Back to Seventh Assembly Contents

Taishō no. 220
Fascicle 538

Śramaṇa Xuanze of Ximing Temple

Translated into English by Shaku Shingan (8.2025)

If what is cognised by consciousness is not other than consciousness itself,[1] and if reality has, from the beginning, never been otherwise, then the practitioner and the practice are both empty, and the principle of reception is null. If self-existence and non-existence are not different, then the thought of attachment is forgotten. However, if one forgets attachment but still relies on existence, or abides in calculations and falls into action—knowing much but practising little—then, even if personal vanity and the desire for victory are suppressed, the wild horse of fear is not yet tamed. So the discourse at Gṛdhrakūṭa is reopened.[2]

Some might say that in terms of words, the teaching must always admonish against practising within existence, while in terms of reality, it indeed warns against the idleness of non-practice. If there are such differences in application, how can they be reconciled?

To this, I respond: All ordinary beings, by dividing the signs of words and appearances, protect the abode of delusive desire. Consequently, they harbour an attachment to existence, and their deliberations inevitably go astray. The ultimate truth is the opposite of this, where motion and stillness are unified. From this perspective, practice is non-practice, and non-practice is also non-practice. And yet, in its natural state, it is truly practice! In its natural state, it is truly non-practice! Using the provisional name prajñā, it is given to those provisionally named bodhisattvas. This pertains to illusory dharmas and illusory persons; therefore, there is neither doing nor attainment.

Is this merely the chatter of a fly that lives for a single morning, or the rambling of a butterfly awakening from a dream?[3] We regret that this has not yet been understood, but rejoice that this teaching is gradually spreading.

In total, this section comprises twenty-nine chapters across eighteen fascicles. The old translations of this section include the Practice of the Path[4] and Transcendent Wisdom,[5] while the new translations are the Small Prajñā[6] and the Small Chapter[7] sūtras. The term 'chapter' implies division, and since there are long forms with many chapters and short forms with few, they are known by terms such as 'Great Chapter' or 'Small Chapter'. The Practice of the Path is the first chapter among these divisions, and translators use this title to differentiate the sūtra. As for Transcendent Wisdom, it is another term for the Perfection of Wisdom (i.e., Prajñāpāramitā) and serves as an overall title in that context. Due to the existence of various fragmentary and incomplete versions, their titles also differed.

Now that the great teaching is complete and the great admonition of the Prajñāpāramitā has been fully disseminated, the essential principles of the mind and the Path can be restored!