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Contents

introduction vii

part one The Origins of a Buddhist Heresy 1


1 Hsin-hsingA Buddhist Heretic? 3

part two The Rhetoric of Decline 31


2 The Beginning: Decline as Polemic 36
3 The Chinese Systematization: Decline as Doctrine 55
4 Hsin-hsing: Decline as Human Nature 76

part three Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood 95


5 The Refuge of the Universal Buddha 99
6 The Refuge of the Universal Dharma
and Universal Sangha 123

part four The Economy of Salvation 149


7 Practice for the Degenerate:
The Inexhaustible Storehouse 153
8 The Suppressions of the Three Levels Movement 189
9 Time, Transcendence, and Heresy 223

part five Texts 245


A Pu fa ssu fo: The Refuge of the Four Buddhas of the
Universal Dharma 247
B Wu chin tsang fa leh shuo: Abridged Explanation
of the Dharma of the Inexhaustible Storehouse 257
C Ta sheng fa chieh wu chin tsang fa shih: Commentary
on the Dharma of the Inexhaustible Storehouse
of the Mahayana Universe 264
D Reproduction of the Tun-huang Texts 289

selected bibliography 313

index 325
3.
Introduction

T he symbiotic relationships between charismatic religious


individuals, the communities and institutions that grow around them, the
society in which they live, and the state that seeks to control them have
always been among the more revealing in Chinese history. Buddhism, with
an arguably transcendent doctrine of individual perfection (the awakening
of the individual in Buddhahood) as well as an emphasis on altruistic prac-
tice within the world (the practice of the bodhisattva) presents a particularly
rich eld for the investigation of these relationships. This book is concerned
with the teachings of one such charismatic religious leader, Hsin-hsing =
(540594), the popular and inuential new religious community that formed
around him (the San-chieh X or Three Levels movement), and the per-
sistent ofcial proscription that they encountered. The focus of the study is
not, however, the suppressions of Hsin-hsings teachings or the purely his-
torical setting of his community; rather it is the way in which he drew from
the wider context of normative Buddhist ideals in order to forge new soteri-
ological opportunities and institutional practices that he believed uniquely
resonated with that historical setting.
Anyone interested in the San-chieh teachings or related areas of Buddhist
doctrinal and institutional history must begin with Yabuki Keikis epochal
Sangaiky no kenky published in the 1920s; unfortunately, most research
ends there as well.1 Until now there has been no book-length study of the
San-chieh materials in any language since Yabukis work more than a half-
century ago, and precious few articles.2 The paucity of research should not,
however, lead scholars to assume that Yabukis solitary study said it allon
the contrary, his study can only whet the intellectual appetite of the curious
and patient student, for many questions remain unanswered. For example,
what does it mean when a tradition that insists on a universal and abiding
truth predicts its own demise? Is the decline tradition a teaching about external

1 Yabuki Keiki, Sangaiky no kenky (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1927; reprint, 1974).
2 Just as I finished this manuscript Nishimoto Terumas outstanding new book Sangaiky
no kenky (Tokyo: Shunjsha, 1998) appeared; I have endeavored to incorporate his research
where appropriate.

vii
viii / introduction

historical events, or is it concerned with the internal, the moral condition of


humankindor, as I will suggest, something rather different altogether?
How does this notion develop in China; what are its terms, texts, and dates,
and what are the parameters of its discussion? What are the forms of the tra-
dition (narratives, polemics, etc.)? How is it introduced and by whom? Is
there a difference in understanding between the Chinese consumers of the
idea of the demise of the dharma and the Indian producers of this idea?
What spurred the Chinese to decide that the prophesied time of the destruc-
tion of the Buddha-dharma had actually arrived, and with what did they
respond? What is the relationship of the three levels of Hsin-hsings teaching
to the doctrine of three distinct periods of the Buddha kyamunis dispen-
sation: the true doctrine (cheng fa ), semblance doctrine (hsiang fa ),
and nal doctrine (mo fa =)? Is mo fa an Indian Buddhist concept or solely
a creation of the Chinese, an apocryphal word, as some have alleged?
What was the political and institutional import of such a pessimistic assess-
ment of ones contemporaries? Given the importance of the doctrine of mo
fa in East Asian Buddhism and signicant new research on this topic, all of
these questions, and more, demand thorough answers.
The same can be said of the doctrine of universal Buddha-nature, a teach-
ing that, like the decline motif, undergirds much, if not all, of East Asian
Buddhism. Unlike the apophatic terms of the Madhyamaka or the analytic
approach of the Yogcra, the universal capacity of all living beings for
Buddhahood is an extremely positive teaching that has even been labeled
devotional. How does Hsin-hsings expression of this doctrine as the
refuge of the Universal Buddha compare to those of other teachers and
schools, such as the Ti-lun, She-lun, or the later Hua-yen? What impact did
his teachings have on other more rebellious movements of the time? How
was the idea of the Universal Buddha realized in the institution of the sangha
and what did this mean for the observance of the monastic regulations? The
San-chieh teachings denied the Buddha-nature of the non-sentient, as did
the later Hua-yen but Tien-tai did not; is there any relationship between
these schools on this matter? The topics of tathagatagarbha and Buddha-
nature are receiving considerable attention these days, as new research
renes the textual and doctrinal developments of the idea at the same time
that more philosophically and critically motivated essays condemn it as a
non-Buddhist resurgence of monism linked to nativism, social injustice,
gender discrimination, and more. Does the San-chieh doctrine of the
Universal Buddha similarly reect the uncritical acceptance of an indigenous
topological viewpoint?
The institutional is another area of the San-chieh movement that warrants
closer investigationfor example, the support it enjoyed among the highest
levels of the Sui and Tang courts and the relationship of that support to
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / ix

doctrinal arguments, liturgical cycles, and institutional presence. Related


aspects include the emphasis on dna and the above-mentioned eschatologi-
cal orientation; the ve suppressions of their teachings and practices over a
two-hundred-year time span and, heuristically, questions of orthodoxy and
church-state relations; their reformulation of Vinaya rules and bodhisattva
practices as an institutional organ of social welfare (the charitable founda-
tion of the Inexhaustible Storehouse [, the forerunner of the pawnshop
and other mutual aid societies in China and Japan); the fact that Hsin-hsing,
the founder, abandoned his precepts yet continued to live a monastic life
(obviously an important precedent for East Asian Buddhism); the emphasis
on the dhta and other ascetic practices, including begging and sky burial
(i.e., leaving the dismembered corpse out under the open sky as an offering
of food to the denizens of the animal and preta realms), topics more often
discussed in the context of Southeast Asian forest monks yet very popular
among the monks of the Northern dynasties (cultivated by Chih-i, among
other luminaries of this period); their formulation of a graded system of
doctrinal tenets and its relationship to the other such emerging systems of
the Sui-Tang scholastic schools, especially the Hua-yen (and thereby issues
of imperial patronage also become interesting); the confessional and repen-
tance practices of the Seven Roster Buddhanma, Thirty-ve Buddhas, the
fang teng f, and other aspects of daily practice and liturgy, and their rela-
tion to Tien-tai and Pure Land congurations of these widespread practices;
questions of community membership and rules; the reliance on the Shih lun
ching Ys and Kitigarbha devotion, and the political implications of
both; the cult of the sixteen arhats (especially Pi^ola) and their inuence on
the sixteen practices of the Inexhaustible Storehouse; and more. Particularly
in light of the research of the last thirty years in the areas of the Tun-huang
manuscripts, Chan and Hua-yen history, epigraphy, legal and administra-
tive history, messianic Buddhist movements, and the like, it is necessary to
re-present the history and doctrine of the San-chieh movement in order to
open new directions of research as well as to reevaluate Yabukis pioneering
work. Though I do not presume to answer all of these questions, I do hope
to show why they remain important questions and thereby to stimulate fur-
ther research on Hsin-hsing and the San-chieh movement.

Methodological Considerations

The accurate investigation of religious phenomena demands that


they be viewed both in terms of their effect on the situations with which they
articulate (i.e., as an independent variable) and in terms of the way that they
are affected by the setting in which they are found (i.e., as a dependent vari-
x / introduction

able). In this approach Buddhism is neither merely a body of doctrines


undergoing change and reformulation according to individual revelation
and intellectual dispute, nor is it simply an institution swaying in the winds
of social change and functional response to those changes. This approach to
the study of Buddhism thus afrms the rhetorical value and agency of the
insight claimed by the tradition at the same time that it encourages discus-
sion of the institutions relation to that agency and its functional interaction
with the world. Therefore my research is concerned with that place at which
the rhetorically ahistoric religious insight of the individual comes together
with the social, historical world, and the religious doctrine and institutions
born thereof. This also means that, although not primarily a study in rheto-
ric per se, this work tends to look at San-chieh doctrine in terms of its
rhetorical function, that is, as a public and social practice aimed at arguing a
point or convincing an audience, and its institutions as attempts to embody
that rhetoric in response to particular social contexts.
More and more we see how the literary tradition that has dominated
scholarship represents a form of rhetoric not necessarily evidenced in insti-
tutional or cultic reality. So far, however, these insights have largely been
received as setting the record straight, debunking the rhetoric, setting up
an opposition between rhetoric and reality, or theoretically problematizing
the use of literary materials as sources for studies of historical institutions.
Of course, the monk of the (rhetorically) iconoclastic and anti-authoritarian
Zen tradition that daily participates in the ritual invocation of the names of
all the members of his lineage, prostrating in front of various icons of that
lineage (which lineage itself is little more than rhetorical fabrication) sees no
opposition, feels no contradiction, and, should he think of the issue, would
probably be hard put to feel that his practice was problematized. This is
not because of a blindness on the part of the monk but because rhetoric has
always had its own functional role the world over, a role rarely restricted or
tied to accurately depicting historical or institutional fact. It is well known to
New Testament scholars, for example, that the gospels are just that: the
good news, that is, evangelical or preaching documents, not to be taken as
trying to record historical or biographical fact; to treat them otherwise says
more about our understanding (or lack thereof) of rhetorical device than it
does about the historical veracity of the New Testament.
It is to be lamented that in the post-Cartesian West the study of rhetoric
has largely been displaced by a positivist and scientic historicism, in which
the facts are to speak for themselves, as Max Weber put it, for although the
study of rhetoric has lagged, its deployment surely has not. I am rmly con-
vinced that without a sophisticated analysis of the forms and styles of religious
rhetoric, much of the worlds contemporary religious language, a language
increasingly bellicose and activist, will never be understood adequately, much
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / xi

less engaged fruitfully. Thus too this study is unabashedly Buddhological,


which is to say that I treat San-chieh doctrine, practice, and institutional
conguration largely in terms of the synchronic and diachronic vicissitudes
of the Buddhist tradition, especially the doctrinal tradition. This is not
because I am ignorant of or resistant to current scholarly fashion that nds
this to be theoretically indefensible and often historically false, but more
simply because it is the self-understanding of Hsin-hsing and his followers.3
That is, however much we know the Buddhist tradition to be an elusive,
ever-changing, and usually self-serving construct, it nonetheless remains the
construct deployed by Buddhists themselves. Hence it seems to me at least as
reasonable an interpretive framework as the equally contingent and self-
serving constructs of late-twentieth-century academics. As an example we
may cite the persistent concern over the question of the sinication of
Buddhism, which might, for example, interpret Hsin-hsings attempts to
harmonize the teachings of degenerate capacity and innate Buddha-nature
as a reection of the ancient Chinese debate between Mencius and Hsn-tzu
regarding the inherently good or evil nature of humanity. The fact remains,
however, that this question was also vigorously debated in Indian Buddhist
texts, and it is these Buddhist scriptures and not the indigenous Chinese
texts that Hsin-hsing uses in his own arguments. So, too, I have very pur-
posefully left the history of the suppressions of the Three Levels movement
until the endon the one hand because I do feel that human agency is
involved in the creation of institutions (for better or, more often, for worse)
and hence the worldviews and particularly the doctrinal propositions that
help form those worldviews are an important factor in institutional history.
On the other hand, before I present the facts of their suppression I want to
present those aspects of their doctrine most frequently cited as their cause in
order to show just how mainstream the Three Levels teachings were. In
other words, as with cults and new religious movements in the contempo-
rary world, it is the novelty, uniquenessthe deviationsthat are most
often cited in regard to the heretical status of Hsin-hsings ideas. When we
look more closely at these ideas, however, we nd little not in evidence else-
where in the Buddhist tradition.
A secondary orientation of my work, born of the rst, is that religious
movements virtually always preclude overly simplistic labeling as popular,
elite, cult, shamanistic, etc. The San-chieh movement was born of
many causes and conditions and exhibited many different sides during its

3 For a broader treatment of these issues see Jamie Hubbard, Premodern, Modern, and

Post-modern: Doctrine and the Study of Japanese Religion, Japanese Journal of Religious
Studies 19/1 (1992): 327; Jamie Hubbard, New Religions, Embarrassing Superstition, and the
Academic Study of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 66/1 (1998): 5992.
xii / introduction

one-hundred-fty year history; economic questions, concern for social wel-


fare and reform, theological sophistication, soteriological subtlety, liturgical
innovation, institutional novelty, sectarian stridency, a cult of the founder,
and more all played a part in the history of the movement. Any attempt to
reduce it to a single framework necessarily discloses only part of that story
and thereby does injustice to the organic integrity (or contradiction) of the
whole. For example, the charitable efforts, the emphasis on the degenerate
conditions of humanity, and the inclusion of Hsin-hsings works in the
apocryphal sections of the sutra catalogues have led many scholars to evalu-
ate his community as primarily a practice oriented movement, an opening
of the Buddhist path to the masses, and thus too in the light of Pure Land
teachings, though the facts clearly do not warrant such a one-dimensional
categorization. Institutionally, for example, they found support among the
highest levels of the government and society, from the Sui statesman
Kao-chiung to the Empress Wu. On the doctrinal side, Hsin-hsings ideas
shared afnities with the universalism and syncretism characteristic of the
Tien-tai and Hua-yen schools, which are usually labeled academic and
elite, as much as with the Pure Land. All of this supports the thesis that the
history of the San-chieh, as with most religious movements, is much too
complicated to be subsumed under broad, sweeping generalizations.
For all of the broad guidance that these considerations have imparted to
my work, the primary approach remains that of documentary history that
aims to understand how San-chieh teachings inuenced practices and insti-
tutions. It was, after all, the discovery of manuscripts in a cave that provided
the opportunity and impetus for this study, and scholarship has not yet
moved far beyond this initial stage.
Because of the many suppressions and the inclusion of its scriptures in the
apocryphal section of the scripture catalogs (which determined the norma-
tive Buddhist canon in China), the San-chieh movement was literally excised
from Chinese Buddhist history. Until the discovery of a number of the
movements texts at the beginning of this century in Tun-huang and Japan,
almost all knowledge of them came from the mere listings of text titles in the
early scripture catalogs or the odd polemic by their contemporaries.
Although this changed dramatically when the movements texts were discov-
ered in a cave in the Central Asian oasis of Tun-huang, the researcher still
faces an inordinate number of complex questions of dating, authorship,
reading, and, because of the fragmentary and often damaged condition of
the texts, even physical reconstruction.
Again, owing to the frequent suppressions, the textual tradition never was
able to really stabilize, so that, for example, many catalogs simply refer to the
tui ken chi tsa lu |F, miscellaneous record of practice in accord
with the capacity in over thirty scrolls, whereas other catalogs break this
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / xiii

miscellany into twenty-two or thirty-ve separate works. This often makes


even the identication of the extant texts tentative at best. In addition, we
must account not only for their preservation at Tun-huang, far from their
institutional headquarters in Chang-an, but also for their transmission to
Korea and Japan. Although no texts have been discovered in Korea to date
(they were, however, recorded in the Korean Sinpyn chejong kyojang chong-
nok4), San-chieh texts were transmitted to Japan as early as the seventh cen-
tury and continued to be copied as part of the normative canon as late as
1180, almost half a millenium after their nal suppression in China. How
and why this should have been the case is not yet fully answeredit was
only in the past few years, for example, that such questions were raised anew
when a manuscript copy of the ofcial Chinese canon containing a number
of San-chieh texts was discovered at the Nanatsu-dera temple in downtown
Nagoya!5
Perhaps, however, the most vexing problem in understanding the San-
chieh texts is working in a total vacuum of commentarial literature to aid in
their interpretation. This requires working in a virtual void of self-conscious
commentarial reection, that is to say, an interpretation handed down over
the years within a given tradition as it reects on its doctrines both syn-
chronically and diachronically. Thus often the only way to understand a
technical term or phrase in the San-chieh materials is through its use in
other traditions, obviously as dangerous a practice as it is cumbersome, mas-
sively enlarging the scope of ones research just as it greatly increases the
possibility for serious misinterpretation. We can only sympathize with the
medieval Tdaiji scholar-monk Gynen !5 (12401321), who wrote of his
encounter with the San-chieh texts, Within the canon is the Sangaishroku
XT in ve chan. It establishes its teachings by quoting directly from
the various scriptures and commentaries, but the context is difcult and the
beginnings and endings are confused; it is therefore hard to ascertain the
meaning and difcult to understand their import.6 The ensuing centuries
have not seen much improvement in the situation. Yet, at the same time,
this lack of a commentarial tradition also proves to be a blessing for somewhat
the same reasonthere is no later tradition or lineage whose interpretations
color ones own.

4 T #2184, 55.1178b; see also Jamie Hubbard, Salvation in the Final Period of the Dharma,

unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1986), 18889.


5 See Ochiai Toshinori, The Manuscripts of Nanatsu-dera: A Recently Discovered Treasure-

House in Downtown Nagoya. With related remarks by Makita Tairy and Antonino Forte.
Translated and edited by Silvio Vita, Occasional Papers Series, no. 3 (Kyoto: Italian School of
East Asian Studies, 1991).
6 T #2339, 72.383a.
xiv / introduction

For all of these reasons I am acutely aware of the shortcomings of my


work, particularly in the area of the specic Chinese context of San-chieh
organization, doctrine, and practice. I hope that these same shortcomings
will spur others to a more conclusive accounting of the textual tradition and
thereby to an understanding of the more subtle nuances of the movement.
Thus, too, the context that I provide is much larger in scope than I would
like, and no doubt my presentations of this wider Buddhist context will
strike many as overly simplied and others as unnecessary. For this very rea-
son, then, the research presented here must be considered introductory,
hopefully yielding aspects of the San-chieh movement that scholars working
in other elds may use to provide greater context for their own endeavors,
rather than properly presenting it in the more exact context of Chinese
Buddhist religious or social history. For these reasons also (and especially in
light of the Nanatsu-dera and other recent manuscript discoveries), I have
decided to postpone to a separate volume the study of the textual history of
the San-chieh manuscripts, including a discussion of their vacillating apoc-
ryphal status in the catalogs, transmission to and copying in Japan, external
testimonium, and the like.
This book is divided into four parts. Part one, The Origins of a Buddhist
Heresy, presents what we know of Hsin-hsings life and practices as found
in the biographical sources with a particular aim of demonstrating how he is
more representative of than deviant from the monastic tradition of his time.
Part two, The Rhetoric of Decline, examines the notion of the demise of
the dharma and the San-chieh systematization of that teaching. The majority
of studies of the decline tradition see it as one way or another a moral indict-
ment of corrupt sentient beings (including, most conspicuously, the sangha)
that implies a moral failure of the ruler as well. Because I have a rather dif-
ferent view of the decline tradition, I have spent more space than is perhaps
expected outlining its original production and early Chinese development in
order to provide a framework for the later discussion of the rhetorical strate-
gies and subsequent suppression of the San-chieh texts and practices. Thus
chapters 2 and 3 discuss what I see to be the origins of the notion of the
demise of the dharma (sectarian skirmishing over the issue of orthodoxy)
and the early Chinese expansion of this tradition into a hermeneutic of sote-
riological and sectarian opportunity (pan chiao |*). Chapter 4 then
recounts Hsin-hsings description of three different capacities for practice
and realization, in particular our decayed capacity and the soteriological
problem posed by such a belief. In a general sense this corresponds to Hsin-
hsings central teaching of recognizing evil as the constitutive reality of
each individuals personal existence. Part three, Absolute Delusion, Perfect
Buddhahood, is concerned with the other side of the coin, the doctrine of
universal Buddha-nature that underlies the teaching and practice of universal
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / xv

respect for the inherent perfection of all sentient beings other than oneself.
Accordingly chapter 5 is an outline of the San-chieh teaching of the refuge of
the Buddha appropriate to the third level, a teaching based on the doctrines
of tathagatagarbha and Buddha-nature that provided the theoretical basis
for their practices. The refuge of the Universal Dharma and the universal
community of practitioners, that is, the doctrine and practice in accord
with the capacity, which offers a solution to the obstacle imposed by our
lowered capacity, is discussed in chapter 6. Having outlined the soteriologi-
cal problem in part two and the theoretical basis of the solution in part
three, part four, The Economy of Salvation, presents the movements
implementation of that theory in the practice of the charitable institution of
the Inexhaustible Storehouse. Chapter 7 presents the theory of this practice
while chapter 8 details the institutional history of the Inexhaustible Store-
house, mostly centered around the Hua-tu ssu in Chang-an, framed in
terms of the issues surrounding the many suppressions of the San-chieh
texts and practices. Finally, chapter 9 attempts to put Hsin-hsings teachings
into a wider context in order to ask more general, comparative, and critical
questions about the relevance of his teaching on the degenerate nature of
humankind as a kind of eschatological, millennial, or apocalyptic doctrine
on the one hand and on the other hand to look at his practical response to
the degeneracy of humankind, that is, the doctrine of the practice that arises
in accord with the capacity as a hermeneutic strategy.
Translations of three key manuscripts from the Tun-huang caves form the
appendices. Appendix A contains a translation of the Pu fa ssu fo 3vM
(The Refuge of the Four Buddhas of the Universal Dharma, Stein #5668), the
basis of Hsin-hsings universalism, and Appendices B and C contain transla-
tions of the two manuscripts most important to a study of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse, the Wu chin tsang fa leh shuo [ F (Abridged
Explanation of the Dharma of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, Stein #190) and
the Ta sheng fa chieh wu chin tsang fa shih /[t (Commentary
on the Dharma of the Inexhaustible Storehouse of the Mahayana Universe,
Stein #721).

Acknowledgments

I am pleased to be able to acknowledge the people who have con-


tributed in one way or another to this study. First and foremost I am indebted
to family and friends my mom and dad, who encouraged me as I selshly
followed my own path and interests in the study of Buddhism; my brother,
Dr. J Macoubrey Hubbard, whose critical and analytic spirit prodded me to
demonstrate that Buddhism is not an irrational ight into the mystical; Dr.
xvi / introduction

John Haugh, who early on taught me the importance of independent think-


ing; and my wife, children, and friends, whose love and support provide the
many distractions and diversions that make the life of an academic some-
what tolerablethey all give the lie to the notion that we have entered the
era of mo fa. I would also like to thank Professor Okabe Kazuo of Komazawa
University, who initiated me into the study of Chinese sutra catalogs, apoc-
ryphal scriptures, and the San-chieh texts. I am particularly thankful for the
gracious help and gentle encouragement offered over the years by Dr.
Antonino Forte, whose meticulous studies in the history of Chinese
Buddhism are a constant inspiration; as always, I can only apologize for not
measuring up to the same standards. Elizabeth Kenney offered trenchant cri-
tiques, sharp insight, and a friendly ear during a recent bout with the manu-
script, and she, Jan Nattier, and Daniel Stevenson all went far beyond the
call of duty in reviewing the manuscript, correcting errors egregious and
minor, and suggesting innumerable improvements. Leyla Ezdinlis encour-
agement with an earlier draft of the manuscript is fondly remembered. In
addition to the invaluable information and extensive research provided by
Nishimoto Terumas own study of the San-chieh movement, I am also
grateful for his assistance in getting the photographs of the Tun-huang man-
uscripts reproduced here. Finally, I must acknowledge Paul Swanson and
James Heisig, my editors and friends at the Nanzan Institute for Religion
and Culturetheir patience over the many years in which I occupied myself
with everything but this manuscript is deeply appreciated.
An earlier version of Chapter Five appeared as Perfect Buddhahood,
Absolute Delusion: The Universal Buddha of the San-chieh-chiao in Paul J.
Grifths and John P. Keenan, eds., Buddha Nature (Los Angeles: Buddhist
Books International, pp. 7594). The translation included in Appendix A
was originally published as A Heretical Chinese Buddhist Text: The Refuge
of the Four Buddhas of the Universal Dharma, in Donald Lopez, ed.,
Buddhism in Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press). I am grateful
to both publishers for permission to use that work here. The photographs of
the Tun-huang manuscripts from the Stein collection of the British Library
were provided by Ty Bunko.

Conventions

In dealing with Sanskrit terminology I have followed in principle


the list of Sanskrit words found in Websters Third New International
Dictionary kindly provided by Roger Jackson.7 I have not, however, chosen

7 Roger Jackson, Terms of Sanskrit and Pli Origin Acceptable as English Words, The
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 5/2 (1982): 14142.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / xvii

to follow Jacksons suggestion regarding the use of diacritical marks with


these terms, the same not being part of the English language (unless, of
course, such words appear with diacritics in the titles of cited works or quo-
tations). The romanization of Chinese follows the MLA style sheet, modied
by the guidelines adopted by the Library of Congress, which basically is the
Wade-Giles system without hyphens (except in the case of proper names such
as San-chieh, Hua-yen, Chih-i, and the like) or the breve and circumex
diacritics.8 Chinese characters have been added in the text, when thought
useful, at the first occurrence of a name or term. To avoid excessive clutter,
additional Chinese characters have been added to terms in the index rather
than to each term in the text.

8 Cataloging Service Bulletin (The Library of CongressProcessing Department) 42 (1957):

12; Cataloging Service Bulletin (The Library of CongressProcessing Department) 118 (1976):
3536.
1.
Hsin-hsing A Buddhist Heretic?

T here is no question that the ofcial hostility towards Hsin-


hsings teachings and institutions is the most conspicuous aspect of their
history. Although Hsin-hsing advocated no revolution, led no peasant mobs
in uprising, and left behind no track record of immoral behavior by his
community, within six years of his death in 594 the propagation of his texts
was prohibited, and over the next 125 years four more edicts were issued
banning various aspects of his followers practice and organization. Part and
parcel of the same program, his writings were declared heretical and ban-
ished from the canon as spuriousamong the few scriptures so designated
for reasons other than false attribution to an Indic original. Having gradually
passed out of circulation, their rediscovery in a cave in a Central Asian oasis
town a century ago was a momentous occasion, and served to refocus atten-
tion on Hsin-hsings ideas and practices.
Because of the heretical status of Hsin-hsings writings there has been a
persistent tendency to discuss the uniqueness, innovation, or creativity of his
teachings and movementin other words, to see them as existing outside
the mainstream. Perhaps the rst example of this is Fei Chang-fang, writing
shortly after Hsin-hsings death in 594, who noted that [Hsin-hsings teach-
ing and practice] are different from the virtues, understandings, and prac-
tices of old;1 this point is also picked up in Hsin-hsings ofcial biography
in the Hs kao seng chuan a: [Hsin-hsings] understandings and
interpretations were unlike those of old.2 The extreme example of this
treatment is the later branding of his teachings as heretical. While we should
not downplay the original avor of Hsin-hsings teaching and practice, it is
also important to recognize just how much the ingredients that he used were
common to other Buddhist teachers of his time, both in the north (such as
Tao-cho, for example, central in the development of the Chinese Pure Land
tradition, or the Ti-lun master Ling-y) as well as in the south, including
those associated with the founding of the Sui dynasty (such as Chih-i,
founder of the Tien-tai tradition). Hsin-hsing, too, likely would be quite

1 T #2034, 49.105b.
2 T #2060, 50.560a.

3
4 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

surprised to nd his teachings and practices considered unusual or unique,


for, as with all Buddhist teachers that I have ever known or studied, he him-
self took great pains to locate his doctrine and practice in the mainstream of
normative Buddhism. In this chapter, then, I would like to introduce what
we know of Hsin-hsings life, and the practices that he cultivated, in order to
set the stage for the fuller discussion of his teachings and institutions that
follows in parts two through four.

History

Hsin-hsing

Hsin-hsing (540594) was a native of Northern China who spent


the last years of his life in Chang-an, the capital of the newly unied Sui
empire. The earliest records of his life come from his own writings, in partic-
ular the epistolary testimony of the Hsin-hsing i wen =kk,3 reliquary
inscriptions (including an inscription perhaps composed in 594, the year
that Hsin-hsing died),4 and the Li tai san pao chi catalog of scripture issued
in 597 (but emended through at least 600) that includes the rst ofcial
record of his writings as well as the rst record of the suppression of Hsin-
hsings teachings.5 Of a later date is his biography in Tao-hsans Hs kao
seng chuan (Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks), compiled in 645,
some fty years after the death of Hsin-hsing.6 Still, because Tao-hsan
resided on Chung-nan shan $[, the site of reliquaries for Hsin-hsing and
many of his followers, and because of the generally acknowledged reliability
of the Hs kao seng chuan, this is an important source for the study of the
San-chieh. As usual, Tao-hsan relied on earlier source material in his biogra-
phy of Hsin-hsing, in particular the account of his writings and the rst sup-
pression of his movement recorded in the Li tai san pao chi (ca. 600), miracles
stories, and tomb inscriptions.7 Finally, there is a biographical sketch of

3 Stein #2137, included in Yabuki, Sangaiky, appendix, 17.


4 See Jamie Hubbard, Chinese Reliquary Inscriptions and the San-chieh-chiao, The
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 14/2 (1991): 25463; Nishimoto,
Sangaiky, 2632.
5 T #2034, 49.105bc.
6 Hsin-hsings biography is contained in the section on monks who practiced meditation
together with the biographies of three of his followers: Pei Hsan-cheng B, Pen-chi
K, and Seng-yung .
7 At the end of his biography of Hsin-hsing and the attached biography of Pei Hsan-

cheng, Tao-hsan added that there is yet another biography in the Li tai san pao chi, a fact
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 5

Hsin-hsing contained in the Tales of Miraculous Retribution (Ming pao chi,


ca. 655)signicant because the author, Tang-lin Nr (600659), was the
grandson of Kao Chiung , Hsin-hsings main patron in the capital, and
often visited the Chen-chi ssu , Hsin-hsings residence in Chang-an.8
Little is known of Hsin-hsings family background other than that he was
from Wei-chn 2u (in the area of modern Anyang HR in Henan
province),9 and his family name was Wang .10 Other documents record his
starting a community in Yeh R (also just north of modern Anyang), the
capital of the Eastern Wei (534550) and the Northern Chi (550577), and
also place him nearby in Hsiang-chou o? (near his birthplace in Wei-
chn) in 583 and 587 (see below). Although nothing further is known of his
family origins, we are thus able to locate his area of activity from the time
of his birth until he was invited to Chang-an in 589 in one of the most vibrant
and dynamic areas of Northern China at the time, home to many inuential
Buddhist leaders and communities, as well as a destination for travelers
bringing news and ideas from South and Central Asia. This geographical

conrmed by his own generous borrowing from the same. Although there are no other
extant, veriable sources for Hsin-hsings biography in the Hs kao seng chuan, it is almost
certain that Tao-hsan saw the memorial stele composed for him by Pei Hsan-cheng at
Chung-nan shan (cf. T #2060, 50.560a.2627 and T #2060, 50.560b.23 and below, p. 14), and
therefore it is possible that much of the biography that is not taken from the Li tai san pao chi
is taken from this stele; cf. my Chinese Reliquary Inscriptions.
8 Ming pao chi, T #2082, 51.788ac; see also the translation and study by Donald E. Gjertson,

Miraculous Retribution: A Study and Translation of Tang-lins Ming pao chi (Berkeley: Center
for South and Southeast Asia Studies, 1989), esp. 15760. The Ming pao chi also contains sto-
ries about his follower Hui-ju (T #2082, 51.788c).
9 Hs kao seng chuan, T #2060, 50.559c; cf. the Li tai san pao chi, T #2034, 49.105b and the

Ku ta Hsin-hsing chan shih ming ta pei (Yabuki, Sangaiky, 7), both of which give Wei-chou
2?. According to the Sui shu, however, in Kai-huang 3 (583) Wen Ti abolished all of the
military commanderies in an effort to break the power of local governments that had
encroached upon the power of the central government. However, for much the same reason,
his successor, Yang Ti, changed back to chn again at the beginning of his reign (604617); cf.
Sui shu, ch. 3, p. 8b, ch. 28, pp. 22b23a and 32a; Woodridge Bingham, The Fall of the Sui
(Baltimore, Waverly Press, 1941), 12; Wright, The Sui Dynasty (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1978), 99; Yabuki, Sangaiky, 20, n. 21. All in all the geographical names of these records are
confusing because of frequent name changes; e.g., the Hsiang-chou of the Tang corresponds
to the Wei-chn of the Sui, the Wei-chou of the Tang corresponds to the Wu-yang chn
!u of the Sui, etc. What is important is that the general area of Hsin-hsings birth and
activity before he was invited to Chang-an was in the area around the capital city of Yeh in
the north, roughly corresponding to the northern tip of contemporary Henan and the south-
ern tip of contemporary Hebei. The Ku ta Hsin-hsing chan shih ming ta pei adds that Hsin-
hsing was a man of Wei Kuo (Yabuki, Sangaiky, 7), near modern-day Daming e
and Qingfeng #! in Hebei province.
10 Perhaps Wang Shan-hsing 3 of Wei-chou and Wang Shan-hsing 3 of Chao-chou,

the two spiritual companions mentioned in the Hsin-hsing i wen (see below), were relatives?
6 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

locus is an important fact that helps to put his teaching and practice in
context.
In describing Hsin-hsings life, the Hs kao seng chuan reects a typical
concern for the didactic message of karmic retribution and tells us that
although his mother had long been without child, after sincerely praying to
the Buddhas she had a dream in which a spirit promised her a child. Indeed,
upon waking she felt somehow different and discovered that she was preg-
nant. The Ming pao chi account is more specic, noting that his mother,
grieving that she had not been able to have a child, happened to meet a
monk who encouraged her to pray to Avalokitevara. This she did day and
night, resulting in her pregnancy and the birth of Hsin-hsing.11 The story as
told in the Ming pao chi ts in well with the popular Chinese miracle tales
centered around the bodhisattva Avalokitevara, whose benevolence and
power were well known from the Lotus Sutra, in which the Buddha describes
how Avalokitevara will aid those who call upon him.12 Among other assis-
tance promised by the Lotus, if a woman desires a baby boy and worships
and make offerings to Avalokitevara, she indeed will be rewarded with a
wise and virtuous son.13
True to Avalokitevaras promise, Hsin-hsing was exceptional from
birth,14 and as a child was intelligent and wise, and well versed in the
sutras and sastras,15 perhaps referring to the fact that Hsin-hsings writings
are typically described as consisting of citations from Buddhist scripture (a
fact actually attested to in the extant manuscripts). His early compassion
and even-mindedness is likewise commented on:

When [Hsin-hsing] was four years old, he saw an ox-cart in the road mired in
the mud, straining and pulling. This aroused his sorrow and he cried and cried,
wanting to push it out of the mud. If he came across a calf separated from its
mother, or encountered thieving and deception, by nature he understood that
all were equal and was not given to attachments and aversions. At eight years of
age he was already showing signs of being extremely bright, clever, and out of
the ordinary.16

Hsin-hsings interest in the religious life does appear to have developed


early, for in the Hsin-hsing i wen he declared that when young I suffered

11 Ming pao chi, T #2082, 51.788b.


12 Gjertson, Miraculous Retribution, 1314.
13 T #262, 9.57a.
14 T #2060, 50.559c.
15 Ming pao chi, T #2082, 51.788b.
16 T #2060, 50.559c.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 7

because of a troubled mind, and was unt for sitting meditation or chanting
the scriptures. From [age] seventeen onward I sought spiritual friends.17
Although there is no mention of when or where Hsin-hsing actually left
home or received the precepts,18 the Hs kao seng chuan biography of Hui-
tsan w, a well-known master of meditation and Vinaya, records that a
novice named Hsin-hsing = came to study with him seeking the ten
precepts. Hui-tsan turned him down, after which he studied under Hui-
tsans disciple Ming-yin g before returning to Yeh R (the capital city of
the Wei and Eastern Chi in Hsiang-chou o?) and beginning his own con-
gregation (pu chung HL).19
It is hard to know what to make of Hsin-hsings seeking to receive the ten
precepts from Hui-tsan or what period of his life this refers to. Hui-tsan,
born in Tsang-chou ? (in contemporary Hebei, approx. 280 kilometers
southeast of Beijing), was active in the north until approximately 577, when,
as a result of Emperor Wus persecution, he left for the south; in 580 he
returned to the area around Chao-chou ? (in Hebei, approx. 170 kilo-
meters north of modern Anyang) and some ten years later resided at the
Kai-hua ssu 5 in Ping-chou W? (near Taiyuan in Shanxi, app. 270
kilometers northwest of Anyang). Hence this could refer to some time
before Hui-tsan went to the south and before Hsin-hsing received the full
precepts. On the other hand, as Michibata avers, it could also refer to the
period after he returned from the south, from 581 to 583, possibly indicating
that Hsin-hsing, who would have been over forty at this point and presum-
ably would have been returned to lay status during the persecution of
574577, was seeking to re-establish his precepts.20 But if already a novice,
why would he be seeking the ten precepts? This also seems strange in view of
the fact that only a few short years later he discards the full precepts (see
below).21 Given, too, that Hsin-hsing is reported to have founded his own

17 Hsin-hsing i wen, 7.
18 The Li tai san pao chi relates that when he [Hsin-hsing] was small, he abandoned his
pursuits [%=%,, i.e., to become a monk?] and extensively studied the scriptural collec-
tions (T #2034, 49.105b). This parallels the later Ming pao chi : as a child [Hsin-hsing] was
intelligent and wise, and well versed in the sutras and sastras (cited above), which makes no
mention, however, of Hsin-hsings abandoning his affairs; his biography likewise omits any
reference to when or where he received the precepts.
19 T #2060, 50.575b.
Michibata Rysh, Dshaku to Sangaiky, in Chgoku Jdokyshi no kenky (Kyoto:
20

Hzkan, 1980), 125.


21A thorough discussion of Hsin-hsings attitude towards the precepts should also take into
account the Teaching on Receiving the Eight Precepts (Shou pa chieh fa 1kw, Pelliot
2849R); see Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 19798, 578600.
8 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

congregation after leaving Hui-tsans disciple Ming-yin, this would seem to


be a record of a later event in his life. Perhaps the record of Hsin-hsings dis-
ciple Pen-chi is relevant, for this biography notes that in the rst year of
Kai-huang (581), when Pen-chi was eighteen years old, he heard of Hsin-
hsings founding a new sect (i pu bH) and joined him.22 In any case, it does
indeed seem likely that Hsin-hsing would have sought out Hui-tsan, for
there is no question that Hui-tsans rigor, dhta practice, and interest in the
Vinaya, meditation, and penitential rites are reected in Hsin-hsing and the
practice of his community. Signicantly, Hui-tsan was also Tao-chos
teacher, and we can perhaps see his inuence in the passing on to both Tao-
cho and Hsin-hsing the practice of the fang teng repentance (fang teng chan
fa fH).23 Like Hsin-hsing, Hui-tsan was invited to Chang-an (in 602),
and he also spent a good deal of time on Chung-nan shan, the site of Hsin-
hsings reliquaries.
Though we have little information on where or from whom Hsin-hsing
received the monastic precepts, his biography tells us that he discarded the
full monastic precepts (she ch tsu chieh Sw) at the Fa-tsang ssu in
Hsiang-chou oC, personally engaged in manual labor, made offer-
ings to the Fields of Compassion and Respect (suffering sentient beings and
the Three Jewels, respectively; see below, 28), and paid reverence to monks
and laity alike.24 Reminiscent of Shinrans claim to a status of neither monk
nor layman, the record of this event in the earlier Li tai san pao chi notes
that:

[Hsin-hsing] discarded the two hundred and fty precepts and lived below the
position of a full monk but above that of a novice.25

Although we do not know when Hsin-hsing discarded the precepts, a testi-


monial in the Hsin-hsing i wen indicates that in 583, when he was 44 years
old, and possibly as late as 587, he still considered himself a monk:

22 T #2060, 50.578a.
23 On San-chieh monks, Hui-tsan, and the fang teng repentance see Daniel Stevenson, The
Tien-Tai Four Forms of Samdhi and Late North-South Dynasties, Sui, and Early Tang
Buddhist Devotionalism, Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1987, 17072 and 18187;
on Hsin-hsing and Tao-cho see also David Chappell, Tao-cho (562645): A Pioneer of
Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1976, 6370; Yamamoto
Bukkotsu [M, Shingy to Dshaku no ksh =o&uH, Indogaku Bukkygaku
kenky 6/2 (1958): 54043.
24 T #2060, 560a.
25 T # 2034, 49.105b.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 9

In the 3rd year of Kai-huang (583) the monk Hsin-hsing of Kuang-yen ssu
M= in Hsiang-chou, for the sake of the emperors,26 teachers, par-
ents, and all sentient beings of the past, future, and present, abandoned body,
life, and possessions, entrusting himself to all of the teachings of the sixteen
kinds of eternal, joyous, self [and pure practices of the Inexhaustible Store-
house]. On the tenth day of the rst month of the seventh year of Kai-
huang (587) the sramana Hsin-hsing of the Kuang-yen ssu M= in
Hsiang-chou said to the patron and governor of the Prefecture ?FA:
When young I suffered a troubled mind and was unt for seated meditation
or chanting the scriptures. From [age] seventeen onward I sought spiritual
friends, and until now, at age 48, thirty-two full years have accumulated, I have
only found four people who have vowed to reject life and treasures and to
immediately arrive at Buddhahood: the monk Hui-ting of the Kuang-yen ssu
in Hsiang-chou o?M; the monk Tao-chin of the Yen-ching ssu in
Hsiang-chou o?; the [layman] Wang Shan-hsing of Wei-chou
2?3 and the [layman] Wang Shan-hsing of Chao-chou ?3.
Continuously practicing in this way without interruption will benet the
nation and prot the masses of living beings, and so I respectfully ask that
you report this to the Imperial throne that I may receive their gracious permis-
sion.27

If these records are accurate, they tell us that in 587 Hsin-hsing was still in
Hsiang-chou, residing at the Kuang-yen ssu. It might also be signicant that
in the rst instance Hsin-hsing refers to himself as a monk but in the sec-
ond as a sramana , and that two of his four companions appear to be
laymen.28 One of Hsin-hsings important disciples, Pei Hsan-cheng (d. ca.
634), is also described by Tao-hsan as having been formerly a monk but in
the end wearing laymans clothes.29
As with much in Hsin-hsings biography, it is hard to know exactly what
to make of this record of his discarding the complete precepts and living
below a monk but above the laity. The natural tendency is to see him initi-
ating a new sort of ecclesiastic position analogous to Shinrans neither
monk nor laity mentioned above. Such an explanation appears particularly
promising given the San-chieh emphasis on the tradition of the decline of

26 The text is damaged here; three characters are missing.


27 Hsin-hsing i wen, 3 and 7 (I have emended the reading slightly in line with the same list of
spiritual friends given in the Hsin-hsing i wen, 5); see also Yabuki, Sangaiky, 1114.
28 On the basis of a colophon to a San-chieh manuscript in the lost Li Sheng-to 5 col-

lection of Tun-huang manuscripts composed in 586 at the Fa-tsang ssu in Hsiang-chou,


Nishimoto has surmised that it was between 583 and 587 that Hsin-hsing discarded the pre-
cepts (Sangaiky, 56).
29 T #2060, 560a; see also below, p. 15.
10 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

the dharma and insistence that the sangha was composed of corrupt monks
who break the precepts and harbor false views (see chapters 4 and 6, below).
Thus in considering this and other aspects of Hsin-hsings teachings in his
study of the suppressions of the San-chieh movement Mark Lewis writes
that we must conclude that the Three Stages sect celebrated the reversion of
monks to secular life as one expression of proper religiosity.30
At the same time, however, this explanation goes against what we know of
the rigor of Hsin-hsings cultivation of a strict monastic regimen, including
the austerities of the dhta practices, penitential rites, liturgies, meditation,
and especially the stern life of San-chieh communities, the regulations of
which go so far as to bar membership to any who have even considered dis-
carding the precepts (see chapter 6, 14344).31 Considering his seeking ordi-
nation from Hui-tsan, a Vinaya master noted for his strict vigilance of the
precepts, it seems hard to conclude that Hsin-hsing was attempting to elimi-
nate the institution of monasticism. Other possible explanations, then, for
Hsin-hsings discarding the precepts could perhaps include his high regard
for the precepts and a desire not to break them, either because he felt that as
an evil person he could no longer be faithful to his vows or perhaps because
of his desire to engage in manual labor and develop the social welfare enter-
prises that led to the creation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse (see chapters 7
and 8).32 Then again, perhaps this is simply a record of his abandoning the
precepts during the general persecution of Buddhism by Emperor Wu that
lasted from 574 to 577.
Although most of Hsin-hsings life was thus spent in the area of the
Northern Chi capital, his last years were spent in Chang-an, the capital of
the newly unied Sui empire. According to his biography, he was ofcially
invited to the capital in the beginning of the Kai-huang period (581600),
and the famous statesman Kao Chiung established a subtemple (yan ) for
him in the Chen-chi ssu .33 Because Kao Chiung was still busy in the
various campaigns to conquer the South, and because the Chen-chi ssu was
not established until 583, this date should be emended to Kai-huang 9 (589),
following the Hsin-hsing i wen records (noted above) of Hsin-hsings contin-
ued presence in Hsiang-chou in 587 and the biography of Hsin-hsings disci-
ple Seng-yung: In Kai-huang 9 (589) Hsin-hsing received an invitation to

30 Mark E. Lewis, The Suppression of the Three Stages Sect, in Robert Buswell, Jr., ed.

Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), 220.


31 There is a grandfather clause to this rule that excepts anybody who had already aban-

doned the precepts; perhaps this clause was for Hsin-hsing himself, or perhaps for others
forcibly returned to lay life during the persecution of 574577.
32 Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 56.
33 T #2082, 51.788a; for details see chapter 8.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 11

the capital and he went together with Seng-yung; after his arrival in the
imperial capital monks and laity alike all received his teachings.34
According to his biography, once in the capital Hsin-hsing composed
three works in more than forty chan: the Practice that Arises in Accord with
the Capacity (Tui ken chi hsing ), the Collected Works on the Three
Levels (San chieh chi lu XT), and the Assorted Rules for Community
Regulation (Chih chung shih chu fa L).35 The early records of Hsin-
hsings writings are not entirely consistent, in part because they were origi-
nally given orally and only subsequently written down by one of his disciples,
and of course in part because of their proscription in 600.36 This state of
affairs is alluded to in the Li tai san pao chi, the earliest catalog of Hsin-
hsings writings, which, after recording the miscellaneous records of prac-
tices that arise in accord with the capacity (tui ken chi hsin tsa lu
F) in thirty-two chan, notes that, although these miscellaneous
records are made up of accurate citations from the sutras and commen-
taries, the titles of the individual works (in the miscellaneous records) are
not xed. Nonetheless, there is a general consensus of nearly forty chan of
writings that seem to have been loosely gathered under two rubrics, a longer
work dealing with the practice in accord with the capacity, and a shorter
work dealing with the three levels. Although not specically mentioned in
the earliest records, the third text mentioned in Hsin-hsings biography, the

34 T #2060, 50.584a.
35 T #2060, 50.560a. The Chih chung shih chu fa was actually written east of the mountains
(shan tung [X) referring not to modern Shandong province but to the area east of the Tai-
hang Mountains, in modern-day Shansi province. The only other mention of anything com-
posed east of the mountains is the Chi lu T, which, lacking a text, Hsin-hsing taught
orally to his disciple Pen-chi K (T #2060, 50.578a); according to the biography appended to
Hsin-hsings, the disciple Pei Hsan-cheng B actually penned all of Hsin-hsings writ-
ings (qoW[]B).
36 The Li tai san pao chi lists two works, the San chieh wei pieh chi lu XRT in three
chan and a Tui ken chi hsing tsa lu |P in thirty-two chan, and Hsin-hsings reli-
quary inscription mentions two works, the Tui ken chi hsing chih fa | in over
thirty chan and a San chieh fo fa XM in four chan. The Ta tang nei tien lu, also com-
posed by Tao-hsan (author of Hsin-hsings Hs kao seng chuan biography), only lists two
works attributed to Hsin-hsing, the San chieh wei pieh chi lu XRT and the Tui ken chi
hsing tsa lu chi nFT. Tang-lins Ming pao chi generally conrms this early literary
tradition of Hsin-hsing, giving his works as a thirty-six-chan Jen chi lu ^T and a four-
chan San chieh fa X. For an overview of the San-chieh literary tradition see Hubbard,
Salvation in the Final Period, 171260; Yabuki, Sangaiky, 14192; Nishimoto, Sangaiky,
155238; Hubbard, The Teaching of the Three Levels and the Manuscript Texts of the San
chieh fo fa, in Nanatsu-dera koitsu kyten kenky ssho Vol. 5: Chgoku Nippon senjutsusho
(Tokyo: Daito Shuppansha, 2000); Nishimoto Teruma, Sangaibupp shohon no seiritsu to
denpan ni tsuite, in Nanatsu-dera koitsu kyten kenky ssho Vol. 5: Chgoku Nippon senjut-
susho (Tokyo: Daito Shuppansha, 2000).
12 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

Assorted Rules for Community Regulation, is found in later catalogs that


detail the titles of the individual works that comprise the more than thirty
chan of the Practice that Arises in Accord with the Capacity. 37
Because the San-chieh texts were later banished from the ofcial canon
and the community itself eventually died out, these works have been lost for
the better part of a millennium, with only their titles remaining in the cata-
logs. This situation changed dramatically with the discovery of their texts at
Tun-huang and in Japan nearly one hundred years ago, though many prob-
lems of identication, physical reconstruction, dating, and interpretation
remain. Although the full presentation of the textual history of Hsin-hsings
writings lies outside the scope of this study, it is notable that they areas
virtually all early sources agreeprimarily composed of citations drawn
from a wide reading of scripture. As a fragment of the San chieh fo fa X
M (Buddha-dharma of the Three Levels, Stein #2684) recovered from Tun-
huang puts it, The San chieh fo fa is entirely comprised of scriptural pas-
sages (ching wen k), excluding only nine words written by human beings
(jen y ^B): the rst level (ti i chieh s), the second level (ti erh chieh
), and the third level (ti san chieh X).38 Indeed, although this is
a bit of an overstatement and the rules for citation in Hsin-hsings day were
not quite the same as those imposed within contemporary academic writing,
within the 30 leaves of this fragment of the second chan of the San chieh fo
fa (approximately 10 Taish pages), for example, there are over 130 refer-
ences to 35 different canonical sources, including the Mahparinirva-stra
(31 references), Daacakrakitigarbha-stra (16 references), the Saddharma-
pu^arka-stra (17 references), as well as the Hua-yen Stra, Kyapa-
parivarta-stra, rmaladev-stra, Ekottargama, Daabhmika-stra, and
numerous other sutras and sastras. Interesting, too, is the careful separation
of the words of the composer (jen y ^B) and scripture (ching wen k).
Could it perhaps reect a sense of delement of the commentator and there-
fore a wish not to pollute sacred writings by mixing them with the profane
thereby equivalent, perhaps, to the grievous offense of slandering the
dharma? Or is Hsin-hsing simply showing that although he knows his
arrangement of the Buddhas teachings into three levels is articial and not
found in the texts themselves it is undeniably based on scripture? Regardless
of the reason, Hsin-hsing was indeed zealous in his recourse to scriptural
authority.
After only ve years in the capital Hsin-hsings health began to deteriorate,
though his rigorous and diligent practice did not:

37 E.g., the Ta chou lu, T 2153, 55.475a and the Kai yan lu, T #2154, 55.678c.
38 San chieh fo fa, 12; see also the Japanese text of the San chieh fo fa, 415.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 13

Toward the end his illness became severe, but he struggled with all of his
strength in the Buddha-hall, contemplating the image [of the Buddha]. When
his energy had gradually waned, he had the image brought into his room and
while lying on his side gazing at it he died. He had fty-four springs and
autumns [i.e., he was 54 years old].39 This took place on the fourth day of the
rst month of the fourteenth year [of Kai-huang, that is, 30 January 594].40
After seven days his corpse was escorted from the Hua-tu ssu 5E41 to the
Chih-ming fu zk@ of Chung-nan shan $[, and the wailing voices of
monks and laity shook the capital.42

At Chung-nan shan they abandoned his body, the so-called sky burial
in which ones body is left in the open as a food offering to the wild beasts
a nal and tting act for one who, as noted above, had vowed to abandon
body, life, and possessions for the sake of all sentient beings. Although not a
common practice, sky burial was far from unknown among Hsin-hsings
contemporaries.43 Tao-hsans biography adds that when they later collected
his bones, they discovered that his ears were directly across from each other!
This curious note is explained by an episode in the tale of Hsin-hsing
recounted in the Ming pao chi, which relates that after Hsin-hsings death,
some of the teachers in the capital had misgivings about his teachings. After
discussing the matter among themselves, they recalled that, according to the
Fu fa tsang ching, if a person has heard the true dharma in the past then their
ears would be directly across from each other. Upon checking Hsin-hsings
skull, they discovered that his ears were indeed directly opposite each other
and so they all were contrite and admitted their lack of faith.44 Considering
that the rst suppression of the San-chieh movement took place only a few
short years after Hsin-hsings death (in 600), it is interesting that the basic

39 Hsin-hsings age should be emended to 55 as given in the Ku ta Hsin-hsing chan shih

ming ta pei (Yabuki, Sangaiky, 9); on Hsin-hsings age see Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 4041.
40 This date later became important for the practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse; see

below, chapters 7 and 8.


41 The Chen-chi ssu was renamed the Hua-tu ssu in 620 (see chapter eight).
42 T #2060, 50.560a.
43A cursory check through the indices for the Hs kao seng chuan turns up thirteen refer-
ences to other monks who abandoned their body at death; nuns were also noted in this
regard, as for example Hui-chiung , who specically requested that her disciples leave
her body as an offering for wild animals (T #2063, 55.930b); Chien-hsing is a San-chieh
nun buried at the site of Hsin-hsings reliquary whose disciples also gave her a sky burial
(Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 8284).
44T #2082, 51.788c; see also Gjertson, Miraculous Tales, 159. The Fu fa tsang yin yan chuan
$+ was probably composed in China and gures in the tradition of the decline of
the dharma; the story about the ears is found at T #2058, 51.322b.
14 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

point of this story, related in two biographies composed in the 650s, is to


conrm that the doubts of the teachers in the capital had been allayed and
that Hsin-hsings teachings were indeed the true dharma.
After gathering his remains, his followers erected a reliquary and put up a
memorial stele, which, according to Tao-hsan, was composed by Pei
Hsan-cheng B and is at the foot of the mountain.45 Chung-nan shan
was a popular spot among Sui and Tang Buddhists, and also served as a reli-
quary site for many. A number of other San-chieh followers also had steles
and stupas erected near Hsin-hsing, and in 767 the name of the site was
changed from the Hsin-hsing ta-yan =O to the Pai-ta ssu O, per-
haps indicating that Hsin-hsings reliquary stupa was no longer the focus of
the site.

Community

Hsin-hsing left behind a substantial community of followers (tu


chung 6L) and institutional presence after his death.46 He appears to have
been a charismatic teacher and to have attracted followers from early on. As
noted above, he was reported to have founded a congregation (pu chung
HL) in Yeh after leaving Hui-tsan, and, in support of the idea that Hsin-
hsings community began at least as early as the Kai-huang era, his reliquary
inscription (likely composed in 594, the year of his death) records that a
group of followers (tu chung 6L) three hundred strong had been together
with Hsin-hsing as spiritual companions (shan chih shih 3F) for over
twenty years, following his deeds of body, mind, and speech as comrades in
awakening (pu ti chih yu ). As noted above, Pen-chi is recorded as
having joined Hsin-hsings new sect (i pu bH) in 581, and Seng-yung,
another important disciple who led the community after Hsin-hsings death,
joined him at approximately the same time.47 Hsin-hsings charisma and
skill at winning converts is mentioned in many of the records of his life; for
example, Tao-hsan records that adepts came from the four directions to his
gate to question him, and because Hsin-hsing was always straightforward
and never devious in his replies all who heard him believed him and were

45 T #2060, 50.560a. The various memorial steles done in memory of Hsin-hsing and his

followers form one of the more interesting and important sources of information for the
study of Chinese Buddhism in general and the San-chieh movement in particular; for an
introduction to these sources see Hubbard, Chinese Reliquary Inscriptions.
46 For a complete listing of his disciples and followers see Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 77119.
47 T #2060, 50.584a.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 15

converted.48 The Ming pao chi likewise notes that all the bold and deter-
mined scholars of the empire (tien hsia yung meng ching chin chih shih
4{w) took Hsin-hsing as their master.49 Though these refer-
ences seem to be but borrowed or shared literary tropes, they t in well with
other indications that Hsin-hsing was a charismatic leader around whom a
founders cult developed.
Because of the emphasis on the decline of the dharma, the decay of
human potential, and the mass appeal of Hsin-hsings charitable enterprise,
there has been a persistent tendency to see his community as a popular
movement that antagonized elite notions of orthodoxy. In fact, evidence of
elite support is more forthcoming in the historical record.50 We can cite, for
example, the ofcial invitation to teach in the capital and the patronage of
the powerful minister Kao Chiung. Hsin-hsings appeal to the elite is per-
haps also indicated by the stature of his disciples. Attached to the biography
of Hsin-hsing, for example, is the biography of his disciple Pei Hsan-cheng
(d. circa 634). Although originally a monk, Pei is said to have worn laymans
clothes towards the end of his life. That he was of a relatively high station in
life is evident from the fact that he is referred to as a retired gentleman
w, that he compiled Hsin-hsings works, and that he composed not only
Hsin-hsings memorial but his own as well!51 As a retired ofcial or gen-
tleman, it is possible that Pei was of the great Pei family of Ho-tung,
which produced many literati and high ofcials during the Tang dynasty
(e.g., Pei ch M, Pei Ch-tao , etc.) Other members of the Pei
clan, such as the wife of Pei Hsing-chien , one of the highest ofcials
of the early Tang, were also buried at the Pai-ta ssu O, the place where
the steles for Hsin-hsing, Seng-yung, Pei Hsan-cheng, and other San-chieh
followers were erected, and there is even a record to the effect that a
Pei-kung N donated the land for the Pai-ta ssu.52 If it is true that Pei
Hsan-cheng came from such a powerful family, it would help to explain
both the early power of the San-chieh and their revival in the early Tang
dynasty.
In any case, Hsin-hsings biography lists ve San-chieh temples in the
capital: the Hua-tu ssu 59, the Kuang-ming Mg, the Tzu-men , the

48 T #2060, 50.560a.
49 T #2082, 51.788a.
50 This is particularly true in the epigraphical record; see Hubbard, Chinese Reliquary
Inscriptions.
51 There is also a record in the Pao ke tsung pien, chan 7, p. 19, of a memorial that Pei

composed for Ching-ming e, a disciple who is mentioned together with Seng-yung in the
Ku ta Hsin-hsing chan shih ming ta pei; cf. Hubbard, Chinese Reliquary Inscriptions, 255.
52 Tsukamoto, Sangaiky shiry zakki, Shina Bukky shigaku, 1/12 (Shwa 12), 99.
16 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

Hui-jih , and the Hung-shan e3. Writing at roughly the same time as
Tao-hsan, the author of the Ming pao chi notes that from these ve temples
his followers proliferated and spread out, but they were still known as the
meditation masters of the ve temples.53 Indicating that Hsin-hsing had
followers in other temples as well, the biography adds, In addition to these,
the other temples as well followed their regimen of offering veneration at the
six periods and begging for food.54 The widespread inuence of the move-
ment that Hsin-hsing began is also evident from records of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse, which both attracted throngs from all over the empire as well as
established branches throughout the provinces (see chapter 8). From its ori-
gins in the rigorous communities of monastic Buddhist practice of the north
to its establishment in the imperial capital, and in spite of the ofcial hostility
that it encountered, the religious community founded by Hsin-hsing our-
ished in Chang-an for well over one hundred years, and continued to exist
perhaps as late as the tenth century (see chapter 8).
At this juncture we might pause briey to ask what sort of social organiza-
tion best characterizes Hsin-hsings community. As we have seen, the earli-
est references to Hsin-hsings community are i pu bH (new sect, branch,
faction, division, or offshoot), pu chung HL (congregation, society,
group, community), tu chung 6L (group of followers, supporters), shan
chih shih 3F (spiritual companions), and pu ti chih yu
(comrades in awakening). As such, I tentatively believe that we could use
the term sect to describe the San-chieh movement. That is, I think that
Hsin-hsing and his followers share some of the features typically associated
with sectarianism as dened by Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch, Bryan Wilson,
and others, namely, a slightly separatist group of exclusivist true believers
focusing on personal rather than institutional charisma and more concerned
with personal fellowship than with secular power. To consider Hsin-hsings
community in terms of sectarian movements, then, has obvious heuristic
value. Still, before sect or school can be used with any degree of accuracy
more work on the basis and conguration of membership is needed. In any
case, what we do not nd is School of the Three Levels (San-chieh tsung
X;) or Teaching of the Three Levels (San-chieh-chiao X*).
Although the latter designation in particular has become the standard name
in English, in fact it is not attested until quite late (ninth century) and in
reality is more an appellation made popular by Yabuki Keikis pioneering
research early in the previous century, Sangaiky no kenky. For this reason I
refer to the San-chieh movement, the San-chieh teachings, the San-

53 T #2082, 51.788c.
54 T #2060, 50.560a.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 17

chieh community, or the teachings of Hsin-hsing in order to avoid using


San-chieh-chiao as a proper name.

Teaching

Although the various accounts of Hsin-hsings life recounted above


must be understood as a particular variety of religious or hagiographical
writing, they do make clear that the majority of his life was spent in
Northern China in the vicinity of the capital city of Yeh. He was thus born
amidst the civil war so endemic to sixth-century China and no doubt experi-
enced rsthand the decadent conditions of the monasteries and the atten-
dant imperial suppression of Buddhism in 574, in which over two million
monks and nuns were reportedly laicized. Such conditions had already given
rise to a pervasive apocalyptic mood in China, a mood further kindled by
translations that reected the persecution of Buddhism in northwest India at
the hands of the conquering Huns only slightly earlier. These historical
events, combined with the spirit of eschatological expectation that had pre-
vailed for several centuries in indigenous Chinese thought and practice,
prompted many to teach that sentient beings were no longer capable of
practicing the traditional Buddhist path. This dark period of history was var-
iously known as the latter time or nal age (Chinese mo shih =,
Sanskrit pacimakla), or the time of the destruction of the true teachings
(Chin. fa mieh n, Skt. saddharma-vipralopa) and its development into a
full-blown doctrinal statement occupied many of the important Buddhist
thinkers of the Sui and Tang and had far-reaching consequences in the his-
tory of East Asian Buddhism. Hsin-hsings systematization of this idea is
found in his doctrine of the three levels, the unique organization of spiri-
tual capacity that is the hallmarkand the nameof his movement. For
Hsin-hsing the important lesson of the decline tradition was that sentient
beings were ensnared by bias and prejudice, a foundational bias that pre-
vented discernment of truth and falsity, ultimately leading to the grave
offense of slandering the dharma and cutting off all chance for awakening.
Such a bias at the very core of their experience characterizes the beings of the
third level, and it was to them that Hsin-hsings teachings were directed.
At the same time that the notions of mo shih and fa mieh were gaining
currency, however, a much more positive understanding of the human con-
dition was also having a profound impact on Chinese Buddhists. This, the
teaching of universal Buddha-nature, proclaimed that all living beings, no
matter how degenerate or sinful, were fundamentally of an awakened nature
and would one day realize that enlightened nature. Thus the situation pre-
sented an interesting dilemmaon the one hand the universal capacity for
18 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

Buddhahood proclaimed an equal and ultimate human potential, yet on the


other hand there is the decayed capacity for realization of that potential.
Hsin-hsing, as with many others, transformed this dilemma into an oppor-
tunity for advocating new doctrinal and institutional congurations of tradi-
tional Buddhist practice. He did so under the banner of the practice that
arises in accord with the capacity (tui ken chi hsing fa |), a refor-
mulation of the pragmatic Buddhist dictum to make the cure t the disease,
the doctrinal privileging inherent in the Buddhist rhetoric of teaching
according to the capacity of the disciple (upya), and the Chinese tradition
of organizing the Buddhist teachings according to various chronological and
pedagogical schemes (pan chiao |*). Thus, far from closing off the
Buddhist path, the teaching of the latter age opened up a door of opportunity
for doctrinal innovation, an opening that coincided with the great political
and economic opportunities blossoming throughout the empire. In many
ways San-chieh doctrines and institutions can be best understood as a calcu-
lated response to those opportunities.
Hsin-hsings biographies are strangely silent on the specic topic of the
three levels, although his key doctrine of teaching according to the spiritual
capacity is noted. Tao-hsan, for example, wrote in the Hs kao seng chuan
that Hsin-hsing considered the teachings in conjunction with the era and
investigated humanity in accordance with its afiction.55 The Ming pao chi
elaborates:

[Hsin-hsing] taught that what was contained in the Buddhas sutras was for the
purpose of salvation; some [scriptures] taught the path according to the basic
nature and some determined the teaching in accordance with time and the sit-
uation. Now we are very far from the sage and [human] nature at this time is
very different. If an inferior person practices the superior teachings the teach-
ing will not match the capacity and they will easily be confused and mistaken.
Thereupon [Hsin-hsing] collected passages from the sutras and commentaries,
closely examining them in order to discover the dharma appropriate for people
to study. The purport [of his teachings is to] encourage people [to cultivate]
universal respect (pu ching 3) [of others] and recognition of [ones own]
evil (jen o ) nature, contemplate the [universal] Buddha-nature, and dis-
pense medicine in accord with the afiction. It is a sudden teaching of the One
Vehicle.56

This passage aptly summarizes Hsin-hsings teachings: human nature is


no longer capable of practicing the superior dharma of the sages, and to

55 T #2060, 50.559c560a.
56 T #2082, 51.788b.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 19

attempt to do so will only bring harm. Therefore we must take medicine in


accord with the afiction, that is to say, cultivate the practice that arises in
accord with the capacity. As the Ming pao chi notes, the gist of his teachings
is to be found in the complementary practices of seeing all sentient beings in
terms of their essential Buddha-nature and therefore universally respecting
all while at the same time seeing oneself solely in terms of our basically evil
nature. For Hsin-hsing, the medicine dispensed in accord with the
afictionthe afiction of bias and prejudiced views of reality means cul-
tivating a variety of contemplative, penitential, liturgical, and ascetic prac-
tices, practices that for the most part were staples in the monastic regimen of
his day. The full description of the evil nature of the third level of living
being and the essentially enlightened nature of all living beingsabsolute
delusion and perfect Buddhahoodconstitute the bulk of parts 2 and 3; here
let me briey introduce some of the other practices of the San-chieh com-
munity as they are mentioned in Hsin-hsings biographies.

Practice

Although Hsin-hsings writings give the best picture of his synthe-


sis of Buddhist doctrine, the biographical materials contain many references
to his practice and that of his community. In general we can say that these
practices are typical of the time; dhyana and other contemplative exercises,
the ascetic dhta practices, liturgical practice of the six-period pj, and the
penitentiary fang teng riteall well-known practices of the timeare each
mentioned. Practices more unique to Hsin-hsingpractices that form the
bulk of this studyinclude the universal veneration of all sentient beings as
Buddhas, the sixteen practices of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, and of
course the teaching of the three levels themselves. Although the full presen-
tation of the contemplative and liturgical life of the San-chieh communities
lies outside the scope of the present work, a brief introduction is in order; let
me begin with those practices that seem to have been widespread in the
milieu of late sixth-century Chinese Buddhist communities.

Dhyana

Although Hsin-hsing himself noted that when he was young he


suffered a troubled mind and was unt for seated meditation or chanting
the scriptures,57 either this was a rhetorical humility (perhaps born of his

57 Hsin-hsing i wen, 7.
20 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

teaching of recognizing evil, described below) or he overcame his difcul-


ties when he got older, for concentration practices, contemplative exercises,
and the cultivation of various samadhis were an important part of Hsin-
hsings regimen. To begin with, we should remember that Hsin-hsings
biography in the Hs kao seng chuan is contained in the section reserved for
chan shih ,, masters of meditation.58 The Ming pao chi, too, reports
that Hsin-hsing exerted his strength in order to concentrate his mind, emp-
tying the physical and bringing wisdom to maturity.59 The Hsin-hsing i wen
gives brief but strict instructions for the practitioner of seated meditation,
tersely summed up as: sit constantly day and night, never lying down.60
Many of the San-chieh texts recovered from Tun-huang also mention seated
meditation (tso chan ,) and meditative concentration (chan ting ,),61
and a large portion of the Chih fa manual of San-chieh monastic practice is
devoted to detailed instructions on seated meditation practice, about which
it states bluntly: Seated meditation alone should be the foundation [of
practice] for all the evil monks of the evil world after the Buddhas extinc-
tion.62
The specic content of the exercises vary in the San-chieh literature,63
from the contemplation of form and nothingness (wu hsiang san mei kuan
[oX*), reported in the Chih fa64 to the more mundane practice of
calming the mind in order to keep it from being distracted by the love of
fine food when engaged in begging alms.65 The Practice that Arises in Accord
with the Capacity (Tui ken chi hsing fa |), an early and central San-
chieh text, includes detailed instructions on the ssu nien chu o v, the
mindfulness of the four evil places, including contemplation of ones
actions, body, breath, movements, corpse, etc.; 66 the ping teng kuan f,

58 The biographies of Hsin-hsings disciples Seng-yung (T #2060, 55.583c584a) and Pen-chi

(T #2060, 55.578a578b) are also in the section reserved for chan shih.
59 T #2082, 51.788b.
60 Hsin-hsing i wen, 6.
61 A cursory check of the extant manuscripts reveals well over fty references to tso chan
and chan ting.
62 Chih fa, 581; underscoring its importance, the Chih fa states that the monk appointed to

oversee San-chieh communitiesthough regarding himself as evil and others as virtuous


was expected to cultivate the seated meditation of the formless samadhi (wu hsiang san mei
[oX*). Chih fa, 579.
63 See Nishimoto Teruma, Sangaiky no kanh ni tsuite, kurasan ronsh 44 (1999),

85121.
64 Chih fa, 579, 582.
65 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 123 (cf. ibid., 142); see also chapter 5.
66 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 11720.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 21

the contemplation of equality in which the practitioner of dna sees nei-


ther giver nor recipient, neither precept holder nor precept breaker;67 and
the wu men kuan 2, the ve gates of contemplation, including the
contemplation of the four Buddhas (ssu fo kuan vM), the contempla-
tion of all [sentient beings] as ones relative (pu chin kuan 3V), the
contemplation of the impurity of ones food (shih pu ching kuan
7#), the contemplation of emptiness and formlessness (kung wu
hsiang kuan W[[]o), and the contemplation of impermanence (wu
chang kuan [[]).68 The rst gate, the contemplation of the four
Buddhas, was particularly important in San-chieh practice and is detailed in
a separate text translated in Appendix A, the Pu fa ssu fo 3vM (Stein
#5668).69 The importance of contemplative practice is underscored in Hsin-
hsings biography that reports that even as he was dying Hsin-hsing devoted
himself to contemplation of the Buddha image; and in the suppression edict
of 699 (see chapter 8, 205206) seated meditation is one of the San-chieh
practices permitted to continue.70

Fang-teng

As mentioned above, it seems likely that Hsin-hsing studied with


Hui-tsan, a Vinaya and meditation master also known for his cultivation of
the dhta and the fang teng f penitentiary rite. The fang teng retreat was
widely popular in Northern Chinese Buddhist circles and particularly impor-
tant in Tien-tai practice.71 Whether because of Hui-tsans inuence or sim-
ply because of its widespread popularity is unclear, but Hsin-hsing and his
followers also practiced the fang teng rite, a complex and lengthy (one week
was standard, but longer periods are also provided for) ritual retreat consist-
ing of extensive physical purication, offerings to and veneration of the
Buddhas, confession of sins, circumambulation while chanting dhra, and
seated meditation designed to remove obstacles and purify the mind.

67 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 145.


68 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 152.
69 The Pu fa ssu fo is the subject of chapter 5 and is translated in Appendix A, below; see
also Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 20516 and 60922. Another text that details San-chieh contem-
plative exercises is Pelliot 2268, to which Nishimoto has given the title The Abridged Teaching
on the Contemplation of the Three Levels (San chieh kuan fa leh shih XFt); see
Sangaiky, 21619 and 62349.
70 T #2153, 55.475a.
71 Hui-ssu, Tao-cho, and Chih-i are only a few of the prominent teachers associated with
the Fang teng rite; see Stevenson, The Tien-tai Four Forms of Samdhi, 8294, 17588; see
also 53896 for a translation of Chih-is Fang teng san mei hsing fa fX*.
22 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

According to the Li tai san pao chi, the puricatory fang teng repentance was
practiced by all of Hsin-hsings disciples,72 and the primary text for the rite,
the Ta fang teng to lo ni ching f, is cited often in works attrib-
uted to Hsin-hsing.73 As with much else in Hsin-hsings life, his interest in
this rite of confession places him well within the context of northern prac-
tice, where it was popular from the mid-sixth century onwards. It also ts in
well with the overall tenor of contemplative and devotional cultus in Hsin-
hsings community, for as Stevenson noted in his study of Tien-tai devo-
tional and liturgical practice, the fang teng (a) tends to be used in conjunc-
tion with the practice of dhyana, as either a preliminary method of purifying
the mind or as supplementary confessional practice; (b) is related also to
liturgies of veneration that involve reciting rosters of Buddha-names; and
(c) is connected to a precept ceremony tradition, all of which t in well with
the practice of Hsin-hsing and the San-chieh community as well.

Devotional liturgies at the six daily periods

In addition to longer and more intense forms of veneration and


repentance ritual such as the fang teng retreat, Tao-hsan also recorded that
at the San-chieh temples in the capital everybody performed devotional rit-
uals at the six periods and begging for food (liu shih li hsan chi shih /
F7).74 Rituals performed at the six periods (three during the day and
three periods at night) seem to have primarily involved the rites of the Seven
Roster Buddhanma (Chi chieh fo ming Me) and related liturgies of
veneration and repentance (li chan /H), numerous manuals of which were
discovered at Tun-huang.75 In addition to worship at the six intervals there

72 T # 2034, 49.105b.
73 The Ta fang teng to lo ni ching is mentioned often in the San chieh fo fa, for example pp.
313, 316, 334, 341, 363, and 368.
74 T #2060, 50.560a; see also the Ming pao chi, T #2082, 51.788b.
75 The Kai yan lu attributes to Hsin-hsing both an Extensive Seven Roster Buddhanma
(Kuang chi chieh fo ming cMe) and an Abridged Seven Roster Buddhanma (Leh chi
chieh fo ming FMe); T #2154, 55.678c. The rosters of Buddhas in these texts were drawn
from sutras such as the Fo shuo Kuan Yao-wang Yao-shang erh pu sa ching M
O (T #2161) and the Fo shuo cheh ting pi ni ching M (T #325); the
importance of the former is indicated by its incorporation into the title of the Chi chieh fo
ming in several catalogs (e.g., the Kai yan lu, T #2154, 55.678c, and the Jen chi lu tu mu,
included in Yabuki, Sangaiky, appendix 221). The original study of the Chi chieh fo ming was
done by Yabuki, Sangaiky, 51236; subsequently a greatly detailed study of the rite and the
numerous manuscripts was done by Hirokawa Akitoshi, Tonk shutsudo nanakai but-
sumyky ni tsuite, Shky kenky 251 (1982): 71105. Tokiwa Daij has cited Hsin-hsings
use of the Chi chieh fo ming rite as evidence that he studied with Ling-y [ (518605), the
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 23

were also provisions for longer periods of continuous practice over the six
periods (liu shih hseh hsiang hs tso yeh oa6%), and, reminiscent
of the importance of physical purity and ablutions in the fang teng rite, the
Hsin-hsing i wen tells us that one who would venerate the Buddha (li fo
/M) should don clean robes and wash three times in the day and three
times at night; excluding a brief rest after midnight and a meal during the
day, they should engage in constant veneration night and day with no
rest.76
The veneration of various rosters of Buddhas as an integral part of a ritual
complex carried out over the six watches of the day was a common feature
of the monastic regimen of the time, cutting across different communities
and traditions. Though these liturgies varied considerably in detail, their
general format is well known throughout Mahayana Buddhist practice to
this day from such practices as the Seven-Limbed Puja (saptapj)77 and
includes many of the same structures as the fang teng rite: veneration of the
Three Jewels, offerings of incense and owers, chanting and hymns, praising
the Buddhas merits, veneration of specic Buddhas (seven rosters of
Buddhas, sometimes expanded with yet other lists), confession of sins and
the cultivation of virtuous mental attitudes, dedication or transference of
merits accrued through the ritual, further verses of praise of the Buddhas
merits, and taking refuge in the Three Jewels.78
As with the rites of the fang teng, the veneration and repentance of the
buddhanma and other liturgies function on many different levels, and
Hsin-hsings procedural manuals recognize that the practice and result will

famous Ti-lun master, because the unique conguration of Buddhas that comprise the seven
rosters of Hsin-hsings rite are also recorded precisely in Ling-ys cave temple engravings;
Ling-y also shared Hsin-hsings forebodings about the decline of the dharma; see Tokiwa
Daij, Sangaiky no bodai toshite no Hzan-ji, Shky kenky 4/1 (1927), 4447; Steven-
sons study of Tien-tai meditation and liturgical manuals includes detailed descriptions of
the rite and liturgical manuals and vividly shows how well San-chieh practice ts in with what
was done by other teachers of his time (The Tien-tai Four Forms of Samdhi, 27081; passim);
see also the section on the veneration of the Buddhas at the six periods in the Chih fa
(585586) and the invocation of the Buddha rosters in the Shou pa chieh fa precept manual
(595596).
76 Hsin-hsing i wen, 6.
77 The saptapj is a later Mahayana rite that became nearly ubiquitous in Tibetan practice
and thereby is increasingly popular in Western Buddhist circles as well; it includes:( 1) prostra-
tion; (2) offerings; (3) confession; (4) rejoicing; (5) requesting the Buddhas to teach; (6) entreat-
ing the Buddhas to remain in the world until all are awakened; and (7) dedication of merit.
78Hirokawa, Tonk shutsudo nanakai butsumyky ni tsuite, 7882; for a detailed
description and comparative analysis of Chinese and Indian liturgical procedures see
Stevenson, The Tien-tai Four Forms of Samdhi, 249464c.
24 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

vary with the capacity of the practitioner.79 We can think, for example, of
the simple and settling inuence of the physical training gained by circum-
ambulation and prostration (prostration was also a frequently assigned pun-
ishment for infractions of meditation hall rules; see chapter 6); developing
humility and respect through ritual ablutions, cleansing and adorning the
ritual site, and building the altar; cultivating the power of concentration
through offering, chanting, and visualization; and, of course, fostering an
acute awareness of the unavoidable nature of sin through confession and
repentance. There is even questioning the ultimate nature of sin and virtue,
leading in turn to an awareness of emptiness through seated meditation.
Chih-is procedural manual for the fang teng rite states, for example, deled
and pure comprise a single continuum wherein there is no purity to be
found, no impurity to be found. It is like open space. This is known as ulti-
mate purity.80 Thus, broadly speaking, the practice of veneration and con-
fession is not simply a magical forgiveness of sins nor a mere preliminary
exercise in moral character building through remembering and confessing of
sin and thereby coming to fear it (although both of these elements are pres-
ent). Rather, it functions as a graded path of practice involving body, mind,
and speech at every step, combining to effect a liminal experience in which
the performer is transformed from sinner to Buddha. Stevensons structural
analysis of the intimate relationship between devotional/confessional
liturgy and meditative discernment shows us how the repentance rite
orchestrates a threshold or moment of liminality, where the participant
is stripped of the possibility of remaining in his former condition and has no
recourse but to step into the new.81 This is important to remember for, as
in all ritual, the formulaic nature of liturgical rite does not stie individual
participation and spiritual experience but fosters it.

Dhtas

Between the Hsin-hsing i wen entries dated 583 and 587, Hsin-hsing
recorded a request for permission to engage in four practices:

I request permission to cultivate the four inexhaustible practices;82 I request


permission to rejoice in the happiness of others and to help them by practicing

79 Chih-fa, 58283; see also chapter 6.


80Fang teng san mei hsing fa fX*, T #1940, 945a, cited in Stevenson, The Tien-tai
Four Forms of Samdhi, 9192.
81 Stevenson, The Tien-tai Four Forms of Samdhi, 416.
82 The rst four of the sixteen inexhaustible practices; see below and chapter 7.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 25

giving; I request permission to beg for food according to the twelve dhta; I
request permission to cultivate the practice of the [bodhisattva] Never Despise
as found in the Lotus Sutra.83

As noted above, Hsin-hsings biography also commented on the practice


of begging for food. Although begging for food was perhaps the sine qua
non of the early monastic lifestyle, this faded as the main means of support
as the community became more settled, leaving it among the more ascetic
practices known as the twelve dhta mentioned here.84 Probably one of the
most frequently mentioned practices of Hsin-hsing and his followers is that
of the dhta w, ascetic practices better known today from the forest tradi-
tions of Southeast Asia than from Chinese monasticism.85 The dhta practices
are sociologically interesting as well, as they are generally seen to represent a
radical impulse to ascetic renunciation and solitary practice in contrast to
the even stronger tendency in the Buddhist community toward the settled
life of the vihara. That is to say that they represent an extreme lifestyle and as
such they have always been controversial. Representing the voice of the
mainstream (the middle path), for example, kyamuni is depicted as
having denied Devadattas request to make ve of the dhta practices
mandatory.86 So, too, it was not long before kyamunis community of the
four directions came to dwell in permanent structures as corporate
landowners, and it is primarily this cenobitic institution that is represented
in doctrinal and institutional documents. Still, in all Buddhist cultures there
has always been an interest in ascetic extremes. As sociologists and historians
of religion have long recognized, the ascetic has also always been vested with
great authority by lay supporters because they are seen as the site of true
Buddhist spirituality and thereby also associated with reform movements
that seek to curb monastic laxity in urban temples.87 This broader context is
perhaps relevant to the San-chieh movement, given the frequent attacks by
the authorities as well as other Buddhists that they experienced.
Still, we should not be too hasty to think of Hsin-hsing as a radical ascetic
and reformer, for although it is true that the practice of dhta in China has

83 Hsin-hsing i wen, 7.
84 On begging generally see Jean Rahder, Bunne, Hbgirin II (19291930), 15869; on
begging and dhta practices in China see John Kieschnick, The Eminent Monk: Buddhist
Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), 3335.
85 Dhta-gua (=dhuta-gua, Pali dhutaga or dhtaga).
86 Cullavagga, VII.3.14, in Vinaya Texts (trans. by T. W. Rhys Davids and Hermann
Oldenberg, Sacred Books of the East, 1885, Motilal reprint, 1975), Part III, 250 ff.
87 Cf. E. G. Kemper, Buddhism Without Bikkhus: The Sri Lanka Vinaya Vardena Society
in Religion and Legitimation of Power in Sri Lanka, ed. by Bardwell L. Smith (Chambersburg:
Anima Books, 1978), p. 216.
26 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

not been as well commented on as the Buddhist involvement in nancial


activities, economic enterprise, military operations, and the like, Chinese
monks have also often been noted for their dhta practice. Chih-i and his
disciples, for example, are well known for advocating the practices, as is Hui-
tsan, mentioned above in connection with Hsin-hsings seeking to receive
the novice ordination. Indeed, the dhta practices are mentioned in over
thirty other biographies in the Hs kao seng chuan, including those of Fa-
tsan r, Chih-tsang J, and Pu- yan 3.88
The Hs kao seng chuan, though not specically mentioning the dhta,
notes that Hsin-hsing wore simple clothes and was sparing in his food in a
manner exceptional for the times; he lived during the winter as though it
were summer, zealously surpassing what was customary and, as noted
above, that at the San-chieh temples in the capital and elsewhere there were
none that did not perform devotional rituals at the six daily periods or beg
for food.89 Two texts attributed to Hsin-hsing in the Kai yan lu are con-
cerned with the dhta and begging food,90 and several San-chieh texts recov-
ered from Tun-huang also deal with the subject.91 There are many different
lists of dhta practices, typically made up of either twelve or thirteen prac-
tices that deal with clothing, food, and shelter. The Practice that Arises in
Accord with the Capacity gives twelve practices:
1 Eating only what is received as alms;
2 Not being selective in seeking alms (begging from house to house in
order);
3 Eating only one meal a day;
4 Eating sparingly (eating only two-thirds, one-half, one-third, or
one-fourth of your food);
5 Not eating after noon;
6 Always sitting and not reclining;
7 Sitting on whatever is offered;
8 Sitting in a cemetery;
9 Sitting at the foot of a tree (forest dwelling);

88 T #2060, 50.506c; T #2060, 50.587a; T #2060, 680b, respectively.


89T #2060, 50.560a; Fa-tsang (637714) is another San-chieh monk who cultivated the
dhta (see ch. 8).
90 The Tan tou to chi shih fa wF7 and the Ming chi shih pa men fa gF7k, T

#2154, 678c.
91 E.g., the Chi shih fa F7 (a portion of Pelliot 2849R) identied by Nishimoto (edited

and included in Sangaiky, 59295; see also 58688); begging for food is also mentioned in the
Hsin-hsing i wen (pp. 3, 6, 7); see also the discussion of how to give to the sangha in the
Commentary on the Inexhaustible Storehouse translated in Appendix C.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 27

10 Sitting in the open;


11 Wearing only donated robes;
12 Wearing only the three robes.92
The fact that the various practices relating to food come rst reects a
central concern with the rules for receiving alms and eating in the San-chieh
community, and, inasmuch as I have no knowledge of Hsin-hsing or his fol-
lowers practicing the dhta relating to dwelling, perhaps indicates a prefer-
ential order as well. The Li tai san pao chi, for example, notes that all of
[Hsin-hsings] disciples cultivate the dhta, begging for food and eating only
one meal a day.93 That this sort of austerity continued to be an important
San-chieh practice is indicated by the fact that begging for food, abstaining
from grains, and prolonged fasting are among the San-chieh practices per-
mitted to continue in the suppression edict of 699.94

Universal respect

The practices described so farvarious forms of meditative exer-


cise, penitential rites, regular periods of daily worship, and the ascetic prac-
tices of the dhtaall serve to locate Hsin-hsing in the general context of
Buddhist practices popular in the northern dynasties during the late sixth
century. Other practices mentioned in the biographical records, however,
are more unique to Hsin-hsing and the San-chieh community. On the basis
of the doctrine of universal Buddha-nature, for example, the Ming pao chi
cited above referred to the doctrine of universal respect, the concrete prac-
tice of which is described in the Li tai san pao chi :

Wishing to emulate the Bodhisattva Never Despise in the Lotus Sutra they
revere everybody they meet on the road, regardless of whether the person was a
man or a woman.95

In addition to the Lotus Sutra, the basis for Hsin-hsings universal rever-
ence is to be found in the teaching and contemplation of the four Buddhas
mentioned above. On the basis of the teaching of tathagatagarbha, Buddha-
nature, and the holistic vision of the Hua-yen Stra, these four Buddhas were
taught to be four aspects of the Universal Buddha inherent in all sentient

92 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 12124.


93 T #2034, 49.105b.
94 T #2153, 55.475s; see chapter 8, 205208.
95 T # 2034, 49.105b. On Universal Respect see also Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 31920, 32627.
28 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

beings.96 In these teachings (detailed in part 3) the all-pervading truth of the


dharmadhtu is seen to be the reality of all phenomena and all sentient
beings, even as they exist in samsara; hence they are to be revered as
Buddhas at this very moment. Universal reverence was not only a devotional
form of greetingit was also realized more concretely through offerings of
material goods in the practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse.
Tao-hsans biography of Hsin-hsing in the Hs kao seng chuan tells us
that after he abandoned the precepts he made offerings to the various
[Fields of] Respect and Compassion, venerating renunciants and laity
alike.97 The Field of Compassion (pei tien ,) refers to sentient beings,
the fertile eld in which the bodhisattva sows seeds of compassion that come
to fruition for the benet of all; the Field of Respect (ching tien ,) refers
to the Three Jewels, the fertile field in which sentient beings sow seeds of
respect that come to fruition in the form of merit. Of course, both types of
seeds are metaphorical, and what the biography is referring to is charity
(dna) and Hsin-hsings practice of giving equally to ordinary sentient
beings and to the Three Jewels. Although in the traditional model material
dna remained the provenance of the laity and was entirely uni-direction-
althe laity supported the sangha with material gifts in return for the spiri-
tual rewards of merit and teachingsby Hsin-hsings time numerous factors
had begun to effect a change in this central doctrine. While standing squarely
in the middle of these developments, the scope and success of Hsin-hsings
implementation of the doctrine of dna in terms of a concrete practice were
unprecedented. I am referring to the institution of the Inexhaustible Store-
house (detailed in part 3 of this study), a massive and wildly popular charita-
ble lending institution born of a blending of Vinaya rules governing the
receipt of material goods and the Mahayana doctrine of the inexhaustible
storehouse of the bodhisattvas compassion. In Hsin-hsings vision this
spawned an empire-wide practice that materially beneted the poor and
downcast while providing a model of spiritual practice taught to equal that
of the great Ekayna bodhisattvas. Conceived in terms of the sixteen eternal,
joyous, true self, and pure practices to which Hsin-hsing committed himself
at age 43 and whose material benet was as inexhaustible as their spiritual
benet (see the testimonial cited above), it was this practice of universal giving
that opened his community of dhta-practicing monks to the participation of

96 It should be noted that this is identical to the practice of tangyraihai 0, to solely

practice veneration, cultivated today by members of the Nipponzan Myohoji denomination


of the Japanese Nichiren tradition; they greet all whom they meet with a deep bow in venera-
tion of the Buddha-nature in all sentient beings and with recitation of the daimoku, Namu
myohrengeky.
97 T #2060, 50.560a.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 29

all sentient beings, that is to say, all sentient beings of the third level.
These then were the main practices that Hsin-hsing cultivated himself and
fostered in the communal practice of his spiritual friends. As an example
of the latter we may perhaps cite the disciple Te-mei (575-637).98 Te-mei
became a monk at age nineteen, and shortly after met and studied with
Hsin-hsings close disciple Seng-yung. He traveled to the capital, where he
met Mo Chan-shih ,, another of Hsin-hsings disciples, with whom he
studied for over ten years. He continued his teachers legacy of cultivating
the universal Field of Merit (pu fu tien 3t,), an inclusive term referring
to both Hsin-hsings teaching of the Universal Buddha inherent in all living
beings as well as the two elds of merit, that is, the eld of respect (the Three
Jewels) and the eld of compassion (suffering sentient beings). Accordingly,
Te-mei cultivated the practice of the Bodhisattva Never Despise from the
Lotus Sutra, publicly reverencing all members of the Buddhist community,
and used the donations of clothing and food that he received for both the
elds of respect and compassion. In addition to universal reverence and
charitable work, Te-mei is also known to have practiced the various austeri-
ties and liturgies discussed above, including the fang teng rite, yearly obser-
vance of the Pratyutpanna walking meditation (he is reported to have
walked without sitting for the entire summer), penitential rites comprised
of buddhanma liturgies, maintaining silence for three years, and being spar-
ing in his food (eating only one part in four). Te-mei thus well exemplies
the values and practices that Hsin-hsing sought to instill in his followers.
After his death his body was abandoned at the spot of Hsin-hsings sky bur-
ial, and his bones were later collected and enshrined in a stupa.
In summary, Hsin-hsings community took shape largely during the tur-
bulent years of the late sixth century, a time of great adversity as well as great
opportunity for Chinese Buddhists. The tumultuous centuries of warfare
and cultural change prior to the unication of the Sui and establishment of
the imperial capital at Chang-an saw both large-scale suppressions of
Buddhism as well as the development of indigenous forms of Buddhist doc-
trine, practice, and institution. Indeed, it was one of the most fertile epochs
in Chinese Buddhist history, setting patterns for the more formal systemati-
zations of later dynasties. Hsin-hsing incorporated many of these currents
into his own teaching and left behind a prospering community of like-mind-
ed practitioners. Hsin-hsings teachings and practices, then, can best be
understood as reecting his milieu rather than as unique or deviant. As the
biographies, catalogs, and other records show, his ideas and the practices
that he cultivated can be found elsewhere as well, including his concern for

98 T #2060, 696c697a; Te-mei also cultivated Pure Land devotional practices, and is said to

have died with his hands folded, invoking [Amidas] name.


30 / hsin-hsing a buddhist heretic?

fa mieh (the destruction of the dharma), sentient beings blind from birth
and the attendant teaching of the decayed capacity of sentient beings; the
doctrine of universal Buddha-nature; meditation; confession and repentance
liturgies; the ascetic dhta practices and rigorous monastic training; empha-
sis on the precepts and precept ceremonies, both for lay people and renun-
ciants; buddhanma litanies; preference for sutra teachings over commen-
taries and particular interest in the universalism of the Nirvana Sutra, Lotus
Sutra, and Hua-yen Sutra. Similarly there is little in the social organization
of his movement that is not evident in other gures and monastic institu-
tions, including high levels of ofcial patronage, lay participation and spon-
sorship of lay organizations, and development of institutions of social wel-
fare. At the same time we cannot deny that Hsin-hsings conguration of
these various elementsthe practices that he stressed, the institutional
organizations he designed, and the way that he derived them from the scrip-
tural traditionare unique. It is to thisthe way in which Hsin-hsing drew
from the normative scriptural tradition in order to dispense the medicine
in accord with the afictionthat we now turn.
Cira Tihatu Saddhammo!
(May the true Dharma endure for a long time!)

from the frontispiece


to the Sixth Council
edition of the
Sayutta-nikya1

T here is little question but that the Buddhist tradition of its


own decline was at the core of Hsin-hsings teaching. He argued that all liv-
ing beings faced a very practical crisis in such a situation, each and every one
beset by attachments to false or perverted views and incapable of accurately
distinguishing true from false. Yet his teachings also embraced the non-
duality of the Hua-yen, the Ekayna, and tathagatagarbha traditions that
proclaimed the Buddhahood of those same living beings. Based on these two
seemingly contradictory ideas, Hsin-hsing taught the universal doctrine
(pu fa 3), an all-encompassing vision that looked to the ultimate
Buddha-nature of all things and refused to discriminate that ultimate truth
from its conventional manifestation, thereby eliminating the distinction

1 Nidnavagga-k and Khandhavagga-k, volume 33 in Dhammagiri-Pli-Ganthaml

(Igatpuri: Vipassana Research Institute, 1994). This compilation of the canon was undertaken
from 1954 to 1956 by 2,500 monks and scholars in Yangon, Myanmar. As with the other coun-
cils, the purpose of this Sixth Council (Chaha Sagyana) was to preserve the original
word of the Buddha; thus, in addition to the exhortion cited here, the frontispiece also cites
two passages from the suttas concerning the preservation of the saddhamma: There are two
things, O monks, which make the Truth-based Dhamma endure for a long time, without any
distortion and without (fear of) eclipse. Which two? Proper placement of words and their
natural [correct] interpretation. Words properly placed help also in their natural interpreta-
tion (from the Aguttara-nikya, 1, Dukanipta, 21); the dhammas [truths] which I have
taught to you after realizing them with my super-knowledge, should be recited by all, in con-
cert and without dissension, in uniform version collating meaning with meaning and word-
ing with wording. In this way, this teaching with pure practice will last long and endure for a
long time (from the Dgha-nikya 3, Psdikasutta, 177); see below, 4148.
33
34 / part two

between true and false, demons and Buddha. In the face of the all-inclusive
scope of this universal doctrine, Hsin-hsing labeled all attempts to distin-
guish true from false and the various hierarchies of doctrinal statements as
particular doctrines (pieh fa ) and warned that such attempts at dis-
crimination on the part of beings blind from birth would only make mat-
ters worse, perhaps even leading to slandering the true by mistaking it for
the false. Relying on the ultimate truth value of all things was the only safe
path for those congenitally incapable of accurate discrimination.
Appealing as this argument for an all-embracing truth might have been in
the troubled climate of Hsin-hsings day or even in our own rancorous
times, it is nonetheless equally incoherent, as is often the case with proposi-
tional claims of universal inclusivism. Simply put, Hsin-hsings universal
doctrine is as much a particular doctrine as any of the others that he criti-
cized. The cry of universalism is, in the view of all those who do not embrace
it, particular and exclusive. Indeed, in Chih-shengs condemnation of Hsin-
hsings teachings as heretical he specically mentions their pieh hsing ,
particular practices,2 Empress Wu denounced as heretical their pieh kou
separatist establishment (or particular arrangement [of the doc-
trine],3 and the Pure Land leader Huai-kuan critiqued the divisions of
three levels as articial, unique to Hsin-hsing, and not evidenced in the
scriptures.4 Thus perhaps the absolutism and one-way orientation of the
San-chieh movement, so often cited as a reason for its suppression, is but
the flip side of its rhetoric of universalism. In addition to the polemic intent
disclosed by this self-referential incoherence, there is also a rhetorical func-
tion revealed by the continued access to practice and realization indicated by
the very proclamation of the universal doctrine. That is, in Hsin-hsings
teaching of the demise of the dharma the teaching is never really gone nor is
our potential attainment really deniedwe simply need to open our eyes to
the particular efcacy of the universal truth. Thus the rhetoric of decline
should be seen less as logical argument demanding internal coherence and
more as a public performance aimed at convincing an audience of a particular
doctrine.
Realizing that the universalism of the Three Levels was equally a polemic
arguing for its own particular solution to the decline tradition, as well as a
rhetorical device aimed at convincing an audience, compels a reassessment
of the original currents of the Buddhist vision of decline as well. Such a
reassessment looks not so much at the philological evolution of the terms or

2 T #2154, 55.679a; see also chapter 8, 21617.


3 T #2153, 55.475a ; see also chapter 8, 205.
4 T #1960, 47.49b.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 35

even the timetables of decline as at the rhetorical context, a context that


reveals a similar polemic or sectarian discourse more interested in establish-
ing a particular orthodoxy of true teaching than in voicing historical pre-
dictions of actual decline, prophetic warnings of moral failings, or existential
statements about humankinds capacity for realization. In fact, the begin-
nings of the Buddhist tradition of decline are best understood as a rhetoric
of orthodoxy that marks the appearance of doctrinal differentiation in the
Buddhist community. The elements of this argument can be found through-
out the various canons, but always in the sense of an exhortation to adhere
to the true teachings lest the predicted decline actually come to pass. It was
not until the plethora of Indian texts was transmitted to China that the
many discrete units of the decline tradition were systematized as doctrine in
much the same way, for much the same reason, and at much the same time
as other, equally disparate, traditions were melded into the great Chinese
doctrinal classication schemes (pan chiao |*). This served to make a
doctrinal tenet out of what had been a much more simple trope in an
intrareligious polemic. It was also in China that we rst encounter individu-
als convinced that the predicted demise had actually arrived, due in part to a
preexisting and pervasive indigenous discourse of decline. In an interesting
twist, the dominant use in China of the Buddhist polemic of orthodoxy was
to legitimize new teachings, of which the Three Levels is one example. An
important reason for this was that the decline came to be seen in terms of a
decline in human nature, a claim about the corrupt existential condition of
living beings rather than a decline of time or doctrine. In what way was the
tradition of the decline of the dharma really a rhetoric or polemic of ortho-
doxy? How did a polemic of orthodoxy change into an existential doctrine
of decay? Why was this rhetoric amenable to the Chinese reconguration? In
order to answer these questions and to fully appreciate Hsin-hsings contri-
bution to the development of the decline tradition, in part two I look briefly
at the earlier traditions of decline that the Chinese inherited as well as the
Chinese context of decline in which the Three Levels flourished, and then I
proceed to examine the teaching of the Three Levels.
2.
The Beginning: Decline as Polemic

T he buddhist tradition of its own decline is a vision of a


world in which chaos and strife would reign where the Buddha-dharma had
once flourished. This vision is well represented in the Nikya, gama,
Vinaya, commentaries, Mahayana, and tantras, and it later helped to fuel
both the doctrine of the Pure Land schools and the millenarian hopes of
Buddhists throughout Asia. One of the most fascinating aspects of this strain
of Buddhist thought is the view it affords of the interplay between religious
doctrine and historical environment, for in the situations that gave rise to
these ideas we can see many of the struggles of the early Buddhist communi-
ties, both for doctrinal purity as well as for simple survival in the face of hos-
tile war-lords and monarchs (although even the latter is used to underscore
the importance of doctrinal purity). Though Buddhism is arguably individu-
alist in terms of its path to the ultimate goal of wisdom and relentless in doc-
trinally subsuming other considerations to that ultimacy (hence even the
Buddha should be metaphorically killed along the path to awakening),
Buddhists are of course quite literally in a social, political world and natu-
rally are concerned with the historical realities of their situation. First and
foremost among those concerns has always been the construction and
preservation of the tradition. A study of the development of the Buddhist
doctrine of its own decline reveals one of the ways in which complex doctri-
nal systems with profound soteriological, social, and institutional signi-
cance have evolved in response to rhetorical and polemic positions.
Because of the importance of this topic in East Asian Buddhism, a good
number of studies have treated the various scriptural traditions regarding
the decline, generally focusing on the temporal schemes of deterioration, the
historical factors, the internal and purportedly external causes, and, most
recently, the textual development of the terms of decline.1 Although an

1 The most thorough and up-to-date treatment is found in Jan Nattier, Once Upon a Future

Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1991).
Other important studies include Yamada Ryj, Mapp shis ni tsuite, Indogaku
Bukkygaku kenky 4/2 (1956): 36170; David W. Chappell, Early Forebodings of the Death
of Buddhism, Numen 27 (1980): 12253; tienne Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien
(Louvain: Publications Universitaires, 1958), 21022; Kumoi Shzen m3, Hmetsu

36
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 37

untangling of the scriptural sources has constituted the indispensable


bedrock of prior studies (by sixth-century Chinese monks as well as by con-
temporary scholars), here I am interested in the function of the concept of
the decline, which shows it working as a rhetoric of orthodoxy (in Nikya
and Mahayana Buddhism) or as a stylistic device legitimating new interpre-
tations of the teachings (for tantra, Hsin-hsing, and the preachers of the
Pure Land path). I see the initial scriptural expressions of the tradition of
decline not as the anti-intellectualism or moral indictment of a practice-
oriented faith as claimed by many (that is, a cry of dismay that the Buddhist
truth or essence is being eclipsed by arid and sterile dogma, orthopraxy versus
orthodoxy),2 but rather as conservative attempts to secure an orthodoxy that
subsequently generated an entire narrative tradition replete with numerous
tropes that in turn functioned in China, ironically, as doors of interpretive
opportunity, allowing or even demanding new doctrine, or at least new
interpretations of doctrine.
In this sense the East Asian systematization of the decline teaching is best
understood as an interpretive strategy similar in sectarian function and soteri-
ological purpose to the Chinese organizational systems of pan chiao (grading
the teachings) and utilizing the same underlying hermeneutic of upya.
Given the general representation of Buddhism as a non-dogmatic philoso-
phy of assimilation, such an emphasis on orthodoxy or dogma might seem
surprising. Indeed, we must acknowledge another Buddhist rhetoric that
prefers experience over scripture to the extent of even denying the latter
validity as a means of knowledge; yet we must also recognize that specic
Buddhist traditions have all developed myriad ways of ensuring their own
legacy, and in the face of this rhetoric of transcendence one ubiquitous
method was the ideology of saddharma (Pali saddhamma), the true teaching
or true doctrine. There is a dynamic tension between the rhetoric of an un-
bounded, atemporal truth (dharmat, Pali dhammat) and the representation

shis no genry n`uH, in ch Enichi, ed., Hokugi Bukky no kenky (Kyoto:


Heirakuji Shoten, 1970), 28797; Mizutani Ksh, Daijnehankytengun ni arawaretaru kiki
shis, Bukky Daigaku kenky kiy 37 (1953): 946; for Japan see Hubert Durt, Problems of
Chronology and Eschatology: Four Lectures on the Essay on Buddhism by Tominaga Nakamoto
(17151746) (Kyoto: Scuola di Studi sullAsia Orientale, 1994); Kazue Kyichi, Nihon no mapp
shis (Tokyo: Kbund, 1961); Robert Rhodes, Saichs Mapp-tmyki, The Eastern
Buddhist, n.s., 13/1 (1980): 79103; Jackie Stone, Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age:
Mapp Thought in Kamakura Buddhism, The Eastern Buddhist, n.s., 18/1 (1985): 2856 (Part
I) and 18/2 (1985): 3564 (Part 2); Michele Marra, The Aesthetics of Discontent (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1991), esp. 76100.
2 Cf. Mark Lewis, The Suppression of the Three Stages Sect: Apocrypha as a Political
Issue, in Robert E. Buswell, Jr., ed., Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha (Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1990), 210, 212.
38 / decline as polemic

of that truth as the teachings of a historical person, and within the latter,
that is, within Buddh-ism, the teaching in the world, there were denite dis-
agreements over whose teaching was the true teaching.
Thus we should note from the very beginning that it was never the teach-
ing conceived as the causal uniformity of all things (dhammat) that was
believed to decline or disappear. As is well known, dhammat will remain
the same whether the tathagatas were to arise or not to arise.3 Ching-ying
Hui-yan (523592), for example, lamenting the lot of the Buddhist church
at the hands of Emperor Wu, is reported to have said,

This is the fate of our time it is truly lamentable that we are unable to attend
[the Buddha-dharma] at this time, but the dharma is actually not annihilated
[#n]! I ask that you virtuous ones please understand this and not be
overly grieved.4

This point is more important than has usually been recognized, for it
directs our attention to the lived tradition as the locus of the timeless, ahis-
torical truths that more often are the focus of our study. In particular it
highlights the importance of the teachings, and we shall see that the spirited
rivalry over who maintains the correct teachings is at the core of both the
production of the decline traditions as well as their later sectarian use. Thus,
rather than a transcendent truth of the teaching it was the specic teaching
of a specic Buddha as taught, practiced, and realized by sentient beings that
was conceived as declining; in China, however, even this was changed to
mean that although the teachings themselves continue to be present the real-
ization of their truth is no longer possible. This is succinctly stated by
Kuei-chi (632682) with regard to the three periods of the teaching:

After the nirvana of the Buddha there are three times of the teaching, namely
the true, semblance, and the nal. When the three aspects of teaching (chiao
*), practice (hsing ), and attainment (cheng B) are all present it is called the
true teaching; when there is only the teaching and practice it is called the sem-
blance teaching, and when only the teachings remain without the other
[aspects] it is termed the nal teaching.5

3 C. A. F. Rhys Davids, trans., The Book of the Kindred Sayings (London: The Pali Text

Society, 1982), part II: 21.


4 Hs kao seng chuan, T #2060, 50.490c.
5T #1861, 45.344b. This exactly parallels the threefold taxonomy preserved in the Pali tradi-
tion of (a) authoritative teaching (pariyatti), (b) practice (paipatti), and (c) attainment
(adhigama); from the Manorathapra, cited in John Ross Carter, Dhamma: Western
Academic and Sinhalese Buddhist Interpretations, A Study of a Religious Concept (Tokyo:
Hokuseido Press, 1978), 13135.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 39

This meant that in addition to the question of the true teachings the issue of
peoples capacity for realization of those teachings also arose, an important
shift in the growth of this tradition.

Cosmological and Millennial Traditions

Cosmological and millennial currents are especially conspicuous in


the Buddhist tradition and have often been cited in comparative studies of
eschatology, apocalypticism, and millennialism.6 Although these traditions
have many similarities to the traditions of decline, and in many cases incor-
porated or were incorporated by theories of decline, they nonetheless do not
gure prominently in the writing of Hsin-hsing (nor of the Pure Land
preachers, in either China or Japan). Why is this?
It is perhaps in part because the cosmological traditions are not primarily
interested in humanity or our historical situations.7 Perhaps the mythic

6 See, for example, Alan Sponberg and Helen Hardacre, eds., Maitreya, the Future Buddha

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988); Daniel L. Overmeyer, Folk Buddhist Religion
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976); Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Millenarianism and Peasant
Politics in Vietnam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983); and Millenial Movements in
East and Southeast Asia, a special issue of Japanese Religions 23/12 (1998). New traditions are
also making inroads as the global culture allows wider borrowing of apocalyptic prophecy
see Robert Kisala, Nostradamus and the Apocalypse in Japan, Inter-Religio 32 (1997): 4762;
Benoit Vermander, Religions in Taiwan: Between Mercantilism and Millenarianism, Inter-
Religio 32 (1997): 6375.
7 This is not, however, to say that the cosmological and cosmogonic traditions did not have

or come to have a historical context of their own. For example, the early Buddhist tale of cos-
mogony in the Aggaa-sutta, like the Vedic telling of a caste structure derived from the very
body of the cosmos, includes a social ordering that places the khattiya caste above the
Brahminsno doubt reflecting the changing social realities of the timesand the bhikkhu
and arhat above all, reflecting the Buddhist stake in that changing society; Aggaa-sutta
(Dgha-nikya, suttanta 27); English translation by T. W. Rhys Davids, Dialogues of the
Buddha, Part III (London: Pali Text Society, 1921, 1977 reprint), 7794, especially 8894; see
also Rupert Gethin, Cosmology and Meditation: From the Aggaa-sutta to the Mahayana,
History of Religions 36/3 (1997): 183217. These cosmogonic/cosmological stories probably
evolved out of a context quite similar to that of the sectarian context of the decline motif, i.e.,
a concern with order and regularity in the cosmos and, by extension or mimicry, in the com-
munity. Hence after the Aggaa-sutta explains the origin of each social group, it concludes
with the refrain, The norms the best among this folk, both in this world and in the next.
The Aggaa-sutta is also interesting for its parallels and divergences with the Vedic system;
for example, the king is called Mahsammata, chosen by the whole people, and is paid for
his work, reflecting a contractual notion of government and concern with exchange seen in
the role of monk and laity as well; on the urban, mercantile background of early Buddhism,
see Romila Thapar, Ethics, Religion, and Social Protest in the First Millennium B.C. in
Northern India, Daedalus (1975): 11932; and Balkrishna Govind Gokhale, Early Buddhism
40 / decline as polemic

context of cosmogonic speculation kept such theories from becoming


human-centered, or, more likely, the temporal aspect of theories that
emphasize the regularity of change on a cosmic scale make them difcult to
relate to the irregularity of specic human history.8 The Buddhist traditions
of decline, on the other hand, are expressly interested in the decline of the
teachings of a particular historical teacherkyamuni. Related to this is
the fact that these cosmological events, including the oscillations of the
kalpas and the complete lack of a historical presence of the teaching during
some periods, are essentially beyond our control, while the trope of decline
taken up in East Asian Buddhism is precisely the result of human failings.9
The millennial tradition, best known in the context of the future Buddha
Maitreya, is clearly related to the cosmological tradition. Beginning with the
enumeration of past Buddhas,10 at an early stage the list of past enlightened
ones was expanded to encompass Buddhas-yet-to-come.11 Although Mai-
treya is also included among these future Buddhas, for the most part his era
is so far distant (some 5.6 billion years off) that it took some time before he
came to be regured in millennial terms of world renewal. Most importantly
for any discussion of Hsin-hsing and his teachings, however, is that even
after this reguring takes place, the later millennial traditions that incorporate
the Maitreya motif contain an expectation of a future utopia, occurring with-
in history, that is not found in the Three Levels or the Pure Land traditions.

and the Urban Revolution, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 5/2
(1982): 722. Finally, among the three kinds of Brahmins, the repeaters, i.e., those who
compile the Vedas and teach the sacred recitation to others, are graded lowest, below the
ascetics and the meditators, with the comment, At that time [of the origin of the social class-
es] they were looked upon as the lowest; now they are thought the best. Nattier records that
even in Mongolia this tale is usually told with a focus on the idea of kingship, indicating
that its early ideological context was preserved in its later use (Nattier, Once Upon a Future
Time, 18).
8 As Nattier notes, the cosmologies found in the Aggaa-sutta, the Cakkavatti-shanda-

sutta, and Abhidharmakoa are singularly devoid of Buddhist imagery. In particular, it is


striking that not one of these texts includes any reference to the historical Buddha kya-
muni. One is tempted to conclude that even the life of an enlightened being is simply
dwarfed by events on this scale (Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 18).
9 The Tsa a han ching, for example, notes that, while the failings of humankind that bring

about the demise of the saddharma can be avoided, the corruptions attending the end of a
kalpa cannot be avoided (T #99, 2, 226c2 ff); see below.
10 Mahpadna-suttanta (Dgha-nikya, suttanta 14), English translation by T. W. Rhys

Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha, Part II (London: Pali Text Society, 1910, reprint 1977), 141.
11 Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 2126. This sort of cosmic Buddhology becomes an

important feature of East Asian Buddhism not only in Maitreya-based apocalypticism but
also in the form of Buddhanma liturgies, that is, the chanting of the names of all of the
Buddhas, among which the seven roster Buddhanma of the Three Levels may be counted.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 41

As one sociologist put it, The messianic doctrine is essentially a statement


of hope the doctrine always envisages a restoration of earthly values.12
While there is no question that the broadly messianic, millennial, and
apocalyptic climate in pre-Tang China provided the background for the
development of Hsin-hsings teachings and the other Buddhist movements
that emphasized the decline of the teaching, it is yet noteworthy that it was
not future expectations of a reform or regeneration but rather the concern
with the degenerate beings of the world in which they lived that gure in his
teachings. In this sense the eschatological dimension was eclipsed by the
existential, a development that had far-reaching consequences in the history
of East Asian Buddhism. In terms of rhetorical topoi, however, the cosmo-
logical and millennial traditions did, perhaps, lend a mood of fatalism to
the later decline traditions inasmuch as forever is implied in the unimag-
inably long cosmic cycles, that is, the ten-thousand year duration of the nal
teaching.

The Early Rhetoric of Orthodoxy:


the disappearance of the true teaching

All religions face a turning point after the passing of the founder,
when the sectarianism implicit in the founding of a new movement mani-
fests itself internally but the followers may no longer turn to the founders
authority for ultimate understanding.13 The strains and tensions of such a
period can usually be traced in a church-oriented redaction of tradition and
the same is true of the early Buddhist texts. Although disputes over the
understanding of the teachings arose during the lifetime of the Buddha, the
question of interpretation grew much more acute after his passing. It was the
need for a standardized body of teachings that led to the rst recounting
of the teachings (sagti, usually translated as council) after the passing of
the Buddha, and institutionalized questions of interpretation again and

12 Barber, Bernard, Acculturism and Messianic Movements in William A. Lessa and Evon

Z. Vogt, eds., A Reader in Comparative Religion, 3rd edition (New York: Harper & Row, 1965),
513.
13 See, for example, the poignant story in which nanda, who is credited with having recited
all of the Buddhas discourses from memory at the rst council, attempts to correct the mis-
taken recitation of a monk; failing to correct his recitation, nanda concludes, There is no one
who can get him to change. The Buddhas disciples riputra, Maudgalyyana, and Mah-
kyapa have all entered nirva; to whom could I now turn to as an authority? I shall also
enter nirva; cited in John Strong, The Experience of Buddhism (Belmont: Wadsworth
Publishing Company, 1995), 89.
42 / decline as polemic

again carved new communities and movements out of the original sangha.14
Betraying the concern for orthodoxy, the Aguttara-nikya, for example,
tells us that we must guard not only against those who would claim, as
utterances of the Tathgata, what he never said or uttered, and he who
denies what was said or uttered by the Tathgata, but also against the one
who proclaims as already explained a discourse which needs explanation
(neyattha): and he who proclaims as needing explanation a discourse already
explained (ntattha).15
Guarding the authenticity of the teachings (i.e., those teachings uttered
by the Tathgata, buddhavacana) and determining the interpretation of
those teachings (neyattha, ntattha) were important elements in the early
rhetoric and constitution of orthodoxy. It is no doubt in such a doctrinally
competitive context that the concept of the true teaching (saddhamma)
arose, though perhaps the rst usage of saddhamma was to distinguish the
truth as the domain of kyamunis teachings vis--vis those of other teach-
ers.16 That is to say, although saddhamma can simply mean a good or auspi-
cious thing (as, for example, in the seven saddhamma of faith, shame,
appreciation of consequence, learning the teachings, vigor, mindfulness, and
wisdom), within the rhetoric of the decline of the saddhamma it refers
exclusively to in-house orthodoxy vis--vis its natural enemy, internal dis-
sension.
Another sutta from the Aguttara-nikya that shows a concern for literal
orthodoxy warns against the wrong expression of the letter (of the text) and
wrong interpretation of the meaning of it, which would lead to the confusion

14 As with the New Testament, such evidence of sectarianism can be used to judge later

material in the canon, indicating as it does the existence of conflict over different interpreta-
tions of the teachings. Cf. Govind C. Pande, Studies in the Origins of Buddhism (Allahabad:
University of Allahabad, 1957), who judges the Aguttara-nikya passages considered here late
for just this reason, i.e., the evidence of sectarian disputes (236). It should also be noted, how-
ever, that actual schisms were not occasioned by doctrinal dispute but by regulatory (Vinaya)
dispute, a fact that does not lessen the import of doctrinal dispute.
15 The Book of the Gradual Sayings (Aguttara-nikya), translated by F. L. Woodward

(London: The Pali Text Society, 1979), vol. 1: 54 (cf. T #2, 592c593a); see also Ronald
Davidson, Standards of Scriptural Authenticity, in Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1990), who notes that the complementary attitude is that the
dharma is more than the literal words of the kyamuni Buddha and encompasses all that is
spoken from the vantage point of the truth per se (dharmat) or that is conducive to its real-
ization, including the teachings of previous Buddhas as well as his enlightened disciples
(29497). Still, the tendency has been to try to validate a teaching by somehow or another giv-
ing it the legitimacy of the more literal meaning of buddhavacana; cf. J. P. McDermott,
Scripture as the Word of the Buddha, Numen 31 (1984), 3031; Davidson, Standards,
303305.
16 Carter, Dhamma, 156; Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time , 66.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 43

and disappearance of the true teaching, for if the letter be wrongly


expressed, the interpretation of the meaning is also wrong. On the other
hand, if the letter be rightly expressed, the interpretation of the meaning is
also right and this leads to the establishment, the non-confusion, to the
non-disappearance of true Dhamma.17 Here we are clearly (and quite lit-
erally) told that it is the letter of the law and not the spirit (interpretation
of the meaning) that is of central importance in the preservation of the teach-
ing.18 The chapter on True Dhamma (saddhamma) from the Aguttara-
nikya similarly warns that a careless attitude towards hearing, mastering,
contemplating, analyzing, and practicing the dhamma would lead to its dis-
appearance.19 The orderhearing and mastering rst, practice lastclearly
indicates the priority of orthodoxy over orthopraxy.
A concern for canonical orthodoxy, therefore, is part and parcel of the
teaching of the demise of that same orthodoxy, or, more accurately, is the
main thrust of that teaching. As noted above, maintaining such an ortho-
doxy in an oral tradition demands great attention to the words and letters,
or the forms in which the tradition is heard and taught, for the performance
of a tradition becomes in good part the tradition itself. Thus the Aguttara-
nikya continues by elaborating the forms of the teaching, warning that not
mastering the sayings, psalms, catechisms, songs, solemnities, speeches,
birth-stories, marvels, [and] runes leads to the confounding, the disap-
pearance of Saddhamma, as does not teaching it in detail to others as
heard, as learned, and not speaking or repeating it in detail as heard, as
learned.20 In the same way that the particular literary forms of the tradition
must be safeguarded, popular literary forms are to be eschewed, for the
study of discourses that are made by poets in the poetical style, with embel-
lished sounds, overlaid with ornament, and spoken by profane auditors will
cause the discourse of the Tathagata to disappear.21

17 The Book of the Gradual Sayings (Aguttara-nikya), vol. 1: 53.


18The countervailing attitude is found in the Buddhas well-known injunction against for-
malizing the language of the teaching, preferring instead, for example, regional dialects
(Davidson, Standards, 29293).
19 The Book of the Gradual Sayings (Aguttara-nikya), translated by E. M. Hare (London:

The Pali Text Society, 1973), vol. 3: 132. See also ibid., 18081, 23940, and vol. 4: 4950.
20 The Book of the Gradual Sayings, 3: 133.
21 The Book of the Kindred Sayings (Sayutta-nikya), part II, 17879; quoted here from E.
Conze, ed., Buddhist Texts through the Ages (London: Harper & Row, 1964), 45; Pande judges
this passage to be late because these forms indicate a good deal of previous literary activity
(Pande, Studies, 209). See The Book of the Gradual Sayings, 3: 85 for the same pericope. It is
interesting, of course, to speculate on who might have been guilty of producing such poeti-
cal styles, though the producers of the Mahayana clearly thought they were the targets (see
below, p. 48, n. 37).
44 / decline as polemic

Of course it is not only straying from doctrinal orthodoxy that is warned


against; desires for comfort, ne food, fame, and numerous disciples, lazi-
ness, speaking ill, and other defects are occasionally mentioned as well.
There are many voices speaking in these texts, responding to different peda-
gogical, institutional, economic, sectarian, and spiritual demands, and vastly
more attention to the forms, redaction, style, etc. is needed before we can
make more than general statements. As an example of this variety we can
cite the Aguttara-nikya, which, in the sutta mentioned above, tells us that
the mastery of the dhamma, teaching it in detail, speaking it in detail, repeat-
ing it in detail, and thinking about it in detail, are the keys to the stability of
saddhamma, to its being unconfounded, to its non-disappearance, while
another sutta in the same Aguttara-nikya presents the identical formula in
a rather denigrating manner, telling us that such mastery, teaching, repeti-
tion, and analysis is not living by dhamma, and instead exhorting the
monks to meditation.22 Representing the age-old debate of practice versus
study (more often observed in rhetoric than in reality), this combination
and recombination of discrete tradition-units cautions us against assuming
anything as simple as a single stream of thought or doctrine of the demise
of the teaching.23 Nonetheless, doctrinal differences, institutional (Vinaya)
differences, and questions of meditation versus study all t into the pattern
of a competitive spirit or tension among the various traditions, each
attempting to assert the supremacy of its own teaching. Interestingly, the
rhetoric of orthodoxy is reflexive as well, including the spirit of sectarian
rivalry as one of the primary causes of the decline of the Buddhas teach-
ings,24 known most commonly as the grievous offense of saghabheda.25

22 The Book of the Gradual Sayings (Aguttara-nikya), 3: 7172 (actually, the text leaves out

speaking in detail and lls out the list of ve with the monk who masters Dhamma: the
sayings, psalms and so forth, and spends not the day in that mastery, neglects not to go apart
and devotes himself to calm of purpose of the self. Verily, monk, such a monk is one who
lives by Dhamma. See also Woodward, The Book of the Kindred Saying (London: The Pali
Text Society, 1979), 5: 15153; The Book of the Kindred Sayings, 5: 172, and 173, where we are
told that lack of attention to the four stations of mindfulness is the reason for the teaching
not lasting long after the passing of the Tathagata.
23 This debate continues even today, across time and cultures, as in Stuart Smitherss claim

that the tradition of the decline of the teaching was occasioned by a shift in emphasis from
liberation to precepts, the rhetoric of morality and ethics over and against liberation and
freedom and that Buddhism is dened not as much by an orthodoxy ... as it is by an ortho-
praxis (Stuart Smithers, Freedoms Just Another Word in Tricycle 2/1 [Fall 1992], 3839).
24 See, for example, The Book of the Gradual Sayings, 3: 134.
25 One of the ve deadly or grievous offenses (paca-abhihna-kammni), saghabheda is
listed in the second category of offenses (saghdisesa, offenses requiring suspension) in the
ptimokkha and is cause for expulsion in the Mahvagga, I.67 (Vinaya Texts, part I: 221), and
was even condemned by Aoka in the edicts at Sch and Sarnath; see N. A. Nikam and
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 45

As noted above, the theories of decline are for the most part concerned
with the worldly fate of Buddhist scripture (gama) rather than either truth
per se (dhammat) or attainment of that truth (adhigama), and so the tradi-
tion has tended to afrm the centrality of authoritative teachings over and
above practice as the arbiter of saddhamma, perhaps not surprising inas-
much as our documents are those preserved in the canon. Buddhaghosas
commentary on the Aguttara, for example, claims that the saddhamma will
not disappear so long as the authoritative teachings (pariyatti) remain,
because truly, even if a hundred or a thousand monks were found to
undertake the practice of meditation, without learning there would be no
realization of the Noble Path.26 As John Ross Carter puts it, the Pli tradi-
tion claims that the words of the Buddha as they had been passed down
from generation to generation (pariyatti) and not practice (paipatti) formed
the basis with regard to the Teachers instruction.27 Thus we should note
that the examples I have given are arguing more for the very notion of an
orthodoxy (saddhamma) rather than for the specics of that orthodoxy. In
other words, the rhetoric of decline is not used to establish which doctrines
are true and which are false but rather the importance of orthodoxy as a cat-
egory in and of itself.
Another well-known and obviously sectarian account of the disappear-
ance of the true teaching is found in the Sayutta-nikyas discussion of the
counterfeit teaching (saddhamma-pairpaka), the advent of which causes
the obscuration and disappearance of the true doctrine just as the accept-
ance of fools gold would cause the devaluation of real gold.28 This text also
explicitly separates the decline of the teaching from the Buddhist cosmology
of world ages (kalpas) and their oscillation, as it rejects the notion that any

Richard McKeon, The Edicts of Asoka (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966), 6768.
Still, the inevitable fact of quarrels is indicated by the inclusion of an entire section dealing
with how to handle schism in the Vinaya (Mahvagga X). Many questions naturally arise
from this, but we must be careful in our assessment of sectarian activity in Buddhist India.
Our contemporary image, perhaps influenced by the violence of the European Reformation
or medieval Japanese Buddhism, certainly does not t the Indian or Chinese case. While
heartily disagreeing over points of doctrine and monastic rule, and considering schisms a
serious business, nonetheless monks of different nikya could share lodging, study multiple
traditions, engage together in ritual practice, and the like; see Hubert Durt, Daij, in
Hbgirin 7 (1994): 767801.
26 From the Manorathapra, translated by John Strong in The Experience of Buddhism,

22728.
27 Carter, Dhamma, 13132. Similarly, Davidson notes that knowledge of the Abhidhamma

supplanted a more specically meditative orientation, seen in the earlier literature, as the cri-
terion for validation as a preacher of dhamma (Davidson, Standards, 305).
28 The Book of the Kindred Sayings, part II: 15152.
46 / decline as polemic

of the physical elements will bring about the decline, saying instead that
here in the Order itself futile men arise, and it is they who make the true
doctrine disappear. The Sarvstivda parallels preserved in the Chinese
canon even more clearly separate the cosmological traditions from this tra-
dition of decline by adding that, unlike the end of a kalpa, in which the
earth-element, water-element, heat-element, and air-element bring about
destruction and thus make it irreversible, the disappearance of the true
teaching is caused by members of the sangha and is reversible.29 Again, it is
interesting to speculate on who might be the target of this charge of counter-
feiting, and of course the Mahayana comes most readily to mind.
One more noteworthy type of reference to the destruction of the teaching,
the Kaumb prophecy, has often been understood to attribute the
decline to external cause rather than to internal disorder or sectarian differ-
ences.30 According to this tradition, one thousand years after the passing of
the Tathagata evil kings will arise and destroy stupas, murder monks, and
destroy the teaching. The evil kings will eventually be defeated by a monarch
from Kaumbi, who later hosts a great feast to which all of the sangha is
invited. When the entire sangha is brought together, however, dissension
breaks out, resulting in monks killing each other and their teachers. In the
end, the last scholar will kill the last arhat, bringing about the disappearance
of the ultimate saddharma (), only to be killed in turn by the dis-
ciples of the arhat, thus signaling the end of the conventional saddharma
() as well.31 Although the various recensions differ as to the details,
the kings in the story are taken to represent the Saka (Ch. Shih-chia t,
Skt. aka), the Parthian (Ch. Po-lo-po l( Skt. pahlava), the Greeks (Ch.
Yeh-pan-na , Skt. yavana), and the Kushan (Ch. Tou-sha-lo ,
Skt. tura),32 and their destructive acts are generally taken to depict the
events surrounding their invasions of the Gangetic basin from approximately
the second century b.c. to the rst century a.d. Recounted in a number of
different texts with slight variations, one version, the Candragarbha-stra,
had an enormous impact on East Asian notions of the decline. Even in this

29 T #99, 2.226c7 and T #100, 2.419bc. Cf. Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 6689;

Hubbard, Review of Jan Nattiers Once Upon a Future Time, The Eastern Buddhist, n.s.,
26/1, 14041.
30 See Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time (Chapters 710), for a thorough discussion of all

the many versions of the story.


31 See the more optimistic interpretation of these events in the Mahparinirva-stra,

which declares that the true teaching does not really perish; in a discussion of the duration
of the teachings slightly earlier in the text the sutra declares that, though the conventional
teaching () can be destroyed, the ultimate dharma (s) cannot (T #374, 12.472a).
32 Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 152 and 28889.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 47

story, however, the demise of the teaching is not caused by the invading
forces; rather, it occurs well after they are dispelled, a result of quarrelling
within a sangha enjoying the municence of a well-intentioned Buddhist
king who has called the entire sangha together for an imperial feast!33
It is conspicuous that in all of the stories the threats to the true teaching
come from some sort of dissension within the sangha, especially bickering
about the transmission and interpretation of the teaching.34 It is also note-
worthy that, almost without exception, after the dire words about the possi-
ble decline of the teaching in the future there is always an exhortation to the
monks to be diligent now, lest such an unfortunate situation actually come
to pass. Both points indicate the polemic that underlies the prognostications,
and the second point also tells us that the decline of the teaching was spoken
of more in the sense of admonishment, a means of urging the sangha to
adhere to an authoritative interpretation of doctrinein other words, a
conservative reaction to increasing diversity of interpretation and institu-
tional organization.35
It is commonly suggested that, given the Buddhist doctrine of imperma-
nence, it was inevitable that the Buddhas teachings would also come to be
seen as declining and disappearing.36 While this is doctrinally plausible, it
seems rather pious in its assumptions about what is essentially an other-
directed critique. The critique in the rhetoric of decline is not doctrinally

33 Ibid., 227.
34 A major exception to this is the well-known tradition that women entering the homeless
life will shorten the reign of the true teaching from one thousand years to ve hundred years
(Vinaya Texts, 320 ff.). Alan Sponberg argues that this text reflects a later (ca. 200 b.c.) insti-
tutional androcentrism, born not of the sectarian spirit I see as the basis of the decline motif
but rather of reconciliation a compromise negotiated between several factions of the
order, including the nuns and their male supporters (Attitudes toward Women and the
Feminine in Early Buddhism, in Jos Ignacio Cabezn, ed., Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender
[Albany: SUNY Press, 1992], 16); see also Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 2833.
35 This sense of warning and exhortation ts well with the tone of the prophetic genre in

Hebrew literature, and can be seen to offer not consolation but criticism of its own religious
community, and not encouragement but exhortation (Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time,
284). For further discussion of the applicability of the notion of prophetic warning to the
Buddhist tradition, see the numerous messages on the Buddha-L electronic discussion list, 25
June 15 July 1993 (buddha-l@listserve.louisville.edu).
36 This would also render the decline motif functionally analogous to Judeo-Christian
eschatological rhetoric, which Stephen D. OLeary has described as strategies of transcen-
dence, in which the seemingly contradictory realities of phenomenal, practical experience
[e.g., different versions of the True Dharma within the same canon] are unied through the
temporizing of essence in relation to the future or the past [that is, even the true teachings
essenceare impermanent] (Stephen D. OLeary, Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of
Millennial Rhetoric [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994], 26).
48 / decline as polemic

self-referential but ideologically other-referential; the point of view is that of


the upholders of the true teaching versus those who do not faithfully learn,
retain, and transmit it. Perhaps more accurately, the rhetoric of the polemi-
cist is directed in both directionstowards the other as the cause of decline,
and towards oneself as the upholder and guarantor of saddhamma. The con-
text that gave rise to the teaching of the decline of the teaching was not a dis-
cussion of impermanence but rather the concern for the perpetual duration
of the tradition, tradition dened as the teachings handed down over the
ages. The point of view of these prognostications is rst and foremost that of
upholding an orthodoxy or even the notion that an orthodoxy is central to
the Buddhist tradition rather than permitting or legitimizing new interpreta-
tions simply because all things must change. As we shall see, however, the
Mahayana and East Asian use of the concept of decline turns this on its head
to argue that it is precisely the time of dissension and decline that makes
necessary a new dispensation, a new orthodoxy.

The Later Rhetoric of Legitimacy:


the mahayana polemic of the book

The rst step toward the eventual use of the decline motif as legit-
imizing a new dispensation of the teaching was the Mahayana transforma-
tion of the terms of its deployment. That is, while the Mahayana continued
the strategy of claiming a literal form of orthodoxy (buddhavacana) for their
traditions and texts (for example, the story of Ngrjunas recovery of the
Perfection of Wisdom texts), they also regured the decline motif in such a
way as to change its meaning from a time when the teaching would be gone
or supplanted by false teaching to a time when its own superior teaching
would not merely still be available, but, as proven precisely by its persist-
ence, tested and certied in its superiority. No doubt the Mahayana writers
were both aware that the most common timetables of decline described the
time of their own activity as well as sensitive to the charge of creating a
new or counterfeit teaching; hence we nd that one of the most promi-
nent uses of the decline motif in the Mahayana is as a proof metaphor to
stylistically indicate its own superior truth value, even in such a time.37 Self-

37 A similar and equally self-conscious response may be seen in the Mahayana anticipation
of the stylistic attack on their scriptures noted above (n. 21): At some future time bhikus and
bodhisattvas who are conceited, who have not cultivated their bodies, not cultivated their
minds, not cultivated morality, not cultivated wisdom, who are immoral, do not accept the
precious denitive meaning (Skt. ntrtha) of the True Dharma will say Stras like this
are fabrications, they are poetic inventions; they were not spoken by the Buddha (Paul
Harrison, The Samdhi of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of the Present [Tokyo: The
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 49

conscious in its reaction to the conservative nikya attempt to preserve the


tradition, this strain is both highly specic (this text is the saddharma and
will be uniquely efcacious in such troubled times) and at the same time rm
in claiming the high ground of the universal, hearkening more to dharmat
than its historical encapsulation; like the Buddha himself, the buddhavacana
is eternal.38 The Vajracchedik, for example, in speaking of the the future
time, in the latter age, in the latter period, in the latter ve hundred years,
when the True Dharma is in the process of decay,39 exhibits little concern
with such a period as a historical reality of declining capacity: Even at that
time, Subhuti, there will be bodhisattvas who are gifted with good conduct,
gifted with virtuous qualities, gifted with wisdom, and who, when these
words of the Sutra are being taught, will understand their truth.40 The
Vajracchedik speaks of the latter ve-hundred years, when the true teach-
ing is in the process of decay only as an opportunity to contrast its own
continued efcacy. It thereby co-opted the topoi of the nikya rhetoric,
asserting its superiority not simply on the basis of a claim to represent

International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1990], 5556). See also E. Conze, translator, The
Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), 392. In a more
general fashion the Mahayana scriptures regularly embrace the claim that they are not, in
fact, the word of the Buddha as a deliberate preemptive strategy; see Fernando Tola and
Carmen Dragonetti, The Conflict of Change in Buddhism: the Hnaynist Reaction,
Cahiers dExtrme-Asie 9 (19961997): 23354.
38 Davidson, in discussing the Mlasarvstivda-vinaya, calls the criterion of not contra-

dicting reality (dharmat) an intrusion, for the rst time, of a philosophical argument into
the criteria [for authenticity], a concern that he sees as dominating later discussion, especial-
ly in the Mahayana (300301). This is not to say, of course, that Mahayana texts did not also
claim to be buddhavacana in a more literal sense (Davidson, Standards, 30512), but, gener-
ally, as Matthew Kapstein nicely sums it up: any text meeting the normative doctrinal criteria
for buddhavacana must be genuine buddhavacana taught by the historical Buddha kyamuni
himself (The Puricatory Gem and Its Cleansing: A Late Tibetan Polemical Discussion of
Apocryphal Texts, in History of Religions, 28/3 [1989], 225). Of course, because the doctrinal
criteria were (and are) fluid, this development allows for the full unfolding of the later sectar-
ian approach to the saddharma.
39 Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 36 (correcting the translation by Edward Conze,

Buddhist Wisdom Books [London: George Allen & Unwin, 1970], 30); see also 3337, 9194,
106 n. 111 for a discussion of the Sanskrit and Chinese variants of this phrase in this text and
the Lotus Sutra (the translation of Kumarajva, T #235, 8.749a, does not contain the phrase
saddharma-vipralopakle [Chin. fa mieh n], at the time of the destruction of the true
dharma); other texts of the Prajpramit corpus that use substantially the same formula
include The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom, 328 (minus the reference to the latter ve-hun-
dred years) and the Suvikrntavikrmi-Paripcch Prajpramit-Stra (ed. by Rysh
Hikata, Kyoto: Rinsen Book Co., 1983), 124 (Chinese translation 565 by Upanya, T #231,
8.231b).
40 Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 33; cf. p. 57.
50 / decline as polemic

historical orthodoxy (buddhavacana) but also on the basis of truth value and
hence a relevance even in a time of decay, a time for which the Hinayana
had already prophesized its own lack of efcacy.41
The polemic origins of the term saddhamma were not lost on the redac-
tors of the Saddharma-pu^arka-stra, a text that extols the most inclusive
ideal of the Buddhist tradition at the same time that it is almost combative
in its claim to alone represent the true teaching. This text combines the
same sort of sectarian perspective found in the Vajracchedik with a distinctly
cosmic and cyclical view of the universe, containing many references to the
twenty minor kalpas of the true teaching followed by twenty intermediate
kalpas of the semblance, or forty kalpas of each, or thirty-two kalpas of each,
etc.42 Although not in the same place or even in the same context as its refer-
ences to the two periods of true and semblance teaching, the Lotus, like the
Vajracchedik, also speaks of the time after the Tathgatas nal nirvana, in
the latter age, the latter period, the latter ve-hundred years, when the true
teaching is in decay.43 The Chinese translation by Kumrajva even uses the
term mo fa, possibly the rst occurrence of the term.44
Given the presence of these elements of the decline tradition and the pop-
ularity of the Lotus Sutra in East Asia, many are tempted to see it as a pri-
mary source for the elaboration of the chronological and/or tripartite
schema of decline. Although, as discussed below, I do think that the Lotus
Sutra contributed greatly to the hermeneutics of orthodoxy that is so
much a part of the decline traditions, we need to be very careful in assessing
its contributions to the chronological orderings of decline. That is, its usage
of the two periods of the teaching are more likely drawing on the cosmologi-
cal traditions than the topos of decline, which explains why the settings in

41 The Pratyutpannabuddhasamukhvasthitasamdhi-stra even claims that it will disap-

pear until the latter period of decay (Harrison, The Samdhi of Direct Encounter, 96 ff)!
42 E.g., T #262, 9.20c, 21a, 21c, 29c, passim.
43Skt: tathgatasya parinirvtasya pacime kle pacime samaye pacimy pacaty
saddharma-vipralope vartamne, from Saddharmapu^arka-stra, edited by U. Wogihara
and C. Tsuchida (Tokyo: Sankib Book Store, 1958), 241.
44 T #262, 9.37c38a. The Chinese passage does not correspond exactly to the (substantially
later) Sanskrit. The Chinese translation reads After the extinction of the Tathagata, in the
later teaching, those desiring to teach this stra Zn9=_. As I noted in my
original study of the Three Levels movement, here mo fa is simply used in the sense of after
the Buddha is gone and thus is not really a translation of the saddharma-vipralopa found in
the Sanskrit edition (Hubbard, Salvation, 21n; see also Yamada Ryj, Mapp shis ni
tsuite, 362; Rengemenky ni tsuite, 122 n. 1); Kumrajvas biography of Avaghoa also
uses the term mo fa (see below, chapter 3, p. 65). A. Yuyama discusses variants of this passage
found in other texts in Pacsat, 500 or 50? With special reference to the Lotus Stra, in
Heinz Bechert, editor, The Dating of the Historical Buddha, part 2 (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck
& Ruprecht, 1992), 20833.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 51

which the periods of the true teaching and the semblance teaching appear
are so exaggerated (forty kalpas of each, etc.). Thus, too, the cyclical nature
of these descriptions, in which, after the two periods of a tathagatas teach-
ing, a tathagata of the same name will appear, as many as twenty hundred
thousand myriads of kotis of Tathagatas of the same name.45 Further, and
most telling, none of these descriptions is of the duration of the historical
Buddhas teaching, whereas the instances of the decline motif are always rep-
resented as the decline of kyamunis teaching.46 Finally, although in these
instances the Lotus presents a clear two-period scheme in which the sem-
blance teaching follows and is, at least chronologically, distinct from the
period of saddharma, which is also chronologically distinct from the lifetime
of the various tathagatas, there is no sense here of a qualitative difference
between the two periods. The two periods are not spoken of in terms of
decay or sequential loss of capacity but rather, as discussed above, this use of
the semblance teaching indicates precisely that period after the death of the
Buddha when his teachings were available, hence there is no qualitative dif-
ferentiation between the periods of saddharma and saddharma-pratirpaka.
But even this is not the real point of this topos: the two periods of the teach-
ing as described in the Lotus Sutra are related to the grand cosmic drama of
the Tathagatas immeasurable lifetime, the basic theme of the sutra, and not
the theme of decline.47 Hence, in typical Indian rhetorical style, the Lotus
bolsters this drama with incomprehensible numbers (such as forty interme-
diate kalpas) and cyclical recurrence (the eternal return).
Given, too, that the periods of saddharma and saddharma-pratirpaka are
not used in the same context with saddharma-vipralopa or latter 500 years,
it is thus not unreasonable to assume that we have two entirely different tra-
ditions coming together in the same text. Aside from the textual evidence
that the two represent different topoi, there is also the rather glaring doctri-
nal inconsistency in the notion of a period of the destruction of the teaching
following the Buddhas extinction, given the Lotus Sutras insistence on the
immeasurable lifetime of the Buddha.
Although the Lotus never became a major source in the early Chinese
development of the decline tradition, it is lled with reference to decay, the
latter 500 years, and the like in the context of doctrinal persecution, sec-
tarian concern, and a polemic assertiveness about its own message, and it is

45 E.g., T #262, 9.50c.


46 Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 8586; Yuyama, 500 or 50?, 228.
47 Even in China it seems that the settings and descriptions of the two periods in the Lotus
are so far beyond any sense of actual human history that they did not inculcate any sense of
historical or social foreboding, since the Lotus is not mentioned in the standard lists of
decline texts; see below, chapter 3, p. 60, n. 17.
52 / decline as polemic

in this that I believe we can see the signicance of its use of the decline
motif.48 Much like the Vajracchedik, that is, the Lotus uses the theme of
decline as an opportunity to assert that even in such a period, due to the
power of the sutra itself, there will still be those who will gain innumerable
merits and enter into nirvana if they recognize its truth.49 Indeed, it is not
stretching things to say that, alongside the doctrine of the immeasurable life-
time of the Buddha kyamuni, the polemic of saddharma is the central
theme of the Lotus. In this way, and as with the earlier traditions, the
Mahayana rhetoric of decline became an established and readily usable topic
deployed not to condemn moral decay but rather to assert legitimacy of
specic texts in the period following kyamunis passing.50 Thus, as with
the earlier tradition, the teaching is still quite available, as long as you know
which dharma is saddharma. As a side effect, by not predicting the total
demise of the teaching and by specifying a particular text as valid even in
such a time of decay, these Mahayana polemics of the book perhaps served
as prototypes for the Chinese strategy of arguing the need for a new dispen-
sation. That is, whereas the earlier traditions had actually predicted the dis-
appearance or end of the teaching, the Mahayana allows it to continue, albeit
solely within particular texts. Nonetheless, and this is a crucial point, reflect-
ing the overriding concern for the preservation of the true teachings, at this
stage it is the teachings per se that are predicted to decline or disappear; in
Hsin-hsings teachings it is the capacity of sentient beings to realize those
teachings that has decayed. A nal effect is that, whereas the conservative
approach attempted to preserve a facade of unity or orthodoxy in the face of
obvious divergences and schisms, the Mahayana approach implicitly admits
the existence of the doctrinal divergences predicted as characteristic of the
latter days.

48 Of course, the most obvious example of this is the use of saddharma as the title of the

text. For a further discussion of these issues, see J. Hubbard, Buddhist-Buddhist Dialogue?
The Lotus Sutra and the Polemic of Accommodation, Buddhist-Christian Studies 15 (1995):
11936.
49 E.g., T #9, 10b, T #9, 31a, T #9, 38c, etc. Virtually all references to the age of decay are

accompanied by some sort of declaration of the continued efcacy of the Lotus, a vow to
spread and teach it even in such a period, the abuse that its defenders need be prepared to
face in such a period, the merit that will accrue from its teaching, etc. See J. Hubbard, A Tale
of Two Times: Preaching in the Latter Age of the Dharma, Numen 46 (1999): 186210.
50 Similarly, Nattier notes that in the Mahparinirva-stra use of a seven-hundred-

year timetable of decay, Though certain moral failings (especially on the part of the monks)
are mentioned, issues of doctrine are given greater attention (Nattier, Once Upon a Future
Time, 39).
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 53

Summary

These, then, are some of the sources and views concerning the
decline of the Buddha-dharma. Most likely originating in a spirit of sectarian
competition regarding the correct interpretation of the teachings after the
passing of the founder and continued in the Mahayana as a means of doctri-
nal legitimization, the decline tradition functioned primarily as a rhetoric, a
series of topoi that could be marshaled to argue for and defend both the
notion of orthodoxy as well as particular orthodoxies. As a conservative
reaction to diversity, the non-Mahayana use of the rhetoric of decline did
not really address the question of what one would do in such a world; the
point, rather, was to prevent its arrival. The Mahayana use of the decline
topoi, on the other hand, substantially changed this by indicating that the
truth would still be available during the period of decline as long as you
knew where to nd it. Signicantly, by introducing the notion of truth into
the rhetoric (albeit as a defensive measure), the notion of decline is freed
from historical concerns just as it makes possible a shifting index of ortho-
doxy, one determined by individual revelation and insight rather than his-
torical literalness. Given the rhetoric of orthodoxy that underlies the deploy-
ment of the decline trope, it is not surprising that this move away from the
historical context of its birth and the literal terms of its argument reflects the
same direction taken in the overall Mahayana argument for the authenticity
of its scriptures, that is, a shift away from history and philology as the
answer to questions of authenticity to ahistorical elements, where accor-
dance with reality is the ultimate and nal criterion.51 Hence, too, the fact
that the Mahayana use of the decline trope is exclusively concerned with
doctrinal legitimization indicates that, in spite of the occasional moral cri-
tique found in the earlier texts, in either case the rhetoric of decline cannot
be separated from the rhetoric of orthodoxy and legitimization. When, how-
ever, these same prophecies came to be accepted as describing contempora-
neous events and fused with the doctrine of upya, an entirely new function
of the decline traditions was born: not used to simply plea for an orthodoxy
or as a trope to vouchsafe ones legitimacy, the decline of the teaching came
to be used to argue the need for a new teaching, a new dispensation appro-
priate to the degenerate times. As part of the same process the Indian trope

51 Jos Ignacio Cabezn, Vasubandhus Vykhyyukti on the Authenticity of the

Mahyna Stras, in Jeffrey R. Timm, Texts in Context (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992),
234.
54 / decline as polemic

of decline became the Chinese doctrine of decline, a doctrine that could serve
as an interpretive aid and provide a hermeneutic framework for ordering the
Indian scriptures and teachings. Let us now turn to the Chinese context that
so facilitated this development.
3.
The Chinese Systematization:
Decline as Doctrine

H ow did the argument for orthodoxy described in chapter 2


play in China, where neither the process nor the specifics of the Indian doc-
trinal and institutional developments were well understood? Among the
striking features of the Chinese evolution of the Buddhist tradition of
decline are, on the one hand, the development of the ahistorical cosmologi-
cal and Buddhological traditions into the messianic and apocalyptic
Maitreya-based movements so often accused of fomenting revolt and, on the
other hand, the development of the rhetoric of orthodoxy/decline into the
belief that the time of decline had actually arrived. The latter is a particularly
important development, for if it is significant that the massive interest in
and use of the rhetoric of decline in China coincided with the time of the
introduction and assimilation of Buddhism, it is equally significant that the
systematization of the notion occurred under the Sui and Tang, a golden
period of Chinese Buddhism and an era that saw the emergence of grand
doctrinal systems. But why the interest in the first place?
There are a number of reasons for the Chinese interest in the Buddhist
traditions of decline. First we must note the strong and persistent eschato-
logical and messianic hopes for the advent of the King of the Great Peace
(tai ping ) and reunification of the empire, hopes that resonated well
with Buddhist cosmology and the related Maitreya traditions. It is often
remarked that two of the main reasons for Buddhisms immediate populari-
ty in China were some similarities to the Taoist ideas and language of tran-
scendence and the shared status of not being tainted by the ideology of the
failed Han dynasty (the Confucian tradition). To this must be added the res-
onance of the eschatological traditions. Conversely, this meant that
Buddhism, newly arrived to Chinese soil as Taoism was newly arrived to the
world of institutional power, competed with the Taoists for the terms of that
power. Hence the development of Buddhist messianism is perhaps also
related to a competitive marketplace of ideologies. How did Hsin-hsings
teaching reect these indigenous traditions while contributing to their devel-
opment in Buddhist terms?

55
56 / decline as doctrine

In addition to the strong native eschatological or millennial tradition, the


translations of such important texts as the gamas of the Sarvstivda, the
Sarvstivda-vinaya, the Lotus Sutra, Diamond Sutra, and other major
Prajpramit texts, the Mahparinirva-stra and other naturally escha-
tological texts of the nirvana corpus, the Sukhvatvyha-stra, numerous
dhra texts, and others supplied the canonical basis, the variant concepts,
and necessary terminology for innovative Chinese developments. These
canonical descriptions also came together with the indigenous traditions to
produce numerous scriptures that served to prepare an orthodoxy for the
various doctrinal systematizations of the decline tradition, including the
pan chiao of the San-chieh movement. Finally, and perhaps most impor-
tantly, the Chinese landscape of the latter half of the sixth century must have
appeared remarkably similar to that described in this scriptural tradition in
terms of social unrest, warfare, and monastic corruption. The two large-
scale persecutions of Buddhism at the hands of the Northern Wei and
Northern Chou dynasties could only appear to verify the scriptural predic-
tions. On top of all this, Mihirakulas attacks on Buddhist communities in
India were known to the Chinese, both from written accounts and from the
descriptions related by the many Indian monks who ed to China from
Northern India about this time.
Thus the translations of the Indian scriptural sources for the decline tradi-
tion found a ready audience in the Chinese, prepared by both indigenous
traditions of messianic and apocalyptic expectation as well as the social,
political, and economic conditions that had fueled those expectations. Yet,
ironically, it was only on the eve of the unification of China that the strong
belief in the immanence of the latter teaching was advocated as a doctrinal
tenet, and it was really only after unification of the Sui and Tang that the
idea became entrenched as doctrinal orthodoxy. From the latter half of the
sixth century the idea swept through the Buddhist community. Ching-ying
Hui-yan (523592), Chi-tsang (549622), Fei Chang-fang (late sixth century),
Tao-hsan (596666), Tao-cho (562645), Hsin-hsing (540594), and
Ling-y (517605) are only a few of the eminent monks who wrote of the
decline of the teaching. Two movements fixed the teaching as their doctrinal
foundation (the Pure Land and the San-chieh), and it proved to have great
appeal among people of all ranks. Thus the systematization of the decline
tradition and its broad acceptance are coterminous with the golden system-
building period of Chinese Buddhism as a whole, a period during which
there developed as well the ideological and institutional basis for the eventual
widespread diffusion of Buddhism in Chinese society, politics, and general
culture. This is perhaps exactly the reason that the idea of the decline
became such an important doctrine in Chinese Buddhism. In addition, like
the findings of chapter 2, it also points us towards the rhetorical function of
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 57

the decline as having more significance than its descriptive function. What,
then, were the elements of the indigenous eschatological traditions?

Indigenous Messianic and Apocalyptic Traditions

China has a long tradition of sacred kingship that has served vari-
ously as a source of legitimization in times of dynastic change, as an ideology
of morality and righteous governance in times of prosperity, and as a rally-
ing point in times of unrest. From the time of the fall of the Han in the latter
part of the second century b.c. through the founding of the Tang in the
early sixth century, this tradition was often called to labor in the contests for
heart and territory that were so conspicuous a feature of those times.
Although the sacred ruler and the longing for an earlier golden age is famil-
iar even in classical Confucian and Taoist terms,1 investigations of Taoist
messianic yearnings show the particularly wide appeal of these notions dur-
ing the period coincidental with the major inux of Buddhist thought, prac-
tice, and institutions.2
The basic terms of the Taoist apocalyptic are not unfamiliar to the
Western reader: social and political upheaval, aspirations for a return to
power on the part of the recently displaced, equality of justice for those
chronically displaced, and the expected arrival of a great spiritual power who
will realize these goals.3 This native tradition of messianic thought, repeatedly
linked to Lao-tzu as the messiah and often spilling over into outright rebel-
lion, continued to have strong inuence through the founders of the Tang

1 The notion of charismatic moral power, the mandate of heaven, and jen are all familiar

examples of the trappings of the sacred ruler. On the importance of the Mandate of Heaven
and other religious themes (including the Buddhist notion of kalpa), see Yji Muramatsu,
Some Themes in Chinese Rebel Ideologies, in Arthur F. Wright, ed., The Confucian
Persuasion (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960), 24156; Anna Seidel, The Image of
the Perfect Ruler in Early Taoist Messianism: Lao-tzu and Li Hung, History of Religions 9/23
(19691970), 21647; on jen in the Tai ping ching, see Max Kaltenmark, The Ideology of the
Tai-Ping Ching, in Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel, eds., Facets of Taoism (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1979), 34.
2 Seidel, Image; see also Anna Seidel, Taoist Messianism, Numen 31/2 (1984): 16174.

Seidel suggests that, paralleling the general upsurge in Taoist influence following the discred-
ited Confucian state of the Han, the primarily Confucian ideal of social harmony, tai ping
, became the focal point of Taoist messianic hopes as a popular Taoist religion became
the alternative, not to the Confucian teachings but to the literati regime that subscribed to it
(Seidel, Messianism, 165).
3For a comparative overview of Chinese apocalypticism, see Livia Kohn, The Beginnings
and Cultural Characteristics of East Asian Millenarianism, Japanese Religions 23/12 (1998):
2951.
58 / decline as doctrine

dynasty, who appropriated the messianic ideology in their claim to be direct


descendants of Lao-tzu.4 In terms of rhetoric, many of the topoi of Taoist
apocalyptic thought and action parallel the Buddhist traditions, and in this
light the growth and Taoist amalgamation of the Maitreya movements seems
natural.5 Socially, as with the later Three Levels and Pure Land teachings of
decline, Chinese messianic belief cut across class lines and appealed at times
to the aristocracy as much as to the marginal.6 And, just as Buddhism fur-
nished both the terms of an apocalyptic ideology that was often suppressed
as heretical as well as an acceptably orthodox soteriology of decline, we
should also note the considerable difference between the rebels who expected
their divine savior to actually appear on earth (for example, the Yellow
Turbans) and the political compromise effected by the Celestial Masters
(tien shih ), who, preferring perhaps to share rather than usurp power,
taught that the sage no longer descended to earth in human guise and thus
functioned to legitimize the political authority of the ruler rather than con-
test it.7 This ts the general tenor of apocalyptic movements, as OLeary
notes that the apocalyptic myth is broad and expansive enough to provide
symbolic resources for both the legitimation and the critique of religious
and secular power.8 The latters lack of impetus to messianic rebellion ts
in well with the development of a Buddhist ideology of decline that, rather
than fomenting popular uprising, talked instead of inner decay and heavenly
reward. So, too, the Celestial Masters exhortation to a pure morality and
almost ascetic lifestyle is reminiscent of the conservatism of the early
Buddhist rhetoric of decline as well as the later practices of the San-chieh

4 Li Yans claim was further strengthened by being given the rst Han emperors title

Kao-tsu. Li Yan may well have felt himself to be the fulllment of the messianic hopes
that had reechoed throughout the whole Six Dynasties: a Lord Li, emissary of Lao-tzu, was
to be ruler, Seidel, Image, 244.
5 On the intermingling of the two traditions see Erik Zrcher, Buddhist Influence on Early

Taoism, Toung Pao 66 (1980): 84147; Christine Millier, Une apocalypse taoste du Ve sicle:
Le livre des Incantations divines des grottes abyssales (Paris: Mmoires de lInstitut des Hautes
tudes Chinoises, 31, 1990), especially chapter one.
6 Michel Strickmann, The Mao Shan Revelations: Taoism and the Aristocracy, Toung

Pao 63 (1977): 140, and On the Alchemy of Tao Hung-ching, in Holmes Welch and Anna
Seidel, Facets of Taoism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), 18592; see also Tsukamoto
Zenry, A History of Early Chinese Buddhism from its Introduction to the Death of Hui-yan
(Tokyo: Kodansha International., 1985), 411. Strickmann also suggests that the presence in
the Mao Shan revelations of references to the stage-properties of Indian apocalypse, the suc-
cession of kalpas, and the three ultimate calamities (san tsai X), indicates that the
[Buddhist] message had been heeded by the old, established families of the region
(Alchemy, 186).
7 Seidel, Image, 228.
8 OLeary, Arguing the Apocalypse, 5758.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 59

movement; the Celestial Masters practice of confession and penitence in


particular is resonant with Northern Dynasties monastic practice.9
The literary form of prophecy used in the Buddhist teaching of decline
also ts well with the indigenous tradition of divination, prophecy, and
omen-reading. In terms of form, both traditions (perhaps obviously) use the
method of ex post facto prophecy to exhort their particular message. Like the
Buddhist tradition of saddharma, Taoist messianic literature also focused in
large part on the purity of the texts and teachings, using the voice of revealed
scripture as a vehicle to condemn false texts (hsieh wen k).10 The Tai
ping ching, for example, describes three ages of progressive decay (san ku
X, the three antiquities), of which the characteristics of the last age
doctrinal bickering and false texts, a new teaching appropriate to the times,
etc.are remarkably similar to the Buddhist tradition. 11 Also like the
Buddhists, this discourse took the form of intrareligious polemic as often as
interreligiousindeed, competition with other Taoists seems to have been a
conspicuous feature of the movements. Of course, as with the Buddhist dis-
cussion, part of the reason for the intrareligious polemic is competition for
control or establishment of orthodoxy, particularly consequential for the
new or heterodox (as with the Mahayana). Finally, as Zrcher has shown, we
should also take note of the overlapping dating of the Taoist apocalypse and
Buddhist timetables of decline.12

Translations of the Indian Sources

As Steven OLeary has pointed out, millennial and messianic move-


ments do not simply appear according to chaotic social circumstances (for

9 Tsukamoto, A History, 3536, 411; see also Howard S. Levy, Yellow Turban Rebellion at

the End of the Han, Journal of the American Oriental Society 76 (1956), 215.
10 Kaltenmark, Ideology, 2429; in the Celestial Masters movement all teachers above a

certain rank were required to have memorized the complete text of the Tao te ching; see
Tsukamoto, A History, 411.
11 Kaltenmark, Ideology, 2223. According to this text, society and government will suc-

cessively devolve from the time of high antiquity (shang ku ), through middle antiquity
(chung ku _), until the lowest age (hsia ku 4), when it realizes the extreme of decadence
(hsia chi 4)) with a proliferation of ckle and harmful doctrines. At this point the
Confucian rites are no longer capable of ensuring order, and false texts (hsieh wen k) will
claim to be the truth. The situation will demand a new dispensation. For this, the Celestial
Master (Tien shih ) will appear and reveal a sacred text that is uniquely efcacious for the
times, harmonizing and choosing from among the texts revealed earlier in accord with lesser
capacities.
12 Zrcher, Prince Moonlight: Messianism and Eschatology in Early Medieval Chinese

Buddhism, Toung Pao 68 (1982), 3, 2021.


60 / decline as doctrine

those are unfortunately common to all cultures and all times), but require as
well a textually embodied community of discourse founded in the accepted
canon.13 This was provided the Chinese Buddhists not only by indigenous
religious discourse but by the Indian scriptures as well. The Chinese knew of
the many and various traditions that spoke of the demise of the teaching, its
counterfeit rivals, and the attendant social, political, cosmic, and spiritual
chaos from almost the beginnings of the transmission of Buddhism to China
and continuing through the systematization of the Chinese schools.14 In
addition to the Sarvstivdin versions of some of the suttas and Vinaya texts
mentioned in chapter 2, the terminology and tradition-units were transmit-
ted in some of the most important texts in the development of Chinese
Buddhism (e.g., Vinaya in Ten Parts,15 Vajracchedik,16 Lotus Sutra,17 Mah-
parinirva-stra18) and are attributed to some of the most inuential mi-
gr missionaries and translators in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Among
these we can count An Shih-kao (mid-second century), who transmitted the

13 OLeary, Arguing the Apocalypse, 10.


14 It must be emphasized, however, that although the various elements can be traced to
India, a coherent doctrinal tradition of the decline of the teaching only emerged in China of
the sixth and seventh centuries. See Yamada, Rengemenky ni tsuite; Yki Reimon
|l, Shina Bukky ni okeru mappshis no kki [rPW=`u|,
Th gakuh 6 (1936): 20516; Yabuki Keiki, Sangaiky no kenky, 199231; Takao Giken
, Mapp shis to Zui: T shoka no taido =`oNBuE, Shina Bukky
shigaku 1/1 (1937): 120 and s1/3 (1937): 4770.
15 T #1435, 23.385c (relating the pericope of the counterfeit teaching); cf. chapter 2, note 28.
16 See chapter 2, 49.
17 See above. The opinions of some scholars notwithstanding (e.g., Richard Robinson and
Willard L. Johnson, The Buddhist Religion [Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 3rd
edition, 1982], 166), it is curious that this sutra never became a major source in the early
development of Chinese doctrines of decline. The Fa yan chu lin (668), for example, the
great encyclopedia of Buddhist doctrine compiled by Tao-shih, devotes one entire section to
the extinction of the law and, although it gives over fteen references to sources ranging
from the gamas and the Vinaya to Mahayana sutras and sastras, the Lotus Sutra is not men-
tioned (T #2122, 53.1005 ff); neither does Chi-tsang mention it in his summary of the decline tra-
dition (T #1824, 42.17c18c), nor even Hui-ssu, the rst to systematize the three periods (T #1933,
46.786c) and a patriarch of the Tien-tai, a school premised on the nal truth of the Lotus.
18 See Mizutani Daijnehankytengun; see Hubert Durt, Problems of Chronology, chap-
ters 3 and 4, for comments on the eschatological orientation of texts dealing with the
Buddhas nirvana and the formation of a corpus of nirvana texts. Hence stupa cultus would
seem a natural locus for the development of the decline idea; see H. Durt, The Meaning of
Archaeology in Ancient Buddhism, Commorative Volume Celebrating the Eightieth Year of
Dongguk University, esp. 12391240. For intriguing references to the latter age = and lat-
ter teaching = in fth-century stupa inscriptions see Hubert Durt, Krishn Riboud, and
Lai Tung-hun, A propos de stpa miniatures votifs du Ve sicle dcouverts Tourfan et au
Gansu, Arts Asiatiques 40 (1985), 103.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 61

story of the shortening of the teachings duration as a result of the entrance


of women into the cenobitic path;19 Dharmaraka (ca. 230310), probably
responsible for the Chinese popularity of the terms hsiang fa (semblance
teaching) and mo shih (latter age);20 Dharmakema (385433), translator
of the eschatological Nirvana Sutra; 21 as well as Fa-hsien (active early

19 See the one-thousand-year timetable in the Chia she chieh ching (translated by An Shih-

kao between 148 and 170), related to the tradition of women entering the cenobitic path (T
#2027, 49.6a). On An Shih-kao see the fascinating study of Antonino Forte, The Hostage An
Shigao and his Offspring (Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies Occasional Papers 6,
1995).
20 E.g., Tang lai pien ching (T #395, 118ac); his translation of the Lotus Sutra (T #263); the

Hsien chieh ching (T #425); Fo shuo fa mieh chin ching (T #396, likely a Chinese composition
of the early or mid-fth century), etc. In her study of the Chinese usage of the terms hsiang fa
(semblance teaching) and mo shih (nal or latter age), Nattier has concluded that it seems
quite safe to assume, then, that it was primarily through the translations of Dharmaraka that
Chinese Buddhists rst became acquainted with the term hsiang-fa (Once Upon a Future
Time, 71 n. 19) and credit for the popularization of the expression mo-shih clearly goes to
Dharmaraka (Once Upon a Future Time, 101 n. 106).
21 See, for example, his translation of the Mahparinirva-stra (T #374) and the Pei hua
ching (Karu-pu^arka-stra, T #157, 3.211b). Whalen Lai suggests that Dharmakema was
at the center of a kind of popular Buddhism in Liang-chou that emphasized an eschatologi-
cal element (Dating the Hsiang-fa chueh-i ching, Annual Memoirs of the Otani University
Shin Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute 4 [1986], 7476); see also Kamata Shigeo,
Chgoku Bukkyshi vol. 3 (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1984), 3655. An intriguing refer-
ence to Dharmakemas involvement in transmitting the decline tradition is found in Li
Shans commentary on the well-known Inscription of the Dhta Monastery w com-
posed by Wang Chien-chi 6 (Wang Chin 2, d. 505). The text of the inscription reads,
The true teaching has already disappeared, and the semblance teaching is gradually declining
j*hV. Li Shans commentary of 658 notes that Tan-wu-lo-chan says that
akyamunis true teaching will abide in the world for ve hundred years, the semblance
teaching for one thousand years, and the nal [period of the] dharma for ten thousand
years. Both the text of the Dhta Monastery Inscription and Li Shans commentary are con-
tained in a later edition of the Wen hsuan of Hsiao Tung (d. 531), chan 59, pp. 82633
(Taipei: Yi wen yin shu kuan edition, 1979); for a study of the inscription and English transla-
tion see Richard B. Mather, Wang Chins Dhta Temple Stele Inscription As an Example of
Buddhist Parallel Prose, Journal of the American Oriental Society 83 (1963): 33859. If Li
Shans attribution is correct and Tan-wu-lo-chan [Q refers to Tan-wu-chan [Q,
that is, Dharmakema, then we would have here the earliest reference to the three periods of
the dharma in China (as asserted by Tang Yung-tung in his Han Wei liang chin nan pei chao
Fo chiao shih [Taipei: Taiwan shang wu yin shu kuan, 1968], 818). I have found no such peri-
odization in Dharmakemas works, however, and assume Li Shans commentary to be a gloss
based on Dharmakemas translation of the Pei hua ching (which contains the ve
hundred/one thousand year schemes) and the subsequent development of the tripartite
scheme; I am grateful to Antonino Forte for his help in tracking down this citation. See also
Fortes A Literary Model for Adam: The Dhta Monastery Inscription, in Paul Pelliot,
Linscription nestorienne de Si-ngan-fou, edited with supplements by Antonino Forte (Italian
School of East Asian Studies and Collge de France, Kyoto and Paris, 1996), pp. 47387.
62 / decline as doctrine

fth century),22 Kumrajva (344413),23 and Narendrayaas (516589), the


missionary from Kashmir whose translations and compositions were partic-
ularly inuential in transmitting the traditions of decline.24

22 Fa-hsien was the translator of the Mahparinirva-stra among other texts. Concerning

Fa-hsiens role in the transmission of the decline tradition, Michel Strickmann has noted, It
seems signicant that Fa-hsien, scarcely an apocalyptic personality, should be responsible for
bringing to China some of Buddhisms most influential apocalyptic material, (The
Consecration Stra in Robert E. Buswell, Jr., editor, Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha [Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1990], 114, note 33).
23 See chapter 2, 4950 for comments on his translation of the Lotus Sutra, and below, 65,

for his use of the timetables of decline for dating various Buddhist teachers.
24 Narendrayaas translated several texts concerned with the decline of the teaching, includ-

ing the Ji tsang fen (#14) and the Yeh tsang fen (#15) portions of the Ta chi ching (T #397,
Mahsanipta-stra), both quite influential in the development of the decline tradition in
China. He also transmitted the Lien hua mien ching (T #386), which includes a portrayal of
the reign of the Ha ruler Mihirakula and his harshly anti-Buddhist activities. For a study of
Narendrayaas translations, their relationship to Mihirakula, and place in the development
of Chinese notions of the decline, see Yamada, Rengemenky ni tsuite, in Nagao Gadgin,
ed., Yamaguchi hakase kanreki kinen Indogaku Bukkygaku rons (Kyoto: Hzkan, 1955),
11023. A good overview of the sources and traditions regarding Mihirakula is found in Ojha,
K. C., Foreign Rule in India (Allahabad: Gyan Prakashan, 1968), 165 ff. See also the Rja-
taragi of Kalhana (edited and translated by Sir M. A. Stein [New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,
reprint, 1979]) and the travel records of Hsan-tsang (T # 2087, 51.888b), translated by S. Beal,
Buddhist Records of India (Baltimore: Waverly Press, 1941), 202 ff. See also Thomas Watters,
On Yuan Chwangs Travels in India (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1904), 288 ff. Another text
which mentions Mihirakula is the Fu fa tsang yin yan chuan (T #2058, 50.321c ff., translation
attributed to Kekaya, 472). The compilation date of this text makes the chronology a prob-
lem, and H. Maspero, in his Sur la date et lauthenticit du Fou fa tsang yin yuan tchouan,
Mlanges dIndianisme (Paris, 1911), 12949, concluded that it is actually a Chinese composi-
tion of the mid- to late sixth century; see also Hubbard, Salvation, 2532. The theme of
decline in the Yeh tsang fen and its various recensions are thoroughly treated in Nattier,
Once Upon a Future Time and in Nattier, The Candragarbha-stra in Central and East Asia
(Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1988); for a discussion of the plausibility of Yamadas thesis
regarding Narendrayaas translations and the Chinese development of the decline tradition
see Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 11017, and Hubbard, Review, 14243. See also S.
Lvi, Notes Chinoises sur lInde, BEFEO V (1905): 253305 for a discussion of contempora-
neous geographical references in the Candragarbha-stra, lending credence to the theory that
Narendrayaas interpolated freely in his translations. One such interpolation in Narendra-
yaas translation of the Fo shuo te hu chang che ching discusses the travels of the Buddhas
almsbowl in the nal era of the teaching, eventually arriving in the country of the Great
Sui, where an incarnation of Prince Moonlight will rule and reestablish the teachings (T
#545, 849bc, translated in Zrcher, Eschatology and Messianism in Early Chinese
Buddhism in Leyden Studies in Sinology (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981), 47. The Yeh teng san mei
ching is another translation by Narendrayaas that contains the prophecy of Prince
Moonlight (T #639, 15.567ab) as well as references to the evil world of the latter age
= and in the evil world of the latter age, in the time when the true precepts and the
true teachings disappear =_w8O (T #639, 15.573c, 574a, etc.).
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 63

The basic texts related to Maitreya had also been translated and gained
substantial indigenous, eschatological elements in the process.25 Another
tradition from India that became important in East Asia is that of the arhat
Pi^ola, related to the eschatological traditions of the latter teaching (mo
fa) and the Buddhas deathbed pronouncements on the coming age and the
fate of his teachings, the practice of charity, the asceticism of the proper
monk (the dhtaga practices), the lions roar of unimpeachable truth
which allays doubts about the teaching during the long years of decline, and
especially to the idea that a seemingly corrupt monk might actually be an
enlightened being, all concerns found in the San-chieh teachings.26 In addi-
tion to these texts, there are a profusion of texts that elaborate on these
themes in different ways, the most common being the development of the
two periods of the teaching in line with the emerging Chinese organization
or systematization of timetables.27

Social, Political, and Monastic Decline

In terms of the social landscape, Hsin-hsing, the founder of the


Three Levels movement, was born in the latter half of the sixth century and

25 Zrcher, E. Eschatology and Messianism, 3456; Zrcher, Prince Moonlight;

Sponberg and Hardacre, eds., Maitreya, the Future Buddha, especially pp. 51170.
26 See the Ta a lo han Nan-ti-mi-to-lo so shuo fa chu chi (T #2030, 49.13a13c) and the Ching

Pin-tou-lu fa (T #1689, 32.784b). John S. Strongs excellent article on Pi^ola draws together
these themes; see his The Legend of the Lion-Roarer, Numen 26/1 (1979): 5088; see also
Sylvain Lvi and Edouard Chavannes, Les Seize Arhat protecteurs de la loi, Journal Asiatique
(1916): 20575. The connection of Pi^ola and the begging bowl, representing his gluttony
for offerings and corresponding role as a storehouse of merit for those who offer, and the
story of his display of magical powers in which he flies up into the air to grab the begging
bowl off the top of a pole, also call to mind the tradition that associates the destruction or
disappearance of the Buddhas begging bowl with the disappearance of the teaching; cf. Lien
hua mien ching, T #386; Fa yan chu lin, T #2122, 53.1007b ff; Strickmann, The Consecration
Stra, 113 n. 33; P. Mus, Hiuan-tsang et ses stpas dAoka, Actes du XIXe Congrs
International des Orientalistes, Rome (1935): 35658; Zrcher, Eschatology and Messianism,
47; Zrcher, Prince Moonlight, p. 21 n. 37, pp. 25, 2932. See also Chapter 6, pp. 13839.
27 Nattier has shown, for example, that the following texts contain emendations in order

to conform with new developments in the understanding of saddharma-pratirpaka: the


Bhadrakalpika-stra, which speaks of ve hundred years of the true teaching and ve hun-
dred years of the semblance teaching (T #425, 14.21a, Chinese translation by Dharmaraka ca.
300 a.d.); the Karm varaapratiprasrabdhi-stra (T #1493, 24.1094a, Chinese translation ca.
585600); and the Karu-pu^arka-stra, which speaks of one thousand years of the true
and ve hundred years of the semblance teaching (T #157, 3.211b, Chinese translation a.d.s
414421 [cf. T #158, 3.270a]); see Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 8285.
64 / decline as doctrine

no doubt was inuenced by the continuous war and social upheaval of his
times, as well as by the nal unication of the North and South under the
Sui in 589. Within the North, the strife between the Eastern and Western
Wei dynasties was long and fractious, and enmities ran deep on both sides
geographic, ethnic, ideological, and familial disputes had continuously rent
the social fabric of the North from the fall of the Later Han in 222. These
various tensions grew ever greater during the fth and sixth centuries, erupt-
ing in the civil war of 524534 and the resultant establishment of the two Wei
dynasties. These two states then continued to suffer internal wars until the
577 fall of the Northern Chi (changed from the Eastern Wei in 550). In 581
Yang-chien usurped the throne of the child emperor and declared the Sui
dynasty, and in 589 his armies united the North and South for the rst time
in over three hundred years.
Within the Buddhist sangha, the wholesale suppression of 574577 was a
culmination of reaction against the abuse of privilege that seems to have
characterized much of Buddhism during the Northern dynasties. In addition
to the frequent charges of foreignism leveled by the Taoist clergy and
Confucian ofcials alike, the Buddhist church was often attacked for being
exempt from taxation at the same time that it carried out extensive commer-
cial activities, for becoming sanctuaries for those wishing to escape corve
labor or criminal prosecution, as fraudulent estates set up by the landed
gentry in order to avoid taxation, and the like. Reecting the situation of the
Buddhist institutions in this period, for example, the Hsiang fa cheh i ching,
an important sutra of Chinese composition (whose ideas about the relation-
ship between charity and monastic institution will be considered in more
detail in chapter seven) describes the clergy this way:

Sons of good family! Why in future generations will all the lay followers slight
and look down upon the three jewels? It is precisely because monks and nuns
do not conform to the dharma. While their bodies may be robed in the gar-
ment of the dharma, they belittle principle and trivialize conditionality. Some,
furthermore, will engage in trade in the marketplace to support themselves.
Some, furthermore, will tread the roads conducting business to seek prot.
Some will engage in the trades of painters and artisans. Some will tell the for-
tunes of men and women, and divine various types of auspicious signs and evil
omens. They will consume alcohol and under its inuence become disorderly,
sing, dance, or play music. Some will play chess. Some monks will preach the
dharma obsequiously and with distortion in order to curry favor with the
people. Some will recite magical spells to cure others illnesses. Some will,
furthermore, practice meditation, but since they cannot focus their minds,
they will employ heterodox methods of meditation in order to divine fortunes.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 65

Some will practice acupuncture and moxibustion (moxa cautery) and various
other types of medicine as a means of seeking clothing and food.28

Although the internecine nature of the critique ts well with the tenor of
the Indian tradition of decline (if the moral critique does not), the case was
much more pressing in China, where the authorities, in apparent agreement
with the above sentiments of the sangha, conducted wholesale suppressions
of Buddhism.29

Finding Ones Time in the Decline

Reecting the traditional Chinese concern for history, an awareness


of their physical and temporal distance from the Buddha,30 and, more
importantly, their role as consumers of the decline tradition, we begin to
nd the Chinese using these traditions to locate their own place in such a
history. Kumrajva, for example, whose translations often use the categories
of later ages, semblance teaching, and even the rst use of the term mo fa,31
wrote in response to Hui-yuans lament of contemporary events that a sutra
says that in the end (=9) there will be in the East a bodhisattva who protects
the dharma [referring to Hui-yuan?].32 More specically, Kumrajvas

28 T #2870, 85.1337b-c; English translation by Kyoko Tokuno, The Book of Resolving

Doubts Concerning the Semblance Dharma, in Donald S. Lopez, Jr., editor, Buddhism in
Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), 267; see also Kyoko Tokuno, A Case
Study of Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha: The Hsiang-fa cheh-i ching, (M.A. thesis,
University of California at Berkeley, 1983); Whalen Lai, Dating the Hsiang-fa chueh-i ching,
8083; and chapter 7, below.
29 Indeed, the Northern Wei and Northern Chou persecutions of Buddhism were under-

stood to give truth to the dire words of the canonical warnings, as Fei Chang-fang, laicized
during the Northern Chou persecution, noted in his ruminations on the various predictions
in his famous catalog of the scriptures, the Li tai san pao chi (T # 2034. 49.107b). Fei Chang-
fang also assisted in the work of Narendrayaas, whose translations are so often cited in con-
junction with the Chinese understanding of the decline (see above, note 24).
30 This was especially important in the fth and sixth centuries because of questions related

to the foreign-ness of Buddhism and dating the Buddhas lifetime (and hence the antiquity
of Buddhism) in relation to Lao-tzu and Confucius; for an overview see Zrcher, The
Buddhist Conquest of China; The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China
(Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1959), chapters 5 and 6, and Prince Moonlight, 1819; see also Whalen
Lai, Dating the Hsiang-fa chueh-i ching for a discussion of this issue in the context of the
two periods of true and semblance teaching.
31 T #262, 9.37c; cf. the reworked edition of Jnagupta and Dharmagupta, T #264, 9.172b.
32T #2059, 50.359c. The Chinese =9 is more clearly related to the latter age or simply the
end than the last period of the dharma, as rendered by Zrcher (Conquest, 247).
66 / decline as doctrine

biography of Avaghoa recently discovered at the Nanatsu-dera in Nagoya


makes use of a number of different traditions to locate Avaghoa three
hundred years after the demise of the Buddha, and also clearly mentions
approaching the end of the true teaching C=, the latter ve hun-
dred years (92) when Nagarjuna will appear, and latter dharma (mo
fa =).33 Even Emperor Kao-tsu (reigned 472499), in an edict issued in
493, dated his era to the latter part of a thousand-year period of semblance
teaching.34 Perhaps it was even this use of the timetables of decline for dat-
ing historical events that began a process that inevitably led to the belief that
the time of decline was at hand as well as the eventual systematization of the
timetables.35

33 Ochiai Toshinori %p, Memy Bosatsuden +kO, Materials for the Fifth

Meeting of the Nanatsu-dera Research Group, 2 (privately distributed manuscript); see also
Ochiai Toshinori, Kshjibon Memy bosatsuden ni tsuite C+kOD
rkJm, in Indogaku Bukkygaku kenky 41/1 (1992): 29399.
34 T #2103, 52.272b.
35 Other examples of dating historical personages according to the timetables of decline
include Tan-ching, who, in a preface to the Chung lun recorded in the Chu san tsang chi chi
(515), writes that Ngrjuna lived during the latter period (mo yeh =) of hsiang chiao ,
a period of conflict when humankinds faculties are too diminished to see the truth (T #2145,
55.77a), and Seng-jui (355439), who writes in the preface to the Ta chih tu lun that Avaghoa
was born during the balance of the true teaching and Ngrjuna at the end of hsiang fa (T
#1509, 25.57ab). See the Chu san tsang chi chi record of this preface (T #2145, 55.74c75b)
translated in Robinson, Early Mdhyamika in India and China (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
reprint, 1976), 2326 (mixing up the pagination of the two Taish entries); Tan-luan records
that Vasubandhu lived during the semblance teaching of the Tathgata kyamuni (T
#1819, 40.827a); Chih-i records the Bodhisattva Avaghoa in the sixth century and
Ngrjuna in the seventh century [after the Buddha] (T #1705, 33.285b). See the Mah-
my-stra (Mo ho mo yeh ching, translation attributed to end of fth century), which reports
that Avaghoa will appear six hundred years after the Buddha, when the ninety-six heretical
paths and false views compete in the destruction of the Buddha-dharma, but Ngrjuna will
appear one-hundred years after, lighting the torch of the true teaching (T #383, 12.1013c,
attested by Chi-tsang, T #1824, 42.18b, T #1827, 42.233a, and T #1852, 45.6b). In his commen-
tary on the Po lun (atakastra) Chi-tsang also notes that the sutras and biographies do not
agree about the dating of Ngrjuna, listing among his sources the Preface to the Satyasiddhi
of Seng-jui, which gives 350 years after the Buddha or the end of the true teaching as the
time of Avaghoa, and 530 or the end of the semblance teaching for Ngrjuna; the Fa pu
ti hsin yin yan of Emperor Wu of the Liang, which gives the time of the true teaching for the
time of Avaghoa and the semblance teaching for Ngrjuna; and the Mahmy-stra as
described above (T #1827, 42.233ab, translated in Robinson, Early Mdhyamika, 23; cf. Ta
sheng hsan lun, T #1853, 45.72b). Chi-tsang also mentions the three periods of true, sem-
blance, and nal teachings in the Shih erh men lun shu, T #1825, 42.179b; see also tienne
Lamotte, The Teaching of Vimalakrti (translated by Sara Boin; London: Routledge & K. Paul,
1976), XCIVXCVII; Chappell, Early Forebodings 3739.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 67

Indigenous Scriptures

We have seen that the writers of the Mahayana scriptures appropri-


ated the notion of the decline of the true teaching (and possibly the idea of
the counterfeit teaching) to their own scriptural agenda and began to pro-
duce sutras that self-consciously spoke to the decline trope. The Chinese also
incorporated the idea of the decline into texts depicting the particularity of
their situation in order to present their ideology of salvation for such a situa-
tion.36 In addition to the simple fact of producing whole-cloth buddha-
vacana, there is, indeed, much in the Chinese approach that parallels
Mahayana sutra production. For example, the texts are often associated with
an underground tradition,37 that as Michel Strickmann has noted, consti-
tutes a pristine tradition that has not been deformed or distorted by long
prior transmission among men both close to the thought of the Founder
and particularly suitable for contemporary conditions.38 Like their Indian
and Taoist counterparts, indigenous Chinese scriptures anticipate the hostil-
ity of the entrenched orthodoxy, predicting the misfortune of those who
would slander their message and the great merit of those who uphold it. It is

36 This is a vast topic that is only just beginning to make a substantial impact on our under-

standing of Chinese Buddhism. For more information I refer the reader to the standard
works on indigenous Chinese scriptures: the doyen of apocryphal studies, Yabuki Keiki, pub-
lished many of the earliest studies of Chinese apocrypha, including his Sangaiky no kenky;
Meisha yoin (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1930); Meisha yoin kaisetsu (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten,
1933); Shina Bukkyshi to genzon giky, Shky kenky, special volume, Gendai Bukky
no kenky, 1931. See also Makita Tairys ,V epochal Giky kenky (Kyoto:
Jinbun kagaku kenkyjo, 1976); for a discussion of the recent discoveries at Nanatsu-dera,
including the oldest extanct Chinese apocrypha and texts of the San-chieih-chiao, see Ochiai
Toshinori, The Manuscripts of Nanatsu-dera; many important studies can be found in R. E.
Buswell, Jr., ed., Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha; for stimulating and provocative comments and
resources dealing with apocrypha and eschatology see especially Michel Strickmann, The
Consecration Stra; see also Kamata Shigeo, Chgoku Bukkyshi vol. 2 (Tokyo: Tokyo
University Press, 1983), 169273; Antonino Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China
at the End of the Seventh Century (Naples: Istuto Universitario Orientale, 1976); and Zrcher,
Prince Moonlight.
37 For example, the bodhisattvas springing up from the ground in the Lotus (which Minoru

Kiyota used to liken to underground cells of revolutionaries), the entrusting of the


Mahayana scriptures to the nga kings, the tradition that the Mahparinirva-stra will van-
ish into the earth, and Tibetan gter-ma. Among the Chinese scriptures that pick up this
theme we can cite the Fa mieh chin ching, which predicts that the teaching will nally disap-
pear when all the texts vanish into the earth (T #396); we can also note that Ching-wan, who
carved the entire canon in stone in order to protect it, literally buried the canon underground
in a cave and left a message at the entrance that the cave contained a copy of the Nirvana
Sutra to be removed after the Buddhas teaching disappeared (see below, 7172).
38 Strickmann, The Consecration Stra, 89.
68 / decline as doctrine

perhaps this same association that renders the nal words of the Buddha
such an obvious inspiration for apocrypha, reected in the many texts of the
nieh pan (nirvana) tradition.
The discovery of so many lost apocrypha at Tun-huang that include strong
eschatological belief indicates as perhaps nothing else just how prevalent
these ideas were, and, indeed, their going underground served to safeguard
them for our later agea subterranean spring of symbolic resources.39
Among the best known of these texts we can count the Hsiang fa cheh i
ching quoted above, a text widely cited by the most inuential Buddhist
writers of the Northern Dyanasties, the Sui, and early Tang. Another text
discovered at Tun-huang that was particularly inuential in the formulation
of Hui-ssus ideas about the decline of the dharma (discussed below) was the
Miao sheng ching ting U, a text that similarly catalogs the bickering
and worldliness of the sangha, the laitys loss of respect, social disruption,
and eventual chaos and upheaval.40 The exhortation of this text, as with so
many of this period, is to leave society behind for the deserted mountains
and forests, where an increased rigor in meditation, repentance, and puri-
cation practices will yet enable advance. In spite of the many advances and
new research in the eld of indigenous scriptures, much more work is need-
ed before a comprehensive and detailed history of the Chinese interest in
and development of the decline tradition can be attempted. What is undeni-
able, however, is just how common this interest was.

Systematization:
the decline is now

All those who toil through the plethora of Buddhist texts, concepts,
and dating schemes relating the decline of the teachings can well appreciate
the similar task faced by the Chinese some fteen hundred years ago, and it
is to this labor that we owe the well-known scheme of the three periods of
the teaching.41 If we are looking for a motive for the creation of the tripartite

39 OLeary, Arguing the Apocalypse, 55.


40 On the Hsiang fa cheh i ching see note 28 above; the Miao sheng ching ting was listed in
the Kai yan lu as an apocryphal text, Tripitaka Koreana #1062, 31.1237a; for a study of the
Miao sheng ching ting see Sekiguchi Shindai, Tendai shikan no kenky (Tokyo: Iwanami
Shoten, 1969), 379402.
41 Chi-tsang is among the eminent scholars of this period who gathered materials on the

traditions of decline in his Chung kuan lun shu, including a reference to a scheme from the
Ku nieh pan ching system of true teaching, 1,000 years, semblance teaching, 1,000 years, and
nal teaching, 10,000 years (T #1824, 42.18ac, T #1852, 45.6b); for other references see Fei
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 69

scheme, we should probably begin with the simple need for harmonizing (or
at least making sense of) the various schemes that presented themselves in
translated texts, exactly the same need that fueled the great systematization
of the pan chiao systems. Indeed, it is my contention that the various systems
of organizing the teachings along a continuum of decline should be seen as
but another variant of pan chiao, including the polemic and/or apologetic
hermeneutics of such organizing schemes. That is to say, in the Indian pro-
duction stage of the decline tradition, we are dealing with disparate units of
oral and literary tradition deployed in a polemic fashion and not with a
coherent or systematized doctrine of decline. In China, however, things
change. As with so many other discrete tropes, texts, and individual teachers
from the Indian tradition, in China the disparate units of the decline tradi-
tion were combined and organized until they coalesced and came to be
thought of as a coherent system or doctrine of decline. Nonetheless, perhaps
the most important thing to keep in mind is that it is not the tripartite sys-
tem per se that is importantindeed, as I argue in Chapter Four, I doubt
that this particular system was nearly as widely accepted during the Sui and
Tang as we have come to think, and even the Three Levels movement was
not based on the system of the three periods of the dharma. If not the tripar-
tite system itself, what, then, is important? It is simply that the combining of
the discrete tropes of the polemic of decline into a doctrine of decline elicited
a response that, while not precluding the earlier impulse to conservation and
preservation, often demanded entirely new systems of doctrine and practice.
It is this imperative (or license) to respond that is new and different in both
China and Japan.
Although by no means the only or even the most important systematiza-
tion of the decline teaching, the rst scheme of three periods of the dharma
is attributed to Hui-ssu (515577), the second patriarch of the Tien-tai
school, in the Nan yeh ssu ta chan shih li shih yan wen.42 He is also among

Chang-fang, T #2034, 49.23a; Tao-shih, in his encyclopedic Fa yan chu lin (688), lists over
fteen sources of the decline tradition, T #2122, 53.1005a1013a; Wonchuk (613696), in his
commentary on the Jen wan ching, organizes the material in terms of the three periods of the
teaching (T #1708 33.425b426b); Ching-ying Hui-yan (523592) also lists the three stages of
true (500 years), semblance (1000 years), and nal (10,000 years) in his Wu liang shou ching i
shu (T #1745, 37.116a), as does Chih-pan (12581269) in his Fo tsu tung chi (T #2035, 49.299b ff).
42 T #1933, 46.786b ff. (compiled 558). The authorship of this work has been the subject of
some controversy since Etani Rykai Nw rst raised questions in Nangaku Eshi no ris-
sei ganmon wa gisaku ka uCXkv6Q, Indogaku Bukkygaku kenky 6/2
(1958): 52427; see also Paul Magnin, La vie et loeuvre de Huisi (515577), (Paris: EFEO,
1979), 10417; more recently Wakae Kenz has argued anew the authenticity of Hui-ssus
authorship in Chgoku ni okeru shzmatsusanji no nendaikan, Ty Tetsugaku Kenkyjo
kiy 5 (1989): 123.
70 / decline as doctrine

the earliest advocates of the arrival of the latter age of decay. Apparently
inuenced by his personal experience of the turmoil in Northern China and
the corruption of his fellow monks43 (as well, of course, as the many scrip-
tural traditions of decline), Hui-ssu set forth a system of the duration of the
teaching as follows: true teaching, ve hundred years; semblance teaching,
one thousand years; nal teaching, ten thousand years.44 Hui-ssu conceived
the nal period of the dharma (mo fa) to have begun in a.d. 433 (434)45 and
so calculated that it would last until a.d. 10433.46 Thus, in relating the events
of his life in the Nan yeh ssu ta chan shih li shih yan wen, Hui-ssu always
prefaced the entry with the date and year of the mo fa period that it related
to, for example: At age 43, the 124th year of the mo fa era, in the state of
Nan-ting. 47 This text is signicant not only for the tripartite system that it
bequeathed to future generations and the strong sense that the decline pre-
dicted in the textually embodied community of discourse founded in the

43 His beliefs were no doubt influenced by the repeated attempts made on his life at the

hands of religious rivals; cf. T #1933, 46.787b.


44 T #1933, 46.786c. The source of his tripartite scheme, as well as the source of his strong

belief in the immanence of the decline, remains unclear, as the texts that are usually mentioned
in connection with this theory, the Ji tsang fen and the Yeh tsang fen, were not translated
until some years after Hui-ssu wrote his Nan yeh ssu ta chan shih li shih yan wen. Yamada
has argued the possibility that Hui-ssu was on familiar terms with Narendrayaas, the transla-
tor of the texts, who arrived in the capital city of Ye in 556 (Yamada, Mapp shis ni tsuite,
55) but still, neither of these texts puts forth a three-period theory of mo fa. Nattier has dis-
missed the possibility of a meeting between Hui-ssu and Narendrayaas as merely hypotheti-
cal (Once Upon a Future Time, 11017), although another text attributed to Hui-ssu, the Chu
fa wu cheng san mei fa men, cites the Ta chi ching (perhaps corresponding to the extant Ta chi
ching, T #397, 13.236b, translated by Narendrayaas) regarding the Buddhas prophecy to King
Bimbisra about evil monks who will appear in the future (T #1923, 46.638c), which Wakae
takes as proof that Hui-ssu did in fact see the Ta chi ching (if not actually meet with
Narendrayaas). The Miao sheng ching ting mentioned a few pages above is an indigenous
scripture centrally concerned with monastic corruption, social chaos, and the demise of the
Buddha-dharma that had a great influence on Hui-ssu; see Sekiguchi, Tendai shikan no
kenky. For further biography of Hui-ssu see also Leon Hurvitz, Chih-i (538597): An
Introduction to the Life and Ideas of a Chinese Buddhist Monk, Mlanges chinois et bouddhiques
12 (196062): 8699; and Magnin, La vie et loeuvre de Huisi.
45 Wakae, Chgoku ni okeru shzmatsusanji no nendaikan, 12.
T #1923, 46.786bc. Calculated from the date of the Buddhas parinirva, which Hui-ssu
46

gured to have been in 1068 b.c., thus making 1067 b.c. the rst year of the saddharma.
47 T #1923, 46.787b. During the period of mo fa Hui-ssu believed that one must work harder

than ever for emancipation, working tirelessly for the salvation of all sentient beings. Thus
the Nan yeh ssu ta chan shih li shih yan wen contains a long series of vows in which he
pledges to work for the salvation of all living beings (e.g., T #1923, 46.787c, 790c, etc.). See also
his biography in the Hs kao seng chuan, T #2060, 50.562c, In my heart I said to myself that
in akas nal teaching I have received the teaching of the Lotus.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 71

accepted canon is here and now, but also for its invention of the ten thou-
sandyear nal period of the teachings. Given the all or everything con-
notation of the number ten thousand in the Chinese scheme of things (e.g.,
wan wu ] everything, or wan sui long life, forever) the use of
ten thousand years for the nal period once again clearly indicates that the
purport of the decline tradition is not a matter of lamenting the loss of the
teaching but rather its continued presence.
Certainly one of the most striking responses to the belief in the arrival of
the age of decline was the carving of the sutras on stone slabs to preserve
them through the long dark age.48 In 605 a disciple of Hui-ssu, Ching-wan
_ =, built the Yung-chu ssu at the foot of the Shih-ching hill,
approximately seventy-ve kilometers southwest of modern-day Beijing. He
then began the project of carving the entire Tripiika in stone. As his record
of 628 states:

The true teaching and the semblance teaching will last 1500 years. Now, this
2nd year of the Chen-kuan period (628) corresponds to the 75th year of the
period of the nal teaching. In the future, when the teachings of the Buddha
have been totally destroyed, may these sutras carved in stone appear and be
made known in the world.49

48 The impulse to preserve texts is limited to neither the past nor the Buddhist tradition, as

shown by the fund-raising project of Terrence Cunningham, a Unitarian who wants to build
a rocket ship to deposit an indestructible copy of the Holy Bible on the moon for safekeep-
ing to ensure that the Bible would be preserved against tampering or in case civilization is
destroyed on Earth from plagues, wars, or, in his words, acts of God, according to Chuck
Shepherd, News of the Weird, Valley Optimist, September 1420 (1995), 34. Buddhists, too,
continue their efforts, according to Sharon Salzberg, who noted that on one of her visits to
Burma, somebody took us to a place where they had donated a great deal of money to con-
struct an area for stone slabs on which the entire Tripitika (the original Buddhist canon) was
being engraved. It was like a graveyard, stone slab after stone slab, with people etching out
every word in order to preserve the dharma. On a deeper level the dharma is preserved only
through the realization of beings. Its not preserved as a body of knowledge but in the bud-
dhahood of each realized being, Tricycle 2/3(Spring 93), 22; note that her comments reflect
the orthopraxy over orthodoxy bias discussed in chapter 2.
49 Quoted in Michibata Rysh, Chgoku Bukkyshi (Kyoto: Hzkan, 1939), 104. Although

Ching-wan was not able to complete his task of carving the entire Tripitika, the project was
continued until the Ming dynasty, with a total of 1,031 texts in 3,474 chan carved on 15,143
separate stone slabs entombed as a precaution against the disappearance of the Buddha-dharma.
See Li Jung-hsi, The Stone Scriptures of Fang-shan, Eastern Buddhist 12/1 (1979), 104; and
Lewis R. Lancaster, The Rock Cut Canon in China: Findings at Fang-shan, in Tadeusz
Skorupski, ed., The Buddhist Heritage (Tring, U.K.: The Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1989);
see especially 15456 for an assessment of the value of this canon for Buddhist textual studies.
See also Kamata Shigeo, Chgoku Bukkyshi vol. 5 (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1994),
504510 for other examples of scriptures carved in stone.
72 / decline as doctrine

The staggering enormity of the task aside, these texts, as their purpose dic-
tated, now serve scholars as an unequalled source of information about the
Chinese canon, unadulterated by the interpolations and redactions of later
ages. Another monk of a slightly earlier date who felt the same impulse to
preserve the teaching in stone was Ling-y [ (518605). In 589 Ling-y
established a monastery atop Pao-shan and proceeded to carve a Buddha
image and to engrave the walls with sections from well-known sutras such as
the rmldev-stra, the Lotus Stra, and the Mahparinirva-stra. His
sense of foreboding is clearly indicated by the prominent position given the
chapter on the Destruction of the Teachings from the Yeh tsang fen.50

Tao-cho and the Decline of the Teaching

Most often cited in conjunction with the tradition of decline, of


course, are those who taught the Pure Land path, and it is also their use of
the tradition that is most consonant with Hsin-hsings teachings.51 The rst
Pure Land teacher to incorporate the doctrine of decline with his Pure Land
teachings was Tao-cho (562645), a Northern monk who possibly shared a
preceptual lineage with Hsin-hsing. Tao-cho used the vefold theory of the
Yeh tsang fen as well as the theory of the three periods in his teachings.52
Two of the several interpolations in Tao-chos version of the Yeh tsang fen

50 Michibata, Chgoku Bukkyshi, 106. After an on-site study of these caves, Tokiwa Daij

concluded that Hsin-hsing, if not an actual disciple of Ling-y, was at least in his doctrinal
lineage (Tokiwa Daij, Sangaiky no bodai toshite no Hzanji, 3556); see also chapter 1.
51 As with the tripartite scheme, however, we probably will need to adjust our dating of this

concern as well as the organizing schemes. Kenneth K. Tanaka, for example, in his study of
Ching-ying Hui-yan (523592), nds no evidence of concern for this eschatological doc-
trine of the Last Period of Dharma in the Commentary [on the Visualization Sutra], the Wu
liang shou ching i shu or Hui-yans other commentaries (Tanaka, The Dawn of Chinese Pure
Land Buddhist Doctrine [Albany: SUNY Press, 1990], 111); see also p. 43. Hui-yan is, however,
at least aware of the tripartite scheme of true, semblance, and nal teaching, as his commen-
tary Wu liang shou ching i shu shows (T #1745, 37.116a). The same lack of concern with the tri-
partite system and mo fa is also evident in Shan-taos works, where neither appear often.
52T #1958, 47.13c. According to the ve ve-hundreds timetable found in the Chapter on
Jambudvpa in the Yeh tsang fen, in the rst ve hundred years after the Buddhas nirvana
the understanding of the Buddha-dharma will remain strong; in the next ve hundred years
the practice of meditation will remain rm; in the next ve hundred years the monks will
remain strong in the reading and chanting of the sutras; in the fourth ve hundred year period
the practice of building stupas will remain rm; and in the nal ve hundred years the true
teaching will degenerate and only chaos and disharmony will remain rm (T #397, 13.363ab);
on Tao-cho and the decline of the dharma see David Chappell, Tao-cho (562645): A Pioneer
of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University 1976), esp. 138212.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 73

are particularly interesting for the light they shed on the apologetic purposes
of his use of the decline tradition. The rst is that to the fth 500 years he
has added the good teaching will faintly exist53 where the Yeh tsang fen
has simply in the last ve hundred years they will be quarrelsome and
contentious, causing the pure teaching to sink, and then only chaos and
destruction will remain rm.54 Although Kazue Kyichi has noted that this
sounds more like a description of the period of the semblance teaching than
of the nal teaching, when the true teaching is supposed to be totally
extinct,55 we must remember that the latter time (pacimakla) rarely (if
ever) meant a time of no teaching. We should rather see here the attempt to
integrate the ve ve-hundreds notion of a time in which the teaching is
completely gone with the notion of a latter time, in which things may be
tough, but the teaching is still available, as long as you know which teaching
is the appropriate teaching. Thus, in the Sutra on the Buddha of Immeasurable
Life, the Buddha states, In the future world the sutras will become extinct
but out of my compassion and pity I will cause this sutra [the Sutra on the
Buddha of Immeasurable Life] to remain for one hundred years. Living
beings who encounter this sutra will all be able to realize salvation in accor-
dance with their aspirations.56
The purpose of Tao-chos interpolations is even clearer in his redaction
of the fourth ve hundred years, where he has added the practice of merito-
rious confession to that of building stupas as appropriate practices for the
time. Tao-cho then comments: Reckoning the time of the present-day sen-
tient beings, the age in which they live corresponds to the fourth 500 years
after the Buddha left this world. Truly this is the period in which confession
and the cultivation of merits is none other than the calling of the Buddhas
name.57 This also echoes the Mahayana use of the decline tradition as a
rhetoric of legitimization for a particularly or even uniquely efcacious
teaching, explaining how the teachings of the Pure Land would still be viable
even in the nal age of the teaching.58
Although Tao-chos attempts to t the various periods of the teaching to
his own times and visions are interesting, for our purposes more important
than the actual division is the assertion of the fundamental folly of sentient

53 T #1958, 47.4b.
54 T #397, 13.363b.
55 Kazue Kyichi, Nihon no mapp shis (Tokyo: Kbundo, 1961), 123.
56 T #360, 12.279a.
57 T #1958, 47.4b.
58 See the An lo chi, T #1958, 47.5c and 47.18b for his contextualization of the three periods
of the dharma, the ve corruptions, the ve periods, and the like.
74 / decline as doctrine

beings and the rhetoric of doctrinal legitimization that frames Tao-chos


division of the Buddha-dharma, clearly echoing Hsin-hsings teachings. This
is unlike the earlier Mahayana polemic, which took its teachings to be par-
ticularly efcacious in the time of decline due to their superior truth value,
and also unlike the Hua-yen system of graded teachings or a Tibetan
siddhnta text. That is to say, it is not that the Pure Land teachings are
considered propositionally more sophisticated or true than any others,
taught in the pristine and uncompromised moment of the Buddhas initial
experience or culminating insight, but that they were practically or soterio-
logically more appropriate because more difcult teachings, taught to
bodhisattvas and beings of superior capacity, could not guarantee salvation
for the degenerate beings of the current age. Thus Tao-cho stated that, if
the teaching is appropriate [lit. attends fu ?] to the time and capacity the
practice is easy and understanding is easy. If the capacity, teaching, and time
are opposed then practice is difcult and entrance is difcult.59

Summary

Although the terms, level of interest, and systematization differ


from one text to the next and from one monk to the next, the great impact
of the Indian rhetoric of decline in the already apocalyptically inclined
Chinese context is undeniable. The similarity of content, literary form, and
polemic intent is striking, although the millennial and messianic currents of
the indigenous traditions were largely lacking in the Indian Buddhist texts.
At the same time that these native currents had a huge impact on the
Buddhist teachings (transforming Maitreya from a Buddha of the impossibly
distant future into a messianic beacon of revolutionary fervor), the rhetoric
of decline as a polemic of orthodoxy also began a slow evolution. Though
the decline of the Buddhas teachings was originally conceived neither as a
doctrinal tenet nor as an issue of religious or social practice, the Chinese, as
consumers of this rhetoric of orthodoxy clothed in the language of decline
and argued in the form of prophecy, took it to be buddhavacana and thus
could not help but try to understand its place in the overall scheme of
Buddhist doctrine. Thus, outside the polemic or rhetorical context of its
birth, the idea of decline did become a specic doctrinal tenet, demanding
the same attempts at organization and systematization within the totality of
the received scriptural tradition as did other doctrineshence the various
organizational schemes, including the three periods of true teaching, sem-

59 T #1958. 47.4a; for a comparison of other Sui-Tang responses to the doctrine of the

destruction of the teachings see David Chappell, Tao-cho, 20012.


absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 75

blance teaching, and nal teaching. Doing the math on the chronological
tables, Chinese Buddhists also came to believe that the predicted age had
arrived. At the same time, however, the import of the apologetic or polemic
rhetoric was not lost on the Chinese. Drawing from the Mahayana tradition
that allowed the full presence of the truth of the teaching even during the
so-called time when the saddharma is in the process of decay (or at least
particular expressions of that full presence) together with the equally powerful
rhetoric of the skill in means of the Buddha as teacher, the decline tradition
opened the door for new interpretations and practices that would be properly
suited for degenerate sentient beings not capable of practicing the difcult
path of the Buddhas. That is to say, it became a measure by which to inter-
pret the multitude of scriptures and provided a pragmatic or soteriological
rationale for so doing. Thus the rhetoric of orthodoxy and decline combined
with the rhetoric of upya to allow, or even demand, new horizons of reli-
gious doctrine and institution. Let us now turn, then, to the San-chieh-chiao
vision of those horizons.
4.
Hsin-hsing: Decline as Human Nature

W ithout question the corrupted capacity of sentient beings


for religious practice and realization is the single most important theme in
Hsin-hsings doctrine and practice. Hsin-hsing was born in 540 and began
his spiritual quest at a young age, about the same time as Emperor Wu
began his wholesale persecution of Buddhism and Hui-ssu composed the
Nan yeh ssu ta chan shih li shih yan wen stating his strong belief that the
age of decline had arrived. No doubt the same conditions that motivated
Hui-ssu, in combination with scriptural predictions and warnings, prompted
Hsin-hsing to formulate his division of sentient beings into three levels
according to their capacity for practice and realization. As Wei Shu yo
wrote in the eighth century, [Hsin-hsing] said that there are three grades
(san teng Xf) of people: the wise, the stupid, and those in-between (the
ordinary). Because of these teachings it is called the Three Levels (san chieh
X).1 Hsin-hsing believed that the living beings of his world were prima-
rily of the third level, which is to say ensnared by perverted views and hence
incapable of achieving a correct understanding of the Buddha-dharma.
Although the powerful implications of the decline tradition were equally evi-
dent to some of Hsin-hsings contemporaries, notably the preachers of the
Pure Land path such as Tao-cho and Shan-tao, we shall see that the means
by which Hsin-hsing felt one could achieve liberation were diametrically
opposed to those espoused by the followers of the Pure Land path.

The Three Levels and Mo fa

As mentioned above, Hsin-hsings three levels were primarily based


on divisions of human capacity, divisions that do not really correspond to
the three periods of the true, semblance, and nal dharma as described by
Hui-ssu and other Buddhist thinkers. The three levels of the San-chieh-
chiao correspond more to humankinds capacity or potential than to three

1 Wei Shu, Liang ching hsin chi (8th century), in the Pai pu tsung shu (Taipei: I wen yin shu

kuan, 19651971), chuan 3, p. 14.

76
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 77

stages of time or the dharmas persistence. Still, a conformity between the


three periods and the three levels and particularly between the third level
and mo fa, the third and nal period of the dharma, has been assumed by
virtually all who have written on the subject of mo fa or the San-chieh move-
ment (including me).2 Because this correspondence would indicate the
widespread diffusion of the concept of mo fa and the three periods during
the Sui and early Tang, numerous studies have further used it as a reference
for the dating of texts, authors, and other traditions (including, for example,
the writing of Hui-ssu described in chapter 3). Recently, however, I studied
the extant texts of the Three Levels movement more thoroughly and discov-
ered, rather to my chagrin, that mo fa barely gures in them at all, and the
three periods of the dharma not at all. The three levels have nothing to do
with the three periods!3 Separating the levels of Hsin-hsings teachings
from the chronological periods of the dharma is thus important in under-
standing the more existential thrust of his understanding of the rhetoric of
decline.
What do I mean when I claim that mo fa barely gures at all in Hsin-
hsings writings? When we search through the extant texts attributed to him
or his followers, amounting to nearly two hundred thousand Chinese char-
acters (roughly equivalent to some one hundred and twenty pages of the
printed Taish canon), we nd only nine occurrences of the term and not a
single usage in the context of the last or nal of three periods or stages of the
dharmas decline. Indeed, there is only one occurrence that even links mo fa
to the third level (in the San chieh fo fa mi chi, a later commentary), and,
interestingly, this sole linkage to sentient beings of the third level is in the
context of those with the capacity of the rst level recognizing the evil of
those of the third level, indicating that both can exist at the same time, which
would be impossible, of course, if the three levels described a strictly chrono-
logical decline.4 As a further indication that the three levels are not linked to
the three periods of the dharma, the other two terms of the three-period sys-
tematization, cheng fa (saddharma) and hsiang fa (saddharma-pratirpaka),

2 For example, in the title of my dissertation, Salvation in the Final Period of the Dharma:

The Inexhaustible Storehouse of the San-chieh-chiao; see also pp. 2, 3, 59, passim; Yabuki,
Sangaiky, 283382.
3 The textual details of my argument can be found in Hubbard, Mo fa, the Three Levels

Movement, and the Theory of the Three Periods, Journal of the International Association of
Buddhist Studies 19/1 (1996): 117. I have also investigated the text of the Chih fa, a manual of
monastic regulations written by Hsin-hsing, which also contains one instance of the term mo
fa (Nishimoto, Sangaiky, p. 597), but its usage is no different from the few other San-chieh
uses of mo fa and does not affect my conclusions.
4 San chieh fo fa mi chi, 95; cf. Hubbard, Mo fa, the Three Levels Movement, 10.
78 / decline as human nature

never appear together with mo fa in the extant texts.5 Finally, none of the
uses of mo fa in these texts assigns it a specic duration, much less the ten
thousand years that is the hallmark of East Asian mo fa teaching. With
regard to Hsin-hsings use of mo fa, then, we nd that it:
does not indicate any awareness of a prior or commonly used three-part
timetable of the dharmas decline;
is not used in the San-chieh texts as part of such a three-part timetable of
decline;
is not used in conjunction with saddharma or saddharma-pratirpaka, the
other two components of the three-period scheme;6
is never used in the San-chieh texts with any timetable of specic duration
or to denote a specic term of the dharmas duration/decline;7
is not used to create a new three-part timetable or schema;
is not even used to identify its own third level, with the single exception of
the later commentarial work, the San chieh fo fa mi chi.
We must conclude, therefore, that the levels of the Three Levels are not
based on or even related to the tripartite scheme, in spite of the similarity of
name and the three periods having been systematized in Northern China at
roughly the same time as Hsin-hsings movement took shape. This in turn
has a number of implications for our study and understanding of the devel-
opment of this important doctrine, rst and foremost of which is simply
that in the late sixth century the system of the three periods of the dharma
was not as widely accepted as scholars previously thought, perhaps not widely
known at all. Hence, the dating of the widespread acceptance of this system
even in China should be reconsidered. Inasmuch as the dating of many

5 Similarly, though the term hsiang fa appears some thirty-four times in San-chieh texts,

only two are in the context of the two periods of cheng fa and hsiang fa.
6 Not only do they not appear together, but, like mo fa, these terms are virtually never used

with regard to specic time-spans for the duration of the dharma. Hsiang fa, for example,
occurs almost exclusively within the title of the Hsiang fa cheh i ching, its derivative text, the
Fo shuo shih so fan che y chieh fa ching ching, or referring to the Lotus Sutra chapter on the
Bodhisattva Sadparibhta, and only once with an accompanying duration (Hsin-hsing kou
chi chen ju shih kuan chi hsu =ST [Stein #212; Giles #5858; Pao-tsang
2.276a280a; in Yabuki Keiki, Sangaiky no kenky. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1974 reprint],
198). This ts very well with Jan Nattiers conclusions about the Indian usage of hsiang fa and
mo fa (or the latters variant mo shih); see Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 95110.
7 I have also not found any example of a specic duration for the third level: although there
are several different times given to mark the beginning of the time when sentient beings with
the capacity of the third level will dominate, there is nothing to indicate that this is a period
of xed duration. Also (and tellingly in a search for indications of the three-period scheme),
there is no use of the 10,000-year motif.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 79

translations (e.g., those of Narendrayaas), indigenous scriptures (e.g., the


Hsiang fa cheh i ching), and historical gures and their writings (e.g., Hui-
ssu) are often tied to dating the advent of this scheme, much of this, too, will
need to be rethought if my conclusions are correct.
How, then, is mo fa used in the San-chieh texts? According to the texts
cited (the Lotus Sutra, Nirvana Sutra, and Daacakra Sutra), mo fa is used
not to refer to a particular period in a formal system of time periods but to
mean simply the after years, the time following the Buddhas nal nirvana,
e.g., after the Buddha has left the world the preachers of the latter dharma
(mo fa fa shih =) will explain many teachings.8 In other words, mo fa
= is a cognate for mo shih = or hou shih 9. It is important to
remember, however, that although mo fa is not used as part of a three-
period scheme of the dharmas decline, the latter age, after the Tathgatas
extinction, whether called mo fa, mo shih, or hou shih, is nonetheless
rhetorically envisioned as the time of the destruction of the true dharma
(Chin. fa mieh n; Skt. saddharmavipralope vartamne).9 In other words, I
am not denying the connotative resonance of Hsin-hsings usage of mo fa
(or mo shih) as latter dharma with mo fa as the nal dharma of three
periods of the dharma vis--vis the destruction of the dharma, but more
simply the presence of this latter schemeand its sense of temporal peri-
odizationwithin the texts of the Three Levels movement.
If the three levels are focussed on the rhetoric of decline but not theoreti-
cally concerned with the specic time spans of the three periods, what then
are they concerned with? Two themes dominate the discussion of the three
levels: (1) capacity (ken chi n), the fundamental determinant of the dif-
ferent levels; and (2) the teachings appropriate to each level or capacity, i.e.,
the Buddha-dharma of the rst level, the Buddha-dharma of the second
level, and, most importantly, the Buddha-dharma of the third level (ti
san chieh fo fa XM). Because the differing levels of capacity deter-
mine the appropriate teachings, in a sense the teachings are dependent on
the capacity, and the idea of the teachings appropriate to the capacity is
also related to the sense of legitimization found in the Mahayana use of
the decline motif. Because, however, the Lotus Sutra and the like did not
proclaim the actual advent of the time of decline, the reasoning is quite
different.

8 Abridged Explanation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 159.


9 See, for example, T #262, 9.38c: In the latter nal age, at the time when the dharma is
about to perish 9=n; see chapter 2, note 44.
80 / decline as human nature

The First Level

The rst level corresponds to that of the living beings who have the
capacity for the teachings of the Ekayna, the one vehicle. Because Hsin-
hsings emphasis was on potential for realization rather than a strictly
dened chronological schema and because the most important part of Hsin-
hsings teaching was that of the third level, we nd little discussion in the
extant texts regarding the time of the rst level. Rather, most references to
temporal divisions are indirect and refer rather to the extinction of sentient
beings with the capacity for correct views. For example, the following pas-
sages give completely different times for each of the levels:

By way of these various illustrations it should be known that all of the sages
and living beings with good roots for the true, the virtuous, and correct views
will be completely extinguished either [a] after the Buddhas extinction, or [b]
ve hundred years after the Buddhas extinction, or [c] one thousand years
after the Buddhas extinction.10
There are three time divisions. When the Buddha is in the world the Buddha
himself maintains and upholds the Buddha-dharma; this level is determined as
the First Level.11
All of the Buddha-dharma of the rst level belongs to the rst 500 years
after the Buddhas nal enlightenment.12
The time when persons of correct views will appear in the world is while the
Buddha is in the world and within 1500 years after his nirvana.13

Generally, however, the distinction is not temporal but between the


appearance in the world of beings with the capacity for correct views and
everything subsequent; as seen above, this places the emphasis on the capacity
of sentient beings, especially the capacity of those in the deled world in
which Hsin-hsing believed he lived. Nishimoto Teruma has recently argued
that even this adaptation of the levels to a temporal scheme is a development
of the later San-chieh tradition, not evidenced in the earlier writings, which
were more strictly concerned with level as capacity.14 Considering the diversity

10 San chieh fo fa, 303.


11 San chieh fo fa mi chi, 75.
12 San chieh fo fa, 302.
13 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 129; cf. Kimura Kiyotaka, Shingy no jikikan to
sono igi, Nippon Bukky gakkai nenp 49 (1982), 174.
14 Nishimoto Teruma, Sangaikytenseki ni okeru kai no yh, Indogaku Bukkygaku

kenky 40/2 (1992): 8689.


absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 81

of the sources regarding the various stages of the dharma as seen in chapters
2 and 3 and Hsin-hsings emphasis on the teachings and practice appropriate
to the capacity, the lack of concern with an actual time frame does not seem
odd. Usually, therefore, the time of the level of sages and sentient beings
with correct views is exible, lasting either 500 or 1000 years after the nir-
vana of the Buddha; more importantly, however, is the fact that it is dis-
cussed only in reference to the passing of such a time.
All beings of the rst level are said to have the capacity for the Ekayna
doctrines. Though some may transgress the precepts, all have the good roots
for correct views, clinging to neither the extreme view of existence nor to the
extreme view of emptiness:

It is taught that within the Buddha-dharma of the rst level are all bodhisattvas
who have the capacity for the Ekayna: sages (sheng jen ^) who have perfected
the correct views and possess all of the good roots for keeping both the pre-
cepts and the views; ordinary people (fan pu &) who have perfected the cor-
rect views and have all of the good roots [necessary] for the true and the virtu-
ous, and transgress neither the precepts nor the views; and ordinary people
who have perfected the correct views and have the good roots for not trans-
gressing the views [i.e., do not have false views] though they may go against the
precepts.15

The place of the rst level was conceived to be the Pure Land in which
there are no delements and the Ekayna doctrines are ceaselessly preached;
although there are Ekayna bodhisattvas, sages, and ordinary people, there
are no sravakas or pratyekabuddhas.

The place of the rst level is the world of the Ekayna, which is also called the
Pure Land or the World of the Store of Lotus Flowers. It is eternally pure and,
though buddhas and bodhisattvas dwell therein, there are no sravakas or
pratyekabuddhas.16

Interestingly enough, the place of practice is said to be quiet retreats in


mountains and forests as well as amidst the hustle and bustle of the cities:

15 San chieh fo fa, 26768. The two terms used within the San-chieh texts to denote capacity

or ability to receive and understand the dharma are ken chi n and li ken 2. Although the
latter term, translated as keen roots or good roots, usually includes a positive qualitative
nuance, within the San-chieh literature it is used simply to mean capacity, as seen in the
oft-used expression for the beings of the third level, those with the keen roots for the capacity
[for attachment] to the views of existence and emptiness.
16 San chieh fo fa mi chi, 75.
82 / decline as human nature

The second section claries the reasons that the places of liberation are not the
same for the three levels; this has three sections. The rst section concerns the
place from which the ordinary people and bodhisattvas of the rst level, who
have the capacity for the Ekayna, enter the path. Without question of city or
town, mountain or forest, in both the quiet and the confused, they gain the
path. Why is this? Because from the beginningless past they have studied the
universal practice.17

That is, for those of proper understanding and practice (universal prac-
tice), it is all right to either isolate oneself from others or to practice amid
the distractions of urban life because, as discussed in chapter 5, both meth-
ods partake equally of the ultimate truth of nonduality.

The Second Level

The teachings appropriate to the second level are those of the three
vehicles, the Triyna, because the beings of the second level are able to
understand and practice those specic doctrines. The duration of this level is
also listed as 500, 1000, or 1500 years, depending on the source, though this
level is frequently lumped together with the rst level in contrast to the third
level. This is best seen as reecting Hsin-hsings lack of concern with the tem-
poral, reinforcing the interpretation of level as more concerned with capac-
ity and teachings appropriate to that capacity than time periods. For example,

[The world of] one thousand ve hundred years after the Buddhas nal nir-
vana is determined to correspond to the second level, because there will be
sages and ordinary people with the good roots for the perfection of the correct
views who will maintain and uphold the Buddha-dharma.18
The level belonging to one thousand years after the Buddhas nal nirvana is
the Buddha-dharma of the second level.19

The place of the second level is the deled world (hui tu JF) with the
ve delements or impurities that appear in a degenerate age.

The place of the second and third levels is the same, that is, the world of the
Triyna. It is also called the world of the ve delements20 and various evils,

17 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 125.


18 San chieh fo fa mi chi, 75.
19 San chieh fo fa, 302.
20 The ve impurities that appear during a degenerate period: decay of kalpa, life span,
klea, di, and living beings.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 83

the Sah world, the world of blindness, the three worlds of the burning house
this is none other than [the world] of sentient beings with the [attachment to]
the view of emptiness and the view of existence. It is also called the world of the
ten evils and sentient beings [with the capacity for] the Triyna.21

As for the place of practice the Practice in Accord with the Capacity states:

The sentient beings of the Triyna capacity of the second level enter the path
only in quiet places and not in the cities and towns. Why is this? Because from
the time when they entered the Buddha-dharma onward they have always
studied [and cultivated] the roots for meditative calm; therefore they are only
able to develop the path in a quiet place.22

In other words, the meditative traditions of the Triyna require a calm


and quiet environment and are not suitable for the profane world of the
marketplace.
The beings of this level are those who have the good roots and capacity for
the Triyna, and, as in the rst level, though there may be those who break
the precepts, all have correct views.

It is taught that all within the Buddha-dharma of the second level are sentient
beings with the capacity for the Triyna: sages who have perfected correct views
and have all of the good roots [necessary] for transgressing neither the precepts
nor the views; ordinary people who have perfected the correct views and have
all of the good roots [necessary] for the true and the virtuous and transgress
neither the precepts nor the views; and ordinary people who, though they may
transgress the precepts, have perfected the correct views and have the good
roots for not transgressing the views.23
The second section claries the ranks of all of the sentient beings of good roots
within the second level of the Buddha-dharmathere are two types of sentient
beings. The rst is known to be of one kind, the same regardless of whether
they are ordinary people or sage, Mahayana or Hinayanaall are universally of
the one kind of sentient being that has perfected correct views and transgresses
neither the precepts nor the views. The second is known to be of one kind,
the same regardless of whether they are Mahayana or Hinayanaall are uni-
versally of the one kind of common sentient being that has perfected correct
views and though they may break the precepts do not transgress the views.24

21 San chieh fo fa mi chi, 75.


22 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 125.
23 San chieh fo fa, 268.
24 San chieh fo fa, 377.
84 / decline as human nature

The Third Level

The third level was the one with which Hsin-hsing was most con-
cerned. Usually conceived to have begun either 1000 or 1500 years after the
nirvana of the Buddha,25 in this level there are no longer any sages and all
sentient beings are degenerate and lack the capacity for either the Ekayna or
the Triyna. For Hsin-hsing this appears to have been an obvious fact, there-
fore the problem was not one of organizing a coherent chronological system
as proof but rather one of knowing how the weak and degenerate beings of
his day were to gain salvation. As Daigan and Alicia Matsunaga put it: The
chronology is not important, for the soteriological signicance of mapp
(mo-fa) lies in its subjective application to the individual.26
Thus we have the following differing statements regarding the time of the
third level:

The Buddha-dharma of the third level belongs to the period one thousand
years after the nal nirvana of the Buddha.27

One thousand ve-hundred years after the Buddhas nal nirvana the precepts,
meditation, and wisdom of sentient beings with the good roots for particular
understanding and particular practiceall [of their understandings] will be
completely false. This time corresponds to the third level.28

Sixteen hundred years after [the Buddhas nal nirvana] is the time when per-
sons of false views will appear in the world.29

Displaying Hsin-hsings penchant for quoting widely from textual


sources, the San chieh fo fa at one point quotes different timetables from the
Mahmy-stra, the Yeh tsang fen, the Fo tsang ching, and over ten other
works, all with regard to the level of lowered capacity.30 The San chieh fo fa
makes no attempt, however, to organize or systematize these timetables. The
awareness of differing chronologies for the levels of the dharma, the lack of
concern with the rst two levels, etc.all of this simply reinforces the thesis
that it was not scriptural timetables alone that gave rise to Hsin-hsings ideas.

25 San chieh fo fa, 263.


26Matsunaga, Alicia and Daigan Matsunaga, Foundations of Japanese Buddhism (Los
Angeles: Buddhist Books International, 1974), 222.
27 San chieh fo fa, 302.
28 San chieh fo fa mi chi, 7576.
29 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 129.
30 San chieh fo fa, 262 ff.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 85

What we see instead is a subtle shift to include a more existential notion of


the decline, or, to put it more precisely, the rhetoric of decline is driven by a
vision of human nature as debased, dissolute, contentious, and quarrelsome
rather than a conclusion on the basis of chronological mathematics.
The place of the third level was the same as that of the second level, i.e.,
the deled world, replete with the ve impurities that must have seemed so
much a part of the chaos that continuously rent the fabric of life in sixth-
century China.31 In line with this, the place of practice was in the cities and
towns, as opposed to the quiet forests and mountains. The reason for this is
the karmic relationships that exist among sentient beings living in urban set-
tings, all of whom embody the pure Buddha-nature:

The third item claries the place of liberation for the sentient beings of the
third level, [sentient beings that are attached] to the views of emptiness and
existence. They are able to attain [the path] only within the cities and towns
and not in the calm and quiet of the mountains or forests. Why is this? Because
from the beginningless past they have established the deepest [karmic] bonds
with the [beings who embody] the Tathagatagarbha Buddha, Buddha-nature
Buddha, and the Image Buddha; hence they will only attain [the path] in the
cities and towns and are not able to attain cultivation of the path in the moun-
tains and forests.32

Just as compassion cannot be cultivated in the absence of objects of enmity,


so too the central practice of universal respect (see chapters 1 and 5) cannot
be practiced without people, and Hsin-hsing admonished his disciple Seng-
yung for selshly practicing in the mountains, urging him to leave his
mountain retreat.33 Establishing the place where beings of the third level
enter the path as the cities and towns is also related to the institutional
locus of San-chieh practice in the mutual aid society of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse as well as that institutions cultic function as the headquarters of
the movement. It is also possible to see this emphasis on the urban milieu of
religious practice as an attack on the separation of monks from society or,
expressed more positively, an exhortation to return to a preceptual commu-
nity such as that envisioned by Tan-yao in the late fth century, an issue
that I explore in chapter 7. Equally possible, however, is that it simply repre-
sents an emphasis on the need for training within a community of fellow-

31 San chieh fo fa mi chi, 75.


32Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 125; see chapter 5 for a discussion of the Tathagata-
garbha Buddha and the Buddha-nature Buddha; I am as yet unsure of the use here of Image
Buddha (hsing hsiang fo M), a term used often in this text but not in the context of the
Four Buddhas of the Universal Dharma described in chapter 5.
33 T #2060, 50.584a.
86 / decline as human nature

practitioners as opposed to solitary practice in the seclusion of the forests


and mountains, a stress on the communal life of the meditation hall seen in
Hsin-hsings monastic regulations as well.34 Indeed, the importance of seek-
ing virtuous companions (shan chih shih 3F), and the value of fellow
practitioners (tung hsing che |) are constant refrains in Hsin-hsings
writing, indicative of his emphasis on the need for a supportive community
for the biased and undisciplined sentient beings of the third level, an empha-
sis elucidated more theoretically in his teaching of the continuous and
shared circuit of merit in the practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse.35 Of
course, the importance of the community of practitioners has long been rec-
ognized in Buddhist monasticism. Certainly in Chinese Buddhist history
Hsin-hsing is not the only one to have emphasized the benets of collective
practice, however, and Chih-i is but one example of a contemporary who
likewise wrote of the importance of fellow practitioners and the need of
the supportive community life for those of lower capacity.36 In a manner
strikingly similar to Hsin-hsing, for example, Chih-i wrote that,

The basic capacities are not all the same. Some attain the path by practicing
alone, while others attain liberation by relying on a community.37

Thus, Chih-i also recognized that the differing capacities required differ-
ent practices, and for the benet of those of inferior capacity he recom-
mended the support of communal practice.
The most important part of Hsin-hsings formulation of the three levels
lay in his estimation of the beings of the third level. Unlike the rst two lev-
els, there were no beings of the third level with correct views:

Within the rst two levels there are two types of sentient being, those who nei-
ther break the precepts nor have extreme views, and those who, though they
violate the precepts, do not harbor extreme views. Both types are capable of
realizing correct views. However, within the Buddha-dharma of the third level
there is only the one type of perverted sentient being who destroys the practice,

34 Chih fa, 58182, passim.


35 See chapter 7, 17376; see also Hsin-hsings testimonial, the Hsin-hsing i wen, 36.
36 Like Hsin-hsing, Chih-i also wrote of three types of virtuous companions who aided
ones practice: the fellow practitioner (tung hsing |), outside protector/attendant
(!), and teacher (*4); see the Mo ho chih kuan, T #1911, 46.43ab. On their support
role in Tien-tai samadhi and repentance practices see Stevenson, The Tien-tai Four
Forms, 7677. On Chih-is prescription of communal monastic practice for those of inferior
capacityinterestingly, those of the third and lowest of three levels of practitionersee
Stevenson, The Tien-tai Four Forms, 4044.
37 Li chih fa, T #1934, 46.793c; see Stevenson, The Tien-tai Four Forms, 44.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 87

smashes the essence, and completely destroys the precepts as well as holding
extreme views.38

It is interesting that the overwhelming majority of references to our


decayed capacity in the San-chieh literature refer to our lack of correct views,
our inability to discern truth from falsity, and our clinging to views of exis-
tence and emptiness. Strongly echoing the original concern for orthodoxy
and the rhetoric that ascribed the cause of the extinction of the Buddhas
teachings to a murderous dissension amongst the sangha, and no doubt pro-
pelled by the chaotic conditions of the sixth century, particularly in the tem-
ples and monasteries, Hsin-hsing taught that everybody in the third level
was ensnared by sectarian views and attachments to the extreme views of
existence and emptiness. The various names and characteristics of this
degenerate being are found throughout Hsin-hsings writings, and I will
quote here only a few representative examples:

The text of the Mahparinirva-stra39 explains that the worldly meaning


(shih chien erh i !) is taught for the sake of all of those within the
Buddha-dharma of the third level, all those sentient beings who have the good
roots to be aficted with the views of existence and emptiness, who have sev-
ered all virtuous roots, are all universally and entirely icchantika.40
1000 years after the Buddhas enlightenment all of the sages and persons of true
virtue and good roots for the realization of correct views have entirely disap-
peared, and only sentient beings with the good roots for attachment to the
views of existence and emptiness remain.41

Quoting from a wide variety of sutras, the San-chieh-chiao literature lists


many different names and descriptions of the evil beings of the third level,
e.g., the ninety-six classes of heretics, the sentient beings with worldly
roots, the twelve classes of sentient beings with upside-down views, etc.42
The most common characterization of the sentient beings of the third level,
however, is that they are beset by yu chien/kung chien (W), the views
of existence and emptiness, whereas the absence of these two heterodox
views describes the sentient beings of the rst and second levels. This is
interesting in light of the well-known fact that in the Kaccyanagotta-sutta
the two views that are considered extreme or heterodox are those of existence

38 From the San chieh fo fa, 33334.


39 T #374, 12.560bc.
40 San chieh fo fa, 257.
41 San chieh fo fa, 262.
42 E.g., San chieh fo fa, 33233.
88 / decline as human nature

(Pali, atthit, Ch., yu ) and nonexistence (Pali, natthit, Ch., wu yu [)


and the middle path between these two views is taught to be co-arising. The
Madhyamaka also adhered to this opinion, with the further qualication
that co-arising was equivalent to nya, which was of course not the same as
nonexistence or natthit, nor was emptiness ever considered one of the two
extreme views (though, of course, emptiness wrongly understood could be
deadly). Yet in Chinese texts (such as those of Chi-tsang and Hsin-hsing
among others) one often nds the two extreme views given as yu chien/kung
chien rather than yu chien/wu yu chien. We cannot think that at this late date
the technical term used for translating emptiness would be mistakenly used
in place of the term for nonexistence, as happened in much earlier transla-
tions and commentaries. How, then, did yu chien/kung chien come to serve
as the category for extreme views?
Is this perhaps the inuence of the Taoist two-fold mystery (chung
hsan b) exegesis that sought to go beyond not only attachment to being
and attachment to non-being, but ultimately to go beyond even that nonat-
tachment?43 Or could it perhaps be the inuence of a more simple, yet
equally Taoist-inspired attack on all views and all learning, that is, a critique
of the differentiation and discrimination of named or bounded realities
(namely, the rst chapter of the Tao te ching: the name that can be named is
not the true name) in favor of the unbounded and unnamed chaos of the
innite (the mysterious beyond mysterious) and an attendant denigration
of rationality and accumulative knowledge (views)?44 Or yet again an
inuence of Chih-is teaching of the middle between the two truths of
(impermanent) existence and emptiness? Both a properly textual study of
this issue as well as a comparative philosophical study would no doubt be
quite interesting. Another interesting endeavour would be to contextualize
Hsin-hsings understanding of extreme views as the root problem in terms
of the traditional understanding of the extreme views (the second of the ve
wrong views, pacadi), eliminated through the path of insight (darana-
mrga), and the pacaklea (greed, anger, stupidity, annoyance, and doubt),
eliminated subsequently through the path of cultivation (bhvan-mrga).45
In any case, the overall impression that one gets while working through

43 See Robert H. Sharf, The Treasure Store Treatise (Pao-tsang lun) and the Sinication of

Buddhism in Eighth Century China, Ph.D. dissertation (University of Michigan, 1991),


3460 and 186190.
44 The rst chapter of the Tao te ching is also the source of the twofold mystery; see also

chapter 48 on subtracting and yet subtracting in order to reach the Tao.


45For a discussion of these hindrances in the East Asian context, see Charles Muller,
Wnhyos Doctrine of the Two Hindrances (Ijangui ), http://www.human.toyo-
gakuen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/ijangui/AAR1998-sjis.htm.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 89

Hsin-hsings writings is that the primary characteristics of the third level are
bias, partiality, and the prejudice inherent in doctrinal squabbling. As we
shall see in chapters 5 and 6, the antidote to all such partiality is the univer-
sality of the nondual truth of all phenomena and the universality of the
Buddha-nature in all sentient beings.
This bias that is the root problem is claried in an interesting fashion in
what appears to be the one exception to the overwhelming preponderance of
sentient beings of the third level aficted with the views of existence and
emptiness. The San chieh fo fa opens with the following lines:

Within the Buddha-dharma of the third level, all of the sentient beings of good
roots are entirely and universally all of those sentient beings with the good
roots for the [attachment to the] views of existence and emptiness, only
excluding all the sentient beings of the dullest faculties, [that is to say,] the two
kinds of monks who are like mute sheep.46

Who are these monks, these monks not aficted with the views of exis-
tence and emptiness? They are monks who are completely dull and obtuse,
representing a congregation described as being like mute sheepsilent,
docile, unassuming, and without ambition of any sort.47 Of particular note
is that, according to other writings of Hsin-hsing, they are also none other
than those who are qualied to be kalynamitra, the virtuous friends or spir-
itual companions of the third-level capacity sentient beings, and they are
also the monks who are to lead the monastic congregation. What sort of
spiritual companion or monastic leader is to be found in this congregation
of mute sheep monks (ya yang seng chung L), and how are they dif-
ferent from other sentient beings of the third level?

The Congregation of Mute Sheep Monks

As noted above, the supportive community of practitioners was of


particular importance for Hsin-hsing. Categorized as both fellow practi-
tioners and virtuous companions, Hsin-hsing himself wrote in a testimo-
nial document of his search for kalynamitra, lamenting his dull faculties
and noting that by age forty-eight he had been able to nd only four people

46 San chieh fo fa, 257.


47 The scriptural source for the mute sheep monks is the Daacakra Sutra (Shih lun
ching), oft-quoted in Hsin-hsings writings. According to the Daacakra Sutra mute sheep
monks do not even know what an offense is, they cannot tell if they have committed an
offense or not, whether something is a serious or a light matter, what is good or evil, that they
should fear sin, and the like; cf. T #410, 703ab.
90 / decline as human nature

whom he could truly call his good or virtuous companions.48 His manual of
monastic regulations also reects the concern for collective practice and
communal life made up of fellow practitioners and virtuous friends, and
both the theory and organization of the Inexhaustible Storehouse depend
upon this community. Indeed, seeking virtuous companions is the nal of
seven items describing the appropriate path for each of the three levels of
sentient being taught in the Practice in Accord with the Capacity, and it is
here that we nd the description of the two types of monks who are like
mute sheep:

The seventh item claries the exhaustive seeking of virtuous companions; there
are three [sorts of people who can be considered virtuous companions]. The
rst is the monk who is like a mute sheep, understanding neither text nor
meaning. The second is the monk like a mute sheep who may understand the
text but does not understand the meaning. How is one to know these two types
of virtuous companions, [these two types of] monks who are like mute sheep?
It is necessary to investigate according to the teachings to determine whether [a
person] is or is not [one of these two types of virtuous companion]. Within
this there are six characteristic [traits].
1. From birth they are peaceful of nature in the three karmic acts [of body,
speech, and mind]; they never think to get angry with others or strike
another, or even to dislike another.
2. By nature they are self-effacing; if a householder he would never become
the family head or [seek ofce as a] government ofcial.49
3. By nature they are fearful of committing sin and refrain from the ten evil
actions and do not break the precepts.
4. From the time that they enter the sangha it is their nature to keep the pre-
cepts and avoid sin.
5. From the time that they enter the sangha it is their nature to be self-effacing
and not think to become prefect or the monk in charge of the teachings.
6. They delight in the practice of the twelve dhta and always are happy to
receive inferior and bad things.
If they are complete in all six aspects from birth until they enter the sangha,
then, together with the community they can be relied on as virtuous compan-
ions. If, having broken a precept, they are lled with remorse and do not try to
cover it up; if, though committing an infraction of the rules in the end they do
not commit the offense a second time and their other practices are as above
such a person may also be counted on as a virtuous companion.

48 Hsin-hsing i wen, 5; see above, chapter 1, p. 9.


49 Emending to 4.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 91

The third person who can be considered a virtuous companion along the
renunciant path is the one who, among those of good roots, has thoroughly
studied the seven teachings and the six teachings in accord with the capacity,
and, in the same way as the above-described monks that are like mute sheep,
thoroughly fears committing offense.50
Again, it is claried that studying with a virtuous companion and thoroughly
cultivating the same practices [as they do] for the rst time enables the fellow-
ship of the congregation and the practice of the path in mutual support of one
another.51

These characteristics of the monk who is like a mute sheepfearful of


breaking the precepts, self-effacing, and not striving for position either in
private, public, or monastic life, not wanting to offend others and avoiding
conict, humble and content with the inferior, striving diligently and culti-
vating the dhta practices, and, most importantly, unable to understand
either the text or, if perchance able to understand the text, not able to under-
stand the meaningare also described in the Chih fa manual of monastic
regulations.52 It appears, then, that it is precisely these qualities that set them
apart from the sentient beings attached to the views of existence and empti-
ness. The mute sheep monks are so unassuming and dull that they do not
even rise to the challenge of discriminating the true from the false, and so
they are not likely to make the mistake of bias and slander, to confuse the
true for the false or vice-versa. Deeply convinced of their own sinful nature,
they are so fearful of offense that they do not even have views or opinions,
much less are they attached to such arcane matters as views of existence and
emptiness. As will be explained in chapters 5 and 6, the dominant character-
istic of the sangha of the third level is a complete inability to tell the true
from the false. As one text puts it, for the blind to draw the bowstring and
loose the arrow at a target is purely harmful for they cannot but miss and
thereby kill innocent bystanders. For this reason the dull, docile, communal-
ly-oriented monks who are like mute sheep make ideal spiritual companions
because they will not lead one astray since they are not inclined to even
attempt to discriminate true from falseindeed, the rst group cannot even
understand the words of the texts! Here, too, we seem to get an echo of the
teachings of the Tao te ching, teachings that prize a docile citizenry, a citizenry
so content that they are not given to visit their neighbors though they know
of their existence, a community with bellies full and minds empty.

50 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 11324; on the six teachings and seven teachings

see the Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 126.


51 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 12425.
52 Chih fa, 57879; cf. Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 41617; chapter 6, 14247.
92 / decline as human nature

A nal aspect of the three levels that bears scrutiny is the division of the
teachings appropriate to each group, i.e., the division of the teachings into
separate, distinct, particular, or exclusive teachings (pieh fa )
and universal, pervasive, or inclusive teachings (pu fa 3), an issue
detailed more fully in the following chapters.53 Briey, however, this division
constitutes their grading of the teachings (pan chiao), according to which
the Ekayna and Triyna teachings are grouped together as particular or
exclusive teachings appropriate for those whose faculties are sharp enough
to discern truth from falsity. Thus the rst and second level are categorized
as particular, or the level of sentient being with the capacity for the particu-
lar teachings. The third level, by contrast, is called universal or the level of
the universal teachings because the deluded, bickering sentient beings of
the third level capacity, unable to discern true from false, have no choice but
to rely on the universality of truth in all phenomena rather than its manifes-
tation in particular phenomena that might be either true or false. Chart 1
summarizes these various aspects of the three levels.

Summary

The three levels taught by Hsin-hsing are thus unrelated to the


three periods of the decline of the dharma as systematized by Hui-ssu and
others, the systematization of the decline that came to dominate Japanese
Buddhist thinking. Rather, the three levels are concerned with the capacity
of sentient beings for realization of correct views. As noted at the beginning
of this chapter, the eighth-century Wei-shu made no mention of chronolo-
gies or eras when he wrote that [according to Hsin-hsing] there are three
grades of people, the wise, the stupid, and those in-between (the ordinary);
because of these teachings it is called the Three Levels.54 Beings of the rst
level, then, are characterized as those of the Ekayna who are capable of cor-
rect views though the ordinary people among them may transgress the pre-
cepts. Reecting the inclusive surround of the Ekayna, they are also capable
of practice in either isolated places or amidst the bustle of an urban milieu.
The beings of the second level of capacity are those with the good roots for

53 Given the similarity of terms it is important to distinguish Hsin-hsings use of pieh fa

from Chih-yen or Fa-tsangs use of the same term; see Robert Gimello, Chih-yen (602668)
and the Foundations of Hua-yen Buddhism, Ph.D. dissertation (Columbia University, 1976),
36992; Kimura, Shoki Chgoku Kegon shis no kenky (Tokyo: Shunjsha, 1977), 43041;
Kimura, Chigon-Hz to Sangaiky, Indogaku Bukkygaku kenky 27/1 (1978): 100107;
Yabuki, Sangaiky, 351ff.
54 Wei-shu, Liang ching hsin chi, 8th century, chan 3, p. 14.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 93

chart 1. Characteristics of the Three Levels


First Level Second Level Third Level
Classication: Particular Particular Universal
Doctrine: Ekayna Triyna Universal
Capacity: bodhisattvas; sages sages and ordinary icchantika; sentient
and ordinary people people who both beings attached to
who both keep the keep the precepts the views of empti-
precepts and have and have correct ness and existence
correct views; ordi- views; ordinary peo- who harbor false
nary people who ple who have correct views and break the
have correct views views though they precepts.
though they may may break the pre-
break the precepts. cepts.
Place: within the quiet of only within the only within the
the mountains and quiet of the moun- noise and bustle of
forests as well as in tains and forests. cities and towns.
the noise of cities
and towns.
Time: variously during the variously after the commencing 1000,
lifetime of the Buddhas nal nir- 1500, or 1600 years
Buddha; 500, 1000, vana or for 1000 or after the Buddhas
or 1500 years after 1500 years after his nal nirvana; no
his nal nirvana. nal nirvana. duration or end-
point given.

the practices of the various and distinct paths of the Triyna, and, perhaps
reecting the more monastic aspect of the Triyna, they are only capable of
practice in quiet and secluded spots. In an inverted return to the inclusivism
of the Ekayna, the sentient beings of the third-level capacity are universally
declared icchantika, sentient beings who can neither maintain the precepts
nor realize correct views. Attached to the extreme views of existence and
emptiness, sentient beings of the third-level capacity are only capable of
practice within community, that is to say, within cities and towns.
Although in this way Hsin-hsings doctrine is perhaps less concerned with
time and history than previously thought, in another way nothing has really
changedhis teaching is still focused on the rhetoric of decline. The decline,
itself, however, has changed in three signicant ways: (1) what was merely a
trope in polemic and apologetic discourse came to be organized as a coher-
ent doctrine; (2) in place of a predicted future the decline is understood as
the actual present, and, most signicantly, (3) rather than a decline of time,
94 / decline as human nature

era, or the teachings the decline has been regured as a matter of human
nature or the existential reality of sentient beings with no capacity for the
practice and realization of truth. Although in a way this last change hearkens
back to the occasional moral critique found in the early decline rhetoric, the
implications of the here and now aspect of the San-chieh doctrine meant
that the exhortation to a conservative orthodoxy could no longer be the
function of the rhetoric. But did Hsin-hsings insistence on the blinkered,
biased, and corrupted capacity really mean that sentient beings were inca-
pable of practice or realization? No, no more than the Indian tradition of the
dharmas decline really denied the persistence of the Buddha-dharma. Just as
in these earlier traditions, the issue was not the absence of the teaching but
rather assent to the true teaching (saddharma), or, more precisely for Hsin-
hsing, assent to the teaching correctly in accordance with the capacity. If that
teaching was accepted and cultivated, practice and realization remained a
possibility even for beings of the third level. Let us now turn to that teaching,
the teaching correctly in accordance with the corrupted capacity of sentient
beings.
5.
The Refuge of the Universal Buddha

I have argued that viewing the decline tradition as a rhetoric


of orthodoxy opens up hitherto unexplored aspects of the San-chieh teach-
ings. That is, I believe that we should understand this tradition not in terms
of its putative claims about history or morality but rather as an argument
about the need to adhere to an orthodoxy or perhaps even an argument for
the validity of such a notion in the face of an equally persuasive argument
for a complete deconstruction of all doctrinal authorities in favor of individ-
ual experience. This is nowhere more obvious than in the sort of response
that the decline tradition called for. That is to say, the admonitions regard-
ing the disappearance of the true dharma were never meant to inculcate
despair, hand-wringing, or giving up over the futility of practice but rather
adherence to the (literal) letter of the lawsaddhamma in the Pali tradi-
tionor conversion to a new lawequally saddharma in the Mahayana.
Of course, the response expected by the producers of the decline rhetoric did
not necessarily correspond to the actual response of the consumers of that
tradition. Hence for those who took the eschatological mood of the decline
as a decline in the potency of the teachings of a historical Buddha, the prom-
ise of the imminent arrival of another Buddha offered a solution to the
dilemma of that decline. Buttressing similar indigenous traditions, the
expectation of and preparation for messianic intervention became a promi-
nent theme in Chinese Buddhist history. For those who saw the decline pri-
marily in terms of the existential condition of sentient beings themselves,
however, a different solution was called for, as the problem was not under-
stood in social or world-historical terms. However, just as this does not deny
the historical reality of the decline, such a response also does not in any way
eliminate the underlying concern with the category of doctrine. Thus the
response to the belief that the capacity of sentient beings had completely
degenerated was not to give up on Buddhist doctrine but rather to ask the
question of which doctrine and which practices could possibly be effective
for such sentient beings?
Of course, an awareness of ignorance and suffering as the fundamental
human plight has always been the starting point of the Buddhist path, and in
this sense, perhaps, there is little that is different in Hsin-hsings perspective

97
98 / part three

other than the force with which he argued it and the universality of its scope.
Yet this stridency and persistence is possibly of great importance in under-
standing Hsin-hsings popularity, for evil and the sinner who commits evil
is just as powerful a paradigm of human nature as goodness and the reli-
gious virtuoso who manifests that goodness. Thus, the relating of suffering
to the basic human condition has traditionally been employed as a means of
convincing people of the need to search for relief, depicted as the very start-
ing point of kyamunis path as of all others who would follow him. Thus,
too, the metaphorical trope of the Buddha as the doctor means that a person
seeking relief from suffering needs a skilled physician, powerful medicine,
and the rehabilitative ministrations of a caregiving community. Across the
Buddhist world it has always been taught that such relief is uniquely found
within the curative sanctuary of the Three Treasures, that is, the refuge of
the Buddha, the dharma, and the community of practitioners. Yet we have
seen how Hsin-hsing taught that even one thousand buddhas are not able
to save those sentient beings with the nature to be attached to the views of
existence and emptiness, and, indeed, as we shall see below, for such obtuse
beings to rely on specic buddhas or their teachings was considered to lead
to the heinous offense of slandering all other buddhas and their dharma. For
this reason as well as the need for practices that arise in accordance with
the capacity, Hsin-hsing regured the traditional notions of the Three
Treasures and in place of specic Buddhas, specic doctrines, and the noble
community of renunciant monks and nuns of correct understanding he
proffered the universality of the dharmadhtu as the matrix of both ignorant
sentient beings and enlightened Buddhas. This radical equality not only vali-
dated the inherent truth-value of all phenomena in the abstract but saw that
truth in the actual world as well: the evil demon Mra was seen as equal to
the buddhas, the false teachings of the heterodox were considered the equal
of the Buddha-dharma, and the monks and nuns of false views who break all
precepts were seen as the true teachers of the dharma. Although this teach-
ing was as much a reaction to certain institutional changes in the legal struc-
tures of the sangha as it was a reaction to the (related) expanding doctrinal
horizons of the Buddhism in the North and under the Sui and Tang dynasties,
here I wish to consider it primarily in its doctrinal context, leaving a discus-
sion of institutional considerations for chapter 7. What is the Universal
Buddha and how does that teaching speak to the sentient beings unable to
be saved by even one thousand Buddhas?
5.
The Refuge of the Universal Buddha

H sin-hsings teaching of the essential equality of all things is


based on the universal non-duality of the buddha-dhtu (realm of the
Buddhas) and the sattva-dhtu (realm of sentient beings) found in such texts
as the Hua-yen Sutra and the promise of universal realization of the Lotus
Sutra; it is presented as the refuge of the Universal Buddha, dharma, and
sangha, which is to say the triple refuge uniquely appropriate for the third
level. Among these three, the refuge of the Universal Buddha is essentially
Hsin-hsings synthesis of the teachings of universal Buddha-nature and
tathagatagarbha, teachings that had gained widespread popularity during the
fth and sixth centuries, though not without controversy. Indeed, although
the teachings of Buddha-nature (buddha-dhtu, fo hsing M) and tathagata-
garbha are widely discussed in Indian, Tibetan, and East Asian Buddhism,
they continue to be controversial, as the following quotations indicate:

The Essence of the Buddha [tathagatagarbha] in a sentient being represents an


eternal, immutable (asaskta) element, which is identical with the monistic
Absolute and is unique and undifferentiated in everything that exists. (Eugne
Obermiller)1
Tathgata-garbha thought is not Buddhist. It is a form of dhtu-vda the
object of kyamunis criticism. (Matsumoto Shir)2

These two statements aptly characterize the problem at the heart of this
frequently contested issue, a problem pertinent to Hsin-hsings teaching of
the Universal Buddha. In the second quotation, Matsumoto, deliberately
provocative, is calling attention to the similarity between the extremely positive
language and causal structure of enlightenment found in the tathagatagarbha

1 Obermiller, The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation, being a Manual of

Buddhist Monism, The Work of rya Maitreya with a Commentary by rysaga (Acta
Orientalia 9, 1931), 104.
2 Matsumoto Shir, The Doctrine of Thatgata-garbha is not Buddhist, in Jamie
Hubbard and Paul Swanson, eds., Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm over Critical Buddhism
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), 172.

99
100 / the refuge of the universal buddha

literature and that of the substantial monism found in the atman/Brahman


tradition. Matsumoto, of course, is not the only one to have noted this
resemblance. Many of the most eminent scholars of Buddhism have in one
context or another noticed monist tendencies in the Mahayana. Takasaki
Jikid, for example, the preeminent scholar of the tathagatagarbha tradition,
sees monism in the doctrine of tathagatagarbha and the Mahayana in general,3
and Stcherbatsky is well known for his notions of the radical pluralism of
the abhidharma and the radical monism of the Mahayana, in particular so
characterizing the Madhyamika concept of emptiness.4 Obermiller wedded
this notion of a monistic Absolute to the tathagatagarbha literature in his
translation of and comments to the Ratnagotra, which he aptly subtitled a
Manual of Buddhist Monism. Others, for example Lamotte and Frauwall-
ner, have seen the tathagatagarbha doctrine as diametrically opposed to the
Madhyamika and representing something akin to the monism of the atman-
Brahman strain,5 while yet others such as Nagao, Seyfort Ruegg, and Johnston
(the editor of the Ratnagotra) simply voice their doubts and state that it
seems similar to post-Vedic forms of monism.6 Yet another camp, repre-
sented by Yamaguchi Susumu and his student Ogawa Ichij, is able to
understand tathagatagarbha thought without recourse to Vedic notions by
putting it squarely within the Buddhist tradition of conditioned causality
and emptiness, which, of course, explicitly rejects monism of any sort.7
Obviously, the question of the monist or absolutist nature of the tathagata-
garbha and Buddha-nature traditions is complex.8

3 Cf. Takasaki Jikid, A Study of the Ratnagotravibhga (Uttaratantra) (Rome: Istituto


Italiano Per il Medio Ed Estremo Oriente, 1966), 28; Nyoraiz shis no keisei (Tokyo:
Shunjsha, 1974), 76163; Hosshin to ichigenron, in Hirakawa Akira Hakase kanreki kinen
ronsh (Tokyo: Shunjsha, 1976).
4 Cf. Theodor Stcherbatsky, The Conception of Buddhist Nirva (Delhi: Motilal Banarsi-

dass, 1977 reprint), 3, 59; The Central Conception of Buddhism (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,
1974 reprint), 73; Buddhist Logic (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1972), 509.
5 Cf. tienne Lamotte, trans. Sarah Boin, The Teaching of Vimalakrti (London: Routledge

& Kegan Paul, 1976), LXXVILXXXXI; Erich Frauwallner, Die Philosophie des Buddhismus
(Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1956), 256.
6 Nagao Gadjin, What Remains in Sunyata, in M. Kiyota, ed., Mahayana Buddhist

Meditation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1978), 81, note 35; D. Seyfort Ruegg, La
thorie du tathgatagarbha et du gotra (Paris: cole Franaise dExtrme-Orient, 1969), 2, 4,
366ff; E. H. Johnston, ed., Ratnagotravibhga-Mahynottaratantra stra (Patna: Bihar
Research Society, 1950), xiixiii.
7 Yamaguchi Susumu [S , Hannya shis shi `t (Tokyo: Hzkan, 1956), 8687;

Ogawa Ichir, Nyoraiz bussh no kenky (Kyoto: Buneido, 1969), 1821, following the com-
mentary to the Ratnagotra by rGyal tshab dar ma rin chen.
8 Other recent works on this subject include S. K. Hookhams The Buddha Within:

Tathgatagarbha Doctrine According to the Shentong Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhaga


absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 101

A related problem, not as often discussed in contemporary studies of


tathagatagarbha but of direct relevance to the teachings of Hsin-hsing is that
the emphasis on the positive and all-pervasive essential nature of the tathagata
tends to create a gulf of non-relation between the realms of enlightenment
and deluded existence: whereas the truth of the tathagatagarbha is said to
exist as the highest perfection of bliss, permanence, self, and purity, the
delements are of a different character altogether, unrelated in any way,
merely adventitious (gantukaklea). In other words, the problem is not
monism but dualism. Whereas in a transformative model of spiritual devel-
opment a person is gradually changed through religious training until a
complete transformation of the very basis of the person occurs in the
moment of perfection, in the tathagatagarbha model of personhood the
basis of the real person is the purity that is revealed by the elimination or
subtraction of the dross and impure. Hence, in this latter model, there is no
radical change that takes place in the person, as there is not a change from
impurity to purity but rather a return to or revelation of that which has
always existed. Therefore, in the language of the Buddhist texts, in enlight-
enment there is neither increase in purity nor decrease in impurity. Now, as
with all such absolute bifurcation, this raises the difcult question of how
movement between the two states is possible: in terms of the Buddhist goal,
how can a person living in a deluded state ever give rise to non-deluded
aspiration, much less reach a state of purity? Thus, too, the status of the
individual and her acts prior to enlightenment is questioned: if authentic
existence is admitted solely of the fully realized realm of enlightenment, in
what meaningful sense can we speak of historical individuals, their social
and economic differences, personal psychologies, emotional struggles, and
religious path or transformation? In other words, is the decayed capacity of
the sentient beings of the third level but a ction, an illusion that masks the
true reality of a fully enlightened Buddha? In explicating the Buddha Nature
Treatise, for example, Sallie King writes,

(Albany: SUNY Press, 1991) and Brian Edward Brownes The Buddha Nature: A Study of the
Tathgatagarbha and layavijna (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991). An excellent compara-
tive study that brings out many of the implications and tendencies of the Buddhist traditions
development of and reaction to the tathagatagarbha tradition can be found in D. Seyfort
Rueggs Buddha-nature, Mind and the Problem of Gradualism in a Comparative Perspective:
On the Transmission and Reception of Buddhism in India and Tibet (New Delhi: Heritage
Publishers, 1992). See also the various essays in Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of
Minoru Kiyota, edited by Paul J. Grifths and John P. Keenan (Tokyo: Buddhist Books
International, 1990), in which a portion of the present chapter also appeared; for a discussion
of the philosophical and ethical issues raised by Matsumoto and his colleague Hakamaya
Noriaki see Hubbard and Swanson, Pruning the Bodhi Tree.
102 / the refuge of the universal buddha

In sum, as presented in the BNT [Fo hsing lun, T #1610], the person (human
being) in the deluded existential mode is not a person as we ordinarily use the
term in the popular Western sense. There is no real historicality or individuali-
ty accruing to the person and precious little freedom. What we consider to be
the basis of individual personhood is written off as unreal. What is real is the
universal sameness of Buddha nature; in this sameness, individual personhood,
as we ordinarily use the term, cannot be found. Thus, before conversion and
while in the existential mode of delusion, a person is not a person.

After enlightenment, however, as King continues,

history and individuality, which were lacking in the deluded existential mode,
enter the constitution of the person. The particular behaviors, mannerisms,
and even the personality of the person now possess reality and value.9

In this reading of the tradition, a reading that I believe to be accurate, of


what concern is the nonreal behavior, mannerisms, and personality of the
deluded nonperson? What validates the practice of the deluded?
This transcendentalism, in turn, underlies the dualistic view of humanity
and perfection of the so-called sudden teachings of the Chinese schools as
well as the existential conundrum presented in the teachings of Hsin-hsing,
the Buddhism for the third level, the level of sentient beings characterized by
inescapable delusion.10 How can a path of practice traverse such mutually
disjunctive states as the purity of the Tathagata and the delement of beings
evil by nature? All that remains is a leap, as sudden as it is ineffable, or the
other-power of salvic grace, as soteriologically necessary as it is necessarily
external. This conundrum has driven many a Buddhist thinker to search for
a bridge or means of relating the two conditions. Hsin-hsing, fully engaged
with the existential predicament of deluded sentient beings, likewise
attempted to validate the conventional, preenlightened practice of these
deluded sentient beings within this context of the absolute purity of the
tathagatagarbha. How did he go about this?

9 Sallie B. King, Buddha nature and the concept of person, Philosophy East and West 39/2

(1989), 164; see also her Buddha Nature (Albany: SUNY Press, 1991), 14647.
10 The disjunction between practice and realization is most often raised in terms of the so-
called sudden/gradual debate. Good discussions of the issues involved can be found in the
essays included in Peter Gregory, editor, Sudden and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in
Chinese Thought (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987). Tao-sheng, for example, per-
haps best known for his insistence on the universality of Buddha-nature, is also known as the
rst to advocate a theory of sudden enlightenment. Whalen Lai argues, however, that it was
not the Buddha-nature theory but the Ekayna thought of the Lotus Sutra that spurred Tao-
shengs subitism; see Whalen Lai, Tao-shengs Theory of Sudden Enlightenment Re-examined,
in Gregory, ed., Sudden and Gradual, 191.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 103

The Refuge of the Universal Buddha

The San-chieh has long been considered a practice-oriented


Buddhist movement, similar in many ways to the Pure Land movement as
well as other Northern traditions that emphasize seated meditation, austeri-
ties, repentance liturgies, and the like. As we have seen, Hsin-hsings assess-
ment of humankinds capacity and nature is indeed comparable to that of
the Pure Landboth teach that sentient beings are incapable of traditional
bodhisattva practice. However, just as the masters of the more abstract
philosophical systems of Buddhist thought also taught meditation practices,
so also San-chieh doctrine emerged within the general theoretical context of
Sui-Tang Buddhism, particularly, I believe, the Ti-lun. This background, as
well as Hsin-hsings unique expression of that theoretical context, is clearly
expressed in their teaching of the refuge of the Universal Buddha (pu fo 3M).
The teaching of the Universal Buddha is less well known than that of the
three levels or capacities described in the previous chapter and is more clear-
ly related to the teachings of the Tien-tai, Hua-yen, and San-lun. In short,
together with the radically pessimistic outlook present in the doctrine of the
decline of capacity, Hsin-hsing taught a universalism that emphasized the
nondual relationship of the dharmadhtu and all phenomena. One aspect of
this is the basic identity of sentient beings and the Buddha, and this identity
was called the Universal Buddha. In this we also nd the basis for Hsin-
hsings soteriology, the universal practice of the Universal Dharma, the
practice deemed suitable for sentient beings of the third level. As with other
schools of Sui-Tang Buddhism, then, we see in Hsin-hsings teachings a link
between doctrine and practice that precludes the all too often encountered
division of Chinese Buddhism into practical and theoretical.
The Universal Buddha is described in a number of different contexts in
the San-chieh texts, for example as the rst of eight items in the teaching of
universal respect, giving the theory underlying the practice of public venera-
tion of all sentient beings.11 The refuge of the Universal Buddha is also
taught as the rst of seven items that describe the practices appropriate for

11 Cf. Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 13132; San-chieh fo fa, 5657. The Kegon monk

Chih-yen quotes the Practice in Accord with the Capacity teaching on universal respect in his
Hua-yen wu shih yao wen ta (T #1869, 45.532b ff). The eight teachings are: (1) the four aspects
of the Universal Buddha (described below); (2) the universally true and correct Buddha-dhar-
ma; (3) the nameless and mark-less Buddha-dharma; (4) the essential Buddha-dharma that
removes all views; (5) the Buddha-dharma that entirely eliminates the way of verbal activity;
(6) the Buddha-dharma of one person and one practice; (7) the Buddha-dharma of no per-
son and no practice; (8) the Buddha-dharma of the ve nonoppositions. All of these items
basically enjoin one to look at the essence and the unity rather than the outward appearance
of diversity; see also Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 31431.
104 / the refuge of the universal buddha

each of the three levels: (1) the refuge of the Buddha; (2) the refuge of the
dharma; (3) the refuge of the sangha; (4) the practice of saving all sentient
beings; (5) the practice of eliminating evil; (6) the practice of cultivating virtue;
and (7) the practice of seeking virtuous friends (kalynamitra).12
The rst item, the refuge of the Buddha, is taught differently for each of
the three levels. For the rst-level sentient beings with the capacity for the
Ekayna, the refuge of the Buddha is said to be threefold: (a) the truth body
of the Ekayna Buddha; (b) the assumed body of the Ekayna Buddha; and
(c) the images (statues, etc.) of the Buddha.13 For sentient beings of the sec-
ond level, sentient beings with the capacity for the Triyna, the refuge of the
Buddha comprises (a) the assumed body of the Triyna, referring to the var-
ious incarnations of the Buddha, including kyamuni Buddha, and (b) the
images of the Buddha.14 There are ve kinds of buddhas that are appropriate
refuges for the third level, for the sentient beings whose capacity for practice
and realization is virtually nil. Among these ve are to be found both false
saviors and the true essence of Buddhahood. It is the latter that gives validity
to the former:
1. The rst [refuge] is the image of the Buddha. Only with your eyes open
can they be seen; after closing your eyes and they are gone the distinc-
tion between true and false cannot be made; it is as taught in the Kuan
fo san mei hai ching MX*}.15
2. The false Mra buddhas taken as refuge by the twelve types of sentient
beings who are fully accomplished in the twelve types of false views,
widely explained in texts such as the Chiu shih liu chung i hseh tao
ching GY)b and the Tsa lei shen chou ching F{2.16

12 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 111 ff. The rst three are taught to be the refuge and

the last four are said to correspond to the four universal vows of the bodhisattva (Practice
in Accord with the Capacity, 11416). The rst six are also the same as the rst six of the
Sixteen Practices of the Inexhaustible Storehouse (Commentary on the Inexhaustible Store-
house, 174); see also Okabe Kazuo, Sangaiky no Buddakan, Nihon Bukky gakkai nenp 53
(1980): 26173.
13 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 111.
14 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 113.
15 T #643, 15.690a693a (translated in the early fth century by Buddhabhadra). This is a
reference to the meditation on the Buddhas image, taught for those sentient beings who live
after the Buddhas extinction, a time when no Buddha would appear in the world. I have not
been able to nd this reference in the Taish text, although virtually every visualization ends
with the line, If the visualization is thus, it is a correct visualization; if it is different, it is
called a false visualization, which would actually seem to contradict the San-chieh-chiao posi-
tion; see also the Chih fa (581583) on different meditations for practitioners of different levels.
16 Although no longer known to be extant, the apocryphal section of the Chu san tsang chi

chi records a GY) in one fascicle (T #2145, 55.39a), and a GY2)F{2 in one
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 105

3. The true buddhas taken for refuge by the sentient beings who are per-
fect in the twelve types of correct views, as extensively explained in the
Ta Fo ming ching Me and in the various Mahayana sutras.17
4. All of the false Mra buddhas [who teach] the views of existence and
emptiness, and that are produced by all of the various buddhas and
bodhisattvas in accommodation [to the needs of sentient beings];
these are extensively taught in the various Mahayana sutras as the
accommodation bodies.
5. The universally true and universally correct Buddha, which is explained
in four sections:
a. Tathagatagarbha Buddha (Ju-lai-tsang fo ZM), as extensively
taught in the Lakvatra Sutra, the rmldev-stra, and the
Nirvana Sutra.
b. Buddha-nature Buddha (Fo-hsing fo MM), as extensively taught
in the Nirvana Sutra.
c. The Future Buddha (Tang-lai fo HZM), as taught in the Lotus
Sutra.
d. The Perceived Buddha (Fo-hsiang fo M`M), as taught in the Hua-
yen Sutra and the Daacakra Sutra.18
Why are the false saviors on equal footing with the true buddhas? Simply
put, it is because the sentient beings of the third level are incapable of distin-
guishing right from wrong, true from false. The San-chieh literature fre-
quently enjoins the practitioner to abandon sectarian distinctions, and their
position may be summed up by saying that sentient beings of the third level
dare not attempt judgments about either doctrinal or practical mattersfar
better to rely on the universal Dharma and celebrate everything as sacred. As
noted below, for the ignorant beings of the third level, picking and choosing
among the Buddhas teachings is seen as akin to a blind person wielding a
dangerous weaponhe or she is bound to hit innocent bystanders, cause
great injury, and incur great harm.19 This, of course, opposes the path

fascicle was recorded in the second fascicle of the Chung ching mu lu (T #2146, 55.125b); see
also the Kai yan lu, T #2154, 55.674a.
17 There are many different versions of Buddhanma-stra in the Taish canone.g., the

Fo shou fo ming ching MMe in twelve fascicles (T #440), the Shih fang chian wu pai fo
ming ching Y2Me in one fascicle (T #442), and the Fo ming ching Me in sixteen
fascicles recently discovered at the Nanatsu-dera in Nagoya; see Makita Tairy and Ochiai
Toshinori, eds., Nanatsu-dera koitsu kyten kenky ssho vol. 3 (Tokyo: Dait Shuppansha,
1995); see also the Chi chieh fo ming ching Me in Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, appen-
dix 17788.
18 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 11415.
19 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 13940.
106 / the refuge of the universal buddha

elucidated by those who taught refuge in the Buddhas Pure Land, concen-
trating effort on the saving power of a single Buddha. Hsin-hsing taught that
superior beings with the capacity for the Ekayna or Triyna could make
such distinctions without harm, but for sentient beings of the third level the
result of exclusive reliance on a single Buddha as the most efcacious was to
slander all of the other Buddhas as less so, thereby causing harm rather than
prot; hence the appropriate refuge is the Universal Buddha.
The four aspects of the Universal Buddha are further detailed in a text
recovered from Tun-huang, the Four Buddhas of the Universal Dharma (Pu
fa ssu fo 3vM).20 This text takes a number of well-known Mahayana
sutras as scriptural authorities, including the rmldev-stra, the Ghana-
vyha-stra, the Lakvatra Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, and the Daacakra-kiti-
garbha-stra.

Ju-lai-tsang Fo ZM

Of these texts, the Four Buddhas lists the rmldev-stra, the


Ghanavyha-stra, and the Lakvatra Sutra as its scriptural authorities for
the teaching of Ju-lai-tsang Fo, the Tathagatagarbha Buddha. Another text
that was probably inuential is the Awakening of Mahayana Faith, but, pos-
sibly because of the exclusive reliance upon sutras as references in the
San-chieh-chiao literature, this text is not mentioned.
The rmldev-stra21 is clearly one of the most important texts in the
history of tathagatagarbha thought. A text that expounds the Ekayna, it is a
major source of the Ratnagotravibhga, a primary systematization of tatha-
gatagarbha thought. Among the doctrines taught in the rmldev-stra

20 Four Buddhas of the Universal Dharma, included in Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, appen-

dix, 201206; translated below in Appendix A. This text (Stein #5668) is known to have been
composed some years after the death of Hsin-hsing (594) by its reference to the Ghanavyha-
stra, which was not translated until the latter half of the seventh century. However, though
this particular text is a later composition, the four aspects of the Universal Buddha and the
texts that they are based on (except, of course, the Ghanavyha-stra) are mentioned in other
works considered by most scholars to be the writings of Hsin-hsing, for example, the Hryji
MSS of the San chieh fo fa, 29395, the Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 13132, the Tun-
huang MS of the San chieh fo fa, 22, etc. The portion edited by Yabuki and titled Four
Buddhas is only that portion of the manuscript dealing with the Universal Buddha, extracted
from a discussion of the eight aspects of universal respect; for a reconstruction of the com-
plete manuscript see Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 60922.
21 The Four Buddhas relies on the Gunabhdra translation of the rmldev-stra made in

436 (T #353, 12.217223). In particular this text quotes from the Chapter on the Dharma-
kya, the Chapter on Intrinsic Purity, the Chapter on the One Truth, and the Chapter
on the One Refuge.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 107

that bear upon the San-chieh teaching of the Universal Buddha are the pure
and impure aspects of the mind,22 the garbha as nya and anya (devoid of
klea but endowed with the Buddha-dharmas that are inseparable from
the dharmakaya),23 and the dependence of both samsara and nirvana upon
the garbha.24 With regard to this last point, Takasaki observes that the
rmldev-stra gives no explanation of how or why the adventitious klea
come to obscure the garbha, and this in turn leads to the question of what is
meant by this relationship of dependence between samsara, nirvana, and the
garbha.25 This is a problem to which I shall return below.
Among the many theories taught in the Lakvatra Sutra26 two are related
to the concept of the Tathagatagarbha Buddha: (1) as above, the Lakvatra
teaches that all paths of existence are generated by the tathagatagarbha;27
and (2) it teaches that the tathagatagarbha is the same as the layavijna.28
This second point is shared by the third text quoted, the Ghanavyha-
stra,29 wherein it is taught that the laya manifests the myriad dharmas30
and that the laya and the tathagatagarbha are neither the same nor dif-
ferent.31
As might be expected from the sources utilized, as well as from its name,
the Ju-lai-tsang fo is the San-chieh teaching of tathagatagarbha, and within
the Four Buddhas we nd the two doctrines mentioned above, namely that
all phenomena are dependent on the tathagatagarbha and that the tathagata-
garbha and the laya are identical. Within scholastic circles of Chinese
Buddhism theories of the laya and its nature as well as theories concerning
Buddha-nature and the tathagatagarbha were continuously being put forth,
argued, and rened, particularly during the Sui-Tang period. Though it is
within this context that the San-chieh theories originated, my study here is
limited to presenting their theory as related to their concept of the Universal

22 Praktipariuddhicitta and upakliacitta, comparable to cittaprakti and agantukaklea in

the Ratnagotravibhga (Takasaki, A Study, 37).


23 rmldev-stra, T #353, 12.221c. This relates to the entire positive thrust of the tatha-

gatagarbha literature, which is critical of excessively negative understandings of emptiness


and emphasizes instead the positive existence and virtues of Buddhahood.
24 T #353, 12.222b.
25 Takasaki, A Study, 38.
The Four Buddhas used the 4-chan Lakvatra (T #670, 16.479514) translated by
26

Gunabhadra in 443, in particular the Chapter on All The Buddhas Words.


27 T #670, 16.510b.
28 T #670, 16.512b.
29 T #682, 16.776a.
30 T #682, 16.751 ff.
31 T #682, 16.766 ff.
108 / the refuge of the universal buddha

Dharma and practice of universal respect.32


As noted above, Takasaki feels that the notion of the identity of the
layavijna and the tathagatagarbha was the result of the inability of the
theory as stated in the Ratnagotravibhga to satisfactorily account for the
relation between the tathagatagarbha and the adventitious delements
that were nonetheless dependent upon it.33 Where do these delements
come from? What is their source or origin? If the original nature of mind is
pure, radiant, and without blemish, what gives rise to impurity? This
so-called weak point in the theory was then rectied by the incorporation
of the layavijna into the tathagatagarbha theory. There were certain simi-
larities that facilitated such a merger. That is, just as within the Vijna-
vdin tradition the layavijna was seen to be the base (raya) of all phe-
nomena, so, within the theory of the tathagatagarbha, the tathagatagarbha
itself was considered to be the base (raya) of all phenomena. The impor-
tant difference, of course, was that in the Vijnavda the laya was trans-
formed in wisdom and no longer remained, while the tathagatagarbha tradi-
tion tends to speak in terms of an arithmetical subtraction of adventitious
delements, a subtraction that reveals the purity that has always existed.34
Another difference was that in the classic formulation of Yogacara by Asaga
and Vasubandhu, the laya was capable of supporting both pure and impure
dharmas but could only originate the impure, necessitating the perfuming of
the laya from outside via the outow of the pure dharmadhtu (viuddha-
dharmadhtu-niyandatva).35
The two doctrines did come together in such texts as the Lakvatra
Sutra and the Ghanavyha-stra. From a reading of the appropriate sections
in the Lakvatra Sutra36 it appears that when the tathagatagarbha is in a
state of delement, involved in the discriminating function of the manas, it
is called the layavijna. The laya, though fundamentally pure,37 because

32 Given the perennial Chinese interest in the question of human nature, including whether
it is innately good or otherwise, it is tempting to see the great impact that Buddha-nature
and tathagatagarbha thought had in China as an example of sinication. Still, the fact is that
these same issues were subjects of doctrinal elaboration in India as well.
33 Takasaki, A Study, 5960.
34 Nagao, What Remains, 7577; Takasaki, A Study, 5960.
35 For an excellent discussion of this issue in the classical Yogcra tradition see Hakamaya
Noriaki, The Realm of Enlightenment in Vijaptimtrat: The Formulation of the Four
Kinds of Pure Dharmas, The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 3/2
(1980): 2141. John Keenan offers an interpretation of an earlier Yogcra problematique as
centrally concerned with the notion of a pure mind in Original Purity and the Focus of Early
Yogcra, The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 5/1 (1982): 718.
36 E.g., T #670, 16.510b.
37 T #670, 16.510b.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 109

of the individuating function of the manas, is also the source of false dis-
crimination, the hallmark of samsara. Thus the Four Buddhas states:

The matrix of enlightenment and the conditions and forms have no beginning
or end, and thus truth and untruth are dependent upon each other, neither
separate nor distinct. Therefore the Lakvatra Sutra states in a simile that
the storehouse consciousness is like the expansive ocean and waves.38

This is a reference to the Lakvatra Sutra that compares the relation of


the laya and phenomena to the ocean and waves:

The Blessed One said this to him: Mahamati, the tathagatagarbha holds within
it the cause for both good and evil, and by it all forms of existence are pro-
duced. Like an actor it takes on a variety of forms, and (in itself) is devoid of an
essence and what belongs to it. Because of the inuence of habit-energy that
has been accumulating since beginningless time, what here goes under the
name of the layavijna is accompanied by the seven vijnas which is like a
great ocean in which the waves roll on permanently but the (deeps remain
unmoved; that is, the laya) body itself subsists uninterruptedly, quite free
from fault of impermanence, unconcerned with the doctrine of ego-substance
and thoroughly pure in its essential nature.39

The ocean-wave analogy, together with the statement that the tathagata-
garbha produces all forms of existence, bring us to the second point with
regard to the Tathagatagarbha Buddha, that is, the relation of the tathagata-
garbha to the phenomenal world. Scholars and exegetes alike consider the
Lakvatra Sutra, the rmldev-stra, and the Awakening of Mahayana
Faith together the locus classicus of what is referred to in the Hua-yen com-
mentarial tradition as arising by suchness or tathagatagarbha.40 This theory
teaches the dependence of all phenomena upon tathat or tathagatagarbha,
and Yabuki believes that the theoretical construct of the San-chieh doctrine
of the Ju-lai-tsang fo is precisely the same.41 The San chieh fo fa, too, invokes
the Lakvatra Sutra cited above in order to explain this:

38 Four Buddhas, 202.


39 D. T. Suzuki, tr., The Lakvatra Stra (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966
reprint), 190; although his translation is taken from the Sanskrit, it agrees with the Chinese;
cf. T #670, 16.510b.
40 Ju lai hsing chi Z; chen ju hsing chi . Cf. Takasaki Jikid, The

Tathgatopattisabhava-nirdea of the Avatasaka and the Ratnagotravibhga with special


reference to the term tathgata-gotra-sabhava, Indogaku Bukkygaku kenky 7/1 (1958),
48 ff.
41 Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 406.
110 / the refuge of the universal buddha

The tathagatagarbha is explained according to the fourth chan of the four-


chan Lakvatra-stra. The tathagatagarbha is like an actor, and the various
roles of the actor are like the sentient beings [dwelling] in the six destinies.
Know that just as the roles of the actor are entirely created by the actor, all of
the sentient beings in the [six] destinies, including all of the sravakas, pratyeka-
buddhas, bodhisattvas, and tathagatas, are entirely produced by the tathagata-
garbha.42

In addition to the Lakvatra Sutra, the Four Buddhas quotes two pas-
sages from the rmldev-stra that are often cited as authority for this
theory: The rmldev-stra teaches that samsara is dependent on the
tathagatagarbha43 and the tathagatagarbha is the foundation, the support
and the substratum 44 (of the Buddha-dharmas as well as the worldly
dharmas).45 The Practice in Accord with the Capacity utilizes ve metaphors
to explain this relationship, likening it to clay and tiles, water and wave,
actor and roles, gold and the ornaments made from it, and eight rivers that
ow from the same lake:

The tathagatagarbha is the essence of all the buddhas, bodhisattvas, sravakas,


pratyekabuddhas, and all of the sentient beings in the six destinies. [I]n a
simile it is like the great Anavatapta Lake from which ows eight great rivers.
Although the rivers are all distinct, the essence of the water is not different.
Although there are differences between the sages and ordinary people and they
are not the same, the garbha that is their essence is not different.46

Although I have doubts that the theory of the Universal Buddha is func-
tionally equivalent to the Hua-yen doctrine of arising via suchness,47 tradi-
tionally this is taken to mean simply that the tathagatagarbha, being equivalent
to sunyata, is the base or foundation of phenomena inasmuch as it is
sunyata, that is to say, the absence of svabhva, that allows the possibility of
co-arising (prattyasamutpda). In this understanding there is no sub-
stance out of which phenomena arise, and in spite of the analogy of the

42 San chieh fo fa, 56.


43 Four Buddhas, 201; cf. rmldev-stra, T #353, 12.222b.
44This passage is also quoted in the Ratnagotravibhga (Takasaki, A Study, 292); for the
Sanskrit equivalents of foundation i S, support chih , and substratum chien li C,
Takasaki gives niraya, dhra, and pratih, respectively.
45 Four Buddhas, 202; cf. rmldev-stra, T #353, 12.222b.
46 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 130.
47 There are many problems involved in the use of ju lai hsing chi to describe the San-chieh
theories, not the least of which is that it is a later theory. If Yabuki is correct, however, then
the inuence of Hsin-hsing on the Hua-yen school must be reevaluated.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 111

ocean and the wave, the tathagatagarbha is not a material cause of co-arising.
This analogy is simply trying to explain the nondual nature of the relation-
ship between phenomena and truth; it is not trying to postulate a rst cause
or material cause of co-arising.48 Thus it is declared that the two aspects of
the pure and the impure, the true and the false, or the tathagatagarbha and
phenomena are, like the ocean and the waves, interdependent, neither dif-
ferent nor the same. In this context the Four Buddhas states:

Although separated from attachments, the truth of the universe produces the
untruth of the universe; therefore, untruth is dependent upon truth. But truth
is not independent, because it is forever dependent on untruth; neither does
untruth arise independently, because it is necessarily dependent upon truth.
Again, the matrix of enlightenment and all of samsara, the essence and the
forms, are also like this [that is, neither the same nor different]. Like gold and
the ornaments made from gold, the essence and forms are forever the same.
Again, the matrix of enlightenment and the phenomenal forms of the universe,
the essence and forms, are forever different, as dust and moisture are always
distinct; thus they are neither different nor not different.49

The theory of the Tathagatagarbha Buddha is hence basically the San-chieh


view of the relation between the realm of truth and the realm of delusion, a
relationship expressed in conventional Buddhist terms of nonduality.
Signicant difculties remain, however, with this structure of nonduality (if
nonduality can be said to have a structure): where, for example, do the
waves come from, inseparable from the ocean though they may be? Usually
they are said to arise from the winds of ignorance, but then, if the winds
of ignorance are not included within the nonduality of water and waves,
from where do they come? In other words, postulating purity as the essence
of human nature eliminates the problem raised above, namely, how purity
can arise within a deluded sentient being, but thereby inverts the problem:
where does delusion come from if the original or primordial condition is
purity? This leads to the conundrum faced by all forms of substantival
monism: why or how does a stable, noncontingent purity initiate movement
of any sort, especially as movement is of an essentially different nature from
stability? What moves the unmoving?

48 The question of substantive monism arises here, and, as pointed out above, many scholars

have discussed the tathagatagarbha in terms of a monistic theory. Using the gold/ornament
analogy employed so often to support a theory of material unity (e.g., Chndogya Upaniad,
VI.1) makes one question if such a nondual, Madhyamaka interpretation of tathagatagarbha
was truly widespread, especially in China.
49 Four Buddhas, 201.
112 / the refuge of the universal buddha

Fo-hsing Fo MM

The San-chieh theory of the Buddha-nature Buddha (Fo-hsing


Fo) is for the most part based on the Mahparinirva-stra,50 a pivotal text
in the Chinese development of the concept of the potential for enlighten-
ment in all sentient beings.51 The Four Buddhas teaches that there are no
fundamental differences between the concept of the Buddha-nature Buddha
and that of the Tathagatagarbha Buddha:
Related to the former concept of the matrix of enlightenment, just as observe
and watch are different words [but both mean to see], with regard to con-
ditions there is a slight difference in meaning [between the Buddha as the
matrix of enlightenment and the Buddha as the nature of the Buddha in all living
beings].52

What is meant by with regard to conditions there is a slight difference in


meaning? It would seem that whereas the Tathagatagarbha Buddha refers
to the relation between the essential truth of the dharmadhtu and the
phenomenal world in general, the Buddha-nature Buddha describes the
dharmadhtu more specically as identical with the basic nature of the sattva-
dhtu; this fundamental nature of sentient beings is characterized as pure,
without klea, truly abiding, and undeled by klea.53
As articulated in the Four Buddhas, the Buddha-nature Buddha corre-
sponds to the teaching of cheng yin fo hsing M, the true cause
Buddha-nature as found in the Mahparinirva-stra. Among the many
different characterizations of Buddha-nature in that sutra, one of the more
common is that which speaks of two kinds of Buddha-nature, the true cause
and the associate cause.54 The Buddha-nature Buddha corresponds to the
true cause:

50 The Four Buddhas relies on the 40-chan version, translated by Dharmakema ca. 420. T

#374, 12.365 ff.


51 Cf. Matsumoto, who points out that all sentient beings have the Buddha-nature in the

Mahparinirva-stra is not the same as all sentient beings will attain Buddhahood in the
Lotus Sutra; see Matsumoto, Tathgata-garbha is not Buddhist, in Hubbard and Swanson,
Pruning the Bodhi Tree, 167-68; see also Matsumoto, The Lotus Sutra and Japanese Culture,
in Hubbard and Swanson, Pruning the Bodhi Tree, 39398.
52 Four Buddhas, 203.
53 Four Buddhas, 203; in early usage buddha-dhtu (most often the Sanskrit original for
Buddha-nature, fo hsing) was interchangeable with tathagatagarbha; cf. William Grosnick,
The Zen Master Dgens Understanding of Buddha-nature in Light of the Historical
Development of the Buddha Nature Concept in India, China, and Japan (Ph.D. dissertation,
University of WisconsinMadison, 1979), 2226.
54 For example, Mahparinirva-stra, T #374, 12.531b, 532b, 535b, etc.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 113

The second item is the Buddha that exists within all living beings as the nature
of a Buddha. Some texts talk of this Buddha-nature as a principle (li hsing
7), while others speak of it as something acquired through practice (hsing
hsing ).55 Some speak of this nature as the cause of enlightenment (yin
hsing ) and others as a result (kuo hsing F). Now, in clarifying this we
only rely on the 38th book of the Nirvana Sutra, which illuminates the Buddha-
nature as the true cause (cheng yin fo hsing M).56 Therein it states that
all of the living beings of the universe, ordinary persons as well as sages, have
this nature, as do all of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas.57

Thus, in the more theoretical expositions of San-chieh doctrine, the


emphasis was on the universal basis or nature of all sentient beings rather
than their individual or particularly acquired nature. Indeed, the text later
quotes the Mahparinirva-stra to the effect that the Buddha-nature
Buddha is none other than the emptiness of ultimate meaning
(paramrtha-nyat), which is the middle path between the empty (nya)
and the non-empty (anya).58 Buddha-nature was conceived as equally the
nature of the buddhas and ordinary sentient beings, and it existed in an

55 No doubt as a result of the ambiguity of the sources, Chinese scholars endlessly debated

different schemata of Buddha-nature, and if the systematization was conceded, they continued
to debate, with equal fervor, what actually corresponds to the primary nature (the mind, or
perhaps sentient beings themselves), the secondary cause, and so forth. Chi-tsangs Ta sheng
hsan lun, for example, lists eleven different theories current in the North-South periods; see
Koseki, Aaron, Chi-tsangs Ta-cheng-hsan-lun: The Two Truths and the Buddha-nature
(Ph.D. dissertation, University of WisconsinMadison, 1977), pp. 202 ff, and Mochizuki
Shink =, Bukky daijiten M* (Tokyo: Seikai Seiten Kank Kykai, 1974 edi-
tion), p. 4456. Just as earlier discussions of Buddha-nature probably reected the Chinese
need to harmonize the disparate teachings of emptiness, inherently pure mind, etc., later
the concepts of li fo hsing 7M and hsing fo hsing M were advocated by Kuei-chi
(632682), the founder of the Fa-hsiang school, most likely as a solution to the contradiction
between the concepts of gotra and Buddha-nature. This is similar to the relation between the
gotra existent by nature (praktistha-gotra) and the gotra acquired through efforts
(paripua or samudnta-gotra) found in the Mahynastrlakra and elsewhere. See espe-
cially Mahynastrlakra III.4 and bhya thereto: Sylvain Lvi, Mahyna-Strlakra:
expos de la doctrine du grand vhicule selon le systme yogcra (2 vols., Paris: Honor
Champion 19071911), I.11.
56 A mistake for the 28th book, e.g., T #374, 12.531bc, 532b, etc.
57 Four Buddhas, 203; cf. Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 132: The Buddha-nature is
the cause of all ordinary people as well as sagesall ordinary people as well as sages mature
because of Buddha-nature. In a simile [from the Mahparinirva-stra] it is like the milk
that is the cause of cheese.
58 Four Buddhas, 203204. Cf. T #374, 12.523b. Chi-tsang and Chih-i also taught a middle-
path interpretation of Buddha-nature; see William Grosnick, Dgens Understanding, 13035;
see also note 12, above.
114 / the refuge of the universal buddha

undeled state, eternal and pure.59 However, the situation is subtler, as the
text continues:

From the side of the result the name is established as Buddha-nature, however
this Buddha-nature is neither cause nor resultwithin the cause it is [termed]
cause, within the result it is [termed] result.60

What this probably means is that the emptiness of ultimate meaning,


conceived as the nondual relation of the middle path, the emptiness of self
and dharmas, or as tathat,61 is the true cause of the attainment of the fruits
of Buddhahood. This is because emptiness is both the object of wisdom and
enables all change, therefore allowing the transformation of the basis from
ignorance to wisdom.62 However, as the dependent nature of truth in all
sentient beings (as also represented by the Tathagatagarbha Buddha described
above), this applies to icchantika as well as buddhas, and so, unaffected by its
environment, Buddha-nature is really neither cause nor resultthat is, the
principle or attribute of emptiness is not the same as either the Buddha that
realizes that principle or as the attendant virtuous qualities of practice that
enable such a realization.63 So the section of the Mahparinirva-stra that

59 The Four Buddhas also borrows from the rmldev-stra and the Mahparinirva-

stra in attributing to the Buddha-nature the four guapramit of permanence (nitya),


pleasure (sukha), self (atman), and purity (ubha). These four perfections, depicting the posi-
tive character of the tathagatagarbha or dharmakaya, represent one of the more interesting
developments of Indian Buddhist thought. Clearly intended to differentiate the afrmative
nature of the tathagatagarbha teaching and the negative teachings of the four viparysas
(impermanence, suffering, non-self, and impurity), the guapramit are a standard feature
of the texts of the tathagatagarbha and buddha-dhtu tradition and are no doubt part of the
same general criticism of what was seen as a tendency to nihilism on the part of the
nyavdins; cf. Takasaki, A Study, op. cit., 38, 209, 301, 306307; Nyoraiz shis no keisei
(Tokyo: Shunjsha, 1974), 166 ff; Four Buddhas, 203 (Appendix A, 252).
60 Four Buddhas, 203. A reference to the Mahparinirva-stra, T #374, 12.524a. See also

the Southern version, T #376, 12.768b.


61 Four Buddhas, 205.
62 This is the traditional exegesis of tathagatagarbha in terms of emptiness found in the
Ratnagotra, the Mahparinirva-stra, and other texts of the tathagatagarbha tradition. It of
course begs the question of whether or not the emptiness (or non-emptiness) as taught in the
Ratnagotra was the same emptiness as that taught in the Prajpramit literature, in
Ngrjunas works, and in other early Madhyamaka worksthe long-running debate over
whether to classify the tathagatagarbha doctrines as neyrtha or ntrtha is but one indication
of structural ambiguity.
63 Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 417. Chi-tsang (549622) also taught that Buddha-nature

was neither cause nor result, though he had a different view as to whether nonsentient phe-
nomena possess Buddha-nature; see Koseki, Chi-tsangs Ta-cheng hsan-lun, 20917 and 379.
Chi-tsangs avowal of non-sentient Buddha-nature might simply be a matter of terminology,
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 115

discusses neither cause nor result actually states that ultimate truth is anal-
ogous to a cause when considered as Buddha-nature, but comparable to a
result when considered as nirva.64 It is also likened to the twelve links of
co-arising, each of which is both cause and result (depending on where one
starts in the chain).65
Finally, the Buddha-nature Buddha was taught to be restricted to sentient
beings:

All of the living beings of the universe, those of base and noble spirit alike, all
possess this nature [of a buddha], excluding only the grasses, trees, walls, bro-
ken tiles, and so on.66

The text then cites a passage from the Mahparinirva-stra in support


of this contention:

The sutra teaches the difference between those things without Buddha-nature
and those with Buddha-nature and that which is without buddha-nature is the
earth, trees, tiles, and rocks; that which is distinct from these nonsentient
things are all said to have Buddha-nature.67

The question of the Buddha-nature of non-sentient things was the center


of much debate during the Sui-Tang period, and in the manner of denying
Buddha-nature to nonsentient things the Four Buddhas seems to agree with
the conclusions generally ascribed to the Hua-yen school.68 However, if we
recall that the non-dual relation between truth and phenomena in general,
with no distinction made between sentient and non-sentient, was articulated
in the concept of the Tathagatagarbha Buddha, we can see that this distinc-
tion, like much in San-chieh doctrine, should probably be understood in
terms of its soteriological meaning. That is, Fo-hsing fo refers to that which

though, as he did distinguish the capacity of the sentient for realization of that principle. Also
see Koseki, ibid., 226 ff.
64 T #374, 12.524a. The discussion of cause and result was not unique to the Chinese tradi-

tion. Classical Indian and Tibetan masters as well as modern scholars have extensively dis-
cussed the cause/result structure of the tathagatagarba and buddha-dhtu concepts, especially
with regard to the three svabhva that the Ratnagotra adduces to explain the statement, All
sentient beings possess the tathagatagarbha; see, for example, Ogawa Ichij, Nyoraiz bussh
no kenky, 7579 and Seyfort Ruegg, La thorie, 29196.
65 T #374, 12.524a.
66 Four Buddhas, 205.
67 Four Buddhas, 205; cf. Mahparinirva-stra, T #374, 12.581a and T #376, 12.828b; also
see below, Appendix A, n. 27.
68 Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 41820.
116 / the refuge of the universal buddha

has the potential for realization of Buddhahood.69 It is in this context, I


believe, that some scholars would even translate the term Buddha-nature as
enlightenment potential. Although an understanding of Buddha-nature in
terms of emptiness leads inexorably to afrming the Buddha-nature of the
nonsentient, the origins of the concept in theories of an inherently pure
mind and the Ekayna tradition, concerned as this latter is with the nature
and scope of the realization of Buddhahood, bespeak a tradition concerned
fundamentally with the nature of the sentient, and only by implication with
the nature of all phenomena.
Thus, from a soteriological point of view (and without doubt Hsin-hsings
primary concern was articulating doctrine and implementing practice for
sentient beings of inferior capacity) a schema that separates the capacity for
enlightenment of sentient beings from that of nonsentient beings is entirely
appropriate. The delements that obscure the purity of mind are a problem
with relevance only to sentient beings and so a discussion of the potential for
enlightenment of nonsentient objects can never be more than idle talk.
Indeed, as pointed out by the San-lun master Chi-tsang, the nonsentient is,
perforce, not deluded.70 Hence the teaching of the potential for Buddhahood
(i.e., Buddha-nature) is directed primarily at those for whom a discussion of
salvation has meaning, i.e., sentient beings.
The many discussions of the how of Buddha-nature were always
grounded in the main concerns of the various schools arguing the point. It is
not surprising, then, that just as the San-lun tended to see Buddha-nature
primarily in terms of the middle path (and so afrmed the Buddha-nature of
the nonsentient), Hsin-hsing saw Buddha-nature primarily in terms of its
meaning for the sentient beings of the third level and so in describing the
relation between sentient beings and truth the operative refuge for them is
the Buddha-nature Buddha, meaning potential for enlightenment (or
even, as we shall see, actualized potential for enlightenment); this term
embraces the ignorant as well as the wise, though it excludes the world of
nonsentient objects.

69 This is similar to Hui-yans distinction between the nature that knows and the

nature that is known; see Grosnick, Dgens Understanding, 138 ff. Grosnick further spec-
ulates that it was confusion stemming from misunderstanding the original of fo hsing M as
buddhat and thus as somehow contrasting with dharmat (fa hsing ) that gave rise to
this distinction (p. 139); see also Bussh in Hbgirin vol. 2, 185a187b.
70 Koseki, Chi-tsangs Ta-ch-eng-hsan-lun, 226.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 117

Tang-lai Fo HZM

So far we have been discussing the principles that describe the rela-
tion between tathat and all phenomena and tathat and the realm of sen-
tient beings. Continuing to become ever more concrete in the articulation of
this relationship (as well as ever more brief in its explanation), the Four
Buddhas uses the Lotus Sutra as the basis for the Tang-lai Fo, or the Future
Buddha. The Future Buddha refers to the inevitable realization of Buddha-
hood by all sentient beings:

The essence gives rise to the conditioned, and the practices are pursued accord-
ing to the conditionsall are the practices of the matrix of enlightenment, the
practices of the Buddha-nature. The tree includes the bud and truth includes
untruth, thus all practices are those of the universal bodhisattva of the One
Vehicle. With the full completion of the practices the fruits of Buddhahood are
realized. Because the Buddha as the matrix of enlightenment and the Buddha
as Buddha-nature exist within the bondage of ignorance and the realm of
causality, there is likewise the future realization of Buddhahood.71 Therefore,
this aspect is termed the future buddha.72

Thus we have moved from the theoretical aspect of the relationship


between tathat and phenomena to an articulation of the inevitable realiza-
tion of Buddhahood in this world. Since all sentient beings possess Buddha-
nature, all are one day assured of realizing Buddhahood, and this has been
termed by the San-chieh-chiao Tang-lai fo.

We rely on the Lotus Sutra, which teaches that the Bodhisattva Never-Despise
[Sadparibhta] worshipped all among the four classes of beings, that is,
monks, nuns, male and female lay devotees, as the same because they possess
the true essence of the matrix of enlightenment and Buddha-nature. Therefore
he told them, You all practice the path of the bodhisattva and in the future
will become Buddhas, hence this aspect of the refuge of the universal Buddha
is termed the Future Buddha.73

The practice of the Bodhisattva Never-Despise is also the inspiration for


the actual practice of publicly venerating all beings so often described in the

71 Though the terms Buddha-nature and tathagatagarbha are not actually used in the

Lotus Sutra, its message of universal attainment has long been interpreted as synonymous
with tathagatagarbha and Buddha-nature theories.
72 Four Buddhas, 205; see also Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 132; San chieh fo fa, 56.
73 Four Buddhas, 205; cf. the Lotus Sutra, T #262, 9.50c.
118 / the refuge of the universal buddha

biographies and other records of Hsin-hsing and his disciples, for example
the Li tai san pao chi:

Wishing to emulate the Bodhisattva Never Despise in the Lotus Sutra they
revere everybody they meet on the road, regardless of whether the person was a
man or a woman.74

Fo-hsiang Fo M`M

This fourth and nal aspect of the refuge of the Universal Buddha
is based on the Hua-yen Sutra75 and the Daacakra kitigarbha-stra76 and is
termed Fo-hsiang Fo, or the Perceived Buddha. This aspect refers to the
fact that although all sentient beings are destined to realize Buddhahood in
the future, viewed in terms of their ultimate nature, that is, their Buddha-
nature, they are already Buddhas. The Four Buddhas states:

Because all living beings in the universe are none other than the Buddha as the
matrix of enlightenment, the Buddha as the Buddha-nature, and the Future
Buddha, the forms of living beings are not different from the true Buddha. This
is called the Perceived Buddha. Although we may talk of the difference
between holding the precepts and breaking the precepts, because the Buddha as
the matrix of enlightenment is the same as the Buddha-nature and the Future
Buddha, they are one and not two. Therefore, you should respect all, perceiving
them as true buddhas, and this is termed Perceived Buddha.77

More bluntly, the Practice in Accord with the Capacity states: The per-
ceived Buddha is the perception of all sentient beings as the Buddha.78
Rejecting all distinctions based upon limited understanding and criteria
such as whether or not one keeps the precepts, we are told to respect all sen-
tient beings as no different from the Buddha. On the basis of the implica-
tions of the doctrine of tathagatagarbha presented in the various scriptural
sources, Hsin-hsing moved from the abstract theory of the relationship
between tathat and phenomena to the very concrete view of all sentient
beings as present Buddhas. The practical innovation of his teaching is

74 T # 2034, 49.105b; see chapter 1, 2728.


75T #278. Specically, this refers to a passage from the Chapter on Clarifying the
Dharma, T #278, 9.459c.
76 T #410.
77 Four Buddhas, 205206.
78 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 132.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 119

precisely this very concrete understanding of the sentient beings in terms of


the Future Buddha and the Perceived Buddha, while their exposition of the
difference between the Tathagatagarbha Buddha and Buddha-nature
Buddha reects the discussion of these issues in the debates of their time.

Universal Respect

It was also this doctrine of universality that gave rise to the practice
of universal respect, a practice believed to be uniquely suited to the capacity
of the sentient beings of the third level and, together with the practice of
recognizing evil, the hallmark of the San-chieh movement. Hence the four
facets of the Universal Buddha are also taught as the rst aspect of the prac-
tice of universal respect.79 A good example of how this is understood is
found in the Practice in Accord with the Capacity:

The rst item [which explains the two environments of liberation] is the uni-
versality of the essence and refers to the Tathgatagarbha, Buddha-nature, [the
Future Buddha, the Perceived Buddha,] and the eightfold Buddha-dharma.80
The second item, the universality of the practice, has seven sections, the rst of
which is the universality of the ordinary person (fan [fu] [&], Skt. pthag-
jana) and the sage (sheng , Skt. rya) which means that without questioning
whether somebody is common or sage both [should be seen as] producing the
understanding of the sage. Why is this? Because all of the true buddhas and
bodhisattvas of the Ekayna manifest in response to the myriad types of sen-
tient beings; all of the ordinary people of the Ekayna who have perfected cor-
rect views and violate neither the views nor the precepts give rise to the vow to
manifest [in response to] the myriad types of sentient being; and all of the
common beings of the Ekayna who have perfected correct views, who violate
the precepts but not the views, actually appear as every type of sentient being.
Therefore both should be seen as producing the understanding of the sage,
without question of whether they are ordinary people or sages. Thus this is
called the universality of the sage.
Regarding the universality of the ordinary people, all of the false demons
transform their appearance and manifest as the image of the various buddhas
and bodhisattvasbut the common person is blind from birth and cannot dis-
criminate [between the true and the false]. He or she can only hope to treat all
sentient beings as the same and respect them equally as the Tathgatagarbha
[Buddha], Buddha-nature [Buddha], Future Buddha, and the Perceived
Buddha. They do not dare to try to distinguish which is the true Buddha. Why

79 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 13132.


80 See above, n. 11.
120 / the refuge of the universal buddha

is this? Because the common person is ignorant and unable to distinguish


between [the true buddhas and] the false demons. Therefore it is termed the
universality of the common person.81

As with the refuge of the fourfold Buddha, this means that from the
absolute point of view all beings are manifestations of the universality of
the essence. For the sentient beings of the third level, those sentient beings
trapped by twisted delusions of righteousness, purity, morality, and virtue,
the proper course of action demands that all beings be viewed as this essen-
tial nature because (a) on the absolute level all things essentially partake of
the true nature of the dharmadhtu and (b) on the phenomenal level we are
incapable of distinguishing good from evil, hence it is better to avoid the
danger of false slander. As already pointed out, Hsin-hsing taught that it is
better not to give weapons to the blind, reasoning that is clearly spelled out
in his teaching of the refuge of the Universal Dharma discussed in chapter 6
below.
As noted above, the doctrines of the fourfold Universal Buddha and uni-
versal respect led San-chieh followers to emulate the Bodhisattva Never-
Despise in the practice of revering all living creatures they met as buddhas,
even dogs and other animals. Thus the biography of one San-chieh teacher
records that he would say of the insects and animals that gathered around
his dwelling like disciples that I clearly know that these are all incarnations
of the Buddha who have entered into the practice [of the Way]. They ought
to be deeply reverenced; one cannot disparage them.82

Summary

Thus the San-chieh-chiao simultaneously afrmed the essentially


deluded nature of sentient beings and their ultimate destiny of Buddhahood.
The latter doctrine, the doctrine of the Universal Buddha, basically repre-
sents their innovative interpretation of the tathagatagarbha and Buddha-
nature theories that had already gained currency in Chinese Buddhist circles.
As indicated above, the teaching of tathagatagarbha has always been debat-
able, for it is fundamentally an afrmative approach to truth and wisdom,
offering descriptions of reality not in negative terms of what it is lacking or
empty of (apophatic description, typical of the Perfection of Wisdom corpus

81 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 12930.


82 Pelliot #2550; Tun-huang pao-tsang vol. 122, 58-62; cited in Mark Lewis, The Suppression
of the Three Stages Sect: Apocrypha as a Political Issue in Buswell, Chinese Buddhist
Apocrypha, 215.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 121

and the Madhyamika school) but rather in positive terms of what it is


(catophatic description, more typical of the devotional, tantric, Mahpari-
nirva and Lotus Sutra traditions, and, it should be noted, the monistic
terms of the orthodox Brahmanic systems). Nonetheless, and in spite of the
numerous technical details that continued to be debated, that the Buddha-
nature model of human nature came to dominate Chinese Buddhist think-
ing is well documented. In this climate Hsin-hsings insistence that the
deluded too partake of the fully enlightened nature of a Buddha is therefore
not that unusual. In a manner strikingly similar to Hsin-hsing, for example,
the Fo hsing lun M puts it this way:

By the omnipresence [of the Buddha-nature] is meant that there is no differ-


ence in the [essential] nature of the ordinary person, the sage, and the Buddha.
Within these three ranks [of sentient beings] the rst [that is, the ordinary per-
son] is perverse and deluded; the second [that is, the sage] follows the holy
path without faltering; and the third [that is, the Buddha] is ultimately pure in
the four virtues. Nevertheless, these three stations are equal and mutually related
because all accord with the principle of the omnipresence [of Buddha-nature].
It is just as the empty space in a clay, silver, or gold vessel is pervasive, equal
and non-discriminated, so too is the dharmadhtu of the Tathagata [equal and
non-discriminated] in the three ranks [of beings].83

And of course the Nirvana Sutra, so very popular in Northern Dynasties


Buddhism, formulates the most famous afrmation of the universality of
Buddha-nature, including even the very enemies of the Buddhas teachings,
those who have severed all capacity for virtue, the icchantika.
The Tun-huang fragments of the Three Levels manuscript that I have
examined gives a description of this ultimate reality that moves from a
rather abstract discussion of the nonduality of enlightenment and delusion
within the universe of all things (dharmadhtu) to the very concrete practice
of looking upon all beings at this very moment, in their phenomenal nature,
as fully enlightened buddhas, no different from their ultimate natures. Along
the way it makes use of many of the more common descriptions of this very
positive description of ultimate reality, such as the four perfected qualities
(guapramit) of permanence, bliss, great self, and puritytraits descrip-
tive of what truly exists or is not empty (anya), that is, nirvana, but not
applicable to what is empty (nya), that is, samsara. Thus Buddha-nature is
both truly empty (of all delement) and at the same time profoundly
existent, both in terms of being truly real as well as the truly real virtues it
possesses. In such a degenerate world as ours, we are told, this ultimate reality
is like a treasure house that causes our liberation. As degeneracy no less than

83 T #1610, 31.806b.
122 / the refuge of the universal buddha

liberation is relevant only to suffering sentient beings, the Four Buddhas also
claims that the nonsentient do not have this enlightenment potential, a posi-
tion generally repudiated in East Asian, especially Japanese, Buddhism.
As noted, the larger context of this teaching of the Four Buddhas of the
Universal Dharma is the San-chieh doctrine of the appropriate refuge for
the third, degenerate level of human capacity. Just as the doctrine and prac-
tice appropriate for the living beings of each capacity differ, so too does the
refuge of the Buddha. Thus, for example, although a being of superior wis-
dom of the rst level may successfully take refuge in a single Buddha
(Amitabha, for example), for beings of no wisdom at all of the third level
this would be tantamount to slandering all the other buddhas as less than
effective! Hence the appropriate sanctuary is that of the universally true
and universally correct Buddha. The Buddha-Jewel for the third level,
therefore, consists not only of all buddhas, but also of all the false buddhas,
demons, and Mra, who are no different in their basic nature from fully
enlightened buddhas. For people of degenerate capacity, unable to accurately
distinguish truth from untruth, this universality of the Buddha-nature was
deemed the appropriate place of refuge, the refuge of the Universal Buddha.
The insistence that living beings blinded by delusion must look only to
the purity and truth-value of the nonduality of nirvana and samsara is the
basis of the Three Levels concept of universality. The idea of a universally
pervading purity and truth is the hallmark of their teachings and, to a cer-
tain extent, an idea shared with both the Tien-tai and the Hua-yen schools.
Taking into account our prejudices, ignorance, and greed, the Three Levels
movement declared that we have no hope of discerning particular or relative
levels of truth and falsity and so it is necessary to rely on the universality of
truth declared in the scriptures, that is, the premise of nonduality. This non-
dual or universal truth that undergirds their teaching of the Buddha-Jewel is
also extended to the other two jewel-refuges as well, and thereby becomes an
important link in the East Asian development of the doctrine of the salva-
tion of the sinner, most well-known in the teaching of Shinran, as, for exam-
ple, in his notion of akunin shki, the true capacity of the evil person. Let
me turn, then, to the nonduality of the Dharma and the evil nature of the
sangha.
6.
The Refuge of the Universal Dharma
and Universal Sangha

Just as the refuge of the Universal Buddha emphasizes the


need to look to the essential truth that suffuses all phenomena, the San-
chieh doctrine of the refuge of the teachings and community appropriate for
sentient beings of the third level emphasizes the universality of the essential
truth underlying or permeating all specic instances of the teachings or indi-
vidual members of the community. Why? Because the blinders of our preju-
dices render a narrow, specic view or practice a source of harm rather than
merit. Thus again it was the point of view of the sentient beings who would
study and cultivate the doctrine that fueled Hsin-hsings efforts at systemati-
zation rather than a chronology of the Buddhas sermons or doctrinal evalu-
ation of the content of the scriptures; this put the focus on the needs of the
sentient beings hearing the teachings now as the arbiter of validity.1 One can
easily follow the reasoning of this hermeneuticif you buy into the notion
of the decline of our capacity to receive, understand, and uphold the dharma,
then the emphasis in doctrinal classication must shift away from such tradi-
tional norms as whether one or another scripture transmits the full and per-
fect wisdom or is merely an accommodated teaching, that is, away from
teachings that are denitive (ntrtha) versus teachings in need of interpreta-
tion (neyrtha) and the yardstick of truth by which this is determined; the
evaluation must be centered on sentient beings and their needs.

The Teachings in Accord with the


Capacity of the First and Second Levels

As is usually the case with Hsin-hsings teachings, the doctrine


appropriate for the sentient beings of the rst and second levels reects their

1 For an overview of other Buddhist approaches to grading the teachings see the essays in
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Buddhist Hermeneutics (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1988). For an excellent overview of the radically universal rhetoric of the three levels see
Mark Lewis, The Suppression of the Three Stages Sect, 21325; for a discussion of his analy-
sis of the suppressions of the three levels movement see chapter 8 below.

123
124 / universal dharma and universal sangha

ability to accurately discern truth and falsity, hence the capacity to benet
from particular teachings; more specically, however, as discussed in chap-
ter 4, it represents the difference between Ekayna scriptures such as the
Hua-yen Sutra and the sutras, Vinaya, and commentaries of the Triyna:

[For sentient beings of the rst level] exhaustively taking refuge in the com-
plete teaching is comprised of two items: (1) [taking refuge in] the Mahayana
teaching of the sudden doctrine such as the Hua-yen Sutra and the many
Mahayana sutras; and (2) [taking refuge in] the Mahayana teaching of univer-
sal understanding, that for the purpose of eliminating the malady of discrimi-
nation universally sees the Mahayana without question of non-Buddhist or
Buddhist scripture, superior and inferior.
[For sentient beings of the second level] exhaustively taking refuge in the
complete dharma is comprised of the single category of the sutras, precepts,
and commentaries of the Triyna.2

Reecting the usual attitude of Hsin-hsing, the refuge of the dharma for
sentient beings of the rst and second level is to be found in the scriptures,
precept texts, and commentaries of the Mahayana and the Triyna. What,
however, about those whose faculties were not up to accurate discernment,
accurate discrimination of true from false?

The Universal Teaching of the Third Level

One of Hsin-hsings important teachings is that because the dharma


is taught for the purpose of liberation it must be suited to the capacity of the
practitioner. This doctrine is embodied in a phrase found throughout the lit-
erature and the title of one of Hsin-hsings important works, the Tui ken chi
hsing fa |, the teaching on the practice that arises in accord with
the capacity. Simply put, Hsin-hsing taught that the specic or particular
teachings and practices appropriate for the capacities of the rst two levels
were not appropriate for the capacity of the third level.3 The San chieh fo fa
tells us why, quoting from a wide variety of sutras to conclude that living
beings of the third level cannot be saved by ordinary means; indeed, the
buddhas cannot help, nor can all of the scriptures:

2 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 112.


3 The practices that arise in accord with the capacity is an oft-repeated phrase found
throughout San-chieh literature, and is, of course, based on such traditional Buddhist ideas as
graduated teachings (anupubbikath, see below), upya, etc. The most detailed reasoning
for this claim is given in the 24 sections of the San chieh fo fa, 291304.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 125

The rst item is as explained in the Kyapa-stra, which teaches that even one
thousand buddhas are not able to save those sentient beings with the nature to
be attached to the views of existence and emptiness. The second item is as
claried in the Fo tsang ching, which teaches that even a hundred-thousand-
million-trillion buddhas would not be able to save these sentient beings who
are attached to the views of existence and emptiness. The fth item is as
made known in the Nirvana Sutra, where it teaches that all of the sutras in their
entirety are not able to convert those sentient beings whose nature it is to be
attached to views of existence and emptiness.4

Why is it that a hundred-thousand-million-trillion buddhas or all of


the sutras cannot help sentient beings of the third level? The basic answer is
that, whereas the Ekayna and Triyna doctrines were suited for the sharper
faculties of the rst and second levels, respectively, for the third level they
were viewed as causing one to slander the dharma rather than bringing
benets.5 According to the San-chieh doctrine this is so because as long as
correct views prevail in the world, a specialized, particularistic view, con-
cerned with only one aspect of the dharma, will enable one to realize the
fruits of liberation, but in an era when all of the sages and beings of true
views have disappeared and sentient beings are pulled and swayed by their
attachments to various viewpoints and dogmas, to emphasize only one
aspect of the dharma as true is, by its very exclusiveness, to slander all the
rest of the dharma.
One common description of the beings of the third level is blind from
birth.6 That is, for those of us in the third level with no eyes to perceive the

4 San chieh fo fa, 257.


5 Slandering the true dharma (Skt. saddharma-pratikepa) is a phrase found frequently in
Mahayana texts and most likely had a sectarian rhetorical function during the birth and early
articulation of the Mahayana scriptures, similar to the sectarian concerns voiced in the scrip-
tures cited in chapter 2. Interestingly, the Sukhvatvyha-stra specically excludes those
who slander the dharma from the saving power of Amitabha (T #12, 268a). In the history of
Chinese Pure Land thought we see a movement from Tan-luan (476542), who accepted this
limitation, to Tao-cho (562645) and Shan-tao (613681), who, based on the Kuan Wu-liang-
shou ching, included even the lowest of the low in their soteriology. It is very possible that
this was a doctrinal reaction to the teachings of Hsin-hsing (540594) which were specically
aimed at the icchantika who slanders the dharma, especially as Tao-cho and Hsin-hsing both
studied under the same teacher Hui-tsan (see Chapter One); on the San-chieh and Pure Land
generally see Michibata Rysh, Dshaku to Sangaiky and Zend to Sangaiky, in
Chgoku Jdokyshi no kenky (Kyoto: Hzkan, 1980); Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 53677.
Also see Kenneth Tanaka, The Dawn of Chinese Pure Land, 6264 for a discussion of who is
included in the lowest of the low.
6This term (Skt. jtyandha) is often employed in Buddhist scriptures to indicate that igno-
rance is the fault of the perception not of the object (as, for example, in the rst chapter of
theVimalakrti); it is also used to denote the icchantika, as in the Mahparinirva-stra. This
126 / universal dharma and universal sangha

correct dharma, beset as we are by attachments to our views of existence and


emptiness, our prejudices and sectarian bickering, to practice one aspect of
the dharma, viewing it as the best or superior dharma, will inevitably cause
us to slander the rest of the dharma. Thus, for sentient beings of the third
level to practice the Ekayna or Triyna dharma when they are swayed by
attachments and petty bickering is rampant is to cause harm rather than
good, and instead of upholding the dharma one nds that one is committing
the grievous offense of slandering the dharma. This is well stated in the
Practice in Accord with the Capacity:

Question: Why is it that within the same Buddha-dharma the study of the
universal teaching is purely benecial and without harm while the study of the
particular teaching is both benecial and harmful?
Answer: It is because the capacities [of sentient beings] differ. This has two
meanings: (1) the universal teaching is without fault; (2) the particular teaching
[must be] in accord with the capacity. That the universal teaching is without
fault means that the essence of the universal teaching is the tathagatagarbha
[Buddha], the Buddha-nature [Buddha], etc. All of the commonordinary peo-
ple and the sages, the false and the true, without regard to superior or inferior
capacity, can study this same one essence, which has no distinctions and is only
the [universal teaching of the] tathagatagarbha and [therefore they can] be
without fear of mistake [because it is] purely benecial and without harm.
There are two reasons that the particular teaching [must be] in accord with
the capacity. The rst claries why, [if the particular teachings] are in accor-
dance with the capacity it is purely benecial and without harm: it is only those
of the Ekayna and Triyna, those of the rst and second levels, who prot
through the exaltation and study of the teachings of the sutras. This is because
they have the capacity for the particular and thus their capacity is in accord
with the study of [these sutras]; therefore it is purely benecial and without
harm.
The second [reason] is that if one whose capacity is not in accord [with the
particularized teaching] studies the particularized teaching there is purely harm
and no prot. Why is this? Because it is not in accordance with the capacity of
the inferior person to cultivate the practice and teachings of the superior
person.
To use a metaphor to explain these two items, for the perverted sentient
beings [of the third level] to make distinctions and thereby incur harm is like a
blind person shooting an arrowbecause he cannot see, he will not hit what

is another instance of the San-chieh teachings being aimed at a class of beings even lower
than those to whom the teachings of the Pure Land were aimed. See, for example, the Kuan
Wu-liang-shou ching, wherein the meditation on the Pure Land is directed towards those who
if not blind from birth have eyes and are able to see the setting sun (T #365, 12.342a).
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 127

he shoots at and will [accidentally] kill people, which is purely harmful and
without prot. [On the other hand,] for the perverted sentient beings [of the
third level] to study the Universal Dharma, reaping only benet without harm
is like a blind person shooting an arrow at the groundall of the arrows will
hit [their target] and nobody will be [accidentally] killed. This is purely
benecial and without harm.7

The actual differences between the particular dharma and the Universal
Dharma are found listed throughout the San-chieh literature.8 However,
these differences can be summed up by saying that living beings of the third
level cannot be trusted to make distinctions between true and false, good
and bad, etc., and so they must look to the universality of the essence rather
than the distinctions of the manifestation. Thus all of the teachings of the
rst and second levels are labeled pieh fa , particularized, limited, par-
tial, or exclusive teachings, teachings that make distinctions in the dharma.
This pieh fa is declared to be unsuitable for the liberation of the sentient
beings of the third level, and it was taught that they must take refuge in the
pu fa 3, the Universal Dharma, the totality of the dharma, the dharma
that corresponds to the capacity of the weak, ignorant, and blind beings of
the third level.9
What is most interesting, however, is not that the teachings of the Buddha
were given universal and equal validity and relevence but that this same
value was given to literally all teachings, even heresies. Because of their
inability to discern specic truths and the emphasis on the universal nature
of truth, the San-chieh followers were taught the eightfold refuge of the
dharma appropriate for the third level:
1. the teachings of the sutras;
2. the teachings of the greatest evil;
3. secular teachings;
4. teachings that subvert the good;
5. the teachings of those who adhere to the twelve perverse views;

7 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 13940; cf. ibid., 133.


8 The overall structure of the ve sections of the Practice in Accord with the Capacity is to
give the specic reasons that the path is not the same in the three stages; reasons that the
place is not the same, etc.
9It is also interesting to compare the San-chieh usage of pieh fa and pu fa with the cate-
gories of pieh and tung in the pan chiao of Chih-yen and Fa-tsang; see Yabuki,
Sangaiky no kenky, 35072; Gimello, Chih-yen, 36992; Kimura, Shoki Chgoku Kegon,
43041, and his ChigonHz to Sangaiky, Indogaku Bukkygaku kenky 27/1 (1978):
100107.
128 / universal dharma and universal sangha

6. the teachings of those who adhere to correct views;


7. the teachings given in accommodation to the extreme views of nihilism
and eternalism [i.e., the teachings of eternalism and nihilism];
8. the Mahayana teaching of universal scope [or the Mahayana teachings
of the perception of the universal, i.e., the teachings of the San-
chieh].10

Indeed, the San-chieh even went so far as to say that in this evil age, well
past the time of knowledge and learning, it is precisely the propensity to
acquire knowledge that creates the views of nihilism and eternalism because
the age for extensive learning is past.11 As the San chieh fo fa mi chi puts it,

The station of the third level is that of the attainment of false views, xed,
unchangeable, and not able to be saved by the ve divisions. This is also called
the attainment of false understandings and false practices. The Nirvana Sutra
teaches that the bhiksu Shan-hsing read, recited, and expounded the twelve
divisions of the scriptures, meditated and obtained the Buddhist path of the
four dhyanas, but he did not understand the meaning of even a single phrase or
word. He was without even the slightest good roots and hence could not avoid
slandering the Buddha.12

The part of the Mahparinirva-stra cited here comes in a section in


which Kyapa has asked the Buddha why he has declared the monk Shan-
hsing even lower than icchantika, irremediable and destined to remain in
hell many aeons. He further asks why the Buddha does not teach Shan-hsing
the saddharma: If you cannot save the bhiksu Shan-hsing, Kyapa con-
cludes, how can you be called one of great compassion and powerful skill in
means? In reply the Buddha illustrates his purpose with a number of stories
that divide the merit of children, elds, utensils, and the like into three
ranks, each of which are likened to the bodhisattva, the sravaka, and the
icchantika, respectively. In each case the Buddha declares that the superior of
the rst level takes precedence over the inferior of the third level (icchantika)
because, like seeds sown in a rocky and thorny eld, teachings given to the

10 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 115; as we have seen, the Mahayana teaching of the

universal scope is also included within the teachings for the sentient beings of the rst level.
11 San chieh fo fa, 263, 265.
12 San chieh fo fa mi chi, 75, citing the Mahparinirva-stra, T #374, 12.561c: Although
the bhiksu Shan-hsing recited the twelve divisions of the scriptures and attained the four
dhyanas he did not understand the meaning of a single verse, a single phrase, or even a single
word. Drawing near to evil friends he lost the four dhyanas; losing the four dhyanas he gave
rise to evil and false views, teaching that there is no Buddha, no dharma, and no nirvana (cf.
the 36 chan Mahparinirva-stra, T #375, 12.808a).
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 129

icchantika will not come to fruition. The Buddha then proceeds to tell a
number of stories about the bhiksu Shan-hsing that illuminate his incorrigi-
ble nature, his attempts to disrupt the sangha, and the like.13 This chapter of
the Mahparinirva-stra (one of the more frequently cited chapters of one
of the most frequently cited proof-texts in Hsin-hsings writings) is very
interesting for its discussion of the icchantika as third in a threefold division
of merit or capacity as well as for the interesting discussion of why Shan-
hsing was allowed to remain in the sangha; perhaps this is related to the dis-
cussion of the character of the sangha of the third level discussed below. As
with the sentient beings of the third level, the bottom line is that because of
his evil nature Shan-hsing cannot help but pervert even the Buddha-dharma
that he hears, twisting it until he ends up espousing heretical views.
For these reasons Hsin-hsing placed little value on detailed doctrinal
organization and ranking, instead stating that deled discourse on the dharma
was characteristic of the evils of the third level; moreover, the retribution
one could expect from such discourse was equivalent to that of killing all of
the sentient beings in the Three Thousand Great Chiliocosms.14 There are
many similar injunctions throughout the literature, but again they may all
be summed up by saying that sentient beings of the third level dare not
attempt judgements about doctrinal mattersfar better to remain silent and
rely on the Universal Dharma. Following this hermeneutic to its natural
conclusion, San-chieh followers were even enjoined to silence just as they
were well-known for taking the practice of the Bodhisattva Never-Despise to
heart, greeting everybody that they met with a bow of reverence for their
essentially enlightened nature and their future realization of that nature.
This prohibition against speech is vividly described in the biography of a
later San-chieh teacher contained in the Pelliot collection of Tun-huang
texts (Pelliot no. 2550). This text is particularly concerned to admonish the
sentient beings of the third level against speech of almost any sort, based on
the logic that if the ignorant and degenerate speak they cannot do so without
committing slander and abuse. Hence we are told that

when the master presented the dharma and [rules of] conduct to his disciples,
he forbade them all to open their mouths and had them remain silent like dead
men. Even if it reached the point that they were beaten or killed, even if they
passed through a thousand deaths, ten thousand deaths, or a million deaths,
they could not speak to defend themselves. If subjected to all sorts of punish-
ments, they could not speak to defend themselves. The only exception was that

13 T #374, 12.561a ff.


14 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 11516.
130 / universal dharma and universal sangha

they could open their mouths to eat. This continued to the ends of their lives,
and then they died like wild beasts.15

Thus too the same text tells of another follower who would not speak
except to emulate the Bodhisattva Never-Despise, crying out to those that he
met,
I deeply reverence all of you and do not dare to disparage you. You are all
walking the Way of the bodhisattvas and will become Buddhas.16

The Pure Land One Way

It is interesting to note that, faced with this same dilemma of prac-


tice in the age of the decline of the dharma, the Pure Land master Tao-cho
emended a text to show that whereas all other teachings would be ineffective
in the time of the latter dharma, the practices advocated in the Sukhvat-
vyha-stra would still be efcacious and the good dharma will faintly
remain, thus ensuring the efcacy of at least one text and one Buddha,
thereby also raising both to a position of ultimate importance.17
As mentioned in chapter 3, Tao-cho was responsible for wedding the the-
ory of mo fa to that of the Pure Land. Given the direction of the Pure Land
teachings from the beginning, such a union was natural, and Tao-cho was
quick to see the afnity of the two teachings. Possibly inuenced by the
teachings of Hsin-hsing, Tao-cho too taught that the practice must be suit-
ed to the time and capacity of the practitioner. Then, basing himself on the
Yeh tsang fen and the Sukhvatvyha-stra, Tao-cho stated that the path
that corresponded to the time and capacities of the living beings of his age
was the path of the Pure Land:

Question: If all sentient beings have the Buddha-nature, and all have undoubt-
edly met many Buddhas in the numberless kalpas since the distant past, why is
it that up until the present time they continue to revolve in samsara, and are
not able to leave the burning house?

15 Cited in Lewis, Suppression, 22324; an edition and study of this text was published by

tani Shshin in his Sangai bzenji gyj no shimatsu ni tsuite, Keij Teikoku Daigaku
bungakkai ronsan 7 (1938): 247302. Lewis further notes that Died like wild beasts may refer
to dying in silence, or it could refer to the sects practice of exposing corpses in the wild to
allow animals to feed on them (p. 236 n. 48)that is, the practice of sky burial discussed
in chapter 1.
16 Lewis, Suppression, 224.
17 Tao-cho in the An lo chi, T #1958, 47.4b; see also chapter 3.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 131

Answer: Depending on the teachings of the Mahayana sages, it is because


they have not yet gained the two surpassing teachings by which one escapes
birth and death [samsara]. What are these two?
One is called the Holy Path and the other is called Birth in Pure Land. The
Holy Path [or Path of the Sage] is difcult to obtain in this age because we are
far removed from the Great Sage [kyamuni] and because the doctrines are
deep and our understanding weak. Thus the Ta chi yeh tsang ching [fen] states
that in the time of mo fa, although myriads of sentient beings will cultivate the
practices of the path, there will not be one who will obtain [the fruits].
Now the present age is the age of mo fa, the world of the ve delements.
There is only the one gate of the Pure Land through which sentient beings can
pass and enter upon the road. Thus the Larger Sutra explains: If there is a sen-
tient being who throughout his life commits evil actions, and who, at the end
of his life, for ten thoughts continuously calls my nameif he is not born [into
my Pure Land] may I not obtain enlightenment.18

It is interesting to see the different answers given to the same question by


the two movements most concerned with the Buddhist rhetoric of its own
decline. The capacity of sentient beings is virtually nil and the traditional,
heroic path of the sages is not a possibility. There was no question about
that, and the evidence seemed to be in abundance everywhere. Yet, at the
same time, the doctrine of universal Buddha-nature was also widely
acknowledgedthe question, then, was how to realize this enlightened
nature. The answer of the Pure Land preachers was to accept the promise of
salvation extended by the Buddha Amitabha, and they taught that it was only
through such an acceptance that one could attain salvationall other paths
were far too difcult for the puny minds and capacities of the sentient beings
living in the time of the decline of the dharma. On the other hand Hsin-
hsing extended the Pure Land critique (or, rather, his esteem) to all texts and
all Buddhas and so stressed that for icchantika and beings blind to the
truthbeings of the third levelthe acceptance of and dependence on only
one aspect of the Buddha-dharma was to imply that all of the other teachings
and buddhas were less than effective and hence to commit the offense of
slandering the dharma. Therefore, as with the Universal Buddha, they
emphasized the essential and nondual truth of the dharmadhtu underlying
all scriptures and doctrines. Thus we should take refuge in all buddhas,
regardless of whether they are true buddhas or false demons; we should take
refuge in all of the teachings without distinction, heresies and secular teach-
ings as well as canonical texts; and, as we shall see, we should take refuge in
the sangha of all sentient beings, whether monks or laity and whether they

18 T #1958, 47.13c.
132 / universal dharma and universal sangha

keep the precepts or break the precepts.19 In other words, whereas the Pure
Land teachers taught a particular Buddha and dharma, Hsin-hsing advocated
a universalized response to the question of practice for sentient beings of
lowered capacity. Of course, the rhetorical nature of Hsin-hsings universal-
isma particular or specic universalmust not be forgotten.

The Refuge of the Sangha

Perhaps more doctrinally interesting and institutionally inuential


than the doctrine of the universal nature of the Buddha and the dharma was
the stance regarding the nature of the sangha of the third level. As we have
seen, Hsin-hsings view of the sentient beings of the third level was clearly
negative, and this extended to the sangha as wellthe monk who breaks the
precepts as well as holds perverse views is characteristic of the third level.
Hsin-hsing himself renounced the precepts. What did this mean for his fol-
lowers and for the institutional practice of his movement? Was his move-
ment an attempt to eliminate the distinction between sangha and laity,
between the sacred and secular? If so, does that also mean that the Three
Levels movement can best be understood in the context of Chinese lay
Buddhist associations? Could this denial of the sanctity of the sangha have
been the cause of the suppressions of his teachings? Let me begin to answer
these questions with a brief look at how the texts describe the sangha of the
rst two levels.

The Sangha of the First Level

The Practice in Accord with the Capacity, in the seven sections that
explain why the paths of liberation are not the same in each of the Three
Levels, describes the refuge of the sangha for each of the different levels:

The third [of the seven practices that lead to salvation] claries exhaustively
taking refuge in all of the sangha [of the First Level]. There are three types
within [this sangha]:
1. The sangha of all the noble bodhisattvas of the Ekayna;
2. The sangha of the commonordinary bodhisattvas of the Ekayna who
have perfected correct views and transgress neither [the precepts nor the
views];

19 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 11415.


absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 133

3. The sangha of commonordinary bodhisattvas who have perfected correct


views and, while they may break the precepts, do not transgress the
views.20

The Sangha of the Second Level

Typically, having described the rst level largely in terms of the


Ekayna, the text describes the second level largely in terms in the Triyna:

The third [of the seven practices leading to salvation] claries exhaustively tak-
ing refuge in all of the sangha [during the Second Level]. Within this there are
twelve types:
1. The sangha of all noble bodhisattvas of the Triyna;
2. The sangha of all noble pratyeka[buddhas];
3. The sangha of all noble sravakas;
4. The sangha of all commonordinary bodhisattvas of the Triyna who have
perfected correct views and violate neither the precepts nor the views;
5. The sangha of all commonordinary pratyeka[buddhas] who have per-
fected correct views and violate neither the precepts nor the views;
6. The sangha of all commonordinary sravakas who have perfected correct
views and violate neither the precepts nor the views;
7. The sangha of all commonordinary bodhisattvas of the Triyna who
have perfected correct views and who, while they may violate the pre-
cepts, do not violate the views;
8. The sangha of all commonordinary pratyekas of the Triyna who have
perfected correct views and who, while they may violate the precepts,
do not violate the views;
9. The sangha of all commonordinary sravakas of the Triyna who have
perfected correct views and who, while they may violate the precepts,
do not violate the views;
10. The sangha of all Triyna bodhisattvas, both true and false;

20 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 11213. The next item, the practice of saving sentient

beings of the rst level, further describes the capacities of this level: The fourth [of the seven
practices that lead to salvation] claries exhaustively saving all sentient beings [within the
First Level]. There are seven types [of beings to be saved]: (1) The noble bodhisattvas of the
Ekayna; (2) the commonordinary bodhisattvas of the Ekayna who have perfected correct
views and transgress neither the precepts nor the views; (3) the commonordinary bod-
hisattvas [of the Ekayna] who have perfected correct views and, while they may break the
precepts, do not transgress the views; (4) all of the sentient beings of the hells; (5) all of the
sentient beings of the preta [realm]; (6) all of the sentient beings of the animal [realm]; and
(7) all of the sentient beings of the asura realm (Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 113).
134 / universal dharma and universal sangha

11. The sangha of all commonordinary pratyekas, both true and false;
12. The sangha of all commonordinary sravakas, both true and false.21

The Sangha of the Third Level

As one would expect given the description of the sentient beings of


the third level, the sangha of the third level is comprised of both monks of
correct views as well as those monks who have thoroughly mastered per-
verted and false views.

The third section claries exhaustively taking refuge in the monastic community;
within this section there are six types:
1. The sangha that has taken the tonsure and wears the robes.
2. The sangha that is complete in the twelve kinds of perverted, false views.
3. The sangha that is complete in the twelve kinds of correct views.
4. The sangha, manifestations of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, that is
attached to the views of emptiness and existence.
5. The sangha of the universal family.22
6. The Mahayana sangha of the universal scope.23

Similarly, the sentient beings of the third level to be saved include those sen-
tient beings that have mastered the perverted and false views as well as those
of correct views.24 As noted in chapter 4, whereas breaking the precepts is

21 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 11314. The text continues with saving sentient beings

of the second level: There are sixteen [types] within the explanation of saving all sentient
beings: (1) noble bodhisattvas; (2) noble pratyekas; (3) noble sravakas; (4) commonordinary
bodhisattvas who have perfected correct views and violate neither the precepts nor the views;
(5) pratyekas [who have perfected correct views and violate neither the precepts nor the views];
(6) sravakas [who have perfected correct views and violate neither the precepts nor the
views]; (7) commonordinary bodhisattvas who have perfected correct views and who, while
they may violate the precepts, do not violate the views; (8) pratyekas [who have perfected cor-
rect views and who, while they may violate the precepts, do not violate the views]; (9)
sravakas, [who have perfected correct views and who, while they may violate the precepts, do
not violate the views]; (10) the commonordinary bodhisattvas of the Triyna, both true and
false; (11) pratyekas, [both true and false]; (12) sravakas, [both true and false]; (13) sentient beings
of hell; (14) sentient beings of the preta [realm]; (15) sentient beings of the animal [realm];
(16) sentient beings of the asura [realm], Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 11314.
22 Referring to the idea that, through countless aeons of transmigration, all sentient beings

at one time or another have been our relatives.


23 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 115. As with the Mahayana teachings of the universal

scope of the rst and third levels, this seems to refer to the practice of seeing all sentient
beings as belonging to the Mahayana.
24Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 115; to the list of six types of sangha-refuge are added
the beings of the hungry ghost, animal, and asura realms.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 135

common to all levels, breaking the precepts and harboring false views are the
hallmark of sentient beings of the third level. But how can monks and nuns
who are unable to keep the precepts and espouse views that oppose the
teachings of the Buddha really be considered the jewel-like treasure of the
monastic community whose very existence benets all living beings? In what
sense can we even talk about the refuge of the sangha as a spiritually distinct
community and hence appropriate refuge for beings of the third level?
In asserting that the sangha of the third level includes the monks of per-
verted and false views, some have asserted that Hsin-hsing was attempting to
blur the line between sangha and laity, an important consideration given the
continued development of this trend in Japan. Indeed, there is much in his
teachings that supports such an interpretation.
Among the elements that comprise this tradition we should take note of
the general Mahayana rhetoric that honored the bodhisattva ideal over that
of the arhat, included the laity among the audience of the Mahayana scrip-
tures, and the like.25 Along with the various aspects of the Mahayana usually
cited in this regard, though, it is particularly the practice of dna, or giving,
that was important to the San-chieh movement, as discussed below in chap-
ter 7. Dna, of course, had traditionally been the exclusive practice of the
laity, the practice whereby they supported the renunciant sangha and thereby
attained merit that would result in a superior rebirth. In the Mahayana, how-
ever, dna is understood to be the rst of the six perfections that the bodhi-
sattva cultivates, and the recipient was not necessarily the monastic community
but included the poor and suffering as well. Hence, as the outow of the
bodhisattvas compassionate desire to aid sentient beings, dna in its many
forms was elevated from an inferior merit-generating practice to a practice
that manifests the bodhisattvas inexhaustible wisdom qua inexhaustible
compassion. In addition to this generalized Mahayana teaching, the practice
of dna was given a unique systematization in the Hsiang fa cheh i ching, a
scripture of Chinese origin that is one of the most oft-cited in the San-chieh
manuscripts.26 One of the unusual (though not unprecedented) claims in
the Hsiang fa cheh i ching is that the proper object of religious tithing is not
the monastic community but the poor, orphaned, sick, and destitute.27

25 The relationship between this rhetoric and the institutional reality is as yet a controver-

sial topic; hence I think it prudent to discuss the lay component of early Mahayana in terms
of its rhetorical, polemic, or literary thrust rather than as necessarily indicating an institu-
tional reality. As with the San-chieh movement, it appears that most of the proponents of the
lay ideals were in fact precept-following monks.
26 T #2870, 85.1335c1338c; see also Tokuno, A Case Study of Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha

and The Book of Resolving Doubts.


27 Perhaps inuencing the San-chieh practice of revering even animals as future buddhas,

the Hsiang fa cheh i ching also asserted that Even if a person, over an innite number of
136 / universal dharma and universal sangha

Hsin-hsing seized upon this idea as the foundation of the Inexhaustible


Storehouse, the famous charitable institution that I discuss in the next two
chapters. Here I will only note that the institution of the Inexhaustible Store-
house, centered around the converted mansion of Kao Chiung, statesman
and nance minister of the Sui dynasty, attracted laity as well as members of
the renunciant community, including members of the powerful Pei family
and Empress Wu. Finally, it should be remembered that, although Hsin-hsing
was given a place in Tao-hsans Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks,
he had in fact renounced the precepts though he continued to live as a monk.28
Still, as we shall see, Hsin-hsing did not really attempt to eliminate the
distinction between monastic and layrather, he came from a strong
Vinaya tradition and was adamant about the need for strict vigilance of the
precepts. Why, then, does the sangha of the third level include those who
both break the precepts and maintain false views? As with Hsin-hsings
emphasis on dna, this harshly critical estimation of the sangha of the third
level may simply be the natural outcome of believing that the predictions of
the decline of the dharma (discussed in chapters 2 and 3) had actually come
to pass, replete with the various signs of moral, institutional, and doctrinal
decay that those sources predicted. In the Aoka-avadna versions of the dis-
appearance of the teaching, for example, the head of the sangha laments the
difculty of nding anybody who can fully maintain the precepts in the time
after the Buddhas passing.29 The depictions of the sangha found in the
Hsiang fa cheh i ching were particularly inuential in guiding Hsin-hsings
reaction to the monastic decay of the times, especially that texts criticism of
the practices of special invitations (singling out individual monks as pri-
vate or individual recipients of the donors municence) and donating new
buildings and images to the sangha rather than repairing the old.
The Hsiang fa cheh i ching and other texts criticized the monks who were
lax in their discipline rather than afrming them as the refuge, and thus still
represent the production strata of the decline tradition anxious to restore
proper discipline. Hsin-hsing, however, teaching the reality of the decline,
proclaimed those very monks and nuns incapable of keeping the precepts to
be the actual refuge of the sangha, the refuge appropriate for third level. As

lives, were to make offerings to all the buddhas of the ten directions, and all of the bodhi-
sattvas and disciples, it would not be as good as a person giving a mouthful of food and drink
to an animal. The merit accruing therefrom is superior to the former by one million or ten
million times, immeasurably and innitely. T #2870, 85.1336a, cited in Tokuno, The Book
of Resolving Doubts, 262.
28 See Mark Lewis, Suppressions, 21621, for his analysis of how the San-chieh teachings

removed the distinction between monk and layman.


29 T #99, 2.179ab; T #2042, 50.127bc.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 137

with the refuge of the dharma for the sentient beings of the third level, the
rationale was that at the essential level all partake of the enlightened nature
of the noble community of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and at the conven-
tional level sentient beings of the third level are not capable of distinguishing
the true monk from the false. Thus the Three Levels teaching on how one is
to tithe to the monastic community, one of the sixteen practices of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse, claims that donors should not only contribute to
the corrupt monks but they should do so rst:

The third [of the sixteen practices of the Inexhaustible Storehouse] is the study
of making inexhaustible offerings to the sangha; this consists in universally
making offerings without questioning whether the members observe the pre-
cepts or transgress the precepts.
Commentary: This means universally offering in one moment, not only to those
who hold the precepts but also to those who break the precepts. According to
the Ta chi yeh tsang fen ching it is also necessary to make offerings rst to
those who break the precepts or are without the precepts.30 The teaching of the
Meditation Master [Hsin-hsing] led the donors, teaching them to rst give to
the community of monks who give offense and later offer to the monks who
request [offerings]. Why is this? The community of offending monks does not
rely on the precepts, and this means that it is breaking the precepts. If the
donor is not able to give to the community of monks who offend in their prac-
tice of the Buddha-dharma, then this is [not] the superior [practice].31 If [the
monks] desire to receive [the offerings of] the alms-giver and request [that they
receive offerings] rst, [you should] inquire as to whether or not they have
taken in the offending community [of monks]. If not, [then you should] say that
you cannot [make offerings to them] and you should not receive their requests.32

As radical as this might seem, it is neither without precedent nor without


inuence beyond Hsin-hsings community. Hsin-hsings position actually
forms but one link in a chain of argument that sought to explain or excuse
the presence in the sangha of monks who were less than stellar exemplars of
purity, probably as a defensive move in the face of criticism from various
quarters, lay supporters no less than secular authority.33 Another Buddhist

30 See Appendix C, note 63.


31 This is a tentative translation. The text is damaged at this point, indicating one missing
character preceding chao to go beyond, which I have rendered as superior.
32 Commentary on the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 176; see Appendix C.
33 For an interesting description of a sort of self-regulating mechanism whereby the sangha
itself, due to its recruiting successes, tried to control the number of monks who sought ton-
sure purely for worldly gain, see Torkel Brekke, The Early Sagha and the Laity, Journal of
the International Association of Buddhist Studies 20/2 (1997): 732.
138 / universal dharma and universal sangha

tradition that seemed to support this rationalization was that of the glutton-
ous monk Pi^ola, well known in China from such texts as the Ching Pin-
tou-lu fa,34 the Ta a lo han Nan-ti-mi-to-lo so shuo fa chu chi,35 and other
texts and traditions translated from Indian originals as well as texts composed
in China.36 John Strong has shown how Pi^ola, one of the sixteen arhats
whose mandate was to remain as a eld of merit during the period of the
decline of the dharma, represents both ascetic tendencies and the appearance
of gluttony, attracting meritorious donations and thereby serving as a pi^a-
laya, a storehouse for alms-food and an unsurpassed source of merit.37
This is well symbolized by the constant presence of his begging bowl in his
representations as well as the empty seat prepared for him in the refectory
and his role in the paca-vrika sponsored by Aoka.38 Related also to his
reputation for gluttony is the well-known story of his breaking the monastic
precepts through a display of his superpowers, specically ying through the
air to grab a begging bowl from atop a high bamboo pole.39 A nal aspect of
his legend that relates to the San-chieh movement is the fact that Pi^ola,
prohibited from entering nirvana and enjoined to remain as a Field of Merit
during the latter dharma (=),40 is identied as one willing and able to dis-
pel doubts about the dharma, iconographically symbolized by the book that
he carries and the appellation Lion-Roarer. In other words, the dharma
persists in Pi^ola even during the latter teaching, much as the Lotus allows
continued access even in the time of the destruction of the dhama.
According to Strong, then, the various legends of Pi^ola address the fact
that some individuals in the Sangha could hardly be said to be paragons of
monastic discipline and restraint [thus] the thrust of the story is to
enjoin the making of offerings to monks who, whatever their reputation or
appearance, are actually worthy recipients of dna. [The] intent is to com-
bat the doubts of those who, in this profane age, would question the quali-
ties of the bhiku. [T]he nal claim is that despite appearances, Pi^ola
(and Buddhist monks after him) are possibly already powerful enlightened
individuals and hence t foci for devotion.41 The elements of the Pi^ola

34 T #1689, translation attributed to Hui-chien in the fth century.


35 T #2030, translated by Hsan-tsang in 654.
36Cf. John Strong, The Legend of the Lion-Roarer, 52 ff. for discussions and English
translations of these scriptures; see also above, chapter 3, n. 26.
37 Strong, The Legend of the Lion-Roarer, 66.
38Strong, The Lion-Roarer, 81 ff; see below for the history of maigre feasts sponsored at
the Hua-tu ssu.
39 Strong, The Lion-Roarer, 71 ff.
40 T #1689, 32.784b.
41 Strong, The Lion-Roarer, 67-68, 75.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 139

storythe age of decline, the seemingly corrupt monk who is in reality an


enlightened being, the focus on dna and the monks begging for alms-food,
and Pi^olas association with asceticismall t extremely well with San-
chieh teachings, especially with their doctrine of the Universal Buddha that
sees all sentient beings as enlightened buddhas even though they break the
precepts and harbor false views. Indeed, just as followers of the San-chieh
bowed to all they met and declared their Buddhahood, Aoka is reputed to
have exclaimed upon meeting Pi^ola, Seeing you now, I see the Tathgata
and by this sight my faith has been doubled.42 There are also, of course, a
number of important differences between the Pi^ola tradition and the San-
chieh assertion that it is the corrupt and false monks who comprise the sang-
ha of the third level, the most important of which is that Pi^ola is, after all,
an arhat who only appears to be gluttonous and breaking the precepts,
whereas the San-chieh taught that the sangha of the third level actually is
thoroughly corrupted.43 Of course, this is a moot point, considering that the
prejudices of the sentient beings of the third level prevented them from
accurate discernment in either case. Nonetheless, the rhetorical point had
been scored: in the time of the decline of the dharma it is not necessarily an
outward appearance of rigorous adherence to the precepts that is the deter-
miner of the true renunciantthe reality is much more subtle. This logic
was carried even further in the Japanese tradition, however, especially as
seen in the Mapp tmyki.
Going the other way in both time and geography, the Mapp tmyki,
The Candle of the Latter Dharma, is a text attributed to Saich that played
an important role in the formation of the decline tradition in Japan and was
quoted extensively by Hnen and Shinran (and criticized by Nichiren and
Eisai).44 Quoting from many of the same canonical sources deployed by
Hsin-hsing, the text argues that it is really only in the time of the True
Dharma [that] the bhiku who breaks the precepts deles the pure sangha
because in the time of the decline of the dharma the monks and nuns will
not be able to keep the precepts and will be renunciants in name only.
During the time of the latter dharma, therefore, the monks who break the
precepts and the monk without the precepts are both True Treasures [i.e.,
the true sangha-refuge].45 Another echo of Hsin-hsings teachings is found

42 From the Aoka-avadna, cited in Strong, The Lion-Roarer, 85.


43 Interesting in this regard is the Chinese version of the Kaumb story, which uniquely
contains an injunction to give to the monastic community even if they break the precepts; cf.
Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, p. 182.
44 For a tranlsation and discussion of the Mapp tmyki see Robert F. Rhodes, Saichs

Mapp Tmyki, The Eastern Buddhist (New Series) 13/1 (1980): 79103.
45 Ibid., 94.
140 / universal dharma and universal sangha

in the Mapp tmykis critique of the monastic practices of alms-seeking


and receiving special invitations from the laity.46 Finally, similar to Hsin-
hsings decision to abandon the precepts while living as a monk, commen-
taries by Shin sect scholars agree that the teaching that the monk without the
precepts is the true monk of the Latter Dharma expressed in the Candle of
the Latter Dharma was inuential in Shinrans decision to openly marry and
declare himself neither monk nor layman.47 One of the most intriguing
aspects of the Mapp tmyki is that it is apparently a reaction to various
imperial edicts aimed at controlling the sangha, leading me to wonder what,
if any, similar motivations informed Hsin-hsings rhetoric of the corrupt
monks as the true refuge? Of course, as with the legend of Pi^ola, we need
to exercise due care in assessing the inuence of or continuities between the
teachings of the San-chieh and the Mapp tmyki, especially given their dif-
fering origins and systematizations of the decline tradition. Still, as con-
sumers of a decline tradition that prophesied the advent of a corrupt sangha,
both did take the logical next step when they proclaimed such to be the real-
ity of the monastic order, but the less obvious move of declaring such a cor-
rupt sangha to be the true refuge as well perhaps indicates the inuence of
San-chieh teachings in Japan. Did this mean, then, that the members of the
Three Levels communities lived a thoroughly secular or hedonistic lifestyle,
doing what they wanted and ignoring all of the monastic rules, free to do as
they wished with neither remorse nor retribution? Indeed, given such a
characterization of the true monk, the true refuge of the sangha, why would
anybody even make an attempt to follow the precepts?

The Sangha of the Third Level:


recognizing evil and practicing virtue

One of the most common problems for any religious system that
would posit such a thorough nonduality or identity of the true and the pro-
fane is how to validate the need for religious practice, practice that can only
be based on the recognition or discrimination of differences in purity and
impurity and moral judgements about good and evil. The nondualthat is,
the not-one, not-two relation described in the refuge of the Universal
Buddhais not a simple, unidirectional reductionism. Non-duality is not
monism. For example, as we have seen, at the same time we are exhorted to
revere all sentient beings with the thought that they are fully enlightened
buddhas, we are also told to save all sentient beings, activity that would

46 Ibid., 102.
47 Ibid., 84.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 141

not be necessary if the phenomenal fact of suffering sentient beings were lost
in a monistic blur of absolute truth.48 Thus, at the same time that the uni-
versality of the pure nature is proclaimed, the particulars of the manifesta-
tion, that is to say, the degenerate sentient beings of the third level, are not
overlooked.49 So in an interesting turn Hsin-hsing taught that the comple-
ment of universal respect and the universally pervasive Buddha-nature is the
recognition of evil ().50 This is to say that, while the practitioner of the
third level was told to view others as none other than buddhas, they were to
view themselves as thoroughly evil, recognizing their own capacity as inferior
to all other sentient beings. One list therefore gives universal respect as the
rst of the practices appropriate for the third level, followed by the recogni-
tion of evil. In further clarication the text then explains that universal
respect is for everybody other than oneself:

The sixth item is the Buddha-dharma of one person and one practice. One per-
son refers to seeing oneself alone as an evil person. One practice is as taught in
the Lotus Sutra, wherein the Bodhisattva Never-Despise only cultivated one
practice, that of respecting everybody other than himself as the Tathagata-
garbha [Buddha], Buddha-nature [Buddha], Future Buddha, and Perceived
Buddha.51

Thus the teaching of recognizing evil is but the other side of universal
respect, the side that validates religious practice, the side that returns to the
negative estimation of the degenerate beings of the third level described in
chapter 4: the docile, silent, and community-oriented mute sheep monks.
Hence the Chih fa, a recently discovered manual of Three Levels community
regulations, states that the head of the community is to be a monk who, in
addition to other qualications (discussed below)

should always see himself and speak of himself as thoroughly evil, and never
think of himself or speak of himself as virtuous; he should, however, always see
others and speak of others as virtuous, and never think of others or speak of
others as evil. Why is this? It is because all of the perverted sentient beings who
have realized false views take all of the truly virtuous people, teachings, under-
standings [true liberative practices that people teach?] and practices as false
people, teachings, understandings, and practices and take all of the false people,

48 Okabe, Buddhakan, 270.


49 The San-chieh notion of the Universal Dharma, however, did not lend itself to such a
recognition of the relevance of particular teachings, and the strident criticism inherent in
their one-way hermeneutic is often cited as a reason for their suppression.
50 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 13132.
51 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 13233.
142 / universal dharma and universal sangha

teachings, understandings, and practices to be truly virtuous people, teachings,


understandings, and practices.52

In other words, it is the biased views that people hold that will prevent
them from accurate discrimination of true from false, right from wrong even
with regard to self and otherthose of the third level cannot even be trusted
to accurately judge themselves! The implications of this for the actual prac-
tice of Hsin-hsings communities are fascinating and constitute another
remarkable facet of the San-chieh chronicle that, as with so much of their
doctrine, places them not outside of the orthodoxy but squarely within the
main currents of late Northern Dynasties, Sui, and Tang Buddhism. What
sort of practices did Hsin-hsing and those who subscribed to his ideas do in
their day-to-day training? Just what did these evil sentient beings of the third
level actually do? From the scant records we have it would seem that they
did pretty much what most Chinese Buddhists of the time did, that is, live in
a regulated monastic setting in which they engaged in a daily regimen of
liturgy (typically including veneration of the buddhas, offerings, repentance,
taking refuge, dedication of merit, and vows), practiced seated meditation
(on such esoteric topics as the emptiness that is the emptiness of nonexistence
and the emptiness of form), begged for food and cultivated other austerities
(the dhta practices), interacted with the laity (including bestowing lay pre-
cepts), studied the scriptures, and composed texts. The full study of this
fascinating aspect of Hsin-hsings communities is beyond the scope of the
present work; a brief introduction to the subject is, however, in order.

The Pure Practice of Corrupt Monks

Our sources for the study of the actual life of the Three Levels com-
munities are sparse, consisting primarily of the various biographies of Hsin-
hsing, his followers and sympathizers, secular records relating to the
Inexhaustible Storehouse and its headquarters in the Chang-an temple of
the Hua-tu ssu (detailed in chapter 8), the various handbooks of San-chieh
liturgical, confessional, and penitential rite (different recensions of the Seven
Roster Buddhanma), contemplation manuals, and, most importantly, Pelliot
#2849, the above-mentioned Chih fa, perhaps authored by Hsin-hsing himself.53

52 Chih fa, 579; lest one get the impression that such a head monk would be of little use in

guiding the community, it should be noted that the Chih fa specically notes that these warn-
ings do not apply when he is admonishing the monks or administering discipline.
53 An overview of many of the biographical sources can be found in Jamie Hubbard,

Salvation in the Final Period, 320330; see also Hubbard, Chinese Reliquary Inscriptions
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 143

On a perusal of these materials, the rst thing that becomes apparent is


that in spite of the rhetoric of the debased sangha and in spite of Hsin-
hsings own example of abandoning the precepts, the fact of the matter is
that Hsin-hsing and his followers highly respected the monastic institutions
and were strict in their observance of codes and punishment of infractions.
No doubt this partly reects what Jan Nattier has dubbed the we-try-harder
response to the lowered capacity for practice, for such a situation requires
additional efforts by would-be Buddhist practitioners (efforts that fall within
traditional frameworks) if there is to be any hope at all of reaching the
goal.54 Probably at least as important, however, is the simple fact that Hsin-
hsing inherited a Buddhist tradition of practice that itself emphasized pre-
cepts, austerities, and monastic rigor, not uncommon in Chinese Buddhism
of the time. He sought the precepts from Hui-tsan, for example, a teacher
noted for his seated meditation practice, study of the Vinaya, strict vigilance
of the precepts, and cultivation of the fang teng repentance rite, all characteris-
tics of Hsin-hsing and his followers as well as of Chih-i, Tao-cho, and others
of the time.55
Likewise, Hsin-hsings return to lay status should probably be seen not as
an indication that he wished to eliminate the difference between renunciant
and lay but rather as a sign of his respect for the precepts, either because he
felt that if he could not follow the precepts he should abandon them or, as
Nishimoto has recently suggested, because of his propensity for labor and
desire to benet both the Field of Merit (the Buddha, dharma, and sangha)
as well as the Field of Compassion (needy sentient beings).56 Thus, too, the
majority of Hsin-hsings followers and those later associated with the move-
ment were monks whose eminence is indicated not only by the simple fact

and Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky,, esp. 3445; the most up-to-date and complete account of
these biographical materials is in Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 25154. Perhaps the most remarkable
evidence for the actual practices of the Three Levels comes from a recently discovered San-
chieh manuscript (Pelliot 2849) containing three separate texts: a manual of San-chieh
monastic regulations, the Chih fa in one chan, rules for begging food (Chi shih fa
F7), and a manual for receiving the eight precepts (Shou pa chieh fa 1kw) in one
chan. My attention was rst drawn to this remarkable manuscript by Daniel Stevenson, who
briey discussed it in The Tien-tai Four Forms, 27880; since then, Nishimoto has also
studied the text and published an edition of the manuscript; see Nishimoto Teruma,
Sangaiky, 40774 and 578601.
54 Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 137; see also Lewis, Suppressions, 21013.
55T #2060, 50.575b; see also chapter 1, 78 and 24. On the practice of the fang teng repen-
tance see Stevenson, The Tien-tai Four Forms, 8294; on the role of fang teng in preceptual
traditions see ibid., 18688; on repentance in the San-chieh eight-precept ceremony see the
Shou pa chieh fa, 59599; Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 45966.
56 Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 56.
144 / universal dharma and universal sangha

that their biographies were recorded, but also because many, such as Seng-
yung and Pen-chi, were given the title Chan shih ,, Master of Meditation,
while others, such as Ching-ming, are referred to as Fa shih , Master of
the Teaching, and yet other San-chieh monks were accorded the title of Ta te
, Great Virtue (Skt. bhadanta), one of the highest monastic titles in the
land.57 According to the Chih fa the monk appointed to oversee San-chieh
communitiesthough regarding himself as evil and others as virtuouswas
in fact required to be virtuous himself, to cultivate the dhta practices and
the seated meditation of the formless samadhi (wu hsiang san mei [oX*),
and to have never violated the precepts since becoming a monk. Similarly,
those appointed to oversee the Inexhaustible Storehouse were always said to
be well known and, in one rather ironic case, was a monk reputed to be
diligent in the cultivation of the precepts.58 Laxness in the community was
clearly not permitted; being late to the practice hall, speaking out of turn or
during practice, or breaching the etiquette of hierarchy were all singled out
as punishable offenses, and expulsion from the community was deemed
appropriate for some infractions (see below, 14547, and note 64). None of
this indicates a belief that traditional monastic practices, particularly obser-
vance of the precepts, were no longer thought to be possible.59 Although
Hsin-hsing returned to lay status, the regard in which he was held by his fol-
lowers led them not to abandon the precepts but rather to be strict in their
observance. Indeed, the Chih fa manual of San-chieh community regulations
specically prohibits those who have discarded the precepts from even joining
the community and requires the expulsion of any who might have already
done so or may simply be thinking about doing so.60 The preceptual tradition
was apparently important for lay followers as well, and the Chih fa advocates

57 For Seng-yung see T #2060, 50.583c; for Pen-chi see T #2060, 50.578a; Hui-liao and Fa-

tsang were two San-chieh monks accorded the title of Ta te; see chapter 8 and Hubbard,
Chinese Reliquary Inscriptions, 26769.
58 See chapter 8, 202203.
59 Chih fa, 579.
60 Chih fa, 58889. An important distinction is made for those who abandoned the precepts
prior to the promulgation of the Chih fa regulations, provided that they did so according to
the Vinaya and under the direction of a monastic teacher (shih seng R, preceptor?)an
exception made, perhaps, by Hsin-hsing for himself or for others forcibly defrocked in the
persecution of 574577? Compare the diametrically opposed rhetoric in the biography of the
anonymous Meditation Master of the San-chieh whose teachings led his followers to aban-
don their precepts, although here too it was clearly not the denigration of the precepts but
rather the weight or importance attached to the precepts that led to the monks feeling
impure or unworthy of lay dna and hence felt that they should return to lay statusthat is,
they felt that they were not worthy to be one who receives offerings, the literal meaning of
bhiksu; Pelliot 2550, Tun huang pao tsang, 122.60a; see also the edition in tani Shshin,
Sangai bzenji, lines 93, 131, 144, 212.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 145

fellowship with those who have taken the ve precepts, the eight precepts,
the two hundred and fty precepts, and the bodhisattva precepts; the same
manuscript also contains the Shou pa chieh fa 1kw in one chan, Hsin-
hsings manual for administering the eight precepts to the laity.61
So, too, the constant association of San-chieh followers with the austeri-
ties of the dhta, various liturgical, repentance, and meditation practices
(in the evil world after the Buddhas extinction all of the evil home-departed
ones should only take seated meditation as their foundation)62 belies the
notion that they forsook the disciplined life or saw no distinction to be made
between monastic and lay life or among different practitioners; these prac-
tices also place them well within the norms of Northern Dynasties Buddhist
practice.63 But should we not expect that the institutional organization of
the Three Levels would eliminate distinctions and ranking not only between
lay and monastic but also among the various practitioners themselves, based
upon either the doctrinal rhetoric of universal Buddha-nature or, conversely,
the universal degeneracy of the third level sentient beings? After all, are not
all sentient beings either already enlightened buddhas or else monks in name
only, monks who are more characterized by their infractions and prejudice
than by their virtue? Although we might think that these doctrines would
lead to a utopian or egalitarian community characterized by a removal of
distinctions or attening of difference among the practitioners, such does
not appear to be the case with the organizational structure of the Three
Levels movement. In factand in keeping with the rhetoric of the pu fa that
was as exclusive or particular as the pieh fathe institutional practice of the
Three Levels seems rather to have enforced distinctions according to ability,
hierarchies or ranks according to practice, and separation of community
members according to capacity and training as well as for punitive purposes.64

61 Chih fa, 581; see also the Shou pa chieh fa, 595600; the manual actually includes nine pre-

cepts; see Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 45965.


62 Chih fa, 581; a large portion of the Chih fa is devoted to detailed instructions on seated

meditation practice.
63 Regarding the dhta practices, for example, a perusal of the historical records quickly

reveals that Chih-i and Hui-tsan are only a few of the many monks said to have cultivated the
dhta practices; many questions remain, however (for example, did they actually practice all
twelve or thirteen dhta or only a subset)in other words, did dhta function less literally
and more as a trope to signify rigorous practice, etc. A more thorough study of these practices
in the Chinese context would no doubt be very revealing. For similarities between the liturgical
and prayer/meditation practices of Hsin-hsing, Chih-i and other contemporaneous Buddhist
monks see Stevenson, The Tien-tai Four Forms, 17072, 18288, 26481, passim; Tang
Yung-tung has also shown how San-chieh ideas and practices in general reect the Buddhism
of the Northern Dynasties; see his Han Wei liang chin nan pei chao Fo chiao shih, 81720.
64 For a comparison of the San-chieh and Tien-tai disciplinary procedures and other com-

munity regulations see Nishimotos study of the Chih fa manual of San-chieh community
146 / universal dharma and universal sangha

Thus, as with the opening lines of Chih-is manual of community regu-


lations,65 the opening lines of the Chih fa declare that because there are
distinctions in the noble teachings, the communities must henceforth be
distinguished according to understanding and practice; accordingly, the
monks of the San-chieh community are to be separated from the community
of monks of wisdom and they are not to come together as an entire assembly
except for the twice-monthly recitation of the precepts and universal gath-
erings (pu chu 3).66 It is perhaps here that we see the origins of the San-
chieh subtemples or cloisters whose existence was prohibited in 725. 67
Because sentient beings of the third level are not all of the same capacity
there are distinctions in the way that meditation is to be practiced within the
San-chieh community:

The capacities of the ordinary people who live after the extinction of the
Buddha, the evil sentient beings of the evil time and the evil world, are not the
same. There are those of the superior [capacity], middle, and the lowest of the
low; because there are differences in capacity there are likewise differences in
the practice of visualization (kuan hsing ).68

The text proceeds to outline the various differences in visualization prac-


tice for the different capacities before moving on to proper decorum for the
Visualization Hall (Kuan Fo tang M}), guidelines for the hall monitor,
liturgical forms for offering and repentance ceremonies, procedures for beg-
ging, rules for receiving visitors, and instructions on observing the proper
hierarchies in seating arrangements as well as in the well-known San-chieh
practice of greeting people according to the practice of the Bodhisattva
Never-Despise (even in this greeting of universal homage the regimen and

regulations in Sangaiky, 40773, esp. 45259. See also Stevenson, Some Congurations of
Devotional Cult Usage, 1120, who also shows how the organizational structure of San-chieh
community life resembles that of the Tien-tai community. Although the Chih fa has given
us some sense of San-chieh cultus-based organization, we are still lacking a good sense of
San-chieh ecclesiastic structure.
65 Li chih fa, T #1934, 46.793c.
66 The Three Levels monks are referred to as the congregation of mute sheep monks (ya
yang seng chung RL; Chih fa, 578); see above, chapter 4, 8891. I take this injunction to
separate the Three Levels monks from the monks of wisdom to be referring to the practice of
maintaining separate San-chieh quarters (cloisters or subtemples, San-chieh yan X), in
which the monks of the mute sheep community lived; the monks of wisdom would then
refer to the larger temple community; the whole of the Chih fa seems to be addressing the
monks of the mute sheep community. On the San-chieh yan see chapter 8, 21415; on
mute sheep see Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 308, 41012, 41417.
67 See chapter 8, 214-15.
68 Chih fa, 582.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 147

hierarchy of superior and inferior must always be observed). As with the


other procedures detailed in the Chih fa, the penalty for not observing the
proper hierarchy in greeting is also given, in this case segregation or removal
from the congregation to a different place of practice, regardless of whether
the offender is a monk or a layperson.69 Other discipline to be meted out for
infractions of the regulations include: added prostrations for being late for
practice; 100 penalty prostrations (fa li pai pai s r/s0) for talking in
the Visualization Hall and, after three infractions, removal from the hall; 100
prostrations for not entering or leaving the Hall according to the proper eti-
quette; 100 prostrations for being out of line when doing prostrations;
expulsion from the community for speaking of the faults and merits of
others.70 In short, the overwhelming impression conveyed by the regulations
of the Chih fa is that the San-chieh community was very much in step with
other monastic communities of the time, which is to say rigorous in its atti-
tude towards precept and practice. In any case, San-chieh teachings certainly
did not advocate slighting the precepts or the monastic community, aban-
doning the regulated life of the monastery, or eliminating the distinctions of
monastic hierarchy.

Summary

One of the frequent charges leveled against the notion that all sen-
tient beings possess the nature of a Buddha is that it leads to precisely the
sort of position taken by Hsin-hsing, i.e., all beings are buddhas at this very
moment. Such a position was seen to deny the facts of ignorance and suffer-
ing and thereby obviate the need for practice, resulting in a lack of integrity
at the personal, institutional, and social levels. Hsin-hsing, however, seems
to argue that nonduality does not at all entail a ight into a thoroughly non-
specic realm but fully and simultaneously includes the world of discrimi-
nated phenomena, the realm of ignorance, the reality of the suffering
incurred by sentient beings due to that ignorance, and the various and dif-
ferent capacities and inclinations of those sentient beings. Hence there are
numerous different practices offered within the San-chieh community to
accord with a variety of different needs. The nonduality of the dilemma
the pure Buddha-nature that is the reality of each and every sentient being of
the third level while yet they are simultaneously characterized as thoroughly
evilis refracted as the duality of the solution: universal respect for the
essentially enlightened nature of all phenomena while yet recognizing the

69 Chih fa, 58889.


70 For a comparison with Tien-tai disciplinary measures see Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 45254.
148 / universal dharma and universal sangha

evil of ones own deluded existence. Recognition of ones own deciencies


is what allows for the possibility, indeed, the necessity, of religious practice.
In the case of Hsin-hsing and his followers this practice looked to an
increased awareness of the need for rigorous monastic practice, and particu-
lar emphasis was placed on renunciation and charity. Thus, just as their lev-
eling of all doctrine in the Universal Dharma (pu fa) should be under-
stood not as actually denying doctrinal distinctions (pieh fa) or actually
afrming all teachings as equal but rather a rhetorical strategy aimed at legit-
imating their own particular and specic doctrine so, too, their teachings on
the monk who neither holds the precepts nor has a correct understanding of
the dharma did not mean that their own communities were lacking in tradi-
tional monastic regimen, including strict observance of the precepts, seated
meditation, and liturgical rite, or that they disregarded different levels of
understanding or were egalitarian or bereft of hierarchy in their social
organization. Interesting, thoughand perhaps in keeping with the parallel
structure of universal respect and recognizing evilis that at the same time
that Hsin-hsing taught a rigorous monastic life for his own community he
also offered an easy path for the commonordinary people of the third
level. Based on the radical relation of all beings and all phenomena as
described in the Hua-yen Sutra, this easy path was given institutional form
as the Inexhaustible Storehouse, one of the more spectacular examples of a
Buddhist charitable institution. What was the Inexhaustible Storehouse,
how was it doctrinally and institutionally constituted, and how did it work
to provide access to an economy of salvation for sentient beings of the
third level? These questions are the subject of part four.
7.
Form is Emptiness, and Emptiness Sucks

P arts one, two, and three of this study have considered Hsin-
hsings teachings in terms of the eschatological mood so dominant in
Northern Chinese Buddhism and the universalism that became a prominent
feature of Sui-Tang Buddhism. Although both of these aspects rmly root
his teachings in the concerns of the times, nothing more clearly indicates
how representative they are than the doctrinal and institutional history of
the Inexhaustible Storehouse and the chronicle of its home, the Hua-tu
Temple in the capital city of Chang-an. The Inexhaustible Storehouse,
founded during the short-lived Sui dynasty, functioned as a charitible lend-
ing institution for people in need and a site of San-chieh cultus and institu-
tion; it was also the focus of several of the imperial suppressions that they
experienced ve times before the year 725. Historical records tell us that peo-
ple ocked from all over the empire and vied for the chance to donate goods
to the Storehouse. These goods were then lent to the needy at no interest
and with no receipt, to be returned when the recipient was able. How did the
Inexhaustible Storehouse t into the doctrinal structure outlined above?
At the doctrinal level, the Inexhaustible Storehouse was an ingenious
answer to the soteriological dilemma of sentient beings of the third level
through a concrete practice of the universalism of the Hua-yen Sutra notion
of the Bodhisattvas inexhaustible storehouse of compassion and the non-
duality of the Vimalakrtis skillful activities on the behalf of suffering beings.
Of course, no religious doctrine or practice exists outside of social context,
and so, on a more institutional level, the Inexhaustible Storehouse utilized
certain monastic regulations contained in the Vinaya to realize a charitable
foundation in the general Chinese tradition of social welfare yet articulated
within the framework of ultimate Buddhist concerns, a blending that proved
extremely popular. On a cultic level, the Inexhaustible Storehouse of the
Hua-tu ssu provided a focus for the practice of the Hsin-hsings followers, a
cultic center apparently not amenable to a different physical or charismatic
location as even Empress Wus attempts to duplicate its success ended in
failure. At a yet broader level, the Inexhaustible Storehouse can be seen as a
response to certain developments in the organization of Buddhist temples
and patrons that reect the tensions born of structural changes in the newly

151
152 / part four

urban, currency-based economy of the North in the fth and sixth centuries.
Particularly within this latter aspect we are able see many of the techniques
of organization, both legal and cultic, that Hsin-hsing employed but that
were not unique to his teachings. These issues are the subject of chapter 7.
Finally, chapter 8 gives a history of the institutional base of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse in the capital city temple of the Hua-tu ssu, the one-time home
of the Sui nance minister, and later in the family ancestral temple of
Empress Wu in Loyang, both sites bespeaking another level of a movement
more typically thought to be aligned with the Pure Land movements as a
movement of the people. Here, too, I attempt an answer to (or evasion of)
the question of why they were labeled heretical and proscribed by imperial
edict.
7.
Practice for the Degenerate:
The Inexhaustible Storehouse

A s with the apocalyptic strain already described, the pious gift


that supports religious institutions and guarantees their expansion has been
a feature of virtually all societies throughout history. Indian religions in gen-
eral and Buddhism in particular have been no exception to this rule. The
Buddhist scriptures abound with stories of such charity and the rewards it
brought, and history has left us ample evidence of the municence with
which the Buddhist faithful supported the sangha. The well-known grove of
Jetavana, the magnicent temple-complex of Borobudur, the lavish temples
of Pulguk-sa near Kyongju, and the modernistic headquarters of the Reiy-
kai in downtown Tokyo all evince the power of the Buddhist model of
donating to the sangha as well as to the fervor with which the pious
Buddhist gave. Although we have generally moved beyond the Weberian
legacy that considered Buddhism a form of mysticism outside of worldly
concerns, we still tend to be surprised by the extent of the normative appro-
bation for economic activities as both the immanent goal of proximate reli-
gious practice and even, as in Inexhaustible Storehouse, the locus of ultimacy.
Where the historical fact of such economic activity is noted, both within the
tradition and within contemporary scholarship, it is often accompanied by a
moral judgement or observation that such worldly concerns do not repre-
sent the monastic ideal or are just cause for state intervention. A clearer
understanding of the place of wealth within a generally ascetic Buddhist
soteriology will help our understanding of these economic activities.
A second point of interest is the specics of Hsin-hsings institutionaliza-
tion of an economy of salvation based on the practice of charitable giving.
The basic model is not much different from that found in most religions,
that is, tithing to the corporate church in return for individual religious
merit; the corporate body in turn uses the tithes for pursuit of religious
goals, including self-preservation and propagation, just as the merit accruing
to the individual is believed to support the realization of his or her religious
goals. Although the normative model governing the Buddhist attitude
toward the exchange of material goods for religious merit and teaching has
remained basically the same to this day, many different expressions of that

153
154 / the inexhaustible storehouse

attitude have been acted out on the stage of Buddhist history, reecting both
doctrinal evolution and differing historical circumstances. 1 The Inex-
haustible Storehouse of the Hua-tu ssu, a combination of the Mahayana
bodhisattva ideal, institutional elements from the Vinaya of the nikya
orders, and the changing economic institutions of the sixth-century sangha,
occupies a unique place in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Although we
know that the teachings and practices of the San-chieh suffered several sup-
pressions in its three-hundred-year history, we also have records of people
vying for the privilege of donating to the Inexhaustible Storehouse, streaming
to the headquarters in Chang-an from across the empire and abandoning
carts of money and silks at its gates (see chapter 8). What is more, Empress
Wu, instigator of one of the suppressions, was also a patron of the Inex-
haustible Storehouse. Why was the Inexhaustible Storehouse such an
unqualied success? What was it that attracted throngs from the far-ung
corners of China, all wishing to associate themselves with the Inexhaustible
Storehouse?
Although the Inexhaustible Storehouse is without question an institution-
al response to the particular social conditions of its time, I believe that the
answer to the question of its popularity lies not only there but also in Hsin-
hsings doctrine concerning dna (charity or liberality).2 Basically it was a
model of dna that allowed even the corrupt sentient beings of the third
level to communally participate in the bodhisattvas practice of dna and
thereby reap the same rewards as the virtuoso bodhisattva. Hsin-hsings elu-
cidation of the practice of dna is thoroughgoing, and the Inexhaustible
Storehouse was the mechanism whereby ordinary sentient beings could par-
ticipate in that practice on a level equal to that of the great Ekayna bodhi-
sattvas. Let me begin, however, with a brief overview of the salient features of
traditional Buddhist attitudes towards dna, both institutional and doctrinal.3

1 For an extensive discussion of the Theravdin model of dna and merit see Melford Spiro,

Buddhism and Society (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), 66148; for a more nuanced treat-
ment of wealth in soteriological context see Donald Swearer and Russell F. Sizemore, editors,
Ethics, Wealth, and Salvation: A Study in Buddhist Social Ethics (Columbia: University of
South Carolina Press, 1990).
2 Kyoko Tokuno has shown that the efcacy of giving in general was a popular theme in

other native Chinese works of this period; see her A Case Study of Chinese Buddhist
Apocryph, 18 ff and her The Book of Resolving Doubts, 25860.
3 The secondary sources on the Inexhaustible Storehouse include: Michibata Rysh, Tdai
Bukkyshi no kenky (Kyoto: Hzkan, 1957), 51445; Michibata Rysh, Chgoku Bukky to
shakai fukushi jigy (Kyoto: Hzkan, 1967), 10721; Tsukamoto Zenry, Shingy no
Sangaikydan to mujinz ni tsuite, Shky kenky 3 (1926): 57186; Yabuki Keiki, Sangaiky
no kenky, 1217, 11518, 50112, 61937. See also Yang Lien-sheng Buddhist Monasteries and
Four Money-raising Institutions in Chinese History, HJAS 13 (1950): 17491; Kenneth Chen,
The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973),
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 155

The Early Model: Dna, Pua, and the Vinaya

There are two aspects of early Buddhist doctrine that are relevant
to a discussion of the Inexhaustible Storehouse: (1) the concept of giving,
which provided for the needs of the sangha, and the related teaching con-
cerning merit that provided the normative incentive for the laity to donate
things to the sangha; and (2) the Vinaya rules that governed the receipt and
use of such gifts.
With regard to the rst point, the tradition that the monk was supported
by the faithful laity goes back to the very beginnings of the Buddhist move-
ment, if not earlier. The religious ascetic, stripped of possessions and beg-
ging for his needs, is an ancient phenomenon in Indiavery probably
indigenous, pre-dating the Vedic culture4 and the Laws of Manu and the
rules given by Gautama also include instructions regarding poverty and beg-
ging.5 In the Buddhist case, this support was considered to be one of the
most efcacious means whereby the laity could participate in a doctrine
directed primarily toward the ideal of the monk. Though there is always a
social nexus for any movement, even a movement that renounces society (as
the Bhagavad-gt so eloquently tells us), we still should not lose sight of the
fact that kyamuni and the Buddhist community he founded were part of
the sramana movement away from social action (karma) and norms (dharma).
Thus, although the laity could partake in varying degrees in the practices
enjoined upon the renunciant, it was nonetheless recognized that daily occu-
pations were a hindrance: A householders work I will also tell you, how a
Svaka is to act to be a good one; for that complete Bhikkhu-dhamma can-
not be carried out by one who is taken up by (worldly) occupations.6 Thus

15865; and especially Jacques Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic History from
the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries, translated by Franciscus Verellen (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1995), 21017, passim and Gregory Schopen, Doing Business for the Lord:
Lending on Interest and Written Loan Contracts in the Mlasarvstivda-Vinaya, Journal of
the American Oriental Society 114/4 (1994): 52754. For a description of a Tibetan institution
very similar to the Inexhaustible Storehouse see Robert J. Miller, Buddhist Monastic
Economy: The Jisa Mechanism in Comparative Studies in Society and History 3/4 (1961);
Andr Bareau, Indian and Ancient Chinese Buddhism: Institutions Analogous to the Jisa,
Comparative Studies in Society and History 3/4 (1961): 44351.
4 Cf. Govind C. Pande, Studies in the Origins of Buddhism (Allahabad: University of

Allahabad, 1957), 251 ff.


5 Laws of Manu, in S. Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore, Indian Philosophy (Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 1967), 177 ff.; Georg Buhler, The Sacred Laws of the Aryas (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1896), 192 ff..
6 V. Fausboll, trans., The Sutta-nipta (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973 reprint), 65; see also

H. Saddhatissa, Buddhist Ethics (New York: George Braziller, 1970), 121.


156 / the inexhaustible storehouse

the basic model is understood as follows: although praj/pa, the wis-


dom or insight that is the key to nirvana, is best realized through the prac-
tices engaged in by the mendicant, not everybody was suited to such a life.
For those whose circumstances (economic, social, intellectual, etc.) prohibit-
ed the life of a mendicant, there existed other practices that, though not as
efcacious as those cultivated by the bhikkhu (but also not necessarily
opposed to the practices of the bhikkhu), would nonetheless bring the prac-
titioner favorable consequences (vipka) in the future. This, of course, is
intimately related to the doctrines of karma, causality, etc., which themselves
are far beyond the scope of the present discussion. It is instructive, however,
to note in passing the general practices assigned to the householder and the
retribution that attaches to those practices.
Examples of teachings directed to the householder may be found in vari-
ous parts of the Nikya and gama literature. The laity are instructed, for
example, to observe the paca-la (restraints against killing, stealing, sexual
conduct, lying, and alcohol), to develop condence in the Three Jewels, to
practice almsgiving (dna), to understand causality, including the Four
Noble Truths, etc.7 The well-known Siglovda-sutta is often quoted in rela-
tion to the duties of the householder and signicantly emphasizes property
and worldly rewards.8 Other texts tell of the bliss obtained through riches
achieved honestly and give instructions on how to avoid the sorrows of los-
ing such riches through gambling, addiction to sensual pleasures, and the
like.9 Although it is fashionable today to cast Buddhism as an antimaterialist,
anticapitalist, nonsexist movement of social reform that appealed to the low-
caste elements of society in its rejection or condemnation of wealth and the
wealthy, such appears to be far from the milieu of the Buddhist community
at almost any stage of its development.10

7 The teachings concerning refuge in the Three Jewels and the various formulations of the

four, ve, eight, or ten precepts that make up the practice of la are well documented and do
not warrant further discussion here; cf. tienne Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien
(Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1958), 74 ff.
8 Dialogues of the Buddha, Part III, trans. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids (London: Pali Text

Society, 1965); cf. A. K. Warder, Indian Buddhism (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1970), 18086.
9 E. M. Hare, trans., The Book of the Gradual Sayings, vol. 4, 187; T. W. Rhys Davids, trans.,

Dialogues of the Buddha, vol. 2, 75 ff.


10 On this point see especially the theoretically stimulating essays in Swearer and Sizemore,

Ethics, Wealth, and Salvation; as they summarize the contributors feelings about an ascetic
monasticism versus a materialist laity, all of the authors in this volume believe not only
that Buddhism gives at least a provisional afrmation to material prosperity, but that there
are many instances in which wealth is highly praised and there are many norms for handling
wealth which intimately link lay and monastic society (p. 1). On the urban milieu of early
Buddhism see Romila Thapar, Ethics, Religion, and Social Protest, and Balkrishna Govind
Gokhale, Early Buddhism and the Urban Revolution.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 157

Now, in spite of the fact that even sophisticated practices such as under-
standing causality and developing wisdom were occasionally taught as part
of the domain of the householder, it is well known that the Buddha advocated
adjusting the teachings to the level of person receiving them, and this was
particularly so when the recipient was a householder. For example, in the
Aguttara-nikya the Buddha states that the desire to give graduated or
progressive teachings (anupubbikath, i.e., teachings that were appropriate
to the hearer and could lead him or her to higher truths) was one of the ve
qualities one should have when instructing the laity.11 Thus it is not surpris-
ing that one of the most frequently used pericopes with regard to the teaching
and conversion of the laity involves the Buddhas exposition of a graduated
teaching:
Then Yasa, the young man of family approached the Lord; having approached,
having greeted the Lord, he sat down at a respectful distance. As he was sitting
down at a respectful distance, the Lord talked a progressive talk to Yasa, the
young man of family, that is to say, talk on giving (dna), talk on moral habit
(la), talk on heaven (sagga), he explained the peril, the vanity, the depravity of
pleasures of the senses, the advantage in renouncing them.12

This same formula is repeated several more times in the Vinaya, in the
Udna, the Dgha-nikya, Majhima-nikya, and Aguttara-nikya, as well as
in their gama counterparts preserved in Chinese.13 Only after these teach-
ings, when Yasas mind was free from obstacles, did the Buddha teach the
Four Noble Truths. The Mahvastu of the Mahsaghika school also refers
to the gradual teachings:
Now this is what the graduated discourse of exalted Buddhas is, namely, a dis-
course on charity, a discourse on morality, a discourse on heaven, a discourse
on merit and a discourse on the fruition of merit.14

11 Pacaka-nipta in E. M. Hare, trans., The Book of the Gradual Sayings, vol. 3, 18384.
12Mahvagga, trans. I. B. Horner (London: Luzac & Company, 1951), 23; cf. Vinaya Texts,
part I, 104. Both traditional commentators and scholars who have studied practicing
Buddhists indicate that sagga refers to the rewards of a heavenly rebirth rather than the end-
ing of the cycle of rebirth in nirvana; cf. Dhammapla, The Commentary on the Peta-Stories,
trans. U Ba Kyaw and annotated by Peter Maseeld (London: Pali Text Society, 1980, 11);
Spiro, Buddhism and Society, 92ff.
13 Rhys Davids and Oldenberg,Vinaya Texts, Part I, 106, 109, 111, 112, etc.; Udna, in F. L.

Woodward, trans., The Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon, Part II (London: Geoffrey
Cumberlege, 1948), 58; Dgha-nikya, T. W. Rhys Davids, trans., Dialogues of the Buddha, part
II, 135 (Ambattha Sutta) and 185 (Kuadanta Sutta); Majjhima-nikya, I. B. Horner, trans.,
The Collection of the Middle Length Sayings (London: Luzac & Co., 1957), 45 (Uplisutta) and
330 (Brahmyusutta); The Book of the Gradual Sayings, 128 and 143; T #99, 24ab, etc.
14 The Mahvastu, trans. by J. J. Jones (London: Luzac & Company, 1956), 246.
158 / the inexhaustible storehouse

Although other prescriptions of the laymans path are to be found


throughout the canon, the main emphasis seems to have centered around
belief in the Three Jewels, the practices of la and dna, and the rewards
generated thereby. These actions are usually referred to as pua-kiriya-
vatthi or merit-producing actions. Merit (Pali pua) is a rather
ambiguous concept, and while it is of major importance in the lives of prac-
ticing Buddhists, it is not very clearly dened in the early texts, possibly
reecting a monastic bias. The Pali Text Society dictionary denes pua as
merit, meritorious action, virtue. Always represented as the foundation
and condition of heavenly rebirth & a future blissful state, the enjoyment (&
duration) of which depends on the amount of merit accumulated in a for-
mer existence.15 The fact that it is always represented as the foundation of
heavenly rebirth means that accumulation of merit was mildly, though not
necessarily, opposed to the practices designed to take one out of the cycle of
birth and death. Thus while the Itivuttaka states that the three practices of a
monk are la, samadhi, and pa, the next verse gives dna, la, and
bhvan as the three merit-producing actions (pua-kiriya-vatthi) that
cause favorable rebirth.16 Further, although both la and dna are cited as
chief among meritorious practices,17 because the formulation of la is gen-
erally in negative terms (i.e., dont kill, dont lie, etc.) the emphasis there is
on the avoidance of demerits rather than the accumulation of merit. This
leaves giving or offering as the most conspicuous means of gathering merit
for the laity. In addition to the pua or merit acquired through the practice
of dna (implicit in the term pua-kiriya-vatthui), the householder also
received teachings of the Buddhist dharma from the monks.18 Although

15 Rhys Davids, T. W. and Williams Stede, eds., Pali Text Societys Pali-English Dictionary

(Surrey: Pali Text Society, 192125), part 5, 86.


16 Itivuttaka, in Woodward, Minor Anthologies, 154; although bhvan (cultivation) is

typically rendered meditation, the translator states that in this context it means causing to
become or grow those good qualities not yet attained (154, note 3). Cf. Hare, The Book of the
Gradual Sayings, vol. 4, 165. Spiro, however, in his study of modern Burmese Buddhism, has
rendered bhvan as meditation, the meaning given to it today (Spiro, Buddhism and
Society, 94); it is interesting to note that he found that those laymen who do engage in medi-
tation, a practice usually left to the monks, are often criticized as being arrogant (Spiro,
Buddhism and Society, 96).
17 That la and dna came to be the focus of lay practice is well attested to by modern stud-

ies of Buddhism in Theravdin countries and the writings of Theravdin masters. Spiro,
Buddhism and Society, passim; Winston L. King, In the Hope of Nibbana (LaSalle: Open
Court, 1964), 54, 139 ff; H. Saddhatissa, Buddhist Ethics (New York: George Braziller, 1970),
116 ff; Sunthorn Na-Rangsi, The Buddhist Concepts of Karma and Rebirth (Bangkok:
Mahmakut Rajavidylaya Press, 1976), 231 ff.
18 See, for example, Itivuttaka, in Woodward, Minor Anthologies, 193; I. B. Horner, trans.,

The Book of Discipline (London: Pali Text Society, 1969), vol. 5, 206.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 159

these references are outweighed in number by references to material or


heavenly rewards, the exchange nature of the transaction remains the
same.19
It should not surprise us, perhaps, that a this-worldly focus on material
giving and its equally worldly reward formed such an important part of the
practices of the laity, for, although Buddhism is primarily a renunciant
movement, philosophically it denies a transcendent absolute and afrms the
interdependently originated world. In fact, Buddhism was largely a move-
ment of urbanites, both in terms of the participants (those who became
renunciants as well as those who supported those renunciants) and the locus
of its institutional and cultic activityfully 83 percent of the places men-
tioned in the Pali texts refer to a total of ve cities, and less than one-half of 1
percent refer to the countryside.20 It is in this context of a newly emergent
urban, mercantile prot economy that we nd the social nexus for the
Buddhas teachings, and within this context the idea of the gift is conspicu-
ous, a gift that binds a contractual relationship, a gift that is exchanged for
merit and the teachings. Thus, in return for securing the livelihood of the
social renouncers, those within society obtained religious merit, the stuff of
better rebirth, and teachings on the dharma, a good portion of which self-
reexively concerned the value of giving itself. Although to the cynic it
might seem that the tangible goods of the laity are exchanged for a much less
real form of property and as such the entire teaching of dna in exchange
for more teachings on the virtues of dna was solely of prot to the sangha,
we must remember that, as Gernet has pointed out, this economy of reli-
gious exchange was faithful to the Indian conception of the word as a
source of particularly efcacious poweran exalted gooda conception
that regarded the gift of the Law (dharmatyga) as the noble counterpart to
the gift of material goods (miatyga).21
There are many places in the nikyas that speak of giving and the rewards
to be gained thereby. The Aguttara-nikya, for example, tells us that the
difference between one who is unbelieving, mean, miserly, cross-grained
and one who is a believer, a master-giver, delighting in constant giving is
that the arhats will have compassion for the latter, will visit the latter, receive

19 Borrowing from Victor Turners ideas about community and ritual purication, Mavis

Fenn has also suggested that because wealth is necessary but polluting for the sangha, the
spritualization of giving in dna allows the sagha to accept wealth without compromising its
purity; see Two Notions of Poverty in the Pli Canon, Journal of Buddhist Ethics 3 (1996),
115.
20 Gokhale, Early Buddhism, 10; the possibility that this close nexus of locations is a result

of rhetorical or mnemonic constraints should also be considered.


21 Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 217.
160 / the inexhaustible storehouse

alms from the latter, and teach the dharma to the latter, and the good repu-
tation of the latter will be spread abroad, he will have condence in
approaching any group, and upon death he will arise in the happy heaven
world.22 The Aguttara-nikya also enumerates many benets of giving,
such as the eight rebirths: among the wealthy, among the Four Royal devas,
devas of the Thirty, Yama devas, Tuita devas, and the like.23 Other benets
include the eight yields, i.e., faith in the Three Jewels and abandoning the
ve evil actions (killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and drinking).24
The same collection of texts clearly shows the position of dna with regard
to prosperous and happy rebirths in the teaching to Suman. Therein it
tells of the different rewards accorded disciples who are alike in faith, virtue,
and insight but who differ with regard to the practice of dna: the person
who practices almsgiving surpasses the other in every state (i.e., when reborn
a deva, a human, a monk, etc.), except that when they both reach the state of
arhat there is no difference, i.e., it is within the realm of karma, the cycle of
birth and death that the benets of giving are realized.25 Further references to
the rewards of giving may be found throughout the canon, especially in texts
that were popular among the laity such as the Jataka tales. Throughout all of
these sources the general tenor of the message is the same: giving is a prac-
tice unequaled for gathering merit, which in turn guarantees the prosperity
of future existences.
One other point to note in our discussion of dna is that it was taught that
there exists a denite hierarchy of recipients of the act of dna, and the higher
the status the greater the accumulation of merit. Thus not all giving reaps
the same fruits, and, as might be expected, it is giving to the monastic com-
munity that yields the greatest prot, as the monks, in turn, bring the great-
est prothappiness in this world and the nextto the greatest number of
people. Hence monks in general and arhats in particular are referred to as
the worlds unsurpassed Field of Merit (pua-kkhetta).26 One text tells of
the successfully greater fruits of offering to the once-returner, non-returner,
etc., up to the arhats and Buddhas; nonetheless, the greatest fruits come

22 Hare, The Book of the Gradual Sayings, vol. 4, 46.


23 Ibid., 164.
24 Ibid., 168.
25 Ibid., vol. 3, 24.
26For example, see Hare, The Book of the Gradual Sayings, vol. 3, 103, 124, etc. The Pali Text
Societys Pali-English Dictionary denes pua-kkhetta as eld of merit, especially of the
Sangha or any holy personalities, doing good (lit. planting seeds of merit) to whom is a
source of future compensation to the benefactor. Usually with adj. anuttara unsurpassed eld
of merit (p. 87). Spiro has shown that this hierarchy is still quite operative in Burmese
Buddhism today (Buddhism and Society, 106 ff).
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 161

from achieving the thought of impermanence, indicative of the fact that


although one might achieve great merit in the realm of samsara through the
path of dna, of even greater value is the path that leads to nirvana.27 The
contractual arrangement between the monks and the laity and their institu-
tional relationship is very clearly brought out by the terms used for lay-
man/laywoman (upsaka/upsik) and nun/monk (bhikun/bhiku): the
former term refers to one who serves while the latter term means one
who receives alms.
It was never taught that the accumulation of merit, the goal of the laity,
would, in and of itself, lead to nirvana. This is so because merit and the
fruits of merit are a product of conditions and so, as with all other condi-
tioned states, subject to the law of impermanence. In short, karma, whether
good or bad, is still karma, and karmic seeds that have been sown will
inevitably come to fruition, thus tying one to the cycle of birth and rebirth.
No matter how noble or heavenly the rebirth, rebirth means birth within the
six gati, the vicious cycle of samsara.28 However, it was possible that the
future rebirth would lead to the acquisition of circumstances favorable to
the renunciation of the life of a householder and thus to the practices that
would eventually lead to nirvana.29 It is, of course, a moot point as to
whether the laity had this theoretical construct in mind when they considered

27 Hare, The Book of the Gradual Sayings, vol. 4, 26465.


28 This fact has led Spiro (Buddhism and Society, 1113) to make a distinction between
nibbanic Buddhism (normative soteriological Buddhism) and kammatic Buddhism
(nonnormative soteriological Buddhism). However, as both are sanctioned within the scrip-
tures as religiously valid practices, by his own denition both are equally normative. This is
obviously true if one considers that practice within Buddhism is more often than not con-
ceived in terms of a path (mrga) system. It seems to me that his otherwise excellent discus-
sion is marred by this attempt to categorize it in terms of great tradition and little tradition.
29 There is yet another model of dna, however, in which religious giving is understood as

the paradigmatic act of self-denial (i.e., renunciation generally or, in the Buddhist case, giving
up the self) and hence as both karmically efcacious as well as leading to nirvana; cf. John
Strong, Rich Man, Poor Man, Bhikkhu, King: Aokas Great Quinquennial Festival and the
Nature of Dna, in Sizemore and Swearer, Ethics, Wealth, and Salvation, 10723. It is also
interesting to think about this relationship between dna and renunciation in light of Hsin-
hsings cultivation of the dhta practices and the bi-directional nature of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse (see below); that is to say, how does this bi-directional nature affect the ritualized
purication process mentioned above? If renunciation is but another form of giving or chari-
ty in which, ultimately, even life and selfhood are offered to the goal of Buddhahood, is the
San-chieh emphasis on austerities thus linked to their understanding of dna? Surely their
emphasis on self-denial in the practice of begging, for example, ts in well with this, for not
only are they enjoined to strictly observe the precepts dealing with begging and eating but
they are also encouraged to give away to others the food given to them, to endure their
hunger with patience so that the less fortunate may eat, and the like; cf. Practice in Accord
with the Capacity, 12124; Lewis, Suppressions of the Three Stages Sect, 21719.
162 / the inexhaustible storehouse

the prospect of rebirth as a great king or powerful deva. What is important


to note here is the exchange of gifts, material goods, for merit that would in
turn bring the one who possessed it rewards beyond his or her dreams. It
was basically this doctrine that laid the groundwork for the economic devel-
opment that is so distinctive a feature of Buddhist history, and it was this
same concern that led, in some instances, to the sanghas involvement in the
capital-intensive practice of endowments and lending at interest.

Vinaya Rules Governing the Receipt of Alms

The rapid development of the institution of Buddhism posed many


different sorts of problems relating to the social interactions of the renun-
ciant, both within their own community and in their dealings with the laity.
One such situation, engendered by the model of dna described above, was
how to handle the gifts which the laity so lavishly bestowed on the sangha?
The religious zeal of the laity and the efcacy of the dna/merit model is
suggested by council called at Vail to discuss points of Vinaya, the main
point in question being whether the monks are allowed to receive gold and
silver.30 The different Vinaya in Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese preserve many of
the varying solutions offered with regards these gifts. For example, the indi-
vidual monk was not allowed to handle gold or silver, but all such contribu-
tions were to be given to a layperson to be used for the good of the whole
monastic community.31 Thus the sangha as a whole was able to benet from
that which was forbidden to the individual; put another way, because the
profane nature of certain goods was not seen to be inherent in the goods
themselves, communal, or displaced, ownership was allowable. Again, if
that which was received exceeded the immediate needs of the sangha, it
could be deposited in such a way as to earn interest, which was then to be
used for the various needs of the sangha according to the original intent of
the donor.32 Goods deposited in this way were termed inexhaustible goods

30 Rhys Davids and Oldenberg, Vinaya Texts, vol. III, 386 ff. Cf. Warder, Indian Buddhism,

208ff; Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien, 143 ff.


31 For a description of the development of the Vinaya in this regard see Gernet, Buddhism

in Chinese Society, 6579 and 15366; see also R. A. L. H. Gunawardana, Robe and Plough:
Monasticism and Economic Interest in Early Medieval Sri Lanka (Tucson: University of
Arizona Press, 1979), esp. 53136; see also Robert J. Miller, Buddhist Monastic Economy.
32 From the Vinaya of the Mlasarvstivdins, T #1442, 23.743b; from the Vinaya of the
Mahsagika, T #1425, 22.310c312c; from the Sarvstivdin Vinaya, T #1435, 23.415c; see also
Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 6573 and 15366; for an extensive study of the
Mlasarvstivda case see Schopen, Doing Business for the Lord. Ironically, the desire to
provide an endowment that would provide for the upkeep of the donated buildings that
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 163

or perpetual endowments (Skt. akaya-nv, *akayanik, *akayanik-


dna; Chin. wu chin tsai [(), inexhaustible having a dual meaning
that is central to the exchange calculus involved in dna: the investment
itself is not exhausted inasmuch as the principle is not actually used and
thus, insofar as the interest so generated provides for the ongoing assign-
ment of merit to the donor, the merit is likewise unexhausted.33 Although
usually enjoined to entrust their management to the laity, at least two of the
extant Vinaya (those of the Mahsaghika and Mlasarvstivda) appear to
allow monks to manage such funds.34
Thus allowed, investment, commerce, and agriculture all came to be
widely practiced by the various sangha in India. Indeed, this model of dna
provided such strong incentives for giving that by the end of the fth century
the monks in India lived more off their land holdings and interest gained
from various investments than they did from begging daily alms. 35
Representing the fruits of increased agricultural productivity and an accom-
panying growth of trade, circulation of currency, and the contractual
exchange economy of an urban and mercantile religious base, the legal
instrument of interest-bearing investments for the nancial/religious benet
of the sangha can also be seen as an incipient form of investment capitalism
in which the donor invests in the merit-bank of dna, expecting a much
larger return on investment in the future. This is of course paralleled by the
investment of the ascetic renunciant and not unlike the rational ascetic
restraint often cited in the rise of Western capitalism. These practices and
the normative theories behind them were carried to China where, with a few
modications, they became so highly developed that they both enabled the
widespread growth of Buddhism throughout East Asia but are also often
cited as the prime cause of its various suppressions to this very day.36

Schopen discusses is remarkably similar to the growing interest among academic institutions
in soliciting maintenance endowments from alumnae to supplement more traditional
building endowmentsacademic managers are catching on to ancient Buddhist innovations!
33 On the term akaya-nv see Schopen, Doing Business for the Lord, 53235; on the con-

tinued assignment of merit to the donor see ibid., 546, passim. It should also be noted that, in
the case Schopen studied, it was precisely the need to use the funds donated in perpetuity that
prompted the Buddha to permit lending at interestthat is, perpetual or inexhaustible merit
does not accumulate if the endowment is not actually used.
34 For example, T #1425, 22.311c; see also Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 16466; see

Gunawardana, Robe and Plough, for details of the Sinhalese approach to this property-man-
agement issue.
35 Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 77.
36 The contemporary Chinese criticism and prohibition of expensive funerals, offerings of
hell money and other superstitious practices are good examples of this censure.
164 / the inexhaustible storehouse

Dna and Merit in the Mahayana

Although this basic model of dna and the merit acquired through
its practice has remained intact through the centuries, there have been several
modications in theory that have made the practice of dna even more
appealing. One of the more notable developments is the elevation in status
of the practice of dna.37 Whereas in the Pali texts and their Chinese coun-
terparts dna is considered to be a practice for the less spiritually adept, in
the Mahayana texts it is considered an essential part of the bodhisattvas
practice and the Buddhas enlightenment. Some have considered this to be
the result of a desire to incorporate the practices of the householder into an
ethic formulated in part as a reaction against the ossied monachism of the
traditional schools,38 though this should be tempered by recent research that
shows that most, if not all, elements of the early Mahayana had, in fact, been
equally concerns of the renunciant, including dna and merit-making.39 In
any case, the early relationship between the renunciant as the one who
receives and the lay follower as the one who serves was changed, at least the-
oretically and rhetorically, in the Mahayana. Thus, dna, a practice originally
within the domain of the householder, comes to be a practice of the bodhi-
sattva as the rst of the six practices or perfections that dene their path.40
No doubt the growth of the Jtaka literature, which emphasizes the bodhi-
sattvas practice of dna, is related to the incorporation of dna into the
nibbanic path structure. Probably also as a result of the inuence of the
Jtaka literature, the direction of the gift is no longer xed in the favor of the
renunciantthe Field of Merit comes to include the family and, notably,
the poor and needy. Thus, too, at least in the Mahayana rhetoric, the status

37 For a general discussion of dna in Mahayana literature, though somewhat dated, see

Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature (New Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass, 1975 reprint), 16592.
38 Akira Hirakawa, The Rise of Mahayana Buddhism and Its Relationship to the Worship

of Stupas, The Memoirs of the Ty Bunko 22 (1963), 73 ff.


39 Gregory Schopen, The Phrase apthivpradea caityabhto bhavet in the Vajracchedik:

Notes of the Cult of the Book in Mahayana, Indo-Iranian Journal 17/3-4 (1975): 14781; a handy
overview of the issue can be found in Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal
Foundations (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), 2026; see also Gregory Schopen,
Two Problems in the History of Indian Buddhism: The Layman/Monk Distinction and the
Doctrines of the Transference of Merit, Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 10 (1984): 947.
40 A glance through the Mahvyutpatti (Bonzkanwa Shiyakutaik, Tokyo: Suzuki Gaku-
jutsu Zaidan, 4th edition, 1970) shows that dna or tyga is also included in many other
prescriptions of the bodhisattvas practice, underscoring its importance: as one of the six
remembrancestygnusmiti(Mahvyutpatti, 87); the rst of the four means of attrac-
tion (catvri-sagraha-vastni, ibid. 71), etc.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 165

of the recipient is no longer seen to be as important in determining the


amount of merit received as the nature of the act itself or the mind of the
giver. The Prajpramit literature, for example, frequently reminds us that
the wisdom-mind of the practitioner is of prime importance, hence the
proper gift is one in which there is nowhere any substantial or essentialized
gift, giver, or recipient.
Although still considered to be a practice that begets merit and thus is tied
to samsara, meritorious acts themselves come to be seen as essential for full
enlightenment. Asanga states:

Charity (dna) and morality (la)


Make up the store of merit;
Discriminating awareness (praj)
Makes up [the store] of knowledge.
The other three perfections belong to both stores.41

And:
The unsurpassable stores of Bodhisattvas are merit (puya) and knowledge
(jna);
The one makes them succeed in samsara [i.e., merit],
And the other [i.e., knowledge] allows them to pass through it without stain.42

In the Mahayana tradition both merit and knowledge are thus considered
the equipment of the bodhisattvas (puya-sabhra and jna-sabhra,
respectively) and one without the other is never considered full enlighten-
ment. In this way both dna and the accumulation of merit have come to be
part of the bodhisattvas practices. This is usually seen to be a reection of
the conceived necessity of the practice or implementation of knowledge or
wisdom, related to the ideal of compassion that is itself rooted in the teach-
ings of sunyata, and below I will discuss the importance of this theoretical
relationship to the Inexhaustible Storehouse of the Hua-tu ssu. In any case,
the central idea is that the Buddhas compassion necessarily ows to the
realm of the ignorant and suffering, usually (but not always) in the form of
teachings that lead to the end of all sufferings, i.e., as the Buddha-dharma.
The Mahynasagraha, for example, speaks of the teachings of the Maha-
yana as the outow of the pure dharmadhtu (viuddha-dharmadhtu-
niyandatva),43 the tantric Mahvairocana-stra speaks of the niyanda-kya,

41 Mahynastrlakra, XVIII, 39, Lvi, Mahyna-Strlakra, vol. 2, 235.


42 Mahynastrlakra XVIII, 38, Lvi, Mahyna-Strlakra, vol. 2, 235.
43tienne Lamotte, trans., La Somme du Grand Vhicule dAsanga (Louvain: Universit de
Louvain, 1973), Part II, 121.
166 / the inexhaustible storehouse

the aspect of the dharmakaya that enters the six destinies to benet sentient
beings,44 and the tathagatagarbha literature also frequently speaks of the
outow of the dharmadhtu (dharmadhtu-niyanda) as the cause for the
attainment of the dharmakaya.45 In the Mahayana full enlightenment is
characterized by both the internalized cultivation of wisdom and the exter-
nalized practice of that wisdom. The concrete form of this compassion-
based practice, the outow of the dharmadhtu, takes various forms, but it is
in this sense that for the bodhisattva dna is considered to be the practice or
implementation of wisdom, so that the direction of the dna has also
changed, at least theoretically if not in terms of actual institutional practice,
for the gift of the Buddhas teaching continued to be seen as the primary
dna of the renunciant.
In China, however, the monastic institution itself came to be seen as an
appropriate agent of charitable acts, so that on a number of occasions the
monasteries functioned as relief agencies, mutual aid societies, and other
organs of social welfare. This is the context in which the Inexhaustible
Storehouse was conceived, and so it is not surprising that the indigenous
Hsiang fa cheh i ching (The Sutra on Resolving Doubts in the Semblance
Dharma), which deals extensively with the bodhisattvas practice of dna,
should have played such an important part in their ideas. This text, thought
to have been composed sometime in the early part of the sixth century,46
presented the idea of the renunciants dna in more radical terms than had
been seen before, not only in its positive exhortation to give material goods
to the poor and destitute rather than to the Buddha, dharma, and sangha,
but also in its negative criticism of the religious charity of the day, both lay
and renunciant (see below). These themes were picked up by Hsin-hsing,
whose texts extensively cite the Hsiang fa cheh i ching. Unlike Hsin-hsings
teachings, however, the Hsiang fa cheh i ching is part of a tradition of pre-
cept texts and thus criticizes those who neglect the preceptslay as well as
monasticrather than seeing them as precisely the appropriate refuge for
the degenerate times that we have seen described as the universal refuge of
the third level in chapters 5 and 6.47 Whalen Lai sees in this criticism a cen-
sure of the emerging city-based piety of the North that was coming to dis-
place an earlier precept-community orientation prevalent during the late

44 Minoru Kiyota, Shingon Buddhism: Theory and Practice (Tokyo: Buddhist Books

International, 1978), 64; see also Minoru Kiyota, Tantric Concept of Bodhicitta: A Buddhist
Experiential Philosophy (Madison: University of WisconsinMadison, South Asian Center,
1982), 92 and 107.
45 See, for example, Takasaki, A Study of the Ratnagotravibhga, 19698.
46 Whalen Lai, Dating the Hsiang-fa cheh-i ching, 83; Tokuno, A Case Study, 4547.
47 Tokuno, A Case Study, 4857.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 167

fth and sixth centuries.48 The teachings of the San-chieh, then, would be a
development of this same criticism, but one that accepts both the precept-
breaking monk as the true monastic refuge of the times as well as the cities
as the appropriate place of practice.
Before turning to the Inexhaustible Storehouse, however, we should
briey consider one more development relevant to the institutionalization of
the bodhisattvas practice of dna, namely the concept of the transference of
ones merit to another simply by so dedicating it (Pali, patti or parivaa).
Basically, this doctrine is understood to mean that the merit gained from
any virtuous act may be transferred to anybody else simply by so wishing it.
Although developed most highly within the Mahayana, this doctrine is sanc-
tioned in the Pali texts as well and is widely believed in and practiced in
Theravdin countries to this day.49 Believed by some to have arisen in reac-
tion to the harshness of a strictly individual account of moral responsibility,50
the Theravdin gives normative backing to this doctrine by stating that the
recipient of the merit-transfer gains merit because of the feelings of joy and
jubilation (anumodan) aroused upon witnessing the selessness and pure
conduct of the person who had made the offering of merit.51 Thus ones

48 Whalen Lai, The Hsiang-fa cheh-i ching and the Economics of Salvation: tensions and

reform within the sangha (57th cent. China), unpublished manuscript, n.d.
49 See the Without-the-Walls Discourse in Bhikkhu Nanamoli, trans., The Minor

Readings (London: Luzac & Co., 1960), 79 and the commentary by Buddhaghosa, the
Paramatthajotik, included in the same volume, 22341. See also G. Malalasekera, Trans-
ference of Merit in Ceylonese Buddhism, Philosophy East and West 17/14 (1967), 85 ff;
Richard Gombrich, Merit Transference in Sinhalese Buddhism: A Case Study of the
Interaction between Doctrine and Practice, History of Religions 11/2 (1971), 203 ff; Gregory
Schopen, Two Problems, esp. 3647.
50 As seen, for example, in the opening verse of the Dhammapada: All that we are is the

result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.
If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of
the ox that draws the carriage. From The Dhammapada, translated by F. Max Mller (Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass, reprint 1973), 3. This strictly individual accounting of moral responsibili-
ty presents a problem for contemporary activists who would nd a social gospel in the
Buddhas teachings, as there is little notion of collective responsibility or reward in the
Buddhist understanding of karma. See also Kajiyama Yichi, Transfer and Transformation
of Merits in Relation to Emptiness, in Y. Kajiyama, Studies in Buddhist Philosophy (Selected
Papers) (Kyoto: Rinsen Book Co. Ltd., 1989).
51 Cf. Gombrich, Merit Transference, 215; Spiro, Buddhism and Society, 124 ff. This pres-
ents another case where Spiros categories of normative and nonnormative fail. Although
he admits this teaching of merit-transfer to be canonical, he still obviously does not consider
it normative. Although I am sympathetic to the philosophical/doctrinal problems inherent
in the doctrine of merit-transfer, I believe it equally hazardous to measure legitimate religious
expressions against a mythic original Buddhism and to impose Western concepts of
higher or greater on traditions that themselves explicitly reject such labels.
168 / the inexhaustible storehouse

dedication of merit is rendered less a case of transfer of ones own merit and
more like providing a catalyst for the others self-generation of merit, as is
seen in the fact that through the act of dedication the donors merit actually
increases rather than decreases.
In the Mahayana the doctrine of the transference of merit was, like the
teachings on giving and merit, ultimately grounded in the doctrines of sunyata
and the interrelatedness of all aspects of existence, of which I have more to
say below. Thus, too, the merit of the act in Mahayana inscriptions is always
said to be intended specically for the attainment of anuttarajna.52
Regarding the difference between Mahayana and non-Mahayana goals of
merit transference, Schopen writes that in none of our Mahayana inscrip-
tions is merit ever transferred to deceased parents, or for such things as con-
ferring health or granting long life. These seem to have beenat least epi-
graphicallyexclusively Hnayna ideas.53 In any case, the dedication of
merit is ubiquitous in Mahayana texts, and the teaching of merit-transfer is
one of the fundamental doctrines of the Pure Land schools, which teach that
our salvation is essentially due to the powers of Amidas merits that he
transfers to sentient beings. We shall see how the teachings of Hsin-hsing,
based on the Hua-yen teachings of interpenetration and mutual identi-
cation, propose a doctrine better described as merit sharing than as merit
transference.

The San-chieh Inexhaustible Storehouse

Hsin-hsing, the founder of the Three Levels movement, was born


in Northern China just after the fall of the Northern Wei in 534, and was
invited to Chang-an in the beginning of the Sui dynasty. The movement
that he started thus has its roots in the Buddhism of the north, both through
the scriptures held important (such as the northern, eschatological corpus
of Nirvana Sutra texts, including Dharmakemas translation of the Mahpari-
nirva-stra and the indigenous Hsiang fa cheh i ching) but also in its tradi-
tion of close ties to the state through various legal and bureaucratic agencies,
particularly the charitable institutions set up for the benet of the sangha, the
people, and the state known as sangha households (seng chi hu ). At
the same time, however, the Three Levels movement is well informed by the
intellectual traditions in vogue in the south such as that of the Vimalakrti-
stra and the universal Buddha-nature stressed in the southern tradition of

52 Schopen, Two Problems, 39.


53 Schopen, Two Problems, 43.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 169

Mahparinirva-stra scholarship, and it tapped into the incipient holistic


visions more commonly associated with the Tien-tai and Hua-yen tradi-
tions that emerged in the unied realm of the Sui and Tang as well. The
Inexhaustible Treasury represents a coming together of these various legal
and state functions, scriptural traditions, and the social changes of the times.
In order to fully understand the doctrine of the Inexhaustible Storehouse
we must remember that it was conceived to be an answer to the dilemma
social and soteriologicalposed by the combined acceptance of the teaching
of the demise of humankinds capacity for religious and moral cultivation
and the teaching of universal Buddha-nature. Like those of the Pure Land
teachers, Hsin-hsings teachings were basically an elucidation of the means
whereby a sentient being of the meanest and most vile nature could yet hope
to gain the liberation that is promised in the doctrine of universal Buddha-
nature. That is, how could sentient beings, deeply trapped within the vicious
cycle of birth and rebirth and lacking any capacity to understand the dharma,
ever hope to achieve the liberation promised in the doctrine of universal
Buddha-nature?
The karmic dilemma of sentient beings of the third level is clearly stated at
the beginning of a San-chieh manuscript discovered at Tun-huang, the
Commentary on the Dharma of the Inexhaustible Storehouse of the Mahayana
Universe (Ta sheng fa chieh wu chin tsang fa shih /}[t, here-
after the Commentary on the Inexhaustible Storehouse, translated in
Appendix C), which, after listing the inevitability of our evil actions as
administrators, merchants, farmers, artisans, and the like, rhetorically asks
how we could ever hope to exhaust such karmic debts as we have thus
incurred over the vast millennia if we thought to repay them one at a time.
The likening of our karmic debt to economic indebtedness must have surely
resonated with the poor and impoverished for whom perpetual indebtedness
was a likely fact of life, one that also likely reected the view that a persons
nancial and worldly attainment was their just karmic retribution.54 And the
never-ending spiral of karmic debts does not end with death. What to do?

The practitioner who now gives rise to the charity of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse immediately puts an end to the [karmic] debts incurred from the
beginningless past and no longer need fear the debt-master [i.e., karma]; more-
over, obstacles of the path, karmic obstacles, and the obstacles of retribution
are all immediately vanquished and his father and mother, brothers, and the

54 On the conation of sin and debt, see Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 24647; it is
of course also pertinent that loans not repaid to the sangha could lead to more unfortunate
rebirths than loans not repaid to secular agencies.
170 / the inexhaustible storehouse

six classes of relatives will all immediately be freed from the three evil pathsis
this not great prot?55

Indeed, one must agree with the author of the text, presumably in much
the same way as did the followers of the San-chieh, that the prots attached
to the practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse were very great. In order to
understand how it was possible that this one practice was capable of such
great returns we must examine the function of the practice as conceived by
Hsin-hsing. In doing so it quickly becomes evident that in spite of the simi-
larity of name, his idea of the Inexhaustible Storehouse is not solely derived
from the concept of inexhaustible goods as found in the Vinaya but also
from the concept of the inexhaustible dharmadhtu as taught within the
Mahayana.
Inexhaustible as conceived within the Mahayana has nothing to do with
money or the lending of goods for interest. Rather, it refers to emptiness and
the practices that ow from an insight into that emptiness. Thus the Aa-
shasrik-prajpramit-stra states that like space, emptiness is innite,
without limits, and inexhaustible (akaya).56 It also states that inex-
haustible is an attribute of the dharmadhtu57 and of tathat, suchness.58
The Perfection of Wisdom is declared to be the inexhaustible storehouse of
the dharma.59 According to Fa-tsang, inexhaustible refers to the teachings
contained in the Hua-yen Sutra: All of the teachings contained within the
Perfect Teachings are nothing but those of this inexhaustible dharma-
dhtu.60 Indeed, the Hua-yen Sutra does use the word inexhaustible often
to describe the interpenetration of all dharmas. It also teaches several differ-
ent schema of Inexhaustible Storehouses that the bodhisattvas possess, all of
which refer to the innite capacity of the bodhisattvas for practice, practice
which is in turn based on their insight into and participation in the inex-
haustible dharmadhtu.61
The same theme is sounded in the Vimalakrtinirdea-stra: Called
exhaustible (kaya) is the conditioned (saskta); called inexhaustible

55 Commentary on the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 163. The six relatives are father, mother,

elder brother, younger brother, wife, and child. The three evil destinies are hell, animal, and
hungry ghost (preta).
56 Translated by Edward Conze, The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and Its

Verse Summary (Berkeley: Four Seasons Foundation, 1973), 211.


57 Ibid., 174.
58 Ibid., 177.
59 Ibid., 268.
60 Quoted in Mochizuki Shink, Bukky daijiten, 4832.
61 For example, see T #278, 9.474c478c; T #279, 10.96c97a.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 171

(akaya) is the unconditioned (asaskta). A bodhisattva can neither


exhaust the conditioned nor abide in the unconditioned.62 The text then
goes on to explain that to not exhaust the conditioned means to continuously
work for the salvation of all sentient beings. To not abide in the uncondi-
tioned means that, despite a knowledge of the unconditioned, the bodhi-
sattva nonetheless abides in samsara to work for the benet of all sentient
beings. This close relationship between the inexhaustible realm of the
dharmadhtu and the practice of the bodhisattva is echoed in many places
throughout Mahayana literature. Indeed, it is not too much to say that it is
the foundation of bodhisattva practice as conceived within the Mahayana.
This same idea of inexhaustible is found in the Commentary on the
Inexhaustible Storehouse:

By Great is meant broad, long, profound, and never-retreating; by Vehicle


is meant conveyance. Within the dharma of the Hinayana only self-prot is
taught, but within the Mahayana dharma both self-prot and proting others
[are taught.] Therefore the bodhisattvas rely on the mind of great compassion
and establish the [teaching] of the Inexhaustible Storehouse. Of the six parami-
tas the dna paramita is rst; of the four means of attraction giving is chief. It
[giving] is the same as the various buddhaswithin, it corresponds to the
dharmakaya, without, it prots sentient beings and exhausts their poverty.
When the dharmadhtu and the sattvadhtu are exhausted, then this
[Inexhaustible] Storehouse will be exhausted; because the dharmakaya is inex-
haustible the practice of dna is without exhaustion. Therefore practice in the
phenomenal world always continues and thus it is established as inexhaustible.
Ultimate, profound, and broad, it includes everything and is therefore called
storehouse. This storehouse has rules and principles, therefore it is called
dharma. Thus it is called the Dharma of the Inexhaustible Storehouse of the
Great Vehicle.63

Herein we see two aspects of the Inexhaustible Storehouse: the one in


which it is equated with the dharmakaya and the other based on the bod-
hisattvas compassion and the necessary outow of wisdom into practice in
which the Inexhaustible Storehouse benets sentient beings. These two
aspects of the Inexhaustible Storehouse are paralleled by the two functions
of the Inexhaustible Storehouse: Above it is called the Field of Respect
[which corresponds to the Three Jewels] and below it is called the Field of
Compassion [which corresponds to sentient beings].64 In connection with

62 Lamotte, The Teaching of Vimalakrti, 229.


63 Commentary on the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 164.
64 Ibid., 165.
172 / the inexhaustible storehouse

the Field of Respect the text then quotes the Hua-yen Sutra:

Again, a light called the jewel manifestation is emitted;


Which causes the impoverished to obtain the Jewel-store.
By means of the Inexhaustible Storehouse of giving to the Three Jewels,
The light called jewel manifestation is gained.65

In other words, through giving to the Three Jewels the illumination that
enables one to obtain the treasure (enlightenment) is obtained, which would
seem to be a standard reference to the exchange mechanism described above
(support of the sangha in return for merit and teachings). The function of
the Inexhaustible Storehouse with regard to the Field of Compassion is then
explained with a quote from the Vimalakrtinirdea-stra:

Where there are the poor and impoverished,


the Inexhaustible Storehouse is manifested.
It encourages them and causes them
to produce the bodhi mind.66

Thus the Inexhaustible Storehouse encompasses dna that is directed


both to sentient beings and to the Three Jewels. A passage that clearly brings
this out is found in the Hsiang fa cheh i ching, a work that, as mentioned
above, presents several unique twists to the idea of dna and was very
important to Hsin-hsing:

Sons of good family! Everywhere in the sutras I have taught about giving, for I
wish to enable both monks and laymen to cultivate the compassionate mind
and give to the poor, the impoverished, the orphaned, even to a starving dog.
However, my disciples did not understand my meaning, and only offered gifts
to the Field of Respect and did not give to the Field of Compassion. When I
speak of the Field of Respect, I refer to the [Three] Jewels of the Buddha, dharma,
and the sangha. When I speak of the Field of Compassion, I refer to the poor
and the impoverished, the orphaned, the aged, and even the ant. Of these two
types of elds the Field of Compassion is the superior.67

The Hsiang fa cheh i ching also states that we should give to both elds
equally, reminiscent of the Three Levels teaching that we should give equally,
regardless of whether one holds the precepts or not. Thus we see here that
the act of giving has become bi-directional: on the one hand, giving to the

65 Ibid., 165, citing the Hua-yen Sutra, T #279, 9.437c.


66 Ibid., 165, citing the Vimalakrtinirdea-stra, T #474, 14.530c.
67 T #2870, 85.1336ab.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 173

Field of Respect enables one to gain the light (discussed below); on the
other hand, the bodhisattvas give to poor and needy sentient beings, which
nurtures and encourages them and enables them to produce the mind of
enlightenment. This last aspect in particular represents a dramatic shift in
emphasis and a restructuring of the traditional uni-directional model of
material dna.68 It also seems to have been a motivating factor in Hsin-
hsings own practice, for his biography records that after he discarded the
precepts he made offerings to both the Field of Compassion and the Field of
Respect, and reverenced renunciant and laity alike.69
However, the practitioners of the Inexhaustible Storehouse as outlined in
the Vimalakrti and the Hsiang fa cheh i ching are the great bodhisattvas, the
Ekayna bodhisattvas; there is nothing new or innovative in this description
of their practices. The question to be answered is how do the degenerate sen-
tient beings of the third level gain liberation? Of what use to them is such an
exalted doctrine of bodhisattva practice? It is in the answer given to this
question that we see the inuence of the Hua-yen Sutra on their doctrines
and how it was combined with the Hsiang fa cheh i ching. Indeed, it is the
Hua-yen Sutra that is quoted most often in the exposition of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse.
The one word that best describes the teachings of Hsin-hsing is univer-
salism. And, like the other schools based on such teachings (Tien-tai,
Hua-yen, the Yz Nenbutsu of Japan), Hsin-hsing taught that no one per-
sons actions are isolatedrather, all are part of the interrelated whole and
affect all others mutually. This was the basis for his concept of merit-sharing
(rather than merit-transfer). The Commentary on the Inexhaustible Store-
house quotes the Hua-yen Stra to this effect:

In accordance with the original practice the illumination of the light is gained.
All fellow-practitioners of the past who have established a karmic link,
All those whose karma from the practices which they have cultivated is the
same,
And who have practiced jubilation and dispersed their merits
Having seen or heard of the bodhisattvas pure practices
Those persons are able to see the illumination of the light.70

Thus anybody who has established a karmic link by (1) cultivating the
same practice, (2) rejoicing at those practices, or (3) seeing or (4) hearing of
those practices will gain the same illumination of the light (the light called

68 See also note 29, above.


69 Hs kao seng chuan, T #2060, 50.560a.
70 Commentary on the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 164, citing the Hua-yen Stra, T #279, 9.436a.
174 / the inexhaustible storehouse

jewel manifestation quoted earlier) as the practitioner of superior capacity


who originally engaged in it. In another place it states that the fellow-
practitioners need not have the same quality of practice or spiritual attain-
ment as those bodhisattvas with whom they establish a karmic link, nor do
they actually have to practice with that bodhisattva directly:
In accordance with the teaching, one only needs to give to the Inexhaustible
Storehouse and by so doing he will enter into the Universal Inexhaustible
Storehouse of the dharma-realm of the Dhyana Master Hsin-hsing. Again, one
not only engages in the same practices together with the Dhyana Master Hsin-
hsing, but together with all of the Ekayna bodhisattvas of the past, present,
and future in all of the lands in all of the dharma-realms of the ten quarters of
spacethis one practice is the same. Because Hsin-hsing and all of the bodhi-
sattvas are correct, those of the four ranks [that is, those who engage in] the
same practice, [those who] rejoice [at those practices], [and those who] see or
hear [those practices] are also correct.71 It is like putting a snake into a bamboo
tubethe tube is straight and so the snake also becomes straight.72

This is perhaps one of the more interesting and revealing passages in the
text. In addition to the main concept of merit-sharing (sort of the reverse of
the old adage, one bad apple spoils the barrel), one can see elements of a
cult of the founder in the fact that it is the Inexhaustible Storehouse of Hsin-
hsing in which we participate. Although his practices are said to be the same
as all other Ekayna bodhisattvas practices, both here and in other places in
the text the emphasis is clearly on Hsin-hsing as the founder and the most
important gure of the movement. This is also seen in the fact that the
donations to the Inexhaustible Storehouse were particularly intense on the
day that commemorated Hsin-hsings death (see chapter 8, below). This cul-
tic aspect of the Inexhaustible Storehouse is also found in the teaching that if
the sixteen inexhaustible practices (discussed below) are cultivated at the
Hua-tu ssu founded by Hsin-hsing they complete the perfections of the
eternal, joyous, self, and pure, but if they are practiced in the provinces
these perfections are not achieved. Nonetheless, reecting both ease of access
to the community of San-chieh practitioners (for, as discussed below, it is
the communal nature of the practice that guarantees its efcacy) as well as
the wide-spread popularity of the movement, for those who cannot practice
at the Hua-tu ssu, merit ofces [kung te chu O] are established

71 Cf. the Hsin-hsing i wen, 5, which, in addition to clarifying that these fellow practition-
ers will all gain the sixteen kinds of guapramit fruits, adds a fth category, that of the
person who receives the offering.
72 Commentary on the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 17172 (see also p. 164); cf. Nishimoto,

Sangaiky, 11921 for a discussion of Hsin-hsings apotheosis.


absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 175

throughout the prefectures and counties for the Ullambna festival on the
15th of the seventh monthall [who cultivate the sixteen inexhaustible
practices there] will gain assistance in universal emancipation, spontaneous
jubilation, and perfection. It is not necessary to bring [contributions] to the
Hua-tu ssu.73
This is also related to another element of Hsin-hsings teaching, the com-
munity of practitioners. It was taught that in order for the practice of giving
to be truly effective it had to be done communally; individual practice of
dna would not bring the same rewards. In addition to the ritualized elements
of communal giving that function to create a community, this of course also
had the effect of centralizing all of the offerings in one place, an obvious
institutional advantage. This is clearly related in the following passage to the
point that Gregory Schopen has made regarding the merit accrued to the
donor of a material thing: the gift must be used for merit to accrue, and
hence the merit of participating in the Inexhaustible Storehouse, from which
things are lent out or used continuously, is Inexhaustible.74 It would seem,
too, that the merit is derived from the participation in the Inexhaustible
Storehouse rather than the thing given, as, for example, in the case of a gift of
a candle, which itself would not last forever. The Commentary on the
Inexhaustible Storehouse bases this teaching on the Hsiang fa cheh i ching:
If somebody has an abundance of property and practices giving by himself
from birth to old age, his merit will be very little. It is not like having many
people [practicing giving] as a group, without question of rich or poor, noble
or low, monk or layman. If each person produces some small thing and collects
[these things] in one place so that it will continue without interruption, giving
them as appropriate to the poor and destitute, orphans and aged, the evil, the
sick, and the diseased, the troubled and the aficted, the merit of this will be
very great. Even if one does not give at all times [lit. in each and every thought]
the merit of giving [communally] will arise ceaselessly and without exhaustion.
If one has the mind of faith and is joyous when others experience good fortune then
the merit acquired will also be like this.75 [In comparison to this] the merit of
practicing giving individually is very small.76

73 Commentary on the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 173.


74 See above, note 33.
75 The two italicized phrases are from the Fo shuo shih so fan che y chieh fa chien ching, a
composition of the San-chieh created in part from the Hsiang fa cheh i ching (Yabuki, Fo
shuo shih so fan che y chieh fa chien ching, 238 and 239, respectively). For a discussion of this
text see Antonino Forte, The Relativity of the Concept of Orthodoxy in Chinese Buddhism:
Chih-shengs Indictment of Shih-li and the Proscription of the Dharma Mirror Stra in
Buswell, ed., Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, 23949.
76 Commentary on the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 166, citing the Hsiang fa cheh i ching, T

#2870, 85.1336b; see also the Hsiang fa cheh i ching, T #2870, 85.1336a. The Practice in Accord
176 / the inexhaustible storehouse

The teaching of the merit generated by Inexhaustible Storehouse was thus


premised on the traditional calculus of merit exchange, including the notion
of the continuous generation of merit through the continued use of the orig-
inal gift. The innovation appears in the psychology of this calculus, which
appears here as a psychology of communal giving, in which participation in a
group allows ones small or sporadic giving to take on the greater signi-
cance of the collective.77 Interestingly, records also indicate that donations
were made anonymously (see chapter 8), meaning that while functioning to
generate inexhaustible merit the gift-giving itself also accomplished the self-
effacement of the bodhisattvas Inexhaustible Storehouse of moral qualities.
The actual means whereby one would be able to participate in the practice
and merit of the Ekayna bodhisattva was conceived in terms of sixteen
practices. These practices, found in several places in San-chieh literature, are
called the Sixteen Inexhaustible Practices. The Abridged Explanation of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse lists them as:
1. Inexhaustible offering to the Buddha; this consists of worship of the
Buddha, etc.;
2. Inexhaustible offering to the dharma; this consists of reciting sutras, etc.;
3. Inexhaustible offering to the sangha; this consists of universally offering [to
the sangha] without question of whether they maintain the precepts or
break the precepts;
4. Inexhaustible offering to sentient beings; this consists of universally offering
to all sentient beings of the six paths without question of whether they prac-
tice or do not practice; the six paths are (a) heavenly beings; (b) humans; (c)
ghting demons; (d) hell beings; (e) animals; (f) hungry ghosts;
5. Inexhaustible separation from all evil;
6. Inexhaustible cultivation of all virtue;78
7. Inexhaustible giving of incense;
8. Inexhaustible giving of light (candles);
9. Inexhaustible giving of bathing materials;
10. Inexhaustible giving of sound (bells, etc.);
11. Inexhaustible giving of clothing;

with the Capacity also notes that the alms collected by many, from many, and distributed to
many will produce more merit than those of an individual (Practice in Accord with the
Capacity, 12324).
77 Both the institutional and the doctrinal aspect of this emphasis on community are seen

in later developments in East Asia, such as, for example, temple-based mutual aid societies
(including the pawnshop), communities of karmicly bound practicitioners (kechienshu
L), and the yz nenbutsu practice in Japan.
78Cf. the Hsin-hsing i wen, which gives the sixth item as vowing to give the [cultivation] of
the twelve ascetic practices (dhta) inexhaustively, each and every day without interruption,
until obtaining Buddhahood, Hsin-hsing i wen, 4.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 177

12. Inexhaustible giving of shelter;


13. Inexhaustible giving of bedding;
14. Inexhaustible giving of eating utensils;
15. Inexhaustible giving of charcoal and re.
16. Inexhaustible giving of food and drink.79
This list of offerings is interesting in several regards, and it is to be hoped
that further research will clarify its origin and structure. Two noteworthy
aspects involve offerings not included, that is, cash or money and medicine,
the latter even being one of the four requisites of a monk (food, clothing,
shelter, and medicine).80
Although we possess several lists of these sixteen practices, because of the
damaged condition of the commentary, the Commentary on the Inexhaustible
Storehouse, we only have a detailed exposition of the rst two practices. With
regard to the rst practice, then, in addition to worship we are told that
inexhaustible offering to the Buddha consists of repairing images and stu-
pas. Perhaps owing to a rather material approach to the construction of reli-
gious buildings at the time, we are told to rst repair all the old and only
when that is exhausted to build new ones. The San-chieh texts share this ori-
entation toward repairing the old before constructing the new with the
Hsiang fa cheh i ching, as is shown in their paraphrase of that text:

Again, good sons, in the future generations there will be sentient beings who
will see broken stupas, broken temples, damaged sutras, and damaged images
of earlier times, fallen down and ruined, but they will not have any mind to
repair them. There are those who practice diligently but will say: These were
not built by myself, my ancestors, or my relativeswhy should I repair them? I
would prefer to build new ones myself so why should I x these? Good sons,
you should know that the essential merit obtained through the repair [of the
old and broken] cannot be gained through building anew, it is far superior in
virtue. Therefore the merit of constructing new [images, stupas, and temples]
is not like that of repairing [them], which is limitless and boundless.81

One can imagine the sort of situation that gave rise to this idea, as the
social mobility and opportunities of the sixth century gave birth to new
cities and the attendant need for temples, statues, and other accoutrements

79 Abridged Explanation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 15556.


80 See, however, the Abridged Explanation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse (155), which men-
tions daily giving sixteen shares of cash.
81 Fo shuo shih so fan che y chieh fa ching ching, 237; cf. T #2870, 85.1336a and 1337b. See

also Fo shuo shih so fan che y chieh fa ching ching, 245 and T #2870, 85.1337b for a description
of people competing with one another to build temples, halls, and images, so much so that
they ll the valleys, roadsides, and even noxious, fetid and evil places.
178 / the inexhaustible storehouse

of the religious life, largely lled through the private donations of individu-
als and their families, and the attendant patronage of individual monks and
nuns. Perhaps this also created tensions with the traditionally corporate dis-
tribution structure of the sangha, as well as leading to greed and abuse on
the part of the monastic community so favored. More than anything,
though, it seems to represent a new direction in the understanding of merit
acquisition, for if the merit of the building and use of a stupa accrues to the
original donor, of what merit is its repair? 82 Inasmuch as the control of
privately sponsored temples and their furnishings presumably rested with
their donors, this could also reect a criticism of the secularization and pri-
vatization of the sangha not at all uncommon in East Asia. This is also per-
haps part of the reasoning behind the censuring of private invitations
mentioned below.
In any case, the Commentary on the Inexhaustible Storehouse tells us that
the rewards for repairing images and stupas will be the complete extinction
of all karma relating to having plundered from or otherwise having offended
the Buddha or his stupas. In addition, in the future one will meet various
buddhas, cause all sentient beings to worship the Buddha, travel from one
Buddha-land to the next worshipping and making offerings to the buddhas
and converting sentient beings. According to the text one will eventually
attain Buddhahood in such a fashion.83
The second practice is much like the rst. Repairing old sutras before
copying new ones, one will eliminate all karma that results from having
offended the dharma in the past; in the future one will hear the dharma
expounded and immediately gain an understanding of it and eventually
attain Buddhahood.84 Although these are the only two items for which we
have the complete commentary, there is nothing too unusual about the
karmic rewards or gains for practicing dnait is rather in the mechanism
by which they are gained that we see Hsin-hsings innovation.
The third practice, inexhaustible offerings to the sangha, contains an
interesting comment on the spiritual and moral condition of the sangha of
the time. In commenting on the passage that says universally offering with-
out questioning whether [the recipients] observe or transgress the precepts85
we are told to rst offer to the monks who go against the precepts because

82 Concerning the donors continued rights of ownership over donated property in the

Mlasarvstivda see Gregory Schopen, The Lay Ownership of Monasteries and the Role of
the Monk in Mlasarvstivdin Monasticism, Journal of the International Association of
Buddhist Studies 19/1 (1996): 81126.
83 Commentary on the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 17475.
84 Ibid., 17576.
85 Ibid., 176.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 179

if the dnapati is not able to give to the community of monks who offend
in their practice of the Buddha-dharma it is not a superior practice.86 The
text goes on to criticize the practice of extending invitations to specic
monks, telling us that there is superior merit in universally inviting all of the
monks. This is supported with a quotation from the Fan wang ching }:

Good sons, if there is a bodhisattva, whether renunciant or householder, and a


dnapati desires to invite the monks of the Field of Merit [to ascertain what
they desire], he should go to the monastery and ask the director of affairs
[karmadna] regarding the proper way to do this, saying, I now wish to invite
the monks to tell me what they want. The administrator should then
announce the order in which the monks will be invited; thus will the sages and
saintly monks of the ten quarters receive [the invitations of the dnapati]. If a
person of the world individually invites ve hundred arhats, bodhisattvas, or
monks, this is not like inviting a monk or one ordinary monk whose turn it is.
If an individual monk is invited it is the practice of the heretics; the teaching of
the seven buddhas does not include individual invitations, and [individual
invitations] do not conform to the path of obedience.87

A criticism of the attitude which lay behind such individual invitations


can also be found in the Hsiang fa cheh i ching:

[When] a dnapati arranges a gathering and invites the monks, he will send
men to guard the doors so as to keep away the [uninvited] monks and not
allow them entrance. If destitute beggars desire to enter to beg food he will pre-
vent them from gaining admittance. Arranging a gathering like this wastes food
and drink and is completely without any bit of virtue.88

This, of course, represents a criticism of the traditional hierarchy of giving


discussed above, in which innitely more merit is generated by offering food
to monks than to beggars because the former impart so much more to so
many more. As Lai has noted, it is also a common enough sight at any
Buddhist temple in the world, where visitors will always give more inside the
temple than to the beggars at the gate.89 No doubt the Inexhaustible Store-
house is partly rooted in a criticism of this sort of religious favoritism and

86 Ibid., 176.
87 Ibid., 176, citing the Fan wang ching, T #1484, 24.1007a (partially emended from the
Taish edition). Private maintenance of the temples was apparently a problem for the state as
well, as in 444 an edict was issued prohibiting such support or patronage; see Chen, Bud-
dhism in China, 149.
88 T #85, 1336a. See also Fo shuo shih so fan che y chieh fa ching ching, 237.
89 Whalen Lai, Chinese Buddhist and Christian Charities: A Comparative History,
Buddhist-Christian Studies 12 (1992), 11.
180 / the inexhaustible storehouse

consumerism, the hierarchy of which is altogether eliminated in the reductive


framework of the Hua-yen doctrine of absolute and unobstructed equality
that was adopted as its basis as well as the teaching of the Universal Buddha
and universal sangha. Indeed, based on the criticisms of luxury, tax-evasion,
etc., that frequently led to the persecution of the Buddhist church in China,
one can imagine the rich life that many enjoyed in the monastery and the
lack of any religious dimension to the practice of giving as it was carried out
by the wealthy and privileged. We can also probably see here the tension
engendered by an individualism or personal favoritism that naturally develops
between the laity and charismatic or powerful renunciants but nonetheless
runs contrary to the self-denying ethos and corporate structure of the Bud-
dhist monastic ideal, especially the communalism of the Three Levels move-
ment. From the injunctions given to the monks in both texts of Hsin-hsing
and texts such as the Fan wang ching it would also seem that the attitude of
the monks towards the charity upon which they were supposed to live was
less than completely wholesome. The Practice in Accord with the Capacity
description of practicing virtue in the third stage, for example, focuses on
giving and it includes many cautions to the mendicants regarding how their
desire for ne foodstuffs kindles the ame of desire, and thus it charges
them to give away the good food received through begging and eat only the
bad, give away three-fourths and keep only one portion for oneself, etc.90 In
this self-denial we can also see the practical side of the San-chieh doctrine of
the recognition of ones evil nature as opposed to the Buddha-nature of all
others, as well as the San-chieh attitude towards anything individual or par-
ticular rather than communal and universal (see chapter 5).

The Inexhaustible Storehouse


and Buddhist Money-Lending

One nal consideration in this look at the Inexhaustible Storehouse


is the question of what position it occupied vis--vis other, similar Buddhist
institutions in China. Although such a comparative study is well beyond the
scope of the present work, the general area of Sui-Tang Buddhism, particu-
larly with regard to economic function, has received a fair amount of schol-
arly attention and a reading of these sources can give one a good overview.91
During the Tang dynasty the Buddhist sangha was involved in almost all

90 Practice in Accord with the Capacity, 12124.


91 See Michibata, Chgoku Bukky to shakai fukushi jigy; see also the updated bibliography
in Jacques Gernets Buddhism in Chinese Society, 40123 and Chen, Buddhism in China,
52326, for a basic bibliography of works dealing with this subject.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 181

aspects of Chinese lifefrom providing tax havens for the rich to aiding the
poor, from political activism to offering peaceful sanctuaries for public
ofcials grown weary of the public arenaall these and many more found a
place within the Buddhist communities. The Buddhist church gured par-
ticularly prominently in the economic sphere, and the immense estates,
industrial operations, and lending institutions of the Buddhist sangha all
played important roles in Chinese history from the Northern dynasties
through the Sui and Tang.
To begin with, it should be noted that the fervent practice of charity on
the part of the aristocracy was not at all uncommon in this timefrom the
emperor on down, conspicuous giving was a staple of the times. The biogra-
phy of Chi-tsang, Hsin-hsings contemporary in Chang-an, also mentions
an Inexhaustible Storehouse that seemed to function much the same as that
of the Hua-tu ssu:
Members of the great families and noble houses all exhausted their wealth in
offerings. The faithful and religious alike were pleased with their endeavours.
Chi-tsangs work of conversion to the dharma was unceasing, and so the dona-
tions of material goods piled up. They were accordingly distributed in order to
establish the Field of Merit. Anything that remained was put into the ten
Inexhaustible Storehouses for Tan-hsien to use for the assistance of the [Fields
of] Compassion and Respect.92

It is within this general context of institutionalized Buddhist charity that


the Inexhaustible Storehouse functioned. As Gernet notes, the development
of the doctrinal concept of charity and of charitable works in practice was
particularly appreciable in the sixth century, precisely the time when Hsin-
hsing formulated his inexhaustible doctrine of Buddhist charity. One such
institution that no doubt played an important part in creating an accommo-
dating climate for monastic and public institutions of social welfare was the
so-called sangha household mentioned above.93 Sangha households were
established after Tan-yao petitioned the throne in 469, asking that certain
households annually donate grain to the sangha, which would in turn dis-
tribute it as relief grain in times of famine.94 Clearly, however, these sangha

92 T #2060, 50.514a; adapted from Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 216; an

Inexhaustible Storehouse is also mentioned in the biography of Hui-hui y (T #2060,


50.642c).
93 This discussion largely relies on Gernets Buddhism in Chinese Society, and Whalen Lai,

The Hsiang fa chueh i ching and the Economics of Salvation. Tsukamoto Zenry was
among the rst to present the fascinating details of these institutions; see his Shingy no
Sangaikydan to mujinz ni tsuite.
94 The same petition asked for the creation of Buddha households consisting of non-prop-

ertied criminals and slaves to help out with cleaning and other custodial duties. This perhaps
182 / the inexhaustible storehouse

households followed a pattern that was designed with other purposes in


mind as well, including the opening up of new agricultural areas and the
support of the monastic community itself.95
In China the sangha households were comprised of families captured in
war and deported to outlying areas, where they were then expected to con-
tribute sixty hu of millet annually, perhaps as much as half of their yearly
harvest. Still, there were advantages to such an arrangement, for although
the members of the sangha households were clearly a class of serfs inden-
tured as the agricultural labor of the temples, as households owned in per-
petuity (chang chu po hsing W)96 by the sangha they were provided
with both land and the tools necessary for cultivating that land and were also
exempt from other duties, including corve labor.97 The sangha also was an
obvious beneciary, and the sangha households contributed to the growth
and wealth of the temples during this period. Like the Inexhaustible Store-
house, the procedural precedent for the sangha households can be found in
monastic regulations that specied that persons could be employed as ser-
vants of the sangha or Buddha and when a village of monastery attendants
(rmika-gma) was created for this purpose.98
Although the purpose of the sangha households was clearly stated in Tan-
yaos petition to be that of providing relief in times of famine, it seems
equally clear that from early on the grains that they provided were more
often used for the support of the temples through lending practices, for
there is a decree of 511 that already criticizes the exorbitant interest and other
rapacious practices of the sangha and orders an inquiry into their operation
and a complete inventory of their holdings. A fragmentary manuscript pre-
served at Tun-huang records the sanghas indignation at such measures,
complaining that
The religious buildings in our district were founded by imperial order or were
completed and embellished by sages (i.e., emperors). The dwellings, mansions,
estates, and the elds within [the monasteries] and without, all derive from
pious donations. Our peasant families (hu kou S) and domestic servants
(chia jen B^) were offered to us by great donors (tan yeh A, Skt. dnapati,

echoes the separation between the property of the sangha-jewel and the Buddha-jewel alluded
to by Lai (cf. below).
95 Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 99116.
96 Ibid., 105.
97 Ibid., 101. Of course, one could also argue that they performed corve labor in perpetu-
ity to the sangha as an imperial endowment.
98Gregory Schopen, The Monastic Ownership of Servants or Slaves: Local and Legal
Factors in the Redactional History of Two Vinayas, Journal of the International Association of
Buddhist Studies 17/2 (1994), 150; Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 102.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 183

titular benefactors) and intended to ll our buildings in perpetuity, as a


hereditary endowment. Those who live in the world congratulate and glorify
us. We must not be robbed of our property, nor must it be appropriated; on
the contrary, our prosperity must be increased and furthered and [our build-
ings] embellished. This prosperity neither declines nor is exhausted. It is
known as permanent (chang-chu W). All this accords with the ancient rules
[of discipline].99

In addition to asking for a return of their property held in perpetuity


the document also decrees that members of these households are not to
marry outside of their class, but if a child should be born of such a liaison
the child becomes part of the monastic property held in perpetuity.
Although the creation of sangha households might be thought of as a
unique Chinese institution and therefore evidence of the sinication of
Buddhism, as noted above, villages of monastery attendants were provided
for in the Vinaya, and they also bear a striking resemblance to the donation
of maintenance villages (bhogagma) to the sangha in Sri Lanka from the
early fourth century onwards.100 Just as the sangha households in China
came to be considered the property of particular temples rather than belong-
ing to the sangha as a whole,101 in Sri Lanka also disputes arose over the par-
ticular ownership of such lands and their tenants, no doubt marking again
the tension between the communal monastic ideal and the fact of property
ownershipas well, perhaps, as the issue of how and by whom merit is
acquired. As Gunawardana puts it,
The acceptance of property introduced a new concept into the organization of
the sagha. The earliest donations, mostly of caves, were made to the sagha
of the four directions, present and absent or, in other words, to the entire
sagha. It is very likely that donations of other types of dwellings, situated in
parks, were of a similar character, but donations of sources of income [e.g.,
endowments, inexhaustible goods] were made from the start to individual
monasteries. As a result of this practice the monastery came to represent not
merely a group of resident monks but also a corporate property-owning insti-
tution. The boundary disputes between the major monasteries at the capital
and, in particular, the objections raised by the Mahvihra to other monaster-
ies being erected on what it considered its own grounds reveal how strongly the
inmates of these monasteries felt that the land attached to their monasteries
belonged to them alone.102

99 Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 106.


100 Gunawardana, Robe and Plough, 5460.
101 Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 103; see also Schopen, Monastic Ownership, 15962.
102Gunawardana, Robe and Plough, 56; see also Schopen, The Lay Ownership of
Monasteries, 11622.
184 / the inexhaustible storehouse

As noted above, the children born to a member of a sangha household in


China were considered part of the inalienable monastic property, even if one
parent was not part of a sangha household, and human resources were
usually part of the village endowments in Sri Lanka and could be offered
separately as well; slaves were also owned by the monasteries.103 Of course,
the Inexhaustible Storehouse of the Hua-tu ssu did not primarily involve
land grants or human resources,104 but sangha households were only one of
many Buddhist relief and lending agencies.
In a most interesting essay Whalen Lai has argued that the Hsiang fa cheh
i ching, the text cited most often by Hsin-hsing with regard to the impor-
tance of charity directed to the Field of Compassion, represents a tension
between a precept-based lay piety, focused on the sangha as the mediator of
the precepts, and a Buddha-centered devotionalism focused on images and
the stupa.105 This tension thus includes that between the private, lay owner-
ship of the stupas and the corporate ownership and distribution characteris-
tic of the sangha, possibly deriving from the distinct and separate functions
and legal status of the two spheres (sangha and stupa) in India as well as
demographic changes in Northern China, in particular the demise of the
community-supported monastic estates (sangha-households seng chi hu
R), the expansion of urban centers, and the accompanying growth of
individual or private patterns of economic piety. This work, he writes of
the Hsiang fa cheh i ching, was a defense of the sangha-household experi-
ment of Tan-yao, who had created such monastic manors as elds of
poverty in 462. Clerical corruption in the handling of the sangha grain in 511
spurred the HFCICs [Hsiang fa cheh i ching] protest. The protest was also
directed against the proliferation of Buddha images since about 450 and of
Buddha temples, especially at Loyang since 495. The conspicuous consump-
tion of the latter was draining monasteries funds for helping not just the
rural but even more the urban poor. Thus, the same concern that moved
post-Aokan sectarians in India and moves Buddhadasa now in Thailand
motivated this text in 517520: how best to redistribute donations so that
those in greater need would receive a more just share.106

103 Schopen, Monastic Ownership, 16263, 17172; Gunawardana, Robe and Plough, 88,

9798, and 12022.


104 On Empress Wus intention to endow the Inexhaustible Storehouses with land grants,

see Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 212.


105 Lai, The Hsiang fa cheh i ching and the Economics of Salvation, 21 ff.
106 Lai, Chinese Buddhist and Christian Charities, 1112; it should also be noted that a
readily deployable Confucian social criticism was to bemoan the growth of urban centers and
trade activities and the accompanying collapse of an agricultural-based society; for examples
of this critique in the Latter Han see Tsukamoto, A History of Early Chinese Buddhism, 3435.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 185

This thesis is intriguing (particularly in light of Hirakawas argument


regarding the role and legal status of the stupa in the beginnings of the
Mahayana), and it is to be hoped that more work will be done in this area in
the future. Whether or not Hsin-hsings movement ts into this picture is
hard to say. On the one hand it was clearly part of a precept-centered form
of Buddhism, both in the strict vigilance with which the monastic members
of the movement were expected to maintain the discipline and in the prac-
tice of administering the precepts to the laitythe fellow practitioners and
kalynamitra so important to Hsin-hsing were not necessarily renunciants,
but they were expected to observe the precepts.107 Nonetheless, and in spite
of their reliance on the Hsiang fa cheh i ching, it does not seem that it was a
question of private sponsorship or sangha versus lay control (sangha-jewel
versus Buddha-jewel) that drove Hsin-hsing. After all, the Hua-tu ssuthe
headquarters of the Inexhaustible Storehousewas in the private mansion
of Kao-chiung, nance minister of the Sui dynasty. Similarly, although San-
chieh practice does evince the strict morality and redoubled effort character-
istic of new religious movements, we must also remember that their view of
the refuge of the sangha was precisely that of the monk who broke all of the
precepts, making it hard to imagine them deploying the rhetoric of the pre-
cept-based sanctity of the sangha. This, too, is not so simple, however, for as
we have seen, their rhetoric of the debased sangha of the third level did not
mean that they attacked the centrality of the sangha or permitted infractions
of the rule, but rather that they argued that biased, narrow-minded, and
ignorant sentient beings were not able to distinguish the true holder of the
precepts from the corrupt transgressoras with the arhat Pidola discussed
in chapter 6, appearances may be deceiving. In the context of the practice of
the Inexhaustible Storehouse, then, their critique does in fact seem to be
aimed at the conspicuous consumption of the temple building and image
making of the day and a restructuring of the private nature of merit in
keeping with the holistic vision of the Hua-yen. At the same time, of course,
the Inexhaustible Storehouse did merge the Field of Merit and the Field of
Compassion, so that giving to one would accomplish giving to the other,
and thereby also achieve the corporate and equal distribution that Lai dis-
cusses. This subject could well bear more investigation.
In another context, the emphasis on the founder, communal practice, lack
of social or class discrimination, and the need to practice at the centralized
location of the Hua-tu ssu in order to make the offerings work without
interruption all serve to bring to mind the role of Buddhist lay associations
in Chinese history, especially as corporate patrons of works of piety, vegetar-
ian banquets, festivals, monastic building, and artistic endeavors, that is,

107 See chapter 6.


186 / the inexhaustible storehouse

groups such as the i i (), i hui (y), and i she ().108 As Hsin-hsing
discarded the monastic precepts and one of his most important followers
was not an ordained monk, it is tempting to identify the San-chieh move-
ment, or at least the institution of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, with this
phenomenon. The emphasis on the collective is also reminiscent (again) of
the Celestial Masters, whose members were enjoined to contribute materially
to the community, who regularly held communal feasts (on the no-barrier
festivals held at the Hua-tu ssu, see below, 20810), and who organized
social welfare institutions and hostels throughout their territory.109 Although
the San-chieh movement and the Inexhaustible Storehouse may have many
functional similarities with such associations, at this point I would nonethe-
less refrain from such an identication primarily because it would obscure
many other facets of the movement that are equally important; in this con-
nection, it is this writers belief that any religious organization will pass
through many different phases, sometimes simultaneously,110 and the label
of lay association carries so much baggage that it would need to be very
narrowly dened, both temporally and functionally, to have any meaning,
which would also thereby render it inapplicable to the San-chieh movement.
This does not mean, however, that such a background is meaningless in the
discussion of San-chieh practice and institution.
Finally, because of the similarities of name and function several scholars
have grouped the San-chieh Inexhaustible Storehouse with other types of
lending institutions that ourished during the Tang and after. Probably the
earliest example of this is found in the Shih shih yao lan compiled in 1019
by Tao-cheng.111 Tao-cheng mentions long-life treasuries and inex-
haustible treasuries (specically those of the San-chieh founded by Empress
Wu in the two capitals) as all stemming from the concept of the inex-
haustible goods found in the Vinaya. More recently, Kenneth Chen, Yang
Lien-sheng, and Tsukamoto Zenry have also put the San-chieh Inexhaustible
Storehouse in the same category as the long-life treasuries and other
Buddhist institutions that existed for the purpose of the nancial security of
the monastery, as with the function of the inexhaustible goods of the
Vinaya.112 These institutions, however, clearly had economic motives before

108 On the economic activities of these organizations see Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese

Society, 25977.
109 Tsukamoto, A History of Early Chinese Buddhism, 35, 411.
110The White Lotus Society, for example, could be classied as a popular religious move-
ment, a secret society, a lay association, or a group of militaristic heretics, depending on
which period of their development we look at.
111 T #2127, 54.304b.
112 Chen, Chinese Transformation of Buddhism, 15871. Chen mentions several other
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 187

those of the Field of Compassion. This is obvious when one examines the
kind of lending practices that these organizations engaged in. On the basis of
the evidence provided by Gernet, Chen, and others, it seems that not only
were the interest rates exorbitant but the contracts were also always very
detailed, usually including the phrase This contract is drawn up because of
the fear that there will be a lack of faith.113 This stands in sharp contrast to
the image one obtains of the Inexhaustible Storehouse of Hsin-hsing as pre-
served in secular sources such as the Liang ching hsin chi and the Tai ping
kuang chi (discussed in chapter 8), a fact that has led several other scholars to
reject the attempt to categorize it as a type of lending institution.114 Lending
with no written records required, no interest charged, etc. indicates that in
spite of the fact that the Inexhaustible Storehouse bears a certain semblance
to the general lending practices of the Buddhist sangha, the doctrinal basis
was not the considerations of the Vinaya for nancial security. It is rather
the Mahayana ideal of bodhisattvas inexhaustible storehouse of compassion
manifested in the context of Chinese social welfare practices. So, too, the
reported wealth of the Inexhaustible Storehouse did not come from interest
earned (as in the case of the inexhaustible goods of the long-life treasuries)
but rather from the attractive and voluntary nature of its cultus, which pro-
vided a communal economy of salvation. Of course, it should be cautioned
that separating the nancial security of the sangha from purely religious
purposes is more representative of a modern mindset than a Buddhist cri-
tique, for surely the nancial well-being of the sangha in and of itself has
always been considered a properly religious goal. Nonetheless, it would seem
that if a distinction were to be made, the proper area for further discussion of
the Inexhaustible Storehouse would be Chinese Buddhist social welfare activ-
ities in the context of sangha, community, and state economic institutions.

institutions known as inexhaustible storehouses, which were obviously set up to provide


for monastic nances. Cf. Yang Lien-sheng, Buddhist Monasteries, 17478; Tsukamoto
Zenry, Shingy Sangaikydan, 7677.
113 Michibata, Tdai Bukkyshi no kenky, 532536; Chen, Chinese Transformation of

Buddhism, 16571. In these contracts one is strongly reminded of the strictures given by the
Buddha regarding loans in the Mlasarvstivdin Vinaya: after a loan was defaulted on by a
poor person, the Buddha said that all loans must be guaranteed by a pawn two times greater
in value than the load; it must be detailed in a contract with names and dates recorded, and
the names of the head monk as well as the monks in charge of the transactions must also be
recorded; cf. Michibata, Tdai Bukkyshi, 52223; Schopen, Doing Business, 53641, is
especially interesting for the parallels that Schopen is able to draw with Indian dharmastra
literature.
114 See, for example, Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 211; Michibata, Tdai Bukkyshi,

519; and Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 635.


188 / the inexhaustible storehouse

Summary

The Inexhaustible Storehouse of the San-chieh is thus a combina-


tion of many different elements into a unique institution of Buddhist social
welfare and salvic agency. Among the Buddhist elements we can count the
doctrine of the religious gift and its merit, the Vinaya regulations that gov-
erned the receipt of those gifts and allowed the creation of endowments that
simultaneously secured the nancial well-being of the sangha and provided
for the continuous accumulation of the donors religious merit, and the
changed understanding of both the function and direction of charity and
merit in the Mahayana. Among the indigenous concerns reected in the
Inexhaustible Storehouse we can number the traditional role of communal
social welfare activities, the criticism of individual piety and merit in favor of
the collective, and particularly their vision of universal and shared merit.
Interestingly, the articulation of this ideal of social welfare in terms of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse of the Hua-yen Sutra provided exactly the same
sort of cosmological model that the state often deployed as a strategy of
legitimization through its patronage of the universalist Buddhist doctrines of
the Tien-tai and Hua-yen schools. That is, it is a model of a sacred society
thoroughly integrated with a charismatic leader (Hsin-hsing) and a sacred
center (the Hua-tu ssu) that provided for the peoples welfare and was both
the cultic focus and institutional center, thus providing an economy of sal-
vation truly t for the new times of a reunied China. This, I believe, was the
cause of the great popularity and success of the San-chieh Inexhaustible
Storehouse during the Sui and Tang; perhaps it also was the cause for its
numerous suppressions. Let us now, nally, turn to the history of that
institution and its suppressions.
8.
The Suppressions of the
Three Levels Movement

T he bulk of this work has been concerned with describing San-


chieh doctrines and attempting to place them within the broader context of
Indian and Chinese Buddhist thought and practice. From this it should be
clear that, whatever else may be said about their religious ethos, their doc-
trine and its institutionalization was far from unusual and can be described
as well within the norms of Chinese and even Indian Buddhist doctrine.
Given that new religious movements typically expend a great deal of energy
explaining their relationship to the norm, this is not surprising. Nonetheless,
the San-chieh drew imperial ire and sanctions no less than ve times over a
period of approximately one hundred and fty years, leading to the eventual
loss of their texts until the beginning of this century. This chapter, then,
examines the possible causes for those suppressions in the context of the
implementation of their economy of salvation, the Inexhaustible Storehouse
of the Hua-tu Temple.

The Hua-tu Ssu and the Founding of the


Inexhaustible Storehouse

The San-chieh practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse described


in chapter 7 was largely tied to a particular temple, the Hua-tu ssu 5E
(Temple of Conversion and Salvation) in the cosmopolitan capital of the
newly united empire, Chang-an. A review of the history of that temple sug-
gests that many aspects of the movement need to be reevaluated, especially
regarding the source of their support and the causes of their suppressions. In
terms of the former, in spite of the fact that the San-chieh is generally char-
acterized as a movement oriented towards the masses, a review of the insti-
tutional record of the Inexhaustible Storehouse makes it clear that the move-
ment also received considerable support from the highest levels of Chinese
society from its founding in the Sui throughout the Tang dynasty. Once this
becomes clear, new interpretations of their suppressions also are suggested.
Because of their emphasis on the doctrine of decline the persecutions have

189
190 / suppressions

consistently been seen in light of doctrinal issues and their implications, that
is, as the rulers response to the implications of the doctrine of decline or the
rulers bowing to pressure from other schools and movements offended by
the exclusivism of the San-chieh universalism. The belief in the lowered
capacity of sentient beings is seen as reecting poorly on the emperors reign
and his or her ability to institute just rule or to proclaim the truth and
appoint the guardians of that truth. Or again the decline doctrine is seen to
be linked to millennial and apocalyptic movements of mass unrest and
therefore a threat to the social fabric. Thus it is assumed that the rulers
political and social concerns were somehow threatened or undermined by
the implications of the decline doctrine. While this seems to be a reasonable
assumption, I hope to indicate some of the shortcomings of this view and
suggest that, in reducing historically complex situations to a single explana-
tion, it invests those situations with a homogeneity not actually evident.
Further, although in one sense this approach seeks to point out the ideologi-
cal side of religious doctrine, because of its reductive nature it does so at the
expense of the political nature of politics. Although I cannot offer a neat and
easy alternative to this explanation, I suggest that delity to the complex and
often obscure nature of the historical record leaves us no choice and is, if not
the happiest of conclusions, the methodologically preferable approach.

Previous Explanations

Although the San-chieh enjoyed periods of great popularity, their


teachings or practices were proscribed ve times over a span of roughly two
hundred years: in 600 by Sui Wen Ti, in 694 and 699 by Empress Wu, and in
721 and 725 by Emperor Hsan-tsung. Because of this their texts were also
often (but not always) excluded from the ofcial canon of Buddhist scrip-
tures. Most accounts of these suppressions follow Yabuki Keiki, the pioneer-
ing scholar of the San-chieh, and attribute them to the belief in the decline
of the dharma and the attendant pessimistic evaluation of living beings
capacity to receive, practice, and realize the Buddha-dharma. From this is
drawn the conclusion that in periods when a strong patron of Buddhism is
in power the implications of the doctrine of decline cast aspersions on the
rulers ability to exercise divine rule, manifest the virtues of benevolent
leadership, bring peace and prosperity to the land, and in general realize har-
mony during the rulers reign.1

1 Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 13335; Chen, Buddhism in China, 300; Chen, The Chinese

Transformation of Buddhism, 164. One problem with this ascription is that it assumes that the
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 191

A more sophisticated version of this explanation has recently been offered


by Mark Lewis, who argues that it was not the doctrine of decline per se that
angered the monarchs but rather the doctrine of the Universal Dharma that
the San-chieh based on it that caused the suppressions.2 As discussed in
chapter 6, the doctrine of the Universal Dharma taught that the capacity of
sentient beings of the third level to discern the truth was virtually nil; rather
than risk the offense of slandering the dharma by presumptuously picking
and choosing among the various teachings of the Buddha, we are told to rec-
ognize the essential truth value of all teachings, heresies as well as orthodox
Buddhist doctrine. By eliminating the distinctions in the teachings and sev-
ering the link between text and authority (a link implicit in the very term for
the Buddhist scriptures),3 the Three Stages sect challenged the rulers right
to declare the supreme truth and to justify their rule through the defense of
that truth and the elevation of its presumptive masters.4 Thus the implica-
tions of both the doctrine of decline and the Universal Dharma are seen as
tantamount to treason. To these explanations is sometimes added that the
insistence of the San-chieh on possessing the sole formula for salvation
during the decay of the dharma did not meet with the approval of other
schools.5
The underlying thesis in these arguments is that it was doctrinal concerns
that caused the suppressions of the San-chieh. This point, for the most part,
is well taken: the actions against the San-chieh were directed against reli-
gious texts and practices, not rebels.6 Leaders were not executed nor followers
exiled; rather, texts and practices were banned. This points to the difference
between apocalyptic uses of the Buddhist doctrine of decline seen in many of
the Maitreya groups, and the soteriological orientation of the San-chieh.
Although messianic and apocalyptic movements usually incorporate the
doctrine of decline into their teachings, they also contain an expectation of a

San-chieh is based on the doctrine of mo fa and the three periods of the dharma, an assump-
tion that, as detailed in chapter 4 above, turns out to be unwarranted; I do not think, however,
that this changes the basic logic of the argument.
2 Lewis, The Suppression of the Three Stages Sect, 20738. Lewiss study is a superb expo-

sition of many different aspects of the San-chieh, and though I disagree with his analysis of
the suppressions of the San-chieh, I am indebted to his study for clarifying many other
points.
3 Ching , meaning the warp of a fabric, has long been understood as that which gives

order, and the duty of the Chinese emperor is to correctly implement the meaning of the
text or canon and thereby manifest order and harmony in their rule; cf. Lewis,
Suppression, 20810.
4 Lewis, Suppression, 228.
5 Chen, Buddhism in China, 300.
6 Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 135; Lewis, Suppresion, 23031.
192 / suppressions

future utopia occurring within history that is not found in the San-chieh.
That is, it was precisely the concern with the degenerate conditions of the
times in which they lived that motivated the teachings of the Three Levels
and Pure Land masters, not future expectations of a reform or regeneration.
Thus both Yabuki and Lewis have noted that it was precisely during the
reign of vigorous patrons of the ofcial Buddhist church that the San-chieh
was attacked,7 inasmuch as their doctrines reected poorly on the abilities of
a Buddhist ruler. This was especially true for Empress Wu (who briey
assumed the title of Maitreya, the future Buddha who would usher in an age
of peace and spiritual realization) because she needed the textual support of
the Buddhist canon to validate her claims and thus could not tolerate the
doctrine of the Universal Dharma.
In pondering the arguments presented by these scholars, I was struck rst
of all by their a priori naturethat is, these arguments can be put forth
without investigating the actual, particular circumstances of the suppres-
sions. In fact, because the suppressions occurred in widely varying contexts,
if one wishes to give a single, sweeping reason for the suppressions perhaps
this is the only avenue open. But could it possibly be that the historical con-
text played no part in the actions that the state took against the San-chieh?
The second anomaly that occurred to me is similarly related to what I feel
to be the reductionist nature of the argumentinasmuch as the San-chieh
never, to my knowledge, actually advocated revolt or disrespect of the ruler,8
if it was solely the doctrine of decline or its implications for doctrinal
hermeneutics that were so repugnant, why is it the ruler did not take action
against all who propounded this view, particularly the Pure Land teachers?
Tao-cho (562645), for example, also believed that he lived in a period in
which the traditional practices were completely ineffective; like Hsin-hsing,
he argued that if the teaching is appropriate to the time and capacity, the
practice is easy and understanding is easy. If the capacity, teaching, and time
are opposed, then practice is difcult and entrance is difcult.9 Instead of
the universality of the Buddha-dharma Tao-cho advocated a single practice,
the one gate of the Pure Land,10 and the criticism of all who do not follow

7 Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 133; Lewis, Suppression, 228.


8 Indeed, as both Yabuki (Sangaiky no kenky, 13334) and Lewis (Suppression, 5657)
have pointed out, the San chieh fo fa contains prescriptions for disciplinary actions that a
ruler who follows the dharma may take during the decline of the dharma, including taking
lives during war, censuring the monastic community, etc. San chieh fo fa, 273 ff; as pointed
out in chapter 6 it was also the case that Hsin-hsings communities did not tolerate monks
who were lax in their discipline, and expulsion was mandated for numerous offenses, particu-
larly lack of respect.
9 T #1958, 47.4a.
10 T #1958, 47.13c.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 193

this one way is explicit, as it always is in schemes of doctrinal evaluation


and grading (siddhnta, pan chiao). Indeed, inasmuch as the single practice
of the nien fo is, at least on the surface, more exclusive than the inclusive
enfold of Hsin-hsings Universal Dharma, it would seem the former might
be a more logical target if impugning the emperors prerogative to declare
truth were the central issue.
Although it might be suggested that in recognizing the continued efcacy
of at least one Buddha and one sutra in the dark period of the nal dharma
the Pure Land patriarchs were less extreme and hence less threatening, we
must remember that in point of fact the San-chieh did advocate a particular
teaching or dharma suited to the times, that is, the Universal Dharma: (1)
their texts are literally lled with quotations from Buddhist sutras (the San
chieh fo fa, for example, in a short 30 leaves contains over 130 references to
thirty-ve different canonical sources); (2) their practice included the con-
stant repetition of the seven roster Buddhanma liturgy, which included
chanting the names of over one hundred individual buddhas; (3) they also
cultivated the dhta ascetic practices and other aspects typical of the monas-
tic regimen; and (4) they were rmly part of a preceptual tradition, empha-
sizing the precepts for both renunciant and lay followers. All this simply
underscores the fact that they did teach, they did worship the Buddhas, and
they did cultivate normative Buddhist practices (the founder, Hsin-hsing, is
even included within the section of the Hs kao seng chuan reserved for
those who practice meditation).
Related to this is the fact that, as pointed out in part two, the decline of
the teaching was not really concerned with society at large: whether in its
Indian origins as a polemic of orthodoxy or its Chinese manifestations as a
doctrine of existential failure, the criticisms were virtually always directed
inward, at the failure of the monastic community to apprehend the true
dharma rather than society at large or the ruler.
Further, if the cause of imperial ire is to be sought in the implied criticism
inherent in the doctrine of the universal teaching, we should expect that all
rulers would always suppress all teachings that do not accord with their own
understandings or political needs, for all differing doctrinal systems, which
of course claim to be true, implicitly if not explicitly deny the validity or
superiority of all other teachings. 11 Yet the shifting winds of imperial
patronage did not typically include the suppression of those not the current
court favorite.

11 See also Stanley Weinsteins discussion of the political use of Buddhist teachers and
teachings, Imperial Patronage in Tang Buddhism, in Perspectives on the Tang (New Haven
& London: Yale University Press 1973), 265306.
194 / suppressions

In order to explain the on again, off again aspect of the suppressions


(which must be accounted for if a single cause of the suppressions is accepted)
I have mentioned that several scholars claim that it was precisely in the time
of strong patrons of Buddhism that the ideological threat of the San-chieh
was felt most acutely. This, however, simply does not accord with the facts.
To characterize Hsan-tsung an ardent backer of Buddhism is impossible
after all, he laicized tens of thousands of monks and nuns, imposed sharp
curbs on ordination and temple construction, and, as with other Tang
rulers, elevated Taoism above Buddhism. Although he did patronize Bud-
dhist establishments to some degree, it is questionable whether his support
should be seen as greater than that which Tai-tsung (who did not suppress
the San-chieh) afforded the great translator Hsan-tsang. It is equally
doubtful that a Taoist would take offense at one Buddhist sect claiming doc-
trinal supremacy but not at others equally sure of their claims to the highest
truth.12 Much the same can be said of Sui Wen Ti and even Empress Wu,
both of whose policies of legitimization made conspicuous and highly selec-
tive use of rituals, doctrines, and institutions of Confucian and Taoist origin
as well as Buddhist. In the end, the Universal Dharma is little more than one
of many Buddhist sectarian polemics, and the hermeneutical enterprise of
sectarian doctrinal evaluation is a weak basis for the active suppression of
those schools that engaged in such evaluations. This simple explanation, giv-
ing a single cause for the downfall of the San-chieh, also does not seem to be
able to explain the fact of the continued survival and even patronage of the sect at
the highest levels of Tang orthodoxy, including support by the imperial family.
Another possible consideration for the suppressions is the highly visible
success of the Inexhaustible Storehouse of the San-chieh. It is often com-
mented upon that Buddhist institutions frequently prospered at the eco-
nomic expense of the state, thus contributing to many of the large-scale
suppressions of Buddhism. Once again, however, we can easily nd many
examples of temples and sects that possessed vast estates and engaged in
entrepreneurial activities on a much greater scale than the San-chieh.
Indeed, the usual source of monastic economic power, landed estates, is
conspicuously absent in the case of the San-chieh movement, again forcing
us to ask why the San-chieh alone would be the target of imperial sanctions
if economic issues were the heart of the matter.
These and other, similar, inconsistencies have forced me to reevaluate the
previous explanations for the suppressions of the San-chieh and conclude
that doctrinal issues were probably never more than contributing causes.
The direct causes are more likely to be found in simpler, historical events of

12 For example, the Hua-yen teachings, closely linked to Empress Wu and clearly of political

import.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 195

a realpolitik nature. Because the obvious doctrinal factors do not seem to


give satisfactory answers, let us look at each of the suppressions in context.13

The Suppression of 600

The rst suppression of the San-chieh occurred in the year 600 and
is recorded in several catalogues of Buddhist scripture:
In the year Kai-huang 20 (600) an imperial order prohibited the propagation
[of these texts]. A warning concerning their ideas was also [given].14

This edict was given a mere six years after the death of Hsin-hsing, the
founder of the San-chieh, and only eleven years after he had been invited to
the capital of Chang-an to reside at the Chen-chi ssu (later known as
the Hua-tu ssu 5E), a temple established by the Sui statesman Kao
Chiung :
In the beginning of Kai-huang he [Hsin-hsing] was summoned to the capital;
Vice Minister Kao Chiung invited him to dwell in the Chen-chi ssu and a sub-
temple was established there.15

Although the name of the sub-temple is not given, the only sub-temple
ever mentioned as being within the precinct of the Hua-tu ssu at this time
was that of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, as in this record from the Chang-an
chih (the section on the I-ning fang ) in the northwest part of Chang-an:

East of the South Gate: Hua-tu ssu


Originally the Chen-chi ssu, and house of Kao Chiung, the Duke of Chi, Vice
Minister of the left of the [Department] of State Affairs. In the third year of

13 In a response to my analysis of the suppressions, and unwilling to give up the doctrinal

link to mo fa, Masatoshi Nagatomi has suggested that perhaps something is to be found in the
Daacakra kitigarbha-stra (T #410 and #411) and its understanding of the age of decline,
especially in its teaching that monks and nuns should not be criticized (oral comments given
at The Historical Legacy of Religion in China, Harvard 1988). This connection is indeed possi-
ble, as this text was very important to Hsin-hsing (he is reputed to have written a number of
commentaries on it and it is often quoted in extant San-chieh texts). Without any mention of
mo fa, the decline theory, or the Daacakra in the suppression edicts or other solid evidence,
at this point I still nd the doctrinal explanation unsatisfying; see John MacRae, et. al.,
Special Report: The Historical Legacy of Religion in China, Journal of Chinese Religion 17
(1989): 61116, esp. 6871.
14 Li tai san pao chi, T #2034, 49.105c; cf. the Hs kao seng chuan, T #2060, 50.560b, and Ta

tang nei tien lu, T #2149, 55.278a.


15 Hs kao seng chuan, T #2060, 50.560a; cf. the Ming pao chi, T #2082, 51.788b.
196 / suppressions

Kai-huang [583] Chiung abandoned his house and petitioned to have it estab-
lished as a temple. In the second year of Wu-te [21 Jan. 6198 Feb. 620] the
name was changed to Hua-tu ssu. In the temple was the sub-temple of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse.16

And from the Liang ching hsin chi:


East of the South Gate: Hua-tu ssu
In the third year of Kai-huang [583], Kao Chiung, Duke of Chi and Vice
Minister of the [Department of] State Affairs of the Sui, abandoned his house
and petitioned to have it established as a temple. At that time there was a sra-
mana Hsin-hsing who came from east of the mountains,17 and Chiung estab-
lished a subtemple [for him]. There he composed a San chieh chi XT in
more than thirty chan, which, for the most part, emphasized perseverance,
hard work, and forbearance. He said that there are three grades of people, the
wise, the stupid, and those in-between [the ordinary]; because of these teach-
ings it is called the Three Levels. Because of the emphasis on conversion this
temple is called the Temple of Conversion and Salvation [Hua-tu ssu].18

Kao Chiung, of course, was the famous general, statesman, and nancial
advisor to Wen-ti, the rst emperor of the Sui.19 Although he eventually fell
from favor and was executed during the reign of Yang-ti, during his tenure
he was no doubt among the most powerful men in the government, if not
the most powerful. In addition to his military accomplishments, Kao
Chiung is credited with the reforms in tax registration and civil administra-
tion that greatly increased the stability of the new dynasty.20 Kao Chiung,
like many of the Northern aristocrats, appears to have been a devout Bud-
dhist, and he is reported as saying I am now old. After I retire from the
court, I wish only to live a pure life and read the Buddhist scriptures.21 It is

16 Sung Min-chiu [, Chang-an chih H (circa 1080), in Takeo Hiraoka, ed.,

Chan to rakuy shiry (Kyoto: Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyjo, 1956), chan 10, p. 9; cf. Hsu-sung,
Tang liang ching cheng fang kao (ca. 1810), in Hiraoka, Chan to Rakuy shiry, chan 4, p. 24.
17 East of the Mountains refers to the area east of the Tai-hang Mountains, in modern-

day Shanxi Province, not to the modern province of Shandong.


18 Liang ching hsin chi, Wei Shu, 8th century (included in Pai pu tsung shu), chan 3, p. 14.
19For Kao Chiungs biography, see Wei Cheng et al., Sui shu (Beijing: Chung hua shu chi,
1965), chan 41, pp. 1179 ff; see also Denis Twitchett, ed., The Cambridge History of China
(Cambridge, 1979), vol. 3, part 1, 6670.
20Wei Cheng et al., Sui shu, chan 24, p. 681; cf. tienne Balazs, Le Trait conomique du
Souei-chou, Toung Pao 42 (1953), 154; A. Wright, Formation of Sui Ideology, 581604, in
John K. Fairbanks, ed., Chinese Thought and Institutions (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1957), 80.
21 Wei Cheng et al., Sui shu, chan 41, 1182. Kaos wife also donated a house to be used as a

Buddhist temple; cf. Chang-an chih, chan 10, p. 9 (Chan to Rakuy shiry, 120).
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 197

unfortunate that more is not known of his relationship to Hsin-hsing and


the San-chieh, in particular whether or not the Inexhaustible Storehouse was
part of the Hua-tu ssu while he was still alive. Still, as the chief patron of the
founder and donor of their main temple, the fortunes of the San-chieh must
have been closely tied to those of Kao Chiung, perhaps fatally so.
That is, keeping this relationship in mind, it seems quite plausible that the
prohibition of San-chieh texts in 600 is related to the rustication of Kao
Chiung the year before. Although arguably the most important statesman of
the Sui, Kao had frequently incurred the wrath of the empress as she grew
older. Besides other grievances, she was particularly angered at his opposi-
tion to her plan to depose the crown prince Yang Yung (Kaos daughter was
Yang Yungs concubine) and elevate Yang Kuang (the second son) as heir to
the thronea feat that was accomplished in 600, the year of the suppression
of Hsin-hsings writings. The possibility that this was related to Kaos loss of
status is increased in light of the fact that one of the supposed charges
against Kao is that he was informed of the impending demise of the
emperor by Buddhist clerics, perhaps seeming to echo Buddhist prophecies
of the demise of the dharma.22 In any case, Kao Chiung was demoted in 599
and executed in 607.23 While all of this is simply circumstantial, given the
charges against Kao in 599 and the intrigue accompanying the elevation of
Yang Kuang to crown prince in 600, it is not hard to imagine that the edict
proscribing San-chieh literature was also intended to curb any growing base
of support that their most important patron might look to. This would be
particularly signicant if the Inexhaustible Storehouse existed at Kao
Chiungs home/temple during this period, so let us look briey at the origins
of that institution.

Hsin-hsing and the Founding of the


Inexhaustible Storehouse

There are only two sources that actually mention the origins of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse, the Liang ching hsin chi, early eighth century, and
the Tai ping kuang chi, a work of the late tenth century. From the Liang
ching hsin chi:

Within the [Hua-tu] Temple there was a subtemple [called] the Inexhaustible
Storehouse [Wu chin tsang yan [] that was founded by Hsin-hsing.

22 Sui shu, chan 41, 1183.


23 Sui shu, chan 41, 1184; A. Wright, The Sui Dynasty (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978),
7375, 166. Another monk whose practices were similar to Hsin-hsings and who was also
invited to the capital by Kao Chiung was Tao-cheng ; his practices were also censured (T
#2060, 50.559a).
198 / suppressions

After [its foundation], the donations made by the people of the capital grew
greater and greater. After the Chen-kuan period [23 Jan. 6276 Feb. 650] the
money, silks, and golden embroideries that had been collected there were
beyond measure. Well-known monks were always appointed to watch over this
treasury. The goods in the Storehouse were always used to repair monasteries24
without causing the slightest diminution of funds. People came from as far
away as Yen [Sichuan], Liang ^ [Gansu], Shu 8 [Sichuan], and Chao
[Hebei] to borrow funds. The amount loaned out each day was difcult to
calculate. Some who borrowed money did so without any kind of written doc-
umentswhen the time period was up they would simply repay the loan.25

A slightly different account is given in the Tai ping kuang chi:


During the period of Wu-te [18 May 618-1 Jan. 627] there was a sramana named
Hsin-i = who practiced meditation according to the teachings of the Three
Levels. In the Hua-tu Temple he established the Inexhaustible Storehouse.26
After the Chen-kuan era the money, silks, gold, and jewels which had been
given to this Storehouse were beyond calculation. Monks were always appointed
to watch over this treasure, which was divided into three parts: one part was
offered for the repair and expansion of temples throughout the land; one part
was used to give to all of the suffering and downcast of the Field of Compassion;
and one part was used for un-obstructed offerings.
Men and women of good society would come in repentance of their
offenses and vie with one another in their donations so that order could not be
maintained. They would abandon entire carts of money and silks, and after
having donated their valuables and silks they would leave without even making
their names known.27

Reviewing these two entries, we nd that they both agree that the
Inexhaustible Storehouse was founded at the Hua-tu ssu, and that after the
Chen-kuan period it ourished. However, they disagree on the founder of
the Inexhaustible Storehouse, with the Liang ching hsin chi giving Hsin-hsing
and the Tai ping kuang chi listing a Hsin-i as the founder.

24 Cf. the Kamakura edition used in Chan to Rakuy shiry (p. 192), as well as the edition

used by Yabuki (Sangaiky no kenky, 115) and Gernet (Buddhism in Chinese Society, 210); this
passage would be better rendered as The goods offered [to the Inexhaustible Storehouse]
were used for the repair of the monasteries throughout the empire. People came from as far
away as Yen, Liang, Shu, and Chao to take the funds offered to the storehouse for the repair
of monasteries throughout the land.
25 Liang ching hsin chi, chan 3, 14.
26According to the edition that I used, the original gives the character wu shu tsang [;
Yabuki also emended this to wu chin tsang [; cf. Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 48.
27 Li Fang, Tai ping kuang chi, ca. 97783 (Tainan: Ping ping chu pan she, 1974), chan

493, p. 4047.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 199

Inasmuch as Hsin-hsing, the founder of the San-chieh movement, died at


the Hua-tu ssu in 594, well before the Wu-te period (618620) mentioned in
the Tai ping kuang chi, the possibility that Hsin-i is a simple mistake for
Hsin-hsing must be ruled out. Although none of the other biographies,
memorial steles, catalog records, or historical sources mention Hsin-hsing as
the founder of the institution of the Inexhaustible Storehouse at the Hua-tu
ssu, as we saw in Chapter One there are other records that show Hsin-hsing
to be a likely founder of the sixteen practices of inexhaustible giving and the
idea of the Inexhaustible Storehouse if not the actual institution founded at
the Hua-tu ssu. For example, a Ta sheng wu chin tsang fa (The Teaching on
the Inexhaustible Storehouse of the Mahayana, likely related to the texts trans-
lated in Appendices B and C below) in one chan, attributed to Hsin-hsing,
is mentioned in several catalogs.28 In addition, several of the texts recovered
from Tun-huang give further weight to the consideration of Hsin-hsing as
the founder. The rst of these is an epistolary testimonial that Yabuki has
titled the Hsin-hsing i wen, which Yabuki believes written by Hsin-hsing
himself or at least preserves his words accurately. According to this text, in
583 Hsin-hsing, at that time forty-four years old and resident in the Kuang-
yen ssu in Hsiang-chou, abandoned life and possessions to entrust himself
to the sixteen types of eternal, joyous, self, and pure activities, i.e., the six-
teen practices of the Inexhaustible Storehouse described in chapter 7.29
Another text, the Abridged Explanation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse,
gives almost the same list of sixteen inexhaustible acts of dna.30 Yet another
fundamental San-chieh text attributed to Hsin-hsing, the San chieh fo fa,
also discusses the superior merits to be gained from the repair of temples as
opposed to the construction of new temples, one aspect of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse that is mentioned in the Liang ching hsin chi.31 There is thus a
fair amount of evidence that, if not directly linking Hsin-hsing to the foun-
dation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse at the Hua-tu ssu, certainly makes it
plausible that he would actualize his theories in such an institution.
The monk Hsin-i, on the other hand, is only mentioned in texts that draw
on the Tai ping kuang chi for their information and are of an even later

28 Cf. the Ta chou kan ting chung ching mu lu, T #2153, 55.475a; Kai yan shih chiao lu, T

#2154, 55.678c; Chen yan hsin ting shih chiao mu lu Gt* (Rykoku MS), included
in Yabuki Keiki, Sangaiky no kenky, appendix, 228; Chen yan hsin ting shih chiao mu lu
(Nanatsu-dera MS), included in Makita Tairy and Ochiai Toshinori, Nanatsu-dera koitsu
kyten kenky ssho (Tokyo: Dait Shuppansha, 1998), vol. 6: 11112; and the Jen chi lu tu mu,
included in Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, appendix, 221.
29 Hsin-hsing i wen, 34. See also Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 1017, 190.
30 Abridged Explanation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 15559.
31 San chieh fo fa, appendix, 303.
200 / suppressions

composition, thus providing little help in answering this question.32 If it


were not for the fact that in addition to a different name this text also gives a
different date (the Wu-te era, 618627) we could perhaps take Hsin-i as a
simple scribal error for Hsin-hsing. The Tai ping kuang chi is itself based on
the Pien i chih 33 and the Liang ching hsin chi,34 so it would not be
stretching things too far to posit that although Li-fang saw the entry in the
Liang ching hsin chi that gives Hsin-hsing, he purposely changed it to Hsin-i,
on the basis of the Pien i chih. It is strange, though, that a Hsin-i is not men-
tioned in either the historical records or the biographies of monks, which
one would expect if he were that important a follower of Hsin-hsing.35
In any case, the records of the ourishing Inexhaustible Storehouse make
it clear that the sanctions of 600 had little effect. First of all, we should
remember that both the Li tai san pao chi and the Ta Tang nei tien lu
recorded Hsin-hsings works in the canonical catalog. Secondly, as we have
seen, it was popular with people from across the empireindeed, the Ta
Tang nei tien lu record of the suppression adds that, Although [the circula-
tion of these texts was suppressed in 600] the followers of this tradition
extend to the seas and heights of the land.36 Chih-shengs record of this in
the Kai yan lu likewise notes that, although their practices were prohibit-
ed, the followers had spread further and further; practicing together they
helped each other and grew ever greater in number. In an interlinear note
Chih-sheng adds an interpretation from his own standpoint of orthodoxy:

32 The rst of these is the Chin shih tsui pien, which, in a record of a memorial stele for the

San-chieh follower Tao-an (607668), mentions that as Tao-an became a monk and studied
the San chieh chi lu at a young age, he would have been of the same period as the monk Hsin-
i, who was recorded in the Tai ping kuang chi as having studied the San-chieh teachings dur-
ing the Chen-kuan period (Wang-chang, Chin shih tsui pien, [1805, included in the Shih ke
shih liao, Taipei: I wen shu kuan, 1966], chan 57, 19.) The record goes on, however, to say
that according to the Shan-hsi tung chih Hsin-hsing was a monk of the Tang, and then won-
ders whether they were of the same period or even one and the same person (ibid., 20). Lo
Chen-yu also noted the records of the Chin shih tsui pien and the Shan-hsi tung chih, but
states that as Hsin-hsing was a monk of the Sui period he could not be the same as Hsin-i; cf. Lo
Chen-y F*, Hsueh tang chin shih wen tzu pa wei }!k, 11 (unpublished mss,
Otani University Library). In another record, that of Fa-tsangs stele, Lo Chen-y mentions
Hsin-i as the founder of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, but again bases his entry on the Tai
ping kuang chi and so does not add anything to the discussion (Lo Chen-y, Hseh tang, 11).
33 Tai ping kuang chi, 4048.
The Tai ping kuang chi has extensively quoted the Liang ching hsin chi elsewhere, as, for
34

example, in chan 250.


35 The San kuo i shih Xk, a Korean work, does mention a Hsin-i, but it seems unlikely

that this corresponds to the Hsin-i of the Hua-tu ssu; T #2039, 49.998c and T #2039, 49.1000a.
36 T #2149, 55.278a.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 201

Hsin-hsing was the leader of the teaching (chiao chu *); his particular
practices were heterodox (pieh hsing i fa b) and no different from the
false Three Jewels begun by Devadatta (Tien-shu 4). Nonetheless, the
power and popularity of those false teachings is again attested, as he goes on:
Although Wen [Ti, Emperor] of the Sui, banned their propagation he was
unable to eliminate their roots.37 And so Hsin-hsings teaching and the
Inexhaustible Storehouse that he founded continued to thrive.

The Subsequent History of the


Inexhaustible Storehouse

Thus, although we cannot say with certainty who actually founded


the Inexhaustible Storehouse or when it began, we do know that it was started
at the Hua-tu ssu as a function of the San-chieh; we also know that in spite
of the proscription of 600 it was a ourishing institution from at least the
beginnings of the Tang dynasty through the latter half of the seventh century
(that is, after the Chen-kuan period, 627650). So, too, the records of the
Liang ching hsin chi and the Tai ping kuang chi tell us that the Inexhaustible
Storehouse was popular across the empire and not only with the poor who
took advantage of its interest-free loansthe fact that men and women of
good society also ocked to the temple in order to donate goods indicates
the appeal of the movement among the elite as well as the power of its model
of communal charity. Although Chinese temples were not yet organized
along strictly sectarian lines, it is also certain that for some time after Hsin-
hsings death the Hua-tu ssu continued as a center of San-chieh activity.
Seng-yung (543631), for example, is described by Tao-hsan as arriving in
Chang-an together with Hsin-hsing in 589, and taking charge of more than
300 disciples after Hsin-hsings death in 594. Seng-yung himself died at the
Hua-tu ssu in 631.38 Other San-chieh followers associated with the Hua-tu
ssu during the seventh century include Hui-ju (d. 618),39 Ching-ming

37 T #2154, 55.679a; for more on Chih-shengs note see also Antonino Forte, La secte des

trois stades et lhrsie de Devadatta, Bulletin de lcole Franaise dExtrmeOrient 74


(1985): 46976.
38T #2060, 50.584a. This record actually states that Seng-yung died at the Hua-tu ssu yan,
or the Hua-tu ssu Subtemple. Seng-yungs memorial, the Hua-tu ssu ku Seng-yung chan
shih ta ming, on which the Hs kao seng chuan is based, simply gives the Hua-tu ssu (cf.
Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 41).
39 Hui-jus biography is included in the Ming pao chi (T #2082, 51.788c), where it says that
he died in the beginning of the Wu-te era (22 Dec. 61822 Jan. 627) at the Chen-chi ssu, that
is, the Hua-tu ssu.
202 / suppressions

e (d. 620),40 Pei Hsan-cheng B (d. ca. 634),41 and Seng-hai }


(599654).42
Another indicator of continued San-chieh presence at the Hua-tu ssu is
found in the Abridged Explanation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, composed
sometime after the death of Hsin-hsing, which, as noted in Chapter Seven,
states that the practice of dna, one of the most important San-chieh activi-
ties, was more efcaciously carried out at the Hua-tu ssu than in provincial
centers.43
Probably the best-known reference to a monk of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse in the Hua-tu ssu is the story of embezzler Pei Hsan-chih J:

During the Chen-kuan period [627649] there was a Pei Hsan-chih who was
diligent in his cultivation of the precepts.44 He entered the temple [Hua-tu ssu]
and cleaned for more than ten years; the community in the temple [saw] that
his practice was without fault and made him the guardian of the [Inexhaustible]
Storehouse. Afterwards he secretly began to steal gold, but the monks were not
aware of it and did not know how much was taken.45 When the monks sent
him [on a mission] from which he did not return, they were surprised and sus-
picious, so they looked in his sleeping room [and found] a verse:
Putting sheep before the jaws of a wolf,
Placing a bone in front of a dog;
I am not enlightened [lit. an arhat],
How could I avoid stealing?
No more was ever known of him.46

40 Little is known of Ching-ming; other than a mention in the Ku ta Hsin-hsing chan shih

ming ta pei as one of Hsin-hsings spiritual friends (Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 9), the
only other mention of him is a record of a stele, the Tang Hua tu ssu Ching ming chan shih
Reliquary Inscription, compiled by Pei Hsan-cheng in the third year of Wu-te (9 Feb.
62027 Feb. 621); Pao ke tsung pien (Sung dynasty, included in Shih ke shih liao [Yen Keng-
wang, ed.], chan 7, p. 19; cf. Hubbard, Chinese Reliquary Inscriptions, 255.
41 According to Tao-hsan (T #2060, 50.560ab), Pei Hsan-cheng was originally a monk
at the Hua-tu ssu, although he later wore laymans dress.
42 Hua-tu ssu Seng-hai chan shih fen chi 5E},bz, recorded in the Yung chou

chin shih chi !?!z, included in the Hsi yin hsan tsung shu U, in the collection
Pai pu tsung shu (Taipei: I wen yin shu kuan: 19651971), box 58, nos. 2021, chan 2, p. 9;
Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 5455; Hubbard, Chinese Reliquary Inscriptions, 268.
43 Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 117 and 507.
44 Perhaps mimicking the Vinaya requirement that a pure monk oversee the storehouse;
see Schopen, Doing Business, 54041.
45 Cf. the Liang ching hsin chi, chan 3. p. 14, which would read but the accumulation was

so great [in the Inexhaustible Storehouse] that the monks did not realize [that he was stealing].
46Tai ping kuang chi, 40474048; the story is also in the Liang ching hsin chi (chan 3, 14),
although somewhat less complete; this story reminds me of the lament in the Kaumb
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 203

Pei Hsan-chih truly proved his worth as a man of the third level! In any
case, we can thus safely assume that the Inexhaustible Storehouse of the San-
chieh ourished at the Hua-tu, probably through the entire seventh century.
Still, because Chinese temples were not strictly sectarian, there are other
monks mentioned in connection with the Hua-tu ssu who in some cases
seem to have no connection with the San-chieh and in other cases are
remembered as followers of other traditions.47 Fa-chih and Chih-lien
J, for example, are both mentioned as dwelling at the Hua-tu ssu and yet
both cultivated practices related to Amida.48 Two of Kao Chiungs great
grandchildren, Li-ching C and Li-lan C1, are also said to have studied
the Lotus and the Diamond sutras at the Hua-tu ssu under a monk named
Ming-tsang g during the Chen-kuan period (627650).49 Another monk,
Fa-chieh , is mentioned in a dated (676) colophon to a Tun-huang man-
uscript of the Lotus Sutra as the rst, second, and third checker of the text,
yet there is no evidence that he was related to the San-chieh.50
In addition to the Hua-tu ssu, local branches of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse appear to have been organized in the provinces throughout
China,51 although the Hua-tu ssu in the capital was clearly the cultic and
institutional focus.

Empress Wu and the Inexhaustible Storehouse

The reign of Empress Wu is interesting in the history of the


Inexhaustible Storehouse because there is evidence of her support of the
Storehouse as well as suppression of San-chieh practices and literature.
Although this might be interpreted as indicating the institutional independ-
ence of the Inexhaustible Storehouse and the San-chieh, the fact that a San-
chieh monk was appointed controller of the Storehouse tells us that such

prophecy noted above (chapter 6), If even I [the head of the sangha] cannot keep the precepts,
how can anybody else?
47 Cf. Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 129 ff. for a list of various monks recorded as having

been at the Hua-tu ssu at one time or another.


48 From the Fo tsu tung chi, T #2035, 49.279a and T #2035, 49.289c, respectively; cf. the

Wang sheng chi, T #2072, 51.134c and T #2072, 51.135c, respectively.


49 T #2067, 51.42ab. Cf. Donald E. Gjertson, Miraculous Retribution, 89, n. 27.
50Stein No. 1456, Giles No. 2818 (Giles, 77). Although Yabuki had doubts about whether the
year given in the colophon, shang yuan 3, referred to 676 or 762 (Sangaiky no kenky, 663),
the dyer, Hsieh-chi, is mentioned in several other MS of the same sutra (e.g., Giles nos.
2298, 2411, 2569, 2631, 2449, 2705, etc.), of which at least two (2449 and 2705) give dates in the
Hsien-heng era (670673).
51 Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 212.
204 / suppressions

was not the case (see below). Let me begin, then, with the records of the
Empresss support of the Inexhaustible Storehouse:
The Empress Wu moved the Storehouse to the Fu-hsien ssu tin the
Eastern Capital (Loyang). In the end, [however,] the products of the empire
did not again accumulate [at this new location] and it was moved back to the
original location.52

The Fu-hsien ssu was originally a private temple founded by Empress Wu


at her mothers residence and at her own expense, prompting Forte to call it
a Buddhist ancestral temple of the Wu family.53 Originally called the
Tai-yan ssu , the name was changed to Fu-hsien ssu in the second
year of Tien-shou (6 December 69025 November 691), suggesting that it
was sometime after early 691 that she moved the Inexhaustible Storehouse.
This is borne out by a memorial for the San-chieh monk Fa-tsang of
the Ching-y ssu o, who is said to have been appointed controller
(9p) of the Inexhaustible Storehouse at the Fu-hsien ssu in the 1st year of
Ju-i (22 April22 Oct. 692); he was later appointed controller of the Inex-
haustible Storehouse at the Hua-tu ssu during the Chang-an period (15
Nov. 70129 Jan. 705).54 Fa-tsang appears to have been a relatively impor-
tant monk of this period, for in addition to his appointments as controller
of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, his memorial tells us that he was also
declared Bhadanta (Ta te ) of the Chien-fu ssu during the same peri-
od.55 Although the tributes written in a memorial stele must always be
received with a grain of salt, the mention of Fa-tsangs being superior in the
[ascetic practice] of the dhta, not eating food that was not [received]
from begging, and the like bespeak of a virtuous monk engaged in trad-
itional San-chieh practices.56 This in turn reinforces Fortes assertion that
even in the case of the foundation of the Fu-hsien ssu, which was called

52 Liang ching hsin chi, chan 3, 14 (Chan to Rakuy Shiry, 192); cf. Gernet, Buddhism in

Chinese Society, 367 n. 77. Most of the information concerning the Fu-hsien ssu may be found
in Antonino Forte, Il <<Monastero Dei Grandi Chou>> A Lo-yang, Annali dellIstituto
Orientale di Napoli 33 (1973), 425 ff. Although this record in the Liang ching hsin chi gives one
the impression that the Storehouse was actually moved to the Fu-hsien ssu and subsequently
returned to the Hua-tu ssu, another record indicates that they both existed at the same time,
inasmuch as it prohibits giving to the Inexhaustible Storehouse of both the Hua-tu ssu and
the Fu-hsien ssu (see below); see also Antonino Forte, Daiji in Hbgirin 6 (1983), 695.
53 Antonino Forte, Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh

Century (Napoli: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1976), 97.


54 Ching-y ssu ku ta te Fa-tsang chan shih ta ming o,Oj, included in

the Chin shih tsui pien, chan 71, 2; the text is also in Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 6971.
55 Ching- y ssu ku ta te Fa-tsang chan shih ta ming, in the Chin shih tsui pien, chan 71, 2.
56 Ibid., 2.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 205

Tai-yan originally, founded in 675 by Wu Chao in honor of her mother,


who had died ve years earlier, Wu Chao took care to choose monks for her
monastery from amongst the most eminent of the time.57 In other words,
the most elevated personage of the realm chose, according to the standards
of the time, an appropriately eminent and orthodox monk as preceptor for
her family ancestral temple. The Inexhaustible Storehouse at the Fu-hsien
ssu apparently continued for some time, as an edict of 721 prohibits giving to
both the Storehouse at the Hua-tu ssu as well as the Storehouse at the Fu-
hsien ssu (see below, 21112).
At the same time, however, the Ta chou kan ting chung ching mu lu, com-
piled in 695 at imperial request, is the rst catalog to include the San-chieh
materials in the section of apocryphal texts:
A benevolent imperial edict was received in the rst year of Cheng-sheng (23
Nov. 69421 Oct. 695); it ordered that the various apocryphal writings(wei
ching ) and sundry books of fortunetelling, etc., be established and sent to
the Department of National Sacrices for keeping. The doctrines in the above
items [i.e., the San-chieh texts] are opposed to the Buddhas intent, and their
unique doctrines (pieh kou )58 constitute a heresy (i tuan b2). Thus they
are within the boundary of apocrypha and sundry books of magic.59

The catalog goes on to record another edict aimed at restricting San-


chieh practices:
Further, based on an imperial edict of the second year of Sheng-li (8 Dec.
69826 Nov. 699) the followers of the Three Stages are only permitted to beg

57 Forte, Political Propaganda, 113. In this section of his work Forte examined the back-
ground of the various monks involved in the Commentary on the Meaning of the Prophecy
about Shen-huang in the Ta yun ching (previously thought to be an apocryphal version of the
Ta yun ching) in order to show that they represented the orthodoxy of the time. One of the
thrusts of his study is to show that the Buddhism of Empress Wus time cannot be considered
the heretical impulses of a woman infatuated with a false monk, as has been the traditional
interpretation. Although Forte has suggested (p. 166) that the suppression of the San-chieh
during Wus reign indicates her concern with orthodoxy (the San-chieh being heretical), it
seems to me that her patronage of the Inexhaustible Storehouse and Fa-tsang indicate that
the San-chieh was considered part of the orthodoxy and, as with the other suppressions, we
must look elsewhere for the cause of her two suppressions.
58 An interesting play on Hsin-hsings claim to teach not distinct teachings (pieh fa) but

the Universal Dharma (see chapters 4 and 6).


59 T #2153, 55.475a. This and the following are adapted from the translations in Forte,

Political Propaganda, 16667; see also Antonino Forte, Some Considerations on the
Historical Value of the Great Zhou Catalogue in Chgoku-Nihon kytenshso mokuroku, vol.
6 of the Nanatsu-dera koitsu kyten kenky ssho (Tokyo: Daito Shuppansha, 1998), 2224;
Tokuno, The Evaluation of Indigenous Scriptures in Chinese Buddhist Bibliographical
Catalogues, in Buswell, ed., Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, 5152.
206 / suppressions

for food, fast, go without grains, hold the precepts, and practice seated medita-
tion. All other practices are opposed to the dharma [or, against the law, wei fa
j].60 Fortunately, we have received clear edicts which rectify the mistakes
of the past. It is inadmissible that, on the basis of the old compilations, [the
works of the San-chieh] would be in the catalog. Thus it is agreed to exclude
them [from the catalog of the canon] as a message for the future.61

It is hard to know exactly what to make of these edicts. To begin with, the
rst edict makes it appear that the San-chieh texts were not the primary
target but were caught in a wider sweep. Secondly, we should note that the
San-chieh followers per se were not outlawed or jailed; indeed, they were
permitted to continue basic San-chieh practices such as the dhta and seated
meditation. Secondly, both edicts were issued between the dates on which
Fa-tsang was appointed controller of the Inexhaustible Storehouse at Loyang
(692) and Chang-an (701705), indicating that the central San-chieh institu-
tion and source of popular support, the Inexhaustible Storehouse, continued
uninterrupted and was even patronized by Wu into the eighth century.
Again, although one might think that this points to the functional independ-
ence of the Inexhaustible Storehouse and the San-chieh movement, Fa-
tsangs memorial stele leaves no question that he was a follower of Hsin-
hsing and the tenets of the San-chieh.62 Further, Forte noted a reference to a
subtemple of the Three Levels (San-chieh yan X) in the Fu-hsien
ssu,63 thus indicating that the practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse must
have been associated with the San-chieh at the Fu-hsien ssu just as it was at
the Hua-tu ssu.64 This vacillation in Wus attitude is accordingly difcult to

60 Following the Sung, Yuan, and Ming editions. One would like to know specically what

the other practices are that are here deemed illegal; Forte has also advanced the thesis that
the Sheng-li proscription targeted Christianity as well as the Three Levels movement (Some
considerations, 3034).
61 T #2153, 55.475a. This rendering follows the Sung, Yuan, and Ming editions. The Taish

edition reads It is inadmissible that false compilations exist in the catalog. As Forte has
rightly pointed out (Political Propaganda, 16667), this does not change the basic meaning
and the mistakes of the past and old compilations are clearly references to the inclusion
of the San-chieh works in the ofcial canons of the Li tai san pao chi and the Ta tang nei tien lu.
62 Apparently Empress Wu did support the practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse gener-

ally, as she is recorded as having ordered Take the property accumulated by my father and
mother, use the old appanages of the two capitals, all that does not serve the construction of
monasteries (chao ti chih y [], dwellings of the sangha of the Four directions) and
let all this be paid into the Inexhaustible Treasury (Treasuries?), T #2127, 54.304b, cited in
Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 212.
63Li tai ming hua chi, chan 3, 19a (included in the Pai pu tsung shu, box 46), noted in
Forte, Il Monastero, 42627.
64 This is also indicated by the edict ordering the abolition of the two storehouses (from the

Tse fu yan kuei, see below, 212), which notes that the donations that both temples received
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 207

explain, and may perhaps be due to a natural antagonism between the doc-
trines of the San-chieh that emphasized the utter decay of spiritual capacity
and the apocalyptic ideology surrounding the empress which taught on the
one hand that the world was still in the period of the semblance dharma
(hsiang-fa) and on the other hand that Empress Wu was a great bodhisattva,
future Buddha, and world savior.65 Still, one yearns for something more
concrete than theological differences of opinion about a date. It seems to
me, for example, that even more ideologically charged might have been her
failure to duplicate the charisma of the San-chieh Inexhaustible Storehouse
within her family temple in Loyang, for if the rulers right to declare abstract
truth was important, even more so was the prerogative to provide for the
well-being of the subjects, including providing charitable relief. Hence it is
possible that her failure to duplicate the success and popularity enjoyed by
the Three Levels even in her family temple might have seemed an affront
to her authority. On the other hand, given that the edict specically pro-
hibits all San-chieh practices other than begging, fasting, abstaining from
grains, holding the precepts, and meditation yet the most conspicuous prac-
tice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse continued, it might also be that the
edicts were simply for show, satisfying some faction or political expediency,
and were never actually enforced.
When we turn to the historical record, however, we nd evidence that at
least one important follower of the San-chieh, Li Chen 5, was actively
opposed to the reign of Empress Wu. Li Chen was a rather insignicant son
of Tai-tsung and far overshadowed in history by his brother Kao-tsung. In
643 he was appointed governor of Hsiang-chou, a post he held until 653, and
after a period as military governor of An-chou he again served as governor
of Hsiang-chou from 670 to 674.66 One can easily surmise that it was here, in
Hsin-hsings homeland, that Li Chen encountered the teachings of the San-
chieh, for he is said to have composed at least two and possibly three memorial
steles for Hsin-hsing.67 Apparently dissatised with the doings of Empress

on the anniversary of Hsin-hsings death were particularly intense; thus, although the new
Inexhaustible Storehouse did not ourish, it would seem that there was at least an attempt to
transfer or mimic the Three Levels cultus of the founder at the Fu-hsien ssu. Perhaps the rea-
son that it did not work out is to be found in the doctrine that specied that the Inexhaustible
Storehouse was concretely manifested as the perfections of the eternal, joyous, self and pure
solely at the Hua-tu ssu (see chapter 7, 17475).
65 Forte, Political Propaganda, 15558.
66Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 2627, 32, 69; see also Antonino Forte, The Relativity of
the Concept of Orthodoxy in Chinese Buddhism: Chih-shengs Indictment of Shih-li and the
Proscription of the Dharma Mirror Stra, in Buswell, ed., Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, 240
and 247, note 4.
67 Hubbard, Chinese Reliquary Inscriptions, 26365.
208 / suppressions

Wu, Li raised the banner of revolt in 688 and died the same year. Hseh Chi
(649713), the man responsible for the calligraphy on one of the steles that Li
composed for Hsin-hsing, was quite well known, and, because of his
involvement in the forging of the Fo shuo shih so fan che y chieh fa ching
ching, may tentatively be considered a follower or at least a San-chieh sym-
pathizer.68 Interestingly, Hseh Chi was forced to commit suicide following
the failure of a plot to poison Hsan-tsung in 713 (the date ascribed by one
text to Hsan-tsungs rst proscription of the Inexhaustible Storehouse; see
below).69 Thus, although the evidence is again merely circumstantial, the
fact that so important a rebel was a follower of Hsin-hsing perhaps played a
part in the suppressions.
Empress Wus actions toward the San-chieh may have also been inu-
enced by shifting attitudes towards Buddhism in general, especially after the
disastrous re that destroyed her treasured Ming-tang in 694. Indeed,
regardless of Wus special treatment of the Buddhist church, it is often com-
mented upon that she also made judicious use of the symbols of all three
major traditions, and especially in the face of the anti-Buddhist rhetoric and
intense political intrigue following the re she turned towards Confucian
titles, names, and rites as a way of mollifying her enemies.70 So the Three
Levels was not the only Buddhist group that, previously favored, came to be
ofcially proscribed after the re. Perhaps, then, her vacillating stance
towards the Three Levels movement reects her need to respond to the general
attacks on Buddhism that escalated after the burning of the Ming-tang
complex. The point is that all of these scenarios refer to specic and localized
causes for the proscriptions rather than transhistorical, doctrinal quarrels.

No-Barrier Festivals

One more sign of the continued favor that the Hua-tu ssu enjoyed
is their hosting of imperially sponsored no-barrier festivals. Given that the
Hua-tu ssu was the locus of the San-chieh practice of dna embodied in the
institution of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, it is not surprising that we nd
records of wu che ta hui [y, no-barrier festivals, held there in the

68 On the San-chieh involvement in the composition of this text see Forte, Relativity,

23949.
69 Twitchett, Cambridge History, 345.
70 For a detailed study of Wus Ming-tang see Antonino Forte, Mingtang and Buddhist
Utopias in the History of the Astronomical Clock (Roma: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed
Estremo Oriente and Paris: cole Franaise dExtrme-Orient, 1988), especially chapter 4.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 209

early eighth century.71 Although these festivals, usually held by imperial


command, have taken on many different forms over the years, they were
basically an act of universal dna on the part of a municent benefactor and
were thus a good match for the San-chieh doctrine of inexhaustible giving.
Several of the best-known examples of this kind of festival are from India.
Aoka, for example, at one time convened a great assembly of monks and
was forced into a bidding competition with his son, who repeatedly coun-
tered Aokas donation with largess of his own. In the end Aoka made an
offering of his entire kingdom, only to ransom it back with an additional
400,000 pieces of gold. 72 The stories of equally thoroughgoing charity
recounted by the Chinese pilgrims Fa-hsien and Hsan-tsang are also well
known.73
In China the stories of Wu Liang Tis giving are famous and fairly numer-
ous. Wu frequently convened assemblies in which all could participate (as
many as 50,000 people reportedly participated in these assemblies, hence
no-barrier festivals); one part of the festival was the emperors donation of
his own person to the monastery, to be duly ransomed by his ministers.74
Although these are the best-known examples, such gatherings were appar-
ently not infrequent in China, usually centering around the preaching of the
dharma and a vegetarian feast, a staple of Chinese temple life.75
Several interpretations of these festivals have been given, ranging from the
symbolism of the Buddhas own divestment of the accouterments of royalty76
in the Indian case to the undeniable inuence of the concept of charity

71 Nakamura gives paca-vrika as the Sanskrit equivalent (Nakamura Hajime, Bukkygo

Daijiten MB [Tokyo: Tky Shoseki, 1981], 1327); cf. S. Beal, Chinese Accounts of
India (ed. 1957, Calcutta: Susil Gupta, Ltd, 1957 reprint), 115, who gives Moksha Mahaparishad,
also called Panchavarshika parishad. The usual explanation of the festivals is that they were
held every ve years, hence paca-vrika, although other sources say that the name stems
from the practice of the king giving away all of the treasures accumulated over a ve-year
period. For a general discussion of the paca-vrika see John S. Strong, The Legend of King
Aoka, A Study and Translation of the Aokvadana (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1983), 89 ff, and John Strong, Rich Man, Poor Man, Bhikkhu, King: Aokas Great Quin-
quennial Festival and the Nature of Dna in Sizemore and Swearer, Ethics, Wealth, and
Salvation, 10723.
72 Strong, Aoka, 26568.
73 T #2084, 51.837c and T #2087, 51.873b.
74 T #2035, 49.350b, 351b.
75Cf. Michibata Rysh, Tdai Bukkyshi no kenky (Kyoto: Hzkan, 3rd edition, 1981),
41112; see also Chen, Buddhism in China, 28384 and Chen, The Chinese Transformation of
Buddhism, 27683. Such feasts and/or fasts (chai +) were also regularly accompanied by
repentance rites and formed part of Taoist practice as well.
76 Strong, Aoka, 94.
210 / suppressions

rendered to the impoverished of the Field of Compassion in the case of


China.77 No doubt there were many different motivating factors in China,
among them the desire to emulate the Aokan ideal in order to establish
ones claim as the Universal Monarch, the need to establish a solid relation-
ship with a temporally powerful sangha, as well as, in the case of China, the
tradition of state social welfare activities. Perhaps most important of all,
though, was the establishment of the emperor as a member of the sangha
and thus ruler of the religious world, just as prior to his ultimate act of dna
(and after his reinvestiture) he was ruler of the temporal world. This act of
transformation and renewal thus formed an important and public display
of the seamless unity of the realm and the rulers authority within that
realm. No doubt the site of such a display was chosen very carefully, for it
implied the full weight and sanction of the sacred and political charisma of
the Dragon Throne; hence, too, the chosen site shared in that charisma.
There are four records of no-barrier festivals held at the Hua-tu ssu,
three of which probably refer to the same event.78 The Fo tsu tung chi (ca.
1296), under the 4th year of the Ching-lung era (710), records an imperial
mandate to hold a wu che ta hui,79 and the same work records that Chung
Tsung (705710) ordered a wu che ta hui to be held at the Hua-tu ssu.80 The
Chiu Tang shu (ca. 945) notes that in the 4th year of Ching-lung, 1st month,
3rd day (6 February 710) a wu che ta chai [+ was held at the Hua-tu
ssu.81 That these festivals were held at the Hua-tu ssu underscores the fact
that this temple continued to be an important and well-patronized center of
Buddhist life in Chang-an, even after Empress Wus edicts. This continued
importance as a site for enacting the drama of imperial and sacred charisma
of the no-barrier festival, taken together with Wus continued support of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse, make it difcult to assess the signicance of her
proscriptions. Was even imperial authority not enough to curtail San-chieh
activities? Was their charitable institution too popular a force to be easily or
quickly eliminated? Or do these reversals perhaps represent the changing
winds of other religio-political situations, such as Wus abdication in 705 or
Jui-tsungs accession to that throne in 710, the year of the no-barrier festival
at the Hua-tu ssu? We probably will never know.

77 Michibata, Tdai Bukkyshi, 411.


78I have not been able to locate the reference for the second festival that Yabuki has listed
as held in 708 (Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 26).
79 T #2035, 49.372c.
80 T #2035, 49.451a.
81Chiu Tang shu /N (reprint of the Wu Ying Tien edition, Liu Hs G+ [887946], ed.,
Taipei: Chung hua shu chu, 1965), 104.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 211

Hsan-tsung and the Dispersal of the


Inexhaustible Storehouse

After Hsan-tsung took over the reins of power in 712 he embarked


on a series of reforms, and the Buddhist church became a target for his
changes. Private temples, a traditional means of avoiding taxes and corve
labor, were forbidden; unauthorized ordinations were prohibited and tens of
thousands of monks and nuns defrocked; new temple building was forbid-
den; and even the religious activities of the monks were a subject of reform.
Similar measures continued to be introduced throughout his reign, evidence
of both the need to control a church grown luxuriant during the previous
years of lavish state support and of Hsan-tsungs well-known preference
for Taoism (although Taoist establishments were also the target of these
measures).82
In this context we nd several records dealing with the dismantling of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse. The Liang ching hsin chi record of the Inex-
haustible Storehouse cited above continues:

In the rst year of Kai-yan [22 Dec. 71330 Jan. 714], [the Inexhaustible Store-
house] was destroyed by imperial order. The cash and cloths that had been
kept there were offered to the various temples of the capital for repairing the
broken and destroyed; these affairs [of the Inexhaustible Storehouse] were
thereupon stopped.83

There are other records, however, which, while recording a dispersal of


the goods of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, give 721 as the date of the action.
The Tang liang ching cheng fang kao (1810), for example, states:

East of the Gate: Hua-tu ssu


Originally the Chen-chi ssu and house of Kao Chiung, the Duke of Chi, vice-
minister of the left of the [Department] of State Affairs. In the third year of
Kai-huang [583] Chiung abandoned his house and established the temple. In
the second year of Wu-te [22 Dec. 61810 Jan. 620] the name was changed to
Hua-tu ssu. In the temple was the sub-temple of the Inexhaustible Storehouse. On
the name plate is written Hua-tu ssu. Empress Wu moved the Inexhaustible

82 In 711, for example, Hsin Ti-fou memorialized that Buddhist establishments controlled

70 to 80 percent of the empires wealth (Tang hui yao, quoted in Chen, The Chinese
Transformation of Buddhism, 129; on Hsan-tsungs support of Taoism see Twitchett,
Cambridge History, 36162, 41112; Tonami Mamoru, Tchki no Bukky to kokka, in
Chgoku chsei no shky to bunka (1982), 63233, who points out that these measures were
applied to Buddhists and Taoists equally.
83 Liang ching hsin chi, chan 3, 14.
212 / suppressions

Storehouse of this temple to the Fu-hsien ssu in the Eastern capital [Loyang].
After many days it gradually diminished and subsequently was moved back to
the original sub-temple. In Kai-yan 9 [1 Feb. 72121 Jan. 722] the excess was
dispersed to the various temples in the capital. The temple was extinguished.84

The most complete descriptions of this dispersal are found in the Tse fu
yan kuei (1013) and the Chan tang wen (1814), both of which record two
separate occasions on which action was taken against the Inexhaustible
Storehouse. Although the Chan tang wen gives no dates (the records are
put in the section containing proclamations of Hsan-tsung) the Tse fu
yan kuei, upon which it is based, dates both proclamations. The rst
proclamation follows an edict dated the ninth year of Kai-yan (1 Feb. 721
21 Jan. 722):

Fourth month, 39th cyclical day [26 May 721].


It is proclaimed! The delicacy of the scriptures has only one mark as its import,
though the sublime truth of the Mahayana reveals the two gates. The monks of
the San-chieh [chiao] at the Hua-tu ssu and Fu-hsien ssu have established
Inexhaustible Storehouses, and each year on the 4th day of the rst month85
the gentlemen and ladies throughout the empire donate money [to these
Inexhaustible Storehouses]. This is called the protection of the dharma and is
said to succor the impoverished and the weak. [However,] there is a great
amount of debauchery and fraud and things are not proper or upright. There-
fore it is appropriate that [this practice] is prohibited. The money in the
Storehouses will be given to the Censorate in the districts of Ching-chao and
Ho-nan.86 [When] these affairs are known and an accounting is made they
shall be claried in a record book, awaiting their subsequent disposition.87

Unlike the heretical ideas or the prohibited but unspecied practices


attacked in the earlier proscriptions of San-chieh texts, in this proclamation
Hsan-tsung specically prohibited giving to the Inexhaustible Storehouse,
the same Inexhaustible Storehouse that was supported by Empress Wu and

84 Tang liang ching cheng fang kao, chan 4, 24 (Hsu-sung, 1810, included in Chan to

Rakuy shiry, 51).


85 I.e., the anniversary of Hsin-hsings death.
86Chang-an and Loyang, respectively. These names reect popular usage and refer back to
when these cities were the centers of the commanderies named Ching-chao and Ho-nan.
87 Wang Chin-jo, et al., Tse fu yan kuei, chan 159, 15 (1013, Taipei: Chung hua shu chu
edition, 1924). Cf. the Chan tang wen 6Nk, chan 28, Tung Kao l, ed., 1112 (Chin
ting chan tang wen edition, Taipei, Hui wen shu chu, 1961, 380). The Chan tang wen adds
the title Proclamation Prohibiting the Gentlemen And Ladies of Good Society from
Donating Money to the Buddhist Temples.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 213

survived her proscription of San-chieh ideas and texts. Here there is no


mention of heretical ideas, apocryphal prophecy, or dangerous ideology.
Rather, this edict alludes to debauchery and fraud, recalling the episode dis-
cussed above in which a monk, tempted by the treasures of the Storehouse
as a wolf in front of whose jaws a sheep has been placed, could not help
but embezzle funds. At the same time it is a rather empty accusation with no
substance provided whatsoever, and as such it should most likely be taken as
one of many such measures designed to gain control of the nances of the
empire, not ideological opposition to the doctrine of decline or Universal
Dharma. Rather than doctrinal issues, of which the proclamation makes no
mention, it was the fraudulent administration (bookkeeping? tax-evasion?
theft? skimming? laundering?) that called for legislative intervention.
The proclamation also calls for an accounting of the goods for subsequent
disposition, and the following edict tells us the nature of this disposition:
On the 24th cyclical day of the 6th month [10 July 721] it is proclaimed that the
goods, land, houses, and the six kinds of livestock of the Inexhaustible Store-
house of the Hua-tu ssu are to be be divided equally among the Taoist and
Buddhist establishments. First [these goods] will be used for the repair of the
broken statues, halls, and bridges. If there is anything remaining it will be put
into the permanent goods [of the monastery] and will not be divided amongst
the monks private quarters.88 Begin distribution [of these goods] from the
poor Taoist and Buddhist establishments.89

88 That is, will be given to the monastery as a whole and not to individual monks. The nag-

ging question, however, is which monastery or monasteries?


89 Tse fu yan kuei, chan 159, 15. The same proclamation, with the title Proclamation

Disposing of the Goods of the Inexhaustible Storehouse of the Hua-tu ssu is contained in
Chan tang wen, chan 28, 15 (in the Chin ting chan tang wen, 382). As mentioned above,
there is some confusion about the dates of this dissolution, with the Liang ching hsin chi giv-
ing 713 while the Tang liang ching cheng fang kao and the Tse fu yan kuei both give 721. The
context of Hsan-tsungs reign gives us no clues, as he issued similar proclamations concern-
ing the property of the monasteries and governing the monks within the monasteries during
both periods; see Chen, Chinese Transformation of Buddhism, 11617 and 13334, for exam-
ples. As Tonami has pointed out, most scholars have followed Yabuki and given 713 as the
date of the proclamation, but this should most likely be rejected in favor of 721 (Tonami,
Tchki no Bukky, 635). The most unusual instance is found in Gernets work on Chinese
Buddhist institutions (Buddhism in Chinese Society, 21112), where he cites both the Chan
tang wen and the Tse fu yan kuei, and states that the decrees are dated 713 in the former.
Aside from the fact that the Chan tang wen did not actually assign dates to the decrees,
there was no 4th month of the rst year of Kai-yan, which began in the 12th month of the
civil year and ended one month later. Although Tonami has pointed to this discrepancy, he is
wrong in stating, rather stridently, that Buddhist scholars have in general ignored the Tse fu
yan kuei and in particular not yet corrected the dates of the dispersal of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse (p. 636), as Kenneth Chen had already corrected the date to 721 on the basis of
the Tse fu yan kuei (Chen, Chinese Transformation of Buddhisms, 163, n. 113 and 164).
214 / suppressions

Many aspects of this edict are interesting, including the nature of the
conscated goods (the rst mention of land and buildings in connection
with the Inexhaustible Storehouse) and the ecumenical nature of their dis-
posal. It is also interesting to note that the use of the goods of the Inex-
haustible Storehouse for the repair of religious buildings, statues, etc. and
the dispersal of the remainder to the monastic community rather than to
individuals are both in line with the San-chieh practices detailed in chapter 7.
Another suppression of the San-chieh during the reign of Hsan-tsung is
recorded in the Kai yan lu; in this suppression San-chieh literature was
prohibited and the walls of the San-chieh yan in the various temples are
ordered removed and the followers are enjoined to live together with the
other monks.

Knowing that they are contrary to truth and incite falsehood an edict was
issued prohibiting them: on the third day of the sixth month of the thirteenth
year of Kai-yan [725] an imperial edict was issued to all of the subtemples of
the Three Levels X ordering the barriers [separating them from the rest of
the community] removed. [The followers of the Three Levels] will live together
with the community of monks in the main temple; separate dwellings are not
permitted. The collected works T90 of [Hsin-]hsing are all prohibited and
should be destroyed. If these edicts are not heeded, these practices will preju-
dice people. Therefore those who do not comply will be returned to lay life.91

Following the dismantling of the primary San-chieh institution of the


Inexhaustible Storehouse, this edict records the further suppression of San-
chieh institutional life as well as the banning and destruction of San-chieh
texts. It is hard to know what to make of these San-chieh yan; rather than
seeing this as evidence of a separatist tendency or utopian communitarian-
ism, it is entirely possible that these San-chieh subtemples or cloisters grew
from their liturgical practices of the pratyutpanna or fang teng rites, both of
which required separate or isolated rooms or halls for practice, or other
forms of ascetic retreat, including perhaps modied forms of dhtaga
practice.92
Although there is no recorded support of the San-chieh by Hsan-tsung,
the fact that he waited some nine years after assuming power to act against

90 A common name for Hsin-hsings writings, e.g., the San chieh chi lu XT, T #2153,

55.474c or the Jen chi lu ^T , T #2082, 51.788b; cf. chapter 1, 1113.


91 T #2154, 55.679a.
92 Chang Yen-yans Li tai ming hua chi also mentions several San-chieh yan (Li tai ming
hua chi, chan 3, 12, 16, and 17). On the need for separate quarters for repentance and other
liturgical practice see Stevenson, The Tien-tai Four Forms, 55, 76; on the separation of
San-chieh followers from the main monastic community see chapter 4, 9092.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 215

them seems to argue against strictly ideological motivation. Most likely in


this case the reason is as found in the proclamation of 721, that is, there is a
great amount of debauchery and fraud and things are not proper or
upright. Added to this was a need to set the nances of the empire straight
after the largess of Empress Wu to the Buddhist community. His actions,
then, should be seen as directed primarily against the institutional base of
the sect, in other words, the Inexhaustible Storehouse and the separate
dwellings of the followers.
The separate dwellings of the San-chieh bear closer scrutiny in this
regard, considering that Buddhist temples were generally not divided along
sectarian lines at this point. While I do not believe that the doctrinally
sectarian nature of their Universal Dharma would be any more offensive
than any other schools claim to doctrinal supremacy, the institutional
embodiment of that doctrinephysically removing the monks from other
monks in the templesmight seem a move more calculated to achieve regu-
latory independence, and hence a move intolerable to other Buddhists as
well as the government. If, however, as I have suggested in chapter 6, the
separate cloisters were created out of liturgical need, as was not uncom-
mon in Chinese monasteries, it is hard to consider this evidence of incipient
separatism.
Another factor that might have contributed to the dissolution of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse is the emperors desire to regain control of the
imperial prerogative to act as the medium of charitable merit for his sub-
jects. That is, just as Mark Lewis has argued that the Universal Dharma
challenged the rulers right to declare the supreme truth and to justify their
rule through the defense of that truth and the elevation of its presumptive
masters,93 Whalen Lai has recently argued that Buddhist charitable institu-
tions usurped the prerogatives of the ruler, who had the obligation of pro-
viding a minimal livelihood for his subject. At a time when only the ruler
should claim that obligation, any private party presuming to feed the poor
would be stealing loyalty from the sovereign and could be perceived as chal-
lenging his right to rule, to usurp that prerogative amounted to his being
disloyal to his lord.94 In this connection it is perhaps especially signicant
that a Sung Ching wrote a memorial to the emperor on exactly this point
(citing Confucius as his authority) in 717, the second decade of Hsan-
tsungs rule and only a few years before his suppression of the San-chieh
charitable institution.95 In any case, it is certainly true that Hsan-tsungs

93 Lewis, Suppression, 228.


94 Whalen Lai, Chinese Buddhist and Christian Charities: A Comparative History,
Buddhist-Christian Studies 12 (1992), 7.
95 Lai, Chinese Buddhist and Christian Charities, 7.
216 / suppressions

outlawing the public and popular Inexhaustible Storehouse, the San-chieh


community-based dwellings (San chieh cloisters), and ordering their texts
banned and destroyed was a much more thoroughgoing attack than anything
seen previously. This was shortly followed by a canonical condemnation.
In 730, a few short years after the orders dismantling the Inexhaustible
Storehouse were issued, the famous Kai yan shih chiao lu was compiled by
Chih-sheng. This catalogue of Buddhist scriptures, widely regarded as one of
the most authoritative and comprehensive catalogues ever compiled, has
been immensely inuential to this day, passing on its seal of orthodoxy to
even the Taish compilation of the canon used by scholars and temples
throughout the world.96 Chih-sheng followed the precedent established by
the Ta chou lu and included the San-chieh texts in the section of false or spu-
rious texts. After he listed the titles of the texts, he also added a lengthy note
drawing on the reports in the previous catalogues as well as noting the 725
proscription of individual Three Levels dwellings cited above.
This catalogue and Chih-shengs judgement of the San-chieh is especially
telling in terms of the vacillating status of the San-chieh, as has been recently
detailed by Antonino Forte in his examination of the Fo shuo shih so fan che
y chieh fa ching ching or the Dharma Mirror Sutra, a text forged by San-
chieh followers.97 The Dharma Mirror Sutra was admitted to the ofcial
canon with recommendations from the highest levels of the Buddhist ortho-
doxy in July of 712, one month before Hsan-tsung ascended the throne and
eight years before he banned the Inexhaustible Storehouse and conscated
its holdings. The San-chieh clearly enjoyed support at the highest levels of
the empire at this time, for in addition to the San-chieh monk Shih-li, a
board comprised of ten members of an imperial committee examined and
certied the text, and all but one of these were scholars from the imperial
College for the Glorication of Literature (Chao-wen kuan kI).98 In
addition, the preface to the text named Bodhiruci and Manicintana, easily
two of the most important monks of the time, as the translators of the text.99
Yet in 730, less than twenty years after this ringing endorsement, Chih-sheng
condemned the text as a deception on top of a deception perpetrated by
Shih-li. Leaving aside the question of the content of the scripture in order to

96 On this catalog and its judgements of orthodoxy see Kyoko Tokuno, The Evaluation of

Indigenous Scriptures in Chinese Buddhist Bibliographical Catalogues, in Buswell, ed.,


Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, 5258.
97 Forte, The Relativity of the Concept of Orthodoxy, 23949.
98 Forte, The Relativity of the Concept of Orthodoxy, 239.
99 On Manicintana see Antonino Forte, The Activities in China of the Tantric Master
Manicintana (Pao-ssu-wei: ?721 c.e.) from Kashmir and of his Northern Indian Collaborators,
East and West 34 (1984): 30145.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 217

focus on this verdict, Forte has shown how what changed between 712 and
730 was not the text or the members of the committee, but rather the ideology
of orthodoxy, or perhaps more specically the status of the San-chieh within
that ideology. That is, prior to Hsan-tsungs proscription of the Inex-
haustible Storehouse the San-chieh was powerful and inuentialthus
enabling Shih-li to sponsor the Dharma Mirror Sutra and have it accepted
into the ofcial canon. After Hsan-tsungs actions, however, and in light of
the Ta chou lus judgement of San-chieh materials, Chih-sheng had to be
sure that this San-chieh text was clearly and unequivocally excised from the
canon. Related to this particularization of the notion of orthodoxy, of
course, are the connections between some members of the committee and
the failed plot to assassinate the emperor. That is, in addition to Hseh Chis
involvement noted above, another member of the committee, Tsui Shih,
also participated in the conspiracy to poison the new Emperor Hsan-tsung
and also committed suicide in 713. As Forte has reasoned, If Shih-li was
closely associated with certain members of that conspiracy, it would not be
surprising for Hsan-tsung to take action against Shih-li and his sect once
he had consolidated his power.100 We can thus understand the suppression
of the Inexhaustible Storehouse and the exclusion of their texts from the
ofcial canon as the products of specic historical situations involving
specic (and changing) notions of orthodoxy and legitimacy, themselves
dependent more on palace intrigue than on religion or doctrinal issues.
After these suppressions we can nd no more records that directly link the
Hua-tu ssu and the Inexhaustible Storehouse. There is, nonetheless, contin-
ued evidence of the popularity of the San-chieh and the importance of the
Hua-tu ssu, as well as the continued presence of a San-chieh yan within
the Hua-tu ssu. The Pao ke tsung pien, for example, lists stone pillar carv-
ings of the Tsun sheng to lo ni ching done in 801 and in 842 at
the San-chieh yan of the Hua-tu ssu.101 That the Hua-tu ssu continued to
be an important temple in Chang-an is also evident from the fact that cere-
monies and lectures were held there during the reign of Tai-tsung (763779)
that involved the famous monk Amoghavajra;102 that the emperor donated a
golden name tablet to the temple ca. 825 without feeling the need to change
the name of the temple in spite of its close association with the San-chieh;103
that memorial steles for Hsin-hsing continued to be erected during the

100 Forte, The Relativity of the Concept of Orthodoxy, 246.


101 Pao ke tsung pien, chan 7, 3233 and chan 7, 36; the Tsun sheng to lo ni ching
probably corresponds to the Fo ting tsun sheng to lo ni ching M,
Taish #967 and #971, translated in 683 and 710, respectively.
102 T #2120, 52.834c835a; T #2120, 52.835c; T #2120, 52.841bc.
103 Chang-an chih, chan 10, p. 9.
218 / suppressions

eighth and early ninth centuries;104 that the San-chieh texts were once again
included within the ofcial canon in Yan-chaos catalogue of 800, the Chen
yan hsin ting shih chiao mu lu;105 and that the Hua-tu ssu was one of the
rst temples restored after the general persecution of Buddhism in 845
(renamed the Chung fu ssu S).106 The Tun-huang collections also con-
tain ninth- and tenth-century manuscript copies of the Seven Roster
Buddhanma (Chi chieh fo ming Me), an important San-chieh liturgi-
cal manual (see chapter 1),107 and San-chieh texts continued to be copied as
part of the ofcial Buddhist canon in Japan through the twelfth century.108
All this speaks of the great inuence of the San-chieh throughout almost the
entirety of the Tang period as well as of the support it received from the
highest levels of society, which in turn belies the narrative of the San-chieh
as a form of popular Buddhism that ran afoul of the authorities because of
its doctrine of decline or the implications of that teaching for the authority
of the Buddhist canon. It also means that, rather than having been nally
stamped out of existence because of any one edict or a catalogers branding
Hsin-hsings writings heretical and banishing them to the spurious section
of the canon, the San-chieh teachings and institutions are better described as
slowly disappearing from the scene. Hence the rise and fall of a Chinese
heresy of the subtitle to this book might better be cast as the the rise and
slow fade of a Buddhist community. As Nishimoto has suggested, their
eventual demise might just as well be a result of the cult of the founder that
grew up around Hsin-hsing at an early date and the attendant lack of atten-
tion to lineage successions,109 in other words, a failure to routinize the
charisma of the founder in successive generations.

Summary

The teaching of the Three Levels, begun by Hsin-hsing in the years


immediately prior to the Sui dynasty, their texts, practices, and institution of
the Inexhaustible Storehouse were the target of ve separate edicts aimed at
eliminating them. The rst, during the reign of Sui Wen Ti in the year 600,

104 Two memorials were composed by Yan-chao; cf. Hubbard, Chinese Reliquary

Inscriptions, 26566.
105 Cf. Hubbard, Salvation in the Final Period of the Dharma, 18088.
106 Chiu Tang shu, Liu Hs, ed., 80b.
107 Hirokawa, Tonk shutsudo, 7677.
108 See Hubbard, The Teaching of the Three Levels.
109 Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 11621.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 219

simply states that the circulation of their texts was prohibited and a warning
about their ideas was issued. The next two suppressions, almost a full century
later, took place during the reign of Empress Wu, who was also a supporter
of their Inexhaustible Storehouse. The rst, in 695, declared that the San-
chieh doctrines are heresies, opposed to the Buddhas teaching, and the
second, four years later, prohibited practices other than begging, fasting,
holding the precepts, and meditation and reiterated their exclusion from the
canon. The nal two edicts were issued under the reign of Hsan-tsung, and
they dismantled the Inexhaustible Storehouse in 721 because of fraudulent
practices and in 725 eliminated the separate dwelling of San-chieh followers
and ordered their texts destroyed. Between the various suppressions there
are records indicating the continued popularity of the San-chieh, even after
the edicts of Hsan-tsung and perhaps continuing as late as the tenth century.
What, then, of the idea that it was the emphasis on the decline of the dharma
or the espousal of its remedy, the Universal Dharma, that caused the sup-
pressions?
First of all, we need to keep in mind the simple fact that neither the
decline doctrine nor the Universal Dharma is mentioned in any of the edicts.
Secondly, what we do nd in the historical record is a great variety of actions
taken against the San-chieh communitysometimes texts are targeted,
sometimes practices, and yet in other cases institutions are the target.
Sometimes there seems to be an attempt to destroy the movement, other
times to curb their spread, and other times simply to bring them in line. The
situation of the protagonists likewise varied considerablyfrom the
Buddhist rulers at the beginning of the Sui to Taoist rulers in the middle of
the Tang. To put it simply, the great variety of factors evidenced in the his-
torical record combined with the lack of any direct reference to the doctrine
of decline or any other specic doctrine makes it difcult to reduce the
actions taken against the San-chieh community to any single cause, and cer-
tainly not to a single doctrine. Indeed, I do not think that all of the actions
taken against the San-chieh communities are even best described by the sin-
gular term suppression, and would prefer to see developed a more
nuanced taxonomy that would allow this diversity to be highlighted.
On a more theoretical level, I simply do not think that the suppressions of
the San-chieh can be attributed to their doctrinal stance because, in the rst
place, the doctrine of decline and the one-way exclusivity of the associated
teachings relevant to the times were also propounded by numerous others,
as we have seen in chapter 3. As I have argued, the very origins of the doc-
trine of decline are to be found in a concern for an orthodoxy of dharma
(saddharma) in the face of increasing diversity of dharma, and so too all
scriptural hermeneutics (pan chiao) of Hsin-hsings time were implicitly if
not explicitly critical of other systemspan chiao includes, after all,
220 / suppressions

judgement of the teachings within its scope. When all is said and done, the
San-chieh doctrine of Universal Dharma is simply one more pan chiao, one
more way of grading the teachings so that ones own teachings come out on
top. For all of their posturing about the inability of the dharma to save and
the like, the San-chieh teachers still did teach dharmawhy would a ruler be
any more worried about their claims to doctrinal supremacy than those of
the myriad others claiming a similarly exclusive grasp of the truth?
Although the level or even the content of their rhetoric might have been a
contributing factor, it cannot be adduced as the sole or underlying cause of
the suppressions.
Stanley Weinstein has argued [the fact] that each of these schools [Tien-
tai, Fa-hsiang, and Hua-yen] came to the forefront among the Buddhist
elite at the time that it did was attributable not so much to the momentum
of its own inner doctrinal development as to the close connection that existed
between the de facto founder of the school and the imperial family. The
philosophical schools were not formulated by monks who were immured in
remote monasteries, but rather reected, to a considerable degree the
political needs of their imperial patrons.110 Although this close connection
between doctrine and politics meant that the favored school changed several
times over the Sui-Tang period, never did it mean that the out-of-favor
school was suppressed. That is, doctrine, so closely linked to imperial
patrons, was not enough in and of itself to warrant action against the sect
that held any particular doctrine not in favor at the moment. The theologi-
cally sectarian nature of Buddhist doctrinal systems did not call down the
wrath of the rulers. The imperial patron of the Hua-yen teachings did not
feel compelled to suppress the Tien-tai school, which put its own teachings
atop those of the Hua-yen in the pan chiao heap.
Without denying that Buddhist ideas are as much ideology as theology,
and perhaps contrary to the wishes of Buddhists themselves, Buddhist rulers
do not seem to have often felt their power threatened by subtle points of
Buddhist doctrine. Related to this, too, is the fact that in every case there is
evidence of the continued existence and even support of San-chieh institu-
tions at the highest levels, militating against accepting a singular cause for all
of the suppressions. On the other hand, I think that the danger of being close
to power is clearly demonstrated in the rst suppression of the Three Levels
movement immediately following the downfall of their powerful patron as
well as their treatment under the rule of Empress Wu and Emperor Hsan-
tsung. We need to remember that, in spite of the mass popularity of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse, Hsin-hsing and the community that he founded
were supported at every turn by the highest levels of the eliteindeed, even

110 Weinstein, Imperial Patronage in Tang Buddhism, p. 305.


absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 221

the Inexhaustible Storehouse was patronized by men and women of good


society and Empress Wu. In other words, I think that we can turn Wein-
steins observations about the rise of particular schools to understanding the
demise of the San-chieh movement: the fact that the San-chieh teachings fell
from favor among the elite and were eventually banned was attributable not
so much to the momentum of its own inner doctrinal development as to the
close connection that existed between the highly placed followers of the
school and the imperial family.
Finally, the notion that the on-again, off-again nature of the suppres-
sions is due to the strong Buddhist patronage of a given reign is simply
insupportable. First of all, we have to remember that in the case of Sui Wen
Ti and Empress Wu both rulers initially supported Hsin-hsing or the San-
chieh institutions. What made them change their minds? To my knowledge
nothing in Hsin-hsings teachings changed between 589, the time that he
received an imperial invitation to Chang-an, and 600, the year that his
teachings were banned. Secondly, as I mentioned, it is hard to characterize
the reign of Hsan-tsung as ardently pro-Buddhistas with most of the
Tang rulers, his preference was for Taoism. On the other hand, it has been
clearly shown by many scholars that imperial patronage of Buddhism by Sui
Wen Ti and Empress Wu was part of a larger pattern of legitimation that in
every case utilized elements of Confucianism and Taoism as well as of
Buddhism. In the case of Empress Wu, for example, Guisso has written that
the inuence of Buddhism in Wus legitimation was not negligible but
neither was it predominant.111 This is especially true in the year of her rst
suppression of the San-chieh (695), when, after the burning of the Ming-
tang, she responded to the hostile atmosphere by turning to an increased
support of Confucian symbols (in 695 she dropped the title of Maitreya,
among other things).112 Thus the religious preferences of the ruler seem an
unlikely cause of their ire.
What do I have to offer in place of the rich fare of religious doctrine as
political power? Unfortunately littlethe thin taste of the historical record
is not overly satisfying. Although I do believe that what is doctrine for a
Buddhist monk may simultaneously constitute ideology for monk and ruler
alike, I also believe that we need to look at actual and discrete historical
events rather than doctrinal/ideological issues if we wish to nd the causes of
the suppressions of the San-chiehevents such as the loss of rank of the
important San-chieh patron Kao Chiung, the involvement of San-chieh fol-
lowers in uprisings against Empress Wu and Hsan-tsung, fraudulent

111 Guisso, R. W. L., Wu Tse-tien and the Politics of Legitimation in Tang China (Bell-

ingham: Western Washington University, 1978), 68.


112 Forte, Mingtang, 25455; Twitchett, Cambridge History, vol. 3, part 1, 31233.
222 / suppressions

accounting practices, their separatist institutional base, and the like. Such
isolated yet important events are more likely causes of imperial action than
disputes over the correct interpretation of the Buddha-dharma.
Needless to say, such an approach will not satisfy the urge for a neat, all-
inclusive answer to the question of why. Worse still, the details that would
give us solid information about the circumstances of the suppressions are
more than likely lost forever. On the other hand, this approach avoids the
trap of historical reductionism, which, as in this case, tends to create more
problems of interpretation than it solves. I also believe that concentrating on
their teaching of decline or Universal Dharma as the sole cause of their pro-
scriptionin spite of their never having been so labeled in any source
gives the notion of the orthodox a uniformity and constancy that it does
not in fact possess. Finally, it has served to focus attention on the uniqueness
of Hsin-hsings teachings, a uniqueness that fades rather quickly when those
teachings and practices are put into context.
In sum, the suppressions of Hsin-hsings teachings and practices were
born of discrete historical and political situations unrelated to doctrinal
issues or the intent to abrogate the authority of church or state. The sustained
popularity of the movement between the suppressions and its lingering pres-
ence into the ninth and tenth centuries indicates that even the eventual
demise of Hsin-hsings teachings should be sought outside the singular effect
of the proscriptions. With this as background, then, let me turn in the nal
chapter to asking larger questions of the meaning of the study of the San-
chieh movement.
9.
Time, Transcendence, and Heresy

W hat, then, do we make of Hsin-hsings teachings, his com-


munity, and the institution of the Inexhaustible Storehouse? Are they hereti-
cal? Are they as unique and different as usually thought? The rst thing that
occurs to me is precisely how well they t the general tenor of the times: the
belief in the lowered capacity of sentient beings, the need for new doctrines
and practices appropriate to those sentient beings, the doctrine of universal
Buddha-nature, and the holistic vision of the Hua-yen Sutra all were widely
shared among his contemporaries. So, too, the scriptures on which Hsin-
hsing relied: the Lotus Sutra, the Mahparinirva-stra, the Hua-yen Sutra,
Vimalakrtinirdea-stra, rmldev-stra, and the Hsiang fa cheh i ching;
these were among the most widely quoted scriptures of the day. Likewise,
Hsin-hsings emphasis on the precepts, dhta practice, cultivation of dhyana
and samadhi through seated meditation, repentance rites, and buddhanma
liturgies are all representative of, not exceptions to, the monastic regimen of
Chinese Buddhism from the sixth century onwards. The same can be said of
what little we know of their institutional organization; from the apparent
involvement of lay precept groups to the social welfare activity of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse, all ts in well with the trends of the times.
Indeed, even Hsin-hsings urge to create a unique organization of grading
the teachings and practices ts in well with the drive to organize the
Buddha-dharma that was so typical of the Sui and Tang in the form of pan
chiao systems. One conclusion, then, might be that Hsin-hsing and the San-
chieh movement are better studied as representative of sixth-century
Chinese Buddhism than as a deviant or heretical movement. To put it in a
contemporary idiom, just as the study of new religious movements often
reveals that the various elements of doctrine and practice that constitute the
movement are not, in fact, new, so Hsin-hsing and the community he
founded turn out to be more representative than novel and more normative
than radical or unique. Yet, given the undeniable fact of their suppression,
another conclusion might well be that demonstrated by Forte, that is to say,
that while the fortunes of the Three Levels movement well demonstrate the
importance of orthodoxy in Chinese Buddhism, they also illustrate the
capricious and relative nature of that orthodoxy.

223
224 / time, transcendence, and heresy

These are both reasonable conclusions to draw and perhaps I would do


well to stop here. Still, in this nal chapter I would like to step back and
address Hsin-hsings doctrines in a wider contexta foolishly wider con-
textin order to ask if there are any lessons to be learned from the study of
Hsin-hsings teachings that might perhaps be applicable to contemporary
issues and problems in religious thought. In addition to a personal interest
in trying to nd some contemporary relevance for my efforts, I do this for
two reasons. First of all, I wish to address more theoretically the persistent
tendency to see the Three Levels as an apocalyptic or millennial movement
whose bellicose doomsday scenario naturally incurred the wrath of the
authorities; this is of particular interest as I write this on the eve of the mil-
lennium, and Chinese authorities round up more and more religious groups
accused of just such seditious practices (as do their American counterparts).
Secondly, I wish also to return to the issue of the rhetorical nature of Hsin-
hsings doctrine of the Universal Dharma that I raised in part two. So, in
this conclusion I will examine the San-chieh use of the doctrine of the
decline of the dharma in the context of Buddhist thinking about (a) time
and history and (b) interpretive strategies: that is, on the one hand as a sort
of eschatological thinking and on the other hand as the hermeneutic princi-
ple underlying Hsin-hsings evaluation of scripture and propounding of the
Universal Dharma appropriate for that eschatology.
To begin with the question of Buddhist thinking about time, perhaps the
most common interpretation of the tradition of the decline of the teachings
is that it represents a sort of Buddhist eschatology and is, with qualication,
similar to eschatological thinking in the Judeo-Christian traditions.1 Hsin-
hsings teachings are often mentioned as examples of this sort of Buddhist
eschatology. To attempt, then, to place the San-chieh movement into such
an interpretive framework is especially germane given the frequent appear-
ance of apocalyptic and messianic movements in Chinese religious history,
the ofcial persecution that Hsin-hsing, his teachings, and his institutions

1 The literature on eschatology and apocalypticism is, needless to say, vast. Among others I

have consulted OLeary, Arguing the Apocalypse; Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millenium
(London: Secker and Warburg, 1974); the various articles in Paul D. Hanson, Visionaries and
Their Apocalypses (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983); John Hanson and Richard Horsley,
Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs: Popular Movements at the Time of Jesus (San Francisco:
Harper & Row, 1988); John J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to the
Jewish Matrix of Christianity (New York: Crossroad, 1984); Ithamar Gruenwald, Apocalypse:
Jewish Apocalypticism to the Rabbinic Period, in Encyclopedia of Religion 1: 33642; R. J. Zwi
Werblowsky, Eschatology, in Encyclopedia of Religion 5: 14851; Thomas Altizer, Oriental
Mysticism and Biblical Eschatology (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1961); and John B.
Cobb, Jr., The Theology of Altizer: Critique and Response (Philadelphia: Westminster Press:
1970).
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 225

faced during the course of their history, and the regular linking of that per-
secution to his advocacy of the nal period of the dharma (mo fa) and its
social/political implications.
The primary eschatological elements noted in this comparison are, of
course, a sense of linear time and its fulllment, usually in a world renewal
or dawning of a new age in this world. In this vein, a comparison to the
apocalyptic and messianic aspects of eschatological thinking is not
uncommon, and among the usual features of these systems we can count the
following:
1. a linear sense of time in which events take place only once and have singu-
lar value;
2. a strong periodization of that linear time, usually
3. divinely ordained and leading to
4. a nal moment in which a new age is established, typically after
5. the destruction of a thoroughly evil world;
6. the presence of messengers (e.g., angels) that convey the divine will, inter-
pret omens, impart visions, and the like, signaling a familiar relationship
between the deity and
7. a group of followers that safeguards this revelation and prepares for the
end/new beginning and
8. will uniquely enjoy the splendors and glories of the new world; this elect
group is
9. typically comprised of the disenfranchised and marginal, and
10. is formed in a time of crisis and/or social dislocation caused by war, rapid
social, industrial, or technological change, or contact between radically dis-
parate cultures;
11. the group typically draws upon a subterranean spring of symbolic resources
usually in the form of a textually embodied community of discourse
founded in the accepted canon and occasionally augmented by the produc-
tion of new revelations and interpretive strategies;2
12. usually, but not always, the elect group engages in strong and vigorous
preaching about the evils of the current world and
13. predicts the appearance of the savior who will usher in the new age; this in
turn leads to
14. a separation or isolation from mainstream society in a new society follow-
ing its own moral ideal and oftentimes strict rules, frequently followed by
15. conict and a clash with the dominant authority that
16. attempts to eliminate the movement; nally,
17. all of this can continue long after the initial impulse has vanished (or been
vanquished), the various elements reexively coming to form part of an

2 OLeary, Arguing the Apocalypse, 10, 31.


226 / time, transcendence, and heresy

ever-evolving tradition of symbolic and textual resources deployed by later


individuals and movements, often entirely unrelated to the originators.
Of course, all these elements are not necessarily present in a single group
and any one element can have numerous variations, and so this list indicates
possibilities of shifting patterns rather than xed or necessary categories.
How does the San-chieh movement t into such a discussion? Can it be
called messianic or apocalyptic in a broad, comparative sense? What features
does it share with other apocalyptic movements in Chinese history? Could
such teachings be responsible for their suppression? Related to these ques-
tions is the larger question of how their use of the decline tradition reects a
concern for specic historical events. That is, the Chinese Buddhist tradi-
tions are often said to have a more developed historical and historiographical
focus than their Indian counterparts, yet I have argued that the three levels
are related to capacity rather than temporal periodswhat does this tell us
about the role of their eschatology in the development of a Buddhist historical
consciousness?

Millennial or Apocalyptic?

To begin with the question of whether or not the San-chieh repre-


sents a form of apocalyptic or messianic movement similar to either indige-
nous Chinese movements or other such movements that have appeared
throughout the world, the answer would have to be no. To be sure, certain
features of these movements are found in Hsin-hsings teaching and com-
munitythings such as the importance of an eschatological discourse rooted
in a shared textual tradition and the literary forms of that tradition, certain
aspects of communal life and charitable practice, a kind of egalitarianism in
the teaching of the Universal Buddha, and especially the exhortation to a
moral and nearly ascetic lifestyle. Still, these things are not exclusively fea-
tures of messianic or millennial movements, and most are part of the broad
mainstream of Chinese Buddhism from Chih-i in the South to Hsin-hsing in
the North. So, too, many of the more signicant features of messianic and
apocalyptic movements seem to be lacking in Hsin-hsings movement. As
seen in both their institutional participation and sponsorship, for example,
they appealed to powerful patrons as well as to the poor beneciaries of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse, to the orthodox monastic practitioner as well as to
the precept-holding laity, and cannot be said to have been dominated by dis-
advantaged or marginalized population groups. Although we can denitely
see elements of a cult of the founder in the practice of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse, this is still a far cry from the ideology of a savior, a messiah, or
god who will either personally initiate the new age or come to rule after his
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 227

followers prepare the way. Similarly, although their institutional practice of


living in separate quarters bespeaks some separatist tendencies, this seems at
least as related to a common Buddhist ethos of communal and liturgical
practice as to an ideology of themselves as the special elect or chosen few
whose relationship to the savior guarantees both their survival as well as
their power and glory in the new age to come. Indeed, the doctrines and
practices of recognizing evil and universal respect would seem to be dia-
metrically opposed to the notion of a privileged elect that would raise the
banner of truth and justice and carry the struggle to society in order to purge
it of its evil. Perhaps for this same reason there are no records directly link-
ing Hsin-hsing and his followers with revolution, revolt, or other social dis-
turbances.3
Another signicant difference between the San-chieh and most messianic
and millennial movements is the overall lack of importance attached to tem-
poral or chronological boundaries, the end of time, and the coming of a new
age. As I have argued, for example, once we realize that their three levels are
not tied to the three periods of the dharma or to the incipient doctrine of mo
fa it also becomes clear that they did not attach very much importance to a
signicant segmentation of history. Although they made some use of the
various timetables of the dharmas decline available to them, that use was
both inconsistent and lacked any impetus to chronological organization
the organizing features of the three levels being rather capacity and the
teachings appropriate to capacity. Finally, and most importantly, Hsin-
hsings writings betray no expectation whatsoever of a utopian outcome to
their situation, whether in the immediate present or distant futureindeed,
it seems that even the promise of the Western Pure Land was largely absent
in his teaching. Likewise he had no sense of an impending end to history.
Hence, too, inasmuch as the level is a level of capacity rather than a period of
time, there is no duration given for the third level but rather never-ending
lists of the evils of the third grade of sentient being. Lacking both a prophetic
end of time and the declared imminence of a new beginning, it was the
teaching of the third-level capacity of sentient beings that drove the San-
chieh movement and thus they never made the move to a genuine apocalyp-
ticism, that is, prophetically or otherwise offering the chronological and
logistic details of the impending end of time or the dawn of a new age.
If, then, the San-chieh movement cannot easily be linked to the more typ-
ically millennial, messianic, or apocalyptic currents in either a comparative

3 As noted in chapter 8, one possible San-chieh follower, the prince Li Chen, was involved

in a revolt against Empress Wu; to the best of my knowledge, however, neither San-chieh
teachings nor apocalyptic ideology were cause for his revolt and this connection was never
mentioned in any record dealing with the San-chieh community.
228 / time, transcendence, and heresy

or Chinese context, does it nonetheless t into a more general eschatological


framework? That is, did the use of the decline motif provide a framework in
which historical events and context have a signicant, if not fully messianic
or apocalyptic, meaning in the overall context of their teachings and prac-
tices? Again, although such speculation is perhaps so general as to be pre-
sumptuous, given the regular linkage of mo fa, historical awareness, and the
suppressions of the San-chieh movement, some attention to this question is
in order. Let me begin, then, with some brief comments on the most impor-
tant feature of eschatological thinking, linear versus cyclical time.

The Three Levels and Buddhist Eschatology:


linear and cyclical time

Long-held assumptions dictate a fundamental difference between


Western and Eastern Asian notions of time and history: whereas the former
are linear and nite, giving human history a particularistic reality and even
urgency, the latter are cyclical and innite, rendering human history, and
hence human actionethical actionwithin that history inconsequential.
The Judaic messianic tradition and its Christian reconguration as eschato-
logical promise/fulllment are taken as superb examples of the linear orien-
tation, premised as they are on one-time events that erupt into human history
and change it (or end it) forever, teleologically and inevitably moving to a
nal perfection.4 This eschatological promise of nal perfection is contrasted
with a cyclical Indic cosmogony that renders the notion of a nal end to
world history meaningless, lost to the greater signicance of cosmic repeti-
tion. In this vision there is no nal end to history, no world telos, and, there-
fore, ultimately no progress at all. We should note that it is the fate of
humanity qua society that is seen to be at stake here, with the Western, lin-
ear vision of time functioning as a theodicy that, based upon the belief in a
perfected and nal future, engenders as well the specics of a forward-mov-
ing and historically specic soteriology through which it may be or must be
effected. More importantly for our purposes, however, is the ethical impor-
tance attached to human action in such a one chance only view of history,
an emphasis that is lacking in a transcendent or existential view of time.
Thomas Altizer, for example, has been one of the strongest advocates of the
need for a historical reading of Judeo/Christian eschatology, for in a spiritu-
alization of the revolutionary impulse of that view of time Jesus is detached

4 In a recent work, Norman Cohn has argued for the Zoroastrian origins of this innovation
in cosmic/temporal thinking; see Norman Cohn, Cosmos, Chaos, and the World to Come: The
Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995).
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 229

from history and viewed as an existential Word and thereby faith ceases
to be rebellion and becomes, instead, either escape or submission, whereas
genuine Christian existence must be directed to a rebellious attack upon
the realities of profane existence, and it is to just this attack that Jesus ethi-
cal message calls the disciple.5

The Eternal Return

Buddhism, on the other hand, is seen as transcendent and


suprahistorical. Heinrich Zimmer characterized the Indic approach decades
ago as exactly individual and transcendent rather than social and historical,
leading to a fundamentally skeptical attitude toward social progress. He
writes:
This viewpoint [of world history] from on high is not to be shared by the cho-
rus of actors, by the gods and demons, engrossed by their roles, but is achieved
through the supreme aloofness of the ascetic renunciation of iva, and through
his attitude of spiritual indifference. To reach this perfection of his, is, among
men, a privilege reserved for single, outstanding individuals, saints, ascetics,
and yogin, who transcend the My of phenomenal existence by their own
efforts; but the world-process as a whole is not meant for a gradual progress
toward perfection. It is the peculiar glory of Western idealism, with Christianity
broadening into progressive humanitarianism, to have conceived such a goal,
and to foster an ardent faith which embarks again and again, after each setback,
on its quest for collective perfection.6

Perhaps the best-known proponent of this contrast has been Mircea


Eliade, whose comparative studies of cosmogony and eschatology led to his
elaboration of the Eternal Return, a primitive view of time and history
characterized by cyclical accounts of the countless beginnings and ends of
world time. To these countless beginnings and ends he contrasts an inno-
vation of the rst importance, the Judeo-Christian doctrine of a singular
beginning, linear progression, and a triumphal endtime that represents the
forsaking of the circular Time of the Eternal Return [to] become a linear and
irreversible Time [that] also represents the triumph of a Sacred History.7
On rst reading one is tempted to simply identify the many nineteenth-
and early twentieth-century Eurocentric constructions that inform this

5 Altizer, Oriental Mysticism, 102, 11011.


6 Henry R. Zimmer, The Hindu View of World History According to the Puras, The
Review of Religion, 6/3 (1942), 168.
7 Mircea Eliade, Myth and Reality (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1963), 6465.
230 / time, transcendence, and heresy

understanding, including an evolutionary or teleological view of history/


humankind with Christianity the developmental highpoint, an historical
positivism or realism, and a somewhat facile Weberesque view of the East
as embodying an otherworldy form of asceticism that precludes nding
meaning or value in worldly participation and social development. Still, and
in spite of the many alternative readings that have been offered of this gener-
alization (e.g., the myth of eternal return breeds equanimity and optimism
not resignation and despair, Judeo-Christian eschatological thinking has also
suffered a transcendental inversion, the postmodern West is likewise freed
from historical positivism and linear history, etc.), by and large the general
scheme of linear time and world-historical eschaton versus a cyclic cosmos
and transcendent, ahistorical salvation, with its various nuances, has been
upheld.8 Altizer, for example, one of the few Christian theologians to give
Buddhist eschatological thinking serious and sympathetic consideration,
concluded that even the Zen negation of Buddhist trancendentalism
[that] fully parallels the radical Christian negation of transcendence repre-
sents a form of apocalypticism in which nothing actually happens, in
which there is neither world- nor self-transformation.9 Similarly, the
Buddhologist Roger Corless has written that

history is an academic discipline that has developed in the western hemisphere.


The western hemisphere has been strongly inuenced by the Abrahamic tradi-
tions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and their conception of time as some-
thing created by God in and through which God manifests himself. On this
view, time is meaningful. It has a beginning and an end, and the end is a goal,
so that there is development, a progressive achievement of the goal. History
as a secular discipline has many of the features of the Abrahamic traditions
view of time; the assumption that time is meaningful and that development
is real does not seem to have been given up by even the most radical critics of
the philosophy of history. Buddhism, on the other hand, sees things as chang-
ing over time, but it does not see things as becoming more meaningful as they
change. Change, for Buddhism, is a primary characteristic of cyclic existence
(samsara), and history is just a lot of change. All that we can say about history,
Buddhistically, is that as time goes on we get more of it.10

Buddhism is thus likewise seen to be concerned with individual liberation


to a timeless truth in which sequential time is overshadowed by cyclical

8 Winston King, Eschatology: Christian and Buddhist, Religion 16 (1985), 177, 181;

OLeary, Arguing the Apocalypse, 2930.


9 Thomas Altizer, Response to Winston L. Kings Zen and the Death of God, in Cobb,

The Theology of Altizer, 22930.


10 Roger Corless, The Vision of Buddhism (New York: Paragon House, 1989), xix.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 231

recurrence and the historical past by the predicted future appearance of the
Buddha Maitreya, whose appearance is yet so many billions of aeons in the
future as to render it meaningless in terms of current events. Thus
Buddhists, following the cyclical model and lacking a world-historical escha-
ton, are seen to dene the end of all things not as a consummation of world
history but rather as individual liberation from it, as with Zimmers iva.
Winston King, for example, sums up this attitude in comparison with the
world-shattering events of Western eschatologies, noting that Buddhism

points to the individual-existential situation as being more truly eschatological,


i.e., as having to do with the truly ultimate [Nibbna]. Nibbna was essen-
tially non- or super-historical, available limitedly in even the worst ages. It
has essentially nothing to do with historical events but is human being face to
face with Ultimate Ineffable Being, a state that fully and nally transcends his-
torical and cosmic event[s] and individual life and death.11

Specific Time in Buddhist History

Leaving aside for the moment the validity of the overall generaliza-
tion as well as the prescriptive evaluation of Zimmer and Eliade, we can of
course nd any number of traditions, persons, and historiographies within
Buddhism that would seem to present, at the very least, minor counter-
points of concern for specic and social historicism to the overall theme of
recurrence and individual transcendence, if not a fully world-historical
eschaton. The apocalypticism of the Klacakra (Wheel of Time), the histo-
riography of Jiens Gukansh, the dispensationalism inherent in the Three
Turnings of the Wheel, the various Buddhist national narratives, and other
examples may be cited in this regard. Another such counterpoint that is fre-
quently cited is the Buddhist tradition of the decline and/or demise of its
own teaching, a tradition often considered to parallel Judeo-Christian escha-
tological thinking. As seen in part 2, the stories that relate these traditions,
most of which are patently ex post facto descriptions of actual events cast in
the form of prophecies, evince a strong concern for specic history, linear
timetables, the location of historical gures within those linear chronologies
(usually equally much a means of locating oneself within the same chrono-
logies), and, most conspicuously, a great concern for the temporal relation-
ship between the present time and the past time of the historical Buddha.
Thus Jan Nattier argued that, at least in these traditions, the question of
what time it is has mattered, and at times has mattered very much, to a

11 King, Eschatology, 182.


232 / time, transcendence, and heresy

substantial proportion of Buddhist believers.12 Does Hsin-hsings use of the


decline motif match this description? Did time matter to him? And, by
extension, can his ideas be considered an example of Buddhist eschatological
thinking?

Level Means Capacity

To answer this question, we must rst of all remember that even in


its most basic semantic meaning the decline of the dharma is not, of course,
synonymous with Judeo-Christian eschatologythe latter refers to the doc-
trine of the end whereas the former refers to the end of the doctrine (fa mieh
or mo fa). And, as we have seen, the discussion of the end of the dharma
begins with the passing of the historical Buddha whereas the roots of
Judeo/Christian eschatology are rather more diffuse. Hence, if we are to use
the term in the Buddhist case we should keep in mind that, as Hubert Durt
writes, Buddhist eschatology starts with the extinction (parinirva) of the
Buddha.13
Secondly, I have argued that the original production of the decline tradi-
tion was occasioned by a concern for orthodoxy in the face of an ever-
increasing doctrinal diversity within the Buddhist community. Although
that in itself is an indication of a historical awareness of sorts (things are
different now from what they once were) and these traditions often made
use of timetables of decline, still, it would be hard to say that chronology,
historical veracity, or the signicance of time qua history is the issue at stake.
The real point, I have argued, was rather to maintain the true teachings in
perpetuity; with but rare exceptions even the predictions of the complete
destruction of the dharma contained an exhortation to its proper preserva-
tion. It was a polemic or rhetoric of orthodoxy, a point to which I will return
below.
The rst point, then, to note regarding the San-chieh use of the decline
rhetoric is that it, too, was not primarily concerned with time per se, its pas-
sage, or its signicance. I have argued that the meaning of san chieh X is
not three periods or chronological stages in the devolution or disappearance
of the teachings but rather three levels or grades of endowment, ability, or
capacity to correctly understand the teachings. The decline was understood
as a degeneration or disappearance of capacity, not of the teachings and
much less of time. This itself marks a signicant change from the original
strata of the decline motif, in which it really was the teachings that were said

12 Nattier, Once Upon a Future Time, 141.


13 Durt, Problems of Chronology and Eschatology, 41.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 233

to be in danger of extinction; as time passed, however, and the predicted era


arrived, not only did the timetable for the demise of the teachings get
extended (not unusual for failed prophecy) but the basic thrust changed
the teachings remained, but attainment ceased. 14 If, as I have suggested,
beings of different levels could coexist at the same time (and clearly Hsin-
hsing taught that different capacities intermingled in the monastery), then
level would perhaps be closer, at least conceptually, to nature or even,
perhaps, gotraas implied when the San chieh fo fa declares all sentient
beings of the third level to be icchantika who have severed all virtuous roots.15
Because the three levels or grades of capacity are unrelated to the three
periods of the dharma, the third level denotes not a nal period or time of
the teachings but a deplorable lack of capacity for correct views and actions.
Beings of the third level capacity were thus characterized by their inability to
maintain the precepts and their adherence to the extreme views of essential
existence and ruinous nihilism. This was not presented as an unfortunate
state of affairs wrought by the passage of time but rather as the intrinsic
characteristic of sentient beings, the very nature or dening trait of the
third-level capacity. It is perhaps for this reason that Hsin-hsings writings
contain virtually no discussion of contemporary events, including the mas-
sive persecution of the Buddhist church in 574 that he must have personally
experienced. This is not in any way to deny the importance of the historical
context, the sitz im leben, in stimulating Hsin-hsing to see sentient beings as
devoid of capacity for religious practicethere is no question but that he
was heir to the eschatological and even apocalyptic mood of sixth-century
China. I want to argue more simply that his insight drove him to think not
about time and history but about human natureand for Hsin-hsing that
human nature was fatally corrupt.
Hsin-hsing taught that this decayed nature was an existential reality with
which sentient beings must contend. Because this was not primarily a tem-
poral issue, then, there is no eschaton presented in the San-chieh literature,
no culmination of time that provides a gateway to a new beginning or new
age, no culminating moment of historyjust the inescapable fact of deprav-
ity with no end in sight. Similarly, there is no talk of decisive historical
beginnings, ends, or eventsin Hsin-hsings writings our karmic situation is
rather described in terms of the beginingless past. Since San-chieh litera-
ture lacks a great interest in historical events, linear time, and its climactic
end, I therefore nd it difcult to say that Hsin-hsings teaching of the three
levels should be seen as eschatological in the sense of referring to the end of
time. I also cannot nd myself agreeing that he was even much concerned

14 See chapter 2, 38.


15 San chieh fo fa, 257.
234 / time, transcendence, and heresy

with history or time in general, as either abstract categories or as conceptual


tools for organizing and systematizing the received teachings. As we have
seen, his use of the various timetables in the received scriptural tradition was
loose and evinces no urgency to systematization. He might have known what
time it was, but he didnt really care. What he cared about was capacityor
rather the lack of capacityfor practice and realization. The organizing
framework of his pan chiao was not temporal division but capacity.
It is in this, then, that I nd the signicance of Hsin-hsings teaching of
the nil capacity of sentient beings, for it is a teaching that speaks to a funda-
mental intuition about human nature, an intuition of congenital failure,
constitutive evil, or, in Christian terms, original sin. For Hsin-hsing it was a
premise that living beings were unable to uphold monastic vows and too
stupid to understand the scriptures; spiritually blind from birth, followers
of the Buddha-dharma were hence utterly incapable of discerning the truth
among the various teachings that his fellow monks squabbled about so
incessantly. Existential rather than historical, and essential or constitutive of
human experience rather than acquired and hence avoidable or alterable,
Hsin-hsings view of the basic human condition as utterly bereft of virtue
and necessarily inclined to perverted views of the Buddhas teachings thus
forms an important link in the development of this doctrine in East Asian
Buddhismperhaps, as I have suggested, directly inuencing Tao-cho and
Shan-tao in the development of their more radical estimation of human
nature and their accordingly revised estimate of the reach of Amitbhas
compassion to include even the lowest of the low in its scope.
It is also signicant, I believe, that Hsin-hsing saw that basic problem not
in terms of morality or adherence to the precepts but rather in terms of bias
and attachment to perverted views. The doctrinal disputes of the famous
masters, the wrangling over scriptural sources, and the grand system build-
ing of the national teachersall of this Hsin-hsing took as evidence of our
blindness, prejudice, and attachment to over-specialized teachings (pieh fa)
rather than a sign of spiritual realization. It was this attachment to views
rather than moral failure that Hsin-hsing took to be the source of our ills.
Thus, too, there is not a contradiction in his rigorous demands to observe
the precepts and monastic regimen while simultaneously decrying our
inability to escape the evil of our perverted views.
The widespread acceptance of such a radical pessimism is, to my under-
standing, unique to East Asian Buddhism and it is also fundamental to
Japanese Pure Land thinking. Thus the Shinsh scholar Taitetsu Unno writes
that Shinran saw the particular evils of the age of mapp as revealing the
very ground of self-existence. For Shinran, evil, though particularized in the
individual, forms the essence of humanity in samsara. Mapp was no
longer a particular period of history but the fundamental reality of life itself,
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 235

embracing all ages, past, present, and future.16 So, too, the Kyoto School
philosopher Tanabe Hajime discussed the radically evil nature of humanity
as the tenacity of egoity [that] can never be avoided in any act brought
about directly by will, [a] radical evil.17 For Tanabe, then, this radical or
essential evil is a negative determination of our being itself that lies at the
foundation of human existence in general.18 Of course, the very nature of
constitutive or foundational evil logically demands an other to effect salva-
tion, for every good that a radically evil being might attempt will be tainted
by denition. Hence, as with original sin, both Shinran and Tanabe require
the saving power of an outside agent, something other than a wholly evil
human agency. In the Pure Land tradition this wholly other agent of salva-
tion is the dharmakaya, an a-historic, timeless, and transcendent truth rep-
resented, notably, by the Buddha of Immeasurable Life. For Hsin-hsing
and his followers it is the power of the bodhisattvas Inexhaustible Store-
house that is manifested in their midst and the innitely shared merit of the
bodhisattvas practice of dna. Unlike the cenobitic ideal of the Indian
monastic institution, such a community-centered understanding of salva-
tion is not, of course, an unusual credo in Chinese religious thinking, for it is
representative of Confucian social ideals and witnessed in numerous com-
munitarian movements throughout Chinese history. It is as a part of a shift
towards this understanding of human nature and our participation in a
community of salvation, then, that I would locate the signicance of Hsin-
hsings teachings regarding the third level.
Now, inasmuch as this shift represents a return to what Winston King
referred to as the more truly eschatological concern for the transcendence
of the individual-existential situation, a return to the true emphasis of
the Buddhist tradition (as in Zimmers transcendent view of the Hindu
tradition), it can also be seen as a private or individual eschatology that is
severed from history, and thereby also severed from the apocalyptic and
prophetic aspects of eschatology; if this is true, it is thereby also analogous to
the transcendental inversion that Altizer has criticized in Christian escha-
tological thinking. Ironically, however, and in a fashion perhaps similar to
that of the Christian reconguration of Jewish messianic expectations
regarding the realized Kingdom of God, precisely because of its severance
from historical particularity this existential understanding possesses a theo-
retical universality and deep resonance with the human experience of evil

16 Taitetsu Unno, Mapp, in Encyclopedia of Religion, 9, 185.


17 Tanabe Hajime, Philosophy as Metanoetics (Berkeley: University of Califronia Press,
1986), 188; see also Takeuchi Yoshinori, The Heart of Buddhism (New York: Crossroad, 1983)
for another contemporary Shin-inspired reading of the decline of the dharma.
18 Tanabe Hajime, Philosophy as Metanoetics, 4.
236 / time, transcendence, and heresy

that allows it to persist long beyond whatever crisis attended the historical
moment of its birth. So it is that even today, when the social conditions in
Japan could hardly be called chaotic and few people would ascribe to a literal
cosmology of devolving world ages, the teaching of the decline and the Pure
Land and Nichiren movements based on that doctrine remain vitally rele-
vant to millions of followers.19 Hence, too, the spiritual eschaton of the
third level did not, in fact, mean that opportunity for religious practice and
development was closed offquite the contrary: the existential dilemma of
the third level opened the path up to include all sentient beings equally,
from those who break the precepts and harbor false views on down to the
insects and animals that reportedly attended Three Levels teachings.
That the Three Levels was not an apocalyptic or millennial movement in
the traditional sense also makes it difcult to see their advocacy of the
decline doctrine as the cause for the sporadic hostility of the government. As
Altizer noted in the case of the Christian spiritualization of the eschaton, in
such an existential view of decay faith ceases to be rebellion against the
realities of profane existence, and the practitioner concerned with inner
decay, adherence to the precepts, and penitential liturgies, poses little threat
to the state.

The Rhetoric of the Appropriate Teachings

Although I nd the signicance of Hsin-hsings use of the decline


motif to be his intuition of a pervasive and debilitating bias at the core of the
human condition, the emphasis on correct teachings that was at the root of
the early production of the trope of decline was not lost on him either. Thus
the decline of human capacity led to his insistence that the teachings and
practices be in accord with the capacity (tui ken chi hsing fa). The doctrinal
background of this notion has, of course, a long history in the Buddhist
tradition, including the notions of upya and anupubbikath discussed in

19 It is perhaps equally ironic that it was the notion of periodic decline and ascent of both
world ages and saviors found in the cosmological and Buddhological traditions, developing
largely from astronomical speculation rather than historical context, that matured into a
social eschatology directed towards this worlda social eschatology fully apocalyptic, mes-
sianic, and oriented towards the revolutionary establishment of an earthly utopia. As with the
idea of a congenital decay of human capacity, these remain a distinction of East Asian tradi-
tions of decline to this day, and are also largely limited to East Asia; see the sources cited in
chapter 2, note 6. The major exception to the East Asian provenance of these movements is,
of course, found in the Kalacakra tradition, which, although it contains a vision of the apoca-
lypse (the end of our era and world renewal), did not inspire mass movements as did
Maitreya in East Asia.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 237

chapter 7. Though Hsin-hsings teaching of practices in accord with the


capacity is clearly a variant of upya, the point of view is slightly different.
That is, when upya is used as a means of doctrinal legitimization (in the
Lotus Sutra, for example), it is used not to justify its own teaching as an
upya but rather to explain away other teachings as examples of the
Buddhas skillful means. The Lotus Sutra never calls its own teachings
upyathat is reserved for previous teachings, the teachings suitable for the
immature beings of inferior capacity. Far from being upya, the teachings of
the Lotus Sutra are deemed subtle, pure, and peerless, with nothing superior
in all the worlds.20 The Universal Dharma of the Three Levels, on the other
hand, is itself precisely the teaching in accord with the capacities of the infe-
rior. Because the Chinese understood the future prophecy of decline to be a
present reality, this switch in vantage point vis--vis upya might represent
nothing more than the difference between the way that an idea is rhetorically
deployed by its producers and the way that it must be used by later con-
sumers. Hence the mechanics too have changed: it is not the literal claims to
the status of buddhavacana nor its propositional truth value nor even the
time of its teaching that gives the Universal Dharma its place in Hsin-hsings
pan chiao but rather the capacity of the sentient beings to whom it is taught.
Still, the fundamental function of doctrinal legitimization remains the
samethe doctrine of practices in accord with the capacity validates the
Universal Dharma as the best dharma.
Thus, Hsin-hsings teaching well reects the tendency of his time, an
inclination to doctrinal system building that can be termed inclusive apolo-
getics. Although the fourfold Universal Buddha, the Universal Dharma,
and the universal sangha of the third level seem to be an all-inclusive, posi-
tive, and afrmative doctrine, we must remember that the corollary was that
to take refuge in any other Buddha or teaching was to slander the dharma.
Thus, too, although they advocated a blurring of the traditional boundaries
between those who keep the precepts and those who break the precepts, they
nonetheless built walls between themselves and others inside the monaster-
ies in order to pursue their own conguration of the path, including a strict
adherence to the precepts. This sort of exclusivism (in the name of inclu-
sivism), together with their insistence on the sole relevance of their doctrine
of the Universal Dharma, is often cited as a major reason for the frequent
suppressions that they incurred, yet perhaps it should be rather seen as more
characteristic of Sui-Tang Buddhism than unique to Hsin-hsing and the
Three Levels movementafter all, who ever really argued the inferior nature
of their teaching? In the end, while advocating a practical solution to the
bifurcation of truth and phenomenal reality, the theoretical structure of that

20 T #262, 9.15a.
238 / time, transcendence, and heresy

solution remained typically particular and exclusive. Thus we return to the


point made in chapter 2, that the apparent inclusivism of the Universal
Dharma is in fact a rhetoric that is just as exclusivist as the so-called par-
ticular dharma (pieh fa) that it opposed. So, too, it is perfectly in keeping
with the original intent of the decline trope, that is, arguing a particular ver-
sion of the true dharma, the orthodoxy. Although this interpretation might
not accord with popular Western notions of Buddhism as a non-dogmatic
philosophy of accommodation, on the contrary it seems to me utterly
incomprehensible to imagine that Buddhists were not interested in advocat-
ing, teaching, and preaching their understanding of the truth, particularly in
light of the role of the gift of the dharma in the bodhisattvas practice of
compassion. Bodhisattvas are to be preachers of the dharma (dharma-
bhika), preachers of the true dharma, for that, of course, is what conduces
to the elimination of suffering. Throughout history and across cultures doc-
trinal competition has been both afrmed as soteriologically relevant and
energetically pursued.
Other than being an interesting example of the Buddhist interpretive
enterprise, does Hsin-hsings doctrinal assessment have any broader impli-
cations for Buddhist methods of textual interpretation or current problems
in the study of religion? The issues involved in the study and interpretation
of texts have always been an important part of both traditional Buddhist
doctrine and practice as well as modern Buddhist studies. In recent years,
many of the issues involved in traditional Buddhist approaches to their texts
have also been examined in light of modern critical methodologies. Perhaps
because the Buddhist attitude towards their textual tradition has always been
one of experience over report, the issue often raised in Western studies
regarding the reproducibility of the authors intention (Gadamers roman-
tic endeavor) has never been considered overly problematic precisely
because that aspect has always been afrmed as far and away the most
important aspect of the interpretive enterprise, in fact the very reason for the
teachings. Inasmuch as wisdom is assumed to be the starting point of the
Buddhas teachings as well as the nal goal of the practitioner, the inter-
preter has always been told to enter into a conversation with scripture in
order to nd the original mind of the author, that is to say, the mind of the
Buddha.21

21 Perhaps because of this reliance on an ultimately transcendent wisdom, the related teach-
ing of upya has been seen by many to offer a model for the interactions of different religious
faiths, appearing as it does to foster tolerance and harmony in place of the more rigid exclu-
sivism of proposition-based claims to truth; cf. Jamie Hubbard, Buddhist-Buddhist
Dialogue?
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 239

Thus Buddhist interpretive schemes can be thought of as primarily sote-


riological in orientation and ultimately legitimized in the wisdom of
Buddhahood.22 Hence the interpretive framework of the four reliances,
for example, important in Hsin-hsings writings and taught in such scrip-
tures as the Vimalakrtinirdea-stra and the Mahparinirva-stra, culmi-
nates in wisdom as the highest interpretive authority.23 Hence, too, Buddhist
interpreters seem to have been long aware of the interpretive conundrums
caused by temporal, cultural, and linguistic distance between the author and
readerand, as Jos Cabezn has recently argued, the ultimate rejection of
historical criteria is not due to navet but represents a sophisticated approach
to interpretation.24
Although in this way the Buddhist approach can signicantly contribute
to the contemporary study of religious hermeneutics, this approach has
caused problems as well. This is so because the arguably individual
encounter with the text (the experience or the interpretation of the text), even
if occurring on the level of Buddhist wisdom, also gives rise to interpretative
systems that attempt to put the text into a historical and philosophical
framework consonant with the deeper framework of meaning discerned by
the individual interpreter. This is the level of the siddhnta and pan chiao
systems, including Hsin-hsings twofold classication of particular and uni-
versal. The majority of research done in the area of Buddhist hermeneutics
has tended to focus on such systems and the few central themes that always
form the interpretive ridgepoleupya, direct (ntrtha) versus indirect
(neyrtha) meaning, and the critical yardstick with which one determines
whether the meaning is direct or indirect.
As with the four reliances mentioned above, the critical yardstick itself is
rooted in the idea of the Buddhist notion of ultimate truth, so that, as

22 John Powers, Hermeneutics & Tradition in the Sadhinirmocana-stra (Leiden: E. J. Brill,

1993), 100102; Lamotte, The Assessment of Textual Interpretation in Buddhism, in Bud-


dhist Hermeneutics, ed. Donald Lopez (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988), 23.
23 The four reliances are: (1) Rely on the teaching, not the teacher; (2) rely on the meaning,

not the letter; (3) rely on the denitive teaching (ntrtha), not the indeterminate (neyrtha);
(4) rely on wisdom (jna) not ordinary consciousness (vijna). T #376, 12.879bc; cf.
Etienne Lamotte, The Teaching of Vimalakrti (London: Pali Text Society, 1976), 26163;
Robert Thurman, Buddhist Hermeneutics, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 46/1
1978), 23 ff. On the four reliances in the San-chieh teachings see Nishimoto, Sangaiky, 418.
See also the critique of this as an ultimately transcendent or esoteric epistemology that entails
the denial or denigration of language in Hakamaya Noriaki, Shie (catu-pratisaraa) hihan
k josetsu vS|, in Hongaku Shis Hihan `| (Tokyo: Dait Shuppan,
1989), 184208.
24Jos Ignacio Cabezn, Vasubandhus Vykhyyukti on the Authenticity of the Mah-
yna Stras, in Jeffrey R. Timm, ed., Texts in Context: Traditional Hermeneutics in South Asia
(Albany: SUNY Press, 1992), 23335.
240 / time, transcendence, and heresy

Cabezn has pointed out, the nal description may well be summed up by
saying all that is true is [understood to be] the word of the Buddha.25 In
any case, Hsin-hsing took this concept to a logical extreme and emphasized
the nondual relationship between all phenomena and their essential truth
value based on his own experience of the biased, contentious, and essentially
awed nature of sentient beings. According to his own understanding, then,
he graded sentient beings according to three levels and thereby decided
which Buddhas and which teachings were appropriate for each. In so doing,
however, he succeeded in an interpretative scheme that erased all distin-
guishing features of the Buddhas teachings (including truth and falsity),
except, of course, that of the Universal Dharma as the sole teaching appro-
priate for the third level. Thus the apparent inclusivism turns out in fact to
be exclusive. Worse, it has not logic but only the charisma of its champion to
recommend it.
Is this really so different, though, from the traditional method that, gov-
erned by the hermeneutic of upya and relying on ones personal experience
of ultimacy, eliminates all contradictions among scriptures in favor of a
graded system of textual understanding that puts ones own teachings as
supreme?26 I think not. Like the contemporary fashions of inclusivism and
pluralism as models of religious interaction, it rather seems that if upya and
soteriological concerns are the sole criterion for slicing up the dharma pie,
then the doctrinal puree that results remains necessarily sectarian. Hence the
all-inclusive embrace of the pu fa, the Universal Dharma, the practice that
arises in accord with the capacity, is, in fact, pieh fa, a particular or exclusive
teachingindeed, particular and exclusive to Hsin-hsing and his followers.
While the notion of practice in accord with the capacity or upya repre-
sents a powerful, if perhaps common-sense, pedagogical method (from the
vantage point of a Buddha), an effective structuring of the path (from the
vantage point of ignorant sentient beings attempting to cultivate that path),
and an idea that allows for an encounter with the scriptural tradition as an
open-ended process (that should preclude dogmatism), it nonetheless
remains less than satisfying philosophically and historically. Philosophically,
it seems based on a notion that language, reason, and the texts that employ
language and reason to make claims about the way things are have only a
pragmatic, subjective meaningonce their stated differences are properly
interpreted they will vanish; an added difculty is that upya presupposes
the Buddhas omniscience, the perfect knowledge of what will be uniquely

25 Jos Cabezn, The Concepts of Truth and Meaning in the Buddhist Scriptures, The

Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 4/1 (1981), 7.


26 Cabezn, Vasubandhus Vykhyyukti, 233.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 241

efcacious for each unique individual and situation.27 Historically speaking,


although the rich and complex pan chiao of Chih-i and Fa-tsang may be the
product of spiritual and hermeneutic genius, a more realistic historical, text-
critical and philosophical-critical approach to the Buddhist teachings allows
a far more reliable and, to my mind, interesting understanding of the devel-
opment of the tradition. To me, the fact that the Mahayana scriptures are
not literally the word of the historical Buddha does not relegate them to the
status of forgeries to be avoided, but rather fills them with historical, philo-
sophical, and religious signicance.
The practical problems of the traditional approach are easily demonstrated
within the Buddhist tradition by looking at the treatment given the Sadhi-
nirmocana-stra, in which the Buddha explicitly declared certain teachings
to be unsurpassed, not provisional, of denitive meaning.28 Candrakrti,
however, who could neither deny the validity of the sutra nor hold to the
views expressed therein as having denitive meaning, retorted that what the
sutra called denitive was really meant to be understood as in need of inter-
pretation and vice-versa.29 Indeed, it was precisely this point that constitut-
ed one of the major Pure Land critiques of Hsin-hsings teaching, that is,
that his interpretive scheme of three levels is purely his own invention, a
subjective and whole-cloth scenario not evidenced within the scriptures.
Similarly, although the logic as well as, perhaps, the soteriological relevance
of Hsin-hsings universalism is easy to see, there is yet something disturbing
about it, for it remains largely a sectarian apologetic with little recourse to
anything other than internal logic. And, indeed, inasmuch as the truth need
be served from within the tradition as well as from without, upya is also not
ultimately satisfying even as an apologetic, for it is so far from social-historical
fact that it tends to relegate the systems built upon it to the realm of sectarian
posturing.

27 This is a signicant and philosophically problematic issue in any discussion of buddha-

logy, for while the non-Mahayana traditions generally denied the Buddhas omniscience, the
Mahayana, perhaps driven precisely by the intuition of the Buddhas maximal salvic agency
(upya), generally afrmed it; see Paul Grifths, On Being Buddha (Albany: SUNY Press,
1994), esp. chapters 4, 5, and 7; John J. Makransky, Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of
Controversy in India and Tibet (Albany: SUNY Press, 1997), esp. chapters 5 and 13.
28 Donald S. Lopez, Jr., On the Interpretation of the Mahyna Stras, in Donald S.

Lopez, Jr., ed., Buddhist Hermeneutics, esp. 5660; see also Robert Thurman, Buddhist
Hermeneutics, 26.
29 Donald S. Lopez, Jr., On the Interpretation of the Mahyna Stras, 60; Thurman,

Buddhist Hermeneutics, 2829, 3334; Powers, Hermeneutics & Tradition, 15557. The
tathagatagarbha theory is another example of a teaching which has been understood as in
need of interpretation, though declared in the Ratnagotravibhga Mahyna-uttaratantra-
stra, the major text of the tradition, to be the highest (uttara) teaching; cf. William
Grosnick, Dgens Understanding, 80.
242 / time, transcendence, and heresy

It is perhaps for exactly this reason that Buddhist polemics based on the
rationale of upya were rarely, if ever, convincing to the opponentthe many
Chinese pan chiao systems simply existed side by side, and their proponents
were typically preaching to the already converted.30 Of course, not all
Buddhists have relied solely on this notion in interpreting textsthe great
Tibetan philosopher Tsong kha pa, for example, in commenting on the
problems presented by the Sadhinirmocana-stra, stated that in interpret-
ing textual statements it is ultimately necessary to rely on non-mistaken
reasoning itself.31 More recently, scholars in the Zen tradition have also
begun to call for a critical approach to Buddhist doctrinal systems, an approach
that will reject conicting claims as false rather than accommodate them as
lesser truths.32
Thus, while practice in accord with the capacity, as with upya, makes
for a powerful pedagogical and soteriological tool, and as an apologetic prin-
ciple allows for the strength, continuity, and innovation of the institution in
the face of a rich and divergent textual and doctrinal tradition, we need to
question its validity as a hermeneutic principle. In this day and age, when
religions are beginning to seriously grapple with the fact of diversity and the
need for interreligious dialogue looms large, the traditional Buddhist approach
has more often served to mask the fact of diversity within the tradition and
discourage intradenominational dialogue in favor of dogmatic assertions of
homogeneity, of which Hsin-hsings theory of the Universal Dharma is
but one explicit, albeit extreme, example.
But this is where things get interesting (and complicated). That is, we
must keep in mind that the Universal Dharma is, in spite of the nomencla-
ture, a specic dharma, a particular teaching associated with a particular
school that was deployed in the competitive arena of Buddhist doctrinal
schemes in late sixth-century China. It was an argument for a particular
truth clothed in the guise of the universal. Once we realize that Hsin-hsings
pu fa was no less a pieh fa than that of the other teachers and schools, his
doctrine can be appreciated in a different light, in the light of polemic and
apologetic strategies rather than as describing a literal or logical universal
or harmony of all teachings.

30 This is not, of course, to deny that some thinkers and worldviews came to have more or

less followers or power in the world, but rather to claim that when two or more such views
were in direct competition the more typical outcome was increasingly agile feats of interpre-
tation; cf. John Powers, Hermeneutics & Tradition, where he gives more weight to the capacity
of interpretive schemes such as that of the Sadhinirmocana to inuence power relations.
31 Cabezn, The Concepts of Truth and Meaning, 10.
32 Cf. Hubbard and Swanson, Pruning the Bodhi Tree.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 243

Like all Buddhists, Hsin-hsing was interested in arguing the truth of his
understanding of the scriptures and the world, and he was interested in con-
verting people to his vision of the pathhe was a missionary to sentient
beings of the third level. Hence his universal was rhetorical in nature and
typically missionary in purpose. The same can be said of his doctrine of the
universal Buddha-nature of all sentient beings, taught as the present
Buddhahood of all living beings, for this was restricted to other living beings;
ones own faults were to be recognized, austerities and charity were to be
vigorously cultivated, and his community was rigorous in obeying the precepts
and observing the monastic regimen. Thus, while on the one hand Hsin-
hsings doctrines look to an ultimate, nondiscriminated level of existence as
the basic reality or basic truth of all things, they also advocated a variety of
specic practices for the biased, intolerant, and quarreling beings of the
third level. In other words, Hsin-hsings universal was a rhetorical universal.
He argued the perfection of the universal, but observed the delusion of the
particular.
A.
Pu fa ssu fo
The Refuge of the Four Buddhas of the
Universal Dharma

As noted in the Introduction, the study of the texts of the San-chieh


movement form one of the most exciting yet exacerbating tasks that any
researcher faces. Exciting, because the story of their disappearance over one
millennium ago and their rediscovery in the early twentieth century presents
opportunities for the sorts of textual detective work that traditionally has
been at the heart of the discipline of Buddhist studies; exacerbating, though,
for the sheer scope of the opportunities so provided. The goodly number of
extant manuscripts combined with the dearth of scholarship since Yabukis
pioneering work in the twenties and thirties means that the editing and
translation process will be slow and arduousgiven the loose-yet-frequent
use of prooftexts, for example, it is often difcult or even impossible to track
down the citations that Hsin-hsing so liberally scattered throughout his writ-
ing. This means that at this stage little more than overviews and vague
approximations of the full context of these texts can be attempted, and it is to
be hoped that future authors will be able to correct the misreadings and
deepen and broaden the contextual base of the translations offered here.1
The Pu fa ssu fo 3vM is a portion of a manuscript discovered at Tun-
huang (Stein #5668) and sent to Britain by Sir Aurel Stein.2 Although brief,

1 As my discussion of Hsin-hsings teachings on Buddha-nature and the Inexhaustible

Storehouse is the subject of parts two, three, and four, as a rule notes to the translations are
conned to textual matters.
2 Yabuki assigned the title on the basis of the content; my translation is based on Yabukis

edition (Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 201206 (itself based on Yabukis articles Sangaiky
no fuh ni tsuite, Tetsugaku zasshi, vol. 33 (1918) nos. 373 (pp. 33465) and 374 (pp. 44974).
Recently Nishimoto Teruma has re-investigated the original manuscript in its larger context
and has proposed the title Ti san chieh fo fa kuang shih XMct; Nishimoto, Sangaiky,
205-216; an edition of the full text of Stein #5668 is included in Nishimoto, Sangaiky 60922;
see also Hubbard, Perfect Buddhahood, Absolute Delusion, and A Heretical Chinese
Buddhist Text.

247
248 / four buddhas of the universal dharma

the section of this text translated here preserves the most detailed explana-
tion of the very important doctrine of the fourfold refuge of the Universal
Buddha, the San-chieh teaching on tathagatagarbha and Buddha-nature.
Because the fragment preserves no title we cannot trace it in any of the vari-
ous catalogues. However, we do know it is a later composition because it
quotes the Ghanavyha-stra, a text rst translated in 765.3 The text also
quotes from other standard texts of the tathagatagarbha tradition such as the
Lakvatra and the rmldev. It further mentions several contemporaneous
theories of Buddha-nature and is thus important for contextualizing the San-
chieh doctrine of tathagatagarbha and Buddha-nature.
The text is described in Giless Descriptive Catalogue of the Chinese
Manuscripts from Tunhuang as follows:

5938. Buddhist *doctrinal handbook.* Booklet of loose numbered


leaves with hole in the middle for string: ff. 7-10, 12-14 (in a different
hand), 36-39. Small neat handwriting. Smooth yellow paper. 13 x 16.5
cm. S. 5668.4

The Buddha as the Matrix of Enlightenment

[Truth and untruth] are neither different nor the same. [None-
theless, truth and untruth] are one as well as different, while being neither
one nor different. Although separated from attachments, the truth of the
universe produces the untruth of the universe; therefore, untruth is depend-
ent upon truth. But truth is not independent, because it is forever dependent
on untruth; neither does untruth arise independently, because it is necessari-
ly dependent upon truth. Again, the matrix of enlightenment and all of sam-
sara, the essence and the forms, are also like this [that is, neither the same
nor different]. Like gold and the ornaments made from gold, the essence
and forms are forever the same. Again, the matrix of enlightenment and the
phenomenal forms of the universe, the essence and forms, are forever differ-
ent, as dust and moisture are always distinct; thus they are neither different
nor not different. The Scripture [of the Lions Roar of Queen rml] says: If
there is no doubt about the matrix of enlightenment when it is covered by

3 T nos. 681682 (the latter was translated by Amoghavajra).


4 Giles, Descriptive Catalogue, 185.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 249

the innumerable stores of delements, then there will be no doubt concern-


ing the body of truth that is free of those innumerable stores of delements.5
Further, the Scripture of the Lions Roar of Queen rml teaches that the
matrix of enlightenment is the basis of the repeated cycles of birth and
death; because of this matrix of enlightenment the original limits are taught
to be unknowable. Because the matrix of enlightenment is the basis, we
speak of the cycle of birth and death, and this is well spoken. There is birth
and death because of worldly convention, but neither birth nor death is
found in the matrix of enlightenment. The matrix of enlightenment is the
matrix of the universe, the matrix of the truth-body, the supreme matrix of
the transcendent, the matrix whose self-nature is pure.6 It is wholly quies-
cent, truly ultimate, and forever separated from all false thoughts and delu-
sion. Yet the untruth of the universe continues to be dependent upon the
truth of the universe. The phenomenal forms of the universe continue to be
dependent upon the matrix of enlightenment, just as water is the basis of the
many waves. Because there is the matrix of enlightenment there are the phe-
nomenal forms of the universe, as there are many waves because of the water.
The matrix of enlightenment has the form of samsara, the repeated cycle
of birth and death. Birth is the arising of new phenomenal form; death
is the extinction of old phenomenal form. As with the water and the waves,
[the matrix of enlightenment and the repeated cycles of birth and death]
arise together and end together. Nonetheless, the water neither arises nor
comes to an end. Dependent upon the water, the form of the wave arises and
falls. When the new wave arises, the old wave ceases. The phenomenal forms
of the universe, therefore, are none other than the matrix of enlightenment,
and there is no other essence outside of this essence and these forms. It is
like the waves that are nothing other than the water, yet outside of those
waves there is no other water.
However, the myriad phenomenal forms of the universe arise because of
good and evil actions, not because of the matrix of enlightenment, as the
true cause of the arising of the many waves is the wind, not the water. Again,
the virtues of the matrix of enlightenment function throughout the universe
together with the phenomenal forms as their base, support, and foundation.7
It is like the virtue of the water whose essence and function permeate the
waves as the basis of all of the waves. Nonetheless, the matrix of enlighten-
ment is different from the myriad phenomenal forms that arise dependent
upon itthe matrix of enlightenment alone is the essence, the phenomenal
forms are not the essence, as the essence of water is different from the many

5 T #353, 12.221b.
6 T #353, 12.222b.
7 Cf. the rmldev-stra, T #353, 12.222b; above, chapter 5, p. 109, note 44.
250 / four buddhas of the universal dharma

waves. Only the water is water, the waves are not the water. Similarly, the
truth of the essential nature of the matrix of enlightenment both functions
and does not function in relation to the myriad phenomenal forms. It is like
the purity of the essence of the water, which both functions and does not
function with respect to the waves.8
Again, this essence is called the storehouse consciousness. Therefore the
last book of the Ghanavyha-stra says, the Buddha has taught the matrix
of enlightenment as the storehouse consciousness. Delusory thinking cannot
know that this matrix is the storehouse consciousness.9 There are two basic
explanations with regard to this, that of the principle and the mind. The
matrix of enlightenment is the principle, and worldly consciousness is the
mind. The matrix is true, and consciousness provisional. It is also called the
four unconditioned noble truths:10 although suffering and its cause are
destroyed, nothing is actually destroyed. Although the truths of extinction
and the path are obtained, nothing is actually obtained. Therefore, because
nothing is actually destroyed or obtained, there is neither increase nor
decrease. It is also called the one truth because it is ultimate and true, with
neither destruction nor attainment.11 It is also called the one foundation
because it is the unsurpassed foundation of all practice and understanding in
the universe.12 It is also called suchness in itself, because it is equal and non-
dual. It is also called the totality of the universe because there is neither
increase nor decrease. It is also called the store-consciousness because it
appropriates and stores all the various phenomena.
The matrix of enlightenment and the conditions and forms have no
beginning or end, and thus truth and untruth are dependent upon each
other, neither separate nor distinct. Therefore the Lakvatra Sutra states
in a simile that the storehouse consciousness is like the expansive ocean and
waves. Because of violent winds the great waves arise, which roll ceaselessly
over the depths. The ocean of the store-consciousness is eternally abiding,
and that which is aroused by the wind is the world of objects. It is the waves
of consciousness that arise, jumping and dancing about.13 Sometimes the
true is changed into the untrue, like a multitalented actor.14 Sometimes the

8 In other words, insofar as all waves arise from and consist of water, the water functions

vis--vis the waves, yet it is the wind that actually causes the waves to arise, and not the water
per se.
9 T #682, 16.776a; cf. T #681, 16.747a.
10 T #353, 12.221c.
11 T #353, 12.221c.
12 T #353, 12.221c, 222b.
13 T #670, 16.484b; cf. T #671, 16.523b, T #672, 16, 594c.
14 T #670, 16.510bc; 508c; cf. T #671, 16.557a.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 251

untrue is transformed into the true, like a golden ornament [that can return
to its original state of pure gold]. The true cause [that is, matrix of enlight-
enment] and the conditioned cause [that is, conditioned phenomena] are
both the same and different like milk, cream, and claried butter.
Truth and untruth both take shape within the same matrix, like the ocean
and the waves. The One Vehicle [of the Buddhas] and the Three Vehicles [of
the bodhisattva, the rvaka, and the pratyekabuddha] are both the same and
different, like the Anavatapta Lake and the eight rivers that ow from it.15 All
of these causes and conditions are thoroughly explained in various similes
within the sutras. Therein it is taught that the matrix of enlightenment gives
rise to the cause and fully ripens the fruit, changing the small into the great
and transforming the common into the noble. All this is due to the
efcacious power of the Buddha as the matrix of enlightenment.

The Buddha-Nature Buddha

The second item is the Buddha that exists within all living beings as
the nature of a Buddha. Some texts talk of this Buddha-nature as a principle,
while others speak of it as something acquired through practice. Some speak
of this nature as the cause of enlightenment and others as a result. Now, in
clarifying this we only rely on the thirty-eighth book of the Nirvana Sutra,
which illuminates the Buddha-nature as the true cause.16 Therein it states
that all of the living beings of the universe, ordinary persons as well as sages,
have this nature, as do all of the buddhas and bodhisattvas. Thus, from the
perspective of the result, the name is established and called Buddha-nature.
However, this Buddha-nature is neither cause nor result. Existing as the
cause it is termed cause, existing as the result it is termed result.
Related to the former concept of the matrix of enlightenment, just as
observe and watch are different words [but both mean to see], with
regard to conditions there is a slight difference in meaning [between the
Buddha as the matrix of enlightenment and the Buddha as the nature of the
Buddha in all living beings.] Buddha-nature is so called because it includes
the permanence of the fruits of Buddhahood throughout the universe as well

15 The analogy is from the rmldev-stra, T #353, 12.219b; cf Tui ken chi hsing fa, 130:

The tathagatagarbha is the essence of all the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, sravakas, pratyeka-
buddhas, and all of the sentient beings in the six destinies; in a simile it is like the great
Anavatapta Lake from which ows eight great rivers. Although the rivers are all distinct, the
essence of the water is not different. Although there are differences between the sages and
ordinary people and they are not the same, the garbha that is their essence is not different.
16 A mistake for the twenty-eighth book, e.g., T #374, 12.531bc, 532b, etc.
252 / four buddhas of the universal dharma

as the permanence of the causes of Buddhahood throughout the universe.


Wholly embracing everything from the fruits of Buddhahood down to its
causes, it is termed the Buddha as Buddha-nature.
Book thirty-six of the Nirvana Sutra says that the Buddha-nature is not
one thing, nor ten things, nor one hundred, one thousand, nor even ten
thousand things, nor up to the as-yet-unattained highest perfect enlighten-
ment; the totality of the good, evil, and neutral are all called Buddha-
nature.17 Buddha-nature is the perfection of the four qualities: the truly per-
manent, truly blissful, truly self, and truly pure. Eternal because it never
changes, pure because it is without delement, true because it is self-abiding.
Because Buddha-nature is unsullied by delements, while revolving and
changing in samsara according to conditions it remains unsullied though in
the midst of delements. Within the person of an ordinary being it is mixed
with delements, like bloody milkthe sravakas [disciples] are like milk,
the pratyekabuddhas [solitary buddhas] like cream, the bodhisattvas like
yogurt, and the various buddhas and tathagatas like claried butter.
Although the level of practice of the commoner and the noble differ, with
regard to the quality of the nature of the true cause of Buddhahood they do
not differ but are the same. Although the Buddha-nature abides due to its
essential nature, this nature is yet without essence. Emptiness is none other
than existence, and existence none other than emptiness; neither momen-
tary nor eternal; one nor different; removed from the bifurcations of subject
and object, it transcends the four logical alternatives and the eight negations
[of Ngrjuna].
In the twenty-eighth book of the Nirvana Sutra the bodhisattva Sinhanda
asked about the meaning of the Buddha as Buddha-nature.18 The answer is
that the seeds of all of the buddhas, the highest perfect enlightenment, and
the middle path are called Buddha-nature. The sutra also says that the
Buddha-nature is called the emptiness as the ultimate meaning and empti-
ness as the ultimate meaning is wisdom. One who merely talks about empti-
ness sees neither the empty nor the nonempty, but the wise one sees both
the empty and the nonempty. Empty are all things in samsara, but the non-
empty is great liberation. When one sees everything as empty but does not
see that which is not empty, it is not called the middle path. Self and no-self
are also like this. For these reasons the middle path is called Buddha-nature.
Because the Buddha-nature is without change, it is eternal.19 The Nirvana
Sutra further says: The sravakas and pratyekabuddhas only see emptiness,

17 T #374, 12.580c; cf T #375, 12.828a; the same passage is quoted in the San chieh fo fa, 56.
18 The Nirvana Sutra does not, of course, actually discuss the Buddha as Buddha-nature
but simply Buddha-nature; cf. T #374, 522b ff.
19 T #374, 12.523b.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 253

but they do not see that which is not emptythis is not called the middle
path.20 Further, Buddha-nature is called the truth of ultimate meaning,
because it dwells eternally without change. Because it is separated from all
phenomenal forms, it is as well called the emptiness of ultimate meaning.
Because it is separated from all delusion and darkness it is also called wis-
dom and illumination. Ungraspable and unrestricted, yet one can realize it.
One should not rely on a person with wordy explanations but no insight.
Buddha-nature is also called the diamond-like contemplation, because it
cannot be destroyed. Buddha-nature is also called nirvana, because it neither
arises nor ceases. It is also called Buddha-nature because it is the realization
of enlightenment. It is also called the dharma-nature, because it is that
which upholds the norm. It is also called the principle of the sangha because
it is without error. The sutra says that if a person only has faith in the three
jewels of Buddha, doctrine, and community without having faith in the one
nature of these three jewels, it is called incomplete faith. Because it is not
simply nonexistent like the horns of a rabbit, it is called truly empty; yet
because it is not simple nothingness like vacuous space, it is also profoundly
existent. Again, the Hua-yen Sutra calls it formless because it is the unob-
structed wisdom in sentient beings. It is also called the minds gateway to
suchness, because it is intrinsically unchanging. It is also called the unborn
and the unceasing, because the nature of the true conditions and true man-
ifestations of the physical and mental (that is, Buddha-nature) dwells eter-
nally. It is also called the Buddha-nature that abides of its own nature,
because the nature of original enlightenment is uncaused. It is also called the
self-nature of nirvana because it is intrinsically quiescent. It is also called the
self-nature of wisdom because the self-nature is originally pure and removed
from ignorance. It is also called the limit of reality, because the essence of the
[Buddha-]nature is true and not false. It is also called suchness in itself,
because the nature of the principle is without change. It is not to be found in
the ve psycho-physical components, the eighteen bases of existence, or in
the twelve entrances of cognition, yet neither is it to be found separated
from the ve psycho-physical components, the eighteen bases of existence,
or the twelve entrances of cognition. It is not to be found within living
beings nor separate from living beings. It is neither permanent nor imper-
manent, because it contains both the permanent and the impermanent. It is
also called the king of wonderful medicines, because it is able to remove the
disease of living beings passions. It is also called the treasure house that
benets living beings, as the Nirvana Sutra teaches with a simile about a rich
man who, in a time of famine, when wealth is hard to come by, opens his
treasure house and shares it with allso, too, within this world of passions

20 T #374, 12.523b.
254 / four buddhas of the universal dharma

in the time of the semblance doctrine, when living beings are totally perverse
and the pure doctrine is exhausted, when the extreme evil of the ve heinous
crimes increases, leading to the lowest hell of no respite, when perverted
views arise and everybody is quarreling with one another and living beings
who hold the twelve heterodox views are everywhere, when the dharma is
endangered, this, the treasure house of the Buddha doctrine is opened and
shared by allthis is what is meant by the Buddha-nature as the true
cause. All of the living beings of the universe, those of base and noble spirit
alike, all possess this nature [of a Buddha], excluding only the grasses, trees,
walls, broken tiles, and so on. The sutra teaches the difference between those
things without Buddha-nature and those with Buddha-nature and that which
is without Buddha-nature is the earth, trees, tiles, and rocks; that which is dis-
tinct from these nonsentient things are all said to have Buddha-nature.21
It is only because of ignorance that the gold within the dross is not discov-
ered. If one wishes to have insight, then through emptiness of self and
emptiness of phenomena one must dispel belief in the ego-self and the self
of things; when xed in equanimous quiescence, clearly illuminating the
identity of principle and phenomena, thoroughly mastering essence and
form,22 and when the mind that follows the object is suppressed, then one
will eliminate the self and identify with others. Hearing this without hearing,
seeing this without seeing, this is well-seen.

The Future Buddha

The third is the Future Buddha. The essence of the above-described


Tathagatagarbha Buddha and Buddha-nature Buddha is the true cause of
wisdom and the foundation of the truth body.23 Therefore the essence gives
rise to the conditioned, and the practices are pursued according to the con-
ditionsall are the practices of the matrix of enlightenment, the practices of
the Buddha-nature. The tree includes the bud and truth includes untruth,

21 T #274, 12.581a: That which is without Buddha-nature are all of the nonsentient things

such as walls, fences, tiles, and stones; everything other than such nonsentient things is called
Buddha-nature; Mis|[]?f[]eM; cf. T #275,
12.828b. As my colleague Elizabeth Kenney pointed out to me, the slight differences of this
sort that are common to so many other scholar-monks of the time indicates a more exible
standard for citing authorities than we are used to today. For a full discussion of these issues,
see Paul Swanson, Whats going on here? Chih-is use (and abuse) of scripture, The Journal
of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 20/1 (1997): 130.
22 Emending o to o (following Nishimoto, Sangaiky no kenky, 617).
23The first twenty-seven characters of this section are added from Tun-huang pao-tsang,
44.297; see also Nishimoto, Sangaiky no kenky, 617.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 255

thus all practices are those of the universal bodhisattva of the One Vehicle.
With the full completion of the practices the fruits of Buddhahood are real-
ized. Because the Buddha as the matrix of enlightenment and the Buddha as
Buddha-nature exist within the bondage of ignorance and the realm of
causality, there is likewise the future realization of Buddhahood.24 Therefore,
this aspect is termed the Future Buddha.
We rely on the Lotus Sutra, which teaches that the bodhisattva Never-
Despise [Sadparibhta] worshipped all among the four classes of beings,
that is, monks, nuns, and male and female lay devotees, as the same because
they possess the true essence of the matrix of enlightenment and Buddha-
nature. Therefore he told them, You all practice the path of the bodhisattva
and in the future will become buddhas, hence this aspect of the refuge of
the universal Buddha is termed the Future Buddha.25

The Perceived Buddha

The fourth is the Perceived Buddha. Because all living beings in the
universe are none other than the Buddha as the matrix of enlightenment, the
Buddha as the Buddha-nature, and the Future Buddha, the forms of living
beings are not different from the true Buddha. This is called the Perceived
Buddha.
According to the Chapter on Clarifying the Dharma in the eighth book
of the Hua-yen Sutra,26 the superior and inferior levels of living beings are all
to be thought of as the Buddha. Although we may speak of the many levels
of living beings and their differences, from the point of view of their essence
they are all the Buddha as the matrix of enlightenment, the Buddha as the
Buddha-nature, and the future Buddha; they should, therefore, all be
respected with the thought that indeed they are buddhas. According to the
fourth book of the Daacakra Sutra, we are taught to respect equally the
three kinds of monks, that is, those with no precepts, those who break the
precepts, and those who keep the precepts, with the thought that they are the
true buddhas.27 Although we may talk of the difference between holding the
precepts and breaking the precepts, because the Buddha as the matrix of

24 The Lotus Sutra does not, of course, use either term, although its message of universal

attainment has long been interpreted in light of tathagatagarbha and Buddha-nature theories.
25 T #262, 9.50c.
26 T #278, 9.459c.
27I was unable to find this reference; in line with the discussion of the Perceived Buddha in
the San chieh fo fa (p. 56), perhaps it refers to the third chan of the Daacakra Sutra, e.g., T
#410, 13.694a, passim.
256 / four buddhas of the universal dharma

enlightenment is the same as the Buddha-nature and the Future Buddha,


they are one and not two. Therefore, you should respect all, perceiving them
as true buddhas, and this is termed Perceived Buddha.28
The essence of the above four Buddhas is all the same, and according to
the teachings of the individual sutras all are the perception of the Buddha.
The Laka and the Scripture of Queen rml call it the Buddha as the
matrix of enlightenment, the Nirvana Sutra calls it the Buddha as Buddha-
nature, the Lotus Sutra calls it the Future Buddha, and the Hua-yen Sutra
and the Daacakra Sutra call it the Perceived Buddha.29 Therefore these four
buddhas comprise a single Buddha, and thus these four buddhas clarify the
essence of the eightfold doctrine.30

28 Cf. Tui ken chi hsing fa, 132.


29 Emending o to `. The first two sentences of this paragraph are added from Tun-huang
pao-tsang, 44.297; see also Nishimoto, Sangaiky no kenky, 61718.
30 See chapter ve, p. 103, n. 11.
B.
Wu chin tsang fa leh shuo
Abridged Explanation of the Dharma of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse

The Wu chin tsang fa leh shuo [F is in the Stein collec-


tion (Stein No. 190, Giles No. 6617), and a fragment of the last part of this
text is also found on the same scroll as the Hsin-hsing i wen, another impor-
tant San-chieh text. Similarly titled texts found in the sutra catalogues
include the Ta sheng wu chin tsang fa /[ in one chan listed among
Hsin-hsings works in the Ta chou kan ting chung ching mu lu,1 and a Ming
ta sheng wu chin tsang g/[ recorded in the Kai yan lu,2 the Chen
yan hsin ting shih chiao mu lu,3 and the Jen chi lu tu mu.4 The latter two cat-
alogs add the information four pages and six pages respectively, and the
rst three catalogs attribute the work to Hsin-hsing. As it is partially con-
tained on the same scroll as the Hsin-hsing i wen and both texts contain the
same list of sixteen eternal, joyous, self, and pure practices of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse, we can assume that it belongs to the early strata of San-chieh
literature, if Hsin-hsing did not himself actually compose this text. Although
originally comprised of eleven sections, because the rst part of the text is
damaged only six of eleven sections are preserved (sections six through
eleven). The rst ve sections are preserved, however, in a commentary to
this work, the Ta sheng fa chieh wu chin tsang fa shih /[t
(translated below), and together with the Hsin-hsing i wen we are thus able to
get a good picture of this important practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse.
Unfortunately, portions of the text, in particular the eleventh section, are
very terse (as the title of the text forewarns) and do not easily yield to

1 T #2153, 55.475a.
2 T #2154, 55.678c.
3 Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 228.
4 Ibid., 221.

257
258 / dharma of the inexhaustible storehouse

interpretation. The text is described in Giless Descriptive Catalogue of the


Chinese Manuscripts from Tunhuang as follows:

6617. *[beginning damaged] Rules of monastic training. A work of the


Three Stages sect. Very good MS. of 7th cent. Good, bright yellow
paper. On a roller. 6 ft. S. 190.5


The sixth6 claries the ease and difculty of perfecting the dharma
realm practices: the Inexhaustible Storehouse of the eternal, joyous, self and
pure virtues7 can be perfected in a few places, not in many places. The suf-
fering, empty, and impermanent Inexhaustible Storehouse may be obtained
equally in many or few places, according to the place.
The seventh claries the relation between the great [i.e., Mahayana] and
small [i.e., Hinayana] practices of the dharma realm. If both types of prac-
tice, the eternal and joyous as well as the suffering and empty, are exhaus-
tively cultivated, then it is the Mahayana. If only the partial practices of the
empty and suffering [are cultivated] without exhausting the permanent and
joyous then this is determined as belonging to the Hinayana.
The eighth claries and manifests the study of the many and the few.
Although it is taught that the dharmas are as numerous as grains of sand, the
general teaching has sixteen [items]; if the general and the specic are taught
together then there are more than thirty. There are also two kinds of giving:
(1) only the general, daily giving sixteen shares of cash; (2) both the general
and the specic, daily giving thirty shares of cash. The characteristics of the
general and the specic are extensively explained below.
1. The study of inexhaustible offering to the Buddha; this is worshipping the
Buddha, etc.
2. The study of inexhaustible offering to the dharma; this is reciting sutras, etc.

5 Giles, Descriptive Catalogue, 209; my translation is based on Yabukis edition in his

Sangaiky no kenky, appendix, 15459; see also Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 61937; above,
chapter 7; below, Appendix C.
6 This fragment of the Abridged Explanation of the Dharma of the Inexhaustible

Storehouse begins from the sixth item (see chapter 7) and concludes after enumerating a
total of eleven subjects. The items from one through ve can be found in the commentary,
the Ta sheng fa chieh wu chin tsang fa shih, preceded by the phrase The original says. The
Ta sheng fa chieh wu chin tsang fa shih contains commentary on items one through eight.
7 The four guapramit: eternality (nitya); bliss (sukha); self (atman) or great self (mah-

tman); and purity (ubha); cf. chapter 5, note 57.


absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 259

3. The study of inexhaustible offering to the sangha; this consists of universal-


ly making offerings [to the sangha] without question of whether they
observe the precepts or transgress the precepts.
4. The study of inexhaustible offering to sentient beings; [that is,] universal
offering to sentient beings of the six paths as though one, without question
of whether they practice or do not practice. The six paths are (a) heaven,
(b) humanity, (c) asura, (d) hell, (e) animal, (f) hungry ghost.
5. The general clarication of the inexhaustible separation from all evil.
6. The general clarication of the inexhaustible cultivation of all virtue.
7. The study of the inexhaustible giving of incense.
8. The study of the inexhaustible giving of light; this consists of candles.
9. The study of the inexhaustible giving of bathing [materials].
10. The study of the inexhaustible giving of sound; this consists of bells, etc.
11. The study of the inexhaustible giving of clothing.
12. The study of the inexhaustible giving of shelter.
13. The study of the inexhaustible giving of bedding.
14. The study of the inexhaustible giving of eating utensils.
15. The study of the inexhaustible giving of charcoal and re.
16. The study of the inexhaustible giving of food and drink. Inexhaustible
[donations of] food has many divisions: (a) ordinary rice; (b) glutinous
rice; (c) our; (d) oil; (e) maize; (f) lentils; (g) soy beans; (h) fuel [for cook-
ing]; (i) cooks; (j) salt and vinegar; (k) honey; (l) ginger and pepper [i.e.,
spices]; (m) sesame seeds; (n) juices; (o) vegetables and various fruits.8
This concludes the presentation of the sixteen types of general and specic
inexhaustible dharmas.
Again, there is the giver: with regard to the above sixteen dharmas some
give generally and some give specically. [Both] are universally proclaimed
to be donors (dnapati); without question of whether the donation is gener-
al or specic all are made with the intention of being used universally, some-
times circulating and sometimes decreasing.9 That is to say, the offerings to
the Buddha, the dharma, the sangha, and the other thirteen up to and

8 This list is also contained in the Hsin-hsing i wen, (pp. 34), although there are slight dif-

ferences; see also chapter 7, above.


9 The reading of this passage is tentative. I take the import to be that the intention is the
determination of the universal, not whether the giving is actually general or specic.
Sometimes the donation circulates (i.e., it is inexhaustible because it is lent and repaid ad
innitum), and sometimes it naturally decreases (e.g., things that diminish through use such
as candles or incense). This is also discussed in the Hsin-hsing i wen, 4, under the heading
Clarifying the materials used for the practice of the sixteen eternal, joyous, self, and pure
dharmas. It is also possible to interpret this to mean that although one sometimes practices
the donation of food more than the giving of sutras, it doesnt make any difference because
all sixteen practices are interrelated.
260 / dharma of the inexhaustible storehouse

including food sometimes circulate and sometimes decrease. The fteen


communal functions are also like the sixteen [inexhaustible practices] that
permeate and exhaust the practices of the dharma realm: sometimes they
circulate and sometimes they decrease. The manner of the mutual function-
ing of the two types of Inexhaustible Storehouse, namely, the permanent and
joyous and the suffering and empty, is also like this.10
One should also completely know the teaching of the many and the few
practices of the two types of Inexhaustible Storehouseit is not a question
of whether the valuables and things given are many or few, together they
perfect and perpetuate the permanent and joyous Inexhaustible Storehouse;
moreover, once the other practices have all been nished the cultivation of
the eternal and joyous cannot be abolished. If the suffering and empty is
practiced rst and each of the sixteen items is given separately it is not
known as mutual functioning. The one-sided desire to gain merit accord-
ing to ones karmic connections does not enable the communal functioning
[of the donations as does practicing together] in one place.11
Again, it is declared that by these inexhaustible good roots each and every
donor will enable all sentient beings to naturally and fully complete the six-
teen types of inexhaustible fruits.12
The ninth claries whether the prot of those sentient beings who are
saved is shallow or deep; there are ve ranks:
1. The inexhaustible gaining of the sixteen dharmas by those who cultivate the
same practice;
2. The inexhaustible gaining of the sixteen dharmas by those who follow in
jubilation [the acts of the Inexhaustible Storehouse];
3. The inexhaustible gaining of the sixteen dharmas by those who see [the acts
of the Inexhaustible Storehouse];
4. The inexhaustible gaining of the sixteen dharmas by those who hear [of the
acts of the Inexhaustible Storehouse];

10 Though this passage is difcult (unfortunately the commentary ends before this point), I

take the basic idea to be that within the community of practitioners all of the activities and
benets are shared inasmuch as all participate in the same overall practice, much like the
teachings of the Yz Nenbutsu school in Japan.
11 Although it is also possible to construe the meaning of this passage to be rst practice

the suffering and empty, I have chosen this reading because of the common theme in
San-chieh literature of rst practice the universal (i.e., the eternal, joyous, etc.) and then
practice the particular (cf. the Practrices in Accord with the Capacity, 137). The reference to
one place is taken up in several other works and means that goods donated and collected in
one place have a greater efcacy and power than those scattered about (cf. Commentary on
the Inexhaustible Storehouse), 166.
12 This is a reference to the shared merit of the Inexhaustible Storehouse as detailed in the

following ve ranks.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 261

5. The inexhaustible gaining of the sixteen dharmas by those who receive offer-
ings [from the Inexhaustible Storehouse].13
The tenth claries the many and few seeds of the Inexhaustible Storehouse.
This teaching has two [aspects]: (1) the elds are inexhaustible; this is the
Buddha, dharma, and sangha [the Field of Respect], and sentient beings [the
Field of Compassion] to whom are made daily, continuous, and uninter-
rupted offerings, and (2) the seeds are inexhaustible, which refers to the
giver who donates daily and continuously and so the Inexhaustible Store-
house is not exhausted.
The eleventh claries whether the offering and withdrawal of the person
who participates in the Inexhaustible Storehouse is with offense or without
offense. Within this there are two subsections:
1. The rst claries the production of specic merit, which only involves offer-
ing and not withdrawal. What does this mean? Specic merit is not shared
among self and others and there is thus offense in offering and withdrawing.
2. The second claries the universal merit of offering and withdrawing in
accordance with the person. In offering virtue is obtained and withdrawing
is without offense. Why is this? The essence of universal merit is shared by
self and others but withdrawing is only in one direction and hence without
offense. This, however, excludes the retreating of the bodhi-mind, which,
although it retreats, is nonetheless superior and originally non-produced.
Again, if you do not use those things that are discarded and turn them
over to others there are two errors: the rst is the error of discarding the per-
manent and joyous and entering the suffering and empty; the second is that
it is the error of going against faith.
The inner meaning of the text of these eleven sections only claries the
meaning of existence and does not clarify emptiness. However, the follower
who understands the meaning, sees existence, and penetrates emptiness
knows the many [meanings] of both. The meaning of the universal and the
particular is also like this: the inner [meaning] of the various Mahayana
sutras only claries the universal practice and dharma and does not give rise
to the particular.
The universal dharma is like the four embracing [virtues], etc., of the Maha-
yana sutras, which extensively explain the dharma of universal giving.14 The

13 As explained in chapter 7, the concept of jubilation (anumodan) developed together

with that of transforming merit; the concept that fellow practitioners as well as those who
merely see, hear, or receive the offerings of anothers practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse
also gain a measure of the merit of the original practitioner seems to be a development of this
same idea; see Kajiyama Yichi, Transference and Transformation of Merits.
14 E.g., T #310 (23), 11.504b; T #310 (43), 11.633a; T #310 (44), 11.638b.
262 / dharma of the inexhaustible storehouse

particular dharma universally pervades all of the sutras; in short it is taught


in a few divisions. Some teach good and evil as the same state and the differ-
ences in harm and prot; they teach that those who hold the precepts and
those who break the precepts have the same karma, and neither will be able
to escape hell. Others teach that those who hold the precepts do not drink
the water of the same river as those who break the precepts. Others teach
that those who hold the precepts are not respected or worshipped by those
who break the precepts. As the Nirvana Sutra explains, some teach the dhar-
ma of [keeping] the evil at a distance, the virtuous close, and the deluded
apart.15 [They] teach sentient beings that knowledge of [keeping] the evil
distant is like being afraid of anger, the thief [who harms life and spirit];
[keeping] close to the virtuous is the knowledge that (a) suffering and joy
are the same, that (b) life, property, and the like are not to be begrudged,
and (c) [ones] relations are not to be begrudged.
As the gama Sutras teach, with regard to the distant and close there are
the four dharmas of [keeping] the evil distant and the virtuous nearby.16
This is [equivalent to] quickly running and avoiding [the evil] by one hun-
dred yojana. One yojana is forty li, and one hundred yojana equal four thou-
sand li. The four dharmas are (1) evil friends, (2) evil communities, (3) much
talk or much idle gossip, (4) anger and quarrelling. Why is this? It is under-
stood as illuminating the relation between light and heavy offenses. It is bet-
ter to cut in half all of the sentient beings of the three thousand worlds than
for the bodhisattva to arouse a mind of anger within the rst production of
the [bodhi] mind.
Again, non-attainment [in the present] is explained by the past of the
home-departed ones and others. The future [possibilities] are as extensively
explained in the teaching of the thirty-ve kinds of dharmas of protecting
the precepts in the Fang teng ching.17 Again, the Ratnamegha-stra does not

15 A cursory look at the various versions of the Mahparinirva-stra and the Taish

daizky sakuin does not show any use of the terms yan o , chin shan 3, or chih chi
I, though there are frequent references to the benets of good friends and the dangers of
evil friends, e.g., T #374, 561c; T #375, 808a. The latter term could also be rendered the slow
and the quick. In light of the reference below to the Chapter on the Peaceful Life in the
Lotus Sutra I have translated it to mean the general Buddhist teaching concerning ones rela-
tionship to virtuous and evil people.
16 Possibly this is a reference to the four dharmas of becoming found in several of the

gamas, e.g., T #1, 1.57c, T #1, 1.53b.


17 The Fang teng ching refers to the Ta fang teng to lo ni ching (T #1339), one of the sources

for the popular liturgies of repentance and confession that is frequently connected with
initiatory and preceptual purication, as in the Li tai san pao chi record of the practices of
Hsin-hsings congregation: His disciples all practiced the puricatory fang teng [repentance],
the dhuta, and begging for food, and eating only one meal a day (T #2034, 49.105b); see also
Stevenson, The Tien-tai Four Forms, 175, 18283, passim; The thirty-ve kinds of dharmas
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 263

allow for the tendency to break the precepts concerning begging food from
homes.18 Again, the Chapter on the Four Peaceful Practices in the Lotus
Sutra teaches that after the Buddha has left the world, the preachers of the
latter dharma (mo fa) will explain many dharmas; within this the meaning of
avoiding evil [persons] and drawing near to [persons of] virtue is illuminated
most fully.19
In general this is extensively taught in the various scriptures and Vinaya
works. The best illustration of how the common person [fan pu, pthagjana)
of the latter dharma (mo fa) will study discarding the false and entering the
true nirvana, discarding the evil and entering the virtuous, and discarding
the small and entering the great is found in the Shih lun ching.20
This concludes the Abridged Explanation of the Dharma of the Inex-
haustible Storehouse.

of protecting the precepts most likely refers to the thirty-ve buddhas of confession found in
the San shih wu fo li ming chan wen (T #326), translated during the Tang by Amoghavajra)
or the Cheh ting pi ni ching (Upliparipcch, T #325, 12.37c39a, translated in the latter half
of the 3rd century); cf. the list of names quoted in ntideva, ik-samuccaya (translated by
Cecil Bendall and W. H. D. Rouse, New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass edition, 1971), 16566. The
Thirty-ve Buddhas also gure in the San-chieh practice of the Seven Roster Buddhanma
(Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 528 ff). I take this passage to refer to our sinful past which
keeps us from attaining the higher stages of the path and the future that we can anticipate if
we practice the Seven Roster Buddhanma.
18 Ratnamegha-stra (translated 503), T #658, 16.231bc, passim.
19 This chapter, chapter 14 in the Kumrajva translation (T #262, 9.37a), discusses
dwelling in the four dharmas, or the four peaceful practices in the time of the latter dhar-
ma, i.e., the peaceful practices of body, mind, speech, and vow. Although these practices (and
in particular the rst) do, in general, concern themselves with the topic of ones relation to
various groups, as in the above reference to the Nieh pan ching, the terms yan o, chin shan,
and chih chi are not specically used; on the use of latter dharma see Hubbard, Three
Periods.
20 The Ta fang kuang shih lun ching (T #410), translator unknown, listed in the Chen yan

hsin ting shih chiao mu lu as a different version of the Ta sheng ta chi ti tsang shih lun ching
recorded in the Pei liang lu (ca. 397439; T #2157, 55.917b), is a work often referred to in
San-chieh-chiao literature (more than twenty-ve references in the two fragments of the San
chieh fo fa recovered from Tun-huang). Hsin-hsing is also reported to have written two com-
mentaries on this text, the Shih lun i i li ming in two chan , and the Shih lun leh chao in one
chan (Kai yan shih chiao lu, T #2154, 55.678c).
C.
Ta sheng fa chieh wu chin tsang fa shih
Commentary on the Dharma of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse of the
Mahayana Universe

The final translation is from another manuscript in the Stein collection


of Tun-huang texts (Stein No. 721, Giles No. 5563), the Ta sheng fa chieh wu
chin tsang fa shih /[t, a commentary on the Wu chin tsang fa
leh shuo (Abridged Explanation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse) translated
above. The text is divided into four sections, the rst of which is largely lost,
as is a good portion of the end, which promises to interpret the meaning of
the text of the Wu chin tsang fa leh shuo in eleven sections. Although only
the rst eight of the eleven sections are preserved, we can restore the remain-
ing three sections from the Wu chin tsang fa leh shuo; unfortunately, however,
the abridged nature of that text means that we are missing the commentary
for most of the sixteen individual practices of the Inexhaustible Storehouse.
The manuscript fragment translated here was used to piece together a roll for
a commentary on the Diamond Sutra (contained on the other side of this
MS) that is dated 8 July 764. Giless Catalogue simply says (4) Fragment of
the Three Stages teaching. End mutilated.1


[Text fragment begins in the middle of section I:] Next is the light
case, [in which one will] receive the body of an ox or a horse, a donkey or a
mule, etc. Pulling a heavily laden cart, hooves rent and wearing a collar
thus will your debt to others be repaid.2 In the lightest case you [will be
reborn as] a slave. Your garments will not cover your body, and there will

1 Giles, Descriptive Catalogue, 169; my translation is based on Yabukis edition, included in


his Sangaiky no kenky, appendix, 16176; see also ibid., 61937, chapter 7 and Appendix B,
above.
2 In light of the following quote I have emended Yabukis earth (ti G) to others (ta ).

264
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 265

not be enough food to ll your mouth. Your chest will be whipped and your
back ogged; wearing manacles, your body brandedthus you will repay
the strength of others. Therefore the Ti yu chuan G says, The reward
for burdening another a single coin is an entire life in the body of a slave,
repaying the strength of others.3 This is the meaning. In this way your past
debts are measured throughout your entire life.
Families and relatives live off each other in pursuit of money and wealth.
Others use their power and authority as ofcials in judgement of things in
order to bend the law and take wealth. Some prosper in the marketplace and
are contemptuous of small aspirations. They engage in an excess of lies and
cheat and extort prots from others. Still others, farmers, burn the moun-
tains and marshes, ood the elds, plough and mill, destroying nests; they
let their cows and donkeys wander everywhere, destroying others sprouts and
grains; they peel the cocoons [of the silkworms] and reel off the silk, smoke out
the bees and take their honey, and they kill the musk deer for their perfume.
Again, [consider] artisans who steal the sutras and images, who steal the
Buddhas gold and the paper and ink [used for copying] the sutras. There is
little merit yet a great price to pay in visiting the teacher during the daily
periods [only] to eat communally in the monks kitchen, thus plundering
and harming the Three Jewels.
In this way there is no avoiding the fact of our past debts, and it is difcult
to comprehend the number of separate lives [it would require to repay these
karmic debts] if you wanted to repay them one by one. Even if one under-
stands the situation there is nothing that will alleviate it. Without giving rise
to the aid of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, how can one be pardoned the
burden of such [karmic] debts [incurred] from the non-beginning onward
in even a hundred heavenly rebirths, or a thousand, a hundred kalpas or a
thousand kalpas of such rebirths?
The practitioner who now gives rise to the charity of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse immediately puts an end to the [karmic] debts [incurred] from
the beginningless past and no longer needs fear the debt-master [i.e.,
karma]; moreover, obstacles of the path, karmic obstacles, and the obstacles
of retribution are all immediately vanquished, father and mother, brothers,
and the six classes of relatives will all immediately be freed from the three
evil pathsis this not great prot?4

3 An apocryphal sutra (no longer extant) listed in the Kai yan shih chiao lu t* (T

#2154, 55.673b) and the Chen yan hsin ting shih chiao mu lu Gt* (T #2157,
55.1017c). This section seems to refer to the karmic debt one incurs by using others, i.e.,
slaves, servants, beasts of burden, etc.
4 The six relatives are father, mother, elder brother, younger brother, wife, and child. The three

evil paths are hell, animal, and hungry ghost (preta). This section has succinctly presented the
266 / commentary

Question: If every day you leave one-tenth of a coin s_ in the


Inexhaustible Storehouse or one ko of grain sF, in one year there are no
more than thirty-six coins or three tou 7 six sheng of grainhow does
this aid in putting an end to ones debts [accumulated] since the non-begin-
ning and liberate one from suffering?5
Answer: In a parable it is like a poor man burdened by a debt of one thou-
sand strings of coins to another person. He always suffers from this debt,
and the poor man is afraid whenever the debt-master comes to collect.
[Therefore] he visits the rich mans house and confesses that he is beyond
the time limit and begs forgiveness for his offense, [because] he is poor and
without station in life. [He tells him] that each day that he makes a single
coin he will return it to the rich man. On hearing this the rich man is very
pleased and forgives him for being overdue; moreover [the poor man] is not
dragged [away to jail], and avoids the suffering of the criminals chains. Is
this not avoiding a great hardship with only a little giving? Giving to the
Inexhaustible Storehouse is also like this.6
How can one arouse mind of bodhi and, through the same practices as
[those cultivated by] the bodhisattvas, produce the causes and conditions for
salvation? If you cultivate this one same practice [of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse], then together with the Meditation Master Hsin-hsing and all of
the Ekayna bodhisattvas of all the realms, you will produce the causes and
conditions for salvation.
The Ekayna bodhisattvas of all realms perfect the two practices of merit
and wisdom within all thoughts, achieve Buddhahood, and emit the light
that calls those who have a karmic connection. Even if you have committed
such offenses so as to fall into the three evil destinies as far down as the Avci
hell, because of this one same practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse you
will have a karmic [connection] with the many buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Therefore you will receive the Buddhas light and illumination and be
plucked from the three evil paths. You will be born as a human being or in
heaven, and in a transformation body hear the dharma and gain the fruits
these are the benets. As kyamuni Tathagata taught in the Mahpraj-
pramit-stra and the Nirvana Sutra, the emitting of the light illuminates

heart of both the problem, i.e., the debt of karma incurred over the years is for all purposes
insurmountable through traditional practice, and the solution, i.e., the practice of the
Inexhaustible Storehouse, which will immediately free the practitioner and his relatives as
well; the rationale is given in the following section.
5 A ko was equal to approximately one-tenth of a pint.
6 This makes it appear that the karmic benets of giving to the Inexhaustible Storehouse are
to be understood in an accumulative sense, although the following text explains that such is
not the case.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 267

the three evil destinies down to the Avci hell and sentient beings all hear the
dharma and prot.7 Therefore the verse in the Hsien shou Bodhisattva chapter
of the Hua-yen Sutra says:

In accordance with the original practice the illumination of the light is gained.
All fellow practitioners of the past who have established a karmic link,
All those whose karma from the practices which they have cultivated is the
same,
And who have practiced jubilation and dispersed their merits
Having seen or heard of the bodhisattvas pure practices
Those persons are able to see the illumination of the light.8

This is the signicance of the second item. Therefore, it is necessary to


establish the Inexhaustible Storehouse.

7 This is a reference to opening scenes in sutras such as the Mahparinirva-stra (T

#12.365c) and the so-called Larger Prajpramit-stra (T #221, 8.1b). The passage from the
Mahparinirva-stra reads: At that time, early in the morning, the World Honored One
emitted many and various rays of light from his forehead. These rays were bright and of vari-
ous hue: blue, yellow, red, white, crystal, and agate. [This light] illuminated three thousand
great chiliocosms of Buddha-lands as well as the ten quarters. The offenses and passions of
the sentient beings in the six destinies who met with this light were completely eliminated.
The emitting of the light and illumination of the ten quarters is an oft-used device for
introducing the preaching of a sutra. Indeed, the Chinese title of Larger Prajpramit-stra
cited above is The Light Emitting Wisdom Sutra M, referring to the opening para-
graphs of the text.
8 T #278, 9.438a. The original has one verse not quoted here: In accordance with this is the
illumination of the light emitted; this is called the self-abiding of the great sages wisdom.
See also the eighty-chan version, T #279, 10.77b; San chieh fo fa, 415.
In the above paragraphs we are presented with the rationale of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse, which is in turn the solution to the karmic dilemma given previously. The one
same practice refers to the Inexhaustible Storehouse, which is said to be the same practice
that all bodhisattvas cultivate. By cultivating this same practice, or, according to the passage
from the Hua-yen Sutra, being jubilant at seeing or hearing of the bodhisattvas practice (cf.
the Abridged Explanation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, 157 and the Hsin-hsing i wen, 5),
one achieves the status of fellow-practitioner and establishes a karmic link with the bod-
hisattvas. The karmic connection assures one of meeting with the illumination of the light
that in turn guarantees salvation. It is yet not stated what this salvation actually consists of, sim-
ply hearing the dharma in a transformation body. A birth by transformation is a
well-known concept in early Buddhism (generally with the meaning of the rst birth in the
form realm of a new kalpa) as well as in Mahayana Buddhism, where it frequently is used to
describe birth in a Pure Land; cf. the Wu liang shou ching (Sukhvatvyha-stra), T #360,
12.278ab. Another interesting aspect of this passage is the cultic tendency that it reveals, i.e.,
it states that the one practice is cultivated together with Hsin-hsing, the founder of the San-
chieh-chiao, and all Ekayna bodhisattvas.
268 / commentary

II. Investigating the Name

By Great is meant broad, long, profound, and never-retreating;


by Vehicle is meant conveyance. Within the teaching of the Hinayana only
self-prot is taught, but within the Mahayana teaching both self-prot and
proting others [are taught]. Therefore the bodhisattvas rely on the mind of
great compassion and establish the [teaching] of the Inexhaustible Store-
house. Of the six perfections the perfection of charity is rst;9 of the four
means of attraction10 giving is chief.11 It [giving] is the same as the various
Buddhaswithin, it corresponds to the truth-body (dharmakaya), without,
it prots sentient beings and exhausts their poverty. When the dharma
realm and the realm of living beings are exhausted, then this [Inexhaustible]
Storehouse will be exhausted; because the truth-body is inexhaustible the
practice of charity is without exhaustion. Therefore practice in the phenom-
enal world always continues and thus it is established as inexhaustible.
Ultimate, profound, and broad, it includes everything and is therefore called
storehouse. This storehouse has rules and principles, therefore it is called
dharma. Thus it is called the Mahayana Dharma of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse.

9 Implying a qualitative ranking to the traditional ordering of the six perfections.


10 The four means of attraction (Catur-sagraha-vastu/catvri-sagraha-vastni) are: 1.
giving, 2. kind words, 3. protable conduct (for others), and 4. being adaptable, all intended
to draw others near and make them comfortable so as to be able to lead them to the truth.
11 Cf. the Hsiang fa cheh i ching, T #2870, 85.1336bc: Good sons, I have now obtained

Buddhahood because in past kalpas I practiced [the perfection] of dna, seeking to save the
poor and impoverished sentient beings. The many Buddhas of the ten directions also
obtained Buddhahood through giving. Therefore in all of the sutras that I have taught giving
is always placed rst among the six perfections. Good sons, it is like a man with two broken
legs. [Even if] he has the desire to walk a great distance, he is unable to do so. Monks are also
like this. Even if they practice the ve perfections for kalpas as numberless as the sands of the
Ganges they will be unable to reach the other shore of nirvana. Good sons, if you do not
practice giving then the precepts are not complete; if the precepts are not complete, then
there is no compassionate mind; without compassion patience is not possible; without
patience there is no enthusiastic perseverance; without enthusiastic perseverance there is no
dhyana; without dhyana there is no wisdom. Without wisdom there will always be the adven-
titious delements. Good sons, the dharma-gate of giving has [always] been highly regarded
by the Buddhas of the three times; therefore, among the four means of attraction the one
concerned with material [giving] is supreme. The Mahparinirva-stra has a similar pas-
sage: If giving is not practiced, then the perfection of charity is not completed; if the perfec-
tion of charity is not completed, then realization of the highest complete enlightenment is not
possible (T #374, 12.454c; cf. T #375, 12.696c).
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 269

III. Establishing the Meaning

Traditionally the Master taught an abbreviated ve meanings:


A. The relation between above and below;
B. The relation between universal and specic;
C. The relation between self and others;
D. The relation between permanent and impermanent;
E. The relation between cause and effect.

A. The Relation between Above and Below


Above refers to the Field of Respect; below refers to the Field of
Compassion. According to the Hua-yen Sutra it is taught:
Again, a light called the jewel manifestation is emitted;
Which causes the impoverished to obtain the Jewel-store.
By means of the Inexhaustible Storehouse of giving to the Three Jewels,
The light called jewel manifestation is gained.12

In other words this refers to the Inexhaustible Storehouse of giving to the Three
Jewels, and this is the Field of Respect. Again, the Vimalakrtinirdea-stra says:
Where there are the poor and impoverished,
the Inexhaustible Storehouse is manifested.
It encourages them and causes them
to produce the bodhi mind.13

By this is claried the Field of Compassion. This [the Field of Compassion]


has two meanings: the rst is that through the Inexhaustible Storehouse of
giving material things to poor and impoverished sentient beings you are able
to give to many and thus encourage them to produce a virtuous mindthis
is easy to accomplish. The second is teaching the poor and destitute that
[even if they contribute only] things of small value nonetheless it is the same
as the Inexhaustible Storehouse of giving of the other bodhisattvas and causes
[sentient beings] to gradually produce the bodhi mind.14 The Hua-yen Sutra

12 T #278, 9.437c; cf. T #279, 10.77a.


13 T #474, 14.550b. Lamotte has translated this verse from the Tibetan version (tani Kanjur
Catalogue No. 843) as: For the poor, they are inexhaustible treasures; by giving them gifts,
they cause them to produce the thought of enlightenment. Lamotte, The Teaching of
Vimalakrti, 186. Cf. the Hsiang fa cheh i ching (T #2870, 85.1336a) which evaluates donations
to the Field of Compassion higher than those made to the Field of Respect.
14 This is the traditional view of giving that places the teachings that liberate sentient beings

from samsara above mere material gifts and was the basis of exchange by which householders
270 / commentary

states that teaching the true dharma for the sake of the impoverished causes
the obtaining of the various pure storehouses of the bodhisattvas.15 The
above two sutras clarify the two elds of compassion and respect, therefore
it is called the relationship between above and below.

B. The Relation between Universal and Specic


According to the rmldev-stra it is taught:

Oh Bhagavan, from today until I arrive at enlightenment I will not receive any
property for my own sake, but everything that I receive will be for the sake of
maturing the poor and suffering sentient beings.16

This is the meaning of the relation between the universal and the
specicdiscarding the specic and taking up the universal.17 [This means]
not relying [for ones salvation] on the property that people from the begin-
ingless past have accumulated only for themselves and their relatives nor on
charity done for the sake of peoples gratitude and the power of [having peo-
ple] indebted to you rather than for the sake of maturing all sentient beings.
The bodhisattvas practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse is to give without
looking to the rich, poor, good, evil, false, true, big, small, hate, or love with-
in the three ages [of the past, present, and future]; rather they give every-
thing, universally and equally. Why is this? Because the riches and poverty,
etc. of the three ages are undetermined, [as are the other items] up to hatred
and love. Each one of these is extensively explained.
Again, the Vimalakrtinirdea-stra says:

An assembly [gathered for the sake] of the giving of the dharma consists of
offering to all sentient beings in a single moment. If the donors mind is impartial
and he gives to the lowest beggar just as though he were the mark of the

were encouraged to support the sangha. In the teachings of the Three Levels, however (as well
as in the Vimalakrti), it was recognized that material gifts to the poor allowed the conditions
under which practice could develop: During the kalpas of thirst and hunger, they manifest
themselves and produce food and drink; rst succoring their hunger, later they teach the
Dharma to beings (Vimalakrti-stra, T #475, 14.550a.) The difference, of course, is that here
the act of giving is performed by the bodhisattvas. This elevation of the status of material gifts
is also seen in the above quote (n. 11) from the Hsiang fa cheh i ching (T #2870, 85.1336c).
15 T #278, 9.734c.
16 T #353, 12.217c (following the Guabhadra translation). Diana Paul, in her translation of
this passage, has indicated that the Bodhiruci translation (T #310 [48], 11.673b) has not seek-
ing reward for (my own kindness) in place of not for my own sake, but this difference is
actually in the next, the seventh, vow. A Prolegomena to the rmldev Stra and the
Tathgatagarbha Theory (Ph.D. dissertation, University of WisconsinMadison, 1974), 197.
17 That is, the specic refers to oneself whereas the universal represents all sentient beings.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 271

Tathagatas Field of Merit, [if he gives] without discrimination, equal in great


compassion and without seeking rewards, this, then, is called the complete giv-
ing of the dharma.18

C. The Relation between Self and Others


It is as taught in the Ti chih lun G:

Those of the bodhisattva lineage eliminate the self and perfect the other in all
of their karmic acts.19

The karmic acts that are spoken of are precisely the meritorious acts of
the Inexhaustible Storehouse, because one destroys the self through practic-
ing with others. Thus the Hsiang fa cheh i ching states:

If somebody has an abundance of property and practices giving by himself


from birth to old age, his merit will be very little. It is not like having many
people [practicing giving] as a group, without question of rich or poor, noble
or low, monk or layman. Working together, each person producing some small
thing and collecting [these things] in one place and giving them as appropriate
to the poor and destitute, orphans and aged, the evil, the sick, and the diseased,
the troubled and the afictedthe merit of this is very great. Even if one does
not give in each and every thought [i.e., at all times] the merit of giving [com-
munally] arises ceaselessly, without exhaustion.20

This is as extensively explained below.


Why is this? The practice of self-prot is narrow and short. This is because
an individual does not pervade the dharma realm and thus too that which is
produced only for the sake of oneself will never pervade [the dharma realm].
The practice that benets others, [however], is wide and long. The reason is
that living beings do pervade the dharma realm and the sixteen karmic acts
produced for their benet will [thus] universally pervade [the dharma
realm].21
Again, the practice of self-prot is very harmful and the errors manythe
householder destroys his home, those in temples destroy the temple, at the
level of the kingdom one destroys the country, and within the path one
destroys the bodhi mind. Why? Because the practice of self-prot is taking

18 T #474, 14.543c544a. This quote is an abridged version of the original.


19 T #1581, 30.888c.
20 T #2870, 85.1336b.
21 The sixteen karmic acts refer to the sixteen kinds of giving to the Inexhaustible
Storehouse; see chapter 7 above.
272 / commentary

what one likes and giving to others what one dislikes, which is destructive
throughout all existences and places.
Again, [ones] evil will not be exhausted for a long time. Why is this?
Because ones desires will not be exhausted for a long time due to stealing
what others like and making it ones own and not giving what one likes to
others. Getting rid of what one does not like by giving it to others, unwilling
to take in what others do not likethus ones anger will not be exhausted
for a long time. The prots of the practices that benet others are exactly the
opposite of this.

D. The Relation between the Permanent and the Impermanent


According to the teaching of the Nirvana Sutra:
If you practice always giving this is called the perfection of charity (dna-
pramit). If the giving is only sporadic then this is called giving, but not the
perfection [of charity].22

Always giving means continuous [giving], thus you should know that
always does not [mean] permanently abiding, frozen or xed. Therefore
always giving should be understood in contrast to sporadic giving, which is
not continuous day after day. Paramita means arriving at the other shore,
like crossing a river or going from the eastern bank to the western bank.
That which is called reaching the other shore is said to be the perfection [of a
thing]. Reaching the other shore is when the practitioner goes from this
shore of samsara to the other shore of nirvana. Therefore it is called paramita.

E. The Relation between Cause and Effect


Within this there are six items: (1) The cause and effect of seeking but not
gaining; (2) the cause and effect of seeking and gaining; (3) the cause and
effect of spontaneity; (4) the cause and effect of maturation; (5) the cause
and effect of identity; (6) the cause and effect of full perfection.
1. The cause and effect of seeking but not gaining.
If somebody comes begging but you are not willing to give, then in future
lives when you seek position and wealth you will not be able to obtain them.
This is called the cause and effect of seeking but not gaining.

22 I was unable to nd this exact quote in any of the versions of the Nirvana Sutra, although
the general idea is voiced in the section on giving in chan 15 of the Northern version (T #374,
12.454b ff.); see also the Hsin-hsing i wen, 4 ff.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 273

2. The cause and effect of seeking and gaining.


The Nirvana Sutra teaches that if you see a beggar and then give, it is
called giving but not the perfection [of giving].23 If you open your heart and
give of yourself to someone who is not begging, then this is called the perfec-
tion of giving. If you begin to give only after somebody has come begging, in
future lives [because of] the strength of your merit you will necessarily
receive property and status, [although] in a small way. This is called the
cause and effect of seeking and gaining.
3. The cause and effect of spontaneity.
If when you see anothers merits you have no discrimination, produce the
things of the Inexhaustible Storehouse, share in their joy, and aid them to
mature, then in future lives you will gain clothing spontaneously as you seek,
with no waiting, like a cakravartin king, Indra, the Emperor of Heaven, or
Brahma, the King of Heaven, etc., whose clothing, food, seven-jeweled
palaces, etc., are all spontaneously obtained according to their thoughts.
This is called the cause and effect of spontaneity.
4. The cause and effect of maturation.
When a beggar comes seeking cloth, silk, etc., with which he desires to
make clothing, one should manifest the Inexhaustible Storehouse and give
him already made clothing. Again, if someone asks for rice, desiring to make
food and drink, then one should give already made rice cakes, etc. In future
lives others will offer nished clothes, food, etc., without any intention of
seeking gratitude; this is thus called the cause and effect of the completed.
5. The cause and effect of identity.
In short, this is composed of the sixteen kinds of inexhaustible causes that
return to affect one as the sixteen kinds of inexhaustible fruits, as is exten-
sively explained below.
6. The cause and effect of full perfection.
How can something be not fully perfect and yet be termed fully perfect? It
is like a man with long life, without sickness, respectable and astute, [but
nonetheless] poor, without clothes and food. This is called complete but not
fully [complete]. Again, having food and clothing but a short life with much
sickness and deformities, crude and stupidthis also is not fully perfect. If
you gain a pleasing body, life, and wisdom but the objects of your thoughts
are food and clothing rather than the Buddha, dharma, and sangha, this also
is not fully perfect; if one does not receive, support, and accept the Buddha,
dharma, and sangha, does not receive the offerings of those close to one, or

23 Cf. note 22.


274 / commentary

does not acknowledge the cutting off of evil and practicing of virtue [when
he sees it], this also is not fully perfect. If you make offerings of incense but
not lamps, or lamps but not incense, up to having one but missing many of
the sixteen types [of offering], or having many but missing [one]this is, as
extensively taught, termed not fully perfect.
That which is called fully perfect means that from before the beginning of
samsara, always and in each birth [body] one obtains the inuence of the
sixteen kinds of effects that are identical [to the sixteen kinds of offerings]. It
is just this that is the meaning of the cause and effect of the fully perfect.
This has two types: The rst is the receiving of the eight fully perfect
results of the inner body, which are (a) full perfection of form; (b) full per-
fection of strength; (c) full perfection of life; (d) full perfection of sincere
speech; (e) full perfection of ones relatives; (f) full perfection of wealth; (g)
full perfection of power and authority; (h) full perfection of knowledge and
wisdom. The second is the fully perfect result of the outer jewel, as claried
by the fully perfect reward of the wealthy Dharmaratnacd in the Hua-yen
Sutra, which states:

At that time the rich man took Sudhanas hand and returned to his home.
Good son, see now my home. Thereupon Sudhana looked all around his
house, which was the color of the golden sands of Jambu (jambunda-suvara)
and completely encircled by walls of the seven jewels. Wheels of precious gems
adorned the innumerable pillars, and red pearls and jewels were spread out on
the Lion Throne. Above the Lion Throne jeweled canopies and curtains of
vaidurya stone were unfurled; nets made of wish-fullling gems (cintmani)
and ropes were thrown over the top, adorned with innumerable jewels. There
was an agate jeweled pond, lled with the waters of the eight virtues, and all of
the gardens were surrounded with jeweled trees.
The house was magnicent, with ten stories and eight gates. Thereupon
Sudhana looked at the lowest level [of the house], and there were repasts being
given in wisdom to all. He saw at the second level the giving of all kinds of jew-
eled clothing, and at the third the compassionate giving of tools, adorned with
all manner of jewels. At the fourth level he saw the giving of all the actions of
good conduct and skill in speech to relatives; at the fth level he saw bodhi-
sattvas up to the tenth bhmi, gathered among the clouds, assembling the True
Dharma, separated from worldly pleasures and producing all variety of sastras,
dharanis, samadhis, dharma-signs, discriminating samadhis, wisdom, compas-
sion, and illumination; he saw that the sixth level was lled with bodhisattvas
who had fully obtained the perfection of wisdom, endowed with very deep wis-
dom and quiescence, illuminating the unobstructed dharma-gate of the store-
house of wisdom and compassion, transcending the three limited worlds, [the
worlds of objects] with unobstructed thoughts of the non-dual dharma. Having
completed the teaching of the Perfection of Wisdom they discriminatingly
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 275

elucidate italthough ineffable, these are the adornments of that assembly of


bodhisattvas.
He saw that the seventh level was lled with bodhisattvas approaching [the
perfection of] patience, producing skillful means, wisdom, and compassion,
able to hear and hold all of the Dharma Clouds of the Buddhas.
He saw that the eighth level was completely lled with ever-abiding bodhi-
sattvas, endowed with various superpowers and pervading all elds, illuminat-
ing all sentient beings and all dharma worlds with their fully perfect dharma
bodiesvisiting the various Buddhas, unobstructed, they are able to receive
and uphold all of the Buddha-dharma.
He saw that the ninth level was lled with bodhisattvas who would soon
take their place [as buddhas]. He saw that the tenth level was lled completely
with tathagatas, who, from the time they had aroused the mind [of bodhi] cul-
tivated the practices of the bodhisattva, transcended samsara, and completely
perfected the great vow, superhuman powers, and self-abiding. Manifesting,
abiding, and holding [the dharma] in all of the Buddha-elds, they turned the
pure wheel of the dharma for their followers, converting and saving sentient
beings.
When Sudhana saw all of these rare and special things he asked, Great Sage,
I have never before seen such a great and pure assemblage. In the past where
were the various good roots planted that today you have gained such surpass-
ingly wonderful fruits as a reward?
The rich man answered, Good son, I remember in past kalpas, at the time
when the Tathagata named King Universally Adorned with Unlimited Light
appeared. That Buddha entered the city, and I joyously offered perfumed
owers to him. Holding these good roots, I turned them to the three places,
namely the extinction of all poverty and suffering, always seeing various buddhas,
bodhisattvas, and spiritual friends, and always hearing the true dharma. Thus
have I gained these rewards.24

This is the meaning of the cause and effect of fully complete, based on the
examination of the text.
The fully perfect inner fruits, gained after departing samsara and obtaining
the complete inner and outer fruits of the full perfection of Buddhahood, are
explained in short [as follows].
The Buddha has thirty-two marks, or, again, eighty-four thousand marks.
It is also taught that the great marks of the Buddha are equal to the number
of grains of sand in the oceans of the ten lotus-store worlds,25 with all of the
wonderful jewels in his limbs as adornments. Again, there are eighty minor

24 T #278, 9.706c ff.


25 The world created through the practices of Vairocana; cf. T #278, 9.412 ff.
276 / commentary

marks, or, explaining each mark one by one, each has eighty-four thousand
minor marks. Each of the Buddhas great marks [equal to the] number of
grains of sand of the oceans of the ten lotus-store worlds has minor marks,
and thus the numbers may be known. The ten powers26 and the four fearless-
nesses,27 the great compassion, the three places of mindfulness,28 the three
pure karmas,29 etc.[in this way] the merits of the Buddhas one hundred
forty unique dharmas30 are limitless and boundless. In an even more abridged
explanation, there are two types of adornments: merit and wisdom. The
adornment of merit is claried according to the Wu shang i ching [S 31
[which teaches that] if all of the sentient beings of the ten directions were to
practice the ten virtuous actions, and if their merit were to increase a hun-
dredfold, it would equal the merit of the mark of one hair of the Buddha.
The merit of one of the Buddhas minor marks is equal to one hundred
times the merit of the marks of all of his hair; the merit of one of the
Buddhas greater marks is one hundred times that of the merit of all of his
minor marks; and the merit of the mark of the white tuft of hair [surround-
ing his wisdom eye] is one thousand times that of the merit of all of the
greater marks. Again, the merit of the Buddhas ua is one hundred thou-
sand times greater than the merit of the Buddhas hair tuft, and the merit of
the mark of the Buddhas heavenly voice, whereby he causes the voice of one
sound to permeate throughout the limitless worlds of the ten directions,
preaches the dharma, and prots sentient beings, each according to their

26 The ten knowledges of the Buddha: knowledge of (1) right and wrong; (2) the relation

between action and its result; (3) meditation, liberation, insight, and concentration; (4) the
capacity of sentient beings; (5) the desires of sentient beings; (6) the state of all things; (7)
rebirth; (8) the past; (9) the birth and death of sentient beings; and (10) the destruction of all
afictions.
27 (1) No fear of error (i.e., the Buddha is omniscient); (2) no fear of the obstacles (i.e., the

Buddha has extinguished all klea; (3) no fear of the teaching (i.e., the Buddha has taught the
overcoming of the obstacles; and (4) no fear of liberation (i.e., the Buddha has taught the
path to liberation).
28 Whether sentient beings (1) have faith in the Buddha, (2) do not have faith in the

Buddha, or (3) both have faith and do not have faith in the Buddha, he calmly abides in cor-
rect thoughts and wisdom.
29 Lit. the three that are unguarded, i.e., the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha are

pure and do not need to be guarded against delement.


30 The 140 unique characteristics of the Buddha consist of the 32 major marks, 80 minor

marks, four purities, ten powers, four fearlessnesses, three places of mindfulness, three pure
karmas, great compassion, never forgetting past mistakes, severing obstacles, and omnis-
cience.
31 T #669, 16.474c, translated by Paramrtha, ca. 557; the version cited here differs
signicantly from the Taish version as far as language is concerned, though the meaning is
essentially the same.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 277

type, is ten thousand billion times the merit of the mark of the Buddhas
ua.
The adornment of wisdom is explained by the Ta chi ching [which states
that] the wisdom perfected by all of the sentient beings in the three thousand
great chiliocosms does not equal one one-hundredth part of the wisdom of a
person who practices according to faith, nor even one one-thousandth part,
so much so that you can not even calculate [the relationship] in a simile. If
you take all of the wisdom perfected by such people as those who practice
according to faith in all of the three thousand great chiliocosms, it would not
be equal to the wisdom of one person who practices according to the dhar-
ma. In this way one can compare the wisdom of those who practice accord-
ing to the dharma in the great chiliocosm to the wisdom of one person [who
has achieved] the eight knti [and it does not equal one one-hundredth or
one one-thousandth, so much so that it cannot be calculated even in a simi-
le].32 In such a way the wisdom of all those who have [achieved] the eight
knowledges [that emanate from the eight patiences on the path of seeing],33
in the great chiliocosm is [not] equal to the wisdom of a single stream-winner
(srotpanna), and the comparison can be continued on up to a once-returner
(sakdgmin), never-returner (angmin), arhat, and pratyekabuddha. If
you took all of the wisdom of the pratyekabuddhas of the three thousand
great chiliocosms it would [not] equal the wisdom of one kalpa-ata
bodhisattva.34 The comparison can be continued in this manner for the
bodhisattvas who have gained patience, the never-retreating bodhisattvas,
on up to the bodhisattvas in their last birthit does not equal one one-hun-
dredth or one one-thousandth [of the next higher rank], to the point that it
cannot be measured in a simile. If all of the sentient beings of the innumer-
able and boundless worlds were to have perfected wisdom such as that of a
bodhisattva in their last birth, still it would not equal one one-hundredth or
one one-thousandth of the Tathagatas wisdom of discerning truth and non-
truth,35 indeed so much so that the difference cannot be measured in a simile.36

32 The eight knti refer to realizations obtained on the darana-mrga with regard to each

of the four noble truths in (a) the desire realm and (b) the form and formless realms.
33 The knowledge, based on the preceding patience, with regard to each of the four noble

truths in each of the realms. On beginning this stage one is considered to be approaching the
fruit of the stream-winner; upon the sixteenth moment (which completes the eight forebear-
ances and eight knowledges) the practitioner abides in the fruit of stream-winner and simul-
taneously approaches the fruit of once-returner.
34 A bodhisattva who has nished the practices of the three limitless kalpas and is perfecting

the practices that result in the 32 major marks of a Buddha.


35 One of the ten powers described above.
36 T #397 (12), 13.193a.
278 / commentary

All of the above comparisons of the differing degrees of wisdom concern


the adornment of the Buddhas wisdom. As explained before, the degree of
merit and wisdom is called the full perfection of the inner reward.
The full perfection of the outer reward is as the Hua-yen Sutra teaches:

The bodhisattva Samantabhadra vowed:


When I have attained a Pure Land
all of the adornments of the Three Worlds
will be manifested therein.37

This is the meaning of the full perfection of the outer rewards. Again, the
Hua-yen Sutra generally explains the meaning of the degree of the comple-
tion of the Buddhas merits:

If all of the sentient beings in the ten directions


All at one time gained true enlightenment,
Each of those various enlightened [beings]
Would have an indescribably pure and profound body.
The Tathagatas head on each of those
Pure and wonderful bodies would also be indescribable.
Each of those Tathagatas heads would have
An indescribably broad and long tongue,
And each of those broad and long tongues
Would speak with an unlimited pure and wonderful voice.
Even with this wonderful voice
They would not be able to [fully]
Praise the Buddha in one kalpa.
Nor would they be able to [fully] praise and proclaim
The Buddhas merits in all of the kalpas.
Nor would they be able to [fully praise the Buddhas merits] if they exhausted
the kalpas,
Because the praise of the Buddhas merits is without exhaustion.38

The above comprises the sixth point, namely the cause and effect of full
perfection. What follows is the fourth section, the interpretation of the text
[of the Abridged Explanation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse].

37 T #278, 9.416a.
38 T #278, 9.589a.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 279

[IV. Interpretation of the Text]

The text [of the Abridged Explanation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse]


illustrates the meaning within eleven sections. As the text extensively enumer-
ates them we will not take the trouble to completely list [all of them here].

[1. The Initiator of the Practice]


Text: The rst item claries the initiator of the practicethis refers to
Hsin-hsing.
Commentary: This refers to the bodhisattva with the capacity for the
Ekayna and is complete in three meanings:39
1. Understanding the true.
2. Practicing the profound.
3. Reducing the afiction.
Understanding the true means to discriminate the identity of emptiness
and existence, great and small, deled and pure, disagreeable and agreeable,
false and true, good and bad, the six paramitas, etc., on up to and including
the identity of the dharmadhtu and the dharma40 that is also like this; this is
the understanding of the true.
The practice of the profound refers to the practice of the virtuous and
harmonious: that which should be severed is completely severed and that
which is to be cultivated is completely cultivated. This is the practice of the
profound.
Reducing the afiction means that upon hearing of the various light
and heavy evils [that stem from] a deluded mind such as [one aficted by]
the ten evils,41 the ve fears,42 or the three sicknesses,43 or upon hearing in
this fashion of the identity of the shallow and deep with regards to practice
based on false understanding, or upon hearing of the deluded attachment to
harm and prot, or upon hearing of the judgement of the false and true,
many and few, or, again, hearing of the degrees of confusion about the

39 Cf. Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 501 and 505 ff. See also the Hsin-hsing i wen, 6.
40 This could also be read as up to and including the dharmadhtu. The identity of the
dharmas is also like this.
41 Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, slander, idle talk, improper speech, greed,

anger, and wrong views.


42 Fear of (1) giving everything; (2) losing ones reputation; (3) death; (4) evil; and (5)

speaking to a group.
43 Greed, anger, and ignorance.
280 / commentary

dharma, or hearing in this fashion of the light and heavy evils [that come
from a deluded mind]upon hearing [of any of these things] they are per-
manently severed. Again, [if the practitioner] is able to discard that of small
merit upon hearing of it and cultivate that of great merit upon hearing of it,
this is what is meant by reducing the afiction.
Question: If this is so, then why are not all those who have established the
Inexhaustible Storehouse already [complete] in the three meanings of
understanding the true, practicing the profound, and reducing the afiction?
Answer: In accordance with the teaching, one only needs to give to the
Inexhaustible Storehouse and by so doing he will enter into the Universal
Inexhaustible Storehouse of the dharma-realm of the Meditation Master
Hsin-hsing. Again, one not only engages in the same practices together with
the Meditation Master Hsin-hsing, but together with all of the Ekayna
bodhisattvas of the past, present, and future in all of the realms in all of the
dharma-realms of the ten quarters of space, this one practice is the same.
Because Hsin-hsing and all of the bodhisattvas are correct, those of the four
ranks, [that is, those who engage in] the same practice, [those who] rejoice
[in those practices], [and those who] see or hear [those practices] are also
correct.44 It is like putting a snake into a bamboo tubethe tube is straight
and so the snake also becomes straight.
Because the same practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse [is cultivated]
together with Hsin-hsing and the other [bodhisattvas], and because the
[practice that] is the same is correct, the person who cultivates that same
practice is also correct,45 and [one need] not fear false distortions. Again, the
Inexhaustible Storehouse aids in repaying ones past debts as [it aids in
repaying] the burdens of the present; if those are repaid, how can one fear
falseness? Repaying [ones debts] is [therefore] the antidote [for falseness].

[2. The Times of Practice]


Text: the second [item] is making the vow in all of the times of ones prac-
tice from this life forward until obtaining Buddhahood.
Commentary: According to the understanding of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse, reject the interpretation of the teaching that contrasts the long
and the short. However, from the beginningless past onward that which has
been studied and practiced has had the nature of the short and hurried.
[One should] now arouse the [bodhi] mind and cultivate the same practice
together with those bodhisattvas [of the Ekayna], discard the short and

44 Cf. the Hsin-hsing i wen, 5.


45That is, because the practice, that which is the same, is correct, so is the practitioner,
he who cultivates the same.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 281

hurried, and take a long time until achieving Buddhahood.46

[3. The Wide and the Narrow]


Text: The third claries the wide and narrowthe universal is all.
Commentary: This is called the relation between the wide and the narrow
because from the beginningless past onward ones actions were narrow and
inferior, only for the sake of oneself and not others; for the sake of fathers,
mothers, wives, children, and relatives and not for the sake of those who
make requests [of one]; for the sake of that which is agreeable, our friends,
and what we know rather than for the sake of what is disagreeable, those
who have a grudge against our family, or those to whom we are indebted; or
[again, ones actions were] for the sake of rank, possessions, or power rather
than for the sake of the poor. [Such actions] do not permeate the dharma
realm and therefore are called narrow and inferior. Now, the practitioner
should discard resentment, [abandon] the narrow and inferior, and draw
close to that which is evenly and universally for the sake of all of the sentient
beings of the dharma realm.

[4. Discussion of the Practice]


Text: The fourth claries the divisions of many and few of the dharma
realm practices. In general there are two: (1) the Inexhaustible Storehouse
[that is the perfection of the] eternal, joyous, self, and pure, and (2) the
Inexhaustible Storehouse [that perfects the] suffering, empty, and imperma-
nent.
Commentary: The text is fully explained in the next item.

[5. The Reasons for the Eternal and the Impermanent]


Text: The fth claries the reasons for the eternal and the impermanent
practices of the dharma realm. If any of the following three conditions
obtain then the dharma realm practices are not fully complete and are
impermanent: (1) the wide and narrow are undetermined; (2) the long and
short are undetermined; (3) progression and retreat are undetermined.
When each of the following three conditions obtain then the dharma realm
practices are fully perfect and eternal: (1) they are wide and great like the
dharma realm; (2) they [continue] day by day without break, exhausting the

46 The short and hurried refers to practices that benet only oneself; the long refers to

bodhisattva practices for all sentient beings (see above, The Relation between Self and
Others. As Yabuki has noted (Sangaiky no kenky, 627), this is an application of the idea of
the co-extension of self and others to the realm of temporal concerns. Therefore, inasmuch as
the bodhisattva vows to reach Buddhahood only together with all sentient beings, it will
require a long time.
282 / commentary

future limits; (3) there is no retreating until life is exhausted.


Commentary: These three meanings are also called the meaning of the
wide, long, and deep; because one has completely discarded life and posses-
sions,47 never retreating until the ultimate is reached, it is called deep. These
three meanings are taught according to the Mahynasagraha-[bhya], in
which they correspond to the four practices:48
1. The wide and great dharma realm corresponds to what the Treatise
teaches as the practice with no remainder. This is cultivating all of the
myriad practices, numerous as grains of sand, without which one is not
cultivated.
2. The ultimate, like space. This corresponds to what the Treatise teaches
as the practice of respecting all. This is to exhaust the principle in each
practice and penetrate the origin, with the highest degree of zeal,
utmost strength, exhausting ones life, never avoiding suffering and evil,
and practicing with an untainted mind.
3. Exhausting the future limits is explained by the Treatise as the practice
of a long time. That is, each practice extends through the three great
asakhyeya kalpas.
4. Without rest is explained by the Treatise as practice without interval.
This is the mind continuing without a moment of interruption. When
each of these practices is complete the three meanings and four prac-
tices are called the [perfection of the] eternal, joyous, self, and pure
practices. They are also called the Ekayna and Mahayana practices. If

47 Cf. Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 507, on discarding life and possessions. The wide,

long, and deep refer to sections B. and C.; see above, pp. 27072.
48 Paramrthas translation simply states: The Treatise says Cultivating myriad practices
throughout unlimited, innumerable, hundreds of thousands of kotis of mahkalpas.
Commentary: The text illuminates the three wisdoms [hearing, thinking or reection, and
practice] and completes the four kinds of practice. Because it cannot be known by simile, it is
unlimited; because it cannot be known through counting it is innumerable; ten billion
equals one koti; because it is not one koti it says one thousand; again, because it is not one
thousand [kotis] it says one hundred [thousand]; because it is not a small kalpa it says
mah[kalpa]; this therefore claries the practice of the long time. Cultivating myriad prac-
tices illuminates the three cultivations of the uninterrupted [practice], the [practice of]
respect, and the [practice] with no remainder (T #1595, 31.209a). The text itself does not
mention the four practices, nor does Hsan-tsangs translation of the text. Cf. the Koa and
its explanation of the Buddhas perfected virtues of cause, effect, and beneting others: The
rst, the perfected merit of cause, has four types. The rst is practice with no remainder, [so-
called] because the two equipments of merit and wisdom are cultivated with nothing left
over; the second is [called] the practice of a long time because the practice [continues]
through innumerable great kalpas without agging; the third is [called] the practice of no-
interval because the practitioner is vigorous and courageous in every instant without ceasing;
the fourth is [called] the practice of respect because that which is studied is respected without
hesitation and the practitioner is without any sloth (T #1558, 29.141b).
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 283

they are not fully perfect then the three meanings and four practices are
called the suffering, empty, and impermanent practices, as well as
Triyna and Hinayana practices.

[6. The Completion of the Practices]


Text: The sixth item claries the ease and difculty of perfecting the dharma-
realm practices: the eternal, joyous, self, and pure Inexhaustible Storehouse
can be perfected in a few places, not in many places. The suffering, empty,
[and impermanent] Inexhaustible Storehouse may be obtained equally in
many or few places, depending on the place.
Commentary: The permanent and joyous Inexhaustible Storehouse is the
same as the collection of practices of the perfected suchness body of the various
buddhas and necessitates the full completion of the three meanings and four
practices; thus it is only possible in a few places and cannot be developed in
many places. Therefore it is called difcult.49 One must be in the capital, at
the Hua-tu ssu. Because of the people at this great location the completion
of the sixteen items is possible and one does not need to fear delusion because
it is continuous with the truth of the Meditation Master [Hsin-hsing].
Below, the suffering and empty Inexhaustible Storehouse is the same as
the collection of practices of the perfected accommodation body of sentient
beings; it does not complete the three meanings and four practices. Thus it
may be obtained equally in many places or few places, depending on the
place, and is termed easy. These are such places as the merit ofces O
established throughout the prefectures and counties for the Ullambna
Festival on the 15th of the seventh monthall [who participate in these]
gain assistance in universal emancipation, spontaneous jubilation, and per-
fection. It is not necessary to bring [contributions] to the Hua-tu ssu.50

[7. The Great and the Small]

Text: The seventh claries the relation between the great and small prac-
tices of the dharma-realm.51 If both types of practice, that is to say, the per-
manent and joyous as well as the suffering and empty, are perfected and
exhausted, then it is the Mahayana. If only the partial practices of the empty
and suffering are cultivated without exhausting the permanent and joyous,
then this is determined as belonging to the Hinayana.

49 Cf. Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 117, 507; Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society, 213.
50 Cf. Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 508, 628. We can easily surmise the institutional moti-
vation behind declaring the Hua-tu ssu to be a superior place of practice.
51 Emended according to the Abridged Explanation of the Inexhaustible Storehouse.
284 / commentary

Commentary: The great includes within it the small and therefore com-
pletes both practices. The small does not include the great and therefore it is
limited to the suffering and empty. It is like the sravaka Vinaya, which is
itself included within the collection of precepts in the bodhisattvas three
collections of [pure] precepts.52

[8. The Many and the Few]

Text: The eighth item illuminates the study of the many and the few.
Although it is taught that phenomena are as numerous as grains of sand, the
general teaching has sixteen [items]; if the general and the specic are taught
together then there are more than thirty. There are also two kinds of giving:
(1) only the general, daily giving of sixteen coins; (2) both the general and
the specic, daily giving thirty coins. The characteristics of the general and
the specic are explained at length below.
Commentary: According to the Hua-yen Sutra it is taught that all of the
practices of the dharma realm are [contained in] this Inexhaustible Store-
house; in short, this sutra teaches the ten kinds of Inexhaustible Storehouse
dharma practices of faith, precepts, hearing, shame, etc.53 Eighty meanings
of the dharma of the Inexhaustible Storehouse are taught according to the
Ta chi ching;54 because the cause to the effect is taught, it is [called] the dharma-
realm practice, and this is also the meaning of the Inexhaustible Storehouse.
Within this [practice of the Inexhaustible Storehouse], the sixteen kinds of
inexhaustible effects that return to inuence one are obtained because of the
practice of the sixteen kinds of inexhaustible causes. This is explained at
length below.
1. Text: The rst is the study of making inexhaustible offerings to the
Buddhathis consists of worshipping the Buddha, etc.
Commentary: Within this [practice] material assistance in the worship of
the Buddha is appropriaterepairing stupas, images, etc. This also includes
the building of stupas and images, [but] rst repair the old and only after
that has been exhausted build anew. Therefore the Stra says, Building new
[images and stupas] is not like repairing the old, whose merit is very

52 As taught in the Hua-yen Sutra, Bodhisattvabhmi, etc., the three collections are: (1) pre-

cepts to prevent evil (the traditional precepts of the Vinaya); (2) precepts to encourage virtue
(actions of body, mind, and speech that promote virtuous merit); and (3) precepts aimed for
the salvation of all sentient beings (all of the bodhisattva practices benecial to sentient
beings). See also Paul Groner, Saich and the Bodhisattva Precepts (Ph.D. thesis, Yale
University, 1979), 346 ff.
53 T #278, 9.474c ff.
54This refers to the various inexhaustible practices of the Wu chin i pu sa ching (Akaya-
mati[nirdea]-stra), T #397 (12), 13.210b.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 285

great.55 Again [the Hsiang fa cheh i ching] says,

Repairing the old and not pretending to erect anewthat persons merit is
inconceivable.56

Because of this [inexhaustible] storehouse [of merit obtained through the


repair of images, etc.], the practitioner immediately obtains the complete
repayment of all offenses that prevent him from seeing the Buddha, such as
stealing or damaging the Buddhas things or the things of the stupa. In the
future they will see various Buddhas, and because of causing all sentient
beings to cultivate the worship of the Buddha, in the future they will go from
one Buddha-land to the next Buddha-land, worshipping the various bud-
dhas, converting sentient beings in those majestic and pure Buddha-lands
until obtaining Buddhahood. [Upon obtaining Buddhahood they will have]
a physical body subtle and pure, emitting inexhaustible rays of light that
benet all.
Thus the verse in the Hsien-shou chapter of the Hua-yen Sutra explains:
Again, a light called the adornment of the jewel is emitted.
That light awakens all of the multitudes,
[Causing] them to obtain the surpassing jewel-store that can never be exhausted
To offer to the various World-honored Ones.
With the jewel offering to the buddhas, stupas and temples,
As well as giving to all of the impoverished,
With myriads of rare [things], offering the unsurpassed
This causes the perfection of the light [called] adornment of the jewel.57
Again, a light called joyous is emitted.
That light awakens all the multitudes,
Gladdens them and makes them take joy in the bodhi of the Buddha.
Arousing the mind of joy and seeking the teacherless jewel,
Establishing the image of the Tathagatas great compassion,
Seated on lotus, with the major and minor signs fully perfected,
Proclaiming the unsurpassed merits
Causes the perfection of the light [called] joyous.58

55 From the Hsiang fa cheh i ching, T #2870, 85.1336a. This is also found (slightly revised) in

the apocryphal work composed by the San-chieh-chiao monk Shih-li and others, the Fo shuo
shih so fan che y chieh fa ching ching (Yabuki, Sangaiky no kenky, 237); cf. the San chieh fo
fa, 303 and the Liang ching hsin chi, chan 3, 14.
56 T #2870, 85.1337b. The order of the two clauses is reversed in the Taish, i.e., That per-

sons merit is inconceivable, [who] repairs the old and does not pretend to erect anew.
57 T #278, 9.437b; cf. T #279, 10.76c.
58 T #278, 9.436b; cf. T #279, 10.75c.
286 / commentary

Again a light called purity of the body is emitted.


Full perfection is caused by destroying the various [deled] roots;
Worshipping the various buddhas, stupas, and temples
Causes one to obtain and perfect the light [called] purity of the body.59

2. Text: The second item is the study of making inexhaustible offerings to


the dharma; this consists of reciting sutras.
Commentary: In copying sutras, etc., one should also rst repair the old
sutras and then make new [copies]. Through this [practice of the Inex-
haustible] Storehouse one gains the immediate repayment of the offenses of
stealing and harming all the things of the dharma and obstructing the dharma.
Again, in the future one will be able to personally hear the Buddha preach
the sutras of the twelve divisions and one will be able to understand much
though hearing only a little. Being mindful and thoughtful, as it is taught,
[one will] cultivate the practices that prot sentient beings.
Again, the fruit of obtaining, hearing, and holding the dhra is that
hearing it once, it is understood and never forgotten. As it is taught in the
Hsien yu ching,60 nanda, formerly a rich man, made offerings of reciting
the scriptures for the monks, and this enabled him to gain the personal
transmission of the complete Buddha-dharma with nothing left out, like
water poured from one vessel into another. Thus is the meaning. Because
the light is emitted through the perfection of Buddhahood, the Hsien-shou
[chapter of the Hua-yen Sutra] says in a verse:

Again, a light called joy in the dharma is emitted;


That light awakens all of the multitudes.
Hearing the dharma explained, copying the scriptures,
And always taking joy within the true dharma;
Able to hold and protect the Buddha-dharma when it is about to perish,
[It] causes the seeker of the dharma to be satised.
Enthusiastically persevering and cultivating the practice of the true dharma of
the Buddha
Causes the obtaining of this light [called] joy in the dharma.61
Again, a light called dharma mastery is emitted;
That light awakens all of the multitudes.
[And enables them to obtain] the storehouse of dhra that cannot be exhausted,
And to uphold all of the Tathagatas dharma.
Respecting and making offerings to the upholder of the dharma,

59 T #278, 9.437c; cf. T #279, 10.77a.


60 T #202, 4.349a-445a.
61 T #278, 9.437b; cf. T #279, 10.76c.
absolute delusion, perfect buddhahood / 287

Protecting and defending the assemblies of sages,


And the limitless dharma of giving to sentient beings
These are the causes of obtaining the light [called] mastery.62

3. Text: The third [practice] is the study of making inexhaustible offerings to


the sangha; this consists in universally making offerings without questioning
whether they observe the precepts or transgress the precepts.
Commentary: This means universally offering in one moment, not only to
those who hold the precepts but also to those who break the precepts.
According to the Ta chi yeh tsang fen ching, it is also necessary to make
offerings rst to those who break the precepts or are without the precepts.63
The teaching of the Meditation Master [Hsin-hsing] led the donors, teach-
ing them to give rst to the community of monks who give offense and later
offer to the monks who request [offerings]. Why is this? The community of
offending monks does not rely on the precepts, and this means that they are
breaking the precepts. If the donor is not able to give to the community of
monks who offend in their practice of the Buddha-dharma, then this is [not]
the superior [practice].64 If [the monks] desire to receive [the offerings of]
the almsgiver and request [that they receive offerings] rst, [you should]
inquire as to whether or not they have taken in the offending community [of
monks]. If not, [then you should] say that you cannot [make offerings to
them] and you should not receive their requests.
The dharma of offering itself has three gates: (1) clarifying the dharma of
inviting monks; (2) clarifying the dharma of making offerings; (3) clarifying
the dharma of giving.

62 T #278, 9.436c; cf. T #279, 10.76a.


63 The only passage that I can nd that appears to support this reference comes right after
the explanation of the ve ve-hundred year periods of the Buddha-dharma: Although
there will be those who shave their heads and don the monastic robes, they will destroy the
precepts and not practice according to the dharma; they will be falsely called bhiksus. If there
is a dnapati who gives to such bhiksus[who are bhiksus] in name only and break the pre-
ceptsif he makes offerings to them, protects and supports them, I declare that this person
will obtain limitless and numberless collections of great virtuous merits. Why is this? Because
he is generous and brings prots to many sentient beings. In all the world the Buddha-
jewel is unsurpassed. If there is no Buddha-jewel then the pratyekabuddha is unsurpassed. If
there is no pratyekabuddha then the arhats are unsurpassed [etc. on up to] if there are none
who hold the pure precepts then those who hold the sullied precepts are unsurpassed; if there
are none who hold the sullied precepts then those who have shaved their heads and donned
the monastic robes but are monks in name only are the unsurpassed jewel. T #397 (15),
13.363b.
64 This is a tentative translation, based on the context of the passage. The text is damaged at
this point, indicating one missing character preceding to go beyond, which I have rendered
as superior.
288 / commentary

The rst [of the three gates], clarifying the dharma of inviting monks, also
has three types: (a) clarifying the harm of individual invitations; (b) clarify-
ing the prot of universal invitations; (c) clarifying the dharma of receiving
the invitations.
The rst [aspect of] clarifying the harm of individual invitations has ten
catagories: (1) stealing the monks things; (2) decreasing the merit of the
giver; (3) dharma of the heterodox paths; (4) not following the lial path; (5)
rapid destruction of the Buddha-dharma; (6) obstructing the four Aryan
fruits; (7) not seeing the Buddha in the future; (8) not understanding the
faith of giving; (9) spirits; (10) nding fault with the sages. As the Brahma-
jla-stra teaches:

Never, good sons, receive individual invitations nor prot and support for one-
self. The prot and support belong to the monks of the ten quarters; if you
accept individual invitations then you take the things belonging to the monks
of the ten quarters for yourself. Good sons, if there is a bodhisattva, whether
renunciant or householder, and a donor desires to invite the monks of the
Field of Merit he should go to the monastery [to ascertain what they desire]
and ask the director of affairs [karmadna] regarding the proper way to do this,
saying, I now wish to invite the monks to tell me what they want. The
administrator should then announce the order in which the monks will be
invited; thus will the sages and saintly monks of the ten quarters receive [the
invitations of the donor]. If a person of the world individually invites ve hun-
dred arhats, bodhisattvas, or monks, this is not like inviting a monk or one
ordinary monk whose turn it is. If an individual monk is invited it is the
practice of the heretics; the teaching of the seven buddhas does not include
individual invitations, and [individual invitations] do not conform to the path
of obedience.65

65 T #1484, 24.1007a; the translation of the quote is partially restored from the Taish.
3.
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Index

Abhidharmakoa, 40 An lo chi HT, 73, 130


Abridged Explanation of [the Dharma Anumodan, 167, 261
of] the Inexhaustible Storehouse (Wu Anupubbikath, 124, 157, 236
chin tsang fa leh shuo [ An-yang HR, 5, 7
F), 79, 17677, 199, 202, 25764, Apocalypticism, 17, 3940, 5560, 62,
267, 27679 68, 74, 153, 19091, 207, 22428,
Abridged Seven Roster Buddhanma 23031, 233, 23536
(Leh chi chieh fo ming FMe), Apocryphal scriptures, 6768, 205
22. See also Seven Roster Buddhanma Asanga, 165
Abridged Teaching on the Asceticism, 25, 27, 30, 40, 58, 63,
Contemplation of the Three Levels 13839, 163, 193, 204, 214, 226, 22930
(San chieh kuan fa leh shih Anya, 107, 113, 121
XFt), 21 Aoka, 4445, 63, 13839, 161, 209
Absolutism, 34, 100, 24092 Aoka-avadna, 136, 139
Adhigama, 45 raya, 108
Adventitious delement, 101, 107108, Assorted Rules for Community
268 Regulation (Chih chung shih chu fa
gama Sutras, 262 L), 1112, 20, 23, 77, 86, 91,
Agantukaklea, see Adventitious 104, 14147
delement Aashasrik-prajpramit-stra,
Aggaa-sutta, 3940 170
Akaya, 17071 Austerities, 10, 27, 29, 14243, 145, 243
Akayamati[nirdea]-stra, 284 Awakening of Mahayana Faith, 106,
Akaya-nv, akayanik, akayanik- 109
dna, 163
Akunin shki ^n, 122 Begging, 16, 22, 2526, 63, 13839, 143,
layavijna, 107109, 138, 158 146, 155, 161, 163, 17980, 204205,
Ambattha Sutta, 157 207, 219, 263, 270, 27273
Amida, 29, 168, 203 Bhadanta, 144, 204
Amitabha, 122, 125, 131 Bhadrakalpika-stra, 63
Amoghavajra, 217, 248, 263 Bhvan-mrga, 88
Aguttara-nikya, 33, 4244, 157, Biographies of Eminent Monks, 4, 136
15960 Bodhiruci, 216, 270

325
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326

Bodhisattvabhmi, 284 Chih chung shih chu fa L, 11


Bowl, begging, 6263, 138 Chih fa . See Assorted Rules for
Brahmyusutta, 157 Community Regulation
Buddhabhadra, 104 Chih-lien J, 203
Buddhadasa, 184 Chih-sheng J, 34, 175, 200201, 207,
Buddha-dharma of the Three Levels. 21617
See San chieh fo fa Chih-tsang J, 26
Buddha-dhtu, 99, 112, 11415 Chih-yen J, 92, 103, 127
Buddhaghosa, 45, 167 Ching-ming e, 15, 144, 201202
Buddhanma, 2223, 2930, 40, 193, Ching Pin-tou-lu fa w, 63,
218, 223, 263 138
Buddhanma-stra, 105 Ching wen k, 12
Buddha-nature, 1719, 2728, 30, 33, Ching-wan _=, 67, 71
85, 89, 99102, 107108, 11222, Ching-ying Hui-yan , 38, 56,
13031, 141, 145, 147, 16869, 180, 223, 69, 72
243, 24748, 25156 Ching-y ssu o, 204
Buddha-nature Buddha (Fo-hsing fo Chi shih fa F7, 26, 143, 214
MM), 85, 105, 11213, 11516, 119, Chi-tsang , 56, 60, 66, 68, 88,
126, 141, 251, 254 11314, 116, 181
Buddhat, 116 Chiu shih liu chung i hseh tao ching
Buddhavacana, 42, 4850, 74, 237 GY)b, 104
Chiu Tang shu /N, 210, 218
Cakkavatti-shanda-sutta, 40 Chronologies and temporal schemes,
Cakravartin, 273 18, 50, 75, 77, 80, 82, 8485, 224, 227,
Catu-pratisaraa, 239 232, 236
Catur-sagraha-vastu / catvri- Chan tang wen 6Nk, 21213
sagraha-vastni, 164, 268 Cheh ting pi ni ching , 22,
Chndogya Upaniad, 111 263
Chang-an chih H, 19596, 217 Chu fa wu cheng san mei fa men
Charity, 28, 63, 15354, 157, 16566, [X*, 70
169, 18081, 184, 201, 209, 265, 268, Chung ching mu lu L, 105, 199,
270, 272. See also dna 205, 257
Chen-chi ssu , 5, 10, 13, 195, 201, Chung kuan lun shu _E, 68
211 Chung lun _, 66
Cheng fa , 7778. See Saddharma Chung-nan shan $[, 45, 8, 1314
Chen ju hsing chi , 109 Chu san tsang chi chi mXzT, 66,
Chen yan hsin ting shih chiao mu lu 104
Gt*, 199, 218, 257, 263, Cittaprakti, 107
265 Collected Works on the Three Levels.
Chia she chieh ching , 61 See San chieh chi lu
Chi chieh fo ming Me. See Seven Commentary on the Dharma of the
Roster Buddhanma Inexhaustible Storehouse of the
Chi chieh fo ming ching Me. Mahayana Universe (Ta sheng fa
See Seven Roster Buddhanma chieh wu chin tsang fa shih
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/[t), 26, 137, 16971, Eschatology, 41, 47, 5563, 6768, 72,
17375, 17778, 260, 264 151, 168, 22436. See also
Community life, 1417, 8586, apocalypticism
13447 Eternalism, 128
Concentration, 20, 24, 276 Exclusivism, 190, 23738
Confession, 2124, 30, 59, 73, 26263
Confucian, 55, 57, 59, 64, 184, 194, 208, Fa-chieh , 203
221, 235 Fa mieh n (Skt. saddharma-
Confucius, 65, 215 vipralopa), 17, 30, 49, 61, 67, 79, 232
Continued Biographies of Eminent Fan wang ching }, 17980
Monks. See Hs kao seng chuan Fang teng [chan fa] fH, 8, 19,
Corve labor, 64, 182, 211 2124, 29, 143, 214, 262
Cosmogony, 3940, 22829 Fang teng ching f. See Ta fang
Counterfeit teaching, 45, 48, 60 teng to lo ni ching
Cullavagga, 25 Fang teng san mei hsing fa
fX*, 21, 24
Dna, 21, 28, 13539, 144, 15367, Fa pu ti hsin yin yan D+,
17179, 199, 202, 20810, 235, 268 66
Daacakra[-kitigarbha] Sutra, 79, 105, Fa shih , 79, 144, 169, 25758, 264
118, 195, 25556 Fa-tsang (Hua-yen patriarch), 82,
Dhra, 21, 286 127, 170, 241
Dhtu-vda, 99 Fa-tsang (Three Levels monk), 9,
Dhammapada, 167 26, 92, 127, 144, 200, 204206
Dhammat, 3738, 45. See also Fa yan chu lin (n, 60, 63, 69
dharmat Fei Chang-fang , 56
Dharmakema, 61 Field of Compassion, 28, 143, 17173,
Dharma Mirror Sutra. See Fo shuo shih
18485, 187, 210, 261, 269
so fan che y chieh fa ching ching
Field of Merit, 29, 138, 143, 160, 164,
Dharmaraka, 61, 63
179, 181, 185, 271, 288
Dharmat, 37, 42, 49, 116
Fo-hsiang fo M`M, 105, 118. See also
Dhta, 8, 10, 19, 21, 2527, 30, 61,
Perceived Buddha
9091, 142, 14445, 161, 176, 193, 204,
Fo hsing M, 99, 102, 11213, 116, 121.
206, 223
See also Buddha-nature
Dhta-gua, 25
Fo-hsing fo MM, 105, 112, 115. See
Dhtaga, 25, 63, 214
also Buddha-nature Buddha
Dhyana, 19, 22, 174, 223, 268
Fo hsing lun M, 102, 121
Diamond Sutra, 56, 264. See also
Vajracchedik-stra Fo shuo cheh ting pi ni ching
Dgha-nikya, 33, 3940, 157 M, 22, 263
Di, 82 Fo shuo fa mieh chin ching
Mn, 61, 67
Emptiness, 21, 24, 100, 105, 107, 11314, Fo shou fo ming ching MMe, 105
116, 142, 170,261, 279; as an extreme Fo shuo Kuan Yao-wang Yao-shang erh
view, 81, 83, 85, 8789, 91, 93, 98, pu sa ching MO,
12526, 134, 25254 22
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Fo shuo shih so fan che y chieh fa Hsan-tsang h, 62, 282


ching ching (Dharma Mirror Sutra) Hsan-tsung ;, 190, 194, 208,
M8, 78, 175, 177, 21117, 21921
179, 208, 216, 285 Hs kao seng chuan a, 37, 11, 13,
Fo shuo te hu chang che ching 18, 20, 26, 28, 38, 70, 173, 193, 195, 201
MD, 62 Huai-kuan ;, 34
Fo ting tsun sheng to lo ni ching Hua-tu ssu 59, 13, 15, 138, 142,
M, 217 15152, 154, 165, 17475, 181, 18486,
Fo tsang ching M, 84, 125 18889, 195208, 21013, 21718, 283
Fo tsu tung chi MHjw, 69, 203, 210 Hua-yen T, 33, 74, 92, 103, 105,
Four Buddhas of the Universal Dharma 10910, 115, 118, 122, 124, 148, 151,
(Pu fa ssu fo 3vM), 21, 106, 122, 16869, 17273, 180, 185, 188, 194, 220
247 Hua-yen Sutra, 12, 30, 99, 105, 124, 148,
Fu fa tsang ching $, 13 151, 17273, 223, 253, 25556, 267, 269,
Fu fa tsang yin yan chuan 274, 278, 28486
$+, 13, 62 Hua-yen wu shih yao wen ta
Fu-hsien ssu S, 204207, 212 T2Yg, 103
Future Buddha (Tang-lai fo HZM), Hui-hui y, 181
3940, 63, 105, 11719, 141, 192, 207, Hui-jih ssu , 16
25456 Hui-ju , 5, 201
Hui-ssu , 21, 60, 6871, 7677, 79,
Ghanavyha-stra, 106, 108, 248, 250 92
Gotra, 100, 113, 233 Hui-tsan w, 78, 10, 14, 21, 26, 125,
Gukansh, 231 143, 145
Gunabhadra, 107 Hui-yan , 38, 56, 58, 69, 72, 116
Guapramit, 114, 121, 174, 258 Hung-shan ssu e3, 16
Heresy, 205, 22324, 228, 230, 234,
238, 240, 242
Icchantika, 87, 93, 114, 121, 125, 12829,
131, 233
Hsiang fa , 61, 64, 66, 68, 7779, Inexhaustible goods, 16263
13536, 166, 168, 17273, 175, 177, 179, Inexhaustible Storehouse, 28, 8586,
181, 18485, 223, 26871, 285. See also 104, 13637, 144, 148, 15156, 158,
Semblance teaching 16062, 16478, 18082, 18489,
Hsiang fa cheh i ching , 64, 194208, 21021, 226, 25758, 26062,
68, 7879, 13536, 166, 168, 17273, 26471, 273, 28081, 28385
175, 177, 179, 18485, 223, 26871, 285 Itivuttaka, 158
Hsieh-chi mT, 203
Hsien chieh ching , 61 Jen chi lu ^T, 11, 22, 199, 214, 257.
Hsien yu ching T, 286 See also San chieh chi lu
Hsing fo hsing M, 113 Jen chi lu tu mu ^T@, 22, 199,
Hsin-hsing i wen =kk, 410, 257
1920, 2326, 86, 90, 174, 176, 199, Jen wan ching _, 69
257, 259, 267, 272, 27980 Ji tsang fen _, 62, 70
Hsin-hsing kou chi chen ju shih kuan Ju-lai-tsang fo ZM, 105107, 109.
chi hsu =ST, 78 See also Tathagatagarbha Buddha
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Kai yan [shih chiao] lu t*, Mahmy-stra, 66, 84


12, 22, 26, 68, 105, 199, 200, 214, 216, Mahpadna-suttanta, 40
257, 263, 265 Mahparinirva, 87
Klacakra, 231 Mahparinirva-stra, 12, 46, 52, 56,
Kaccyanagotta-sutta, 87 6162, 67, 72, 11215, 125, 12829,
Kalynamitra, 89, 104, 185 16869, 223, 239, 262, 26768. See
Kao Chiung , 5, 10, 15, 136, 19597, also Nirvana Sutra
203, 211, 221 Mahprajpramit-stra, 266
Kao-tsung ;, 207 Mahsanipta-stra, 62
Karm-varaapratiprasrabdhi-stra, Mahvagga, 4445, 157
63 Mahvairocana-stra, 165
Karu-pu^arka-stra, 61, 63 Mahvastu, 157
Kuan fo san mei hai ching Mahynasagraha, 165, 282
MX*}, 104 Mahynastrlakra, 113, 165
Kuang chi chieh fo ming cMe, Maitreya, 3940, 55, 58, 63, 74, 99,
22. See also Chi chieh fo ming 19192, 221, 231, 236
Kuang-ming ssu Mg, 15 Majhima-nikya, 157
Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching Mapp tmyki =agz, 13940
[gV, 12526 Merit, 15368, 172, 17479, 181, 188,
Kuang-yen ssu M, 9, 199 26061, 26566, 271, 273, 27678, 280,
Kung te chu O, 174 28285, 288
Ku nieh pan ching , 68 Miao sheng ching ting U, 68, 70
Ku ta Hsin-hsing chan shih ming ta Mihirakula, 56, 62
pei =,jO, 5, 13, 15, 202 Ming chi shih pa men fa gF7k,
Kuadanta Sutta, 157 26
Ming pao chi dz, 57, 11, 13, 1516,
Lakvatra Sutra, 105106, 10810, 250 1820, 22, 27, 195, 201
Laws of Manu, 155
Ming-tang g}, 208, 221
Li chih fa C, 86, 146
Ming ta sheng wu chin tsang
Lien hua mien ching Ts, 6263
g/[, 257
Ling-y [, 3, 2223, 56, 72
Ming-tsang g, 203
Li tai ming hua chi }eEz, 206,
Ming-yin g, 78
214
Mo Chan-shih ,, 29
Li tai san pao chi }Xw, 45, 78,
Mo fa =, 50, 63, 6566, 70, 72,
11, 22, 27, 65, 118, 195, 200, 206, 262
7679, 13031, 191, 195, 225, 22728,
Liu shih li hsan chi shih /F7,
232, 263
22 Mo ho chih kuan #, 86
Lotus Sutra, 6, 25, 27, 2930, 4952, 56, Mo ho mo yeh ching ##, 66
6062, 7879, 99, 102, 105106, 112, Moneylending, 180
11718, 121, 141, 203, 223, 237, 25556, Mo shih =, 17, 61, 7879
26263 Mlasarvstivda-vinaya, 49, 155
Leh chi chieh fo ming FMe, 22.
See also Abridged Seven Roster Ngrjuna, 66
Buddhanma Nan yeh ssu ta chan shih li shih
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yan wen 6,CXk, 176, 180, 240, 242, 260. See also Tui
6970, 76 ken chi hsing fa
Narendrayaas, 62 Praktipariuddhicitta, 107
Neyrtha, 114, 123, 239 Praktistha-gotra, 113
Neyattha, 42 Prattyasamutpda, 110
Nirvana Sutra, 30, 61, 67, 79, 105, 113, Pratyutpannabuddhasamukh-
121, 125, 128, 168, 25153, 256, 262, vasthitasamdhi-stra, 50
266, 27273. See also Mahpari- Pu fa 3. See Universal Dharma
nirva-stra Pu fa ssu fo 3vM, 21, 106, 247. See
Ntrtha, 48, 114, 123, 239 also Four Buddhas of the Universal
Ntattha, 42 Dharma
Nitya, 114, 258 Pu fo 3M. See Universal Buddha
No-barrier festivals. See Wu che ta Pua, 158. See also merit
chai Pua-kkhetta, 160. See also Field of
Merit
Paca-vrika, 138, 209. See also Wu Puya, 165. See also merit
che ta chai
Pan chiao |*, 18, 35, 37, 56, 69, 92, Ratnagotravibhga, 100, 106109, 241
127, 193, 21920, 223, 234, 237, 239, Ratnamegha-stra, 26263
24142 Repentance, 8, 2224, 30, 68, 86, 103,
Pao-shan [, 72 14243, 14546, 198, 209, 214, 223, 262
Pariyatti, 38, 45 Sadhinirmocana-stra, 239, 242
Psdikasutta, 33 Sayutta-nikya, 43, 45
Pacimakla, 17, 73. See also mo shih Saghabheda, 44
Pei Hsan-cheng B, 4, 9, 11, 15, Saddhamma, 33, 37, 4245, 48, 50, 97.
202 See also Saddharma
Pei Hsan-chih J, 202203 Saddharma, 12, 37, 40, 46, 4952, 59,
Pei hua ching T, 61 70, 75, 7778, 94, 97, 128, 219
Pei liang lu ^, 263 Saddharma-pu^arka-stra. See Lotus
Pen-chi K, 4, 8, 11, 14, 20, 144 Sutra
Penitence, 59 Saddharma-vipralopa, 17, 5051
Perceived Buddha (Fo-hsiang fo Samadhi, 20, 86, 144, 158, 223
M`M), 105, 11819, 141, 25556 San chieh chi XT, 196, 200, 214
Persecution, 7, 10, 17, 51, 65, 76, 144, San chieh chi lu XT, 11, 200, 214
180, 22425, 233 San chieh fa X, 11
Pieh fa , 34, 92, 127, 145, 148, 205, San chieh fo fa XM, 1112, 22,
234, 238, 240, 242 7785, 87, 89, 103, 106, 10910, 117,
Pi^ola, 63, 13840, 185 12425, 128, 19293, 199, 233, 247, 252,
Po lun , 66 255, 263, 267, 285
Practice [that Arises] in Accord with San chieh fo fa mi chi XMOz,
the Capacity (Tui ken chi hsing 7778, 8085, 128
), 1112, 1821, 2627, 80, San chieh kuan fa leh shih X
8285, 9091, 103106, 110, 113, Ft. See Abridged Teaching on the
11720, 124, 12629, 13234, 141, 161, Contemplation of the Three Levels
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San chieh wei pieh chi lu XRT, Sukhvatvyha-stra, 56, 125, 130, 267
11 Sutra on the Buddha of Immeasurable
San ku X, 59 Life, 73
San kuo i shih Xk, 200
San shih wu fo li ming chan wen Ta a lo han Nan-ti-mi-to-lo so shuo
XY2Me/Ik, 263 fa chu chi %+P
San tsai X, 58 Wz, 63, 138
San-chieh-chiao X*, 1617 Ta chi ching T, 62, 70, 277, 284
Sangha household, 181, 184 Ta chih tu lun JE, 66
Saptapj, 23 Ta chi yeh tsang ching T, 131
Sarvstivda-vinaya, 56 Ta chi yeh tsang fen ching
atakastra, 66 T_, 137, 287. See also Yeh
Scripture of the Lions Roar of Queen tsang fen
rml. See rmldev-stra Ta chou [kan ting chung ching mu] lu
Semblance teaching (hsiang fa ), :L, 12, 199, 205,
38, 5051, 61, 63, 6566, 68, 7071, 73. 21617, 257
See also hsiang fa Ta fang kuang shih lun ching
Seng-hai }, 202 cYs, 263
Seng-jui , 66 Ta fang teng to lo ni ching
Seng-yung , 4, 1011, 1415, 20, 29, f, 22, 262
85, 144, 201 Ta Fo ming ching Me, 105
Seven Roster Buddhanma (Chi chieh Tai ping , 55, 57, 59, 187, 197202
fo ming Me), 22, 40, 142, 193, Tai ping kuang chi cz, 187,
218, 263 197202
Shan-tao 3, 72, 76, 125, 234 Tai-tsung ;, 194, 207, 217
Shih erh men lun shu YE, 66 Tan-ching , 66
Shih fang chian wu pai fo ming ching Tang Hua tu ssu Ching ming chan
Y2Me, 105 shih Reliquary Inscription
Shih lun ching Y, 89, 263 N5Ee,O, 202
Shih lun i i li ming YSCe, 263 Tang hui yao Ny, 211
Shih lun leh chao YF, 263 Tang-lai fo HZM, 105, 117. See also
Shih shih yao lan t, 186 Future Buddha
Shih-li 2, 175, 207, 21617, 285 Tang lai pien ching HZ, 61
Shinran V, 89, 122, 13940, 23435 Tang liang ching cheng fang kao
Shou pa chieh fa 1kw, 7, 23, 143, N, 196, 21113
145 Tan tou to chi shih fa wF7, 26
Siddhnta, 74, 193, 239 Tan-luan , 125
Siglovda-sutta, 156 Tan-wu-lo-chan [Q
ik-samuccaya, 263 (Dharmakema), 61
la, 15658, 165 Tan-yao , 85, 18182, 184
Spiritual companions, 9, 14, 16, 86, Tao-an H, 200
8991 Tao te ching , 59, 88, 91
rmldev-stra, 72, 105107, 10910, Tao-cho &, 3, 8, 21, 56, 7274, 76,
114, 223, 24849, 251, 270 125, 130, 143, 192, 234
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Tao-cheng , 197 Tui ken chi hsing fa , 11, 18,


Tao-chin , 9 20, 124, 236, 251, 256. See also Practice
Tao-hsan , 45, 9, 11, 1314, 16, that Arises in Accord with the
18, 22, 28, 56, 136, 201202 Capacity
Taoism, 55, 5758, 194, 211, 221 Tui ken chi hsing tsa lu nF,
Tao-sheng , 102 11
Tao-shih , 60, 69 Tui ken chi hsing tsa lu chi
Ta sheng fa chieh wu ching tsang fa nFT, 11
shih. See Commentary on the Tzu-men ssu , 15
Dharma of the Inexhaustible
Storehouse of the Mahayana Universe
Udna, 157
Universal Buddha (pu fo 3M), 27, 29,
Ta sheng hsan lun /, 66, 113
95122, 123, 131, 13940, 180, 226,
Ta sheng ta chi ti tsang shih lun ching 237, 248, 255
/TGYs, 263 Universal Dharma (pu fa 3), 85,
Ta sheng wu chin tsang fa 103, 105106, 120, 122, 12348, 19194,
/[, 199, 257 205, 213, 215, 21920, 222, 224,
Ta Tang nei tien lu N, 11, 195, 23738, 240, 242, 24748, 250, 252,
200, 206 254, 256, 261
Ta te , 144, 204 Upliparipcch, 263
Tathagatagarbha, 27, 33, 85, 99102, Uplisutta, 157
10512, 11415, 11720, 126, 166, 241, Upya, 18, 37, 53, 75, 124, 23642
248, 251, 25455
Tathagatagarbha Buddha (Ju-lai-tsang Vajracchedik-stra, 4950, 52, 60
fo ZM), 85, 105107, 109, 11112, Vasubandhu, 53, 66, 108, 23940
11415, 119, 126, 254 Vimalakrtinirdea-stra, 172, 223, 239,
Tathat, 109, 114, 11718, 170 26970
Ta yun ching , 205 Vinaya in Ten Parts, 60
Te-mei , 29
Wen-ti k, 196
Ti chih lun G, 271 Wu che ta chai [+, 20810. See
Tien shih , 5859 also paca-vrika
Ti san chieh fo fa kuang shih Wu chin i pu sa ching [[O,
XMct, 247 284
Ti yu chuan G, 265 Wu chin tsai [(, 163
Tripartite, 50, 61, 6870, 72, 78 Wu chin tsang [, 169, 19799,
True dharma, 1314, 33, 4749, 79, 97, 25758, 264, 267, 27879, 283
125, 139, 193, 238, 270, 27475, 286. Wu chin tsang fa [, 199, 25758,
See also Saddhamma, Saddharma 264, 267, 27879
Tsa a han ching F%L, 40 Wu chin tsang fa leh shuo
Tsa lei shen chou ching F{2, 104 [F. See Abridged
Tse fu yan kuei ,, 206, Explanation of [the Dharma of] the
21213 Inexhaustible Storehouse
Tsun sheng to lo ni ching Wu liang shou ching [gV, 69, 72,
, 217 267
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Wu liang shou ching i shu Yang-ti J^, 196


[gVE, 69, 72 Yeh R, 5, 7, 14, 17, 23, 66
Wu men kuan 2, 21 Yeh teng san mei ching bX*, 62
Wu shang i ching [S, 276 Yeh tsang fen _, 62, 70, 7273,
84, 130, 137, 287
Ya yang seng (mute sheep Yz Nenbutsu M, 173, 176, 260
monks), 89, 146

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