Book | The Highlight of the Vimalakirti Sutra

The highlight of the Vimalakirti Sutra is said to be, above all, the Dharma Gate of Non-Duality (bul-i, 不二). Regarding the Dharma Gate of Non-Duality, in Chapter 9, "The Entry into the Dharma Gate of Non-Duality," if one counts the 31 bodhisattvas, Manjushri Bodhisattva, and Vimalakirti's silent reply to Manjushri's question on the Dharma Gate of Non-Duality, in total 33 examples of non-duality (不二) are given. What does the Dharma Gate of Non-Duality - that is, the teaching that the two are not two - mean, and is its meaning realizable in the actual world? The teaching of non-duality means transcending dualistic opposition. To Manjushri Bodhisattva's question of what the Dharma Gate of Non-Duality is, Vimalakirti's answer was silence (無言, no-word), and on his silent withholding Manjushri praised it as the true Dharma Gate of Non-Duality. According to Manjushri, that which, in all dharmas, cannot be spoken or explained, cannot be seen or known, that which has departed from all questions and answers, is precisely the Dharma Gate of Non-Duality. Silence, that is, no-word, departs from any theoretical or ideological analysis and from dualistic opposition - but is silence really the world of non-duality? Generally, if one remains silent in response to a yes-or-no question, it is taken as agreement.

This implication of agreement is only possible when a yes-or-no question is presupposed in the first place. If we do not presuppose the views of the 31 bodhisattvas other than Manjushri concerning non-duality, can Vimalakirti's silence still carry the meaning of non-duality that Manjushri so praised? Vimalakirti's silent reply can become the Dharma Gate of Non-Duality only in one case - that is, only when theoretical and analytical answers about all worldly matters have been presupposed. From a silence that contains no meaning whatsoever, neither the Dharma Gate of Non-Duality nor any other value can be drawn out. This is why the silent action of one who cannot speak a word and has no thought cannot be the same as the silent action of one who has reached the realm of no-thought, no-image (無念無想).

One who suffers from defilements and deluded thoughts naturally exhausts every effort to escape that suffering. They look for methods to find the answer, set off in search of a teacher, only to lose direction, wander here and there, and find that the answer does not come easily. With a heavy heart, the day grows dark, wind and rain lash down, and with nowhere to go, one watches one's own bewildered state with absent eyes - then, by chance, one sees a grotesque, oddly shaped rock standing still by a pond, and suddenly is enlightened. When one's own pitiful, flustered figure is compared with the dignified figure of that strange rock standing in the same wind and rain, the wordless rock's teaching - heavier than ten thousand words - leads one into the world of no-thought, no-image.

It is when there is no-thought, no-image toward defilements and deluded thoughts, and silence (無言) toward opposition, that the Dharma Gate of Non-Duality is realized. Rather than seeking an ideal world somewhere else to escape the suffering of the actual world, the cause of suffering in this actual world arises from the "I" who renders that world painful. The basic teaching of the Vimalakirti Sutra is that the moment the very provider of the cause - oneself - removes that cause, the actual world is itself the ideal world.


- The Vimalakirti Sutra and the Ideal Realm, Hwagong's Lecture