by Red Pine
According to the Maha Prajnaparamita Shastra, “The divine eye sees both the near and the far, the front and the back, the outside and the inside, the light and the dark, the top and the bottom, all without obstruction. But the divine eye sees only those provisionally named things that result from the combination of causes and conditions and not their true appearance, not their emptiness or their formlessness, their non-existence, their birthlessness, or their deathlessness. The same holds for their past, their present, or their future. Hence, a bodhisattva seeks the prajna eye.” (33)
Textual note: The Gilgit edition does not include the repetitions here and has the Buddha asking and Subhuti answering only one question: “Does the Tathagata possess a physical eye, a divine eye, a prajna eye, a dharma eye, and a buddha eye?”
The Buddha said, “Subhuti, what do you think?
Does the Tathagata possess a prajna eye?”
Subhuti replied, “So he does, Bhagavan. The
Tathagata possesses a prajna eye.”
The prajna eye perceives objects in the Realm of Formlessness. Hence, it perceives their essential emptiness. The prajna eye is possessed by those who cultivate the shravaka path, but it is also acquired by bodhisattvas and others who see no dharmas, nothing good or bad, nothing created or uncreated, nothing pure or impure, nothing mundane or transcendent. Subhuti had previously acquired the prajna eye due to his comprehension of the doctrine of emptiness. But his understanding of this doctrine was still only that of a shravaka, or follower of the Hinayana path. Hence, though he was aware of the dharma eye and the buddha eye, he had no personal experience of them until now.
According to the Maha Prajnaparamita Shastra, “The prajna eye does not see beings, for all common and differentiating characteristics are extinguished. It is free of all attachments and immune to all dharmas, including prajna itself. But because it does not distinguish anything, the prajna eye cannot liberate other beings. Hence, a bodhisattva gives rise to the dharma eye.” (33)
The Buddha said, “Subhuti, what do you think?
Does the Tathagata possess a dharma eye?”
Subhuti replied, “So he does, Bhagavan.
The Tathagata possesses a dharma eye.”
The dharma eye perceives the means to liberate others and is only possessed by bodhisattvas. While the prajna eye sees the emptiness of all things, the dharma eye discerns their myriad differences. While the prajna eye is concerned with the truth of emptiness, the dharma eye is concerned with the truth of provisional reality, the reality of appearances. Thus, with their dharma eye, bodhisattvas see the kind of cultivation and level of attainment of other beings as well as the means to liberate them.
According to the Maha Prajnaparamita Shastra, “The dharma eye enables a bodhisattva to cultivate a dharma and to realize a path as well as to know the expedient means by which other beings can do so. The dharma eye, however, is not omniscient in its awareness of the expedient means for liberating beings. Hence, a bodhisattva seeks the buddha eye.” (33)
Textual note: For reasons that remain unclear, the Chinese translators of several Pure Land sutras reverse the order and application of the prajna and dharma eyes. The extant Sanskrit texts of the same sutras, however, agree with the order here. Apparently unable to decide between the two, the Khotanese translator of this sutra included six eyes, with the dharma eye appearing twice, in the third and fifth place.
The Buddha said, “Subhuti, what do you think?
Does the Tathagata possess a buddha eye?”
Subhuti replied, “So he does, Bhagavan.
The Tathagata possesses a buddha eye.”
The buddha eye sees everything, including whatever is seen by the other four eyes. It not only sees things in the present, it also sees them in the past and in the future. With their prajna eye, buddhas see the emptiness of all things, and with their dharma eye, they see their underlying appearance. But with their buddha eye, they see the middle path between these two, whereby the doctrines of emptiness and dharma reality merge into the path of non-duality. Shakyamuni acquired this eye the night of his Enlightenment. Thus, it is only possessed by buddhas.
According to the Maha Prajnaparamita Shastra, “There is nothing unknown to the buddha eye. Though it might be completely obstructed, it can see everything. What to others is distant, to a buddha is near. What to others is dark, to a buddha is bright. What to others is confused, to a buddha is distinct. What to others is fine, to a buddha is coarse. What to others is profound, to a buddha is shallow. There is nothing of which the buddha eye does not learn, nothing it does not see, nothing it does not know, nothing that is difficult, and yet nothing that is perceived. The buddha eye shines forever upon all dharmas.” (33)
The Avatamsaka Sutra provides a somewhat different definition of these five eyes: “The physical eye sees all forms. The divine eye sees the thoughts of all beings. The prajna eye sees the situations and capabilities of all beings. The dharma eye sees the true appearance of all dharmas. And the buddha eye sees the ten powers of a tathagata.” (57).
Fu Hsi says, “The divine eye sees without obstruction / the physical eye sees but is obstructed / the dharma eye sees only expedient truth / the prajna eye only the emptiness of causes / the buddha eye is like a thousand suns / on different bodies it shines the same / within the luminous dharma realm / there is no place it sheds no light.”
Hui-neng says, “All mortals have five eyes. But because we’re obstructed by delusions, we ourselves can’t see. Thus, the Buddha teaches us that when we get rid of deluded thoughts, the five eyes become clear. When we cultivate the teaching of the prajnaparamita thought after thought, and we first eliminate delusions, this is called the physical eye. When we see that all beings possess the buddha nature, and we give birth to thoughts of compassion, this is called the divine eye. When we don’t give birth to foolish thoughts, this is called the prajna eye. When we eliminate thoughts that are attached to dharmas, this is called the dharma eye. And when we free ourselves forever from the slightest doubt and everywhere shine our perfect light, this is called the buddha eye. It’s also said that the divine eye sees that there is a dharma body within the physical body. The prajna eye sees that every being possesses the prajna nature. The dharma eye sees natures so clearly that subject and object are eliminated forever, and it sees that all buddha dharmas have always been present. And the buddha eye sees that the prajna-paramita is able to give birth to all the dharmas of the past, the future, and the present.”
Chiang Wei-nung says, “If you divide a pool into five pools, each will reflect the moon. The moon, meanwhile, also divides into five because it conforms to the pools and not because it has any inclination to do so. Thus, it is one, and yet it is not one. If you then combine the five pools into one pool, it will reflect one moon. The moon becomes one because it conforms to the pool, not because it has any inclination to do so. Thus, it is not one, and yet it is one. The buddha eye and the five eyes are like this. They all reflect the selfless nature of phenomena.”
In the Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-five Thousand Lines (1), the Buddha says that bodhisattvas who seek to purify their five eyes should cultivate the perfections, especially the perfection of prajna, which is the mother of all perfections and the source of a bodhisattva’s five eyes. The Buddha says, “Once they have cultivated and acquired the five eyes, bodhisattvas realize complete enlightenment.” It is this statement that is explained at length by Nagarjuna in Chapter Thirty-three of his Maha Prajnaparamita Shastra.
Concerning the location of the five eyes, Tao-ch’uan says, “They are all below your eyebrows.”
The Buddha said, “Subhuti, what do you think?
As many grains of sand as there are in the great river
of the Ganges, does the Tathagata not speak of them
as grains of sand?”
Subhuti replied, “So he does, Bhagavan. So he does,
Sugata. The Tathagata speaks of them as grains of sand.”
Whenever the B
uddha wanted an example of an infinitely great number or mass, he did not have far to look. Most of his years as a teacher were spent in towns and viharas, caityas and groves along the shores of the Ganges, a river whose sand is so fine it is more like mud than sand. But instead of denying the reality of these grains of sand, the Buddha affirms their existence, for he is now using his dharma eye rather than his prajna eye. The difference depends on whether he is concerned with the truth of emptiness or the truth of differences. Since he is here concerned with knowing the thoughts of beings in order to choose the most appropriate means by which to liberate them, his focus is on the dharma eye. The grains of sand in the Ganges are thus used here by the Buddha to help those of us whose vision is limited to our physical eyes to comprehend the infinite number of thoughts of all beings and the power of the prajna eye to perceive them and the power of the dharma eye to transform them.
Textual note: Paramartha and Yi-ching do not include the above exchange, nor does the Gilgit edition or the Tibetan, while the Khotanese includes neither this section nor the rest of the chapter.
The Buddha said, “What do you think, Subhuti?
If there were as many rivers as all the grains of sand
in the great river of the Ganges and as many worlds
as there are grains of sand in all those rivers, would
there be many worlds?”
Subhuti replied, “So there would, Bhagavan.
So there would, Sugata. There would be many worlds.”
The Buddha said, “And as many beings as there
might be in those worlds, Subhuti, I would know
their myriad streams of thought.
With his physical eye, the Buddha sees as many worlds as there are grains of sand in rivers as numberless as the grains of sand in the Ganges. With his divine eye, he sees all the beings in those worlds. With his prajna eye, he sees their thoughts. For being delusions, they are empty of any self-nature. But delusion and enlightenment are one and the same, hence with his dharma eye he sees those same thoughts as dharmas, as the means of liberation. And with his buddha eye, he combines all four eyes into one eye that illuminates all these worlds and beings and thoughts and dharmas in one glance. Thus, the first four eyes are often described as the cause and the buddha eye as the result.
Yen Ping says, “Once the mirror of the mind becomes clear, there is nothing of which it is not aware.”
Sheng-yi says, “The Tathagata’s awareness of all the thoughts of so many countless beings is like the ocean’s awareness of all the waves in the ocean.”
Wang Jih-hsiu says, “The Tathagata knows the thoughts of all these beings because their thoughts are delusions that arise from their true nature. Once they give birth to these delusions, the Buddha sees them because they have form. Because they have form, they can be known. If they were as still as space, they couldn’t be known. This, then, is the power to know the thoughts of others” [which, along with the divine eye, is one of the six supernatural powers acquired in the course of spiritual practice].
Hui-neng says, “Each of the beings in all these lands possesses many different states of mind. And although the number of such states is great, they all are called the deluded mind. Meanwhile, what realizes that the mind is not mind is called mind. This mind is the true mind, the eternal mind, the buddha mind, the prajnaparamita mind, the pure, enlightened, nirvana mind.”
Textual note: Kumarajiva and Bodhiruci specify fo shih-chieh (buddha worlds). Kumarajiva has only hsin (thought/mind) and does not include dhara (streams), while Bodhiruci has hsin-chu (mental states) and Paramartha has hsiang-hsu-chu (continuous states).
And how so? Streams of thought, Subhuti, what the
Tathagata speaks of as ‘streams of thought’ are no streams.
Thus are they called ‘streams of thought.’ And how so?
Subhuti, a past thought cannot be found. A future thought
cannot be found. Nor can a present thought be found.”
The Buddha now tells Subhuti how to control his thoughts. The Buddha is aware that Subhuti does not possess the dharma or buddha eyes. Hence, he examines thoughts with the prajna eye and sees that a past thought is already gone, a present thought undergoes constant change—Buddhists with time on their hands divide each thought into ninety moments and each moment into nine hundred cycles—and a future thought does not yet exist. Hence, viewed with the prajna eye, a thought cannot be found. It cannot be found because it has no self-nature. But because nothing is found, nothing obstructs the mind. Thus, a bodhisattva sees thoughts for what they are, delusions. But because they are empty of any self-nature, delusions share the same self-nature as enlightenment. Thus, a bodhisattva able to perceive the selfless nature of all thoughts is, as the Buddha pronounced at the end of the previous chapter, a fearless bodhisattva and destined for buddhahood.
According to the Maha Prajnaparamita Shastra, “The past period cannot be found, the period to come cannot be found, nor can anything be found in the period between them, for all are empty.” (52)
Asanga says, “The myriad misconceptions, the absence of awareness, the flux of nothing we can hold, we call these ‘upside down.’” (50)
Fu Hsi says, “From a single thought arise / deeds wrought by delusion / sixty-two mistaken views [the categories of deluded thoughts] / nine hundred crazy ins and outs [see above note on analysis of ‘thought-moments’] / but then what ends is endless / and what begins has no beginning / when you see like this / truth and falsehood are the same.”
T’ung-li says, “Search the three periods / the mind isn’t there / if the mind isn’t there / false conditions aren’t there / if false conditions aren’t there / this then is bodhi / sansara and nirvana / are basically equal.”
When Hui-k’o asked Bodhidharma to help him make his mind stop, the First Patriarch said, “Show me this mind of yours, and I’ll make it stop.” Hui-k’o answered, “I’ve looked everywhere for the mind, but I can’t find it.” Bodhidharma said, “There. I’ve stopped it for you.” With that, Hui-k’o realized the birthless nature of all dharmas. And thus began the transmission of the Zen tradition in China.
Sheng-yi says, “Beings are born from deluded thoughts and are thus themselves delusions. But a delusion does not recognize a delusion, hence beings do not recognize their deluded thoughts. If beings recognized their deluded thoughts, they would at once be able to leave their delusions and see the real mind, which is the buddha mind. Only the Buddha knows their myriad thoughts aren’t thoughts. It’s like the ocean and its myriad waves. The waves don’t know they aren’t waves. Only the ocean knows that waves aren’t waves.”
Te-ch’ing says, “All beings exist as beings in the mind of the Tathagata. Thus, whenever the thought of a being stirs, the mind of the Tathagata stirs. How could he not know this or see this? But Subhuti wonders when the thoughts of beings rise and fall if the thoughts of the Tathagata also rise and fall. Therefore, the Bhagavan says that the thoughts of these beings are suchness itself and neither rise nor fall, for they are as detached and impartial as the thoughts of the Tathagata. The Tathagata and beings are still and unmoving and free of any appearance of coming or going, of birth or death. What are called thoughts, buddhas, and beings are all three indistinguishable. Thus, thoughts cannot be found in any of the three time periods.”
Hui-neng says, “Past thoughts cannot be found because past thoughts belong to the deluded mind. They are gone in a flash, and there is no place to look for them. Present thoughts cannot be found because the true mind has no appearance. By what means can it be seen? And future thoughts cannot be found because there is nothing to find. Once the force of a habit ends, it does not appear again. Those who understand that these three thoughts cannot be found are called buddhas.”
Hung-lien says, “As long as you are unaware and ignorant, you wander through life after life. Thus, the three periods exist. Once you become aware of the mind of perfect truth, there is no past, present, or future.”
One d
ay an old lady told Te-shan that if he could point to one of the three thoughts mentioned in the Diamond Sutra she would give him a “thought-pointing” cake (the literal meaning of the Chinese tien-hsin [little snack]). Unable to do so, he gave up his literary pursuits (in his baggage was a 120-volume commentary he had written on the Diamond Sutra) and began his study of Zen. (Piyenlu: 4)
Chao-chou says, “What is the Tao like? Master Nan-ch’uan said, ‘The ordinary mind is the Tao.’”
Textual note: Diverging from the other Chinese translations, Yi-ching has “hsin-t’o-lo-hsin (the attached thoughts of the mind), the Tathagata speaks of as wu-ch’ih (not attached). Because they are not attached, hsin sui liuchuan (thoughts flow on).” Kumarajiva and Bodhiruci invert the order of anagata (future) and pratyutpanna (present) thoughts. The Gilgit edition does not include cittan (thoughts) in the phrase pratyutpanna-cittan.
Chapter Nineteen: “Subhuti, what do you think? If some noble son or daughter filled the billion worlds of this universe with the seven jewels and gave them as a gift to the tathagatas, the arhans, the fully-enlightened ones, would the body of merit produced as a result by that noble son or daughter be great?”
