bhagavān āha - sādhu sādhu mahāmate, sādhu khalu punas tvaṃ mahāmate, yat tvam etam artham adhyeṣitavyaṃ manyase |
bahujanahitāya tvaṃ mahāmate pratipanno bahujanasukhāya lokānukampāyai mahato janakāyasyārthāya hitāya sukhāya devānāṃ ca manuṣyāṇāṃ ca |
tena hi mahāmate śṛṇu, sādhu ca suṣṭhu ca manasi kuru | bhāṣiṣye ’haṃ te |
sādhu bhagavann iti mahāmatir bodhisattvo mahāsattvo bhagavataḥ (38,1) pratyaśrauṣīt |
bha(90*)gavāṃs tasyaitad avocat - svacittadṛśyamātrānavabodhān mahāmate bālapṛthagjanā bāhyavicitrabhāvābhiniveśena ca nāstyastitvaikatvānyatvobhaya naivāsti na nāsti nityānityasvabhāvavāsanāhetuvikalpābhiniveśena vikalpayanti |
tadyathā mahāmate mṛgatṛṣṇodakaṃ mṛgā udakabhāvena vikalpya grīṣmābhitaptāḥ pātukāmatayā pradhāvanti,
svacittadṛṣṭibhrāntyanavabodhān na prajānanti na_trodakam iti,
evam eva mahāmate bālapṛthagjanā anādikālavividhaprapañcavikalpavāsitamatayo rāgadveṣamohāgnitāpitamanaso vicitrarūpaviṣayābhilāṣiṇaḥ utpādabhaṅgasthitidṛṣṭyāśayā ādhyātmikabāhyabhāvābhāvākuśalāḥ |
te ekatvānyatvanāstyastitvagrāhe prapatanti |
tadyathā mahāmate gandharvanagare ’viduṣāmanagare nagarasaṃjñā bhavati |
sā ca nagarākṛtir anādikālanagarabījavāsanābhiniveśāt khyāti |
tac ca nagaraṃ nānagaraṃ na nagaram |
evam eva mahāmate anādikālatīrthyapraprañcavādavāsanābhiniviṣṭāḥ ekatvānyatvāstitvanāstitvavādān abhiniviśante svacittadṛśyamātrānavadhāritamatayaḥ |
(91*) tadyathā mahāmate kaścid eva puruṣaḥ śayitaḥ svapnāntare strīpuruṣahastyaśvarathapadātigrāmanagaranigamagomahiṣavanodyānavividhagirinadītaḍāgopaśobhitaṃ janapadam antaḥpuraṃ praviśya prativibudhyeta |
sa prativibuddhaḥ saṃstad eva janapadam antaḥpuraṃ samanusmaret |
tat kiṃ manyase mahāmate - api nu sa puruṣaḥ paṇḍitajātīyo bhavet, yas tad abhūtaṃ svapnavaicitryam anusmaret? āha - no hīdaṃ bhagavan |
bhagavān āha - evam eva mahāmate bālapṛthagjanāḥ kudṛṣṭidaṣṭāstīrthyamatayaḥ svapnatulyāt svacittadṛśyabhāvān na prativijānante, ekatvānyatvanāstyastitvadṛṣṭiṃ samāśrayante |
tadyathā mahāmate citrakarakṛtapradeśā animnonnatāḥ santo nimnonnatā bālaiḥ kalpyante,
evam eva mahāmate bhaviṣyanty anāgate ’dhvani tīrthyadṛṣṭivāsanāśayaprativikalpapuṣṭāḥ |
te ekatvānyatvobhayānubhayavādābhiniviṣṭāḥ svayaṃ naṣṭā anyān api sadasatpakṣaviviktānutpādavādino nāstikā iti vakṣyanti |
ete hetuphalāpavādino durdarśanonmūlitahetukuśalaśuklapakṣāḥ |
ete śreyorthibhir dūrataḥ parivarjyāṃ iti vakṣyante |
te ca svaparobhayadṛṣṭipatitāśayā nāsty a(92*)stitvavikalpasamāropāpavādakudṛṣṭipatitāśayā narakaparāyaṇā bhaviṣyanti |
tadyathā mahāmate taimirikāḥ keśoṇḍukaṃ dṛṣṭvā parasparam ācakṣate - idaṃ citram idaṃ citram iti paśyantu bho mārṣāḥ |
tacca keśoṇḍukamubhayānutpannatayā na bhāvo nābhāvo darśanādarśanataḥ |
evam eva mahāmate tīrthyakudṛṣṭivikalpāśayābhiniviṣṭāḥ sadasatpakṣaikatva_nyatvobhayānubhayatvavādābhiniviṣṭāḥ saddharmāpavādakā ātmānaṃ parāṃś ca vinipātayiṣyanti |
tadyathā mahāmate acakramalātacakraṃ bālaiś cakrabhāvena parikalpyate na paṇḍitaiḥ,
evam eva mahāmate kudṛṣṭitīrthyāśayapatitā ekatvānyatvobhayānubhayatvaṃ parikalpayiṣyanti sarvabhāvotpattau |
tadyathā mahāmate deve pravarṣati jalabudbudakāḥ sphaṭikamaṇisadṛśāḥ khyāyante |
tatra ca bālāḥ sphaṭikamaṇibhāvamabhiniveśya pradhāvanti |
te ca mahāmate udakabudbudakā na maṇayo nāmaṇayo grahaṇāgrahaṇataḥ |
evam eva mahāmate tīrthyadṛṣṭivikalpāśayavāsanāvāsitā asataś cotpādaṃ varṇayiṣyanti pratyayaiḥ, sataś ca vināśam ||
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Replied the Blessed One: Well done, well done, Mahāmati! and again, well done, indeed, Mahāmati!
Because of your compassion for the world, for the benefit of many people, for the happiness of many people, for the welfare, benefit, happiness of many people, both of celestial beings and humankind, Mahāmati, you present yourself before me and make this request.
Therefore, Mahāmati, listen well and truly, and reflect, for I will tell you.
Assuredly, said Mahāmati the Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, and gave ear to the Blessed One.
(90) The Blessed One said this to him: Mahāmati, since the ignorant and the simple-minded, not knowing that the world is what is seen of Mind itself, cling to the multitudinousness of external objects, cling to the notions of being and non-being, oneness and otherness, bothness and not-bothness, existence and non-existence, eternity and non-eternity, as being characterised by self-nature which rises from discrimination based on habit-energy, they are addicted to false imaginings.
Mahāmati, it is like a mirage in which the springs are seen as if they were real. They are imagined so by the animals who, thirsty from the heat of the season, would run after them.
Not knowing that the springs are their own mental hallucinations, the animals do not realise that there are no such springs.
In the same way, Mahāmati, the ignorant and simple-minded with their minds impressed by various erroneous speculations and discriminations since beginningless time; with their minds burning with the fire of greed, anger, and folly; delighted in a world of multitudinous forms; with their thoughts saturated with the ideas of birth, destruction, and subsistence; not understanding well what is meant by existent and non-existent, by inner and outer;
the ignorant and simple-minded fall into the way of grasping at oneness and otherness, being and non-being.
Mahāmati, it is like the city of the Gandharvas which the unwitted take for a real city, though it is not so in fact.
This city appears in essence owing to their attachment to the memory of a city preserved in seed from beginningless time.
This city is thus neither existent nor non-existent.
In the same way, Mahāmati, clinging to the memory (vasana) of erroneous speculations and doctrines since beginningless time, they hold fast to ideas such as oneness and otherness, being and non-being, and their thoughts are not at all clear about what is seen of Mind-only.
(91) Mahāmati, it is like a man, who, dreaming in his sleep of a country variously filled with women, men, elephants, horses, cars, pedestrians, villages, towns, hamlets, cows, buffalos, mansions, woods, mountains, rivers, and lakes enters into its inner appartments and is awakened.
While awakened thus, he recollects the city and its inner apartments.
What do you think, Mahāmati? Is this person to be regarded as wise, who is recollecting the various unrealities he has seen in his dream? Said Mahāmati: Indeed, he is not, Blessed One.
The Blessed One continued: In the same way the ignorant and simple-minded who are bitten by erroneous views and are inclined toward the philosophers, do not recognise that things seen of the Mind itself are like a dream, and are held fast by the notions of oneness and otherness, of being and non-being.
Mahāmati, it is like the painter's canvas on which there is no depression nor elevation as imagined by the ignorant.
In the same way, Mahāmati, there may be in the future some people brought up in the habit-energy, mentality, and imagination based on the philosophers' erroneous views;
clinging to the ideas of oneness and otherness, of bothness and not-bothness, they may bring themselves and others to ruin; they may declare those people nihilists who hold the doctrine of no-birth apart from the alternatives of being and non-being.
They [argue against] cause and effect, they are followers of the wicked views whereby they uproot meritorious causes of unstained purity.
They are to be kept far away by those whose desires are for things excellent.
They are those whose thoughts are entangled in the errors of self, other, and both, (92) in the errors of imagining being and non-being, assertion and refutation, and hell will be their final refuge.
Mahāmati, it is like the dim-eyed ones who, seeing a hair-net, would exclaim to one another, saying: “It is wonderful! it is wonderful! Look, O honourable sirs!"
And the said hair-net has never been brought into existence. It is in fact neither an entity nor a non-entity, because it is seen and not seen.
In the same manner, Mahāmati, those whose minds are addicted to discrimination of the erroneous views as cherished by the philosophers, and who are also given up to the realistic ideas of being and non-being, oneness and otherness, bothness and not-bothness, will contradict the good Dharma, ending in the destruction of themselves and others.
Mahāmati, it is like a firebrand-wheel which is no real wheel but which is imagined to be of such character by the ignorant, but not by the wise.
In the same manner, Mahāmati, those whose minds have fallen into the erroneous views of the philosophers will falsely imagine in the rise of all beings oneness and otherness, bothness and not-bothness.
Mahāmati, it is like those water-bubbles in a rainfall which have the appearance of crystal gems,
and the ignorant taking them for real crystal gems run after them.
Mahāmati, they are no more than water-bubbles, they are not gems, nor are they not-gems, because of their being so comprehended [by one party] and being not so comprehended [by another].
In the same manner, Mahāmati, those whose minds are impressed by the habit-energy of the philosophical views and discriminations will regard things born as nonexistent and those destroyed by causation as existent.
Complete text
CHAPTER ONE. RĀVANA, LORD OF LANKĀ, ASKS FOR INSTRUCTION