འཕགས་པ་བྱང་ཆབ་སམས་དཔའ་སྤྱད་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 12

12

Between nirvāṇa and saṃsāra.

“Thus, in all cases,
There is never any increase or decrease.
The wise harbor no delusions
About the fact that phenomena are indistinct.

“Childish beings obtain and attain.
A childish being who attains nirvāṇa
Is thoroughly attached to saṃsāra.
Such conceited thinking is Māra’s trap.

“Someone who thinks ‘I have attained’
Has not attained anything at all.
They will proceed to their next birth
And start all over again in ignorance.

“Abiding at the seat of awakening,
There is nothing to see and nothing to abandon.
The awakening of all the buddhas
Is a conventional term but nothing in actuality.

“Awakening and nirvāṇa
Cannot be expressed by conventional terms.
Those who see correctly in that way
Fully understand the nature of reality.

Venerable Śāriputra then asked the Blessed One, “Blessed One, how long has this boy Ratnadatta practiced this teaching?”

The Blessed One replied, “When the thus-gone one Dīpaṁkara gave his prophecy that I would attain acceptance of the nonarising of phenomena, at that point he was foremost among those bodhisattvas who abided in emptiness according to Dīpaṁkara’s teachings. At the moment when I first generated the mind set on unsurpassed and perfect awakening, three hundred thousand eons had passed since he attained acceptance.”

“Blessed One,” asked Śāriputra, “what cause and what conditions are responsible for the boy Ratnadatta not becoming a complete buddha who has manifested unsurpassed and perfect awakening?”

“You should ask Ratnadatta himself this question. He will tell you,” the Blessed One responded.

So Venerable Śāriputra asked the boy Ratnadatta, “Why have you not become a complete buddha who has manifested unsurpassed and perfect awakening?”