Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra, Volume 337

Ānanda, if a bodhisattva mahāsattva, relying on his own merits and roots of goodness, disparages the assembly of other bodhisattva mahāsattvas, saying: "I can cultivate the perfections of generosity (dāna), pure morality, patience, diligence, dhyāna, and prajñā-pāramitā, but you cannot!

I can abide in internal emptiness, external emptiness, internal-and-external emptiness, emptiness of emptiness, great emptiness, emptiness of ultimate reality, emptiness of the conditioned, emptiness of the unconditioned, emptiness of the ultimate, emptiness of the boundless, emptiness of dispersion, emptiness of the changeless, emptiness of intrinsic nature, emptiness of self-marks, emptiness of common marks, emptiness of all dharmas, emptiness of the unattainable, emptiness of non-existence, emptiness of self-nature, and emptiness of the self-nature of non-existence, but you cannot!

I can abide in suchness, the dharma-realm, dharma-nature, non-falsity, non-changeability, equality, the nature disengaged from arising, dharma-fixity, dharma-abiding, the limit of reality, the realm of space, and the inconceivable realm, but you cannot!

I can abide in the noble truths of suffering, origin, cessation, and the path, but you cannot!

I can cultivate the four dhyānas, the four immeasurables, and the four formless absorptions, but you cannot!

I can cultivate the eight liberations, the eight stations of mastery, the nine sequential absorptions, and the ten stations of totality, but you cannot!

I can cultivate the four establishments of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of supernatural power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of enlightenment, and the eightfold noble path, but you cannot!

I can cultivate the doors of liberation of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, but you cannot!

I can cultivate the ten bodhisattva bhūmis, but you cannot!

I can adorn and purify buddha-fields and mature sentient beings, but you cannot!

I can observe the twelve links of dependent origination in both forward and reverse order, but you cannot!

I can cultivate the five eyes and the six superknowledges, but you cannot!

I can cultivate the ten powers of a buddha, the four fearlessnesses, the four unobstructed understandings, great loving-kindness, great compassion, great joy, great equanimity, and the eighteen exclusive qualities of a buddha, but you cannot!

I can cultivate śamatha and vipaśyanā, but you cannot!

I can cultivate the dharmas of never losing mindfulness and the nature of abiding in equanimity, but you cannot!

I can cultivate the gates of dhāraṇīs and the gates of samādhi, but you cannot!

I can cultivate the knowledge of all (sarvajñatā), the knowledge of paths, and omniscience (sarvākārajñatā), but you cannot!

I can observe the self-marks and common marks of all dharmas, but you cannot!

I can cultivate all the practices of bodhisattva mahāsattvas, but you cannot!

I can cultivate the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment of the buddhas, but you cannot!"

At that time, the māra, delighted and exultant, said: "This bodhisattva is my companion. He will transmigrate through birth and death without any prospect of escape."

Ānanda, you should know that when this bodhisattva mahāsattva practices the profound prajñā-pāramitā, he is disturbed by the māra.

If a bodhisattva mahāsattva does not rely on his own merits and roots of goodness, and does not disparage the assembly of other bodhisattva mahāsattvas, but constantly and diligently cultivates all wholesome dharmas without clinging to the marks of those wholesome dharmas — Ānanda, you should know that when this bodhisattva mahāsattva practices the profound prajñā-pāramitā, he is not disturbed by the māra.

Furthermore, Ānanda, if a bodhisattva mahāsattva, relying on his own name and reputation being known to the multitude, despises other bodhisattvas who cultivate goodness, constantly praising his own virtues and disparaging others, and, though in reality lacking the characteristics and marks of an irreversible bodhisattva mahāsattva, claims that he truly possesses them, giving rise to afflictions as he praises himself and disparages others, saying: "You have no bodhisattva name or reputation; only I alone possess a bodhisattva name and reputation" — thus, through arrogance (adhimāna), he despises and disparages the assembly of other bodhisattva mahāsattvas.

At that time, the māra, seeing this, thinks: "This bodhisattva keeps my realm's palaces from being empty, and increases the hells, the animal realms, and the realm of hungry ghosts."

Then the māra assists him with his supernatural power, causing his majesty and eloquence to grow ever greater. Thereupon many people believe and accept his words, and through this they are encouraged to adopt his evil views. Having adopted his views, they follow his wrong learning; having followed his learning, their afflictions blaze fiercely, and because their minds are inverted, all the bodily, verbal, and mental actions they initiate bring about undesirable, detrimental, and painful results. By this cause, the three evil destinies increase, filling the māra's palaces and realm. Thereupon the māra is delighted and exultant, and everything he does he accomplishes at will.

Ānanda, you should know that when this bodhisattva mahāsattva practices the profound prajñā-pāramitā, he is disturbed by the māra.

If a bodhisattva mahāsattva does not rely on his own false name and reputation to despise other bodhisattvas who cultivate goodness, has no arrogance regarding merits, constantly neither praises himself nor disparages others, and can well discern the activities of the māras — Ānanda, you should know that when this bodhisattva mahāsattva practices the profound prajñā-pāramitā, he is not disturbed by the māra.

Furthermore, Ānanda, if a bodhisattva mahāsattva mutually reviles, quarrels with, and slanders those who seek the vehicles of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, then the māra, seeing this, thinks: "This good son has distanced himself from unsurpassed perfect enlightenment and drawn near to the hells, the animal realms, and the realm of hungry ghosts."

Why is this? Because mutual reviling, quarreling, and slandering are not the path to enlightenment; they are only the paths of the hells, the animal realms, and the realm of hungry ghosts — the paths of the evil destinies. Having thought this, he is delighted and exultant. Ānanda, you should know that when this bodhisattva mahāsattva practices the profound prajñā-pāramitā, he is disturbed by the māra.

If a bodhisattva mahāsattva does not revile, quarrel with, or slander those who seek the vehicles of the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, but skillfully guides them so that they turn toward the Great Vehicle, or enables them to diligently cultivate the wholesome dharmas of their own vehicle — Ānanda, you should know that when this bodhisattva mahāsattva practices the profound prajñā-pāramitā, he is not disturbed by the māra.

Furthermore, Ānanda, if a bodhisattva mahāsattva mutually reviles, quarrels with, and slanders those good sons and good daughters who seek unsurpassed perfect enlightenment, then the māra, seeing this, thinks: "Both of these bodhisattvas have distanced themselves from unsurpassed perfect enlightenment, and both have drawn near to the hells, the animal realms, and the realm of hungry ghosts. Why is this? Because mutual reviling, quarreling, and slandering are not the path to enlightenment; they are only the paths of the hells, the animal realms, and the realm of hungry ghosts — the paths of the evil destinies." Having thought this, he is delighted and exultant. Ānanda, you should know that when this bodhisattva mahāsattva practices the profound prajñā-pāramitā, he is disturbed by the māra.

If a bodhisattva mahāsattva does not revile, quarrel with, or slander those good sons and good daughters who seek unsurpassed perfect enlightenment, but instead instructs them and diligently cultivates wholesome dharmas together with them, so that they may swiftly attain omniscience (sarvākārajñatā) — Ānanda, you should know that when this bodhisattva mahāsattva practices the profound prajñā-pāramitā, he is not disturbed by the māra.

Ānanda, you should know: if a bodhisattva mahāsattva who has not yet received the prediction of irreversibility for unsurpassed perfect enlightenment gives rise to thoughts of harm, quarreling, reviling, contempt, and slander toward those bodhisattvas who have received the prediction of irreversibility for unsurpassed perfect enlightenment, then for each such moment of non-beneficent thought he gives rise to, he regresses from that many kalpas of superior practices he previously cultivated; for that long a time he is far from good spiritual friends, and he again undergoes that much bondage of birth and death. If he does not abandon the great mind of enlightenment (bodhicitta), he must again diligently cultivate superior practices for that many kalpas before he can restore the merits he has lost through regression.