So my previous talk on the Vimalakirti sutra ended with Manjushri saying he is really is unworthy to go check on Vimalakirt, but nonetheless he would go and check on him for the Buddha. 
 
In the sutra Vimalakirti is described in the following ways: 
 
• His wealth is exhaustible (uses to sustain the poor). 
 
• He observed pure morality to protect the immoral. 
 
• He blazed with energy in order to inspire people who were lazy. 
 
• He maintained concentration, mindfulness, meditation in order to sustain the mentally troubled. 
 
• He attained wisdom in order to sustain the foolish. 
 
Vimalakirti is described as a layman, but in reality he was not really a layman, and that is the whole point. Vimalakirti lived like a layman, appeared to be layman, but that was only his skilful means. In reality he was an advanced Bodhisattva – disguised as a layman. 
 
All of the hundreds of thousands of Bodhisattvas thought - wow - if Manjushri is going to talk to Vimalakirti - this is really going to be something not to miss. It will be like two cymbals crashing together. They will surely have an amazing talk about the Dharma. As a result eight thousand (a quarter) of the Bodhisattvas and five hundred (one-sixteenth) of the Arharts and many hundred of thousands of gods and goddesses also decided to go – so a great retinue accompanies Manjushri to visit Vimalakirit. 
 
Psychically Vimalakirit is aware of all of this and wonders where everyone will sit. So he magically makes everything in his house and most of his house disappear. All that remains is Vimalakirti levitating slightly above his bed or couch. Even the room he was in is gone. 
 
Manjushri arrives, and enters but of course there is no door and no floor to walk upon, but Majnjushri, being the Bodhisattva of wisdom, manages to overcome these small problems and enters anyway. On seeing him, Vimalakirti takes the initiative, calling out, ”Welcome Manjushri! You are very welcome! There you are without any coming. You appear without any seeing. You are heard, without any hearing.” 
 
Manjushri is not all disconcerted by this very strange style of greeting. He is quite equal to the occasion. He replies, “Householder, it is as you say. Who comes, finally comes not. Who goes, finally goes not. Why? Who comes is not known to come. Who goes is not known to go. Who appears is finally not to be seen.” Then having answered Vimalakirti in his own terms, Manjushri goes on quite coolly to carry out his purpose – which is to ask Vimalakirti about his sickness. He tells Vimalakirti that the Buddha has inquired about him and finally asks, "The Buddha wants to know how you are doing. How is your condition? 
 
Is your condition tolerable? 
Is it livable? 
Is the sickness diminishing? 
Increasing? 
Slight trouble? 
Slight discomfort? 
Where did this sickness come from? 
How long will it continue? 
How can it be alleviated?” 
 
Vimalakirti’s response to these questions constitutes one of the most famous and important passages of the entire Vimalakirti sutra. Vimalakirti says, “Manjushri my sickness comes from ignorance and the thirst from existence and it will last as long as do `the sicknesses of all living beings. Were all living beings to be free from sickness, I also would be not be sick. Why? Manjushri, for the bodhisattva, the world consists only of living beings, and sickness is inherent in living in the world. Were all living beings free of sickness, the bodhisattva also would be free of sickness. For example, Manjushri, when the only son of a merchant is sick, both the parents become sick on account of the sickness of their son. And the parents will suffer as long as that only son does not recover from his sickness. Just so, Manjushri the bodhisattva loves all living beings as if each were his only child. He becomes sick when they are sick and is cured when they are cured. You ask me, Manjushri, whence come my sickness; the sicknesses of the bodhisattva arise from great compassion.” 
 
Vimalakirti is sick because all beings are sick and suffering. And he will not recover until all beings recover. Why is this so? Vimalakirti says it is because of the bodhisattva’s great compassion. Vimalakirti says, “Just as my sickness is not real and nonexistent, so is the sickness of all beings are unreal and nonexistent.” Here again is another duality – the duality of sickness and health. So in a sense Vimalakirti is feigning sickness. He is not really sick – Why? Because all beings are also not really sick or suffering – as taught by the Buddha in his Four Noble Truths. It is through Vimalakirti’s skillful means that he is only pretending to be sick.  
 
So Manjushri and Vimalakirti, in front of thousands upon thousands of Bodhisattvas, arharts, gods,and goddesses, talk about the sickness of a Bodhisattva, and living beings, on the nature of emptiness and on the domain of Bodhisattavas – in which all extremes, all dualities are transcended. The entire company is spellbound by their eloquence. The text says as a result 8,000 gods and goddesses are awakened. 
 
At the beginning of chapter six, Sariputra wonders where all of these thousands of beings are going to sit! Remember all of the furniture has disappeared. Telepathetically Vimalakirti knows what Sariputra is thinking about. Vimalakirti, then asks, “Sariputra, did you come here for the sake of the Dharma, or for the sake of a chair!” Imagine Sariputra’s emabarrassment! Sariputras says, “On no, I came here for the sake of the Dharma – of course - -Not for the sake of a chair!” Vimalakirti says, “He who is interested in the Dharma is not interested even in his own body, much less in a chair.” And then goes on for several more paragraphs – I am sure to the great embarrassment of Sariputra! Like Sariputra don’t we all get sidetracked at times during a Dharma talk? For example during a retreat or teaching – maybe even a teaching by H.H. Dalai Lama – we might wonder when lunch will be served. But remember, did you come for the Dharma or did you come for the lunch? Maybe you are feeling a bit of a chill and you began to wonder about the heating. Did you come for the Dharma or did you come for the central heating? Or maybe you noticed an attractive person at last Sunday’s service, and in the middle of my Dharma talk you begin to wonder if that person is here again this week. Did you come to see this person or did you come for the Dharma? And so on. There are many plots or lessons – and then sub-plots or lessons in this wonderful sutra. Back to our story….  
 
So Sariputra is worried about chairs is he? So Vimalakirti says to Manjurshi, “You have been around to countless galactic universes – where have you seen the best lion thrones?” Manjushri responds that the best lion thrones in all of the galactic universes are in this one purified Buddha-field where the Buddha there is 8,400,000 leagues (a league is 3 miles in length) or 25 million miles tall. There he sits on a lion throne 6,800,000 leagues or 20 million miles tall!! So, Vimalakirti thinks “Sariputra wants chair? Then he shall have chairs!” So instantly 3,200,000 of them suddently appear. And not ordinary chairs but lion-thrones that Vimalakirti has brought magically from this special Buddha-land, and each is 400,000 leagues high. So they were 1,200,000 miles tall. And again, Vimalakirti’s house magically enlarges to accompany all of the lion thrones and all of the hordes of enlightened beings there. And then of course all of the enlightened beings enlarged to comfortably fit on each of the lion thrones. 
 
Sariputra then comments how astonishing this whole business is – as I am sure any of us would have been just as amazed. This gives Vimalakirti the opportunity to explain the inconceivable emancipation, the state of emancipation in which a bodhisattva – through comprehending fully the relativity of space and time – can bring about all sorts of magical transformations.  
 
In Chapter Seven entitled “The Goddess,” Manjushri asks Vimalakirti how a Bodhisattva should regard all living beings. Vimalakirti replies in a series of beautiful similes that illustrate how a Bodhisattva should regard beings in order to realize that they are ultimately selfless or insubstantial. He says they are like: 
 
• the reflection of the moon in water 
• the sound of an echo 
• a flash of lightning 
• a face in the mirror 
• and so on 
 
But if a Bodhisattva considers all beings in this way, Manjushri wants to know how does he/she generates love towards them? Then Vimalakirti speaks very movingly about the nature of loving kindness, the metta that the Bodhisattva feels. But in this Chapter our friend Shariputra is in trouble again. At this point a beautiful Goddess appears. She apparently lives in Vimalakirti’s house and she is so delighted with the teachings that she showers the whole assembly with flowers – the Arhats, the Bodhisattvas, Gods, Goddesses – everybody. In the case of the monks who are not supposed to decorate themselves, the flowers become uncharacteristically and embarrassingly sticky. Despite his best efforts to brush them off, Shariputra remain spectacularly adorned! Again he is embarrassed. 
 
The Goddess explains that the flowers do not stick to the Bodhisattavas because they have no attachments to discriminative views and thought-constructions. This leads to an exchange of views in which poor Shariputra, as usual, comes off worst and at one point is completely at a lost for words. Later he finds himself still more embarrassed when to make a point about the relativity of manifesting as a man or woman, the goddess causes him to undergo a change of sex – yes probably the first sex change in the history of Buddhism! Now Shariputra is a woman! First he changes him from a man to woman, which is bad enough, in his opinion, but then she changes him from female back to male, which is even worse! Here again the sutra is reconciling dualities by transcending even the duality of gender. And the chapter ends with Vimalakirti praising the Goddess as an irreversible Bodhisattva. 
 
I will close this week with Chapter Eight “The Family of the Tathagatas” – that is the family of the Buddhas. Vimalakirti explains how to attain the qualities of a Buddha. Manjushri then explains what the true family of the Buddha consists of. They both speak in highly paradoxical terms. After this, one of the Boddhisattvas inquires about Vimalakirti’s family. This is the custom in India – as in other cultures. Vimalakirti responds in a series of beautiful verses – one of the most beautiful passages of the whole sutra. He says that the Bodhisattva’s mother is the “Perfection of Wisdom.” The Perfection of Wisodm gives birth to him, nurtures and nourishes him. His father is “Skilful Means.” His wife is “Delight in the Dharma.” His daughters are “Love and Compassion, and his sons are “Righteousness and Truth.” As for his home, that is meditation on the meaning of the emptiness. Vimalakirti continues in this way for thirty or forty verses.  
 
I will end here and next week will be the grand finish to this amazing sutra. Next week I will explain Chapter nine “The Dharma Door of non-Duality” which deals with the question of non-duality directly. Vimalakirti asks all of the Bodhisattvas present to explain their idea of non-duality. And one by one each explains their concept or idea of non-duality. Chapter nine closes with Manjushri’s explanation of non-duality, and ends with Vimalakirti’s astounding response – or should I say no-response.