Sutra in 42 Chapters, Initial Thoughts

Chapter 1: Renounce the Secular Lifeand Attain the Fruit of Arahantship

The Buddha said, “Those who take leave of their families, and renounce the secular life, who know their mind, penetrate to its origin, and understand the unconditioned Dharma, are called shramanas. By always observing the 250 precepts, being pure and unblemished in their conduct, and practicing the Path of the Four Truths, they then become Arahants. Arahants possess the powers of levitation and transformation. Their lives may span many kalpas, and they can move heaven and earth. Prior to Arahants are the non-returners. At the end of their lives, conscious spirits of the non-returners will ascend above the nineteenth heaven, where they will attain arahantship. Prior to non-returners are the once-returners, who ascend to the heavens and return to earth at most once before they become Arahants. Prior to once-returners are the stream-enterers, who go through birth and death at most seven times before attaining Arahantship. Once desire and lust are eradicated like severed limbs, one will never use them again.”

Even a partial Explanation of this one chapter is still quite lengthy. The Sutra in 42 Chapters contains the foundations of the emptiness doctrine and the roots of the Yogacara, Mind-Only School. While it is one of the earliest of the Mahayana Sutras, it is firmly based on the Pali Canon and does not deviate from it. Historically, this document is reputed to have been the primary reason the Chinese Court abandoned Taoism and embraced Buddhism as the religious emblem of their culture, or so the story goes. The sutra actually addresses eight of the major points of Taoism.

According to tradition, Kashyapa Matanga and Gobharana traveled from India to China during the reign of Emperor Ming, around 67 CE. This was apparently the first translation of a Buddhist “sutra” into Chinese. It’s now actually a “sutra” in the orthodox sense, but more of a restatement of specific teachings placed into the mouth of the Buddha. It represents the essence of certain of the Buddha’s teachings but actually his words verbatim. Like the Dhammapada, it is in the form of an anthology of excerpts from a wide variety of other discourses. One anomaly of the work is that Ananda or Sariputra do not speak it. Instead of “Thus have I heard” the sutra begin “The Buddha said.”

There are several versions of this writing now in existence. Modern Chinese scholars maintain that the work is a purely Chinese invention placing its writing as late as the 5^th century CE, but others argue that it may have been written as early as the 2^nd century and a translation from the Sanskrit, albeit, no Sanskrit or Prakrit antecedents can be found.

It’s easy to see that the work was written for a specific audience, the intelligentsia. Most of the chapters are very straightforward. More revealing is that there is little said about the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path except in passing. The work is trying to make a point. Each chapter, including the

The first section of the Sutra in Forty-two Sections essentially puts out the idea that a Shramana (Pali, Šamana) can become an Arhat. Shramana is literally, a person who abandons the conventional obligations of social life in order to find a way of life more "in tune" (sama) with the ways of nature. "People who take leave of their families and go forth from the householder's life." When you leave home, according to the Buddhadharma it is necessary to receive your parents' permission. In America we believe one is free after the age of eighteen to do whatever he or she wants. Hmmm, how has that worked out?

Renouncing the secular life means to leave the secular home life to become a monk or a nun. It also means to leave the home of the five skandhas (form, feeling, conception, volition, and consciousness), that is, to identify the five aggregates as the ‘false’ self. It also means to leave the home of klesas (greed, anger, and ignorance) or afflictions. Finally it means to leave the home of samsara, that is, the home of the endless cycle of birth and death.

In going forth from the householder's life, one leaves the ordinary household that has been his or her everyday home. Every household has its brand of concerns; there is quarreling among relatives, money problems and in the end, no real happiness. Here is where the desire to leave the mundane home arises. In some circles the home is called “the burning house”. It is said, "The three realms are like a burning house; there is no peace to be found in them." We can call leaving home leaving the home of the three realms--the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. In Chinese Pure Land tradition it is sometimes called “leaving the home of afflictions’. Once home is left, it's essential that one cuts off afflictions and decides to keep their mind focused on Bodhi.

The getting up, leaving and wearing the robes are only symbols. It is clear from Buddhist history that not all monks have become Arhats and not all Arhats were monks. By definition an Arhat is a fully enlightened being. So taking leave of home and donning robes in a monastery is not fully what the Buddha meant. What home, then, did the Buddha actually mean?

Most of us find our home in the ego. Our thoughts and opinions become our home.  We seem to move from house to house. One moment we live in the house called “Buddhist” and then we move to a new home that could be called “Democrat”. We might then find ourselves in the home of “boss” or “father”. Each time we build a home we have to defend it or lose it. A man’s home really is his castle. These are the homes we have to leave in order to find happiness.

Ajahn Chah asked, "What is the mind?" And he answered with, The mind isn't 'is' anything." People who know their mind penetrate to its origin. Knowing your own original mind means recognizing that when the mind arises every kind of phenomenon arises with it. When the mind is gone, every kind of phenomenon ceases. There are no phenomena outside the mind, and there is no mind outside of phenomena. Mind and phenomena are one. If you understand that there is no mind outside of phenomena, then you understand our ordinary conscious mind has the nature that is everywhere evaluating and connecting.

In penetrating to the origin it is understood that the mind and its nature have no real core, nor any form or manifestation. When we understand this principle, then we will understand that the nature arising dependent on other things is false and illusory. The mind that is everywhere evaluating and connecting is also empty as well. Neither of these natures actually exists. That is knowing the mind and penetrating to its origin. 



The world as perceived by ordinary people are conditioned and this leads to suffering.  Enlightened beings transcend this conditioned existence and arrive at the unconditioned shore that is to attain nirvana. To understand the unconditioned Dharma is to realize nirvana. See ‘unconditioned’.

What is meant by "understand the unconditioned Dharma. "To understand the unconditioned Dharma is to understand the Dharma of True Suchness. True Suchness and all phenomena are not one, but at the same time they are not different, understanding this you can understand the perfectly accomplished real nature. You can awaken to your original nature, Hongaku.