by Red Pine
The venerable Subhuti said, “But surely, Bhagavan,
this bodhisattva would obtain a body of merit!”
The Buddha replied, “They would, Subhuti, but
without grasping it. Thus is it called ‘obtaining.’”
In this chapter, the Buddha finally addresses the true nature of the bodhisattva’s body of merit. Previously, in Chapter Sixteen, the Buddha said bodhisattvas produce and obtain (parigraha) a body of merit. But in Chapter Nineteen, he declared that the only reason he spoke of a body of merit was because there was no body of merit. In Chapters Sixteen and Nineteen, however, the body of merit of which he spoke was the result of karma and for that reason contained no self-nature. Here, the body of merit is not the result of karma. It is no body of merit because it is born of the realization that no body exists. This is our first glimpse of the dharma body as seen with the buddha eye.
The non-attainment of this body, or the attainment of this nobody, begins and ends with a bodhisattva’s resolution to liberate all beings. And such a resolution only works if it is free of perceptions of liberator, liberated, and liberation. Only such perceptionless resolve leads to the realization that all dharmas have no self, that all dharmas, whether they are beings, bodies, or buddhas, do not now exist, have never existed, nor will they ever exist. Thus, the bodhisattva’s resolution turns out to be no resolution. And the body of merit produced by such a resolution turns out to be no body. It is this body—freed of all attachments, including the attachment to its own existence—which is the true body of every buddha. Such a body cannot be grasped, for there is no way to get one’s hands or one’s mind around it. It is this body that is the subject of the next chapter.
The verb used here, parigraha (obtain), was traditionally used to describe a priest’s receipt of a present from a king. But if the bodhisattva is the priest, who is the king? Who is it who presents the bodhisattva with this body? The perfection of wisdom, the mother of all buddhas.
Seng-chao says, “Hoping for a reward and focusing on oneself are what is meant by grasping. If no self or other remains, how can anything be attained?”
Asanga says, “To explain the appearance of merit, we have one more example. Since such merit has no fruit, we obtain it without grasping.” (66)
Tao-ch’uan says, “A skirt with no waist. Pants with no legs. My song goes: ‘Like water or clouds this body of dreams / what else you wonder should you hold dear / I can’t fit anything more in this / I send it to those on the road to Huangmei.’” (Huangmei is where the Fifth Patriarch, Hung-jen, transmitted the seal of understanding and thus the Zen patriarchship to Hui-neng, who then became the Sixth Patriarch.)
Textual note: Dharmagupta and Hsuan-tsang do not differentiate parigraha (obtain) and udgraha (grasp), while Yi-ching does so by the addition of cheng (correct) to describe the former and yueh (excessive) the latter. For the Buddha’s reply, Kumarajiva has p’u-sa suo-tso fu-te, pu-ying-t’an-cho, shih-ku shuo pu-shou fu-te (bodhisattvas should not be attached to the merit they produce, thus they are said not to obtain blessings). Hsuan-tsang has suo-ying-she-shou, pu-ying-she-shou, shih-ku shuo-ming suo-ying-she-shou (what they should obtain, they should not obtain, thus is it called ‘what they should obtain’). For the last sentence, Bodhiruci has shih-ku p’u-sa chu fu-te (thus do bodhisattvas acquire merit). And Paramartha has shih-ku shuo tz’u fu-te-chih-chu ying-k’o she-ch’ih (this is how we say one should possess this collection of merit).
Chapter Twenty-nine: “Furthermore, Subhuti, if anyone should claim that the Tathagata goes or comes or stands or sits or lies on a bed, Subhuti, they do not understand the meaning of my words. And why not? Subhuti, those who are called ‘tathagatas’ do not go anywhere, nor do they come from anywhere. Thus are they called ‘tathagatas, arhans, fully-enlightened ones.’”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
FROM THE VERY BEGINNING of this sutra, the focus has been on the Buddha’s body, and this sutra can be read as a meditation on the Buddha’s body. But which body? It has sometimes seemed like the Buddha has been playing the old shell game with Subhuti: Now you see me, now you don’t. Under which shell is the real buddha? As early as Chapter Five, the Buddha asked Subhuti if he could see his body, and with this koan he began Subhuti’s education in the perfection of wisdom. Obviously, the Buddha was not referring to his physical body, which Subhuti knew was empty of any self-nature and merely an apparition. But to which body was the Buddha referring? And why did he refer to bodies at all? Subhuti was known for his attachment to emptiness, hence the Buddha sought to lead him beyond emptiness by considering his reward body, which is a reflection of a buddha’s selflessness. The Buddha also urged Subhuti to cultivate his own reward body, which he called his “body of merit,” by resolving to liberate all beings without attachment to any being or to any self. However, while selflessness is the necessary cause of such bodies, selflessness itself turns out to be birthless. No self has ever existed. Hence, one cannot transcend what doesn’t exist. Thus, the buddha’s reward body and the bodhisattva’s body of merit turn out to be no bodies, no bodies that arise from this teaching. If we wish to follow in the Buddha’s footsteps, we need to find the Buddha’s real body, his uncreated, indestructible body, his diamond body. In this chapter, the Buddha finally lifts the shell.
Chao-ming titles this: “The Utter Stillness of Perfect Deportment.”
Hui-neng says, “Going and coming, sitting and lying down, all accord with reality. Thus follows a chapter on the utter stillness of a buddha’s perfect deportment.”
Te-ch’ing says, “Though it had been said that there is no self or recipient of merit, when the Tathagata appeared walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, was this not the Tathagata’s self? This is because the view that his three bodies were both one and many has not yet been eliminated and because the undifferentiated nature of the dharma body has not yet been understood.”
”Furthermore, Subhuti, if anyone should claim that
the Tathagata goes or comes or stands or sits or lies
on a bed, Subhuti, they do not understand the
meaning of my words. And why not? Subhuti, those
who are called ‘tathagatas’ do not go anywhere, nor
do they come from anywhere. Thus are they called
‘tathagatas, arhans, fully-enlightened ones.’”
The Buddha uses two parsings of the word tathagata here. Reading tatha-agata, we have “thus come,” where “thus” refers to what Buddhists call “suchness” and “come” refers to the Buddha’s apparition body and his appearance among mankind. Since the Chinese prefer to emphasize the Buddha’s compassion, they invariably translate tathagata as ju-lai (thus come). Here, however, such a translation would be a mistake. The Buddha does not come. Reading tatha-gata, the word also means “thus go” and emphasizes the Buddha’s transcendence of his physical body and full realization of his reward body. But neither does the Buddha go. For if all dharmas are selfless and birthless, can anything be said to truly come or go? As the sutra nears its end, the Buddha finally tells Subhuti he was mistaken if he thought anything took place at all in the great city of Shravasti or in Anathapindada Garden, and he was also mistaken to think he could follow in the Buddha’s footsteps, when, in fact, there are no footsteps.
In the Perfection of Wisdom in Eighteen Thousand Lines, Subhuti tells Shakra, “The Tathagata cannot be known except through the fact that in his nature he has no fixed residence, he cannot be apprehended except through Suchness. Without a fixed residence, Chief of Gods, are all dharmas.” (24) Later, in the same sutra, Subhuti also says, “As the Tathagata’s Suchness neither comes nor goes, so also that of Subhuti the Elder. For from the very beginning has Subhuti the Elder come to be born after the image of the Tathagata.” (48)
In the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, Dharmodgata Bodhisattva says, “Tathagatas do not go anywhere, nor do they come from anywhere, because suchness does not move, and the tathagatas are suchness. . . . Those who
grasp a tathagata through form or sound or who think a tathagata comes or goes are fools. A tathagata cannot be seen by means of his physical body. The Dharma is the body of a tathagata, and the true nature of dharmas does not come or go. The body of an elephant, a horse, a chariot, or a soldier conjured by a magician does not come or go. Likewise, tathagatas do not come or go....The buddha’s body does not result from a single cause or condition. Nor is it not the result of a cause. It is produced by a combination of many causes and many conditions. But it does not come from anywhere. And when the combination of causes and conditions ceases, it does not go anywhere. It is thus that you should view the coming and going of tathagatas.” (31)
Asanga says, “This merit has its fruit: deeds that help all beings, which buddhas perform with ease throughout the ten directions.” (67)
Asanga says, “What comes and goes is an apparition. Buddhas never move. Dwelling in the dharma realm, they’re neither one nor many.” (68)
Hui-neng says, “Tathagatas do not come, nor do they not not come. They do not go, nor do they not not go. They do not sit, nor do they not not sit. They do not lie down, nor do they not not lie down. In their four perfect deportments of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, they remain utterly still. Such are tathagatas.”
Wang Jih-hsiu says, “A real buddha has no appearance, thus he cannot be described as coming, going, sitting, or lying down. If he could be described, he would have an appearance. Thus, the Buddha says such a view is at odds with his teaching. What the Buddha means by ‘tathagata’ is the real buddha, and the real buddha has no form. Moreover, it fills the sky and the world, so how could it come or go?”
Te-ch’ing says, “Subhuti still regards the one whose deportment is perfect whether moving or still as the Tathagata. But this is to hold the view of coming and going. How could the Tathagata come or go? At this point Subhuti’s attachments end, and his preferences are forgotten, and movement and stillness are no longer seen as different but truly so and in the realm of the real, which is the final mystery. However, his distinction of oneness and multiplicity has not been forgotten, and the meaning of one body with three forms has not yet been understood. Thus, in the next chapter, atoms and worlds are used to break through this.”
The Complete Enlightenment Sutra says, “Do clouds float by, or does the moon move? Does a boat drift past, or does the shore move? The moon doesn’t move, and the shore doesn’t move. Likewise, the Tathagata’s true body neither moves nor stays still. Its appearance and disappearance are visual errors.”
Tao-yuan says, “Chapter Twenty-nine explains the meaning at the beginning of the sutra, where Subhuti asks the Buddha for instruction and can’t keep from singing his praises.”
Chi-fo says, “It was said that the Tathagata cannot be seen by means of attributes, and yet he does not lack attributes. Attributes are basically the appearance of dharmas. This does not mean to get rid of appearances but only to remain detached from dharmas. This means that when we see that dharmas have no self and can accept that dharmas have no self, prajna will appear.”
Sheng-yi says, “When we chant the name of Amita Buddha, where does this buddha’s name come from? You can’t see where it comes from, only that it comes from ‘nowhere.’ If you concentrate on ‘nowhere’ for ten minutes, or thirty minutes, or an hour, or even a day or several days, and you meditate on the state of ‘nowhere,’ from nowhere you will go from delusions to truth. You will see that delusions and suffering also come from nowhere and that they are empty. In the same way, the self is empty, the world is empty, the sky is empty, mountains and rivers and the whole earth are empty, ‘nowhere’ is also empty. Thus, ‘nowhere’ is able to eliminate conceptual knowledge. And once conceptual knowledge is eliminated, we can realize the Way. When we chant the Lankavatara mantra, it’s the same. Where does each word come from? From ‘nowhere.’ A half-hour of nowhere or an hour of nowhere, and the world is empty, delusions are empty, karmic obstructions are empty, all attatchments are empty.”
The Avatamsaka Sutra says, “When water clears and the moon appears, the moon doesn’t actually come. When clouds arrive, and the moon disappears, the moon doesn’t go anywhere. When the mind is pure, and we see the buddha, the buddha doesn’t actually come. When the mind is impure, and we don’t see him, the buddha doesn’t go anywhere. It’s all due to the purity or impurity of our minds. The buddha doesn’t come or go at all. The body of thirty-two attributes is simply the tathagata’s apparition body.”
Tao-ch’uan says, “At the temple gate, put your hands together. In the buddha hall, light incense. My song goes, ‘The billowing clouds of fall come and go / how many times to Nanyueh or Tientai / Han-shan and Shih-te laugh when they meet / and what do they laugh about / they laugh about walking without lifting their feet.’” (Note: Nanyueh and Tientai were popular pilgrimage destinations for Zen monks at the conclusion of their summer-long meditation session. Han-shan [Cold Mountain] and Shih-te [Pickup] were two dharma bums who lived on Tientai during the latter half of the eighth century.)
Stonehouse’s Four Mountain Postures go: “Walking in the mountains / unconsciously trudging along / grab a vine / climb another ridge. Standing in the mountains / how many dawns become dusk / plant a pine / a tree of growing shade. Sitting in the mountains / zig-zag yellow leaves fall / nobody comes / close the door and make a big fire. Lying in the mountains / pine wind enters the ears / for no good reason / beautiful dreams are blown apart.” (The Zen Works of Stonehouse, p. 87)
Textual note: Among Chinese translators, only Dharmagupta and Hsuan-tsang include khalu punar (furthermore), which is also absent in the Stein edition. In the first sentence, Paramartha does not include agacchati (comes); Dharmagupta replaces agacchati (comes) with pu-ch’u (does not go); Kumarajiva and Yi-ching do not include tishthati (stands); and at the end of the same sentence, Dharmagupta has juo ju-fa (accords with the Dharma). Chinese translators prefer to ignore shayyan (on a bed) and limit themselves to wo (recline). At the beginning of the next sentence, Hsuan-tsang has yen-ju-lai-che chi-shih chen-shih, chen-ju tseng-yu (’tathagata’ means what is true, it is another name for suchness). Neither Kumarajiva, Bodhiruci, nor Yi-ching includes arhan or samyaksanbuddha (fully-enlightened one). The last two sentences of the Khotanese are corrupt.
Chapter Thirty: “Furthermore, Subhuti, if a noble son or daughter took as many worlds as there are specks of dust in a billion-world universe and by an expenditure of limitless energy ground them into a multitude of atoms, Subhuti, what do you think, would there be a great multitude of atoms?”
Subhuti replied, “So there would, Bhagavan. So there would, Sugata. There would be a great multitude of atoms. And why? If a great multitude of atoms existed, Bhagavan, the Tathagata would not have spoken of a ‘multitude of atoms.’ And why? Bhagavan, this multitude of atoms of which the Tathagata speaks is said by the Tathagata to be no multitude. Thus is it called a ‘multitude of atoms.’ Also, Bhagavan, this ‘billion-world universe’ of which the Tathagata speaks is said by the Tathagata to be no universe. Thus is it called a ‘billion-world universe.’ And how so? Bhagavan, if a universe existed, attachment to an entity would exist. But whenever the Tathagata speaks of attachment to an entity, the Tathagata speaks of it as no attachment. Thus is it called ‘attachment to an entity.’”
The Buddha said, “Subhuti, attachment to an entity is inexplainable and inexpressible. For it is neither a dharma nor no dharma. Foolish people, though, are attached.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL are locked in an endless sleight of hand in which each negates the reality of the other. And yet we all look for something to grab. Sometimes, we grab the biggest thing we can find. Sometimes, we grab the smallest. The people of Shravasti offered the Buddha balls of rice. Were the balls of rice real, or the grains of rice? The Buddha ate what he found in his bowl. So, too, do Zen masters swallow the world and all its mountains and rivers. And the reason they can do this is because mountains and rivers do n
ot themselves exist but are simply names we give to momentary combinations of causes and conditions that are themselves momentary combinations of causes and conditions: universes made of specks of dust made of specks of dust made of specks of dust that form universes that form universes that form universes. Zen masters swallow names and concepts, while the entities they represent change. Mountains and rivers and the ten-thousand things all change. If they did not, we would be in trouble. We would have no hope of liberation. But because nothing exists as an independent, permanent entity, there are no obstructions on the path to enlightenment. Foolish people, though, refuse to walk this path. They see nothing but obstructions. Buddhas see offerings and turn these offerings into dharmas.
Chao-ming titles this: “The Meaning of the Concept of Entities.”