every world has over its own wishes; and even the peace of a whole supramundane kalpa's own formation — everything that gods and men have never before attained emerges from within it.
"And it is like the great earth, which bears four heavy burdens. What are the four? The first is the great ocean, the second is the mountains, the third is plants and trees, and the fourth is living beings. Just so, the good sons and daughters who embrace the true Dharma establish themselves as the great earth, able to bear four such heavy burdens, matching that great earth itself. What are the four? Beings apart from good spiritual friends, who have heard nothing and know no dharma, they bring to maturity through the roots of goodness proper to gods and humans; those who seek the śrāvaka vehicle, they give the śrāvaka vehicle; those who seek the pratyekabuddha vehicle, they give the pratyekabuddha vehicle; and those who seek the Mahāyāna, they give the Mahāyāna. This is what it means for the good sons and daughters who embrace the true Dharma to establish themselves as the great earth, able to bear these four heavy burdens. World-Honored One! Good sons and daughters who embrace the true Dharma in this way, establishing themselves as the great earth able to bear these four heavy burdens, become an uninvited friend to every being everywhere, comforting them with great compassion and pity, and becoming a mother to the Dharma of the world.
"And it is like the great earth, which holds four kinds of treasure-store. What are the four? The first is priceless, the second is of the highest price, the third of a middling price, and the fourth of a lesser price — these are the great earth's four treasure-stores. Just so, the good sons and daughters who embrace the true Dharma, establishing themselves as the great earth, obtain for beings four supreme, great treasures. What are the four? The good sons and daughters who embrace the true Dharma give, to beings who have heard nothing and know no dharma, the meritorious roots of goodness proper to gods and humans; to those who seek the śrāvaka vehicle, the śrāvaka vehicle; to those who seek the pratyekabuddha vehicle, the pratyekabuddha vehicle; and to those who seek the Mahāyāna, the Mahāyāna. Every being who obtains such a great treasure does so entirely through the good sons and daughters who embrace the true Dharma, who thereby attain this rare and extraordinary virtue. World-Honored One! The great treasure-store is nothing other than embracing the true Dharma itself."
Embracing the True Dharma Is the Six Pāramitās
「世尊！攝受正法，攝受正法者，無異正法，無異攝受正法，正法即是攝受正法。世尊！無異波羅蜜，無異攝受正法，攝受正法即是波羅蜜。何以故？攝受正法善男子善女人，應以施成熟者以施成熟，乃至捨身支節將護彼意而成熟之。彼所成熟眾生建立正法，是名檀波羅蜜。
「應以戒成熟者，以守護六根，淨身口意業，乃至正四威儀，將護彼意而成熟之。彼所成熟眾生建立正法，是名尸波羅蜜。
「應以忍成熟者，若彼眾生罵詈、毀辱、誹謗、恐怖，以無恚心、饒益心，第一忍力乃至顏色無變，將護彼意而成熟之。彼所成熟眾生建立正法，是名羼提波羅蜜。
「應以精進成熟者，於彼眾生不起懈心，生大欲心第一精進，乃至若四威儀，將護彼意而成熟之。彼所成熟眾生建立正法，是名毘梨耶波羅蜜。
「應以禪成熟者，於彼眾生以不亂心、不外向心，第一正念乃至久時所作、久時所說終不忘失，將護彼意而成熟之。彼所成熟眾生建立正法，是名禪波羅蜜。
「應以智慧成熟者，彼諸眾生問一切義，以無畏心而為演說，一切論、一切工巧，究竟明處，乃至種種工巧諸事，將護彼意而成熟之。彼所成熟眾生建立正法，是名般若波羅蜜。
「是故世尊！無異波羅蜜，無異攝受正法，攝受正法即是波羅蜜。」
"World-Honored One! Embracing the true Dharma — the one who embraces the true Dharma is no different from the true Dharma, and the true Dharma is no different from embracing the true Dharma; the true Dharma is itself embracing the true Dharma. World-Honored One! The pāramitās are no different, and embracing the true Dharma is no different — embracing the true Dharma is itself the pāramitās. Why is this? The good sons and daughters who embrace the true Dharma, when beings should be brought to maturity through giving, bring them to maturity through giving, even to the point of giving up their own body and limbs, holding and protecting the other's intention so as to bring them to maturity. Establishing the true Dharma in the beings thus brought to maturity — this is called the pāramitā of giving.
"When beings should be brought to maturity through discipline, they guard the six sense-faculties, purify the karma of body, speech, and mind, down to keeping the four dignified postures correct, holding and protecting the other's intention so as to bring them to maturity. Establishing the true Dharma in the beings thus brought to maturity — this is called the pāramitā of discipline.
"When beings should be brought to maturity through patience, and those beings curse, insult, slander, or threaten her, she meets them with a mind free of anger, a mind that seeks only their benefit, with supreme patience, not even changing the color of her face, holding and protecting the other's intention so as to bring them to maturity. Establishing the true Dharma in the beings thus brought to maturity — this is called the pāramitā of patience.
"When beings should be brought to maturity through diligence, she never gives rise to a mind of laziness toward them, but generates a mind of great aspiration and supreme diligence, down to every one of the four dignified postures, holding and protecting the other's intention so as to bring them to maturity. Establishing the true Dharma in the beings thus brought to maturity — this is called the pāramitā of diligence.
"When beings should be brought to maturity through meditation, she meets them with a mind that is never disordered and never turns outward, with supreme right mindfulness, never for a long time forgetting what she has done or what she has said, holding and protecting the other's intention so as to bring them to maturity. Establishing the true Dharma in the beings thus brought to maturity — this is called the pāramitā of meditation.
"When beings should be brought to maturity through wisdom, and they ask about every meaning, she answers with a mind free of fear, expounding every treatise and every skill down to the most complete clarity, and every kind of skilled work besides, holding and protecting the other's intention so as to bring them to maturity. Establishing the true Dharma in the beings thus brought to maturity — this is called the pāramitā of wisdom.
"Therefore, World-Honored One, the pāramitās are no different, and embracing the true Dharma is no different — embracing the true Dharma is itself the pāramitās."
A natural objection: if embracing the true Dharma is one unified act of insight, how can it "contain" six distinct practices? Jizang's answer is that it is one and the same right contemplation, named differently depending only on which of its own functions is being emphasized: "in terms of stopping evil it is called discipline; in terms of realizing stillness it is called meditation; in terms of illuminating it is called wisdom; in terms of reaching the far shore it is called pāramitā" (止惡義邊說名為戒、證靜義邊名之為定、能照義邊稱之為慧、達到義邊即波羅蜜) — one wisdom-substance, embracing every practice at once.
Taking dāna as the paradigm case, Jizang explains how the bodhisattva's mind of ultimate reality lets the three factors of any act of giving — giver, gift, and recipient — remain phenomenally distinct while never actually being anything other than the fourfold-negated absolute: "though the three factors are plainly present, they are ever the fourfold-negated; hence dāna is identical with reality" (雖三事宛然，常是四絕，故檀即實相). He then extends the same reasoning to the other five pāramitās by analogy rather than repeating the argument six times over. He also corrects a possible misreading of the recurring phrase "should be brought to maturity through X": it does not mean the bodhisattva teaches stingy beings to give, or teaches undisciplined beings to keep precepts — it means she demonstrates the practice herself, in whatever specific way a given being needs to witness it in order to awaken: a being attached to wealth needs to see her actually give; a being who doubts patience is possible needs to see her face remain unchanged under real abuse.
Three Renunciations: Body, Life, and Wealth
「世尊！我今承佛威神，更說大義。」佛言：「便說。」勝鬘白佛：「攝受正法攝受正法者，無異攝受正法，無異攝受正法者。攝受正法善男子善女人，即是攝受正法。何以故？若攝受正法善男子善女人，為攝受正法，捨三種分。何等為三？謂：身、命、財。善男子善女人捨身者，生死後際等，離老病死，得不壞常住、無有變易、不可思議功德如來法身。捨命者，生死後際等，畢竟離死，得無邊常住不可思議功德，通達一切甚深佛法。捨財者，生死後際等，得不共一切眾生、無盡無減、畢竟常住、不可思議具足功德，得一切眾生殊勝供養。世尊！如是捨三分善男子善女人，攝受正法，常為一切諸佛所記，一切眾生之所瞻仰。」
"World-Honored One! I will now, relying on the Buddha's majestic power, speak further of this great meaning." The Buddha said: "Then speak." Śrīmālā said to the Buddha: "Embracing the true Dharma — the one who embraces the true Dharma is no different from embracing the true Dharma itself; there is no one who embraces the true Dharma apart from it. The good sons and daughters who embrace the true Dharma are themselves embracing the true Dharma. Why is this? If good sons and daughters who embrace the true Dharma, for the sake of embracing the true Dharma, give up three portions — what are the three? Body, life, and wealth. A good son or daughter who gives up the body reaches the final limit of birth-and-death, leaves behind old age, sickness, and death, and attains the indestructible, ever-abiding, unchanging, inconceivably virtuous dharmakāya of the Tathāgata. One who gives up life reaches the final limit of birth-and-death, is at last entirely free of death itself, and attains boundless, ever-abiding, inconceivable virtue, penetrating every profound buddha-dharma. One who gives up wealth reaches the final limit of birth-and-death, and attains virtue shared with no other being, inexhaustible, undiminishing, utterly abiding, inconceivable, and complete, receiving the supreme offerings of every being. World-Honored One! Good sons and daughters who give up these three portions in this way, embracing the true Dharma, are forever recorded by every buddha, and looked up to by every being."
Jizang structures each of the three renunciations around the same triad — the eternal attained, the inconceivable depth attained, and the essence attained — and reads the specific result assigned to each as deliberate, not interchangeable: giving up the body yields the indestructible dharmakāya, because body is what a being clings to as "self"; giving up life yields boundless wisdom-life, glossed as 慧命 ("wisdom as life," since wisdom sustains merit the way ordinary life-force sustains body and mind); and giving up wealth yields Dharma-wealth reversing the five defects of worldly wealth — shared among many, subject to seizure, subject to depletion, impermanent, and lacking any real excellence. He distinguishes giving up the body from giving up life by intention rather than by outcome: in the well-known story of a bodhisattva throwing himself to a starving tiger, life is in fact lost, but the governing intention was "giving the body" (肉施彼，意在施身也) — the two renunciations can coincide in a single act while remaining conceptually distinct.
The phrase "生死後際等" (reaching the final limit of birth-and-death, repeated for all three renunciations) draws a genuine scholarly debate that Jizang surveys rather than settling with a single answer: does "final limit" mean the vajra-samādhi stage just before buddhahood, or does it mean nirvāṇa itself, which ends saṃsāra outright? His own resolution treats saṃsāra as unfolding across three periods — past, present, and future — and since the future period is inexhaustible by nature, a vow matched to it is likewise inexhaustible without needing to terminate at any literal endpoint, the same sense in which the *Ten Grounds Sūtra*'s ten "inexhaustible vows" never require an actual final moment of completion to count as genuine.
When the Dharma Nears Its End
「世尊！又善男子善女人攝受正法者，法欲滅時，比丘、比丘尼、優婆塞、優婆夷，朋黨諍訟，破壞離散。以不諂曲、不欺誑、不幻偽，愛樂正法，攝受正法入法朋中。入法朋者，必為諸佛之所授記。世尊！我見攝受正法如是大力，佛為實眼實智，為法根本、為通達法、為正法依，亦悉知見。」
"World-Honored One! And when good sons and daughters who embrace the true Dharma see that, as the Dharma is about to perish, monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen have formed factions and disputes, breaking apart and scattering, they — free of flattery, free of deceit, free of falsehood, loving and delighting in the true Dharma — embrace the true Dharma and enter the fellowship of the Dharma. Whoever enters the fellowship of the Dharma will surely be given a prediction by every buddha. World-Honored One! Seeing that embracing the true Dharma has such great power as this — the Buddha, being the real eye and the real wisdom, the root of the Dharma, the one who penetrates the Dharma, the very ground the true Dharma rests on — he too knows and sees all of this completely."
Jizang assigns each term in "factions, disputes, breaking apart, scattering" to a specific kind of corruption: factionalism corrupts mind, disputes corrupt speech, and breaking apart and scattering corrupt the body. He supports the passage with the *Sūtra of the Benevolent King*'s own simile — that a lion is destroyed not by other beasts but by parasites living within its own body — glossing it directly: "heavenly demons and heretics cannot destroy my Dharma; it is my own four assemblies who can destroy my Dharma" (天魔外道不能殂壞我法，還是我四部弟子能壞我法). Genuine Dharma-protection, on his reading, is three negations paired with three affirmations: not flattering, not deceiving, not being false, in body, speech, and mind — matched to loving the Dharma, embracing the Dharma, and joining its righteous faction. The threat this passage names was never really external.
A Strongman's Touch, the Bull-King, and Mount Sumeru
爾時世尊於勝鬘所說攝受正法大精進力，起隨喜心：「如是勝鬘！如汝所說。攝受正法大精進力，如大力士少觸身分，生大苦痛。如是勝鬘！少攝受正法，令魔苦惱；我不見餘一善法令魔憂苦，如少攝受正法。又如牛王形色無比，勝一切牛；如是大乘少攝受正法，勝於一切二乘善根，以廣大故。又如須彌山王端嚴殊特，勝於眾山；如是大乘捨身、命、財以攝取心攝受正法，勝不捨身、命、財初住大乘一切善根，何況二乘？以廣大故。是故勝鬘！當以攝受正法，開示眾生、教化眾生、建立眾生。如是勝鬘！攝受正法如是大利、如是大福、如是大果。勝鬘！我於阿僧祇阿僧祇劫說：『攝受正法功德義利，不得邊際。』是故攝受正法，有無量無邊功德。」
Then the World-Honored One, moved to rejoice at the great, diligent power Śrīmālā had shown in speaking of embracing the true Dharma, said: "So it is, Śrīmālā, exactly as you have said. The great, diligent power of embracing the true Dharma is like a strongman touching even lightly some part of another's body and causing great pain. Just so, Śrīmālā, even a small amount of embracing the true Dharma torments Māra — I see no other single wholesome dharma that causes Māra such grief as even a little embracing of the true Dharma does. And it is like the bull-king, whose form and color are beyond compare, surpassing every ordinary head of cattle; just so, even a small amount of embracing the true Dharma within the Mahāyāna surpasses every root of goodness of the two lesser vehicles, because of its vastness. And it is like Sumeru, king of mountains, majestic and set apart, surpassing every other mountain; just so, embracing the true Dharma within the Mahāyāna — giving up body, life, and wealth with a mind that gathers all in — surpasses every root of goodness of one who has newly entered the Mahāyāna but has not yet given up body, life, and wealth, let alone the two lesser vehicles — because of its vastness. Therefore, Śrīmālā, you should use embracing the true Dharma to open beings' eyes, to teach and transform them, and to establish them. So it is, Śrīmālā: embracing the true Dharma brings such great benefit, such great blessing, and such great fruit. Śrīmālā, for asaṃkhyeya upon asaṃkhyeya kalpas I have spoken of this: 'The virtue and benefit of embracing the true Dharma has no limit at all.' Therefore embracing the true Dharma has immeasurable, boundless virtue."
Jizang reads these three closing similes as a formal recapitulation of the whole chapter's four earlier topics — principle, practice, fruit, and Dharma-protection — rather than as decoration. On the bull-king simile, he resolves an apparent tension with the Lotus Sūtra, where cattle stand for the two lesser vehicles rather than for the Mahāyāna: the comparisons are simply different in kind. The Lotus contrasts an ox-cart, a deer-cart, and a goat-cart against each other to represent the three vehicles; here the contrast is bull-king against ordinary cattle in general, so the bull-king stands for the Mahāyāna while plain "cattle" stands for the two lesser vehicles — no contradiction, once the two comparisons are seen to be answering different questions. On Sumeru, he records a live dispute over exactly which bodhisattvas count as "not yet having given up body, life, and wealth" — some say those below the eighth ground, others place the line earlier, at bodhisattvas before the first genuine ground, since such practitioners "still cling to characteristics and have little contemplation of emptiness, and so cannot yet give up" (地前菩薩有相心多、學空心少，故不能捨). True to form, Jizang records more than one gloss of the closing "great benefit, great blessing, great fruit" without insisting on a single winner — one reading ties the three to severance, merit, and wisdom respectively; another to eternal body, eternal life, and eternal wealth; a third to benefiting others, merit returning to the bodhisattva, and guaranteed future buddhahood.
Part 3 Complete
This closes Part 3: Śrīmālā's full account of what it means to embrace the true Dharma — clouds, a water-mass, the earth's four burdens and four treasure-stores, an outright identity with the six pāramitās, the three renunciations of body, life, and wealth, and Dharma-protection when the Saṅgha fractures. Part 4 turns to the sūtra's longest chapter, opening with the One Vehicle itself — and the sūtra's first genuinely provocative claim, that an arhat's own "nirvāṇa" is only the Buddha's skillful device.
Continue to Part 4 — The One Vehicle, and Why the Arhat Still Fears →