WHAT IS SPOKEN
IS NOT SPOKEN, TWENTY-ONE
" Subhuti, do not maintain that the Thus Come One has this thought: 'I
have spoken Dharma.' Do not think that way. Why? If someone says the Thus
Come One has spoken Dharma, he slanders the Buddha due to his inability
to understand what I teach. Subhuti, as to speaking Dharma, no Dharma
can be spoken. Therefore it is called 'speaking Dharma'." At that time
Subhuti, the wise elder, addressed the Buddha, "World Honored One, will
there be living beings in the future who believe in this Sutra when they
hear it?" The Buddha said, "The living beings to whom you refer are neither
living beings nor not living beings. Why? Subhuti, all the different kinds
of living beings the Thus Come One speaks of are not living beings. Therefore
they are called living beings."
