Vimalakīrti's Gate of Nonduality

Engo's commentary on the case

Vimalakīrti had the great bodhisattvas each describe nonduality. Thirty-two combined paired views—conditioned and unconditioned, conventional and true—into one view. Mañjuśrī then said that no words, speech, showing, knowing, questions, or answers is entry. The thirty-two used words to dispatch words; Mañjuśrī used no-words to dispatch words. He swept everything away, but did not know that the numinous turtle drags its tail: brushing away tracks makes a trace. Dust is swept off, yet the broom mark remains and must itself be removed. Mañjuśrī asked Vimalakīrti, who remained silent. A living fellow will not soak in dead water. Fixating on “silence” is like a mad dog chasing the clod instead of the thrower. Setchō does not say “a long silence” or “sat silently”; at the urgent point he asks, “What did Vimalakīrti say?” But does Setchō see him? Not even in a dream. Tradition identifies Vimalakīrti as a former buddha assisting Śākyamuni, endowed with inconceivable eloquence, realm, and powers. His room holds thirty-two thousand lion thrones and eighty thousand people without becoming wider or narrower. Do not hastily label this supernatural function. Only those who attain and realize together mutually know nonduality; Mañjuśrī alone could answer him. Yet does he escape Setchō's check? Setchō wants to meet both: “What did he say? I have seen through him.” Where is the seeing-through? This small point is beyond gain/loss and right/wrong, like a ten-thousand-foot cliff. Abandon life and leap, and you personally see Vimalakīrti. Refuse and you resemble sheep caught against a fence. Setchō was one who could leap. Why begin by shouting at old Vimalakīrti? Setchō cuts directly with the adamantine royal sword. Vimalakīrti means “Stainless Renown” and is also called Pure Name; tradition identifies him with the former Tathāgata Golden Grain. Asked why such a buddha heard Śākyamuni teach, Yunju Jian said, “He does not contend over self and other.” A greatly liberated person is bound by neither becoming nor not becoming a buddha. The Sūtra of Perfect Awakening warns that a cyclic mind producing cyclic views cannot enter the Tathāgata's sea of extinction. Yongjia says no one recognizes accordant or contrary conduct. Shou cautions that even after refinement, contrary and accordant action is safe only with an undefiled sage-body. The scripture says, “Because beings are ill, I too am ill.” Vimalakīrti displays illness in Vaiśālī. Engo reports that the Tang envoy Wang Xuance measured his room at ten handspans, hence fangzhang, “ten-foot-square.” Vimalakīrti teaches that the body is impermanent, weak, rapidly decaying, a convergence of suffering, aggregates, elements, and sense fields. Mañjuśrī, teacher of seven buddhas, comes at Śākyamuni's direction. Vimalakīrti has emptied the room, leaving one couch. Setchō says he was toppled when asked about nonduality. Do not fix the silence as the point. Setchō presses to the cliff and reverses: “Not toppled.” One hand lifts and one presses; his use is lucid. Thus the final golden-maned lion cannot be found—not then and not now. Do you see old Vimalakīrti? Even if mountains, rivers, earth, grasses, and forests all become golden-maned lions, you cannot grope him out.