6 - Rare Is True Faith

Subhūti said to Buddha: World-Honored One, will there always be men who will truly believe after coming to hear these teachings?

Buddha answered: Subhūti, do not utter such words! At the end of the last five-hundred-year period following the passing of the Tathāgata, there will be self-controlled men, rotted in merit, coming to hear these teachings, who will be inspired with belief. But you should realize that such men have not strengthened their root of merit under just one buddha, or two buddhas, or three, or four, or five buddhas, but under countless buddhas; and their merit is of every kind. Such men, coming to hear these teachings, will have an immediate uprising of pure faith, Subhūti; and the Tathāgata will recognize them. Yes, he will clearly perceive all these of pure heart, and the magnitude of their moral excellences. Wherefore? It is because such men will not fall back to cherishing the idea of an ego entity, a personality, a being, or a separated individuality. They will neither fall back to cherishing the idea of things as having intrinsic qualities, nor even of things as devoid of intrinsic qualities.

Wherefore? Because if such men allowed their minds to grasp and hold on to anything they would be cherishing the idea of an ego entity, a being, or a separated individuality; and if they grasped and held on to the notion of things as having intrinsic qualities they would be cherishing the idea of an ego entity, a personality, a being, or a separated individuality. Likewise, if they grasped and held on to the notion of things as devoid of intrinsic qualities they would be cherishing the idea of an ego entity, a personality, a being, or a separated individuality. So you should not be attached to things as being possessed of, or devoid of, intrinsic qualities.

This is the reason why the Tathāgata always teaches this saying: My teaching of the good law is to be likened unto a raft. The buddha-teaching must be relinquished; how much more so mis-teaching!