45.6 （六）

Thus have I heard:

At one time, the Buddha was at Anāthapiṇḍada's Park in the Jeta Grove near Śrāvastī.

At that time, Venerable Śāriputra rose from his quiet room in the morning and went to where the World-Honored One was. He bowed his head at the Buddha's feet and sat to one side. The Buddha then said to Śāriputra, "Your faculties are now pure, and your appearance is different from others. In which samādhi are you now dwelling?"

Śāriputra said to the Buddha, "Yes, World-Honored One! I always roam in the emptiness samādhi."

The Buddha said to Śāriputra, "Excellent! Excellent! Śāriputra! You are able to roam in the emptiness samādhi. The reason is this: the emptiness samādhi is the foremost. If a bhikṣu roams in the emptiness samādhi, he does not calculate a self, a person, or a lifespan, and he also does not see any sentient beings; he also does not see the beginning and end of all conditioned phenomena, and having not seen, he does not create the beginning of conditioned phenomena; having no conditioned phenomena, he does not again experience existence; having no experience of existence, he does not again experience the retribution of suffering and happiness.

"Śāriputra should know, when I was not yet enlightened, sitting under the Bodhi tree, I thought like this: 'Why do these sentient beings not attain liberation from birth and death?' At that time, I further thought like this: 'Those who do not have the emptiness samādhi wander in birth and death and do not attain ultimate liberation. Although there is this emptiness samādhi, sentient beings have not yet attained it. It causes sentient beings to give rise to the thought of attachment, and to give rise to the thought of the world, thus receiving the division of birth and death. If one attains this emptiness samādhi, there is no wish, and one attains the wishless samādhi; by attaining the wishless samādhi, one does not seek to die here and be born there, and when there is no thought at all, then the practitioner can attain the formless samādhi. These sentient beings all wander in birth and death because they do not attain the samādhi.' Having observed all dharmas, I then attained the emptiness samādhi, and having attained the emptiness samādhi, I attained anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. At that time, having attained the emptiness samādhi, I gazed at the Bodhi tree for seven days and seven nights without blinking. Śāriputra, by this method, know that the emptiness samādhi is the foremost among all samādhis, and the king of samādhis is the emptiness samādhi. Therefore, Śāriputra! You should seek the means to attain the emptiness samādhi. Thus, Śāriputra! You should train like this."

At that time, Śāriputra, having heard the Buddha's teaching, joyfully accepted and practiced it.