Tag Archives: humility

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