Having last month considered the Dharma approach of Infinite Meanings, we consider the question of Bodhisattva Fully Composed.
At that time the Bodhisattva Fully Composed again addressed the Buddha, saying: “World-honored One! A Dharma discourse by the World-honored One is beyond thought and word; the fundamental nature of living beings is also beyond thought and word; and emancipation by a Dharma approach is likewise beyond thought and word! We have no doubts concerning the teachings the Buddha has expounded, but because the minds of living beings give rise to uncertainty, we put forth a question once more.
“World-honored One! For more than forty years, ever since achieving enlightenment, the Tathāgata, for the benefit of living beings, has continuously discoursed on the principle of the four modes of all phenomena, the meaning of suffering, and the meaning of emptiness; on ever changingness, nonexistence of self, non-greatness, non-smallness, non-origination, and non-cessation; on the formlessness of all things; and on the natures and aspects of phenomena being intrinsically empty and tranquil—neither coming nor going, neither appearing nor disappearing.
“Those who hear you variously realize the stage of an ardent mind, the stage of attaining the highest still-unsettled condition, the stage of attaining irreversible good roots,13 the stage of ultimate worldly perception; or the fruit of entering the stream, the fruit of one remaining return, the fruit of non-returning, the fruit of arhatship; or the way of pratyekabuddha; or the awakening of the aspiration for enlightenment (bodhicitta) and ascent to the first stage, the second stage, the third stage, or all the way to the tenth stage of development in bodhisattva practice.
“In what way does the essence of what you have just now expounded differ from that of all the doctrines you have expounded in the past, such that you say that a bodhisattva who practices the deeply profound, supreme, all-ferrying Infinite Meanings Sutra will surely realize—and quickly achieve—ultimate enlightenment? This is the matter in question. I earnestly wish that the World-honored One, out of compassion for all, would explain this in detail for the benefit of living beings far and wide, and ensure that those who hear this teaching in the present and in the future are not left enmeshed in doubt.”