འཕགས་པ་དགངས་པ་ངས་པར་འགྲལ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 55

55

“Blessed One, you also mentioned ‘the mental stillness and insight with a specific¹⁹⁰ teaching as a referential object’ and ‘the mental stillness and insight with a universal teaching as a referential object.’ What do these terms mean?”

“Maitreya, suppose that bodhisattvas practice the mental stillness and insight that take as a referential object an individual teaching, such as a specific discourse, among all the teachings they have understood and contemplated. This is called mental stillness and insight with a specific teaching as a referential object.

Now, suppose that bodhisattvas unify, condense, subsume, or gather teachings from various discourses into a single one, thinking that all these teachings converge toward true reality, lean toward true reality, and tend toward true reality; converge toward awakening, lean toward awakening, and tend toward awakening; converge toward nirvāṇa, lean toward nirvāṇa, and tend toward nirvāṇa; and converge toward a shift in one’s basis of existence,¹⁹¹ lean toward a shift in one’s basis of existence, and tend toward a shift in one’s basis of existence. Thinking that all these teachings actually refer to the immeasurable and infinite virtuous truth,¹⁹² they direct their attention [toward their referential object]. This is [called] mental stillness and insight with a universal teaching as a referential object.”

“Blessed One, you also mentioned mental stillness and insight ‘with a fairly universal teaching as a referential object,’ ‘with a highly universal teaching as a referential object,’ and ‘with an infinitely universal teaching as a referential object.’ What do these terms mean?”

“Maitreya, suppose the bodhisattvas gather together [the meaning of] each of the twelve collections of my teaching, from the sūtras up to the extensive discourses, the teachings on miracles, and the instructions.