འཕགས་པ་ཆས་ཀྱ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.2

intro.2

The Seal of Dharma is set in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park, outside of Śrāvastī, where the Buddha is teaching a large audience of monks and bodhisattvas. The teaching unfolds as the Buddha replies to a series of questions posed by two prominent monks, Śāriputra and Subhūti. Śāriputra, renowned for his pure observance of monastic discipline, first asks how monastic ordination can be said to have the qualities of being noble and supramundane. After the Buddha replies to Śāriputra, Subhūti asks Śāriputra to explain the Buddha’s instructions. Śāriputra then explains that the Buddha’s paradoxical response—in which he states that only those who do not transcend the qualities of ordinary beings and do not attain the uncontaminated qualities have truly renounced the world—is a teaching on the Great Vehicle doctrine of emptiness. When Śāriputra finishes his explanation, the Buddha grants his approval and tells Śāriputra that this teaching constitutes a “seal” (phyag rgya, mudrā) that one may use to challenge beings who are overcome by pride that is driven by their conventional understanding of renunciation and ordination.