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The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra
SPOKEN YET NOT SPOKEN
CHAPTER 21
Sutra:
“Subhuti, do not say the Tathagata has the thought, ‘I have spoken dharma.’ Do not think that way. And why? If someone says the Tathagata has spoken dharma he slanders the Buddha due to his inability to understand what I say. Subhuti, in the dharma spoken there is no dharma which can be spoken, therefore it is called the dharma spoken.”
Then the sagacious Subhuti said to the Buddha, “World Honored One, will there be living beings in the future who will believe this sutra when they hear it spoken?”
The Buddha said, “Subhuti, they are neither living beings nor no living beings. And why? Subhuti, living beings, living beings, are spoken of by the Tathagata as no living beings, therefore they are called living beings.”
Commentary:
The Buddha then addressed Subhuti. “Do not say that the Tathagata thinks, ‘I have spoken dharma.’ Do not say the Buddha has spoken dharma. I do not think like that, and you should not think that way either. Someone who says that the Tathagata has spoken dharma thereby slanders the Buddha. Such a person does not understand the Buddhadharma.”
“The Buddha spoke dharma for forty-nine years,” you say. “Many sutras remain. How can one say he did not speak dharma?”
Once Manjushri Bodhisattva asked, “Will the Buddha please once again turn the dharma wheel?”
The Buddha replied, “Manjushri, in forty-nine years I have not spoken one word. How can you ask me to turn the dharma wheel again? Does that not imply that in the past I have already turned the dharma wheel?”
That is what is meant by speaking and yet not speaking.
Once Subhuti was sitting in a cave cultivating and a god came scattering flowers. “Who has come to scatter flowers?” asked Subhuti.
“The god Sakra,” came the reply. “Sakra has come to scatter flowers.”
“Why have you come here to scatter flowers?” asked Subhuti.
Sakra said, “Because the Venerable One speaks prajna well, I have come to make offerings.”
Subhuti said, “I have not said one word. How can you say I speak prajna?”
Sakra replied, “The Venerable One has not spoken and I have not heard a thing. Nothing spoken and nothing heard: that is true prajna.”
You think it over. Nothing spoken and nothing heard is true prajna. Have you heard prajna? If not, that is true prajna.
In the same way, this section says, “If someone says the Tathagata has spoken dharma, he slanders the Buddha.” To deviate from the sutras by one word is to practice the speech of demons. Yet to attach to the sutras when speaking is tantamount to slandering the Buddha. What should then be done?
Why is it said that the Buddha did not speak dharma? It is because the Buddha is without a mark of self, without a mark of others, without a mark of living beings. Being without all marks is being without a general physical appearance and without the perfection of marks. Since the Buddha is free of all marks, how can one say, “The Buddha speaks dharma”? How can that not be slander of the Buddha? The Buddha simultaneously speaks dharma and sweeps it away. He speaks it and sweeps it away, just as if he were sweeping the floor. Who speaks? Who sweeps? Who speaks and who cleans so that every last bit of filth is swept away?
Why is it slander to say that the Buddha spoke dharma?
It is because someone who makes that statement has not thoroughly understood that the dharma the Buddha spoke is without any real substance. Dharma is spoken because living beings make discriminations. If you made no discriminations, there would be no dharma to speak.
Then the sagacious Subhuti said to the Buddha, “World Honored One, will there be living beings in the future who will believe this sutra when they hear it spoken?” Sagacious refers to the fact that Subhuti was an elder with wisdom and experience.
The Buddha said, “Subhuti, they are neither living beings.” They certainly are not living beings, because they have already resolved their minds on the Bodhisattva Way. Nor no living beings. Although they have produced the minds of Bodhisattvas, their cultivation still is not perfected. Since it is not perfected, they are not not living beings. On the one hand they are definitely not living beings, but at the same time they still exist as living beings.
Why? Living beings, those who have the causal conditions to become living beings, are spoken of by the Buddha as no living beings. They are living beings who have resolved their minds on the Bodhisattva Way, and so are not common, ordinary living beings.
The following words did not appear in early translations of the sutra, but were added to later editions:
Then the sagacious Subhuti said to the Buddha, “World Honored One, will there be living beings in the future who will believe this sutra when they hear it spoken?”
The Buddha said, “Subhuti, they are neither living beings nor no living beings. And why? Subhuti, living beings, living beings, are spoken of by the Tathagata as no living beings, therefore they are called living beings.”
In the past there was a Dharma Master who fell ill, died, and went before King Yama, who asked him, “After you were born what did you do?”
The Dharma Master reflected and said, “What I did most in my life was recite the Vajra Sutra.”
King Yama said, “That’s good. You recited the Vajra Sutra. Excellent. Sit down.” King Yama then asked the Dharma Master to recite the sutra for him.
When the Dharma Master finished the recitation King Yama said, “Your recitation of the Vajra Sutra was short by one paragraph.” You will find the additional words carved on a stone tablet at Zhong Li Temple in Hao Zhou. Go there and find them, and then inform everyone in the world about them. You have worked hard in your recitation of the sutra, so, although it is time for you to die, I will grant you ten more years of life so you can return to the world and encourage everyone to recite the Vajra Sutra.
The Dharma Master came to life again and requested the emperor to send a message to Zhong Li Temple to find the section of text. There, carved on a stone tablet, was the Vajra Sutra and it contained the additional paragraph. Early translations of the sutra did not have those words, but all later editions contained them.
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