ABSTRACT
In the Dàzhìdù Lùn, and indeed in the entire set of Kumārajīva's Mahāyāna texts, the contrast between the un-arisen and the risen is related to the distinction between the 'dharma-body' and the 'material body'. The Pañcavimsatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitāsūtra connects the notion of the un-arisen with the notion of 'emptiness of distinctive characteristics', but does not say how the former is informed by the latter. The correspondence is documented in Mahāyāna Buddhist Doctrines Explained which is an exchange of letters between Huìyuǎn and Kumārajīva on the Mahāyāna distinction between dharmakāya and rūpakāya. Since ordinary people do not have the wisdom necessary for the intuition of the supra-sensible, an enlightened being who has a commitment to educating ordinary people still needs to know the ways of the mundane world. In Kumārajīva's texts, the questions of arising and non-arising are in the first instance presented as semiotic issues. The appreciation of the un-arisen is the intuition of the dharmakāya.
