The Physician, and the True Nature of Mind
A bodhisattva treats affliction the way a skilled physician treats illness — matching remedy to the actual disease rather than applying medicine indiscriminately. From there the sūtra turns inward, cataloguing the mind through image after image before tracing a long chain of reasoning down to the very nature of a noble sage.
A Physician Who Treats According to the Actual Illness
於是世尊告尊者大迦葉曰：「菩薩為一切眾生，求修諸善根、具眾智藥，往至四方，隨病所應如實治之。迦葉！云何為如實治？謂以惡露不淨治欲，慈心治恚，緣起治癡。空治一切見，無想治一切四相，無願治一切欲界、色無色界。四非顛倒，治四顛倒一切行，無常治非常有常想一切行，苦治苦有樂想，無我治無我有我想，不淨想治不淨有淨想。四意止者，治計著身痛心法，身身觀者不起觀身我見，痛痛觀者不起觀痛我見，心心觀者不起觀心我見，法法觀者不起觀法我見。四意斷者，悉斷一切不善之法，習一切善法。四神足者，捨身心真想。五根五力治不信懈怠、亂念無智。七覺者治諸法無智。聖八道者，此慧所治一切邪道。是謂迦葉！隨病所應如實治之。如此迦葉！菩薩當作是學。
「復次迦葉！假令三千大千國土諸有識者，悉如耆域醫王。有人問之：『以何方藥治彼病者？』終無能答，唯有菩薩能悉答之。是故迦葉！菩薩當作是念：『我不應求世間之藥，當求出世間藥。』修一切善根，是眾智藥。往至四方，隨眾生病如實治之。
「復次迦葉！云何為出世智藥？謂因緣智、無我人壽命智，解一切諸法空無恐怖之心，彼作是觀，何者心欲？何者怒癡？為過去耶？為未來現在耶？若過去者，去心以滅；若未來者，來心未起；若現在者、現心不住。如是迦葉！心未來、不在內、亦不在外，亦不在兩中間。心者非色不可見，亦無對、無見、無知、無住、無餘倚。」
Then the World-Honored One said to the Elder Mahākāśyapa: "A bodhisattva, for the sake of all beings, seeks and cultivates every root of goodness, and, complete with every medicine of wisdom, travels to the four directions, treating each illness truly, according to what it actually is. Kāśyapa, what is treating an illness truly? It means treating desire with the contemplation of the body's own foulness and impurity, treating anger with loving-kindness, and treating delusion with dependent origination. Emptiness treats every view; markless-ness treats every one of the four marks; freedom from aspiration treats every clinging to the realms of desire, form, and formlessness. The four non-inversions treat every conditioned activity caught in the four inversions: impermanence treats every activity mistaken for permanent when it is not; suffering treats what is mistaken for pleasant when it is suffering; non-self treats what is mistaken for a self when there is none; the perception of impurity treats what is mistaken for pure when it is impure. The four foundations of mindfulness treat clinging attachment to body, sensation, mind, and mental phenomena: observing the body precisely as body gives rise to no view of a self in the body; observing sensation precisely as sensation gives rise to no view of a self in sensation; observing mind precisely as mind gives rise to no view of a self in mind; observing mental phenomena precisely as mental phenomena gives rise to no view of a self in mental phenomena. The four right exertions entirely cut off every unwholesome dharma, and cultivate every wholesome dharma. The four bases of supernormal power let go of the true-seeming notion of a fixed body and mind. The five faculties and five powers treat lack of faith, laziness, scattered mindfulness, and lack of wisdom. The seven factors of awakening treat ignorance with respect to every dharma. The noble eightfold path is the wisdom that treats every wrong path there is. These, Kāśyapa, are how one treats each illness truly, according to what it actually is. Just so, Kāśyapa, should a bodhisattva train.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! Suppose that every knowledgeable being throughout a trichiliocosm of world-systems were as skilled as the physician-king Jīvaka himself. If someone were to ask them, 'What remedy should treat this illness?' not one of them, in the end, would be able to answer — only a bodhisattva is able to answer every such question completely. Therefore, Kāśyapa, a bodhisattva should reflect thus: 'I should not seek a worldly medicine; I should seek a supramundane medicine.' Cultivating every root of goodness is itself the medicine of wisdom, and with it he travels to the four directions, treating each being's illness truly, according to what it actually is.
"Furthermore, Kāśyapa! What is the supramundane medicine of wisdom? It is the wisdom of dependent origination, the wisdom that there is no self, no person, and no lifespan, and a mind free of any fear in understanding that all dharmas are empty. One who has this makes the following observation: which mind is desire? Which is anger, which is delusion? Is it past? Is it future or present? If it is past, that past mind has already ceased; if it is future, that future mind has not yet arisen; if it is present, that present mind does not remain even for an instant. Just so, Kāśyapa, mind is not to be found in the future, nor within, nor without, nor anywhere between the two. Mind has no form and cannot be seen; it has no counterpart, no visibility, no knowing, no abode, and nothing further to lean on."
This passage does something unusual with a list ordinarily presented as a fixed sequence of practices to complete in order: it reads the entire thirty-seven factors of enlightenment as a graduated pharmacy, each item matched to a specific ailment rather than treated as one uniform stage of the path. Jīvaka, named directly here, was renowned across early Buddhist literature as the era's foremost physician, credited elsewhere with treating the Buddha's own community — invoking him by name sets the highest conceivable standard of worldly medical skill precisely so that a bodhisattva's supramundane skill can be shown exceeding it. The chapter's closing move — searching for the mind across past, future, and present, and finding it cannot be located in any of the three — sets up the far more extended investigation that follows, treating "mind" not as a a thing whose nature must be described so much as a search whose failure to locate anything is itself the finding.
The Mind Investigated: Images, and a Chain of Reasoning
「迦葉！心者一切諸佛，不已見、不當見、不今見，若一切諸佛，不已見、不當見、不今見者，云何知有所行？但以顛倒想故有諸法行。諸法者如幻化之法，受種種生故，是心如風遠行，不可持故；心如流水，不可住故；心如燈炎，緣相續故；心如電光，時不住故；是心如霧，外事穢故；心如獼猴，貪一切境界故；心如畫師，造種種行故；心不得住，隨眾結故；心獨無侶，常樂馳走故；是心如王，一切法之首故；是心如母，生一切苦故；是心如炎，聚散一切諸善根故；是心如魚鈎，苦有樂想故；是心如夢，無我有我想故；是心如蠅，不淨有淨想故；是心如怨，家所作不可故；是心如羅剎，常樂求便故；是心如憎嫉，常樂求過故；是心不可愛，恩愛癡故；是心如賊，斷一切善根故；是心著色，如蛾投火故；是心愛聲，如軍樂戰鼓音故；是心愛香，如豕樂臭穢故；是心著味，如使人樂餘食故；是心愛更樂，如蠅樂羶故。求心無有亦不可得；設無不可得者，則無過去、未來、現在；設無過去、未來、現在者，則過三世；設過三世者，是則不有、亦不無；若不有、不無者，是為不生；若不生者，是為無性；若無性者，是為無起；若不起者，是亦不滅；若不滅者，則無敗壞；若無敗壞者，則無來無去；若無來去者，則無有生死；若無去來、無生死者，是則無行；若無行者，則是無為；若無為者，則是聖賢之性；若聖性者，則無戒不戒；若無戒不戒者，則無威儀行亦無不威儀；若無行、無威儀、不威儀者，是則無心、無心數法；若無心、心數法者，則無業無報；若無報者，則無苦無樂；若無苦樂者，是聖賢之性；若聖賢性者，則無業無作。如此性中無作身業，亦無作口意業。此性平等無上、中、下，亦無差別，一切諸法悉平等故。
「如是迦葉！此性遠離，捨身口故；此性無為，順涅槃故；此性清淨，離於一切諸結垢故；此性無我，離我作故；此性平等，離虛實故；此性真出，要第一義故；此性無不盡至竟不起，常如法故；此性樂無為，悉同等故；此性清潔，至竟無垢故；此性非我，求我不可得故；此性潔白，至竟淨故。」
"Kāśyapa! Mind is something every buddha has never seen, will never see, and does not see now — and if every buddha has never seen it, will never see it, and does not see it now, how could one claim to know that it has any activity at all? It is only because of inverted thinking that the activity of dharmas seems to exist. All dharmas are like things conjured by illusion, subject to every kind of arising. This mind is like the wind traveling far, since it cannot be held; mind is like flowing water, since it cannot be made to stay; mind is like a lamp's flame, since it continues only by depending on conditions; mind is like a flash of lightning, since it does not remain even for a moment; this mind is like mist, since it obscures things outside it; mind is like a monkey, since it craves after every object; mind is like a painter, since it fabricates every kind of activity; mind cannot be made to stay, since it follows every entanglement; mind alone has no companion, since it constantly delights in running about; this mind is like a king, since it stands at the head of every dharma; this mind is like a mother, since it gives birth to every suffering; this mind is like a flame, since it gathers together and scatters apart every root of goodness; this mind is like a fishhook, since it takes what is suffering for pleasure; this mind is like a dream, since it takes what has no self for a self; this mind is like a fly, since it takes what is impure for pure; this mind is like an enemy, since what it does within its own household cannot be trusted; this mind is like a rākṣasa, since it constantly delights in seeking its chance; this mind is like envy itself, since it constantly delights in seeking fault; this mind cannot be loved, since its very affection is delusion; this mind is like a thief, since it cuts off every root of goodness; this mind clings to form, like a moth flying into a flame; this mind loves sound, like the drums and music of an army at war; this mind loves smell, like a pig delighting in filth and stench; this mind clings to flavor, like one who makes another crave leftover food; this mind loves touch, like a fly delighting in what is rank.
"Seek this mind, and it cannot be had, cannot be found at all. If it cannot be found, then it has no past, no future, and no present; and if it has no past, future, or present, then it transcends all three times; and if it transcends the three times, then it is neither existent nor non-existent; and if it is neither existent nor non-existent, then it is unborn; and if it is unborn, then it has no fixed nature; and if it has no nature, then it is without arising; and if it is without arising, then it is likewise without ceasing; and if it is without ceasing, then it has no decay; and if it has no decay, then it has no coming and no going; and if it has no coming and going, then there is no birth-and-death; and if there is no coming and going, no birth-and-death, then there is no activity at all; and if there is no activity, then it is unconditioned; and if it is unconditioned, then it is the very nature of a noble sage; and if it is the nature of a noble sage, then there is no precept-keeping and no precept-breaking; and if there is no precept-keeping or breaking, then there is no dignified conduct and no lack of it; and if there is no conduct, no dignified conduct or its lack, then there is no mind and no mental factor; and if there is no mind or mental factor, then there is no karma and no karmic result; and if there is no karmic result, then there is no suffering and no pleasure; and if there is no suffering or pleasure, this is the very nature of a noble sage; and if it is the nature of a noble sage, then there is no karma and nothing made by karma at all. Within this nature there is no bodily karma made, and no karma of speech or mind made either. This nature is equal — with nothing superior, middling, or inferior, and no distinction at all — because all dharmas are, every one of them, equal.
"Just so, Kāśyapa: this nature is remote, because it has left behind body and speech; this nature is unconditioned, because it accords with nirvāṇa; this nature is pure, because it is free of every bond and stain; this nature is without self, because it is free of any act of self-making; this nature is equal, because it is free of both the false and the real; this nature is truly transcendent, because it is grounded in the first principle; this nature is never exhausted, arising nowhere, all the way to the end, because it is ever thus, as the Dharma itself is; this nature delights in the unconditioned, because everything within it is equal alike; this nature is clean, because it is, all the way to the end, without any stain; this nature is not a self, because a self sought within it can never be found; this nature is spotless, because it is, all the way to the end, entirely pure."
The catalogue of images for the mind runs to more than twenty entries without pausing — wind, flowing water, a lamp's flame, lightning, mist, a monkey, a painter, a king, a mother, a flame again, a fishhook, a dream, a fly, an enemy, a rākṣasa, a thief, a moth — and its sheer accumulation is itself doing rhetorical work no single image could: no one simile is allowed to become the definitive account of what mind is, because twenty more immediately follow to unsettle whichever one the reader had started to settle into. A few of the images repeat the same point from different angles (wind, water, lightning, and a lamp's flame all target instability and impermanence), while others target something sharper — the mind as "mother," giving birth to every suffering, or as an "enemy" whose harm lands inside its own household, are among the passage's more unsettling formulations, refusing to let mind be treated as a neutral instrument even before any argument about its ultimate status has begun.
The long chain that follows — fifteen or more consecutive "if X, then Y" steps — is a distinctive piece of reasoning even within this already formally varied sūtra: rather than asserting the mind's true nature directly, the passage derives it link by link from the single premise that mind, sought for, cannot be found. Each step is a genuine implication, not a restatement, and the chain's destination is worth noting for what it refuses along the way: not merely emptiness or unconditioned status, but explicitly "no precept-keeping and no precept-breaking," "no karma and no karmic result," "no suffering and no pleasure" — categories a less careful reading might expect the passage to affirm rather than dissolve. The final positive restatement — that this nature is remote, unconditioned, pure, selfless, equal, and clean — arrives only after the entire scaffolding of ordinary moral and causal categories has already been shown incapable of applying to it in the first place.
Part 7 Complete
This closes Part 7: medicine matched to illness, and an investigation into mind that moves from a flood of unsettling images to a long chain of reasoning ending in the very nature of a noble sage. Part 8 turns outward again, warning against monks who flee like dogs instead of looking inward, and naming four kinds of śramaṇa — only the last of which is the real thing.
Continue to Part 8 — Monks Who Flee Like Dogs, and Four Kinds of Śramaṇa →