What Is Retaining Delusions to Nourish Sentient Beings?

"Retaining delusion to moisten rebirth" (留惑润生) means keeping a bit of the delusions of deliberation (思惑) unsevered, so as to moisten future rebirths. If all afflictions are completely severed, and the manas no longer clings to anything in the dharmas of the three realms, then at the end of life one can, like an arhat of the fourth fruit, extinguish the five aggregates and enter nirvāṇa without remainder. From the time a bodhisattva attains seeing the mind until just before the eighth bhūmi, the bodhisattva must retain some delusions of deliberation without severing them completely; because of these delusions of deliberation, the bodhisattva can be reborn life after life, and having a body of the five aggregates, can continue studying and practicing the Buddhadharma, benefiting both self and others. If, after attaining seeing the mind, a bodhisattva severs all the afflictive delusions of deliberation, then like an arhat, when the lifespan ends, the bodhisattva will extinguish the five aggregates and enter nirvāṇa without remainder; in that case there would be no more bodhisattvas, and one could no longer continue studying and practicing the Buddhadharma. When cultivating to the seventh bhūmi, the bodhisattva, having severed all the afflictive delusions of deliberation and possessing superb meditative concentration, can enter the cessation absorption (nirodha-samāpatti) anytime and anywhere; therefore, without careful attention, the bodhisattva might enter nirvāṇa. The Buddha constantly watches over such bodhisattvas to ensure they do not enter extinction, so that they can smoothly proceed to cultivation on the eighth bhūmi. If there were no pure and great vows to sustain them, bodhisattvas on the bhūmis could easily enter nirvāṇa without remainder; this is because their meditative concentration becomes ever better, and their interest in the worldly dharmas of the three realms grows ever weaker, so that by the seventh bhūmi, they think of entering nirvāṇa in every thought. Therefore, the Buddha taught bodhisattvas that when entering the first bhūmi, they must all make the ten inexhaustible vows from the Avataṃsaka Sūtra; these vows remain inexhaustible until buddhahood. Because of the power of these vows, they will be reborn life after life without entering extinction; with the arising of the five aggregates, they can extensively deliver immeasurable sentient beings, ultimately attaining the fruit of buddhahood.