CH 21 - The Ten Practices

DESCRIPTION

Then Forest of Merit Bodhisattva enters “The Bodhisattva’s Skillful Reflection” samādhi. Buddhas as numerous as the atoms in a myriad buddha kṣetras, all identically named Forest of Meritorious Qualities, all manifest before him. It is not really clear if it is they, all those buddhas, or the bodhisattva who explains the Ten Practices. It begins by making it sound like it’s the buddhas explaining it to the bodhisattva(s), but ends by making it sound like it has been the bodhisattva

1 - The Practice of Transcendent Joy pramuditā 歡喜行

Practicing giving in order for all beings to be joyful, viewing anyone who comes asking for anything as a good friend and teacher. Benefiting all, yet not having any perception of a self, being, existence, life, aggregations, pudgala, person, or student. And the bodhisattva reflects on the plight of beings: “How strange these beings are! They are unable to use the impermanent body to obtain the enduring body (i.e. Dharmakāya).

2 - The Practice of Enrichment upakāra 饒益行

The bodhisattva would rather lose their own body and life than transgress against the precepts and give rise to desire. They also realize that: “It is not apart from beings that inverted views exist and it is not apart from inverted views that beings exist.”

3 - The Practice of Nonopposition Prativilomayati 無違逆行

Encountering extremely great and intense cruelty, the bodhisattva maintains patient tolerance (kṣānti) thinking, “If I were to indulge such attachment to self, how could I enable others to purify their minds?”

4 - The Practice of Indomitability 無屈橈行

The bodhisattva practices all the many kinds of vigor (virya), even is asked to endure the pains of hell for innumerable kalpas for only one being, they could do it.

5 - The Practice of being free of confusion 離癡亂行

The bodhisattva maintains right mindfulness, not becoming ‘scattered’ even when encountering all kinds of extremely loud, harsh noises, realizing that all sounds are devoid of anything at all that exists.

6 - The Practice of ‘Well Appearing’ Subhūti 善現行

The bodhisattva abides in inapprehensibility of anything at all and thus manifests physical, verbal, and mental karmic actions in which nothing whatsoever is apprehensible. He is able to realize that the three types of karmic action are all entirely devoid of anything at all that exists. They abide in the right and definite position, True Suchness, knowing that the three periods of time are but a matter of words of speech.

7 - The Practice of Non-Attachment Asaṅga 無著行

Remaining unattached, even to buddhas and their pure lands, the bodhisattva cultivates absolute non-attachment to anything.

8 - The Practice Difficult to Attain 難得行

Although this bodhisattva completely understands that beings are nonexistent, they still never forsake any of the realms of beings. In this, they are like a ferry captain who does not remain on this shore, does not remain on the far shore, and does not remain in the midst of the flowing waters. Thus they are able to transport the beings on this shore across to the far shore by always traveling over and back without resting, with no attachment to the duality or non-duality of dharmas.

9 - The Practice of Virtuous Dharma Su-dharma 善法行

The bodhisattva attracts and unifies beings with great compassion, able to dispel all their doubts with the use of great upaya. This bodhisattva acquires ten bodies:

1. The body not of the destinies that enters the boundless Dharmadhatu, this due to extinguishing all that is worldly;
2. The body that enters all the destinies of the boundless Dharmadhatu, this due to taking birth in all worlds;
3. The unborn body which dwells in the unproduced, this due to the dharma of uniform equality;
4. The undestroyed body in which all is extinguished, this due to inapprehensibility through words and speech;
5. The unreal body, this due to attainments accordant with reality;
6. The non-false body, this due to manifesting in accordance with whatever is fitting;
7. The unmoving body, this due to transcendence of dying here and being reborn there;
8. The undestroyed body, this due to the indestructibility of the Dharmadhatu’s nature;
9. The body of a single characteristic, this due to the severance of the path of all discourse in the three periods of time;
10. The characteristicless body, this due to being well able to contemplate the characteristics of dharmas.

10 - The Practice of the Ultimate Truth bhūtatathatā 真實行