An Explanation of the Mahāyāna *Vijñāna-nirdeśa* Sūtra

Original text:于去来今。照了无碍。是大那伽。如佛之教。所作已办。弃大重担。获于己利。已断流转。生死有苦。以正智力。善知众生。心之所趣。如是大声闻众。长老舍利弗。而为上首。复有无量。菩萨摩诃萨众。俱在会集。

"Nāga" here refers to the dragon race. These arhats are as powerful as great dragons; they faithfully practice the Buddha's teachings, and seeking liberation within one lifetime, they attain it. They have cast off the heavy burden of birth and death, and from then on they are liberated, with body and mind at rest. Arhats of the fourth fruit often say: "My birth has been exhausted, the holy life has been established, what was to be done has been done, and I know for myself that there will be no more future existence." What the arhat must do is to exhaust the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and be able to transcend the three realms and attain liberation—this is what they set out to accomplish in their lifetime. "What was to be done has been done" means that everything that needed to be done has been completely done. Arhats of the third fruit cannot yet say this; only arhats of the fourth fruit can say so. Because practitioners of the third fruit still have afflictions not yet exhausted, and self-grasping and self-conceit not yet eliminated, only arhats of the fourth fruit have exhausted all afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, with all outflows exhausted—only then can they say that what was to be done has been done, and there will be no more future existence.

"Casting off the great heavy burden"—what is this heavy burden? The five aggregates and eighteen realms are a great heavy burden of birth and death; the five desires and six sense objects are a great heavy burden. Arhats are able to cast off this great heavy burden, their minds free of afflictions, with no more burdens in the three realms; they no longer care whether sentient beings suffer or not, setting down all their baggage and burdens and rushing out of the three realms. "Attaining benefit for oneself" means they have finally obtained benefit for themselves, able to end the suffering of birth and death and attain liberation. As long as arhats can transcend the three realms themselves and no longer undergo the suffering of the cycle of birth and death, they do not care about anything else. If all Buddhist practitioners had this kind of attitude, the Buddha-dharma could not continue and would perish; sentient beings of later generations would have no one to proclaim the Dharma or teach them, and thus they could not gain any benefit from the Buddha-dharma, could not be liberated from the suffering of birth and death, and would remain forever in the dark abyss.

Therefore, the Hīnayāna arhat dharma is not the ultimate dharma; it can only be studied and practiced for a period of time. We bodhisattvas who study the Mahāyāna Buddha-dharma—although the Hīnayāna dharma inevitably must be realized and cultivated—we do not take the path to nirvāṇa; after our own accomplishment, we must still benefit others. This is the bodhisattva's aspiration. Bodhisattvas have vast minds: they not only want to deliver themselves, but also want to deliver all sentient beings who, like themselves, undergo the suffering of the cycle of rebirth, so that they too may all attain ultimate liberation. This is the conduct of great-minded bodhisattvas, and therefore bodhisattvas are also called great-minded sentient beings.

"Having cut off the flow of birth and death and the suffering of existence"—the arhats have already severed the suffering of birth and death flowing through the three realms. "Existence" includes existence in the desire realm, existence in the form realm, and existence in the formless realm; that is, the desire realm has the dharmas of the desire realm, the form realm has the dharmas of the form realm, and the formless realm has the dharmas of the formless realm. The "existence" of these three realms is all suffering. Not only are the three evil destinies suffering, but our human realm is also suffering. What about the devas? They likewise have suffering. Is there no suffering within "pleasure"? There is suffering even within pleasure; moreover, this so-called "pleasure" is itself a kind of suffering, and after the pleasure passes, there is suffering as well.