爾時長者維摩詰 自念 寢疾于床 世尊大慈 寧不垂愍 佛知其意 卽告舍利弗 汝行詣維摩詰問疾 舍利弗白佛言 世尊 我不堪任詣彼問疾 所以者何 憶念我昔 曾於林中 宴坐樹下 時維摩詰來謂我言 唯舍利弗 不必是坐 爲宴坐也 夫宴坐者 不於三界現身意 是爲宴坐 不起滅定而現諸威儀 是爲宴坐 不捨道法而現凡夫事 是爲宴坐 心不住內亦不在外 是爲宴坐
ěr shí zhǎng zhě wéi mó jié zì niàn qǐn jí yú chuáng shì zūn dà cí níng bù chuí mǐn fó zhī qí yì jí gào shě lì fú rǔ xíng yì wéi mó jié wèn jí shě lì fú bái fó yán shì zūn wǒ bù kān rèn yì bǐ wèn jí suǒ yǐ zhě hé yì niàn wǒ xī céng yú lín zhōng yàn zuò shù xià shí wéi mó jié lái wèi wǒ yán wéi shě lì fú bù bì shì zuò wéi yàn zuò yě fū yàn zuò zhě bù yú sān jiè xiàn shēn yì shì wéi yàn zuò bù qǐ miè dìng ér xiàn zhū wēi yí shì wéi yàn zuò bù shě dào fǎ ér xiàn fán fū shì shì wéi yàn zuò xīn bù zhù nèi yì bù zài wài shì wéi yàn zuò
Key Message
True meditation is not closing one's eyes and sitting alone. Dwelling in the midst of reality without abandoning the Dharma-way while living like an ordinary being — this is the Mahāyāna quiet sitting.
▸The 'Chapter on the Disciples' (弟子品) depicts the scene in which the Buddha sequentially asks ten great disciples — Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, Subhūti, Pūrṇa, Mahākātyāyana, Aniruddha, Upāli, Rāhula, and Ānanda — to go and visit Vimalakīrti in his sickness.
The 'Chapter on the Disciples' (弟子品) depicts the scene in which the Buddha sequentially asks ten great disciples — Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, Subhūti, Pūrṇa, Mahākātyāyana, Aniruddha, Upāli, Rāhula, and Ānanda — to go and visit Vimalakīrti in his sickness. However, each disciple declines in turn, confessing his past experience of being refuted by Vimalakīrti. The story of Śāriputra is the representative example. When he was seated in meditation beneath a tree in a grove, Vimalakīrti appeared and pointed out that his sitting was not 'true quiet sitting' (宴坐). True quiet sitting, Vimalakīrti taught, is not manifesting body and mind in the three realms; it is manifesting all deportments without arising from the samādhi of cessation; it is manifesting the affairs of ordinary beings without abandoning the Dharma-way; it is the mind that neither abides within nor resides without.