“Blessed Lord, what are the ten levels that bodhisattva great beings perfect in order to fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment?” asked Subhūti.
“Subhūti,” replied the Blessed One, “having perfected the level of bright insight, bodhisattva great beings will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment. Having perfected the level of the spiritual family, bodhisattva great beings will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment. Having perfected the eighth level, bodhisattva great beings will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment. Having perfected the level of insight, bodhisattva great beings will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment. Having perfected the level of attenuated refinement, bodhisattva great beings will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment. Having perfected the level of no attachment, bodhisattva great beings will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment. Having perfected the level of spiritual achievement, bodhisattva great beings will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment.988 Having perfected the level of the pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattva great beings will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment. Having perfected the level of the bodhisattvas, bodhisattva great beings will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment. And having perfected the level of the buddhas, bodhisattva great beings will fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment.
“Bodhisattva great beings who train in those ten levels will not fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment through the initial setting of the mind, nor will they fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment independent of the initial setting of the mind. They will not fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment through the later setting of the mind, nor will they fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment independent of the later setting of the mind. And yet, they will indeed fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment.”
Subhūti said, “Blessed Lord, in this way, even though bodhisattva great beings will not fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment through the initial setting of the mind, still, they will not fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment independent of the initial setting of the mind. And even though bodhisattva great beings will not fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment through the later setting of the mind, still, they will not fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment independent of the later setting of the mind. And yet, Blessed Lord, they do fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment. That is profound dependent origination!”
“Subhūti, do you think that a thought that has ceased will arise again?” asked the Blessed One.
“No, Blessed Lord, it will not,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, do you think that that which is subject to cessation will cease?” asked the Blessed One.
“No, Blessed Lord, it will not,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, do you think that a thought that has not arisen is subject to cessation?” asked the Blessed One.
“No, Blessed Lord, it is not,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, do you think that that which is subject to cessation will arise?” asked the Blessed One.
“No, Blessed Lord, it will not,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, do you think that a mind that is subject to cessation will cease?” asked the Blessed One.
“No, Blessed Lord, it will not,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, do you think that a phenomenon that in its inherent nature is just a cessation without an essential nature will cease?”989 asked the Blessed One.
“No, Blessed Lord, it will not,” replied Subhūti.
“Will it last, just like the real nature?” asked the Blessed One.
“Blessed Lord, it will last, just like the real nature,” replied Subhūti.
The Blessed One then asked, “Subhūti, if it lasts, just like the real nature, would it not become permanent?”
“No, Blessed Lord, it would not,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, do you think that the real nature is profound?” asked the Blessed One.
“Blessed Lord, it is profound,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, do you think that the mind is the real nature?” asked the Blessed One.
“No, Blessed Lord, it is not,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, do you think that the mind is other than the real nature?” asked the Blessed One.
“No, Blessed Lord, it is not,” replied Subhūti.
“Is the real nature in the mind?” asked the Blessed One.
“No, Blessed Lord, it is not,” replied Subhūti.
“Is the mind in the real nature?” asked the Blessed One.
“No, Blessed Lord, it is not,” replied Subhūti.
“Does the real nature observe the real nature?” asked the Blessed One.
“No, Blessed Lord, it does not,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, do you think that those who practice in that manner are practicing the perfection of wisdom?” asked the Blessed One.
“Blessed Lord, those who practice in that manner are practicing the perfection of wisdom,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, what do you think those who are practicing in that manner are practicing?” asked the Blessed One.
“Blessed Lord,” said Subhūti, “those who are practicing in that manner are not practicing anything at all. If you ask why, Blessed Lord, it is because in bodhisattva great beings who are practicing the perfection of wisdom and abiding in the real nature those habitual thoughts do not operate and do not occur. If you ask why, Blessed Lord, it is because the real nature does not habitually think about anything at all, and nothing at all habitually thinks about it either.”
“Subhūti, what do bodhisattva great beings who are practicing the perfection of wisdom practice?” asked the Blessed One.
“They practice an ultimate in which there are no dualistic habitual thoughts,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, do you think that those who practice the ultimate practice with habitual thoughts, that they practice with mental images?” asked the Blessed One.
“They do not, Blessed Lord,” replied Subhūti.
“Subhūti, do you think that they have annihilated990 the perception of mental images?” asked the Blessed One.
“They have not, Blessed Lord,” replied Subhūti.
“How then has the perception of mental images been annihilated by bodhisattva great beings?” asked the Blessed One.
“Blessed Lord,” said Subhūti, “those bodhisattva great beings practicing the perfection of wisdom do not apply themselves thinking that they will annihilate mental images, or that they will annihilate signlessness.991
“Blessed Lord, bodhisattva great beings who practice this perfection of wisdom do not fully awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete enlightenment without having perfected the ten powers of the tathāgatas, the four fearlessnesses, the four kinds of exact knowledge, great loving kindness, great compassion, and the eighteen distinct qualities of the buddhas. Blessed Lord, this is the skill in means of bodhisattva great beings. With that skill in means they do not make anything at all into an entity, and do not make anything at all into a nonentity. If you ask why, Blessed Lord, it is because bodhisattva great beings are aware that the intrinsic defining characteristic of all phenomena is emptiness. They abide in that emptiness of intrinsic defining characteristics and become absorbed in the three meditative stabilities for the sake of beings. They bring beings to maturity through these meditative stabilities.
“Since that is the case, how, Blessed Lord, do those bodhisattva great beings become absorbed in the three meditative stabilities and bring beings to maturity through those meditative stabilities?”
The Blessed One replied, “Here, Subhūti, bodhisattva great beings dwelling in the three meditative stabilities establish in emptiness those beings who practice with a perception of concepts. They establish in signlessness those beings who practice with mental images. They connect with wishlessness those beings who practice with aspirations. So it is, Subhūti, that bodhisattva great beings practice the perfection of wisdom, dwell in the three meditative stabilities, and bring beings to maturity.”
This completes the forty-first chapter from “The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines.”