The YouTube talk below featuring the brilliant scholar and translator Robert Thurman is about The Teaching of Vimalakirti, text also available as a free ebook. Toward the beginning of this very extensive sutra, the Buddha has shared an experience of expanded consciousness with a large group of mendicants and laypersons who are gathered in a mango grove:
Thereupon the Lord touched the ground of this billion-world-galactic universe with his big toe, and suddenly it was transformed into a huge mass of precious jewels, a magnificent array of many hundreds of thousands of clusters of precious gems, until it resembled the universe of the Tathāgata Ratnavyūha, called Anantaguṇaratnavyūha. Everyone in the entire assembly was filled with wonder, each perceiving himself seated on a throne of jeweled lotuses. Then, the Buddha said to the venerable Śāriputra, “Śāriputra, do you see this splendor of the virtues of the buddhafield?” Śāriputra replied, “I see it, Lord! Here before me is a display of splendor such as I never before heard of or beheld!” The Buddha said, “Śāriputra, this buddhafield is always thus pure, but the Tathāgata makes it appear to be spoiled by many faults, in order to bring about the maturity of inferior living beings. For example, Śāriputra, the gods of the Trayastriṃśa heaven all take their food from a single precious vessel, yet the nectar which nourishes each one differs according to the differences The Te aching of Vim a l ak īrti 111 1 – Purification of the Buddh afield of the merits each has accumulated. Just so, Śāriputra, living beings born in the same buddha- field see the splendor of the virtues of the buddhafields of the Buddhas according to their own degrees of purity.” When this splendor of the beauty of the virtues of the buddhafield shone forth, eighty-four thousand beings conceived the spirit of unexcelled perfect enlightenment, and the five hundred Licchavi youths who had accompanied the young Licchavi Ratnākara all attained the conformative tolerance of ultimate birthlessness. Then, the Lord withdrew his miraculous power and at once the buddhafield was restored to its usual appearance. Then, both men and gods who subscribed to the disciple vehicle thought, “Alas! All constructed things are impermanent.” Thereby, thirty-two thousand living beings purified their immaculate, undistorted Dharma-eye in regard to all things.The eight thousand bhikṣus were liberated from their mental defilements, attaining the state of nongrasping. And the eighty-four thousand living beings who were devoted to the grandeur of the buddhafield, having understood that all things are by nature but magical creations, all conceived in their own minds the spirit of unexcelled, totally perfect enlightenment. p 110 http://84000.co/doc/vimalakirti/Vimalakirti%20Book_E_screen-170724.pdf
This is described as being a “dharma eye” experience – once seeing this you can never quite forget it, it will change your outlook. How can you go back to believing that things are, well, just ordinary? The entire talk is lively and interesting, but I found this question to be particularly intriguing so I thought I would share it.
Here is another excerpt, this from the introduction to the ebook by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche: Like the frog that lives in a well and has no desire to see the world outside, we need the courage to step out of our tiny worlds to get the hang of these ideas. I am not suggesting you manufacture a kind of gullibility for yourself; thinking the unthinkable isn’t about gullibility, it’s about ‘immeasurable mind’. What we have to learn is how not to shun the unthinkable automatically, and to accept that the impossible is possible. But how? By learning that impossible and possible are equal; and that possible is as absurd as impossible. This section of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra is full of similar explanations that form a thorough study of the incredible, the unthinkable and the inconceivable – if I were to give it a title, it would be something like, ‘Explaining the Doings’, or ‘The Ins and Outs of Incredibility’. If you have the time, you should read it.
