Then Subhuti addressed the Buddha, saying: “World Honored One, if good men and good women resolve to attain unsurpassed complete enlightenment, how should they abide their mind, and how should they subdue their thoughts?”
The Buddha said to Subhuti: “Good men and good women who resolve to attain unsurpassed complete enlightenment should think like this: ‘I will liberate all sentient beings by bringing them to nirvana.’ Yet when all sentient beings have been liberated, not a single sentient has actually attained nirvana. Why not? Subhuti, if bodhisattvas abide in the notions of a self, a person, a sentient being, or a life span, they are not bodhisattvas. Why? Subhuti, there is actually no resolve for the attainment of unsurpassed complete enlightenment.”
“Subhuti, what do you think? When the Tathagata met Dipankara Buddha, did he obtain anything in order to realize unsurpassed complete enlightenment?” “No, World Honored One. As I understand the meaning of your teaching, when you met Dipankara Buddha, there was nothing to obtain for the realization of unsurpassed complete enlightenment.”
Why did Subhuti ask the question again of the Buddha as he did in the beginning, here in the middle of the sutra?
1. So others can also understand. Indeed! Subhuti may have understood the Buddha's teaching very well, but, being the foremost disciple in understanding emptiness means that others may not understand this profound teaching nearly as well. He asks again so others may have a second chance.
2. There may be subtleties of the teaching that he missed. The prajna paramita (perfection of wisdom) is the most profound teaching, and the layers of meaning are infinite.
3. Buddha's first answer, while introducing the concept of "no self, no person, no beings, no life span", focused on how to practice giving, morality, etc., without the ego. The second time, Buddha said, "there is not even a resolve to become a buddha." Not only that we help others without holding to the idea that we are helping them, but the whole "dana" or giving/helping/charity concept is eliminated.
We need to work hard to attain nirvana, but then the idea of nirvan must be wiped off as well, otherwise we don't attain nirvana.
The Buddhist practice is not about creating or achieving something great. It is about getting rid of what is not there in the first place. In the end, we return to what simply "is". No more, no less.
Like bird flying through the sky; it flew, but left no trace.
Question: what was the crucial event that happened when Shakyamuni, before he became a buddha, met the Dipankara ("Lamp-Lighting") Buddha?
Homework: find out information about the Dipankara Buddha and their encounter.
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Shifu, here is what I found out.
ReplyDeleteA very, very, very long time ago, Sumedha (past life of the Shakyamuni Buddha) was a Bodhisattva in the time of the Dípankara Buddha. He was a very rich brahmin of Amaravatí, and, having given all his possessions away and left the world, became an ascetic of great power in the Himálaya. While on a visit to Rammavati, he saw people decorating the road for Dípankara Buddha, and undertook to do one portion of the road himself. The Buddha arrived before his work was finished, and Sumedha lay down on a rut for the Buddha to walk over him. He resolved that he, too, would become a Buddha. When the Buddha Dipankara saw this, He omnisciently declared the Ascetic Sumedha a future Buddha. This was the beginning of Gotama Buddha's qualification for Enlightenment.
Amituofo,
Chuan Xian