NIRVÂNA.
{331}
/Nirvâna/, according to Mahâyâna Buddhism, is not understood in its
nihilistic sense. Even with the Çrâvakas or Hînayânists, Nirvâna in
this sense is not so much the object of their religious life as the
recognition of the Fourfold Noble Truth, or the practise of the
Eightfold Path, or emancipation from the yoke of egoism. It is mostly
due, as far as I can see, to non-Buddhist critics that the conception
of Nirvâna has been selected among others as one of the most
fundamental teachings of Buddha, declaring it at the same time to
consist in the annihilation of all human passions and aspirations,
noble as well as worthless.
In fact, Nirvâna literally means “extinction” or “dissolution” of the
five skandhas, and therefore it may be said that the entering into
Nirvâna is tantamount to the annihilation of the material existence
and of all the passions. Catholic Buddhists, however, do not understand
Nirvâna in the sense of emptiness, for they say that Buddhism is not a
religion of death nor for the dead, but that it teaches how to attain
eternal life, how to gain an insight into the real nature of things,
and how to regulate our conduct {332} in accordance with the highest
truth. Therefore, Buddhism, when rightly understood in the spirit of
its founder, is something quite different from what it is commonly
supposed to be by the general public.
I will endeavor in the following pages to point out that Nirvâna in
the sense of a total annihilation of human activities, is by no means
the primary and sole object of Buddhists, and then proceed to
elucidate in what signification it is understood in the Mahâyâna
Buddhism and see what relative position Nirvâna in its Mahâyânistic
sense occupies in the body of Buddhism.
_Nihilistic Nirvâna not the First Object._
In order to see the true signification of Nirvâna, it is necessary
first to observe in what direction Buddha himself ploughed the waves
in his religious cruise and upon what shore he finally debarked. This
will show us whether or not Nirvâna as nihilistic nothingness is the
primary and sole object of Buddhism, to which every spiritual effort
of its devotees is directed.
If the attainment of negativistic Nirvâna were the sole aim of
Buddhism, we should naturally expect Buddha’s farewell address to be
chiefly dealing with that subject. In his last sermon, however, Buddha
did not teach his disciples to concentrate all their moral efforts on
the attainment of Nirvânic quietude disregarding all the forms of
activity that exhibit themselves in life. Far from it. He told them,
according to the _Mahânibbâna sutta_ (the Book of the Great {333}
decease, _S. B. E._ Vol. XI. p. 114) that “Decay is inherent in all
component things! Work out your salvation with diligence!” This
exhortation of the strenuous life is quite in harmony with the last
words of Buddha as recorded in Açvaghoṣa’s _Buddhacarita_ (Chinese
translation, Chap. XXVI). They were:
“Even if I lived a kalpa longer,
Separation would be an inevitable end.
A body composed of various aggregates,
Its nature is not to abide forever.
“Having finished benefiting oneself and others,
Why live I longer to no purpose?
Of gods and men that should be saved,
Each and all had been delivered.
“O ye, my disciples!
Without interruption transmit the Good Dharma!
Know ye that things are destined to decay!
Never again abandon yourselves to grief!
“But pursue the Way with diligence,
And arrive at the Home of No-separation!
I have lit the Lamp of Intelligence,
That shining dispels the darkness of the world.
“Know ye that the world endureth not!
As ye should feel happy [when ye see]
The parents suffering a mortal disease
Are released by a treatment from pain;
“So with me, I now give up the vessel of misery,
Transcend[135] the current of birth and death,
And am eternally released from all pain and suffering.
This too must be deemed blest.
{334}
“Ye should well guard yourselves!
Never give yourselves up to indulgence!
All that exists finally comes to an end!
I now enter into Nirvâna.”[136]
In this we find Buddha’s characteristic admonition to his disciples
not to waste time but to work out their salvation with diligence and
rigor, but we fail to find the gospel of annihilation, the supposedly
fundamental teaching of Buddhism.
Did then Buddha start in his religious discipline to attain the
absolute annihilation of all human aspirations and after a long
meditation reach the conclusion that contradicted his premises? Far
from it. His first and last ambition was nothing else than the
emancipation of all beings from ignorance, misery, and suffering
through enlightenment, knowledge, and truth. When Mâra the evil one
was exhausting all his evil powers upon the destruction of the Buddha
in the beginning of his career, the good gods in the heavens exclaimed
to the evil one:[137]
“Take not on thyself, O Mâra, this vain fatigue,--throw aside thy
malevolence and retire to thy home. This sage cannot be shaken by thee
any more than the mighty mountain Meru by the wind.
{335}
“Even fire might lose its hot nature, water its fluidity, earth its
steadiness, but never will he abandon his resolution, who has acquired
his merit by a long course of actions through unnumbered eons.
“Such is the purpose of his, that heroic effort, that glorious
strength, that compassion for all beings,--until he attains the
highest wisdom [or suchness, _tattva_], he will never rise from his
seat, just as the sun does not rise without dispelling the darkness.
“Pitying the world lying distressed amidst diseases and passions, he,
the great physician, ought not to be hindered, who undergoes all his
labors for the sake of the remedy-knowledge.
“He, who, when he beholds the world drowned in the great flood of
existence and unable to reach the further shore, strives to bring them
safely across,--would any right-minded soul offer him wrong?
“The tree of knowledge, whose roots go deep in firmness, and whose
fibres are patience,--whose flowers are moral actions and whose
branches are memory and thought,--and which gives out the Dharma as
its fruit,--surely when it is growing it should not be cut down.”
These words of the good gods in the heavens truthfully echo the motive
that stirred Çâkyamuni to take up his gigantic task of universal
salvation, and we are unable here as before to perceive a particle of
the nihilistic speculation which is supposed to characterise Nirvâna.
The Buddha from the very first of his religious course searched after
the light that will illuminate {336} the whole universe and dispel the
darkness of nescience.
What enlightenment, then, did the Buddha, pursuing his first object,
finally gain? What truth was it that he is said to have discovered
under the Bodhi tree after six years’ penance and deep meditation? As
is universally recognised, it was no more than the Fourfold Noble
Truth and the Twelve Chains of Dependence, which are acknowledged by
the Mahâyânists as well as by the Hînayânists as the essentially
original teachings of the Buddha. What then was his subjective state
when he discovered these truths? How did he feel in his inmost being
after this intellectual triumph over egoistic thoughts and passions?
According to the Southern tradition, the famous Hymn of Victory is
said to be his utterance on this occasion. It reads (The _Dharmapada_,
153):
“Many a life to transmigrate,
Long quest, no rest, hath been my fate,
Tent-designer inquisitive for;
Painful birth from state to state.
“Tent-designer, I know thee now;
Never again to build art thou;
Quite out are all thy joyful fires,
Rafter broken and roof-tree gone;
Into the vast my heart goes on,
Gains Eternity--dead desires.”[138]
In this Hymn of Victory, the “tent-designer” means {337} the ego that
is supposed to be a subtle existence behind our mental experiences. As
was pointed out elsewhere the negative phase of Buddhism consists in
the eradication of this ego-substratum or the “designer” of eternal
transmigration. The Buddha now finds out that this ego-soul is a
fantasmagoria and has no final existence; and with this insight his
ego-centric desires that troubled him so long are eternally dead; he
feels the breaking up of their limitations; he is absorbed in the
Eternal Vast, in which we all live and move and have our being. No
shadow is perceptible here that suggests anything of an absolute
nothingness supposed to be the attribute of Nirvâna.
Before proceeding further, let us see what the Mahâyâna tradition
says concerning this point. The tradition varies in this case as in
many others. According to Beal’s _Romantic History of Buddha_, which
is a translation of a Chinese version of the _Buddhacarita_ (_Fo pen
hing ching_),[139] Buddha is reported to have exclaimed this:
“Through ages past have I acquired continual merit,
That which my heart desired have I now attained,
How quickly have I arrived at the ever-constant condition,
And landed on the very shore of Nirvâna.
The sorrows and opposition of the world,
The Lord of the Kâmalokas, Mâra Pisuna,
These are unable now to affect, they are wholly destroyed;
By the power of religious merit and of wisdom are they cast away.
Let a man but persevere with unflinching resolution,
And seek Supreme Wisdom, it will not be hard to acquire it;
When once obtained, then farewell to all sorrows,
All sin and guilt are forever done away.”[140]
{338}
Viewing the significance of Buddhism in this light, it is evident that
Buddha did not emphasise so much the doctrine of Nirvâna in the sense
of a total abnegation of human aspirations as the abandonment of
egoism and the practical regulation of our daily life in accordance
with this view. Nirvâna in which all the passions noble and base are
supposed to have been “blown out like a lamp” was not the most coveted
object of Buddhist life. On the contrary, Buddhism advises all its
followers to exercise most strenuously all their spiritual energy to
attain perfect freedom from the bondage of ignorance and egoism;
because that is the only way in which we can conquer the vanity of
worldliness and enjoy the bliss of eternal life. The following verse
from the _Visuddhi Magga_ (XXI) practically {339} sums up the teaching
of Buddhism as far as its negative and individual phase is concerned:
“Behold how empty is the world,
Mogharâja! In thoughtfulness
Let one remove belief in self,
And pass beyond the realm of death.
The king of death will never find
The man who thus the world beholds.”[141]
_Nirvâna is Positive._
It is not my intention here to investigate the historical side of this
question; we are not concerned with the problem of how the followers
of Buddha gradually developed the positive aspect of Nirvâna in
connection with the practical application of his moral and religious
{340} teachings; nor are we engaged in tracing the process of
evolution through which Buddha’s noble resolution to save all sentient
beings from ignorance and misery was brought out most conspicuously by
his later devotees. What I wish to state here about the positive
conception of Nirvâna and its development is this: The Mahâyâna
Buddhism was the first religious teaching in India that contradicted
the doctrine of Nirvâna as conceived by other Hindu thinkers who saw
in it a complete annihilation of being, for they thought that
existence is evil, and evil is misery, and the only way to escape
misery is to destroy the root of existence, which is nothing less than
the total cessation of human desires and activities in Nirvânic
unconsciousness. The Yoga taught self-forgetfulness in deep
meditation; the Samkhya, the absolute separation of Puruṣa from
Prakṛti, which means undisturbed self-contemplation; the Vedânta,
absorption in the Brahma, which is the total suppression of all
particulars; and thus all of them considered emancipation from human
desires and aspirations a heavenly bliss, that is, Nirvâna.
Metaphysically speaking, they might have been correct each in its own
way, but, ethically considered, their views had little significance in
our practical life and showed a sad deficiency in dealing with
problems of morality.
The Buddha was keenly aware of this flaw in their doctrines. He
taught, therefore, that Nirvâna does not consist in the complete
stoppage of existence, but in the practise of the Eightfold Path. This
moral {341} practise leads to the unalloyed joy of Nirvâna, not as
the tranquillisation of human aspirations, but as the fulfilment or
unfolding of human life. The word Nirvâna in the sense of annihilation
was in existence prior to Buddha, but it was he who gave a new
significance to it and made it worthy of attainment by men of moral
character. All the doctrinal aspects of Nirvâna are later additions or
rather development made by Buddhist scholars, according to whom their
arguments are solidly based on some canonical passages. Whatever the
case may be, my conviction is that those who developed the positive
significance of Nirvâna are more consistent with the spirit of the
founder than those who emphasised another aspect of it. In the _Udâna_
we read (IV., 9):
“He whom life torments not,
Who sorrows not at the approach of death,
If such a one is resolute and has seen Nirvâna,
In the midst of grief, he is griefless.
The tranquil-minded Bhikkhu, who has uprooted the thirst for
existence,
By him the succession of births is ended,
He is born no more.”[142]
According to the Mahâyânistic conception Nirvâna is not the
annihilation of the world and the putting an end to life; but it is to
live in the whirlpool of birth and death and yet to be above it. It is
affirmation and fulfilment, and this is done not blindly and
egoistically, for Nirvâna is enlightenment. Let us see how this is.
{342}
_The Mahâyânistic Conception of Nirvâna._
While the conception of Nirvâna seems to have remained indefinite and
confused as far as Hînayânism goes, the Mahâyâna Buddhists have
attached several definite shades of meaning to Nirvâna and tried to
give each of them some special, distinctive character. When it is used
in its most comprehensive metaphysical sense, it becomes synonymous
with Suchness (_tattva_) or with the Dharmakâya. When we speak of
Buddha’s entrance into Nirvâna, it means the end of material
existence, i.e., death. When it is used in contrast to birth and death
(_samsâra_) or to passion and sin (_kleça_), it signifies in the
former case an eternal life or a state of immortality, and in the
latter case a state of consciousness that follows from the recognition
of the presence of the Dharmakâya in individual existences. Nirvâna
has thus become a very comprehensive term, and this fact adds much to
the confusion and misunderstanding with which it has been treated ever
since Buddhism became known to the Occident. The so-called “primitive
Buddhism” is not altogether unfamiliar with all these meanings given
to Nirvâna, though in some cases they might have been but faintly
foreshadowed. Most of European missionaries and scholars have ignored
this fact and wanted to see in Nirvâna but one definite, stereotyped
sense which will loosen or untie all the difficult knots connected
with its use. One scholar would select a certain passage in a certain
sûtra, where the meaning {343} is tolerably distinct, and taking this
as the key endeavor to solve all the rest; while another scholar would
do the same thing with another passage from the scriptures and refute
other fellow-workers. The majority of them, however, have found for
missionary purposes to be advantageous to hold one meaning prominently
above all the others that may be considered possibly the meaning of
Nirvâna. This one meaning that has been made specially conspicuous is
its negativistic interpretation.
According to the _Vijñânamâtra çâstra_ (Chinese version Vol. X.), the
Mahâyâna Buddhists distinguish four forms of Nirvâna. They are:
(1) _Absolute Nirvâna_, as a synonym of the Dharmakâya. It is
eternally immaculate in its essence and constitutes the truth and
reality of all existences. Though it manifests itself in the world of
defilement and relativity, its essence forever remains undefiled.
While it embraces in itself innumerable incomprehensible spiritual
virtues, it is absolutely simple and immortal; its perfect
tranquillity may be likened unto space in which every conceivable
motion is possible, but which remains in itself the same. It is
universally present in all beings whether animate or inanimate[143]
and makes their existence real. In one respect it can be identified
with them, that is, it can be pantheistically viewed; but in the other
respect it is transcendental, {344} for every being as it is is not
Nirvâna. This spiritual significance is, however, beyond the ken of
ordinary human understanding and can be grasped only by the highest
intelligence of Buddha.
(2) _Upadhiçeṣa Nirvâna_, or Nirvâna that has some residue. This is a
state of enlightenment which can be attained by Buddhists in their
lifetime. The Dharmakâya which was dormant in them is now awakened and
freed from the “affective obstacles,”[144] but they are yet under the
bondage of birth and death; and thus they are not yet absolutely free
from the misery of life: something still remains in them that makes
them suffer pain.
(3) _Anupadhiçeṣa Nirvâna_, or Nirvâna that has no residue. This is
attained when the Tathâgata-essence (the Dharmakâya) is released from
the pain of birth and death as well as from the curse of passion and
sin. This form of Nirvâna seems to be what is generally understood by
Occidental missionary-scholars as the Nirvâna of Buddhists. While in
lifetime, they have been emancipated from the egoistic conception of
the soul, they have practised the Eightfold Path, and they {345} have
destroyed all the roots of karma that makes possible their
metempsychosis in the world of birth and death (_samsâra_), though as
the inevitable sequence of their previous karma they have yet to
suffer all the evils inherent in the material existence. But at last
they have had even this mortal coil dissolved away, and have returned
to the original Absolute from which by virtue of ignorance they had
come out and gone through a cycle of births and deaths. This state of
supramundane bliss in the realm of the Absolute is Anupadiçeṣa
Nirvâna, that is, Nirvâna that has no residue.
(4) _The Nirvâna that has no abode._ In this, the Buddha-essence has
not only been freed from the curse of passion and sin (_kleça_), but
from the intellectual prejudice, which most tenaciously clings to the
mind. The Buddha-essence or the Dharmakâya is revealed here in its
perfect purity. All-embracing love and all-knowing intelligence
illuminate the path. He who has attained to this state of subjective
enlightenment is said to have no abode, no dwelling place, that is to
say, he is no more subject to the transmigration of birth and death
(_samsâra_), nor does he cling to Nirvâna as the abode of complete
rest; in short, he is above Samsâra and Nirvâna. His sole object in
life is to benefit all sentient beings to the end of time; but this he
proposes to do not by his human conscious elaboration and striving.
Simply actuated by his all-embracing love which is of the Dharmakâya,
he wishes to deliver all his fellow-creatures from misery, he does
{346} not seek his own emancipation from the turmoil of life. He is
fully aware of the transitoriness of worldly interests, but on this
account he desires not to shun them. With his all-knowing intelligence
he gains a spiritual insight into the ultimate nature of things and
the final course of existence. He is one of those religious men “that
weep, as though they wept not; that rejoice as though they rejoiced
not; that buy, as though they possessed not; that use this world, as
not abusing it; for the fashion of this world passes away.” Nay, he is
in one sense more than this; his life is full of positive activity,
because his heart and soul are devoted to the leading of all beings to
final emancipation and supreme bliss. When a man attains to this stage
of spiritual life, he is said to be in the Nirvâna that has no abode.
A commentator on the _Vijñânamâtra Çâstra_ adds that of these four
forms of Nirvâna the first is possessed by every sentient being,
whether it is actualised in its human perfection or lying dormant _in
posse_ and miserably obscured by ignorance; that the second and third
are attained by all the Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas, while it is a
Buddha alone that is in possession of all the four forms of Nirvâna.
_Nirvâna as the Dharmakâya._
It is manifest from the above statement that in Mahâyânism Nirvâna
has acquired several shades of meaning psychological and ontological.
This apparent confusion, however, is due to the purely idealistic
{347} tendency of Mahâyânism, which ignores the distinction usually
made between being and thought, object and subject, the perceived and
the perceiving. Nirvâna is not only a subjective state of
enlightenment but an objective power through whose operation this
beatific state becomes attainable. It does not simply mean a total
absorption in the Absolute or of emancipation from earthly desires in
lifetime as exemplified in the life of the Arhat. Mahâyânists perceive
in Nirvâna not only this, but also its identity with the Dharmakâya,
or Suchness, and recognise its universal spiritual presence in all
sentient beings.
When Nâgârjuna says in his _Mâdhyamika Çâstra_[145] that: “That is
called Nirvâna which is not wanting, is not acquired, is not
intermittent, is not non-intermittent, is not subject to destruction,
and is not created;” he evidently speaks of Nirvâna as a synonym of
Dharmakâya, that is, in its first sense as above described. Chandra
Kîrti, therefore, rightly comments that Nirvâna is
_sarva-kalpanâ-kṣaya-rûpam_,[146] i.e., that which transcends all
the forms of determination. {348} Nirvâna is an absolute, it is above
the relativity of existence (_bhâva_) and non-existence
(_abhâva_).[147]
Nirvâna is sometimes spoken of as possessing four attributes; (1)
eternal (_nitya_), (2) blissful (_sukha_), (3) self-acting (_âtman_),
and (4) pure (_çuçi_). Judging from these qualities thus ascribed to
Nirvâna as its essential features, Nirvâna is here again identified
with the highest reality of Buddhism, that is, with the Dharmakâya.
It is eternal because it is immaterial; it is blissful because it is
above all sufferings; it is self-acting because it knows no
compulsion; it is pure because it is not defiled by passion and
error.[148]
{349}
_Nirvâna in its Fourth Sense._
No further elucidation is needed for the first signification of
Nirvâna, for we have treated it already when explaining the nature of
the Dharmakâya. Nor is it necessary for us to dwell upon the second
and the third phases of it. The Occidental missionary-scholars and
Orientalists, however one-sided and often biased, have almost
exhaustively investigated these points from the Pâli sources. What
remains for us now is to analyse the Mahâyânistic conception of
Nirvâna which was stated above as its fourth signification.
Nirvâna, briefly speaking, is a realisation in this life of the
all-embracing love and all-knowing intelligence of Dharmakâya. It is
the unfolding of the reason of existence, which in the ordinary human
life remains more or less eclipsed by the shadow of ignorance and
egoism. It does not consist in the mere observance of the moral
precepts laid down by Buddha, nor in the blind following of the
Eightfold Path, nor in retirement from the world and absorption in
abstract meditation. The Mahâyânistic Nirvâna is full of energy and
activity which issues from the all-embracing love of the Dharmakâya.
There is no passivity in it, nor a keeping aloof from the hurly-burly
of worldliness. {350} He who is in this Nirvâna does not seek a rest
in the annihilation of human aspirations, does not flinch in the face
of endless transmigration. On the contrary, he plunges himself into
the ever-rushing current of Samsâra and sacrifices himself to save
his fellow-creatures from being eternally drowned in it.
Though thus the Mahâyâna Nirvâna is realised only in the mire of
passions and errors, it is never contaminated by the filth of
ignorance. Therefore, he that is abiding in Nirvâna, even in the
whirlpool of egoism and in the darkness of sin, does not lose his
all-seeing insight that penetrates deep into the ultimate nature of
being. He is aware of the transitoriness of things. He knows that this
life is a mere passing moment in the eternal manifestation of the
Dharmakâya, whose work can be realised only in boundless space and
endless time. As he is fully awake to this knowledge, he never gets
engrossed in the world of sin. He lives in the world like unto the
lotus-flower, the emblem of immaculacy, which grows out of the mire
and yet shares not its defilement. He is also like unto a bird flying
in the air that does not leave any trace behind it. He may again be
likened unto the clouds that spontaneously gather around the mountain
peak, and, soaring high as the wind blows, vanish away to the region
where nobody knows. In short, he is living in, and yet beyond, the
realm of Samsâra and Nirvâna.
We read in the _Vimalakirti Sûtra_ (chap. VIII.):
“Vimalakirti asks Mañjuçri: ‘How is it that you {351} declare all
[human] passions and errors are the seeds of Buddhahood?’
“Mañjuçri replies: ‘O son of good family! Those who cling to the view
of non-activity [_asamskrita_] and dwell in a state of eternal
annihilation do not awaken in them supremely perfect knowledge
[_anuttara-samyak-sambodhi_]. Only the Bodhisattvas, who dwell in the
midst of passions and errors, and who, passing through the [ten]
stages, rightly contemplate the ultimate nature of things, are able to
awaken and attain intelligence [_prajñâ_].
“‘Just as the lotus-flowers do not grow in the dry land, but in the
dark-colored, waterly mire, O son of good family, it is even so [with
intelligence (_prajñâ_ or _bodhi_)] In non-activity and eternal
annihilation which are cherished by the Çrâvakas and the
Pratyekabuddhas, there is no opportunity for the seeds and sprouts of
Buddhahood to grow. Intelligence can grow only in the mire and dirt of
passion and sin. It is by virtue of passion and sin that the seeds and
sprouts of Buddhahood are able to grow.
“‘O son of good family! Just as no seeds can grow in the air, but in
the filthy, muddy soil,--and there even luxuriously,--O son of good
family, it is even so [with the Bodhi]. It does not grow out of
non-activity and eternal annihilation. It is only out of the
mountainous masses of egoistic, selfish thoughts that Intelligence is
awakened and grows to the incomprehensible wisdom of Buddha-seeds.
“‘O son of good family! Just as we cannot obtain {352} priceless
pearls unless we dive into the depths of the four great oceans, O son
of good family, it is even so [with Intelligence]. If we do not dive
deep into the mighty ocean of passion and sin, how could we get hold
of the precious gem of Buddha-essence? Let it therefore be understood
that the primordial seeds of Intelligence draw their vitality from the
midst of passion and sin.’” In a Pauline epistle we read, “From the
foulness of the soil, the beauty of new life grows.” And Emerson
sings:
“Let me go where’er I will,
I hear a sky-born music still.
’Tis not in the high stars alone,
Nor in the cup of budding flowers,
Nor in the redbreast’s mellow tone,
Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,
But in the mud and scum of things.
There always, always, something sings.”
Do we not see here a most explicit statement of the Mahâyânistic
sentiment?
_Nirvâna and Samsâra are One._
The most remarkable feature in the Mahâyânistic conception of Nirvâna
is expressed in this formula: “Yas kleças so bodhi, yas samsâras tat
nirvânam.” What is sin or passion, that is Intelligence, what is birth
and death (or transmigration), that is Nirvâna. This is a rather bold
and revolutionising proposition in the dogmatic history of Buddhism.
But it is no more than the natural development of the spirit that was
breathed by its founder.
{353}
In the _Viçeṣacinta-brahma-paripṛccha Sûtra_,[149] it is said that
(chap. II):
“Samsâra is Nirvâna, because there is, when viewed from the ultimate
nature of the Dharmakâya, nothing going out of, nor coming into,
existence, [samsâra being only apparent]: Nirvâna is samsâra, when it
is coveted and adhered to.”
In another place (_op. cit._) the idea is expressed in much plainer
terms: “The essence of all things is in truth free from attachment,
attributes, and desires; therefore, they are pure, and, as they are
pure, we know that what is the essence of birth and death that is the
essence of Nirvâna, and that what is the essence of Nirvâna that is
the essence of birth and death (_samsâra_). In other words, Nirvâna
is not to be sought outside of this world, which, though transient, is
in reality no more than Nirvâna itself. Because it is contrary to our
reason to imagine that there is Nirvâna and there is birth and death
(_samsâra_), and that the one lies outside the pale of the other,
and, therefore, that we can attain Nirvâna only after we have
annihilated or escaped the world of birth and death. If we are not
hampered by our confused subjectivity, this our worldly life is an
activity of Nirvâna itself.”
Nâgârjuna repeats the same sentiment in his _Mâdhyamika Çâstra_, when
he says:
{354}
“Samsâra is in no way to be distinguished from Nirvâna:
Nirvâna is in no way to be distinguished from Samsâra.”[150]
Or,
“The sphere of Nirvâna is the sphere of Samsâra:
Not the slightest distinction exists between them.”[151]
Asanga goes a step further and boldly declares that all the
Buddha-dharmas, of which Nirvâna or Dharmakâya forms the foundation,
are characterised with the passions, errors, and sins of vulgar minds.
He says in _Mahâyâna-Sangraha Çâstra_ (the Chinese Tripitaka, Japanese
edition of 1881, _wang_ VIII., p. 84):
“(1) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with eternality, for the
Dharmakâya is eternal.
“(2) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with an extinguishing power,
for they extinguish all the obstacles for final emancipation.
“(3) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with regeneration, for the
Nirmânakâya [Body of Transformation] constantly regenerates.
“(4) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with the power of
attainment, for by the attainment [of truth] they subjugate
innumerable evil passions as cherished by ignorant beings.
“(5) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with the desire to gain, ill
humor, folly, and all the other {355} passions of vulgar minds, for it
is through the Buddha’s love that those depraved souls are saved.
“(6) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with non-attachment and
non-defilement, for Suchness which is made perfect by these virtues
cannot be defiled by any evil powers.
“(7) All Buddha-dharmas are above attachment and defilement, for
though all Buddhas reveal themselves in the world, worldliness cannot
defile them.”[152]
Buddha-dharma means any thing, or any virtue, or any faculty, that
belongs to Buddhahood. Non-attachment is a Buddha-dharma, love is a
Buddha-dharma, wisdom is a Buddha-dharma. and in fact anything is a
Buddha-dharma which is an attribute of the Perfect One, not to mention
the Dharmakâya or Nirvâna which constitutes the very essence of
Buddhahood. Therefore, the conclusion which is to be drawn from those
seven propositions of Asanga as above quoted is this: Not only is this
world of constant transformation as a whole Nirvâna, but its apparent
errors and sins and evils are also the various phases of the
manifestation of Nirvâna.
The above being the Mahâyânistic view of Nirvâna, it is evident that
Nirvâna is not something transcendental or that which stands above
this world of birth {356} and death, joy and sorrow, love and hate,
peace and struggle. Nirvâna is not to be sought in the heavens nor
after a departure from this earthly life nor in the annihilation of
human passions and aspirations. On the contrary, it must be sought in
the midst of worldliness, as life with all its thrills of pain and
pleasure is no more than Nirvâna itself. Extinguish your life and
seek Nirvâna in anchoretism, and your Nirvâna is forever lost. Consign
your aspirations, hopes, pleasures, and woes, and everything that
makes up a life to the eternal silence of the grave, and you bury
Nirvâna never to be recovered. In asceticism, or in meditation, or in
ritualism, or even in metaphysics, the more impetuously you pursue
Nirvâna, the further away it flies from you. It was the most serious
mistake ever committed by any religious thinkers to imagine that
Nirvâna which is the complete satisfaction of our religious feeling
could be gained by laying aside all human desires, ambitions, hopes,
pains, and pleasures. Have your own Bodhi (intelligence) thoroughly
enlightened through love and knowledge, and everything that was
thought sinful and filthy turns out to be of divine purity. It is the
same human heart, formerly the fount of ignorance and egoism, now the
abode of eternal beatitude--Nirvâna shining in its intrinsic
magnificence.
Suppose a torch light is taken into a dark cell, which people had
hitherto imagined to be the abode of hideous, uncanny goblins, and
which on that account they wanted to have completely destroyed to the
{357} ground. The bright light now ushered in at once disperses the
darkness, and every nook and corner therein is perfectly illumined.
Everything in it now assumes its proper aspect. And to their surprise
people find that those figures which they formerly considered to be
uncanny and horrible are nothing but huge precious stones, and they
further learn that every one of those stones can be used in some way
for the great benefit of their fellow-creatures. The dark cell is the
human heart before the enlightenment of Nirvâna, the torch light is
love and intelligence. When love warms and intelligence brightens, the
heart finds every passion and sinful desire that was the cause of
unbearable anguish now turned into a divine aspiration. The heart
itself, however, remains the same just as much as the cell, whose
identity was never affected either by darkness or by brightness. This
parable nicely illustrates the Mahâyânistic doctrine of the identity
of Nirvâna and Samsâra, and of the Bodhi and Kleça, that is, of
intelligence and passion.
Therefore, it is said:
“All sins transformed into the constituents of enlightenment!
The vicissitudes of Samsâra transformed into the beatitude of Nirvâna!
All these come from the exercise of the great religious discipline
(_upâya_);
Beyond our understanding, indeed, is the mystery of all Buddhas.”[153]
{358}
_The Middle Course._
In one sense the Buddha always showed an eclectic, conciliatory,
synthetic spirit in his teachings. He refused to listen to any extreme
doctrine which elevates one end too high at the expense of the other
and culminates in the collapse of the whole edifice. When the Buddha
left his seat of enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, he made it his
mission to avoid both extremes, asceticism and hedonism. He proved
throughout his life to be a calm, dignified, thoughtful,
well-disciplined person, and at no time irritable in character,--in
this latter respect being so different from the sage of Nazareth, who
in anger cast out all the tradesmen in the temple and overthrew the
tables of the money-changers, and who cursed the fig tree on which he
could not find any fruit but leaves unfit to appease his hunger. The
doctrine of the Middle Path (_Mâdhyamârga_), whatever it may mean
morally and intellectually, always characterised the life and doctrine
of Buddha as well as the later development of his teachings. His
followers, however different in their individual views, professed as a
rule to pursue steadily the Middle Path as paved by the Master. Even
when Nâgârjuna proclaimed his celebrated doctrine of Eight No’s which
seems to superficial critics nothing but an absolute nihilism, he said
that the Middle Path could be found only in those eight no’s.[154]
{359}
Mahâyânism has certainly applied this synthetic method of Buddha to
its theory of Nirvâna and ennobled it by fully developing its immanent
signification. In the _Discourse on Buddha-essence_, Vasubandhu quotes
the following passage from the _Çrimala Sûtra_, which plainly shows
the path along which the Mahâyânists traveled before they reached
their final conclusion: “Those who see only the transitoriness of
existence are called nihilists, and those who see only the eternality
of Nirvâna are called eternalists. Both views are incorrect.”
Vasubandhu then proceeds to say: “Therefore, the Dharmakâya of the
Tathâgata is free from both extremes, and on that account it is called
the Great Eternal Perfection. When viewed from this absolute standpoint
of Suchness, the logical distinction between Nirvâna and Samsâra cannot
in reality be maintained, and hereby we enter upon the realm of
non-duality.” And this realm of non-duality is the Middle Path of
Nirvâna, not in its nihilistic, but in its Mahâyânistic, significance.
_How to Realise Nirvâna._
How can we attain the Middle Path of Nirvâna? How can we realise a
life that is neither pessimistic asceticism nor materialistic
hedonism? How can we steer through the whirlpools of Samsâra without
being {360} swallowed up and yet braving their turbulent gyration? The
answer to this can readily be given, when we understand, as repeatedly
stated above, that this life is the manifestation of the Dharmakâya,
and that the ideal of human existence is to realise within the
possibilities of his mind and body all that he can conceive of the
Dharmakâya. And this we have found to be all-embracing love and
all-seeing intelligence. Destroy then your ignorance at one blow and
be done with your egoism, and there springs forth an eternal stream of
love and wisdom.
Says Vasubandhu: “By virtue of Prajñâ [intelligence or wisdom], our
egoistic thoughts are destroyed: by virtue of Karuṇâ [love],
altruistic thoughts are cherished. By virtue of Prajñâ, the
[affective] attachment inherent in vulgar minds is abolished; by
virtue of Karuṇâ, the [intellectual] attachment as possessed by the
Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas is abolished. By virtue of Prajñâ,
Nirvâna [in its transcendental sense] is not rejected; by virtue of
Karuṇâ, Samsâra [with its changes and transmigrations] is not rejected.
By virtue of Prajñâ the truth of Buddhism is attained; by virtue of
Karuṇâ, all sentient beings are matured [for salvation].”
The practical life of a Buddhist runs in two opposite, though not
antagonistic, directions, one upward and the other downward, and the
two are synthesised in the Middle Path of Nirvâna. The upward
direction points to the intellectual comprehension of the truth, while
the downward one to a realisation of all-embracing {361} love among
his fellow-creatures. One is complemented by the other. When the
intellectual side is too much emphasised at the expense of the
emotional, we have a Pratyekabuddha, a solitary thinker, whose
fountain of tears is dry and does not flow over the sufferings of his
fellow-beings. When the emotional side alone is asserted to the
extreme, love acquires the egoistic tint that colors everything coming
in contact with it. Because it does not discriminate and takes
sensuality for spirituality. If it does not turn out sentimentalism,
it will assume a hedonistic form. How many superstitious, or foul, or
even atrocious deeds in the history of religion have been committed
under the beautiful name of religion, or love of God and mankind! It
makes the blood run cold when we think how religious fanatics burned
alive their rivals or opponents at the stake, cruelly butchered
thousands of human lives within a day, brought desolation and ruin
throughout the land of their enemies,--and all these works of the
Devil executed for sheer love of God! Therefore, says Devala, the
author of the _Discourse on the Mahâpuruṣa_ (Great Man): “The wise
do not approve lovingkindness without intelligence, nor do they
approve intelligence without lovingkindness; because one without the
other prevents us from reaching the highest path.” Knowledge is the
eye, love is the limb. Directed by the eye, the limb knows how to
move; furnished with the limb, the eye can attain what it perceives.
Love alone is blind, knowledge alone is lame. It is only when one is
supplemented {362} by the other that we have a perfect, complete man.
In Buddha as the ideal human being we recognise the perfection of love
and intelligence; for it was in him that the Dharmakâya found its
perfect realisation in the flesh. But as far as the Bodhisattvas are
concerned, their natural endowments are so diversified and their
temperament is so uneven that in some the intellectual elements are
more predominant while in others the emotional side is more pronounced,
that while some are more prone to practicality others preferably look
toward intellectualism. Thus, as a matter of course, some Bodhisattvas
will be more of philosophers than of religious seers. They may tend in
some cases to emphasise the intellectual side of religion more than
its emotional side and uphold the importance of prajñâ (intelligence)
above that of karuṇâ (love). But the Middle Path of Nirvâna lies in
the true harmonisation of prajñâ and karuṇâ, of bodhi and upâya, of
knowledge and love, of intellect and feeling.
_Love Awakens Intelligence._
But if we have to choose between the two, let us first have
all-embracing love, the Buddhists would say; for it is love that
awakens in us an intense desire to find the way of emancipating the
masses from perpetual sufferings and eternal transmigration. The
intellect will now endeavor to realise its highest possibilities; the
Bodhi will exhibit its fullest strength. When it is found out that
this life is an expression of the Dharmakâya which is one and eternal,
that {363} individual existences have no selfhood (_âtman_ or
_svabhâva_) as far as they are due to the particularisation of
subjective ignorance, and, therefore, that we are true and real only
when we are conceived as one in the absolute Dharmakâya, the
Bodhisattva’s love which caused him to search after the highest truth
will now unfold its fullest significance.
This love, or faith in the Mahâyâna, as it is sometimes called, is
felt rather vaguely at the first awakening of the religious
consciousness, and agitates the mind of the aspirant, whose life has
hitherto been engrossed in every form of egocentric thought and
desire. He no more finds an unalloyed satisfaction, as the Çrâvakas
or the Pratyekabuddhas do, in his individual emancipation from the
curse of Samsâra. However sweet the taste of release from the bond of
ignorance, it is lacking something that makes the freedom perfectly
agreeable to the Bodhisattva who thinks more of others than of
himself; to be sweet as well as acceptable, it must be highly savored
with lovingkindness which embraces all his fellow-beings as his own
children. The emancipation of the Çrâvaka or of the Pratyekabuddha
is like a delicious food which is wanting in saline taste, for it is
no more than a dry, formal philosophical emancipation. Love is that
which stimulates a man to go beyond his own interests. It is the
mother of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The sacred motive that induces
them to renounce a life of Nirvânic self-complacency, is nothing but
their boundless love for all beings. They do {364} not wish to rest in
their individual emancipation, they want to have all sentient creatures
without a single exception emancipated and blest in paradisiacal
happiness. Love, therefore, bestows on us two spiritual benefits: (1)
It saves all beings from misery and (2) awakens in us the
Buddha-intelligence.
The following passages quoted at random from Devala’s _Mahâpuruṣa_
will help our readers to understand the true signification of Nirvâna
and the value of love (_karuṇâ_) as estimated by the Mahâyânists.
“Those who are afraid of transmigration and seek their own benefits
and happiness in final emancipation, are not at all comparable to
those Bodhisattvas, who rejoice when they come to assume a material
existence once again, for it affords them another opportunity to
benefit others. Those who are only capable of feeling their own
selfish sufferings may enter into Nirvâna [and not trouble themselves
with the sufferings of other creatures like themselves]; but the
Bodhisattva who feels in himself all the sufferings of his
fellow-beings as his own, how can he bear the thought of leaving
others behind while he is on his way to final emancipation, and when
he himself is resting in Nirvânic quietude?..... Nirvâna in truth
consists in rejoicing at other’s being made happy, and Samsâra in not
so feeling. He who feels a universal love for his fellow-creatures
will rejoice in distributing blessings among them and find his Nirvâna
in so doing.[155]
{365}
“Suffering really consists in pursuing one’s egotistic happiness,
while Nirvâna is found in sacrificing one’s welfare for the sake of
others. People generally think that it is an emancipation when they
are released from their own pain, but a man with loving heart finds it
in rescuing others from misery.
“With people who are not kindhearted, there is no sin that will not be
committed by them. They are called the most wicked whose hearts are
not softened at the sight of others’ misfortune and suffering.
“When all beings are tortured by avarice, passion, ill humor,
infatuation, and folly, and are constantly threatened by the misery of
birth and death, disease and decay..... how can the Bodhisattva live
among them and not feel pity for them?
“Of all good virtues, lovingkindness stands foremost.... It is the
source of all merit.... It is the {366} mother of all Buddhas.... It
induces others to take refuge in the incomparable Bodhi.
“The loving heart of a Bodhisattva is annoyed by one thing, that all
beings are constantly tortured and threatened by all sorts of pain.”
Let us quote another interesting passage from a Mahâyâna sûtra.
When Vimalakirti was asked why he did not feel well, he made the
following reply, which is full of religious significance: “From
ignorance there arises desire and that is the cause of my illness. As
all sentient beings are ill, so am I ill. When all sentient beings are
healed of their illness, I shall be healed of my illness, too. Why?
The Bodhisattva suffers birth and death because of sentient beings. As
there is birth and death, so there is illness. When sentient beings
are delivered from illness, the Bodhisattvas will suffer no more
illness. When an only son in a good family is sick, the parents feel
sick too: when he is recovered they are well again. So it is with the
Bodhisattva. He loves all sentient beings as his own children. When
they are sick, he is sick too. When they are recovered, he is well
again. Do you wish to know whence this [sympathetic] illness is? The
illness of the Bodhisattva comes from his all-embracing love
(_mahâkarunâ_).”
This gospel of universal love is the consummation of all religious
emotions whatever their origin. Without this, there is no
religion--that is, no religion that is animated with life and spirit.
For it is in the fact {367} and nature of things that we are not moved
by mere contemplation or mere philosophising. Every religion may have
its own way of intellectually interpreting this fact, but the
practical result remains the same everywhere, viz. that it cannot
survive without the animating energy of love. Whatever sound and fine
reasoning there may be in the doctrine of the Çrâvaka and the
Pratyekabuddha, the force that is destined to conquer the world and to
deliver us from misery is not intellection, but the will, i.e. the
pûrvapranidhâna of the Dharmakâya.
_Conclusion._
We now conclude. What is most evident from what we have seen above is
that the Mahâyâna Nirvâna is not the annihilation of life but its
enlightenment, that it is not the nullification of human passions and
aspirations but their purification and ennoblement. This world of
eternal transmigration is not a place which should be shunned as the
playground of evils, but should be regarded as the place of
ever-present opportunities given to us for the purpose of unfolding
all our spiritual possibilities and powers for the sake of the
universal welfare. There is no need for us to shrink, like the snail
into his cozy shelter, before the duties and burdens of life. The
Bodhisattva, on the contrary, finds Nirvâna in a concatenation of
births and deaths and boldly faces the problem of evil and solves it
by purifying the Bodhi from subjective ignorance.
{368}
His rule of conduct is:
“Sabba pâpassa akaranam,
Kusalassa upasampada,
Sacitta pariyodapanam;
Etam buddhânu sâsanam.”[156]
His aspirations are solemnly expressed in this, which we hear daily
recited in the Mahâyâna Buddhist temples and monasteries and
seminaries:
“Sentient beings, however innumerable, I take vow to save;
Evil passions, however inextinguishable, I take vow to destroy;
The avenues of truth, however numberless, I take vow to study;
The way of the Enlightened, however unsurpassable, I take vow to
attain.”
And an indefatigable pursuit of these noble aims will finally lead to
the heaven of the Buddhists, Nirvâna, which is not a state of eternal
quietude, but the source of energy and intelligence.
By way of summary, and to avoid all misconceptions, let me repeat once
more that Nirvâna is thus no negation of life, nor is it an idle
contemplation on the misery of existence. The life of a Buddhist
consists by no means in the monotonous repetition of reciting the
sûtras and going his rounds for meals. Far from that. He enters into
all the forms of life-activity, for he does not believe that universal
emancipation {369} is achieved by imprisoning himself in the cloister.
Theoretically speaking, Nirvâna is the dispersion of the clouds of
ignorance hovering around the light of Bodhi. Morally, it is the
suppression of egoism and the awakening of love (_karunâ_).
Religiously, it is the absolute surrender of the self to the will of
the Dharmakâya. When the clouds of ignorance are dispersing, our
intellectual horizon gets clearer and wider; we perceive that our
individual existences are like bubbles and lightnings, but that they
obtain reality in their oneness with the Body of Dharma. This
conviction compels us to eternally abandon our old egoistic conception
of life. The ego finds its significance only when it is conceived in
relation to the not-ego, that is, to the _alter_; in other words,
self-love has no meaning whatever unless it is purified by love for
others. But this love for others must not remain blind and
unenlightened, it must be in harmony with the will of the Dharmakâya
which is the norm of existence and the reason of being. The mission of
love is ennobled and fulfilled in its true sense when we come to the
faith that says “thy will be done.” Love without this resignation to
the divine ordinance is merely another form of egoism: the root is
already rotten, how can its trunk, stems, leaves, and flowers make a
veritable growth?
Let us then conclude with the following reflections of the Bodhisattva,
in which we read the whole signification of Buddhism.
{370}
“Having practised all the six virtues of perfection (_pâramitâ_) and
innumerable other meritorious deeds, the Bodhisattva reflects in this
wise:
“‘All the good deeds practised by me are for the benefit of all
sentient beings, for their ultimate purification [from sin]. By the
merit of these good deeds I pray that all sentient beings be released
from the innumerable sufferings suffered by them in their various
abodes of existence. By the turning over (_parivarta_) of these deeds
I would be a haven for all beings and deliver them from their
miserable existences; I would be a great beacon-light to all beings
and dispel the darkness of ignorance and make the light of intelligence
shine.’
“He reflects again in this wise:
“‘All sentient beings are creating evil karma in innumerable ways, and
by reason of this karma they suffer innumerable sufferings. They do
not recognise the Tathâgata, do not listen to the Good Law, do not
pay homage to the congregation of holy men. All these beings carry an
innumerable amount of great evil karma and are destined to suffer in
innumerable ways. For their sake I will in the midst of the three evil
creations suffer all their sufferings and deliver every one of them.
Painful as these sufferings are, I will not retreat, I will not be
frightened, I will not be negligent, I will not forsake my
fellow-beings. Why? Because it is the will [of the Dharmakâya] that
all sentient beings should be universally emancipated.’
{371}
“He reflects again in this wise:
“‘My conduct will be like the sun-god who with his universal
illumination seeks not any reward, who ceases not on account of one
unrighteous person to make a great display of his magnificent glory,
who on account of one unrighteous person abandons not the salvation of
all beings. Through the dedication (_parivarta_) of all my merits I
would make every one of my fellow-creatures happy and joyous.’” (The
_Avatamsaka Sûtra_, fas XIV).
{372}
APPENDIX.
{373}
{374}
{375}
HYMNS OF MAHÂYÂNA FAITH.
DHARMAKÂYA (TATHÂGATA).[a01]
In all beings there abideth the Dharmakâya;
With all virtues dissolved in it, it liveth in eternal calmness.
It knoweth nor birth nor death, coming nor going;
Not one, not two; not being, not becoming;
Yet present everywhere in worlds of beings:
This is what is perceived by all Tathâgatas.
All virtues, material and immaterial,
Dependent on the Dharmakâya, are eternally pure in it.
Like unto the sky is the ultimate nature of the Dharmakâya;
Far away from the six dusts, it is defilement-free.
Of no form and devoid of all attributes is the Dharmakâya,
In which are void both actor and action:
The Dharmakâya of all Buddhas, thus beyond comprehension,
Quells all the struggles of sophistry and dialectics,
Distances all the efforts of intellection,
Thoughts all are dead in it, and suchness alone abideth.
---
{376}
THE DHARMAKÂYA OF TATHÂGATA.[a02]
In all the worlds over the ten quarters,
O ye, sentient creatures living there,
Behold the most venerable of men and gods,
Whose spiritual Dharma-body is immaculate and pure.
As through the power of one mind,
A host of thoughts is evolved:
So from one Dharma-body of Tathâgata,
Are produced all the Buddha-bodies.
In Bodhi nothing dual there existeth,
Nor is any thought of self present:
The Dharma-body, undefiled and non-dual,
In its full splendor manifesteth itself everywhere.
Its ultimate reality is like unto the vastness of space;
Its manifested forms are like unto magic shows;
Its virtues excellent are inexhaustible,
This, indeed, the spiritual state of Buddhas only.
All the Buddhas of the present, past, and future,
Each one of them is an issue of the Dharma-body immaculate and pure;
Responding to the needs of sentient creatures,
They manifest themselves everywhere, assuming corporeality which is
beautiful.
They never made the premeditation
That they would manifest in such and such forms.
Separated are they from all desire and anxiety,
And free and self-acting are their responses.
{377}
They do not negate the phenomenality of dharmas,
Nor do they affirm the world of individuals:
But manifesting themselves in all forms,
They teach and convert all sentient creatures.
The Dharma-body is not changeable,
Neither is it unchangeable;
All dharmas [in essence] are without change,
But manifestations are changeable.
The Sambodhi knoweth no bounds,
Extending as far as the limits of the Dharmaloka itself;
Its depths are bottomless, and its extent limitless;
Words and speeches are powerless to describe it.
Of all the ways that lead to Enlightenment
The Tathâgata knoweth the true significance;
Wandering freely all over the worlds,
Obstacles he encountereth nowhere.
---
THE TATHÂGATA. (1)[a03]
The Tathâgata appeared not on earth,
Nor did he enter into Nirvana;
By the supreme power of his inmost will,
He reveals himself freely as he wills.[a04]
This fact is beyond comprehension,
Belongs not to the sphere of a limited consciousness,
Only an intelligence perfect and gone beyond
Is able to have an insight into the realm of Buddhas.
{378}
The material body is not the Tathâgata,
Nor is the voice, nor the sound:
Yet he is not beyond the visible and the audible:
The Buddha has indeed a power miraculous.
People of little faith are unable to know
The inmost adytum of Buddhahood.
It is by the perfecting of primordial karma-intelligence
That the realm of all Buddhas is revealed.
All Buddhas come from nowhere,
And depart for nowhere:
The Body of Dharma that is pure, immaculate, and incomprehensible,
Is invested with a power miraculously free.
In infinity of worlds,
Revealing itself in the body of Tathâgata,
It universally preaches the Law supremely excellent,
And in its heart no attachment lingers.
An intellect that knows no limits or bounds
Perceives no obstacles in all dharmas,
And penetrates into the depths of the Dharmaloka,
Revealing itself with a power miraculously divine.
All sentient beings and all creatures,
It understandeth thoroughly without difficulty:
Its Bodies of Transformation are innumerable,
And universally revealed in all the worlds.
Those who seek after All-knowledge
May in course of time attain perfect enlightenment;
Let them above all purify the heart
And complete their discipline in Bodhisattvahood.
{379}
And then they will see the Tathâgata’s
Immeasurable power that comes from his free will;
Devoid of all doubts they are, and accompanied
With sages whose virtue is unsurpassable.
---
THE TATHÂGATA (2).[a05]
The Tathâgata, in pure golden color,
And in person resplendent and majestic,
In innumerable ages past,
All merits hath accumulated.
With bliss and wisdom all in perfection,
And the highest enlightenment attaining.
And with great loving heart animated,
He now appeareth in this world of endurance.
Men and devas and the eight hosts of demons,
All pay him homage most reverent,
Who, from his inmost self-being,
Preacheth the deepest spiritual Dharma.
Which is so unfathomably deep,
That Buddha alone can understand it:
Multitudes of beings, ignorant and blind,
Listening to it, are unable to comprehend.
The Tathâgata is the great leader of beings;
With skill that is excellent and marvellous,
Guiding all those ignorant souls,
By degrees bringeth them to Enlightenment.
{380}
The heart of all beings is miraculously bright,
And eternally calm in its being.
Pure and immaculate and defilement-free,
It is replenished with all merits.
Its essence is like unto the sky:
Devoid of all limitations,
Knoweth neither birth nor death,
And there is neither coming nor departing.
Eternally abiding in the Dharma-essence,
It is immovable as the Mount Sumeru;
The oneness in it of all beings
Is indeed beyond finite knowledge.
Vulgar minds from time immemorial,
Blindly clinging to all passions,
Are thrown deep into the ocean of pain,
And know not how to escape.
The most profound doctrine of Tathâgata,
Full of meaning, spiritual and transcendental,
With recipient intellects in all degrees,
In harmony unfoldeth he the Law.
A shower of one taste from above
Covering all the ten quarters,
Grasses and trees, woods and forests,
Roots and trunks, large and small,
Of all growing on this vast earth,
Nothing is there that thereby itself benefiteth not.
The Law delivered by the Tathâgata
May even be likened unto it.
{381}
With one voice which is wondrous,
He giveth utterance to thoughts innumerable,
That are received by audience of all sort,
Each understanding them in his own way.
In this wise among the assemblage,
None is there but that enters upon Buddha-knowledge
Such is Buddha’s miraculous power,
Truly called “Incomprehensible.”
---
REPENTANCE.[a06]
Those who repent as prescribed by the Dharma,
Altogether their earthly sins uproot;
As fire on doomsday the world will consume,
With its mountain peaks and infinite seas.
Repentance burns up of earthly desires the fuel;
Repentance to heaven the sinners is leading;
Repentance the bliss of the four Dhyânas imparteth;
Repentance brings showers of jewels and gems;
Repentance a holy life renders firm as a diamond;
Repentance transports to the palace of bliss everlasting;
Repentance from the triple world’s prison releases;
Repentance makes blossom the bloom of the Bodhi.
---
{382}
ALL BEINGS ARE MOTHERS AND FATHERS.
All sentient beings in transmigration travel through the six gatis,
Like unto a wheel revolving without beginning and end,
Becoming in turn fathers and mothers, men and women:
Generations and generations, each owes something to others.
Ye should then regard all beings as fathers and mothers;
Though this truth is too hidden to be recognised without the aid of
Holy Knowledge,
All men are your fathers,
All women are your mothers.
While not yet requiting their love received in your prior lives,
Why should ye, thinking otherwise, harbor enmity?
Ever thinking of love, endeavor ye to benefit one another;
And provoke ye not hostility, quarreling and insulting.
---
THE TEN PARÂMITÂS.
O ye, sons of Buddha, in the Holy Way trained,
With the Heart of Highest Intelligence awakened,
And living in seclusion at the Aranyaka,
Should practice the ten pâramitâs.
At daily meal think ye first of almsgiving,
And also distribute among beings the Treasure of Law;
When the three rings[a07] are pure, it is called true charity;
Through this practice perfected are the merits of discipline.
{383}
Would ye understand the merits of almsgiving?
Know ye that it comes from the heart pure, and not from the wealth
given;
A precious treasure with a heart unclean,
Is surpassed by a mite with a heart clean.
Wealth giving is a dâna-pâramitâ,
And there are other dâna-pâramitâs:
To give away one’s life, wife, or children,
This is called blood-giving.
Should a man of good family come and ask for the Law
Let him have all the Mahâyâna sûtras explained,
And awaken in him the Heart of Highest Intelligence;
This is called a true pâramitâ.
With sympathy and pure faith and conscience,
Embrace ye all beings and befree them from greed,
That they might attain to the highest intelligence of the Tathâgata:
The giving of wealth and of the Law is the first pâramitâ.
Firmly observing the three sets of the Bodhisattva-çîlas,[a08]
O ye, evolve the Bodhi, distance birth-and-death,
Guard the Law of Buddha and make it long live in the world,
Repent the violation of the çîlas, and be always mindful of the true
ones.
Subdue ye anger and hate and cultivate in your heart love and
sympathy;
Mindful of the karma past, harbor ye not evil thoughts against
offenders;
Be not reluctant for the sake of all beings to sacrifice life:
This is called the pâramitâ of meekness.
In practicing what is hard to practice, hesitate ye not awhile;
With ever-increasing energy through three asankheya kalpas,
Defile not yourselves, but always discipline the heart;
And for the sake of all creatures seek ye salvation.
{384}
Entering into and rising from the Samâdhi, spiritual freedom is
obtained:
Transforming yourselves and travelling in all the ten quarters,
Have for all beings the cause of evil desire removed,
And let them seek deliverance in the doctrine of Samâdhi.
Would ye desire to attain to True Intelligence?
Friendly approach Bodhisattvas and Tathâgatas;
Gladly listening to the doctrine transcendental and sublime,
Attain ye the three disciplines[a09] and remove the two
obstacles[a10].
Recognising difference in the disposition of beings,
Apply the medicine proper for each disease:
Love and sympathy, skill and expediency, each fitting the case,
Try the proper means for the benefit of the multitudes.
Would ye know the true meaning of existence?
The middle path lies in non-attachment, neither “yea” nor “nay”;
Intelligence pure is unfathomable and unites in Suchness;
Identify mine with thine, embracing the whole.
By the force of intellect, grasping the nature of beings,
Teach the masses each in accord with his capacity;
The force of intellect penetrating through the heart of all beings,
Destroys the root of transmigration in birth and death.
Intelligently judging between black and white,
Conscientiously take hold of one and put the other aside, and let
each rest in its place;
Samsâra and Nirvâna are but one in their essence;
Fulfilling the meaning of existence, cherish ye not self-conceit.
These ten deeds of excellence
Comprise all eighty-four thousand virtues;
Each in its class excels all the others,
And is called the Pâramitâ of Bodhisattva.
{385}
Eighty-four thousand samâdhis
Becalm the disturbant mind of all beings;
Eighty-four thousand dhâranîs
Keep away all the prejudices and evil influences.
The Great Sage, King of Dharma, with marvellous skill,
Teacheth the Law in three ways and converteth all beings;
Casting the net of the Doctrine in the ocean of birth and death,
He draweth out men and gods to the abode of bliss.
---
THE BODHI.[a11]
All things are of the Bodhi,
The Bodhi is in all things;
The Bodhi and all things are one:
Who knoweth this is called the World-honored.
---
NIRVANA AND THE THREE EVILS.
Greed is Nirvana;
So is hate, and folly;
In these three passions
There dwells a Buddha-dharma inexpressible.
Who severalises, thinking,
There’s greed, and hate, and folly,
He is as far from Buddha,
As heaven from earth.
The Bodhi and greed,
They’re one, not two:
Out of one Dharma-gate cometh all;
Here’s sameness, no diversity.
{386}
This hearing, the vulgar stand aghast;
Far from the Buddha-path are they.
The heart, when innocent of greed,[a12]
Is never troubled.
In whose mind self is lurking still,
And who imagines that something he has,
Greedy is this man called,
And he is bound for hell.
What is the true nature of greed,
That is the nature of Buddha-dharma;
What is the nature of Buddha-dharma,
That is the nature of greed.[a13]
These two are of one nature;
That is, of no-nature;
Who knoweth this truth,
Would be the world-leader.
---
NON-ATMAN AND PREJUDICE.[a14]
There once was an ignorant man;
So afraid of the sky was he
That piteously crying he wandered away.
Of its sudden collapse he was fearful.
But the sky has no boundary,
And to nobody ’t will be harmful.
It was due to his ignorance
That he trembled so fitfully.
With the Bhikshus and Brahmans
It is even so, who are prejudiced.
Learning that empty is the world,
Alarmed are they at heart;
And wrongly imagine that if empty were the nature of Âtman
Nothingness would be the end of all work.
---
{387}
NON-ACTION.
As the vacuity of sky,
Being so clear and free of cloud and fog,
Upon the earth below,
Betrays no signs a shower to give:
So the enlightened
Betray no learning, no intelligence:
And we, sentient beings,
Can trace no efforts in their deliverance of the Law.[a15]
---
SELF-DELUSION.
There lived once a painter,
Who such a monstrous Yaksha painted
That he himself was terrified
And losing all his senses on the ground he fell:
’Tis even so with vulgar minds;
Infatuated, self-deluded by the senses,
Of their own error they are unaware,
And go from birth to birth without an end.
---
ALL IN ONE.
As all the waters in the valley
Are emptied in the ocean
Which is of one and the same taste:
So the enlightened,
Whatever is
Good and beneficial,
Turn over to the Bodhi
And to that Reality
In which all things become of one and the same taste.
---
{388}
NIHILISM.
The vast vacuity of space,
How limitless and measureless!
But in the midst of the void
How could a farmer sow his seeds?
’Tis even so with Nihilism:
The past is gone forever,
The future’s not here yet,
And in the present no Buddha-seeds have they.
---
THE NIHILIST.
A man who suffers from a disease incurable,
However excellent his treatment be,
Impossible he will find his health to gain,
For his defies all means of remedy.
’Tis even so with them who walk in the way of emptiness;
No matter whereso’er they be,
How blindly they are clinging unto it!
Such I declare to be incurable.
---
THE BUDDHA’S DHARMA (1)
As in its oneness the element earth
Embraces diversities of objects,
And discriminates not this or that;
Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
As in its oneness the element fire
Burns everything on earth,
And discriminates not in its nature;
Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
{389}
As waters in the vast ocean,
Absorbing hundreds of streams,
Are of the same taste forever;
Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
As the dragon-god with thunder and lightning
Brings showers on the earth all over,
And the rain-drops discriminate not;
Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
---
THE BUDDHA’S DHARMA. (2)
As in her oneness mother earth
Creates diversities of seeds
And in her inmost no discrimination knows;
E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
As in the cloudless sky the sun
O’er the ten quarters all illuminates,
And in its brightness shows no difference;
E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
As high up in the heavens is the moon
Beheld by all beings on earth,
And there’s nowhere her glory reaches not;
E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
The Brahma-râja great
In thousands of worlds himself all manifests
And knows in his being no diversities;
E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
---
{390}
THE PASSIONS AND WISDOM.
Only in the filthiness of soil,
Could the seed be sown and grow;
Even so in the mire of passion
Cherished by all sentient beings
All over the world,
If by the sons of Buddha well attended to,
There will grow the seed of Buddha-dharma.
Just as in filth and mud
The lotus grows and blooms,
Even so in a heart defiled with evil karma
The seeds of Buddha-dharma are growing.
---
IGNORANCE AND ENLIGHTENMENT. (1)
A mansion there was once which was a hundred thousand years of age;
No occupant was there, nor doors nor windows;
Devas and men, all of a sudden,
There came and burned a lamp;
And the darkness that dwelt so long
Departed instantly without a word.
The inky darkness that the mansion filled
Resisted not, “I’ve lived here for ages,
And I’ll never be removed from here.”
Even with karma-consciousness and the horde of passions in the heart,
The analogy holds true.
Though there abiding many hundred thousand kalpas,
Their ultimate nature is not true nor real.
When a traveler, day or night,
Enters upon the truthful path,
The lamp of wisdom burns in its full splendor;
And the horde of evil passions
Cannot tarry there, even for a moment.
---
{391}
IGNORANCE AND ENLIGHTENMENT. (2)
Bright shines the lamp,
And the inky night is gone.
But with the darkness
The quarters vanish not;
Yet this illuminating lamp,
If not in the dark, nowhere doth shine:
For light and dark depend upon each other;
No selfhood having,[a16] they’re empty.
’Tis even so with enlightenment.
In comes enlightenment,
And out goes ignorance of its own accord.
But both are like unto the flowers in the air,
For neither by itself exists;
Impossible is one alone, either to keep or to forego.
---
THE BODHISATTVA AND ALL BEINGS[a17]
Great Mother Earth
All creatures
Provides and nourishes,
But from none of them
She seeks a favor special, nor is she to any partial:
So is the Bodhisattva.
Since his awakening of the Heart,
Until he gains the depths of the Law
And realises the highest knowledge,
He toils to save all creatures,
Himself no favor seeking, nor to others granting any;
Regardless of friend and enemy,
Embracing all with single heart,
He fashions one and all for Bodhi.
* * *
{392}
The element Water
All permeating
Makes herbs and trees
In luxury grow,
Yet any favor special it nor shows nor seeks;
So is the Bodhisattva;
With a pure heart of love
All sentient beings equally embraces he;
All permeating gradually, universally,
The seeds immaculate he nourishes,
Which, breaking down all evils powerful,
Obtain the fruit of Buddha-knowledge.
* * *
The element Fire
Matures and ripens all
The tender shoots of the cereals;
Yet the element fire
From those young plants
No favor seeks, nor any shows to them;
So is the Bodhisattva:
With knowledge-fire
Matures he all
The tender shoots of creatures;
Yet he from them
No favor special seeks, nor shows he any.
* * *
The element Air,
By reason of its virtue,
Pervades all over Buddha-lands;
With the Bodhisattva
’Tis even so,
Who with consummate skill
To Buddha’s children
Preaches the Doctrine Holy.
---
{393}
THE BODHISATTVA.
/His Firmness/.
As Mâra, the evil one,
Commanding his four armies,
Even by the devas in the Kâmaloka,
Cannot be overwhelmed;
So is the Bodhisattva,
Whose heart, pure and clean,
By all the hosts of Evil,
Cannot be tempted, nor confused.
/His Progress/.
As the new moon,
In size increasing gradually,
Becomes perfect and full in the end;
Even so the Bodhisattva,
With a heart defilement-free,
All the good dharmas seeking and performing,
In virtue gradually progresses,
And finally obtains the Law of Purity, perfect and full.
/His Enlightenment/.
The rising sun,
All illumining,
All forms and images in the world
In glory are revealed;
So is the Bodhisattva:
The light of knowledge emitting,
And sentient beings illumining,
Bringeth he all to wisdom.
{394}
/His Fearlessness/.
Lion, the king of beasts,
Majestic, overpowering,
And in the forest wandering,
Knows he no fear, no terror;
So is the Bodhisattva:
Calmly abiding in Learning,
Intelligence, and Morality,
Throughout the universe,
Wherever he wanders about,
Knows he no fear, no doubt.
/His Energy/.
The giant elephant,
With energy wondrous,
A burden heavy carrying,
Shows not the least fatigue;
So is the Bodhisattva:
Bearing, for the sake of the masses,
The misery of the flesh,
He shows not the least apathy.
/His Purity/.
The lotus-flower,
Though growing in the marshy land,
By dirt, or mire, or filth
Is not defiled;
So is the Bodhisattva:
Though living in this world,
No form of passion
Ever touches him.
{395}
/His Self-sacrifice/.
There lived once a man
Who craftily and skillfully
Felled the trunks of trees,
But left the roots untouched,
That after due time
They might once more be growing;
’Tis even so with the Bodhisattva:
With the upâya that is excellent,
Desires and passions down he fells,
But leaves their seed unscathed
By reason of his all-embracing love,
And thereby ever and anon comes he on earth.[a18]
---
THE BODHISATTVA’S HOMELESS LIFE.[a19]
The homeless Bodhisat regards the home life [or the world at large]
As a hurricane that abates not awhile,
Or as the moon’s illusive image in water cast,
Which the imagination takes deliberately for the real.
The water in itself contains no lunar image [real];
The real moon, dependent on water clear, a shadow casts;
So are all beings unreal; only conditionally they exist;
Yet ’tis imagined by the vulgar that an Atman they have.
The Atman is the product of conditions, and real it is not;
But for a reality the imagination it takes.
Have the two prejudices[a20] removed,
And we perceive Intelligence most high and peerless.
{396}
Our confused imagination is like unto a black storm,
Blowing over the woods of birth and death, stirs up the leaves of
consciousness:
By the four winds of fallacy ’tis haunted all the time,
And five damnation-causes it produces,
Entwining are indeed the roots of evil, which are three,
Through birth and death doth transmigration ever onward move.
Who to the Sutras listen and in them devoutly believe,
The right view they acquire, removing all the thoughts which are
fallacious,
And every instant growing are Seeds of Intelligence,
And the Samâdhi of knowledge great and of spirituality is awakened.
When well disciplined in speculation deep and subtle,
In the dark no more we grope, nor do we reap the crop of pain;
Perceiving Suchness in the ultimate nature of things,
Subject and object both gone, and vanished are all sins.
Female and male, they’re attributes, and they are void essentially:
The ignorant imagine and create the two which only relatively exist.
The Buddha has destroyed permanently the cause of ignorance,
And in the ultimate reality nothing particular sees he, male or
female.
The excellent fruit of wisdom, if ever attained, remains the same for
aye;
The vulgar nathless imagine wrongly and see therein a thing concrete
and definite.
The Buddha’s features thirty-two are after all no-features;
Who sees no-features in the features, the feature true he understands.
{397}
To wander homeless, and immaculate deeds to practise,
Over the heart to watch, in solitude quietly to sit:
This is the rightful way the Bodhisattva cleanses his heart;
Erelong will he attain the fruit of enlightenment.
---
THE BUDDHIST.[a21]
Encourage not, for your self-interests,
Heterodoxy and false doctrines;
A merciful heart for all have ye;
Remove stupidity and untruth from your minds;
Be ye Tathâgata’s most faithful servants;
And teach the masses who are ignorant,
To them the Bodhi impart, on yourselves it practising;
And thereby make the Buddha’s name resound on earth;
Deliver the multitudes from sin and initiate them
To the perfect enlightenment of the Buddha:
Ye by these virtues firmly stand,
And your Intelligence-heart doth never fail.
---
HYMN TO THE BODHISATTVA.[a22]
With lovingkindness, a Great Being who saves and protects,
Regards all beings impartially as his only child;
Energetically, cheerfully, and without stint,
His life he sacrifices, uprooting pain, and bringing bliss
unspeakable.
Surely he will attain the height of truth and beauty,
Forever be freed from the entanglement of birth and death.
And erelong will he the fruit of enlightenment obtain,
Eternally peaceful, and in the Uncreate joy finding.
---
{398}
A VOW OF THE BODHISATTVA.[a23]
For the sake of all sentient beings on earth,
I aspire for the abode of enlightenment which is most high;
In all-embracing love awakened, and with a heart steadily firm,
Even my life I will sacrifice, dear as it is.
In enlightenment no sorrows are found, no burning desires;
’Tis enjoyed by all men who are wise.
All sentient creatures from the turbulent waters of the triple world,
I’ll release, and to eternal peace them I’ll lead.
---
THE TRUE HOMELESS ONE.[a24]
Though not wearing the yellow robe,
Whose heart is free from defilement,
In the doctrine of Buddhas,
He is the true homeless one.
Though not devoid of showy ornaments,
Who has cut off all entanglements,
And in whose heart exists neither knottiness nor looseness,
He is the true homeless one.
Though not initiated by the Rules,
Whose heart is clean of all evil thoughts,
And open only to tranquillity, intelligence, and virtuous deeds,
He is the true homeless one.
Though not instructed in the Law,
Whose insight goes deep into the ultimate,
And is no more deluded by sham appearances,
He is the true homeless one.
{399}
The mind that takes no thought of the ego,
That goes beyond the illusory phenomena,
Yet sinks not into stupidity
Truly awakened to Intelligence it is.
Whose mind, awakened to Intelligence,
Sees no substantiality in the ego,
And, not seeing, yet remains firm,
This man cannot be injured.
---
THE BODHISATTVA’S SPIRITUAL LIFE.[a25]
Like unto the vast ocean that receives
All the waters, and yet overflows not;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Who knoweth no fatigue in seeking the merits of the Dharma.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that absorbs
All the streams, and yet shows no increase;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Who, receiving the deepest Dharma, nothing gaineth.[a26]
Again, like unto the vast ocean that refuses to take filth,
And wherein when absorbed doth foulness change to purity;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Whom all the filth of passion cannot tarnish.
Again, like unto the vast ocean whose bottom is unfathomable;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Whose virtues and wisdom are so immeasurable
That none ever knows their limits.
{400}
Again, like unto the vast ocean in which there’s no diversity,
All the waters and streams pouring thereinto become of one taste
alone;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Who listeneth to one note of Dharma.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that existeth not
For the interests of one individual;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Whose aspirations are for the benefit of all.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that embosoms the jewel called
“all-jewel.”
Of which all jewels are produced;
Even so is the jewel-treasure of the Bodhisattva,
For it is through this that all the other jewels shine.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that produces the three kinds of
jewel,
And yet discriminates not between them;
Even so is the teaching of the Bodhisattva,
Who, equally delivering the three yânas, maketh not any distinction.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that by degrees becomes deeper;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Who, practising virtues for the sake of all,
Forever aspireth after the deepest omniscience.
Again, like unto the vast ocean that harbors not a corpse;
Even so is the Bodhisattva,
Who, with the heart of purity and the vow of Bodhi,
Harboreth not a passion, nor the thought of the Çrâvaka.
---
{401}
THE BODHISATTVA’S FAITH. (1)[a27]
Perceiving all in one,
And one in all,
The Bodhisattva diligent in his work
Is never given up to indolence.
Pain he shunneth not, to pleasure he clingeth not,
As he is ever bent on the deliverance of all beings;
To him all Buddhas will themselves reveal,
And of their presence he is never weary.
He is in the deepest depths of the Dharma,
Where is found the inexhaustible ocean of merit.
All sentient beings in the fivefold path of existence,
He loveth as his own child;
Removing things unclean and filthy,
Supplying them with dharmas pure and immaculate.
---
THE BODHISATTVA’S FAITH. (2)[a28]
While to the doctrine most high listening,
The Light of Pure Intelligence within me glows,
That shining over all the universe
All the enlightened ones to me reveals.
Who think there are individuals
They put themselves in the position most difficult;
Dharmas have no ego-master which is real,
For they are merely names and expressions.
The vulgar and ignorant know not
That within themselves they have a reality true and real,
That the Tathâgata is not of any particular form;
Therefore the Tathâgata they see not.
{402}
Dirt and dust obscuring their intelligence-eye,
Enlightenment perfect and true they see not;
And throughout kalpas immeasurable and innumerable,
In the stream of birth and death they go a-rolling.
Wandering and rolling is Samsâra,
No-more-a-rolling is Nirvâna;
Yet Samsâra and Nirvâna,
Absolutely, exists neither of them.
To believer in falsehood and sophistry,
Samsâra is here and Nirvâna there;
Clearly they grasp not the Dharma of ancient sages,
Nor understand the Path Incomparable.
Those who thus cling to forms individual,
Of Buddha’s universal enlightenment, though they hear,
Themselves negate, and away they wander from the right course of
thought;
Therefore, they cannot see the Buddha.
Who the Dharma of Truth perceive,
Serene they are for aye, and abide in Suchness;
Enlightenment most truthful they understand,
Transcending words and all the modes of speech.
Illusory are all forms individual;
No such thing as dharma here exists:
No enlightened ones
Seek Truth in things particular.
Whose insight to the past extends,
To the future and over the present,
And who fore’er abides in serenity of Suchness,
He’s said to be a Tathâgata.
---
{403}
THE BODHISATTVA’S FAITH. (3)[a29]
I would rather suffer sufferings innumerable
That I might listen to the voices of Buddhas,
Than enjoy all sorts of pleasure
And not hear Buddhas’ names.
The reason why since ages out of mind
We suffer sufferings countless
And transmigrate through birth and death,
Is that we have not heard Buddhas’ names.
A reality that exists in things unreal,
A perfect Intellect synthetising truth and falsehood,
And that which transcends all the modes of relativity,
This is called the Bodhi.
Buddhas of the present are not products of composite conditions,
Nor are those of the past, nor those of the future.
What is formless in all forms,
That is the true essence of Buddhas.
Who thus perceives
The deepest significance of all existences,
In innumerable Buddhas, he will see
The truth and reality of the Dharma-body.
The Dharma-body knows truth as true,
And falsehood as false,
And well understands the realm of reality;
Therefore, it is called perfect intellect.
The enlightened has nothing enlightened,
Which is the true spirituality of all Buddhas:
And in this wise they behave,
Neither to be one nor to be two.
{404}
They see the one in the many,
They see the many in the one
The Dharma has nothing to depend upon;
How could it be a product of combination?
The actor and the action,
Neither really subsists:
Who can understand this,
Seeks not reality in either of them.
And here where reality is unseekable,
Buddhas find there the resting abode
The Dharma has nothing to depend upon;
And the enlightened have nothing to cling to.
{405}
NOTES
TO THE APPENDIX.
[a01] This and the following are translations from some Mahâyâna texts
in the Buddhist Tripitaka, which were rendered into the Chinese
language at various times from Sanskrit mostly through the co-operation
of the Hindu missionaries and Chinese scholars. A detailed analysis of
these texts is most urgently needed, as they contain many informations
of great importance not only concerning the history of Buddhism in
India but also concerning early Hindu culture generally. A rather
incomplete idea as to their contents and material and general character
will be attained by the perusal of Rev. Nanjo’s _Catalogue of the
Chinese Tripitaka_, Oxford, 1883.
_Mahâyâna-mûlajâta-hṛdayabhûmi-dhyâna Sûtra_, (Nanjo, no. 955,) fas.
iii.
[a02] The _Avatamsaka_, fas. xiv., p. 73.
[a03] _The Avatamsaka_, (Buddhabhadra’s translation), fas. xiv, p. 72.
[a04] To conceive the Tathâgata as a personal being who appeared on
earth for a certain limited time and then eternally disappeared is not
Mahâyânistic. He reveals himself constantly and of his own will in
this world of particulars.
[a05] _Sarvadharma-pravṛtti-nirdeça Sûtra_ (Nanjo, no. 1012).
[a06] _Mahâyâna-mûlajâta-hrdavabhûmi-dhyâna Sûtra_ (Nanjo 955), fas.
iii, p. 75.
[a07] The three rings are: 1. the giver, 2. the receiver, and 3. the
thing given, material or immaterial.
[a08] Precepts. The three sets are: 1. one relating to good behavior,
2. to the accumulation of merit, and 3. to lovingkindness toward all
beings.
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[a09] The mental (subjective), physical (objective), and oral.
[a10] The intellectual and the affective.
[a11] _Sarvadharma-pravṛtti-nirdeça Sûtra._
[a12] Literally, “when greed is neither born nor dead.” This means, to
live in the world as not living in it. This subjective divine
innocence is thought by Buddhists the essence of the religious life.
The consciousness of one’s worth, or self-conceit, is a great obstacle
in the path of perfect virtue. As in the case of mechanical work or
physical exercise, we attain perfect skillfulness only when the work
is involuntarily done, i.e., without any conscious effort on the part
of the performer; so in our moral and spiritual life we attain the
height of virtuousness or saintliness when we identify ourselves with
the reason of our being. This is Laotze’s doctrine of non-action or
non-resistance, and also the teaching of the _Bhagavadgîta_. As
remarked elsewhere, when a man reaches this stage of religious life,
he ceases to be human, but divine, in the sense that he transcends the
world of good and evil and eternally abides in the realm of the
beautiful.
[a13] This is a very radical statement and is enough to frighten timid
moralists and “God-fearing” pietists. Therefore, it is said that “Give
not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before
swine.” But think not that this is expounding antinomianism.
[a14] This and all the following are taken from the _Kâṣyapa-Parivarta_
(Nanjo, 805).
[a15] This gâthâ may not be very intelligible to our readers. The
sense is: Whatever is done by a Buddha or Bodhisattva does not come
from logical calculation or deliberate premeditation, but immediately
from his inmost heart, which, in most natural and freest manner,
responds to the needs of the suffering. This response is altogether
free from all human elaboration, for the Buddha shows no painful and
struggling efforts in so doing. Everything he does is like the work of
nature herself. His life is above the narrow sphere of human morality
which is marked with a desperate struggle between good and evil. His
is in the realm of the divinely beautiful.
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[a16] “Having no selfhood” (_svabhâva_), means that things have no
independent existence, no self-nature which will eternally preserve
their thingish identity. This theory has been explained in the chapter
dealing with the doctrine of non-atman. To state summarily, darkness
and light are conditioned by each other; apart from darkness there is
no light, and conversely, without light darkness has no meaning. Even
so with enlightenment and ignorance: one independent of the other,
they have no existence, they cannot be conceived. They are like
imaginary flowers in the air projected there by a confused
subjectivity. They are nothing but our ideal fabrication. To cling to
God only, forgetting that we are living in the world below, in the
world of relativity, is just as much one-sided as to lose ourselves in
the whirlpool of earthly pleasures without the thought of God. Life,
however, is not antithetic, but synthetic. Truth is never one-sided,
it is always in the middle. Therefore, seek enlightenment in ignorance
and truth in error. A dualistic interpretation of the world and life
is not approved by Buddhists. Compare the sentiment expressed herein
with Emerson’s poem as elsewhere quoted, in which these lines occur:
“But in the mud and scum of things,
There always, always, something sings.”
[a17] _The Kâṣyapaharivarta Sûtra_ (Nanjo, 805.).