..续本文上一页 for a measureless number of lives, circulating and undergoing discomfort. If there is someone who does not perform such cultivation, although he may be afflicted and diseased, he would be able to destroy [that affliction and disease]. And why

　　 It is because he knows the Tathagata”s esoteric garbha. This is called the noble truth of suffering”s cessation. If one is able to thusly cultivate that cessation, this is a disciple of mine. If there is somone who is unable to thusly practice, this is called the cultivation of emptiness that is not the noble truth of cessation.

　　"[Now regarding] the noble truth of the Path. It refers to the jewels of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, as well as the true liberation. There are sentient beings of deluded minds who say that there is no Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, or any true liberation, that the circulation through birth and death is like a mirage. They cultivate this view. Because of these causes and conditions, they will circulate through the three existances for a long time, undergoing great discomfort. If one is able to generate in the mind the view that the Tathgata is eternally abiding and unchanging, the Dharma, Sangha, and liberation are also again so. Carried by this one thought for a measureless number of lives, self-mastery is the reward of following this idea, and so it will be attained. And why

　　 In the distant past, because of the four inverted views, I mistook what is not the Dharma for the Dharma, and so I underwent the rewards of a measureless number of evil actions (karma). Now, because I have extinguished such views, I have become a Buddha of perfect awakening. This is called the noble truth of the Path. If someone says the three jewels (triratna) are impermanent, who cultivates this view, then vacant and delusive is this cultivation. It is not the noble truth of the Path. If they cultivate the Dharma, that it is eternally abiding, this disciple of mine truely seeing practices the Dharma of the four noble truths. This is called the four noble truths."

　　Bodhisattva Kasyapa said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, now for the first time I know and practice this most profound Dharma of the four noble truths."

　　Chapter 11: The Four Inverted Views

　　The Buddha again addressed Kasyapa, "What are the four inverted views

　　"Giving rise to afflicting ideas about what is not afflicted, that is called an inverted view. The unafflicted is called the Tathagata. [If he] gives rise to afflicted ideas, that would mean the Tathagatas are impermanent, change, and vary. If it is said that the Tathagata is impermanent, he would be called a great and wicked affliction. Or if it is stated that the Tathagata abandons his afflicted body to enter Nirvana, just as when the fuel is gone the flame ceases, this is called being unafflicted and then giving rise to afflicted ideas. And so that is also called an inverted view.

　　"Suppose I were to say, “If the Tathagata were eternal, then this would be a view of self. Because of that view of self, this is immeasurably wicked. This is why it should be said that the Tathagata is impermanent.” And having thus spoken, I am made happy. But the Tathagata”s impermanence would then be an affliction. If it is an affliction, how can there arise happiness from it

　　Because this is an idea of happiness arising out of affliction, it is called an inverted view. Happiness arising from afflicted ideas is also called an inverted view. The happy one is the Tathagata. The afflicted one is the Tathagata who is impermanent. If it is said that the Tathagata is impermanent, that is called giving rise to afflicted ideas about of happy. The Tathagata who eternally abides is called happy.

　　"Suppose I were to say, “If the Tathagata is eternal, how then could he enter into Nirvana

　　 If it is …

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