Perfection of Wisdom in 700 lines' comments

 In The Perfection of Wisdom in Seven Hundred Lines , the Buddha asks Manjushri, “If there are no beings, why do we say there are beings and realms of beings?” Manjushri answers, “The characteristics of the realms of beings are like those of the realms of buddhas.”

In The Perfection of Wisdom in Seven Hundred Lines , the Buddha asked, “You call me a tathagata. But do you really think I am a tathagata?” And the Bodhisattva of Wisdom answered, “No, Bhagavan, I do not think you are a tathagata. For there is nothing in what is real that distinguishes it as real. Nor does a tathagata possess any wisdom capable of knowing what is real, because a tathagata and wisdom are not two different things. A tathagata is emptiness. Thus, ‘tathagata’ is only a name. How, then, can I consider anyone a tathagata?”

In the Perfection of Wisdom in Seven Hundred Lines , the Buddha asked the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, “Have you, Manjushri, not yet realized the dharmas of buddhas?” Manjushri answered, “Can anyone, Bhagavan, possibly realize a dharma that does not include all the dharmas of buddhas?” Again, the Buddha asked, “Who, then, has realized these dharmas of buddhas?” And Manjushri answered, “Even in you, Bhagavan, these dharmas of buddhas do not exist and cannot be realized, how much less in others!”

In the Perfection of Wisdom in Seven Hundred Lines , the Buddha asked Manjushri, “How should you stand when practicing the perfection of wisdom?” And Manjushri replied, “Not standing on any dharma is to stand on the perfection of wisdom.” The Buddha asked again, “How is it that not standing on any dharma is called standing on the perfection of wisdom?” Manjushri replied, “To have no perception of standing is to stand on the perfection of wisdom.”

In the Perfection of Wisdom in Seven Hundred Lines , Manjushri tells the Buddha, “So it is, Bhagavan. I have, indeed, come here to see the Tathagata. And why? Because I delight in truly seeing and thereby benefiting others. For I see the Tathagata’s attributes of suchness, his undifferentiated attributes, his unchanging attributes, his uncreated attributes, his attributes that neither arise nor depart, his attributes that neither exist nor do not exist, his attributes that neither exist in space nor do not exist in space, that neither exist in time nor do not exist in time, his attributes that are neither separate nor not separate, his attributes that are neither impure nor pure. By truly seeing the Tathagata like this, I thus benefit other beings.” The Buddha then told Manjushri, “If you can see the Tathagata like this, your mind clings to nothing while not clinging to nothing, it gathers nothing together while not gathering nothing together.”

In the Perfection of Wisdom in Seven Hundred Lines , the Buddha tells Manjushri, “If someone hears this dharma and is not startled and is not frightened, that person has planted auspicious roots not only before thousands of buddhas but has planted such roots before hundreds of thousands of millions of buddhas for an inconceivable length of time. Therefore they cannot be startled or frightened by the profundity of the perfection of wisdom.”



In The Perfection of Wisdom in Seven Hundred Lines , the Buddha asked, “You call me tathagata. But do you really think I am a tathagata?” And the Bodhisattva of Wisdom answered, “No, Bhagavan, I do not think you are a tathagata. For there is nothing in what is real that distinguishes it as real. Nor does a tathagata possess any wisdom capable of knowing what is real, because a tathagata and wisdom are not two different things. A tathagata is emptiness. Thus, ‘tathagata’ is only a name. How, then, can I consider anyone a tathagata?”