are degenerated.  Consequently they are given to bodily pleasures, and producing Karma, suffer from birth and death.  The great Enlightened One, having compassion on them, taught that everything in the universe is unreal.  He pointed out that the Real Spirit of Mysterious Enlightenment (within them) is pure and exactly the same as that of Buddha.  Therefore he says in Avatamsaka-sutra[FN#379]:  “There are no sentient beings, the children of Buddha, who are not endowed with wisdom of Tathagata;[FN#380] but they cannot attain to Enlightenment simply because of illusion and attachment.  When they are free from illusion, the Universal Intelligence,[FN#381] the Natural Intelligence,[FN#382] the Unimpeded Intelligence,[FN#383] will be disclosed (in their minds).”

[FN#376] A.  ’The perfect doctrine, in which eternal truth is taught by the Buddha.’

[FN#377] The ultimate reality is conceived by the Mahayanist as an entity self-existent, omnipresent, spiritual, impersonal, free from all illusions.  It may be regarded as something like the universal and enlightened soul.

[FN#378] Tathagata’s womb, Tathagata being another name for Buddha.

[FN#379] The book was translated into Chinese by Buddhabhadra, A.D. 418-420.

[FN#380] The highest epithet of the Buddha, meaning one who comes into the world like the coming of his predecessors.

[FN#381] The all-knowing wisdom that is acquired by Enlightenment.

[FN#382] The inborn wisdom of the Original Enlightenment.

[FN#383] The wisdom that is acquired by the union of Enlightenment with the Original Enlightenment.

Then he tells a parable of a single grain of minute dust[FN#384] containing large volumes of Sutra, equal in dimension of the Great Chiliocosmos.[FN#385] The grain is compared with a sentient being, and the Sutra with the wisdom of Buddha.  Again he says later:[FN#386] “Once Tathagata, having observed every sort of sentient beings all over the universe, said as follows:  ’Wonderful, how wonderful!  That these various sentient beings, endowed with the wisdom of Tathagata, are not conscious of it because of their errors and illusions!  I shall teach them the sacred truth and make them free from illusion for ever.  I shall (thus) enable them to find by themselves the Great Wisdom of Tathagatha within them and make them equal to Buddha.’

[FN#384] One of the famous parables in the sutra.

[FN#385] According to the Buddhist literature, one universe comprises one sun, one moon, one central mountain or Sumeru, four continents, etc.  One thousand of these universes form the Small Thousand Worlds; one thousand of the Small Thousand Worlds form the Middle Thousand Worlds; and the Great Thousand Worlds, or Great Chiliocosmos, comprises one thousand of the Middle Thousand Worlds.

[FN#386] This is not an exact quotation of the sutra.

Let me say (a few words) about this doctrine by way of criticism.  So many Kalpas we spent never meeting with this true doctrine, and knew not how to trace our life back to its origin.  Having been attached to nothing but the unreal outward forms, we willingly acknowledged ourselves to be a common herd of lowly beings.  Some regarded themselves as beasts, (while) others as men.