Vajrakkhedika (Diamond Cutter) · 13 of 19 · tr. E.B. Cowell, F. Max Müller, and J. Kakakusu
Section 1m
At that time the venerable Subhûti thus spoke to the Bhagavat: 'How should a person, after having entered on the path of the Bodhisattvas, behave, how should he advance, and how should he restrain his thoughts?' Bhagavat said: 'He who has entered on the path of the Bodhisativas should thus frame his thought: All beings must be delivered by me in the perfect world of Nirvâ n a; and yet after I have thus delivered these beings, no being has been delivered.
And why?
Because, O Subhûti, if a Bodhisattva had any idea of beings, he could not be called a Bodhisattva, and so on from the idea of a living being to the idea of a person; if he had any such idea, he could not be called a Bodhisattva.
And why?
Because, O Subhûti, there is no such thing (dharma) as one who has entered on the path of the Bodhisattvas.
'What do you think, O Subhûti, is there anything which the Tathâgata has adopted from the Tathâgata Dîpankara with regard to the highest perfect knowledge?
'After this, the venerable Subhûti [1.
See chap.
iii, p.
114.] spoke thus to the Bhagavat: 'As far as I, O Bhagavat, understand the meaning of the preaching of the Bhagavat, there is nothing which has been adopted by the Tathâgata from the holy and fully enlightened Tathâgata Dîpankara with regard to the highest perfect knowledge.' After this, Bhagavat thus spoke to the venerable Subhûti: 'So it is, Subhûti, so it is.
There is not, O Subhûti, anything which has been adopted by the Tathâgata from the holy and fully enlightened Tathâgata Dîpankara with regard to the highest perfect knowledge.
And if, O Subhûti, anything had been adopted by the Tathâgata, the Tathâgata Dîpankara would not have prophesied of me, saying: "Thou, O boy, wilt be in the future the holy and fully enlightened Tathâgata called S âkyamuni." Because then, O Subhûti, there is nothing that has been adopted by the holy and fully enlightened Tathâgata with regard to the highest perfect knowledge, therefore I was prophesied by the Tathâgata Dîpankara, saying: "Thou, boy, wilt be in the future the holy and fully enlightened Tathâgata called S âkyamuni." 'And why, O Subhûti, the name of Tathâgata?
It expresses true suchness.
And why Tathâgata, O Subhûti?
It expresses that he had no origin.
And why Tathâgata, O Subhûti?
It expresses the destruction of all qualities.
And why Tathâgata, O Subhûti?
It expresses one who had no origin whatever.
And why this?
Because, O Subhûti, no-origin is the highest goal.
'And whosoever, O Subhûti, should say that, by the holy and fully enlightened Tathâgata, the highest [1.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
The instruction that a Bodhisattva must hold no idea of beings to avoid attachment aligns with the practice of radical non-grasping.
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
[auto] The text employs the contradiction of delivering all beings while acknowledging no being was delivered to destabilize ordinary conceptual understanding.
The Buddhist doctrine that all phenomena lack independent self-nature; emptiness as the positive recognition that things arise only in dependence on conditions — distinct from kenoma's mere deficiency.
[auto] The passage centrally articulates the doctrine that no beings are delivered and there is no dharma of entering the path, reflecting the lack of independent self-nature.