The man stood beneath the Dharma platform, palms pressed together, his burning gaze fixed on Xuanzang above.
Xuanzang sat high upon the Lion Throne at the center of the Dharma platform.
With his eyelids slightly lowered, Xuanzang looked at the man and nodded gently, his voice even:
"I know."
The man pressed him. "Since you know, Dharma Master, what do you make of it?"
Xuanzang replied, "This teaching is neither Dharma nor non-Dharma; this perception is neither perception nor non-perception."
At this, the man suddenly clapped his hands and laughed, a hint of deeper meaning in his laughter:
"Oh? How do you explain that?"
His gaze clear, Xuanzang continued, "You ask what distinguishes my teaching from that of the monk Shengyi, who fell into Hell?"
"My answer is this: between him and me, there is truly no distinction."
Xuanzang paused, then asked in turn, "Then do you think there is any distinction between Shengyi's teaching and Xigen's?"
The man's smile faded, and he said nothing.
Xuanzang answered his own question. "Within ultimate reality, there is likewise no distinction."
"You say that greed, hatred, and delusion are themselves buddha-nature, which is neither within nor without, neither in empty space nor above, below, or in any of the ten directions."
"What of the discriminating mind, then? Is it not the same?"
"Thus, both men's teachings are right teachings; both men's perceptions are right perceptions."
Xuanzang raised his voice. "Why did the monk Shengyi ultimately fall into the great hell? Not because he disbelieved that 'afflictions themselves are bodhi.' The root cause of his fall into Hell was the profound hatred he aroused to slander another's path of cultivation!"
"You say that afflictions themselves are bodhi. Bodhi and greed, hatred, and delusion are all unborn and undying, and therefore empty. Neither defilement nor