Category Archives: The Vimalakirti Sutra

Bodhimanda

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Vajragoni

4. The Reluctance of the Bodhisattvas, cont’d

After a whole host of disciples and the greatest super-hero of the Bodhisattvas, Maitreya, were reluctant to go and visit Vimalakriti, the Buddha—perhaps wondering just who is left—turns to the young Licchavi Prabhavyuha, a boy. Perhaps the innocence of youth is willing to undertake this daunting task…but alas, the young lad, too, apparently lacks the skill necessary to be up to the task. read more

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Are You Enlightened?

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Vajragoni

4. The Reluctance of the Bodhisattvas

Then, the Buddha said to the bodhisattva Maitreya, “Maitreya, go to the Licchavi Vimalakirti to inquire about his illness.” Maitreya replied, “Lord, I am indeed reluctant to go to that good man to inquire about his illness. Why? Lord, I remember that one day I was engaged in a conversation with the gods of the Tusita heaven, the god Samtusita and his retinue, about the stage of non-regression of the great bodhisattvas. At that time, the Licchavi Vimalakirti came there and addressed me as follows: “‘Maitreya, the Buddha has prophesied that only one more birth stands between you and unexcelled, perfect enlightenment. What kind of birth does this prophecy concern, Maitreya? Is it past? Is it future? Or is it present? If it is a past birth, it is already finished. If it is a future birth, it will never arrive. If it is a present birth, it does not abide. For the Buddha has declared, “Bhikshus, in a single moment, you are born, you age, you die, you transmigrate, and you are reborn.” “‘Then might the prophecy concern birthlessness? But birthlessness applies to the stage of destiny for the ultimate, in which there is neither prophecy nor attainment of perfect enlightenment. “‘Therefore, Maitreya, is your reality from birth? Or is it from cessation? Your reality as prophesied is not born and does not cease, nor will it be born nor will it cease. Furthermore, your reality is just the same as the reality of all living beings, the reality of all things, and the reality of all the holy ones. If your enlightenment can be prophesied in such a way, so can that of all living beings. Why? Because reality does not consist of duality or of diversity. Maitreya, whenever you attain Buddhahood, which is the perfection of enlightenment, at the same time all living beings will also attain ultimate liberation. Why? The Tathagatas do not enter ultimate liberation until all living beings have entered ultimate liberation. For, since all living beings are utterly liberated, the Tathagatas see them as having the nature of ultimate liberation. read more

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A Phantasmagoric Voyage

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Vajragoni

3. The Disciples’ Reluctance to Visit Vimalakirti, cont’d

The Buddha then said to the venerable Mahakatyayana, “Katyayana, go to the Licchavi Vimalakirti to inquire about his illness.” Katyayana replied, “Lord, I am indeed reluctant to go that good man to inquire about his illness. Why? Lord, I remember one day when, after the Lord had given some brief instruction to the monks, I was defining the expressions of that discourse by teaching the meaning of impermanence, suffering, selflessness, and peace; the Licchavi Vimalakirti came there and said to me, ‘Reverend Mahakatyayana, do not teach an ultimate reality endowed with activity, production, and destruction! Reverend Mahakatyayana, nothing was ever destroyed, is destroyed, or will ever be destroyed. Such is the meaning of “impermanence.” The meaning of the realization of birthlessness, through the realization of the voidness of the five aggregates, is the meaning of “suffering.” The fact of the nonduality of self and selflessness is the meaning of “selflessness.” That which has no intrinsic substance and no other sort of substance does not burn, and what does not burn is not extinguished; such lack of extinction is the meaning of “peace.”‘ “When he had discoursed thus, the minds of the monks were liberated from their defilements and entered a state of nongrasping. Therefore, Lord, I am reluctant to go to that good man to inquire about his illness.”
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BON APPÉTIT

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Vajragoni

3. The Disciples’ Reluctance to Visit Vimalakirti, cont’d

Then, the Buddha said to the venerable Subhuti, “Subhuti, go to the Licchavi Vimalakirti to inquire about his illness.” Subhuti replied, “Lord, I am indeed reluctant to go to this good man to inquire about his illness. Why? My Lord, I remember one day, when I went to beg my food at the house of the Licchavi Vimalakirti in the great city of Vaisali, he took my bowl and filled it with some excellent food and said to me, ‘Reverend Subhuti, take this food if you understand the equality of all things, by means of the equality of material objects, and if you understand the equality of all the attributes of the Buddha, by means of the equality of all things. Take this food if, without abandoning desire, hatred, and folly, you can avoid association with them; if you can follow the path of the single way without ever disturbing the egoistic views; if you can produce the knowledges and liberations without conquering ignorance and the craving for existence; if, by the equality of the five deadly sins, you reach the equality of liberation; if you are neither liberated nor bound; if you do not see the Four Holy Truths, yet are not the one who “has not seen the truth”; if you have not attained any fruit, yet are not the one who “has not attained”; if you are an ordinary person, yet have not the qualities of an ordinary person; if you are not holy, yet are not unholy; if you are responsible for all things, yet are free of any notion concerning anything. “‘Take this food, reverend Subhuti, if, without seeing the Buddha, hearing the Dharma, or serving the Sangha, you undertake the religious life under the six heterodox masters; namely, Purana Kasyapa, Maskarin Gosaliputra, Samjayin Vairatiputra, Kakuda Katyayana, Ajita Kesakambala, and Nirgrantha Jnaniputra, and follow the ways they prescribe.
“‘Take this food, reverend Subhuti, if, entertaining all false views, you find neither extremes nor middle; if, bound up in the eight adversities, you do not obtain favorable conditions; if, assimilating the passions, you do not attain purification; if the dispassion of all living beings is your dispassion, reverend; if those who make offerings to you are not thereby purified; if those who offer you food, reverend, still fall into the three bad migrations; if you associate with all Maras; if you entertain all passions; if the nature of passions is the nature of a reverend; if you have hostile feelings toward all living beings; if you despise all the Buddhas; if you criticize all the teachings of the Buddha; if you do not rely on the Sangha; and finally, if you never enter ultimate liberation.’ read more

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Three Blind Mice

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Vajragoni

3. The Disciples’ Reluctance to Visit Vimalakirti

One perhaps asks the question, why do such noble personages—like Sariputra, Subhuti, and later the Bodhisattvas themselves—have such a reluctance to go and visit the ailing Vimalakirti? They are not, says Thurman, “pretending” but rather through their previous encounters with Vimalakirti, are indeed unwilling to make a return visit. My sense is that their lack of enthusiasm in this enterprise is, in effect, a literary device to quicken Vimalakirti’s resolve to heighten the adept’s determination to break-free from all dichotomies. One needs to have a steady resolve in avoiding all extremes—the dualistic quagmire of falling into all frames of attachment, from sense-gratification, to self-mortification and even Absolute categories of existence and non-existence. Vimalakirti is emphatic that these extremes are not just meant to be avoided…but unequivocally transmuted, through Buddha-gnosis into Bhutatathata—Deathless Suchness. read more

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A Man for all Seasons

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Vajragoni

2. Inconceivable Skill in Liberative Technique

Thurman masterfully translates upaya (expedient tool) as a liberative method skillfully employed by Vimalakirti, who cleverly deploys many and diverse expedient means for the liberation of sentient beings. read more

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Field of Dreams

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Vajragoni

This vast throng of spectators is in total awe of the Buddha, sitting majestically upon his royal Lion throne. As they circumambulate-round him clockwise seven times, they lay down at his feet a spectacular parasol (a canopy): read more

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Now Voyager

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Vajragoni

Purification of the Buddha-field, cont’d

Their mindfulness, intelligence, realization, meditation, incantation, and eloquence all were perfected. They were free from all obscurations and emotional involvement, living in liberation without impediment. They were totally dedicated through the transcendences of generosity, subdued, unwavering, and sincere morality, tolerance, effort, meditation, wisdom, skill in liberative technique, commitment power, and gnosis. They had attained the intuitive tolerance of the ultimate incomprehensibility of all things. They turned the irreversible wheel of the Dharma. They were stamped with the insignia of signlessness. read more

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Other voices…Other rooms

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Vajragoni

I have chosen Robert Thurman’s translation of the Vimalakirti Sutra for our 40-day Dharma study. Charles Luk’s version is fine, but Thurman’s version seems to resonate more for me. Also, Luk’s subtitle of his published translation of the sutra is “Ordinary Enlightenment”. As we shall see, there is nothing Ordinary or Extraordinary when it comes to Vimalakirti (Vimalakirti supersedes all known categorical imperatives). read more

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