What Is Retaining Delusions to Sustain Rebirth?

Retaining a residue of affliction to moisten rebirth means keeping a bit of thought-delusion and affliction unextinguished, so as to moisten future rebirths. If all afflictions are completely severed, and the manas no longer clings at all to 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. After a bodhisattva has awakened to the true mind, and until attaining the eighth bhūmi, he must retain a bit of thought-delusion without severing it completely; because of this bit of thought-delusion, he can be reborn life after life with a body of the five aggregates, and only then can he continue to study and cultivate the Buddhadharma, benefiting himself and benefiting others. If, after awakening to the true mind, a bodhisattva severs all thought-delusions and afflictions completely, then like an arhat, when his lifespan ends he will extinguish the five aggregates and enter nirvāṇa without remainder; in that case there would be no more bodhisattvas, and he could no longer continue to cultivate the Buddhadharma. When cultivating to the stage of the seventh bhūmi, since the bodhisattva has already severed all thought-delusions and afflictions, and his meditative concentration is superb, being able to enter the cessation absorption anytime and anywhere, he may inadvertently enter nirvāṇa; therefore the Buddha constantly watches over the bodhisattva to ensure that he does not enter cessation, so that he may smoothly proceed into the practice of the eighth bhūmi. If there is no pure and great vow to sustain him, bodhisattvas on the bhūmis can easily enter nirvāṇa without remainder; this is because their skill in meditative concentration grows 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 upon entering the first bhūmi, they must all make the ten endless vows from the Huayan Sūtra; these vows continue without end until buddhahood. Because of the power of this vow, they will be reborn life after life without entering cessation; with the birth of the five aggregates, they can extensively deliver immeasurable sentient beings, and ultimately attain the fruit of buddhahood.