[MD] Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra

[Heather Perella]

     [The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra on bodhisattvas]

     "They had attained the intuitive tolerance of the
ultimate incomprehensibility of all things."


     [The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra (part of Licchavi
Ratnakaras' hymn to the Buddha)]

     "...Although the Lord speaks with but one voice,
Those present perceive that same voice differently,
And each understands in his own language according to
his own needs.  This is a special quality of the
Buddha.

>From the Leader's act of speaking in a single voice,
Some merely develop an instinct for the teaching, some
gain realization, Some find pacification of all their
doubts.
This is a special quality of the Buddha...

You associate with living beings by frequenting their
migrations.
Yet your mind is liberated from all migrations.
Just as the lotus, born of mud, is not tainted
thereby,
So the lotus of the Buddha preserves the realization
of void-ness..."



    "Chan Buddhism" by Peter D. Hershock brought to my
attention Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra.  In Hershocks
book this Sutra is commented upon in brief detail as
follows:


     "... the Vimalakirti Sutra depicted a lay student
of the Buddha whose wisdom, attentive virtuosity, and
moral clarity {the three gates of liberation} far
exceeded those of all the (fully ordained) disciples
who figured in the earliest sutra literature. 
Vimalakirti's lay status appealed to the Chinese not
only because he represented a fully secular Buddhist
ideal, but also because his spiritual attainments and
insight were manifest throughout his daily affairs. 
His skill as a bodhisattva did not depend on
demonstrated erudition or literary knowledge but on
silent and unparalleled force of character.  In the
emergence of Chan, Vimalakirti's demonstration - not
explanation - of the opening of the three gates of
liberation would be taken as fully authoritative...
     Nor is it coincidental that the layman
Vimalakirti... described our present world realm, the
Buddha's home realm, as one in which all things (even
'bad' odors and 'deplorable' conditions) do the great
work of enlightenment....
     In a record of questions and answers associated
with Bodhidharma and his circle of students, someone
asks, 'Where is the place of enlightenment?'  The
answer echoes the Vimalakirti Sutra:  'The place you
are walking on is the place of enlightenment; the
place you are lying on is the place of enlightenment;
the place you are sitting is the place of
enlightenment; the place you are standing is the place
of enlightenment.  Wherever you pick up your feet or
put them down - that is the place of enlightenment!' 
There can be no more unequivocal rejection of the idea
that enlightenment is somewhere far away in time or
space, something attained by others under
circumstances not our own.
     The conception and birth of Chan pivots on taking
this absence of blockages to liberation utterly in
earnest."

http://www.buddhistinformation.com/ida_b_wells_memorial_sutra_library/vimalakirti_nirdesa_sutra.htm



Chan is Chinese and the Japanese call Chan - Zen.


twirling leaves on the tips,
SA

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