The Flower Ornament Scripture

by Thomas Cleary

  The fifteenth book, called Ten Abodes, is a brief description of ten stations of enlightening beings. The first abode is that of initial determination, setting the mind on omniscience, to broaden its horizons. Second is preparing the ground, or cultivation; here the development of universal compassion is emphasized. Also involved is learning, from people and situations as well as from formal study. Third is the abode of practice, to clarify knowledge; here various aspects of emptiness (indefiniteness, nonabsoluteness) are emphasized. Fourth is the abode of “noble birth,” which means rebirth from the enlightening teachings; here knowledge—of beings, phenomena, causality, and so on—is emphasized, as well as the knowledge, practice, and realization of the teachings of Buddhas of all times, with awareness of the essence of buddhahood, which is equal in all times. Fifth, the abode of skill in means, involves further development of knowledge and means of conveying knowledge, and working for universal salvation without attachments. Sixth, the abode of the correct state of mind, involves developing a mind that does not waver in face of apparently contradictory aspects of things; here again the inherent emptiness of things is emphasized. Seventh, the abode of nonregression, means not regressing regardless of what one may hear in regard to different aspects of things, and learning the principles of reconciliation of oppositions through relativity. Eighth, the abode of youthful nature, involves development of impeccability, of psychic freedom, and vast extension of the range of study and application of the teachings. Ninth, the abode of prince of the teaching, is a stage of development of discursive knowledge and the particular sciences of teacherhood. Tenth is the stage of coronation or anointment, referring to the accomplishment of knowledge of all sciences and means of liberation and the development of a sphere of buddhahood.

  Book sixteen, entitled Religious Practice, describes detailed analytic investigations which eventually arrive at ungraspability, systematically removing the mind from fixations, dismantling the structure of a formal religious world in order to embrace formless truth. After this the book goes on to bring up the special powers of knowledge of Buddhas as realms of deep study, and concludes with exhortations to integrate compassion with the understanding of illusoriness.

  The seventeenth book is called The Merit of the Initial Determination for Enlightenment. This book describes in grandiose terms the virtues of the aspiration for enlightenment. It stresses the sense of this determination transcending all limited aspirations, being directed toward omniscience and universal liberation and enlightenment. Many points or fields of knowledge are specifically mentioned in this connection, including the “mutual containment” or mutual immanence of different quanta of being and time, alluding to the interdependence of definitions, and the interrelation of elements and structural sets. Other prominent spheres of knowledge are those involved in the study of mentalities and mental phenomena, this kind of knowledge being essential to the science of liberation. The tremendous emphasis on genuine and boundless determination for complete universal enlightenment reflects its importance as the essence of the whole enterprise of enlightening beings, who do not seek enlightenment for their own personal ends. The correct orientation at the outset is deemed essential to truly transcend the limitation of self; without this transcendent resolve, the power of spiritual exercises exaggerates and bolsters the afflictions of self-seeking and can lead to harmful aberrations.

  Book eighteen, entitled Clarifying Method, presents a series of lists of elements of the path of enlightening beings. First it stresses the development of the determination for omniscience, which means knowledge of all things pertinent to liberation. Then it goes on to work on nonindulgence or heedfulness, in terms of ten items; these lead to ten kinds of purity. Following this it brings up twenty things which are congenial to enlightenment, ten things whereby enlightening beings can rapidly enter the stages of enlightenment, ten things which purify their practices, ten results of purity of practice, ten vows, ten ways of fulfilling vows, and ten spiritual “treasuries” attained as a result of fulfilling vows. This book also talks about means of purifying the ten essential ways of transcendence, or perfections of enlightening beings, and about specific cures of spiritual ills.

  Book nineteen, Ascent to the Palace of the Suyama Heaven, is much like book thirteen; here the Buddha is welcomed into the heaven called Suyama, without, however, leaving the foot of the enlightenment tree and the peak of the popular mountain Sumeru. This introduces the following book, in which the all-pervasiveness of Buddha is stressed.

  The twentieth book is called Eulogies in the Palace of the Suyama Heaven. This book emphasizes the universality of Buddha in terms of metaphysical essence and in terms of practice. The spiritual body of Buddha is seen here as the cultivation of enlightenment potential inherent in all conscious beings in all times. The nature of Buddha, beings, and phenomena is spoken of in these terms: “Sentient and nonsentient beings both have no true reality. Such is the nature of all things—in reality they are not existent.” Also, “Analyzing matter and mind, their nature is fundamentally void; because they are void they cannot be destroyed—this is the meaning of ‘birthlessness.’ Since sentient beings are thus, so are Buddhas—Buddhas and Buddhas’ teachings in essence have no existence.” And “The body is not Buddha, Buddha is not the body—only reality is Buddha’s body, comprehending all things. Those who can see the Buddha-body pure as the essence of things will have no doubt about Buddha’s teaching. If you see that the fundamental nature of all things is like nirvana, this is seeing Buddha, ultimately without abode.” This book is also the source of the famous line often quoted in Chan Buddhism: “Mind is like an artist, depicting the worlds. . . . If one knows that the action of mind makes all worlds, one sees Buddha and realizes the true nature of Buddha.”

  Book twenty-one is entitled Ten Practices. These ten practices, though under different names, correspond to the ten perfections, or ways of transcendence, upon which the path of enlightening beings is based: giving, ethical conduct, forbearance, energy, concentration, wisdom, expedient methodology, power, commitment, and knowledge. The accomplishment of these is based on the relativity = emptiness equation; the first six are especially based on emptiness within relative existence, while the last four are based on relative existence within emptiness.

  The twenty-second book, Ten Inexhaustible Treasuries, deals with ten sources of the development and activity of enlightening beings: faith, ethics, shame, conscience, learning, giving, wisdom, recollection, preservation of enlightening teachings, and elocution. Various items from these “treasuries” are explained in detail. The section on faith deals with the object of faith, mostly expressed in terms of absolute truth, as well as states of mind engendered by faith. The section on ethics deals with general ethical principles and orientation as well as specific articles of ethical conduct. Shame refers to being ashamed of past wrongs; conscience refers to resolve not to continue to act unwisely. The section on learning deals with specifics of interdependent origination of conditioned states, and with analytic knowledge. Giving involves “giving up” in the sense of intellectual and emotional relinquishment, such as nonattachment to past and future, as well as the act of giving itself and the frame of mind of generosity. Giving is often put in hyperbolic or symbolic terms, and has the general sense of contributing one’s resources—including one’s very being—to the common weal rather than to purely private aims. The section on wisdom deals with both phenomena and principles, with discursive knowledge being described as leading to insight into emptiness and independent understanding. The treasury of recollection involves recollection of every moment of awareness—represented as countless ages due to the density of experience—including changes undergone as well as contents of what has been learned. Preservation means preservation of Buddha-teachings and the sciences involved therein. Elocution refers to exposition and teaching.

  Book twenty-three, entitled Ascent to the Palace of the Tushita Heaven, describes in great detail the arrays of ornaments set out to wel
come Buddha to this heaven. This is on a vaster scale than the other heavens which Buddha visits in this scripture, because the Tushita heaven, the heaven of happiness or satisfaction, represents the abode of a buddha-to-be just before manifesting complete enlightenment in the world. The assembly of enlightening beings there is also depicted in terms of the practices and qualities that developed them. After this is an elaborate description of the spiritual qualities of Buddha.

  Book twenty-four, Eulogies in the Tushita Palace, resembles the other comparable books of the scripture, eulogizing the universality of the awareness and metaphysical reality of Buddha, reconciling multiplicity and unity, emphasizing the relativity of the manifestation of Buddha to the minds of the perceivers.

  The twenty-fifth book, called Ten Dedications, is one of the longest books of the scripture, indicative of the great importance of dedication in the life of enlightening beings. Dedication particularly reflects two essential principles of enlightening beings’ practice: giving, or relinquishment; and vowing, or commitment. The basic orientation of dedication is the full development, liberation, and enlightenment of all beings. The scope of the ten dedications is beyond the capacity of an individual to fulfill personally; it is through dedication that the individual enlightening being merges with the total effort of all enlightening beings. Forms of giving which are not literally possible, for example, are presented at great length; these represent nonattachment, both material and spiritual, particularly in the sense of dedication to the service of all life. This book recites extensive correspondences between specific contributions and the results to which they are dedicated, representing the adaptation of enlightening beings’ activity to particular developmental needs. This is often presented in spiritual or psychological terms, but also it is presented in material or formal terms of glorified images of Buddha symbolizing the perfection of the human being. This book again emphasizes the integration of wisdom and compassion, acting purposefully even while knowing the ultimately unreal nature of conditional existence. This skill of acting without attachment, without compulsion, without grasping or rejecting existence or emptiness, is presented as the essence of dedication and fundamental to the path of enlightening beings.

  Book twenty-six is the famous book on the ten stages of enlightenment. The teaching of the ten stages is presented as the foundation of all Buddhist teachings, just as an alphabet is the foundation of all writings in its language. This book is of such significance that it was translated into Chinese no fewer than five times, three times as an individual scripture, over a period of five hundred years; it also exists in Sanskrit as an individual scripture.

  The Flower Ornament Scripture is said to contain, in one form or another, all phases of Buddhist teaching; true to the scripture’s basic structural principle of the parts reflecting the whole, this comprehensiveness is also to be seen clearly within the book on the ten stages. Of the various modes of teaching—sudden and gradual, explicit and implicit—it is the gradual and explicit that overtly dominate in the ten stages, thus making it one of the clearest and most straightforward of the books of the scripture.

  Pursuing a theme of developmental progression, the ten stages encompass the course of the enlightening being from the first ecstasies of disentanglement and spiritual attraction to the final rain of teaching pouring from enlightened knowledge, thus completing and restarting the cycle of self- and other-enlightenment. Within this overall cycle are parallel cycles of elevation of self and others; as the enlightening beings progress from stage to higher stage, there is ongoing expansion not only of extent, depth, and precision of awareness and perception, but also of corresponding versatility and power in communicative outreach.

  Throughout this progress, the development of awakening is prevented from halting at each stage by the overriding aspiration for complete, perfect enlightenment, the thoughts of the enlightening beings set ultimately on the attributes of buddhahood. The practitioner aspires to be the best of beings, not by comparison with others, but in terms of potential fulfillment, not limiting horizons or coveting personal satisfaction by acceptance of lesser goals.

  The ten stages include phases of practice such as are usually associated with the so-called lesser vehicles of individual salvation, but the enlightening being does not take the annihilation or liberation from worldly concerns made available by these methods as the final realization. In the high stage wherein effortlessness and cessation of mental and physical action take place, it is external inspiration that motivates the practitioner to rise even beyond this stage of personal peace. In the highest stage the cosmic awareness whose perspective pervades the whole scripture ultimately opens up explicitly, showing the “all in one, one in all” vision of the realm of reality.

  An important theme in the ten stages, one that appears here and there throughout the scripture in various guises, is the cultivation of both mundane and transmundane welfare. This is presented in concrete terms in this book, as the practitioner in a certain stage engages in the development and exercise of skills in worldly occupations. The choice of activities—whether in the arts and sciences, business, crafts, literary and cultural pursuits, entertainment, or other fields—is guided not by the personal desires of the practitioners but by the current needs of the society that they are serving, according to what will be beneficial.

  The development of such occupational skills is undertaken in the same stage at which meditation is the main practice among the ten transcendent ways. The balancing of work in the world and world-transcending practices, characteristic of the ideal of comprehensive Buddhist activity, functions to promote the simultaneous benefit of self and others, preventing what is called “intoxication by the wine of meditation concentration,” an obstacle in the path and an indulgence forbidden by the precepts of enlightening beings. In a later stage, these worldly occupations become effortless and can be carried on spontaneously without obstruction.

  A most important concept mentioned early on in the book on the ten stages is that of the “six characteristics,” as it was known in the Huayan school of Buddhism in East Asia. Not explicitly developed in the scripture but rather illustrated throughout, this idea was singled out by the founders of the Huayan school in China as a major element of their philosophy. The six characteristics are totality, distinction, sameness, difference, formation, and disintegration. In the context of stages of enlightenment, or practices, this means that all together form a single totality, while each are distinct elements of that totality; all are the same insofar as they complement each other and work together to produce the total effect, while individually they have different functions within the whole work; as elements in the same one totality, they form the whole and in it reach their individual consummation, while separately they not only do not form a whole but also are not individually perfected without the others.

  The philosophy of the Huayan school, based on The Flower Ornament Scripture, also sees the six characteristics as aspects of all phenomena. According to this philosophy, the six characteristics are a comprehensive way of viewing things so as to overcome the tendency to lapse into partial or one-sided perceptions. Considering the phenomena and principles of Buddhism in this light, for example, produces an understanding quite different from that fostered by the notion of the multiplicity of Buddhistic teachings as representing rival schools and conflicting ideologies. In this sense the six characteristics provide a useful diagnostic aid for assessing movements that have actually hardened into exclusive schools or ideologies: seen in the Flower Ornament context, such movements become inwardly sterile by stabilization around temporary and partial teachings, yet outwardly contain a portion of nutrient in that they demonstrate this process. It is in this sense that the Scripture on the Ultimate Extinction states that even in the time of the extinction of the Teaching, the Teaching is not extinct, for its very demise is its demonstration of the causes thereof, for the edification of the perceptive.

  Using the six characteristics, it is quite easy
to get an overall perspective on the message of The Flower Ornament Scripture, on the activity known as the practice of the vow of Samantabhadra, the embodiment of Universal Good. Here, all workers for enlightenment are one totality, the whole effort is one totality. Within this single overall effort, different workers fulfill different functions; these may be represented, for example, as different schools, different cycles of teaching, different modes of practice. In essence, all of these workers are the same, based on the vow of Universal Good and the aspiration for universal enlightenment. All ultimately have the same essence, which is referred to as the buddha-nature, but they are different in characteristics, in the formulations and methods that they employ. The work of all the workers forms the “body” of Samantabhadra, the multitude forms the one. No individual worker completes the entire task alone; the enlightening being “enlightens all sentient beings” and “purifies all worlds” as an operative in the whole work, the vows of the enlightening being representing attunement with this totality. If different formulae, practices, or phases of the Teaching are separately held on to as dogma, absolute and complete in themselves, the total dynamic of the Universally Good work disintegrates. The characteristics of “formation” and “disintegration” could also be seen in terms of the supersession of teachings and the spatial dispersal of schools such as illustrated by the classical Chan schools in China, with formation and dispersal part of an ongoing process. The relation to the whole work is not necessarily organizational in the conventional institutional sense, but rather is organic and functional.