The Lord Buddha, in declaring the “unreality of phenomena,” also affirmed “that the whole realm of sentient life is ephemeral and illusory.”[16]
“Subhuti, the sayings of the Lord Buddha are true, credible, and immutable. His utterances are neither extravagant nor chimerical. Subhuti, the plane[17] of thought to which the Lord Buddha attained, cannot be explained in terms synonymous with reality or non-reality.”
“Subhuti, in the exercise of charity, if the mind of an enlightened disciple is not independent of every Law, he is like unto a person having entered impenetrable darkness, and to whom every object is invisible. But an enlightened disciple, discharging the exercise of charity with a mind independent of every Law, is like unto a person having the power of vision, in the meridian glory of the sunlight, and to whom every object is visible.”
“Subhuti, in future ages, if a good disciple, whether man or woman, rigorously studies and observes the text of this Scripture; the Lord Buddha, by means of his Buddhic wisdom,[18] entirely knows and perceives that for such a disciple there is reserved a cumulative merit, immeasurable and illimitable.”
[1] “As one raises what has been overthrown, or reveals what has been hidden, or tells the way to him who has gone astray, or holds out an oil lamp in the dark that those who have eyes may see the objects, even so by the venerable Gotama in manifold ways the _Dhamma_ (Law) has been illustrated.”—_Dhammapada_. Max Müller.
[2] “The chief of the priests of that establishment (the Jayendra convent) was a man of high moral character. He observed with the greatest strictness the religious rules and ordinances. He was possessed of the highest intelligence, and acquainted with all the points of a true disciple. His talents were eminent; his spiritual powers exalted; and his disposition affectionate.”—_The Life of Hiuen-Tsang_. Beal.
[3] “They had within themselves the possession of a power by which all objective truth could be presented to their intellectual vision. They, therefore, partook of what in other systems would be regarded as divinity.”—_Eastern Monachism_. Spence Hardy.
[4] “They have been divided into existing and non-existing, real and unreal, by those who had wrong notions; other laws also, of permanency, of being produced, of birth from something already produced, are wrongly assumed.”—_Saddharma-Pundarika_. H. Kern.