One Who Reaches the Other Shore

"Oh good man! Reaching the other shore can be compared to the Arhat, the Pratyekabuddha, Bodhisattva, and the Buddha. This is like the godly tortoise, that can move around in both on water as on land. Why do we employ the example of the tortoise? Because actually it shuts in the five things [i.e., limbs and head]. It's the same with the Arhat up to the Buddha, who actually shut in the five sense organs. Hence a comparison is drawn with the tortoise.

We say water and land. Water can be compared to the world, and land to getting out of the secular world. It's the same with these holy people, too. They indeed reach the other shore, as they meditate deeply about the evil defilements. Hence, the comparison is drawn with moving both on water as on land.

Oh good man! The seven kinds of beings in the Ganges River possess the name of the tortoise. But they do not depart from water. Thus, in this case of this All-Wonderful (Sutra of) Great Nirvana, there come about seven different names, since the icchantika up to all Buddhas. But these do not depart from the water of the Buddha Nature. Oh good man! With these seven beings, whether that concerns the Wonderful Dharma, the non-Wonderful Dharma, the means, the Way of Emancipation, the Gradual Way, causation or result, all are the Buddha-nature. They are the words of the Tathagata that come from his own free will."

When I Speak of my Own Free Will

Read More on the Nirvana Sutra, Chapter 42 - On Bodhisattva Kasyapa 3.

one who reaches the other shore.mp3