The Jeta Grove belonged to King Prasenajit’s son, Prince Jeta, whose name, “war victor,” was given him in commemoration of King Prasenajit’s victory in a war with a neighboring country, which occurred on the day his son was born.

The Benefactor Of Orphans And The Solitary refers to an Indian philanthropist of the time who was much like King Wen of the Chou Dynasty in China. King Wen’s first goal was to benefit widowers, widows, orphans, and the solitary, meaning elderly, childless couples. His government was beneficent and humane, and tended solely to the good of the country. The benefactor mentioned here in the sutra was an elder named Sudatta, “good benefactor,” one of King Prasenajit’s great ministers.

The flower garden belonged to Prince Jeta until Sudatta bought it for the exorbitant price of one square inch of gold for every square inch of ground! The Elder Sudatta made the purchase following his Invitation to the Buddha to come to Sravasti to speak dharma. The following are the events which resulted in his purchase of the garden.

It all began when Sudatta went to Rājagṛha on business and stayed with a friend named Shan Tan Now. One night during his visit at Shan Tan Now’s home, his friend arose in the middle of the night and began to decorate his home. He brought out arrays of adornments and arranged them to perfection, working on into the night until his home was most elegant. The Elder Sudatta heard the commotion and arose to see what was happening. “Friend, what is the great occasion for making your house so splendid? Have you invited the King? Is someone in your family to be married? Why all the preparations?”

“It is not the King I am expecting or a wedding. I have invited the Buddha to come to my house to receive a vegetarian offering,” replied his friend.

Sudatta had never before heard of the Buddha, and when his friend spoke the name, all the hairs on his body stood on end. “Strange,” he thought, “Who is the Buddha?” he wondered.

The Elder Shan Tan Now said, “The Buddha is the son of King Suddhodana. He cast aside his inheritance of the throne in order to leave the home life and practice the Way. He cultivated for six years in the Himalayas, and afterwards, under the Bodhi tree, he saw a star one evening, was enlightened to the Way, and became a Buddha.”

The Elder Sudatta’s foundation of good roots caused him immediately to voice his resolve to see the Buddha. His profound sincerity so moved Śākyamuni Buddha, who was staying in the Bamboo Grove, (about sixty or seventy miles southeast of Rājagṛha), that he emitted a light to guide Sudatta. Seeing the light, Sudatta thought it was dawn, and eagerly dressed and set out. It was actually the middle of the night and the city gates had not yet been opened, but when the Elder arrived at the city wall, the gates, due to the Buddha’s spiritual penetrations, were open and he passed through them and proceeded on his way to see the Buddha. Sudatta followed the directions given to him by his friend, and was guided by the Buddha’s light.

When he arrived at the vihara he didn’t know the correct procedure for greeting the Buddha. Again his deep sincerity evoked a response, and four gods transformed into bhikṣus, circumambulated the Buddha three times to the right, went before the Honored One, bowed three times, knelt, placed their palms together, and made their inquiries. The Elder Sudatta followed their example, and then knelt before the Buddha, who rubbed his crown and said, “Why have you come?”

Sudatta simply said, “Buddha, you are too good. I have never seen a Buddha before, and now I don’t want to leave you. Will you come and live near my home?”

The Buddha agreed saying, “All right, but do you have a place? The twelve hundred fifty disciples who constantly accompany me will need to be fed and housed. Do you have accommodations large enough for all of us?”

“I will find a place,” promised the Elder, and he returned home to begin an extensive search of the area which ended when he saw Prince Jeta’s flower garden. It was perfect in every respect, affording a good view, yet convenient to the city proper. The grounds themselves were charged with efficacious energy. Everything about it was first rate, except that it belonged to the Prince. Wondering how he would ever be able to buy it, Sudatta sent a messenger to make an offer.

“He has so much money he thinks he can buy my flower garden!” laughed the prince in amazement. “Very well,” he said in jest, “if he covers it completely with gold coins I will sell it to him! That’s my price.” Prince Jeta was assuming the Elder Sudatta could not possibly afford grounds which cost their area in gold. Never did he guess that Sudatta’s money and his desire to hear the dharma both were adequate. The Elder took gold coins from his family storehouses and covered Prince Jeta’s garden.

Prince Jeta was outraged. “Take back your coins! I have no intention of selling. It was just a joke. It never occurred to me you would actually be willing to pay such a price. My garden can’t be bought for any amount.”

The Elder quietly replied, “Now you say you won’t sell? You are heir to the throne, and an Emperor’s word should be reliable. A king doesn’t lie or speak recklessly. You had better sell, because if people can’t trust your word now, why should they believe you after you assume the throne?”

The Prince recognized his predicament. “Very well,” he said. “Since you used gold coins to cover it, you have purchased the ground. But you did not cover the trees. So the garden is your offering to the Buddha, and the trees are my offering. Do you have anything further to say?”

The Elder considered this and realized that it had principle. It was true that the tops of the trees had not been covered with gold, and if he refused to consent, the Prince might chop them down and then the garden would be far less beautiful. “All right, we will divide it.”

Therefore it is called “The Jeta Grove in the Garden of the Benefactor of Orphans and the Solitary.” The Prince’s name is mentioned first since he was royalty, and the Elder Sudatta, known as Anathapindada, “The Benefactor of Orphans and the Solitary,” who held a ministerial position in the court, is mentioned second.

After the Buddha had finished speaking the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Blossom Sutra, the Nirvana Sutra, the Buddha Bequeaths the Teaching Sutra, the Kṣitigarbha Sutra and others, he announced that he was going to enter nirvana. Every one of his disciples cried. Bodhisattvas cried, Arhats cried, and all the bhikṣus and common people cried even harder.

“Why did they cry? Did the Bodhisattvas and Arhats still have emotion?” one asks.

The deep, compassionate dharma which the Buddha spoke had been like milk which nourished them. They had drunk the dharma milk for many years, and now their source was going dry, so they cried.

Ananda cried hardest. Tears poured from his eyes, his nose ran, and he knew nothing but grief. He cried so hard he forgot everything. The Venerable Aniruddha, though blind, had the heavenly eye and the heavenly ear. When he heard everyone crying as though they had gone mad, he took Ananda aside and asked, “What are you crying about?”

“Ahh,” wailed Ananda, “the Buddha is going to nirvana and we will never get to see him again. What do you mean ‘What am I crying about?!”

The Venerable Aniruddha said, ”Don’t cry. You still have important things to do. Try to straighten up a little.”

Ananda said, “What important things? The Buddha is going to enter nirvana, what is left for me to do? I want to go with the Buddha.” He wanted to die with the Buddha.

“That won’t do. It is a mistake to talk like that.”

“Well, what do you want me to do?”

The Venerable Aniruddha said, “There are four questions you should ask the Buddha.”

“Four questions! Now that the Buddha is going to nirvana how can there still be questions? I can’t tell the Buddha not to enter nirvana, can I?”

“No.”

“What are the four questions?”

The Venerable Aniruddha said, “The first question: After the Buddha enters nirvana the sutras should be compiled. What words should we use to begin the sutras? What guide should there be?”

Ananda heard that and said, “That’s really important. As soon as I heard you say it, I knew I should ask about it. What other questions are there?”

“The second question: When the Buddha was in the world we lived with the Buddha. After the Buddha crosses over to extinction, after he enters nirvana, where should we dwell?”

Ananda dried his eyes and wiped his nose. He said, “That is also very important. Right. When the Buddha was in the world the entire group of twelve hundred fifty bhikṣus lived together with him. Now that he is going to enter nirvana where will we live? I should ask that. What’s the next question?” He was getting anxious because he could see that the questions were important.

“The third question: When the Buddha was in the world, the Buddha was our Master. Now that he is entering nirvana, whom should we take as Master? We should select one person from among us. We can’t manage without a Master!”

“Right. That also should be asked. What is the fourth question?”

“The fourth question is extremely important: When the Buddha was in the world, he could discipline the bad-natured bhikṣus.” Bad-natured bhikṣus are those who leave home and do not follow the rules. “After the Buddha enters nirvana who will discipline them?”

Ananda said, “Right again. Now the bad-natured bhikṣus will consider us their equals and we will not be able to discipline them. That is a real headache. Okay, I will go get the Buddha’s advice on these.”

Ananda went straight to the Buddha’s room. Although he had not washed his face, his eyes were dry and his nose clean, and he was not nearly as unsightly as when he had been crying. The Buddha was on the verge of entering samadhi, and Ananda had no time to waste. “Buddha?” he said, “World Honored One? I have some very important problems about which I need your advice. Can you answer me now?”

The Buddha already knew that his cousin and youngest disciple was coming to ask questions, and he said, “Certainly I can answer you. What are your problems?”

“These are not my problems, they are the Buddha’s problems, problems of Buddhadharma, problems of all the high masters! I can’t solve them, and so I have come seeking the Buddha’s compassionate instruction. I have heard many sutras and opened much wisdom, but now, faced with this momentous event, I can’t handle it. I need your advice, Buddha.”

“All right, speak,” said the Buddha.

“The first question is, after the Buddha enters nirvana we want to compile the sutras. What words should we begin them with to show that they are the Buddha’s?”

The Buddha said, “Use the four words ‘Thus I have heard.”

“Thus I have heard. Okay, I will remember,” said Ananda, “What’s the answer to the second question?”

“What is the second question? You haven’t asked it yet, Ananda.”

“I haven’t? Oh. The next question is where should we live? There are so many of us. How will we get along? Where will we dwell?”

“That is a small problem,” said the Buddha. “You should dwell in the Four Dwellings of Mindfulness.”

These are:

1. 1. Contemplation of the body as impure,
   2. Contemplation of feelings as suffering,
   3. Contemplation of thoughts as impermanent, and
   4. Contemplation of dharmas as devoid of self.

“The third question. You have been our Master, but when you enter nirvana who will our Master be? Will it be the oldest? Great Kāśyapa is the oldest. Will it be someone middle aged? That would be Ājñātakauṇḍinya. If it is to be the very youngest – I am the youngest, but I can’t be the Master. I can’t do it, Buddha.”

The Buddha said, “You don’t need to be Master, and neither does Ājñātakauṇḍinya or Great Kāśyapa.”

“Who will it be then?”

The Buddha said, “Take the Pratimokṣa as your master.” The Pratimokṣa is the Vinaya – precepts and rules. “Take the precepts as Master.”

The Buddha said that all people who have gone forth from home should take the Pratimokṣa as master. Therefore if you want to leave the home life you certainly must receive the precepts. If you do not receive the precepts, then you have no master. When one leaves home he should receive the Śramaṇera precepts, the Bodhisattva precepts, and the bhikṣu precepts. One who has taken only the śramaṇera precepts and the Bodhisattva precepts, but has not taken the bhikṣu precepts, has only partially left home. To leave home fully, one takes the complete precepts as Master.

“Now we have a Master,” Ananda said, “but among us there are bad-natured bhikṣus. While you have been in the world, you have managed them, Buddha. What should we do about them when you are gone?”

During the time of the Buddha there were six bhikṣus who were very rambunctious. They constantly interfered with others’ cultivation. If people were maintaining the precepts and rules, those bhikṣus tried to hinder them. Although those six bhikṣus did not follow the rules, not one of them was as disobedient as today’s average bhikṣu.

“What should we do about evil natured bhikṣus?” asked Ananda.

“Oh, that,” said the Buddha, “is very easy. You should be silent and they will go away. Don’t talk to them. After all, aren’t they bad? Aren’t they boisterous and disobedient? Ignore them. Don’t speak to them. They will become bored and leave on their own.”

Those are the Buddha’s answers to the four questions.

Thus I have heard. Those words are the first of the Six Requirements. It is essential that all who lecture or read sutras be quite familiar with the Six Requirements which are: belief, hearing, time, host, place and audience.

1. Thus is the requirement of belief,

2. I have heard is the requirement of hearing,

3. At one time is the requirement of time,

4. The Buddha is the requirement of a host,

5. In Sravasti in the Jeta Grove of the Garden of the Benefactor of Orphans and the Solitary is the requirement of a place,

6. Together with a gathering of great bhikṣus, twelve hundred fifty in all is the requirement of an audience.

The six requirements prove that a sutra was spoken by the Buddha. Since the requirements begin every sutra, they are called the “Common Preface.” The text which immediately follows them varies with each sutra, and so it is called the “Specific Preface.” In this sutra the Specific Preface is:

“At that time, at mealtime, the World Honored One put on his robe, took up his bowl, and entered the great city of Sravasti to beg for food. After he had finished his sequential begging within the city, he returned, ate the food, put away his robe and bowl, washed his feet, arranged his seat, and sat down.”

The Common Preface is also called both the “Foreword” and the “Postscript.” When lecturing sutras one can discuss this section as a foreword to the sutra and also as a postscript appended at a later date….

The six requirements are called the Postscript because they were not part of the original sutra. The Buddha did not say “Thus I have heard…” That text was added afterwards by the Venerable Ananda when the sutra division was compiled. The Postscript is also called the Prologue. Therefore the six requirements may be called the Foreword, the Prologue, and the Postscript.

The Buddha Instructed that all sutras he spoke should begin with the four words “Thus I have heard…” Those who investigate Buddhist sutras should know the history of those four words.

Sūtras provide a road to travel in cultivation. Going from the road of birth and death to the road of no birth and death, the common person penetrates to sagehood – to Buddhahood. One who wishes to walk that road must rely on the dharma to cultivate. The dharma is in the sūtras.

The word sūtra has many meanings.

1. It is called “an emanation” because it comes from the Buddha’s mouth.
2. Sutra is also called “a bright revelation” because it can illumine the whole world with its light.
3. Sutra is also called “a constant” because it is a method which never changes. Whether in the past or in the present, the sutra remains the same. Not one word can be taken out, not one added. It neither increases nor decreases.
4. The sutra “strings together.” Like beads on a string, the principles of the Buddhadharma are linked together in the lines of the sutra from beginning to end.
5. The sutra “attracts” living beings in the same way that a magnet draws iron filings. Living beings drawn to the sūtras come to have a thorough understanding of the Buddhadharma.
6. The sūtra is a “method” of cultivation held in veneration by living beings in the past, present and future.
7. Sūtra is also called a “bubbling spring.” The principles flow from the sūtras like water from a bubbling spring which moistens the entire earth, causing all living beings to be filled with the joy of dharma and to obtain delightful dhyana food.

The complete title of the sūtra is the Vajra Prajña Paramita Sūtra.

Why does one need literary, contemplative, and real mark prajña? Sakyamuni Buddha spoke four lines of verse which those who study the Vajra Sūtra should regularly recite:

All conditioned phenomena
Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows,
Like dew drops and a lightning flash:
Contemplate them thus.

Everything is conditioned phenomena. Eating, wearing clothes, walking, standing, sitting, lying down, running a business – all activities are conditioned phenomena. Those are examples of external conditioned phenomena. There are also the Five Skandhas – form, feeling, thought, activities, and consciousness – which are conditioned phenomena. The four principal elements – earth, water, fire and wind – are conditioned phenomena. The six roots, the six dusts, the twelve places, and the eighteen realms are all conditioned phenomena. All those phenomena, whether external or internal, are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows.

What is a dream? No one knows. If we knew then we would not dream. People are in a perpetual dream. When you fall asleep and dream, you are unaware of the things which exist in your ordinary waking state, and when you awaken from the dream, you usually cannot remember the events of the dream. In the same way, we are unable to remember the events of our former lives, because they have disappeared in this present life’s dream.

Someone may have a dream in which he becomes wealthy, is appointed an official, and is on the verge of becoming president, when suddenly someone else says to him, “Sir, you are actually having a dream.” But in the midst of his dream of riches and position, the person cannot believe what he is told.

“Everything that is happening to me is real,” he says, “I am wealthy, I am an official, I am a candidate for president. How can you say that I am dreaming?” However, when he awakens from his dream, he will know without being told that all those events happened in a dream.

So too we people are as if in a dream. Now I will tell you: this is a dream. Although I have told you, surely you will reply, “What do you mean, a dream? This is all real. These things are actually happening. How can you say it is a dream? You cheat people.”

When your cultivation is accomplished, you will awaken from this dream and know without being told that everything you did in the past was a dream. The reason you do not believe me when I tell you that you are dreaming is that you still have not awakened from your dream. When you awaken you will agree, “Yes, it was all a dream.” …

When you understand the Buddhadharma you know that everything is empty and illusory. The world is empty and illusory, realized from a conflux of conditions which only seem to be real. When you do not understand the Buddhadharma, you are like the child or the fool who considers everything to be real. This is not to belittle people! It is a simple fact. People who do not understand the Buddhadharma think that being wealthy is real and think that official positions actually exist. In actuality, everything is one. A person is the same whether he is rich or impoverished. If you understand that everything is empty and illusory, then you cannot be confused by anything. You will not become attached to unreal states.

When the Vajra Sūtra tells you not to consider the Buddha as either sitting, lying, coming, or going, it is telling you not to make such distinctions. When you no longer make discriminations, your wisdom can appear. Your prajña will manifest in direct proportion to the degree you have cast out discriminations. In the minds of most people there are so many discriminations that they entirely fill the field of the eighth consciousness, which is basically pure, with filth and defilements. Once you are rid of all that garbage, your wisdom will appear.

After having spoken the previous section of text, Śākyamuni Buddha realized people might have doubts and become attached to the mark of the Tathagata’s comings and goings. Therefore he said to Subhūti, “If someone were to say the Tathagata either comes or goes, either sits or lies down, that person would not understand the meaning of my teaching.” It seems as if the Tathagata, the Thus Come One, comes and goes but the coming and going is only illusory. Anyone who thinks he really comes or goes has failed to understand the principle the Buddha teaches. The Tathagata has no place from which he comes and no place to which he goes; therefore he is called the Thus Come One. That means the Buddha’s dharma body neither dwells nor does not dwell. It pervades all places. If it fills all places, from where could it come? Since it fills all places, to what place could it go? Therefore it is said not to dwell and not not to dwell.

If you understand the Buddhadharma, the mountains, rivers and great earth are all the Tathagata’s dharma body. If you do not understand, you see the Tathagata but do not recognize him. If you understand the Buddhadharma, you can recognize the Buddha without even having seen him, and once you recognize the Tathagata, it is very easy to rely on the dharma to cultivate. If you don’t recognize the Tathagata and do not even know what the Buddha is all about, how can you study the Buddha? To fail to recognize yet to proceed to study is called the blind leading the blind. If you are blind you may make a mistake and choose to follow someone who is also blind. Although your leader realizes that he himself is blind, he may want to be followed and so pretends he can see. The two of you then fumble along, running hither and yon, until eventually you both fall into the sea and are drowned. It is essential from the start to recognize the Buddhadharma and to understand how to cultivate. Then you can study.

Wishing to speak in greater detail, Sakyamuni Buddha said to Subhūti, “There is nothing higher than this dharma, and there is nothing lower.” Therefore it is called Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Although it is called the unsurpassed, proper and equal, right enlightenment, it is a dharma without a mark of self, of others, of living beings, or of a life. It is devoid of attachment to self, attachment to phenomena, and attachment to emptiness. You must cultivate wholesome practices and abstain from practicing unwholesome deeds. So it is said:

I vow to cut off all evil.
I vow to do all good.
I vow to save all living beings.

If you cut off evil and cultivate good, your good roots will increase and grow. By cultivating good practices you naturally obtain unsurpassed, proper and equal, right enlightenment.

After the Buddha had said that living beings were not living beings and not not living beings, Subhūti asked, “In attaining the unsurpassed, proper and equal, right enlightenment, the one resultant dharma of Buddhahood, there is not even the slightest dharma to be attained. Therefore it is called Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.” That is merely a false name, nothing more. There is no actual substance which one can point to and say, “That is Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.” Why is there not even the smallest dharma which can be attained? The principle was discussed before: if you want to know if something is attainable, you first must know if it has been lost. If it was certain that Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi had been lost, then you could retrieve it. But basically you have not lost it. It is what you have always had your basic nature. “In your clothing is a priceless gem, do not further seek outside.” Do not go outside in search of anything. The priceless gem is within your clothing. Cut open your clothing and you will see it.

Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, the unsurpassed, proper and equal, right enlightenment, is a special name for the perfect, full Buddha-fruit. Your Buddha-fruit is certainly not something that can be attained from outside. That which is called Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi also does not come from outside. It is what you have always had: your inherent family treasure. The riches are within your own household. If you turn away and seek outside you will be abandoning what you have had all along. You will not find anything that way.

Actually there is not the slightest dharma which can be attained. There is no dharma of unsurpassed, proper and equal, right enlightenment which the Buddha can attain. …

If you force it and say that the Tathagata attains something called Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, that Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi is neither true nor false. Being neither true nor false, it is the final meaning of the Middle Way; it is real mark prajña.

Therefore the Tathagata says that although there is no dharma which can be attained, yet all dharma are Buddhadharmas. There is nothing outside the Buddhadharma. Therefore all teachings are Buddhist. They do not go beyond the Buddha’s teaching, because the Buddha’s teaching contains all things. Buddhadharma is the totality of the dharma. Buddhism is the totality of all other teachings. All schools and teachings are born from within the Buddha’s teaching. Since they are all born from Buddhism, in the future they will again return to Buddhism. Therefore it is unnecessary to ask to what religion a person belongs. No matter what school, or sect, or teaching, or religion one believes none goes beyond Buddhism. The essential point is to have faith in something. Then although you may believe various teachings, switching back and forth from this one to that one, in the end you will certainly return to Buddhism. The Buddhadharma is that great. Although it says there is no dharma which can be attained, nonetheless there is not one dharma which is not the Buddhadharma. And since the Buddhadharma is ultimately unattainable, how could a single dharma be attained?