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
- ↑ Or, able management, diplomacy, upâyakausalya. Upâya means an expedient, but with the Prâgñikas it denotes the energy of Pragñâ, 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.
- ↑ Sandhâ-bhâshya ; on this term more in the sequel.
