Foolish and Without Knowledge
The practice that clings to nothing extends even to the prophecy of one's own future buddhahood — and the bodhisattva, having received it, turns to survey ordinary living beings with an unflinching honesty: stubborn, grasping, terrified by the very teaching of emptiness that would set them free.
Clinging to Nothing, Even the Prophecy of Buddhahood
菩薩摩訶薩以能如是無所著故，於佛法中，心無障礙，了佛菩提，證法毘尼，住佛正教，修菩薩行，住菩薩心，思惟菩薩解脫之法，於菩薩住處心無所染，於菩薩所行亦無所著，淨菩薩道，受菩薩記；得受記已，作如是念：
The bodhisattva-mahāsattva, being able to cling to nothing in this way, has, within the buddha-dharma, a mind free of any obstruction, understanding the Buddha's own bodhi, realizing the discipline of the Dharma, abiding in the Buddha's own true teaching, cultivating the bodhisattva's own conduct, abiding in the bodhisattva's own mind, reflecting on the bodhisattva's own dharma of liberation, their mind unstained by any place a bodhisattva abides within, and clinging to nothing toward any bodhisattva practice either, purifying the bodhisattva path, and receiving the bodhisattva's own prophecy of future buddhahood; once they have received this prophecy, they reflect in this way:
『凡夫愚癡，無知無見，無信無解，無聰敏行，頑嚚貪著，流轉生死；不求見佛，不隨明導，不信調御，迷誤失錯，入於險道；不敬十力王，不知菩薩恩，戀著住處；聞諸法空，心大驚怖；遠離正法，住於邪法；捨夷坦道，入險難道；棄背佛意，隨逐魔意；於諸有中，堅執不捨。』菩薩如是觀諸眾生，增長大悲，生諸善根而無所著。
"Ordinary beings, foolish and deluded, are without knowledge and without insight, without faith and without understanding, without any wise or discerning conduct at all, stubborn and obstinate, craving and clinging, revolving through birth-and-death; they do not seek to see the Buddha, do not follow the bright guide, do not believe in the Tamer, deluded and mistaken, entering upon the perilous road; they do not revere the King of the Ten Powers, do not know the bodhisattva's own kindness, and long for and cling to their own dwelling-place; hearing that every dharma is empty, their mind is struck with great terror; they keep far from the true Dharma, abiding instead in wrong dharmas; they abandon the level, even road, and enter the perilous, difficult road; they turn their back on the Buddha's own intent, and follow instead the intent of Māra; and within every state of existence, they hold on firmly, never letting go." The bodhisattva, contemplating living beings in this way, increases their own great compassion, giving rise to every wholesome root, and yet clinging to none of it.
"Hearing that every dharma is empty, their mind is struck with great terror" names a real difficulty the sūtra has been building toward across many hymns of emptiness in the previous fascicles — the very teaching meant to liberate can, heard wrong or heard too soon, feel like the ground itself giving way. The bodhisattva's response to this whole unflattering portrait is neither judgment nor despair but its opposite: an increase of compassion, precisely because the description is accurate rather than exaggerated.
Part 142 Complete
This closes Part 142. Chapter 21 continues in Part 143 with the vow to teach even a single being at every hair's-tip of the Dharma-realm, completing the seventh practice.