Overview of the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment

Overview of the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment

Title and Structure of the Text

The English title of the text, Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, is a translation of the popular short Chinese title of the text: Yüan chüeh ching (��S�S). The Chinese ideograph yüan �� originally means "round," but has various shades of meaning such as "complete," "consummate," or "perfect." Because of this wide range of connotation, I have seen a multiplicity of tentative translations, including: "Scripture of Consummate Enlightenment," "Book of Complete Enlightenment," "Sutra of Round Enlightenment" and so forth. The reason that I have chosen the term "perfect," instead of "round" or "consummate" is because of the strong implications within the text that this enlightenment is not only "complete," "round" or "consummate," but also "correct" "real" or "true." As Kihwa explains in his commentary, it is not only that the doctrine contained within the SPE is "complete" and "all-embracing," but its lectures are "corrective"--they enable practitioners to fix their mistakes to perfect their practice. With the impression that it is the word best fit to express all of these aspects, I have chosen the English word "perfect."

The ideograph chüeh �S (commonly pronounced by Chinese Buddhist monks as chiao), means to awaken, to realize, or to become enlightened. Therefore the translation of "enlightenment" is most natural. Ching �S originally means "book," and in the Chinese literary tradition, gradually came to carry the meaning of "canonical text." With the arrival of Buddhism, it was used to translate the Sanskrit term suutra, the recorded words of a Buddha or other deeply enlightened teacher. With the meaning of "recorded sermons of a great saint," it is quite reasonable to further translate the term into the more common English term "scripture." But this is not absolutely necessary, since the word "sutra" is now considered part of the English language. There are also reasons of convention related to the context of the developing Western Buddhist scholastic tradition, since it has become common practice to say "Platform Sutra", "Diamond Sutra", "Lotus Sutra" and so forth, rather than "Platform Scripture," "Diamond Scripture," or "Lotus Scripture." For these reasons, I have rendered ching as "sutra."

The term "perfect enlightenment," as it is taught in this text, refers to an enlightenment that is not limited in scope. It is also not an enlightenment that is attained exclusively from any partial aspect of the Buddhist doctrine, such as the so-called "elementary" teachings or praj~naapaaramitaa teachings, and so forth It is an enlightenment that can accept and explain all the various aspects of the Buddhist doctrine. This is why the full, formal name of the sutra as listed in the East Asian Buddhist canon is the Great Corrective Extensive Perfect Enlightenment Sutra of the Complete Doctrine ��A��S�C��`�S. Since Kihwa explains this title in depth in his introduction, we need not treat it further here.

Content Overview

The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment is arranged in twelve chapters, plus a short introductory section. The introductory section describes the scene of the sermon and lists the major participants. The location is a state of deep meditative concentration (samaadhi) and the participants are the Buddha and one hundred thousand great bodhisattvas, among whom twelve eminent bodhisattvas act as spokesmen. Each one of the twelve gets up one by one and asks the Buddha a set of questions about doctrine, practice and enlightenment. The structure of the sutra is such that the most "essential" and suddenistic discussions occur in the earlier chapters and the more "functional" and gradualistic dialogues occur later. This kind of structure reflects a motif associated with the doctrine of the Hua-yen school, which affirms that the Buddha delivered the abstruse Hua-yen ching as his first sermon, in an effort to directly awaken those whose "roots of virtue" were well-matured. The terminology that Tsung-mi and Kihwa use to describe these advanced practitioners is that they possess the capacity for the teaching of "sudden enlightenment"--a direct awakening to the non-duality of reality, which necessarily precludes gradualistic, "goal-oriented" practice. In the first two chapters (the chapters of Manju`sri and Samantabhadra), the Buddha holds very strictly to the sudden position, denying the possibility of enlightenment through gradual practice. In the third chapter he begins to allow for a bit of a gradual view, and the next several chapters become mixtures of the two. The final few chapters offer a fully gradualistic perspective.

Kihwa's primary means of categorization of the chapters is according to the "three capacities" of practitioners: superior, middling and inferior. According to Kihwa, the first three chapters are aimed at those of superior capacity, the next seven for those of middling capacity and the final two for those of inferior capacity. However, this method of categorization does not necessarily mean that the later chapters become gradually easier to read and understand. In fact some of the most difficult discussions come in the later chapters. Most notable in this regard is the discussion of the "four traces" of Self, Person, Sentient Being and Life in Chapter Nine. Since the distinction between each of these four is extremely subtle, and the wording of the text itself is not that clear, this turns out to be one of the most difficult chapters to digest.

The crux of Chapter One, the chapter of Manju`sri, is a discussion of the meaning of the term "ignorance," in which the Buddha warns against perceiving ignorance ontologically--seeing it as a self-existent entity. He describes ignorance using the metaphor of "sky-flowers" (or a "second moon") --flowers one mistakenly perceives in the sky due to an optical malady such as cataracts. This perception of sky-flowers is compared to the perception of cyclic existence--"life and death" (saüsaara) by unenlightened people. When the visual malady is corrected, the sky-flowers disappear spontaneously. There is no point in trying to "gradually" remove the sky-flowers from the sky. The nature of this "ignorance" is also compared to the situation of a person who is temporarily disoriented in terms of the four cardinal directions. There is no entitative blockage to be overcome: it is merely a state of mistaken perception, and all the person has to do is realize that East is East and West is West. In this kind of situation, there is no system of "practice" that needs to be installed. One merely needs to "see" things as they are.

Since, in his answer to Manju`sri, the Buddha has asserted that the human body and mind and all of saüsaara are nothing but illusory sky-flowers, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, in the second chapter, has to ask how, if all things are illusion, one is supposed to "remedy illusion using illusion." In other words, if everything is illusion, how is it possible to even practice? And if people become discouraged by such a prognosis and do not practice, how can they possibly escape illusion? The Buddha begins his reply by hinting for the first time that there is "something else" besides illusion--that when illusion is erased, the "unchanging mind" does not disappear. He then approves the possibility of "using illusion to remedy illusion" by instructing his listeners how to "separate themselves from illusion," comparing this practice to the rubbing together of two sticks to produce fire. The sticks ("illusion") ignite, and both burn up and disappear. But when they are gone, there is still "awareness." He nonetheless concludes this lesson by clearly stating "there is no such thing as gradual practice."

The third chapter, that of the bodhisattva Universal Vision, is the longest and probably the best-known of the chapters, as it is even circulated by itself as a separate text for study in Korean Sôn monasteries. Universal Vision asks the Buddha to relax his insistence on the sudden view and compassionately offer some expedient methods for the sentient beings to practice. More specifically, he asks "how should we think and abide?" In other words, what sort of mental cultivation, or contemplation should be carried out? The Buddha's response is a long, guided meditation starting with an early Indian Buddhist analysis of the body and mind as defiled and baseless, followed by a Consciousness-only/Hua-yen exercise in the visualization of interpenetration. He finishes with a Ch'an-characteristic exercise in "non-abiding" i.e., the development of the ability to remain continually "unstuck" in any sort of paradigmatic framework. The end of this third chapter, constitutes, according to Kihwa, the end of the "teaching for those of superior capacities."

The introduction in the prior three chapters of the paradoxical coexistence of the doctrine of original enlightenment and original ignorance causes Vajragarbha Bodhisattva, in the fourth chapter, to question how these seemingly contradictory positions are simultaneously possible. Furthermore, he asks, if ignorance is once quelled, is it possible for it to re-arise? The Buddha begins his answer by once again reiterating his fundamental non-dualistic stance. It is by nature impossible for a disturbed, samsaric mind to find its way out of its condition. He provides some metaphors of disorientation caused by relative motion, such as the tendency for a person in a boat to perceive the shore as in motion, or the mistaken feeling of the motion of the moon when clouds are passing by. He also retells the sky-flower simile in terms of the impossibility of the sky to actually be the "cause" of the sky-flowers. But the most important simile in this chapter is that of "purifying gold ore." The gold, a symbol for enlightenment, is already contained in the ore (original enlightenment)--it is not something that is newly created by the smelting. Nonetheless, once the smelting is accomplished (realization of enlightenment), gold (enlightenment) never reverts back to the condition of ore (ignorance). The realization of enlightenment in sentient beings can be understood in the same way. The Buddha concludes the chapter with another admonishment about the impossibility of meeting enlightenment through discursive or samsaric methods.

As in each of the prior chapters, the bodhisattva in the fifth chapter, Maitreya, formulates his first question based on the conclusion of the immediately prior discussion. And since the Buddha admonished Vajragarbha about the impossibility of escaping saüsaara while using samsaric views, Maitreya asks, "how do we sever the root of saüsaara?" He also makes a more direct request for the teaching of expedient (gradual) methods, an indication that we are now well into the midst of the teaching for those of middling capacities. He furthermore queries regarding the types of distinctions that exist between the natures of sentient beings, in terms of their capacity for enlightenment. The Buddha answers the first question by attributing the empowerment of saüsaara to the forces of "attached love" and "desire," which mutually enhance each other. In order to overcome saüsaara, it is necessary to sever these two. The Buddha goes on to distinguish the capacities of sentient beings into "five natures" that are a play on the five natures theory of Consciousness-only. He distinguishes each of these five types of people in terms of their relative degree of freedom from the Two Hindrances, that are called in this text, "the phenomenal hindrance" and "the noetic hindrance (or "noetic hindrance)," and which correspond to the "hindrance of defilement" and "hindrance by the known" of the Yogaacaara school. He concludes this chapter by teaching the vow of the bodhisattvas to save all sentient beings, and explaining that since due to this vow, bodhisattvas must enter the world of desire, it becomes necessary for them to devise expedient methods to help people. The people, on the other hand, need to seek out a teacher who is not himself enmeshed in desire.

As the discussion continues, the questions of the bodhisattvas tend further toward distinctions in discriminated practice. Thus, in chapter six, the bodhisattva Pure Wisdom asks the question "what differences are there between that which is grasped and actualized by sentient beings, bodhisattvas and World Honored Tathaagatas?" The Buddha begins his answer by reminding the bodhisattvas once again, that since such things as distinctions in nature are based on illusory views to begin with, such a thing as valuation is ultimately impossible. But he then proceeds to distinguish between levels of attainment in terms of the degree to which practitioners are able to avoid being trapped by the traces of their own enlightenment experiences. These four levels are those of unenlightened worldling, lower-level bodhisattva, higher-level bodhisattva and buddha. The overriding message of the chapter is that which is given in the passage that summarizes the four stages: what is most important is for the practitioner to learn the practice of "non-abiding"--not to be trapped in one's views or experiences, no matter how sublime they may be.

The bodhisattva of the seventh Chapter, Power and Virtue Unhindered, continues to question on the theme of gradations in practice, emphasizing the fact that he and his colleagues, while teaching, find that there are many different paths that one may follow to arrive at the same destination of enlightenment. The Buddha responds by teaching three types of meditation practice, which are defined by the Sanskrit terms `samatha, samaapatti and dhyaana, understood as techniques applicable to practitioners of varying inclinations. The practice of `samatha is defined in a way very close to its original connotation of "mental stabilization" or "calm abiding," referring to a practice of stilling the mind in single-minded concentration on an object. The term samaapatti, normally just a general term for concentration or meditation and not so different in meaning from `samatha, is here accorded a special interpretation that is equivalent to the concept of vipa`syanaa, usually translated into English as "observation" or "analytical meditation." This type of meditation is necessary for the bodhisattva's practice of compassion, since through this meditation, he can perceive and properly utilize the phenomenal world of dependent origination. He also gives a special interpretation to the term dhyaana, which is also normally used as a general term for meditation. Here it refers to a non-dualistic practice that simultaneously contains and transcends the prior two forms of meditation.

In the chapter of the bodhisattva Voice of Discernment (the eighth chapter) these three forms of meditation are taught again, this time in terms of various possibilities of application in conjunction with each other, based on more specific distinctions in the inclinations of meditation practitioners. The three are woven together in intricate combinations that result from all the possible variant orderings of these three practices yielding twenty-five formats, called "wheels" (translated in this text as "applications"). Thus, the Buddha has gone from an explanation of three general types of inclinations in practice to twenty-five.

In Chapter Nine the discussion moves away from explications of methods of meditation back to matters of the operation of consciousness, similar to chapters five and six. As mentioned earlier, the chapter of Purifier of All Karmic Hindrances Bodhisattva is one of the most difficult chapters in the text to grasp because of the subtlety of the distinctions implied in the explanation of the Four Traces of Self, Person, Sentient Being, and Life. These Four Traces are also discussed in the Diamond Sutra, but with different connotations. Here each one is explained on one hand as a level of enlightened awareness, but on the other hand, if any one of them is allowed to reify in the consciousness, it will become an impediment to enlightenment. In the final stage of overcoming these four, the destruction of one's conception of ego is compared to the situation of ice melting away in a bath of hot water.

The centerpiece of the tenth chapter, that of the bodhisattva Universal Enlightenment, is the explanation of the "Four Maladies." These are four avenues that are normally associated with religious practice, and to which practitioners often attach as "the Way." These are: (1) "contrivance" or the notion that one can "arrange" his life and practice toward the attainment of enlightenment; (2) "naturalism"--a type of "Taoist" view of just letting all things be as they are; (3) "stopping" or "cessation;" the view that enlightenment is to be attained by single-minded concentration and stilling of thought and (4) "annihilation" the view that one should attain enlightenment by observing the emptiness of all things, thereby extinguishing all afflictions. The one who is not constrained by any one of these attitudes, but who holds to the correct Buddhist practice of non-abiding and yet consistently demonstrates a highly moral behavior is fit to be a teacher, and it is this sort of person that students should seek out. However, once they find such a teacher, they should not expect him/her to cater to their egos. The student should keep a steadfast attitude, regardless of whether the Genuine Teacher establishes an intimate or distant relationship. Finally, the Buddha teaches the vow that practitioners should make toward the attainment of enlightenment.

The chapter of Perfect Enlightenment Bodhisattva, which is the eleventh chapter of the sutra, finishes up the main body of the teaching. In this chapter, which is clearly aimed at "sentient beings of the age of the degenerate dharma" of inferior capacity, the Buddha teaches elementary expedients of entry into the three types of meditation for those who are having difficulty getting their practice on track. He advises them to practice long and concentrated confession to help them to overcome their past heavy karma that is currently impeding their practice. This chapter also teaches the mechanics of setting up and entering into a meditation retreat, which can be of three lengths: eighty, one hundred or one hundred and twenty days.

The sutra concludes with the questions of Most Excellent of Worthies Bodhisattva, who invites the Buddha's enumeration of the inconceivable virtues of the sutra, along with a listing of the names by which it is to be known. This chapter takes the format common to the final chapters of many Mahaayaana texts (called the "dissemination" chapter) wherein numerous types of supernatural beings appear to give their guarantee of protection to the text and those people who embrace it and practice it.