The Final Twenty States, and the Five Layers of False Thought

Translated in the first year of the Shénlóng era of the great Tang dynasty [705 CE], the year in the cycle being yǐsì, on the twenty-third day of the fifth month, by the central-Indian monk Paramiti, at the Zhìzhǐ place of practice in Guangzhou. Taken down and polished in writing by the bodhisattva-precept disciple and former Grand Master of Remonstrance and joint chancellor Fang Rong of Qinghe. Rendered into spoken translation by the monk Meghaśikha of Oḍḍiyāna.

"Ānanda, once this good person, cultivating samādhi, has exhausted the aggregate of perception, their ordinary dreaming thoughts dissolve away, so that waking and sleeping become exactly the same state. Awakened brightness becomes empty and still, like a clear sky, with no more coarse shadow-images of past objects remaining; observing the great earth, mountains, and rivers of the world becomes like a bright mirror reflecting things — what comes leaves no trace clinging to it, what passes leaves no residue behind. Receiving and responding entirely empty of content, every trace of old habitual tendency dissolved, only a single, essential truth remains — and it is from this point that the very root of arising and ceasing itself is finally laid bare. ... [Every kind of being throughout the ten directions is seen at once, though not yet each one's individual thread of destiny —] like heat-shimmer flickering over open country, the finest, most restless hinge underlying every coarse sense-faculty and sense-object. This is called the boundary of the aggregate of formations. Once this flickering, restless original nature settles into its own original stillness, and that stillness absorbs its own original habitual tendency, like waves subsiding into still water, this is called the exhaustion of the aggregate of formations, and such a person can transcend the turbidity of sentient existence itself. Examining its cause, this aggregate is rooted in hidden, deeply concealed false thought."

"Ānanda, these ten wild interpretations in meditation are all produced by the interaction of effort and the aggregate of formations, and so these particular realizations appear. Beings, stubborn and confused, fail to measure themselves honestly; meeting these states, they mistake confusion for genuine understanding, declaring themselves to have ascended to sagehood — committing the offense of great false speech, and falling into the unrelenting hell for it. You must take these very words of the Tathāgata and, after my passing, transmit them throughout the age of the Dharma's decline, so that every being everywhere may awaken to this teaching. Do not let a self-generated demon of the mind take root and grow — instead protect and guide practitioners, dissolve wrong views at their source, and teach them, in both body and mind, to awaken to the true meaning, so that they meet no forked path on the unsurpassed way. Do not let their own hearts settle for some small attainment as though it were complete — hold up instead the pure standard of the great, awakened king himself."

"Ānanda, once this good person, cultivating samādhi, has exhausted the aggregate of formations, the hidden, subtle, restless hinge underlying every being's shared basis of life suddenly splits apart and falls away — the deep, fine web of thread by which each individual being responds to and receives the fruit of its own karma is abruptly severed. At this point, on the very verge of nirvāṇa's own dawning, it is like the moment just before daybreak: looking toward the east, one already glimpses the first traces of color. The six sense-faculties become empty and still, no longer racing outward; both within and without, everything becomes translucent, entering a state where there is nothing further left to enter, and one comes to understand deeply, throughout the ten directions, the root cause behind all twelve categories of birth receiving their particular span of life. ... This is called the boundary of the aggregate of consciousness. Once, amid this shared origin common to every summoned kind of being, the six sense-gates are ground down until opening and closing become one and the same, seeing and hearing interchange and interpenetrate in perfect purity, and the worlds of the ten directions, together with one's own body and mind, become like clear glass, transparent within and without — this is called the exhaustion of the aggregate of consciousness, and such a person can transcend the turbidity of life-span itself. Examining its cause, this aggregate is rooted in formless, empty, inverted false thought."

"Ānanda, in each of these ten states, meditation goes astray midway through, deluded by relying on some particular condition, giving rise to a false sense of completion at a point that is not yet complete at all — all of it produced by the interaction of effort and the aggregate of consciousness, and so these particular positions arise. Beings, stubborn and confused, fail to measure themselves honestly; meeting these states, each settles into whatever confused mind their own prior inclination favors, taking it as the ultimate resting place, and declaring themselves to have fulfilled the unsurpassed bodhi — committing the offense of great false speech. Whether drawn by non-Buddhist teachings or deviant demonic influence, once their allotted karma is exhausted, they fall into the unrelenting hell; śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas caught here likewise fail to advance any further."

"You must hold fast to the Tathāgata's own path, and, after my passing, transmit this teaching throughout the age of the Dharma's decline, so that every being everywhere awakens to this meaning. Do not let a view-generated demon take root in one's own mind — instead protect, comfort, and rescue practitioners, dissolving deviant conditions at their source, and lead them, in both body and mind, into the Buddha's own knowledge and vision, so that they reach completion from the very start without meeting a single forked path. This very teaching is the one by which countless buddhas, numerous as dust motes across kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges in ages past, opened their own minds and attained the unsurpassed path. Once the aggregate of consciousness is exhausted, all your sense-faculties presently before you interchange freely with one another. From this free interchange, you become able to enter the bodhisattvas' own vajra-like dry wisdom. This perfect, bright, essential mind then unfolds its own transformation from within, like a precious moon held within pure, clear lapis lazuli. In just this way you pass beyond the ten faiths, the ten abidings, the ten practices, the ten transferences, the four aids to penetration, the bodhisattvas' own vajra-like ten grounds, and equal enlightenment's own perfect brightness, entering at last the Tathāgata's own ocean of wondrous adornment — perfect, complete bodhi, arriving finally at a place where there is nothing further to attain at all!"

"This is the detailed analysis, made by every past buddha and World-Honored One within śamatha and vipaśyanā, of these subtle demonic affairs. When a demonic state appears, if you are able to recognize it clearly, the defilements of your mind are washed away, and you do not fall into wrong views. The demons rooted in your own aggregates dissolve; heavenly demons are shattered; powerful ghosts and spirits lose their nerve and flee; mountain goblins and nature-spirits find no further opening to arise at all. You proceed straight on to bodhi, lacking nothing whatsoever. Even those of lesser capacity continue to advance, their minds never confused or troubled regarding the great nirvāṇa.

"But if, in the final age, there are beings dull and slow of understanding, who do not yet recognize true meditation or know how to explain the Dharma, yet still love to cultivate samādhi — fearing they may fall into deviant paths without realizing it, urge them with your whole heart to hold the dhāraṇī of the Buddha's own crown. Even if they cannot yet recite it, let them write it out and keep it in the meditation hall, or wear it on the body — and no demon whatsoever will be able to move them. You should hold in the deepest reverence this final teaching, the ultimate guidance for cultivation and advancement handed down by every Tathāgata of the ten directions."

Ānanda rose at once from his seat, and, having heard the Buddha's teaching, bowed reverently, taking it fully to heart without the slightest loss. In the midst of the assembly he addressed the Buddha once more: "As the Buddha has said, within the marks of the five aggregates, there are five kinds of false thought serving as their root — but we have never before received the Tathāgata's own detailed explanation of this. Are these five aggregates removed all at once, or exhausted one after another in sequence? And where, exactly, does the boundary lie between each of these five layers? I beg only that the Tathāgata, in great compassion, open our minds and eyes clearly on this point, to serve as a guiding light for every being of the age to come."

The Buddha said to Ānanda: "The essential, true, wondrously bright original awakening is perfectly pure of itself, retaining nothing of birth, death, or any worldly defilement at all — even empty space itself arises only because of false thought. It is this same original awakening, wondrously bright, essentially true, that falsely gives rise to every world of physical containers, exactly as Yajñadatta, in his confusion, mistook his own reflection for his lost head. Falseness has no cause of its own to begin with; it is only within false thought that the very principle of causation is established. And one who, in turn, remains confused about causation itself calls whatever remains simply 'spontaneous.' Yet even that quality of emptiness is itself already something falsely conjured — both 'caused' and 'spontaneous' are nothing but calculations made by the deluded minds of sentient beings. ... This is exactly why the Tathāgata reveals to you that the root cause of all five aggregates alike is false thought."

"Ānanda, these five aggregates one clings to are all formed from these five false thoughts. If you now wish to know the relative depth of each one's own domain: form and emptiness alone mark the outer edge of the aggregate of form; contact and its absence alone mark the edge of sensation; remembering and forgetting alone mark the edge of perception; ceasing and arising alone mark the edge of formations; and returning into stillness, merging fully with that stillness, marks the edge of consciousness. These five aggregates arise layered, one upon another — their arising is rooted in consciousness, and their cessation must proceed by removing form first. In principle, this can be awakened to all at once, and, riding that single awakening, all five may dissolve together; but in actual practice, they are not removed all at once — they are exhausted one by one, in sequence. I have already shown you, in the parable of the knotted cloth, exactly this same point — what remains unclear, that you should ask again? You should take this understanding of the very root of false thought and open it up fully in your own mind, then transmit it to every practitioner of the age of the Dharma's decline yet to come, so that they recognize falseness for what it is, grow deeply weary of its arising within themselves, and, knowing that nirvāṇa exists, no longer cling with longing to the three realms."

"Ānanda, suppose someone were to fill the whole of empty space throughout the ten directions with the seven treasures, and offer it all up to buddhas as numerous as dust motes, honoring and making offerings to each one without a single moment wasted — what do you think? Would such a person, through this cause of giving to buddhas, gain great merit?" Ānanda answered: "Empty space itself is endless, and its treasures beyond number ... how, then, could such merit have any limit at all?"

The Buddha said to Ānanda: "The words of every buddha and Tathāgata are never false. Suppose, instead, that someone guilty of the four gravest offenses and the ten pārājika transgressions were, in a single instant, to pass through the Avīci hells of this world and of every other world, exhausting every unrelenting hell throughout the ten directions without exception — yet were able, with but a single thought, to explain this very teaching to someone not yet trained in it, sometime in the final kalpa. That person's own karmic obstructions would dissolve the very instant of that thought, transforming the causes of hellish suffering they were to undergo into a land of peace and joy, and the merit gained would surpass that of the person who gave all those treasures by a hundred times, a thousand times, a thousand million times over — beyond anything that number or comparison could ever measure."

"Ānanda, if there are beings able to recite this sūtra and hold this mantra, were I to explain their merit in full, I could speak for a whole kalpa and never exhaust it. Rely on my teaching, and practice the path exactly as taught, and you will proceed straight to bodhi, with no further demonic hindrance at all."

When the Buddha had finished speaking this sūtra, the monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen; every being of the world — devas, humans, and asuras; bodhisattvas and śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas from other worlds; sages, immortals, and youths; and the powerful ghosts and spirits newly resolved on bodhi — all rejoiced greatly, bowed in reverence, and departed.