The Teaching of the Samādhi
Chapter 13
Then the Bhagavān said to the youth Candraprabha, “Therefore, young man, bodhisattva mahāsattvas who wish for this samādhi, and wish to attain quickly the highest, complete enlightenment of perfect buddhahood, should be skilled in teaching this samādhi.
13.2 “Young man, what is the teaching of this samādhi? It is the true nature of all phenomena; it is equality; it is the absence of inequality; it is devoid of notions; it is devoid of concepts; it is devoid of creation; it is devoid of arising; it is devoid of production; it is devoid of cessation; it is the termination of notions, concepts, and assumptions; it is devoid of an object for the mind; it is devoid of a focus of the mind;546 it is the termination of designations; it is the termination of concepts from analysis; it is the termination of desire, anger, and ignorance; it is without a limited or limitless focus of the mind; it is the termination of any focus of the mind; it is the knowledge of the nature of the skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas; it is the state of accomplishing the field of activity that is the performance of the conduct of mindfulness, understanding, comprehension, conscience, and stability; it is the level of freedom from corruptions;547 it is the level of peace; it is the termination of all conceptual elaboration; it is the training of all bodhisattvas; it is the field of activity of all tathāgatas; [F.45.a] and it is the perfection of all good qualities.
13.3
“Young man, that is what the teaching of samādhi is said to be. Bodhisattva mahāsattvas who are established in this teaching of samādhi become inseparable from samādhi—their minds become free of delusion, they become endowed with great compassion, and they accomplish the benefit of countless beings.”
Thereupon the Bhagavān spoke these verses:
13.4
“The level of unequaled samādhi548
Is peaceful, subtle, and difficult to see.
All conceptions have been eliminated.
Therefore it is called ‘samādhi.’ {1}
13.5
“There are no notions, there are no concepts,
There is nothing to be grasped, there is nothing to be shown,
And there is no object for the mind.
Therefore it is called ‘samādhi.’ {2}
13.6
“When in a state of meditation
There is no pride concerning any phenomenon.
That very absence of pride—
That is what is called ‘samādhi.’ {3}
13.7
“There does not exist549 even an atom of phenomena.
That which is called ‘an atom’ does not exist.
There are no phenomena as objects for the mind.
Therefore it is called ‘samādhi.’ {4}
13.8
“ ‘The mind has no object’
Is also itself a concept.
When there are no concepts of phenomena,
Then that is known as ‘samādhi.’ {5}
13.9
“A word indicates a meaning.
That word is not a thing.
A word is like an echo,
Like the space of the sky. {6}
13.10
“These phenomena are not present;
There is no presence to be perceived.
The nonpresence is through the word ‘presence.’
Its nature is that there is nothing to be found. {7}
13.11
“One says ‘going’ and ‘passing away,’
But that ‘going’ does not exist.
Through the word ‘going’ there is the absence of going.
That is given the name samādhi. {8}
13.12
“Saying ‘I am not meditating’ is called pride.550
‘I am meditating’ is a second kind of pride.551
Practicing for enlightenment without pride,552
And attaining553 the absence of pride is the highest enlightenment.554 {9}
13.13
“This unequaled equality is the level of peace;555
It is śamatha and vipaśyanā,556 devoid of attributes.
Relying upon this peace, the level of buddhahood,
Is engaging in the meditation557 of samādhi. {10}
13.14
“It is not possible through words to enter
Into the understanding of the meaning. [F.45.b]
When all sounds and words are abandoned
There will be meditation without pride. {11}
13.15
“When there is the fire of the eon’s end in this world
That fire does not burn the supreme mountain in its center,
Just like space that has never been burned in the past,
Even though the fire burns for many hundreds of eons.558 {12}
13.16
“The bodhisattvas who remain engaged
In this samādhi as it has been taught,
And know that phenomena are the same as space,
Will also not be burned by fire.559 {13}
13.17
“If the buddha realm were burning
And in this samādhi they prayed
For the burning to completely cease,
Though the earth was destroyed it would be unchanged. {14}
13.18
“They will have infinite miraculous powers.
They will travel through the air unimpeded.
The bodhisattvas will have these qualities
By remaining in samādhi just as they have been taught. {15}
13.19
“Though one is born and though one dies,
There is no birth and there is no death.
For the one who understands that
This samādhi will not be difficult to attain. {16}
13.20
“The Lord of the World has taught
That there is no death and there is no birth.
Just as the Lord of the World knew that,
You should also know it through this samādhi. {17}
13.21
“Unstained by the world,
They have no attachment to worldly phenomena.
With a body free of impediment
They go to the buddha realms. {18}
13.22
“They constantly see in those realms
The perfect buddhas, the guides of the world.
They listen there to the Dharma
That is taught in the realms of the buddhas.560 {19}
13.23
“They will never be in ignorance.
They will teach the essence of phenomena.
They always know the way of phenomena,
Which is composed561 of the essence of phenomena. {20}
13.24
“Even though they teach for ten million eons,
Their confidence in speech will not decline.
They emanate many other bodhisattvas
Who have wisdom. {21}
13.25
“The emanated bodhisattvas
Travel from realm to realm.
They are seated, cross-legged,
Upon lotuses that have a thousand petals. {22}
13.26
“They teach the enlightenment of buddhahood,
Wonderful dhāraṇīs and sūtras, [F.46.a]
And ten million other sūtras,
While meditating peacefully in samādhi. {23}
13.27
“They establish in irreversibility
Countless multitudes of beings,
And teach the enlightenment of buddhahood
Without their confidence in speech ever declining. {24}
13.28
“They go to a pinnacled hall
That is adorned with jewels
And scatter aromatic
Flowers upon the guides. {25}
13.29
“They also sprinkle scented
Powders upon the guides.
They all make vast offerings
In order to attain enlightenment. {26}
13.30
“Those countless qualities
Are the refuge of the bodhisattvas.
When they are free of kleśas
They attain those miraculous powers. {27}
13.31
“Because the kleśas are not created
They are clear, pure, and bright.
The field of activity of the bodhisattvas
Is noncomposite and inviolate. {28}
13.32
“They have perfect peace, complete peace;
They have no kleśas, and they have no misery.562
They have no conceptualization, are free of conceptualization,
And have transcended conceptualization. {29}
13.33
“This characteristic of phenomena
Is beyond the scope of words.563
It is difficult564 to know through language565
And therefore it is called samādhi. {30}
13.34
“It is unending; it is complete peace;
It is effortless, and it cannot be shown.
The field of activity of all the buddhas
Is the completely pure summit of the truth. {31}
13.35
“The training of all the buddhas
Is in the nature of all phenomena.
The perfect buddhas, having trained in it,
Have reached the perfection of qualities.566 {32}
13.36
“Without any concepts of the past,
Of this side and the further side,
In that way all those buddhas
Have reached the perfection567 of qualities. {33}
13.37
“Knowing the nature of phenomena
As having no coming or going,
They have reached the perfection
That is nonconceptual and effortless.” {34}
13.38
Conclusion of the thirteenth chapter, “The Teaching of the Samādhi.” [B5]
