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The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra
THE DHARMA BODY HAS NO MARKS
CHAPTER 26
Sutra:
“Subhuti, what do you think? Can one contemplate the Tathagata by means of the thirty-two marks?”
Subhuti said, “So it is, so it is, World Honored One. One can contemplate the Tathagata by means of the thirty-two marks.”
The Buddha said, “Subhuti, if one could contemplate the Tathagata by means of the thirty-two marks, then a Sagely Wheel-turning King would be a Tathagata.”
Subhuti said to the Buddha, “World Honored One, as I understand what the Buddha has said, one should not contemplate the Tathagata by means of the thirty-two marks.”
At that time the World Honored One spoke a gatha, which says,
If one sees me in forms,
If one seeks me in sounds,
He practices a deviant way,
And cannot see the Tathagata.
Commentary:
Shakyamuni Buddha asked Subhuti, “Can one contemplate the Tathagata merely by means of the thirty-two marks?” Previously the Buddha had asked Subhuti if one could “see” the Tathagata by means of the thirty-two marks. Then at this point he asked if one could contemplate the Tathagata by means of them. Seeing is a function of the eyes, whereas contemplation is a function of the mind. Subhuti was entangled in that distinction, and so he replied, “Yes, one can contemplate the Tathagata’s dharma body by means of the thirty-two marks.”
But the Buddha pointed out that a Sagely Wheel-turning King also possesses the thirty-two marks, and so he too should be a Buddha. Actually, a Wheel-turning King’s thirty-two marks are slightly less distinct than a Buddha’s. People with the five eyes and six spiritual penetrations can distinguish the difference. But since ordinary people cannot, to say that ordinary people can see the Tathagata by means of the thirty-two marks means that they would also see a Wheel-turning King as a Buddha.
After Subhuti heard the Buddha’s explanation he replied, “As I understand what the Buddha has said, one cannot see or contemplate the Tathagata by means of the thirty-two marks.”
Shakyamuni Buddha then spoke a verse for Subhuti:
If one sees me in form means there may be people who see the thirty-two physical marks and think they are seeing the Buddha himself.
If one seeks me in sound means there may be those who take the four eloquences and the eight sounds as being the Tathagata.
He practices a deviant way / and cannot see the Tathagata. The deviant path of grasping at the sight or the sound of the Buddha leads one into the extreme of clinging to conditioned existence. When one is not in accord with the Middle Way, one cannot see the Tathagata. The Avatamsaka Sutra says: “Response and transformations are not the true Buddha.” The thirty-two marks belong to the response and transformation bodies, and certainly not to the Buddha’s dharma body. One who holds to annihilationism views everything as doomed to extinction. One who holds to permanence views everything as eternal. Both views are biased and not the Middle Way. If one seeks the Tathagata’s dharma body by some path other than the Middle Way, it will be impossible to find it.
Once Mahamaudgalyayana wanted to see how far the Buddha’s voice carried, so he used his spiritual penetrations and went as far east as he could. He passed through thousands of ten thousands of millions of Buddhalands – 70,000 times farther than a rocket can go in space. But even when he had rablas that great distance, the Buddha’s voice was still as clear as if he were speaking dharma right into Mahamaudgalyayana’s ear. That is a case of searching for the Buddha in sound.
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