འཕགས་པ་བྱང་ཆབ་སམས་དཔའ་སྤྱད་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 11

11

They cannot be demonstrated, attained, actualized, abandoned, understood, or meditated upon.”

Maudgalyā­yana replied, “If that is the case, what is the point of you making an offering to the Thus-Gone One?”

“Maudgalyā­yana,” the boy asked, “do you apprehend a Thus-Gone One, someone who gives a gift, or an act of giving?”

Venerable Maudgalyā­yana remained silent, so the boy Ratnadatta continued, “Maudgalyā­yana, with this in mind, I have given up becoming a thus-gone one and say those who form the resolve set on the vehicle of the hearers ‘are indeed unfortunate.’ ”

Maudgalyā­yana replied,

“You are very young,
Yet your insight is vast as the ocean.
How long have you been
Trained in these teachings?”

Ratnadatta replied with the following verses:

“All training perishes.
Training is not training.
The training of the wise ones
Consists in being one who lacks training.

“The question ‘what is the point?’ that you asked me
Is based upon the perceptions of beings,
And to this I say one does not find
Any phenomena arising anywhere.

“Childish beings conceptualize
Both awakening and cyclic existence.
So do you, Venerable One,
Still follow the way of childish beings?

“Since they understand
That all phenomena lack essence,
The wise do not generate
Concepts such as ‘near’ and ‘far.’

“Intelligent ones do not differentiate
Between childish beings and their qualities,
Or the buddhas’ qualities and the victors,
So you too should see these as merely empty.

“That the great sage attained awakening
Is an illogical imputation.
If the phenomenon of awakening does not arise,
How can one attain nirvāṇa?

“An infinite number of teachings are proclaimed,
Yet there is no such thing as the liberation of beings.
Understand this: there is no distinction