Chapter 71 - The Baseless

i am on page 555

On page 555 of the Conze translation (University of California Press edition), you are at the heart of the dialogue where Subhuti asks how a Bodhisattva can possibly reach the Knowledge of All Modes without “falling” into the Reality Limit and becoming an Arhat (reaching a private Nirvana).

This page is crucial because it explains that the “nature of dharmas is signless” is the very thing that protects the Bodhisattva.

1. The Paradox of Page 555

On this page, the text deals with a technical “safety maneuver.” If the Reality Limit (the ultimate truth of emptiness) were a “sign”—something you could label, grab, and enter like a room—then any Bodhisattva who saw it would be trapped in it forever.

But because the nature of dharmas is signless, the Reality Limit isn’t a “place” or a “destination.”

• The Text’s Argument: If there is no “sign” of a limit, there is no one to “enter” it and no “it” to be entered.
• The Bodhisattva’s Advantage: They see the emptiness of the limit itself.

2. Why “Signless” creates the “Knowledge of All Modes”

Page 555 suggests that a Buddha’s omniscience (the Knowledge of All Modes) is actually the same thing as the Reality Limit.

Normally, we think of “Knowledge” as having a list of facts. But here:

• All Modes = The infinite, varied ways things appear to sentient beings.
• Signless = The fact that none of those appearances have a permanent “tag.”

A Buddha sees every single “mode” (every atom, every thought) as signless. Because they don’t get stuck on any one “sign,” their mind is free to encompass all modes simultaneously.

Crucial insight from this section: The Bodhisattva does not “realize” the Reality Limit in the middle of their career; they “dwell” in the perfection of wisdom near it. If they realized it fully before completing the Knowledge of All Modes, they would stop being a Bodhisattva.

3. The “Unborn” Nature

If you look closely at the middle of that page, Conze likely uses terms like “unproduced” or “unborn.” The reason dharmas are signless is that they never truly “arose” with a fixed identity in the first place.

• If a chair was “born” as a “Chair,” that would be its “Sign.”
• But since a chair is just a temporary collection of wood and parts, it has no “Sign of Chair-ness” in its own nature. It is signless.

4. How to Read This Section

When the text says the nature of dharmas is signless, it is inviting you to stop “apprehending” (grabbing) the concepts you are reading.

Subhuti is essentially asking: “If everything is empty and signless, how does the Bodhisattva keep track of the different paths (the 37 Wings, etc.)?” The Buddha’s answer on 555 is essentially: “They keep track of them precisely because they don’t cling to them as ‘signs.’ They use them like tools, knowing they are empty.”

Are you at the part on that page where it discusses how a Bodhisattva “trains” in these dharmas without “taking them as a basis” (non-attachment)? I can help break down that specific distinction between “training” in a dharma and “standing” on it.

“something bas is a basis, and…

You’ve hit on one of the most technical and critical sequences in the Large Sutra. In Conze’s translation, this specific phrasing usually unfolds like a logical chain:

“Because they take something as a basis, they have a basis; because they have a basis, they have a sign…”

Here is the breakdown of what that “basis” (upalambha) means in the context of page 555 and the Knowledge of All Modes.

1. What is a “Basis” (Upalambha)?

In Prajnaparamita logic, a basis is anything the mind “grabs” onto as being real, solid, or findable. It is the “hook” that your ego uses to hang its identity on.

• The Trap: If you treat the “37 Wings of Enlightenment” as a basis, you think: _“Here is a real practice (the basis) that a real ‘I’ is doing to get a real result.”
• The Consequence: Once you have a basis, you inevitably create a Sign (nimitta). You start labeling the experience (“This is good meditation,” “This is progress”).

2. The Chain of Obstruction

The text on page 555 is explaining why “taking a basis” prevents the Knowledge of All Modes. The chain looks like this:

1. Taking a Basis: You assume a dharma (like “Wisdom”) is a “thing” that exists on its own.
2. Perceiving a Sign: You identify it, label it, and separate it from everything else.
3. Apprehension: You “grab” it mentally.
4. Duality: You create a “Me” who has the “Wisdom.”
5. Failure of Omniscience: Because you are stuck on this one “sign,” you cannot see the Signless nature of all things. You are looking at one tree and missing the entire forest of reality.

3. “Not Taking a Basis”

The Buddha is telling Subhuti that a Bodhisattva must practice the 37 Wings and the 6 Paramitas while “not taking them as a basis.”

• The “Non-Basis” Method: You do the work, you practice the mindfulness, but you never “apprehend” it as a solid entity.
• The Result: Because you don’t have a basis, you don’t produce a sign. Because you are signless, you are in harmony with the Reality Limit.

The Paradox of page 555: If you try to “reach” the Reality Limit by taking it as a basis (a goal to be grabbed), you will never reach it. You only “reach” it by realizing there is no basis to be found.

4. Connection to Knowledge of All Modes

This is the “secret sauce” of the 100,000-line sutra.

• Ordinary Knowledge is “knowledge with a basis” (knowing specific things as separate facts).
• Knowledge of All Modes is “knowledge without a basis.” It is the ability to see all the details of the universe (the modes) without ever “grabbing” any of them as a permanent “sign.”

It is like a mirror: a mirror reflects all modes of the room, but it doesn’t “take the room as a basis.” It doesn’t hold onto the image; it just reflects it perfectly because it is empty.

Summary of the logic on page 555:

• Basis = Grasping a thing as real.
• Sign = Labeling that thing.
• Signless = The true nature of that thing (empty).
• Non-apprehension = The practice of not grabbing the thing.

Does the text you’re looking at continue to explain how the Bodhisattva “trains” in this way without actually “standing” on any dharma? That “Non-Abiding” or “Not Standing” is usually the very next logical step on that page.

just the baseless is the reunion

That is a profound “mic-drop” moment in the Prajnaparamita logic. In the Conze translation, when it says “just the baseless is the reunion,” it is describing the exact point where the practitioner’s path and the ultimate reality finally “click” together.

To understand this, we have to look at what is being “reunited” and why it has to be “baseless” for that to happen.

1. What is the “Reunion”?

In this context, the Reunion (sometimes translated as conjunction or samyoga) is the meeting of two things that were only “separated” by a misunderstanding:

• Your Awareness: The “Knowledge of All Modes.”
• The Reality Limit: The ultimate, empty nature of all things.

The “reunion” isn’t two separate things coming together like two bricks. It is more like a wave realizing it is the ocean. It was always the ocean, but the “sign” of being a “wave” created the illusion of separation.

2. Why must it be “Baseless”?

The text argues that as long as you have a basis—a “something” you are holding onto—you are maintaining a distance.

• If you have a basis (e.g., “I am a meditator,” “This is the truth”), you have a sign.
• If you have a sign, you have duality (the “knower” and the “known”).
• In duality, there can be no “reunion” because the “I” is still standing over here looking at “Reality” over there.

The Logic: You cannot “reunite” with the whole if you are still clinging to a part. Therefore, only when the mind becomes baseless—finding nothing to grasp, nothing to stand on, and no “self” to do the standing—does the “reunion” occur.

3. The “Non-Dual” Result

When the text says the baseless is the reunion, it’s a warning against “trying too hard.”

• If you try to “reach” enlightenment, you’ve made enlightenment a basis.
• If you try to “find” the Reality Limit, you’ve made the limit a basis.

The “reunion” happens only when the search itself collapses because you realize there is no “basis” for a searcher or a thing to be searched for. This is the Knowledge of All Modes in its purest form: it is the “knowing” that happens when there is no “knower” left to get in the way.

4. How this looks on Page 555

On that page, the Buddha is essentially stripping Subhuti of every last “foothold.” Every time Subhuti might think, “Okay, so the goal is the baseless,” the Buddha reminds him that even the “baseless” cannot be taken as a basis.

It is a radical “letting go” where:

1. The Basis is surrendered (No grasping).
2. The Sign is surrendered (No labeling).
3. The Result: The mind “reunites” with its true nature—which is the Signless Reality Limit.

Summary Table: The Shift to Reunion

This “reunion” is often described as a “Great Calm.” Does the section you are reading now start to talk about how the Bodhisattva, having reached this “reunion,” continues to appear in the world without ever leaving that “baseless” state? That’s usually where the “Skillful Means” (Upaya) comes back into play.