Unknown

“ Oh! thou much-desired, world-honoured one! the deep mysterious12 doctrine which Buddha has now delivered, I, from days of old, when I first obtained the eyes of wisdom, have never yet heard equalled. World-honoured one! if we suppose a person to have heard this system, and with a believing heart, pure and calm, to have received it, then in that man is produced the true distinction, and we may then know that he has obtained merit, unequalled in character, to be desired above all things. ”

“ Tathágata declares that these thirty-two distinguishing marks are no real distinctions after all, that they are but mere names.
Subhúti, if there be a virtuous disciple, male or female, who should offer body and life in a work of charity, as many times as there are sands in the Ganges; and if, on the other hand, there be a man who receives and adopts the principles of this Sútra up to the point of the four canons; on account of this man, I declare his merit is very great, and in point of number vast indeed. ”

“ Subhúti replied: No, world-honoured one! And why? this word Sakṛid-ágámí signifies “one more return to life,” and there is in truth no going or returning. This term, then, is but a mere name, and no more. ”

“ Subhúti! what think you, if there was a man who distributed in alms sufficient of the seven precious substances to fill the whole of the great chiliocosm, would his merit and consequent reward be considerable or not? ”

“ For why, if a man say that Tathágata has a definitely spoken system of doctrine, that man does but malign Buddha, for the law which I give cannot be explained in words. Subhúti, as to a definitely declared system of law, that which can be thus declared is no law, it is but an empty name. ”

“ Moreover, Subhúti, this condition of being of which I speak is one and uniform. There is no such thing as high or low in it. This condition which is named the unsurpassed, just, and enlightened (heart) , consists in nothing more than the exclusion of all individual distinctions. A man who practises all the rules of virtuous conduct will forthwith attain this condition. But, Subhúti, when we speak of rules of virtuous conduct, Tathágata declares that these rules are after all no real and lasting rules ”

“ So (it is the case that) we should neither rely on anything real or unreal (literally, on that which is a law or on that which is not a law) . Tathágata has ever spoken thus: “Ye Bhikshus, know ye well that my law is as it were but a raft to help you across the stream. The law, then, must be forsaken; how much more that which is no law!”
Cap. VII.—The state of perfection cannot be said to be obtained, nor can it be described by words.
Subhúti, what think you? Has Tathágata obtained the condition of the unsurpassed, just, and enlightened heart? ”

“ The idea seems to be this: if a man so destroy all marks of his individual character as to act without any reference to himself, or men, or other states of being, or continuance in the condition of a living creature, then he has arrived at the desired state of non-individuality, and must be lost in the ocean of Universal Life. This is the Pari nirváṅa, the condition of absolute rest—the desired repose of the Buddhist disciple. ”