The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p54-55A Bodhisattva should not dwell anywhere when he practices giving. In other words, he should not be attached when he gives. If he is able to free himself from attachment, he has understood that the substance of the Three Wheels, composed of:
- One who gives,
- One who receives, and
- That which is given, is empty.
If your act of giving carries with it the thought, “I practice giving and have done many meritorious and virtuous deeds,” or if you are aware of the receiver, or of the goods given, then you have not left the mark of giving. You should give and be as if you had not given. If you attach to the marks of the six sense objects – forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects, and mental constructs – when giving, your merit and virtue are limited. If you fall victim to the thought, “I contributed a million dollars to a certain temple,” then all you have is a million dollars’ worth of merit. When the money runs out, so do your merit and virtue.
If you are not attached to the mark of giving, you accrue limitless merit and virtue, even by giving as little as a single cent. If you fail to practice the proper method of giving, then although you may give gifts throughout as many great kalpas as there are motes of dust, you will still have accomplished nothing. It still has been just like boiling sand to make rice; no matter how long you cook it, it never becomes rice.
Sakyamuni Buddha used the analogy of “empty space in the ten directions” to represent the extent of merit and virtue involved in the act of giving which is detached from the mark of giving. He said, “Subhūti, a Bodhisattva should only dwell in what is taught thus.” A Bodhisattva who has already resolved to realize Bodhi should think of what he has thus been taught and adhere to it in cultivation.
If you remember what you have given, then I will forget it. If you can forget it, then I will keep it in mind. It is the same with the Buddha who, knowing the minds of all living beings, is aware that you have not forgotten the merit and virtue of your acts of giving, and so he finds it unnecessary to remember them himself. When you forget them, the Buddha remembers. Do you think it is better for you or the Buddha to remember?
You think, “I am afraid that if I forget, the Buddha will forget, too, and then I simply will not have any merit at all.”
Never fear. If you forget about your acts of giving the Buddha will eternally remember them. As it says later in the Vajra Sutra, “All the various thoughts which occur to all living beings are completely known to the Tathagata.” When you do good things, you remember them, but when you do bad, do you also cherish the memories? No, you try to forget your offenses immediately, yet you fondly ponder the good you have done. You should forget the good and remember the bad. Why remember the bad? So you will not do it again. Why forget the good? So you will feel the need to do more.
Category Archives: Vajra Sutra
Vajra Sutra: Avoiding the Mark of Self
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p52Although Bodhisattvas take numberless beings to extinction, there are actually no living beings taken across. That is the manifestation of the perfect substance and the great function of prajña. The substance of real mark prajña is without the slightest inequality. As is said later in the sutra, “This dharma is level and equal with no high or low.” The function of contemplative prajña originally is without a mark; as the text later says, “Those who have relinquished all marks are called Buddhas.”
If a Bodhisattva crosses living beings over and yet attaches to a self who takes them across, the four marks are not yet empty, and the false mind is not yet subdued. Such a person turns his back on prajña and becomes involved in the four marks that unite to form a self. The mark of self is the root of all marks. If one can turn the illusion of self around, then he can take living beings across to nirvana. He can separate himself from the four marks, subdue his mind, and thereby become a true Bodhisattva.
Vajra Sutra: How Rare
“How rare, World Honored One, is the Tathagata who remembers and protects all Bodhisattvas and causes them to be well-endowed.”
The rare occurrence Subhūti refers to is the appearance of a Buddha, a World Honored One. Śākyamuni Buddha had arranged his seat and sat down without saying a word. Was Subhūti making something out of nothing, making waves where there was no wind, setting up wrong where there had not even been a right, placing a head on top of a head, adding a mark to a mark; was he just looking for trouble? If the Buddha had spoken a principle or made a sign it might have made sense to respond, “How rare, World Honored One,” but all Śākyamuni Buddha had done was arranged his seat and sat down.
This passage merits very special attention, for the main point of the Vajra Sutra is right here. By the time Śākyamuni Buddha had arranged his seat and sat down, he had already finished teaching dharma. That is why Subhūti uttered his words of praise. For Śākyamuni Buddha had taught the prajña of real mark, which is apart from the mark of the spoken word, apart from the mark of the written word, apart from the mark of the conditioned mind, apart from each and every mark. Only sages who had certified to the fruit understood; common people were not up to it. Realizing that, Subhūti hoped Śākyamuni Buddha would speak a provisional teaching, an expedient dharma of literary prajña, for the sake of living beings. That is why he prefaced his request for dharma by saying, “How rare is the World Honored One.” Truly rare is the Tathagata. Rarely is there a World Honored One. The real mark prajña is a protection and an endowment for all Bodhisattvas. The dharma is extremely wonderful.
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p36-37
Vajra Sutra: The Buddha’s Performance
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p32Then he arranged his seat and sat down
When the begging was finished, the food eaten, his robe and bowl stored, and his feet cleansed, after this basic routine had been attended to, the Buddha then arranged his seat and sat down. This does not mean that he piled pillows beneath and pillows behind, pillows all around and then eased himself onto a plush couch like some people do. It means he made a gesture or two, straightened a mat, tidied the seat a bit, and then sat down.
Real mark prajña was expressed in the Buddha’s performance of the daily routine. That is not to say the emphasis was placed on the performance itself, to announce, “I cultivate!” Rather, if one understands dharma, everything is cultivation. That is not true of one who affects the manner of an experienced cultivator declaring, “Look at me, I just sit here thus,” whereas the next minute finds him fidgeting, squirming, and talking a mile a minute. People who cultivate the Way seldom talk. Do not talk too much. If you do you will hinder other people’s cultivation as well as your own. In a place where the sangha lives one cannot hear the sound of a single voice. If conversation is necessary it is carried on in very low tones so as not to disturb others. People who wish to use effort in cultivation of the Way should study the Buddha and in every movement, every gesture, avoid obstructing others.
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra
In reading Chinese Master Hsuan Hua’s 14-volume commentary on the Lotus Sutra – I’m currently on the fourth volume, which covers Chapter 3, A Parable – I have come across several references to the Vajra Sutra.
For example, in discussing the term Tathāgata, Hsuan Hua says:
What is meant by Tathāgata? The Vajra Sūtra says:
The Tathāgata does not come from anywhere,
nor does he go anywhere.
That is why he is called the Tathāgata.
Or in discussing Chapter 2 he says:
Since nothing can be grasped, why does the text say “to attain the Buddha’s Path”? The so-called “Buddha’s Path” is not attained from the outside. As it says in the Vajra Sūtra, when the Tathagata received the Dharma of anuttara samyaksaṃbodhi from the Buddha Dīpaṃkara, Burning Lamp, he in fact received nothing.
Being unfamiliar with the sutra, I went back to the Buddhist Text Translation Society’s website and picked up a copy of “The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, A General Explanation.”
I took a break from Hsuan Hua’s commentary on the Lotus Sutra to read his commentary on the Vajra Sutra.
This is very esoteric stuff, the sort of stuff one would expect a Chinese Chan master to explore. Consider this discussion of “true prajña” – true direct insight or true wisdom:
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p156Once Subhūti was sitting in a cave cultivating and a god came scattering flowers.
“Who has come to scatter flowers?” asked Subhūti.
“The god Sakra,” came the reply. “Sakra has come to scatter flowers.”
“Why have you come here to scatter flowers?” asked Subhūti.
Sakra said, “Because the Venerable One speaks prajña well, I have come to make offerings.”
Subhūti said, “I have not said one word. How can you say I speak prajña?”
Sakra replied, “The Venerable One has not spoken and I have not heard a thing. Nothing spoken and nothing heard: that is true prajña.”
You think it over. Nothing spoken and nothing heard is true prajña. Have you heard prajña? If not, that is true prajña.
In considering what to make of this, I was reminded of similar statements made in the Threefold Lotus Sutra.
In the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings Bodhisattva Fully Composed addresses the Buddha:
“World-honored One! For more than forty years, ever since achieving enlightenment, the Tathāgata, for the benefit of living beings, has continuously discoursed on the principle of the four modes of all phenomena, the meaning of suffering, and the meaning of emptiness; on ever changingness, nonexistence of self, non-greatness, non-smallness, non-origination, and non-cessation; on the formlessness of all things; and on the natures and aspects of phenomena being intrinsically empty and tranquil—neither coming nor going, neither appearing nor disappearing.
Or in Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra, when the Buddha explains:
All that I say is true, not false, because I see the triple world as it is. I see that the triple world is the world in which the living beings have neither birth nor death, that is to say, do not appear or disappear, that it is the world in which I do not appear or from which l do not disappear, that it is not real or unreal, and that it is not as it seems or as it does not seem. I do not see the triple world in the same way as [the living beings of] the triple world do. I see all this clearly and infallibly.
The Vajra Sutra is concerned with “marks” or characteristics and how to avoid clinging to them. There are four marks: the mark of self, the mark of others, the mark of living beings and the mark of life.
Hsuan Hua explains in his commentary:
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p111Because Subhūti had cultivated good roots for limitless kalpas, it was not difficult for him to believe. He realized, however, that anyone in the Dharma Ending Age, at the time when people are Strong in Fighting, who could believe, understand, receive, and hold the sūtra, would be a foremost individual and very rare. And why? Such people will have no mark of self, meaning they have no greed. No mark of others, meaning they have no anger. No mark of living beings, meaning they are not stupid. No mark of a life, meaning they have no desire. They have no greed, anger, stupidity, or desire, these four kinds of attachments. The four marks are without a mark. No mark is real mark. Real mark is no mark. And why? Because real mark is also distinct from all which has no marks. If you can obtain real mark, that is obtaining the principle substance of the self-nature of all Buddhas. Those who have relinquished all marks are called Buddhas. Therefore you too can certainly become a Buddha.
Over the next several days I’m going to post excerpts from Hsuan Hua’s commentary on the Vajra Sutra.