1. Here is one of the most mysterious and unintelligible portions of the Laṅkāvatura sūtra. The Sanskrit word for “statement" is pada, which literally means, “foot-step," “a footing," “a position," “a subject," “an abode," “a matter of talk," “a portion of a line in a stanza," etc. For the Sanskrit pada the Chinese translators have “句", “見", “位", “住", but as they stand these translations do not give any sense to the general context. 句 is perhaps the best in retaining the original sense, but it is to be understood in the sense of “a proposition," “a statement," and each sentence containing this word in the following negations means that each subject referred to is not properly conceived, because, for instance, the concept of birth is not in accordance with the true understanding of reality. Birth stands against death, they are relative notions, and do not apply to a world where things are perceived in their absolute aspect. Therefore, any statement that might be made concerning birth are not at all true; birth is no-birth, death is no-death, and so on. Even of such notions as truth, realisation, self-nature, mind, paramitas, the same can be said; to make a statement about anything is to falsify it. Hence the series of negations as illustrated here. But the mysterious fact about them is the reference to so many trite subjects which are evidently in no direct connection with the teachings of the Mahāyāna. There must be something historical about these references of which the translator is at present quite ignorant. Another mystery here concerns the number of padas: why 108, and not more or less?