Lectures on the Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Manifestation of Consciousness

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。

The term "nāga" refers to the dragon race. These arhats possess power like that of 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 and can rest body and mind. Fourth-fruit arhats often say: "Birth for me has been ended, the holy life has been established, what was to be done has been done, and I know for myself that there will be no further becoming." What the arhat must do is to exhaust the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and be able to leave 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 finished. Third-fruit anāgāmins cannot yet say this; only fourth-fruit arhats can say so. This is because third-fruit practitioners still have afflictions not yet exhausted—the self-view and self-conceit have not been fully eliminated—whereas fourth-fruit arhats have exhausted all afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, with all defilements ended; only then can they say that what was to be done has been done and there will be no further becoming.

"Cast 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, with minds free of afflictions, no longer carrying any burden of the three realms, and without caring whether sentient beings suffer or not, they set down all their baggage and loads and rush out of the three realms. "Attained their own benefit" 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 leave 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 mentality, 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 gain no benefit from the Buddha-dharma, could not be liberated from the suffering of birth and death, and would remain forever in the abyss of darkness.

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: not only do they want to liberate themselves, they also want to liberate all sentient beings who, like themselves, suffer the pain of saṃsāra, so that they too may attain ultimate liberation. This is the conduct of great-minded bodhisattvas; hence bodhisattvas are also called great-minded sentient beings.

"Already severed the flowing stream of the suffering of existence in birth and death": the arhats have already cut off the suffering of birth and death that flows through the three realms. "Existence" includes the existence of the desire realm, the existence of the form realm, and the existence of 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, our human realm is also suffering. What about devas? They likewise have suffering. Is there no suffering within "pleasure"? There is suffering even within pleasure, and moreover this so-called "pleasure" is itself a kind of suffering; after the pleasure passes, there is suffering as well.