Chapter of Perfect Enlightenment
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Scriptural Text: At that time, Bodhisattva Perfect Enlightenment rose from his seat in the great assembly, bowed at the Buddha’s feet, circumambulated him three times to the right, knelt with joined palms, and said to the Buddha:
“Great Compassionate World-Honored One, for our sake you have extensively explained many skillful means of pure enlightenment, bringing great benefit to beings in the Dharma-ending age. World-Honored One, we have now received awakening. After the Buddha’s passing, for beings in the Dharma-ending age who have not yet awakened, how should they enter retreat and cultivate this pure realm of Perfect Enlightenment? Among the three kinds of pure contemplation within Perfect Enlightenment, which should be practiced first? We only pray that, out of great compassion, you grant great benefit to this assembly and to beings in the Dharma-ending age.”
Having spoken thus, he prostrated fully to the ground and requested in this way three times.
Commentary: In this section Bodhisattva Perfect Enlightenment asks two questions:
1. How should one enter retreat and cultivate pure Perfect Enlightenment?
2. Among the three pure contemplations, which should be practiced first?
“Perfect Enlightenment” means complete and full awakening. Up to this point, the Buddha has repeatedly taught methods to remove ignorance and realize Perfect Enlightenment. But in terms of cultivation, Perfect Enlightenment is not realized instantly; it is gradual, like polishing a mirror little by little until all dust is gone. As dust is removed, brightness appears. Complete purity and brightness symbolize Perfect Enlightenment.
Previously, in the chapter on purifying karmic obstructions, the teaching focused on removing hindrances so awakening could appear. In the chapter of Universal Enlightenment, the teaching focused on making awakening broadly manifest, though not yet fully complete. In this chapter of Perfect Enlightenment, awakening is discussed as complete fulfillment. Therefore this chapter emphasizes concrete discipline and practice: retreat and the three contemplative methods. Principle is complete through complete practice; without complete practice, principle is not yet complete.
Scriptural Text: Then the World-Honored One said to Bodhisattva Perfect Enlightenment:
“Excellent, excellent! Good man, you have asked the Tathagata about such skillful means in order to bestow great benefit on beings. Listen carefully now; I will explain for you.” Then Bodhisattva Perfect Enlightenment, joyfully accepting the teaching, together with the whole assembly, listened in silence.
“Good man, for all beings, whether when the Buddha is in the world, after the Buddha’s passing, or in the Dharma-ending age, if there are beings with Mahayana capacity who trust the Buddha’s secret great mind of Perfect Enlightenment and wish to cultivate, then if they are in a monastery and must live among the community due to circumstances, they should contemplate according to their situation as I have already taught.”
Commentary: Here the Buddha teaches two modes of practice.
1. If one is occupied with temple duties or other obligations and cannot enter dedicated retreat, one should still practice contemplation according to the previously taught methods.
Scriptural Text: If there are no such external conditions, one should establish a practice hall and set a period: a long period of one hundred twenty days, a middle period of one hundred days, or a short period of eighty days, arranging pure dwelling. If the Buddha is present, one should contemplate rightly. If after the Buddha’s passing, one should set up images, keep them before the eyes, and hold proper recollection in mind, as though in the days when the Tathagata still abides. Hang banners and flowers, and for three sevens of days bow to the names of all Buddhas in the ten directions, seeking compassionate repentance. If one encounters wholesome states and gains light ease of mind, then after those three sevens one should single-mindedly gather the mind.
Commentary: 2. If one has no other obligations, one should set up a hall and cultivate by periods: long (120 days), middle (100 days), short (80 days).
If the Buddha were physically present, one need only contemplate the Buddha rightly. After the Buddha’s nirvana, one uses Buddha images as support for seeing and recollecting, honoring them as if the Buddha were present.
Beginners, whose precept power is not yet firm and whose body-mind is not yet pure, usually lack strength in samadhi and wisdom. Therefore the first stage requires a formal retreat setting and 21 days of bowing and repentance, like washing a cup clean before filling it with fine nourishment. With one-pointed practice, body and mind become purified. During these 21 days, wholesome roots may unfold and auspicious responses may appear, bringing bodily and mental ease.
Scriptural Text: If one undertakes the summer retreat of three months, one should abide as a pure Bodhisattva, with mind apart from the Sravaka orientation, not relying on group dependence. On the day retreat begins, before the Buddha one should say: “I, bhiksu, bhiksuni, upasaka, or upasika named so-and-so, relying on the Bodhisattva vehicle, cultivate the practice of quiescent cessation and enter the abiding of pure true mark. I take Great Perfect Enlightenment as my monastery, and body and mind retreat in the wisdom of equality-nature, because nirvana self-nature is not bound to location. I now respectfully request not to rely on the Sravaka model but to rely on the Tathagatas and great Bodhisattvas of the ten directions, entering three-month retreat to cultivate unsurpassed wondrous enlightenment of the Bodhisattva path; for this great causal condition, I do not depend on a monastic group.”
Commentary: This section is divided into three parts:
1. The Buddha teaches that establishing periods of practice is still not enough; one must also keep a three-month retreat, from the full moon of the fourth lunar month to the full moon of the seventh lunar month. Those who arouse Bodhi-mind and cultivate according to Perfect Enlightenment should retreat in the Bodhisattva mode. That means not necessarily relying on the Lesser Vehicle communal retreat form, but always abiding inwardly in the Bodhisattva’s pure conduct. Therefore the original sutra says: “depart from Sravaka thought; do not depend on the assembly.”
2. On the day retreat begins, the practitioner should declare before the Buddha:
“I, named…, ordained as bhiksu or bhiksuni, upasaka (good man) or upasika (faithful woman), now rely on Mahayana Dharma, cultivate the Bodhisattva practice of quiescent cessation, take Perfect Enlightenment as my monastery, and let body and mind constantly abide in self-nature Nirvana, or in the Wisdom of Equality Nature.”
3. The practitioner then vows before the Buddha:
“Now, because I wish to cultivate the practice of Perfect Enlightenment, I do not follow Sravaka (Lesser Vehicle) retreat rules and do not rely on a monastic group retreat. I only request the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions to join me in this three-month retreat.” If one retreats in this way for three months, then after completion one may go freely without obstruction.
“Quiescent cessation” means afflictions are extinguished and mind becomes still; that is, cultivating in accord with true mind beyond birth and death.
“True mark” means true reality: unborn, unceasing, unstained, undefiled, neither increasing nor decreasing, not altered by time or shifted by space. This refers to True Suchness, also another name for Perfect Enlightenment.
“Taking Perfect Enlightenment as monastery” means: in Lesser Vehicle retreat, one takes a physical monastery (garama) as the place of practice; in Bodhisattva retreat, one takes the principle of Perfect Enlightenment as one’s monastery.
“Wisdom of Equality Nature” means: once the practitioner abides in true mark, that is, in Perfect Enlightenment-nature, the six faculties no longer create karma, and the six consciousnesses no longer chase the six sense objects. At that time, the first five consciousnesses transform into the Wisdom of Accomplishing Action; the sixth transforms into the Wonderful Observing Wisdom.
When the practitioner has not yet abided in Perfect Enlightenment, the seventh consciousness clings to self, person, this, and that. Once the practitioner abides in Perfect Enlightenment, the seventh transforms into the Wisdom of Equality Nature. Then the eighth is no longer grasped by the seventh as “self,” and thus transforms into Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom.
“Nirvana self-nature” is also called Nature-Pure Nirvana, another name for True Suchness or Perfect Enlightenment.
“Not bound to place” means: Lesser Vehicle retreat requires a physical monastery as a retreat site; Bodhisattva retreat takes Nirvana self-nature itself as the retreat ground, therefore it is “not bound to place.”
“Unsurpassed Wondrous Enlightenment” means Buddha-fruit: luminous awakening, wondrous in quality, with no higher attainment above it.
Scriptural Text: Good man, this is called the Bodhisattva’s manifest retreat. After the three retreat periods, one may go freely without obstruction. Good man, if beings in the Dharma-ending age cultivate the Bodhisattva path and enter these three periods, then for any states not among what was taught and heard, they must never be grasped.
Commentary: Here the Buddha teaches that when practitioners see extraordinary states in meditation, they should not become attached.
As effort deepens, unusual and elevated states naturally arise. But if attachment arises and one cannot distinguish right from deviant, one easily falls into demonic traps. Therefore, such states must match what one has heard and learned: the Buddha’s instruction, good spiritual friends’ guidance, and scriptural teaching. Only then are they genuine. Otherwise, they may be deceptive appearances (as in the Five Skandha Demons section of the Surangama Sutra).
In general, practitioners hear and understand, then give rise to faith; with faith they practice; with practice they realize. Realization is the fruit of hearing, faith, and cultivation. Therefore faith, understanding, practice, and realization must correspond. If the realized state does not accord with what was properly heard, then whether the appearance seems good or bad, it should be regarded as demonic and not grasped.
Scriptural Text: Good man, if beings cultivate shamatha, first they should take utmost stillness, not giving rise to conceptual thought. When stillness reaches the extreme, awakening appears. From this initial stillness, from one body up to one world, awakening is likewise.
Good man, if awakening pervades one world, then within that world, whenever one being gives rise to one thought, all can be known; and in hundreds of thousands of worlds it is likewise. Any states not among what was taught and heard must never be grasped.
Commentary: The main meaning here is that when practicing concentration to the utmost point, awakening-wisdom manifests. Since purity extends from one body to one world, awakened knowing also extends from one body to all worlds. Because the entire world becomes the practitioner’s awakened knowing, whenever any being gives rise to a thought, the practitioner knows it.
Yet any states that appear must match what the practitioner has heard from good spiritual friends or scriptural instruction; only then are they right. Otherwise, they are appearances of the five-skandha demons.
Master Nhu Son says: because the whole world has become awakening, beings are entirely within the practitioner’s awakened nature. Therefore when beings produce any thought, the practitioner knows it all, just as reflections already appearing in a mirror are fully illumined.
The Abridged Commentary on the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment says: faith, understanding, practice, and realization may be sequentially distinct, but they must not contradict one another. One understands according to what one believes, practices according to what one understands, and realizes according to what one practices. Therefore, if realized states do not accord with one’s proper understanding, faith, and practice, they should not be grasped.
Scriptural Text: Good man, if beings cultivate samapatti, first they should recollect the Tathagatas of the ten directions and all Bodhisattvas in all worlds of the ten directions; according to various gates, they gradually cultivate, diligently endure and practice samadhi, broadly arouse great vows, and self-perfume into seeds. Any states not among what was taught and heard must never be grasped.
Commentary: The Buddha teaches that one practicing contemplation should first recollect Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, then follow the Buddha’s Dharma-gates in gradual diligent practice until samadhi is established, and one must arouse great vows to perfume the mind-consciousness into seeds.
During practice, if any states appear that do not accord with what one’s teacher instructed or what sutras and vinaya teach, they should not be grasped, because those are demonic manifestations.
Scriptural Text: Good man, if beings cultivate dhyana, first they should take the counting method, clearly knowing in mind the arising, abiding, and ceasing thoughts, their divisions and count. In this way, throughout the four deportments, they distinguish thought-counts with nothing unknown. Gradually progressing, they may even know one drop of rain in hundreds of thousands of worlds, as clearly as things seen before the eyes. Any states not among what was taught and heard must never be grasped.
Commentary: Bodhisattva Perfect Enlightenment asked the Buddha: among the three contemplative methods, which should be practiced first?
The Buddha taught: first cultivate calming, then contemplation, then combined calming-and-contemplation.
This section teaches combined calming-and-contemplation. One begins with breath counting. By regulating the breath, mind becomes calm (calming). When mind is calm, coarse and subtle thought-processes in arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing, together with their duration, speed, and amount, are all known (contemplation).
When one first succeeds, then in all times of movement and stillness, walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, one clearly discerns each thought and its phases and range. At full completion, one can know everything even across hundreds of thousands of worlds, including countless raindrops. This knowledge is not vague but clear, as clear as seeing objects directly with the eyes.
Scriptural Text: This is called the initial expedient for the three contemplations. If beings cultivate all three kinds universally and diligently, it is called the Tathagata appearing in the world. If, in later Dharma-ending times, dull-faculty beings wish to seek the path but cannot succeed due to accumulated karmic obstructions, they should diligently repent, constantly arouse aspiration, first cut off love-hate, jealousy, and crooked flattery, seek the supreme mind, and among the three pure contemplations practice one according to ability. If this contemplation is not attained, practice another. Do not let the mind give up; gradually seek realization.
Commentary: The main point here is that if later beings are dull in faculty and heavy in karmic obstruction, and thus cannot accomplish the Buddha path, they must diligently repent and constantly aspire to sever afflictions. Regarding the three contemplative methods, if one does not succeed, then practice another. Wholeheartedly seek realization of the path and do not retreat.
Scriptural Text: At that time, wishing to restate this meaning, the World-Honored One spoke in verse:
Perfect Enlightenment, you should know:
All beings
Who wish to seek the unsurpassed path
Should first establish three periods.
Repent beginningless karma
For twenty-one days.
Then practice right contemplation;
States not in accord with what was taught
Should never be grasped.
Shamatha: utmost stillness.
Samadhi recollection: right sustaining remembrance.
Dhyana: clear breath counting.
These are the three pure contemplations.
If one can diligently cultivate them,
This is called the Buddha appearing in the world.
For dull roots not yet accomplished,
One should constantly and diligently repent.
All beginningless offenses,
If all obstacles are dissolved,
Buddha realm appears before one.