"Subhuti, the Tathagata speaks of the Perfection of Patience." This passage is the eighth section of text in this comparison section. Why does it appear here? The previous passage clarified that giving away one's body and life as numerous as the sands of the Ganges cannot compare to receiving, upholding, and teaching just one four-line verse of this sutra, for the merit from that is immeasurable. It should be said: when that person gives up their body and life with an initial intention, it is a cause with defilements. Therefore, it does not match the merit of upholding the sutra. The commentator should explain it this way. However, the statement "they give up their body and life, causing suffering to body and mind" is made to give rise to this sutra. It is said this way to indicate the doubt's meaning.
What is the doubt? That person giving up body and life as numerous as Ganges sands acts with a grasping mind, so their cause is impure. The resulting reward does not escape the Three Realms, and it is also impure. They receive less merit. As for the bodhisattvas who practice according to this sutra and give up body and life, their cause should also be impure. If the cause is impure, the resulting reward is also impure, like a bitter fruit. For example, when the Patient Immortal had his body cut by King Kali, he experienced physical and mental suffering at that time. They cite this as a difficulty. Thus, the sutra's answer clarifies: the one who gave up body and life as numerous as Ganges sands is a worldly person before attaining the stage, an ordinary being who has not yet realized selflessness and cut off views of self and so forth. Therefore, they have a grasping mind and lack the Perfection of Patience. When they give up their body, they feel pain due to attachment. Although they find it difficult to give up for the Dharma's sake, they still think of the unconditional Dharma body as resulting in conditional rewards of human and heavenly states. With this discrimination, both cause and effect are impure.
Now, the Patient Immortal, a bodhisattva on the first stage, understands the Dharma body as unconditional. He has attained the patience of non-arising, accomplished freedom from grasping mind. When he gives up body and life, his mind has no afflictions, so it is not difficult for him. For this reason, his cause is pure, and his effect is also pure. Since these two people differ in rank as ordinary and holy, how can one use an ordinary person's suffering in giving up body to challenge whether a holy person's practice according to the sutra also involves suffering in giving up body? This doubt is dispelled by what follows.