A Brief Summary of the Mahāyāna Daśadharmaka Sūtra

The Buddha said that bodhisattvas who delight in the Buddha's Dharma should respectfully make offerings to good spiritual teachers. For the sake of hearing the Dharma, obtaining the Dharma, and seeking the Dharma, they should endure the various afflictions and unsatisfactory circumstances of the world. For the sake of accomplishing the Buddha Way, they should make great vows, practicing what is difficult to practice, enduring what is difficult to endure, and never resting or ceasing until they reach the stage of Buddhahood—this is the conduct of the bodhisattvas. 

The Buddha said: How should bodhisattvas practice in accord with the Dharma? Bodhisattvas contemplate the five aggregates of clinging—the aggregate of form (rūpa), the aggregate of feeling (vedanā), the aggregate of perception (saṃjñā), the aggregate of formations (saṃskāra), and the aggregate of consciousness (vijñāna)—as impermanent, suffering, empty, and not-self. Although they contemplate and think in this way, they do not become weary of the five aggregates of clinging as the arhats do. Arhats practice only with the wish to extinguish suffering, attain liberation, and escape the three realms; they do not aspire to accomplish the Buddha Way. Their compassion is thin; they pay no heed to the suffering of birth and death of sentient beings, and do not wish to benefit and bring joy to beings in this world. Bodhisattvas are not like this. Bodhisattvas have vast minds and great compassion, pitying sentient beings, and they vow that during the course of their cultivation over countless kalpas, they will extensively deliver immeasurable multitudes and then attain the fruit of Buddhahood. 

In that case, bodhisattvas cannot abandon the five aggregates of clinging and pass into cessation for their own sake; rather, they must retain the five aggregates of clinging life after life, using these five aggregates to benefit themselves and others. The Buddha said that bodhisattvas must not only make use of the five aggregates of clinging, but must skillfully employ the five aggregates—skillfully using, skillfully holding, and skillfully cultivating them. Arhats fear the five aggregates, believing that possessing them brings suffering; bodhisattvas understand that the substance of the five aggregates is originally the tathāgatagarbha, and so they no longer fear the world of the five aggregates, because the five aggregates are illusory, conjured forth by the tathāgatagarbha. As long as one does not generate inverted thoughts toward the five aggregates and does not grasp at the five aggregates of clinging, there will be no suffering. 

The Buddha further explained how bodhisattvas contemplate the five aggregates of clinging as suffering, empty, impermanent, and not-self, yet do not become weary of them. The Buddha used analogies to show that bodhisattvas should have wisdom and should not reject the body of the five aggregates. For example, a wise person sells poisonous substances, packaging them well, but does not consume the poison himself. Or again, just as a person makes offerings to the fire god: after making the offering, although he reverently praises it, he does not touch the fire with his hand, lest he be burned and suffer affliction. Bodhisattvas are likewise: although their minds turn toward nirvāṇa and accord with nirvāṇa, they do not realize and take hold of nirvāṇa, nor do they enter nirvāṇa. Because once one enters nirvāṇa, one can never again have the five aggregates of clinging to study the Buddha's Dharma, extensively benefit sentient beings, and accomplish the Buddha Way—thus one would regress from bodhi, a great loss! Although bodhisattvas do not realize and take hold of nirvāṇa, their minds are without afflictions and are not defiled by worldly afflictions. Such bodhisattvas are the most worthy of respect. 

The Buddha spoke verses in praise of the great bodhisattvas. First, bodhisattvas have great wisdom, possessing the wisdom of the tolerance of non-arising of prajñā and the wisdom of the tolerance of non-arising of dharmas in the vast teachings of Consciousness-Only. Second, bodhisattvas have fearlessness, not fearing birth and death, extensively delivering immeasurable multitudes in the long river of birth and death within the three realms. Furthermore, bodhisattvas have the eye of wisdom and the eye of Dharma, with pure wisdom. Such bodhisattvas are great bodhisattvas of the first bhūmi and above, endowed with the wisdom of the tolerance of non-arising of dharmas, having entered the family of the Buddhas, being the true sons of the Buddha, able to share the Buddha's family enterprise on His behalf, possessing skillful means for delivering sentient beings and sublime wisdom, and their vast renown surpasses that of the two vehicles of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. 

Such bodhisattvas truly understand the nature of the five aggregates of clinging as suffering, empty, impermanent, and not-self; they understand the nature of the deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses as arising, ceasing, and transmigrating, and know that the self is illusory and unreal. Even so, they cannot bear to pass into cessation; seeing that sentient beings in the world dwell long in birth and death and yearn for liberation, for the sake of sentient beings they do not realize and take hold of nirvāṇa, and do not abide in the unconditioned state of nirvāṇa, because that would be of no benefit to sentient beings. Regarding conceit, the Buddha said that bodhisattva-mahāsattvas have already departed from all forms of conceit, their minds are compassionate and sympathetic, and they constantly keep sentient beings in mind. They constantly move about in the world, living by alms-begging, and proclaim Dharma teachings that bring benefit to all sentient beings. The World-Honored One taught the Dharma for forty-nine years and spoke many secret words whose meanings sentient beings do not understand, accepting and comprehending only their surface meaning; therefore it is very difficult to follow the meaning and not the words. The following are some of the World-Honored One's secret words, not known to sentient beings. 

(1) The Tathāgata predicted that śrāvakas would attain anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, but it is not as stated. The reason for such predictions is that śrāvakas also have the Buddha-nature, the nature to become Buddhas, and therefore can also become Buddhas. Moreover, the śrāvakas whom the Tathāgata predicted are either bodhisattvas of hidden conduct or śrāvakas who will in the future turn to the bodhisattva path; they temporarily cultivate the śrāvaka path of liberation, eliminating afflictions, and when their Mahāyāna roots of goodness mature, they will cultivate the bodhisattva's six pāramitās and myriad practices, cultivating the wisdom of prajñā and Consciousness-Only, and thereby will in the future accomplish the Buddha Way. 

(2) The World-Honored One told Ānanda many times that He suffered from back pain, but it is not as stated. The Buddha said this out of compassion for sentient beings; He did not actually have an illness. Because His disciples, when ill, were unwilling to take medicine, which obstructed their cultivation. The Buddha took the lead in using medicine to treat illness; seeing that even the Buddha used medicine, His disciples, when ill, did not feel ashamed and also used medicine for treatment. 

(3) The Buddha said He was old and declining and needed an attendant, but it is not as stated. The Buddha never grows old and never weakens; He manifested this for the sake of sentient beings. 

(4) The Tathāgata debated with the non-Buddhists, but it is not as stated. The Buddha no longer had any enemies or adversaries; it was a deliberate manifestation, so that when His disciples encountered enemies and adversaries, they would say: even the Buddha was like this, how much more so are we—and when they encountered adverse conditions again, they would not feel deeply ashamed. 

(5) A poisonous thorn injured the Buddha's foot, manifesting the receiving of karmic retribution, but there was no such thing. The Buddha had long been free of the retribution of unwholesome karma; out of pity for ignorant sentient beings who create karmic actions, He manifested the receiving of karmic retribution. Seeing that even the Buddha received karmic retribution, sentient beings would think: how much more so are we—and thus they dared not create karma. 

(6) Devadatta made himself an enemy of the Buddha, but it is not as stated. Devadatta had been the Buddha's good spiritual teacher for many lifetimes; he manifested opposing the Buddha everywhere, thereby extolling and revealing the Buddha's virtues. Seeing the Buddha's virtuous conduct, sentient beings would feel immense reverence and would take refuge in the Three Jewels in droves, following the Buddha in study and practice. 

(7) The Tathāgata went out begging with an empty bowl, but it is not as stated. The Buddha's merit is immeasurable; He could do without food and drink, and even if He ate, He could transform food Himself, and even if He did not transform it Himself, there were immeasurable sentient beings in the worlds of the ten directions making offerings to the Buddha. The Buddha manifested in this way so that those disciples of meager merit (alpa-puṇya) who could not obtain food by begging, comparing themselves with the Buddha in their minds, would not feel inferior, ashamed, worried, or distressed. 

(8) A woman placed a wooden basin on her belly and slandered the Buddha, but it is not as stated. This woman was a manifestation; there was no such thing. The Buddha made this manifestation to comfort later disciples. When the disciples were slandered, they would think: even the Buddha was slandered, how much more so are we—and thus their minds would not regress from the Path. 

(9) The Buddha ate horse fodder for three months, but it is not as stated. The Buddha manifested this in order to deliver five hundred horses. Among them, the leader of the horses, by the power of his vows, was born into a horse's body to expediently deliver the five hundred horses, and the Buddha also assisted in delivering them. Therefore, sentient beings should form good karmic connections with good spiritual teachers; when they undergo retribution in evil destinies, good spiritual teachers will go into the evil destinies to deliver them—how fortunate it is to meet a good spiritual teacher. With the Buddha's merit, whatever He ate was the supreme flavor, let alone horse fodder. The Buddha's eating of horse fodder for three months delivered not only the five hundred horses, but also several hundred bhikṣus. Therefore, in studying the Dharma we should rely on the true meaning of the Tathāgata, not on the surface meaning of the Tathāgata's words; rely on the Dharma, not on persons; rely on definitive sūtras, not on non-definitive sūtras; rely on wisdom, not on consciousness. There are altogether four reliances and four non-reliances, which we should diligently study and cultivate.