The Flower Ornament Scripture Read online

  Fourth, regarding the difference in the interlocutors, in the Nirvana Scripture the main petitioners for the teaching are the enlightening being Kashyapa, the enlightening beings Manjushri and Sinhanada, and Shariputra, and so on, who are models of the teachings. The Devil, who is also a principal petitioner, urges the Buddha to pass away. As for The Flower Ornament Scripture, the leaders who set up the teachings are Universally Good, Manjushri, Chief in Awareness, Truth Wisdom, Forest of Virtues, Diamond Banner, Diamond Matrix, and so on. In this way there are ten “chiefs,” ten “wisdoms,” ten “forests,” and ten “matrices,” great enlightening beings within the ranks of fruition of buddhahood, who set up the teachings of forms of practice of fruition of buddhahood in several ranks. Thus because these ranks are identical to buddhahood and buddhahood is identical to these ranks, it shows that in each rank there is fruition of buddhahood.

  The enlightening beings who carry on dialogues setting up the teachings in The Flower Ornament are all enlightening beings from the ten directions and from this world; all spiritually penetrate the source of reality, their knowledge is equal to the cosmos: appearing as reflections or responses in the ten directions, they arrive without coming or going. Their devices, in accord with the nature of things, are not accomplished by coming and going. Even in the minutest atomic particle there are infinite clusters of bodies; in a fine hair an inconceivable ocean of forms is manifest. All things in the cosmos are like this. In all places, the enlightening beings are suddenly there, without having come from anywhere; suddenly they are absent, without having gone anywhere. In all places and times, in the physical forms of living beings, the mountains, rivers, seas, and space of the environment, they appear in physical forms, freely being and not being, infinitely interpenetrating and inter-reflecting. These are all great enlightening beings, and therefore are not like the enlightening being Kashyapa or the disciple Shariputra in the Nirvana Scripture, who were born in human homes and appeared in the same state as ordinary people to lead the people in the three vehicles, who felt sad and wept on the passing of the Buddha.

  Fifth, regarding the difference in the audiences’ hearing of the teaching, the Nirvana Scripture is for those of the lesser vehicles and enlightening beings involved in the temporary teaching, who carry out various contemplative practices without having yet gotten rid of the obstruction of clinging, and so are obsessed with the practice and cling fast to the forms of practice, thus missing, in these forms of practice, the fundamental essence of the uncreated body of reality, which has no proof or practice; by means of practice, cultivation develops and becomes manifest, constructing realizations of the subject and object, enlightenment and nirvana: for these people the Buddha explains in this Nirvana Scripture that all practices are impermanent, being things that are born and perish, and that when birth and destruction die out, extinction is bliss. This is because the good conduct practiced and the realizing enlightenment are born phenomena, and the realized nirvana is the phenomenon of extinction: since the mind retains subject and object, birth and extinction do not cease, and while birth and extinction do not cease one fails to penetrate the truth. Now this Nirvana Scripture therefore explains that when the practices, the realizing enlightenment, and the realized nirvana all become extinct, only then does one accord with truth: so it says, “All practices are impermanent—they are born and perish. When birth and decay have passed away, silent extinction is bliss.” This is why the Buddha disappeared. When the sense of subject and object is ended, that is called great nirvana.

  The nirvana of the two lesser vehicles can have subject and object, and has cultivation and realization—therefore it is called created noncontamination. The nirvana of the Buddha has no subject or object: for this reason, in the Nirvana Scripture Cunda says to the enlightening being Manjushri, “Don’t say the Buddha is the same as practices. . . . If you say the Buddha is the same as practices, then you cannot say Buddha is free.” Therefore great ultimate nirvana informs those of the three vehicles that all practices, the enlightenment which realizes, and the nirvana which is realized, are all impermanent. Since that which is born is originally nonexistent, extinction is not experienced. No practice, no cultivation, is called great nirvana, and it is called complete tranquility. Therefore the Nirvana Scripture has those in the three vehicles who are attached to practices detach from practice and cultivation, and has those with an object of realization carry out no-realization and no-cultivation.

  As for The Flower Ornament Scripture, the congregations from other regions and the people of this world, in the ranks of the assembly, from their very first determination for enlightenment immediately arrive at noumenal and phenomenal freedom, the merging of principle and action. Principle and action are reflected at once, without before, after, or in between. All of this is naturally so, based on the fundamental truth. If you keep thinking of beginning and end, cause and effect, before and after, this is all mundane feelings, all birth and death, having becoming and disintegration, all a matter of breaking bonds according to faculties, not a matter of the true source of fulfillment of buddhahood.

  The various teachings’ methods of guiding people all lead into The Flower Ornament’s ocean of fruition of knowledge of truth—this is their true goal. The avenues of the teaching are clear, the guiding mirror is evident; you should read through the whole scripture, with contemplative knowledge illuminating it as you go along: the mind opening up to understanding, the clouds will disperse from the sun of knowledge. Suddenly you will ascend the peak of wonder, surveying the ocean of knowledge; the two views of ordinary and holy will be washed away by the water of concentration, and the two gates of compassion and wisdom will appear through the spiritual body. This Flower Ornament Scripture is expounded directly to those of supremely great hearts; it is like directly bestowing monarchy on a commoner. It is like dreaming of a thousand years, all to vanish upon awakening. This is like the saying of the Nirvana Scripture that there is a certain herb in the snowy mountains; the cows that eat this produce pure ghee, with no tinge of blue, yellow, red, white, or black. Like this, people with the broadest minds immediately see the buddha-nature and thereupon attain true enlightenment, not coming to it gradually from lesser states. This is why we say the hearing of the audiences is different—the Nirvana Scripture unifies the branches and proceeds from the essence, but does not yet talk about the simultaneous operation without interference of knowledge and compassion, the real and the conventional.

  Sixth, regarding the difference in purity and defilement of the lands of reward, in the Nirvana Scripture the Buddha’s land of reward is placed in the West, past as many buddha-lands as grains of sand in thirty-two Ganges Rivers—this is said to be the land of spiritual reward of Shakyamuni Buddha. This is because those involved in the temporary studies of the three vehicles have not transcended defilement and purity and see this world as polluted, evil, and impure; the Buddha therefore temporarily points out a land of reward in the West. In the doctrine of true teaching of The Flower Ornament, this very world itself is pure, without defilement, and the worlds of the ten directions are pure and flawless. This is because for enlightening beings of the true teaching defilement and purity are ended, so the world is thoroughly pure; enlightening beings of the temporary teaching see defilement by themselves where there is no defilement, and therefore Buddha points out a land of reward in the West.

  Seventh, regarding the difference in the temporariness and reality of the embodiment of Buddha, the Buddha in the Nirvana Scripture with thirty-two marks of greatness is temporary, while the true principle of complete tranquility is real. Since the measureless arrays of all marks of spiritual reward exist dependent upon the real, therefore according to The Flower Ornament Scripture the thirty-two marks of Vairocana Buddha enter the Buddha of nirvana—both are realm noumenon and phenomena are nondual; without destroying the body of reality, Buddha accords with the ocean of forms, measureless, endless. Forms, essence, reward, and principle interidentify; they are like lights
and reflections, freely merging.

  Eighth, regarding the difference in manifestations of birth and extinction, in the Nirvana Scripture there is set up, for the people of the vehicles of discipleship and individual awakening, Buddha’s spiritual descent from Tushita heaven, birth on earth, and so on, till his entry into final nirvana. For enlightening beings of the great vehicle it says Buddha does not descend from heaven into the mother’s womb; it says Buddha is eternal, blissful, self, and pure, beginningless and endless, unborn and unperishing, yet temporarily disappears. Then it posits a land of reward, which it calls Shakyamuni Buddha’s land of reward, far away in the West. It makes this earth out to be a phantom land, a realm of defilement. The Nirvana Scripture contains these things that are different from The Flower Ornament, to lead those with facility for the temporary teaching. The Flower Ornament is otherwise: it directly points out the teaching of the fundamental body, the fundamental reality, going beyond emotional and intellectual views, without beginning or end, void of any sign of past, present, or future, one complete real reward, unborn, unperishing, not eternal, not finite, the ocean of realization in which essence and form interpenetrate freely. The emptiness of a single atom has no difference throughout the cosmos; different types of people create hindrance and bondage, their faculties and capacities are not equal, and the temporary and the true are not the same, so as a result there are myriad differences in ways of teaching. One should know the temporary and the true, one should recognize the provisional and practice the real, and not miss the true teaching by sticking to a temporary school.

  Ninth, regarding the difference in the forms of practice of the teachings, according to the Nirvana Scripture even enlightening beings in the tenth stage do not clearly know or see the buddha-nature. So it proceeds from the ten outgrowths of faith of the ordinary person and later comes to the ten abodes, where the enlightening beings see the buddha-nature a little bit: the Nirvana Scripture sets up the process of ten abodes, ten practices, ten dedications, and ten stages, to be cultivated gradually—only in the stage of equally enlightenment does it clarify the fulfillment of practice producing fruition, and only the state of ineffable enlightenment is finally buddhahood. Then again, it also says there is an herb in the snowy mountains; the cows that eat this produce pure ghee with no tint of blue, yellow, red, white, or black—so it also expounds the teachings of immediate realization.

  In the Nirvana Scripture there are after all types of teachings of five vehicles, six vehicles, seven, eight, nine, and ten vehicles. There are three kinds of vehicles of enlightening beings beyond the two vehicles of hearers and individual illuminates—altogether these make five vehicles. If we include the five precepts and ten virtues, that makes a sixth and seventh vehicle. Also, those of the three vehicles, hearing the same thing, each apprehend their own principles therein—therefore they make three times three or nine vehicles. As for the practices of the three vehicles of enlightening beings, they are: cultivating selflessness; proceeding from the ten abodes to the ten stages, gradually seeing buddha-nature; and attaining sudden realization without going through various stages.

  In the Nirvana Scripture’s book on the buddha-nature it says that once the great enlightening beings saw the buddha-nature they all said, “We revolved in measureless births and deaths, always confused by selflessness.” This is like the saying in The Flower Ornament Scripture that there are enlightening beings who practice the six ways of transcendence for countless eons, attain the six spiritual powers, and read, write, and master the canon of eighty-four thousand teachings, yet still do not believe in this deep scripture. This is an example of such enlightening beings; the spiritual powers they attain are not based on natural origination, but are consequences of practicing virtues and contemplations such as selflessness. It is also like the case of people living in earthly paradise: they too are born there as a result of having practiced contemplations of the nonexistence of self or possession; their material livelihood is naturally abundant, but they have no teaching of enlightenment and do not realize liberation. The problem with all of these is that in the past their action and understanding were mistaken, so they could never forget what they had gained. The Nirvana Scripture, after having unified humans, celestials, heretics, and those of the three vehicles, returns them all to the buddha-nature, the complete tranquility of nirvana, the true principle of naturelessness: it does not yet point out that the characteristics of reward, the consequences of enlightenment, have no self or other, but include both noumenon and phenomena, with knowledge and function interpenetrating. So it still sets up distinctions such as self-other, purity-defilement, and so on, and therefore says the land of reward of Shakyamuni Buddha is far away in the West. This is because the faculties of the people it addresses cannot yet bear the whole truth; the teaching is set up according to the faculties, to lead those of the three vehicles who have obstructions in connection to reality. The complete quiescence of the buddha-nature, the noumenal aspect of thusness, cannot show the interplay of forms; blocking perception of existents, thus producing doubts, it screens the body of reality.

  Thus the Nirvana Scripture’s teaching of the fruition of buddhahood after the ten stages is what is seen by beginners in the ten abodes in The Flower Ornament Scripture. The herb in the mountains from which cows produce pure ghee is like the beginners in the ten abodes in The Flower Ornament seeing the Way and immediately seeing that self and other, beginningless and endless, not old or new, are originally Buddha. Because body and mind, essence and forms, are originally Buddha, this door of buddhahood is considered liberation, riding the vehicle of buddhahood directly to the site of enlightenment. In the various stations and stages of enlightening beings, in each rank there is fruition of buddhahood, just as the ocean is in each drop. They carry out their practices within the buddha-nature, so there is progressive practice because of their buddha-nature. In The Flower Ornament, enlightening beings at the outset, in the beginning of the ten abodes, suddenly see the Buddha’s body of reality, the buddha-nature, the uncreated fruit of knowledge, and carry out all the myriad practices of Universal Good, according with conditions without lingering, all of them uncontrived.

  The Nirvana Scripture says that the buddha-nature is not a created phenomenon; but because it is covered by passions for outside objects, starting from the first of the ten abodes one uses uncontrived concentration so that one’s essence accords with reality, where passions and objects have no inherent nature—there is only the essence and function of reality, which has no greed, hatred, or delusion, and is spontaneously Buddha. Therefore if you unite with it for a moment, you become Buddha in a moment; if you unite with it in a day, you become Buddha in a day—what’s the need for gradual step-by-step accumulation of practice over eons to arrive at the fruit? When the mind is hooked onto quantification of ages, the vision is blocked—what end would there be to this? The teaching of the Buddhas is basically not contained in time—counting time and setting up ages or eons is not the buddha-vehicle.

  Tenth, regarding the difference in patterns of companionship, in the Nirvana Scripture it says a youth of the snowy mountains met a demigod and was inspired by a half verse spoken by the demigod; valuing the half verse, he forfeited his life to hear the rest—“All actions are impermanent—this is the phenomenon of birth and death. When birth and death are extinguished, tranquil extinction is bliss.” This is saying that the nirvana of buddha-nature cannot be cultivated by practices, because practices are fabricated and impermanent, and it cannot be realized by mind, because mind has subject and object. Thus its essence cannot be cultivated, its principle cannot be witnessed by the mind. Mind itself is the essence—there is no further subject or object. This is why Cunda said, “Don’t say the Buddha is the same as practices.”

  As for The Flower Ornament Scripture, the pattern set by the youth Sudhana, from his first inspiration for enlightenment with Manjushri, till his final meeting with the Universally Good enlightening being, to each of the fifty-three teac
hers he met, he said, “I have aroused the determination for unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment—how would you have me learn the path of enlightening beings and carry out the practices of enlightening beings?” It does not say all practices are impermanent. Why? Because The Flower Ornament elucidates the teaching of the cosmos of interdependent origination, in which noumenon and phenomena are nondual. No condition is not quiescent, no phenomenon is not real. All worlds are one ocean of the essence of reality; the complete pervasion of great knowledge is the realm. The totality of everything is the ocean of essence, the one real cosmos. It is not explained according to action as sentient and insentient. Therefore, since the realm of unalloyed reality in the Flower Ornament is all knowledge, the land of the enlightening beings of the ten abodes is wisdom, the land of the enlightening beings of the ten practices is knowledge, the land of the enlightening beings of the ten dedications is wonder—it doesn’t express two different views of animate and inanimate.