འཕགས་པ་དགངས་པ་ངས་པར་འགྲལ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 92

92

and are endowed with the great purpose of fully perfecting great bodhi." "Bhagavān, if bodhisattvas are endowed with no satisfaction in giving wealth, and are compassionate, why are there poor people in the world?" "Avalokiteśvara, that is solely the fault of sentient beings' own karma. If that were not so, and if the misdeeds of sentient beings did not obstruct them, then since [bodhisattvas] are constantly engaged in acting for them and possess inexhaustible wealth, how could a suffering world appear? Avalokiteśvara, it is just as, for example, hungry ghosts whose bodies are tormented by thirst see the water of the ocean as dried up; that is not the fault of the ocean, but rather the fault of the fruition of those hungry ghosts' own karma. Likewise, whatever proves fruitless is not the fault of the ocean-like generosity of bodhisattvas, but the fault of the karma of sentient beings themselves, who are like hungry ghosts that have committed misdeeds." "Bhagavān, through which pāramitā does a bodhisattva grasp the absence of an essential nature of phenomena?" "Avalokiteśvara, they grasp it through the prajñāpāramitā." "Bhagavān, if they grasp the absence of an essential nature through the prajñāpāramitā, why do they not also grasp that which has an essential nature?" "Avalokiteśvara, I do not teach that one grasps the absence of essential nature by means of an essential nature. However, because that which lacks essential nature, lacks letters, and is individually self-cognized cannot be taught without linguistic expression, therefore it is expressed as 'grasping the absence of essential nature.'" "Bhagavān, there is that called 'pāramitā', that called 'near-pāramitā' (upapāramitā), and that called 'great pāramitā' (mahāpāramitā). Bhagavān, what is a pāramitā, what is an upapāramitā, and what is a mahāpāramitā?" "Avalokiteśvara,