Chapter 12 · Sadāprarudita's Quest and the Fruit That Abides Nowhere

Part Three · The Path

What is found at the end of the path? What, finally, has been attained?

The last chapter of this book begins not with doctrine but with a person. At the close of the Smaller Prajñāpāramitā, the Buddha tells the story of the bodhisattva Sadāprarudita—whose name means 「Ever-Weeping」—and his quest for the Dharma. The tale forms the crowning close of the whole sūtra: a man who searches for prajñā in tears, the obstacles along his road, the Dharma he hears, and the Buddha's final entrustment. The fruit is found within this story.

1 · The Act of Seeking the Dharma — the Story of Sadāprarudita

The story begins with someone who has nothing:

「When the bodhisattva Sadāprarudita first sought prajñā-pāramitā, he did not depend upon worldly affairs, did not spare his own life or body, and did not covet gain or support. In an empty forest, he heard a voice from space say:」 〔《小品般若》薩陀波崙品·T08n0227 0580a26（品起 0580a22）〕

The voice tells him to travel east in search of prajñā. He has not gone far when he realizes that he forgot to ask how far he must travel and from whom he is to hear—

「He stopped and went no farther, grieving and weeping. He thought: 『I shall remain right here, whether for one day, two days, or as many as seven. I will attend neither to weariness and exhaustion nor to sleep, food and drink, day and night, cold and heat, until I know from whom I should hear prajñā-pāramitā.』」 〔同品〕

The name 「Ever-Weeping」 comes from this act of weeping. The Buddha himself gives a simile for it:

「Subhūti! Suppose someone had only one son and cherished him deeply. If that child suddenly died, the person would grieve intensely, the whole mind filled with grief and no other thought. Subhūti! Sadāprarudita was likewise, with no other thought; he thought only, ‘When will I finally be able to hear prajñā-pāramitā?’」 〔同品〕

The anguish of losing an only child—this is how urgent his search for the Dharma becomes. At last he learns that the bodhisattva Dharmodgata teaches prajñā in the City of Many Fragrances, but he is poor and has nothing to offer:

「I should not go to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata empty-handed. If I were to go empty-handed, my mind would not be at ease. I should sell my body and obtain wealth in order to make an offering to the bodhisattva Dharmodgata for the sake of prajñā-pāramitā.」 〔同品·T08 0582a20〕

And so he enters the marketplace to sell himself. When no one will buy him, he 「stands in one place and speaks through his tears」〔同品〕. Śakra, disguised as a brahmin, comes to test him and asks to buy his heart, blood, and marrow; Sadāprarudita offers them gladly. To hear one Dharma, he can relinquish body and life. The narrative has already spoken the furthest reach of practice; the guide need not add another word.

2 · Obstacles on the Path and Non-Retreat

Having walked this far, we should say something ordinary books do not like to say: this path has obstacles, and the sūtra tells him so from the beginning. When the voice in space directs Sadāprarudita eastward, it gives him these instructions before he sets out:

「Good man! Distance bad friends and approach good friends.」 「Be alert to Māra's works.」 〔《小品般若》薩陀波崙品·T08n0227 0580b13·b23〕

Recognize bad friends; stay alert to Māra's works. The sūtra names the forks and interference on the path before they appear. It even anticipates the possibility of doubting one's teacher:

「Within this, you should not grieve. Simply continue following the Dharma teacher with a mind that cherishes and honors the Dharma; do not give rise to withdrawal.」 〔同段〕

「Do not give rise to withdrawal」—the weariness and doubt toward the Dharma or the teacher that arise during training are treated by the sūtra not as surprises, but as part of the road. And the obstacles do come. When Sadāprarudita tries to sell himself to obtain an offering:

「Māra at once covered the people so that not even one person could hear his call. Only the daughter of a merchant could not be covered by Māra.」 〔同品·T08 0582b04〕

Māra covers the ears of the whole city, so no one hears his offer to sell himself—a condition for retreat stands before him. But the story continues: only the merchant's daughter cannot be covered. One person who hears is enough, and the road is not broken. Obstacles and non-retreat are the theme of Sadāprarudita's own story. Everything met by someone practicing in daily life—the disruption of circumstances, the rarity of a good friend, doubt toward teacher and Dharma, the long night in which no progress can be seen—is already present here. The story's answer is not a promise that obstacles will disappear, but a demonstration of not retreating.

3 · The Dharma He Hears — the Suchness of Dharmas Is the Tathāgata

After all this hardship, what does he hear? Dharmodgata's first teaching answers the very question Sadāprarudita carried through the whole journey: whence do the buddhas come and whither do they go? 「At that time, the bodhisattva Dharmodgata said to the bodhisattva Sadāprarudita」〔T08 0584a21〕:

「Good man! The buddhas come from nowhere and go to no destination. Why? Because the suchness of dharmas does not move. The suchness of dharmas is precisely the Tathāgata.」 〔《小品般若》曇無竭品·T08n0227 0584a21〕

The answer for which he traveled to the ends of the earth is that there is nowhere from which the buddhas come and no destination to which they go. The suchness of dharmas—the way all dharmas truly are—does not move; suchness itself is the Tathāgata. The seeker traveled a thousand miles east, while the Dharma he sought never moved a single step. This does not mock him for having walked in vain. Only the one who has walked to the end can understand these words. Dharmodgata then teaches the assembly at length:

「Because all dharmas are equal, prajñā-pāramitā is also equal; because all dharmas are separate, prajñā-pāramitā is also separate; because all dharmas are unmoving, prajñā-pāramitā is also unmoving; because all dharmas are without thought, prajñā-pāramitā is also without thought;」 〔同品·T08 0586a05 段，餘句經自續列〕

Prajñā and all dharmas are equal, separate, unmoving, and without thought—not one mark can be attained, yet the teacher pours forth the teaching. At the furthest reach of practice, one hears non-attainment. This joins the end of the road to the arousing of the mind in chapter nine.

4 · Attainment without Attainment — the Chinese Response and a Parallel Reading

Can the word 「attainment」 still be used? Three hundred years later, in Chang'an, Sengzhao restated this fruit in Chinese. Nirvāṇa Is Nameless begins:

「As a Way, nirvāṇa is solitary, empty, and vast; it cannot be attained through form or name. Subtle, wondrous, and without marks, it cannot be known by an intentional mind.」 〔僧肇〈涅槃無名論〉·《肇論》·T45 0157c 段〕

When the treatise answers the challenge 『attainment or non-attainment』, one sentence gathers up Parts Two and Three of this book:

「You take attainment through something attained as attainment, and therefore seek it among things attained. I take attainment without attainment as attainment, and therefore attainment lies in non-attainment.」 〔同論·T45 0161b02〕

To take attainment without attainment as attainment is to find attainment precisely in non-attainment. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra offers the deepest parallel reading. Mañjuśrī asks: what is the root of good and not-good? The questions trace backward to the end:

「He answered: 「Non-abiding has no root. Mañjuśrī! From the root of non-abiding, all dharmas are established.」」 〔羅什譯《維摩詰所說經》觀眾生品·T14 0547c21（品起 0547a28）〕

All dharmas are established upon the root of non-abiding. The fruit is the same: 「Awakening has no abiding place; therefore there is no one who attains it.」〔同品〕 Non-abiding, non-attainment, namelessness—three sūtras and treatises speak with one breath. The place one reaches is not somewhere one can settle down.

5 · Entrustment — the Fruit Handed On

How, then, does the whole sūtra end? Not amid the splendor of realization, but with an entrustment. The Buddha solemnly tells Ānanda:

「I entrust prajñā-pāramitā to you. Take care not to forget or lose it, and do not become the last person through whom its lineage is cut off. Ānanda! However long prajñā-pāramitā remains in the world, know that throughout that time a buddha is present in the world teaching the Dharma.」 〔《小品般若》囑累品·T08n0227 0586b26（品起 0586b06）〕

「However long prajñā-pāramitā remains in the world, know that throughout that time a buddha is present in the world teaching the Dharma」—for every day prajñā remains in the world, the Buddha remains in the world teaching. The fruit is not a private realization stored away, but the Dharma abiding in the world. Then comes the last sentence of the sūtra:

「After the Buddha had taught prajñā-pāramitā, Maitreya and the other bodhisattva-mahāsattvas; Śāriputra, Subhūti, Maudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, and the other śrāvakas; and all the devas, humans, asuras, and others throughout the world heard what the Buddha had taught and joyfully accepted it with faith.」 〔同品〕

Joyfully accepted it with faith—the sūtra closes on these words, and this book closes here too. What is found at the end of the path? The mind once aroused has not retreated; the emptiness contemplated has never left the matters of the world; the giving practiced has never abided in marks. What is attained is non-attainment, and where one abides is the root of non-abiding—and then the sūtra is placed into the next pair of hands. If the reader asks where to go from here: at every station, the original text behind what this book has said is waiting. Return to the annotated translations, chapter by chapter and passage by passage, and read for yourself.

Author · Shi Huijing CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · 二〇二六 · 夏