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Section 25 — Transforming with nothing transformed化無所化分第二十五

Jingang Jing (The Diamond Sutra) 金剛般若波羅蜜經 · Kumārajīva, Chinese translation · 402 (Later Qin, 4th year of the Hongshi era) · 1 passages · 112 Chinese characters · reading time 0.4 min

Jingang Jing (The Diamond Sutra) Complete in one volume "All marks that exist are empty and false" — a sutra that teaches one to give rise to the mind without dwelling anywhere. It follows, just as they stand, the thirty-two sections into which Prince Zhaoming divided it. It is told that Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch, heard one line of this sutra and set his heart on awakening.

1There Are No Beings the Tathagata Delivers

「須菩提！於意云何？汝等勿謂如來作是念：『我當度眾生。』須菩提！莫作是念。何以故？實無有眾生如來度者。若有眾生如來度者，如來則有我、人、眾生、壽者。須菩提！如來說：『有我者，則非有我，而凡夫之人以為有我。』須菩提！凡夫者，如來說則非凡夫，是名凡夫。」

"Subhuti! What do you think? Do not say that the Tathagata thinks, 'I must deliver beings.' Subhuti! Do not think so. Why is this? Because in truth there are no beings the Tathagata delivers. If there were beings the Tathagata delivered, then the Tathagata would have a self, a person, a being, and a life span.

Subhuti! When the Tathagata says there is a self, that is not having a self; it is ordinary people who take it that there is a self. Subhuti! As for ordinary people, the Tathagata says they are not ordinary people; that is only the name ordinary people."

Interlinear notes 1

聖凡同性，化無所化

Sage and ordinary person share one nature; he transforms, and yet nothing is transformed.

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