འཕགས་པ་རྡ་རྗའ་སྙང་པའ་གཟངས་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 20

20

“Blessed One, in that case, what are these pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings of sentient beings?” asked Mañjuśrī.

“Mañjuśrī,” said the Blessed One, “various unreal conditions cause immature ordinary people perverted by false notions¹⁸ to experience the thought of pleasure or the thought of pain or the thought of neutral feeling. Be that as it may, Mañjuśrī, all feelings have the nature of illusion. They are not made, are unborn, and are always unoriginated. Mañjuśrī, in keeping with that line of reasoning, feeling is awakening, and that is the dhāraṇī gate that one enters through the likes of feeling.

“Mañjuśrī, craving is awakening.”

“Blessed One, how is craving awakening? Did not the Blessed One declare that craving is a factor of pollution?” asked Mañjuśrī.

“Mañjuśrī, what do you think?” asked the Blessed One in return. “Does the craving that a childless person has for a child¹⁹ exist inside, outside, or in the cardinal directions or intermediate directions?

“Blessed One,” replied Mañjuśrī, “since the child of this person has not yet been born, where would the craving for a child exist?”

The Blessed One said, “Mañjuśrī, sometimes people in conjugal union give birth to a child, and that gives rise to craving. If there is such a connection, Mañjuśrī, what do you think?