“Blessed One,” Śāriputra then inquired, “according to this Dharma discourse, what are the ways in which an evil friend gives instructions and teachings, and what are the ways in which a virtuous friend gives instructions and teachings?”

“Śāriputra,” the Blessed One replied, “a monk might instruct and teach another monk as follows: ‘Come, monk. Engage your attention on the Buddha, engage your attention on the Dharma, and engage your attention on the Saṅgha. Engage your attention on recollecting moral discipline. Engage your attention on recollecting giving. Engage your attention on recollecting the gods. Come, monk. Observe the body as being the body and sustain that observing. To keep hold of the distinguishing marks of sustaining, engage your attention on the body’s impure characteristics. Come, monk. Engage your attention on the fact that all formations are impermanent and are suffering. Engage your attention on the fact that all phenomena lack a self and are empty. Come, monk. Hold fast to the distinguishing marks you have observed and keep them in mind. Bear the distinguishing marks you have observed in mind so that the mind will not wander. Come, monk. Reflect upon and work to acquire wholesome qualities. Do not hold on to the distinguishing marks of unwholesome qualities. Generate enthusiasm to help you to not hold on to them and to abandon them instead. Remain vigilant about the distinguishing marks that indicate that you have abandoned nonvirtues, so that they do not arise in the future. Come, monk. Carefully consider and direct your attention to the aspects of the aggregates, the sense fields, and the elements as repulsive. Come, monk. Bear in mind the distinguishing marks that indicate wholesome and unnwholesome qualities. Then, engage your attention on these key points to abandon them: To abandon desire, engage your attention on impurity. To abandon anger, engage your attention on love. To abandon delusion, engage your attention on dependent origination. Come, monk. Engage your attention on pure moral discipline. Engage your attention on the distinguishing marks related to absorption. Engage your attention on pure insight. Direct your effort toward the four concentrations. Reflect upon and work to acquire the result you should attain. Engage your attention without considering unwholesome qualities. Engage your attention and rely on virtuous qualities. Strive to cultivate the path. Bear those distinguishing marks that indicate virtuous qualities perfectly in mind and engage your attention on the fact that nirvāṇa is happiness and peace. Work to acquire this view, so that you can attain nirvāṇa.’ When a monk instructs and teaches another with such statements and also says, ‘Engage your attention on purity,’ he is encouraging him to hold a mistaken understanding. The notion that this is to view things correctly will encourage him to view things wrongly.

“Śāriputra, those who instruct and teach others in such a manner are evil friends, and they are deprecating me. They are speaking in the false and incorrect terms of non-Buddhists. They are teaching the positions that non-Buddhists preach. Śāriputra, I do not authorize the donation of the offerings of the faithful to be used by such unholy beings, not even as little as a small cup of water.

“Śāriputra, it is for the sake of those who give instructions that I am saying this, but those people are not instructing and teaching others in accordance with my words. Why is that? Those who give such instructions and teachings are mostly those who have fallen victim to pride. Śāriputra, even if those ignorant monks do not give up this position in each and every one of all its aspects for five years, expending a great deal of effort in those false words but not questioning the monks in the assembly who hold the view of nonapprehending or gaining understanding from them, Śāriputra, I say that those monks who maintain a false practice of diligence for five years are mixed in the purview of non-Buddhists, and are behaving just like the members of Māra’s hordes.

“On the other hand, Śāriputra, there are also monks who hear the teachings on emptiness and nonapprehending related to such instructions and teachings, accept them in accord with those instructions, and engage their attention on emptiness. They have no doubts or reservations about the teaching of nonapprehending and emptiness. If they engage in it, understand it, contemplate it, and develop conviction in it, without it being based in the view of personhood in any way whatsoever, Śāriputra, I say that those monks are pure and observe pure conduct. Why is that? Because, Śāriputra, those monks have mastered the acceptance of nonapprehending, and they can reach nirvāṇa in this very lifetime.

“Śāriputra, I prophesy that such monks who possess the qualities related to the acceptance of nonapprehending will constitute the first great assembly during the lifetime of the blessed Maitreya. I prophesy that the blessed Maitreya will proclaim three times, ‘Amazing! This great assembly mastered the conduct related to nonapprehending during Śākyamuni’s lifetime! Amazing! This great assembly mastered the conduct related to nonapprehending during Śākyamuni’s lifetime! Amazing! This great assembly mastered the conduct related to nonapprehending during Śākyamuni’s lifetime!’ Śāriputra, that is how I prophesy that householders and renunciants who master such an acceptance will reach nirvāṇa in this world.

“Furthermore, Śāriputra, other monks, when instructed and taught the teachings on nonapprehension and emptiness, may feel afraid, scared, or terrified on hearing them; if so, they will be reborn in the hell realms without a lord, refuge, and teacher. Why is that? Because, Śāriputra, what completes the conditions for their lower rebirth is to be afraid of the Buddha’s teachings. Moreover, Śāriputra, when I say that some of them will take rebirth in the lower realms, why is that? Śāriputra, the nonexistence that they have imputed as being the Buddha’s teachings is in fact a nonexistence they have imputed in what they apprehend.

“Śāriputra, for someone even to commit the five deeds entailing immediate retribution is not worse than it is to hold a view with respect to a self, to hold a view with respect to a being, to hold a view with respect to a life force, to hold a view with respect to a person, to hold a view with respect to the aggregates, to hold a view with respect to the elements, to hold a view with respect to the sense fields, to hold a view with respect to origination, to hold a view with respect to destruction, to hold a view with respect to discipline, to hold a view with respect to an essence of discipline, to hold a view with respect to an essence of concentration, to hold a view with respect to a pure essence of concentration, to hold a view with respect to the marks of the Buddha, to hold a view with respect to engaging one’s attention on accomplishing the Dharma, or to hold a view with respect to a person as the conventional designation of the Saṅgha.

“Śāriputra, why is that? It is because the teachings of the Thus-Gone One declare that someone who maintains the view of a person cannot be counted as included in the saṅgha. Why is that? Because, Śāriputra, the Thus-Gone One’s saṅgha of hearers is without persons, without concepts, and free of thoughts. Śāriputra, there is not the slightest nonvirtue within the Thus-Gone One’s saṅgha of hearers. Their discipline is free of being spoiled. Their conduct is free of being spoiled. Their livelihood is free of being spoiled. Their view is free of being spoiled.

“Śāriputra, what is virtue? For the Thus-Gone One’s saṅgha of hearers it is like this: factors concurrent with the mind, concepts about nonentities, concepts about distinguishing marks, apprehending in terms of names, apprehending in terms of persons, and even, Śāriputra, any mind-related conventions at all about virtuous or unwholesome phenomena—not to apprehend any of these, that is what virtue is taught to be in the Dharma-Vinaya of the noble ones.

“Why is that, Śāriputra? Because one should know that where there is happiness, there is also suffering. Śāriputra, the quality of the Thus-Gone One’s perfect buddhahood is peace. Śāriputra, the quality of the Thus-Gone One’s perfect buddhahood is that in it there is no desire, no nondesire, no happiness, no suffering, no mind, no intention, no perception, and no feeling. Śāriputra, there is not even emptiness. Why is that? Because, Śāriputra, when a notion of emptiness is present, notions of a self, notions of a being, notions of a life force, notions of a person, notions of eternity, notions of nothingness, notions of origination, and notions of destruction will also arise. That is why, Śāriputra, it is said that as long as there is a perceiver, there will also be beliefs in perceptions involving distinguishing marks, and that for that reason it is wrong.

“Śāriputra, emptiness is so called because no attention is engaged on an emptiness related to perceptions involving distinguishing marks. It is called emptiness because it is also empty of attention being engaged on emptiness. Śāriputra, it is called emptiness because there is thus neither virtue nor nonvirtue in emptiness. Śāriputra, it is called emptiness because there is not even a perception of emptiness. Śāriputra, it is called emptiness because in common with how all compounded phenomena should be known there is no knowing, no cognizing, no comprehending, no investigating, and no dwelling. Śāriputra, it is called emptiness because—since no one is able to engage their attention on emptiness—it is not in the absence of distinguishing marks, it is not in the absence of wishes, and it is not in the absence of engaging attention on distinguishing marks.

“Śāriputra, why is the term dwelling with emptiness so called? When no attention is engaged on any distinguishing marks, even distinguishing marks of emptiness, that it is called dwelling with emptiness. It is when distinguishing marks have been let go that one can speak of the absence of distinguishing marks. Śāriputra, it is when no attention whatsoever is engaged on any such distinguishing marks, when there is no engagement of attention, no distinguishing mark, and no signal, that one can speak of the absence of distinguishing marks. Śāriputra, I have taught that the slightest belief in distinguishing marks or apprehending of distinguishing marks is a wrong view. Why is that? Śāriputra, if it is wrong even to apprehend this Dharma-Vinaya as being at peace, is it not worse to so designate it, designate it as something, or have something as its designation?

“Śāriputra, why do the blessed ones teach so extensively that designations are wrong? Śāriputra, you may not know that these designations are untrue, but the thus-gone ones understand that they are wrong and do not apprehend even the slightest designation whatsoever. Śāriputra, that is why they have taught that designations are wrong views. Śāriputra, the unsurpassed and perfect awakening of the thus-gone ones is without recollection and without attention. Why is that? Śāriputra, it is because the thus-gone ones, with regard to any dharma, do not apprehend a suchness intrinsic to it, they do not apprehend an essential nature intrinsic to it, do not apprehend an essential nature extrinsic to it, do not apprehend a sameness, and do not apprehend a lack of sameness.

“Śāriputra, why is the application of mindfulness so called? As I have said, Śāriputra, an apprehended application of mindfulness, an apprehended intrinsic nature, an apprehended suchness intrinsic to something, and an apprehended intrinsic enduring state would be baseless and spurious, and it is in order to ensure the proper understanding of how dharmas are empty of their own inherent characteristics that the Thus-Gone One has spoken of the application of mindfulness. Dharmas are without clinging, without craving, have no location, have no presence, do not endure, and are free of remaining, so there can be no actual mindfulness of them—let alone the application of mindfulness. For that reason it is called the application of mindfulness.

“Śāriputra, if any dharma had any intrinsic suchness—even if it was no bigger than a hundredth part of a hair-tip—the Thus-Gone One would not have appeared in the world and taught that all dharmas are devoid of intrinsic nature. However, Śāriputra, since he knows that all dharmas are devoid of intrinsic nature, are empty of intrinsic nature, have but a single characteristic, and lack characteristics, the Thus-Gone One has taught the application of mindfulness and called it the application of mindfulness. As something that has no location and is not based on anything, is without recollection and without any act of recollection, is without concepts and without thoughts, is without intention and without any act of intention, is without mind and without any act of mind, is without phenomena and any notion of phenomena, is without any notions of anything believing anything whatsoever, and is without dualistic activity, without dwelling, and without enduring—for all these reasons the nonthought of the noble ones is called the application of mindfulness. That whole set of items comprised by what the Thus-Gone One taught to be the application of mindfulness is referred to as the application of mindfulness.

“Furthermore, Śāriputra, what is recollecting the Buddha? Seeing that there are no entities is called recollecting the Buddha. Also, that the Buddha is inconceivable, that he is without compare, and that his intention comprises suchness is called recollecting the Buddha. Śāriputra, what does his intention comprises suchness mean? The blessed buddhas are without concepts, have no thought, and are the absence of concepts and thoughts—that is why one speaks of recollecting the Buddha. To see that intrinsic essence is to see the Buddha.

“What does to see that intrinsic essence mean? To see the absence of entities in the absence of entities is to recollect the Buddha. It is because one sees the Buddha without apprehending even the slightest act of recollection with the dharmas of the mind and mental states that it is called recollecting the Buddha. Śāriputra, since it is not easy to recollect using a recollecting that is to abstain from designation and to put an end to any engaging of attention, that is why this teaching is called recollecting the Buddha. Śāriputra, this teaching is to be at peace from all engaging of attention. For those who exert themselves in it, recollecting the Buddha does not mean engaging their attention on the distinguishing marks of the Thus-Gone One’s physical form. Why is that? Because, Śāriputra, it is consciousness that is always focused just on the distinguishing marks of form. The absence of any entity apprehending the absence of form, that is recollecting the Buddha. To be without concepts, to have no thoughts, and to be without grasping is therefore referred to as recollecting the Buddha.”