45

THUS HAVE I HEARD. The Blessed One once appeared in the Castle of Lanka which is on the summit of Mt.
Malaya in the midst of the great Ocean. A great many Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas had miraculously assembled from
all the Buddha-lands, and a large number of bhikshus were gathered there. The Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas with
Mahamati at their head were all perfect masters of the various Samadhis, the tenfold Self-mastery, the ten
Powers, and the six Psychic Faculties. Having been anointed by the Buddha's own hands, they all well
understood the significance of the objective world; they all knew how to apply the various means, teachings
and disciplinary measures according to the various mentalities and behaviors of beings; they were all
thoroughly versed in the five Dharmas, the three Svabhavas, the eight Vijnanas, and the twofold
Egolessness.

The Blessed One, knowing of the mental agitations going on in the minds of those assembled (like the
surface of the ocean stirred into waves by the passing winds), and his great heart moved by compassion,
smiled and said: In the days of old the Tathagatas of the past who were Arhats and fully-enlightened Ones
came to the Castle of Lanka on Mount Malaya and discoursed on the Truth of Noble Wisdom that is beyond the
reasoning knowledge of the philosophers as well as being beyond the understanding of ordinary disciples and
masters; and which is realisable only within the inmost

46

consciousness; for your sakes, I too, would discourse on the same Truth. All that is seen in the world is
devoid of effort and action because all things in the world are like a dream, or like an image miraculously
projected. This is not comprehended by the philosophers and the ignorant, but those who thus see things see
them truthfully. Those who see things otherwise walk in discrimination and, as they depend upon
discrimination, they cling to dualism. The world as seen by discrimination is like seeing one's own image
reflected in a mirror, or one's shadow, or the moon reflected in water, or an echo heard in the valley.
People grasping their own shadows of discrimination become attached to this thing and that thing and failing
to abandon dualism they go on forever discriminating and thus never attain tranquillity. By tranquillity is
meant Oneness, and Oneness gives birth to the highest Samadhi which is gained by entering into the realm of
Noble Wisdom that is realisable only within one's inmost consciousness.

Then all the Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas rose from their seats and respectfully paid him homage and Mahamati
the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva sustained by the power of the Buddhas drew his upper garment over one shoulder,
knelt and pressing his hands together, praised him in the following verses:

As thou reviewest the world with thy perfect intelligence and compassion, it must seem to thee like an
ethereal flower of which one cannot say: it is born, it is destroyed, for the terms being and non-being do
not apply to it.

47

As thou reviewest the world with thy perfect intelligence and compassion, it must seem to thee like a
dream of which it cannot be said: it is permanent or it is destructible, for being and non-being do not apply
to it.

As thou reviewest all things by thy perfect intelligence and compassion, they must seem to thee like
visions beyond the reach of the human mind, as being and non-being do not apply to them.

With thy perfect intelligence and compassion which are beyond all limit, thou comprehendest the
egolessness of things and persons, and art free and clear from the hindrances of passion and learning and
egotism.

Thou dost not vanish into Nirvana. nor does Nirvana abide in thee, for Nirvana transcends all duality
of knowing and known, of being and non-being.

Those who see thee thus, serene and beyond conception, will be emancipated from attachment, will be
cleansed of all defilement, both in this world and in the spiritual world beyond.

In this world whose nature is like a dream, there is place for praise and blame, but in the ultimate
Reality of Dharmakaya which is far beyond the senses and the discriminating mind, what is there to
praise? O thou most Wise!

*

THEN SAID MAHAMATI the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva: O blessed One, Sugata, Arhat and Fully-enlightened One,
pray tell us about the realisation of Noble Wisdom which is beyond the path and usage of the
philosophers

48

which is devoid of all predicates such as being and non-being, oneness and otherness, bothness and
not-bothness, existence and non-existence, eternity and non-eternity; which has nothing to do with
individuality and generality, nor false-imagination, nor any illusions arising from the mind itself; but
which manifests itself as the Truth of Highest Reality. By which, going up continuously by the stages of
purification, one enters at last upon the stage of Tathagatahood, whereby, by the power of his original vows
unattended by any striving, one will radiate its influence to infinite worlds, like a gem reflecting its
variegated colors, whereby I and other Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas, will be enabled to bring all beings to the
same perfection of virtue.

Said the Blessed One: Well done, well done, Mahamati! And again, well done, indeed! It is because of your
compassion for the world, because of the benefit it will bring to many people both human kind and celestial,
that you have presented yourself before us to make this request. Therefore, Mahamati, listen well and truly
reflect upon what I shall say, for I will instruct you.

Then Mahamati and the other Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas gave devout attention to the teaching of the Blessed
One.

Mahamati, since the ignorant and simple-minded, not knowing that the world is only something seen of the
mind itself, cling to the multitudinousness of external objects, cling to the notions of being and nonbeing,
oneness and otherness, bothness and not-bothness, existence and non-existence, eternity and non-eternity,

49

and think that they have a self-nature of their own, all of which rises from the discriminations of the
mind and is perpetuated by habit-energy, and from which they are given over to false imagination. It is all
like a mirage in which springs of water are seen as if they were real. They are thus imagined by animals who,
made thirsty by the heat of the season, run after them. Animals, not knowing that the springs are an
hallucination of their own minds, do not realise that there are no such springs. In the same way, Mahamati,
the ignorant and simple-minded, their minds burning with the fires of greed, anger and folly, finding delight
in a world of multitudinous forms, their thoughts obsessed with ideas of birth, growth and destruction, not
well understanding what is meant by existent and non-existent, and being impressed by the erroneous
discriminations and speculations since beginningless time, fall into the habit of grasping this and that and
thereby becoming attached to them.

It is like the city of the Gandharvas which the unwitting take to be a real city though it is not so in
fact. The city appears as in a vision owing to their attachment to the memory of a city preserved in the mind
as a seed; the city can thus be said to be both existent and non-existent. In the same way, clinging to the
memory of erroneous speculations and doctrines accumulated since beginningless time, they hold fast to such
ideas as oneness and otherness, being and nonbeing, and their thoughts are not at all clear as to what after
all is only seen of the mind. It is like a man dreaming in his sleep of a country that seems to be filled
with various men, women, elephants, horses,

50

cars, pedestrians, villages, towns, hamlets, cows, buffalos, mansions, woods, mountains, rivers and lakes,
and who moves about in that city until he is awakened. As he lies half awake, he recalls the city of his
dreams and reviews his experiences there; what do you think, Mahamati, is this dreamer who is letting his
mind dwell upon the various unrealities he has seen in his dream,--is he to be considered wise or foolish? In
the same way, the ignorant and simple-minded who are favorably influenced by the erroneous views of the
philosophers do not recognise that the views that are influencing them are only dream-like ideas originating
in the mind itself, and consequently they are held fast by their notions of oneness and otherness, of being
and non-being. It is like a painter's canvas on which the ignorant imagine they see the elevations and
depressions of mountains and valleys.

In the same way there are people today being brought up under the influence of similar erroneous views of
oneness and otherness, of bothness and not-bothness, whose mentality is being conditioned by the habit-energy
of these false-imaginings and who later on will declare those who hold the true doctrine of no-birth which is
free from the alternatives of being and non-being, to be nihilists and by so doing will bring themselves and
others to ruin. By the natural law of cause and effect these followers of pernicious views uproot meritorious
causes that otherwise would lead to unstained purity. They are to be shunned by those whose desires are for
more excellent things.

It is like the dim-eyed ones who seeing a hairnet exclaim to one another: "It is wonderful! Look,
Honorable

51

[paragraph continues] Sirs, it is wonderful!" But the hairnet has
never existed; in fact, it is neither an entity, nor a nonentity, for it has both been seen and has not been
seen. in the same manner those whose minds have been addicted to the discriminations of the erroneous views
cherished by the philosophers which are given over to the realistic views of being and non-being, will
contradict the good Dharma and will end in the destruction of themselves and others.

It is like a wheel of fire made by a revolving firebrand which is no wheel but which is imagined to be one
by the ignorant. Nor is it not-a-wheel because it has not been seen by some. By the same reasoning, those who
are in the habit of listening to the discriminations and views of the philosophers will regard things born as
non-existent and those destroyed by causation as existent. It is like a mirror reflecting colors and images
as determined by conditions but without any partiality. It is like the echo of the wind that gives the sound
of a human voice. It is like a mirage of moving water seen in a desert. In the same way the discriminating
mind of the ignorant which has been heated by false-imaginations and speculations is stirred into mirage-like
waves by the winds of birth, growth and destruction. It is like the magician Pisaca, who by means of his
spells makes a wooden image or a dead body to throb with life, though it has no power of its own. In the same
way the ignorant and the simpleminded, committing themselves to erroneous philosophical views become
thoroughly devoted to the ideas of oneness and otherness, but their confidence is not Well grounded. For this
reason, Mahamati, you and

52

other Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas should cast off all discriminations leading to the notions of birth, abiding
and destructions, of oneness and otherness, of bothness and not-bothness, of being and non-being and thus
getting free of the bondage of habit-energy become able to attain the reality realisable within yourselves of
Noble Wisdom.

*

THEN SAID MAHAMATI to the Blessed One: Why is it that the ignorant are given up to discrimination and the
wise are not?

The Blessed One replied: It is because the ignorant cling to names, signs and ideas; as their minds move
along these channels they feed on multiplicities of objects and fall into the notion of an ego-soul and what
belongs to it; they make discriminations of good and bad among appearances and cling to the agreeable. As
they thus cling there is a reversion to ignorance, and karma born of greed, anger and folly, is accumulated.
As the accumulation of karma goes on they become imprisoned in a cocoon of discrimination and are thenceforth
unable to free themselves from the round of birth and death.

Because of folly they do not understand that all things are like maya, like the reflection of the moon in
water, that there is no self-substance to be imagined as an ego-soul and its belongings, and that all their
definitive ideas rise from their false discriminations of what exists only as it is seen of the mind itself.
They do not realise that things have nothing to do with qualified

53

and qualifying, nor with the course of birth, abiding and destruction, and instead they assert that they
are born of a creator, of time, of atoms, of some celestial spirit. It is because the ignorant are given up
to discrimination that they move along with the stream of appearances, but it is not so with the wise.