Ding Fubao's comments

Ting Fu-pao says, “The Buddha broadens his meaning here. Not only are physical attributes included but all attributes. To cultivate prajna there is no other path, only the path of returning to one’s original body of no attributes. However, the absence of attributes is the original face of prajna. The absence of attributes is the true attribute. This is what it means to see one’s nature. Those who understand this see the tathagata.”

Ting Fu-pao says, “According to Vasubandhu’s Bodhicitta Utpadana Shastra, ‘In order to cultivate good karma and seek enlightenment, bodhisattvas do not renounce the phenomenal world. And in order to cultivate compassion for all beings, they do not stand in the nuomenal world. In order to realize the marvelous wisdom of all buddhas, they do not renounce sansara [life and death]. And in order to liberate countless beings and save them from further rebirth, they do not stand in nirvana. Such persons are bodhisattvas who thus embark on the bodhisattva path.’ (12) But if bodhisattvas should stand in neither the phenomenal nor the noumenal, in neither sansara nor nirvana, where should they stand. Hence, Subhuti’s question.”

Ting Fu-pao says, “The ‘meaning’ Subhuti is referring to is the teaching of the previous chapter in which the Buddha instructs us to cling neither to dharmas nor to no dharmas.”

Ting Fu-pao says, “The perception of a self refers to the mistaken apprehension of something that focuses within and controls the five skandhas of form, sensation, perception, volition, and cognition. The perception of a being refers to the mistaken apprehension that the combination of the skandhas creates a separate entity. The perception of a life refers to the mistaken belief that the self possesses a lifespan of a definite length. Finally, the perception of a soulrefers to the mistaken apprehension of something that is reborn, either as a human or as one of the other forms of existence.”