Chapter 57
“Moreover, Subhūti, when bodhisattva great beings practice the perfection of ethical discipline, from the time when they first set their mind, with attention connected with all-aspect omniscience, they maintain ethical discipline. That is to say, thoughts of greed do not obscure them, hatred does not obscure them, delusion does not obscure them, latent impulses do not obscure them, and obsessions do not obscure them. The other nonvirtuous phenomena that impede enlightenment also do not obscure them, namely, miserliness, poor ethical discipline, thoughts of disturbance, thoughts of indolence, thoughts deficient in perseverance, thoughts of distraction, thoughts of intellectual stupidity, pride, contemptuous or haughty pride, egotistical pride, and thoughts of the śrāvakas or thoughts of the pratyekabuddhas. If you ask why, Subhūti, it is because in this way they know that all phenomena are empty of their own defining characteristics, and they see that all phenomena are nonexistent, unoriginated, unconsummated, and not brought into being. Although, for all phenomena, they engage with the defining characteristics of the phenomenon, they do so through engaging with their defining characteristic of being unconditioned—‘all phenomena are utterly ineffectual.’ Since they are endowed with such skill in means, they practice the perfection of ethical discipline and flourish through the roots of virtue. Practicing the perfection of ethical discipline, they bring beings to maturity and refine a buddhafield. Other than practicing the perfection of ethical discipline in order that they might protect all beings and bring beings to maturity, they do not aspire for other fruits of their ethical discipline, such as those fruits that they would enjoy in saṃsāra.”
This completes the fifty-seventh chapter from “The Perfection of Wisdom in One Hundred Thousand Lines.”1144