འཕགས་པ་བྱང་ཆབ་སམས་དཔའ་སྤྱད་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 13

13

“The reason I do not become a complete manifest buddha,” Ratnadatta replied, “is that I do not apprehend unsurpassed and perfect awakening.”

“If that is so,” Śāriputra asked, “since this thus-gone one is a complete manifest buddha, do you apprehend him?”

Ratnadatta replied, “If someone grasps at the Thus-Gone One as a complete manifest buddha, and if he becomes the referent object of that grasping, then the Dharma he teaches will not cause that person to become a complete manifest buddha, and it will not even bring about renunciation.”

“Since you equate complete maturation with accomplishing the four factors,¹⁴ what is your acceptance based on?” Śāriputra asked.

The boy Ratnadatta replied, “I do not perceive even a single phenomenon that is truly established, much less four. What is there truly established in them? ‘Knowing the Dharma’ is apprehending. ‘Awakening’ is apprehending. ‘The Thus-Gone One’ is grasping. ‘Liberation’ is a mental construct.”

“Son of the lineage,” Śāriputra replied, “what a wonder that you experience things in this way and that you have attained such a miraculous birth whereby you were born in the presence of the buddhas and will always go forth!”

Ratnadatta then replied with the following verses:

“Born and not born are both mental constructs.
They are the level of conceptual imputation and the domain of Māra.
Desire realm beings such as the gods and asuras who grasp at
And harbor conceit about phenomena such as the body are destroyed in this domain.

“Thinking, ‘The Victor attained the unconditioned, deathless state,’
Some set out with the same intention
And insult the buddhas.
Though they attain it, there is nothing in it that the guides attain.

“There are many people who,
Having gone forth for this, presume they have gone forth.
They are confused by mental apprehending
And they corrupt the teachings.

“Those who are proud of their attainment say,
‘I have attained deathlessness.’
But the teaching of the protector, the lion of the Śākya clan,
Lacks mental constructs.