Two Adornments, One Bodhisattva
Shansheng asks the Buddha a deceptively simple question: how does a bodhisattva adorn both himself and others? The answer given is that two things, and only two, are ever needed — merit and wisdom — but the chapter that follows spends its entire length showing that these two are never actually separable. Giving becomes wisdom the moment it is offered without clinging to friend or enemy; wisdom becomes merit the moment it ripens into wealth and mastery usable for others. What looks at first like a tidy pair turns out, on examination, to be one single quality seen from two directions at once.
1. Milestone: Two Dharmas, Not One and Not Three
The chapter opens by picking up directly from the previous one: having just heard the Buddha praised as the one "fully complete in blessings and wisdom, most honored," Shansheng now asks what that completeness actually consists of. The answer is deliberately narrow — exactly two things, no more and no fewer.
善生言：「世尊！云何菩薩自他莊嚴。」佛言：「善男子！菩薩具足二法，能自他莊嚴：一者、福德，二者、智慧。」
Shansheng said, "World-Honored One, how does a bodhisattva adorn both himself and others?" The Buddha said, "Good son, a bodhisattva who is complete in two dharmas is able to adorn both himself and others: the first is merit; the second is wisdom."
Taixu ties this exchange directly back to the epithet just used of the Buddha a moment earlier in the sutra — "fully complete in blessings and wisdom, most honored" — and reads Shansheng's question as asking, in effect, how an ordinary bodhisattva might walk toward that same completeness. The Buddha's answer matches the epithet exactly: not devotion alone, not meditation alone, not learning alone, but precisely these two, held together.
2. Milestone: Where the Two Adornments Come From
Asked next for the actual mechanism, the Buddha maps the two adornments onto two already-familiar frameworks: the six perfections and the six recollections. Both lists divide neatly in half, three items to merit and three to wisdom.
「世尊！何因緣故得二莊嚴？」「善男子！菩薩修集六波羅蜜，便得如是二種莊嚴。施、戒、精進，名福莊嚴；忍、定、智慧，名智莊嚴。復有六法二莊嚴因，所謂六念：念佛、法、僧，名智莊嚴；念戒、施、天，名福莊嚴。
"World-Honored One, by what causes and conditions does one attain the two adornments?" "Good son, a bodhisattva who cultivates and gathers the six perfections thereby attains these two adornments. Giving, moral discipline, and diligence are called the adornment of merit; patience, meditative concentration, and wisdom are called the adornment of wisdom. There are, further, six dharmas that serve as causes of the two adornments — namely the six recollections: recollecting the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha is called the adornment of wisdom; recollecting moral discipline, giving, and the heavens is called the adornment of merit.
Taixu flags that this particular three-and-three division of the six perfections is only one of several schemes circulating in the tradition — some texts count giving, moral discipline, and patience as merit with wisdom alone as wisdom, treating diligence and concentration as shared between the two; this sutra simply represents one such example among others, and the discrepancy is not a contradiction so much as different commentators cutting the same six perfections along different lines depending on what point they are making.
3. Milestone: How Merit and Wisdom Fold Into Each Other
Having named the two adornments as though they were separate, the sutra immediately begins dissolving the distinction: merit properly understood already is wisdom, and wisdom properly understood already is merit — not two accomplishments running in parallel, but one seen twice.
「善男子！菩薩具足是二莊嚴，能自他利，為諸眾生受三惡苦，而其內心不生憂悔。若能具足是二莊嚴，則得微妙善巧方便，了知世法及出世法。善男子！福德莊嚴即智莊嚴，智慧莊嚴即福莊嚴。何以故？夫智慧者，能修善法具足十善，獲得財富及大自在，得是二故，故能自利及利益他。有智之人，所學世法，於學中勝，以是因緣，便得財富及大自在。菩薩具足如是二法，則能二世自他利益。智者若能分別世法及出世法：世間法者，一切世論、一切世定；出世法者，知陰、入、界。菩薩知是二法因緣，故能二世自他利益。善男子！菩薩雖知世間之樂虛妄非真，而亦能造世樂因緣。何以故？為欲利益諸眾生故。
"Good son, a bodhisattva complete in these two adornments is able to benefit both himself and others: for the sake of all sentient beings he willingly bears the suffering of the three evil destinies, yet his inner mind gives rise to no sorrow or regret. If he can be complete in these two adornments, he gains subtle and skillful expedient means, and comes to understand both worldly dharmas and dharmas that transcend the world. Good son, the adornment of merit is itself the adornment of wisdom, and the adornment of wisdom is itself the adornment of merit. Why is this so? Because one who has wisdom is able to cultivate wholesome dharmas and become complete in the ten wholesome deeds, thereby gaining wealth and great mastery over circumstance; having gained these two, he is able to benefit both himself and others. A person of wisdom excels others in whatever worldly learning he undertakes, and by this very cause and condition he gains wealth and great mastery. A bodhisattva complete in these two dharmas is thus able to bring benefit to both himself and others across two lifetimes. One who is wise is able to distinguish worldly dharmas from world-transcending dharmas: worldly dharmas are all manner of worldly treatises and all manner of worldly meditative attainments; world-transcending dharmas are the knowing of the aggregates, the sense-fields, and the elements. Because the bodhisattva understands the causes and conditions of these two kinds of dharma, he is able to bring benefit to both himself and others across two lifetimes. Good son, although the bodhisattva knows that worldly happiness is illusory and not real, he is nevertheless able to bring about the causes and conditions of worldly happiness. Why is this so? Because he wishes to benefit all sentient beings.
Taixu glosses "two lifetimes" here simply as the present life and the life to come — the bodhisattva's benefit is never confined to the here and now. He also spells out the two technical lists left compressed in the text: the "aggregates" are the five aggregates of form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness; the "sense-fields" are the twelve — the six sense faculties together with their six corresponding objects; and the "elements" are the eighteen, adding the six consciousnesses to that same twelve. Knowing these, he notes, is precisely what "world-transcending dharma" means in this passage — not a rejection of the world, but a clear-eyed analysis of what actually constitutes a person and a world in the first place.
4. Milestone: Two Root Causes, and Two More Dharmas
Beneath the two adornments the sutra places two still more basic causes — loving-kindness and compassion — and then, separately, names two further qualities needed to turn ordinary goodness into something capable of adorning supreme bodhi itself.
「善男子！是二莊嚴，有二正因：一者、慈心，二者、悲心。修是二因，雖復流轉生死苦海，心不生悔。復次，菩薩具足二法而能莊嚴無上菩提：一者、不樂生死，二者、深觀解脫。是故亦能二世利益，了知法相得大智慧，能令自他財命增長。
"Good son, these two adornments have two proper causes: the first is a mind of loving-kindness; the second is a mind of compassion. By cultivating these two causes, even while still turning through the bitter sea of birth and death, the mind gives rise to no regret. Furthermore, a bodhisattva complete in two dharmas is able to adorn unsurpassed bodhi: the first is not delighting in birth and death; the second is deeply contemplating liberation. For this reason he is likewise able to bring benefit across two lifetimes; understanding the true character of all dharmas, he gains great wisdom, and is able to cause both his own and others' wealth and life to increase and flourish.
Taixu is careful about what "not delighting in birth and death" does and does not mean here: the bodhisattva keeps working to save beings from within the very cycle of birth and death, he simply does not become attached to or infatuated with it while doing so. Detachment and continued engagement, on his reading, are not in tension — the bodhisattva stays inside the bitter sea precisely because he is not seduced by it.
5. Milestone: The Two Fields of Giving
The sutra now turns to giving in detail, and introduces a working distinction that will run through much of what follows: gifts made to a "field of blessing" — the Three Jewels, or those worthy of reverence — and gifts made to a "field of the poor," meaning anyone simply in need. Each is given for its own distinct reason.
善男子！菩薩摩訶薩具足二法，一切施時不生憂悔，見眾惡事而能堪忍。菩薩施時，觀二種田：一者、福田，二、貧窮田。菩薩為欲增福德故，施於貧苦；為增無上妙智慧故，施於福田。為報恩故，施於福田；生憐愍故，給施貧窮。捨煩惱故，施於福田；成功德故，施於貧窮。增長一切樂因緣故，施於福田；欲捨一切苦因緣故，施於貧窮。菩薩若施所親愛處，為報恩故；若施怨讎，為除惡故。
"Good son, a great bodhisattva complete in two dharmas gives rise to no sorrow or regret whenever he gives, and is able to bear patiently whatever evil he encounters. When a bodhisattva gives, he contemplates two kinds of field: the first is the field of blessing; the second is the field of the poor. The bodhisattva gives to the poor and suffering in order to increase merit; he gives to the field of blessing in order to increase unsurpassed, wondrous wisdom. He gives to the field of blessing in order to repay kindness; he gives to the poor because a mind of pity has arisen in him. He gives to the field of blessing in order to relinquish affliction; he gives to the poor in order to accomplish merit. He gives to the field of blessing in order to increase the causes and conditions of every happiness; he gives to the poor in order to relinquish the causes and conditions of every suffering. When a bodhisattva gives to those he holds dear, it is in order to repay kindness; when he gives to an enemy, it is in order to remove evil.
Taixu draws out a small but pointed detail here: giving to an enemy is described as a way of "removing evil" — that is, of actually dissolving the enmity itself, not merely tolerating it. The "field of the poor" he glosses plainly as beings who are poor, suffering, and lacking, with no further qualification needed; the point of the whole passage, for him, is that the same act of giving serves entirely different functions depending on where it is directed, so a bodhisattva who understands both fields gives more precisely, not more generously in some vague, undifferentiated sense.
6. Milestone: One Gift, Six Perfections
The chapter now makes an unusually concrete claim: a single, ordinary act of giving, examined closely enough, is already found to contain all six perfections at once — nothing extra needs to be added for the gift to also be discipline, patience, diligence, concentration, and wisdom.
菩薩摩訶薩見來求者，生一子想，是故任力多少施之，是則名為施波羅蜜。菩薩施時，離於慳心，名尸波羅蜜。能忍一切求者之言，名忍波羅蜜。所施之物，手自授與，名精進波羅蜜。至心繫念，觀於解脫，名禪波羅蜜。不擇一切怨親之相，名般若波羅蜜。善男子！如諸眾生，貪心殺時，一念具足十二因緣；菩薩施時，亦復如是，一念具足如是六事。是名功德、智慧莊嚴。
Seeing one who comes to ask of him, the great bodhisattva regards that person exactly as he would his own only child, and so gives according to whatever strength he has, whether much or little — this is called the perfection of giving. When the bodhisattva gives, he is free of a stingy mind — this is called the perfection of moral discipline. He is able to bear patiently whatever words a supplicant may speak — this is called the perfection of patience. Whatever is to be given, he presents with his own hand — this is called the perfection of diligence. With utmost sincerity he holds the mind fixed, contemplating liberation — this is called the perfection of meditative concentration. He makes no distinction between the aspect of enemy and the aspect of loved one — this is called the perfection of wisdom. Good son, just as when sentient beings kill with a greedy mind a single thought-moment is already complete with all twelve links of dependent origination, so too, when the bodhisattva gives, a single thought-moment is likewise already complete with these six things. This is called the adornment of merit and wisdom.
Taixu calls this the principle of mutual inclusion among the perfections: giving, examined properly, already contains all six, and the same holds symmetrically for each of the other five — discipline, patience, diligence, concentration, and wisdom, rightly practiced, each turn out to already contain the other five as well. On the twelve links of dependent origination compressed into "a single thought-moment," he notes that the tradition explains this chain from several different scales at once — across one lifetime, across two or three lifetimes, or, as here, within a single thought — and that a practitioner able to hold this awareness moment after moment without regressing has already reached the state associated with the eighth ground.
7. Milestone: Adornment Seen Through Specific Marks
The sutra shifts from causes to concrete, recognizable behavior: what does someone complete in the two adornments actually do, seen from the outside? Several paired definitions follow, each assigning one activity to merit and its counterpart to wisdom.
「復次，善男子！菩薩摩訶薩造作不共法之因緣，名福莊嚴；教化眾生悉令獲得三種菩提，名智莊嚴。復次，善男子！菩薩若能調伏眾生，名智莊嚴；同於眾生受諸苦惱，名福莊嚴。菩薩能令一切眾生離於惡見，名智莊嚴；能教眾生住信、施、戒、多聞、智慧，名福莊嚴。
"Furthermore, good son, a great bodhisattva's creating of the causes and conditions of the dharmas unique to a Buddha is called the adornment of merit; his teaching and transforming of sentient beings so that all attain the three kinds of bodhi is called the adornment of wisdom. Furthermore, good son, when a bodhisattva is able to tame and subdue sentient beings, this is called the adornment of wisdom; his sharing with sentient beings in bearing all manner of suffering and affliction is called the adornment of merit. A bodhisattva's ability to cause all sentient beings to leave behind wrong views is called the adornment of wisdom; his ability to teach sentient beings to abide in faith, giving, moral discipline, broad learning, and wisdom is called the adornment of merit.
Taixu identifies the "dharmas unique to a Buddha" as the eighteen distinctive qualities discussed earlier in the sutra — accomplishments belonging to a Buddha alone. On causing beings to "leave behind wrong views," he adds a practical clarification: this is why a bodhisattva composes treatises and engages in debate at all — not for the sake of argument, but specifically to refute the mistaken views sentient beings hold, so that even this most intellectual-seeming activity is still, at root, an act of compassion.
8. Milestone: Five Dharmas That Adorn Supreme Bodhi
A short but pointed list follows, naming five qualities needed to adorn bodhi itself — two familiar (faith and compassion), and three that might not be expected in a scripture on precepts: courage, and a willingness to keep studying ordinary worldly knowledge and craft without growing tired of it.
「復次，善男子！菩薩摩訶薩具足五法，則能莊嚴無上菩提。何等為五？一者、信心，二者、悲心，三者、勇健，四者、讀誦世論不生疲厭，五者、學諸世業亦不厭之。
"Furthermore, good son, a great bodhisattva complete in five dharmas is able to adorn unsurpassed bodhi. What are the five? First, a mind of faith; second, a mind of compassion; third, courage and vigor; fourth, reading and reciting worldly treatises without growing weary; fifth, studying every kind of worldly craft without growing weary of it.
Taixu breaks "faith" into three distinct components the tradition usually keeps bundled together: faith in reality, meaning trust in true principle itself; faith in virtue, meaning trust in the accumulated merit of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha; and faith in capability, meaning trust both that causes genuinely produce their matching effects and that one is oneself actually capable of becoming a Buddha. On the last two items — studying worldly treatises and worldly crafts — he makes a point of explaining why a bodhisattva bothers at all: in strict terms of wisdom and merit the bodhisattva has already surpassed ordinary beings and has no real need of this study for his own sake. He undertakes it purely in order to convert beings on their own terms; a bodhisattva whose attainments exceed everyone else's yet who looks down on ordinary learning and declines to meet people where they are leaves no way for those beings to actually be reached and liberated.
9. Milestone: Seven Marks of Personal Discipline
The sutra now offers its first set of seven concrete marks — mostly turned inward, toward how the bodhisattva governs his own conduct and attention.
「善男子！菩薩具足二種莊嚴，則有七相。何等為七？一者、自知罪過，二者、不說他過，三者、樂瞻病人，四者、樂施貧人，五者、護菩提心，六者、心不放逸，七者、一切時中常至心修六波羅蜜。
"Good son, a bodhisattva complete in the two adornments will show seven marks. What are the seven? First, knowing his own faults and transgressions; second, not speaking of others' faults; third, delighting in attending to the sick; fourth, delighting in giving to the poor; fifth, guarding the bodhi-mind; sixth, a mind that is never heedless; seventh, at all times sincerely cultivating the six perfections.
Taixu reads this list as deliberately ordinary — nothing here requires supernatural insight, only sustained honesty about one's own conduct paired with restraint about other people's. He notes that "guarding the bodhi-mind" and "never being heedless" are placed right at the center of the list for a reason: the five marks around them — self-knowledge, discretion, care for the sick, generosity to the poor, and sustained practice of the six perfections — are exactly the kind of ordinary virtues that quietly erode once the bodhi-mind itself is neglected, so protecting that underlying resolve is what keeps the other five from drifting.
10. Milestone: Seven Marks of Facing Others
A second set of seven marks follows immediately, this time turned outward — specifically toward how the bodhisattva treats enemies, difficult people, and those who have broken their own precepts.
善男子！復有七相。何等為七？一者、樂化怨讎；二者、化時不厭；三者、要令成熟解脫；四者、盡己所知世語、世事，以化眾生心不貪著；五者、能忍一切惡事；六者、終不宣說他人所不喜事；七者、見破戒者及弊惡人，心不瞋恚，常生憐愍。善男子！菩薩摩訶薩知是七相，則能自利及利益他。
"Good son, there are, further, seven marks. What are the seven? First, delighting in converting his enemies; second, not growing weary while converting them; third, insisting that they come to ripen and reach liberation; fourth, exhausting his own knowledge of worldly speech and worldly affairs in order to convert sentient beings, all without a mind of greedy attachment; fifth, being able to bear patiently every manner of evil; sixth, never speaking of matters that others would be unhappy to have spoken of; seventh, upon seeing one who has broken the precepts, or a wicked and vile person, feeling no anger, but constantly giving rise to pity. Good son, a great bodhisattva who understands these marks is able to benefit both himself and others.
Taixu singles out the seventh mark for particular emphasis. The "wicked and vile person" here means someone so given over to evil that even a bodhisattva cannot successfully convert him — and Taixu's point is that the correct response to this failure is not anger at the person, and not even simple pity alone, but a genuine sense of shame on the bodhisattva's own part, as though the failure to reach this person reflects some insufficiency in his own skillful means rather than any excuse to write the person off. Read together with the fourth mark — using worldly speech and worldly affairs to convert beings "without a mind of greedy attachment" — Taixu treats this whole set of seven as the practical, outward-facing completion of the more inward-facing seven that came just before it: fourteen marks in total, meant to be read as one continuous picture of a single person.
11. Milestone: Householder and Renunciant — Why the Householder's Path Is Harder
The chapter closes, as several before it have, by turning back to Shansheng's own situation as a layman and measuring the difficulty of the householder's path against the renunciant's — not to discourage him, but to name honestly what he is actually up against.
「善男子！菩薩二種：一者、在家，二者、出家。出家菩薩為二莊嚴，是不為難；在家修集，是乃為難。何以故？在家多有諸惡因緣所纏繞故。」
"Good son, there are two kinds of bodhisattva: the first is the householder; the second is the renunciant. For a renunciant bodhisattva, accomplishing the two adornments is not difficult; for a householder to cultivate and gather them is difficult indeed. Why is this so? Because the householder is bound about by so many causes and conditions of evil."
Taixu treats this closing line as words of encouragement rather than discouragement, consistent with how the sutra has framed the same comparison in earlier chapters: naming the householder's path as the harder one is not meant to excuse a layperson from attempting it, but to make clear that whatever merit and wisdom a householder does manage to accumulate, hemmed in on every side by household entanglements, carries a weight that the same accomplishment would not carry for someone already free of those entanglements. Difficulty, on this reading, is not a reason to expect less of oneself — it is the very thing that makes the householder's own two adornments especially worth the effort.