Chapter II

Where Bodhisattvas Stand

He does not stand in form, perception or in feeling,
In will or consciousness, in any skandha whatsoever.
In Dharma's true nature alone he is standing.
Then that is his practice of wisdom, the highest perfection.
Change and no change, suffering and ease, the self and not-self,
The lovely and repulsive--just one Suchness in this Emptiness they are.
And so he takes not his stand on the fruit which he won, which is threefold--
That of an Arhat, a Single Buddha, a Buddha fully enlightened.

The Leader himself was not stationed in the realm which is free from conditions,
Nor in the things which are under conditions, but freely he wandered without a home:
Just so, without a support of a basis a Bodhisattva is standing.
A position devoid of a basis has that position been called by the Jina.


Wherein Bodhisattvas Train

Those who wish to become the Sugata's Disciples,
Or Pratyekabuddhas, or likewise, Kings of the Dharma--
Without resort to this patience they cannot reach their respective goals.
They move across, but their eyes are not on the other shore.
Those who teach dharma, and those who listen when it is being taught;
Those who have won the fruit of an Arhat, a Single Buddha, or a world-savior;
And the Nirvana obtained by the wise and the learned--
Mere illusions, mere dreams--so has the Tathagata taught us.
Four kinds of persons are not alarmed by this teaching:
Sons of the Jina skilled in the truths; saints unable to turn back,
Arhats free from defilements and taints, and rid of their doubts;
Those whom good teachers mature are reckoned the fourth kind.
Coursing thus, the wise and learned Bodhisattva,
Trains not for Arhatship, nor on the level of Pratyekabuddhas.
In the Buddha-dharma alone he trains for the sake of all-knowledge.
No training is his training, and no one is trained in this training.
Increase or decrease of forms is not the aim of this training,
Nor does he set out to acquire various dharmas.
All-knowledge alone he can hope to acquire by this training.
To that he goes forth when he trains in their training, and delights in its virtues.


The Facts of Existence

Forms are not wisdom, nor is wisdom found in form,
In consciousness, perceptions, feeling, or in will.
They are not wisdom, and no wisdom is in them.
Like space it is, without a break or crack.

Of all objective supports the essential original nature is boundless;
Of beings likewise the essential original nature is boundless.
As the essential original nature of space has no limits,
Just so the wisdom of the World-knowers is boundless
'Perceptions'--mere words, so the Leaders have told us;
Perceptions forsaken and gone, and the door is open to the Beyond.
Those who succeed in ridding themselves of perceptions,
They, having reached the Beyond, fulfill the Teacher's commandments.
If for eons countless as the sands of the Ganges
The Leader would himself continue to pronounce the word 'being':
Still, pure from the very start, no being could ever result from his speaking.
That is the practice of wisdom, the highest perfection."


Conclusion

And so the Jina concludes his preaching, and finally tells us:
"When all I said and did at last agreed with perfect wisdom,
Then this prediction I received from Him who went before me:
'Fully enlightened, at a future time thou shalt a Buddha be!' "