Then Ajnatakaundinya arose and said to the Buddha, "Of the elders now present in the great assembly, only I received the name "Understanding" because I was enlightened to the meaning of transitory defilements and realized the fruition.
"World Honored One, the analogy can be made of a traveler who stops as a guest at a roadside inn, perhaps for the night or perhaps for a meal. When he has finished lodging there or when the meal is finished, he packs his baggage and sets out again. He does not remain there at his leisure. The host himself, however, does not leave.
"Considering it this way, the one who does not remain is called the guest, and the one who does remain is called the host. The transitory guest, then, is the one who does not remain.
"Again, the analogy can be made to how when the sun rises resplendent on a clear morning, its golden rays stream into a house through a crack to reveal particles of dust in the air. The dust dances in the rays of light, but the empty space is unmoving.
"Considering it is that way, what is clear and still is called space, and what moves is called dust. The defiling dust, then, is that which moves."
The Buddha said, "So it is."
Then in the midst of the great assembly the Thus Come One bent his five webbed fingers. After bending them, he opened them again. After he opened them, he bent them again, and he asked �nanda, "What do you see now?"
�nanda said, "I see the Thus Come One’s hand opening and closing in the midst of the assembly, revealing his hundred-jeweled wheeled palms."
The Buddha said to �nanda, "You see my hand open and close in the assembly. Is it my hand that opens and closes, or is it your seeing that opens and closes?"
�nanda said, "The World Honored One’s jeweled hand opened and closed in the assembly. I saw the Thus Come One’s hand itself open and close while my seeing-nature neither opened nor closed."
The Buddha said, "What moved and what was still?"
�nanda said, "The Buddha’s hand did not remain at rest. And since my seeing-nature is beyond even stillness, how could it not be at rest?"
The Buddha said, "So it is."
Then from his wheeled palm the Thus Come One sent a gem-like ray of light flying to �nanda’s right. �nanda immediately turned his head and glanced to the right. The Buddha then sent another ray of light to �nanda’s left. �nanda again turned his head and glanced to the left. The Buddha said to �nanda, "Why did your head move just now?"
�nanda said, "I saw the Thus Come One emit a wonderful gem-like light which flashed by my left and right, and so I looked left and right. My head moved by itself."
"�nanda, when you glanced at the Buddha’s light and moved your head left and right, was it your head that moved or your seeing that moved?"
"World Honored One, my head moved of itself. Since my seeing-nature is beyond even cessation, how could it move?"
The Buddha said, "So it is."
Then the Thus Come One told everyone in the assembly, "Normally beings would say that the defiling dust moves and that the transitory guest does not remain.
"You have observed that it was �nanda’s head moved; yet his seeing did not move. You also have observed my hand open and close; yet you’re seeing did not stretch or bend.
"Why do you continue to rely on your physical bodies which move and on the external environment which also moves? From the beginning to the end, this causes your every thought to be subject to production and extinction.
"You have lost your true nature and conduct yourselves in upside-down ways. Having lost your true nature and mind, you take objects to be yourself,
and so you cling to revolving on the wheel of rebirth."
When �nanda and the great assembly heard the Buddha’s instructions, they became peaceful and composed both in body and mind. They recollected that since time without beginning, they had strayed from their fundamental true mind by mistakenly taking the shadows of the differentiations of conditioned defilements to be real. Now on this day as they awakened, they were each like a lost infant who suddenly finds its beloved mother. They put their palms together to make obeisance to the Buddha.
They wished to hear the Thus Come One enlighten them to the dual nature of body and mind, of what is false, of what is true, of what is empty and what is existent, and of what is subject to production and extinction and what transcends production and extinction.
Then King Prasenajit rose and said to the Buddha, "In the past, when I had not yet received the teachings of the Buddha, I met Katyayana and Vairatiputra, both of whom said that this body ends at death, and that this is Nirvana. Now, although I have met the Buddha, I still wonder about that. How can I go about realizing the mind at the level of no production and no extinction? Now all in this Great Assembly who still have outflows also wish to be instructed on this subject."
The Buddha said to the great king, "LetÂ’s talk about your body as it is right now. Now I ask you, will your physical body be like vajra, indestructible and living forever? Or will it change and go bad?"
"World Honored One, this body of mine will keep changing until it eventually perishes."
The Buddha said, "Great king, you have not yet perished. How do you know you will perish?"
"World Honored One, although my impermanent, changing, and decaying body has not yet become extinct, I observe it now, as every passing thought fades away. Each new one fails to remain, but is gradually extinguished like fire turning wood to ashes. This ceaseless extinguishing convinces me that this body will eventually completely perish."
The Buddha said, "So it is."
"Great king, at your present age you are already old and declining. How does your appearance and complexion compare to when you were a youth?"