The Profound Meaning of the Diamond Sutra from the Yogācāra Perspective (12)

Subhūti's Request, Two

Original text: 时。长老须菩提在大众中即从座起。偏袒右肩。右膝着地。合掌恭敬而白佛言。希有世尊。如来善护念诸菩萨。善付嘱诸菩萨。世尊。善男子善女人。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心。云何应住。云何降伏其心。佛言。善哉善哉。须菩提。如汝所说。如来善护念诸菩萨。善付嘱诸菩萨。汝今谛听。当为汝说。善男子善女人。发阿耨多罗三藐三菩提心。应如是住。如是降伏其心。唯然世尊。愿乐欲闻。

Explanation: Subhūti is also known as Subhūti (Sk. Subhūti, "Good Existence" / Shanxian); among Śākyamuni Buddha's disciples he was foremost in understanding emptiness. While still in his mother's womb he already knew that all dharmas are empty and quiescent; this was due to the deep wholesome roots accumulated over many kalpas in previous lives. He entered the womb, dwelt in the womb, and emerged from the womb without confusion or delusion. At the moment of his birth, all the treasures in the household suddenly vanished into emptiness, signifying that everything is empty; a few days later they all reappeared on their own. Subhūti is honorably addressed as an Elder (sthavira); an Elder refers to someone who has prestige among the assembly, a person of virtue, one who is not in accord with the three poisons and afflictions. Subhūti attained the fruit of an arhat by cultivating the emptiness dharma of the Small Vehicle, and when the World-Honored One expounded the Great Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, he turned his mind toward the Great Vehicle and walked the bodhisattva path. When the Buddha expounds a sūtra, He always relies on some particular causal condition as an opening, using it as a pretext to expound an entire sūtra; He rarely expounds a sūtra without anyone requesting it, unless it is especially important. This sūtra was requested by Subhūti.

Just after the World-Honored One finished His meal and sat down cross-legged, Subhūti rose from his seat among the assembly, pressed his palms together, and asked the Buddha: "Most rare, World-Honored One! The Tathāgata skillfully protects and is mindful of all bodhisattvas, and skillfully entrusts and instructs all bodhisattvas. World-Honored One, when good men and good women give rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, how should they abide, and how should they subdue their minds?" At the very beginning, Subhūti first praised the World-Honored One as the most rare, most uncommon, and hardest-to-encounter sage in the world. The World-Honored One is indeed rare: in one trichiliocosm (three-thousandfold great thousand-world) there is only one Buddha. One sun-and-moon world—from the hells beneath the four great oceans, to the earth, to Mount Sumeru, and up to the six heavens of the desire realm—is called a small world. One thousand small worlds together with the first dhyāna heaven of the form realm constitute a small thousand-world; one thousand small thousand-worlds together with the second dhyāna heaven of the form realm constitute a medium thousand-world; one thousand medium thousand-worlds together with the heavens of the third dhyāna and above of the form realm constitute a great thousand-world. In such an immense world there is only one Buddha, and the duration for which He remains in bodily form in the world is extremely brief, while the interval between two successive Buddhas is very long. The shortest interval is between Śākyamuni Buddha and Maitreya Buddha: 5.67 billion years. For longer intervals, many times there is no Buddha appearing in the world for several great kalpas or even dozens of great kalpas, and sometimes even longer stretches pass without a single Buddha appearing in the world. From this one can see that the World-Honored One is indeed extremely rare and hard to encounter.