People and Places

Śakra: A god also known as Indra. His full name in Buddhist texts is usually given as Śakra, Lord (Indra) of the Gods. He is the lord of the gods of the heaven of the thirty-three (trāyastriṃśa), located on top of Mount Sumeru, at the centre of the world system. While being a god (deva) he has various powers and might, he is still subject to aging and death, consequently, he is interested in learning the Dharma from the Buddha, and frequently appears in the Buddhist sūtras.

Trāyastriṃśa: the Heaven of the Thirty-three is the second lowest heaven of the desire realm (see footnote 48 in chapter one) on top of Mount Sumeru and ruled over by Śakra. The gods there live in golden palaces amidst parks and live for thirty million years. The number thirty three corresponds to the thirty-three gods of the Ṛgveda, the oldest Hindu scripture.

The Lokapālas: also known as the four great kings (mahārāja). These are the world guardians are depicted as warriors who reside at the lowest heaven of the desire realm and are also ruled over by Śakra, and their heaven is located on the slope of Mount Sumeru. They are (1) Dhṛtarāṣṭra, who guards the eastern direction, (2) Virūḍhaka, who guards the southern direction, (3) Virūpākṣa, who guards the western direction, and (4) Vaiśravaṇa, who guards the northern direction. They offer protection to the Buddha, his disciples, and his Dharma.

Brahmā: Brahmā is the king of the Brahma World (brahmaloka), which is the lowest of the form realms. He is depicted with four faces and four arms. Sahā World, or Endurance World, encompasses the triple world. Lord of the Sahā World is an epithet for Brahmā.

Pure Abodes: the five highest of the eight heavens in the form realm, and the abode of non-returners (anāgāmin): those who have only one more birth prior to attaining arhatship. The highest Pure Abode is Akaniṣṭha Heaven, the abode of a Buddha’s enjoyment body (saṃbhogakāya).

Overall Teaching

In suchness one should not stand (conceptualise, attach to a view) or rely on any impossibly existing aggregate, state of being, or aspect of the path. All things are illusions and dreams, including the path and attainments. All things, including the Perfection of Wisdom, are without discernible beginning, middle, or end aspects, and thus infinite. The Buddha’s bodhisattva career can be taken as an example.

Summary

1.     Preamble

a)     Many deities, including Śakra, assemble, and ask Subhūti to explain how bodhisattvas train in the Perfection of Wisdom. [33]

b)     Subhūti teaches that you should aspire to full awakening (bodhicitta), and even if one is an arhat, if one aspires to full awakening, they will not enter nirvāṇa. [33-4]

c)     The Buddha praises Subhūti, and Subhūti says we can use the Buddha’s past career as a bodhisattva as a teaching: he continued to be taught, and trained, and achieved awakening.

2.     How to Stand in Emptiness, or the Perfection of Wisdom

a)     Subhūti announces he will teach how to stand (sthātavyam; understand, conceptualise) in Perfect Wisdom: [34]

                                 i.         Through standing in emptiness, not standing on the aggregates, senses, sense objects, or sense consciousnesses; not the elements; not attainments.

                                ii.         Not identifying aggregates or states of being or ideas of being permanent, self, or suffering or not. [35]

                              iii.         Not identifying worth, or being on the path or attaining Buddhahood. [36]

b)     Reading Śāriputra’s thoughts on the topic, Subhūti explains that just as the Buddha takes no stand, because his mind has no support (does not rely on anything), so a bodhisattva should train. [37-8]

3.     The Saints and their Goals are Illusions

a)     The Gods think that although they understand what fairies (yakṣas) say, they don’t understand what Subhūti is talking about, but Subhūti explains that nothing has been explained and there’s nothing to understand.

b)     Subhūti points out, after knowing the Gods wished him to expand, that no one can attain any fruits of the holy life without accepting the elusiveness of the Dharma (is patient regarding the fact that he has not obtained a meaning)

c)     Those who hear the Dharma from Subhūti should wish to be like an illusion, for they do not truly hear his words or experience the facts they express. [39]

d)     All beings, things, and attainments are like illusions and dreams, including nirvāṇa. [40]

e)     While Ānanda suggests that irreversible Bodhisattvas or Arhats can grasp this, Subhūti says no one will. [41]

4.     Śakra’s Flowers

a)     Śakra issues forth flowers, but reminds Subhūti that he did not issue forth any flowers at all (in suchness). [41]

5.     Training in Perfect Wisdom

a)     Subhūti teaches that one should not train for increase, decrease, appropriation, letting go, getting hold of, or making disappear any of the aggregates. This is how to train in all-knowledge. [42-43]

b)     Subhūti teaches (through the Tathāgata’s might:) One should not search for Perfect Wisdom in aggregates, but also not apart from them. [44]

6.     The Infinitude of Perfect Wisdom

a)     The Perfection of Wisdom is infinite because the aggregates are. So one cannot settle down in the conviction that it is so. [45]

b)     Because the beginning, middle, or end of objects and beings cannot be got at, and thus are infinite, thus is Perfect Wisdom infinite. Yet it is not so because of their abundance. [46]

c)     No being is indicated by the word, so there cannot be an infinitude of beings. They are not distinguishable by presence in the three times (“perfectly pure”). Perfect Wisdom can be understood in this way also. [47] 

7.     Confirmation

a)     The Gods praise the teaching of how a buddha comes to be and as future buddhas themselves will have high regard for the bodhisattva who practices this.

b)     The Buddha relates that he was like such a bodhisattva when Dipankara predicted that he will in the future be Śākyamuni Buddha. [48]