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Mahayana Sutra - Northern Transmission 09
The chapter “Inconceivable Liberation” presents the concept of acintya-vimokṣa—the means of transcendental liberation that cannot be grasped by thought—through the image of Śāriputra visiting the empty house of Vimalakīrti, where there is no seat to sit on. When asked, “Did you come for a seat or to seek the Dharma?”, Śāriputra replied that he came only to seek the Dharma. But Vimalakīrti pointed out that truly seeking the Dharma must be based on a mind of non-seeking, not clinging to the five skandhas or the Four Noble Truths. The true Dharma is unconditioned, placeless, neither arising nor ceasing, so the one who seeks the true Dharma must maintain a non-dual mind, free from attainment.
Then Vimalakīrti demonstrates miraculous powers: placing Mount Sumeru into a mustard seed, containing countless oceans in a single pore, compressing and expanding kalpas according to the wishes of sentient beings… showing that “one contains all, all contains one,” as in the Avataṃsaka Sutra. He emphasizes that true miraculous powers are not apart from daily life: the sound of falling leaves, the breath, the footsteps… these are the wonders of the Dharma. If we live in mindfulness, every moment is a miracle.
At the end of the chapter, the teaching shifts to “Contemplating beings as illusions”: The Bodhisattva practices the Four Immeasurable Minds (loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity) in the spirit of formlessness, without attachment, steadfast in the bodhi mind—the aspiration to liberate all beings—while removing afflictions through mindfulness and deeply realizing the principle of “no birth, no death.”