184. This is the most famous moment of the sūtra: Vimalakīrti’s moment of sīlence on the subject of nonduality, i.e., the ultimate. It is noteworthy, however, that Vimalakīrti does talk a great deal about the ultimate on many other occasions; his silence here is given its special impact by the series of profound statements preceding it, which culminate in the statement of Mañjuśrī to the effect that silence is itself the best explanation of nonduality. Hence all silence is not to be exaggeratedly taken as the profoundest teaching, but only such a silence in the special context of profound thought on the ultimate. For example, the silences of the disciples in Chap. 3, as they became speechless when confronted by the eloquent criticism of Vimalakīrti, are not taken to be profound; nor is the silence of Śāriputra when questioned by the goddess in Chap. 8 accepted as anything extraordinary. Candrakīrti, in his Prasannapadā (p 57, I.7-8), has this to say in regard to the question as to whether the enlightened ones employ logical arguments or not: “Who can say if the noble ones (employ logical arguments) or not? The ultimate is inherent (even) in the ‘keeping silent of the noble ones.’ What then would cause us to imagine whether they employ logical arguments or do not employ logical arguments?” It is important to note that equating the ultimate with the “keeping silent of the noble ones” in no way precludes the ultimacy of their speech. As the Goddess says to Śāriputra (6.20): “…do not point to liberation by abandoning speech! Why? The holy liberation is the equality of all things!” Thus, to imitate the sūtra’s pattern of expression: “Silence” and “speech” are dualistic. Just as speech is ultimately meaningless, so silence exists only in contrast with speech. Penetration into the equality of silence and speech is the entrance. (see Lamotte, pp 317-318, n 43).
185. Those of the bodhisattvas who are monks, or who maintain ascetic practices, are allowed to eat only before noon; otherwise they must wait until dawn of the next day.
186. According to K and X, he was seen rising in the air; but Tib. has it that his speed was invisibly swift.
187. As there is no Disciple Vehicle, much less ordinary individuals, in that exalted universe (see 9.2), they do not even know what might be meant by “aspire to inferior ways.”
188. Thus Vimalakīrti is praised as having the full mastery of the operations of the nirmāṇakāya (incarnation-body of the Buddha), i.e., as indistinguishable from the buddhas.
190. Vimalakīrti epitomizes for the guest-bodhisattvas the teachings of the First Wheel of Dharma, that of the four noble truths, the basis of the Disciple Vehicle practice, and the Abhidharma philosophy.
191. This paragraph is modified in style with the help of X.
193. Ānanda, as well as being “foremost of attendants” (see n.88), was also styled by the Buddha as the “foremost of the learned” (Skt. bahuśrutānām agryaḥ) and as the “foremost of those endowed with memory and retention” (Skt. smṛtidhāraṇīprāptānām agryaḥ). Thus he was the one who remembered the vast body of the sūtras and recited them from memory during the first collection of the Sūtra Pitaka, after the Buddha’s passing into final liberation.
194. That is, destructible (Skt. kṣaya) = compounded (Skt. saṃskṛta) = the superficial (Skt. saṃvṛtti) = saṃsāra. Indestructible (akṣaya) = uncompounded (Skt. asaṁskṛta) = the ultimate (Skt. paramārtha) = nirvāṇa.
195. That is, the bodhisattva does not put an end to saṃsāra for himself alone, nor does he seek ultimate repose in the Disciple Vehicle nirvāṇa. The following instruction represents the Buddha’s own summation of the bodhisattva’s reconciliation of dichotomies that Vimalakīrti has been expounding throughout the sūtra.
196. Immoral persons, along with other living beings who suffer their immoral acts, provide the bodhisattva the opportunity to expiate through suffering any traces of bad karma, as well as to practice generosity, tolerance, etc., and eventually to gather into the discipline those same immoral persons.
197. Skt. apratihatapratibhāṇa. This is another synonym for buddhahood because only at that stage does the turning of the Wheel of Dharma become automatic, effortless, and irresistible.
198. Skt. bodhisattvasaṅgha. The third Jewel, the Saṅgha, is defined in two ways: as the disciple community (śrāvakasaṅgha) and as the bodhisattva community (bodhisattvasaṅgha). Thus, from the Mahāyāna viewpoint, not only Disciple Vehicle monks but also bodhisattvas constitute the Saṅgha.
199. The sixth superknowledge (āsravakṣayajñāna) is attained only by arhats, of whom the Buddha is foremost.
200. That is, he does not wish his own ultimate liberation until it is time for the ultimate liberation of all living beings.
201. Tib. chos kyi rtsi ba thams cad sgrub pa’i phyir ’dus ma byas la mi gnas so/ ’di tar chos chung ngu’i sman sbyor ba’i phyir ’dus byas zad par mi byed do. This sentence is absent in K and X.
202. Tib. gzugs kyi de bzhin nyid kyi rang bzhin, Skt. rūpatathatāsvabhāva, i.e., voidness, as “essence which is reality” is a euphemism for “essencelessness” (niḥsvabhāvatā). Thus the Tathāgata is the voidness of matter, i.e., matter in the ultimate sense, not mere relative matter—and so on for the remaining four aggregates. For interesting references on the ultimate nonexistence of the Tathāgata, see Lamotte, p 355, n 1. The reference given there is worth repeating here (from Prasannapadā, p 435, quoting a Vaipulyasūtra): “Those who see me by means of form, or who follow me by means of sound—they are involved with false and ruinous views and will never see me at all. The buddhas are to be seen by means of ultimate reality, since those leaders are Dharma-bodies, and ultimate reality is impossible to know, as it is not an object of discernment.”
203. K and X: “He lives neither in any place, nor in no place.”
204. Tib. smra ba dang spyod pa thams cad shin tu chad pa, but Skt. has sarvarutavyāhārasamucchinnaḥ, “the destruction of all utterance and language.”
205. K and X have “worry.”
206. Skt. acintyavikurvaṇanayapraveśanirdeśa. This is a description, not a title of the sūtra, as it is not mentioned at the end of this chapter, where the Buddha gives the titles to Ānanda.
207. Skt. Acintyavimokṣanirdeśa
208. These names of the Buddha form part of a traditional litany consisting of eighty names. See Mahāvyutpatti, nos. 1-80.
210. These are called the “four reliances” and are usually given in a different order: see glossary.
212. According to this belief, in the blessed eon of one thousand buddhas, Śākyamuni is the fourth, and Maitreya will be the fifth to incarnate in this Sahā universe.
213. Skt. Vimalakīrtinirdeśa.
214. Skt. Yamakapuṭavyatyastanihāra.