Chapter of Universal Eye
–oOo–
Scriptural Text: At that time, in the midst of the great assembly, Bodhisattva Universal Eye rose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, circumambulated three times to the right, knelt with palms joined, and said to the Buddha:
“Great Compassionate World-Honored One, we pray that for the bodhisattvas in this assembly, and for all sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age, You expound the gradual stages of bodhisattva practice: how should one contemplate, how should one abide and maintain practice, and what expedient means should be used for beings not yet awakened so that all may be opened to awakening? World-Honored One, if those beings lack right expedient means and right contemplation, then upon hearing the Tathagata speak this samadhi, their minds may become confused, and they will be unable to awaken to and enter Perfect Enlightenment. We pray You to arouse great compassion and, for our sake and for beings in the Dharma-ending age, provisionally teach expedient means.” Having said this, he prostrated with five-point full prostration, and made this request three times in the same way.
Commentary: In the previous section, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva asked a very profound question, and the Buddha responded according to the complete and sudden teaching:
“Awakening has no sequence of stages; knowing illusion is leaving illusion, and no expedient is needed.”
Universal Eye Bodhisattva saw that this perfect-sudden Dharma gate is feasible only for those of highest capacity. For those of lesser capacity, if no provisional expedients and step-by-step guidance are given, how could they realize and enter it? Therefore, in this chapter, Universal Eye asks the Buddha to provisionally establish expedients and teach graduated practice, so beings can actually begin effort and enter Perfect Enlightenment.
In summary, his questions have two parts:
Question on contemplative wisdom (how to think rightly).
Question on cultivation wisdom (how to abide and sustain practice, and what expedient methods and stages enable entry into Perfect Enlightenment).
Scriptural Text: At that time the World-Honored One told Bodhisattva Universal Eye:
“Excellent, excellent! Good man, you are able, for all bodhisattvas and beings in the Dharma-ending age, to ask the Tathagata about graduated practice, contemplation, abiding and sustaining, and even the provisional establishment of various expedient means. Listen carefully now, and I shall explain for you.”
Then Universal Eye Bodhisattva, joyfully receiving the teaching, together with the great assembly, listened in silence.
Then Universal Eye Bodhisattva and the assembly joyfully accepted the Buddha’s instruction and listened in silence.
Commentary: Here the Buddha praises Universal Eye for asking on behalf of the assembly that expedient methods be provisionally established so they may enter Perfect Enlightenment.
The question includes two parts: Contemplative wisdom & Cultivation wisdom.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, those beginning bodhisattvas and sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age who wish to seek the Tathagata’s pure mind of Perfect Enlightenment should maintain right mindfulness and depart from all illusions. First, they should rely on the Tathagata’s practice of shamatha, uphold precepts firmly, settle the assembly in proper conditions, sit quietly in a calm room, and constantly contemplate thus:
This body is now a temporary union of the four elements. So-called hair, body-hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, brain, and all impure solid matter return to earth. Spittle, mucus, pus, blood, bodily fluids, grease, phlegm, tears, semen/essence, and urine and feces return to water. Warmth returns to fire. Movement returns to wind. When the four elements separate, where is this false body then found? Thus one knows this body has no true substance; it is only a temporary appearance from combination, truly no different from illusion. Through four conditioned combinations there is falsely the six sense faculties; from the four elements and inner-outer conjunction there is falsely conditioned cognizing activity; gathered within as if possessing relational marks, this is provisionally named mind.
Good man, this delusive mind cannot exist without the six sense-objects. When the four elements disintegrate, no dust/object can be obtained. Then those dependent objects each disperse and cease, and in the end no dependent mind can be seen.”
Commentary: Right mindfulness means no-thought; no-thought means leaving thought; leaving thought means leaving illusion; leaving illusion means according with the originally pure awakened nature. Any mental movement belongs to illusion relative to the original body of Perfect Enlightenment. The Buddha’s intent here: beyond original mindfulness, do not generate another thought, and illusions will self-extinguish; hence “depart from all illusions.”
Patriarchs said: “At the level of ultimate reality, not even one dust-mote is accepted; in the gate of Buddha-work, not a single wholesome dharma is abandoned.” That is: at absolute principle, there is nothing to grasp; at practical cultivation, no wholesome practice is omitted.
Indeed, from the standpoint of Perfect Enlightenment, speech and thought miss the mark; awakening is not gradual, and leaving illusion needs no expedient. But when actually beginning effort, one cannot bypass practical forms of cultivation.
The main point: when beginning practice, first rely on:
- Precepts.
- Samadhi (stilling).
- Wisdom (as in “constantly contemplate thus” below).
- Arranging supportive external conditions.
In Samantabhadra’s chapter, the Buddha said: “Knowing illusion is leaving illusion, no expedient needed, no gradual stages,” equivalent to the Shurangama instruction “do not follow discrimination.” Here, the Buddha teaches precepts, samadhi, wisdom, and arranging conditions, similar to Shurangama’s teaching on precepts-samadhi-wisdom and three gradual stages.
People ordinarily cling to this body as self and cherish it, exhausting their lives in struggle for material needs, all for “my” food, clothing, shelter, and then for “my” relatives and group.
If my side gains, another side loses; if my group gains, another group loses. Thus competition and mutual harm fill the world. Beings commit countless wrongs and revolve in samsara.
Therefore this passage instructs: when beginning effort, contemplate body as illusion (non-self). Once clearly seen as unreal, greed and attachment lessen, and one no longer creates offenses for it, thus avoiding birth-and-death karmic results.
In Manjushri and Samantabhadra chapters, the Buddha taught contemplating “realm as illusion.” In Universal Eye chapter, he first teaches contemplating “body as illusion,” then “mind as illusion,” because practice proceeds from easier to harder, from shallow to deep.
Contemplating realm as illusion is hard, but less hard. Contemplating body as illusion is harder. Going deeper, contemplating mind as illusion is harder still.
Main meaning here: contemplate mind as illusion, without true substance. People commonly cling to mind/soul as a permanent self, imagining if “I” am human I remain human after death, if saint I remain saint, unchanging. Such views lead to fearlessness toward wrongdoing and little interest in wholesome causes, creating heavy karma and long suffering.
Out of compassion for this confusion, the Buddha teaches contemplation of “mind as illusion.” When practitioner clearly sees both body and mind/soul as illusion, not true self, then one no longer creates wrongs for their sake. With wrongdoing stopped and delusion-thoughts not arising, illusory body and mind end; pure non-illusory Perfect Enlightenment appears, and one exits samsaric birth and death.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, when those beings’ illusory body ceases, illusory mind also ceases. When illusory mind ceases, illusory objects also cease. When illusory objects cease, the cessation of illusion also ceases. When that cessation of illusion ceases, the non-illusory does not cease. It is like polishing a mirror: when grime is gone, brightness appears.
Good man, you should know body and mind are both illusory defilements; when the marks of defilement are forever extinguished, the ten directions are pure.”
Commentary: Regarding original Perfect Enlightenment nature, it is luminous and pure without a speck, the meaning of true emptiness. Yet according to karma, myriad phenomena appear; nothing fails to appear, though none are truly existent, the meaning of wondrous existence.
Perfect Enlightenment nature is nondual, yet according to the deluded karma of each class, myriad different manifestations arise. Used skillfully, it manifests the four sages (Sravaka, Pratyekabuddha, Bodhisattva, Buddha). Used unskillfully, it manifests the six ordinary realms (deva, human, asura, hell, hungry ghost, animal).
As in Shurangama’s lute-string analogy: the string itself has no “good” or “bad” sound; skilled use yields fine sound, unskilled use yields harsh sound. Same string, difference is skill.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, it is like a pure mani jewel reflecting five colors, each appearing according to direction. The foolish see that mani as truly possessing five colors.
Good man, the pure nature of Perfect Enlightenment appears as body and mind according to type and response. The foolish then say pure Perfect Enlightenment truly has such body-mind characteristics, and they reify those as self-marks. Because of this they cannot depart from illusion. Therefore I say body and mind are illusory defilements. Relative to departure from illusory defilement, one is named bodhisattva. When defilement is exhausted and duality removed, then there is no opposing defilement and no such designation.”
Commentary: The mani jewel signifies pure Perfect Enlightenment nature. The reflected five colors signify how Perfect Enlightenment appears as five-aggregate body according to conditions.
Main meaning: the transparent jewel has no inherent five colors, but appears colored by directional reflection. Children, not knowing this, believe those colors are real and crave them.
Likewise, pure Perfect Enlightenment has no five aggregates, but beings’ karma projects apparent five aggregates. Deluded beings take the illusion as real, generate attachment, and create karma. Therefore they remain bound in birth and death and never leave delusive illusion.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, when this bodhisattva and beings in the Dharma-ending age realize and extinguish all illusory images, then they immediately attain boundless pure space in all directions, revealed by awakening. Because awakening is complete and luminous, mind-purity is revealed. Because mind is pure, seeing-object is pure. Because seeing is pure, eye-faculty is pure. Because faculty is pure, eye-consciousness is pure. Because consciousness is pure, hearing-object is pure. Because hearing is pure, ear-faculty is pure. Because faculty is pure, ear-consciousness is pure. Because consciousness is pure, sensing-object is pure. So too, up through nose, tongue, body, and mind.”
Commentary: Those who do not know all dharmas are projections of Perfect Enlightenment cling to them as real and become endlessly attached; the Buddha calls them sentient beings.
Those who know all dharmas are illusory and arise from Perfect Enlightenment, and who apply antidotes and depart from clinging, are called bodhisattvas.
At a further level, when illusory stained realms end, even antidotal method ends, and dualistic counteractive wisdom is no more; names and discursive speech also end, and even “person” is gone: realm silent, person empty.
Like illness cured, medicine discarded, physician no longer needed.
When all delusions are fully extinguished, pure complete Perfect Enlightenment appears throughout the ten directions; provisionally this is called Buddha.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, because faculties are pure, form-object is pure; because form-object is pure, sound-object is pure; so too smell, taste, touch, and dharma-objects.
Good man, because six objects are pure, earth-element is pure; because earth is pure, water is pure; fire and wind are likewise pure.
Good man, because four elements are pure, twelve sense-fields, eighteen realms, and twenty-five modes of existence are pure.”
Commentary: Main meaning: because Perfect Enlightenment nature is manifested as pure, worldly dharmas of faculties, objects, and consciousness are all pure, too. Like in a sandalwood forest: once sandalwood appears, the whole grove is fragrant.
Six consciousnesses: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind consciousness.
Six faculties: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind faculties.
Six objects: form, sound, smell, taste, touch, dharma-object.
Four elements: earth, water, fire, wind.
Twelve fields: six faculties + six objects.
Eighteen realms: six faculties + six objects + six consciousnesses.
Twenty-five realms of existence:
Desire realm has 14 classes: four continents (East Puvavideha, South Jambudvipa, West Godaniya, North Uttarakuru), four lower destinies (asura, hell, hungry ghost, animal), and six desire heavens (Four Kings, Trayastrimsa, Yama, Tusita, Nirmanarati, Paranirmita-vashavartin).
Form realm has 7 classes: four dhyana heavens, Brahma realm, No-Thought realm, and Five Pure Abodes.
Formless realm has 4: Infinity of Space, Infinity of Consciousness, Nothingness, Neither Perception nor Non-Perception.
Scriptural Text: “Because those are pure, the Ten Powers, Four Fearlessnesses, Four Unobstructed Wisdoms, the Buddha’s Eighteen Unshared Dharmas, the Thirty-Seven Factors of Awakening, and so on up to the 84,000 dharani gates, all are pure.”
Commentary: Main meaning: when one dharma is pure, all dharmas are pure, because all share one Perfect Enlightenment nature. Like one lump of alum dropped in a basin: when one place clears, the whole basin clears.
The prior passage described purity of worldly dharmas. This passage describes purity of supramundane dharmas.
Ten Strenghts:
Knowledge of what is possible/impossible.
Knowledge of karmic retributions across three times.
Knowledge of all meditative liberations and samadhis.
Knowledge of superior/inferior faculties.
Knowledge of various understandings.
Knowledge of various realms/dispositions.
Knowledge of all paths leading to destinations.
Unobstructed divine eye knowledge.
Unobstructed knowledge of past lives.
Knowledge of complete severance of habitual outflows.
Four Fearlessnesses:
Fearlessness of all-knowledge.
Fearlessness of ending outflows.
Fearlessness in teaching obstacles to the path.
Fearlessness in teaching the path ending suffering.
Four Unobstructed Wisdoms:
Unobstructed in dharma.
Unobstructed in meaning.
Unobstructed in expression.
Unobstructed in joyful eloquence.
Eighteen Unshared Dharmas:
No bodily error.
No speech error.
No mindfulness error.
No discriminatory imagination.
No unsettled mind.
No not-knowing-and-then-abandoning.
No decline in aspiration.
No decline in vigor.
No decline in mindfulness.
No decline in wisdom.
No decline in liberation.
No decline in liberative knowledge-and-vision.
All bodily actions guided by wisdom.
All speech actions guided by wisdom.
All mental actions guided by wisdom.
Unobstructed wisdom regarding past.
Unobstructed wisdom regarding future.
Unobstructed wisdom regarding present.
Thirty-seven factors of enlightenment: (see standard doctrinal exposition for details).
Scriptural Text: “Good man, because all true marks are pure, one body is pure. Because one body is pure, many bodies are pure. Because many bodies are pure, so too up to sentient beings throughout the ten directions: Perfect Enlightenment is pure.
Good man, because one world is pure, many worlds are pure. Because many worlds are pure, so too up to fully encompassing space and the three times: all are equally pure and unmoving.
Good man, space is thus equal and unmoving; know that awakened nature is equal and unmoving. Because the four elements are unmoving, know awakened nature is equal and unmoving. So too up through the 84,000 dharani gates: equal and unmoving; know awakened nature is equal and unmoving.”
Commentary: This passage states the environmental world (dependent retribution) is pure. Since all share Perfect Enlightenment nature, once principal retribution (body-mind) is pure, dependent retribution is also pure.
Like a dark house long unlit: when one lamp is lit, one place brightens and the whole house is bright.
From the underlying nature of Perfect Enlightenment arise phenomena such as space, four elements, and countless forms, up to 84,000 dharani dharmas. If phenomena are equal and unmoving, naturally the underlying nature is also equal and unmoving.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, awakened nature is pervasively complete, pure and unmoving, perfectly round without boundary. Therefore know six faculties pervade the Dharma-realm. Because faculties pervade, know six objects pervade the Dharma-realm. Because objects pervade, know four elements pervade the Dharma-realm. So too up through dharani gates, all pervade the Dharma-realm.”
Commentary: This passage has two parts. The first says: because the fundamental nature, Perfect Enlightenment, is all-pervading, phenomenal dharmas are also all-pervading. Its meaning parallels the Huayan teaching of non-obstruction between principle and phenomena.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, because that wondrous awakened nature is all-pervading, faculty-nature and object-nature are neither destroyed nor mixed. Because faculty and object are neither destroyed nor mixed, so too up through dharani gates: neither destroyed nor mixed; like hundreds of thousands of lamps illuminating one room, their light pervades without obstruction or confusion.”
Commentary: Because the fundamental nature is indestructible, no dharma is destroyed. Like countless lamps in one house: their lights do not collide or destroy each other.
This corresponds to Huayan’s non-obstruction among phenomena. The Lotus says: “Dharmas abide in dharma-positions; worldly marks are ever-abiding.” Shurangama also states: four elements pervade without mutual destruction or confusion.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, because awakening is accomplished, know that bodhisattvas are not bound by dharmas, do not seek dharma-liberation, do not despise samsara nor love nirvana, do not honor precept-keeping nor hate precept-breaking, do not value old cultivation nor belittle beginners. Why? Because all is awakening. It is like eye-light clearly seeing objects before it; that light being complete has neither hatred nor attachment. Why? Because light-substance is nondual, and so free of attachment and hatred.”
Commentary: Since all dharmas share one Perfect Enlightenment nature, bodhisattva equality means no grasping of like/dislike, high/low, no fear of samsara, no craving for nirvana.
This principle is very profound and should not be judged from ordinary emotion.
Never-Despising Bodhisattva said: “I dare not despise you; you will become Buddhas, for you all have Buddha-nature.” The Forty-Two Chapters also says offering to many Buddhas does not equal offering to one who is no-thought, no-abiding, no-cultivation, no-attainment. These passages all point to this equal nature.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, when this bodhisattva and beings in the Dharma-ending age cultivate this mind and attain accomplishment, in this there is no cultivation and no accomplishment. Perfect Enlightenment universally illumines, quiescent and nondual. Within it, hundreds of thousands of myriads of asaMkhyeya, inexpressible Ganges-sands of Buddha-worlds, are like flowers in space arising and ceasing in disorder: neither identical nor separate, neither bound nor liberated. Only then one knows sentient beings are originally Buddhas; samsara and nirvana are like last night’s dream.
Good man, because it is like last night’s dream, know samsara and nirvana are without arising or ceasing, without coming or going. What is realized has no gain or loss, no grasping or rejecting. The one who realizes has no doing, no stopping, no allowing, no extinguishing. In this realization there is no subject and no object; ultimately no realization and no realizer. The nature of all dharmas is equal and indestructible.”
Commentary: The Buddha taught: “All sentient beings possess Buddha-nature.” That is, all have Perfect Enlightenment nature. But beings are covered by ignorance-clouds over their Perfect Enlightenment moon, so there appears delusion; with apparent delusion, there appears cultivation and realization.
When ignorance clouds disperse, the moon of Perfect Enlightenment appears. This moon is not newly produced then, nor created by effort, for it has always been there from beginningless time. Therefore we say there is only an appearance of cultivation and realization.
The Forty-Two Chapters expresses similar meaning: “When mindfulness reaches no-mindfulness, that is true mindfulness; when doing reaches no-doing, that is true doing; when speaking reaches no-speaking, that is true speaking; when cultivation reaches no-cultivation, that is true cultivation; when realization reaches no-realization, that is true realization.”
Even so, at the start of practice there must be cultivation and realization, and only then can one reach ultimate no-cultivation and no-realization. Like a teacher using a sound (striking the desk) to quiet a classroom; once students are quiet, the striking stops and quiet remains.
Scriptural Text: “Good man, those bodhisattvas should cultivate thus, in such stages, contemplate thus, abide thus, use expedients thus, awaken thus. Seeking this Dharma in this way, they will not be confused.”
Commentary: Main meaning: Perfect Enlightenment nature is pure stillness like space, allowing all dharmas to appear and cease like flowers in space. Nirvana is posited relative to samsara; in Perfect Enlightenment, since samsara is empty, nirvana is also dreamlike.
From the standpoint of principle, all beings inherently have Buddha-nature, so it is said: beings have always already been Buddhas. But due to ignorance-clouds obscuring their Buddha-moon, it does not appear. When prajna-wind disperses ignorance-clouds, the moon of Perfect Enlightenment appears of itself.
Main point: beings seek the Way, but the Way (Buddha) is not far, only directly present. Obscured by ignorance-clouds, beings fail to see it. Sutra says: “Mind, Buddha, sentient beings: these three are not different.” Also: “Buddha-Dharma is in the world; awakening is not apart from the world.” Same meaning.
Because beings and Buddha share one Perfect Enlightenment nature, Buddha and beings are not two; bondage and liberation are not separate; samsara and nirvana are dreamlike.
The sutra says: “All dharmas from the beginning are always marked by quiescence.” Since all share Perfect Enlightenment nature, all dharmas are equal: no arising/ceasing, no coming/going, no gain/loss, no taking/rejecting, no doing/stopping, no birth/death; ultimately no realizing subject and no realized object, because all are Perfect Enlightenment nature.
Originally Universal Eye asked: how to contemplate? how to establish expedients? what stages of practice? The Buddha has explained clearly. Therefore here he concludes: contemplate thus, use expedients thus, and so on, then confusion is avoided and Perfect Enlightenment can be entered.
Scriptural Text: At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke verses:
Universal Eye, you should know,
All sentient beings,
Body and mind are all like illusion,
Body-form belongs to four elements,
Mind-nature returns to six dusts.
When four-element substance separates,
Who is the one that combines?
Contemplate and cultivate thus,
And all becomes pure.
Unmoving, pervading Dharma-realm,
No doing, stopping, allowing, extinguishing,
No one who realizes.
All Buddha-worlds
Are like flowers in space.
Three times are all equal,
Ultimately no coming or going.
Beginning bodhisattvas,
And beings in Dharma-ending age,
Who wish to enter Buddha-path,
Should cultivate in this way.