文殊師利所說摩訶般若波羅蜜經 文殊般若 · 卷下 · 迦葉問

The Buddha first asks: who can trust the wisdom proclaimed by the Tathāgatas themselves? Mañjuśrī describes right faith as not abiding in either extreme: not fixing this wisdom as a dharma of nirvāṇa or a dharma of saṃsāra, and not falling into cutting off or not cutting off, departing or not departing, cultivating or not cultivating. Kāśyapa immediately pushes the question into the future: who can trust and understand the profound right Dharma and accept and practice it according to what is heard? The Buddha’s answer points to the fourfold assembly listening in the Dharma assembly today. When they hear it again in the future, they will be able to trust and understand, recite, accept and uphold it, and teach it to others. A lost jewel is recovered, and so there is joy; a heavenly tree first puts forth buds, and so its coming bloom is known; a bead-stringer suddenly encounters a genuine jewel, and so recognizes it at sight; one has seen a city before, and so delights without weariness when hearing its gardens and pools described again. Together the four similes speak not of substituting a moment of joy for cultivation, but of the resonance when profound Dharma is encountered once more and of the continuity from hearing to circulation. Mañjuśrī then raises the absence of fabrication and marks in all dharmas and their supreme quiescence, and the Buddha repeatedly says that one should train in prajñā: seeking non-retrogression, seeking awakening, understanding the marks of dharmas, knowing the equality of all sentient beings’ realms of mind, covering sentient beings with loving-kindness without grasping a mark of sentient beings, and remaining without disputation without grasping a mark of non-disputation—all the way through the ten powers, fearlessnesses, and unobstructed eloquence—none is apart from this training. Hearing again is not the endpoint. Recognizing profound Dharma must still let trust and understanding become acceptance and upholding, and let acceptance and upholding become training without grasping.

Shi Huijing · Zhiyue · Mañjuśrī Prajñāpāramitā · Mahākāśyapa’s Question · Heart-Essence · Summer 2026

The Buddha then said to Mañjuśrī, ‘Who can trust wisdom such as this, proclaimed by the Tathāgatas themselves?’

Mañjuśrī replied, ‘A person who understands this wisdom as it really is does not see it as a dharma that belongs only to nirvāṇa, nor as a dharma that belongs only to saṃsāra. It is a course of quiescence and a course without movement. One cannot say that such a person has cut off desire, anger, and delusion, nor can one say that these have not been cut off. Why? Because this wisdom is inexhaustible and unceasing. It cannot be said to have left saṃsāra, nor can it be said not to have left saṃsāra. It cannot be said to cultivate a path that can be grasped, nor can it be said not to cultivate the path at all. Only an understanding such as this is called right faith.’

The Buddha praised Mañjuśrī: ‘Excellent, excellent! Just as you have said, you have deeply understood this meaning.’

At that time Mahākāśyapa said to the Buddha, ‘World-Honored One, in a future age, if someone teaches such a profound right Dharma, who will be able to trust and understand it, and accept and practice it in accordance with what has been heard?’

The Buddha said to Kāśyapa, ‘The bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, male lay followers, and female lay followers in this Dharma assembly have already had the conditions to hear this sūtra. If these people hear this Dharma again in a future age, they will certainly be able to trust and understand the profound prajñā-pāramitā. They will not only recite it, trust and understand it, and accept and uphold it, but will also analyze and explain it for others.

‘It is like a wealthy householder who loses a maṇi jewel and becomes sorrowful and distressed. If he later finds the jewel again, he is filled with joy. Kāśyapa, the bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, male lay followers, and female lay followers are likewise. Their hearts trust, accept, and delight in this Dharma. If they cannot hear the Dharma, they feel distressed; when they are able to hear it, they trust, understand, accept, and uphold it, constantly delight in reciting it, and experience tremendous joy. Know that such a person sees the Buddha and also draws near to and makes offerings to the Buddhas.

‘Kāśyapa, it is also like the pārijātaka tree in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven. When buds first appear on the tree, the gods who see them are filled with joy, knowing that the tree will certainly blossom before long. It is likewise when bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, male lay followers, and female lay followers hear the prajñā-pāramitā and are able to give rise to trust and understanding. Before long, all the buddha-dharmas will blossom and become manifest within such a person.

‘In a future age, if a bhikṣu, bhikṣuṇī, male lay follower, or female lay follower hears the prajñā-pāramitā, trusts and accepts it, recites it, and does not regret it or sink into decline, know that this person has already heard and accepted this sūtra in today’s assembly. In the future, this person will also expound it widely in villages, towns, and cities, causing the sūtra to circulate. Know that this person is kept in mind and protected by the Buddha.

‘When good men and good women are able to trust, accept, and delight in this profound prajñā-pāramitā without doubt, it shows that they have long cultivated in the presence of Buddhas of the past and planted many roots of goodness. It is like someone stringing beads one by one who suddenly encounters a genuine, unsurpassed maṇi jewel and is filled with joy. Know that this person must have seen such a jewel before and so can recognize it now.

‘Kāśyapa, it is likewise when good men and good women have been cultivating other teachings, suddenly hear the profound prajñā-pāramitā, and give rise to joy. Know that they have heard it before. If sentient beings hear the profound prajñā-pāramitā, are able to trust and accept it inwardly, and give rise to tremendous joy, these people too have drawn near to countless Buddhas, heard the prajñā-pāramitā from them, and already cultivated it.

‘It is also like someone who has previously seen a city or village firsthand. Later, that person hears someone praise the city’s gardens, its various pools and springs, its flowers, fruits, groves, and trees, and its delightful men and women. On hearing this, the person is immediately filled with joy and urges the speaker to continue: how beautifully the city’s gardens are adorned, how many different flowers grow around its pools and springs, how abundant its sweet fruits are, and how delightful its many rare and marvelous things. With every added description, the person’s joy deepens. This is because the person has seen the city before.

‘In the same way, when good men and good women hear the prajñā-pāramitā, listen and accept it with trust, give rise to joy, delight in hearing it without weariness, and urge the speaker to continue teaching, know that such people have previously heard this prajñā-pāramitā from Mañjuśrī.’

Kāśyapa said to the Buddha, ‘World-Honored One, if in a future age good men and good women hear this profound prajñā-pāramitā and are able to trust it, delight in it, and listen to and accept it attentively, then from this sign one can know that they too have previously heard and cultivated it in the presence of Buddhas of the past.’

Mañjuśrī said to the Buddha, ‘World-Honored One, the Buddha teaches that all dharmas are without fabrication and without fixed marks, supremely quiescent. If good men and good women are able to understand this meaning truly and clearly, understand in accordance with what they have heard, and teach in accordance with the Dharma, they will be praised by the Tathāgatas. Their teaching does not contradict the marks of dharmas; it is precisely what the Buddha teaches. This is also the mark of prajñā-pāramitā blazing brightly, also called blazing and complete in buddha-dharmas. They penetrate the true mark of dharmas, and this penetration is inconceivable.’

The Buddha said to Mañjuśrī, ‘When I formerly practiced the bodhisattva path and cultivated various roots of goodness, if I wished to abide on the ground of non-retrogression, I had to train in the prajñā-pāramitā. If I wished to accomplish unsurpassed perfect awakening, I also had to train in the prajñā-pāramitā.

‘If good men and good women wish to understand the marks of all dharmas and know that the realms of mind of all sentient beings are entirely equal, they should train in the prajñā-pāramitā. Mañjuśrī, if they wish to train in all buddha-dharmas and make them complete and unobstructed, they should train in the prajñā-pāramitā. If they wish to train in the marks, excellent characteristics, deportment, and immeasurable modes of Dharma displayed when all Buddhas accomplish unsurpassed perfect awakening, they should train in the prajñā-pāramitā. If they wish to know all the modes of Dharma and forms of deportment of all Buddhas in there being no accomplishment of unsurpassed perfect awakening, they should likewise train in the prajñā-pāramitā. Why? Because within empty dharmas, one does not see Buddhas, awakening, or the other marks as things that can be fixed and established.

‘If good men and good women wish to know all these marks without further doubt, they should train in the prajñā-pāramitā. Why? Because the prajñā-pāramitā does not see dharmas as truly arising or ceasing, nor does it see them as truly defiled or purified. Therefore, good men and good women should train in the prajñā-pāramitā in this way.

‘If they wish to know that all dharmas have no marks that can be fixed as past, future, or present, they should train in the prajñā-pāramitā. Why? Because the nature and marks of the dharma-realm are not divided into the three times of past, future, and present. If they wish to know that all dharmas equally enter the dharma-realm and to have minds without obstruction, they should train in the prajñā-pāramitā.

‘If they wish to realize the Dharma-wheel in three turnings and twelve aspects, personally realize and know it, and yet not grasp it, they should train in the prajñā-pāramitā. If they wish to make loving-kindness universally shelter all sentient beings without limit, yet not give rise to a fixed mark of sentient beings, they should train in the prajñā-pāramitā. If they wish not to enter into disputation with any sentient being, yet also not grasp a mark of non-disputation, they should train in the prajñā-pāramitā. If they wish to know what is possible and what is impossible, possess the Buddha’s ten powers and fearlessnesses, abide in the wisdom of a Buddha, and attain unobstructed eloquence, they should all train in the prajñā-pāramitā.’

Shi Huijing · Zhiyue · Mañjuśrī Prajñāpāramitā · Mahākāśyapa’s Question · Vernacular · Summer 2026

Who Can Trust the Wisdom Proclaimed by the Tathāgatas Themselves?

At the opening of the chapter, the Buddha asks Mañjuśrī: ‘Who can trust the wisdom proclaimed by the Buddhas themselves?’ The question does not first divide people into those who trust and those who do not. It asks instead: what is right faith? Mañjuśrī’s manner of answering precisely prevents a person from turning faith into grasping one side.

He says that this wisdom is neither only a dharma of nirvāṇa nor only a dharma of saṃsāra; it is a course of quiescence and a course without movement. If one therefore says that desire, anger, and delusion have been completely cut off, the sūtra says that they are yet neither not cut off. If one says that it has left saṃsāra, it also says that it is neither apart nor not apart from saṃsāra. If one says that it is precisely the cultivation of the path, the text also says that it does not cultivate the path, yet neither does it not cultivate the path. These paired sentences do not ask the reader to cancel cultivation. They prevent right faith from being reduced to an answer that can be fixed and defended.

Mañjuśrī therefore concludes that only an understanding such as this is called right faith. Here, right faith is first an understanding that does not fall into either extreme: it does not confine the Tathāgata’s wisdom within any box of saṃsāra or nirvāṇa, cutting off or not cutting off, cultivating or not cultivating. The Buddha immediately praises him and confirms that Mañjuśrī has deeply understood this meaning.

Why Does Kāśyapa Ask About the Future Rather Than the Present?

Mahākāśyapa pushes the question from the present into the future: if someone in a future age teaches such a profound right Dharma, who will be able to trust and understand it and accept and practice it in accordance with what is heard? The Buddha does not answer with an abstract qualification. He points to the bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, male lay followers, and female lay followers in the Dharma assembly before him. Because they have heard this sūtra today, when they hear it again in the future they will be able to trust and understand, recite, accept and uphold it, and also analyze and explain it for others.

This answer makes transmission concrete. Dharma is not carried into future generations by written scrolls alone; it is also carried forward by those listening today. Hearing, trusting and understanding, reciting, accepting and upholding, and expounding are not interchangeable steps. Merely hearing without accepting and upholding has not yet made the teaching one’s own practice. Merely accepting and upholding without teaching others leaves the circulation of Dharma missing a further dimension. The sūtra lists the entire sequence to preserve the complete path from hearing directly to transmitting the teaching.

Why Does Recovery After Loss Bring Greater Joy Than a First Acquisition?

The Buddha begins with the simile of recovering a lost jewel. A wealthy householder loses a maṇi jewel and so becomes sorrowful and distressed. When he later finds it again, he is filled with joy. The sūtra itself applies the simile: when the fourfold assembly does not hear the Dharma, they are distressed; when they hear it again, they trust, understand, accept, uphold, and delight in reciting it. This joy resembles recovery not only because the Dharma is precious, but because the listeners already have a prior connection with it.

Next come the buds of the heavenly tree. As soon as buds appear on the pārijātaka tree in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven, the gods rejoice, knowing that it will soon blossom. A bud is not a blossom in full bloom, but it truly points toward blooming. Likewise, hearing prajñā and giving rise to trust and understanding does not mean that all buddha-dharmas have already been completed, but it shows that the buddha-dharmas are about to blossom. The sūtra therefore says that before long all the buddha-dharmas will blossom within one who trusts and understands.

The third simile concerns a bead-stringer who suddenly encounters a genuine maṇi jewel. The person recognizes a genuine jewel and is filled with joy, and the sūtra says that from this one can know that the person has seen one before. What it shows is not a mysterious test of memory, but resonance. Those who have been cultivating other teachings and suddenly feel joy on hearing the profound prajñā respond because they have heard and cultivated it in the past and have drawn near to Buddhas.

The fourth simile brings the matter closer to ordinary experience. Someone who has personally seen a city later hears another person describe its gardens, pools and springs, fruits and flowers, and inhabitants. Every additional description brings further joy, and the listener asks the speaker to continue. The descriptions do not create a new city for the listener; words call forth a place already seen. The sūtra uses this to explain that those who hear prajñā, delight in hearing it without weariness, and repeatedly urge that it be taught have previously heard it from Mañjuśrī.

Is Joy Alone Enough to Prove Everything?

After hearing the similes, Kāśyapa confirms the point again: when good men and good women in a future age hear the profound prajñā and trust, delight in, listen to, and accept it, one can know from this sign that they have previously heard and cultivated in the presence of Buddhas. This does not encourage people to take a passing emotion as proof of realization. The chapter repeatedly lists not joy alone, but an entire group of practices: trusting and understanding, accepting and upholding, reciting, delighting in hearing without weariness, asking that the teaching continue, and circulating it for others.

Xuanzang’s recension preserves the same sense unit by joining the lost jewel recovered and the heavenly tree blossoming to the future fourfold assembly; it likewise says that those who hear the profound prajñā, trust and accept it, and cultivate it will soon bring all buddha-dharmas to blossom. The Saṅghabhara recension preserves Kāśyapa’s question about the future, while its later extended passage on training in prajñā closely agrees with the base text. Together, the two witnesses help the reader see that the future trust and understanding described in this chapter always remain connected with hearing, cultivation, and circulation rather than with an isolated feeling.

Why Does Trust and Understanding Turn into the Repeated 「當學」— “One Should Train”?

Mañjuśrī first raises the nature of the Dharma: dharmas are without fabrication and without marks, supremely quiescent. Only understanding them truly, teaching in accordance with what is heard, and not contradicting the marks of dharmas is the Buddha’s teaching and blazing prajñā. The Buddha does not stop at praise. Again and again he says that one should train in the prajñā-pāramitā. This turn is important: recognizing profound Dharma does not mean that cultivation is complete. The joy of hearing again must enter actual training.

The aspirations listed by the Buddha are broad. If one wishes to abide on the ground of non-retrogression, one must train in prajñā. If one wishes to accomplish unsurpassed perfect awakening, one must train in prajñā. If one wishes to understand the marks of all dharmas and know the equality of sentient beings’ realms of mind, one must train in prajñā. If one wishes to train in all buddha-dharmas without obstruction, or to know the marks, excellent characteristics, deportment, and modes of Dharma of Buddhas accomplishing awakening, one must also train in prajñā. Prajñā here is not one field of knowledge placed beside many aspirations. It is the training through which each aspiration is kept from being distorted by grasping.

This becomes still clearer as the chapter continues. To know the marks of past, future, and present, one must understand that the nature and marks of the dharma-realm are without the three times. To cover all sentient beings with loving-kindness, one must not establish another graspable mark of sentient beings. To remain without disputation, one must not then seize a mark of non-disputation. To realize the Dharma-wheel oneself, one must still not grasp it. Training in prajñā does not remove loving-kindness, the Dharma-wheel, the ten powers, or the fearlessnesses. At each point, however, it prevents the one who trains, what is trained in, and what is attained from congealing into solid things.

Onward Transmission

The transmission of this chapter is first preserved in multiple canonical recensions. The Saṅghabhara recension preserves Kāśyapa’s question about trust in the Dharma in the future and the extended passage repeatedly exhorting one to train in prajñā. Xuanzang’s Seventh Assembly, Mañjuśrī Division, preserves such sense units as the sentence concerning the three poisons, the lost jewel, and the heavenly tree. The forty-sixth assembly of the Mahāratnakūṭa-sūtra incorporates in full the sequence of Kāśyapa’s question, the similes, Mañjuśrī’s statement about the Dharma, and the instruction to train in prajñā. All three are actual wording that has been verified, yet none makes a doctrinal decision on behalf of the base text.

As of the construction of this unit, no ancient master’s phrase-by-phrase explanation of this chapter has been verified. Citations in Chan sources concerning the later single-practice samādhi chapter are therefore not moved here merely to fill the space. Onward transmission in this case stops with the canonical preservation and retransmission of the chapter: those listening in today’s assembly become those who trust and accept in the future, while alternate translations and canonical concordances preserve the same exchange for later generations. The passage from the present assembly into the future age described by the sūtra remains visible through these textual witnesses.

Shi Huijing · Zhiyue · Mañjuśrī Prajñāpāramitā · Mahākāśyapa’s Question · Exposition · Summer 2026