Note 8 — THE DIAMOND SUTRA

“And if a Bodhisattva were to say: ‘I shall deliver all beings,’ he ought not to be called a Bodhisattva. And why? Is there anything, O Subhuti, that is called a Bodhisattva? Subhuti said: ‘Not indeed!’ Bhagavat said: ‘Those who were spoken of as beings, beings indeed, O Subhuti, they were spoken of as no beings by the Tathagata, and, therefore, they are called beings. Therefore Tathagata says: “All beings are without self, all beings are without life, without manhood, without personality.”’”—The Vagrakkhedika. Max Müller.

“Subhuti, so it is with the Bodhisatwa, if he should say: ‘I ought to destroy all recollection of the countless kinds of creatures,’ this Bodhisatwa would not be really one, but only a nominal one.... Hence Buddha says that all things ought to be without any individual distinction.”—Kin-Kong-King. Beal.