འཕགས་པ་ཆས་ཡང་དག་པར་སྡད་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 4.2

4.2

“What is the suffering that bodhisattvas know?” asked Mativikrama.

Nirārambha answered, “Suffering is the ripening of the experiences of pleasant and unpleasant in relation to the five aggregates that are the bases for clinging. This is suffering. When bodhisattvas know that this suffering is dependently originated, empty, unwavering, and devoid of ‘I’ and ‘mine,’ they are said to ‘know suffering.’ When they see that suffering merely in terms of its origin, as insubstantial and immaterial, as essenceless and without agency, they are said to ‘know its origin.’ When they know that there is nothing that comes from the previous life, migrates to the next life, or that arises in the present, when they know that suffering is beginningless and is naturally in a state of cessation, naturally empty, and naturally isolated, they are said to ‘know its cessation.’”

“Child of good family, what’s another word for cessation?” asked Mativikrama.

“Child of good family,” replied Nirārambha, “there is nothing that can express cessation.”

“Child of good family, if nothing can express cessation, why do we say ‘cessation’?” asked Mativikrama.

“Child of good family,” answered Nirārambha, “cessation is free of adventitious obscurations; it is false, nonexistent, and an imputation. When something is false, it is an imputation. That is considered cessation. A phenomenon that is false, an imputation, and ceases cannot be destroyed in any way. Therefore, all phenomena are said to have utterly ceased.”

Mativikrama then said, “Child of good family, the Blessed One also said, ‘A bodhisattva does not actualize cessation. A bodhisattva who actualizes cessation has fallen to the level of a śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha.’ What did the Blessed One mean when he said that?”

“Child of good family,” answered Nirārambha, “the term actualize cannot be explained. Another way to put it would be see directly.