This method reflects the Mahayana approach in which the dichotomies are related to "the actual practice of the hearers, forcing them to integrate them in their minds and actions" and, thereby, allowing them to be "liberated inconceivably, while being totally engaged in the work of helping other living beings" (Holy Teaching 6).
In the sutra Vimalakirti is suffering from a bodhisattva's existential illness and the Buddha Sakyamuni wants to send someone to inquire about him. But none of the bodhisattvas wants to go because his skill and logical force in argumentation disconcerts them. When Prince Manjusri agrees to go a large crowd follows, eager to hear their conversation. They discuss a number of topics but the climactic discussion centers on Vimalakirti's request that his visitors explain "how the bodhisattvas enter the Dharma-door of nonduality" (73). As the various bodhisattvas try to answer the question they do so by attempting to resolve various dichotomies. One, for instance, addresses grasping and nongrasping and says that "what is grasped is not perceived, and what is not perceived is neither presumed nor repudiated. Thus, the inaction and noninvolvement of all things is the entrance to nonduality" (73). But this answer, and all the others, amounts to a concession to the power of words by relying on "explanations [that] are themselves dualistic," as Manjusri explains (77). As he says, the entrance to nonduality is "to know no one teaching, to express nothing, to say nothing, to explain nothing, to announce nothing, to indicate nothing, and to designate nothing" (77). Manjusri then turned to Vimalakirti and asked him to elucidate the teaching and Vimalakirti kept silent, saying nothing. This famous response reflects the rejection of language which, with its inherent reliance on dichotomies and distinctions, make the apprehension of nonduality difficult, if not impossible. Yet Manjusri himself feels compelled to exp...