尔时,普慧菩萨摩诃萨承佛神力,知诸菩萨意所乐欲,问普贤菩萨言:佛子!菩萨摩诃萨,有几种依止?普贤菩萨言:佛子!菩萨摩诃萨,有十种依止。何等为十?一者、依止无量大悲,不舍一切众生故;二者、依止大愿,成就一切菩萨功德故;三者、依止修行,出生广大善法故;四者、依止诸波罗蜜,教化众生故;五者、依止诸三昧,无染着心故;六者、依止正念,起诸神通智力故;七者、依止行愿,普摄众生故;八者、依止供养一切佛,生起清净功德故;九者、依止一切菩提方便,成满佛法故;十者、依止法界无量回向,以大愿庄严故。
逐句解释
「离世间品」:两百问两百答的修行百科
「离世间品」(Lokottara-parivarta,超越世间品)是《华严经》中篇幅第二长(仅次于第三十九品入法界品)、内容最为系统全面的篇章。全品结构是问答体:普慧菩萨提出二百个问题,普贤菩萨逐一以「十种」为单位作答——共计二千个答案,涵盖菩萨修行的每一个方面:菩提心、善知识、供养、依止、发心、愿、行、智、定、悲……。「离世间」不是「逃离世界」,而是「超越世俗的狭隘视野」:菩萨不离开世间(恒顺众生),但同时不被世间的标准和限制所困(离世间的执着)。
Chapter 38: a comprehensive encyclopaedia of bodhisattva practice in two hundred questions and two thousand answers.
The Lokottara (离世间, "transcending the world") chapter is the Avatamsaka's systematic practice manual. Its format — 200 questions from Bodhisattva Universal Wisdom (普慧), each answered with ten items by Bodhisattva Samantabhadra — produces 2,000 items of practical guidance covering every aspect of the bodhisattva path. "Transcending the world" does not mean withdrawing from it. The Avatamsaka's bodhisattva is deeply engaged with the world — the ninth vow in Chapter 36 is precisely "always according with beings." Transcendence here means freedom from the world's limiting frameworks: not being defined by conventional standards, not being trapped by dualistic thinking, not being reduced to what the world says is possible. The bodhisattva is in the world but not of it — present with full engagement, unbound by its illusions.
一者、依止无量大悲,不舍一切众生
十种依止(bodhisattva foundations)的第一种:「依止无量大悲,不舍一切众生」——以无量大悲作为基础,永不放弃任何一个众生。「依止」(梵文 āśraya)意为「所依赖、以之为根基」——这不是偶尔的情感状态,而是修行赖以建立的坚实基础。「不舍一切众生」是菩萨誓愿的核心格式:地藏菩萨的「地狱不空誓不成佛」、观世音菩萨的寻声救苦——都是「不舍一切众生」的不同表达。以「大悲」为第一依止,意味着菩萨修行的根本动力不是自我完善或宗教义务,而是对众生苦难的真实感应。整个修行体系,建立在这种感应之上。
First: relying on boundless great compassion, never abandoning any being.
The first and foundational reliance — boundless compassion — establishes the motivational ground for everything that follows. The list of bodhisattva foundations could have begun with wisdom, or vows, or even enlightenment itself. Instead it begins with compassion: the felt, responsive opening to the reality of beings' suffering. This is not accidental. Without compassion, all the subsequent reliances — vows, practice, the paramitas, samadhi, mindfulness, dedication — risk becoming exercises in self-improvement disconnected from the suffering world. With compassion as the first foundation, every other practice is kept in orientation: its purpose is beings, its measure is whether beings are helped, its quality is the depth of care it expresses. The Avatamsaka begins its practice encyclopaedia exactly where practice must begin: with the heart that cannot look away from suffering.
五者、依止诸三昧,无染着心;六者、依止正念,起诸神通
「依止诸三昧,无染着心」——以各种三昧(定境)为依止,保持心的不染不着。「无染」是不被外境染污,「无着」是不对定境本身执着。这是华严禅定论的精髓:定不是目的,定是手段;甚至不能对定本身产生执着(否则就成了「定执」),否则就落入「禅病」。「依止正念,起诸神通智力」——以正念为基础,在持续的清明觉知中,各种神通(第二十八品十通品所列)自然开显。「正念」是这里的关键:神通不是通过努力「获得」,而是通过持续的正念,在心地清明的自然状态中「出现」。正念是一切能力的母亲。
Fifth: relying on the samadhis with a mind free of staining and attachment. Sixth: relying on right mindfulness to give rise to all spiritual penetrations.
The fifth reliance — samadhis without attachment — addresses a sophisticated pitfall: it is possible to use meditation as a form of spiritual acquisition, building a collection of "attainments" that the ego then guards and identifies with. The Avatamsaka's instruction is the opposite: samadhis are to be relied upon precisely for their quality of non-attachment, which is the actual fruit of deep concentration. Attachment to samadhi is still attachment. The sixth reliance — mindfulness as the ground for spiritual penetrations — completes the picture: when mindfulness is sustained and clean, the capacities described in Chapter 28 (the ten spiritual penetrations) arise naturally, not as superpowers to be acquired but as the natural expression of a mind that is no longer obscuring its own inherent clarity. Mindfulness is not a technique for gaining things; it is the maintenance of the space in which all capacities can naturally emerge.
十者、依止法界无量回向,以大愿庄严
十种依止的最后一种:「依止法界无量回向,以大愿庄严」——以法界无量的回向为依止,以大愿来庄严一切修行。这是对整部《华严经》修行结构的最后总括:一切修行的最终归宿,是「法界无量回向」——将一切,以法界本身的无量广度,回向给法界一切众生。「以大愿庄严」——「大愿」(mahāpraṇidhāna)是装饰、稳固、赋予修行意义的东西:没有大愿,修行只是一堆动作;有了大愿,每一个动作都变成庄严法界的一部分。离世间品以「法界无量回向」结束,与第二十五品(十回向品)的「法界无量回向」完美呼应:回向,是从修行到法界的最后一步,也是修行永远的开始。
Tenth: relying on the immeasurable dedication of the Dharmadhatu, adorned with great vows.
The tenth and final reliance brings the entire chapter — and the entire graduated practice structure of the Avatamsaka — to its culminating expression. "Immeasurable dedication of the Dharmadhatu" (法界无量回向) is the gesture in which practice becomes completely identified with its own purpose: when the practitioner's dedication is as wide as the Dharmadhatu itself, there is no longer a "practitioner" dedicating a "portion of merit" to "some beings" — there is just the Dharmadhatu knowing itself and pouring itself out for all of itself. "Adorned with great vows" (以大愿庄严) reminds us that this gesture requires vows to sustain it: without the structure of vow, the energy of practice dissipates. Vow is the container that makes boundless offering possible. The chapter ends here, at the hinge between practice and realisation, between effort and effortlessness, between this world and the entering of the Dharmadhatu that Chapter 39 will describe.
总结 · Summary
第三十八品是《华严经》篇幅第二长的章节,以普慧菩萨二百问、普贤菩萨二千答的形式,系统涵盖菩萨修行的每一个方面。此品以菩萨的十种依止为代表节选:以无量大悲为首,经大愿、修行、波罗蜜、三昧、正念、行愿、供养、方便,以「法界无量回向」作结。「离世间」不是逃离世界,而是以超越世俗局限的视野在世间行菩萨道——完全在场,但不被世间的框架所困。此品是进入第三十九品(入法界品)最宏大叙事之前,修行实践的最后系统总结。
Chapter 38 is the Avatamsaka's comprehensive practice manual — 200 questions and 2,000 answers that together constitute the most systematic treatment of bodhisattva practice in the entire sutra. "Transcending the world" (离世间) does not mean abandoning engagement with the world but transcending the limiting frameworks that ordinarily define it: not being trapped by conventional standards, dualistic thinking, or the assumption that compassionate action requires the fiction of a fixed self. The ten reliances excerpted here — from boundless compassion through to the immeasurable dedication of the Dharmadhatu — trace the arc from motivation to completion, from the first arising of compassion to the final releasing of all merit into the boundless Dharmadhatu. Chapter 38 is the last word in practice before the sutra turns, in its magnificent final chapter, from the systematic to the narrative — from curriculum to pilgrimage.