Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 21.djvu/78

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SADDHARMA-PUNDARÎKA.
ii.

CHAPTER II.

SKILFULNESS.[1]

The Lord then rose with recollection and consciousness from his meditation, and forthwith addressed the venerable Sâriputra: The Buddha knowledge, Sâriputra, is profound, difficult to understand, difficult to comprehend. It is difficult for all disciples and Pratyekabuddhas to fathom the knowledge arrived at by the Tathâgatas, &c, and that, Sâriputra, because the Tathâgatas have worshipped many hundred thousand myriads of kotis of Buddhas; because they have fulfilled their course for supreme, complete enlightenment, during many hundred thousand myriads of kotis of Æons; because they have wandered far, displaying energy and possessed of wonderful and marvellous properties; possessed of properties difficult to understand; because they have found out things difficult to understand.

The mystery[2] of the Tathâgatas, &c, is difficult to understand, Sâriputra, because when they explain the laws (or phenomena, things) that have their


  1. Or, able management, diplomacy, upâyakausalya. Upâya means an expedient, but with the Prâikas it denotes the energy of Praâ, the latter being Nature, otherwise called Mâyâ; see B. H. Hodgson, Essays on the Languages, Literature, and Religion of Nepál and Tibet, p. 104; cf. pp. 72, 78, 89. From the atheistic point of view the possessor of upâyakausalya can hardly be anything else but all-ruling Time; regarded from the theistic view he must be the Almighty Spirit.
  2. Sandhâ-bhâshya ; on this term more in the sequel.