Segment 2 / The Request for Clarity
At that time, Venerable Subhūti rose from his seat in the assembly, uncovered his right shoulder, knelt on his right knee, and placed his palms together in reverence. He respectfully addressed the Buddha: “How rare, World-Honored One! The Tathāgata skillfully protects the right mindfulness of all Bodhisattvas，as well as skillfully instructs all Bodhisattvas. World-Honored One, good men or good women, who have generated the mind of Anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi (the unsurpassed, complete equal and complete awareness), how should their mind abide? How should they subdue their mind?”
“Excellent, excellent, Subhūti! As you have said, the Tathāgata skillfully protects the right mindfulness of all Bodhisattvas, skillfully instructs all Bodhisattvas. Now, listen carefully! I will explain it to you. Good men and good women, who have generated the mind of Anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi (the unsurpassed, complete equal and complete awareness), should dwell in this way and subdue their minds in this way.”
Subhūti replied, “Indeed, World-Honored One! I am eager and joyful to hear your teaching.”
This 2nd Segment introduces the origin of the Buddha’s teaching in the Diamond Sutra, which arose from a question posed by Subhūti. Upon seeing the Buddha seated, Subhūti rose from his seat, uncovered his right shoulder, a dress style of the monks at that time, knelt with his right knee on the ground, bowed to the Buddha.
He joined the palms of his hand and said: Rare world-honored one, Tathāgata is always skillfully teaching the different kinds of practicing methods, enabling all Bodhisattvas not losing the right mindfulness. In the sutra text, there is phase of “skillfully protects the right mindfulness of Bodhisattvas, and skillfully instructs Bodhisattvas”.
Skillfully protecting the right mindfulness means safeguarding the right mindfulness, keeping the mind pure; skillfully instructing means teaching, exhorting or reminding.
“After praising World-Honored One, Subhūti said, “Now I have a question and hope World-Honored One can enlighten me. How should good men and women, who aspire to Buddha-hood, practice to steady their minds? How can they subdue the distractions and afflictions that arise within them?”
Subhūti, recognized as one of the Buddha’s ten Principal disciples and renowned as the “Foremost in Understanding Emptiness,” was deeply versed in the Buddha’s teachings on emptiness. He raised this question, on behalf of aspiring practitioners of good men and good women, also including Arhats. For Those new to the Buddhist path, and wish to attain Buddha-hood, their greatest affliction is a restless mind, easily swayed by the temptation of five desires, the body and mind are often attracted by all kinds of sensations and situations.
For Arhats, who possess great concentration，their afflictions are from disgusting and leaving this body and this world. To achieve the surpassed, complete equal and complete awareness, one needs to practice the Bodhisattva way. Then, how can one dwell calmly in this world and to liberate sentient beings with the soft heart of compassion, with all kinds of skillfully ways?
Even though Arhats can resist the temptations of worldly false pleasures, and not affected by any situations, it is rather hard for them to engaging actively into world affairs with a compassion heart, as their minds treat tranquility as happiness. However, wisdom and compassion are the two sides of the same coin; emptiness without compassion is not Buddha’s true emptiness.
The Buddha praised Subhūti: “Excellent, Subhūti, you are absolutely correct. I often remind you to aspire to unsurpassed, complete equal and complete awareness, and to maintain right mindfulness and without losing your calm mind. Now listen carefully, good men and women who aspire to Buddha-hood: they should dwell in this way and subdue their minds in this way.”
Here, the meaning of in this way, is that one should dwell calmly like this, should subdue the afflictions and restless mind like this. Buddha said, they should dwell like this, and subdue afflictions and restless mind like this.
At this point, Buddha perhaps paused。Since the beginning of the Diamond Sutra, Buddha calmly did a series of things so far, Buddha manifested on his seat, if you are a very serene disciple, you may have witnessed a state and appearance of a Buddha who has no any abode. Buddha is very calmly, and fully present without clinging to anything. He does whatever needs to do, just like this, this is enough.
Your mind dwells calmly when you ask questions, the mind dwells calmly at that moment, and that it is, why do you still need to subdue the mind?
Obviously, some disciples were still unable to fully grasp this wordless teaching. Subhūti responded: “Yes, World-Honored One, I am eager to hear your teachings.” He expressed his readiness and joy to receive the Buddha’s guidance.
In the following teachings, the Buddha talks about the methods of practice and the right perception that should be possessed.