The commentary on THE GREAT PERFECTION: THE NATURE OF MIND, THE EASER OF WEARINESS
called the Great Chariot
The First Chapter of the commentary on THE GREAT PERFECTION: THE NATURE OF MIND, THE EASER
OF WEARINESS called the Great Chariot
In Sanskrit the title is Mahasandhi citta visranta vritti maharatha nama, In Tibetan Rdzogs pa chen po/ sems
nyid ngal gso'i/ shing rta chen po/ shes bya ba
I prostrate to glorious Samantabhadra
From the ocean of the glorious two accumulations come clouds that bear the abundant rain of peace and
happiness.
These are the hundreds of qualities of the Nature that constitute the beauties of trikaya.
The thunder of wisdom and kindness pervading the limits of space, the great drum of Bhrama, sounds.
To the all-knowing Chief of Beings, to the Dharma, and Sangha, the leaders of beings, I bow.
On an island in the lake of Uddiyana,
Born within the blossom on a lotus stalk,
Spontaneous emanation of the victorious ones,
Blazing with qualities of the major and minor marks,
Padmasambhava protects the lotus of my mind.
O primordial, spotless, full ocean; you who emanate samsara and nirvana
O non-dual, unborn, full nature; perfect essence of Buddha, you the natural state,
O fullness with no existence or lack of it, views that things are eternal or nothing, coming or going, nor object of
complex variety.
O fullness with no conception of good or evil, you who neither accept or reject.
I bow to the uncompounded nature of the mind.
This is the unsurpassable city of joyous liberation. Here the Victorious Ones of the three times attained
supreme peace. So that all beings may go there directly, it embodies the heart of the sutras and tantras. Here,
day and night, with unremitting effort, with single-minded devotion, my mind is absorbed in peace. May this
Great Chariot of the profound path that liberates from samsara be clearly elucidated.
Of this explanation of the GREAT PERFECTION, THE NATURE OF MIND, THE EASER OF
WEARINESS, The single path of all Dharmas and traditions, there are three main sections:
First, the manner of entering on the composition of the treatise and the meaning of the introductory section,
Second, the extensive explanation of the main subject of the text,
Third, the conclusion.
First, the manner of entering on the composition of the treatise and the meaning of the introductory section,
The divisions are
First, the meaning of the homage
Second, The vow to compose the text.
First, the meaning of the homage
The Buddha has come into this world. The excellent speech of his teachings, holy Dharma, by the
kindness of genuine beings remains in existence. Here are the details of how the ocean of the sutra and mantra
vehicles may be practiced by a single individual Now that the freedoms and good favors, so difficult to attain,
have been attained. In that way oneself and others may completely cross the ocean of sufferings of samsara.
How mind, wearied in samsara, eases its weariness in the land of peace is taught fully and without error.
This goes from how the beginner enters and begins, up to how the fruition of buddhahood manifests as
the completed and perfect meaning of all the vehicles.
Wishing to compose the thirteen chapters of this treatise, the Great Perfection, the Nature of Mind, the
Easer of Weariness, first I offer a short homage:
The primordial lord; the great, full ocean of buddha qualities;
Whose natural wisdom and kindness is limitless in its depth,
Birthplace of the Victorious Ones and all their sons,
Who emanates heaped up clouds of goodness and benefit,
I prostrate to the one who is all that is desired.
Thus I call on him. This lord is the manifestation of enlightenment, whose place is in the primordial
ground. This is the teacher, the Buddha Bhagavat. Having the nature of the great full ocean of qualities of
renunciation and realization, he rules the sphere of inexhaustible adornments of body, speech, and mind. All the
depth and expanse of supreme understanding and wondrously arisen compassion are just this. This saying is
incomprehensible to the mind that sees only the manifestations of the I of "this side."
By earnestly practicing the Dharma taught here, mind becomes the source of the jewel of the buddhas of
the three times and their sons. Then for all the realms of sentient beings, as limitless as the sky, there are
temporary benefits in accord with the happiness of each. Gods and human beings alike are brought to happiness.
The ultimate happiness is being brought to whichever of the three enlightenments of the shravakas,
pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas is in accord with the good fortune of one's powers. The holy masters join us
to supremely ultimate great enlightenment, omniscient buddhahood. Therefore, I prostrate to glorious
Samantabhadra and so forth, all the victorious ones and their sons throughout the ten directions and the three
times.
As for the ocean of buddha qualities of this primordial lord. The glorious Net of Illusion says:
The lord is timeless perfection, known as buddhahood.
This is the precious ocean of Buddha qualities.
These precious jewels also arise within the connections of cause and effect. The Uttaratantra says:
From the Buddha comes the Dharma; From the Dharma comes the assembly of the Noble Ones.
Regarding emanation of heaped up clouds of goodness and benefit for sentient beings, the
Mahayanasutralankara says:
They have compassionate kindness for every sentient being.
They have the kind of vision we do not need to seek.
They have the kind of vision that is inseparable.
I prostrate to you with the vision of goodness and happiness.
We should prostrate, because there are such great benefits for both ourselves and others. Since our
bodies are of this excellent kind, if we briefly praise the good fortune of words and meaning, we realize that all
this is holy. If we undertake this holy activity who stay with it, we cannot but reach the goal. The Great
Commentary on the Prajqaparamita in 8000 Lines says:
Those who have the kindness of benefit for others
For the sake of living beings, do not relax their powers.
Though these holy beings bear a heavy burden,
They never put it down and dwell in discouragement.
This needs to be attained by others as well. When the teacher and shastra are understood in the highest
way, there is devotion. Nagarjuna says:
It is never fruitless, when the authors of the treatises
Express their homage to the teacher and the teaching;
Because of doing so they make us feel inspired.
As for saying that both kinds of benefit must be attained, by perfecting the accumulations the goal of
ripening will be accomplished. The Sutra of Vast Play says:
The wishes of those with merit will surely be accomplished.
The Sutra Producing many Buddhas:
Whoever for the Conqueror as a leader,
Does even a little bit of activity,
Having gone to various celestial realms,
Will attain the level of buddhahood.
Second, the vow to compose the text:
Here why homage is made:
Luminous dharmakaya, immaculate realm of the conquerors!
For us who wander here in samsara, by ignorant grasping,
Amidst this realm of grief of karma and the kleshas,
Today may our weariness come to rest in the nature of mind.
The nature of mind is primordial luminosity, the essence of the buddha realm. It is beyond the four
extremes of existence, non-existence, eternalism, and nihilism. It primordially pervades all sentient beings. The
Uttaratantra says:
When by the luminous nature of the mind
It has been seen that kleshas are essenceless,
After it has been realized that all beings
Are completely pure of the four extremes,
All will dwell within perfect buddhahood,
Possessing the mind that has no obscuration.
Beings completely purified will possess
the limitless vision of the perceiver, wisdom.
Therefore, to that nature I pay homage.
Though primordially pure wisdom exists within us, by not recognizing it, we wander here in samsara.
This karma of ignorance produces ego-grasping. By that in turn are produced passion, aggression, ignorance,
pride, and envy. It is because of these five poisons or kleshas that we are whirling around here in samsara.
Why so? As various habitual patterns are superimposed on alaya, we enter into unhappiness. The least
result is that by the karma of ignorance we are born as animals. The intermediate is that by the karma of
seduction and desire we are born as pretas. The worst is that by the karma of aggression we are born in Hell.
Those who have pure merit, but also an equal amount of pride, are born as gods or human beings.
Those who have equal parts of goodness and jealousy are born as asuras. Each of these has their own realm of
existence, with its happiness, sorrow, and the states between them. They have their own sorts of good and evil
behavior. So it is that we wander helplessly in this plain of the beginningless and endless sufferings of
samsara, so difficult to cross. In vanity we grasp at an I or real self, which is like the seeming appearances of a
dream. Though if we examine these well, they are non-existent, at this time of our confusion they appear to be
really and truly existent. The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
The life of samsaric beings is like that in a dream.
Since this is so, no one is ever born or dies.
The Request of Bhrama says:
The beings of appearance are like those in a dream.
By their personal karma, they are bound as individuals.
They wander among samsara's many joys and sorrows.
Though their nature is suchness that is egoless
Still these unknowing children fixate I and ego,
And so samsara's torments are ever on the rise.
The sentient beings of samsara are held in various kinds of bondage. Though all dharmas are egoless,
fixators of ego excluded themselves off from the eye of liberation, and have to be taught their own true essence.
How? When they know that this is their path, it is improper for them to concern themselves with the
goal of peace alone. As all beings wander here in beginningless samsara, there is not even one has not been our
father and our mother. So to reject them and liberate ourselves alone is not the proper way. The Teacher's Letter
says:
Our kinsmen who are carried in the ocean of samsara
Seem to have tumbled down into a great abyss
If we have rejected these, who do not know what they are,
Because of the process of birth and death and transmigration,
If we produce liberation for ourselves alone,
They will never be liberated from their karma.
Thinking about that, and seeing the weariness of sentient beings, exhausted by the burden of their long
wandering here in samsara, I wanted to compose a treatise giving the instructions of how we can ease this
weariness by coming to the resting place ornamented by the wondrous wealth of the Victorious Ones, the level of
great nirvana. I wanted to illuminate how by immeasurably abundant compassion, we can guide those wandering
in samsara. The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
Kye! O son of noble family, when we see the realm of sentient beings, all undertakings
of body, speech, and mind become the immeasurable great compassion. We work with the
worldly sciences and those beyond the world that have come from the heads of the noble ones.
Having been inspired to the good, we perform once more the buddha activity of the former
Victorious Ones. Let us offer to the Tathagata. Let us raise the victory banner of Dharma. Let
us introduce the great path of liberation. O Holy beings! O precious crest-ornament!
That was the vow to compose the text.
Second, there is the extensive explanation of the actual subject.
In general, the extensive explanation of the subject, how the two benefits arise, is in thirteen chapters.
I. The free and well-favored human body, so difficult to obtain
There are four sections:
A. The general explanation of being free and well favored, and how it is so difficult to obtain.
B. Recognition of being free and well favored.
C. True analysis of the environment and inhabitants of the phenomenal world.
D. The dedication of the merit of the situation.
A. The general explanation of being free and well favored, so difficult to obtain.
Within the general topic there are
1. The summary of the essence
2. The extensive explanation of the nature.
1. The summary of the essence
Now from the explanation of the real body of the text, first, briefly, the support of establishing
enlightenment is being "well-favored." As for the details, here is the praise:
My friends, this body, the precious essence of freedom and favor,
Is very hard to gain within the six realms of beings,
Thus, like a blind man who has found a precious treasure,
With excellent joy, may good and benefit be accomplished.
Who has crossed over to enlightenment? This is the spiritual friend who has established enlightenment.
The instruction is given to those with the good fortune of bodhicitta, the wish for enlightenment.
In regard to attaining the holy freedoms and favors, it is wonderful even for those who are not poor to
attain what is supremely precious, let alone the poor. If those who are blind and helpless attain it, it is even more
astonishingly wonderful than that. As for praise of beings, who attain the free and well favored human body,
while they are whirled about in the six lokas of samsara, The Sutra Teaching the Freedoms and Favors says:
It is like this: Like a blind person who finds a precious jewel among earth and stones,
sentient beings wandering in samsara, blinded by cataracts of ignorance who find their real
humanity are supremely joyful. And so we ought to practice the Dharma, which is always
excellent.
2. The extensive explanation of the nature,
There are eight topics
a) The extensive explanation of the eighteen freedoms and favors:
If you ask what are these freedoms and excellent favors,
We were not born in Hell, nor yet among hungry ghosts.
We are not beasts, nor long lived gods, nor vicious barbarians,
We were not reared in wrong views, nor in a time without buddhas,
Nor have we been born as idiots without speech,
We are completely free from all these eight non-freedoms.
We were born in the human realm, and in a central country.
Also we sound in all our faculties,
Not having done inexpiably wrong in deeds and actions,
We are properly faithful to the objects of faith.
Thus the five holy favors regarding oneself are complete.
The Buddha has appeared and he has taught the Dharma.
Moreover, at this time the teachings still remain.
So that they may continue, people still follow them,
And others are treating us with kindness and concern.
These five favors are those that exist in regard to others.
Those were the eighteen kinds of being free and well-favored.
On this auspicious occasion they are complete within us.
So strive from the heart, that liberation may be accomplished.
We should take this to heart. Why? The life of the king of Brahmins Drvkyi Kyeche says:
It is hard to find the opposites of the eight non-freedoms.
It is hard to find attainment of humanity.
It is hard to find the freedoms in purity and completeness.
It is hard to find the arising of a buddha.
It is hard to find true powers that are without defect.
It is hard to listen to the teachings of a buddha.
It is hard to find the friendship of any holy beings.
It is hard to meet with genuine spiritual friends.
If we are born as Hell beings, pretas, or animals; distracted by suffering, we have no freedom of body.
The blind, who cannot associate verbal symbols with their meanings, have no freedom of speech.
Those who are long-lived may never see the practice of Dharma. Buddhas may be absent, so that they
arise in a dark kalpa without the appearance of the teachings. Even if buddhas appear, people may be coarse
barbarians with no idea of entering. Even those who want to enter, falling into extremes of exaggeration or
denigration, may fall into the four wrong views. Such people have no freedom of mind.
None of these have an opportunity to practice Dharma. They have been deprived of it by their own bad
karma of the eight non-freedoms. By abandoning those eight, one always has the corresponding freedoms.
The Commentary on the Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines says:
Beings in Hell, the pretas, and the animals;
The long-lived gods and those who are barbarians,
Those in an age without buddhas and those who have wrong views,
These and the blind comprise the eight states of non-freedom.
The Spiritual Letter, says:
Those who grasp wrong views and animals,
The hungry ghosts and beings born in Hell,
Those without the word of Victory,
And those who are born as savage barbarians,
The blind, the feeble-minded, and the gods;
These possess the faults of the eight non-freedoms.
Those who have the freedoms from these eight
Should strive in eliminating further births.
As for being well-favored, the Moon in your Heart Sutra says:
Those for whom the ten qualities are complete
Are said to be the ones who are well-favored.
What are these ten qualities. The following have been listed:
1. We have left behind the lower realms of life.
2. We are not feeble-minded.
3. Our senses are not impaired.
4. We are born as vessels.
5. Our health is good.
6. We are not impoverished.
7. We are not enslaved.
8. We have the power to use words.
9. We have come within view of many noble beings.
That is many people's view of what they are. But here they are as in the Sutra of the Twelve Perfections:
These are the five perfections pertaining to oneself
1. We have attained the human condition.
2. We are born in a country where there are noble ones.
3. Our powers are sound.
4. We have not performed extremely evil deeds.
5. We have faith in the proper topics of faith.
These are the five perfections pertaining to others.
6. A buddha has come.
7. The Dharma has been taught.
8. The holy Dharma still remains.
9. Others also practice it.
10. Others show kindness to those who practice the Dharma.
As for kindness to others, the spiritual friend apprehends us with compassion, and leads us to the
Dharma. As for there being twelve perfections, the two bases of distinction are also counted. A tantra
commentary says:
A central human being with faculties that are sound,
Without extreme bad actions, but with faith in the objects of faith.
These are the five kinds of favor pertaining to oneself.
A buddha has come and taught, and the teaching still remains.
The teaching still is followed and beings are kind to others.
These are the five kinds of favor pertaining to other beings.
Here the freedoms are the essence and the favors are its particular dharmas. This is like the blue utpala
lotus and its stalk and so forth. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
If even becoming human is difficult to attain,
Why even speak of completing the view of the precious freedoms?
b) Not being steadfast, even if we have the freedoms and favors
Even though we may have attained all of these freedoms, by craving samsaric happiness even a little:
If we accomplish no benefit within this life,
We may not hear later even the words "the higher realms".
Cycling again and again on the wheel of samsara
For a long time we will have to stay in the lower realms.
Having no knowledge of what we should accept and reject,
We will certainly go upon a mistaken path
Wandering in samsara, without beginning or end.
If within this life, so good to obtain, we do not practice the beneficial holy Dharma, by the power of
karma we will be born in the lower realms. There we shall not so much as hear the words "higher realms," to say
nothing of going there. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
As for our behavior which is of such a kind,
If we shall not even gain a human body,
It goes without saying we cannot go to higher realms.
For if we shall not even gain a human body,
We shall do only evil, and there can be no good.
Now when there is a chance for excellent behavior,
If, even so, good actions are not what we perform,
What are you going to do when they have come for you
With the stupefying sufferings of the lower realms?
If we go to the lower realms, we shall not be liberated for a very long time. The same text says:
Even in the course of a thousand million kalpas
I will not even hear the words, "the higher realms."
c) The instruction to strive for the Dharma
An opportunity of liberation from the limitless depth of samsara is hard to find. So let us strive for the
Dharma with all our hearts. That is the instruction.
Therefore, now when we still have the power to do so,
By auspicious conditions that accord with the proper path,
Relying on the inexhaustible wholesome dharmas
Gained by having gathered the two accumulations,
Let us pass beyond the city of samsara.
Keep in mind aging, becoming old and decrepit, and dying. Now while we still can, let us be guided by
the path of liberation. If we do whatever goodness we can, we shall surely come forth from samsara. The Sutra
of the Vast Display says:
O monks, because death, aging and enfeeblement are non-existent, because by nourishing
goodness, one's powers will be transformed, and because enlightenment will proliferate, strive to
accumulate merit and wisdom. For you the three cities of samsara will be emptied. The gates
to the lower realms will be cut off. The stairway to the higher realms will be established. The
realm of liberation will be attained.
d) How we must work hard at this
When the freedoms and favors of knowing about and establishing such benefit and goodness are
accomplished by a guide who is our spiritual friend, extreme situations do not manifest. When this precious ship
has been attained in the middle of the fearful, limitless ocean of samsara:
If we do not cross the limitless ocean of samsara
Now at the time of having attained this precious ship,
Then how can we do it at another time
When painful waves of the kleshas are always utterly raging?
If we have a great ship which will serve our purpose, we should use it to cross the ocean. Similarly,
having attained this ship of humanity, we should cross the great ocean of samsara, so fearful and unbearable,
whose beginning and end are not apparent. Because of wandering in constant birth, old age, sickness, and death,
samsaric situations are never bearable. Shantideva says in the Bodhicharyavatara:
Whoever with the support of this ship of human birth,
Can cross the great waters of the river of suffering,
Since later such a ship may be difficult to find,
Would be wrong to sleep at this time, because of stupidity.
e) The suitability of this,
Because the freedoms and favors are so difficult to attain:
Therefore, quickly donning the armor of exertion
Clear the murk of mind and the events of mind,
And thus complete the path of spotless, luminous wisdom.
May the path of enlightenment be without obstacles.
When the turbulence of samsaric mind and mental events is pacified, the luminous wisdom of the nature
of mind naturally rises. Becoming familiar with this is called the path of enlightenment. Try to practice it
uninterruptedly day and night, abandoning sleep and tiredness. Just remain THERE. The Five Stages says:
All the complexities of mind and mental events
At the time when these are completely pacified
Arise as luminosity, the state of wisdom,
This is without conceptions and has no center or limit.
Here, "Mind," means exaggerated conceptions which support the three realms. By the expressions of
subsequent analysis in terms of these there arise murky disturbances that obscure suchness. But when these
conceptions are completely pacified, we enter into wisdom that is completely non-conceptualized. The Two
Truths says:
Mind and mental contents are merely conceptualization,
Exaggerated phenomena, the three realms of samsara.
Samsaric mind correlates with the generalized conception of "this," when an object is first seen.
"That's an utpala lotus" is the mind's consciousness of such a first moment. Then, as we discriminate various
distinctions of that object, we make analytic demarcations of the contents of mind. Here there are such
conceptions as, "this utpala lotus is blue in color, and round in shape. It has a blossom, stamens, and pistil."
The Center and Extremes says:
To see the object as "that" is consciousness.
Distinctions of that are objects of the mind.
The Abhidharmakosha says:
There are conception and analytic discernment and these may be fine and coarse.
All who are bound in such conception and analytical discernment, bound by such habitual patterns of
mind and mental events, are blocked from the level of buddhahood. The Madhyamakavatara says:
When all the dry firewood of knowable objects has been burned,
There is peace, the dharmakaya of the victorious ones.
Then there is no arising, and also no cessation.
Cessation of mind brings manifestation of the kayas.
When, within self-awareness wisdom, we become enmeshed in the net of the kleshas, because of the
confusion of grasping and fixation, that is called "samsaric mind," the dim and dismal cellar of examination and
analysis. Liberation from that is buddhahood. The enlightened object and perceiver are free from the attachment
to the examination and analysis of grasping and fixation. The Praise of the Vajra of Mind, says:
If we are enmeshed within the net of kleshas,
"Mind" is that which is expressible by speech.
If we should be separated from the kleshas,
This is the very thing that is known as buddhahood.
The Abhisamayalankara says:
Having "big mind" is the jewel itself
Buddhahood is having "big mind," or the great wisdom. The Sutra on the Array of Qualities, says:
The mind of sentient beings is that of false conception.
However, the great wisdom is the mind of buddhahood.
Just like gold in mountains or in the banks of rivers,
Sometimes it is pure and sometimes it is not.
In mantrayana big mind and its big kleshas are said to be wisdom itself. It is like that:
The dimness that does not know that is purified of its blindness.
The unceasing desire of mind is stupidity. When we meditate, objects still appear within awareness, but
awareness of concept and analysis ceases. The Sutra on the Bases of Discipline says:
Within dhyana O monks, though the motion of mind has ceased, objects still appear
within the sense-consciousnesses. Objects whirl with the motions of samsara.
But now they are like fleeting reflections in a still pond.
The Ascertainment of Proper Reasoning says:
Even when the inner self rests motionless,
Visual forms arise in the mind of the visual sense.
Within the senses, apparent objects are not conceptualized. The same text says:
This is taught because sense-awareness is not samsaric.
In brief, conceptualization and analysis of objects produced due to grasping and fixation are called
samsaric mind and its mental objects. Object and insight when grasping and fixation are completely pacified
are kaya and wisdom. The Sutra of the Glorious Garland says:
Whenever there are distinctions of grasping and fixation, that is reprovable. Such
conceptualization of objects is the mind of samsara. Whenever grasping and fixation do not
exist, object and insight are the wisdom of liberation.
By that it is established.
f) The samsaric torments if we do not make an effort now.
A person who has the Dharma by the power of former goodness:
Whoever has the happy good fortune of the Dharma,
Becoming a vessel of that precious spotlessness,
Yet has no use for its cooling rain of Dharma-amrita,
Will be annihilated by the torments of samsara.
The holy rain of the cooling waters of wisdom
From the banks of clouds of benefit and great bliss
Falls to cleanse the free and favored minds of beings.
Being a good vessel is like having the precious human body. When the rain of Dharma falls on us, if we
are not vessels who can hold it, we will only exhaust oneself in suffering in the torments of samsara. The
Generation Born in an Iron House says:
Even though the free and favored vessel is gained,
Since no drops of Dharma are received within it,
We shall roast in Hellfire, so difficult to bear.
Long and excruciating pain will be our karma.
g) The teaching of the freedoms and favors, which support the Dharma.
Supported by the freedoms that we have, the natural arising of Dharma is like this:
Therefore joyfully practice the Dharma from your heart.
That is the instruction. The supreme teachings of the Buddha are the rain of Dharma. The freedoms and
favors are its support. This rain naturally falls. The Arrangement of the Vessel says:
Kye! O child of a noble family, for those with the freedoms and favors, the great rain of perfect
Dharma will fall. They will possess immeasurable benefits.
h) Why the freedoms and favors are difficult to obtain:
It is harder for us to gain a human birth
Than for a tortoise to thrust its head into a yoke
That is tossed about in the middle of the ocean.
That is what the teacher of Gods and men has said.
Then why even speak of a free and well favored body.
Let us be diligent in days that are to come.
Let us say that a turtle lives in an ocean for a hundred times a hundred years. Floating upon that ocean
is a single yoke with a hole in it, blown by the wind so that it did not stay in one place for even a moment. It is
very unlikely that the turtle's throat will be thrust into it. But obtaining a human body from within the lower
realms of samsara is taught to be far more difficult. The Spiritual Letter says:
It is harder to gain a human birth and the Dharma,
From the state of having been an animal,
Than for a turtle to put its head into a yoke
While both of them are lost in the vastness of the ocean.
Therefore with these faculties of human beings
By practicing holy Dharma let us reach its fruition.
The Bodhicharyavatara says: 4.20
This is the reason why the Bhagavan has taught
That attaining human birth is much more difficult
Than for a turtle to put its head into a yoke,
Tossed within the vastness of a limitless ocean.
As for the scripture they are speaking about, the Bunch of Flowers says:
It is difficult for the Buddha Bhagavats to enter into the world. But very much more
difficult than that is attaining human birth. Let the reason for this be taught in an example. O
Shariputra, let the great difficulty of the first be like an ocean. Within it let there be a yoke,
having a single hole. Let there also be a decrepit turtle. In that great ocean the wind blows from
above and blows from below, and as it blows these things about, that decrepit turtle rises out of
the ocean once in a hundred times a hundred years. The difficulty of becoming human again
after having fallen back is not equal to that of the throat of that decrepit turtle that rises once in a
hundred times a hundred years quickly entering into the hole of that quickly moving yoke. For
those who fall away like that, becoming human again is very much more difficult.
If even attaining the human body is so very difficult, why even speak of a body with the freedoms and
favors, and the view that realizes the Dharma. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 4.15
That a tathagata has actually arisen,
That we have faith, and have attained a human body,
And that, in addition, we can practice goodness;
When will what is so rare ever be gained again?
The Request of The One with the Jewel in the Crown says:
To see a guide is something very hard to find.
To hear the teachings, the Dharma of peace, is very hard.
It is very hard to be born as a free and favored person.
Discipline and faith are always hard to find.
B. Now there is the second division of the general meaning: delineating the nature of the freedoms and favors
There are six sections:
1. The explanation of merely attaining a human body.
What is a "precious human body?"
a. Here is the explanation of the three divisions of those with a human body:
There are some who merely gain a human birth,
Some whose body is special, and some whose birth is precious.
b. What is said about the divisions:
Respectively these are persons who act improperly,
Because they have no knowledge of what is right and wrong.
Even if their powers are sound, their birth is common.
They are barbarians even in the central realm.
The Sutra of Precious Space says:
These are born in the human world because of former goodness, have senses that are
completely sound, and always are born in a country where the Dharma is practiced. However,
they still do not know about karma and its ripening.
Many of them will depend on the path of what is not good. It may be said that these have
become human beings, but they will only be the worse for it. That is the last time they will be human,
because they will fall without limit into the lower realms of death.
2. The special human body
Those who do not apply the teachings are confused
They do not have proper faith about what is right and wrong.
Preoccupied with this life, distracted by its business,
Undisciplined and beguiled, neglecting what is to come,
With no interest in liberation, though they may hear the Dharma,
They do not have the best body, but only the middle kind.
Occasionally their minds are drawn to something wholesome,
But mostly their mental vision is blocked by evil deeds.
They only go through the motions, what good are they to anyone?
Whether they take the form of a householder or a monk,
Only because they are slightly above lower realms,
The Buddha has said that these have a special human body.
The Sutra of Precious Space says:
In the realm of sentient beings some do not dwell purely in the Dharma, even though
they could, because their behavior mixes right and wrong, and they are preoccupied with
worldly activities. Even if they are sincere, with undisciplined body, speech, and mind, they are
easily seduced. Falling into the three lower realms, they have the karma of remaining there.
However, since they have seen the sunlight of the Buddha's compassion, and have had seeds of
liberation for a long time, they are said to have the special human body.
Because their behavior mixes vice and virtue and they give only lip service to devotion, they are not
protected from the lower realms. The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
Breaking their discipline, they go to the lower realms.
They are unprotected, no matter how great their learning.
The Nirvana Sutra says:
Kashyapa, the monk Devadatta had heard only the ordinary sutra vehicle of the burden
of an elephant. Even though he grasped it, because of his non-virtue, he fell into the lower
realms.
The Pair Sutra says:
Collection of Medicines, those sentient beings who wail so at the time of death are not
among the ones who possess ripened karma of good deeds. If these are protected from karma,
who would not be?
Also it says there:
Though the Tathagata has arisen and been seen,
And though the striking of the gandi has been heard,
Though they have heard the teachings of the holy Dharma,
Which take us to the peace which is called nirvana,
Nevertheless they never acted on what they heard.
People such as these are later going to say:
I am a person with the mind of a perfect fool.
Having fallen under the power of bad companions,
By the desires which rose from confusion in my mind,
I produced the karma of many evil deeds.
By cultivating and going along with these desires
I have been a murderer of living beings.
By listening to the people who waste the goods of the Sangha
I had to know the unbearable fruit of doing that.
I am destroying stupas by my harmful thoughts
By malicious words I punish everyone, even my mother.
Regarding this human body that I formerly made
Soon all my transgressions will be common knowledge.
My mind will then be summoned to the lowest Hells.
The births I see ahead are more than I can bear.
3. The Precious Human Body.
As for the third part:
Supremely excellent beings, spotless vessels of Dharma
Apply their powers to what they hear and contemplate.
Having tamed themselves, they establish others in goodness.
They are immovable in their practice, like Mount Meru.
All these straightforward sages, like banners of saintliness,
Whether they are householders or renunciates,
Are taught by the Teacher to have the precious human body.
After having tamed oneself by hearing, contemplating, and the yogic resting of meditation, one also
exhorts others to goodness. That is the good gate of auspicious Dharma. Putting on the great armor of liberation
one flourishes the great banner of the sages. Calling this badge or clothing a victory banner is not just a figure of
speech. When we urge others to work for the good, whether one lives in a house or is a renunciate, this is called
having the precious human body. The Sutra of Glorious Secret says:
Glorious Secret, though many have heard this, their hearing is obstructed. The
meaning is made into conceptualized thoughts. But by meditating without kleshas, union is
produced. If one also urges others to do this, this produces the essence of the freedoms and
favors, the most sublimely beautiful thing in this world including its gods.
Also the Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, bodhisattvas say, "I practice the good," to exhort others to do the same.
Producing the essence of the freedoms and favors, this is praised by all the buddhas. I praise it.
I honor it.
As to how others should be exhorted the Vast Play says:
All compounded things will quickly be destroyed.
Like lightening in the sky they cannot last for long.
As your time too is therefore drawing ever nearer,
The time has come for true repentance to manifest.
The master Chandrakirti says:
First for a little while all the listeners
Will certainly be joined to small talk and the like.
When they become good vessels, after that occurs,
That is the time to relate to them with deeper words.
That is how it should be done. What it is to be such a vessel, generally depends on which of the vehicles
one is concerned with. In particular, as for the freedoms and favors in the unsurpassable vessel, the Jewel of
Space Sutra says:
The bodhisattva Akashagarbha asked, "Bhagavan, how should the freedoms and favors
be viewed?"
This was the word of the Buddha: If it is divided by the discursive conceptions of
mind, it is abused. This should be known as disturbing what one is engaged in. After discursive
conceptions of mind have been pacified, resting within the nature is known as freedom. As for
the favors, if the nature of mind, awareness, receives the wealth of what mind really is, that is
being well-favored.
4. Why we should think about the Dharma.
Here is the reason why the person who has attained freedom and favor should think only of the Dharma:
Therefore, having heard the Dharma from holy beings,
To establish what is proper, abide within in the Dharma
Cultivate what is Dharmic, weed out what is not.
By practicing Dharma, we will abide within the Dharma.
That is the holy instruction. It is difficult to meet with a spiritual friend. To hear the Dharma and be
able to practice it is difficult. Always to work hard is very difficult. When the Buddha was expounding the
scriptures of the Vinaya at Vaishali, this was among the beneficial instructions given:
O monks, look on the beings of the lower realms. After going there, a material human
form is very difficult to obtain. Look on bad teachers. Meeting a genuine spiritual friend is
very difficult. Look on those who have broken their discipline, and how they have damaged
discipline and liberation. By dwelling in the goodness of renunciation, Dharma, which alone is
good, will be practiced. Therefore, joyfully dwell in forests or monasteries, and go beyond these
others.
5. The benefit of contemplating the reason
As for the benefit produced:
Procrastinate no longer. Cross over samsara's ocean.
Quickly go to the island of peace and pass beyond suffering.
The Request of Devaputra Sutra says:
Devaputra, Exerting ourselves in this alone, let us exert ourselves on the side of the
good. We shall quickly hold the benefits of complete, perfect enlightenment.
The Spiritual Letter says:
Having well attended an excellent spiritual friend,
We ought to make the attempt to behave in a decent way.
This is what was taught by the utterly perfect Sage.
Attend on holy beings, for having attended them,
There are very many who will attain to peace.
6. If the inhabitants of this earth practice, there will be great benefit.
Beings who have been born as inhabitants of this earth, Jambuling, have established a portion of
goodness. But if, having become human beings, they do not train in goodness, here is what is said:
There is no one who has a mind more foolish
Than those becoming human who do not live in goodness.
Like coming back empty-handed from a land of jewels,
They make no use of the freedom and favor of their lives.
So let us act in the way of the Dharma, which leads to peace.
Though we may have attained these freedoms, if we do not practice the holy Dharma, then even though
we have come to an island of precious jewels, we take none of them. Returning empty-handed, we are fools. The
Bodhicharyavatara says: 4.23
If even having attained the leisure of these freedoms
We do not train in what is wholesome and what is good,
There is no seduction that is greater than this.
There can be no fool who is greater than such a one.
After doing some insignificant bit of good, we shall not have complete attainment. But by exerting
themselves in the truth and goodness of Dharma alone, many attain the perfection of the Buddha qualities. The
Precious Mala says:
Thus it is that if we always practice the Dharma,
We shall be the masters of all within the world.
Whoever transforms what is noxious into goodness,
In a little while will surely reach the peak.
Because the good of Dharma will wake us from our sleep,
When we awake to goodness, we shall be purified.
Because the master within us is one who has no faults,
Even in dreams we shall see what is virtuous and wholesome.
If we have respectful devotion to our parents,
Attending on the principal persons of our family,
Committing ourselves with patience to virtuous behavior,
Speaking soft words of truth without any calumny,
By such discipline over a single lifetime,
The powers of a god have actually been attained.
Once again at this time, we shall produce those powers,
We gradually will establish the state of buddhahood.
After that:
As for the benefits, the fruition of such karma,
We shall act in accordance with what we have come to know.
If we are always performing benefits for beings,
This itself will be of benefit to us.
While we do so, for this reason, there will be the wholesome merits of the Dharma.
C. True examination of the nature of the environment and inhabitants of the phenomenal world,
There are six sections:
1. The teaching of mind, the root of Dharma.
When we undertake to find the natures of the environment and inhabitants of the phenomenal world, they
are truly analyzed as being one:
Dharma depends on mind, and likewise mind in turn
Depends on the freedoms and favors, so both depend on them.
Now these many conditions and causes have come together.
The thing we chiefly need to do is tame our minds.
All dharmas depend on mind. Mind depends on the free and well-favored human body. This is the
interdependent arising of the environment and inhabitants of the phenomenal world. Mind is the realm of
Dharma, the cause of all that is wholesome. As it is the companion necessary condition of the freedoms and
favors, we must study exactly how to tame the mind. The Spiritual Letter says:
The Bhagavan says we must tame our minds.
Mind is the root of Dharma, as is taught.
The All-creating King, says:
Without remainder all dharmas, however they appear,
Are emanated by mind, produced by the nature of mind.
The Lankavatara Sutra says:
Though reflections may appear within a mirror
They do not exist; and if we do not know
The appearances of mind as mere appearances,
The duality of conceptual thinking will arise.
With the seeds of habitual patterns, what is completely pure
Arises as the variety of the mental contents.
Though for human beings these seem to be external,
Nevertheless the phenomenal world is only mind.
Also it says there, in regard to mind that does not possess true reality:
For mind that is disturbed by seeds of habitual patterns
Within the completely real, appearances will arise.
The appearances of mind are like those of a dream. Arising merely from the viewpoint of confused
mind, the variety of inner and outer arises as nothing at all. Such appearances arise from the seeds of confused
habitual patterns. In reality they do not truly exist; but because they appear in the mind as if they did, mind is the
root of all dharmas. Though mountains and so forth appear externally projected from the viewpoint of confused
mind, there are really no mountains. They exist only in the mind. If students have not guarded the mind before,
they will not be able to guard it later. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
If this mind has not been guarded previously,
We will not be able to keep the disciplines.
Also it says there:
Aside from the kind of discipline that guards the mind,
What is the use of performing many disciplines?
Also it says there:
Thus it is that everything that frightens us,
And also all of our measureless pain and suffering,
Are only contents that have risen with the mind.
So it has been taught by the Speaker of Truth himself.
Who was it that produced the multitude of weapons
For the use of sentient beings within the Hells?
Who was it that produced this ground of blazing iron?
From where do these multitudes of blazing flames arise?
Every one of them, and all such things as these,
Are the mind of the evil-doer, so the Sage has said.
Thus it is that in the whole of this three-fold world,
There are no terrors that are other than the mind.
Also it says there: 5.5
If we ever succeed in taming the mind alone,
All these various things will likewise have been tamed.
Since all that is wholesome and unwholesome within samsara has arisen from mind, working to tame the
mind is the root of all Dharmas. The Sutra of the Clouds of the Three Jewels says:
When we have been instructed by our worldly mind,
This mind of ours will never see the actual mind.
All our virtuous karma and that which has no goodness
Are nothing but collections in that worldly mind.
Also it says there in the chapter called, "Guarding the light:"
Mind produces various karmas like a painter.
In manifesting all harm, it is like an external danger.
In producing all suffering, it is like an enemy.
The Dro Namje Sutra says
The ground is made of iron, blazing hot,
And blazing tongues of flame are everywhere.
The justice of the sharpened iron saws
Divides a single body into eight.
Such things as these arise as mental contents,
From evil acts of body, speech, or mind.
Mind is the root of all our joys and sorrows. Our only effort should be to tame the mind.
2. The Instruction that We Should Exert ourselves in Dharma Day and Night.
When we are wandering in samsara, as successive distractions occurring time and time again, here is
what should be done:
Being terrified of death, within our endless births,
With deprivation and suffering falling on us like rain,
Arises from making no use of being free and well-favored.
The result is a state of becoming radically disturbed.
The higher manifestations, the dharmas of truth and goodness
Arise from thinking how hard it is to be free and favored,
Enjoy such an effort unstintingly, working day and night.
The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
Kye! O son of noble family, wherever beings wander within samsara, the body
adorned with the freedoms and favors, so hard to obtain, is not produced, due to manifestation
of thoughts. Because of the bad company of non-spiritual friends, there are samsaric
phenomena, and we are tormented in flames of suffering. Nevertheless, by contemplating the
freedoms and favors, we shall be completely liberated from samsara.
3. When the benefits have been explained, we arouse joy
Now there is the instruction to be joyful because of these benefits:
Here since it is useful to have seen a guide,
And it is of use to hear the Dharma and practice it,
Making use of this life and all its later fruits,
Arises from having gained this free and favored body.
Contemplate this again and again, with the highest joy.
Having seen how Buddhas of former times were completely liberated, having the benefit of being well-
favored day and night on the present occasion, and collecting the seeds of a later liberation--this is what we have,
if we are among the fortunate. All this arises from contemplating the freedoms and favors, which are so hard to
obtain. The Closely Placed Mindfulness says:
Ananda, how should the arising of what has been well seen and well heard by you from
having contemplated the freedoms and favors be viewed? It is what establishes the happiness of
beings, and whatever good dharmas there may be. That is how it should be viewed.
Therefore, let us meditate with heartfelt joy on having attained these freedoms.
4. How we can attain superhuman goodness
Now, moreover there is the explanation of how superhuman goodness is to be established:
Since having attained the deathless level of amrita
By the Lord of this world of beings, including the gods,
And his sons among the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas,
Arose from having attained the precious human body,
The freedoms and favors are praised as better than being a god.
Therefore, rejoice in having attained this human body.
When the Sage, the Bhagavan, attained enlightenment, he became the chief of the human beings of
Jambuling. Therefore, he was called better than the gods. The Sutra of Complete Enlightenment says:
Enlightenment in the realm of the gods produces an exclusive pride, and truth is not completely
realized. It is seen only as a human being, for whom the freedoms and favors are complete.
Therefore, to the place of those who dress in yellow and white.
The Bodhicharyavatara says:
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This body, which is better than the body of a god...
5. Praise of the freedoms and favors, the support of all the vehicles
The level of wisdom, that sees the truth without conception
Is easy to gain among gods and men as a human being.
Even the vajra vehicle, profoundest heart of the path,
Is easily gained as the fruit of attaining a human body.
It is taught that among the foundations of the Dharma,
Within both the greater and the lesser vehicles,
The free and well favored human body is best of all.
The Abhidharmakosha says:
Thirdly, nothing higher than this is seen:
Within the valley of sadness of human beings
So that they might see its end this was composed.
Also the suchness of the secret mantra is quickly established with the support of human birth. The
Tantra of Exhausting the Four Elements says:
This is the wondrously risen king of secret mantra.
If human beings exert themselves in gaining it,
Accomplishment occurs within this very life.
Why even speak of the siddhis of any other yogas?
Therefore, as the support of all the vehicles, the freedoms and favors have been praised.
6. Meditating on how difficult these are to obtain.
To take this difficulty of obtaining a human body as an object of meditation, sit on a comfortable seat.
Take refuge and arouse bodhicitta. Then we visualize our own bodies, adorned with the freedoms and favors:
As a poor man who has found a gem of the highest value,
Fearful and anxious that it was nothing but a dream,
Contemplate the freedoms and favors with joyful longing,
Since this will establish the holy benefits of the Dharma.
Like a poor man who finds the finest of gems, let us rejoice in having obtained these freedoms and
favors. This is a Dharma that should be practiced exclusively. Thinking, "If only this is not a dream!" we are
afraid and terrified. Since we have attained it, meditating in heartfelt joy, let us dedicate it to the ultimate benefit
of sentient beings. The Discrimination of Scripture says:
Maudgala, these freedoms alone should be contemplated. Remember them with joy.
D. The fourth section of the general meaning: Dedicating the Merit.
Now there is the dedication of the merit of having taught the freedoms and favors to sentient beings:
The futile agitation of beings is pacified,
By the precious amrita of this auspicious news.
Going into sweet solitude of pleasant forest retreats,
May Mind, worn out within this thicket of the kleshas,
Be freed this very day from all its weariness.
By looking at this explanation of the holy amrita of peace, adorned with a continuous stream of the
flowers of truth, may all beings, exhausted by the agitations of this life, eliminate them. In a single joyful life, in
the peaceful solitude of meditation, may their minds, long wearied by samsara, be released from that weariness.
This is the instruction on the particular topic of easing weariness. May the meaning of the whole chapter
showing samsara and its sadness be instantly taken to heart. There is also a dedication written after completing
the chapter. May the further chapters also be known in that way:
In peaceful forests, caves, and joyful valleys of herbs,
Dancing with moving flowers, to the rush of waterfalls,
May this mind, which has been so long in complete exhaustion.
Producing the holy benefit of the freedoms and favors,
Come to rest in unmoving equality/equanimity.
May no beings be seen who are not tamed by that.
With pacification of kleshas and the seven noble riches
After leaving behind this body and this life,
May we reach the primordial level--the King of Mind.
II: The Impermanence of Life
There are five sections.
A. The brief teaching.
B. The extended explanation.
C. The instruction that we should exert ourselves.
D. The concluding summary.
E. The dedication of merit.
A. The brief teaching.
Even though the freedoms, so difficult to obtain, have been obtained, since our minds are not stable, we
are instructed that our nature is such that we need to exert ourselves:
Even if this hard-won freedom has been gained,
These destructible dharmas will not last for even an instant.
If they are examined, they are without an essence.
They are no more to be trusted than bubbles floating on water;
So contemplate day and night the certainty of death.
Even if the freedoms and favors are obtained, they cannot be permanent. They have no heart like a
banana tree and, will not bear analysis. Like bubbles on water, they appear for only a moment. Then every one
of their main and subsidiary characteristics is destroyed. On examination, they are necessarily found to be
separable from reality. The Shrine of Telling the Reason Why says:
Kye ma! How impermanent are all compounded things!
Anything that is born is going to be destroyed.
Since having once been born, all will be destroyed,
"Them as dies quickly will be the lucky ones!"
They are like starry lamps that are clouded-over with mist,
Ephemeral things like bubbles on water or drops of dew,
Dreamily insubstantial, like lightning in the clouds.
All compounded things are taught to be that way.
B. The extended explanation,
1. Grasping the importance of the impermanence of the human body.
This essenceless body is impure and changeable. Its individual qualities are separable and nothing about
it continues. Here is the instruction that those inclined to material desires should absorb the mind day and night in
contemplating impermanence:
This body, the principal source of the rising of the kleshas,
Is the source of all suffering and unhappiness of the mind.
Though decked in garments and ornaments, flower garlands and such,
And worshipped with many offerings of food and drink,
In the end we must separate and part from it.
Because it is impermanent and destructible,
This body will be food for foxes, vultures, and jackals.
Abandon all thoughts that it is important, lasting, or pure.
Rather, from now on, let us practice the holy Dharma.
Grasping our alleged bodies as a permanent I and self, we offer them food and clothing, tending them
with a level of ceremony befitting our ideas. Though we hardly want to talk about it, sorrowful time speaks
instead by reversing our ministrations to harm. Shantideva says:
This body of ours is like a momentary reflection.
The time when we will be taken by the Lord of Death comes without warning. When the mind separates
from the body, we cannot be with the body any more. It will be food for charnel birds, dogs, foxes, and vultures.
To count such a thing as paramount and even think that we should do evil deeds for its sake should be regarded as
vanity. Really we are something like a servant indentured to the body's happiness. Why is the body so worthy of
being rewarded with food and clothing? What is worth exertion day and night is the Dharma. The Sutra of
Instructions to the King says:
O great king, these have an essence like a great mountain, solid and firm in all the four
directions. This mountain is indestructible, not to be split, very hard, undamageable. Its four
sides, dense and massive, touch the sky and return again to the earth. Grass, trees with trunks,
branches, and all their leaves, living things, and spirits accumulate there, like flour on a mill-
stone.
To escape it by speed, remove it by force, buy it off, or get rid of it with substances,
mantras, and medicinal herbs is no easy task.
O great king, that is what these four great terrors are like. One cannot escape them
by speed, remove them by force, buy them off. To get rid of them with substances, mantras,
and medicinal herbs is no easy task.
What are these four? They are old age, sickness, death, and deterioration.
O great king, old age comes to conquer youth. Illness comes to conquer health.
Deterioration comes to conquer all our good qualities. Death comes to conquer life itself. One
cannot escape them by speed, remove them by force, or buy them off. To get rid of them with
substances, mantras, and medicinal herbs is no easy task.
O great king, it is like this. The king of beasts, the lion, dwells among the beasts. He
preys on the beasts. He rules as he wishes. The beasts are powerless against his mighty jaws.
O great king, it is like this. There is no provision against the gleaming staff of the Lord
of Death, there is no protector, no refuge, no friendly forces, no friends and relatives. Our joints
will divide and come apart. Our flesh and blood will dry up. Our bodies will be racked by
sickness. We shall rage with thirst. Our arms and legs will convulse. We will not be able to
act. We will have no strength. Our bodies will be covered in saliva, mucus, urine, and vomit.
Our powers of vision, hearing, smelling, tasting, touch, and thought will fade away. We shall
vomit. Our voices will crack and wheeze. Our medicines will be given up as useless. All our
medicine, food, and drink will be thrown away. Our possessions will go to others. We shall lie
in our beds for the last time. We shall subside into the beginningless round of birth, old age, and
death. We shall have no body. We shall be terrified by the Lord of Death. Our powers of
acting will be gone. Our breathing will stop. Our mouths and noses will gape. Our teeth will
be exposed. They will demand, "Give us our inheritance." Our karma will take over, and we
shall pass into the control of samsaric existence. Alone without a second, we shall be friendless.
We shall leave this world. We shall be outside the world. We shall be borne up in the great
change of abode which is death. We shall dwell in the great darkness. We shall fall over the
great precipice. We shall be crowded off the edge of the world. We shall be cast into the great
wilderness. The great ocean will carry us away. Our karmic energy will pass away. We shall
go to ugly places. We shall enter the great battle. We shall be seized by the great harm. We
shall die away into space. Our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters will
gather round. Our breathing will stop. They will say that our property and clothes should be
handed out. Oh no! our fathers will say. Oh no! our mothers will say. Oh no! our children will
say. Fear will overwhelm us. Generosity, penance, and Dharma will be our only friends.
There will be no refuge but Dharma. There will be no other protector. There will be no other
friendly forces.
O great king, at this time, at this moment, the Dharma will be an island, a dwelling, a
protector, a teacher. O great king, though looking like we are asleep in our beds, we shall
experience appearances of the life to come. If we are going to go to the lower realms, terrifying
premonitions of those realms will arise. What refuge will there be then but Dharma?
O great king, You should fully guard such a body. But no matter how perfectly you
look after it, its time of death will come. Intimates having all virtues, with whom we have been
satisfied by much pure food and drink and so on, parents and children, will be there for the last
time. The medicines will be thrown away. When everything is gone, we will be unhappy. Such
will be the time of death.
O great king, your body will be repeatedly washed and fumigated with incense. It will
be covered with fragrant flowers and, no doubt, pleasantly perfumed aromas will arise.
O great king, you will be dressed in fine clothes of Varanasi cotton and silk, and when
this has been done for the last time, it will be like going to a defiled, stinking place, as a servant
who has to go alone, and so the time of death will come.
O great king, though you have enjoyed your various desirable possessions, abandoning
them all, as if they did not satisfy your desires, the time of death will come.
O great king, within your house incense, flowers, silk hangings, seats, and various
cloths will be collected. With the pillows on the left and right, your bed will be taken away to
the great charnel ground full of crows, foxes, and nauseating human corpses. Doubtless your
motionless body will lie upon the ground.
O great king, as you are thus carried on the backs of your elephants, horses, and so on,
different kinds of music will be heard and pleasantly enjoyed. Various parasols, victory
banners, and so forth will be raised aloft. The new king, minister, and friends and relatives will
make pleasant little speeches, praising you and going to look at you. The bed, formerly not
raised very far, after you have died in it will be raised high by four pallbearers, lifted by your
brothers and so forth. After servants, compelled by painful beatings bring it out by the south
gate of the city, in a solitary wild place it will be put down on the earth. You will be eaten by
crows, vultures, foxes, and so forth. Your bones will be burned by fire, thrown into water, or
put on the ground, whichever it may be. They will be dispersed by wind, sun, and rain, and
strewn in all directions. They will rot.
O great king, all composite things are impermanent. Do not rely on them.
This extensive teaching should be taken to heart and remembered. Persons knowing that the appearances
of this life, no matter what they are, are empty, should try to exert themselves solely in practicing the holy
Dharma, day and night.
2. To attain even the realm of Bhrama and so forth is impermanent.
Those who are the true foundation of wealth on the three levels
Gods like Bhrama Shiva, Surya, and Ishvara,
Though they shine in the radiant gleam of fame and fortune, Have no chance to vanquish the realm
of the Lord of Death
Even if they stay in samadhi for a kalpa,
When their karma has been exhausted, that is their time of death.
Gods as well as asuras, siddhas, and sorcerers,
However many villeins and vassals there may be
Throughout their endless births are terrified by death.
Bhrama, Maheshvara, Vishnu, Indra, the four great world-protecting kings, and so forth fill the world
with great rays of light, brighter than a thousand suns. They are more splendid than a mountain of gold. The
fame of their merits fills the world. They are the highest beings of the three worlds, below the earth, upon the
earth, and above the earth. But, though they are adorned with all this real wealth, they still have to die. The
Dulwa Lung says:
O monks, look on this wealth as being essenceless and subject to deterioration. If the
retinue mindful of my teachings were transferred into the inconceivable life and insatiable
powers of Bhrama, Indra, the world protectors and so forth, they would be brought down to the
lower realms.
Also it says there:
Bhrama the pure one, wrathful Indra, and thousand-eyed Surya,
As well as desireless Vishnu, are impermanent, and passing.
The display of the sun and moon is only for a moment.
The continents of the world, are seen to have been emptied.
The gods of the four dhyanas, and the other gods, the asuras, siddhas who have accomplished austerities,
and all holders of vidya mantra still die. The same text says:
The gods who accomplish the dhyanas, as well as the kinnaras And ascetic sages who are not gods but
blaze with splendor,
Are impermanent, though they may live for a long time or a kalpa.
As for conditioned humans, whose bodies are like foam,
No need to discuss their freedom from individual destruction?
The lords of the four continents, the universal monarchs, kings, ministers, and all kinds of ordinary
people, monastic renunciates, brahmins, householders and so on, none of them escape death. The Shrine-room of
Telling the Reason Why says:
Kings possessing the seven precious treasures,
Great noble lords and royal ministers
Monks and brahmins, householders and such,
All of these beings are impermanent.
They are like beings experienced in a dream.
3. There is impermanence because change is the nature of things.
Because there is transference and change, there is impermanence:
Within the impermanent play of the rain-clouds of this life,
In garlands of flashing lightning, dances the Lord of Death.
Day and night, the falling rain of the changing seasons
Drowns whatever sprouts may grow within the three levels.
Ornamented by the essence of the freedom and favors, the dark summer cloud-banks of this life gather,
while, naturally wreathed in quivering lightning, the Lord of Death performs his dance. Day and night, not
pausing for an instant, the rain of immanent death falls constantly, flooding out and drowning all the sprouts of
sentient beings dwelling within the three worlds. The Vast Play says:
The three worlds' impermanence is like the clouds of autumn.
The birth and death of beings has the aspect of a dance.
The lives of beings vanish like lightning into space.
Like waterfalls cascading down a precipitous mountain,
As quickly as the water comes it falls away.
4. The impermanence of the Vessel and Essence
The vessel is the world, which has long been stable and motionless. The accompanying essence or
contents supported by it is taught to be moving beings.
When the vessel and contents of this impermanent world,
With all its various cycles of creation and destruction,
Is destroyed seven times by fire and once by water,
And blown away like dust by the force of the raging wind,
Even Mount Meru, with its four slopes of precious substance,
Surrounded by the four oceans and the four continents,
Encircled by mountain ranges and the ramparts of the world,
Will not endure when all is turned to a single space.
Thinking that this time must certainly come to pass,
Therefore, let us practice the Dharma from our hearts.
The external vessel and contents are destructible. The inner vessel and contents too are taught to be
impermanent.
In the beginning of the first kalpa, in the accommodating sky, the empty space of nothing whatever,
pranavajra was born from a crossed vajra, indestructible. Above it was born the mandala of water, hard like
vajra. There also on the little island which is this world, was the supreme mountain of precious substances,
Mount Meru. The east was made of crystal, the south of yellow beryl, the west of ruby, the north of gold.
Reaching to the edges of the surrounding water, with seven lakes between them are Nyashing Dzin, and so forth,
the seven mountain ranges, surrounded by the expanse of the outer ocean.
In the outer ocean, in the east is the continent Purvavideha. In the south is Jambudvipa, in the west
Aparagodaniya, in the north Uttarakuru.
On Mount Meru, are four groves, and to the north-east, completely enclosed in trees, is the all-victorious
good house, ornamented by caverns like a city, with agreeable mountains at the edge. From this to the ocean's
horizon, as far as the other surrounding iron mountains, is the vessel, the world, ornamented by the sun and
moon.
Supported within it is the essence, sentient beings. The luminous gods are separated from people of the
four main continents and eight sub-continents beside them. These sub-continents are Deha and Videha, Chamara
and Upachamara, Satha and Uttaramantrina, Kurava and Kaurava.
Also there are the appearances produced by lower karma, the individual realms of lower beings, the
animal, hungry ghost, and Hell realms. In the dhatu of the animals the great ocean is the root place. Below, the
hungry ghosts' royal capital city is their chief place. Hell beings have the hot Hells and snow mountain cold
Hells. Under them all, like a yellow rose with eight joined petals, are the neighboring Hells, oriented in the four
directions of the Avici or Unremitting Hell, which is the place at the root. The widely scattered animals, the
hungry ghosts wandering in space, and the ephemeral human realm are also there.
The six kinds of kama divinities of the desire realm, kama deva shatkula, are halfway up mount Meru in the
rising place of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. First there are the four, great, noble kings. Above them is the
heaven of the thirty-three. Above them with their sky palaces dwelling like the stars and planets, in order there
are the desire realm deity heavens of the strifeless, Yama; joyful, Tushita; Delighting in Emanation, Nirmanarata;
and Mastery over Transformation, Paranirmita.
In holes in the rocks of Mount Meru dwell the asuras. In the edges of the water Rahu, and in Skartreng,
Garland of Stars, a city at foot of Mount Meru, is the asura king Kanto Mali.
In the edges of earth are nicely textured slopes where desire gods contend in wealth and enjoyments. Of
the four realms of the desire gods, in the Bhrama realms of the first dhyana are the stratum of Bhrama,
Abhasvara; Priests who chant before Bhrama Bhramapurohita; and Great Bhrama, Mahabhrama.
In the space above is the heaven of Mastery over the Emanations of Others, Para-nimitta-vashvartin (the
sixth of the twenty-eight desire heavens) whose thrones reach upward four pagtse.
The second dhyana has the heavens of Lesser Radiance, Parittabha; Immeasurable Radiance, Apramaanaabha;
and radiance, Praabhasvara.
The third has Lesser Virtue, Parittashubha; Immeasurable Virtue, Apramanashubha; and Vast Virtue,
Shubhakritsna.
The fourth has Cloudless; Increasing Merit, Punyaprasava; and the great fruition born of merit Brihatphala.
Then there are the five Pure Abodes, Paqcashuddhanivaasa. Here the three places of individual beings
are the Slightest, Avriha; Painless, Atapa; and Attractive Sudrisha. The other heavens of the pure realm gods are
extreme Insight, Sudarshana, and the Highest, Akanishta. These five heavens are one above the other.
The four formless realms are limitless space, Akashanabtyayatana, limitless consciousness, vijqanabtyayatana
nothing whatsoever, Akimchanabtyayatana and neither perception nor non-perception, naivasamjqasamjqayatana.
These peaks of samsara, depend on former attainment of the formless samadhis. They are in the place
where one dies. Thus, uniting the aspects of vessel and essence, as explained, this is called one world realm of
four continents.
A thousand of these, likewise surrounded by iron mountains as high as the place of the thirty-three gods,
is called a first thousand-fold world realm.
A thousand such realms, with surrounding mountains as high as the Para-nimitta-vashvartin realm is
called a middle-thousand world realm.
A thousand of those, with surrounding mountains as high as the special first dhyana realm, is called a
great three thousand fold world realm. In each of these worlds is shown a body like that of the supreme
nirmanakaya, performing the twelve deeds of a buddha that are not performed before or after. By its appearance,
these are called worlds of those to be tamed.
Other than that in the ten directions, are measureless other words, round, semi-circular, square, and of
other shapes, pervading to the limits of space. They also have immeasurable kinds of sentient beings above,
below, and on the same level.
Generally, in this universe of suffering, the times of arising, enduring, destruction, and vacuity are equal.
The first is the time of well-arising. Then there is the present time of well-remaining, from the time of the
coming of the tathagata Nampar Zikpa when all beings attain immeasurable lives to when Shakyamuni comes,
to the time when beings have lives of ten years. From the long ago time of the beginning lives each decrease by
200 years each. Then when they reach 100, they increase by one from 11 to 80,000 after Maitreya has come.
After 100, they diminish by 1, until reaching 10 years of life.
There are 80 such cycles of increase and decrease, 18 in the present kalpa; Among these, 995 buddhas
arise. Then from 200 years lives increase by one to measureless. When they go a little lower, after the buddha
called "Devoted" comes," all the deeds, lives and assembled retinues of former buddhas are brought into one, and
the same deeds and lives and assemblies arise. Beings not tamed by the former buddhas are tamed. The sound of
the three jewels is heard. This continues until even beings who had sundered the basis of discipline and
completely slandered virtue are liberated from samsara, and by the power vows to do so, these deeds are fully
accomplished. Until their nirvana the holy Dharma also remains that long.
The completely perfect third-thousand-fold universe's sentient beings, however many they were are
established in liberation. After their tenth year of life, that kalpa is entirely burned seven times by destroying fire,
to ashes. The fire lasts a day. Some sutras say seven days. Some say that one sun having the heat of seven
arises. In reality 700 times ten million suns will occur and, the universe will be annihilated and burned. The
ashes will be washed away by water, scattered by wind, and finally, having become a single space, it will be like
the former situation where nothing had yet been born. Know all dharmas to be like that.
Like this story of how the outer vessel and essence will be destroyed, the inner body too should be
viewed. Mind becomes the single first nature of mind. From within that the wind of ignorance and discursive
conceptualization are born. Because of that, by the karma of dwelling in samsara, by the condition of the karma
establishing the nature of water, from the semen and blood of the father and mother, the body is Mount Meru, the
eyes are the sun and moon, whose inner essential natures are white and red. The twelve ayatanas and dhatus are
the four continents and eight sub-continents. The eight consciousnesses are the seven mountains and the great
horizon, making eight altogether.
Supported by body, speech, and mind are the three main nadis, roma and kyangma to the left and right
and the central channel. With the support of the three gates, the three poisons, and the three kayas there are the
three realms. The nadis petals which are the five or six chakras are the five or six buddha families.
There are many distinct but similar realms, and within all these thousand-fold world systems appear
many joys and sorrows and so forth. Gathered together, they separate. Born, they die. Compounded, they are
destroyed.
When the time of death comes, the four external elements within which dwell the four inner elements, are
destroyed seven times by fire and once by water, eight altogether. Then the inner elements dissolve into the secret
elements, primordial luminosity, and everything becomes a single space.
When the four elements of the body have been gathered together, the emptying of prana nadi and bindu
are the seven destructions by fire. Transmigration of life is the one destruction by water. Cessation of the breath
is the final scattering by wind. The individual body disperses, finally becoming nothing at all like space, like
before the body was born. The Later Tantra of Vast Wisdom: says:
Ripened by the elements of air and water and fire,
The world of the body is engendered as the vessel.
Nadi and prana and the essence of the elements,
Existing as the pure nature of the four great elements,
Then abide in the form of changeless, radiant light.
Dwelling in space, if we transfer into purity,
All the different elements, nadi, prana, and essences,
That is like the world-destruction by seven fires.
The dissolving of the elements is the one destruction by water.
Cessation of coarse and subtle is the scattering by wind.
Entering into the light is the realm of spaciousness.
Then there is the primordial lord, enlightenment,
This is reaching the final goal of non-confusion.
We should examine further the subsiding of the worlds of individual sentient beings. The Spiritual
Letter says:
For seven days the mass of the earth, as well as the oceans,
Will blaze, and all these beings will be burned away.
If visible bodies all will be reduced to ashes,
Why even speak of those which are invisible.
That is how we should think about it.
5. Impermanence of the teachings of how the victorious ones and their sons attain nirvana.
Even the teachers who come into these worlds, the many tathagatas and their retinues, go beyond
suffering to nirvana. In considering how their teaching declines, there is the further teaching that our own lives
are impermanent:
Even the leaders of the world, the lord buddha sages,
Attended by their retinues of buddha sons,
Pratyekabuddhas and hosts of shravakas,
As within the clear sky the always-existing moon
Is encircled by its attending garland of stars and planets;
Though these shine with brilliance in their luminosity,
They also teach impermanence by passing into nirvana.
See too how the measureless sun of the precious teachings
Sets ever more from generation to generation.
Then why should our bodies, like plantain trees without a heart,
Or like a phantom castle, fail to be destroyed.
Teachers came to this world of suffering. Their forms were seen. Vipashyi, Ratnach_da, Vishvabhu,
Krakucchanda, Karakamuni, Dipamkara, and Shakyamuni, like the full moon rising on an autumn evening,
blazed with the brilliance of the major and minor marks. They were surrounded by hosts of stars as their retinue,
shravakas, bodhisattvas, pure ones, world protectors, and so on. Their bodies blazed with splendor. Their speech
was brilliant, and without meaningless chatter. Their spotless minds shone with their illumination. They were as
firm as vajra, having passed beyond suffering.
Other teachers, gradually declining, depend on the supreme being of the Shakyas. If all of them were
impermanent, how will my body, as insubstantial as a bubble, not be impermanent. The Shrine of
Impermanence says:
Ablaze with a thousand marks is the body of sugatagarbha.
If this is impermanent, established with merit a hundred times over,
Then, as unreliable as a breaking bubble,
How can, this, my body, not certainly be destroyed?
The one who is the benefit of sentient beings,
The Victorious One, the Sugata, passes like the sun,
The moon, the treasure of holy Dharma, is seen to set.
As for our goods, our retinues, and our enjoyments,
We should be ready to know that they are impermanent.
6. We are impermanent because our lives never wax but always wane.
If even a vajra-like body is impermanent, why depend on this body, as insubstantial as a plantain tree.
That is the instruction:
Therefore, though it is certain that we are going to die,
Of where and when and how there is no certainty.
Our life-span never waxing, is always on the wane,
Conditions of death are many, and those of living few,
Life has no time to waste, so keep right to the point.
From today onwards, what makes sense is to work with Dharma.
Just by being born, death is certain. The White Lotus of Holy Dharma says:
Wherever there is birth, death will be there too.
Wherever there is gathering, there is dissolution.
Though time is beginningless, everyone has died. The Good Marks Sutra says:
Who was ever known who might not die tomorrow?
Therefore this very day we should exert ourselves.
The Lord of Death and his considerable tribe,
Neither of the two, are any friends of ours.
Anywhere in the world, death is inevitable. Walking, standing, or whatever we are doing, we should be
ready, thinking, "Is it today that I will die?" The Sutra of the Good Army says:
Mountains or steep ravines, defiles or precipices,
At home or in the streets, or on the bank of a river.
Somewhere upon the earth will be my last abode.
This is something that is not to be divulged.
This completely removes my enjoyment of the world.
Because of conditions, the time of death too is uncertain. The scriptures say:
Some people die from choking on their food.
Others die from taking their medicines.
Why even say that beings have different conditions?
There is no certainty of the time of death.
Our life-spans never increase, but always grow shorter. Death is certain. The News of Impermanence,
says:
Like the rock of a pool that was cut by falling water,
There is no increase, but always only decrease.
Since all of us must enter on the path of death,
Who can rely upon this incidental life.
The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Day as well as night it never stays at all.
This life eternally fleeting is getting ever-shorter
Having gotten shorter, it will not then increase.
Why would one like me not be going to die?
Few conditions are required for death other than birth in a womb. Death is certain. The News of
Impermanence, says:
Though the conditions of death are a numerous multitude,
The conditions of our being born are very few.
Therefore since it is certain that we shall quickly die,
Let us keep the holy Dharma in our hearts.
7. How what seems external is inner impermanence
One's own mind is even more mortal than an ancient ruined city:
Sentient beings, like a bower gathered from the four elements
Are ornamented with moving thoughts like people inside.
Composite, their dharmas arise from conditions and are destroyed.
Since all is impermanent, like an ancient city,
Let us quickly perform the actions of holy Dharma.
That is the exhortation. Ruined cities that are now abandoned were once well-constructed and filled with
many beings. Later they became vacant. Look at this life as being like that. Kye ma'o! What is left of the
former youth and wealth of these samsaric beings? Only the people's names remain. Their adornments
destroyed, bones are all that is left of these beings who once emanated their various discursive thoughts.
Like this, our bodies, these bowers collected from the four elements, are now beautiful with clothing and
ornaments. What people will later call by our names is our bones. "That's how it is," we should think from our
hearts. The Spiritual Letter says:
As we near the finish of the body, we glimpse its bleak end. At last its foul essence is not there
at all. It is worn out, decomposes, and is completely destroyed. Know that its dharmas will be torn
asunder.
8. An example of impermanence
Like being instantly killed in a dream in which we have enjoyed celestial bliss for a long time, at that
time:
As the flame of a lamp that has been caught in a sandstorm
Flickers and is not steady, even for a moment,
When suddenly we are struck by the fierce conditions of death,
We shall not endure, but certainly will die.
Therefore, practice the holy Dharma right away.
A lamp may endure a soft breeze rising from the hearth, but is quickly blown out when a strong wind
arises. Our lives, like such a flickering lamp, are agitated by the incessant, soft wind of day and night. When we
have grown old, death gives no respite, and as if by a fierce wind, we will be quickly blown away by conditions of
illness or harm. Think about this being certain. The Letter to Students says:
Like the tongue of flame of a lamp,
Blown away by a mighty wind
This tiny moment of life,
Has no reliance at all.
9. All is impermanent and must be left behind.
Moreover, as for thinking of impermanence; because, having left everything behind, we must go:
Attendants, pleasures, friends and relatives,
Youth and beauty, power and social rank--
We have to leave alone, abandoning them all,
Followed by black and white karma, until they both are emptied.
Then there is no refuge other than the Dharma.
Why should we not exert ourselves to go beyond them?
At the time of death, none of the appearances of this life will be of any use to us. Only the Dharma will
be our refuge from the execution of the karma of our virtue and vice. About this the Sutra of Instructions to the
King says:
The time approaches when the king will go,
Your cherished pleasures, friends and relatives
Will not follow where you must go then.
As for kings, wherever they may go,
Karma follows after like a shadow.
The Sutra requested by Shridatta , says
By karmic confusion we are made to seek enjoyments
We are also distracted by our children and spouses.
By that we shall experience suffering alone.
They will do us no good at our appointed time.
Our beloved parents, siblings, children, and spouses,
Servants, wealth, and crowds of friends and relatives,
Will not travel with us when we go to death.
Karma will be an only child at that time.
At that time those who have gathered powerful bad karma will seem to be surrounded by those whom
they have killed, and the minions of the Lord of Death will seem to lead them away with a noose. The
Bodhicharyavatara says:
If this is the day when a man is being led
To a place where he will have a limb cut off,
With dry mouth, blood-shot eyes, and such,
He seems quite otherwise than he was formerly.
When the utterly terrifying messengers of the Lord of Death
Having a form of flesh, seize us bodily.
How badly will we be stricken with the illness of great fear?
What need is there to say how terrible that will be?
Who is the sahdu that can be our guardian
One who is able to guard us from such frights as these, Our flesh will crawl with panic, and with staring eyes,
We shall search for protectors in the four directions.
Having seen that in the four directions there are none,
We shall be enveloped in complete despair.
Then it will be too late to think about Dharma. It will be like criminals looking for a refuge as they are
given into the hands of their executioners. From now on we had better remember that. The same text says:
Even if we truly abandon laziness,
Then it is too late. Then what could we do?
After the Lord of Death has suddenly appeared,
We shall think, "Oh no, all is surely lost."
Thus:
The three jewels and the virtue of Dharma are a refuge
For those who have supplicated for this spotless gift.
For those besides such beings, though they have appropriate virtue,
Even our father and mother will be no refuge to us,
Nor will a host of friends, and wealth and beautiful youth.
All such refuges will sink into samsara.
We should give over our bodies joyfully to the buddhas,
And likewise entrust to them our lives and our enjoyments.
Other than the three jewels, there is no refuge at all
On which we can rely while we are sentient beings.
10. The impermanence of the three times
Samsaric existence and the being of ourselves and hosts of others are all more impermanent than we think:
Think of the existence of former and later worlds.
Countless former generations have passed away.
Also most of the beings of the present world
Certainly will not last another hundred years.
Those of the future will follow in a similar way.
Young and old are equal in their lot of passing away.
Because we too will not transcend this common nature,
Thinking that death is certain, let us practice Dharma.
Our existence was primordially good and pure, but think of the other spheres of apparent being to which
we will later transmigrate. Look and see whether the people who lived a hundred years ago are still embodied.
We who are now human beings a hundred years from now will be only names. The Shrine of Telling the Reason
Why says:
A person who just for a night
Entered into a womb,
Would suffer tremendous harm.
Such going is irreversible.
In the morning one would see
Many different beings.
By evening some would be gone.
Of the many one would see later
The next morning more would be gone.
Numerous men and women
Die even in their youth.
Why are the young so cheerful,
So confident they will thrive?
Some will die in the womb.
Some the day they are born.
Some will be snatched away,
In unexpected departures.
Some will die old, some young
But one by one they will go,
Like fruit that ripens and falls.
11. The impermanence of the three levels
Moreover:
Within the three levels from Hell up to the peak of samsara,
There is no liberation from the Lord of Death.
All is impermanent, changing, and essenceless.
Nothing stable, and things roll along like a wagon wheel.
Particularly the human world has many afflictions.
Being a place of harm by sickness and by dvns,
By fires and falls and weapons; by poison and wild beasts.
By kings and enemies, by robbers and the like,
We will be ravished of life and our wealth will be destroyed.
There are no beings anywhere in the six realms, for whom death does not establish itself. We should
recall that none of the six kinds of beings in the three levels transcend death. The Sutra on Teachings that are the
Bases of Discipline says:
Someone who is born without death being established
Such a one does not exist within this world.
Nor are there any in the air or in the oceans.
There are none who live among the tallest mountains.
When we die, as soon as we lose our bodies, this mind by its former karma undergoes rounds of
samsaric existence in many worlds. The Vast Play says:
Beings, by of the power of samsaric ignorance,
In divine and human paths, and those of the lower realms,
Are tumbled in samsara as five kinds of ignorant beings .
For example, as a pot is turned upon a wheel.
Baited with fine and pleasant forms and ravishing sounds,
Sweet fragrances, delicious tastes, and blissful touch,
The snare of evil times always traps these beings
For example, like a monkey snared in a hunter's net.
Many in the human realm are afflicted with leprosy, contagion, disorders of prana and bile, and other
diseases. There are many injuries from birds, rakshasas, dakinis, geks and dvns. Kings, enemies, savages,
dissipation of the skandhas, and so forth end hundreds of lives. These contend with the Lord of Beings for our
body and life. Since we die without respite, we should try to practice the holy Dharma. The Collection of
Precious Qualities says:
With the many harmful spirits and diseases of the world,
Peace is a truly kind and beneficial gift.
12. Instantaneous Impermanence
Not only do we die of such afflictions, but even if we have no afflictions, the life of sentient beings is
passing away:
Even with no afflictions, the life of beings is passing.
Day and night, with the passing of every moment or instant,
It is always approaching the land of the Lord of Death.
As over waterfalls, water flows into the ocean,
Or far to the west the sun declines until it sets.
Even though there are lives where someone can say, "I have not been harmed by incidental affliction,"
and though there are teachings that extend life by appropriate food and medicines and so forth, in the end it is of
no use--we have to enter death. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Though seemingly today, I am without any illness,
Even if I have food and am without affliction
This life is still no more than an illusory instant,
This body is no more than a momentary reflection.
About its not lasting for even a moment, the Pinnacle of Precious Gathering says:
It was said by Subhuti, "The life of beings is like a waterfall.
The Sutra on Teachings that are the Bases of Discipline says:
Waterfalls descend in rivers to the sea
The sun and moon sink down behind the western mountains.
Day and night tick off their fragmentary instants.
Like these the life of beings must pass and disappear.
13. The impermanence of the conditions and time of our existence:
Having completed life's conditions, such as food,
As sure as taking poison, will bring occasions of suffering.
With so many contrary conditions that do us harm,
How can this completion fail to be destroyed?
All of it must turn into a cause of death.
Never knowing how or when or where we die,
We have been seduced into futility.
Therefore, abandoning the dharmas of this world,
Let us turn to genuine practice from the heart,
Attaining the Dharma teaching of impermanence and death.
Though food is necessary for life, it is also a condition of sickness. Though it appears to be temporarily
beneficial, essentially it is an inevitable establisher of harm.
Even beneficial purification with baths and medicine leads to sickness, not to mention life being cut off by
damage that actively opposes it. Since the conditions of death are changelessly many, let us consider the
approach of death. Moreover, as above, whoever lives will die. Only when and how are uncertain. We cannot
even be sure that we will not die today. And even if we could, the Bodhicharyavatara says:
"At least today I will not die," I say.
What reason is there to rejoice in that?
For still, the time when I become a non-existence
Will doubtless come to pass, in any case.
C. The three instructions of striving
1. The instruction to practice at this favorable time of having the guru and oral instructions.
At this auspicious time of completely attaining the free and well-favored human body, we should liberate
ourselves from samsara:
If, having attained the ship of being free and well-favored,
Whose captain is the oral instructions of the guru,
If we do not strive to cross the river of suffering,
But stare at it fascinated, until there is no choice,
At last we shall fall in, and so be swept away.
In the ship of external freedom and favor, having the holy guru as our guide, if we think we do not need
to work with the tradition of Dharma established by the Buddha Bhagavat, we are much deceived. The Letter to
Students says:
Whoever, attains the path of Dharma of the Sages,
The tradition like a great ship, and throws it away again,
Will whirl like a giddy dancer in the ocean of samsara.
A mind that thinks that joy is certain is deceived.
2. The exhortation truly to make an effort from our hearts:
This is because if we do not try, we will not be liberated.
While we have this precious vessel praised by the Teacher,
Which offers an end to evil and attainment of what is pure,
If we will not receive the wealth of the two benefits
That for ourselves and also that for other beings,
We only chain ourselves in the prison of samsara.
Those with the support, these freedoms, who do not practice the holy Dharma that benefits self and
others will be bound forever in the noose of samsara. Those who use their leisure to turn back samsara, will
establish the liberation of holy Dharma. Urging practice, the Letter to Students says:
Whoever has the best gifts of the ocean of arising
Also plants the good seed of supreme enlightenment.
Its virtues are better than those of a wish-fulfilling gem.
Whoever has human birth, though lacking the fruition,
Having the power of mind attained by human beings
Should rely on the sugata path, which is the guide of beings.
Such a path is not attained by gods and nagas,
By sky-soarers, kinnaras or serpent gods.
Having attained humanity, so hard to gain,
Whoever really thinks about the worth of that
Will practice very hard with the greatest diligence.
3. The motivating power of compassion
Third, for the human beings who have been so well-urged, there is also the motivating power of
compassion. These words have been spoken so that we can protect beings. How can we not hold this in our
hearts? Therefore, our aspiration to peace is always motivated by the guiding power of compassion.
Kye ma! As if we had been chained to solid rock,
Thinking mostly of this world, our sorrow grows.
Not realizing what was taught; not understanding the teachings,
Even though our day of death may be tomorrow,
We fixate our lives as being long and permanent.
Not grieving at samsara, with no speck of renunciation,
We are consciously proud and knowingly confused.
While we are so distracted, the rain of the kleshas falls.
How can we ever be of use to sentient beings.
Kye ma! Sentient beings have been told how things are, but with a fool's intelligence, they do not
comprehend the details of the symbols and the means of practice. Really having very little freedom to follow
them, they will never realize them. They do not understand the explanations.
Some, even while they are being urged to get rid of the appearances of this world right away, are actually
attached to keeping them, motivated only by the actions of this world. Their karmas and kleshas blaze like a fire,
and they are far from happiness.
Others with the fire of aggression burning within them are jealous of others. They abuse them in many
ways, provoking faults, spreading bad rumors, and belittling them.
Some, no matter how many sufferings torment and oppress them, are not saddened by samsara and do
never experience the least particle of renunciation.
Some, who have heard just a little, dispute and condemn others because of pride and arrogance, emanating a
thousand tongues of klesha flames in the ten directions. Dispensing with the natural goodness of their being, they
burn up anything pure. As they break vows and samayas day and night, there falls a rain of evil. When
we see this, sometimes the thought arises that we should give up and just try to practice profound samadhi alone
in peaceful forests, with the intent of personal enlightenment. But for the most part, the powerful force of
compassion produces the joyful thought, "Let's get enlightened!" The following are verses on this highest of
aspirations.
Those who are in the ten directions of the world,
As many sentient beings as may be in existence,
By my merit may all of them gain happiness,
And may they all be free from any suffering.
Those who are sickly and those whose lives will be cut short,
May they have the good fortune and auspiciousness
Of lives that are long and happy, without attacks of sickness.
May those condemned to being poor and hungry beggars
Have abundant food and drink, and ample wealth.
May all in fear of bandits, savage ones, and kings,
Great abysses, water, fire, and other terrors,
Attain the happiness that is free from all such fear.
Whatever they wish for, may their wishes be established.
Because of always acting well and properly,
May they be liberated in enlightenment.
By a good Sakyong King may the whole earth be protected.
May his gentle kingdom widely spread and flourish.
May his ministers' Dharmic wishes be fulfilled.
May his servants always live in happiness.
May those who have the sufferings of the lower realms,
Be freed and have the happiness of the higher realms.
May those who have the sufferings of the higher realms,
Be peaceful and establish prosperity and bliss.
May sentient beings who dwell in the three realms of the world
All be happy in their minds and every thought.
Let no evil conceptions flash within their minds.
Day and night may they transcend them through the Dharma.
May there be good harvests in all the realms of beings
May they be free from every sickness and affliction.
May there be no strife and quarreling between them.
May they be happy, like the gods in heavenly realms.
May promoters of goodness be completely successful.
Those who want wealth and retinue, servants, and attendants,
May it be accomplished, just as they desire.
May merit and dominion increase for sentient beings.
May the Dharma increase for its renunciates.
For those who want virtue, may virtuous states of mind increase.
May life and auspicious fortune flourish and increase.
For those who practice dhyana, may samadhi and insight,
Higher perceptions, and miracle flourish and increase.
May there be the path and fruition of the Dharma.
May we come face to face with liberating wisdom.
Those who are tormented with pain and suffering,
May their minds be soothed, expanding with great joy.
May those who are idle and slothful, strive for enlightenment.
May those well-ornamented with the wealth of merit,
Those who have dhyana and discipline, never be separate
From all who need them in their fear and anxiety.
May the many children of the Victorious One
Have immeasurable body, life, and buddha activity.
May benefit for others be completely perfect.
May they time they remain on earth be very long.
If anyone at any time who depends on me,
May happiness and prosperity of such beings increase.
Those who have mastered the vinaya, knowing what is allowed,
May they be possessors of the seven aryan riches
Whether they praise or blame, or verbally disparage,
May all who see or hear, remember or contact me
Quickly cross the fearful ocean of samsara.
May those who even hear my name, because of that,
Be expelled from samsara in that very life.
Attaining bliss and liberated from samsara,
Let them be set firm as unsurpassable buddhas.
May I always, like the elements, earth and so forth,
Be a sustaining ground for the sake of sentient beings.
May everything that is beneficial be established.
May those who are poor and suffer setbacks in samsara,
Needlessly tormented in blazing tongues of flame,
Become a happy throng, completely liberated.
May they always try to benefit other beings.
May beings' sufferings serve to ripen them for me.
Whatever merit I have, may it ripen sentient beings.
By any virtuous mental power I may have,
May beings attain to bliss and purification of suffering.
May suffering be unseen, even in their dreams.
May they attain an ocean of bliss and happiness.
Pervading the space of the sky in all the ten directions
As many buddhas and sentient beings as there may be,
May they be associated with happiness.
May they be wealthy and prosperous, because of what I do.
Throughout the ten directions, for all who hear my name,
May there fall a rain of all that is desired.
Making offerings to buddhas and other sentient beings,
May sentient beings of the six realms and ten directions
No more be surpassed by any victorious ones.
May I completely liberate every one of them.
May the endless ocean of samsara be empty.
Sukhavati, totally beautified by ornaments of light, the precious source of all beings, is a universe
filling the whole of space, established from clouds of pure happiness. By grasping this white yak tail scepter or
jeweled umbrella, all the obscuring torment of the three levels is cleared away.
In this undisturbed water, may the gradually blossoming lotus of the victorious ones be planted. May
pleasant and delightful divine maidens, their heads adorned with fragrant lotus garlands, playing on a platform
with water birds, lovingly caress the lotus anthers. By these teachings may human hearts be greatly exalted,
floating in the water of explanation emanating as it does in the pure lands.
Free from the harm of the kleshas, completely filled with samadhi, may those excellent ones help all
sentient beings cross over.
Like the undefiled young sun, whose eye is characterized by an excellent red light, wreathed in variegated
stars. Becoming amrita for beings, their eyes shine more excellently than the brilliantly blazing light of Bhrama.
May the vast appearance of these radiant masters, revealed as great beings adorned with the mandala of the major
and minor marks, fill the whole of space.
May all beings effortlessly reach that field, the supreme wealth of trikaya, the cloudless path of the sun
and moon, free from even an atom of the nirvana of lower people.
Without duality of one and many, in uncompounded, primordial existence incomprehensible to thought,
the spontaneous presence of peace, in the field of Samantabhadra may the purified minds of all beings heal their
weariness. May they reach the space of the dhatu beyond wide and narrow, high and low, bias and partiality,
concept and thought.
There may they remain without sadness and weariness, with excellent thoughts, exerting themselves to
benefit self and others among the rocky mountains.
Urged on by the intention of benefit, one can hardly not be sad at the Dharma teachings of
impermanence. For those with a mind that always grasps samsara and never turns back, teaching Dharma is like
addressing a lump of stone or an animal. The Instruction on Impermanence says:
Like me you too will die.
And:
There is no doubt about it.
Kye 'ud! I am an animal.
D. The final summary
There are two parts.
1. How to think of impermanence in order to cross over from samsara.
Now the final summary teaches of the great exhortation to meditate and work until samsara is gone:
Whoever truly wishes to cross the ocean of evil
And establish the wondrously risen excellent qualities,
Now should contemplate the certainty of death.
Meditate day and night on impermanence alone.
Again and again arouse renunciation and sorrow.
Whether going, staying, eating, sleeping, arising, walking, talking, or seeing a crowd of many people;
and whether staying in villages, valleys, or monasteries, always meditate on impermanence. Whatever we see,
hear, and remember has the nature of impermanence, and the marks of impermanence. Remember the exhortation
of impermanence. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Always, day and night, I should think of this alone.
If we do not think about it, what's the problem? Having come into the power of this life alone, there will
be ambition, love of fame, desire, hatred, laziness, hoarding, indolence, cantankerousness and sometimes the
Dharma's not arising. We will not quickly be liberated from samsara. We do not have enough time for ordinary
tasks, let alone the liberation of enlightenment.
Strive with a long and continuous effort until buddhahood is attained. Dipamkara, Shakyamuni, and so
forth were at first sentient beings like us. But by their exertion, they became Buddhas. Now we are the ones
wandering in samsara. Even though countless former buddhas have come, we have not been healed by their
realization of enlightenment.
Thinking that by our own karma, we will wander limitlessly in samsara, by now we should have been led
to complete their path of enlightenment. Thinking that this life is impermanent, like a borrowed moment or
instant, we should try to practice the Dharma. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
If I do not make an effort from now on
I will simply go ever lower and lower still.
Though countless former Buddhas have come throughout the past,
Having the purpose of benefit for all sentient beings,
I, because of my own faults and shortcomings,
Was not within the scope of their healing ministrations.
If from this time on, I still act like that,
Again and again, as it has been before,
I will die and have to go to the lower realms,
Being cut in pieces and suffering other tortures.
2. The Benefits of the Teachings
If we meditate day and night only on impermanence and death, in a short time we will accumulate a
measureless accumulation of virtues. Then because of that,
Thus goodness and benefit will surely be established.
Striving with fierce energy to establish them,
The mind of this life will be abandoned and cast away.
The confusion of fixating egohood will be destroyed.
In brief, establish all the excellent qualities.
Restrict the mind to the root of all dharmas, impermanence.
This will be the cause of holy liberation,
Bringing us the end of everything that is evil.
Death is certain, Thus our own death is certain. When the smoke of thinking, ceaselessly "Will we have
even tomorrow," continually arises, the blazing fire of exertion in Dharma will also naturally arise; and so we will
be led to the path of this and later benefits.
When appearances of this life are seen not always to have power, mind does not desire, be contentious,
quarrel, grasp maliciously, be angry, harm others, and naturally leaves behind all afflictions. Pride and ego
grasping cannot occur, and by the rising of the extraordinary, all is harmonious and pleasant. Since we know that
wealth, retinue, and all relatives and companions are impermanent, desire and attachment to them will not arise.
When through these relatives and companions other harms or benefits arise, whatever joys and sorrows
occur, no desire or aggression will arise. When these die or are separated from us, or even if we have nothing, the
suffering of unhappiness will not arise. Wherever we go in the world, we will not return to the karma of desire
and attachment.
Whatever suitable and unsuitable conditions arise, the individual marks of desire, aggression, and the
grasping of attachment will not arise. Day and night will pass in happiness. Having come to the path of Dharma,
we will fulfill our vows and difficult practices. Our activities will be spotlessly pure, unobscured by
transgressions. Working with the Dharmic activities of the path, we shall accumulate the two accumulations a
hundred times over.
Since our conduct will not be mixed with evil deeds, there will be no regret for anything we do. A
special faith, compassion, and renunciation will newly arise. The Buddha and all the bodhisattvas will take care
of us. Men and non-men will have no opportunity to harm us, and the gods of Abhirati will keep us within the
whiteness of virtue. We will sleep in happiness, rise in happiness, go in happiness, walk in happiness, possess
happiness, and live happy lives.
The higher worlds of the celestial realms will arise. We shall see the Sugata and his children. We shall
hear the good Dharma. We shall meditate on the good path. We shall attain the good realm of Sukhavati. The
Sutra on Teachings that are the Bases of Discipline says:
Those who act with pure conduct
And meditate well on the path,
Will not suffer in dying,
As if freed from a burning house.
These and limitless other virtues will be attained.
E. Dedicating the merit.
Now the merits of well composing this are taught as a way for beings to attain blessings:
Thus by the amrita of this auspicious news
From the resounding drums of the thunder-clouds of Dharma,
By the deep, melodious speech of beneficial instructions,
May the weary nature of the minds of beings
Unhinged by the kleshas and fixated thoughts of permanence,
Be released this very day from all its weariness.
In benefit-producing white light, to the sound of divine drums, from the swelling ocean of good
teachings, emerge water dragons of instruction with gaping mouths. For beings exhausted by samsara, the
turbulent extremes of ever-grasping mind are completely pacified. By the primordial lord who draws breath in
enjoyment of bliss and happiness in his excellent house adorned by the rays of the sun, may all weariness be
eased.
Beings are distracted, as if they were in a dream.
Gathering and dispersing, dharmas are hollow and empty.
Though travelling to a market, companions match our path,
They like impermanent dharmas soon will go their own way.
Like an flash of lightning among the autumn clouds,
The life of beings hurtles by like a waterfall.
Dharmas are impermanent with no stability.
From today let us realize that with certainty.
Things and property and much collected wealth,
Along with any fame and glory we possess,
Are fickle dharmas. Mind can never rely on them.
Let us know their nature of the four extremes.
III. The Sufferings of Samsara
There are four parts:
A. The general explanation of the nature of suffering
B. The extended explanation of the particulars
C. The appropriateness of thinking about the sufferings of samsara
D. The dedication of merit
A. The general explanation of the nature of suffering
There are eight parts.
1. The brief teaching of suffering.
After realizing the impermanence of dharmas, is the teaching of the suffering intrinsic to samsara. Anything
one says about it falls short of the truth.
For those among the dharmas of the three realms of samsara,
Unremittingly changeable, there are the extremest sufferings.
With sufferings of suffering, change, and composite nature,
All beings of its six habitations live in extreme anxiety
The Sutra of Instructions to the King says:
O great king, this samsara is change. This samsara is impermanence. This samsara is suffering.
The three kinds of suffering are the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and the sufferings of the
composite. By these the six kinds of sentient beings struggle and sink in the ocean of samsara.
2. The examples of suffering.
By these verses the examples of how the kleshas are produced are explained:
Like some person who is thrown into a fire,
Or attacked by a ravening horde of savage men or beasts,
Or imprisoned by some king, just like an animal,
With successive waves of suffering like the Unremitting Hell And having no chance of escape, our sorrows
only increase.
Thus as the assembled faculties of sentient beings are not purified of former suffering, it will oppress them later.
Unbearable, it is without measure or limit. The Jewel Mala says:
Space in all the directions, earth, water, fire, and air,
Just as they are limitless, so are beings' sufferings.
They rise again and again, as waves rise in the ocean.
They are like always having to live in terror and fear
With vicious beasts of prey and cruel savages.
Like the dungeon of a king, getting free is difficult.
3. The example of being seduced by desire.
Though all sentient beings want to find happiness and be free from suffering:
One may wish to find bliss, and be separated from suffering.
But suffering strikes us, acting as both cause and effect.
Like a moth who is attracted by the flame of a lamp
Enticed by grasping, desirous of his wished-for object,
Or like deer, bees, and elephants,
Enticed by sound or smell or else by taste, or touch,
Beings are seduced by desire for the five objects of sense.
See how they never find bliss, but only suffering.
By the obscuring power of accepting and rejecting, though we may want powerful means of entering into the
fruition, we do not produce the cause. How can we be free from accepting and rejecting? Those who want happiness
should practice the cause, the virtuous path. We want to leave suffering behind, yet wholeheartedly enter into its cause,
non-virtue. We practice all the causes of suffering, the five klesha-poisons, and the three chief kleshas. We are rushing to
practice the source of all suffering, whose fruition is suffering itself, and experience of its different varieties. Still we just
accept this and cannot even be ashamed of it. This is like a thief who is punished by having his hands cut of, but still robs
us again. This time his punishment is having his head cut off. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 1.28
We think we have the intention of getting rid of suffering,
Instead we run right to that very suffering.
Though we want happiness, because of ignorance,
We conquer our own happiness like an enemy
How do we conquer it? By the force of desire and attachment to the five desirables, the power of the kleshas
increases, and we enter into suffering.
A moth desiring the form of a lamp's light, is burned when it is reached. Deer are killed because they listen to
the sound of a flute. Bees who suck flowers, which are the source of nectar, get tangled when they close to them.
Fishermen entice fish by the taste of food on the point of a hook. Elephants wanting to feel cool, go into lakes and die. A
song in the Dohakosha:
By the mudra of samsara all beings are seduced.
Also it says there:
Kye ho! The stupid are wounded by arrows it is said.
View them as having been enticed like gullible deer.
They are like fish and butterflies, elephants and bees,
The kleshas arise from the five sense-objects, and by their force we wander endlessly in samsara. This is more to
be feared than poison, it is taught. The Letter to Students says:
Objects and poison alike are pleasant when first experienced.
Objects and poison alike are unbearably harsh when ripe.
Objects and poison alike are imbibed because of ignorance.
Objects and poison alike are potent and hard to reverse.
Poison and objects, imputed with certainty by the mind,
Both do harm, but poison may simply be avoided
But injuries by objects are not so easily shunned.
Poison is only poisonous in a sentient being
Our feelings regarding objects are poisonous anywhere.
Poison when mixed with other poison is neutralized.
Thus supreme secret mantra is properly used as a cure.
Poison skillfully used is of benefit to man.
However, the great poison, objects, never will be so.
4. How beings are tormented in successive births within the six realms of beings
These samsaric beings whirl about with each other and suffer:
For gods, asuras, Hell beings, and the hungry ghosts,
For humans and animals, all beings of the six realms,
Like the chain of buckets on a water wheel,
Limitless sufferings follow each other in train.
The Precious Mala says:
Its three paths have no beginning, no middle and no end.
Like the circle that is made by whirling a fire-brand.
Mutual causes become the mandala of samsara.
5. How enemies, friends, and relatives are uncertain
Thus when we are whirled within samsara:
In the course of the generations, every sentient being
Has carried the burden of being our friend and our enemy.
Also they have been neither, or something between the two.
The number of times that they have done us right or wrong
Or benefit and harm transcends enumeration.
Often a father becomes a mother and she a sister,
And she again a brother, lost in uncertainty.
We can never be sure if our friends will change to enemies
In all the generations from beginningless time a particular sentient being will have been the father of all the
sentient beings in the three realms, and so forth. The number of times that it will have been their father, mother, and
intimate cannot be counted. The Spiritual Letter says:
By desiring what is fine, deprivation, and death
Sickness, age, and so forth, are sources of many sufferings,
Samsara indeed is a treasury of every sorrow.
6. How we suffer in countless births:
If thus we think of the karmic succession in this world,
Our sorrow should increase to its ultimate extreme.
If all our previous bodies, when we were born as ants,
Were gathered up together and piled into a heap,
Its height would surpass Mount Meru, with its four precious slopes.
The tears we have wept would surpass the four oceans in their volume.
When we have been a Hell being or a hungry ghost,
The amount of molten copper that we have had to drink,
And the foul volume of pus and blood and excrement,
Is unmatched by the flowing rivers to the limits of the directions.
Our other sufferings were as limitless as the sky.
The number of time our head and limbs have been cut off,
Because of desire, is unmatched by the atoms of the world.
The Resting in Closely-attentive Mindfulness, says:
O monks, be sorrowful within the realm of samsara. Why? While we were being whirled
about in beginningless samsara, we were born as ants. If their discarded bodies were brought together
in one place, and made into a heap, it would be taller than Mount Meru. We have wept more tears
than there is water in the four oceans. The countless immeasurable number of times we have become
Hell beings and pretas, we have drunk more seething molten copper, blood, urine, pus, and mucus than
there is water in the four great rivers that flow down to the ocean. Because of desires, the number of
times that our head, eyes, and major and minor limbs have been cut off equals the number of atoms of
earth, water, air, and fire in as many worlds as there are grains of sand of the river Ganges.
The Spiritual Letter says:
More than the four oceans is the milk that we have drunk.
More than the retinue of existing individuals,
The heap of all our bones would be bigger than a mountain
If juniper berries were as many as our mothers,
The earth would not suffice for such a number of them.
7. How, even if we attain the fruition of Bhrama and so forth, we will ultimately suffer.
Moreover, when we course within samsara, here is what happens:
Charnel vampire-ghouls, and demonic mountain spirits,
Beasts and snakes, and various things that creep and crawl
Experience the countless pains and pleasures of this realm.
Bhrama and Indra, and adepts of dhyanas formed and formless
Defending their territory and seven precious possessions
Human rulers, whatever splendor and wealth they gained,
Fell to the lower realms, suffering more and more.
In this time of samsaric succession, there are no realms of earth, water, mountains, islands, and space, where we
have not been. Countless times we have been gods, nagas, rakshasas, gandharvas, kimbhandas, persons who
experienced the sufferings of all the six lokas at once, Bhrama, and Indra, and world-ruling kings. There is no joy and
sorrow of any of these that we have not experienced. Again, we have been whirled down to the lower realms and lived
among their extreme sorrows. The Letter to Students says:
What being exists that we have not been a hundred times?
What joy is there that we have not savored many times?
What glories, like splendid white yak tails, have we not obtained?
Yet whatever we have gained, our desires only increase.
There is no river upon whose banks we never lived.
There is no country's region where we have never lived.
There is no direction where we have never lived.
And yet the difficult power of our desire increases.
There is no sorrow that was not ours formerly many times.
Nothing could satisfy beings that we have not desired.
There is no sentient being that we have not engendered
But whatever we have in samsara, we are not free of desire.
Completely grasping at birth these widely meandering beings
Are rolling on the ground in ecstasy and sorrow.
There is no being with whom we have not been intimate.
8. Suffering due to the nature of change.
These others who did badly in the mouth of samsara are worthy of further thought:
Having enjoyed unlimited wealth within this life
These beings of exalted station, after they departed,
Were stricken with poverty or even made to be servants.
As wealth in a dream is gone as soon as we awake,
If we thoroughly think of the sufferings of change,
Arising from the impermanence of all our joy and sorrow,
Our sorrow increases, building ever more and more.
Therefore beings within the three realms' habitations,
Without desire for samsara's pleasures, should get enlightened.
So it is for Indra, the king of the gods, and Bhrama, the paranimitavashavartin gods, and those who have attained
happiness among human beings. When they exhaust the fruition of their former virtuous karma Bhrama, Indra,
chakravartins, gods, including samadhi gods and formless gods, and ordinary people who had a great fruition, by
the power of former karma, death, and transmigration, must experience many afflictions, going to the lower
realms and so forth. The Sutra on Renunciation says:
When from their joyful and excellent existences
Lion-like lords of beings have to die and transmigrate.
The gods will speak to them, saying words like these:
This care-free life must be completely left behind.
The joys of the gods, however many they may be,
All of these arose from the cause of our good karma.
Now by these pleasant actions that you have in mind
All your collected virtue is totally exhausted.
Now, experiencing suffering from non-virtue that you have,
You will fall into the suffering of the lower realms.
Extensive manifestations of this kind will arise. Also the Sutra on Teachings that are the Bases of Discipline
says:
Wealth in a dream with houses and abundant enjoyments, Dreaming that one has been made a lord of
gods and men
Becomes quite non-existent as soon as we awake.
It is like that. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 2.35
Like the experiences that we have in our dreams
Whatever may be the sorts of things that one enjoys
These become nothing more than objects of memory.
They all are gone. We do not see them any more.
When one transfers between lives, this also happens. The Spiritual Letter:
Indra who is worthy of homage from the world,
By power of his karma, falls back upon the earth.
Even after becoming universal monarchs,
Lords of the world are born again as others' servants.
Breasts and buttocks of celestial courtesans,
Are delightful to fondle, but after time has past,
Destined to be sausage in the Lord of Hell's machines,
Such lovers will be attended by knowledge hard to bear.
The touch of their shapely legs, is happily endured,
But having lived with tremendous joy for a very long time
Again in Hells of biting flames and rotten corpses
An equal result of unbearable pain will be produced.
After the joyful attentions of celestial maidens,
After this life of pleasure in exquisite groves,
By a forest of trees, with leaves like swords and daggers
Ones arms and legs and nose and ears will be cut to pieces.
Having lived in a place with divine girls free to hand,
All with pretty faces and golden lotuses,
Again we shall be helpless in the rivers of Hell
Forced into scalding water, as hot gates block return.
Desire for the realm of the gods will be very great
But having attained the desireless bliss of Bhrama again,
Once more we will fuel the fires of the Avici Hell.
We shall be thrown into constant suffering with no gaps.
Attaining the sun and moon, the light of our personal bodies
Will shine with brilliance to the limits of the world.
Then again we shall come into dismal murky darkness,
Unable to see so much as our own hands and feet.
Thus, as for the merit of those who were criminals,
After the triple lamp of the Buddha's teaching appears,
They will go where the sun and moon have never shone,
They will pass into chaos, limitless endless darkness.
The three realms of desire, form, and the formless, are the cities of appearance, half-appearance, and non-
appearance. This is because they have coarse appearance, subtle appearance, and none at all. Those who are happy, not
desiring the path at all, are instructed to establish unsurpassable enlightenment. But being without the leisure to establish
merit, they must make an effort. The same text says:
If our hair or garments suddenly burst into flame
The first thing we would do is put them out again.
Then we would try to keep it from happening again.
There would be no priority that would be higher than that.
B. The extended explanation of the particulars
There are three parts:
1. The basis of confusion
There are two parts.
a. The basis of confusion in the three worlds.
Whatever sufferings exist, their basis of dependence is the inner three realms. These are body, speech, and
mind; or desire, form, and the formless:
In the cities of appearance, half-appearance and non-appearance
Tormented by composition, pain, and change,
The compositions of senses, mind, and consciousness
Are remorselessly turning mills of the objects of joy and sorrow,
Body composed of coarse things is the city of appearance. Speech, as appearance that is non-existent like an
echo, is the city of half-appearance. Mind, without the phenomena of the five gates and completely without things, is the
city of non-appearance. These are also called the realms of desire, form, and the formless. The Entering the Intention
says:
Body is the coarse, the desire realm. Speech is the subtle, the form realm. Mind is the very
subtle, the formless realm. Within these three cities lives the child of apparent true existence.
That child is explained as naturally-arising wisdom. The three gates are tormented by the three sufferings. By
the condition of conceptualizing everything, arising becomes experience of one confusion after another. How does
confusion arise? The objects of the six senses individually come forth by means of the powers of the six sense-
consciousnesses. By fixating these objects, there is continuous attachment to them as happiness, suffering, and neutrality.
These individually arising phenomena of form and so forth are called "consciousness." The first, coarse, general
phenomenal process of conscious is insight, rigpa, or mind, sem. When we analyze the particular kinds, there are
passion, aggression, and ignorance, a continual series of mental contents of one or another of these three kinds,
comprising "content-mind," yid. The Bodhisattvabhumi says:
The appearance of objects is known as consciousness
The first conceptualization of these is known as mind.
Subsequent particular analysis of these deals with the mental contents. This is content-mind. Mental contents
are also established by mind as having universal relationships, similarities or classes that exist among mental contents.
When objects are evaluated by insight, at first there is a generalized perception of nature. The aspect that does this is
mind. Then, by discriminating particular aspects, mental contents are individually designated conventionally. Because
this is our real object understanding, and except for such analysis, there is no other. The Precious Mala says:
If you ask about the objects that are seen by mind,
They are what is conventionally expressible.
Without the mental contents, mind cannot arise.
Not to maintain them as co-emergent is meaningless.
At the level of a sugata and the completely non-conceptual natural state, apparent objects are individually
discriminated by insight, but there is no mind, content mind, or consciousness. This is because there is no grasping of
dualistic appearance, or awareness of a grasped object by a fixating mind. The Praise of Vajra of Mind says:
Sentient beings, who have mind, content-mind, and consciousness, since they are accustomed to
grasping and fixation, conceptualize them. Therefore, they do not have non-conceptual wisdom.
Supreme wisdom is the mind, lo, that sees reality.
The Structure of the Three Jewels says:
Neither mind, content-mind, consciousness; nor samadhi which is free from these are discarded. The
secret mind of the sugata is incomprehensible by thought.
When form, sound, and so forth arise as the corresponding external phenomena, and the mind's insight
apprehends them, it is called consciousness, literally nampar phenomenal awareness shepa. Since these mental
productions appear to be objective phenomena, they are called nampar shepa. At the first time when we know objects, the
aspect of insight, that apprehends, "this," is mind. The analyzer of the distinctions that arise continuously connected to
that is content mind. After the instant of clarity when individual things first present themselves, the knowledge that
discriminates object awareness analyzes them. If it is attached to them as pleasant there is desire or passion. if as painful,
there is aggression. If there is neither, but attachment to "this," that is ignorance. Examples are, seeing a good woman
we once knew; seeing an enemy that once conquered us; and seeing a wall, water, a highway, a tree, and ordinary people,
toward which we have neither joy or sorrow. The Sutra on Teachings that are the Basis of Discipline says:
If we see amicable people, then we feel desire.
If harmful ones are present, our minds become aggressive.
For intermediate ones, our ignorance will increase,
In any case the gates of our faculties have been bound.
b. The basis of confusion in the eight consciousnesses
Now the ground of arising and divisions of these are extensively taught as follows:
Alaya consciousness, content mind, and then the five gates,
Gradually proliferate, one upon the other.
From that arise the cause and effect of samsaric suffering.
The root of samsara and suffering is ignorance,
Having the confusion of grasping and fixation.
By objects, conceptualization, and mind's habitual patterns,
By fixating "me" and "mine," samsara is established.
Here to distinguishes the different aspects, at the very time when awareness of individual objects arises,
without divisions of their vividness, mind which has insight of this is called the alaya-consciousness. Then the mind
that fixates that, that peacefully saves it, with much analysis of objects at its leisure and so forth, is content-mind. The
Sutra of the Ornament of Manjushri's wisdom says:
Mind is the alaya consciousness.
The "I" fixator is content-mind.
The eye-consciousness sees, when forms are seen, depending on the eye. Similarly depending on the ear there is
sound, depending on the nose there is smell, depending on the tongue taste, depending on the body touchables. These are
the five consciousnesses The arising of later knowledge from such former phenomena is called the ayatana. In Tibetan
this is kyeche, meaning increase or proliferation of what has arisen. The objects and awareness of these have
immeasurable conditions, and since these many and extensive aspects are not put aside, but "retained" this is called kham
or in Sanskrit dhatu.
From the object there is the arising of the seemingly supported perceiver-mind. From what is former, a
connection to the later arises, and dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their nature, occur. This is
interdependent arising. When the two minds of object and perceiver are combined, pleasure and suchlike phenomena are
felt and included in insight. By the condition of contact, this is called feeling. The particulars of these and other aspects
are beyond describing.
In brief, by the three poisons, arising from the three collections of objects, the senses, and the actions of concept
mind, come all motivating karmas. These karmas are unhappiness.
From patience and so forth freedom from the three poisons arises. This is the great happiness, the great bliss.
On the path of the ten virtues and so forth, prajqa and compassion are not fully accomplished. This is the path of
the lesser happiness. Accumulated by ignorant earthly beings, after the fruition of samsaric happiness is produced, it is
exhausted. This is happiness proportional to merit.
The enlightened happiness produced by completely finishing the path is happiness proportional to liberation.
By the three poisons there is universally arising unhappiness. The lower realms and whatever suffering there
may be are produced by this cause. Happiness proportional to merit grasps the glorious highlights of divine and human
happiness.
The happiness proportional to liberation is produced both by incidental highlights and ultimate true goodness.
The Precious Mala says:
As for passion, aggression, and ignorance
The karma produced by them is unhappiness.
As for non-passion, -aggression, and -ignorance,
The karma produced by them is happiness.
Unhappy karma is all suffering.
Happy karma is all the higher realms
And all the happiness of sentient beings
'Externally appearing things are like the things that appear to be other in a dream.' This means that grasping
involves habitual patterns of objects. These various appearances of pure and impure are confused existence. Habitual
patterns of reality are produced by the karma of bodily arising and also by the inner condition of not knowing suchness.
These are the shandhas, dhatus, ayatanas, and so forth. From them arise all the kleshas, and the suffering that is their
fruition, the support of the confusions of fixation.
Luminous, naturally-arisen wisdom is in essence empty, and by nature luminous. It is the source of the
unobstructed arising of various kinds of radiance. When we become attached to this as the individualizing characteristics
of grasping and fixation, insight arises as the habitual patterns of mind. The five or the three poisons arise. The root of
confusion is fixating on the "I" and ego. Because of that, the confused appearances of samsara arise like reflections,
dreams, or hairs drifting before the eyes. Moreover, fixation is fixated as "I", and grasped objects are fixated as "mine"
with an attitude like that of the owner of a house.
2. The manner of confusion,
There are two sections:
a. By knowing or not knowing what we are there are liberation or confusion.
Now the basis and way of confusion are extensively taught, as follows:
The changeless nature of mind, perfection, dharmakaya,
By ignorant fixation, takes on habits of false conception.
Involving confused appearance of impure relativity,
Dualistic appearance of objects as self and other,
Then come to be grasped as really being two.
Intrinsically this presents itself as limitless suffering.
When we have realized the ever-changeless nature of mind,
By the path of meditation on this unerring perfection,
We will properly reach the field of pure relativity.
Easing the weariness of the village of samsara.
Here three great doctrines of the yogachara tradition are taught. These are false conceptions, relativity, and the
perfectly established, in Sanskrit, parikalpita, paratantra, and parinishpanna.
There are two kinds of false conceptions, characteristics, and accountable false conceptions.
By characteristics, from someone's viewpoint something is conceptually imputed, though it is non-existent, such
as the horns of a rabbit or the alleged ego. This includes any bad doctrines and all the names and meanings of this and
that established from that that may be presented by such a mind.
What is this like? Some search for the real bodily existence of that to which the name "lion" is imputed, but do
not find it. Though the phenomenal meaning has been presented as "this," from mere arrogance, giving individual
characteristics without any real remembered mental object, they may say it is like "fire."
Accountable false conceptions are various aspects of the environment and inhabitants of the phenomenal world
arising from the viewpoint of confusion--joy and sorrow, the skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas. Because they really do not
exist, but only appear like a dream from the confused viewpoint of mind, they are called accountable false conceptions.
Though all these things are natureless, they appear from the viewpoint of confusion. Since they are exaggerations, they
are called parikalpita, or false conceptions, in Tibetan kun tak, literally all-imputation or all-labeling. The
Bodhisattvabhumi says:
As for the false conceptions of parikalpita
Though non-existent, are produced by the mind of confusion.
There are also two kinds of relativity, pure and impure. Pure relativity is the pure fields and the objects of the
pure seeing of the buddhas, appearances that arise of buddha fields, the seven precious things and divine palaces of pure
light. Some say that the relativity of yogachara tradition is unacceptable, since all such things are classified as personal
appearance. Such disputatious people have not seen this properly. This sort of relativity is not established by oneself
from personal habitual patterns of awareness. It is not like the phenomena reflected in a mirror, which are produced by
conditions.
Whether everything is included within personal appearance should be analyzed. Either mind is included within
mere appearance, or appearance is included within mind.
If it is like the first, at the time of mere appearance, there is no discernible boundary between phenomena that are
included and those that are not included. Therefore "included" is a mere word, having nothing to do with real
phenomena.
If it is like the second, how can this be suitable? Someone might say, "Since appearance arises from mind, it too
is mind."
Then a boy child that comes from a woman would also be a woman, but this is not so. Excrement comes from
the body, so it would be the body. This is clearly not the case.
Someone also might say, "Appearance is mind because it appears in mind."
Then form would be visual consciousness, because it appears in visual consciousness. Buddhas that appear to
erroneous sentient beings would be the minds of those beings. Fallaciously, these sentient beings with their erroneous
minds would be buddhas. Since sentient beings also appear to these buddhas, the whole realm of sentient beings would all
be buddhas. Moreover, this fault that spotless buddhas are also defiled sentient beings could never be abandoned. This is
because if buddhas were not mind, they could not arise at all.
If someone says, "Phenomena are mind," then what is really cause and fruition would be a single thing. if this
did not exist, neither could arise at all. Thus, an enemy and one's anger at the enemy would be the same single thing.
Therefore, without the enemy, there could be no anger at the enemy.
Also it is not proper to say, "phenomena are mind because they are produced by mind." Then the details of a
painting would be the painter, because the painter produced them.
How is it proper to maintain that external earth, stones, mountains, and rocks are mind? Admit that their arising
from the habitual patterns of mind is confused appearance. If this were not so, when a hundred people look at one vase,
the vase that is seen by them all would be their awareness, and all the hundred beings would be a single awareness. If this
is maintained, it would be proper reasoning that if one of them gets enlightened, they would all be enlightened. If one
went to the lower realms, they would all go there. If it is like these notions, sentient beings in the world like you and me
would not exist at all, since all that appears like that would be other than one's own mind. Moreover, it would not be
suitable that there were any other buddhas besides the single one Shakyamuni. This is because all objects seen by him
would be his awareness. If one maintains that, clearly he is us. These days many people fixate such traditions and
completely obscure the mahayana. From what they say it would follow that a huge body could be covered by one the
size of a lotus. A flower could have ear-rings. A gold face would be more than a mere ornament. An elephant would be
just the sound of trumpeting.
If you ask what are pure appearances, when it is proclaimed within proper reasoning that completely false
phenomena that are spotless are mind-only, that tradition says:
These appearances of oneself to oneself are one's own mind appearing to itself, but the apparent object
is not mind.
Many yogachara texts say:
As many things that appear, that many are mind.
But that is not so for apparent objects themselves.
Having habitual patterns from beginningless time,
We are shaggy, as it were, with hairs before the eyes.
Appearance and the apparent object are distinguished. Others may think, "The apparent object of a mountain is
a mountain!" but the clear appearances of fixation of mind arise in dependence on the faculty of sight. The objects we
directly encounter, the phenomena fixated by our minds, are private, personal appearances. Then when others
encounter the same mountain, that their apparent objects are the same as ours does not follow. Apparent objects are
fixations of what appears in sense perception in terms of the habitual patterns of former eye consciousness.
A mere abstraction, a mental object, a luminous appearance of what does not exist, vividly appears in the
mental sense. Therefore, even if appearances apprehended by the mind and the fixator of them, appearances of others and
the fixator of them are all mind, the object which arises for and is perceived by the mind
is classified as an apparent object. All the objects of the five gates appear even though they do not exist, like shaggy hairs
before the eyes, because of beginningless habitual patterns. Thus they become dualized. It may be asked, "Do you
therefore establish appearance and apparent object as different?
For you also they are two. This is because they exist externally to apparent mind, and because this is maintained
within the fixating mind. These are one within the mind, but are called "two."
It may be asked, "according to proper reasoning are they one? Here the apparent object caused by confused
habitual patterns and the appearance ascertained by fixation, while both do not exist, neither differs conventionally from
the phenomena confused by habitual patterns. Moreover, since there are not really two such objects, they are established
to be not-two in nature. For we who profess madhyamaka, if we analyze, not only the thing which is the apparent object,
but the appearance too is maintained not to be mind. {{217.5}} This is because mind is inner and does just so, not exist
externally and external appearance that arises within the individual senses is analyzed as being within the mind. If
appearances had an external aspect too, then peoples' consciousness would be two or more at the same time, or one's
consciousness would be a material thing. There would be many such fallacies.
Therefore, the fixator of appearance and non-appearance is mind, but appearance itself is not established as
mind. What is or is not the word "tail" is grasped by the listening consciousness, but listening consciousness itself is not
established as the word, "tail."
In brief, one's own mind, though seemingly externally projected does not really go outward, and therefore,
external phenomena really appear inwardly. However, external appearance is never internal mind. Why? Because what
appears does not exist. A variety of such things, white and red, arise.
For one who has diseased eyes due to a disorder of the phlegm
objects which are completely non-existent nevertheless appear, externally, internally and between. These are said to be
natureless or empty of essence. Neither what is established as mind and what is established as other than mind are
liberated from attachment to truly existent self-nature. In that respect they are indistinguishable. Some one may say,
"Isn't this assertion that there are external objects-things which are not directly known, like that of the shravaka
vaibhashika school?
It is not the same. The vaibhashikas proclaim that these objects are established to have individual characteristics
of material things. We, on the other hand, say that habitual patterns of confused appearance, appear to mind even though
what seems to be there is non-existent like a dream. This approach is not refuted by madhyamaka, and so it is suitable.
Someone may ask why what has been proclaimed by us is not refuted by the prasangika madhyamaka school.
Mere appearance is not refuted, but attachment to true existence is refuted. The teacher Nagarjuna says:
Thus though appearance itself is not to be refuted,
Eliminate thoughts that conceptualize this as truly existent.
{218.5}} The yogachara true-aspectarians proclaim that phenomena are mind. Both the true and false aspectarians assert
the refuted tenet that the absolute is truly established as self-insight, so how will they deny that confused appearances of
habitual patterns arise while they are non-existent and that classifications of existents are really entered into? This is
because these would be made into the classification of the relative at the same time.
Thus outer relativity and the relativity of mind or insight, arising after the former, its appearance depending
on other previous objects, must be analyzed in terms of inner patterns. If seeming appearance of before and after is
imputed, the name alone is the meaning, and they accord. If it is maintained to be other and different from what is
present, one's own insight cannot be established as a characteristic of something other, because the very assertion is
contradictory. This is not good reasoning. The former text says:
Thus all these various different kinds of appearances,
Because they seem to be phenomena that are other,
Are the impure relativity of grasping and fixation.
The pure is also said to be relativity,
But what becomes through external power is not pure.
This too is explained as appearing to be something other.
The perfectly established is changeless and true. This changeless, completely established nature without
confusion is the emptiness of dharmata, by nature intrinsically pure, without distinction of earlier and later. This
changeless perfectly established is the quintessential natural state. The empowerment of this is established as empty or as
threefold.
It is naturally empty of itself, other, and both. As for emptiness of itself, it appears as non-existence, like the
moon in water. Individual characteristics are abandoned, and divided aspects of self and other do not exist; but
spontaneously present dharmas are not put aside, there are both imputations of these and of the emptiness of their self-
nature.
Other emptiness is the other emptiness of not having or the other emptiness of accountables.
Emptiness of both self and other has both emptiness of accountables and emptiness of the individual
characteristics denoted by the words.
This luminous nature of mind, the nature, the dhatu, the essence, is empty of all fallacious things. It has the
characteristics of the buddha qualities. Its purity of essence is beyond faults and virtues, and establishing or clearing away.
Various defiled dharmas of confused appearance, red and white, arise. These false conceptions, the eight
consciousnesses, are natureless. Their self-nature is empty. Accountable like a pillar or a vase, they are empty and
fallacious. The pure nature is beyond faults and virtues, establishing or clearing away. The paths too are empty of
themselves and have some virtuous and some faulty aspects. But the pure essence is beyond faults and virtues.
At the time of the ultimate purity, all injurious faults together with their habitual patterns are obscured in
emptiness. This is the absolute itself. Whatever qualities of the absolute dhatu exist are also ultimate manifestations and
are not empty. The pure essence is beyond faults and virtues, establishing and clearing away.
In brief, as for self-emptiness, the nature of dharmas of this and that has no true existence. From the two
divisions, as for characteristics being empty of their own essence, whatever characteristic is described is non-existent like
the horns of a rabbit. Though appearing from the viewpoint of confusion, it is without nature or reality, empty like the
moon in water.
Emptiness of self-nature of imputation, is emptiness of what is imputed by names, words, and letters. Except as
mere mental constructions, the individual characteristics of these objects do not exist, as for small children what is
imputed by the name "lion" really has a turquoise mane. What is actually denoted by the word used by this small child
has a body without such a mane, but since the understanding producing name can have an understood symbolic meaning
even when it is empty, all impute to it an effect-producing power.
In emptiness of other, a dharma is imputed to be empty of another dharma. From the two divisions, in other
emptiness of not having the sun is said to be empty by not having darkness, a pillar, a blanket, and so forth. Here,
dharmas that are non-existent within the sun are other real individual natures.
As for emptiness of accountable others, "the sun" and "light-producer," and "the one with seven horses" are
general accountable imputations. Since the natures and particular included examples expressed do not touch the
individuating characteristics which are the meaning of the sun, it is empty of them.
What is empty of both self and other, is a dharma that has neither. From the two divisions. There are
accountable imputations and real individual characteristics.
Within the one involving accountable imputations, are the skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas and so forth, which
are imputed by samsaric confusions. All such things are also empty of the individual characteristics of the three realms,
since they are constructions of conventional mind in names. They have both empty individual characteristics, like the
water in a mirage, and no individual characteristics, like the child of a barren woman. Though they are empty of any truly
any existing nature, they unubstructedly appear, vividly luminous, with an emptiness like that of relativity.
If the three essences are divided in this way, there are six sorts of things of which there is emptiness. Though
these are expressed by calling them empty of essence, they are also completely pure and by the accountable expression
empty since being beyond mind is included as a second sense, all dharmas should be realized also to be empty in this
manner.
As for what is said by exponents of nihilistic emptiness, since that style of emptiness is impossible, their dharma
is like that of the outsider materialists, the charvakas. There is emptiness; but this non-empty emptiness is merely partial
emptiness. It accords with the dharma of those of the eternalistic view of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, and
therefore it falls into both the eternalistic and nihilistic extremes, and simply should not be relied upon.
Correct perfect establishment is the path of true liberation. In realizing the natural state as it is, since the
phenomena of appearance are not put aside, in the relative, merit can be accumulated. The nature of emptiness which is
contemplated is the accumulation of wisdom within the absolute. Earnestly produce this dharmata like the sky free from
one and many. The former text says:
"Correct" is genuinely gathering the truths of the path.
In brief, we enter into the nature of mind, the changeless luminosity of suchness, after all dharmas are realized to
be empty in the sense of being mere false conceptions. If we meditate on the path, impure confused appearance, along
with the mind of false conceptions, becomes pure as it really is. The primordial state has been reached. The dharmas of
the holy teachings are gathered into one as the inexhaustible body, speech, and mind, of the sphere of the ornament. One
becomes a perfect master of the pure buddha fields.
b. The suffering of wandering in samsara because of ego-grasping.
Now because there is such a grasper and grasped, while we are wandering here in samsara, as if in a dream, we
are compared to people sinking in a river:
E ma! How limitless is this realm of samsara.
How difficult it is to examine what it is.
So painful is the weariness of the path of samsara
That anyone born there has no happiness at all.
This unbearable fruition is produced by unhappy actions,
It is a self-projection which is wrongly understood,
The sort of thing we often do within a dream.
The natures experienced by individuals of the six lokas
Are confused appearances of what does not exist.
Therefore they give rise to measureless sufferings.
Listen while briefly I summarize what has been taught about them.
The Analysis of Scripture says:
As if in a filthy swamp of foul and disgusting stench
Beings of the six realms have no happiness.
As if in a blazing pit where it is never cool
Those in samsara too never have any joy.
Within samsara they transmigrate from the desire realm to the realm of form. From the realms of form and the
formless, they transmigrate into the realm of desire. From the realm of the formless, they transmigrate to the realm of
form. Wherever samsaric beings exist within the six lokas, there is only suffering, and they have no chance of happiness.
For a little while, as explained in the scriptures etc., they may remember how those who have realization put aside the
mind of joy in samsara and urged them to "practice the dharma of liberation." If they do not make an effort to do this,
generally they will continue to wander in samsara. The Letter to Students says:
Whoever dwells within the ever-changing round of samsara, Happily thinking that it is just a residence,
Will certainly willy-nilly many hundreds of times
Wander everywhere with like and dissimilar beings.
3. The Divisions of Confusion
a. The Hells,
1) the Hot Hells
Of the twelve hot Hells, the first is the Reviving Hell.
a) The Reviving Hell:
i) A brief explanation:
Over the blazing iron coals of the Hell of Reviving,
Beings meet and kill each other with their weapons.
A voice says, "Revive," and again they suffer as before.
They experience this until their karma is exhausted.
Above blazing iron coals, these Hell beings are gathered by their karma. They strike each other with sticks,
battle-axes, iron clubs, disks and so forth. Seeing each other as hostile enemies, they seem to fight until all of them are
killed. Then a voice from space says, "Revive," and right away they revive as they were before. They have to experience
countless times the real suffering of being killed by their weapons. The Spiritual Letter says:
Three hundred times a day by short sharp spears,
These are fiercely stabbed, and their sufferings
When they enter into the sufferings of Hell
Are an intolerable rain of sufferings.
Even one instance is unbearable.
ii) The measure of their lives
The measure of their lives is until their karma is exhausted, briefly, as it says in the ordinary sutras:
Fifty years within the life of a human being
Are just a day for the four great gods who are kings of the world.
Their months are thirty such days, and twelve months make a year.
Five hundred such years are a day of the Reviving Hell.
They have to suffer for five hundred years of days like these.
An exact calculation of this according to the sutras
Is a hundred and sixty trillion years of human time.
The ordinary sutras of the mahayana, the tantras, and the shastras say that individuals' karma being thin or
thick and by merely transmigrating between lives, those who fall into that place are not taught to have one single certain
measure of life. Strong antidotes may arise in one's being and so forth, so that one suddenly transmigrates. Someone
who was something like a tantric master might have to remain for many kalpas, until released from karmic obscuration.
The Spiritual Letter says:
Thus they experience quite unbearable suffering
Over the course of eight times ten million years.
For as long as their bad karma has not been exhausted,
For that long they cannot be free of that life.
In the case of the viewpoint of the ordinary sutras, the Abhidharmakosha says:
In the six levels of the Reviving and so forth,
One day equals the life of the desire gods.
According to the account given in the Objects of Mindfulness and Le Namje, fifty human years is one day for the
great conquering kings of the four families. Thirty of these is one of their months, and twelve of these is counted as their
year, and five hundred of those years is one day of the Reviving Hell. They suffer for five hundred such years. If one
counts this in human years, the Objects of Mindfulness says:
Beings endure a hundred thousand times ten million years and 62,000 in the Reviving Hell.
b) The Black Thread Hell
The Hell below this is the Black Thread Hell:
In the Black Thread Hell they are sewn together with blazing needles,
Then just where they were stitched, they are cut apart again.
Because of this, their suffering is terrible.
If we take a day of a hundred and three human years,
A thousand years of those is a day of the Black Thread Hell.
According to the teachings, a thousand of their years
Is twelve trillion, nine hundred sixty billion years of ours.
The Spiritual Letter says:
Some are sewn with needles, and parted like that again.
By sharp irresistible axes they are cut apart
If 133 human years is counted as a day, a thousand years of such days is one day of the Black Thread Hell. They
endure a thousand such years. If one counts the same period in human years, the Objects of Mindfulness says:
The years of beings in the Black Thread Hell are twelve hundred thousand and ninety six times ten
million years.
c) The Hell of Crushing and Joining
Below that
In the Hell of Crushing and Joining, beings are crushed to atoms
By mountains like horses, camels, lions, tigers, and so on.
The mountains part, and again they are living, as before.
In iron valleys hammers pound them into dust.
While they are being crushed, streams of blood flow down.
Two hundred years are a day for the Aviha gods.
Two thousand such Twin-god days are a day of the Crushing Hell.
There they are said to suffer for two thousand of their years,
Or thirty trillion, nine hundred and eighty billion years.
The Letter to Students says:
Herded by two fearful mountains like giant shepherds
Gathered between them their bodies are crushed and reduced to dust.
They are separated by wind that does not cool at all.
Then again they are crushed to dust like that a hundred times.
The Spiritual Letter says:
Some are crushed like sesame seeds,
And others ground fine like flour.
There are certain gods who, because they are free from fighting with the asuras, are called "free from strife,"
Aviha, and because boys and girls emerge from their loins together, they are also called the "Twin gods." Two hundred
human years make up one day for them. Two thousand of these days are one day in the Hell of Crushing and Joining.
Beings there must endure two thousand such years. If this is divided in human years, the Objects of Mindfulness says:
Those of the Hell of Crushing and Joining endure 10,368,000 times ten million human years.
d) The Crying and Screaming Hell
i) A brief explanation
Then below that:
In the Crying and Screaming Hell, beings are burnt in fires,
This is why they weep and lament, they scream and wail.
They suffer by being cooked in boiling iron cauldrons.
Four hundred years are a day for the Tushita gods.
Four thousand of these are a day of the Crying and Screaming Hell.
Their sufferings go on for four thousand of these years.
In human years this is a hundred and eighty trillion
Nine hundred and forty-four billion are also added to these.
The Spiritual Letter says:{{229.3}}
Some are burned by blazing embers continuously,
While they are being consumed, their mouths are gaping wide.
Some boiled in iron caldrons, or great copper ones,
Are cooked like meat that is being made into soup.
The Letter to Students says:{{229.4}}
Some fall into great soup-kettles and are boiled there
Others transmigrate to burning sand that gives off sparks.
They cannot see the ground on which they put their feet.
Four hundred human years are counted as one day among the gods of the Tushita heaven. Four thousand of
these are one day of the Crying and Screaming Hell. They endure four thousand such years. If one counts this in human
years the Objects of Mindfulness says:
ii) The measure of their lives
Those of the Crying and Screaming Hell live for
10,944,000 times ten million human years.
In the Hell of Great Screams, in a blazing iron house,
Beings are burned in fires and hacked in pieces by Yama.
Eight hundred years are a day for the Nirmanarati gods. Eight thousand of those are a day within the Hell of
Great Screams.
Their sufferings go on for eight thousand of their years.
This amounts In human years to three quadrillion,
Five hundred and fifty-two trillion, six hundred and sixty billion.
The Letter to Students says:
They live in Hell fire and a shroud of stinking smoke.
Tongues of flame pervade the circle of the directions.
Adorned with heaped white bones, like some terrible wreath.
As elephant skins appear as a means of threatening them
These beings cry out in pain and fear "Kye ma! Kye hu!
Some places great flaming fires are emanated
With an agonizing roar they rise and tower upward.
By day their voices peak in number and shrill volume
Inside their dwellings of bones, they loudly scream and howl.
Not even kalpa fire produces what they fell into.
Eight hundred human years are counted as a day of the Nirmanarati gods, and eight thousand of those years are
a day of the Hell of Great Screams. They remain for eight thousand of their years. As for the count of this in human
years, the Objects of Mindfulness says
They have to endure the Hell of Great Screams for 663,552,000 times 10 million human years.
e) The Hell of Heat
Below that:
In the Hell of Heat beings are in an iron house.
Their brains are first exposed by using a short spear.
After that they are thoroughly beaten on with hammers.
Inside and out they are seared by blazing tongues of flame.
A day of the Paranirmitavashavartin gods
Has the same length as sixteen hundred human years.
Sixteen thousand of these is a day within the Hell of Heat.
They suffer there for sixteen thousand of their years.
Which equals three billion and eighty-four million human years,
To which are added another hundred and sixty thousand.
The Letter to Students says:
We see the noose of time in the hand of the Lord of Death
Poisonous snakes are coiled around the head and lap.
Crows, gulls, ravens, and vultures peck out eyes and brains From living victims without the slightest hesitation.
Sixteen hundred human years is counted as one day by the Paranirmitavashavartin gods. Sixteen thousand of
these are counted as one day in the Hell of Heat. They endure sixteen thousand of their years, which in human years, as
the Objects of Mindfulness says:
Those of the Hell of Heat endure this for 818,416 million times ten million human years.
f) The Very Hot Hell
Below this:
In the Very Hot Hell, among two rows of iron houses,
They are burned in fire and stabbed with three-pointed weapons.
Their heads and shoulders are parted, then joined with bandages.
They also suffer by being boiled in copper cauldrons.
The length of their lives is half an antahkalpa.
It is beyond being counted in terms of human years.
In four small kalpas the world arises and endures.
It is destroyed and there is nothingness.
The length of these is equal to one antahkalpa.
One great kalpa is eighty intermediate ones.
A sutra says:
In the Very Hot Hell are a host of blazing fires
Their bodies are pierced and stabbed by vajras and by tridents.
They are boiled in great copper cauldrons and tied in bandages.
They only rest while burned by fires within and without.
The measure of their lives is unfathomably long. In four stages the word arises, endures, is destroyed, and
remains in emptiness. Each of these is counted as one antahkalpa or intermediate kalpa. They live for half of such a
kalpa. The Objects of Mindfulness:
Those of the Very Hot Hell experience their sufferings for half an antahkalpa. This should be kept in
mind.
g) The Avici Hell
Below that:
In the Uninterrupted Hell, in blazing iron houses
Aside from the clamor of lamentation of the Hell beings,
The fire and those beings cannot be separately seen.
Just As the burning flame of a lamp will cling to its center,
There is just a spark of life in the center of the fire.
They have to suffer this for the time of one antahkalpa.
Since there is no greater suffering that this,
Therefore it is called the Uninterrupted Hell.
The Letter to Students says:
As dry grass burns from the heart, they are burned by blazing fires.
From throats and mouths repeatedly issue smoky flames.
Falling from inner hunger, their innards burst and splatter.
They produce an indescribable howling cry.
Wishing to be freed from their great suffering,
Again and again, they watch from within the opening gates
Seeing other places, they wait until they open.
As soon as they go forward the gates shut tight again.
Then there is further pain of unbearable depression.
Like a falling rain of sharp and blazing arrows,
the guardians beat them with sticks, and boiling tears flow down.
Because they are being stewed in a pot of molten iron, Drinking in a heaped up wreath of tongues of flame,
Smoke rises from the holes of mouth, and nose, and ears.
Eyes and brains ooze like cream in blazing tongues of flame.
That fire, as if furious at those piled bodies,
Flare like piles of dry firewood that are being kindled.
The Spiritual Letter says:
Among the unbearable sufferings of all of these
Those of the Avici Hell are worst of all.
The Analysis of Karma says:
At the gates of the Avici Hell is an iron mountain of 60,000 pagtse. The Hell beings,
exhausted by getting by it, transmigrate to new lives.
There are an immeasurable number of them, it is taught. This is manifested by very heavy karma of having
abandoned Dharma, broken samaya etc. The Objects of Mindfulness says:
Those of the Avici Hell transmigrate after having passed there an intermediate kalpa. Even if
they are born as a king, their powers will not be sound, so it has been taught.
h) The summary of the meaning of these
Now there is the summary:
In each these different Hells that have been mentioned above,
The tongues of flame are seven times hotter than the last.
Each is lower, with greater suffering, than the last.
Beings suffer until their karma is exhausted.
As for these Hells that have just been described, the tongues of flame become seven times hotter [from one to the
next. The Analysis says:
Hellfire from one to the next
Increases by seven times.
Likewise the sufferings
Are seven times the last.
More and more sufferings are stacked up, like blisters on top of leprosy. As if their sensations had became seven
times stronger, their sufferings are also seven times stronger. They must endure this until their karma is exhausted.
i) The ephemeral Hells
i) The Main Explanation of the temporary Hells
Included among these Hells are the following:
The ephemeral Hells may be in the mountains, trees, or sky.
In water, fire, or rocks, or in uncertain places.
Groups or single beings remain there for a while.
In those places they suffer their respective torments.
That explains their being called "ephemeral Hells."
The beings of the ephemeral Hells are in mountains, rocks, water, fire, space, and so on, or in uncertain places,
like a pestle, rope, refuse rag, a burning piece of wood, or a log. There may be different kinds of beings together, or one
alone. They may be hot, cold, wet, or dry, ripped apart, cut up, boiled, whatever sort of suffering it may be, but each of
them unbearable. This may last half a day and night, just a moment, or for all eternity, since they suffer by the force of
different karmas. Thus they are called ephemeral. The Sutra on Teachings that are the Basis of Discipline says:
Then son of Maudgal from across the ocean, the Hell of the beings of the ephemeral Hells are
in places like a pestle, or a tree, and they are seen to be tormented by many different kinds of suffering.
Within the realm of samsara, beings have no pleasure.
They are like the beings of the ephemeral Hells,
All tormented by their individual sufferings,
As if they had been forced to live in a blazing land.
ii) In order to refute other kinds of wrong conceptions:
Some mistakenly say that the name "ephemeral"
Is given as few are there, or since their lives are short.
But scorpions live for quite a while among the rocks.
And once there was an ephemeral Hell that had the form
Of five hundred shravakas gathered for their noontime meal.
It is said that they took up weapons and struck each other.
Some say are called ephemeral since each day they become non-existent. This is not the right sense here.
After many human generations in an iron house
Still they have many years to remain within this Hell.
With such harm, and some alone and companionless, they are called ephemeral. When Shro_ako__kar_a
arrived in a vihara, from one with a net beating a gandi, as soon as 500 beings had taken the form of shravakas, they
quarreled with each other, and resolved it with weapons. The moment the hostilities were over, they were no longer
seen, so the scriptures say.
j) The Neighboring Hells
i) The brief teaching.
Around the Avici Hell are 16 others:
The Neighboring Hells are found by the Uninterrupted Hell.
They are found in each of its cardinal directions.
These are the fire pit Hell, the Hell of putrid stench,
The plain of weapons, and the river without a ford.
In all there are four times four--sixteen such Hells.
ii) The extensive explanation
There are six sections describing these, which open in whatever direction one turns.
a)) The Fire Pit Hell:
Thinking that its ten million gates have now been opened,
Beings come forth from within the uninterrupted Hell.
Seeing shady river valleys, when they enter the running water,
Having sunk into blazing coals up to their knees,
Their flesh is burned away, leaving bones as white as lotuses.
Then revived, as before, their suffering is extreme.
First, their karma mostly restrains them in the iron houses of the Avici Hell, where sufferings of heat are afflicted
with increasing sufferings. Then, thinking that the gates have opened, they flee. As they approach, driven by iron dogs,
they seem to see a pleasant shady ravine. About what they suffer the Letter to Students says:
A crowd of torn people are herded by dogs with gaping jaws
Long thorn-like fangs with vajra tips rip at their bodies.
There is a ravine and river completely lacking water,
Full of dismal ashes and licking tongues of flame.
While driven they are mutilated by corners of rocks,
Having sharp razor points that tear unbearably.
Fleeing into the river, they sink into the ashes.
Their flesh and bones are burned, and then they revive again,
b)) When they think they are free,
Here is what they reach:
As soon as they enter the cooling ponds that they have seen,
They sink in a putrid, stinking mire of rotting corpses.
Worms with metal beaks of copper, iron, and gold,
Piercing their bodies, bore and tunnel into them.
The Letter to Students says:
Some move about like little worms and insects.
Because of the crowd their bodies are immobile.
Or else they rot away upon the fields.
With lives blocked by the trap of their karmic nature
They live without being even able to move.
c)) Then:
As soon as they return to the pleasant plains they have seen
They are cut to pieces by blazing daggers while still alive.
The Letter to Students says:
Into a grove whose branches are swords with dagger leaves,
They run exhausted, and of course their bodies are wounded,
by many three pointed short spears, arrows, and sharp swords
Fangs in the mouth of the Lord of Death pierce as they fall.
d)) And then:
When they have entered into pleasant leafy groves,
They are overcome by a forest of sharp swords
The Letter to Students says:
Enduring many torments difficult to bear
Day and night, their bodies are grievously destroyed.
As they go among green trees which they formerly saw
They cannot help falling onto leaves of a hundred weapons.
There in long entanglements they are badly wounded.
e)) And then
Passing from there to a very pleasant mountain peak,
They see their former homeland and go as if they were summoned.
Flesh and blood are scraped away with sharp iron spoons.
Vultures peck their brains, as they are climbing upward.
Then they think that they are called to descend the mountain,
And again they are scraped by the spoons, as when they first went up.
At the edge of the plain are men and women with sharpened beaks.
In the blazing embrace of these their suffering is extreme.
After that they are eaten by many dogs and jackals.
Then they think that there is a very pleasant mountain. When they go there, these former men and woman seem
to see all the features of the countries where they formerly lived, and seeing people once close to them, thinking they are
calling, they ascend. As they are scraped with iron spoons, their flesh and blood multiplies. As they come down, they
suffer the same pains of being scraped as when they went up. The Letter to Students says:
As they quickly climb this slope of unbearable shalmali trees,
There is a host of briars. Sharp spoons scrape them through.
With terrible pain, they destroy inside, and then subside.
And also:
When they move downward, from iron briars going upward,
They Remember many sharp things roughly piercing their bodies,
Then sometimes by the sharpness and the painfulness
Of blazing three pointed spears, their bodies cannot descend.
Then by crows whose beaks are marked with symbolic weapons
They are driven along by ordinary needs
Of their bellies and such, and as they are lost and scattered.
Some fall into fearful abysses of mountain chasms.
Also
From all the women a hundred tongues of flame come forth.
They live ornamented by massive wreaths of flame.
Toothed like saws these do not ever leave their bodies.
Lured into pleasant groves, they embrace unite with them.
f)) And then:
Also having seen the cool streams of flowing rivers,
As soon as they joyfully go and are immersed in them,
They sink to their waists in hot ashes, and flesh and bones are consumed.
They see the guards of Yama keeping them from the two banks.
There they have to suffer for many thousands of years.
The Objects of Mindfulness says:
When they go there, they see streams. As soon as they step into them up to their waists, their
flesh is burned, and even their bones turn to powder and separate from them. When again they are
revived, on the banks where they formerly were, the beings of the Lord of Death appear to be standing.
k) The instruction on eliminating those sufferings.
They are as follows:
If someone in the Hells remains unterrified,
But knows the nature of these endless samsaric torments,
Then that person will have the means of passing beyond them.
That is the instruction.
2) The Cold Hells,
There are three sections
a) The eight cold Hells.
Now the sufferings of cold are explained:
There are also eight Hells where there are the torments of cold.
In extremely frigid places of snow and so forth,
Arbuda, Nnirarbuda, Atata, and Hahava
Huhuva and Utpala, Padma and Mahapadma.
In blackest darkness their bodies are ravished by swirling blizzards,
Devoured by living things with sharp and flaming beaks.
Until they reach the end of their karma they shiver there.
Having been afflicted, in cold and snowy places, cold and dark, blasted by black winds, they are covered with
blisters and, when the blisters burst, with wounds. Except for sneezing "achu!" they cannot speak. They lament, "kye
'ud!" and their teeth chatter, so that no speech can get out. They are wounded like a blue utpala lotus with fine roots and
big leaves turned inside out. Like a red lotus, they are split into four pieces. Like a big lotus they are split into eight
pieces. From their wounds come fine streams of fluid. Insects crawl in and eat. As for their immeasurable sufferings
from cold, the Letter to Students says:
They are many beyond example, exposing even their bones.
Their hungry bodies shiver, becoming shriveled and crooked. A hundred blisters rise with fluid, and as they
break,
Insects ravage them with beaks as sharp as swords
To their feet the blood and gore comes dripping down.
Their teeth chatter helplessly. Their head and body hairs tremble.
Sore eyes, ears, throats and noses, torment all these beings.
With bodies and minds corrupted to the very center,
They remain in those Cold Hells, and loudly cry and wail.
b) The explanation of the measure of time.
The time of their suffering in these eight Hells:
The length of their lives in the Hell which is called Arbuda
Is as long as it would take to empty out
A sesame store in Kosala containing 200 bushels
By removing only a single grain in a century,
In each of the other cold Hells, it is twenty times the last.
The Objects of Mindfulness says:
If the storage bin of the city of Kosala were full of sesame seed full of sesame seed without any gap, The lives of
the beings in the Blistering Hell are as long as it would take to empty it by removing one grain every hundred years. The
others each last for twenty times longer than the last.
In accord with this, the Abhidharmakosha says:
From within a sesame store every hundred years
Removing a single seed until they all are emptied,
That is the length of life within the Blistering Hell.
The lives each of the others are twenty times the last.
c) The Instruction of striving in the means of liberation from these Hells
Thus thinking of these immeasurable sufferings of heat and cold:
Beings with minds should then arouse their strength of effort
To conquer these merely mental worlds of Hell.
So it is taught. The Spiritual Letter says:
Evildoers, as soon as their breath has ceased,
When they are cut off by time, at the end of life,
Having heard of Hell's measureless sufferings,
To be fearless through emptiness requires the vajra nature.
If having seen pictures of Hell and heard of it,
Remembering, reading, or merely glancing at pictures,
People are often stricken with unbearable fear
Why speak of the actual experiences of ripening?
b. The suffering of the hungry ghosts,
There are three sections.
1) The way they live:
Pretas stay and roam in their world of hungry ghosts.
Their bodies are large with great paunches. Their hands and feet are small.
Their necks are slim with mouths no bigger than a needle.
Finding no food or drink, they are racked by hunger and thirst.
Trees and flowers, medicinal herbs, and wholesome things
Wither away as soon as these pretas look at them.
Externally they eat vomit, or things that are foul and vile.
If they do see food and drink, they seem to be kept away.
Because of inner defilement, their food is consumed by fire.
Smoky tongues of flame are spewing from their mouths.
Obscured with malicious anger, they always fear deprivation.
In terrifying places, they suffer helplessly.
Living in space, externals are obscured for them, and since externals they do experience are not pleasing, they do
not get what they want. Their evil bodies have to eat evil vomit, and even if these ravening ones see food and drink, it
seems to be guarded, or as soon as they get to it, it dries up. By that they suffer. Their inner obscurations are even
worse. Flames blaze from their bellies, and emit smoke. As for their obscurations generally, on top of that they always
suffer poverty, deprivation, hunger, thirst, ugly forms, and sensory distortion. They always have to be fed by others. They
are fearful, without refuge and protector. The Letter to Students says:
Unbearably tortured by thirst, they seem to see spotless streams.
They want to drink, but as soon as they can, the water
Is full of clots of hair, mixed with fish dung and pus
Trailing mud and slime, and blood and excrement.
In time winds disperse the water, and they are among cool mountains.
If there they see green growing groves of sandalwood
Above them, the forest flames, with sharp thick tongues of fire,
Blazing embers fall and they cannot help themselves.
Fearful ocean waves rise and crash over them
Even if they get beyond that foamy trouble,
Millions of harsh red clouds of howling, gritty wind
Whirl and drown everything in a fearful, sandy desert.
If the rain-clouds come that they are praying for,
A rain of iron arrows, falls with smoke and embers,
Hot vajra boulders crush and ravish them completely,
Seeming of golden color, wreathed with orange lightning,
A rain of these falls everywhere upon their bodies.
2) Those who live in the air and in space:
As for this subtle assembly:
The spirits of the air are evil hungry ghosts.
By miraculous actions they go unhindered anywhere,
Accomplishing their various manifestations of harm.
Bringing sickness, they ravish health and cut off life
A month for human beings is just a day for them.
Five hundred years of theirs are fifty thousand of ours.
They suffer thus within the realms of the Lord of Death.
These too are among the hungry ghosts, and
their suffering is immeasurable. Their realm is unpleasant, dangerous, fearful, hungry and thirsty. Whoever is close to
their hearts is infected with fatal diseases. They themselves are always tormented by these as well, and spread these
diseases. Life and health are ravished away, and only harm to others is accomplished. They are beings unhappy to meet.
Going about by miraculous power, they appear as guardians of narrow paths. Their individual bodies are like gates,
bubbles, half burned or split pieces of wood, and various dogs and birds. Some by former slight merit have enjoyments,
but also suffer many sufferings. Mostly events occur at the wrong season and moreover even in their enjoyments there are
limitless sufferings and so forth. The same text says:
Even in a snowstorm they are afflicted by heat.
Helplessly chilled by winds, they are even cold in a fire.
By such unbearable ripenings they are stupefied.
Various kinds of things wrongly appear to them.
Even the eye of a needle seems many terrifying miles,
With their great bellies, even if they drink an ocean,
It will not wet so far as even the end of their throats.
By the heat of their mouths they are thirsty for even a drop of water.
The Spiritual Letter says:
Hungry ghosts are impoverished by never-ending desire.
The suffering so produced is continuous and unbearable.
Hunger, thirst and cold; heat, fatigue, and fear,
Produce unbearable sufferings that always attend them.
Some with tiny mouths as small the eye of a needle.
And bellies as big as mountains are tormented by hunger.
They cannot get rid of the false perspective of their eyes.
They do not have the power to seek out anything.
Some are naked with bodies formed of skin and bones
They are dry like the sun-baked tops of desert palms.
Some are ablaze with fire from mouths and genitals?
As food of burning sand falls into their gullets.
Some of the lower ones do not even get
Pus and excrement, or blood and other filth.
From their throats, they mutually infect each other.
Buboes arise, and then exude a ripening pus.
For pretas, even in the springtime of their lives,
Even the moon is hot and even the sun is cold.
Trees are fruitless and barren, blasted by their glance,
As soon as they are looked at, rivers and springs dry up.
Sufferings attend them continuous and unhindered.
As for the karmic noose of their evil activity,
The bodies of some of them are quite tenaciously held.
They will not die in five or even ten thousand years.
One human month is counted as a day of the pretas. Five hundred of their years is taught to be 50,000 human
years.
3) Encouragement to practice Dharma, not Desiring Samsara.
As for the endless ways of suffering:
Having seen this saddening nature of how things are,
Accordingly, persons, to gain their liberation,
Should distance themselves from samsara's hedonic calculus.
By that the true peace of holy Dharma will be established.
That is the good instruction.
c. The Animal Realm
1) Animals too are without happiness:
In the animal realm, those who live within the four oceans
All devour each other, in measureless suffering.
Even if they hide in the dark places of the land,
They fear heat and cold, and hunger and thirst, and being eaten.
Wild beasts and birds throughout the human realm
Are in danger from sharp weapons and also from each other.
Horses, oxen, camels, as well as donkeys and such,
Have limitless pains of carrying burdens and being beaten.
They are killed for their skins, and for their meat and bones.
They cannot see the limitless suffering of their nature.
Nagas suffer the pain and pleasure of midday and midnight.
And the pains and pleasures of coming day and coming night.
In some places there fall rains of abrasive, burning sand.
In some they are forsaken, alone without companions.
Mostly stupid, they fear soaring birds and such.
They meet with a great variety of sufferings.
Their lives, uncertain, are sometimes just a day.
Divine Takasaka and others are said to live a kalpa
The great oceans between the four continents are filled without gaps with fish, conches, crocodiles, and the like,
crawling like grain in chang. The big ones eat the little ones, the little ones eat still littler ones, and so forth.
Others from this continent to the surrounding iron mountains-hide under fine in darkness inside the earth, since
the sun and moon do not appear there. As in the water, they eat one another, and have measureless sufferings of hunger
and thirst.
The scattered animals on the face of the world, living in the human realm's mountains, plains, water, rocks, sky,
and so forth, small creatures, worms, insects, birds, wild animals, and so forth, each have their particular sufferings of
heat, cold, hunger, thirst, being eaten by each other, and so forth--measureless illness and affliction. In particular they are
tormented by hunters, fishermen, and birds of prey. Some die for their flesh, skins, and bones, or are used beaten and
bleeding and then killed at the end of their labors, and have limitless other sufferings.
In the serpent realm too though there are appropriate pleasures of day and night, morning and evening, there are
also the many particular sufferings of hot and cold, hunger and thirst, and so forth.
Where some live thousands of rains fall, and some are forsaken by any. Some are entirely alone and
companionless. In general they are stupid and afraid of birds, vidya mantra, and immeasurable other harmful
phenomena. Their lives are uncertain. Some live only an instant, a day, and so forth. The kings of nagas, like Takasaka,
live for an intermediate kalpa. The Abhidharmakosha says:
That of Takasaka is a kalpa.
The Sutra Requested by Ocean says:
He lives in the ocean for an intermediate kalpa.
The Spiritual Letter says:
Those who live within the animal realm
Have various sufferings of bondage and beating.
They are worked and driven with whips and hooks and so forth.
2) The instruction to be diligent in the Dharma:
Having thought about this, those who want liberation
From the world of animals, to benefit themselves,
Should customarily travel the path of accurate vision.
Striving day and night to be absorbed in the wholesome.
For these reasons, those desiring liberation from the fate of those who have gone astray among the animals, from
the goodness and so forth of holy Dharma, should strive with this opportunity of the great human and divine path of the
ten virtues that accord with merit, the four dhyanas, and the four formless attainments. This is the instruction of the
ultimate great path of liberation through the accumulations of merit and wisdom. Its essence is emptiness and
compassion. Strive to meditate on that path by the six paramitas and so forth.
d. The human realm,
There are nine sections:
1) The torments of the eight sufferings:
Now, though they have attained the higher realms:
Humans also have no chance of happiness.
Sorrows, unhappiness, strife, and war and such,
Before we are rid of one, we suffer with another.
Sometimes our food is changed by being mixed with poison.
Food, clothing and requisites fail us, and therefore we get sick.
Later sufferings we have ripened then come forth.
There are the three kinds of suffering and also the following:
Birth and age, sickness, death and hostile people;
Being parted from those we love and what we want,
As well as the pain of having to deal with what we get.
The suffering of these eight is without measure and end.
What kinds of suffering do people have? The three great root sufferings are the sufferings of:
1). Suffering,
2). Change
3). Conditioned existence.
The eight kinds of suffering that always grasp us in samsara are:
1). Birth,
2). age
3). sickness
4). death
5). meeting with hostile enemies
6). being separated from dear intimates
7). not getting what one wants
8). sufferings intimately associated with the five skandhas.
In the suffering of suffering, one misery is heaped on another. It is like our father dying, and then our mother
dies too.
In The suffering of change, as much as one's present pleasure is the suffering it emanates. This is like a house
falling apart when someone has not been careful about the site, or poison mixed with food.
The suffering of conditioned existence is like having eaten poison. Though our food, clothing and activities are
not directly harmed, they are involved in the subsequent sickness; or from one's senses being injured, later injuries follow
on that. The Dulwa Lung says:
The misery of samsara
Arises from the skandhas.
There are the three sufferings
Of suffering, change, and conditions.
From the eight varieties,
People suffer terribly.
The suffering of birth is predominantly before birth occurs. Thus wandering in the intermediate state between
lives, spirits who come near and enter, as they grasp existence in the mother's womb:
Prana mind and bindu of ignorant consciousness.
Gather as oval and oblong, and then a solid lump,
Then we are like a disk, then like a fish and tortoise,
In seven weeks a body is gradually engendered.
When the mother is tired, hungry or thirsty, hot or cold,
Even a little bit, we suffer immeasurably.
Dark and close, it is fearful with an unpleasant stench.
We must suffer unbearable suffering of restriction.
After seven weeks, for twenty-six following
The deceptions of the senses and limbs are being established.
For a total period of thirty-six weeks,
The bodily embryo grows and gains the power to move.
Then soon to be extruded between the girdle of bones,
By our karmic energy we are turned head downward.
There is greater pain than dying, like the Crushing and Joining Hell.
After birth, being touched is like being skinned alive.
Being washed is like our flesh being scraped away with razors.
From the intercourse of the father and mother there is a mixing of the essence of the red and white bindus, which
constitutes consciousness. In the first week, the embryo has the shape of a fluid oval like mercury. In the second, there is
an oblong shape like mucus . In the third there is a lump shaped like a finger. In the fourth there is a hard lump like an
egg. In the fifth, there is a disk like a lotus petal. In the sixth, it is like the fish as which Vishnu incarnated. The seventh
is like a tortoise. For example, the head, feet, and hands are very non-prominent like those of a tortoise.
Then for twenty-six weeks, the limbs of the body, the fingers, the eyes and other senses and their supporting
structures, the hair of the head and body, the heart and veins on the inside, the prana and dhatu essences, blood and
lymph, masculine and feminine organs, and so forth develop along with the ayatanas.
During the thirty-sixth week, in the body that has developed, there is the downward moving power of consuming
food and drink, and produced by the fetus's eating and drinking, there is occasional movement and restless thoughts and
the body becomes uncomfortable. During these stages, the fetus dwells in darkness. It seems close and disgusting. There
is the suffering of being restricted, and if the mother's belly is too well satisfied, it thinks it is being squashed by mountains
and oceans. If she is tired and strongly agitated, there is suffering like being thrown over a cliff.
Young boys, remain with their faces looking inward from the mother's right side, covered by their two palms.
Girls stay looking outward from the left. Then by the wind of karma their heads turn upside down. Having been extruded
through the pelvic girdle, at birth they suffer as much as those in the Hell of Crushing and Joining. As soon as they are
touched, it is as if their skin was being taken off. When they are washed, they suffer immeasurably, as if their flesh were
being cut off with razors. The sufferings of growing, can be briefly seen from those of entering the womb. Of these the
Letter to Students says:
Confined, accumulating unbearable unwholesome stench,
Enclosed in unmitigated darkness and narrowness.
Having dwelled in the Hell-like place that is the womb,
The body, completely restricted, must suffer great suffering.
Gradually ground like sesame oil, how will it be born?
But in the sutras it says its life will not be lost.
Indeed its condition is highly fit for suffering.
Living in filth, by looking about it is badly harmed.
By the damp womb it is fettered, in unbearable fearful stench.
The pain of development is as bad as being destroyed.
Like coming on something disgusting, former memory is lost.
2) The suffering of old age
Then in stages:
The suffering of age is very hard to bear.
After youth decays, there will be no more pleasures.
We cannot get up and down without the help of assistants.
As bodily heat is impaired, our food is hard to digest.
Our strength is failing and we begin to tremble,
So that it is difficult either to go or stay.
Our joints decay. We cannot get where we want to go.
The senses fail. The eyes are dim and cannot see
We cannot hear sounds or voices any longer.
There are no sensations of smell and taste and touch.
Memory is not clear. We sink in an ignorant sleep.
Perception of things is failing, so there are few qualities.
Delicious food and such appear as the opposite.
As life is failing, thoughts are disturbed by the fear of death.
Like a child's, our patience and span of attention are small.
We are quickly gone, like a lamp whose oil is spent.
By the slipping away of youth, the strength of the body deteriorates. The joints disintegrate. Food does not
nourish. The senses cloud. The eyes are fuzzy. The ears become increasingly deaf. The tongue stammers. Memory is
lost. Objects and food that were previously delightful are no longer pleasurable. To the dimming sense organs of the
tongue food and drink, do not taste like they did when we were young. We are afraid of death. Like a child again, we
have little patience. There are such immeasurable sufferings. The Letter to Students says:
Then for all persons, age,
The hand of the Lord of Death,
After it has grasped us
With no chance of letting go,
Our hair turns gray and white,
All our collection of teeth
As if for a joke are taken.
Our joints all come apart.
Our minds become impaired.
Our situation becomes
As bad as being in Hell.
3) As for the suffering of sickness:
The suffering of sickness is very hard to bear.
The bodily nature changes, and mind becomes unhappy.
Our enjoyment of things no longer give us pleasure.
There is increasing fear that we will lose our lives.
We wail a lament about this unbearable suffering.
When we are afflicted with sickness our minds are distressed and no joy arises. Perception is interfered with,
and we are irritated. We must die, or sometimes we just think it would be better if we did. We wants to die, but at the
same time the torment of dying rivals Hell. The Commentary on the Praise of the Hundred Actions says:
As for embodied beings
Tormented by sickness,
It feels like being in Hell.
Rising higher and higher,
Such is the misery
Of suffering in samsara.
4) The suffering of death
When one's time is exhausted, or even if it is not really exhausted, but one throws it away:
The suffering of dying is even greater than this.
There is our last meal and our last words are spoken.
For the last time we get dressed. We go to our final sleep.
Body and life, attendants and servants are left behind.
Friends and relations, wealth and enjoyment, are left behind.
We cannot stay, but still we fear to go alone.
For the last time we lie down, rest, talk, eat, get dressed, and come to the last appearances of this life. Attendants
and enjoyments are left behind. We has no power to keep living, and leave alone and companionless. Having thought
about how we will do it, with an unhappy heart, with a strong feeling that one's essence is being destroyed, life ceases.
We experience wandering in the bardo. Without refuge or protector, our skandhas are lifted on a litter. We are taken to
the charnel ground. We are eaten by jackals and so forth. Our assembled intimates suffer immeasurably. The Letter to
Students says:
How is it going to be?
This fearful Lord of Death
Walking at my head,
Whether oppressed or doubtful,
The pain will seem like vajra.
Those who harm the mind,
After having oppressed it
Relations and the household
With tears streaming down their faces
We see their pain like vajra.
That having infiltrated
Into our deepest nature
Is most unbearable
like entering murky darkness.
This body we guarded so zealously
And all its accustomed pleasures
Will be completely lost.
Firmly bound at the feet
Of the terrible Lord of Death
Our head tuft is pulled out,
Our fate will be determined.
As we are taken by him,
By the roar of those nearby
One's many screams and cries
Are never heard at all.
Between water hard to cross
and piled heaps of boulders,
Pricked by sharp piercing thorns,
Those on this frightful path,
Bound by the noose of time,
By the things of the Lord of Death
They are fiercely driven with sticks
And herded like animals.
5) The suffering of meeting with enemies:
By the suffering of meeting people we dislike
We are oppressed by fear of the danger of being unpleasantly harmed.
If we meet with hostile enemies, we will no longer be able to have our bodies, lives, and enjoyments.
6) The suffering of being separated from those dear to us:
To separate from people and the country that we love
Causes sorrow, lamentation, and unhappiness.
Remembering their qualities, we are tormented by longing.
If we are separated from our dear friends and relatives who are kind to us, remembering their qualities, our
minds are tormented with suffering.
7) The suffering of deprivation.
As for the suffering of being deprived of desirables:
In the suffering of being deprived of what we want
A tormented mind arises when we do not succeed.
We are worn out by poverty, like hungry and thirsty pretas.
If we do not succeed in our goals, our minds are unhappy. When we are deprived of possessions or of something
desirable, we are tormented by unhappiness.
8) The suffering of defilement:
Form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness
Which comprise the five perpetuating skandhas,
Because of defilement are the ground of all suffering.
They have been said to be its source, support, and vessel.
The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, because the closely connected skandhas are defiled, they are the place of all suffering.
They are the support of all suffering. They are the vessel of all suffering. They are the source of all
suffering. Moreover, since form manifests the harm of suffering, it is its place. Since feeling
takes on suffering, it is its vessel. Since perception is the first gate to being disturbed by
conceptualization, it is its support. Since the doer and understander arise among formations and
consciousness, they are its source.
These are so explained in the Great Commentary on the Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines.
9) The Instruction of exertion in the means of liberation from this.
Now there is the instruction on eliminating unhappiness:
Thus within the limits of this human world,
With suffering as cause and effect, there is no happiness.
To be liberated from this, think of the excellent Dharma.
That offers the means of liberation from samsara.
As for the path, by the action of the cause of suffering, unhappiness, there is subsequent suffering. Sometimes,
by the fruition of former actions, there will be suffering. We should be liberated from that.
e. The suffering of the asuras,
1) How they are unhappy:
a) The way of their unhappiness:
Asuras likewise are without a chance of happiness.
Through hatred they have senseless quarrels, disputes, and wars.
Through envy they cannot bear the splendor of the gods.
Their warlike perspective supports many hundreds of sufferings.
They fight and quarrel even with their own kind. Having seen the happiness and wealth of the thirty three gods,
they are tormented with fires of hatred and jealousy. Sometimes, in the wars which they fight with the gods, their heads
and limbs are cut off. They are injured by vajras, arrows, wheels, and so forth, and sometimes die, or suffer from fear of
dying. The Spiritual Letter says:
Since by their nature asuras
Hate the splendor of the gods,
Their minds all suffer greatly
Though they are knowledgeable,
by the obscurations of beings,
They do not see things truly.
As for this explanation that they do not see truly, their seeing is like that of the path of seeing of the shravakas
and pratyekabuddhas, but not like that of the mahayana. The Edifice of the Three jewels says:
If one explains an account of the dharmas of those lives, the gods, nagas, asuras, and sky
soarers of the animal realm, the kinnaras, and the big bellied hungry ghosts beyond number with
respect to dharma do not have even a particle of the dharma eye, nor do they attain spotlessness.
Therefore, the way of their vehicles should be realized.
b) The instruction to be diligent in practicing Dharma:
Therefore, those who are going to happiness and peace
Should quickly practice the Dharma, that leads to liberation.
f. The suffering of the gods
There are four sections
1) the suffering produced by death and transmigration.
Thus in the heavenly realms:
Also the gods of the realm of desire have endless suffering.
Drunk with desire, they are careless. They fall in the changes of death.
Their flowers wither, their thrones no longer give them pleasure.
Abandoned by their friends, they dread their coming state.
For a week these gods will have unbearable emotions,
The victorious Four Great Kings and the Thirty-three, and the Twin Gods, and the Ganden gods and the
Thrulga gods and Shenthrul Wangje appear to be happy. But even this happiness does not go beyond the suffering of
change and the suffering of conditions. At the time of their deaths, the color of their bodies becomes unpleasant. Their
thrones do not please them. The flowers wreathing their brows wither. Their clothes smell bad. A pain they have never
experienced before arises. They are troubled by the perception that they will leave their divine companions and be alone.
With the divine eye, they see the place where they will be born, they are terrified. When they faint away, from far away
the gods who are their father and mother or intimates call their names, saying, "May you be born among human beings in
Jambuling. There having practiced the ten virtues, once again may you be born here in the god realm." Having said that
and scattered flowers, they depart. The day of such gods is a week. The Spiritual Letter says:
In the celestial realms, as they are very happy,
The suffering of death and transmigration is therefore great.
Having contemplated that, superior ones
Do not crave for celestial realms that will be exhausted.
Their color of their bodies becomes unpleasant to see.
Their thrones no longer please them. Their wreaths of flowers wither.
Their clothes smell bad; and irresistibly in their bodies,
Arises a dread that they have never felt before.
These are the five presages of being summoned by death
And their transmigration from the celestial realm.
That arise for gods within the realm of the gods.
As with men on the earth who are going to die
There are those who are summoned to view their deaths.
2) The associated suffering of their subsequent samsaric birth
The samadhi gods of such realms of form, as the realms of Bhrama,
Exhausting their former karma, fall down into samsara.
They suffer the suffering of having foreseen this change.
They see how their karma of formless shamatha will be exhausted.
They suffer anticipating their subsequent state of samsara.
Though they have gone to heaven, they cannot rely on it.
Therefore, fortunate ones should gain enlightenment.
During their great fruition in the Bhrama realms, the samadhi-gods have natural bliss. But they too die, and this is
transformed. they suffer over entering into their subsequent births. Nagarjuna says:
Those with self-existing samadhi like the Bhrama realms,
Though they have the brilliance of limitless light and color,
Since they have not seen their latent ego-conceptions,
After they die, they cannot help being born in Hell.
Those gods who remain one-pointedly in formless shamatha, also die and transmigrate, and then with
formations of suffering on seeing their subsequent samsaric birth, they must be reborn. The Spiritual Letter says:
Since they are in such a samsaric state asuras
As well as Hell beings, animals, and hungry ghosts
Are not good births and therefore we should know these births
To be the vessels of many further kinds of harm
3) The suffering of defiled bliss:
All beings who are attached to samsaric happiness
Are tormented for their craving in a fiery pit.
Moreover, they sow the seeds of subsequent existences in the lower realms where there will be nothing but the
flow of the four great currents. The Letter to Students says:
Gathering fiery suffering in the world of destruction,
Beings who expect to be happy are manifesting pride.
They will be flung to the giant mouth of the Lord of Death.
They sow the seeds of the tree of subsequent rebirths.
4) How we should establish liberation,
There are four sections.
a) How if we do not establish it, we shall not attain liberation
We may think that we will really be protected by the Buddha from the lower realms, but here, if by ego we have
done evil deeds, the fruition of the lower realms is ripening within us. As for the teaching that it is difficult to have an
opportunity of being seen with compassion:
Enlightenment and the means to it depend on us.
So it has been said by the Teacher of gods and men.
It cannot be the incidental gift of others,
Just as dreams in the coma of sleep cannot be stopped.
If this could be done, samsara would already have been emptied
By the rays of compassion of the Tathagata and his children.
You yourself must gird yourself in the armor of effort.
Now is the time to ascend the path of liberation.
Being liberated from the lower realms and from samsara depends on our own efforts. This cannot be done by
any amount of effort or skillful means by someone else. The vinaya says:
I, by teaching you the means of liberation
Teach you to strive for freedom depending on yourselves.
That is the right idea. Attempting to let the karma of one's self-accumulated projections reverse itself, is like
eliminating a dream, by going to sleep and having another dream. If that was workable, these immeasurable samsaric
beings would already have been emptied previously by the light rays of compassion of the buddhas.
b) Since we have not been tamed by the buddhas in the past, if we do not make an effort now, we will not be liberated by
them.
Therefore, by our own defects:
Those like us who have not practiced the remedy,
As was done by countless buddhas in the past,
Will wander on the desolate path which is samsara,
Whose nature is to be a path of evil deeds.
Think how, as before, if we do not make an effort,
We will produce the sufferings existing within the six realms.
The Bodhicharyavatara says: 4.13-14
For the sake of benefiting sentient beings
There have been countless buddhas, teaching in the past;
Though this is so, simply because of my own defects,
I have not been the object of their curative actions.
If now again I act in such a way as that,
Having acted again and again in just that way,
How will I be worthy of their consideration?
c) The instruction that compassion will not enter into bad karma:
The sufferings of samsara are as limitless as the sky.
As unbearable as fire, and as various as all objects.
Our lack of care for ourselves is really such a shame.
How can we have a chance to enter into compassion.
The wise and skillful deeds of buddha activity
Are said to depend on the karma of those who are to be tamed.
Therefore having come to recognize our faults,
Mindful in our hearts of the suffering of samsara,
So that we and beings may be liberated from samsara,
Let us truly embark upon the path of peace.
The sufferings of samsara are as limitless as space and cannot be encompassed by thought. They are a mass of
fire difficult to endure. Since their existence is not reasonable, enduring the variety of seeming net of red and white
apparent external objects is not right. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 4.29
This is an inappropriate and shameful object of patience.
Since such patience is truly shameless. Not seeing the rays of the sun of the Buddha's compassion, we are like
people in the darkness under the earth who have no chance to enter into sunlight. Just as the darkness under the earth has
its own impure manner of existence, unassociated with conditions that produce light, within the murky darkness of one's
own being, it is difficult for compassion to have an opportunity. The compassion of the Victorious One also appears only
in accord with the merit and good fortune of those who are to be tamed, The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
Just as, even if the disk of the moon arises,
When there is no vessel, it will not shine there,
Also the ever-shining moon of the Buddha's compassion
Will not shine where there is no vessel of good fortune.
Since this is so, it is right to exert ourselves in the means of true liberation.
d) How, even though suffering has been explained, we are not saddened
Suitability for that is like this:
If our suffering now is hardly bearable,
How will we bear the pain that is truly unbearable.
If we are not even a little sorry when this is explained,
Our hearts must be great lumps, composed of the hardest iron.
Our minds must surely be as thoughtless as a stone.
Shantideva says: ???
If even the amount of suffering I have now
Is irresistible and more than I can bear,
What about the sufferings of sentient beings in Hell?
How will I be able to bear such pain as theirs?
Think about that, and don't just say "Well it isn't my fault!" The Basket-like Talk says:
We hear of samsaric suffering, and yet we are not sad.
We who are like that are certainly very foolish.
As if we were made of stone or a piece of solid iron.
We clearly show ourselves to be just mindless fools.
C. It is right to contemplate the sufferings of samsara.
For that reason:
Samsara is a valley of unbearable suffering.
Knowing mind as the source of many different kleshas,
Kleshas and sub-kleshas, and those that are universal,
Who would want this state of samsara to increase further?
So let us quickly be victorious over samsara.
The nature of samsara is suffering. The fruition of suffering is the five skandhas. These are the six causes. The
five root kleshas and the twenty lesser kleshas are all included in the truth that all is suffering. The nature of this great
source of many illnesses and harms should properly make us sad.
D. the dedication of merit of the situation
Now the merit of proclaiming the nature of these in song is dedicated as a cause of benefiting sentient beings:
Therefore, by this dharma feast, the source of happiness,
May as many beings as dwell in the three habitations
Be able to nourish themselves on joy and happiness,
Wearied by all the various kinds of suffering,
Today may the nature of mind, be able to come to rest.
That is the aspiration. And by the auspiciously-caused merit of this wreath of genuine words and meanings, may
all the beings here in the three worlds of beginningless samsara, impoverished and exhausted in the Dharma of
accumulation of merit, be enriched by the true wealth of the noble ones, so that their weariness be eased.
May those tormented by masses of fire in Hell and so forth
Be cooled by a lake of celestial water gently falling.
Wreathed in a circlet of jewels, their faces adorned in light,
Having gone to the higher realms, may they reach enlightenment.
Thus may hungry ghosts, animals, and asuras,
Human beings and gods, becoming of equal fortune,
Having attained the joy of the celestial realms,
Attain the enlightened peace, where not even an atom exists.
Awakening from the pure view of good dharmas of meditation.
And also the absorptions of the four formless attainments,
By having completely perfected themselves in merit and wisdom
May they attain a state like that of lord Amitabha.
By this true and virtuous intention which is mine
May all samsaric beings be led to total peace,
Striving day and night, may they perfect the two benefits.
May they attain the limitless major and minor marks.
IV This is the commentary on the fourth chapter of the GREAT PERFECTION, THE NATURE OF MIND,
THE EASER OF WEARINESS, "Karma, Cause, and Effect."
The fourth chapter, "Karma, Cause, and Effect," has four parts:
A. The brief teaching of the essence,
B. The extensive explanation of the nature,
C. The final summary,
D. The dedication of merit.
A. The brief teaching of the essence.
Why do these lives of wandering in the sufferings of samsara, each with its own appearances of joy and
sorrow appear? They occur because of karma:
Thus, samsara's heights and depths of pleasure and pain
Arise from former accumulations of our karma.
That is how it has been taught by the Sage, the Buddha.
From the different conditions of beings, different fruitions of their associated karma exist. Many kinds of
connection with their happiness and sorrow ripen. The Hundred Actions says:
E ma ho! Karma comes from the world.
Joy and sorrow are a painting produced by karma.
The assembly of conditions arises karmically.
Happiness and suffering are produced by karma.
Also it says:
Karmas over the time a hundred kalpas
Do not dissipate, but accumulate.
Once embodied beings have acquired them
The ripening of their fruition is assured.
The White Lotus says:
Karma, like a painter, produces everything.
Karmic patterns are choreography of a dance.
The Gathering the Accumulations of Enlightenment says:
Having as well as being without the three-fold kleshas
Are established according to merit and karma of liberation.
Because of mind, karma, and the causes of beings,
Many karmas are gathered up, and then remain like seeds.
B. The extensive explanation of the nature of karma, has two sections.
1. The establishment of the samsaric world,
2. Being connected to peace.
1. The establishment of samsara.
There are three sections
a. The brief teaching,
b. The extended explanation,
c. How to eliminate it.
a. The brief teaching
From the establishment of the samsaric world, and being connected to peace, this is the first subject:
The black and white actions that are the formations of samsara
Have the nature of the ten wholesome and unwholesome actions.
The ten unwholesome action and the ten wholesome ones that accord with merit establish samsara.
What are they? The Precious Mala says:
Not cutting off life, and giving up thievery;
Leaving alone the spouses of other people;
With no talk that is frivolous, wrong and rough,
Keeping our speech both true and genuine.
Without the attitudes of desire and anger,
Having completely abandoned the view of ego,
These ten actions are the white karmic path.
The opposites are the path of unwholesome blackness.
These unwholesome actions produce suffering and the lower realms. By the wholesome ones, we attain
happiness and the higher realms. The Objects of Mindfulness says:
By unwholesome ones we gain suffering and the lower realms,
By wholesome ones there is happiness and the higher realms.
The Sutra on Production of Karmic Phenomena says:
The Householder Toutaputra, the bhramin's son, asked, Kye Gautama, by what cause
and conditions are sentient beings short or tall, have many illnesses or few illnesses, have a
pleasant or unpleasant color, great or small powers, exalted or low caste, great or small
activities, and great or small prajqa?
The Buddha spoke saying, "O Bhramin's son, sentient beings are as they are because of
karma. Their karmic roles are performed. They have their karmic birth-places. They depend
on karma. Low, high, and middle, exalted, degraded, bad, and good ones develop. The karma
of sentient beings is various. Their views are various. Their actions are various. By black
karma sentient beings are born among hell beings, pretas, or animals. By white karma they are
born among gods and human beings.
b. The extended explanation,
There are three parts
1) The support,
2) The supported,
3) The fruition.
1) The support
There are ten sections,
a) The explanation of alaya and consciousness,
The supporting ground of these is the neutral alaya.
As if on the surface of a mirror without reflections,
Luminous awareness, without conceptual objects,
Produces a ground for such reflections to arise,
It is like the luminous clarity of a mirror.
From that comes the consciousness of the five sense faculties.
As the five senses fixate their objects, such as form,
In its own nature this is not conceptual;
Rather they are like reflections in a mirror.
After that occurs, there rise the awarenesses
Of the divided objects of grasping and fixation.
Within successive moments, as these are fixated or not,
There may be conceptualization, or there may not.
The former is klesha-mind, and mental consciousness.
Karma and all the resulting appearance of phenomena depend on what is within alaya as its seeds. The
Sutra of the Immaculate Wisdom of Maqjushri says:
Alaya is the ground of everything,
The ground of both samsara and nirvana,
And all the appearances of phenomena.
The suchness of space is called the neutral alaya. The ground of all that is divided it is completely
neutral and undistinguished.
On top of this, or within it, connected to and supporting the spontaneously present, primordially
uncompounded nature of insight is the alaya of reality. This is made into a ground by ignorance.
The support of the dharmas of samsara, the collections of the eight consciousnesses, with their habitual
patterns, is called the alaya of the various habitual patterns. Within this are supported all things of the
compounded nature of good and evil, arising as various joys and sorrows. Here all causes and fruitions in accord
with merit and all goodness according with liberation are also supported. These are naturally supported by the
fruition free from defilement.
As for the extended explanation of these, on top of the neutral alaya are lower wholesome and
unwholesome samsaric causes and effects; the aspects according with liberation, the separable cause of nirvana;
and the karma of phenomenal appearances. As many as are perceived are supported.
Wholesome things according with liberation, included in the true path are incidental and compounded.
Therefore, they are supported as separable causes within the alaya of various habitual patterns. They are
supported on the gotra as fruitions of separation. Such a fruition is dependent in something like the way that the
revealed sun depends on the sun behind obscuring clouds which is yet to be revealed. The Uttaratantra says:
Earth is in water, water in wind, and wind in space.
But space is not in the dhatus of wind and water and earth.
Thus the skandhas and dhatus, and the powers of sense,
Are supported in existence by karma and the kleshas.
Karma and the kleshas are not as they should be.
They always exist in the form of mental artifacts.
As for these mental artifacts that are not proper entities,
They exist completely in the purity of mind.
But the true nature of the mind does not exist in these.
In this case we speak of:
1). The ground of separation
2). The cause of separation
3). The fruition of separation
4). The separated.
The ground of separation is the element or essence. The cause of separation, eliminating defilements
superimposed on that, is the aspect in accord with liberation, possessed by the wholesome path. The
fruition of separation is that when sugatagarbha has been freed from all defilements, the buddha qualities
manifest.
The separated is the eight consciousnesses, with their various habitual patterns, which depend on the
alaya of the various habitual patterns.
These, according to secret mantra, are known as the basis, producer, and fruition of purification and that
which is to be purified. The words are different, but the meaning is the same. Within that state, without
dependence, is the nature of ignorance, the alaya of the various habitual patterns. It is the cause of impure
samsara and its consciousness. That compounded wholesome entities are associated with the level joined to
liberation has been taught for a long time. The alaya of reality is associated with the buddha qualities of nirvana,
which depend on it. These arise because of the essence, emptiness; the nature, luminosity; and all pervading
compassion. The jewel-like qualities of the alaya of reality, neither defiled nor free from defilement, are
spontaneously present as realization of the primordially luminous kayas and wisdoms.
THE NATURAL STATE.
The natural state is natural, complete purity, like space. Though described by the names markless,
emptiness, completely uncompounded, and so forth, it is not nihilistic empty nothingness; rather, it is realization
of spontaneous presence, the luminosity of the kayas and wisdoms. It is empty in the sense of being completely
liberated from all dharmas of samsara. The Continuous Display of Beauty says:
The disk of the moon immaculate and pure,
Always undefiled, is completely full.
By the power of time within this world,
The moon is thought to wax and wane in phases.
Likewise, the alaya of reality
Always is or possesses sugatagarbha.
Alaya here is another word for the essence
As it was taught by the tathagatas.
For individuals who do not understand this
Alaya, by the power of habitual patterns,
Is seen as various karmic joys and sorrows,
The Universal affliction of the kleshas.
With a nature pure and undefiled,
With qualities like a wish-fulfilling gem,
Without transmigration, and without change,
It is the perfect awareness of liberation.
Maitreya says:
There is nothing to be illumined,
There is nothing to be improved.
The real looks at the real.
In accountable names, this is called the associated alaya of reality, the beginningless goodness of the
element of dharmas, sugatagarbha, the dhatu, the luminous nature of mind, dharmadhatu, the suchness of the
natural state, the natural purity of suchness, the perfection of prajqa, the supporting ground, the source of arising,
and the producer of the cause of separation. However, what is being named cannot be truly encompassed by
thought.
In addition to the nature of mind there is the support of habitual patterns of samsara, called the alaya of
the various habitual patterns. What is it like? It is primordially without the karmic natures of wholesome and
unwholesome, liberation and apparent phenomena. That is because it is the support and producer of all such
incidental productions. Since the arising of both good and evil depends on it, and because its essence is
ignorance, it is neutral.
Some say that ignorance rather than the alaya of the various habitual patterns is the support and
producer of the five poisons and phenomenal arising. That is just a change of labels. Why? Though it is not the
same as the ignorance that discriminates the five poisons, co-emergent ignorance at the time of first being
confused by samsara is also called ignorance.
The support and producer of phenomenal appearance should be examined further. It is not the support
and producer of the wisdom of buddhahood, possessing the two purities, primordial purity and purity from
incidental defilements. That kind of alaya must remain unchanged. The Holy Golden Light says:
The alaya that remains, is dharmakaya, the essence.
The Tantra on Exhausting the Basis of the Elements says:
The pure alaya is the same as dharmadhatu.
Pure alaya is not the cause of the dhatu separate from defilement, and they are not related as support and
supported. It does not produce compounded merit and actions of meditation on the path of the accumulation of
wisdom, except in the sense of being the support of their phenomenal appearance. Since these are included in the
true path, though classified as deceptive and impermanent, it is therefore accepted that they are dependent on the
alaya of various habitual patterns. If so, how is it reasonable that it also destroys such things?
This has been said, but it really is like that. It is like a lamp dependent on a wick or a fire dependent on
fuel burning until they burn themselves out. Though they depend on alaya, habitual patterns of samsara are self-
purified by the path of the two accumulations. In that way defilements of the gotra, or of dharmadhatu, are
purified. Then the phenomenal exists as it did at first, as the manifested luminosity of enlightenment. What
produces this manifestation is called the condition of purification. Subsequently the antidotes that produce
purification destroy even themselves. This is because they are good false conceptions imputed by mind. The
commentary on the Uttaratantra says:
The beginning of the manifestation of enlightenment occurs because all truths of the
path are eliminated.
The Madhyamakavatara says:
By burning all the dry kindling of every knowable object
There is the dharmakaya of the victorious ones.
If so, what about the kind of emptiness that throws nothing away or the thirty seven factors of
enlightenment?
Things are gathered into the level of buddhahood without being thrown away, and there are the thirty-
seven factors of enlightenment; but neither of these are included in the path, since at that point the path is over.
The list of names of the great darkness is co-emergent ignorance, the alaya of the various habitual
patterns, obscuration without beginning or end, primordially existing unawareness and so forth.
The nature of mind like the sky, besides existing as the beginningless space of the dhatu, depending on
liberation is yogic union, and depending on samsara is the various habitual patterns. These are the joys and
sorrows of the different appearances of samsara and nirvana and the arising of their faults and virtues. The
commentary to the Uttaratantra says:
The dhatu of time without beginning and end
Is the true state of all the various dharmas.
Since this exists, all beings are in nirvana.
THE DIVISIONS OF ALAYA AND THE EIGHT CONSCIOUSNESSES.
The neutral alaya of the various habitual patterns is like a mirror.
The alaya-consciousness, is like the luminous clarity of the mirror.
The consciousnesses of the five gates are like reflections in the mirror.
The mental consciousness is the process of analyzing former objects of these or saying, "These are the
apparent objects of the five gates," when these first arise.
Klesha-mind occurs after that, when desire, hatred or indifference arise simultaneously with experience.
If there is no such appraisal by klesha-mind, there is no formation of any of the three poisons, and no karma is
accumulated by the six sense-awarenesses. This is how the former teachers say it should be analyzed.
When the nature of all dharmas is known, the situation of the view, meditation, and action, is like that.
Ignorant beings who make biased assertions about such a mind accumulate bad karma.
Thus, the gate of accumulating karma is the mental sense and the five senses along with their supports.
The actual accumulator is mind possessing the kleshas and wishing for goodness, and the one who knows such a
mind. When these are collected, they are collected on top of alaya. The developer, proliferator and collector,
diminisher and so forth, is alayavijqana. Master Lodrv Tenpa in his great commentary on the
Mahayanasutralankara says:
The mind-sense and the five senses, the eye and so forth, are the gates of karma, and
supports of its entering. The mind that thinks of good, bad, and indifferent is the producer. The
six objects, form and so forth, are what is produced. Alayavijqana is the developer. Alaya is
their support and place, like a house.
Alayavijqana is clear and vivid awareness with no fixation of grasper and grasped. Proliferating from
that are the awarenesses of the five senses.
The eye consciousness has insight of form. It does not arise conceptually, but as consciousness.
Similarly the ears hear, the nose smells, the tongue tastes, and things that the body can touch are sensed. They do
not arise conceptually, but as consciousness. The apparent objects that seem to arise as likenesses in the
five gates are dharmas. They are also the mind consciousness and the dharmas of the object aspect. These
phenomena, arising as apprehensions, are known as consciousness. The same text says:
As for mind-consciousness, traces like former objects arise, or inferences of non-manifest
objects, but these too are objects of consciousness. Also the awarenesses of the five gates and
alayavijqana, as soon as they have ceased, as former objects or phenomena of the individual six
awarenesses, are also mental.
The Abhidharmakosha says:
As soon as the six have ceased,
Their consciousness becomes mind.
When there is apparent form, the vivid, luminous object without a grasper is alayavijqana. The arising
awareness that apprehends a form-phenomena is the eye-consciousness. When presentation of both has ceased,
the instantly arising aspect that thinks and makes the imputation, "this is form," is mind or concept mind.
Moreover, entering that same instant, labeling that non-conceptuality quickly and precisely as non-conceptual, the
object first intuited is labeled in "grasping conception." Detailed analysis that arises after that is "fixating
conception." If there is not this continuation of the apprehension of mind at the first instant, karma does not
accumulate. So it is maintained by all the lords of yoga. The Doha of the Peak of Knowing says:
The consciousness of the objects of the six senses,
Is not defiled by simply being grasped.
Without karma, it is also without its ripening.
It is seen without defilement, like space.
b. How consciousness accumulates karma
Now, as for how these consciousnesses accumulate karma:
By the coarsened vice and virtue of conceptual desire
Alaya supports the seeds of constructing what is desired.
Luminous non-thought is reconstructed as form.
Depending on these seeds there is one-pointed, formless non-thought.
The removable two obscurations, the nature of samsara,
Are an essential part of their environment.
From the false conceptions of the coarse grasping and fixation of mind, one falls into the good and bad
karma of the desire realm.
If the natural state is not attained in samadhi, meditation in which conceptualization of apparent objects
as appearances does not arise, karma collects on top of alaya in the realm of form.
By meditating in complete non-thought, in the sense of blocking apparent objects, seeds of being born in
formlessness are heaped up in alaya. The chapter on "ultimate samadhi" of the Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Whoever is afflicted by desire produced by discursive thoughts, in turn produced by
formations of good, bad, and indifferent, falls into the desire realm.
Whoever within this kind of mind has complete non-thought that does not discard
objects, produces one-pointed yogic union. Separate from the essence of Dharma, this is
conditioned formation of the form realm. Whoever is within neither form or desire, not seeing
the tracks of mind's objects, and becoming accustomed to this by looking at it a great deal,
whirls in the formless realm.
These will never be liberated from these three realms of samsara. Therefore, hearing
with true hearing, one should earnestly meditate on that which should be meditated on.
c) The occasion of awareness
Now the occasion of awareness is taught:
When awareness is undistracted, being without all thoughts,
One pointed without the grasping of apparent objects,
That is the time of apprehending the neutral alaya.
When there is no fixation of luminous appearance,
That is the motionless, clear, and luminous alaya-consciousness.
When the five objects are grasped and fixated, affirmed and denied,
And objects are coarsely conceived in the seven consciousnesses,
That is what is called the seven consciousnesses.
Unwavering one-pointedness without any thoughts at all is alaya. When apparent objects are lucidly
seen, with still attention and without any thoughts at all, this is alayavijqana. Then, when phenomenal objects
arise clearly and distinctly this is awareness of the five gates. When any object that arises is grasped at the first
instant, and then is adulterated by kleshas produced by secondary apprehensions, this fixated arising is klesha
mind and the mental consciousness. Those are the seven consciousnesses. The Level of the Awakening of
Bodhicitta says:
Non-thought unconnected to objects is the occasion of alaya. Non-thought connected to objects
is the occasion of alayavijqana. Individual apprehension of phenomenal objects is the five gates.
With subsequent analysis of the first conception of objects as for grasping and fixation arising,
this is mind-consciousness and the occasion of klesha-mind.
d) Knowing the occasions:
When becoming familiar with these, in the three realms of samsara,
There is formation of the three gates and of suffering.
Knowledge of alaya unconnected with the path of liberation is the stable samadhi of one-pointed resting,
and the stable conceptionless luminosity of vipashyana. Subsequent arising of objects, with the predominant
condition of the six senses, in their accumulated coarse awareness of good and evil are the formless, form, and
desire realms. The reason is that liberation is not accomplished, and grasping and fixation are not transcended.
Also, grasping this samadhi of non-thought, and resting in it one pointedly without distraction involves fixation.
Pure dhyana is meditation in the style of skillful means, the great compassion, and prajqa without
phenomenal complexities of subject and object that does not abide in the two extremes. The state described,
with no one-sided nihilistic meditation, is connected with the natural state incomprehensible by thought, and the
happiness and bliss attained with it. Though miracles and higher perceptions are attained, there is no haughty
delight and pride in them and no fixation of marks.
Since one has to come out again from nihilistic meditation, it does not go beyond samsara. It is obvious
that today's meditation has strayed into the common-path meditation of the extremists etc. Nor is it seen to have
the intrinsic buddha qualities.
e) What predominates in the three chief realms
As for these consciousnessses in their own place and as chief factors of other places, and contemplating the ways
of samsara:
In the realm of desire the seven consciousnesses dominate.
In the realm of pure form it is the alaya-consciousness.
In the formless realm there is only the non-thought of alaya.
The other two samsaric styles are merely latent.
Each of the levels should be known like that.
In his commentary examining alaya and wisdom, Loppvn Sanje Sangwa says:
Within the desire realm, the seven consciousnesses, the eye-consciousness and so forth
are the principal ones, and the others exist as their retinue. In the realm of form, the
alayavijqana, and object-engaging consciousness are principal, and the others are their retinue.
In the formless realm, alaya is the principle one The others exist only as latencies.
f) How consciousness dissolves
Here are the extensive divisions of the subject:
Thus when we go to sleep, within the desire realm,
Awareness of the five objects by stages dissolves into mind.
This dissolves within the non-thought of alaya.
This is a one-pointed state without apparent objects.
This too dissolves in dharmadhatu, simplicity.
When it develops again, from the alaya consciousness,
There is isolated mind, known as the mind of dreaming.
What is really nothing appears. We affirm and negate its variety.
This develops further and we awake from sleep.
By entering into the objects and consciousness of the six senses,
Various karmic formations come to be engendered.
This is how things appear throughout the day and night.
When beings of the desire realm go to sleep, the awareness of the five gates of the senses and klesha
mind gradually dissolve into the mental consciousness. As the mental consciousness dissolves into alayavijqana,
luminous non-thought arises for a little while. Those who recognize this and rest within it course without
dreaming in the luminosity of dharmata. Some teachers of the new transmission say that Alayavijqana dissolves
entirely into the impermanent alaya. Alaya dissolves into dharmadhatu. On the subsiding of coarse and subtle
grasping, the simplicity of empty and luminous dharmata arises and, if it is recognized, confusion is eliminated.
Sangwa Yeshe says in the Compendium of the Precious Tantras says:
After the seven consciousnesses dissolve into alaya
Alaya dissolves in the purity of space.
Then there is the primordial state of co-emergence,
The natural state of wisdom, emptiness/luminosity.
That is something that every yogin ought to know.
Then these unfold from wisdom again: there is alayavijqana, and by that, from the rising of the mental
consciousness alone, various dreams arise. At this time, objects of habitual mind are grasped as dharmas having
their own individual nature. Also the conceptually activated pranas and the pranas in the nadis that depend on the
seven consciousnesses enter into the side nadis roma and kyangma, and then the central channel. Then they are
known as the consciousness that is not equalized with alaya. That is because they are united with nadi and prana
and equalized with them. Then they enter into the central channel in one taste. This is the time of alaya. One
goes into deep sleep without dreams. Some directly experience the characteristics of dreamlessness, and rest
there. Then as for alaya dissolving into dharmadhatu, in the center of the central channel there is the supreme
luminosity. The elements of the coarse nadis do not become this, and the unmoving prana has the nature of its
clear light. The All-illuminator says:
The nadi that exists in the center of the central channel
Does not become supreme luminosity.
The clear space of luminosity without solidity
Is spontaneously present wisdom, the true state of everything.
The essence of prana in the central channel is said to be awareness itself. At the time of its entry there
luminosity arises. At that time the bindus of apparent luminosity, radiance, rainbows, and so forth arise. Empty
luminosity, mind itself free from all complexity arises. The luminosity of union, the great wisdom that
experiences luminous insight arises. Then, when alaya, its consciousness and mind consciousness unfold again,
within the life-nadi the mind prana that depends completely on memory proliferates. Then by the entry of prana
into the nadis that support the individual senses, we wake from sleep. The objects that appear by day arise in the
usual unreflective grasping and fixation. Then if an object that seems to be form is conceptually apprehended, its
individual divisions will be nothingness.
g) If one divides dharmas individually
In the level of pure form, there are the four dhyana states.
These remain within the alaya consciousness.
Though sometimes a subtle consciousness may grasp at objects,
By training in samadhi, this mostly does not occur.
At the time of the actual dhyanas, each one has its own non-thought as the principal thing. Conceptions
of objects are dormant and exist as a retinue. The first second, and third dhyanas have the faults of concept,
analysis, and a feeling of concentrated joy. Up to the fourth some exist there with the three bases of sentient
beings, death, transmigration, and the chance to listen to the dharma.
h) How continuity of mind depends on the four formless skandhas of name:
Consciousness of the formless level is alaya.
In its four one pointed shamathas, those on space and the rest,
Are very subtle feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousness,
On these four skandhas of name, depends mind's continuity.
We may not awake from one-pointed samadhi or a kalpa.
When this is examined, no virtuous seeds are planted at all.
Before death, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness dissolve into alaya. These four are
known as the skandhas of name. The mental body, depending on the continuity of mind, goes into the samadhi of
one-pointed shamatha, resting in the four states of limitless space, time, consciousness, and of neither perception
nor non-perception. Even after an entire kalpa, like lapsing into deep sleep, no good karma will have been
produced. Though no actual bad karma will have been produced either, intrinsic karmic ignorance is activated,
and one's natural ignorance increases.
i) How to comprehend the mind of the four formless dhyanas:
Therefore, even this, the mind of the formless dhyanas,
Is left on exhausting the karma of which it is the fruit.
Because it is ignorance, its nature is neutral.
Because it produces repeated errors of cause and effect,
Therefore we need to be liberated from it.
The Sutra on Being Without Suffering says:
By the productive power of former collection of virtue,
Fine houses of the celestial gods are reached and relinquished.
From the formless samadhis too, when their karma is exhausted,
Again one goes with those who are on or under the earth.
j) In particular, how the three-fold awareness of the desire realm of same and different, by becoming familiar to
the mind of desire, also produces the cause of liberation.
As the mind of desire becomes what it is accustomed to,
It also produces the cause of being freed from its highs and lows.
Both the coarse and celestial levels are levels of karma. In particular, since one can become a vessel of
practicing the Dharma, the Objects of Mindfulness says:
In the desire realm mind becomes coarsened by planting seeds of good and bad. Therefore, in
particular, we should try to work with good dharmas.
i) What consciousness predominates during the day:
By day the seven consciousnesses usually dominate.
The other two natures are then the retinue of these.
Thus the grasping of form by visual consciousness
The luminous aspect, free from thought, is alaya-consciousness.
The aspect of non-thought is alaya itself.
All the other six should be known in a similar way.
The eye seeing form is the eye-consciousness. Clear awareness of luminosity and non-thought is
alayavijqana. Non-thought is alaya itself. Similarly, for sound, smell, taste, and touch, and when the mind
apprehends a remembered object, the consciousnesses apprehend their respective individual objects. Luminous
awareness is alayavijqana. Non-thought is alaya. When there is the motionless, vivid luminosity of alayavijqana,
individual objects are not hindered, and there is also awareness of them. The luminosity is alayavijqana, and the
non-thought is alaya. Also one-pointed entering and dissolving into real alaya exist as latencies, just as the stars
exist as latencies when the sun rises. Here is how the Commentary Examining Mind and Wisdom explains the
armor of buddhahood:
Completely non-conceptual awareness rests in alaya. Its mere clarity/luminosity is
alayavijqana. Apprehension of individual objects is the six consciousnesses. Entering,
dissolving, and non-thought are the situations of alaya.
ii) The way in which these are the same and different
Here is the explanation of how they are the same and different:
Sleep is one-pointed, and when we awake from out of our dreams,
Alaya, the alaya consciousness, and the mind,
And then the six senses also should be known
As successively one and two in one and all in one.
In one-pointed sleep, all awareness is one in alaya. It never fails to be outwardly re-emanated. When we
dream, from within that come alayavijqana and superimposed on that, the mind consciousness arises alone. At
this time of no external emanation, alaya is of one essence with the consciousness rising from it, and the mind
consciousness. When we wake from sleep, there is a great deal of external emanation from within alaya, but
alaya and all of the eight consciousnesses are still of one nature. As for these, the Secret Commentary says that
the four elements are displayed.
Now if the meaning is summarized very clearly, luminous mind is the support or source of all that arises.
Within it, samsara and nirvana are completely undivided and undifferentiated. This natural state of changeless
unity is sugatagarbha, the source of samsara and nirvana. The Dohakosha says:
Solitary mind itself is the seed of all.
Whatever emanates as samsara and nirvana.
It bestows the fruition of whatever is desired.
I prostrate to mind, which is like a wish-fulfilling gem.
The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
To describe the special cause, from which arising occurs,
It is not without causation. It is also not without action,
Not different from appearance; not different from alaya.
If phenomenal appearances were different from it,
In that case, alaya would not be something eternal.
Unmanifested, undestroyed, and permanent,
Alaya completely excludes the four extremes
Existing as the purity of sugatagarbha,
It is said to be the emanation of wisdom.
It and the essence are mutually not different
It is like a finger, pointing to the essence.
The various levels and alaya are also sugatagarbha.
Alaya is that essence, the Sugata has taught.
Though the essence thus is known as alaya.
Those whose minds are weak have no knowledge of this.
The nature pure of causation, the kayas and wisdoms and so forth, is known as the undefiled, true alaya.
When it is made into the support of samsara, it is designated as the defiled alaya of the various habitual patterns.
The different kinds of supported dharmas are of one nature with the supporting ground. The
Abhisamayalankara says:
By particular kinds of supported dharmas
Its divisions are completely to be expressed.
That is the same approach. When there is defilement, it also exists by a different name as our
enlightened family nature or essence, in itself pure of every defilement, but needing to be purified of separable
stains. The above text says:
Just as in the conception of those who do not know
The moon is thought to wax to fullness and wane away.
Though actually the moon neither grows nor diminishes,
That is how it seems to people in the world.
Similarly within the alayavijqana,
Foolish, ignorant beings who do not know how things are
Think that things are always growing and diminishing.
Not thinking in this way is known as buddhahood.
Alaya as the ground of all the various dharmas,
Has habitual patterns of pride and all the rest
And so is disturbed by concepts and discursive thoughts.
If it becomes otherwise, it is undefiled.
If it ever attains its natural non-defilement,
Since this is eternal, it will always have it.
The actual moon neither waxes nor wanes; but by the power of time it appears do so. The luminous
nature of mind itself is buddhahood. It does not have the characteristics of joy and sorrow. Yet samsaric beings
see the celestial realms, the lower realms, and so forth. If the real nature is purified, one reaches the real alaya.
That is what is being said.
That completes the explanation of the arising of alayavijqana and the eight consciousnesses from alaya.
These are included within the ignorant confusion of the mind-consciousness. The Sutras say:
Mind, the chief, is very quick.
It precedes all the dharmas.
When we do not know the changeless nature, the perfectly established, there is false conception. Various
kinds of impure, confused appearance arise, produced within relativity. When these dreamlike confusions of
samsara are eliminated, there is the perfectly established, mind itself. By meditation on the true path of upaya and
prajqa in the developing and perfecting stages; the primordial ground, the essence, is made to manifest and is
realized as it is. That completes the explanation of the ground, the support of karma.
2) The explanation of the supported, karma,
a) The root, ignorance:
The root of karma, dependent dharmas, is ignorance.
Its threefold essence is passion, aggression, and ignorance.
These produce the board of samsara, black and white.
Primordially luminous mind-itself, by not apprehending its own nature, propagates confusions of
grasping and fixation all over the ground, so that all the sentient beings of samsara are confused. The
Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
As many sentient beings as there are, low, middle, and high,
They have arisen from ignorance. So the Sugata taught.
The lower ones are those in the lower realms. The middle ones are human beings. The higher ones are
the gods. Each experiences the joys and sorrows of their own particular kind of karma. The root of this is
ignorance. They all equally possess the three poisons. They all equally possess unwholesomeness. In accord
with their virtues and merits, they all produce fruitions of happiness.
The section on the producer, the wholesome or virtuous, has two divisions, the ground and divisions of
wholesomeness. As for the explanation of the ground: by the wholesome, happiness and the higher realms are
established. By the unwholesome, suffering and the lower realms are produced.
b) The producer, unwholesomeness
As for the explanation of the unwholesome:
Since we can fall from high to low within samsara
There are the unvirtuous actions, divided into ten.
There are three of body, four of speech, and three of mind.
The ten unwholesome actions that produce falling from the higher realms into the lower ones, and
nothing but suffering are as follows:
The three unwholesome actions of body
1. Cutting off life.
2. Taking what is not given.
3. Sexual transgression.
The four unwholesome actions of speech
1. Lying.
2. Divisive speech.
3. Sophistic speech.
4. Harsh words.
The three unwholesome actions of mind
1. Covetice.
2. Ill-will.
3. Wrong view.
c) The divisions,
i) The actions of body:
Cutting off life is intentional killing of another
Related is endangering life through beating and such.
Taking what is not given is stealing another's goods.
Related to this is getting them by using fraud.
Transgressions in sex are with persons committed to others.
Related are dharmas like improper sexual acts.
Everything from maliciously killing worms and insects, knowingly cutting off their lives, and striking
them, chopping them up, and so forth is included in cutting off life.
Taking what is not given is stealing the wealth of others, and related is using fraud to have them given.
Sexual transgression, refers to another's spouse, those who are close relatives, or not in their right minds,
or deliberately having sex at an improper place or time. Included are intercourse in forbidden parts of the body,
such as the hands.
The Abhidharmakosha says:
Cutting off life, as we rightly think, is killing others.
Taking what is not given makes another's wealth one's own;
Including acquisition of it through force or deceit.
Forbidden desires, comprise the four kinds of wrongful sex.
The commentary on the Drowa Namje says:
What is like the actual thing, is related to it. Having arisen similarly, it is like it; like beating
someone with a stick and relying on magical ceremonies to that end.
ii) The four actions of speech:
Speaking false words is lying to change another's opinion.
Related is devious words that others will receive falsely.
Slander is speaking words that bring about dissention.
Related is saying one thing here, another there.
Idle talk is evil teachings and frivolous words.
Related is disconnected or fallacious speech.
Harsh language is abusive words that denigrate others.
Related is gentle words that are displeasing to others.
To make speech a gate of entering the Dharma, actions of speech are explained. To speak words that are
not true to change the perceptions of others is false speech. Related to that is if one sees that another has been
deceived by literally true words. Saying slanderous words that bring dissension to others is divisive speech. To
say one thing to one person, and something else to another is related.
To start, spread, and listen to gossip; and to talk disconnectedly and frivolously, saying various things
that contradict dharma; is idle or sophistic speech. To say something inappropriate at the time is related.
Harsh language is saying things unpleasant to the ears of others and insulting them. Related is saying
things gently to make them unhappy. The Abhidharmakosha says:
False words change the perception of another person
By their understanding of their meaning of the words.
Divisive words are those that bring dissent to others,
These are the words of a mind that has the kleshas.
Rough words are those that are not pleasant when they are heard.
All that have the kleshas are words of idle talk.
The commentary says:
True words that are deceptive, to repeat such words, to speak at a time when one
should not, and to speak pleasantly, but make others unhappy are the related actions.
iii) The three actions of mind:
Covetice finds another's wealth unbearable.
Therefore it makes an attempt to make it into one's own.
Related is longing for others' glories, such as learning.
Malice is the angry mind that harms another.
Related is anger that does not want their benefit.
Wrong views include eternalism and nihilism,
Or the view that says that cause and effect do not exist.
Related are errors of glorification and denigration.
Inappropriately wishing that another's belongings were one's own is covetousness. Getting angry at the
learning and so forth of another and wishing it were one's own is related. Wishing to harm another is malice.
Being unhappy and angry with their benefits is related. Denigrating karmic cause and effect and falling into the
extremes of eternalism and nihilism are wrong views. Exaggeratedly glorifying and denigrating the true dharma,
the spiritual friends who teach it, and others who are in accord with the dharma is related. The
Abhidharmakosha says:
Covetice wrongly craves another's wealth
Malice is hostility to beings.
Wrong views say there is no good and evil
The commentary on the Drowa Namje says:
To be angry at learning and so forth and covet it, to be angry and displeased at others'
benefits, to disparage true spiritual friends and others according with dharma are the related
actions.
In this case, though it does not call denigration of the dharma and individuals a related action, the
Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines says:
Subhuti, those who accumulate the karma of depriving others of the Dharma will be
born as beings of the lower realms or among those who have fallen into wrong views. They will
suffer among the beings of the great hell, the Avici Hell. Having been contained in its fires for a
kalpa, they will be born in the great hells of other world systems. There too, when they have
been contained in fire for a kalpa, It is taught that they will go to another, and so forth beyond
measure.
The Sutra of the Miracle of Ascertaining Complete Peace says:
For 500 kalpas they will have five hundred heads.
Every one of these heads with not less than five hundred tongues,
And every tongue with plows, five hundred and not less,
Of hotly blazing iron, will be repeatedly plowed,
And all because of the evil deed of denigration.
The Examination of the three Jewels says:
Kashyapa, If some individual says that I or one like me who has grasped the Dharma and
grasped the measure of individual beings, has not grasped the measure of the dharma and grasped the
measure of individual beings, that individual will fall.
3) the fruition,
There are three sections
a) The brief teaching of the nature.
Now the fruition of these is explained:
With bad object, motive, thoughts, and their application.
As for the fruitions of the ten unwholesome actions,
There are ripening, and according with their causes,
power, and action.
When these unwholesome actions are produced by an unwholesome object, motivation, thought, and
application, a fruition ripens in accord with the causes and the dominant nature or power. So it is said in the great
texts, and moreover, in the oral instructions, the fruition of action is explained additionally.
b) The four divisions
i) The ripening of the fruition:
The lesser fruition of the ten actions is birth as an animal.
The middle as a preta, and the great to suffer in hell.
The Objects of Mindfulness says:
Of these ripenings, the lesser is to be born as an animal. The intermediate is to be born
as a preta. The great is to be born among the hell beings.
ii) Fruition according with the cause,
There are two kinds
1)) Accord with the cause of action.
According with the cause is said to be twofold.
One is born in a situation like that of one's former action.
Then there is the fruition of such a situation.
The Hundred Actions says:
Those who have become accustomed to unwholesome conduct, will again be dependent
on unwholesomeness and will act unwholesomely. They will continue in their
unwholesomeness.
2)) Accord with the cause of experience:
Even if such beings attain the higher realms,
Their lives are short and they will suffer from many diseases.
They will not be rich in possessions, and have to share them with enemies.
Their spouses will be ugly, and still there will be rivals.
They will be often slandered and cheated by other people.
Their servants will always be intractable and bad.
They will hear unpleasantness and quarrelsome words.
No one will heed their words; their ventures will be uncertain Desire will grow. They will not know
what is enough.
Not acquiring benefits, they will harmed by others.
Their views will be wrong, and therefore, they will be much deceived.
The ten unwholesome actions have two stages of fruition
The fruition fits the cause, then one experiences that.
The Hundred Actions says:
Those who cut off life can be among gods and humans, but their lives will be short with much sickness.
Those who take what is not given will be anxious about possessions, impoverished, and have to share with
enemies.
Sexual transgressors will have an unpleasant spouse shared with others. Those who speak falsely will
often be slandered and cheated. Divisive people will have bad servants and retinue with whom they cannot be
reconciled. Those who speak harshly will hear unpleasant and quarrelsome words. Idle talkers will not have their
words heeded and trusted. The desires of covetous persons will increase, and they will never know what is
enough. Malicious people will get nothing beneficial and be objects of harm. Those with wrong views will have
bad views and be much deceived.
The Precious Mala says:
For those who cut off life, their own lives will be short.
By taking what is not given we are separated from wealth.
Those who engage in imprudent sex will make enemies.
Those who speak falsely thereafter will often be reviled.
By divisiveness, we will never have companions.
By harsh words, we will hear unpleasant things.
By idle talk our speech will always go unheeded
By covetice the hopes of mind will be destroyed
By malice we will be given the gift of being destroyed.
iii) the fruition of power
As for the dominant result
The power of the effect ripens externally.
Here with impure dependence on the power of other,
Takers of life will live in a place that is very drab.
Medicinal herbs and trees, leaves and fruits and flowers,
Food and drink and are insipid with little potency.
Also hard to digest, they make obstacles to life.
From taking what is not given, crops will never ripen.
We are born in a fearful region of cold, with hail and famine.
Sexual transgressors are born in crowded places,
Miry swamps that are full of urine and excrement,
Nasty places of stinking filth and sticky defilement.
They are cramped and depressed in places without joy.
Liars are born in inhospitable, fearful places.
Wealth soon shifts as one is cheated by all the others.
Slanderers are blocked by impassible heights and depths,
Cliffs and ravines, and deep defiles block all progress
With a unpleasant variety of irregular surfaces.
Those who use harsh language are born among stones and thorns.
In places that are hot or otherwise unpleasant
By idle talk we are born where harvests do not ripen,
Places where the flow of seasons is disrupted.
We cannot stay anywhere long, as things are so unstable.
By covetice we see meager grain and copious chaff,
Born where the better times of year are changeable.
By malice we are born in places naturally harmful
Crops and grain are pungent & bitter to the taste
There are thieves and imperious rulers, savage natives and snakes.
By wrong view we have no source of precious things.
Medicinal herbs and trees, flowers, and grain are few.
There is no refuge and we are without any friends or protection.
The resolution is as presented. The Commentary on the Center and Limit says:
By the power of being a vessel, virtue predominates
iv) The fruition of action:
Whatever people may do, there is an unhappy result.
Whatever is done, by its spreading, suffering is produced.
the Objects of Mindfulness says tersely:
Ignorant ones who do evil deeds will do them again.
Evil deeds proliferate, and there is tremendous suffering.
c. The final summary:
In short these ten actions by their nature are unwholesome.
They are like poison and anyone who ever performs them
Heavy, light, or medium, will make great suffering.
Therefore we should try to avoid them like enemies.
The instructions to the noble one Gyebu Nor in the Dulwa Lung say:
The unwholesome is like poison, because a little produces great suffering. It is like a
wild man, because it destroys the assembly of wholesomeness. Therefore it should be
abandoned and one should try to do what is wholesome.
The Precious Mala says:
What is unwholesome in body, speech, and mind
Should entirely be eliminated.
What is wholesome should always be pursued.
By that the above two dharmas are explained.
c. How to eliminate the unwholesome,
There are three sections
1) Producing the benefits of the higher realms:
The ten kinds of wholesome actions lead to the higher realms.
Their wholesome intention avoids the ten unwholesome ones.
Cutting off life is avoided, and taking what is not given.
Wrongful sex is avoided, and also lies and slander.
Speech is not harsh or frivolous. Thoughts are not covetous.
We keep far away from malice and wrong views.
Merely by abandoning the unwholesome actions, the ten wholesome ones will occur. This is because
they are related as opposites. Therefore, the attitude that abandons the ten unwholesome actions is that of the ten
wholesome ones, the Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
"I have abandoned the taking of life," and so forth. These ten are said.
2) The ripening of their fruition:
If these actions are small, we are born in the human realm.
If more, we are born among the gods of the realm of desire.
Great ones connect us to the samadhi of formless dhyanas.
Thus, we can grasp the pleasures of the two higher realms.
The four results are the opposite of the previous ones.
The fruition should be known to be birth in the higher realms.
By lesser wholesome conduct, we are born among the human beings and gods of the desire realm. If it is
great, we are born in the samadhi realms. These are the two higher realms the realm of pure form, and the
formless realm. The higher realms are attained, and entrance into the lower realms is cut off. The Precious
Mala says:
By these dharmas we are completely liberated
From being a being in hell, a preta, or animal.
After birth among gods or else among human beings
Increasing glory and happiness is easily attained.
One experiences the bliss of Bhrama and so forth
Or the measureless samadhis of the formless realm.
3) How we should choose what to accept and reject:
Thus, by the merit of these ten wholesome actions
We are led to happiness, but the ten of unwholesome nature
Lead instead to falling into the lower realms.
Accept the white cause and effect, and likewise reject the black.
This will be the path to worldly happiness,
Taught to be the fine vehicle of divine and human birth.
By establishing subsequent lives in happy forms,
We truly lay a foundation for our liberation.
Therefore, fortunate beings should depend on doing so.
The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, by accepting the true path of these ten wholesome actions, we are born in the
higher realms. By remaining on the path of the ten unwholesome actions, we are born in the
lower realms.
The White Lotus of Holy Dharma says:
The vehicle of gods and human beings has the ten virtues.
The Supreme Essence says:
The vehicle of gods is the four dhyanas and the four formless attainments. The vehicle of
human beings is the ten virtues. The latter depends on good dharmas.
Yana means vehicle, mount, or means of conveyance. When we ride them, each one brings us to its
particular fruition. The Prajqaparamitasamgatha says 304.3
Riding them does away with the sufferings of beings.
These vehicles are a great house, immeasurable as space.
The highest yana produces joy, happiness, and well-being.
Depending on different levels of mind, different vehicles are taught. For example, one is taught for those
who aim at complete peace. The White Lotus says:
That one vehicle does not have the three vehicles.
It is taught as provisional skillful means.
Two are also taught. the Immaculate Space Sutra says:
In accord with the affinities of sentient beings,
I have bestowed the teachings of the two vehicles.
These are the mahayana and hinayana. Three are also taught. The White Lotus says:
Teaching how to tame the kleshas the gates of Dharma
Are said to be eighty-four thousand, but the true intent of the buddhas
Is the one inseparable essence. That I have taught three vehicles
Is explained by different capacities of sentient beings.
In brief, the levels of mind are limitless, and not all of them perceive the true meaning. The
Lankavatara Sutra says:
Not all the minds as enter finish the vehicle.
Once mind has done that, there is no mind nor vehicle.
In this case the vehicle of gods and men is being discussed. The same text says:
Likewise I explained all the different vehicles.
The vehicle of the shravakas, and that of the pratyekabuddhas.
Within the vehicle of gods and human beings
Samsaric suffering can be eliminated.
However, what comes later is not seen at all.
2. the second section of the extended explanation of karma and being joined to peace,
There are six sections
a. the general explanation of the wholesome being associated with liberation.
Now, as for the wholesome being associated with liberation, good is certainly established. If the details are
explained:
The happiness of freedom puts samsara far away.
It leads to peace beyond the game of black and white,
Forming the array of the heights and depths of samsara.
Included within the five paths that lead to this liberation
Are the ten wholesome actions, and the four dhyana states of form,
The five formless dhyana attainments, the six perfections and so on.
Realizing that persons and dharmas have no self,
By the happy combination of prajqa and upaya,
Dwelling neither in samsara or nirvana,
We shall produce great benefits for all sentient beings.
Attaining the limitless state of the Victorious One,
By the wholesomeness of yoga we pass beyond all worlds.
The previously taught merit completely transcends both the good and evil associated with it. As for the
good which completely liberates us from defilement, the cause of being born in the cycles of samsara, the
phenomenal accumulation of merit, the ten virtues, the first five paramitas, and so forth are relative. The non-
phenomenal accumulation of wisdom, prajqa, does not dwell in the two extremes. When, by the stages of the five
paths, these are united, we apprehend the level of buddhahood beyond the world's goodness.
Worldly goodness is grasped in terms of things and characteristics. This is beyond things and
characteristics. From the very time the good action is done, it is liberated from the mind of merit and non-merit.
It is awareness of the empty, compassionate essence. As to the details, the Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
If they are able to carve a well-formed woman's image,
Wood-workers who are skilled can make anything else as well.
Likewise, bodhisattvas skillfully trained in prajqa
Can do whatever is done by the wisdom of non-thought.
The Precious Mala says:
Whoever pacifies having knowledge and being without it,
Thereby has gone beyond both merit and evil deeds.
Liberation from the higher and lower realms,
Is what is explained as being truly liberated.
Also it says there:
Having the essence of emptiness and compassion,
One has been established in enlightenment.
With the mind of truth, in apparent goodness
without entangling attachments, like emanations and illusions, we acts for the benefit of others. However, if the
space-like goodness established by prajqa does not establish the path of liberation, this will not take place. The
Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
If a billion blind persons with no one to lead them
Tried to get to a city, though they did not know the way,
Attaining the first five perfections of the Victorious One,
Without attaining the eye of prajqa is like that.
The Essence of the Eight Instructions says:
The time when the five first paramitas are completed by the perfection of prajqa is the
time of entering into the city of omniscience.
Thus, since all dharmas are natureless, the good too is natureless, and in this way beginners and those of
inferior mind abandon it. The Precious Mala says:
Though these dharmas are truly good and very wholesome,
With the air of being profound and subtle beings
Childish individuals who are without true learning
Will try to avoid them, so the Victorious One has said.
The Instruction on Prajqa says:
Subhuti, All dharmas are without essence. The six perfections are also without
essence. Neither examined or the examiner are found. They are not perceived. They are not
really seen. That is how it should be known.
This should not be told to those of the families of those who have newly entered into the
vehicle, of shravakas, and of pratyekabuddhas.
Why? They will be so fearful and terrified that their hair stands on end. By this being
said, for this reason, they will abandon this perfection of prajqa.
b. comprehending this: the goodness of liberation
If it is asked what is the goodness of liberation:
The accumulation of merit is involved with particular objects.
The accumulation of wisdom is not. By these combined,
Cleansed of the two obscurations, the two kayas manifest.
The stages of meditation and post-meditation are practiced.
These are corruptible in ordinary beings,
But in the noble ones they are immutable
In meditation and the state that follows it
By such a pattern of practice liberation will be attained.
The five first perfections, generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, and meditation, are the accumulation
of merit. Prajqa is the accumulation of wisdom. By their unification, the two kayas, dharmakaya and rupakaya
will manifest. The Precious Mala says:
As for the rupakaya possessed by all the buddhas,
It arises from the accumulation of merit.
Dharmakaya is born, to give a brief summary,
From accumulating the wisdom of the conquerors.
By these two accumulations, buddhahood is attained
If this is what we want, we should always rely
On these two accumulations, those of merit and of wisdom.
The major and minor marks of the Buddha's rupakaya are established by these two accumulations in a
way that is highly exalted. As much merit as ordinary beings, shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas
may have, a single body hair of the buddhas has ten times more. A hundred times as much as exists in such a
hair exists in the minor marks. A hundred times the amount in each of the eighty minor marks is that of one of
the major marks. The merit of each of the thirty-two major marks increased by a thousand is that of the tuft
between the eyebrows. A hundred thousand times the collective merit of the tuft between the eyebrows is that of
the ushnisha tuft at the top of the Buddha's head. A thousand times the merit of the hair-tuft is taught to be that
established by the conch of spoken dharma. The same text says:
As merit is beyond the scope of thought,
So the major marks of the Buddha rise.
The great scriptural treasury of the mahayana
Says he is a great being like a king.
All the merit of the pratyekabuddhas,
All merit in the world without remainder
That of both the learned and non-learned
If it should be increased to ten times more,
Would be as much as in one of the Buddha's pores.
The hair-pores of a Buddha are all like that.
As for all the merit of these hair-pores,
That amount increased a hundred times,
Would be the merit of one of the minor marks.
That many times that same degree of merit
Is that of each of the royal major marks.
These merits of the thirty two major marks,
If they are multiplied a thousand times,
Are those of the brow-tuft like the sun and moon.
The merits of the brow, increased by a hundred
Would not appear as much as the tuft of the head.
As much as is produced at the crown of the head,
If that were made hundred times as much,
That of the conch of dharma would still be ten times more.
Below the supreme dharma, is the defiled, worldly dharma. Above that is the world-transcending,
undefiled dharma. The border is between what is corruptible and what is immutable. The wisdom of meditation
is undefiled, while that of post-meditation is defiled. They are the corruptible and immutable paths. The first
five paramitas, generosity and so forth, are defiled, and prajqa is undefiled. They are corruptible and
immutable goodness.
c. How the cause of liberation is produced,
If it is asked on what these goodnesses depend, and from what they are produced, the real goodness in
accord with liberation, the true path, is accumulated as a cause of separation. Therefore, it depends on the alaya
of the various habitual patterns. The fruition of separation attained by this cause of separation, depends on the
gotra or the essence, which therefore, is the true cause of changeless liberation. That is the main point:
The gotra is the support of the goodness of liberation. In having this we have the luminous nature of mind.
Spotless dharmadhatu is the naturally present gotra.
In its apparent aspect this is the two rupakayas.
These are described by the Uttaratantra's nine examples.
This nature of compassion exists eternally.
The Sugata has said that this is the "growable" gotra:
Its root is the luminosity of insight-wisdom.
Its essence is wholesomeness, that does not have the three poisons.
This is taught as it is in final word of the true meaning sutras, the great teaching of all the buddhas.
These are The Sutra of the Questions of King Dharantsvara, The Glorious Mala of the Lion's Roar Sutra, The
Sutra Requested by the Girl Precious One, The Sutra Requested by the Goddess Immaculate One, The Sutra of
the Dwarf Angulamala, The Noble Complete, Great Nirvana Sutra, The Sutra requested by Maitreya, The
Tathagatagarbha Sutra, The Sutra of the Wheel Curing Sickness These say that within all sentient beings is the
primordially existing dharmadhatu, the naturally pure space which is the nature of mind. This is tathagatagarbha.
It exists primordially. It is changeless. Its apparent aspect is rupakaya, the source of the major and minor
marks. Its aspect of emptiness is dharmakaya, free from all the extremes of complexity, primordially and
spontaneously present. Its qualities, in their spontaneous presence are exemplified by a jewel; in their
changelessness, by space; In moistening and pervading all sentient beings, it is exemplified by pure water. The
Uttaratantra says: 21
Like a jewel, space, or pure water;
Its nature has never had the kleshas.
At the very time it is obscured by defilements, its essence is undefiled suchness. The nature of mind is
primordial luminosity. The Gyu Tongpa says:
Mind is not mind. The nature of mind is luminosity.
That is the dhatu of buddhahood, the gotra or enlightened family which all sentient beings possess. The
Uttaratantra says: 21
Because the perfect buddha kaya radiates
Because of suchness being inseparable,
And because of possessing the dhatu every sentient being
Always possesses the very essence of buddhahood.
This should be known to be the good dhatu of the Dharma. It is fundamentally enlightened from the
beginning. The Expressor of Marks says:
Buddhahood is without beginning and end.
The primordial buddha is without any bias.
The Two Examinations says:
Sentient beings are buddhas, in actuality.
But they are obscured by incidental obscurations.
When these are cleared away, then they are buddhas.
Even at the time of being a sentient being, the nature of mind has the apparent buddha qualities of
rupakaya and the buddha qualities of the emptiness aspect as dharmakaya; but since they are obscured by
unremoved defilements, this is called the dhatu or enlightened family. At the time of buddhahood, since mind is
free from all defilements, it is called enlightenment. This occurs merely by the appearance or non-appearance of
the perfected power of the nature, mind itself. It is not maintained that first, at the time of being a sentient being,
the qualities are non-existent, and later they are newly produced. This is because they are changeless. The Sutra
of the Supreme Appearance of the Essence says:
The dhatu has no temporal beginning.
It exists as the true state of all dharmas.
Since it exists, all beings have attained nirvana.
As it was before, it will be later.
This is the changelessness of suchness.
The luminous nature of mind is not obscured by the kleshas. The Uttaratantra says: 26
The nature of the mind is luminosity.
It is just as changeless as the space of the sky.
By the rising of false conceptions, desire and so forth obscure it,
But its nature is not obscured by incidental defilements.
The divisions are the primordial gotra and the removable gotra, whose arising depends on clearing away
incidental defilements.
As for their beginningless existence as dharmin and dharmata, the Nirvana Sutra says:
O son of noble family, as for the nature of mind, naturally luminous and naturally
essenceless, the way naturally pure mind appears is by participating in buddha qualities that
blaze with the major and minor marks, and not being separate from them. Nevertheless its
empty and apparent natures are distinguished.
The established gotra, superimposed on the primordial gotra is the incidental upaya and prajqa of the
four paths of learning, produced by mind and so forth. Purification occurs through the activities of the two
accumulations of merit and wisdom. the Gandavyuha Sutra says:
Kye, sons of the Victorious One! This which is called the gotra of enlightenment is genuine
dharmadhatu
It is vast like the sky. When its naturally luminous nature has been seen, training in accord with
the great accumulations of merit and wisdom is purified.
The Uttaratantra says: 39
Like the buried treasure and the fruit
The two aspects of the gotra should be known
They are the beginningless natural presence
And supremacy that has been truly received.
As is taught, arising from these two gotras,
The trikaya of the Buddha is attained.
By the first arises the first of the kayas,
By the second arise the subsequent two.
All the splendor of svabhavikakaya,
Like the precious statue of the Buddha.
Is self-arising and therefore unproduced.
It is a mine of precious qualities.
Because it has great dominion over the dharmin
It is fully expressed, like a universal monarch.
Its phenomenal nature is like a reflection,
With emanation-bodies like forms of gold.
Svabhavikakaya is mind itself, the naturally existing gotra. This is like a naturally existing jewel. From
within it comes the gotra with the nature of the dharmin. Here there are the universal monarch of sambhogakaya,
and its reflected emanation, arising in dependence on it, nirmanakaya, the supreme emanation for those who are to
be tamed. At the time of existing as a sentient being, these do not appear, because defilement obscures them.
By accumulating merit through visualization and so forth, defilements that obscure rupakaya are cleared
away. By the accumulation of wisdom through emptiness meditation and so forth, obscurations are cleared away
from the dharmata-svabhavikakaya, the body of the self-existing-essence, the nature of dharmas.
The support, the naturally existing gotra, is like clear water. Within it the supported, the established
gotra, rises like a variety of reflections. The two exist primordially, like reflector and reflection.
Within the gotra that exists as the ground, as knowable objects, the incidentally established gotra exists
as the phenomena of knowing mind. These are respectively support and supported.
The dharmin exists separably with dharmata, the naturally existing gotra. As a separable fruition, it is
non-existent. The produced gotra is an antidote to purify defilements. Though the two kayas exist as if they were
produced effect and producing cause, there is no actual causation. That gotra makes the perfect buddha qualities
to be born as the realization of the paths of learning. This is their liberation or ripening as the level of
buddhahood. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
The nature and the vast extent of its blossoming;
That these exist as support and what is supported;
Their existence and non-existence; their buddha qualities.
Are what should be known as the meaning of liberation.
Sugatagarbha pervades all sentient beings. By the nine examples it is taught to exist within the covering
of the kleshas. The Uttaratantra says: 31
A buddha in a decaying lotus, bees and honey.
Gold within a covering of an unclean nature.
Treasure in the earth, the germ within a fruit,
An image of the buddha that is covered with rags.
A king within the belly of a poor and ugly woman.
Jewels in the earth, in such a form,
Obscured by the incidental defilements of the kleshas,
This dhatu exists within sentient beings.
These nine examples are related to the obscured dhatu as it exists in ordinary individuals, arhats among
the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas dwelling on the paths of seeing and meditation. Ordinary
people are those who have not entered into the path; or those who have entered but their being is obscured by to
the assembly of the four obscurations, passion, aggression, ignorance, and all of these together. From the four
examples of the dhatu within them, first, as for the example of how the essence exists, when it is obscured by
propensities of desire, the Uttaratantra says: @@@
Existing in a lotus that is evil-colored,
A tathagata-statue, blazing with a thousand marks,
Having been seen with the undefiled eye of the gods,
The statue would be removed from its mud-born lotus cover.
For tathagatas dwelling in places without torment
The intrinsic buddha eye sees what will later be unobscured.
Their intrinsic endless compassion will free them from obscuration.
Second, the example of the dhatu existing in a covering characterized by propensities of aggression:
@@@
Like honey that is surrounded by a swarm of bees,
Capable persons have a wish that they could acquire it
Having seen it is there, by using skillful means,
They completely separate it from the swarm of insects,
By the all-knowing eye of the great sage himself
Having seen the honey of the dhatu or gotra,
Having obscurations like the swarm of bees,
He makes them be completely abandoned and disappear.
Third, the example of the dhatu existing in a covering characterized by propensities of stupidity: @@@
Just as kernels of grain still covered by their husks
Are not usable in that form by human beings,
They remove the grain from out of the covering husk.
Using the part they want for food and otherwise
Just so, mixed with defiling kleshas of sentient beings,
As many victorious ones as there are in the three worlds,
If they are not liberated from being mixed with these kleshas,
So many will not be made into victorious ones.
Fourth, the example of the essence existing in a covering manifesting kleshas characterized by the arising
of passion, aggression and stupidity all together: @@@
Just as on a journey someone's treasured gold
In the confusion might fall into a filthy place,
That dharmin by falling there, would not have been destroyed,
Remaining there like that for many hundreds of years.
By a god who had the pure eye of the gods,
If the gold existing there was seen and found
People would say the god established that precious thing,
This supremely precious thing, that actually was abandoned,
So the buddha qualities of sentient beings.
Have sunk and disappeared among the filth-like kleshas.
Having been seen by the Sage, to purify them that filth,
For all beings he caused the dharma to arise.
As for the example of the dhatu existing in a covering of habitual patterns of ignorance, in the arhats of
the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas: @@@
Just as in the house of a poor man, under the floor,
An inexhaustible treasure might be lying buried;
But he would not know the existence of this treasure,
Nor would the treasure say to him that it was there.
So with the precious treasure that is within the mind,
Spotless dharmata, with no adding or taking away,
When it is not realized, we experience
The poverties of suffering, continuously arising.
if the covering is abandoned when seen, here is the first of the two examples of how the essence is:
@@@
Just as in a mango or in other fruits
There are undestroyed dharmas of seed and germination,
And then if there should be plowed earth, and water and such,
The stuff of a king of trees will gradually be established.
So in the fruit of the ignorance of sentient beings,
Inside the covering skin is the good dharma-element
Which similarly depending on the condition of goodness
Will gradually be the stuff of the King of Sages.
As for the second example: @@@
As a precious statue of the Victorious One
Might be covered up in dirty tattered rags,
But still a divine one on the path might seen and uncover it,
And then it would be said, "He really dwells on the path."
So the sugata nature, wrapped in beginningless kleshas,
Having once been seen, even within an animal,
There would be a real means of by which it could be set free.
From the two examples of how, within the covering of defilements that is to be abandoned by cultivation,
there exists the splendor of the good dhatu of dharmas, as for the first: @@@
Just as an ugly woman with no one to protect her
Staying in a shelter for the poor and homeless
Might hold a splendid king in the confines her womb.
And would not know this lord of men was in her belly.
In the refuge mission of life within this world,
Impure sentient beings are like that pregnant woman.
With only what she has, she will one day have a protector.
Gestation of the spotless dhatu is similar.
As for the second example: @@@
Just as gold ore that has a big nugget inside of it
Has a external nature that is very drab,
Having seen it those who know it for what it is,
In order to purify the gold that is inside,
Undertake to remove the outer covering.
Having seen the luminous nature that is within us,
Although it has been covered up by the incidental;
Likewise the source of seeing what is precious in sentient beings
Removes the obscurations of supreme enlightenment.
Though the obscurations to the pure ground are many, the same text says: @@@
Passion, aggression, and ignorance; active or as an imprint;
That to be abandoned by seeing and meditation;
The higher bhumis relatively impure and pure,
Many defilements are taught by the covering lotus and so forth.
Transcending all the divisions of closely-connecting kleshas,
By these defilements fools and those with the learning of arhats,
Are meant by respectively four and one of these examples.
Seeing and cultivation, and the pure and impure levels
Have two and two comparisons of their impurities.
Joining these examples of defilements and the essence to a determination of their meaning, the same text
says: @@@
Just as when a lotus arises from the mud,
When it first manifests the mind is very joyful,
But afterward it decays and then there is no more joy.
The joy arising from desire is like that.
Just as delicious honey is completely crawling
With irritated bees that sting like an army of spears;
Just so, if aggression rises, and swarms within our minds
Suffering will be produced within our hearts.
Just as the essence, the kernels rice and other grain
Is hidden by an external husk which covers it,
So sight of the essential meaning buddhahood
Has been obscured within the egg of ignorance.
Just as filth is something that is unsuitable,
So are those who have desire for these poisons
That is because depending on the cause of their desire,
What is like filth will be arising everywhere.
Just as when wealth is hidden underneath the ground,
One who does not know this will not attain the treasure,
So the self-arising treasure of the nature
Is hidden in the ground of habitual patterns of ignorance.
Just as by gradual growing of the sprout and so forth
The shell of the seed is cut apart and falls away,
So by seeing the suchness of the natural state
What is to be abandoned by seeing is reversed.
Those who conquer the essence of transitory collections
Through being connected to the path of the noble ones,
Make wisdom the thing to abandon on the path of meditation.
This is taught to be like being wrapped in rags.
The defilements supported by the first seven bhumis,
Are like the defilement found in the covering of a womb.
Non-thought is like being free of the covering of the womb,
This completes the ripening of the insight of wisdom.
Defilements associated with the three highest bhumis
Should be known to like a covering of mud and clay.
By a great being's having attained the vajra view,
The vajra-like samadhi destroys that covering.
Thus the many defilements of desire and so forth
Are like the examples of a decaying lotus and so forth.
The Enumeration of Dharmas of the Complete Passing Beyond Suffering of the Noble Ones says:
Then the Bhagavan spoke to Kashyapa. O son of noble family, It is, for example, like this. A
wealthy king had on his forehead a vajra jewel. With other wealthy ones, radiating power, it
touched the heads of those other wealthy ones.
The jewel on the forehead sunk inside his flesh, and he did not know where it had gone.
Because a wound arose, he asked a doctor, "Cure me." From this instruction, a very capable
doctor would not treat him for that wound of the jewel going into his flesh, saying these words,
"Kye most powerful one, why are you asking about your forehead-jewel?
That wealthy one, from aversion, would say to the doctor, "Because my forehead jewel
should not go anywhere." he would think, "Is it an illusion that it is not there?" This would
produce much suffering.
Then that doctor producing joy in that wealthy one would say, "Thus do not produce
suffering. If you emanate power, the jewel will sink into your flesh, a mere reflection will
appear externally. If you emanate power, hatred will arise. Though the power of the jewel has
sunk into your flesh you did not feel it."
Not believing these words that were said, the king would say, "Doctor don't lie. If it
sinks into my flesh, which is matter and blood that is very opaque, it is not reasonable that a
reflection would appear."
Then the doctor would say, "A mirror is likewise opaque, but the jewel will also clearly
appear in it. When you have seen that this is like that, a wondrous, marvelous perception will
arise.
O son of noble family, all sentient beings are like that. Since they do not venerate the
spiritual friend, though they have the buddha nature they cannot see it. It is obscured by
passion, aggression, and ignorance. Many different beings who have so been overcome are
within samsara and suffering.
From that nature , O son of noble family, within the bodies of all sentient beings there
are the ten powers, the thirty-two major marks, and the eighty excellent minor marks.
This has been taught in many ways. The Hevajra says:
Within the body there exists the great wisdom
The truth of this has abandoned all conceptions.
Universal, it pervades all things.
Embodied existence does not arise from the body.
The Precious Mala says:
I and limitless sentient beings are primordial buddhas.
By the power of discursive thoughts there is samsara.
From that I shall produce the supreme mind of enlightenment.
The Wisdom of the Moment of Death says:
Since whoever realizes mind is a buddha, produce the supreme perception by not
searching anywhere else.
The Praise of the Vajra of Mind says:
Water that exists within the earth
Exists there pure without defilement.
Just so, within the covering of the kleshas,
Wisdom exists without defilement.
The Secret Essence says:
Throughout the ten directions and four times,
Perfected buddhas are nowhere to be found.
Except for the perfect buddha, the nature of mind,
Do not look for any other buddha.
The victorious ones themselves, if they should search,
Would never find it anywhere at all.
So it is taught, there and elsewhere. In brief, by the example of the great billion-fold expanse of the
three-fold thousand worlds it should be known that within all sentient beings primordially exists the kayas and
wisdoms of buddhahood, without adding and subtracting, like the sun and its light. That dhatu is always
naturally pure. Its self-nature does not change. Its defilements are false conceptions and temporary changes.
The commentary on the Uttaratantra says:
@@@
O great rishi, The kleshas are darkness. Complete purity is light. The kleshas are weak. Clear
seeing is powerful. The kleshas are temporary. Natural purity is the root.
So it is taught there and elsewhere. Since the dhatu is primordially without defilement, it is pure. Since it
is changeless, it is the true self, since it always exists, it is permanent. Though it falls into the sufferings of
samsara, it is not overcome by them, and this is the perfection of bliss. The Uttaratantra says: 22
Purity, self-nature, bliss, and permanence
Are the perfect qualities of the fruition.
The dhatu of the tathagata pervades all sentient beings.. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Just as space is maintained as eternal and omnipresent,
This too is maintained to be eternal and omnipresent.
Just as space is an aspect found within all forms,
This too is in all the assembly of sentient beings.
When this essence is obscured by clouds, they do not stain it, any more than when the sun is obscured by
clouds. At the time of primordial buddhahood, the dhatu exists indestructibly and inseparably. The commentary
to the Uttaratantra says
The dhatu of the tathagata existing in the three occasions is present within all beings. All their
kleshas and phenomenal appearances are composed of this changeless reality.
As regards the three occasions, the Uttaratantra says: 24
These are the three-fold stages of impurity,
Both pure and impure, and being completely pure.
They are said to be the stage of sentient beings,
And those of bodhisattvas, and of tathagatas.
The impure situation is that of sentient beings. That which is both pure and impure is that of
bodhisattvas. Complete purity is the situation of the buddhas. As nothing is like the gotra, it cannot be
exemplified by anything at all.
The same text says: @@@
Since it is completely beyond the world
No example is seen within the world.
Therefore the tathagata and the dhatu
Are taught to be similar in this respect.
As to how it is incomparable, it is essentially single. Therefore, to explain it by many examples from
different situations would be merely partial characterization of it.
It may be asked, "How can this gotra be seen as it is? Beings who do not see the natural state are
accepted by the spiritual friend. Those who have devotion to the vehicles of the shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and
bodhisattvas; and also beings dwelling on the bhumis realize it in a single way. This realization is one with that
of the bodhisattvas dwelling on the tenth bhumi. As for this being the way it really is, it is not seen otherwise even
by the buddhas themselves. The commentary to the Uttaratantra says:
Seeing clouds and the sun, whether from here on the earth or from the sky above the
clouds, we have a similar apprehension. The noble ones whose eye of the mind is pure also see
all this very clearly. Bhagavan, your completely pure understanding of dharmakaya sees all the
limitless knowable objects pervading the space of the sky.
The dhatu or essence is the buddha field of the three kayas of one's own mind itself, along with their
wisdoms, existing as the circle of the ornament. How is this seen? Since this is buddhahood, it is properly
explained in these texts. By having faith in the paths of learning it is entirely apprehended. The former text says:
The absolute truth of the self-arisen ones
Has to be realized by means of faith.
The blazing light in the circle of the sun
Is not seen by those who have no eyes.
The Sutra on the Essence of Buddhahood says:
No matter what they rely on, individual sentient beings, shravakas, pratyekabuddhas,
and bodhisattvas do not see the essence of the buddhas as it is. For example, a blind man
cannot see what is painted by others in oil colors. When they say, "it is like this pillar, and he
touches the pillar with his hands and grasps it as cold. They say, "it is like the wings of a
swan." By hearing the sound of the wings of a swan the color of a pillar is grasped as a
fluttering sound. He asks, "what is the color of those wings like?" "It is like a conch." By
touching a smooth conch, he grasps it as smooth. Just as a blind person does not know colors
as they are, seeing the highest nature of buddhahood is very difficult.
It is also very hard for sentient beings to realize it. The same text says:
A king assembled many blind men, and having shown them an elephant. Asked to
describe the characteristics of an elephant, those who had touched the trunk said, "it is like a
hook." Those who touched the eye said, "It is like a bowl. Those who touched the ear said, "It
is like a winnowing basket. Those who touched the back said, "It is like a tray. Those who
touched the tail said, "It is like a rope." These blind men were not talking about anything other
than an elephant, but they had not understood its totality.
The buddha nature is also like that. Those who have said different things, that it is
emptiness, like illusion, luminous and so forth, have not realized its totality.
Beings who are noble ones have a little realization of it, but not as it is. The Nirvana Sutra says:
O son of noble family For example, it is like this. A blind man in order to have his eyes healed
went to a capable physician. The physician holding a gold knife removed the hindrance. Having
cut off the opaque part that obscured the eye. He lifted up a finger.{{328..}} When he showed
it, the blind man said, "I do not see it." If he showed two or three fingers, the patient would say,
"I see a little bit."
O son of noble family, if this Sutra of Complete great Nirvana is not taught, as many
are not among the bodhisattvas, even after they have perfected the ten paramitas, even when
they exist on the tenth bhumi, they will not see the nature of buddhahood. It is like that. When
this is taught by the Tathagata, they will see it a little.
The birds soaring in the sky above must examine where the pure sky is. If a swan is in
the top of a tree it examines whether it is a tree or water, and thinking about the top of a ship on
the ocean, or in space, also knowing the top of the second. Though by such examples the
essence is not seen, it is taught to be the manner of non-ascertaining seeing.
If it is asked, "what is the use of teaching this essence that is subtle and difficult to examine, not seen
with certainty while one is a sentient being?:"
By teaching that the essence of buddhahood exists within the being of oneself and others, having reversed
one's own discouragement, knowing that establishing liberation is not difficult, we gain confidence.
Eliminating contempt for other sentient beings, we respect everyone equally with the teacher as buddhas.
Having eliminated not knowing that realization of the kayas and wisdoms exists within one as true
reality, prajqa realizes the space of the absolute.
Knowing the natural state like that, it eliminates glorifications and deprecations of is and is not,
eternalism and nihilism.
Then wisdom realizes true reality, and the supreme self. Having eliminated pride and desire for anything
more, it sees self and other as equal.
It is taught that these are the five necessities for the arising of the great kindness for others. The
Uttaratantra says: 40
Like clouds, dreams, and illusions, and the other examples
All the dharmas of knowables are always emptiness.
When this has been taught by victorious ones to sentient beings
Why do they also teach them that they have the essence.
To answer that question:
Contempt for lesser ones and disenheartened beings,
Joining those who grasp untruth to the truth of dharma,
For those who have abundant faults of ego-grasping
It is taught so that those like that will abandon them.
As for those who wrongly slight the body and are enslaved by the golden net of wrong view, or who
support realization of the true meaning of the sutras and secret mantra with partialities,
their "essential meanings" are really provisional. They teach the intention that, "If the cause occurs, the fruition
will arise."
It is not like that. This is like the eternal self of the Hindu extremists. "The two kayas of buddhahood
arise from the two accumulations. This should be stated as definitely true."
O you with your lotus net of eternalism, you truly do not know the intention of saying that there were
three turnings to the wheel of dharma. You are truly grasping the extreme of emptiness.
The first turning of the word, intended for beginners and those of weak mind, made the four noble truths
and renunciation into an antidote. This was so that these beings could eliminate samsara as a means of complete
liberation from what is to be abandoned.
In the second turning, intended for them eventually when they had completely abandoned this and for
those of intermediate capacity of mind, he taught the eight examples of illusion and emptiness like space. This
was a means of liberating them from the bondage of grasping the antidote.
For those who reached that goal and from the viewpoint of those of the highest powers, he taught the
self-nature of knowables as it really is. This is not like the self of the heretics. Their impossible self is a
nonexistent, exaggerated nature. They make measures of greater and lesser, and therefore they do not maintain
the dharmas of the kayas and wisdoms.
It is not the true meaning that self and non-emptiness were taught simply as an antidote for you who are
attached to egolessness and emptiness. The Nirvana Sutra says:
O son of noble family, moreover it is like this. For example a woman was nursing her
small child who was afflicted by mouth rot, and when the child was struck by sickness, that
woman too was tormented by suffering, and sought out a physician. The physician gave her as
medicine, oil and milk and shakara. When the child was given this to drink, he instructed the
woman with these words. "Because we are giving medicine to this child, for a little while until
you, the mother, are cured, it shouldn't be given your milk to drink. So he would instruct her.
Then so that it would not nurse, he put bile on the nipples; the child would have said
that her nipple was smeared with poison and not suitable for sucking. The child, tormented by
thirst, desired the breast, but having tasted it, would not take it.
After being treated by the physician the woman would wash her breast clean. When
the child cried she would go to it. "Now take the breast and nurse," she would say. That child,
though tormented with thirst, because of the former taste it experienced, would not come when
called.
In this instance the mother would give these instructions. "You have drunk the
medicine I gave you before. With this medicine, until the mother is cured, since it is not proper
that the nipple be given for nursing, it was smeared with bile. Now, even taking your medicine,
the nipple will have no taste in your mouth." When she said that, gradually approaching as
before, it would drink.
Son of noble family, The tathagata also, in order to liberate all sentient beings, is the
persistent teacher of egolessness to sentient beings. By his having persistently done that, the
attitude of "ego" is non-existent. Suffering is completely eliminated. This is in order to clear
away the bad views of the worldly charvakas. By meditating on the dharma of egolessness, the
body will become completely pure.
Just as that woman, because of her son, smeared bile on her breast, the tathagata too is
like that. So that there will be emptiness meditation, he teaches that all dharmas are selfless.
Just as that woman later washed off the bile and called her child, saying take the nipple and
nurse, my teaching tathagatagarbha is like that. O monks so that you will not be afraid, as the mother
called the child, and it gradually drank her milk, O monks, you too should make a distinction.
Tathagatagarbha should not be said to be non-existent. In my former sayings in the prajqaparamita
sutras, which taught emptiness, understand that the intention was merely naturelessness. Otherwise by
meditating on the emptiness of nothing at all, the fruition produced would accord with the cause, and the
kayas and wisdoms would not arise.
Emptiness expresses the idea that the apparent dharmin, from the time it appears, is empty of
complexities grasped as one and many, and empty of individual existences, like the reflections in a mirror, that all
extremes are completely non-existent, and that non-existent now and primordially, things are not like their
confused appearance. The Heart Sutra says:
Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is nothing other than form. From is
nothing other than emptiness. Similarly, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are
empty.
The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Every dharmin in its own turn is taught to be empty of essence. But if it is formless, how will
there be the view that form is empty?
The Uttaratantra says:
@@@
The emptiness that has the supreme of all aspects
Is emptiness that is expressed as form.
And also: 39-40
Here there is nothing at all that is to be cleared away,
And nothing that is to be added to what there is.
Within reality the real is what is seen.
If thus one sees the truth, one will be liberated.
Of what has the characteristic of separability
The dhatu, pure of the incidental, is empty.
Of that which has the characteristic of being inseparable,
The unsurpassable dharmas, it is not empty.
Its commentary says:
Why is this taught here? For the reason that it is not contradictory with saying that this
dhatu of the tathagata is by nature completely pure from all the kleshas that are to be cleared
away. It is free from incidental obscurations because it is its nature to be so. Within this there
is nothing to be added for reasons of phenomenal appearance. Completely undivided dharmata
is also its nature. Therefore, sugatagarbha having divisions and what is separable is empty of
all the separable coverings of the kleshas. What is indivisible and inseparable from it is the
buddha dharmas beyond being encompassed by thought, surpassing the grains of sand in the
Ganges. They are not empty.
When something does not exist in something, the latter is said to be empty of the former but we must
subsequently assert that whatever remains there eternally exists and is known truly as it is.
Though obscurations of the two primordial kayas of buddhahood, are cleared away by the two
accumulations, they are not producing cause and produced effect. If they were, dharmakaya and sambhogakaya
would be composite productions, and hence impermanent. However, dharmakaya is changeless. The
Madhyamakavatara says:
The kaya of peace is like a wish fulfilling tree,
Like a wish-fulfilling, gem it is inconceivable.
Till beings are liberated, it is always in the world,
And it will appear without complexity.
The Uttaratantra says: 52
The Mara of death has been conquered by the lord of Dharma.
Being without essence, he is the permanent lord of the world.
Contradicting this idea that it has cause and effect it also says: 11
Uncompounded and self-existing,
Not realized by other conditions,
Having wise and compassionate power,
Buddhahood has the two benefits.
That refutes its having a producing cause and produced effect. Saying it is "egoless," "emptiness," "non-
dual," and so forth should be understood in this way. The Great Nirvana of the Noble Ones says:
The secret essence of the tathagata is shown to be the completely pure buddha nature that neither
changes nor transmigrates. If it so exists, it is unreasonable for those who are skilled in prajqa not to
maintain that. To say it is non-existent would be false speaking, and likewise that it has development or
succession. Those of the race of fools espouse nihilism, not knowing the secret essence of the tathagata.
If it is said to suffer, the blissful nature could not be within the body. Stupid fools
think, "All bodies are impermanent." This is like sending the freshness of awareness into clay.
Those who are skilled in prajqa make distinctions. They do not say that everything is
impermanent in every way. Why? Because within our bodies there exists the seed of buddha
nature. Stupid fools grasp the thought that all the dharmas of buddhahood are selfless. For
those skilled in prajqa, selflessness is just an abstract label. It should be discriminated as having
no true existence. Knowing this, one will produce no doubts about the matter. When someone
says that tathagatagarbha is empty, stupid fools give rise to views of nihilism and non-existence.
Those who are skilled in prajqa make a distinction. Within human beings there is the single
tathagata. It is said to be eternally existent, unchanging, and does not transmigrate.
If by the condition of ignorance, composite things are said to arise, stupid fools when
they have heard this think that insight and ignorance are to be distinguished as two. Those who
are skilled in prajqa realize that their natures are non-dual. That which is non-dual is reality.
When someone says that by formations consciousness arises, stupid fools grasp
formations and consciousness as two. Those who are skilled in prajqa realize their natures as
non-dual. Non-duality is purity.
All dharmas have no self, and tathagatagarbha also has no self. When this is said,
stupid fools grasp it dualistically. Those who are skilled in prajqa realize that their natures are
non-dual. Self and selflessness are intrinsically non-dual. Tathagatagarbha has been supremely
praised by the buddha bhagavats as immeasurable, beyond evaluation, and limitless. I too have
taught this in all the sutras about the qualities it possesses.
So it should be known. The Sutra of Miraculous Display says:
Those who have wrong craving have the characteristic of never transcending suffering.
When this is taught regarding these and those of the cut off family, we may think that not all beings are
pervaded by the garbha; but it is not like that. The intention is that those with wrong craving who abandon the
mahayana dharma will not be liberated for a long time. Those who are reversed from the path are only
temporarily cut off from the family of those in whom the path is established. They are not cut off from the dhatu,
the luminous nature of mind. The commentary to the Uttaratantra says:
"Those who have wrong craving have the characteristic of never transcending
suffering." This teaches that wrong craving causes hostility towards the dharma of the
mahayana. This is said with the intention that this hostility to the mahayana dharma will be
reversed at another time. Because the dhatu exists with a nature that is completely pure, it is not
proper to say that some will never become pure. Therefore the bhagavat's intention was that all
sentient beings without distinction are capable of being completely purified. Though samsara is
beginningless, it does have an end. The naturally pure and eternal is obscured by a covering of
beginningless obscurations, and therefore not seen, just as gold might be hidden.
Since within the dhatu of dharmas all goodness exists, it can always be purified. Though, samsara is
beginningless, it has an end. By that is it established.
The reasons that the two gotras are awakened are two. As for the reason that dharmakaya, the naturally-
existing gotra, is awakened, the Madhyamakavatara says:
When someone hears about emptiness, as an ordinary person,
The highest joy will arise within them again and again.
Their eyes are wet with tears that flow because of this joy.
The hairs of their body arise with wonder and stand on end.
Within them the seed of attaining buddhahood exists
They have become the vessels of direct and straightforward teachings.
Now the absolute truth has really been taught to them.
As for the reason that the dharmin-gotra of rupakaya is awakened, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
As for why one becomes a connected vessel,
Practicing compassion, and devotion,
And dedication to what is truly good
Is truly explained as being due to the gotra.
Regarding the benefits of awakening the gotra, the same text says:
The lower realms are far off, and liberation is quick.
When that occurs, one experiences little suffering.
By sadness sentient beings will then be quickly ripened.
Once the gotra is awakened, from then on one is liberated from the lower realms like growing jasmine
naturally falling to the ground. There is little suffering. By strong weariness sentient beings will be ripened.
If there were no such gotra within sentient beings, no matter what sufferings arose, they would not be
saddened. The attitude that aspires to nirvana and rejects samsara would not arise. The attitude of desiring
liberation could also not arise. That in some, without being taught by anyone, compassion for the suffering of
others arises, and that some who experience suffering develop renunciation and so forth is due to the power of
goodness of the beginningless dhatu of dharmas. The Uttaratantra says: 23
If there were no dhatu of buddhahood,
Suffering would never make us sad.
There would be no desire for nirvana,
Or effort and aspiration to that goal.
Being able to see the comparative attractiveness of samsara and nirvana, seeing their faults and virtues is
therefore due to the existence of the gotra. If the gotra did not exist, neither would these.
Thus from the extensive teaching that by having the gotra the essence of buddhahood exists within us,
now some summary verses are interposed:
Without exception all sentient beings have sugatagarbha.
In the covering veil of incidental obscurations,
Exists the primordial lamp, the luminous dhatu of dharmas.
This is the kayas and wisdoms, this itself is the Dharma.
Within it nothing is added, and nothing is taken away.
Existing within us, this itself is self-existing.
By devoting ourselves to this essence of emptiness and compassion,
Having attained this dhatu, called by the name "enlightenment,"
We will benefit all the host of beings without remainder.
Primordially self-arising, like the sun in space,
When it is obscured by clouds, temporarily dimming the daylight,
Then we experience the dreamlike sufferings of samsara.
So make a powerful effort to clear away obscuration.
Confused incidental appearance, appearances of the six realms,
Are emanated like dreams, from habitual patterns and karma,
Appearing as what never was, nor is, and shall not be.
The spontaneous presence of wisdom primordially exists.
It always exists, but nevertheless it is not seen.
As what we perceive in sleep, is not seen to be within us.
Dharmas defiled with false conceptions are vain and futile.
Do not grasp them, but train in the luminous nature of mind.
Grasp the two benefits, bringing wealth to oneself and others.
"If this gotra exists in everyone, why, pray tell, are we wandering in samsara?" We exist this way, not
knowing our own face, because of the futile grasping of a meaningless ego. As lineage-holders of our kleshas
from earlier to later, we are in bad company. We have poverty-mentality. Conditioning is produced by relative
reference point. This is samsara. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Well-practiced in our kleshas, and in bad company.
With impoverished attitude, and relative reference point;
Briefly stated, these are the four that should be known.
These are the degradations that have defiled the gotra.
The Details of Light says:
Primordial luminosity itself is ignorant.
So-called "rising" of mind produces attachment to ego.
By these objects having been grasped as so-called "others,"
Beings become confused, within the realm of samsara.
Because of their karma of inappropriate joys and sorrows,
They have the experience of individual beings.
The All-Creating King says
This phenomenal play, which is wonderful and marvelous,
Is actionless existence, like the space of the sky.
Ignorance without apprehension of anything,
Rises immediately from nothing but itself.
This is the path that is alike for everyone.
This is the nature as it is within all beings.
Defiled by the removable, it therefore is confused.
Also it says there:
By gathering in the light that exists in all directions
To the limits of the four directions, above and below,
In an unpredictable rainbow whose colors are not fixed
The different kinds of gotra will manifest in appearance.
Suchness moves and particles never move at all.
This is the principle one of all the five elements.
The primordial, luminous nature of mind, empty/luminous self-arising wisdom, is in essence emptiness
like the sky. Its nature is luminosity like the sun and moon. The radiance of its compassion arises ceaselessly,
like reflections in the surface of an untarnished mirror. The natures of dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and
nirmanakaya come from within sugatagarbha, which is entirely without bias and partiality. The empty essence is
also the accommodating space of arising. The luminous nature naturally abides as the five lights, and these
naturally appear as objects. Arising as compassion, cognitive knowledge of insight-wisdom is maintained to be
confusion. The Secret Essence says:
E MA HO! from out of sugatagarbha,
From out of our karmic relationships comes confusion.
At this time, the aspect that does not know its intrinsic wisdom to be its own nature is co-emergent
ignorance. The aspect that fixates its own projections as other is the ignorance of false conception. Because of
not knowing that all this has arisen within the natural state, by the power of attachment of ego-fixation to its
objects, habitual patterns of the vessel, the external world, ripen as body. Habitual patterns of the essence,
sentient beings within the world, ripen as mind. This is confusion, the various phenomena of the five poisons.
The All-Creating King says
When the nature of me, the doer of all, is not realized,
The dharmas created by me are imputed with fixed existence.
By the power of desire and craving, apparent things exist.
And so their impermanent nature as illusion is destroyed.
The partless nature becomes like colors to the blind.
The root of confusion is not knowing what we are. The Prajqapramitsamgatha says:
As many sentient beings as there may be,
Of lesser, middle, or of higher rank,
All of these have arisen from ignorance.
So it has been taught by the Sugata.
The Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines teaches that confusion is conditioned by dualistic grasping:
Grasping an I and a mine, beings whirl in samsara.
The Prajqaparamita in Twenty Thousand Lines says:
Childish sentient beings perceive the non-existence of skandhas as skandhas. They
perceive the non-existence of ayatanas as ayatanas. They perceive the non-existence of things
that arise interdependently as interdependent arising. Therefore, they are completely within the
grasp of the ripening karma of all these dharmas that are wrongly perceived as interdependent
arising.
As to how these dharmas arise, from the two ignorances come samsaric formations.
From that comes the succession of births of individual beings. Name and form are established.
When the body has been established by the embryonic stages from an oval to birth, there are
contact, perception, feeling, the six ayatanas, and old age and death. So with the twelve links of
interdependent arising, we cycle in samsara.
"The primordial natural state does not exist within samsara. It is not proper that sugatagarbha should be
samsaric."
Not so! It is like clear, unmuddied water becoming solid rock-like ice, in a transparent winter wind.
From the primordial state, conditioned by the arising of grasping and fixation, confused appearance displays itself
as a variety of solid things. A song from the Dohakosha says:
When the wind gets into water and thereby stirs it up
The softness of the water becomes as hard as rock.
Having been stupefied through being disturbed by concepts,
What was formless becomes completely hard and solid.
Sugatagarbha is the primordially pure, changeless essence, dharmakaya, designated as the alaya of
reality. When this becomes confused, it and the connected wealth of the nature of mind, rupakaya and the buddha
fields, the perfect entities of wisdom, are obscured through the confused grasping and fixation of ignorance. This
is the due to the alaya of the various habitual patterns. Within this, since beginningless time, have been planted
the various seeds or habitual patterns of confusion. Their great power becomes individual experiences of the
higher and lower realms, and so forth. When we are within dream-like samsara, fixating I and ego, experiencing
desire, aggression, and the five poisons, collecting karma and kleshas, from meaningless confusion, we live with a
variety of attachments to truly existing entities.
Day and night the wheel of confused appearance continuously turns, and since its succession is
groundless, we are never liberated from it. It is like the confusion of a dream. Wandering because of kleshas,
because of good and evil, is like a prince wandering along a road, separated from his kingdom. It is intrinsically a
time of suffering. Since he was born into a royal family, the happiness of true wealth is naturally within him; but
now he suffers temporarily. As to what is taught by this example, the Song of the Oral Instruction of the
Inexhaustible Treasury, says:
Beings bound in samsara, as if they were tangled in vines,
In the desert of ego-grasping are completely mad with thirst:
Like a prince without a kingdom, separate from his father,
Without a chance for happiness, he gives in to despair.
As to the way that tathagatagarbha exists at this time of wandering futilely on the plan of samsara, the
Tathagatagarbha Sutra says:
Kye, Son of the Victorious One, it is like this. For example, the measure of a three-fold
thousand world system is one billion. That billion perfectly records the number of all worlds of
the three-fold great thousand world system. Similarly the measure of the great surrounding wall
of the world is written "the great surrounding wall of the world." The measure of characteristics
is written "characteristics." The measure of the second or middle thousand world realms is "the
second or middle thousand world realm." The measure a thousand world realms, is "a thousand
world realms." The fourth thousand world realms is "the fourth thousand world realms." The
measure of the great ocean is "the great ocean." The measure of Jambuling is "Jambuling."
The measure of the eastern continent Videha is "Videha." The measure of the western continent,
Aparagodaniya is "Aparagodaniya." The measure of the northern continent Kurava is
"Kurava." The measure of mount Meru is "Mount Meru." The measure of the palaces of the
gods of the terrestrial realm is written "the palaces of the gods of the terrestrial realm." The
measure of the palaces of the gods of the desire realm is "the palaces of the gods of the desire
realm." The measure of the palaces of the gods who course in the form-realm is written "the
palaces of the gods who course in the form-realm."
A billion is the measure of worlds in a threefold-thousand world system. A
billion is also the measure of such worlds that enter into an atom. Just as an atom enters into
those billion worlds, similarly all the particles of atoms without remainder enter into the measure
of that billion.
Then living, active beings are born on middle earth, learned and wise with clear minds.
Their eye is the divine eye. Everything is completely pure and luminous. By their divine eye
they view phenomena, seeing those billion within this small atom. Some sentient beings cannot
fully understand that. They think, "Kye ma, by what mother, by great force of effort was this
billion later put in this atom?" All such beings, thinking that, invented a powerful agent. They
thought that atom particle had been opened by a subtle vajra to that billion-fold world system in
which all sentient beings lived. From one like that, the rest did the same.
Kye Son of the Victorious One, like that the measureless wisdom of the Tathagata
dwells within all sentient beings. Within the mind-continuum of all sentient beings it dwells
without deception. These mental continuums of sentient beings do not have a measure like that
of the wisdom of the Tathagata. Fools bound by grasping perception do not know the wisdom of
the Tathagata. They do not know it at all. They have never experienced or manifested it.
Seeing how each sentient being is within dharmadhatu is the perception of a master, the
desireless wisdom of the Tathagata. Kye ma, these sentient beings do not know the wisdom of
the Tathagata as it is. Those sentient beings in whom the Tathagata's wisdom continues to
function were directly taught the path of the noble ones. All the perception-created bonds were
cleared away. They were eliminated.
d. How by awakening the gotras liberation is attained:
The wakening of these gotras arouses the two bodhicittas.
Establishing the manifestations of compassion
As accumulation of merit, within the relative.
This is the three abhishekas of the pure developing stage.
Establishing realization of the nature of emptiness
Is accumulation of wisdom, within the absolute.
This is the fourth empowerment, fulfillment, and mahamudra.
When we meditate well, by the growing of the two stages,
Kleshas turn into wisdom. Happiness grows and grows.
By this the obscurations of dharmadhatu are cleansed.
The sun of dharmakaya and rupakaya is seen.
In naturally pure and essentially spotless mind itself, the holy wisdom of buddhahood, the
primordially existing spontaneous presence of the luminous nature of mind, the apparent aspect, exists as the
qualities of the rupakaya of buddhahood. This is taught by many examples. The qualities of the aspect of
emptiness, dharmakaya, are explained everywhere in the sutras and tantras by the example "being like space."
The inseparability of these two is the good dhatu of dharmas. Since it is changeless it is the "naturally
existing gotra." After its defilements are purified, by manifesting its full-blown buddha qualities, it is called the
"developed gotra." Its root, self-awareness wisdom, is luminosity.
When those two gotras are awakened, by the two accumulations being accumulated, defilements of the
two gotras are purified. The buddha qualities are made capable of appearing. Ultimate rupakaya with its buddha
qualities is attained.
Just as the six perfections are classified in terms of the two accumulations, so are the stages of
development and fulfillment. The Net of Illusion says:
Development and fulfillment are the two accumulations,
Those of merit and wisdom, as well as the three empowerments,
Plus the fourth, which is the nature of suchness itself.
There are other ways of dividing beyond all measure.
The first three empowerments, or abhishekas, are the vase, secret, and prajqajqana abhishekas.
Producing the purity of the developing stage, these are the accumulation of merit. The developing stage includes
all meditations with complexity on the mandalas of deities and so forth.
The fourth, the precious word-empowerment, producing the purity of the fulfillment stage, is the
accumulation of wisdom. The fulfillment stage includes all meditations on luminosity and so forth that are
without complexity.
By these purifying defilements of the gotra, as the sun emerges from dark clouds, self-existing
buddhahood comes forth from the coverings of the kleshas.
As for the extensive explanation, the gotras were previously taught. The stages of secret mantra will be
explained below, so we shall not deal with them here.
e. The related explanation of the virtues
There are three sections
1) How the unification of the two accumulations is perfected
The actions of the ten virtues are the best dharmas in the world
The formed and formless dhyanas are part of gathering merit,
That is concerned with relativity and appearance.
What is completely without the complexities of the world
Is accumulation of wisdom, which is the absolute.
These are the objects of meditation and post-meditation.
By practicing the unification of these two,
Everything that is excellent will be established.
As previously taught, the ten virtues, dhyanas, and formless attainments are in accord with merit; but
when a being has aroused bodhicitta and attained prajqa and upaya; the ten virtues, dhyanas, formless
attainments, and so forth become causes of liberation. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
O Subhuti, those who develop the conduct of the ten virtues, the four samadhis, and the
four formless attainments, when they also arouse bodhicitta, aspiration to unsurpassable
enlightenment, at that time, since this is in accord with liberation, it becomes a cause of
omniscience. This should be performed. By being mastered, this should be established.
2) How one does not dwell in samsara or nirvana:
Just like wholesome actions that are samsaric formations,
Formations of nirvana are explained as karmic actions.
But since the latter are a means of transcending samsara,
They are also a means of liberation from karma.
The ten wholesome actions that accord with merit are samsaric confusions. However, if one thinks that
with these, we will become confused, it is not so. These activities lead to liberation when we know that karma is
natureless, as is taught by similar examples. Insofar as these activities are a means of being liberated from
samsara, they do not produce samsaric formations. In any case, the great compassion by which we become
saddened with samsara exists within samsara without being covered by its defects. While it knows all dharmas to
be unborn, and by skillful means, the great compassion does not fall into one-sided peace. The
Abhisamsayalankara says:
By knowledge we do not dwell within samsara,
By compassion we do not dwell in peace.
The Precious Mala says:
Exponents of nothingness go to the lower realms.
Exponents of being will go to the higher ones.
By knowing reality exactly as it is,
Without dualistic dependence, we will be liberated.
And that is how it is.
3) The explanation of the fruition
From the brief and extended teachings,
a) The brief teachings
Now the fruition of entering into the ten virtues of the path is explained:
For those who are on the path, the fruit of the ten wholesome actions
Has ripening, concordant cause, the power, and action.
These are its four aspects.
b) The extensive explanation,
There are nine sections
i) Ripening
As for the fruition of ripening:
Depending on whether such practice is small, between, or great,
We will be born as human beings or as gods,
Elsewhere we will attain to ultimate truth and goodness.
The aspect according with merit is not exhausted. Temporally we experience the happiness of gods and
human beings. Ultimately, we will attain the level of buddhahood. The Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines
says:
O noble Shariputra, what is gained by virtuous roots is that after going among gods
and human beings, we become unsurpassably enlightened. What are virtuous roots? There are
the ten virtues, which possess the single arousal of bodhicitta, the aspiration to supreme
enlightenment, the four dhyanas, the four formless attainments, and the six paramitas. These
never have any gaps and never become non-existent.
ii) Karmic fruition that accords with the cause
As for the fruition according with the cause:
Actions that have compatibility with the cause
Are those of one who is by nature inclined to the wholesome.
Experience of this is of long life and great enjoyment.
We have a compatible consort and is without enemies.
We is not reviled. Relationships are friendly.
Our words are taken to heart, and people gladly hear them.
Satisfied, we are kind to others, and have good views.
The Sutra Teaching the Ten Purities says:
Because of the karma of these ten virtues, the field is ennobled by our efforts. Our
lives are lengthened. Our enjoyments are greater. We have compatible spouses and no enemies.
We are not disparaged. Everyone is pleasant to us. Our words are considered worthy of being
heeded. Everyone is glad to hear them. We become contented. There is mutual kindness.
There are good views.
iii) The fruition of its power
As for mastery or power:
We are born by its power in rich and brilliant countries.
Potent food, drink, and herbs are easily digested.
We are born in clean places of medicinal herbs and such.
The odor and atmosphere is good and agreeable.
Others do not cheat us, and we are not in fear.
There are no harmful obstacles or danger to our lives.
People suit us and contact with them is very happy.
The flow of the seasons is good, and grain is plentiful.
We live in level places, adorned by lakes and ponds.
The many flourishing flowers and fruits are very good.
Vegetables, fruits, and herbs are delicious with fine aromas.
Everything grows well and there are friends and protectors.
By giving up cutting off life, we are born in good and pleasant countries. By giving up taking what is
not given, we are born in places where food and drink are good-tasting and easily digested and medicinal herbs
are potently effective. By abandoning inappropriate sex, we are born in clean and good-smelling places.
By abandoning false speaking, the places in which we are born are without danger of harm from
enemies, thieves, and so on, and we are not deceived.
By abandoning divisive speaking, we are born in places with many compatible people, with few rocks,
stones, and thorns. By abandoning harsh language, we are born in a place where the seasons are regular, and
grain ripens at a good time. By abandoning sophistic speech, we are born in level places ornamented with lakes
and ponds.
By abandoning covetice we are born with places where many flowers and fruits and abundant good
harvests are seen. We have excellent protectors, relatives, and friends. This is taught in the Sutra of the Ten
Purities
iv) The fruition of action:
The actions of beings spread happiness on happiness.
All good thoughts are established just as one desires.
The Vast Play says:
By good behavior one's stock of merit is increased.
We are made holders of that which is excellent,
The supreme accumulation of enlightenment.
The Excellent Action says:
These excellencies occur even within this human life.
v) The fruition of the six perfections:
Generosity brings enjoyment, and discipline happiness.
Patience brings beauty, and diligence brilliant qualities.
Meditation beings peace of mind, and prajqa liberation.
The accomplishments of bodhicitta are that possessiveness is renounced, harmful behavior is checked,
anger is abandoned, we exert ourselves in what is wholesome, the mind is one-pointed in virtue, and the nature of
the two truths is known. By good actions of the six paramitas, true fruition is attained. The Precious Mala says:
Generosity, discipline, patience, and exertion
Meditation and prajqa, and compassion are cultivated.
Generosity completely bestows our intrinsic wealth.
Discipline performs beneficial actions for others.
Patience is the way that we abandon aggression.
Exertion is enthusiastic, wholesome action.
Meditation is one-pointedness, without the kleshas.
Prajqa is resolving the meaning of the truth.
Compassion is a heartfelt noble identification
With all other sentient beings as of one taste with ourselves.
Generosity beings enjoyment, discipline happiness;
Patience radiance and exertion brilliancy.
Meditation brings peace, and prajqa liberation.
Their essential kindness is the accomplishing of all goals.
When all of these seven activities, without remainder,
Have been brought to complete perfection all at once,
There is the sphere of wisdom beyond the compass of thought.
We have attained the being of a world-honored one.
The six paramitas are essentially kindness. This is the accomplisher of the deeds of bodhicitta. The
extensive explanation is below.
vi) The fruition of the Four Immeasurables
As for the benefits of the four immeasurables:
Kindness makes us pleasant, and compassion beneficial.
Joy fulfills, and equanimity makes us sublime.
In short the ultimate fruit of the two accumulations
Is that incidentally higher states are manifested.
Ultimately truth and goodness are established.
This excellent path is the chariot of the mahayana.
It establishes the perfection of the buddhas of the three times.
Through kindness, we are pleasant to everyone. Through compassion we perform limitless benefits. Joy
brings perfect wealth. Equanimity makes the mind workable. The sutras say:
By having kindness mind is vast, the seven activities have been performed. One's knowledge
is certain. Shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and extraordinary ones will attain the pleasures of gods
and human beings and be colorfully adorned.
The Precious Mala says:
Food of fish for three hundred
Offered three times each day
Cannot match the pure merit
Of just a minute of kindness
Kind ones will be gods and humans.
They will be well-restrained.
Unharmed by poison and weapons,
Their minds will be good and happy.
Born in the world of Bhrama,
Their success will be effortless,
Even if not liberated,
They will attain the eight qualities.
Beings will be made to produce
The mind of bodhicitta.
Having relied on that,
They will become as solid
As the lord of mountains.
Within them bodhicitta
Will be forever attained.
It will never happen
That they have no chance for faith.
By custom becoming excellent,
By emptiness and so forth,
Without desiring dharmas,
Carefully they will attain
To everything that is wholesome.
By their motionlessness,
They will gain mindfulness.
Producing discursive thoughts
They will gain intellect.
By offering and homage,
they will realize the meaning.
By carefully guarding Dharma
They will develop prajqa.
Those listeners to the Dharma
Who have the gift of faith,
By having no obscurations,
Will accompany the buddhas.
Everything they wish for
Will quickly be obtained.
Without even wanting to do so
They will accomplish their goals.
As they are not miserly,
Enjoyments will increase.
Since they have no pride,
They will be principal ones.
By patience in the Dharma,
They will grasp its power.
With essential generosity
And fearless generosity
Unharmed by all the maras.
They will gain the highest powers.
Stupas strung with lamps,
Lamps to those in darkness
By these generous lamps and ships
The divine eye will be gained.
By offerings of stupas,
Services, music, and bells,
Excellent yak tails and conches,
The divine ear will be gained.
Not discussing confusions of others,
Not mentioning injured limbs,
Because they guard their minds,
They know the minds of others.
Giving boots and horses,
Growing humble and reverent,
Giving mounts to the guru,
They gain miraculous power
For the sake of Dharma and such
They remember the meanings of texts.
By spotless generous Dharma
Remembering former lives.
Knowing things as they are,
They know that things are essenceless.
They gain the six higher perceptions,
Exhausting all defilements.
To accomplish the liberation
Of limitless sentient beings,
They possess equanimity,
Knowing the nature of suchness,
Because their meditation
Is moistened with compassion,
Having the supreme aspects,
They are victorious ones.
By various pure aspirations,
The buddha field is purified.
Giving precious things to the sages,
They emanate limitless light
With such pure karma and fruit,
Always thinking of beings,
They will always do benefit.
That will benefit you.
Just those are the realm means of crossing over to the level of buddhahood. The Succession of Beings
says:
Of the two accumulations of merit and wisdom
The highest fruit is entering holy liberation
No other way of entering was ever known to exist.
Descending from the gathering clouds of purity
Make the cool rain of excellent dharmas now appear.
vii) The fruition of the two truths:
Thus the formative actions of samsara and nirvana
Depend on mind whose nature is luminosity.
Simplicity like the sky, it does not think of a doer,
The meaning of both the two truths is dependent origination.
All karma depends on mind; if we examine mind, it is essenceless and luminous. The supreme
distinction of the relative and absolute truths, because of the nature of interdependent arising is completely pure.
The Shri-Samadhiraja Sutra says:
At that time without evil deeds, and with the ten powers,
There is the supreme samadhi of the Victorious One.
Beings in samsara are like beings in a dream.
None of them is ever born or ever dies.
Though in transmigration we go to other worlds,
None our karmic actions is ever left behind.
Within samsara their black and white fruitions ripen.
They are not permanent, nor are they nothingness.
Without any gathered karma, there would be no pure lands.
Even if they were created, they could not be reached.
If another produced them, they could not be seen.
Without any transmigration, there is no rebirth.
Nothing at all exists, and nothing is non-existent,
Or it would not be pure to enter the natural state.
There would be no entering perfect pacification
Of all the activities of deluded sentient beings.
The three worlds like a dream are utterly essenceless.
Quickly vanishing, they are impermanent like illusion.
Because there is no coming, there also is no going.
Constant things, eternally empty, have no marks.
This is what is realized by the sugatas--
With the excellent buddha qualities of the victorious ones,
The markless natural state is the peace of the unborn.
Its powers and strengths are powers of buddha qualities.
This itself is the Buddha, supreme among all leaders.
By collecting the qualities of excellent white dharmas
We attain the power of wisdom and buddha qualities
And the excellences of miracle and higher perception.
viii) The individual fruitions of virtue and evil deeds
Appearing even while it is nothingness, karma is explained by the example of being like a dream:
Primordial purity appearing as nothingness,
Like a painter, karma produces everything.
It follows us everywhere, as a shadow does the body.
Like physical pleasure and pain, it never slips away.
Like a waterfall, it is difficult to deflect.
Making beings rise or fall, it is like the ruler of beings.
It is extremely vast, like the endless space of the sky.
Whether black or white, it never changes at all,
Any more than the white kunda lotus becomes the blue utpala.
Though karmas and kleshas are natureless, they ceaselessly appear. Therefore, they depend on
ignorance as their root. The condition is the arising of objects. The cause is connection with the three poisons.
The Objects of Mindfulness says:
The ground of karma is ignorance, and if there is insight, one will not come into the
power of karma. It is like a skilled and confident painter, who produces a variety of works. The
condition is thoughts of objects. like a monkey, it is very active. Like a fish, it dwells in the
ocean of samsara. Like a householder, it collects a variety of habitual patterns. Like illusion,
something that does not exist still appears. Like a shadow, it always follows us. Like joy and
sorrow, it does not transmigrate. Like a river, it is hard to turn back. Like a king, it can
exchange happiness and unhappiness. Like the sky, it is vast. Like utpala and kumut lotuses,
one does not become another.
ix) The fruition of profound interdependent arising:
Though examining karmas, they have no nature at all,
Like dreams they are still creators of various joys and sorrows.
Except as mere projections, they have no substance or quality.
Profound dependent arising, infallible cause and effect,
Neither existent nor nothing, they are non-duality.
They ripen as something like the action that was done.
This is the vision of things in their nature and extent.
As it was well-taught by the Omniscient One.
The inner and outer realms are false conceptions. If they are analyzed, even if we look for them, no
karma and kleshas are found. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 4.47
If the kleshas are not in objects, the senses, between, or elsewhere,
Where are these harmers of beings? They are like illusion.
Abandon the fear in your heart and try to rely on prajqa.
In the absolute there is no karma; but here in the dream-like relative, there is happiness and unhappiness
and joy and sorrow are distinguished. If it is discriminated and examined by the mind, karma, beyond existence
and non-existence, is like space. Since there is no karma to be accumulated, do not accumulate karma by the
mind being confused over and over again. That is the instruction. This presentation is known and taught only by
the Omniscient One, and not by the traditions of others. The teacher Bhajya says in his Precious Lamp of
Madhyamaka:
Karmas with non-deceptive cause and effect,
As it has been taught, are like a dream.
Bhagavan this is taught by you alone.
Aside from that, it is not explained in treatises.
f. Refuting other wrong conceptions,
There are four sections
1) Eliminating denial of cause and effect.
Now other sorts of wrong conceptions are eliminated:
Those who deny the validity of cause and effect
Are students of the heretics and the nihilists.
Whoever has confidence merely in emptiness
Falls into the extreme of the nihilistic view.
These go lower and lower upon an evil path.
Never liberated from the lower states of being,
They are ever more distant from the happy ones.
Such fools are conspicuous in their pride. Some who do not know the intent of the Dharma say there is
no karma and no fruition of karma--within suchness like space they do not exist at all. Giving up virtue, they
practice the evil deeds that are natural to them. The Good Army Sutra says:
Those who say there is no karma and no ripening of karma are fools who have only the
literal meaning. Those who say this and rely on a great collection of unwholesomeness may
promise this Dharma with their mouths, but are not within this Dharma. They rely on the path
of the worldly charvakas. They say, "It should be understood as a delusion of Mara."
The Precious Mala says:
In short, a view like this is nihilism.
They say there is no such thing as fruition of karma.
Having no merit, they go to the lower realms.
They are said to be persons with wrong view.
Also it says:
Nihilists like these will go to the lower realms.
2) Refuting the view of emptiness.
Some also say:
"Cause, and effect, and compassion, and the gathering of merit.
With these childish literal Dharmas one will never get enlightened."
They do not speak the truth, whose meaning is like the sky.
The story great yogins tell is "Go and do your practice!"
As for those who say such words:
Such a view is more nihilistic than nihilism.
They are on a path that goes ever lower and lower.
To deny the cause and affirm the effect is very strange!
Even such outsider materialist extremists as the charvaka nihilists do not say that perceived appearances
are without cause and effect; you deny a cause of liberation, but still maintain the effect. This is strange. You do
this by maintaining that there is liberation because of actionless meditation.
3) Refuting those having the mind of the summit of samsara
When people claim, "it is like space," we should say:
If space is reality, why do we need to meditate?
If not, then meditation is useless drudgery.
If liberation is gained by meditating on nothingness,
Those who have a vacuous mind will get enlightened.
But proclaiming such meditation establishes cause and effect.
Therefore, put aside this bad and inferior path.
Some people claim, "It is like space." If so, and if it is already established, we do not need to meditate.
If it is not established, meditation will be of no use. This non-existent thing will never become an existent thing,
just as empty space will not later become something else. This is a reply to those who say, "Liberation from the
kleshas is attainment of liberation altogether."
Saying it is attained by this alone, postulates that this occurs by cause and effect. Therefore, they cannot
say that there is no cause and effect. If it is maintained that there is liberation by meditating on nothingness, even
worldly hedonists could be liberated by doing that. The Dohakosha says:
Someone who says, "I have been pierced by an arrow,"
Will never be liberated by having a mind like space.
This refutes such a view, so do not think like that.
4) The true explanation of cause and effect.
Now the true meaning is explained:
The genuine path has interdependence and cause and effect.
This is spontaneous union of prajqa and upaya.
Using the means of apparent but natureless cause and effect,
There is the apparent natureless path of meditation.
And thus the apparent natureless fruit can be attained.
Apparent but natureless benefit for sentient beings
Is produced in a way that is apparent but natureless.
This is pure cause and effect, profound in its interdependence.
Therefore, the essence of sutras and tantras of the true meaning
Is that by having united the two accumulations,
And by the two stages of development and completion,
Perfect buddhahood will quickly be established.
From the two accumulations, whose illusion-like appearance is natureless, buddhahood is established.
The Knowledge of Illusion Sutra Requested by Supreme Goodness Lady says:
By gathering the illusion-like accumulations,
There will be illusion-like enlightenment.
There will be a performance that is like illusion
Of illusion-like benefits for the sake of sentient beings.
The sutras of the true meaning and all the tantras explain it in the same way. In the tantras, the stages of
development and fulfillment establish the two accumulations, and by that one becomes enlightened within the
mandala.
C. the final summary:
Therefore, abandon all the aspects of cause and fruition
That have a part in constructing formations of samsara.
But then we should produce with wholehearted diligence
The cause and fruition of the state of liberation.
By that the highest truth and goodness will manifest,
There will be the establishment of enlightenment.
All virtues are to be established. All evil deeds are to be left behind. The goal of life must be made to
exist, since one should quickly go to it. The Spiritual Letter says:
With many harms, this life is blown away on the wind.
If even a river of water is impermanent,
Exhaling and inhaling, when we go to sleep,
That we ever awake is really miraculous.
For that reason to do evil to oneself and others is not suitable. To go so far as to do evil deeds for the
sake of khenpos, loppvns, and the three jewels, is senseless, since by the evil ripening within us, we will not be
able to participate in them. The same text says:
Practice virtue. For the sake of brahmins and gods
For feasting, fathers and mothers, queen and retinue,
Even for their sake do not do evil deeds,
You will get no reward but ripening in hell.
As for doing any sort of evil deeds,
If this is not cut off at once, as if with a weapon,
When the time of death arrives, then there will manifest
The karmic fruition of all these various evil deeds.
Therefore, even with the elimination of evil actions, it also says:
As for the seeds of these unwholesome activities,
By purifying defilements of body, speech, and mind,
We should earnestly strive with all our present skill.
Not to create an atom of these for any reason,
This cannot be established by anything other than our own powers, or by any association with others.
Accepting good and rejecting evil must come from themselves alone. It is said:
As for liberation depending on oneself,
It does not come from association with another,
If we have learning, discipline, and meditation,
A purified world will thus attain to happiness.
Let us attain a happiness like that of the Bhrama realms.
Completely abandoning through practice of the four dhyanas,
The happiness and sorrow of desiring and acting,
Let us make an effort in the four noble truths.
As to how this should be done, it says:
The proper noble master always day and night
Transcends the ordinary kind of highs and lows.
Not without fruition even in the womb,
By being mindful, anything else will become weaker.
One will always experience kindness, joy, and compassion.
And always meditate in genuine absorption.
Even if it does not please superior ones,
May we attain the happiness of the Bhrama realms.
The happiness and sorrow of desiring and acting,
Completely being abandoned through practice of the four dhyanas,
May purity, radiance, and happiness increase,
And our fortune of fruition be equal to the gods.
Without conception, without attachment and antidotes,
Having the principal virtues of the four dhyana states,
As for the five great virtues and the five non-virtues,
Let us strive to perform the ones that are virtuous.
In a bit of water, a bit of salt will change its taste;
But this is not the case with the stream of the river Ganges.
Similarly, though our evil deeds are very few,
They will be known within the scope of our virtuous roots.
Wild discursiveness and sinking in sluggish depression
Are states that will be harmful to dark and murky minds.
Sleepiness and doubt and yearning with desire,
These five obscurations are thieves of happiness.
However as for faith, pure effort, and mindfulness
The supreme dharmas of samadhi, and the five good prajqas
We should make an effort to manifest all of these.
Then there will be the highest powers and faculties.
In that way much that is to be transcended will be transcended, and good dharmas that are true and
excellent will be established.
D. the dedication of the merit of this extensive explanation of the aspects of the meaning and what is proper:
Thus with the cooling Dharma rain of mahasukha
May the two accumulations, merit and wisdom,
Grow and flourish widely within the fertile soil,
Of well-manured minds of limitless sentient beings.
Here in samsara, completely filled with karma and kleshas,
May the weary nature of mind today find ease from fatigue.
That is the good aspiration. By the cooling dharma rain of words and meaning, in the field of the minds
of sentient beings, by the increase of the good harvest of happiness, may whatever kleshas there may be cleared
away, removing the impoverishment of those who have been deprived with accumulating happiness. By the
wealth of the sky-treasury of buddha qualities, may our weariness be eased.
By these present teachings the gates of Dharma are opened.
The profound and precious meaning is there to be received.
With the thought that they would benefit others, this was composed.
By them may all sentient beings encounter supreme enlightenment.
Within the sky of mind, the planets and stars of the kleshas,
Improper mental creations, produce the white glow or appearance.
By merit overcoming their luminous/empty nature,
May there come the daylight of the dawn of wisdom.
May the wishes of beings for joy and happiness be fulfilled.
May we cross over the ocean of karma and the kleshas.
May there be effortless increase of all that is good and happy.
Chapter V: Relying on the Spiritual Friend
By the four ordinary preliminaries, one's continuum of mind has been made workable, and by the
explanation of the qualities of our enlightened family, the gotra, joy has been produced. Now there is the fifth
chapter on the spiritual friend, the one who properly teaches their meaning. Here there are six sections:
A. Fully relating to the one who teaches the path without error.
B. The source of all truth and goodness.
C. The instruction to rely on the holy ones and abandon what is evil.
D. Avoiding those to be avoided, with those associated with them
E. Knowing what to accept and reject, and how siddhi is to be received.
F. The dedication of the merit of the situation.
A. fully relating to the one who teaches the path without error.
Now there is the teaching of the characteristics of the spiritual friend who teaches the way of doing what
has just been explained:
Thus the unerring cause and effect of the excellent path
Arises from relating to the holy ones.
Knowing Dharma and adharma, and wholesome and unwholesome, comes from relying on the spiritual
friend, or in Sanskrit kalyana mitra. The Sutra of the Display of Noble Ones says:
Kye, O son of noble family, by you the spiritual friend should be pleased. Since he
completely knows the collections of merit and non-merit, when there is samsara, he completely
clears away its causes.
B. the source of all truth and goodness:
Thus the unerring cause and effect of the excellent path
Arises from relating to the holy ones.
Attainment of the three kinds of enlightenment,
That of victorious ones, together with their sons,
That of the shravakas, and that of the pratyekabuddhas,
Arises from a relationship to spiritual friends.
Also the higher manifestations of samsara,
And whatever happiness may be involved in them,
Arises from relating to the holy ones.
Therefore, we should rely upon the holy ones.
The Sutra requested by Maitreya says:
The liberation of those who are shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and supremely
enlightened ones, and as many with the skandha of wisdom as there may be, all these should be
understood to arise from relying on the spiritual friend.
Maitreya says:
Moreover, as much benefit and happiness as there may be for sentient beings, it all arises from
one's virtuous roots. This should also be understood to arise from the spiritual friend.
C. The instruction to rely on the holy ones and abandon what is evil,
Within this section there are
1. the brief teaching
2. the extended explanation.
1. the brief teaching
Now there is the instruction to rely on the spiritual friend and abandon evil:
As vines that grow on a sandalwood tree assume its odor,
By relating with holy ones, we ourselves become holy.
Like kusha grass that has its roots in a putrid swamp,
By keeping to bad company, we ourselves go bad.
Therefore sincerely try to relate with holy persons.
And also to abandon evil spiritual friends.
A vine that clings to a sandalwood tree, because of that is tall and fragrant. Kusha grass growing in filth
of decayed fish and so on itself becomes nasty. Just so, having seen the benefit and harm that come from relying
on holy and unholy ones, as for the instruction to rely on holy ones, the Vinaya says:
As a vine that relies on a sala tree
Will grow to be strong with an aromatic smell
The person who relies on the holy ones
Will be embraced by goodness and shine with splendor.
Also it says there:
When kusha grass is entwined with rotten fish,
And they have not been kept quite far away,
The kusha too will begin to be like the fish.
And similarly what people will become
Relying on unholy persons is like that.
2. The extended explanation
There are three sections.
a. The characteristics of the one to be relied upon;
b. how one should rely on such a person;
c. the characteristics of the student who is to be accepted.
a. the characteristics of the one to be relied upon,
There are eight sections.
1) the characteristics of the spiritual friend in general,
Briefly, as for the characteristics of spiritual friends, if it is asked what they should properly be like, first
generally, and then in the paramita tradition
What is the proper manner of these holy ones?
As leaders of the world, they cooperate with all.
In going beyond the world, they cooperate with nothing.
In actions of the three gates, they are more noble than anyone.
The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
If it is asked what spiritual friends should be like, insofar as they are perfect leaders of
many sentient beings, if they are seen, it is not inappropriate. Since they are beyond the world,
they have nothing in common with anything. Since what they undertake is always beneficial,
they accomplish immeasurable benefit.
2) Their virtues
If it is asked what their virtues are like:
They are peaceful in body, their actions pure and faultless.
They are skilled in cutting through doubt. Their speech is faultless and pleasant.
Their deep and peaceful minds are a treasury of omniscience.
Compassionate and learned, they are limitless in their virtues.
Vast in q, their vision and action are like the sky.
In their buddha activity they are limitless.
All who have a connection with them are benefited.
In kindness they abandon sadness and fatigue,
And for that reason they are constantly diligent.
Beings rely on spiritual friends as ennobling guides.
They benefit sentient beings by many virtues of body, speech, and mind. Their prajqa and realization are
as deep as space. The undertakings of their Buddha activity plant seeds of liberation in all who are connected
with them. By their compassion they look on every one of them like an only child. By the wealth of good
qualities of the teachings, they turn the wheel of Dharma of any vehicle to which someone may have devotion.
The Madhyamakalankara says:
Spiritual friends are tamed and peaceful--very peaceful.
Replete with effort and qualities, they are rich in teachings.
Having supremely realized these, they are skilled in speech.
Guarding the nature of kindness, they rely on renunciation.
3) Their particular characteristics.
In addition to these qualities, among others that they have, the guru of secret mantra also has these:
In particular, as for the marks of gurus of secret mantra,
They keep their empowerments, vows, and samayas pure and unbroken.
They reach the other shore of the ocean of tantric instructions.
They have mastered the four aspects of sadhana
Propitiation, practice, transforming, and buddha activity.
They have perfected view, meditation, action, and fruit,
And the nyams, the signs, and heat that accompany realization.
Very kind, with an excellent grasp of skillful means,
They establish students in ripening and liberation.
They are undiminishing cloud-banks of the rain of lineage blessings.
Rely on such a skilled and accomplished, glorious guru.
The commentary of the great teacher Vimalamitra, The Mirror-like Net of Miracles says:
Such gurus also have completely attained the empowerments of the outer and inner
mandalas. Their vows and samayas are pure. They are learned in the individual meanings of
the tantras. They have trained in propitiation and practice, together with the karmic
applications. Their view of realization is not obscured. In their meditation, they are familiar
with the experiences of the nyams. They are connected to a variety of actions. By compassion
they lead students. They have these eight characteristics.
The guru, in addition, because the lineage is unbroken, diffuses an atmosphere of blessings. Therefore
this ninth characteristic is taught.
4) The praise by means of examples,
If it is asked how many virtues such a guru has, this is the explanation:
Their buddha qualities are utterly limitless.
To give only part of the praise that is due to such friends of beings,
They steer the great ship that crosses the ocean of samsara.
Incomparable captains of those who journey on that path.
They remove poverty, like wish fulfilling gems.
They are the amrita that puts out the fire of karma and kleshas.
They are the excellent clouds of the cooling rain of Dharma.
They are celestial thunder, delighting all sentient beings.
Kings of physicians, they cure the sickness of the three poisons.
They are a radiant lamp, dispelling the darkness of ignorance.
They are like a great tree that can fulfill all wishes.
All the joy of sentient beings arises from them.
Like an "excellent vase" or a wish-fulfilling gem,
They spontaneously grant whatever is desired.
They are the measureless rays that shine from the sun of kindness.
Removing affliction, they are the light of the moon of benefits.
The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
Kye, O son of noble family, moreover, because they liberate from the ocean of
samsara, they are like ships. They are like captains of those who dwell on the path of liberation.
Since they clear away the deteriorations of samsara, they are like a king of wish-fulfilling gems.
Since they remove the fires of karma and the kleshas, they are like a river. Since they cause the
great rain of Dharma to descend, they are like excellent clouds. Since they make all beings
rejoice, they are like the great drum of the gods. Because they clear away the sickness of the
kleshas, they are like a king of physicians. Because they clear away all the darkness of
ignorance, they are like a lamp. Because they fulfill the hopes of all desires, they are like a
wish-fulfilling tree. Because they accomplish all that is wished for, they are like an excellent
wishing vase. By their measureless kindness they are like the disk of the sun. Since they cool
the torment of the kleshas, they are like the disk of the moon. Since they bestow the wealth of
the buddha qualities, they are like the god of wealth Vaishravana.
5) The praise of their being in accord with the goal.
Vast in realization, they are like an unbroken sky.
Like planets and stars, their samadhi is self-luminous.
The ocean of their kindness is utterly measureless.
Their great waves of compassion flow like the stream of a river.
They are like a snow mountain in their immovable splendor.
They are supremely immovable, like the mass of Mount Meru.
Like lotuses growing in mud, they are not obscured by samsara.
They are kind and loving like a father or mother,
With equanimity toward every sentient being.
Their limitless qualities are a precious treasury.
As leaders of the world, they resemble powerful kings.
The sutra of the supremely vast garland of buddhahood, the Avatamsaka Sutra says:
Kye, sons of the Victorious one, these virtues arising from the spiritual friend are
measureless. Since they arise because of opportunities for compassion, they are like the sky.
Their collection of many samadhis and dharanis is like the stars. Their immeasurable
compassion is like a great, full ocean. Their loving-kindness is immeasurable like a river.
Never disturbed by agitation, they are like a snow mountain. Not being moved from suchness,
they are like Mount Meru. Since, even when they exist within samsara, they are not obscured
by defilements, they are like a great lotus. In the equality of unobscured compassion, they are
like a father or mother. Because of their immeasurable buddha qualities, they are like a
precious treasure source. Since they completely liberate from all wandering within samsara,
they are like the Tathagata. This host of their buddha qualities is beyond measure and limit.
6) The summary.
As for further qualities:
Wherever these gurus dwell, who are the lords of Dharma,
They are the equals of all the buddhas of the world.
By seeing, hearing, or contact, or by remembering them,
Samsara will be subsequently overthrown.
In the immensity of their great waves of buddha activity,
Their burden, like the great earth, supports all sentient beings.
When buddhas arrive in the world, all who see, hear, or remember them, will eventually be established in
happiness. Since this is also established by those gurus, they are have the same kind of buddha activity. As
emanations of the Victorious One, they are explained in the same way. The Great Drum Sutra says:
Do not produce any suffering, be all-joyful.
Do not wail laments, but be all-joyful.
I in later time, will emanate
In the form of the spiritual friend himself,
Producing benefits for you and others.
The Tantra of the Vajra Mirror says:
Chief of the Vajrasattva mandala,
The guru is the equal of all the buddhas.
Without sadness and weariness, like the earth, they produce benefits for sentient beings. Though they
see peace, the benefit for oneself, they are not concerned with it, undertaking the benefit of others, even when it is
very difficult. The Letter to Students says:
These who strive to do benefits for other persons
Those beings are attentive in their majesty;
They are noble ones who have the power to make beings happy.
Riding on the horse of the splendid, radiant sun,
Those who are bringers of light, proceed in such a way.
Though not piling up burdens, the earth supports the world;
Such, without self-benefit, is the nature of the great ones,
Regarding the tastes of happiness and benefit as one.
By heaped dark clouds of ignorance, beings are disturbed.
Seeing them fall helpless into blazing fires of suffering,
Attentively striving as if those fires flared on their foreheads,
In such matters this those persons are also very skilled.
They know how to benefit other sentient beings.
Even in the Avici Hell, full of tongues of flame,
They enter as joyfully, as if it were snow and moonlight.
As if they swam in a pleasant lake of lotus blossoms
They burn with longing for these collected tongues of flame.
Those who are skilled in Dharmic benefits for others,
Have comfort even in a grove with leaves of swords.
The company of divine maidens in a pleasure grove,
Would not produce such happiness as a moment of this.
In order that beings who cannot cross over may cross over,
Entering into the unfordable river Vaitravani
By being touched by the flowing waves of a heavenly river
They would not get the nature of such happiness.
Ornamented by such jewels of good conduct,
In luminosity radiant, with the amrita of peace
Producing the joy of joys, unremembered and hard to find,
Auspiciousness of auspiciousness, they keep the cause of peace.
The flower of speech of the Sugata is always reliable.
From the flower of that tree arises a vast fruition.
The flowers of the Sugata's speech can be relied on.
As bees on honey, they depend on producing joy.
7) The Buddhas' supreme view
The buddha-guru is a fourth to the three jewels.
The guru is Sri Heruka, lord of the mandala.
In benefits of taming beings of this dark age,
Even better than the Buddha, for beings to be tamed.
The vajra master is the root of all the siddhis.
Bow the three gates purely, without hypocrisy.
The Unified Sameness of the Continuums of All the Buddhas says:
With the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha
The guru is a fourth.
The Universal Secret says:
The heruka who is the lord of the mandala,
The supreme guru's siddhi is very great.
The Immaculate Sky Sutra says:
Ananda, though the sugatas do not appear to all sentient beings, spiritual friends have appeared
everywhere, teaching the Dharma and sowing seeds of liberation. Therefore, think of spiritual friends as
better than the sugatas.
The Dohakosha says:
The root of all the siddhis is the vajra master himself.
The Great Display of the Wish-fulfilling Gem says:
Thus with devotion and fear to the holy guru,
Always offering all the offerings,
By pleasing him, let us serve the truth itself.
8) the benefits attending on this service
If it is asked what other benefits it has:
Having blocked the path that leads to the lower realms,
They establish us in the fortune of the higher realms.
They benefit us within this life and those to come.
They bless our minds, and so reveal reality.
We are set on the path that ripens and frees within this life.
Therefore with a faith that is always firm and changeless
Always rely on the guru, without fatigue or regret.
They block the lower realms and teach the higher realms. They lead to the level of buddhahood
and are always the source of all buddha qualities without deceit or pretence, without holding back or reversing. If
one is respectful and reverent to them, special qualities will arise within this life. The Tantra of Subtle Wisdom
says:
By always being without hypocrisy
To gurus having all excellent qualities,
If even small offerings are made to them,
This life will be long, and one will have no sickness,
Having excellent and pleasant enjoyments.
Later liberation will be mastered.
The Song of the Oral Instructions of the Inexhaustible Treasury says
E ma! The secret teaching of the dakinis.
All the various Dharmas have but a single meaning.
Embodied in the teacher, the holy guru himself.
Like the lips of faith this supreme Jetsun,
With devoted mind should be received on the heads of virtuous ones.
The guru points to mind collected into one.
What is pointed out is the essence of students themselves.
By realizing all this as suffering in an instant
As for that these conquering heroes by their kindness
See the possible benefit, to actualize their kindness
We should always hold to these kings of all physicians.
From the ocean of samsara so very deep and wide,
There is no other excellent ship that liberates.
Having relied on that holy ship of excellent bliss
The motionless antidote which is esteemed by all.
By the pure rays of the light of wisdom like the sun,
Such an excellent being makes ignorance into insight.
Transforming all dharmas to bliss, like changing grass to gold
Always rely on the guru's wheel turning upaya.
By their mind like rivers dualistic views are overcome.
If we never abandon anything at all,
Unobscured wisdom will thereby fully be possessed.
Resting in uncontrived mind and its phenomena.
Arises from the amrita-presence of the guru.
What to convention is only mind and mental events
These labeled designations in the companions of yogins
Undergo transformation in the guru's lotus presence.
All who abandon the tantras by conventional thinking
Will never know the secret teaching of all the Buddhas
The oral instructions are actually visible to the eye.
They completely pervade the realm of the physical senses.
If one merely touches the dust of the guru's feet,
One will later gain understanding of all wisdom.
The guru releases a thousand arrows of piercing dharmas
A thousand empty apparent transforming skillful actions.
By prajqa appearances to be comprehended are seen
As for that prajqa, it arises from the pure master.
The kleshas are supremely transformed by skillful means
Any tormenting thoughts that cannot be transformed
From the essence instructions are able to be renounced.
This too will be attained by the power of the Jetsun.
Therefore whatever lineage blessings we may have,
Let us always rely on them with skillful means.
b. how one should rely on the guru
There are two sections,
the teaching by example:
1) If it is asked why one should rely on such a guru:
Just as those who are ill are in need of a king of physicians,
As the people need a ruler, and travelers need companions,
As merchants needs captains, and different sailors need each other.
In order to calm the kleshas and render evil harmless,
So that birth and death will be annihilated,
So that the two benefits are established spontaneously,
So that we can cross the ocean of samsara,
Therefore we should place our reliance on the guru.
As in sickness we rely on a physician, we rely on the guru pacify the illness arising from the kleshas; As
ordinary people rely on a king, the guru guards against harm. As travelers rely on a guide, the guru liberates
from the dangers of birth and death. As merchants rely on a ship-captain, the guru accomplishes benefit for self
and other. As mariners rely on companions, the guru helps beings cross the river of samsara.
2) The explanation of how one should rely one the guru
in relying on the guru as on a physician, first as for relying on the guru as one relies on a physician
because of illness:
The physician is the guru; the medicine of instructions,
Should be applied to the sickness of our samsaric perception.
Serious effort is the way of using it.
Peace and happiness are the fruit of curing the illness.
Such a way of reliance is of higher measure than others.
Therefore, rely on the guru with these four comprehensions.
The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
O son of noble family, you should guard yourself from perception of disease.
Perception of the medicine of Dharma should be guarded. The perception should be produced
that in diligent practice, the disease is completely cured. Perception of the spiritual friend as a
capable physician should be produced.
Also, son of noble family, you should produce the perception of yourself as ordinary.
You should produce the perception of fearlessness in the Dharma. You should produce the
perception that in diligent practice, torments are completely pacified. You should produce the
perception of the spiritual friend as a king. Also, son of noble family, You should produce the
perception of yourself as a traveler. You should produce perception of the gift of fearlessness in
the Dharma. You should produce the perception that in diligent practice you are liberated from
all fear. You should produce the perception of the spiritual friend as a warrior-escort.
Also, son of noble family, you should produce the perception of yourself as a merchant.
You should produce the perception of the Dharma as your wares. You should produce the
perception that in diligent practice you are making great profits. You should produce the
perception of the spiritual friend as your ship-captain.
Also, son of noble family, you should perceive yourself as a ship-passenger. You
should perceive the Dharma as a ship. You should perceive that in diligent practice you reach
the other shore of the river. You should produce the perception of the spiritual friend as a
skillful friend.
Also it says there:
Son of noble family, with all reverence toward the spiritual friend, produce a mind
immune to sadness like the earth, a mind like vajra, which is not susceptible to any harm, a mind
like a student who never closes the mind against any speech, the mind of a servant who does not
go against any command that is heard, and produce a mind without arrogance like cutting off
the horns of a bull.
Of these the Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.102
As for spiritual friends, who are ever-virtuous
They are skilled in the meaning of mahayana
And the excellent discipline of a bodhisattva
Even to save one's life, one should never forsake them.
Within the Biography of Shri Sambhava
It is taught how we should rely upon the guru...
c. the characteristics of students that are to be accepted
There are two sections concerning
1) Students to be rejected
2) Students to be accepted.
1) Students to be rejected
There are two topics.
a) those who are bad vessels:
On the other hand, Ill-starred disciples will be the ground of all evils.
They are without shame and they are without faith.
Having no decency, they have but little compassion.
Both by nature and nurture, their behavior is ill-starred.
Their actions, thoughts, and emotions are coarsened by the five poisons.
With crazed distortions of Dharma, Adharma, good, and evil.
Not keeping their vows and samayas, they have no antidote.
Utterly stupid, all but mindless, nearly insatiable,
Their angry words and hostility are forever-increasing.
They relate to gurus with five perverted perceptions.
They see the gurus as musk-deer, and Dharma as musk.
They see themselves as hunters. Their efforts are shot like arrows.
As for the fruition of having accomplished Dharma,
They think they will profit by selling their prize to someone else.
But without samaya, they will suffer here and hereafter.
Students of bad fortune are vessels of many defilements. They have little shame or faith. They have
little decency or compassion. Their family and nature are bad. Their conduct and fortune are bad. Their minds
and kleshas are coarse. They reverse virtue and vice and turn the instructions upside down. They do not keep
their vows and samayas. Not shutting the doors of the kleshas, they obscure the antidotes. With little prajqa,
they are hard to please. Their anger, harsh speech, and selfish attitudes always increase. They strive in adharmic
actions. They shame the Buddha. They disgrace the Dharma. Their secret mutilations of the Sangha undermines
the life of the guru. Completely unpacified, they endanger everyone. In particular, in their murderousness, they
are like hunters. They receive precepts from the loppvn with this approach alone, if there are others, they think "
With this and that faults, they are like animals." Saying, "that Dharma is one I have heard over and over," they
think they are better than anyone else, and regard it as like musk. They delight in shaming others who are not
perfect in the learning of that Dharma and especially in killing them. Because they have few resources they sell
and barter so that this life is not auspicious for them. Later they wander in the lower realms.
The commentary to the Tantra of the Presentation of Samaya says:
They disparage the vajra master of the secret mantra
They like to sell the Dharma for power, food, and wealth.
By their family nature, they do not keep samaya.
For them this life will be short, as they damage glory and fortune.
By the dakinis' retribution, they will suffer.
Later they will fall into the lower realms.
b. What occurs if there is no examining .
Also if students are ill-starred:
Some enter students at random, without examination.
At first they speak virtuously; but later they disparage.
With black-motivated mixtures of public and private actions,
They deviously slander the retinue of the guru.
In fruition they will go to the Avici Hell.
Without first examining the continuum of student and guru, a teacher may accept such students. When
they are newly associated, they speak reverently and respectfully. Then, angered by some little slight, they blame,
speak harshly, and when alone, they indulge in frivolous faults. They disparage everyone in the guru's retinue.
Some publicly make a false display of praise and respect, but mentally nurse their lack of faith and respect. As
they revile the guru with hidden agendas and deceitful wiles, there is immeasurable harm. The Fifty Verses on
the Guru says:
In the Avici Hell and similar fearful places
Those unfortunate beings inhabiting such hells
Are those who have denigrated and cursed the guru
That they stay there long is well and truly taught.
2) students who should be accepted.
There are twelve sections about the characteristics of good students
a) Those who are special vessels:
Students of good fortune live in faith and prajqa.
Diligent and careful, always conscious of evil.
Not going beyond the command, guarding their vows and samayas.
The three gates, body, speech, and mind, are tamed.
They are always very compassionate in their thoughts.
Spacious, forbearing, and generous; great in sacred outlook.
Steadfast and very devoted, the benefits of their having pleased the guru are measureless. The Sutra of
the Ornament of the Wisdom of Maitreya says:
O sons or daughters of noble family, some who have excellent faith, if they have
reverence for the guru, have an immeasurable heap of merit more limitless than that of those
who have made offerings to all the buddhas for as many kalpas as there are grains of sand in the
Ganges River.
The Holy Wisdom Tantra says:
Compared to offering to the buddhas for kalpas,
If part of a single body-hair of the guru
is anointed with a single drop of oil,
The heap of merit is much higher than that.
This is because the guru is a special object. The Embodiment of the Intention says
More than the buddhas of a thousand kalpas
The guru should be known to be a friend.
Why? Because All of the buddhas of those kalpas
Arise in dependence on the guru's virtues.
Previously, before there was a guru,
Even the name of "Buddha" did not exist.
b) Thinking of the guru's virtues, confessing, and vowing to refrain
Such students:
They are always mindful of the virtues of the teacher.
They never think of the teacher as having any faults.
Even if they see some, they think of them as virtues.
They think from their hearts that surely these are their projections,
Confession and vows to refrain serve as their antidote.
If there is the slightest non-faith, they think of it as a projection with the nature of a dream. They think
that certainly the guru does not really have these faults. If even in a dream they do not have faith in the conduct
of the guru, as soon as they awaken from sleep they confess it. The Play of the Waterfall of Samsara says:
If even in a dream, faults are seen in the guru,
As soon as one awakes, if one does not confess,
This will proliferate as the cause of the Avici Hell.
If such thoughts arise during the day, instantly, or within a minute or a day, one should confess. Then
for every fault in one's mind one should think of a hundred virtues. Likewise one should express them all.
c) Abandoning what does not please the guru and asking what is to be done
What does not please the guru and anything like it should be abandoned. One should try to do what will be
pleasing:
They reject every aspect of what does not please the guru.
And try to please the teacher in any way they can.
Neither do they ever break the teacher's command.
They always treat the teacher's retinue like the teacher.
They do so even in cases where they are personally lower.
They do not take these or the teacher's servants as their students.
Instead they request empowerments and explanations of Dharma.
They abandon what does not please the teacher and accomplish what does. What is taught by these
words must be done. The former text says:
Even if one has faults, if one's acts accord with these words
There will be real benefit. Why mention this should be done? In the retinue even those who one
would say are below one
Are treated like the guru. They are not gathered as students. Instead one asks them for
Dharma-teachings and empowerments , Requesting ordinations, fire-offerings, and such.
Another text says:
The lesser ones of the guru, are treated like the guru
It is as is said here and elsewhere.
As for the discipline of bodily behavior in his presence,
d) Their behavior:
Their body, speech, and mind are controlled before the teacher.
They sit respectfully and never turn their backs
They smile and do not show any black and angry looks.
The Three Stages says:
In the guru's presence, proper bodily action
Is to sit cross-legged and never turn one's back.
Faces should be smiling, never angry or sinister.
In brief we should be mindful of our every action.
e) They control all faults of speech.
Moreover, as for frivolous speech and so forth:
They do not speak frivolously, nor utter lies and slander.
They do not tell others' faults with harsh and unpleasant speech,
Nor speak any words that are not considered or to the point.
They have nothing to do with joking and humorous banter and idle chatter, repeating rumors, divisive
false words, running down other people and so forth. Even if these are true, the speaker will attain great
unhappiness. Why so? The guru will condemn them, and there will be quarrels. By quarrelling with the guru,
even momentarily, great damage will be produced. The same text says:
Anything connected with careless words
Should not ever be said before the guru.
An ordinary person, if he is angered,
Will fall by that into the occasional hells.
Whoever contradicts the mind of the guru
Will be boiled in deep black utter darkness
For a hundred thousand times ten million kalpas.
As for controlling wrong conceptions in their motivation
f) As for mind:
They are not covetous about the teachers things.
They sheathe the claws of any kind of harmful thoughts.
The various miracles of the guru's actions and conduct
Are not conceived to be a hypocritical sham.
They reject wrong views of the slightest faults and defects
That would be in contradiction with such a view,
By thinking, "This is not right, but the teacher still is doing it.":
They do not greedily think, "if only this which is the guru's were mine! They do not say anything
harmful about the guru's retinue, students, patrons, and so forth, since if this came to attention of the guru
himself, it would not please him. They are not hypocritical about actions done for the guru's purposes, whether
peaceful or harsh, or whether or not they are in accord with worldly convention. They do not think, "This is
wrong," or "That is not the proper way," or that the guru's earlier and later words and actions have even the
slightest contradiction. The Root Tantra Establishing Wisdom says:
Covetice for the gurus things and retinue
And refuting his close retinue is abandoned.
For sentient beings all his various actions
As beneficial upaya are great miracles.
For the limitless ocean of his intentions and actions
Put aside wrong views, since they do harm.
g) examining one's own faults
Respectfully meditating, reflections arise that because of being unmindful, such actions were done
through one's own faults:
Whenever they have shown any anger toward the teacher,
Certain that they have faults, they, therefore examine themselves.
Having confessed their faults they vow to abandon them
Bowing their heads in meditation, they supplicate.
Pleasing the teacher thus, they quickly become accomplished.
Anger toward true spiritual friends is not good. Since when we does evil deeds the spiritual friend is not
pleased, thinking, "how did we go wrong," we examines ourselves. We confess and strongly vow to refrain.
Generally, anger at anyone certainly depends on ourselves. If we did not exist, this would not arise, like the anger
of the people of our continent Jambuling and the northern continent Kurava. Since they see and hear each other
and so forth, they are like a drum and a stick. Anger is not proper. One will become the eye-condition of others'
evil deeds, and by one's own anger and hatred always arising the seed of hell will be produced.
Therefore, if we are angry with anyone, we should meditate on them above the head. In a few days
anger and obscuration will certainly be purified. In particular when there has been improper feelings toward the
guru, meditate on him on the top of the head. Having done prostrations and offerings, with complete repentance,
shed tears and joining the palms saying, "Kye, kye precious guru,
For me there is no other hope but you.
I supplicate you to look down on me
With your eye of kindness and compassion.
I am oppressed by confusions of ignorance.
Why mention that the three gates are impaired
With complete remorse and repentance I confess.
My three vows have been transgressed and broken.
My mind is covered with damaging defilements
May you purify that by your compassion.
As for me, by unknowing stupidity,
Though I did not seek to, I did wrong,
Previously too I wandered in samsara.
Now by you who are the compassionate guru,
May all my obscurations be cleared away.
For such an unknowing fool as I am now
If when you have seen my abundant faults,
I am not part of your intended kindness,
What other intention could arise for me?
Former victorious ones beyond all counting
Abandoned us and went to liberation.
Now the victorious ones of the ten directions
Having urged you, for our benefit,
When you have emanated as the guru,
If you reject us now and abandon us
Who live as if seduced to a fearful place,
You today will fail us terribly.
Or like a precious wish-fulfilling gem
If we make our supplication to you,
Will you grant whatever is desired?
You are very kind and skilled in means.
Why do not look on us with kindness?
Offerings are made even to flesh-eating demons.
As soon as our true words have been expressed,
If even former anger is put aside,
As for you, compassionate father of beings,
With devoted homage, overwhelmed with longing,
If I confess my faults with sincerity,
Will you not consider me with compassion?
Not all my evil deeds are purified.
If I should go on to other lives,
I shall only burn in the fires of hell.
If you do not purify these deeds,
Compassionate master, how will it be done?
Kye ma Kye 'ud these faults and evil deeds
I supplicate you, purify them all
Instantly when viewed by your compassion
I will receive empowerment and blessing.
The supreme and worldly siddhis will be bestowed.
Obstructing spirits and agents of perversion
And obstacles will all be cleared away,
Establishing all my wishes in this life,
Free from suffering at the moment of death
Immediately when life has been cut off,
I will be free from the terrors of the bardo.
If I do not rectify transgressions,
There will not be this main point of the teachings.
h) Adopting pure and respectful conduct
Further, regarding conduct:
When they see the teacher they arise and prostrate.
They offer the teacher a seat or whatever else is needed.
Joining their palms they praise the teacher with pleasant speech.
Everyone arises as the teacher is departing.
To face in the teacher's direction as a way of showing respect.
They spread out the guru's seat and praise him and join their palms, and when he enters and departs they
rise and go to meet him and see him off. This is said in the Vinaya of Holy Dharma
As soon as the preceptor is seen, they should rise from their seats. If they do not rise,
they will be born as serpents or creeping things for five hundred generations. This is said in
hundreds of places. If they rise and serve him even moderately well they will attain the major
and minor marks.
The commentary to the Abhisamayalankara says:
By going to meet the guru, seeing him off, and so forth, they will possess the marks such as the
palms of the hands and soles of the feet being marked with wheels.
As for practicing mindfulness and careful attention
As for practicing mindfulness and careful attention
i) when they are with the guru:
Always mindful, very careful, fully aware
With apprehensive awe they stay devotedly,
As shy before the teacher as a new bride with her husband.
Uplifted and not disturbed by an agitated mind,
Not biased and partial, Not seeking profit or fame.
They are not deceitful nor are they dishonest.
By the same token they are not hypocritical.
They do not act differently in private and in public.
They are not pleasant to those who are close, disparaging others.
In the guru's presence, they are completely mindful. They control infractions of body, speech, and mind.
Their minds watch their minds, keeping careful control so that they do not become lost in the power of the
kleshas. Tamed and peaceful like a new bride or a new monk, their wishes will be established. The
Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.40
As for the drunken elephant of mind,
To the great pillar of contemplating Dharma
Tie it so that it does not escape.
With such an effort examine everything.
Keep mind one-pointed any way you can
Not losing it for even the space of an instant,
Analyze just what the mind is like;
Thus the mind will be discriminated.
And also: 5.23
As for those who wish to guard the mind,
As for being mindful and aware,
May I guard them even if I die.
Thus I join my palms in supplication.
Even alone in one's own house, one should not behave carelessly. One should keep mindful and aware.
The buddhas who have the divine eye see us even when we are hidden. The same text says: 5-31-2
The buddhas and their sons the bodhisattvas
Have unobstructed vision of everything.
In the five eyes of these I shall remain.
Thinking that, I feel shame, and reverence,
As well as fear, and these remain with me.
Even at other times and occasions the mind should not move from virtue. The same text says: 5.45ff
As for frivolous talk, there are various kinds.
There are many kinds of wondrous shows.
If we enter into every one
Desire for that will surely be abandoned.
Uselessly digging the ground will cut the roots
If questions and so forth furrow up the earth,
Having remembered the precepts of the Sugata,
We will surely let them go from fear.
When we want to fidget and move around
Also if we have a desire to talk,
First having examined our own minds,
We should be stable in the proper way.
When the mind has any kind of wishes
Or it wants to be angry, at that time,
We should not act and should not speak at all.
We should stay there like a piece of wood.
When we have wildness and discursiveness
If we have pride and self-infatuation,
And secret negative thoughts are cultivated,
Or if there is an deceptiveness and cunning.
When we become preoccupied with self-praise,
Or there is disparagement of others,
When we become regretful of such abuse,
We should stay there like a piece of wood.
If we desire possessions, rank, and fame,
If we aspires to servants and retinue,
Or when the mind desires to be served,
we should stay there like a piece of wood.
Wishing decrease or rejection of others' good
And cultivation of our benefit,
When a thought of speaking out arises,
We should stay there like a piece of wood.
When there is fear of impatience or laziness
Similarly of shamelessness, or nonsense,
Or mind attached to partialities,
We should stay there like a piece of wood.
Having examined thoroughly the mind
Of bitter kleshas and useless meaningless struggle,
Then heroically by the antidote,
One should hold the mind completely steady.
Completely certain and completely faithful,
Trustworthy, devoted, and respectful.
Having shame and modesty and fear,
Try to be peaceful, bringing joy to others.
Not saddened at the mutual discord
Of the desires of children and of fools,
Think, "Produced by kleshas these arise."
Then we feel kindness for these people.
Having in our mouths no senseless thing
Able to handle oneself and sentient beings,
We should always firmly keep the mind.
As if it were a selfless emanation.
"After so long this is the highest freedom,"
Thinking again and again of that attainment,
Such a mind, remaining like Mount Meru,
Should hold to that completely motionless.
Adharma should not move us from this even for an instant. Since one is devoted to the practice of
Dharma because of the guru, one's companions, the khenpo's instructions, fear of the lower realms, and the
misery of samsara; by one's effort, mindfulness, awareness, conscientiousness, and many virtues will arise. The
same text says: 5.30
Through association with the guru,
And all that has been taught by the preceptor
And devotion coming from the good fortune of fear,
Mindfulness will easily arise.
Having produced virtue and veneration for the guru, and eliminated partiality, desire for wealth and
fame, hypocrisy, deceitfulness, and saying different things when people are near and far away, one will always be
the same to everyone. Therefore one will perfect the accumulations and purify the obscurations without
distinction.
j) Showing reverence by the three pleasings:
If they are wealthy, they make offerings to the guru
Otherwise serving with body and speech, respect and reverence.
They abandon this life's values and please the teacher with practice.
The best is to serve with practice. The intermediate with body and speech, and the lesser with material
things. One should truly do any of these that are appropriate.
They reverse the strayings of others though skillful means:
If others insult the guru, they refute their words.
If they cannot, they think of his virtues again and again.
They cover their ears, but try to benefit these with compassion.
They will not gladly speak any words that do not support him.
If anyone says something bad, they reverse it through skillful means. If they do not have the power to do
so, they think of the guru's virtues, and covering their ears with their fingers, they will not attend, listen, or ask
about it. The Tantra of the Arising of Amrita says:
If people should insult the vajra master,
By peaceful or wrathful action they reverse it.
If they do not have the power to do so,
They will cover their ears with mindfulness.
They do not pay attention or talk with them.
If they ask any questions about these things,
They will be boiled in the lower realms.
As for telling the benefits of having done this
These are the benefits:
Thus they accomplish benefits in all their lives.
They meet with holy persons and hear the highest Dharma.
They are perfectly filled with the wealth of various qualities
Of the paths and bhumis, dharanis, and samadhis,
Providing beings with a feast of happiness and peace.
The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
Kye, son of noble family, because one is supported by the spiritual friend, one always
feels reverence, and therefore there is mindfulness. For the host of sentient beings benefit and
happiness is produced. Spiritual friends are encountered. The holy bhumis, paths, and
samadhis are accomplished.
D. Beings to be avoided, along with those associated with them
There are six sections.
1. the instruction to abandon evil spiritual friends.
Now there is the instruction to abandon evil spiritual friends together with those associated with them:
Thus by proper relationship with holy persons,
Abandon all evil people and evil spiritual friends.
A teacher without the qualities described above
Gone wrong because of faults, breaking vows and samayas,
With little kindness, compassion, prajqa or learned knowledge,
Is indolent and lazy, unaware and ignorant.
Proud and arrogant, with harsh and vicious disdain,
They are coarsened by kleshas and venomous with the five poisons.
Concerned with this life only, they throw the next away.
Although they may seem to be teachers of the holy Dharma,
In fact they are of the deceitful family of adharma.
As bees are driven far away by a heap of filth,
Such gurus drive students, however many, far away.
Trusting them leads on perverted paths to the lower realms.
Whoever wants liberation should not rely on them.
Such persons break their vows and samayas and have little compassion or learning. They are as lazy as
they are proud. Their jealous disdain and five poisons are rude and coarse. They seek retinue, possessions, and
fame in this life. Even when they stay alone, a rain of distracting activities and kleshas falls around them
everywhere. They throw concern with the next life far away. They disparage everyone but themselves, and all
dharmas but their own. Their language is that of the Dharma, and they make a display of being extremely skilful,
but in reality, no one's mind is benefited. Therefore, both their words and sense are in error. Theirs is the family
of charlatans. Like someone piling up a dung heap, they collect a numerous retinue like bees. However since
they lead those who have faith and want liberation to the lower realms, give them a wide berth. The Sutra of the
Treasury of Buddhahood says:
Worldly enemies only rob us of our lives. We only lose our bodies, and do not also fall
into the lower realms. Ignorant persons who dwell on wrong paths lead those who aspire to
virtue into hell for a thousand kalpas. Why so? Because practicing a Dharma of things and
characteristics, they teach a mistaken Dharma.
They take the lives of all sentient beings, and when they teach their mistaken Dharma,
they do great evil.
2. Abandoning friends and associates who are evil-doers
Following that is the instruction to abandon evil friends:
Evil-doer companions should also be abandoned.
The more we are their companions, the farther evil spreads.
The wholesome is obscured, and kleshas fall like rain.
The upper realms are blocked and the lower cultivated.
Holy ones are reviled with hatred for white Dharmas.
Evil is praised and there is reliance on black Dharmas.
They praise those who are equal to them in the fortune of evil.
They always lead on perverted paths to the lower realms.
Those who have sense and vision should keep them far away.
To the extent one deals with them, evil deeds increase, and evil-doers are supported and praised. Since
these people have left virtue far behind, they will fall into the lower realms, and so they must be abandoned. The
Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
What are evil companions? They are those who decrease virtue and are joined to non-
virtue. One should not associate with them. One should not attend on them. One should not
even see them.
Also it says there:
The shravakas are those who benefit themselves.
In benefiting themselves they abandon others' benefit.
Attending them will lead to materialistic gathering.
This will never produce accumulation of Dharma.
Those are bad spiritual friends and their students bad companions.
One should abandon them, and keep them far away.
3. The benefits of abandoning evil spiritual friends and companions
Here are the benefits of abandoning and not associating with them:
By abandoning evil companions and evil spiritual friends,
Happy and virtuous qualities are established here and hereafter.
Happiness never diminishes, but always increases farther.
The path of profundity, liberation, is completed.
We will never see any persons who are evil.
But instead will see the lord sugatas, with their retinue of their sons.
Thinking of us considerately, they will give us blessings.
When we live a wholesome, life we go to the higher realms.
Having such qualities as thought cannot encompass.
The Instruction in 8,000 Lines says:
Subhuti, the virtues of abandoning evil companions are beyond the scope of thought.
Virtue will always be performed. Tathagatas will be seen. Happiness will be produced during
our lives. Afterwards we shall be born in the higher celestial realms. In all our lives, we will
never be separated from apprehension of bodhicitta. Unsurpassable, complete, perfect
enlightenment will manifest continually.
4. The summary:
We should always relate with virtuous and holy friends.
Because of them our wholesome karma will increase.
Karma and kleshas diminish and evil will be stopped.
We reach the end of samsara, and higher things manifest.
Then what is good and true will come to be established.
In this life there is happiness, and afterwards fruition.
We are ever-successful leaders of gods and human beings.
The Vinaya says:
Conduct like that of Bhrama is holy association. One reaches the activity of Bhrama.
By the increase of virtuous roots, there will be a cause according with complete liberation.
There will be respect from those who possess life.
And along with that:
One should attend them with fear.
The Sutra on Going to Mindfulness of Dharma says:
By relying on spiritual friends, mindfulness and awareness will be completely pure.
The virtuous roots will be completely perfected.
5. The instruction to attend on spiritual companions:
By relying on wholesome companions and wholesome spiritual friends,
Wholesomeness increases and wholesome fruitions are gained.
One is not afraid of samsara, having measureless benefits.
The limitless wealth of beings' two benefits is established.
A leader is emanated by the victorious one,
Having such an appearance in this time of the dark age.
Therefore, until we attain the essence of enlightenment,
We should rely on holy persons, such as these.
The Sutra on Supreme Ultimate Samadhi
O son of noble family, Moreover, in later lives, at a later time, I myself, will emanate as
spiritual friends and display these samadhis. Therefore, since the spiritual friend is your
teacher, until being within the complete essence of enlightenment, one should rely on the
spiritual friend, offering respect and due ceremony.
6. The explanation of the virtues of properly relying on them
As for the virtues of this:
By that unbiased sacred outlook will arise.
We will be versed in kindness, compassion and bodhicitta. There will be increase of the
nyams and realization.
Whatever measureless benefits for others one can think of
Will thereby be accomplished in the proper way.
The Sutra requested by Jewel-Crown says:
O son of the gods, by attending on the spiritual friend and showing him veneration, all
the buddha fields will be seen. The holy samadhi of the great compassion will be attained. One
will become inseparable from the prajqaparamita. One will completely ripen sentient beings.
One will attain complete accomplishment of all hopes.
By these teaching one should know how to rely on the nature of the guru.
E. Knowing what is to be abandoned and accepted, and how the siddhis are received.
There are five sections:
1. How to practice,
2. How to propitiate,
3. The accumulation of action,
4. The particular details,
5. The benefits.
1. How to practice.
a. how, after this is known, the siddhis are received:
Here is how to supplicate and meditate:
We should constantly gather the two accumulations.
Also the two obscurations should constantly be cleansed.
By day on top of the head, at night within the heart,
Mentally offer and make supplications to the root guru,
Ornamented with all the major and minor marks,
As being non-dual with the yidam that you venerate
And with the assembly of the dakinis.
Surrounded by lineage gurus, dakas, and dakinis.
The Embodiment of Everything Precious Tantra says:
More than one who for a hundred thousand kalpas
Meditates on a hundred thousand deities
It is better to think of the guru just a little.
The merit of this is utterly limitless.
The great master Padmasambhava bestowed this teaching as an oral instruction. As to how this should
be done, if one continually supplicates, the unity of guru, yidam, and dakini will be established. The guru there
blesses. The yidam bestows supreme siddhi. The dakinis remove obstacles and are the chief establishers of the
ordinary siddhis.
Sitting on a comfortable seat, after taking refuge and arousing bodhicitta, from emptiness visualize
yourself vividly as your yidam. Adorning the crown of the head, on a lion, sun, and moon throne, is the root
guru, blazing with radiance and splendor, surrounded by the gurus of the ultimate lineage and all who have a
Dharma connection with it. Visualize that heaps of clouds of dakinis gather. When one has rejoiced in the
elaborations, invite the jqanasattvas, make offerings and praises, and confess evil deeds. In brief:
Guru, you who are the precious Buddha
Yidam, with the host of dakinis,
Devotedly we prostrate and go for refuge.
We make the outer, inner, and secret offerings.
We confess our evil deeds without remainder.
We rejoice in all the host of virtues,
We ask the turning of the wheel of dharma.
We ask the gurus not to pass into nirvana.
And to bestow the supreme and worldly siddhis.
Clear away geks and agents of perversion.
May complete enlightenment be established.
say that three times.
b. The manner of propitiation.
Then when one recites the mantra:
First say O_ and then the guru's Sanskrit name.
Next say AH H__, followed by what it is you want.
OM AH H__, are the primordial, spontaneous presence of the essence of the body, speech, and mind of
all the buddhas. After inserting this into your meditation, recite it. If you know how to translate the guru's name
into Sanskrit, do so. If you do not know, having inserted the name itself, afterward say what you wish for.
For pacifying say SHANTI_ KU RU YE SVAHA; for enriching PUSTI_ KURU YE SVAHA; for
magnetizing, VASHA_ KURU YE SVAHA; for destroying MARAYA PHAT. For example, for guru
Padmasambhava and enriching you would say: OM VAJRA GURU PADMASAMBHAVA A H__ KARMA
PUSTI_ KURU YE SVAHA. Moreover practice externally for peaceful; innerly for semi-wrathful, and secretly
for wrathful practice. The intention is nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya, and dharmakaya.
c. The activity practices
Within the activity practices are pacifying, cultivating and enriching, magnetizing and drawing in, and
destroying, with their visualizations, post-meditation, and signs of accomplishment.
1) Pacifying
As for the first, now from the teachings of applying the four karmas, as for the first:
To pacify sickness and dvns, obscurations and evil deeds,
Visualize that you emanate white light rays everywhere.
Think that the desired siddhi has been attained,
While everything that is contrary has been pacified.
At the time of pacifying, from white gurus, from all points emanate white light rays. Gurus and
yidams fill the sky. By the murmur of mantra, think that the siddhi of pacifying is attained.
2) Enriching:
For the karma that increases splendor, life, and wealth,
Visualize yellow rain that falls as all you desire.
Think of everything as yellow. A rain of wealth, life, and so forth falls. Thinking that our dwelling
places and bodies are pervaded, do the recitation.
3) Magnetizing:
As for the powers that can summon and magnetize,
Visualize rays of a vivid red in the shape of hooks.
For subjugating, drawing in, making enter, and all such powers of magnetizing, light rays of karma like
hooks invite whatever one desires. Thinking that they are beneath one's feet, recite the mantra.
4) Destroying:
For the action of destroying geks and harm,
Visualize blue-black rays, that emanate as weapons
Or a conquering wheel of fire that has a thousand spokes.
If obstructions of dvns, geks and so forth arise, blue-black light rays emanating everywhere as a
collection of weapons make the dvns and geks into dust. Where you are, in the space of the sky visualize a wheel
of fire with a thousand radiating spokes. Having heaped up and drawn in the harmful spirits, it pulverizes them
into dust.
5) In particular:
Visualize that the billion worlds are in trembling motion,
Quaking with the vibration of the recitation of mantra.
Perform the appropriate practice of the developing stage,
To facilitate and accomplish these various desired karmas.
Visualize that by the self-existing vibration of the sound of mantra roaring like fire or water all the
worlds tremble and are disrupted. This should accord with the particular complete visualization of the developing
stage for the individual one of the four karmas being practiced.
6) Afterward:
At the end collect the details in conceptionless emptiness.
Then you should relax for just a little while,
Dedicating the merit to enlightenment.
The external world is gathered into the form of the deity. That is gathered into oneself. Oneself is
gathered into the guru on top of the head. That too rests in the conceptionless state of the mere completion stage.
After that the merit is dedicated to enlightenment.
At night, one meditates within the essence, so that afterwards the confused dreams of sleep will arise as
luminosity.
7) How by meditating in this way signs of with the individual karmas arise:
For each of the karmas, there are particular signs of success.
This is the path of profundity, ocean of mahasukha.
The signs of sickness and dvns being pacified are dreams of bathing, dripping pus and blood, wearing
white clothes, and so forth. The signs of enriched life are heaps of grain, good harvests, the sun and moon rising,
and so forth. The signs of increasing enjoyment are a rain of jewels, symbols of birth, harvest and so forth. The
signs of magnetizing are many people prostrating, praises and so forth. The signs of pacifying harm are great
blazing fires, sentient beings being killed and boiled, victory in battle, and so forth. In reality, what accords with
what one wants actually arises.
4. The particular details.
There are six sections.
a. Emanating the buddha field.
Now from the explanation of the particular details, in particular, when sickness, dvns, obstacles, and
premonitions of death arise:
In particular, when you encounter sickness and dvns,
When obstacles arise or premonitions of death,
Visualize the guru in the space in front,
Inseparable from the Buddha, with a radiantly smiling face.
Seated on a lotus throne supported by lions,
Which arouses within one a state of fearlessness,
The guru is surrounded by the teachers of the lineage,
As well as by the dakinis and bodhisattvas.
Below the affectionate and compassionate lord guru
Are the various the samsaric beings within the six realms,
Who throughout the three times have been ones fathers and mothers.
When one sees one's death or when strong attacks of sickness or dvns occur, visualize the guru in the space
in front of you, inseparable from the Buddha, surrounded by the lineage gurus and hosts of dakas and dakinis.
Below them are the beings of the six realms who have been one's fathers and mothers, together with the harmful
dvns and geks. Invite the jqanasattvas. Perform abbreviated offerings and praises.
b. increasing and purifying the substances:
A syllable H__ at the crown of the head is one's own mind.
From it there emerges the body of a heruka.
Holding in his hands a razor-knife and a skull cup.
He cuts off one's skull, beginning with the forehead,
By the little tuft of hair that grows between the brows.
It is placed on a hearth that is made of a tripod of skulls,
And then it is filled with one's body's flesh and blood and bones.
From above falls a rain of amrita; below a fire blazes.
The skull fills up with amrita, that equals the billion worlds.
Visualize that from a white syllable H__ at the top of the head, which is one's own mind, emerges a
white heruka. In his right hand is a sword, and in his left a skull cup. With the sword, he cuts one's body in two,
starting from between the eyes. The skull is placed on a hearth made from a tripod of skulls and filled with the
body's flesh and blood. Below, from YA_, wind stirs. From RA_ fire blazes so that the contents of the skull boil.
From above, amrita continuously falls, equaling the billion worlds.
c. Inviting the guests:
One's own mind by emanating countless herukas,
Distributes amrita to all at once, from out of the skull.
When the enlightened guests have all been satisfied,
The accumulations are perfect and siddhi is attained.
When the samsaric guests have all been satisfied,
The beginningless production of samsara is pacified.
In particular when the harmful dvns are satisfied,
The blockage of obstacles will be pacified.
As all-satisfying light rays penetrate into oneself,
Sickness and dvns are pacified, and obstacles, just as they are.
One thinks that death is thwarted, and siddhi is attained.
Visualize that one emanates as many graceful hands as there are guests, and by making offerings to all of
them at once they enjoy it. The buddhas and so forth beyond the world are pleased, and siddhi is attained. The
six lokas are pleased and karmic debts are paid. Dvns are pleased and their afflictions cease. By the light rays of
the enjoyment of all these beings penetrating oneself, all sickness, dvns, and obstacles are pacified.
d. The dedication:
Afterwards rest the mind in objectless meditation
In dharmadhatu, the state of mind without conception,
Let things go into their natural purity as illusion.
The guests, the offerings, and the one who offers are all one's own mind. Just so, when one knows that
all dharmas are not other than the simplicity of one's own mind, one should meditate and let all dharmas go into
to their illusion-like state.
e. The virtues of this inner feast offering of the kusulu yogins:
By this unfavorable conditions are pacified.
We perfect the accumulations, and remove the obscurations.
Limitless blessings and realizations are born within us.
With no grasping ego, the mind renounces and focuses
Everything that one has wished for has been accomplished.
Now the phenomenal world arises as the guru.
With sickness annihilated, there is clear luminosity
The realized state of the moment of death has been established.
One is liberated within the bardo-state,
And the wealth of the two benefits have been perfected.
Therefore, wholeheartedly try to establish this realm of the guru.
That is the instruction. As for other benefits, all violations are appeased. The supreme divine offering
occurs. Since the mind of ego-grasping is removed, the destruction of the confusions of dualistic grasping is
immeasurable.
f. The reason,
Now, to set forth the reason for these great benefits:
It has been said that remembering the guru for a moment,
Is better than a kalpa of the developing stage.
The Play of the Perfected Sphere says:
Though some person for ten million kalpas
Meditates on the bodies of deities,
One who remembers the guru, the master of all,
Is still better, so it is explained.
5. The benefits,
a. Since the guru is the ground of all virtues, there is the admonishment rely on him
This is the instruction to rely on such a guru:
This is the actual basis of splendor and of wealth,
From which arise clouds of benefit and happiness.
Whoever wants amrita-rain throughout the three levels,
Should rely on those who are compassionate.
The omniscient Buddhas are the true glory of themselves and others. By the deathless wealth of Dharma
they protect beings, and they possess limitless good qualities. From these numerous clouds of benefit and
happiness in the three realms falls the rain of the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma. Those who wish to
obtain this should rely on the spiritual friend. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, Those who wish to attain omniscience should rely on the spiritual friend.
The Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
Why should one always rely on competent gurus?
The qualities of competence rise from them.
As for the three turnings, the Buddha Bhagavat taught these dharmas after seven weeks of seven days.
The first week he merely sat in cross-legged posture. The second, he saw the field of the essence, enlightenment.
The third he trod nearby upon Jambuling. The fourth, he trod far away on the billion worlds. The fifth, he went
to the dwelling of the king of nagas, Grasping and Rejecting. The sixth he remained in the grove of the field to be
liberated.
Uncompounded, profound, peaceful, simple, and clear.
This amrita-like dharma I have obtained.
There is no one who will understand it.
Not speaking, I shall remain alone in the forest.
So he said and remained there. Bhrama offered him a melon and honey, but he did not take the vessel.
Four kings offered four stone begging bowls at one time, and were blessed. After he ate, he spoke only words of
auspiciousness. On the seventh day, Bhrama and Indra supplicated him, and then when he had gone to Varanasi,
for the five excellent disciples he turned the wheel of the four noble truths together with the instructions on the
divine eight-fold path.
At last in the dwellings of the gods and nagas, and the cities Kumuda Saljin and so forth he turned the
wheel of the dharma of true meaning.
These three turnings were taught at various uncertain places. They were intended for those of lesser,
intermediate and greater powers; or for those first entering the path, while they remained on it, and those who had
the final goal, the essence. The three pitakas were taught in the style of the expressor and the three trainings of
disciplines, samadhi, and prajqa are the three subjects of learning expressed.
Some teachers say he turned the three wheels of dharma at one time, and in different appearances to
different individual beings. That the sutras of existence and non-existence were explained in separate years is not
right. The particular great treasury of explanation, is maintained to have continued until he was eighty years old.
The Buddha' parinirvana or passing is claimed to have been at the age of eighty years and three months. The
Chvrten Gyepa says:
Three months after he was supplicated by Tsunda
I prostrated to the nirvana-made chvrten.
Some other teachers maintain that it was at eighty-two. That really it was three months and eighty years
is taught in many sutras. As for the eighty, the Treasury of Explanation says:
The places of the turnings,
The city of Vaishali,
Sakarchen and the heavens,
Jipasvn and Kaushambhi,
In verdant Highland pastures,
By stupas and in mountains,
At Radiant Grove and Drarche
The city of Kapalivastu.
In these Buddha Shakyamuni,
the most excellent of beings
Dwelt from year to year.
Two in the Blazing Cave,
Three in the Medicine Grove.
Five in the royal court.
Six in ascetic practice.
Twenty three in Shravasti.
Twenty nine in elegance.
After eighty years,
The Victorious One, the Sage,
The Supreme One went beyond suffering.
To those places of merit
The dwellings of omniscience,
Ceaselessly offering bows
In body, speech and mind,
Devotedly I prostrate.
b. The instruction to do as was done formerly:
To pacify the kleshas in the space of mind,
Accustomed to their torment from beginningless time,
We should seek the dharma, as formerly was done
by Sadaprarudita and Sudhana.
Abandoning sorrow and weariness, rely on spiritual friends.
Until we are without karma and the kleshas, in order to pacify these we need to attend on a guru better
than ourselves. This is because we need higher qualities. As to how this is done, in the city "Arising Place of
Happiness," was a master merchant Nor Rabtu Ten who had a son Sudhana who from his southern lineage
went to all southern places. By his always seeking the Dharma, it was prophesied that he would become the
Prince of Jambuling and so forth, and so he was blessed by fifty-four gurus. Afterwards he was taught by fifty-
four more gurus, so he relied on a hundred and eight.
The bodhisattva Sadaprarudita when he was seeking the prajqaparamita squeezed his body. He stayed
in a chariot with five hundred merchants' daughters. When they had come to the eastern city of Possessing
Incense he made offerings to the bodhisattva Noble Dharma. We should do such reverence.
F. The dedication of the merit to sentient beings:
Wearied by the misfortune of following paths that are wrong,
Worse than those of good fortune falling to the amrita
Of the thousand stringed instrument of the lord of the gods,
Calling us to enjoyment of heavenly delights,
May the mind today come to rest in its suchness.
As for the well-arranged garland arising from the teaching-lineage of true spiritual friends who practice
the true meaning, the host of beings for a long time have attended bad and defective spiritual friends, and are
worn out by samsara. In the pleasure grove of the Buddha Bhagavat, the guru of gods and human beings, by
wishing clouds may their weariness be cured.
Attending these spiritual friends who are not genuine,
May the numerous throng who have long gone wrong in samsara.
These many beings who long have wearied their own minds,
Rely on mahasukha, the level of the Conqueror.
Possessing a glorious body like the moon in its fullness,
Beautiful in a wreath of deities stars and planets,
With a beneficial white light clearing the kleshas' torment,
May all beings come to rely on that perfect glory.
The Commentary on the Sixth Chapter of the Great Perfection, the Nature of Mind, the Easer of Weariness, "Going to
Refuge."
That is the purpose of depending on the authentic spiritual friend, the beginning or foundation of the whole path
of the mahayana.
VI Going for Refuge
There are three sections.
A. The stages of entering the path of mahayana
B. The particular objects of refuge
C. The dedication of the merit of going for refuge.
A. The stages of entering the path of mahayana,
Now from the teachings I have composed, there are the stages of how to enter into the path of the mahayana.
First we should learn a bit about these:
Having properly relied upon a spiritual friend,
We should learn the stages of the path to liberation.
Why? Because it is not workable to enter all at once. If the lower virtues of the path have not arisen, it is
impossible to obtain the higher ones. Therefore, if one does not ascend gradually, the higher ones will not be reached.
The Nirvana Sutra says:
Just like the steps of a staircase,
My profound teachings likewise
Should be gradually thoroughly learned
Rather than all at once.
Just as for little children
Standing straight is gradually mastered,
We gradually enter this Dharma
Until it is perfected.
B. The particular objects of refuge
There are three parts.
1. The causal refuge,
2. The fruition refuge
3. The benefits of taking refuge.
1. The causal refuge
There are four parts.
a) For individual beings who take refuge, there is the teaching of the individual kinds of foundation of their paths.
Taking refuge is the ground of every path.
Lesser people do so fearing the lower realms.
The two intermediate kinds are afraid of the state of samsara.
The greatest have seen all the aspects of samsaric suffering,
Finding others' suffering to be unbearable.
They fear the happiness of a personal nirvana.
In entering on the great vehicle of the buddha-sons,
There are three ways of taking refuge with three kinds of intention.
These are the unsurpassed, the excellent, and the common.
If we do not take refuge, the vow will not arise. If we do not bind ourselves with the vow, there will be no path.
Therefore, it is the foundation of the path. The Seventy Verses on Refuge says:
Even if we have taken all the vows,
If we have not gone to refuge, they have no power.
Beings are of three kinds. The lesser, desiring the fruition of samsaric happiness, are afraid of the lower realms.
Such persons, when they take refuge with their gods or with the three jewels, do not enter into the doctrine. Even if they
enter, they are not Buddhists. Even if they are included among Buddhists and have faith in the three jewels, they are not
able to enter the path. The Sutra of the Ultimate Victory Banner says:
As for persons terrified by fear,
They take refuge on mountains and in groves,
Or in temples and stupas, or in trees.
These are not the principal refuges.
They are not the excellent refuges.
With the foundation of such refuges,
They will not be fully liberated.
It is taught that they found their path in external gods in the desire of happiness. The Vinaya says:
Ananda asked, "Is it explained by the approach of a bhramin's daughter taking refuge in the virtues of the
celestial realms?"
Then the Bhagavan spoke. "Ananda, that is not it. Such aspiration to samsaric happiness is
known as the refuge of vulgar persons. Therefore, profess the true qualities of liberation.
This also explains the lesser sort of refuge in the three jewels, which has impure motivation.
As for the middle kind, those of the families of shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, afraid of samsara, go to refuge
because they seek nirvana as a personal benefit. The Ngama Denyi says:
Whoever, at any time, should go to refuge
In the buddha, dharma, and the Sangha
Is a possessor of the four noble truths:
Suffering, and the cause of suffering,
Truly passing beyond all suffering,
And the noble path with its eight branches
That leads to the condition of nirvana.
If they produce the divine eye of true prajqa,
Those will be the principal refuges.
They are the refuges that are excellent.
Relying upon those very refuges
Completely liberates from suffering.
As for the greater kind, having become afraid of peace and happiness, one goes to refuge for the benefit of others.
The Great Liberation says:
Some become afraid of personal peace and completely abandon it for the sake of those who
have fallen into the river of samsara. Such refuge is known as that of excellent beings, the holy guides.
These three kinds of persons are distinguished on the basis of three kinds of mind. The Lamp of the Path of
Enlightenment says:
By there being lesser, middle, and great,
It should be known that there are three kinds of beings.
Whoever, by whatever means is used,
Tries to accomplish only samsaric benefits
Such a being is known as being lesser.
Those who turn their backs on samsaric pleasures,
People who reverse all evil karma,
And try to attain the personal peace of nirvana,
Are those who are known as beings of the middle kind.
Those who, truly realizing their own suffering,
Wish to end all sufferings of others.
Those are beings designated as excellent.
Lesser ones, by practicing external cleanliness, non-injury, and Dharma go to the celestial realms. Having gone
to refuge with the inner three jewels, by their minimal merits, they cross to the celestial realms.
Second, those who do that should also act in accord with the meritorious ten virtues and practice formless
samadhi. Otherwise they will not cross to the celestial realms.
b) The time of going to refuge
Since the beings who rely in this way, will establish their three fruitions, when they go to refuge, they have three
kinds of intention, ordinary, excellent, and unsurpassed. What are these?
The length of refuge accords with these various intentions.
Lesser ones do so until the happiness of the next life.
For the middle two it is as long as they live,
Or until they attain to the ultimate fruition
Of the path of the shravakas or pratyekabuddhas.
For the highest it is forever, or until they are enlightened,
Attaining the wisdom beyond all thought and evaluation.
Ordinary people take refuge until they get what they want from their gods, and in particular until they attain the
celestial realms. The time is small, like the scope of their Dharma. With the middle two kinds, it is until they die, or
attain their final goal of becoming arhats. The great ones do so until enlightenment or attainment of the wisdom of
buddhahood.
c. The objects of refuge,
There are two parts
1. The general teaching of the ordinary and extraordinary objects of refuge
Now, regarding the supports or objects:
The two objects of refuge are the ordinary and causal,
And the extraordinary, when there is the fruition.
As for the vows that are thus concerned with cause and fruition,
The causal vehicles have a fruition established later.
But it is held by the different divisions of vajrayana
That fruition exists right now, in the form of one's own mind.
Only the name is common with the refuge teachings
That are found in the vehicles of characteristics.
The objects of refuge are of two kinds, ordinary and extraordinary. The objects of lower and intermediate beings
are ordinary. Those of the greater ones are extraordinary.
Why? The lesser objects involve a personal bias. Those proclaimed as the support of the middle two kinds are temporary,
and so they grasp only a temporary ultimate. The higher ones grasp the mahayana. Its buddhadharmakaya is not grasped
by the lesser and middle ones. There is the Dharma of the mahayana. There is the Sangha of bodhisattvas.
In the causal refuge, one is brought to the fruition. In the fruition-refuge, it is maintained that the three jewels
are really already established within one's being. The rites and compassion accompanying both are equal. The
Mahayanasutralankara says:
These proclaim a wish for the real thing, and so their compassion too should be understood.
In the vehicles of characteristics, desiring to attain buddhahood after three lives, countless lives, or whatever, one
goes to refuge. Desiring to attain dharmakaya within one's own being is the fruition refuge. Until that is attained, one
goes for refuge to the three jewels, as the transitional, temporary refuge. This is called the causal refuge, because it is the
cause of obtaining the other. Here people wish to take refuge temporarily in the three jewels, as distinguished from the
ultimate singularity, the buddhadharmakaya. Rupakaya, and the dharmas of scripture and realization that are involved in
the four paths of a spiritual warrior, the two cessations of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, the four states of noble
beings, stream-enterers etc, and the path of bodhisattvas dwelling on the ten bhumis of the mahayana are not ultimate
objects of refuge. This is because they are relative, and have not reached the ultimate, and because such persons must still
rely on others in attaining enlightenment.
Because rupakaya is relative, and because the dharmas of realization gathered within the being of shravakas,
pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas are other than the buddhas' realization, having human signs of accomplishing and
gain, they are deceptive. They and all the Dharmas of scripture have to be abandoned at the time of seeing. Having
become afraid of the Sangha with its obscurations and habitual tendencies, one therefore becomes afraid of being
dependent on the Buddha as well. The Uttaratantra says:
Since it they are abandoned, and have deceptive dharmas;
Since they do not exist, and because of having fear
These two Dharmas and the assembly of noble ones
Are not to be taken as permanent places of refuge.
Where is there such a refuge? Ultimately only in dharmakaya.
The same text says:
The refuge is the singleness of buddhahood.
Because the Sage, the Buddha, exists as dharmakaya,
The assembly of the Sangha is also that ultimate.
The Sutra Clearing away Memory says:
The venerable ones asked, "To what Buddha should we go for refuge?
The Buddha spoke, saying, "There is refuge in the dharmakaya, but not in the rupakaya. They asked, "To what
Dharma should we go for refuge?"
The Buddha spoke, saying, "There is refuge in the absolute dharma, but not in the relative
dharma.
They asked, "To what Sangha should we go for refuge?"
The Buddha spoke, saying, "There is refuge in the absolute Sangha, but not in the relative
Sangha.
In brief, those who wish to attain the three enlightenments of shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, or bodhisattvas,
within their being, proclaim one of those goals and take a casual refuge. In the sense that what is to be accomplished by
the causal refuge is the ultimate, it to can also be said to be ultimate refuge.
Fearful of the teachings of productive activity of the protector-teachers of the path, Shakyamuni and so forth, as
external buddhas who arrive and are established within one's being; and fearful of the Dharma taught by these, the
productive activity of the path that crosses over to fearlessness, and fearful of the Sangha, the companions who produce
the activity of being liberated from fear, one abandons the temporary causal situation. This is the situation of establishing
within one's being the establishing cause of enlightenment, the three jewels. The reason for establishing it is that if this
latter kind of Dharma, also taught by the Buddha, is practiced with one's companions in the Sangha, one will be liberated
from fear.
Some gurus say that by the mahayana that which protects from subtle obscuration, and even subtle fear, is only
the buddhadharmakaya, so that is postulated as the fruition refuge.
In the pratyekabuddha yana, the self-arising of the three jewels realized within one's being is the fruition. Then the
fruition objects of refuge are established.
In the shravaka yana, whose adherents will arise as pratyekabuddhas in the future, the Sangha of arhats is postulated as
the fruition object of refuge.
The fruition refuge objects of each of the three vehicles are different. The mahayana proclaims that if one is
enlightened one's essence is one with the nature of trikaya. How is it suitable that the dharma and Sangha should not
arise?
Both the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas maintain that the two cessations are ultimately attained, and hence that
their respective versions of absolute truth, supreme enlightenment and dharmakaya, come about as the goal; so how can
the buddha and dharma jewels be non-existent for the shravakas? For the pratyekabuddhas too cessation is proclaimed as
dharmata and enlightenment, and it is maintained that only the Dharma jewel is eliminated. Therefore, for both what
exists in the case of the fruition is maintained to be their particular version of enlightenment. So the ultimate three jewels
are attained, and these are said to be the fruition refuge. The Sutra requested by the Householder Drakshulchen says:
In going to the Buddha for refuge, it is maintained that buddhahood is attained. In going to
the Dharma for refuge, it is maintained that the Dharma is attained. In going to the Sangha for refuge,
it is maintained that the Sangha is attained.
With the goal of establishing the nature of the two truths, going to the three jewels for refuge is the causal refuge.
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
O monks, whether this was done for the sake of self or others, so that oneself might be
liberated from fear and torment, you are persons who have gone to refuge. That and that, which you
wish and hope for, will be completely perfected.
As for the secret mantra, wishing to see manifestly that the nature of one's mind exists as buddhahood which is
even now intrinsic to one, one goes to refuge with the ordinary, external three jewels. Because of that, one rests in the
extraordinary nature of one's own mind, the primordial unborn.
Thus, both the three jewels of the individual tantric mandalas and the three jewels of the general teachings are
maintained to be causal objects of refuge. The nature of one's own mind, self-arising wisdom, is the primordially
existing three jewels. This is the object of fruition-refuge. Resting in that without accepting and rejecting or defilements
of artificiality is the fruition refuge. Though indeed, for the sake of that, as its cause, grasping refuge in terms of
proclamation is esteemable, since chiefly it exists intrinsically and spontaneously, resting within that without adulteration
is the fruition refuge. The external causal refuges are a corresponding condition for establishing that. The Existence of
Wisdom says:
All the masters of the three mandalas
Have a desire to gain that other perfection,
Therefore they also aspire to have its cause.
As for the luminous nature of the mind,
For the masters of the three mandalas,
Having realized that, they meditate
Within its one pointed equanimity.
This is truly explained as the supreme fruition.
Regarding these two ways of identifying the two refuges, in the lesser, ordinary vehicles, the Buddha is the
supreme nirmanakaya. The Dharma is the twelve kinds of scripture of the Master of the Dharmas of scripture and
realization and the paths of the individual continuum, the samadhis and so on. The two Sanghas are those of ordinary
beings and noble ones. The lesser Sangha of ordinary beings is that of male and female getsuls and genyens. This is
the field of merit of beings. The greater are those who have taken full ordination, the great Sangha of monks and nuns.
The Sangha altogether includes these four above. Among the noble ones are stream-enterers, once-returners, non-
returners, and arhats. The main point is buddhahood.
As it is told within the mahayana, there is also the nature of the three kayas of buddhahood, possessing the two
purities of nature and the incidental, the ultimate in which the two benefits are perfected. The Mahayanottaratantra says:
It is uncompounded and self-existing
It is not realized by external conditions.
It possesses knowledge, kindness, and power.
This is Buddhahood with the two benefits.
The essence of Dharma is inexpressible by speech or thought. Its nature is the path or antidote that leads to
buddhahood. Its aspects are the characteristics of the five paths and two cessations of the Dharma of the meaning and the
twelve limbs of the Buddha's verbal teachings. The same text says:
Without discursive thought, duality, and concept,
There are the clear and luminous aspects of the antidote,
Wherever anyone is free from all desire,
That is known as possession of the authentic two truths.
That is the Dharma. The two desirelessnesses,
Comprise the state of cessation and the truth of the path.
In the two cessations, former defilements are cleared away by the antidote. These two are:
1.) cessation of discriminating awareness without complexity
2.) cessation of discriminating awareness that rests in the natureless meaning in which defilements or complexities are
like the sky.
On the path, there is realization of the aspects of accumulation, unification, seeing, and meditation.
Comprehending the characteristics of the two truths involves all the Dharmas of scripture and realization.
The Sangha is the newly seen meaning of the luminous nature of mind of those dwelling on the ten bhumis. The
same text says:
Because of the inner meaning of nature and extent,
Apprehended in the pure vision that is seen by wisdom,
The assembly who are non-returning through this mind,
Have possession of all the virtues that are without mind.
What is maintained about the extraordinary topic of the vajrayana, differs in the individual tantras.
The Kriya and Charya tantras say that the Buddha Jewel is the five wisdoms, and pure dharmata, the nature of
the three or four kayas, along with its emanations and blessing-bestowing deities. These are gathered under three
families, tathagata, padma, and vajra. The deities of the greater and lesser mandalas possess respectively the peaceful
and wrathful accoutrements of sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya.
The Dharma Jewel is as before, adding the particular individual texts of each yana. The Sangha Jewel is the
three-fold Sangha of shravakas, bodhisattvas, and vidyadharas.
In yoga tantra the Buddha Jewel is the five wisdoms and the pure dharmata of nirvana or the three kayas. This
includes the continuity of the mandala which gathers all the peaceful and wrathful appearances of the five families and
trikaya under Vajrasattva as the master of all mandalas. It also includes the ratna, padma, karma, and tathagata families,
along with their chief deities, retinues, and root mandalas with their one or many deities, divided into the samaya,
dharma, and karma mandalas; the four seals or mudras, samayamudra, dharmamudra, karmamudra, and mahamudra,
and all the great and lesser mandalas developed in one or more stages.
The Dharma and Sangha Jewels, are as already explained.
In mahayoga, the Buddha Jewel is the Bhagavan's great buddha activity, dwelling inseparably with the vajra
nature of the body, speech, and mind of all the tathagatas as the chief deity. There is also the retinue, as one, many, or
deity-clusters, dwelling within the monolithic abundance of Gandavyuha, and all the many emanations emanated by them.
The Dharma Jewel is all that was previously taught. There is also the unsurpassable Sangha Jewel, blazing with
the major and minor marks, whose nature is inseparable from that of the three jewels.
As to why they are called the rare and excellent three jewels, the Mahayanottaratantra says:
Since they arise rarely and since they are undefiled;
Since they are powerful and ornament the world;
Since they are superior, and since they are excellent,
They are called the rare and excellent triple gem.
Because of these six similarities to precious gems, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, are known as "the three jewels," and
said to be like precious jewels.
1) The similarity of rare occurrence
This is because even in the changes of many kalpas, their virtuous roots are not established and not encountered.
2) The similarity of being undefiled
This is because they are always free from defilement.
3) The similarity of being powerful
This is because the six consciousnesses and so forth have powerful virtues beyond the scope of thought.
4) The similarity of being the ornament of the world
This is because they are the cause of the wholesome thoughts of all beings.
5) The similarity of superiority to artificial gems
This is because they are beyond the world.
6) The similarity of being changeless by praise and blame and so forth
This is because their nature is uncompounded.
As for the three-fold classification, the Mahayanottaratantra says:
By the meaning of teacher, the teaching, and the students,
From the viewpoint of those persons who have devotion
For the three vehicles and the three activities,
The three occasions are presented.
1) the good qualities of the teacher, the meaning of the teachings of such a teacher, the individuals of the
bodhisattva vehicle trying to enter into the reality of buddhahood, and the supreme activity of buddhahood, from the
viewpoint of those who are devoted to it, is the occasion of Buddha, the most excellent of those with two legs. So it is
taught and presented.
2) The good qualities taught by the teacher, as the meaning of the teaching, consist of the profound Dharma,
through their own auspicious coincidence, since they are afterwards thought of as constituting it. From the viewpoint of
individuals within the pratyekabuddha yana and those who have devotion for the production of supreme buddhahood,
these are the occasion of the Dharma. This is because those who are free from desire are supreme. So it is taught and
presented.
3) The good qualities of the students who enter into the teachings taught by the teacher, are that because they
hear the meaning from others and they later understand it, they enter into it. For beings of the shravakayana and from the
viewpoint of those who have devotion for making the Sangha supreme, this is the occasion of the Sangha, since these are
the supreme ones of the assembly. So it has been taught and presented.
In brief, the temporary refuge is the three jewels. The ultimate refuge is the singularity of buddhahood. The
same text says:
The holy truth which is the refuge of beings
Is the singularity of buddhahood.
Because the Sage possesses dharmakaya,
This is also the Sangha and its goal.
The occasion of fruition, the ultimate goal, is like that. So it is explained.
2. The particulars of the causal object
There are three sections.
a. The general teaching of the three jewels
Now where proclaimers of the ordinary refuge have the power to take refuge, they request a refuge because they
are afraid of themselves. It is explained that because they are worthy of the support of what the ritual of taking refuge
proclaims, its nature was therefore taught:
The causal object is the three jewels concretely conceived.
Here the Buddha means the supreme nirmanakaya.
He is ornamented with the major and minor marks.
There are two kinds of Dharma: The dharma of spotless meaning, And also its reflection in a written
form.
The meaning of sutras and tantras in the various vehicles.
Is a reflection in letters of the ultimate teaching.
In the great and lesser vehicles, in particular the three jewels as the support of refuge are
1. The nirmanakaya ornamented with the major and minor marks
2. The Dharma, including the words and meanings of the sutras and tantras, and all their reflections in letters.
3. All perfect enjoyments.
b. the Dharma jewel
From the two Dharmas of scripture and realization, there are two sections
1) Scripture, the causal Dharma:
a) Sutra
There are twelve divisions of the sutra teachings
General teachings, hymns and praises, and prophecies.
Verses and aphorisms, and pragmatic narratives.
Biographical stories and former events as examples.
Stories of former births, and the extensive teachings.
Narratives of marvels, and teachings of profound doctrines,
The Noble Moon Lamp Sutra says:
There are the following:
1) Sutras or general teachings.
2) Verse summaries.
3) Prophecies.
4) Verse-teachings.
5) Exhortations.
6) Biographical tales of realization.
7) Narratives of former examples.
8) Conditional Declarations.
9) Extensive teachings.
10) Narratives of former births, jataka tales.
11) Resolution teachings.
12) Narratives of miraculous events.
1) All that is part of these various divisions taken together is known as the sutras.
2) The final summary in verse of what has first been taught in full is called verse summary.
3) The prophecies of the Buddha and others are the prophecy-teachings.
4) Verses that occur alone are verse-teachings.
5) Teachings that exhort the ones who listen to the Dharma are called exhortations.
6) Blessings by particular persons' auto-biographical accounts of their own realization, are
called biographical tales of realization.
7) Teachings about former generations are called narratives of former examples.
8) When some topic is associated with its conditions, that is called conditional declarations.
9) When a topic is presented very extensively that is called extensive teachings.
10) Tales of how the Buddha was faithful and so forth in previous births are called jataka
tales.
11) When after a subject is briefly taught, a commentary on that is taught, that is called
resolution-teachings.
12) Wondrous teachings of the heart essence are called miraculous teachings.
b) The fruition Dharma, tantra
Moreover, aside from the sutras:
Kriya charya and yoga are the external tantras
Within the mahayoga of the inner mantra
Are included the father, mother, and non-dual tantras,
These have non-duality of prajqa and upaya.
The volumes where these are written are also known as tantras.
The chief, powerful, or external tantras establish enlightenment in dependence on external purification.
Belonging to this class are kriya yoga, upa or charya yoga, and yoga tantra.
The inner tantras are the three in which buddhahood is established by being beyond accepting and rejecting, and
upaya and prajqa are non-dual. All six of the above are called tantras, as are their literary manifestations.
2) The Dharma of Realization,
There are four sections
a) The general teaching of the stages of development and completion
As for the nature of the meaning:
In the dharma of realization are the paths and bhumis.
There are also the stages of developing and fulfillment.
Dharani and samadhi having the essence of wisdom.
Of the nature of compassion, their upaya is without limit.
b) the teaching of the ten bodhisattva levels or bhumis
The support of these is the bhumis:
The bhumis are Supremely Joyful, and the Spotless,
Illumining, Radiant, and the Difficult to Conquer,
The Manifest, the Far-going, Immovable, and Good Intellect. The highest of these ten is known as Clouds
of Dharma.
The Great Commentary on the Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines says:
It is explained that these are called the bhumis or "grounds" from their being the ground or
support of the virtuous qualities. There are eight bhumis of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, and
ten of the bodhisattvas.
As for the first, the Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
The eight of the level of the family, seeing, restraint, desirelessness, and realization of what was done, are known
as the bhumis of shravakas and pratyekabuddhas.
The Precious Mala says:
Just as within the shravakayana
Shravaka bhumis are listed as eight
Similarly in the mahayana
There are ten bhumis of bodhisattvas.
First, the path of preparation is called the family level, since it is individually described in each of these three
yanas. The Prajqaparamita in Twenty Thousand Lines says:
The explanation of the bhumi of seeing the white aspect is that dharmas are seen as white.
Entering the stream, entering the fruition, continuous remaining, and remaining within the
fruition, make up the eight levels up to arhatship, called the eight bhumis. Here, by being liberated
from the many defilements of the one bhumi of desire, the four dhyanas of form, and the four formless
attainments, one becomes an arhat.
The first fruition of wholesome practice includes entering the stream of seeing and resting
within the fruition. These two are the bhumi of seeing.
Renouncing ones familiar relationships with the desire realm for the most part, one becomes
restrained in the bhumi of a once returner. These two are called [entering into and resting in] the
bhumi of restraint.
Free of the desire of the desire realm, one becomes a non-returner. These two are called
[entering into and resting in] the bhumi of freedom from desire.
By doing what one has to do, one is an arhat. These two are called [entering into and resting
in] the bhumi of realizing what has to be done.
The three levels preceding entering into being an arhat are known as the shravaka-bhumis. Their purpose is
differently understood within the different yanas. By the pratyekabuddhas, these bhumis are called the four fruitions of
pratyekabuddhas.
In this case, the explanation of the bodhisattva bhumis is that by the renunciations of seeing and of meditation
one is protected from fear of the innumerable evil spirits of the kleshas. They are called levels or bhumis because one goes
successively higher and higher. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Since one is without the fear of innumerable evil spirits,
Since one travels ever farther and higher than that,
These are therefore maintained to be the levels or bhumis.
Moreover, in dependence on eliminating miserliness and so forth, the ten inappropriate partialities, we are
placed within the ten bhumis. The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
Kye, sons of the Victorious One, for these ten bhumis to arise, the ten inappropriate
partialities must be cleared away. therefore, they are revealed by the ten perfections.
On the first bhumi, one chiefly practices the paramita of generosity, but if the others too are
not practiced insofar as one can, that is not it...
Up to the tenth paramita, wisdom, the corresponding point is taught. Moreover, regarding the ten paramitas, the
Center and Limit says:
Generosity, discipline, patience and energy,
Meditation and also perfection of prajqa or knowledge.
Skilful means and power, aspiration and wisdom
These are what are said to be the ten perfections.
The ten to be abandoned by these are miserliness, broken discipline, aggression, laziness, distractedness,
confused prajqa, unskillful means, diminished power, unsuccessful aspiration, and the obscuration of knowables.
As for the ten bhumis whose revelation depends on these being cleared away:
1.) regarding the first bhumi, supremely joyful, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
We approach enlightenment
And see how to benefit beings.
As supreme joy rises from this,
It is known The Supremely Joyful.
The Ratnavali says:
The first of these is called Supremely Joyful.
Since the bodhisattva produces joy,
Thereafter the three fetters are abandoned.
We are born within the tathagata family.
By the ripening of that, generosity is supreme.
We are able to move a hundred world realms.
We become great lords in Jambuling.
We view the faces of a hundred buddhas in an instant, know how to be blessed by a hundred buddhas, send forth
a hundred emanations, teach for a hundred kalpas, enter into a hundred visions of wisdoms, arouse and stabilize a
hundred samadhis, ripen a hundred sentient beings, move a hundred buddha fields, open a hundred gates of Dharma,
multiply our bodies a hundred times, and each of these bodies teaches surrounded by a perfect retinue of a hundred. We
are able to take birth as a lord within Jambuling.
2.) As for the second bhumi, the former text says:
Because these ten aspects are completely undefiled,
Therefore, they stay that way entirely by themselves.
The ripening of that is perfection of discipline.
We possess the seven glorious royal possessions
We turn the wheel of benefit for sentient beings.
Because of being without the ten unwholesome actions, we practice the ten virtues. We attain in an instant
twelve thousand of the good qualities described above. We take birth as a universal monarch ruling a world system of four
continents.
3.) As for the third bhumi, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
Because the great light of Dharma is produced,
It is called the Producer of Radiance.
The Ratnavali says:
As for the third bhumi, Producer of Radiance,
Since the light of wisdom arises on this level,
Meditation and higher perceptions will arise,
Since all greed and aggression are completely exhausted,
As for the perfect ripening of the exhaustion of these,
We practice with the highest patience and energy.
We become great and skilful lords among the gods.
The greed and lust of desire is totally reversed.
We will have twelve hundred thousand good qualities,
Taking birth as Indra, the king of the thirty-three gods.
4.) As for the fourth bhumi, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
Thus the Dharma that accords with enlightenment,
Is like a torch with fiercely blazing light.
Because we now possess that, as for this fourth bhumi,
By burning duality, it greatly illuminates.
The Ratnavali says:
The fourth is called, Possessing Emanation of Light.
Because the genuine light of wisdom now arises,
All accords with enlightenment without remainder.
In particular, when this fully ripens in meditation,
We become completely limitless kings of the gods.
We have the proper view of transitory collections.
We are skillful, and therefore we are all-victorious.
We attain a hundred and twenty million of the above qualities and take birth as a king of the twin gods.
5.) As for the fifth bhumi, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
Because we completely ripen sentient beings,
We are also able to guard our minds,
For the wise this conquest is difficult,
Hence the name the Difficult to Conquer.
The Ratnavali says:
The fifth is called The One that is Difficult to Conquer,
Since all the maras are difficult to overcome.
Because skillful knowledge arises in our being
Of the subtle meaning of the four noble truths and such,
As for the full ripening of this good arising,
We will be born as kings of the Tushita gods.
A hundred and twenty billion good qualities arise, and one is made the king of the gods of the Tushita heaven.
6.) As for the sixth bhumi, the former text says:
Because with the support of the perfection of prajqa
Samsara and nirvana both manifest at this time,
This is therefore called the Bhumi of Manifestation.
The Ratnavali says:
The sixth is called The Place of Manifestation.
Because the dharmas of buddhahood manifest.
By practice of shamatha and vipashyana,
Cessation blossoms, and by its ripening,
We take birth as kings of the Nirmanarati gods.
We have ten million times twelve hundred thousand good qualities and becomes king of the Nirmanarati gods.
7.) As for the seventh bhumi, the former text says:
Related to the path of crossing all at once,
This seventh bhumi is called, "the one that is far-going."
The latter says:
The seventh is The Far Going. They way in which it goes far,
Is by entering the equilibrium of cessation
By the ripening of that instant entering,
We become lords of the Para-nirmita-vasavartin gods.
We have twelve times ten hundred million thousand good qualities and are made kings of the
Paranirmitavasavartin gods.
8.) As for the eighth bhumi, the former text says:
Because it is not moved by dualistic perception,
It is rightly known as The Unmoving One.
The latter text says:
Similarly the eighth is called the kumara level
It is unmoving because it is complete non-thought.
Body, speech, and mind, which are the whole of one's being,
Are motionlessness in a way beyond the scope of thought.
By the ripening of that, we are born as Bhrama,
The lord of realm whose number of worlds is a thousand cubed.
Bhrama in general is lord of the first dhyana form gods in a number of heavens. As for good qualities, we see
the faces of as many buddhas as there are particles in a hundred thousand thousand-fold world systems and so forth.
9.) As for the ninth bhumi, the former text says:
With good understanding that truly knows individual things
This ninth bhumi is called "the one with good understanding."
The latter says:
The ninth bhumi, "good understanding," is like a regent.
Since it truly knows individual things,
By this we attain good understanding.
As the ripening of this we are mahabhrama,
Lord of two three-thousand fold realms of worlds.
In inquiring about the wishes of sentient beings
By arhatship he is not ravished away.
As for good qualities, those on this bhumi see as many buddhas as there are particles in a hundred thousand
countless three-thousand-fold world systems and so forth.
10.) As for the tenth bhumi, the former text says:
Since it pervades like clouds the realm of dualistic space,
This, the tenth bhumi, is therefore known as "The Cloud of Dharma."
The latter says:
The tenth of the bhumis is known as "The Cloud of Dharma."
Because the rain of holy Dharma falls,
And because the bodhisattvas are empowered,
By the light rays of the power of buddhahood.
As for the ripening, one is a lord of gods
In inconceivably countless wisdom realms
This is the excellence of Maheshvara. As for the good qualities, every instant we see twelve times as many
buddhas as there are inexpressible numbers of atoms in the also inexpressible number of buddha fields and so forth.
In the first bhumi, by realizing that the same luminous essence of mind pervades all sentient beings, we realize
the equality of oneself and others as bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment.
In the second, realizing the excellence of those who can realize this, we work to purify the defilements of the
dhatu.
In the third, realizing that learning this is the cause according with dharmadhatu, going beyond even a three
thousand fold world system, becoming a single tongue of flame, one listens to the Dharma.
In the fourth, we realize that this is without ego grasping, and desire for the Dharma is abandoned.
In the fifth, realizing that this dhatu exists without difference in the being of oneself and others, we realize
equality with all the buddhas by means of the ten pure thoughts
In the sixth, realizing that the dhatu is naturally completely pure, we eliminate all grasping that accepts nirvana
and rejects samsara.
In the seventh, realizing that the dhatu has no differences at all, grasping of characteristics is eliminated.
In the eighth, realizing that the garbha has no faults or virtues, no decrease and increase, the unborn patience of
unborn Dharma becomes utterly and completely pure.
In the ninth realizing that within the dhatu as its intrinsic attribute is the peace of the four modes of genuine
individual awareness we produce the empowerment of wisdom.
In the tenth, by realizing that the dhatu is the source of perfect buddha activity, we attain autonomy in the four
empowerments. As for these four empowerments, the Center and Limit says:
The all pervasive meaning, the supreme meaning,
The excellent meaning according with the cause;
The meaning of complete non-grasping;
The meaning of non-difference;
And the meaning of non-decreasing and non-increasing;
These are the topics of the four empowerments.
If one still is asking what those might be, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
They are for the sake of transformation
Of mind, fixation, discursive thought, and non-thought.
When these become fields and wisdom pure of karma,
These are then the four empowerments.
As for these, the four empowerments
In the three bhumis of motionlessness and so on,
In oneness they are other than duality,
So each of the empowerments is maintained.
1 By transforming the klesha-mind we attain the empowerment of complete non-thought.
2 By transforming fixation, the consciousness of the five gates, we attain the empowerment of the pure buddha fields.
This second is the eighth bhumi.
3 By transforming the mind-consciousness we attain mastery of the four modes of genuine individual awareness, and by
attaining the empowerment of perfect buddha activity, we ripen sentient beings. This is the ninth bhumi.
4 By transforming alayavijqana, the basis of arising of concepts and the mind consciousness, within the tenth bhumi, we
attain the empowerment of the mirror-like wisdom. by the great buddha activity, buddhahood and the buddha activity
existing in the sphere of activity become reconcilable. The Mahayanottaratantra says:
As for this manner of the bodhisattvas,
With the tathagatas in post meditation
And true liberation of beings
In the world they are equal.
In the eighth bhumi there are the wisdoms of equality and discriminating awareness. In the ninth there is all-
accomplishing wisdom. In the tenth, having attained the mirror-like wisdom and fourth empowerment, at the end the
alaya of the basis of all the various habitual patterns is transformed in the empowerment of dharmadhatu wisdom. Then
one is enlightened. The tenth bhumi is empowerment in the great final light rays. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Having attained this final familiarity,
By the great light rays we are then empowered.
By realizing the vajra-like samadhi,
Indestructibility is gained.
That is the end of other transformations.
Undefiled by any obscurations
To benefit all beings everywhere,
We produce supreme accomplishment.
We attain omniscience, the highest level.
As soon as a great offering has been made to the buddhas of the ten directions by those dwelling on the ten
bhumis, from the tuft of hair between the eyebrows of all the buddhas of the ten directions arise hosts of light rays. By
their sinking into the foreheads of those bodhisattvas, the vajra-like samadhi and countless hundreds of thousands of
others that they have not attained before are attained. The subtle obscuration of knowables has been purified, and then
they are enlightened.
c. The outer and inner divisions
How?:
Coming after these, which are the ten levels of learning,
Is the level of total illumination, prabhasvara.
For the causal vehicles this is the level of nirmanakaya.
Vajrayana divisions go on by family and quality.
There are a twelfth and other levels beyond all measure.
For the vehicle of the perfections, at that time the former dhatus become enlightened. All dharmas are gathered
into non-defilement and the wisdom of non-thought alone. The Establishment of Trikaya says:
Except undefiled suchness
And the wisdom of non-thought,
For the buddhas other dharmas
Do not exist at all.
The undefiled kaya is dharmata-svabhavikakaya. Though it has that nature, it also has aspects of the wisdom of
non-thought, the powers, and so forth, and this is called dharmakaya. That same wisdom, appearing ornamented with the
major and minor marks, for the sattvas of the ten bhumis, is sambhogakaya. That same wisdom, appearing to students as
other, taming whatever needs to be tamed, is nirmanakaya. That same wisdom continuous and unbroken, as long as
samsara lasts, spontaneously doing benefit for others is buddha activity. As for svabhavikakaya, the Abhisamayalankara
says:
As for the svabhavikakaya of the Sage,
Whatever undefiled dharmas are attained
These will always be complete in purity.
These will always have the true and genuine nature
As for dharmakaya, the same text says: [see categories below]
Measureless aspects come with enlightenment.
There are all the natures of the nine dhyanas,
As well as those of ultimate liberation,
The various natures of the ten exhaustions,
And the eight-fold set of conquered ayatanas.
Being without kleshas and knowing one's aspirations,
Each higher perception is truly apprehended,
Along with the four ever-present purities,
The ten powers of a buddha and the ten masteries,
The four kinds of fearlessnesses and the three non-guardings
As well as the three pillars of mindfulness.
Awareness of dharmata that is never-bewildered
By the true enemy habitual patterns.
There is arising of the great compassion,
And the 18 unshared dharmas of only the Sage
And the all pervading knowledge of omniscience.
So dharmakaya has been described.
As for the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment there are
the four objects of mindfulness,
the four correct actions, abandonment etc,
the four legs of miracle,
the five controlling powers,
the five powers,
the seven branches of enlightenment,
the eight-fold noble path.
The four objects of mindfulness are the essential recollections of
1.) body
2.) feeling
3.) mind,
4.) dharmas.
The four correct trainings, abandonments etc on the path of accumulation of the shravakas are
1.) abandoning non-virtuous actions before they occur,
2.) abandoning non-virtuous actions which occur to the mind,
3.) developing virtuous actions which have not yet occurred to the mind,
4.) cultivating virtuous actions that have already been developed.
The four legs of miracle or four stages of miraculous ability are the stage of miraculous ability which trains in
the contemplation of
1.) yearning or aspiration,
2.) mind
3.) effort
4.) investigation
The five faculties are
1.) faith
2.) perserverence
3.) recollection
4.) concentration
5.) discrimination.
The five powers are intensifications of these same five.
The seven branches of enlightenment are authentic or genuine
1.) mindfulness
2.) investigation of truth
3.) effort
4.) joy
5.) flexibility, shinjang.
6.) one-pointed contemplation.
7.) equanimity.
The eight-fold noble path is
1.) right view
2.) right thought
3.) right speech
4.) right action
5.) right livelihood
6.) right effort
7.) right mindfulness
8.) right meditation
The four immeasurables are
1.) kindness
2.) compassion
3.) joy
4.) equanimity.
The eight liberations, are
1.) liberation of form possessing liberation that looks at form
2.) liberation of non-form possessing liberation that looks at form
3) liberation of what is attractive
4) liberation of the formless perception of space
5) liberation of the formless perception of consciousness
6) liberation of the formless perception of nothing whatsoever,
7) liberation of the formless perception of neither perception nor non-perception
8) the liberation of cessation.
The nine samapattis, are
1.) the four dhyanas
2.) the four formless attainments,
3.) the samapatti of cessation.
The ten exhaustions are of
1.) earth
2.) water
3.) fire
4.) air
5.) blue
6.) yellow
7.) red
8.) white
9.) space
19.) consciousness.
The eight overcomings of the ayatanas, are as follows:
1.) by those possessing inner form, viewing lesser external phenomenal forms, and overcoming these
2.) by those possessing inner form, viewing greater external forms, and overcoming these
3.) by those not possessing form, looking at lesser forms, and overcoming these
4.) by those not possessing form, looking at greater forms, and overcoming these;
5.) Mere inner perception without inner form of blue, and overcoming it.
6.) Mere inner perception without inner form of yellow, and overcoming it.
7.) Mere inner perception without inner form of red, and overcoming it.
8.) Mere inner perception without inner form of white, and overcoming it.
The last four are called the four seeings. By clearing away kleshas in the continuums of others, they are made
non-existent, and by all that spontaneously arises from their being so made, there is knowledge of the object of aspiration.
The six higher perceptions are:
1.) miraculous powers,
2.) the divine ear,
3.) knowing the thoughts of others,
4.) memory of former lives,
5.) the divine eye arising from manifested formations,
6.) the higher perception of exhausting defilement.
The four individual true apprehensions are of
1.) meanings
2.) words
3.) dharmas
4.) powers.
the four purities, are complete purity of
1.) support
2.) perception
3.) object,
4.) wisdom.
The ten masteries are power over
1.) life
2.) mind
3.) necessities
4.) actions
5.) birth
6.) devotion
7.) aspiration
8.) miracles
9.) wisdom
10.) Dharma.
As for the four fearlessnesses, one can make the following proclamations without fear of successful
contradiction:
1.) "I am enlightened;"
2.) "I have stopped desire and so forth;
3.) "I teach with certainty the path of omniscience and so forth."
4.) "I have exhausted defilement."
By purity of one's actions of body, speech and mind, they are rightly performed. Not having to consider these
three comprise the three non-guardings.
The three objects to keep in mind are in teaching the dharma to keep in mind
1.) what the listeners want and do not want.
2.) that with these two there are attachment and aggression.
3.) that when these two are absent, there are equanimity and mindfulness.
There are also
not forgetting the benefit of sentient beings
conquering all defiled habitual patterns
the great compassion that desires benefit for all beings
the eighteen unique dharmas of a buddha.
The six aspects that are not possessed are
1. confusion
2. useless chatter
3. loss of mindfulness
4. non-equanimity of mind
5. perception of difference
6. equanimity that excludes discrimination
The six aspects that are not possessed with deterioration
7. resolve [to benefit beings]
8. diligent effort
9. mindfulness
10. samadhi
11. prajqa
12. complete liberation
The three aspects that are preceded and followed by wisdom
13. Buddha activity of body
14. Buddha activity of speech
15. Buddha activity of mind
The three enterings into wisdom without attachment or obstruction
16. in the past
17 in the future
18 in the present
Besides those 18 there are also
omniscience
knowledge of the path,
universal awareness.
This great collection of twenty-one is dharmakaya.
As for sambhogakaya, the enjoyment body, the Abhisamayalankara says:
The nature of the thirty-two major marks
And also of the eighty minor marks,
Since these are enjoyed in experience of mahayana
They are called the Sage's enjoyment-body,
This is explained extensively below. Regarding nirmanakaya, the same text says:
When anyone, as long as samsara lasts,
Does benefits for limitless sentient beings
Equally, the bodies of such beings
Are the Sage's ongoing nirmanakaya.
The Mahayanasutralankara says:
There are working t|lkus, and born and enlightened t|lkus.
But the nirmanakaya of the supreme enlightenment
Is the nirmanakaya of the Buddha himself.
He has the great upaya which is total liberation.
Regarding buddha activity, the same text says:
Thus it is maintained that as long as samsara lasts
This karma is unbroken and continuous.
As for the secret mantra teachings, in addition to these levels there is a twelfth, Pemachen or padmini, a kaya
that does not appear to bodhisattvas, but only to the great experience of omniscience, beyond one and many and always
spontaneously present. Some also say that in addition there is the thirteenth level of a vajra holder whose bliss pervades
the limits of the all-pervading space of dharmakaya free from all complexities. Also some texts say that mahasukha is a
fourteenth bhumi, samadhi is a fifteenth, and wisdom, the level of the guru, is a sixteenth. These and immeasurable
others are taught. However they can all be related to sending out light rays everywhere and returning into the single
essence.
The characteristics of the three kayas and five wisdoms appear with their individual divisions.
d. The paths
As for the previously taught paths
The paths are accumulation, preparation, and seeing;
the path of meditation and that of no more learning.
By the two stages and such, the profoundest objects of mind
Will arise, the immaculate, radiant sun of holy Dharma.
The gate of entering for beginners is the path of accumulation. The path of preparation involves
The four aids of release,
1.) heat or warmth,
2.) "peak experience" or spiritual exaltation
3.) patience, steadfastness,
4.) supreme worldly dharmas.
This level is practiced through devotion. It is the second path of ordinary beings.
The paths of seeing and meditation are the paths of the bodhisattva noble ones. All these together are the four
paths of learning. That which is to be abandoned through seeing and meditation is accomplished with effort. The final
path is that of no more learning. This is the matchless umbrella, the single chief level. In those bhumis dharani and
samadhi and such profound aspects of mind, and the dharmas that are the objects of wisdom are the three jewels. The path
of no more learning is the Dharma. Associates are the Sangha. The teacher is the Buddha. These things are said for
people of different powers of mind. Here the different but inseparable ultimate and non-ultimate three jewels are all
united.
c. The particulars of the Sangha jewel
It is the support of association:
The external Sangha includes the beings of the four classes And the buddha-sons abiding on the various
bhumis.
The dakinis and the vidyadhara masters of vajrayana
Are those who are maintained to be the inner Sangha.
The four classes, stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner, and arhat of the Sangha of shravakas and
pratyekabuddhas and the bodhisattvas dwelling on the ten bhumis are the external Sangha. The inner Sangha is the
dakinis and spontaneous arisen beings arisen from mantra and karma or buddha activity, and the world transcending
assembly gathered under the vajra, ratna, padma, karma, and tathagata families, and the vidyadharas dwelling on the
levels of mahamudra, life-mastery, and self-existence.
In this case there are four families of vidyadharas. These are the ripening, life-mastery, mahamudra, and self-
existing families.
As for the first, the ripening, practicing the developing and completion stages on the paths of accumulation and
preparation, they have ordinary bodies, but establish their minds as the kayas of the deities.
These until they have attained the supreme dharma, nirvana, in the meantime attain the mahamudra. This is
because they reject the body and ripen the mind as the mandala of the deity.
The Stages of Action says:
The yogin of one and many, when that level
That is to be taught is to be attained
One Approaches and accomplishes 66 months,
Until the vajra body has been attained.
By the condition of having but little power
Because of weak aspiration one will stay
Within the residual body arising from concepts.
But by insight one goes to vajradhara.
If one attains the supreme Dharma, one is really connected to mastery of life. The same text says:
If one is not obstructed by conditions,
One will then be joined to the vajra body.
As for mastery of life, having reached the great, supreme Dharma, by attaining the kaya of the vajra body one is
without birth and death. The path of seeing mind arises. The same text says:
The final and ultimate entering of seeing the meaning
Is accomplished by the siddhi of practicing vajra feasts.
Defiled bodily elements and their birthplaces are exhausted,
Becoming a vajra body in the family of life.
The dharmas of seeing, recited, consecrate nirvana,
The level of the Conqueror where body is not rejected.
Free from fear one perfects the miracle of life.
That body which is the support of supreme Dharma remains. The Secret Essence says:
Though births of humans, gods,
And Bhrama indeed are taken,
One stays on that special level.
Emanations and buddha qualities, are the phenomena of the first bhumi. A mudra-family-holder in the path of
meditation from the second until the tenth bhumi, dwells on the ninth. There body appears as the phenomena of the
mandala, and mind purified of defilements has wisdom without conceptualized characteristics. The Stages of Action says:
One's own mind becomes the mahamudra.
The kaya that manifests by meditation.
Possessing all the major and the minor marks,
Both the ordinary and supreme,
The two enjoyments are the family of mudra.
the Two Enjoyments says:
One becomes a holder of the families
Of the jewel, vajra, wheel, lotus, and sword.
In the second, third, fourth, and fifth bhumis, one is called a holder of the vajra family holder. This is because
one destroys the defilements of one's own level by vajra-like realization.
In the sixth one chiefly practices the prajqa-paramita. By turning the wheel of dharma one becomes a holder of
the wheel family.
In the seventh one's arising like the wheel of Dharma is also skillful in means, and one is of the same family.
In the eighth, attaining the empowerment of the precious wisdom of non-thought, one is a holder of the precious
jewel family.
In the ninth, without desire, by practice, and attainment one holds the lotus family.
In the tenth, producing benefit for sentient beings through perfect buddha activity, one is of the sword family.
Holding the self-existing family is attaining buddhahood. The same text says:
By perfecting the powers of the former families,
As explained, defilements are purified.
The three prajqas which are those of a buddha,
Bring one to the self-existing family
Some masters have said that the mahamudra goes from the first bhumi until the seventh. Self-existence is
explained as the three pure bhumis the eighth to the tenth. It seems they did not get the idea. Why? While travelling
from the level of a beginner up to the level of buddhahood one is gathering these states of the four family holders.
d. The actual liturgy of refuge,
1) Emanating the fields
Now from the actual presentation of the liturgy of going to refuge, as for the cause of its arising, lesser ones fear
the lower realms and desire the good qualities of the higher realms and so forth. The shravakas and pratyekabuddhas are
also afraid of samsara, and produce the three kinds of faith. In the mahayana, by compassion, one turns the wheel of
dharma for others. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
That is to be understood by means of compassion.
Moreover, after one has been told the virtues of refuge by the guru, one puts one's mind in order. Before
representations of the three jewels one arranges offerings. In the space in front, the three jewels as explained above, just
from having gathering the text and offerings, approach and remain. The Buddha and so forth are the objects of
visualization. Visualize them in space:
Visualize these objects as being before you in space.
In particular Buddha and guru are said to be most important.
From the external viewpoint, the Buddha is most important, but internally the guru is most important.
1) how to go to refuge:
Making the outer, mental, and secret offerings,
Say "I and all sentient beings, joining our hands in devotion,
Take refuge until enlightened, for the benefit for others
In the Guru and the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.
Say this again and again, from the depths of your heart and bones.
The external offerings are incense, flowers, and so forth. The inner offerings are amrita, camphor, and so forth.
The secret offerings are rejoicing, equanimity, supreme enlightenment and so forth. Offering these offerings, which fill
the whole of space, to the guests who also fill the whole of space, say the following:
From this time until attaining the essence of enlightenment, I, [say your name], for the sake of all sentient
beings, go to the guru for refuge. I go to the Buddha for refuge. I go to the Dharma for refuge. I go to the Sangha for
refuge.
Say this three times from the depths of your heart. This is the refuge attained from symbols. Afterwards resting
in a state of complete non-conception, entering into the unborn is the absolute refuge. Attaining dharmata is the world-
transcending refuge.
3) Emanation of light rays
At other times, visualize that by one's having gone to refuge in this manner, these representations radiate light
and so forth as follows:
Visualize that by radiation of joy and light
Obscurations of the three gates are purified,
And that because of that the siddhis have been attained.
By that the accumulation of merits has been perfected.
And, as the fruition, rupakaya is manifest.
The Edifice of the three Jewels says:
By those beings who take the three-fold refuge
The accumulations will be completely perfected,
The level of Buddhahood will be accomplished.
The Dharma and Sangha will also be accomplished.
That completes the explanation of the incidental causal refuge.
b. The fruition refuge
There are five sections
1) The explanation of the objects of refuge:
The ultimate refuge upon the fruition is dharmakaya.
Essence of divinity, buddha, dharma, and Sangha,
One's own luminous mind, free from all complexity.
The vehicle of characteristics maintains that in the fruition refuge one attains for oneself the fruition of
buddhahood. The incidental objects of refuge are the Dharma and Sangha, and the ultimate one is the singularity of
buddhadharmakaya.
As for the refuge that goes to the ultimate meaning,
That refuge is singularity, Buddhahood.
Dharmakaya is the ultimate object of the fruition refuge, because it is the ultimate three jewels.
In the causal refuge dharmakaya also comes into the continuities of others; but in the fruition refuge, the nature
of one's own mind, free from all the extremes of complexity, exists as the nature of the three jewels, and one goes to refuge
with that. The Establishment of Wisdom says:
The Buddha is mind with no need of attaining purity.
Unchanging and undefiled, this is also the Dharma.
Its self-perfected qualities are the Sangha.
Since this is so, one's mind is excellent.
As to how one goes
2) The manner of going to refuge:
As for the taking refuge that makes this into the path,
Before the visualized representations, one goes to refuge,
"Having visualized that I and all sentient beings have done this, doing this for as long as the words have power,
with these relative visualizations we take the causal refuge."
3) The explanation of the essence:
In accord with the cause, everything is one's mind.
In reality going and goer are non-dual,
This suchness is meditational equanimity.
If we grasp the mind and object as being two,
There will never be the ultimate realization.
The refuge of fruition has no aspiration.
Oneself and all sentient beings go to refuge with the phenomenal visualizations of the three jewels in space.
Both also do so with their own minds, which in reality have not a particle of difference from their miraculous emanations.
Since the essence of all this is the space-like nature of mind that does not fall into partiality, rest in that simplicity. The
Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, Whoever does not conceive of even the Buddha, also does not think of the Dharma
and the Sangha. This is going into the real essence.
The thought that the object, the three jewels, and the perceivers, oneself and others, are different does not
correspond to the way things actually are, so we need not aspire to those natures.
4) The explanation of post-meditation:
By that the accumulation of wisdom is perfected.
By that the state of dharmakaya has been attained.
Whatever may appear in the post-meditation state
It should be regarded as being a dream or illusion.
This non-conceptual emptiness is the accumulation of wisdom, and therefore dharmakaya is established. The
Sutra Teaching the Two Truths says:
Manjushri, by the accumulation of merit rupakaya is attained. By the accumulation of
wisdom, absolute dharmakaya is made to manifest.
All the dharmas of the phenomenal world of samsara and nirvana, appearing while they do not exist, should be
regarded as being within a dream or illusion. As to how, the Vinaya says:
By the vast merit that rises up from this
May buddhahood naturally rise within sentient beings.
May I liberate the host of beings
Not liberated by former victorious ones.
3. What is to be learned about refuge
a. The causal aspect,
There are four sections
1) The instruction not to abandon the three jewels
Then regarding refuge:
Of these two different learnings, as for the causal aspect,
In order to enjoy our lives and worldly actions,
We should never abandon the guru and the three jewels.
Why? Within this life these are hardly different from virtue. Refuge establishes all the virtues that are exalted
and truly good. This is because it bridges the gap between degradation and excellence. Shantideva says:
For gaining lesser things, let us not leave the great.
We should chiefly think of others' benefit.
That is what it is like. the Vinaya says:
For life, and power or even jokingly, the three jewels should never be abandoned.
2) The instruction that refugees are worthy of homage and should not be deceived:
Anyone who has gone for refuge with the guru,
Is worthy of respect, and we should never cheat them;
And let us abandon harsh slander of the holy ones.
The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
By depending on the spiritual friend one is worthy of respect and should not be deceived. Let
us stop saying unpleasant things about the holy ones, and instead follow the holy Dharma.
3) The limits to be guarded in respect to the three jewels:
Anyone who has gone for refuge to the Buddha,
Should never offer homage to any god seen as other.
Anyone who has gone for refuge to the dharma,
Should abandon doing harm to every sentient being.
Anyone who has gone for refuge to the Sangha,
Should abandon consorting with the infidels.
The Shri Mahanirvana Sutra says:
Whoever goes to refuge with the Buddha,
Should never go to refuge with other gods.
Whoever goes to refuge with the Dharma
Should abandon attitudes of doing harm.
Whoever goes for refuge to the Sangha
Should not associate with infidels.
4) The instruction to pay faithful homage to the guru and the three jewels:
Even their pictures ought to be faithfully revered.
Recalling them day and night, we should always go for refuge.
Even pictures of the guru and the three jewels should never be treated with disrespect. Revere them in such a
way that does not tread even on their shadows. This is because they are emanations of the goodness of the buddha fields.
As is said:
During this time of the age of obscuring darkness
I have emanated the spiritual friend.
The White Lotus says:
Many bodily forms are emanated.
They benefit beings by their wholesome actions.
The "Ear-ring" or Avatamsaka Sutra says:
In the last period of five hundred years
I will then exist in the form of letters.
To the mind with the thought that "I exist,"
At that time to that I will be respectful
By being mindful continuously day and night, or six times, or three, or at least once, go to refuge; and then these
subsequent virtues will be established. How? Because when the virtues of the spiritual friend are told, one learns to
practice them. Because the virtues of the three jewels are told, one emulates them. Behavior is the vinaya. Meditation is
the sutras. The view is abhidharma. Practicing according to these is the refuge of practicing according to the path.
Gathering the basis, one relies on holy beings, listens to the holy Dharma, and practices with the Sangha. This is taking
refuge.
b. what is learned in the fruition,
There are two sections
1) The main subject matter:
What is to be learned in the aspect of fruition
Is to strive sincerely for equanimity.
One should not conceptualize either good nor evil,
Neither high or low, accepting or rejecting.
We should not rely upon complexities,
But rather train in the natural state of dharmata.
Let us course within the single mandala,
Where everything there is spontaneously perfected.
The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
One who desires to meditate on the prajqaparamita should learn the manner of not conceiving
of any dharmas whatsoever or seeing things accordingly. What is that? This is high. This is low.
This is to be rejected. This is to be accepted. This is the buddhadharma.
This is the Dharma pure of all external causation. One should not analyze in such a dualistic manner.
2) The cause of violation
Now there is the explanation of the bond to the ordinary objects of the refuge vow:
check this and commentary
We go beyond "bestowing" by proclaiming it imputation,
The defining feature is lost by arising of false views
Destroying what we should learn, we will surely fall.
Take care to be totally mindful of what we accept and reject.
The essence is buddhahood and enlightenment. If we think that one goes beyond a time of receiving it in rituals,
so that bestowing is a mere label, false views arise, the three jewels are abandoned, and we cannot practice. As for
offering the precepts of refuge, that they are bestowed is its defining characteristic. Thinking that prostrating to external
deities and so forth does no harm is called going in a lower direction.
These violations like an exhausted royal lineage are not included in Buddhism and do not enter into it. Like a merchant
deceived by his escort what one destructible. Like a picture falling off a wall, all one's learning and vows are easily
destroyed. Like common people without a protector, they are easily trampled on by afflictions. Like a person who has
broken the law, by breaking their promises, they will have many births in the lower realms and so forth. In that way, by
conceptions that view one's infractions and violations, one will be remorseful; and after that if one's mind receives a vow,
one will take it seriously. Though some want a certain fixed accounting, here there is no certainty. If the attitude of
renunciation has arisen from virtue, it is because one wants it to. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.11
Attaining the attitude of renunciation
Is what is called the shila-paramita.
4. The benefits of refuge
There are seven sections
a. The benefit of protection in all one's lives
Now the benefits of refuge are explained. By going to refuge with external deities and so forth, one falls into the
lower realms and such:
Those who see that other refuges are deceptive,
Having faith in the excellence of divine compassion,
Will have no fear, but be protected in all their lives.
What greater happiness and benefit could there be?
Just going to refuge cuts off the door to the lower realms. Establishing the celestial realms, the great path of
liberation, and wholesomeness for all one's lives, refuge is unequalled. The Expression of Realization of a Pig says:
Anyone who has gone to the Buddha for refuge
Will not have to go to the lower realms.
After they have left their human bodies,
They will be reborn in the realm of the gods.
b. The benefits of perfecting the two accumulations:
Here, when the soil of a mind that is pure as well as faithful
Has been well-moistened by the rain of merit and wisdom,
Sprouts of auspicious Dharma germinate and grow,
Ripening as a crop of perfect victorious ones.
In the ground of faith, watered by the rain of the two accumulations, the seeds of Dharmadhatu, grow. They
ripen as a crop of Buddhas. The Nirvana says:
Those who go to the three-fold refuges
Accumulating holy merit and wisdom,
By the growth of Dharma, conqueror of the world,
Will surely attain the level of buddhahood.
c. The benefit of immeasurable virtues
Moreover, when we as individuals go to refuge:
We gather the many qualities of Dharmic virtue.
Knowing how to be modest, decent, careful, and mindful.
Emerging from the covering clouds of dharani,
The brilliant sun of wisdom rises within our minds.
We see it even in dreams, and do not lose our awareness.
Keeping it in mind for many generations,
We become elegant with wealth and nobility.
The Sutra Requested by Precious Little Bird Gift says:
As for those who go to refuge with the Buddha, all their virtuous dharmas will grow. They
know how to be decent. They take care.
Those who go for refuge with the Dharma are alert. They accumulate many virtues. They
remember former lives. They have a share in the good fortune of the Dharma.
Those who go for refuge with the Sangha have workable minds. For them there are many
doors of samadhi and dharani. They are always of noble family. Even in dreams they are inseparable
from the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
d. The benefit of being guarded by the gods, who are partial to virtue:
Because of the rejoicing of all sentient beings,
Both the two benefits are a spontaneous presence.
Finally we are the refuge of all who possess a body.
Befriending a host of beings, we hold the wealth of trikaya.
This is established by our being protected by the joy of the gods, who rejoice in white virtue, and by the increase
of virtuous roots. The same text says:
Moreover, we are protected by the gods, who rejoice in virtue, and our virtuous roots increase.
We quickly attain the level of the victorious ones. The Nirvana says:
Whoever has gone to the three-fold objects of refuge
Quickly will become an enlightened being.
Those who have gone to the Buddha for refuge will finally attain buddhahood. Those who have gone to the
Dharma for refuge will turn the wheel of the Dharma. Those who have gone to the Sangha for refuge will be gathered
into the ocean-like irreversible Sangha.
e. As for the benefits being immeasurable
In brief, as for these virtues:
If all the virtues of refuge were to materialize,
Vaster than all of space, they would be limitless.
The Sutra of Spotlessness says:
If the merits of taking refuge were to take on form,
Having filled all of space, they would be even greater.
Moreover, as for clearing away all danger and harm, The Sutra of the Holy Victory Banner says:
O monks, whether you stay in monasteries, charnel grounds, or in the wilderness, those who
have gone to the triple refuge will be without fear and suffering, and no one will say even "I will disturb
one of your hairs.
Moreover, there will be no fear of maras and the lower realms. The Sutra of the Essence of the Sun says
Sentient beings who go for refuge with the Buddha
Cannot be killed by even ten million vicious maras.
As for breakers of discipline and disturbers of the mind,
Their births will certainly go beyond such things as those.
In brief those with the virtues of refuge are protected from kleshas, afflictions, the paths of the lower vehicles,
samsara, the lower realms, and all such unpleasantness, while they attain all that is high and good. The
Mahayanasutralankara says:
From all the host of kleshas, and wrong-doing,
And even from old age and death itself
They are protected by the Buddha himself.
From afflictions the lower realms and untimely death
From permanent views of transitory collections
And from the lower yanas they are protected.
Therefore this is the genuine refuge.
f. The benefit of being the support of all virtues:
As refuge is the ground of all good qualities,
Why would anyone competent not rely on it?
With these immeasurable virtues, refuge is properly relied on by all those who know what they are doing. The
Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Those who are competent will follow virtue.
By its power perfect benefit is established.
g. the benefit of clearing away all the continuance of samsara and nirvana:
To the friend of all who abandon evil and go to peace,
Bowing our heads in homage with the deepest faith,
I take refuge in the source of happiness,
The wish-fulfilling tree that is the most excellent leader,
Who is all that is meritorious in the three levels.
The supreme refuge for all who are in the world together with its gods is the three jewels. This is because they
protect us from all faults, and are guides that lead us to the peace of nirvana. They are the field of merit, the fulfillers of
wishes, and holy treasuries of virtue. The same text says:
These three jewels are worthy of homage by everyone in the world, including the gods. They are
worthy of salutation with joined palms. They are holy fields of merit.
The Bodhicharyavatara says: 1.36
Even those who have do harm are still connected to happiness.
Let us then take refuge in that source of virtue.
Day and night six times or whatever, and at mealtimes, even if we do not want to eat, we should visualize the
three jewels before us in space. Mentally we should prostrate and make offerings, confess evil deeds, rejoice in merit,
request the turning of the wheel of Dharma, and supplicate the teachers not to pass into nirvana. Then, remembering the
virtues of the three jewels, we should join our palms thinking, "May I attain this for the benefit of sentient beings." Thus
one builds up to the jewel of the Buddha Bhagavat and so forth. As it says in the Moon Lamp Sutra:
When we have expressed mindfulness of the three jewels, if we subsequently dedicate the
merit, evil deeds will be exhausted and virtue will increase. We quickly establish enlightenment and
attain inseparability with the three jewels throughout all our lives.
C. The dedication of merit.
Now the merit is dedicated for the benefit of sentient beings:
As mahasukha is famed as the highest of qualities,
May all beings be well-absorbed in holy conduct.
Worn out by reliance on bad objects that corrupt,
May our minds today find ease from weariness.
By the thunder in the heaped clouds of merit of these auspiciously composed verses and by the excellent flashing
display of the garland of their meaning, may sentient beings, who long have relied on inferior objects, the steeds of their
minds worn out by many thousands of kinds of samsaric suffering, have their weariness eased by the Buddha Bhagavat in
supreme happiness.
Pacified through the Dharma rain of holy amrita,
May goodness in the minds of beings have great increase.
May the wish-fulfilling clouds of the level of Victory,
Always touch us with excellent, liberating wisdom.
On whomever in the ten directions of the world,
There falls the Dharma rain of the Sugatas and their sons
By the coming of benefits may they be illuminated.
With the three lower realms self-emptied, may all become enlightened.
For blind ones wandering in the world without a leader,
May the virtues of the three jewels be fully and clearly proclaimed.
When all have been fully placed on the path of liberation,
May every single one attain enlightenment.
VII The Four immeasurables
Thus having gone to refuge, from the main topic, the path of mahayana, there are the two sections on producing
the two bodhicittas of aspiring to and entering into the supreme mind of enlightenment. Within that first there are the ten
sections of the seventh chapter on the four immeasurables:
A. The description of and the teaching of meditation on the four Bhrama-viharas
B. The particular teaching;
C. The particular objects of meditation
D. The faults of impure objects of meditation
E. The real object of meditation
F. The particular aspects;
G. How to meditate
H. Other ways to meditate
I The fruition of the meditation
J. The dedication of merit.
A. The description of and the teaching of meditation on the four Bhrama-viharas
Having gone to refuge, one meditates on the four immeasurables. Therefore, that is taught next:
Beings who become the vessels of dharma by taking refuge.
Cultivate their minds to benefit sentient beings.
Watered by equanimity in the cool shade of joy,
Flowers of compassion will bloom in the soil of kindness.
Here the example is a very pleasant garden-grove. In the soil of kindness green and rich
[[snga dang snub pa destroy/suppress read sngo dang snum pa]]
The various kinds of flowers of compassion open and bloom. In the cool shade of pleasant trees many birds and deer are
present. From the lake of equanimity, and ponds, and good springs, flow a collection of many streams, where travelers
tired out by samsara can refresh themselves. Weariness of mind is eased and cleansed away. What is described is
arranged in ornamental forms. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, Here a bodhisattva mahasattva should meditate on kindness, compassion, great joy, and great
equanimity.
B. The particular teaching
As for the particular explanation of this and other things:
When these four have not been joined to the path of freedom,
These sources of sanity are causes of samsara.
But when they are empowered by the path of peace,
Then they manifest as the four immeasurables
By which we can transcend the ocean of samsara.
The Supreme Essence says:
Shariputra, these four, by which, if genuine mind is not produced, it will not be produced
later, kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, are the four bhrama-viharas. They are accompanied
by samsaric karmic formations. They produce genuine mind. The kindness, compassion, joy, and
equanimity that are subsequently produced are called the four immeasurables. This is because they also
produce the path of nirvana.
C. The teaching of the particular objects of meditation:
Their scope is universal, both with and without objects.
Encompassing both sentient beings and dharmata.
The meditation-objects of the four immeasurables are all sentient beings, in the arising of four immeasurables
with a mental object; and also the dharmata of all dharmas, with suchness as the meditation object, in the arising of the
four immeasurables without a mental object. The Bhumi-Collection says:
With the support of sentient beings and dharmata respectively, the four immeasurables with
and without a mental object arise.
D. The faults of an impure meditation-object
There are two parts.
1. The faults of an impure meditation-object:
The former concerns a limited number of sentient beings.
Such impure objects are the cause of the Bhrama-viharas.
The meditation objects of the four Bhrama-viharas are the arousing of these four mental phenomena, kindness
and so forth, for a limited number of sentient beings, one, two, or whatever. Here liberated mind is not achieved. One to
one kindness, like that of a woman crossing the river Ganges with her child, produces samsaric causation, such as the
arising of the Bhrama-viharas. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
The fruition of this attitude arising for one person
Is the Bhrama-viharas and so forth.
2. The instruction to learn the liberating four immeasurables
With the above-described awareness, these become the four immeasurables:
Directed to liberation, these become objectless.
This should be learned by those who are compassionate.
Those who are unhappy or tormented by suffering,
Or feel animosity to others, near or far,
Through being preoccupied with happiness and wealth,
Are objects of kindness, joy, compassion and equanimity
Those desiring liberation should learn to meditate on phenomena in the manner of the four immeasurables.
E. The real meditation object
Now the meditation object of the four immeasurables is explained:
Those who are unhappy or tormented by suffering,
Feeling greed or hatred towards others, near or far,
Through being preoccupied with happiness and wealth,
Are objects of kindness, joy, compassion and equanimity
The sentient beings taken as the meditation object of the four immeasurables are those who are not happy or are
afflicted with suffering; and those who feel desire and aggression toward others nearby or far away because of their own
pleasure, happiness, and wealth. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
The objects are those who desire happiness
And those with happiness afflicted by suffering,
And those who have the kleshas....
F. the particular aspects
As for the particular aspects:
The particular desires are that it may be workable
That all beings may be happy, and also free from suffering;
and that never parting from joy, they have equanimity.
The object of these four immeasurables should be the wish that beings be without suffering and possess
happiness; and that, not separated from joy, but leaving behind passion and aggression, their minds have only equanimity
and kindness. The same text says:
I prostrate to you who are kind to sentient beings,
Intending that they should not be blocked by conflict,
Possessing as well the intention of non-separation,
Who have the intent of goodness of benefit.
The four immeasurables are free from what does not accord with the essence of each of them. The same text
says:
May the objects abandon what does not fit with sanity.
May they come to possess the wisdom of non-thought.
May all sentient beings be completely ripened.
As for abandoning partialities that do not fit with each one, the commentary of that same text mentions not
conceptualizing self and others, good or bad, happiness, suffering, and in between. Having abandoned them, benefit the
object, sentient beings.
As to how to enter into the object, those who merely do not have happiness are the object of equanimity. In those
who are tormented by suffering and possess passion and aggression there exists the cause and fruition of suffering.
Therefore they are the object of suffering. The objects of joy, happiness and goodness, are those who enter into these
three. That the four immeasurables have such dharmas as their objects is said in all the treatises. In the four
immeasurables that have the object of dharmata, the nature of these is realized as the unborn. Moreover, in the tantras
and their commentaries there is found the terminology of the four immeasurables which have not realized egolessness,
which half-way and dualistically realize it, and those realizing two fold egolessness. The Bodhisattva-bhumi says:
That with sentient beings as object, is an object in common with heretics. That with dharmas
as object is in common with shravakas, and pratyekabuddhas. That with no object, is not in common
with anyone.
These arise with the object of sentient beings, dharmas, and with no object. Explaining the arising of these four
in terms of the six aspects that do not correspond with the six paramitas, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
Kindness to the miserly, and to vicious unsuitable ones,
Kindness to the irascible, and to the unconscientious.
Kindness to whose who are motivated by external objects,
And kindness to those who are strongly inclined to wrong attachments.
Explaining the ten objects for which they are produced, the same text says:
One who comes into the power of the fiercely blazing enemy
One covered with suffering who is obscured with darkness.
All who are dwelling on paths that are difficult to travel.
Those who really have fetters that are very great.
Those attached to spiritual food that is mixed with poison.
Those who become completely lost upon the path.
Those of little energy who have gone far astray,
It is being kind to people such as these.
1.) Those who blaze with the kleshas as if they were in a fire
2.) Those for whom obstacles of Mara have arisen, even though they have entered the path
3.) Those of the three lower realms
4.) Those with stupidity and delusion about karma, cause, and effect
5.) Those who have entered wrong paths
6.) Those who are really bound by the knots of the kleshas
7.) Those who relish the taste of the bliss of samadhi
8.) Those who dwell on the paths of shravakas
9.) Those who dwell on the paths of pratyekabuddhas
10.) Neophyte bodhisattvas.
These four immeasurables arise with four conditions.
1.) The naturally existing family or dhatu is the causal condition.
2.) The spiritual friend who teaches the instructions of the four immeasurables is the dominant condition.
3.) The manifestation of one's particular object is the object-condition.
4.) Previous acquaintance with the benefits of meditating on the four immeasurables and the harm of not doing so is the
immediately preceding condition.
The former text says:
From the causes of that happiness and suffering
Comes the kindness of the bodhisattva.
Along with those causes, from the spiritual friend
And from one's natural attitude rises compassion.
The Abhidharmakosha says:
By four conditions there are mind and mental events.
By three conditions there are the two samapattis.
Others things arise from only two conditions.
Mind and mental events are produced by four conditions, the cause, predominating, immediately preceding and
object conditions. Samapatti is produced by three, the cause, predominating, and immediately preceding conditions.
Material things arise from two, a cause, such as the seed, and a predominant conditions, such as water and manure.
G. How to meditate
There are four sections
1. Equanimity meditation
There are thirteen sections.
a. The purpose of equanimity meditation
Now, as to how to meditate, one is purely and definitely concerned with these alone:
These do not have to be practiced in any one fixed order,
But, even so, beginners should start with equanimity.
Having developed this toward those both far and near,
Then they should meditate upon the other three.
First we should compose ourselves, putting ourselves at ease. This is because if we do not bring everything near
and far into equanimity, it is difficult for the other three to arise. Therefore, first we meditate on equanimity. The master
Jqanagarbha says in his Ornament of the Middle Way
Crossing with equanimity to the land of goodness,
Like a meadow covered with blossoming flowers of kindness,
Well-adorned with the cooling protective shade of compassion.
The water of joy will be pure, and not disturbed and muddied.
The Two Examinations says:
First we should meditate on kindness,
Second we should turn to compassion
Third we should meditate on joy,
And last of all equanimity.
This is from the viewpoint a teacher joined with inner divine suchness. For them it is easy first to produce the
arising of the other three, kindness and so forth.
b. The meditation object of equanimity
Now, to explain equanimity meditation:
Since the meditational object is all sentient beings,
We should examine our minds to how we are doing.
If we love our mothers and fathers and our friends,
But hate our enemies, our attitude is bad.
If there is any sentient being that we make our friend or enemy, this loving and hating is not proper.
c. Remembering the kindness of the object of equanimity
In samsara:
While we have been wandering without beginning or end,
Even such enemies have been our fathers and mothers.
They were formerly friendly and gave their help to us.
Shall we now cultivate malice to return their kindness?
It is not right to repay with harm those who formerly benefited us. The Dulwa Lung says:
Returning good for good is excellent.
Returning harm or indifference is wrong.
d. Equanimity meditation on uncertainty
For many generations:
Even these friends were enemies and did us harm.
Even now that suffering is still infecting us.
How can it be right to repay this with benefit?
And those who are neither now were once both friends and enemies.
Where benefit and harm are without certainty
Loving and hating are irrationality.
If it is not suitable to benefit an enemy who has done us harm, our friends in former generations did us harm,
and even now, as a result, suffering still defiles us. Just this produces our loving and hating. Why repay that with benefit?
As for beings who are indifferent to us now, if we think about it, whether they did us benefit or harm before or which they
will do later is not certain. Therefore we should produce equanimity for those who are far and near. The Prajqaparamita
in Twenty Thousand Verses says:
Subhuti, all sentient beings are mutually equal, and you should produce an attitude of
equanimity.
e. The meditation on equanimity
For this reason:
Therefore, start by regarding friends and relatives
With neither love nor hate, as we would those who are neutral.
Then we should give up hatred, being neutral to our enemies.
When we do this, near and far are non-existent.
Thus we should equalize friends and enemies as indifferent.
f. Equanimity meditation to benefit sentient beings:
To be rid of the mental darkness that comes from fixating neutrality,
Eliminate habits of thinking of beings in terms of the kleshas.
Meditate on phenomena in freedom from samsara.
Subsequently may kleshas be completely pacified with regard to all sentient beings, starting with our enemies
and friends. May love and hate never arise. May our minds become mutually workable.
g. Equanimity about getting and losing, by meditating on them as one:
All who want happiness want to eliminate suffering.
But their ignorance courses in the cause of suffering.
Those who truly want joy for themselves do not desire what is painful. Since all beings are like that, how can
malevolence toward them be appropriate? Desire, even desire for happiness, is a cause of suffering. We should eliminate
this unwholesome approach.
h. The real object of equanimity
Kye ma! If only the draining host of kleshas of sentient beings,
With all their habitual patterns, were equalized in peace.
May it come about that all embodied beings,
Tormented by their violent loves and raging hatreds,
Are free from either clinging or animosity,
For all either near or far feeling equanimity.
May all the kleshas of sentient beings be pacified. In particular, after the fires of love and hate are pacified,
without near and far, may our minds become workable.
i. Expanding the object of equanimity:
Having contemplated on one being in this way,
Then going further, do the same with two or three.
Go on to a country, and then to a continent.
Then having contemplated all the four continents,
Try one or two thousand worlds--we should consider them all.
The training is complete when self is the same as others,
And enemies and friends are seen with equality.
Beginners should meditate on friends and enemies as neutral without regret. Then from one, two, three, beings
and so forth, we should go on to our whole town and then our country, its continent, and finally all of this world
Jambuling. Then from the continent of videha and so forth go on and meditate on a thousand, two, three, and all the
world systems. Also first meditate on human beings, and then on animals and so forth as being equal.
j. The measure of having trained in equanimity within one's being
Within onuss being:
The training is complete when either self or others,
Or enemies and friends, are seen with equality.
For anyone who has attained this attitude, jealousy and enmity will not arise, since they will be hindered by the
arising of equality.
k. Post-meditation in equanimity meditation
Then after a session of meditating with that object:
Then go on to the equanimity without object.
Everything is mind, whose nature is like the sky.
Rest in this emptiness, the unborn absolute,
Free from complexities of mental phenomena.
The objects to be meditated upon, these appearances of sentient beings, are like a reflection, appearing while they
do not exist, unborn by nature. Rest in mindfulness of this. Though we are attached to the skandhas as being grasped
objects and a fixating ego other than these, both are false. This is like thinking that a reflection in a mirror is a face.
What does not exist appears, depending on the skandhas. The Precious Mala says:
Though depending on a shining mirror
Reflections of oneself and others appear,
All such vivid images as these
In actuality do not exist.
Likewise, in dependence on the skandhas,
Ego is perceived and firmly grasped.
Like the reflected image of one's face,
Really it does not exist at all.
As without depending on a mirror,
No reflected natures will appear,
If there is no dependence on the skandhas,
Ego-grasping too will disappear.
By their nature, if the skandhas are grasped as an ego, karma exists. Since from karma birth exists, by intervals
old age and death will also exist. When we do not grasp the skandhas, all this is reversed. The same text says:
As long as the skandhas are being grasped at all
So long will they be grasped as truly being an ego.
If there is ego-grasping, there is also karma.
As a result of that, there also will be birth.
The three kinds of action have no beginning, end, or middle
The mandala of samsara, like a whirling fire-brand,
Has recursive causes, so it will keep on whirling.
But if the cause of that were not to be established,
Conceptions of self and other and distinctions of the three times,
The context of ego grasping would be entirely exhausted.
Therefore karma and birth will be extinguished too,
And likewise cause and fruition, will simply cease to be.
Having seen the exhaustion of these, in the world of truth
There is no thought of existence, no thought of non-existence.
Therefore all dharmas, without an I or any object to grasp, should be known to be non-existent, like a reflection.
The benefits of equanimity meditation
The measure of being well-trained by meditating in this way, is that realization of profound peace arises and
realization of the nature of all dharmas as primordially unborn equality. The All-Creating King says:
Within the unthinking enlightenment of dharmata,
By resting in non-duality, wisdom will arise.
l. The fruition of equanimity
Of this meditation:
The fruition is that for mind, undisturbed by near and far,
There is the spontaneous presence of the natural state.
This is the actual nature of reality.
When the relativity of self and other, near and far, is non-existent; the absolute, non-dual dharmata, will be
realized. When we are used to this, we should perform the meditation of primordial kindness.
2. Meditation on kindness
There are five sections.
a. Increasing kindness
As explained above:
After the mind has developed this equanimity,
Think of the happiness that you want for your mother.
Then contemplate all embodied beings in just that way.
When the mind has been equalized, just as one feels kindness towards one's father and mother, one should
meditate on all sentient beings, placing the mind in the attitude one has toward one's father and mother. The
Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand lines says:
One should meditate with an attitude of kindness, not letting it be ravished away by the shravakas and
pratyekabuddhas.
b. The object of kindness
How to do this?:
The object of conceptual kindness is all beings.
It wants to accomplish for these various sentient beings,
The incidental happiness of gods and human beings,
As well as the ultimate happiness of enlightenment.
Move from meditating on a single being
Up to all beings within the limits of the directions.
When unhappy sentient beings are seen, may they meet incidentally with the happiness of gods and human
beings, and ultimately with the happiness of buddhahood. Thinking that, one should go from one to meditating on all
sentient beings as limitless as the space of the sky. The Middle Length
Prajqaparamita says:
When we see sentient beings who have no happiness, we should imagine to ourselves as
follows, "May these sentient beings attain the god realm, where the happiness of the gods is perfect."
c. The sign of training in kindness
As for training:
The sign of success is supreme and all-pervading kindness.
Greater than a mother's love for her only child.
Whatever sentient beings are seen one is pleased and with a great kind longing, one wants to benefit them.
d. Kindness without object
After meditating on kindness with an object:
Then rest everything in equanimity.
This is the great kindness without a reference point.
The sign is the unity of kindness and emptiness.
The object of meditation on kindness is sentient beings, arising from the gathering together of the six elements.
These elements are
1.) earth
2.) water
3.) fire
4.) air
5.) space
6.) consciousness.
If these are examined their coarse atoms, subtle real nature, and pure consciousness do not exist as real things.
Meditate, thinking that they are like space. The Ratnavali says:
People are not earth and are not water.
Neither are they fire, air, nor space,
Nor are they consciousness, nor all of these.
A person is something different from this.
Since persons are gathered from the six elements,
They are not real, and here is the reason why.
A gathered nature cannot be something real.
The skandhas are not the ego, nor ego the skandhas.
Yet neither would be there without the other.
Also:
At the time when things cannot be found
At that time there is pure thinglessness
Things of form are simply non-existent,
Even space is nothing but a name.
Without arising, form is superfluous,
Therefore, even its name does not exist.
Feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness
Seem to arise and be thought of as an ego.
But without the six elements, there can be no ego.
Why does it not exist? When sentient beings appear, if we examine their bodily nature, it does not exist. Neither
the support or supported of consciousness is seen, so the "me" and the "mine" are not perceived. When analyzed they
vanish, essentially empty. The same text says:
Just as if the layers of a plantain tree
Are all destroyed, then nothing is there at all
People too, if all the parts of their nature
Should be destroyed, would likewise disappear.
All dharmas are without a self, and therefore,
That is what the victorious ones have taught.
This mere appearance of seeing and hearing is neither true nor false, since truth and falsity are correspondence
to a pattern of dharmas in the mind. The same text says:
Just by being able to see and hear and so forth,
It is taught there neither true nor false.
Also it says there:
This world transcends both truth and falsity.
Thus all dharmas are beyond truth and falsity, like a plantain or banana tree. This is also taught in the
Samadhiraja Sutra:
Just as with the moist leafy trunks of plantain trees
Wanting to find the essence, people tear them up,
But nowhere inside or out is an essence to be found.
All the various dharmas should be known to be like that.
The sign of good training is that while kindness arises, at the same time there arises the realization that beings,
like a plantain tree essentially have no self or nature.
e. The fruition of meditating on kindness
What is the fruition?:
The visible result is experience of pure pleasure.
Seeing sentient beings is pleasurable, and the
beings, when they are seen, are cleansed of disturbances of love and hate and so forth.
The Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines says:
Those who have an attitude of kindness meditate a great deal, and when they see the sentient
beings inhabiting the world, it is pleasurable. They have no anger.
Also immeasurable merit is attained. The Sutra of the Great Liberation Blossoming in the Ten Directions says:
Though someone in the world keeps discipline pure for a kalpa,
An instant of joy produced by kindness is better than that.
If one in this world does evil in body speech and mind,
Though they fall to the lower realms, by that kindness it has an end.
3. Compassion
There are seven sections.
a. Thinking about the sufferings of sentient beings
Now compassion is taught:
After encompassing all beings within this kindness.
Think of their sufferings, arousing such a compassion
As when your mind cannot endure your parents' suffering.
If our kind parents for our sake did evil deeds and were tormented by the sufferings of the three lower realms and
so forth, we would think, "I should be compassionate to them." The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
If we see sentient beings who are suffering, we will think, "May these sentient beings be freed
from suffering."
b. How to meditate on Compassion
As for how to meditate:
Think how our parents, who were so kind to us,
Suffered by doing evil actions for our sake,
With hunger, thirst and heat and cold and even murder.
They are sinking down into the raging sea,
Of birth and old age, of sickness and of death,
Exhausted by the great variety of sufferings.
Because they did evil deeds for our sake, now they are tormented by their particular sufferings.
c. The main topic of compassion
From this present suffering:
Though they want liberation, they have no peace of mind.
There is no spiritual friend to show the proper path.
How pitiable is their limitless wandering in samsara.
Having seen it, can I forsake and abandon them?
The beings of samsara are suffering and know no way of being liberated. Except for a very few spiritual friends,
there is no one to teach them all the path of liberation. None of these beings who now suffer without limit in samsara,
formerly was not my father, mother, relative, and friend. As for just abandoning them without a refuge or protector, they
are my family, father, and mother! That is how we should think.
[[[The Letter to Students says:
For whomever has got in this situation and remains
Whoever with careful kindness receives this cautiously,
Will have no instance of suffering from these kleshas, and discarding them,
If to beings one is bad-tempered and, who is better off?
d. The reason of compassion
the reason:
Then we should think from the very depths of our heart and bones,
"May all beings be freed in a moment from their sufferings,
By means of our bodies and enjoyment of our wealth,
And any happiness that is ours throughout the three times."
Thus may all our enjoyment and happiness be transferred to other beings and having been freed from suffering,
may they forever enjoy immeasurable happiness. One should think that from the depths of one's heart. The
Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines says:
With that vast mind possessing the great compassion, all shravakas and pratyekabuddhas
should meditate in this extraordinary way.
e. The sign of training in compassion
When training in this meditation, as we go from one sentient being to all, the sign is that the suffering of beings,
arising within us, becomes unbearable.
e. The post-meditation of compassion meditation
After all sessions of meditating like this on compassion with objects:
Then meditate on compassion without a reference point.
The sign is the unity of compassion and emptiness.
If the objects of compassion, sentient beings, are examined and analyzed, they are natureless like the appearance
of water in a mirage. No water is really there. That is how we should think. The Samadhiraja-sutra says:
As when the summer sun is at its peak,
Persons tormented by thirst and other beings
With their skandhas see water in a mirage.
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
The Ratnavali says:
As water in a mirage
Is neither water nor real,
Egos in the skandhas
Are neither there nor real.
That water is a mirage.
If so, then why go there?
If that water is non-existent,
Grasping it is stupid.
Existing like an illusion,
This world is non-existent."
The grasper of it is stupid,
And if so, will not be free.
Also it says there:
As these two reasons are true,
Nothing comes, goes, or stays.
So our suffering too is gone.
Also it says there:
The buddhas' teaching is deathless and never changes.
It is beyond existence and non-existence.
Therefore, it is explained to be like that.
After we understand the nature of all dharmas through meditation, emptiness and compassion are unified. This
is how practice is done on the true path. If either of these two is absent, one strays from the path. The Dohakosha says:
If without compassion we dwell in emptiness
Gaining nothing we will not gain the highest path.
But if we solely meditate upon compassion,
We will never be free from dwelling in samsara.
Those who have the power of joining both of these
Will not dwell in samsara and nor yet within nirvana.
f. The fruition of meditating on compassion
Of meditating in this way:
The fruition is a mind without injurious malice,
Workable by its establishment in primordial purity.
One attains a workable mind without malice and harm. Therefore the Buddha's enlightenment will be
established.
The Supreme Essence says:
By the great compassion the mind becomes workable, and deathless, and attains the supreme ornament
of delight.
3. The meditation of joy,
There are six sections
a. The purpose of meditating on joy
Now joy will be explained. As just explained:
After beings are steeped in compassion, and each is happy,
Then we should go further and meditate on joy.
If we see happy sentient beings, we should meditate on joy. The Prajqaparamita in 20,000 Lines says:
Whenever we see sentient beings joined to their particular happiness, we should think, "May they be
inseparable from this happiness. May they possess the happiness of omniscience, beyond that of gods
and human beings.
b. The object of meditation on joy
How?
The proper object of joy is happy sentient beings.
The content is thinking, "E ma! there is no need
For me to try to establish these beings in happiness.
Each of them has gained their proper happiness.
Until they attain the essence of enlightenment,
May they never be parted from this happiness."
First think of one, then meditate on all of them.
Go like that from meditating on one happy sentient being to all of them.
c. The measure of joy
As for the measure of training:
The sign is the arising of joy that is free from envy.
Ultimate joy has no envy for the wealth of others.
d. The essence of joy
After a session of meditating on conceptual joy:
Then meditate on joy without a reference point.
Meditate on the objects of joy, all sentient beings, as appearing while they do not exist, like an illusion. The
Samadhiraja Sutra says:
Just as in the midst of many sentient beings
Magicians may emanate illusory forms of things,
But the horses and chariots, and elephants that they conjure
Do not exist at all in they way that they appear,
Every dharma should be known to be like that.
The Ratnavali says:
A secret from people in general,
Is this very deep Dharma teaching
The amrita of Buddha's teaching
That the world is like illusion.
Just as illusory elephants
Appear to arise and vanish,
While in truth and reality
Nothing arises and vanishes,
Likewise this world of illusion,
Appearing to rise and vanish,
In the real and absolute truth,
Neither rises nor is destroyed.
As an illusory elephant
Coming from nothing goes nowhere;
By exhausting mind's obscuration,
It really, truly is gone.
This world, just like that elephant,
Coming from nothing goes nowhere;
By exhausting the mind's obscuration,
It really, truly is gone.
The nature beyond the three times;
And existence and non-existence,
Not realizing them all as mere labels;
How will someone possess the nature?
e. The virtues of joy:
In meditating in this way, by the joy of the natural state:
Body, speech and mind have spontaneous peace and bliss.
This is the measure.
f. The fruition of meditating on joy:
By the wealth of the fruition joy is stabilized.
The Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines says:
Immeasurably vast, joyful mind is never taken from us. With this unsurpassable perfection
we attain the heights.
H. Further explanation of the way of meditating,
There are seven sections
1. the details of meditation after this is familiar,
Now the way of meditating will be further explained. As explained above:
After this is familiar, then, beginning with kindness,
Meditate on all four, one right after the next,
Gradually breaking attachment to any of the four.
Sometimes meditate on these four in order, as an antidote to liberate them into purity.
2. How to stop obstacles to kindness with compassion:
If kindness attaches you intimately to all beings,
Compassion breaks attachment to the cause and effect of suffering.
If sometimes one becomes permanently attached to other sentient beings as one's father and mother, a second
meditation on compassion will serve as an antidote.
3. How to stop obstacles to compassion with joy:
When a lesser compassion attaches to reference points,
Sadness is stopped by the joy that has no reference point.
When there is attachment to compassion as an individually characterized phenomenon, illusion-like, objectless
joy will clear away all sadness and attachment.
4. How to stop obstacles to joy with equanimity:
When joy disturbs the mind by arousing anxiety
Then we should meditate on the great equanimity,
Free from all desire for anything near or far.
If we are sad because of longing for joy in the happiness of others, it will be cleared away by meditating on
objectless equanimity.
5. Stopping the obstacles to equanimity with kindness:
When equanimity is neutral and indecisive,
Meditate on kindness and so forth, as before.
Training in that way grows stable and effortless.
If everything seems to become indifferent, arouse kindness and meditate on that.
These are the general antidotes. In particular, as an antidote for each object, meditate as taught in the
corresponding objectless way. By meditating in that way, one will attain immeasurable peace within one's being and
quickly attain stability.
6. The way of meditating when we have become increasingly familiar:
Yogins for whom this practice is fully stabilized
May meditate in a different order, or jump about.
After the four immeasurables are stabilized, so that their benefits may arise, after kindness, we may meditate on
the others in order, or after equanimity go back and meditate without any particular order. That is, after meditating
serially on kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, after equanimity, meditating on compassion and kindness is the
lesser. After kindness, meditating on joy is the middle. After equanimity meditating on kindness is the greatest. Jumping
directly up and down after resting between objects is the meditation. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, then meditate on kindness. Meditate on joy. Rest in compassion, Practice
equanimity.
7. The virtues of meditating in this way
What is the purpose?
By that the meditation will gain the advantage of freshness.
Its steadiness will grow to the very greatest degree.
In particular the mind of the four immeasurables will gain freshness, unsteadiness will be steadied, and
steadiness will become supremely great steadiness.
I. The fruition
There are ten parts.
1. How the higher realms and truth and goodness are established
Now, as for the teaching of the fruition of the four immeasurables, the following words explain how it is:
There are four fruitions of doing this meditation.
By ripening we gain the exalted and truly good.
In the desire realm we have a divine or human body,
In a situation producing happiness and benefit.
Those who do not attain an exalted state attain the body of a god or a human being. They perfect the
two accumulations, benefit beings, and become inseparable from the four immeasurables. Even if they are
careless or fall asleep, they will not fall prey to serious harm. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Having the mind of these four Bhrama-viharas
We will always take birth in realm of desire.
Because these perfect the two accumulations,
They produce ripening for sentient beings.
Never separated from purity
And free from what does not accord with it,
The condition of future carelessness and mishap,
Impatience, too, will never be found there.
As the ultimate fruition, enlightenment is established. The same text says:
What is harmful is banished, and happiness is produced.
With the seed of enlightenment, and the cause of longing desire,
The essence ripens; and sons of the Victorious One
Relying on Dharma, are not far from the light.
Abandoning what is harmful is a fruition of separation.
Producing the seed of liberation is a fruition of the predominant condition of empowerment by the master. Because one
produces happiness for others, being patient about our own trials and hardships is a produced fruition. By meditating on
these four within this life, they ripen in other lives as a fruition according with the cause. The nature of these four
immeasurables always arises in sons of the Victorious One. It is born from previous familiarity, from seeing its objects,
and by seeing the faults of what does not conform to them. The same text says:
This kindness, having the nature of compassion
Attains the nature and discrimination
By formerly having become familiar with that
And seeing it spoiled by what does not accord.
2. The benefits of according with the cause
From the two sections of the fruition according with the cause:
a. General
From according to the cause, such action is self-performing.
The happiness attained is free from contrary experience.
By action according with the cause, we always spend our time meditating on the four immeasurables. By
experience according with the cause malice, harmfulness, unhappiness, passion, loving and hating will be absent. As for
the benefits of the power of this
b. The decisive condition or power:
The power is birth in a pleasant, happy, and joyful country,
Where there are compatible people and amenities of wealth.
By kindness one is born in a pleasant country, by compassion in a happy one, and by joy in a joyful one with
many flowers, medicinal herbs, and so forth. By equanimity one is born among many compatible people and is without
harm.
3. The benefits of performing this
The person:
By performing this these four will grow immensely greater.
The wealth of the two benefits becomes spontaneous.
By performing this, the four immeasurables will increase immensely, growing greater and greater. By that the
wealth of the two benefits for oneself and others will become spontaneously present. By the increase in merit of the karma
of meditating on the four immeasurables, happiness and goodness will be established.
4. The benefit of kindness:
When perfect enjoyment of kindness is without aggression,
Then the mirror-like wisdom will have been fully attained,
As sambhogakaya adorned with the major and minor marks.
After kindness has transformed aggression into the mirror-like wisdom, one attains sambhogakaya. The Lotus
Peak says:
By kindness aggression will be purified
As mirror-like wisdom and sambhogakaya.
5. The benefit of compassion:
When compassion is desireless, there is dharmakaya,
Producing the manifestation of discriminating wisdom.
Its dharmas like the ten powers are utterly distinct.
Compassion pure of desire is discriminating awareness wisdom and dharmakaya. The same text says:
By compassion desire is fully purified
As discriminating wisdom and ultimate dharmakaya.
6. The benefits of joy:
When joy eliminates jealousy, there is nirmanakaya.
The holy all-accomplishing wisdom is attained.
Nirmanakaya is nothing fixed, but of various forms.
This self-existing kaya is spontaneous buddha activity.
By immeasurable joy one attains the all-accomplishing wisdom, whose nature is perfect buddha activity.
Purifying jealousy makes nirmanakaya manifest. The same text says:
By joy all jealousy is fully purified,
As all-accomplishing wisdom and nirmanakaya.
Action becomes spontaneous and excellent.
7. The benefits of equanimity:
When equanimity has eliminated pride
As well as stupidity, there is the essence of things
Through equality dharmadhatu wisdom will manifest.
The simplicity of dharmata is svabhavikakaya.
When equanimity has purified pride and ignorance, the wisdom of equality and the dharmadhatu wisdom are
established. Svabhavikakaya, the unchanging vajrakaya and the kaya of the manifestation of enlightenment manifest.
The same text says:
By equanimity and great equanimity
Pride and envy and ignorance will be purified.
One masters the dharmadhatu and equality wisdoms.
These are the vajra kayas and those of enlightenment.
As for the nature of passionlessness, arising from the four actions of these four immeasurables, the
Mahayanasutralankara says:
Those who have kindness completed by compassion
If they do not desire to dwell in peace
Why even to speak of worldly happiness
Or the wish to further their lives and their careers?
As for their not desiring their own happiness, the same text says:
Compassion produces happiness for those who suffer.
After the kind produce these others' happiness,
Their own happiness is not produced like that.
As for overpowering their happiness for others, the same text says:
The suffering produced by kindness
Overwhelms all their worldly happiness.
If the benefiter is without this,
What greater wonders can be?
The Letter to Students says:
For beings with unbearable sufferings, without a refuge
Those who are happy to suffer for others' benefit,
Are said to be wondrous beings who are truly excellent.
Diligent ones who delight in striving to benefit others
How shall they ever have enjoyments in happy countries?
They will not attain to youth and happiness.
They will not have the implements of power and wealth
With no spouse or companions, not born among gods or asuras.
As for the action of samsara not arising, the former text says:
The attitude of compassion is without the nature
of egocentric suffering, the best sign of samsara.
Completely knowing it one is not a sentient being.
Nor will one be badly harmed by samsaric faults.
Holy beings who have this immeasurably will be without faults. The same text says:
Those who have desire have corresponding faults.
They will not be without them, nor beyond the world.
Those who have this attitude, by their loving-kindness
Will be without any faults and go beyond the world.
Those who are kind to their literal fathers, mothers, and children have desire. Bodhisattvas do not have such
desires in regard to sentient beings. This is because they are liberated from samsara. The same text says:
If worldly enlightened ones and the arhats
Among the pratyekabuddhas are without this kindness,
What need is there even to speak of any others?
But world-transcending ones are not like that
If one does not meditate on the four immeasurables, there will be many faults. The same text says:
A bodhisattva who possesses ill-will
And malice due to pain and unhappiness
And resulting from attachments of desire
Is sure to come in contact with many faults.
As for its being said that those who are born in the desire realms have the attachments of desire, those who are
born in the first two realms of desire and form are said to have samsaric desire. The Abhidharmakosha says:
Those born in those two realms have attachments of samsaric desire.
As for the fault of increasing kleshas, in regard to this immeasurable the former text says:
Kleshas conquer the self. They conquer sentient beings. They conquer discipline. By
receiving their corruption one is lowered, and stays that way. By manifesting in that way one is
degraded. Do not listen to the arguments of others who will be beings without leisure. Harmed by
attaining and non-attaining, the mind will attain great suffering.
Attainment damages the happiness of this life and non-attainment damages later happiness. As for the benefits
of meditating on the four immeasurables, one does not have such faults, one grasps the possibilities of benefiting beings,
and since one is not whirled in samsara by the kleshas, suffering does not arise. The same text says:
For one who rests in kindness and the rest
The faults that have been described will not arise.
Having no kleshas, one will benefit beings,
And will not pass into samsaric birth.
As for the praise of the virtues:
Unequaled with limitless qualities, kindness and the rest
Are given the highest praise by the teacher of gods and men.
The Glorious Garland Sutra says:
Whoever meditates on the four immeasurables
Will be considered with kindness by all the tathagatas.
All the immeasurable good qualities of this
Are even more limitless than endless space itself
As for the teaching that the four immeasurables is the way of the victorious ones
As for the four immeasurables:
Any path that is without them is in error.
It is an evil path to take refuge in other teachings.
The path that has them leads to spotless liberation.
This is the way that was traveled by buddhas of the past.
It also will be traveled by those who are to come.
The Commentary of the Teacher of the Bhumis says:
The four immeasurables are the path of liberation. Others are wrong paths.
As for the teaching of how to attain the two ultimate realities.
The causal vehicles hold that as a seed produces a sprout,
Upaya and prajqa are the producers of the two kayas.
The fruition vehicles proclaim these as being mere conditions,
Removing the two obscurations that veil these same two kayas.
But since upaya depends on the limitless path of compassion,
The meaning is the same: Emptiness is compassionate.
In that, both cause and fruition practice are in accord.
The vehicles of characteristics mostly proclaim that the two accumulations are the producing cause of the two
kayas. The Sixty Stanzas on Reasoning says:
By this merit all beings
Accumulate merit and wisdom.
Arising from merit and wisdom,
May we attain the two absolutes.
In the secret mantra, it is maintained that clearing away the two obscurations of the kayas occurs through
practicing the two accumulations as upaya and prajqa, and therefore this is proclaimed to be a condition. Both are in
accord, since practice having the essence of emptiness and compassion is what is established.
As for summarizing the meaning of this meditation:
The sutras say that the unborn seeds of happiness
Have existed primordially and never were created.
The mantrayana is in accord with this, because it claims
To clear away the incidental obscurations
That are the primordial obscurations of trikaya.
To summarize briefly, learned and accomplished ones
Explain that sutra and tantra are a unity,
As outer and inner aspects of a single path.
Therefore, following after the holy buddha sons,
We should strive to practice the four immeasurables.
The final teaching says that the dhatu is naturally pure and possesses the buddha qualities primordially. At the
time of having practiced the path, the buddha qualities appear to arise, and are proclaimed to appear. In the mantrayana
all beings naturally exist as the mandala, as explained below. Since these two are without distinction, it amounts to the
same thing. In the path, the two accumulations of upaya and prajqa are also the same. In the fruitions, the kayas and
wisdoms are the same. Therefore former great masters like Padmasambhava have explained their relationship as inner
and outer. Therefore, we should strive to meditate on the four immeasurables.
The tenth part of the general meaning, the dedication of merit.
Now the merit is dedicated for the benefit of sentient beings:
Thus by the nature of this peace that was so well-taught,
When the roiling silt in the mind of all beings is pacified,
Fatigued by having strayed into wrong and descending paths,
May our minds today find ease for their weariness.
By the power of this auspicious way of presenting the Dharma, like the host of undefiled rays of the autumn
moon, may whatever beings are dwelling on the paths of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, and others dwelling on the
paths of the heretics, and those who are wearied by dwelling on paths that are less than perfect, and all those worn out by
dwelling on the great path of samsara, whose minds are disturbed by the roiling kleshas be completely pacified. In the
wondrously arisen grove of liberation, carpeted with an array of various flowers, in the pond of buddha qualities may they
ease themselves.
As when the full moon of autumn ornaments the sky
Having a perfectly rounded, brilliantly shining disk,
And hundreds of night-blooming lotuses open in its light
May these fully blossom in the faith of sentient beings.
Lapping the motionless Meru of a mind of sanity
Is the play of the ocean of happiness and benefit.
The four immeasurables are the ornaments of mind
As the four continents adorn that central mountain.
May happiness beautify the world to its farthest horizon.
May beings without remainder perfect their livelihood.
From the peaceful wreath of clouds of the play of the three levels,
May the heavens wondrously open with the rain of happiness
With flashing illumination and the thunder of victory
May these four immeasurable benefits reach to the end of time.
VII The Seventh Chapter, the Four Immeasurables
Thus having gone to refuge, from the main topic, the path of mahayana, there are the two sections on producing
the two bodhicittas of aspiring to and entering into the supreme mind of enlightenment. Within that first there are the ten
sections of the seventh chapter on the four immeasurables:
A. The description of and the teaching of meditation on the four Bhrama-viharas
B. The particular teaching;
C. The particular objects of meditation
D. The faults of impure objects of meditation
E. The real object of meditation
F. The particular aspects;
G. How to meditate
H. Other ways to meditate
I The fruition of the meditation
J. The dedication of merit.
A. The description of and the teaching of meditation on the four Bhrama-viharas
Having gone to refuge, one meditates on the four immeasurables. Therefore, that is taught next:
Beings who become the vessels of dharma by taking refuge.
Cultivate their minds to benefit sentient beings.
Watered by equanimity in the cool shade of joy,
Flowers of compassion will bloom in the soil of kindness.
Here the example is a very pleasant garden-grove. In the soil of kindness green and rich
[[snga dang snub pa destroy/suppress read sngo dang snum pa]]
The various kinds of flowers of compassion open and bloom. In the cool shade of pleasant trees many birds and deer are
present. From the lake of equanimity, and ponds, and good springs, flow a collection of many streams, where travelers
tired out by samsara can refresh themselves. Weariness of mind is eased and cleansed away. What is described is
arranged in ornamental forms. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, Here a bodhisattva mahasattva should meditate on kindness, compassion, great joy, and great
equanimity.
B. The particular teaching
As for the particular explanation of this and other things:
When these four have not been joined to the path of freedom,
These sources of sanity are causes of samsara.
But when they are empowered by the path of peace,
Then they manifest as the four immeasurables
By which we can transcend the ocean of samsara.
The Supreme Essence says:
Shariputra, these four, by which, if genuine mind is not produced, it will not be produced
later, kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, are the four bhrama-viharas. They are accompanied
by samsaric karmic formations. They produce genuine mind. The kindness, compassion, joy, and
equanimity that are subsequently produced are called the four immeasurables. This is because they also
produce the path of nirvana.
C. The teaching of the particular objects of meditation:
Their scope is universal, both with and without objects.
Encompassing both sentient beings and dharmata.
The meditation-objects of the four immeasurables are all sentient beings, in the arising of four immeasurables
with a mental object; and also the dharmata of all dharmas, with suchness as the meditation object, in the arising of the
four immeasurables without a mental object. The Bhumi-Collection says:
With the support of sentient beings and dharmata respectively, the four immeasurables with
and without a mental object arise.
D. The faults of an impure meditation-object
There are two parts.
1. The faults of an impure meditation-object:
The former concerns a limited number of sentient beings.
Such impure objects are the cause of the Bhrama-viharas.
The meditation objects of the four Bhrama-viharas are the arousing of these four mental phenomena, kindness
and so forth, for a limited number of sentient beings, one, two, or whatever. Here liberated mind is not achieved. One to
one kindness, like that of a woman crossing the river Ganges with her child, produces samsaric causation, such as the
arising of the Bhrama-viharas. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
The fruition of this attitude arising for one person
Is the Bhrama-viharas and so forth.
2. The instruction to learn the liberating four immeasurables
With the above-described awareness, these become the four immeasurables:
Directed to liberation, these become objectless.
This should be learned by those who are compassionate.
Those who are unhappy or tormented by suffering,
Or feel animosity to others, near or far,
Through being preoccupied with happiness and wealth,
Are objects of kindness, joy, compassion and equanimity
Those desiring liberation should learn to meditate on phenomena in the manner of the four immeasurables.
E. The real meditation object
Now the meditation object of the four immeasurables is explained:
Those who are unhappy or tormented by suffering,
Feeling greed or hatred towards others, near or far,
Through being preoccupied with happiness and wealth,
Are objects of kindness, joy, compassion and equanimity
The sentient beings taken as the meditation object of the four immeasurables are those who are not happy or are
afflicted with suffering; and those who feel desire and aggression toward others nearby or far away because of their own
pleasure, happiness, and wealth. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
The objects are those who desire happiness
And those with happiness afflicted by suffering,
And those who have the kleshas....
F. the particular aspects
As for the particular aspects:
The particular desires are that it may be workable
That all beings may be happy, and also free from suffering;
and that never parting from joy, they have equanimity.
The object of these four immeasurables should be the wish that beings be without suffering and possess
happiness; and that, not separated from joy, but leaving behind passion and aggression, their minds have only equanimity
and kindness. The same text says:
I prostrate to you who are kind to sentient beings,
Intending that they should not be blocked by conflict,
Possessing as well the intention of non-separation,
Who have the intent of goodness of benefit.
The four immeasurables are free from what does not accord with the essence of each of them. The same text
says:
May the objects abandon what does not fit with sanity.
May they come to possess the wisdom of non-thought.
May all sentient beings be completely ripened.
As for abandoning partialities that do not fit with each one, the commentary of that same text mentions not
conceptualizing self and others, good or bad, happiness, suffering, and in between. Having abandoned them, benefit the
object, sentient beings.
As to how to enter into the object, those who merely do not have happiness are the object of equanimity. In those
who are tormented by suffering and possess passion and aggression there exists the cause and fruition of suffering.
Therefore they are the object of suffering. The objects of joy, happiness and goodness, are those who enter into these
three. That the four immeasurables have such dharmas as their objects is said in all the treatises. In the four
immeasurables that have the object of dharmata, the nature of these is realized as the unborn. Moreover, in the tantras
and their commentaries there is found the terminology of the four immeasurables which have not realized egolessness,
which half-way and dualistically realize it, and those realizing two fold egolessness. The Bodhisattva-bhumi says:
That with sentient beings as object, is an object in common with heretics. That with dharmas
as object is in common with shravakas, and pratyekabuddhas. That with no object, is not in common
with anyone.
These arise with the object of sentient beings, dharmas, and with no object. Explaining the arising of these four
in terms of the six aspects that do not correspond with the six paramitas, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
Kindness to the miserly, and to vicious unsuitable ones,
Kindness to the irascible, and to the unconscientious.
Kindness to whose who are motivated by external objects,
And kindness to those who are strongly inclined to wrong attachments.
Explaining the ten objects for which they are produced, the same text says:
One who comes into the power of the fiercely blazing enemy
One covered with suffering who is obscured with darkness.
All who are dwelling on paths that are difficult to travel.
Those who really have fetters that are very great.
Those attached to spiritual food that is mixed with poison.
Those who become completely lost upon the path.
Those of little energy who have gone far astray,
It is being kind to people such as these.
1.) Those who blaze with the kleshas as if they were in a fire
2.) Those for whom obstacles of Mara have arisen, even though they have entered the path
3.) Those of the three lower realms
4.) Those with stupidity and delusion about karma, cause, and effect
5.) Those who have entered wrong paths
6.) Those who are really bound by the knots of the kleshas
7.) Those who relish the taste of the bliss of samadhi
8.) Those who dwell on the paths of shravakas
9.) Those who dwell on the paths of pratyekabuddhas
10.) Neophyte bodhisattvas.
These four immeasurables arise with four conditions.
1.) The naturally existing family or dhatu is the causal condition.
2.) The spiritual friend who teaches the instructions of the four immeasurables is the dominant condition.
3.) The manifestation of one's particular object is the object-condition.
4.) Previous acquaintance with the benefits of meditating on the four immeasurables and the harm of not doing so is the
immediately preceding condition.
The former text says:
From the causes of that happiness and suffering
Comes the kindness of the bodhisattva.
Along with those causes, from the spiritual friend
And from one's natural attitude rises compassion.
The Abhidharmakosha says:
By four conditions there are mind and mental events.
By three conditions there are the two samapattis.
Others things arise from only two conditions.
Mind and mental events are produced by four conditions, the cause, predominating, immediately preceding and
object conditions. Samapatti is produced by three, the cause, predominating, and immediately preceding conditions.
Material things arise from two, a cause, such as the seed, and a predominant conditions, such as water and manure.
G. How to meditate
There are four sections
1. Equanimity meditation
There are thirteen sections.
a. The purpose of equanimity meditation
Now, as to how to meditate, one is purely and definitely concerned with these alone:
These do not have to be practiced in any one fixed order,
But, even so, beginners should start with equanimity.
Having developed this toward those both far and near,
Then they should meditate upon the other three.
First we should compose ourselves, putting ourselves at ease. This is because if we do not bring everything near
and far into equanimity, it is difficult for the other three to arise. Therefore, first we meditate on equanimity. The master
Jqanagarbha says in his Ornament of the Middle Way
Crossing with equanimity to the land of goodness,
Like a meadow covered with blossoming flowers of kindness,
Well-adorned with the cooling protective shade of compassion.
The water of joy will be pure, and not disturbed and muddied.
The Two Examinations says:
First we should meditate on kindness,
Second we should turn to compassion
Third we should meditate on joy,
And last of all equanimity.
This is from the viewpoint a teacher joined with inner divine suchness. For them it is easy first to produce the
arising of the other three, kindness and so forth.
b. The meditation object of equanimity
Now, to explain equanimity meditation:
Since the meditational object is all sentient beings,
We should examine our minds to how we are doing.
If we love our mothers and fathers and our friends,
But hate our enemies, our attitude is bad.
If there is any sentient being that we make our friend or enemy, this loving and hating is not proper.
c. Remembering the kindness of the object of equanimity
In samsara:
While we have been wandering without beginning or end,
Even such enemies have been our fathers and mothers.
They were formerly friendly and gave their help to us.
Shall we now cultivate malice to return their kindness?
It is not right to repay with harm those who formerly benefited us. The Dulwa Lung says:
Returning good for good is excellent.
Returning harm or indifference is wrong.
d. Equanimity meditation on uncertainty
For many generations:
Even these friends were enemies and did us harm.
Even now that suffering is still infecting us.
How can it be right to repay this with benefit?
And those who are neither now were once both friends and enemies.
Where benefit and harm are without certainty
Loving and hating are irrationality.
If it is not suitable to benefit an enemy who has done us harm, our friends in former generations did us harm,
and even now, as a result, suffering still defiles us. Just this produces our loving and hating. Why repay that with benefit?
As for beings who are indifferent to us now, if we think about it, whether they did us benefit or harm before or which they
will do later is not certain. Therefore we should produce equanimity for those who are far and near. The Prajqaparamita
in Twenty Thousand Verses says:
Subhuti, all sentient beings are mutually equal, and you should produce an attitude of
equanimity.
e. The meditation on equanimity
For this reason:
Therefore, start by regarding friends and relatives
With neither love nor hate, as we would those who are neutral.
Then we should give up hatred, being neutral to our enemies.
When we do this, near and far are non-existent.
Thus we should equalize friends and enemies as indifferent.
f. Equanimity meditation to benefit sentient beings:
To be rid of the mental darkness that comes from fixating neutrality,
Eliminate habits of thinking of beings in terms of the kleshas.
Meditate on phenomena in freedom from samsara.
Subsequently may kleshas be completely pacified with regard to all sentient beings, starting with our enemies
and friends. May love and hate never arise. May our minds become mutually workable.
g. Equanimity about getting and losing, by meditating on them as one:
All who want happiness want to eliminate suffering.
But their ignorance courses in the cause of suffering.
Those who truly want joy for themselves do not desire what is painful. Since all beings are like that, how can
malevolence toward them be appropriate? Desire, even desire for happiness, is a cause of suffering. We should eliminate
this unwholesome approach.
h. The real object of equanimity
Kye ma! If only the draining host of kleshas of sentient beings,
With all their habitual patterns, were equalized in peace.
May it come about that all embodied beings,
Tormented by their violent loves and raging hatreds,
Are free from either clinging or animosity,
For all either near or far feeling equanimity.
May all the kleshas of sentient beings be pacified. In particular, after the fires of love and hate are pacified,
without near and far, may our minds become workable.
i. Expanding the object of equanimity:
Having contemplated on one being in this way,
Then going further, do the same with two or three.
Go on to a country, and then to a continent.
Then having contemplated all the four continents,
Try one or two thousand worlds--we should consider them all.
The training is complete when self is the same as others,
And enemies and friends are seen with equality.
Beginners should meditate on friends and enemies as neutral without regret. Then from one, two, three, beings
and so forth, we should go on to our whole town and then our country, its continent, and finally all of this world
Jambuling. Then from the continent of videha and so forth go on and meditate on a thousand, two, three, and all the
world systems. Also first meditate on human beings, and then on animals and so forth as being equal.
j. The measure of having trained in equanimity within one's being
Within onuss being:
The training is complete when either self or others,
Or enemies and friends, are seen with equality.
For anyone who has attained this attitude, jealousy and enmity will not arise, since they will be hindered by the
arising of equality.
k. Post-meditation in equanimity meditation
Then after a session of meditating with that object:
Then go on to the equanimity without object.
Everything is mind, whose nature is like the sky.
Rest in this emptiness, the unborn absolute,
Free from complexities of mental phenomena.
The objects to be meditated upon, these appearances of sentient beings, are like a reflection, appearing while they
do not exist, unborn by nature. Rest in mindfulness of this. Though we are attached to the skandhas as being grasped
objects and a fixating ego other than these, both are false. This is like thinking that a reflection in a mirror is a face.
What does not exist appears, depending on the skandhas. The Precious Mala says:
Though depending on a shining mirror
Reflections of oneself and others appear,
All such vivid images as these
In actuality do not exist.
Likewise, in dependence on the skandhas,
Ego is perceived and firmly grasped.
Like the reflected image of one's face,
Really it does not exist at all.
As without depending on a mirror,
No reflected natures will appear,
If there is no dependence on the skandhas,
Ego-grasping too will disappear.
By their nature, if the skandhas are grasped as an ego, karma exists. Since from karma birth exists, by intervals
old age and death will also exist. When we do not grasp the skandhas, all this is reversed. The same text says:
As long as the skandhas are being grasped at all
So long will they be grasped as truly being an ego.
If there is ego-grasping, there is also karma.
As a result of that, there also will be birth.
The three kinds of action have no beginning, end, or middle
The mandala of samsara, like a whirling fire-brand,
Has recursive causes, so it will keep on whirling.
But if the cause of that were not to be established,
Conceptions of self and other and distinctions of the three times,
The context of ego grasping would be entirely exhausted.
Therefore karma and birth will be extinguished too,
And likewise cause and fruition, will simply cease to be.
Having seen the exhaustion of these, in the world of truth
There is no thought of existence, no thought of non-existence.
Therefore all dharmas, without an I or any object to grasp, should be known to be non-existent, like a reflection.
The benefits of equanimity meditation
The measure of being well-trained by meditating in this way, is that realization of profound peace arises and
realization of the nature of all dharmas as primordially unborn equality. The All-Creating King says:
Within the unthinking enlightenment of dharmata,
By resting in non-duality, wisdom will arise.
l. The fruition of equanimity
Of this meditation:
The fruition is that for mind, undisturbed by near and far,
There is the spontaneous presence of the natural state.
This is the actual nature of reality.
When the relativity of self and other, near and far, is non-existent; the absolute, non-dual dharmata, will be
realized. When we are used to this, we should perform the meditation of primordial kindness.
2. Meditation on kindness
There are five sections.
a. Increasing kindness
As explained above:
After the mind has developed this equanimity,
Think of the happiness that you want for your mother.
Then contemplate all embodied beings in just that way.
When the mind has been equalized, just as one feels kindness towards one's father and mother, one should
meditate on all sentient beings, placing the mind in the attitude one has toward one's father and mother. The
Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand lines says:
One should meditate with an attitude of kindness, not letting it be ravished away by the shravakas and
pratyekabuddhas.
b. The object of kindness
How to do this?:
The object of conceptual kindness is all beings.
It wants to accomplish for these various sentient beings,
The incidental happiness of gods and human beings,
As well as the ultimate happiness of enlightenment.
Move from meditating on a single being
Up to all beings within the limits of the directions.
When unhappy sentient beings are seen, may they meet incidentally with the happiness of gods and human
beings, and ultimately with the happiness of buddhahood. Thinking that, one should go from one to meditating on all
sentient beings as limitless as the space of the sky. The Middle Length
Prajqaparamita says:
When we see sentient beings who have no happiness, we should imagine to ourselves as
follows, "May these sentient beings attain the god realm, where the happiness of the gods is perfect."
c. The sign of training in kindness
As for training:
The sign of success is supreme and all-pervading kindness.
Greater than a mother's love for her only child.
Whatever sentient beings are seen one is pleased and with a great kind longing, one wants to benefit them.
d. Kindness without object
After meditating on kindness with an object:
Then rest everything in equanimity.
This is the great kindness without a reference point.
The sign is the unity of kindness and emptiness.
The object of meditation on kindness is sentient beings, arising from the gathering together of the six elements.
These elements are
1.) earth
2.) water
3.) fire
4.) air
5.) space
6.) consciousness.
If these are examined their coarse atoms, subtle real nature, and pure consciousness do not exist as real things.
Meditate, thinking that they are like space. The Ratnavali says:
People are not earth and are not water.
Neither are they fire, air, nor space,
Nor are they consciousness, nor all of these.
A person is something different from this.
Since persons are gathered from the six elements,
They are not real, and here is the reason why.
A gathered nature cannot be something real.
The skandhas are not the ego, nor ego the skandhas.
Yet neither would be there without the other.
Also:
At the time when things cannot be found
At that time there is pure thinglessness
Things of form are simply non-existent,
Even space is nothing but a name.
Without arising, form is superfluous,
Therefore, even its name does not exist.
Feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness
Seem to arise and be thought of as an ego.
But without the six elements, there can be no ego.
Why does it not exist? When sentient beings appear, if we examine their bodily nature, it does not exist. Neither
the support or supported of consciousness is seen, so the "me" and the "mine" are not perceived. When analyzed they
vanish, essentially empty. The same text says:
Just as if the layers of a plantain tree
Are all destroyed, then nothing is there at all
People too, if all the parts of their nature
Should be destroyed, would likewise disappear.
All dharmas are without a self, and therefore,
That is what the victorious ones have taught.
This mere appearance of seeing and hearing is neither true nor false, since truth and falsity are correspondence
to a pattern of dharmas in the mind. The same text says:
Just by being able to see and hear and so forth,
It is taught there neither true nor false.
Also it says there:
This world transcends both truth and falsity.
Thus all dharmas are beyond truth and falsity, like a plantain or banana tree. This is also taught in the
Samadhiraja Sutra:
Just as with the moist leafy trunks of plantain trees
Wanting to find the essence, people tear them up,
But nowhere inside or out is an essence to be found.
All the various dharmas should be known to be like that.
The sign of good training is that while kindness arises, at the same time there arises the realization that beings,
like a plantain tree essentially have no self or nature.
e. The fruition of meditating on kindness
What is the fruition?:
The visible result is experience of pure pleasure.
Seeing sentient beings is pleasurable, and the
beings, when they are seen, are cleansed of disturbances of love and hate and so forth.
The Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines says:
Those who have an attitude of kindness meditate a great deal, and when they see the sentient
beings inhabiting the world, it is pleasurable. They have no anger.
Also immeasurable merit is attained. The Sutra of the Great Liberation Blossoming in the Ten Directions says:
Though someone in the world keeps discipline pure for a kalpa,
An instant of joy produced by kindness is better than that.
If one in this world does evil in body speech and mind,
Though they fall to the lower realms, by that kindness it has an end.
3. Compassion
There are seven sections.
a. Thinking about the sufferings of sentient beings
Now compassion is taught:
After encompassing all beings within this kindness.
Think of their sufferings, arousing such a compassion
As when your mind cannot endure your parents' suffering.
If our kind parents for our sake did evil deeds and were tormented by the sufferings of the three lower realms and
so forth, we would think, "I should be compassionate to them." The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
If we see sentient beings who are suffering, we will think, "May these sentient beings be freed
from suffering."
b. How to meditate on Compassion
As for how to meditate:
Think how our parents, who were so kind to us,
Suffered by doing evil actions for our sake,
With hunger, thirst and heat and cold and even murder.
They are sinking down into the raging sea,
Of birth and old age, of sickness and of death,
Exhausted by the great variety of sufferings.
Because they did evil deeds for our sake, now they are tormented by their particular sufferings.
c. The main topic of compassion
From this present suffering:
Though they want liberation, they have no peace of mind.
There is no spiritual friend to show the proper path.
How pitiable is their limitless wandering in samsara.
Having seen it, can I forsake and abandon them?
The beings of samsara are suffering and know no way of being liberated. Except for a very few spiritual friends,
there is no one to teach them all the path of liberation. None of these beings who now suffer without limit in samsara,
formerly was not my father, mother, relative, and friend. As for just abandoning them without a refuge or protector, they
are my family, father, and mother! That is how we should think.
[[[The Letter to Students says:
For whomever has got in this situation and remains
Whoever with careful kindness receives this cautiously,
Will have no instance of suffering from these kleshas, and discarding them,
If to beings one is bad-tempered and, who is better off?
d. The reason of compassion
the reason:
Then we should think from the very depths of our heart and bones,
"May all beings be freed in a moment from their sufferings,
By means of our bodies and enjoyment of our wealth,
And any happiness that is ours throughout the three times."
Thus may all our enjoyment and happiness be transferred to other beings and having been freed from suffering,
may they forever enjoy immeasurable happiness. One should think that from the depths of one's heart. The
Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines says:
With that vast mind possessing the great compassion, all shravakas and pratyekabuddhas
should meditate in this extraordinary way.
e. The sign of training in compassion
When training in this meditation, as we go from one sentient being to all, the sign is that the suffering of beings,
arising within us, becomes unbearable.
e. The post-meditation of compassion meditation
After all sessions of meditating like this on compassion with objects:
Then meditate on compassion without a reference point.
The sign is the unity of compassion and emptiness.
If the objects of compassion, sentient beings, are examined and analyzed, they are natureless like the appearance
of water in a mirage. No water is really there. That is how we should think. The Samadhiraja-sutra says:
As when the summer sun is at its peak,
Persons tormented by thirst and other beings
With their skandhas see water in a mirage.
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
The Ratnavali says:
As water in a mirage
Is neither water nor real,
Egos in the skandhas
Are neither there nor real.
That water is a mirage.
If so, then why go there?
If that water is non-existent,
Grasping it is stupid.
Existing like an illusion,
This world is non-existent."
The grasper of it is stupid,
And if so, will not be free.
Also it says there:
As these two reasons are true,
Nothing comes, goes, or stays.
So our suffering too is gone.
Also it says there:
The buddhas' teaching is deathless and never changes.
It is beyond existence and non-existence.
Therefore, it is explained to be like that.
After we understand the nature of all dharmas through meditation, emptiness and compassion are unified. This
is how practice is done on the true path. If either of these two is absent, one strays from the path. The Dohakosha says:
If without compassion we dwell in emptiness
Gaining nothing we will not gain the highest path.
But if we solely meditate upon compassion,
We will never be free from dwelling in samsara.
Those who have the power of joining both of these
Will not dwell in samsara and nor yet within nirvana.
f. The fruition of meditating on compassion
Of meditating in this way:
The fruition is a mind without injurious malice,
Workable by its establishment in primordial purity.
One attains a workable mind without malice and harm. Therefore the Buddha's enlightenment will be
established.
The Supreme Essence says:
By the great compassion the mind becomes workable, and deathless, and attains the supreme ornament
of delight.
3. The meditation of joy,
There are six sections
a. The purpose of meditating on joy
Now joy will be explained. As just explained:
After beings are steeped in compassion, and each is happy,
Then we should go further and meditate on joy.
If we see happy sentient beings, we should meditate on joy. The Prajqaparamita in 20,000 Lines says:
Whenever we see sentient beings joined to their particular happiness, we should think, "May they be
inseparable from this happiness. May they possess the happiness of omniscience, beyond that of gods
and human beings.
b. The object of meditation on joy
How?
The proper object of joy is happy sentient beings.
The content is thinking, "E ma! there is no need
For me to try to establish these beings in happiness.
Each of them has gained their proper happiness.
Until they attain the essence of enlightenment,
May they never be parted from this happiness."
First think of one, then meditate on all of them.
Go like that from meditating on one happy sentient being to all of them.
c. The measure of joy
As for the measure of training:
The sign is the arising of joy that is free from envy.
Ultimate joy has no envy for the wealth of others.
d. The essence of joy
After a session of meditating on conceptual joy:
Then meditate on joy without a reference point.
Meditate on the objects of joy, all sentient beings, as appearing while they do not exist, like an illusion. The
Samadhiraja Sutra says:
Just as in the midst of many sentient beings
Magicians may emanate illusory forms of things,
But the horses and chariots, and elephants that they conjure
Do not exist at all in they way that they appear,
Every dharma should be known to be like that.
The Ratnavali says:
A secret from people in general,
Is this very deep Dharma teaching
The amrita of Buddha's teaching
That the world is like illusion.
Just as illusory elephants
Appear to arise and vanish,
While in truth and reality
Nothing arises and vanishes,
Likewise this world of illusion,
Appearing to rise and vanish,
In the real and absolute truth,
Neither rises nor is destroyed.
As an illusory elephant
Coming from nothing goes nowhere;
By exhausting mind's obscuration,
It really, truly is gone.
This world, just like that elephant,
Coming from nothing goes nowhere;
By exhausting the mind's obscuration,
It really, truly is gone.
The nature beyond the three times;
And existence and non-existence,
Not realizing them all as mere labels;
How will someone possess the nature?
e. The virtues of joy:
In meditating in this way, by the joy of the natural state:
Body, speech and mind have spontaneous peace and bliss.
This is the measure.
f. The fruition of meditating on joy:
By the wealth of the fruition joy is stabilized.
The Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines says:
Immeasurably vast, joyful mind is never taken from us. With this unsurpassable perfection
we attain the heights.
H. Further explanation of the way of meditating,
There are seven sections
1. the details of meditation after this is familiar,
Now the way of meditating will be further explained. As explained above:
After this is familiar, then, beginning with kindness,
Meditate on all four, one right after the next,
Gradually breaking attachment to any of the four.
Sometimes meditate on these four in order, as an antidote to liberate them into purity.
2. How to stop obstacles to kindness with compassion:
If kindness attaches you intimately to all beings,
Compassion breaks attachment to the cause and effect of suffering.
If sometimes one becomes permanently attached to other sentient beings as one's father and mother, a second
meditation on compassion will serve as an antidote.
3. How to stop obstacles to compassion with joy:
When a lesser compassion attaches to reference points,
Sadness is stopped by the joy that has no reference point.
When there is attachment to compassion as an individually characterized phenomenon, illusion-like, objectless
joy will clear away all sadness and attachment.
4. How to stop obstacles to joy with equanimity:
When joy disturbs the mind by arousing anxiety
Then we should meditate on the great equanimity,
Free from all desire for anything near or far.
If we are sad because of longing for joy in the happiness of others, it will be cleared away by meditating on
objectless equanimity.
5. Stopping the obstacles to equanimity with kindness:
When equanimity is neutral and indecisive,
Meditate on kindness and so forth, as before.
Training in that way grows stable and effortless.
If everything seems to become indifferent, arouse kindness and meditate on that.
These are the general antidotes. In particular, as an antidote for each object, meditate as taught in the
corresponding objectless way. By meditating in that way, one will attain immeasurable peace within one's being and
quickly attain stability.
6. The way of meditating when we have become increasingly familiar:
Yogins for whom this practice is fully stabilized
May meditate in a different order, or jump about.
After the four immeasurables are stabilized, so that their benefits may arise, after kindness, we may meditate on
the others in order, or after equanimity go back and meditate without any particular order. That is, after meditating
serially on kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, after equanimity, meditating on compassion and kindness is the
lesser. After kindness, meditating on joy is the middle. After equanimity meditating on kindness is the greatest. Jumping
directly up and down after resting between objects is the meditation. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, then meditate on kindness. Meditate on joy. Rest in compassion, Practice
equanimity.
7. The virtues of meditating in this way
What is the purpose?
By that the meditation will gain the advantage of freshness.
Its steadiness will grow to the very greatest degree.
In particular the mind of the four immeasurables will gain freshness, unsteadiness will be steadied, and
steadiness will become supremely great steadiness.
I. The fruition
There are ten parts.
1. How the higher realms and truth and goodness are established
Now, as for the teaching of the fruition of the four immeasurables, the following words explain how it is:
There are four fruitions of doing this meditation.
By ripening we gain the exalted and truly good.
In the desire realm we have a divine or human body,
In a situation producing happiness and benefit.
Those who do not attain an exalted state attain the body of a god or a human being. They perfect the
two accumulations, benefit beings, and become inseparable from the four immeasurables. Even if they are
careless or fall asleep, they will not fall prey to serious harm. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Having the mind of these four Bhrama-viharas
We will always take birth in realm of desire.
Because these perfect the two accumulations,
They produce ripening for sentient beings.
Never separated from purity
And free from what does not accord with it,
The condition of future carelessness and mishap,
Impatience, too, will never be found there.
As the ultimate fruition, enlightenment is established. The same text says:
What is harmful is banished, and happiness is produced.
With the seed of enlightenment, and the cause of longing desire,
The essence ripens; and sons of the Victorious One
Relying on Dharma, are not far from the light.
Abandoning what is harmful is a fruition of separation.
Producing the seed of liberation is a fruition of the predominant condition of empowerment by the master. Because one
produces happiness for others, being patient about our own trials and hardships is a produced fruition. By meditating on
these four within this life, they ripen in other lives as a fruition according with the cause. The nature of these four
immeasurables always arises in sons of the Victorious One. It is born from previous familiarity, from seeing its objects,
and by seeing the faults of what does not conform to them. The same text says:
This kindness, having the nature of compassion
Attains the nature and discrimination
By formerly having become familiar with that
And seeing it spoiled by what does not accord.
2. The benefits of according with the cause
From the two sections of the fruition according with the cause:
a. General
From according to the cause, such action is self-performing.
The happiness attained is free from contrary experience.
By action according with the cause, we always spend our time meditating on the four immeasurables. By
experience according with the cause malice, harmfulness, unhappiness, passion, loving and hating will be absent. As for
the benefits of the power of this
b. The decisive condition or power:
The power is birth in a pleasant, happy, and joyful country,
Where there are compatible people and amenities of wealth.
By kindness one is born in a pleasant country, by compassion in a happy one, and by joy in a joyful one with
many flowers, medicinal herbs, and so forth. By equanimity one is born among many compatible people and is without
harm.
3. The benefits of performing this
The person:
By performing this these four will grow immensely greater.
The wealth of the two benefits becomes spontaneous.
By performing this, the four immeasurables will increase immensely, growing greater and greater. By that the
wealth of the two benefits for oneself and others will become spontaneously present. By the increase in merit of the karma
of meditating on the four immeasurables, happiness and goodness will be established.
4. The benefit of kindness:
When perfect enjoyment of kindness is without aggression,
Then the mirror-like wisdom will have been fully attained,
As sambhogakaya adorned with the major and minor marks.
After kindness has transformed aggression into the mirror-like wisdom, one attains sambhogakaya. The Lotus
Peak says:
By kindness aggression will be purified
As mirror-like wisdom and sambhogakaya.
5. The benefit of compassion:
When compassion is desireless, there is dharmakaya,
Producing the manifestation of discriminating wisdom.
Its dharmas like the ten powers are utterly distinct.
Compassion pure of desire is discriminating awareness wisdom and dharmakaya. The same text says:
By compassion desire is fully purified
As discriminating wisdom and ultimate dharmakaya.
6. The benefits of joy:
When joy eliminates jealousy, there is nirmanakaya.
The holy all-accomplishing wisdom is attained.
Nirmanakaya is nothing fixed, but of various forms.
This self-existing kaya is spontaneous buddha activity.
By immeasurable joy one attains the all-accomplishing wisdom, whose nature is perfect buddha activity.
Purifying jealousy makes nirmanakaya manifest. The same text says:
By joy all jealousy is fully purified,
As all-accomplishing wisdom and nirmanakaya.
Action becomes spontaneous and excellent.
7. The benefits of equanimity:
When equanimity has eliminated pride
As well as stupidity, there is the essence of things
Through equality dharmadhatu wisdom will manifest.
The simplicity of dharmata is svabhavikakaya.
When equanimity has purified pride and ignorance, the wisdom of equality and the dharmadhatu wisdom are
established. Svabhavikakaya, the unchanging vajrakaya and the kaya of the manifestation of enlightenment manifest.
The same text says:
By equanimity and great equanimity
Pride and envy and ignorance will be purified.
One masters the dharmadhatu and equality wisdoms.
These are the vajra kayas and those of enlightenment.
As for the nature of passionlessness, arising from the four actions of these four immeasurables, the
Mahayanasutralankara says:
Those who have kindness completed by compassion
If they do not desire to dwell in peace
Why even to speak of worldly happiness
Or the wish to further their lives and their careers?
As for their not desiring their own happiness, the same text says:
Compassion produces happiness for those who suffer.
After the kind produce these others' happiness,
Their own happiness is not produced like that.
As for overpowering their happiness for others, the same text says:
The suffering produced by kindness
Overwhelms all their worldly happiness.
If the benefiter is without this,
What greater wonders can be?
The Letter to Students says:
For beings with unbearable sufferings, without a refuge
Those who are happy to suffer for others' benefit,
Are said to be wondrous beings who are truly excellent.
Diligent ones who delight in striving to benefit others
How shall they ever have enjoyments in happy countries?
They will not attain to youth and happiness.
They will not have the implements of power and wealth
With no spouse or companions, not born among gods or asuras.
As for the action of samsara not arising, the former text says:
The attitude of compassion is without the nature
of egocentric suffering, the best sign of samsara.
Completely knowing it one is not a sentient being.
Nor will one be badly harmed by samsaric faults.
Holy beings who have this immeasurably will be without faults. The same text says:
Those who have desire have corresponding faults.
They will not be without them, nor beyond the world.
Those who have this attitude, by their loving-kindness
Will be without any faults and go beyond the world.
Those who are kind to their literal fathers, mothers, and children have desire. Bodhisattvas do not have such
desires in regard to sentient beings. This is because they are liberated from samsara. The same text says:
If worldly enlightened ones and the arhats
Among the pratyekabuddhas are without this kindness,
What need is there even to speak of any others?
But world-transcending ones are not like that
If one does not meditate on the four immeasurables, there will be many faults. The same text says:
A bodhisattva who possesses ill-will
And malice due to pain and unhappiness
And resulting from attachments of desire
Is sure to come in contact with many faults.
As for its being said that those who are born in the desire realms have the attachments of desire, those who are
born in the first two realms of desire and form are said to have samsaric desire. The Abhidharmakosha says:
Those born in those two realms have attachments of samsaric desire.
As for the fault of increasing kleshas, in regard to this immeasurable the former text says:
Kleshas conquer the self. They conquer sentient beings. They conquer discipline. By
receiving their corruption one is lowered, and stays that way. By manifesting in that way one is
degraded. Do not listen to the arguments of others who will be beings without leisure. Harmed by
attaining and non-attaining, the mind will attain great suffering.
Attainment damages the happiness of this life and non-attainment damages later happiness. As for the benefits
of meditating on the four immeasurables, one does not have such faults, one grasps the possibilities of benefiting beings,
and since one is not whirled in samsara by the kleshas, suffering does not arise. The same text says:
For one who rests in kindness and the rest
The faults that have been described will not arise.
Having no kleshas, one will benefit beings,
And will not pass into samsaric birth.
As for the praise of the virtues:
Unequaled with limitless qualities, kindness and the rest
Are given the highest praise by the teacher of gods and men.
The Glorious Garland Sutra says:
Whoever meditates on the four immeasurables
Will be considered with kindness by all the tathagatas.
All the immeasurable good qualities of this
Are even more limitless than endless space itself
As for the teaching that the four immeasurables is the way of the victorious ones
As for the four immeasurables:
Any path that is without them is in error.
It is an evil path to take refuge in other teachings.
The path that has them leads to spotless liberation.
This is the way that was traveled by buddhas of the past.
It also will be traveled by those who are to come.
The Commentary of the Teacher of the Bhumis says:
The four immeasurables are the path of liberation. Others are wrong paths.
As for the teaching of how to attain the two ultimate realities.
The causal vehicles hold that as a seed produces a sprout,
Upaya and prajqa are the producers of the two kayas.
The fruition vehicles proclaim these as being mere conditions,
Removing the two obscurations that veil these same two kayas.
But since upaya depends on the limitless path of compassion,
The meaning is the same: Emptiness is compassionate.
In that, both cause and fruition practice are in accord.
The vehicles of characteristics mostly proclaim that the two accumulations are the producing cause of the two
kayas. The Sixty Stanzas on Reasoning says:
By this merit all beings
Accumulate merit and wisdom.
Arising from merit and wisdom,
May we attain the two absolutes.
In the secret mantra, it is maintained that clearing away the two obscurations of the kayas occurs through
practicing the two accumulations as upaya and prajqa, and therefore this is proclaimed to be a condition. Both are in
accord, since practice having the essence of emptiness and compassion is what is established.
As for summarizing the meaning of this meditation:
The sutras say that the unborn seeds of happiness
Have existed primordially and never were created.
The mantrayana is in accord with this, because it claims
To clear away the incidental obscurations
That are the primordial obscurations of trikaya.
To summarize briefly, learned and accomplished ones
Explain that sutra and tantra are a unity,
As outer and inner aspects of a single path.
Therefore, following after the holy buddha sons,
We should strive to practice the four immeasurables.
The final teaching says that the dhatu is naturally pure and possesses the buddha qualities primordially. At the
time of having practiced the path, the buddha qualities appear to arise, and are proclaimed to appear. In the mantrayana
all beings naturally exist as the mandala, as explained below. Since these two are without distinction, it amounts to the
same thing. In the path, the two accumulations of upaya and prajqa are also the same. In the fruitions, the kayas and
wisdoms are the same. Therefore former great masters like Padmasambhava have explained their relationship as inner
and outer. Therefore, we should strive to meditate on the four immeasurables.
The tenth part of the general meaning, the dedication of merit.
Now the merit is dedicated for the benefit of sentient beings:
Thus by the nature of this peace that was so well-taught,
When the roiling silt in the mind of all beings is pacified,
Fatigued by having strayed into wrong and descending paths,
May our minds today find ease for their weariness.
By the power of this auspicious way of presenting the Dharma, like the host of undefiled rays of the autumn
moon, may whatever beings are dwelling on the paths of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, and others dwelling on the
paths of the heretics, and those who are wearied by dwelling on paths that are less than perfect, and all those worn out by
dwelling on the great path of samsara, whose minds are disturbed by the roiling kleshas be completely pacified. In the
wondrously arisen grove of liberation, carpeted with an array of various flowers, in the pond of buddha qualities may they
ease themselves.
As when the full moon of autumn ornaments the sky
Having a perfectly rounded, brilliantly shining disk,
And hundreds of night-blooming lotuses open in its light
May these fully blossom in the faith of sentient beings.
Lapping the motionless Meru of a mind of sanity
Is the play of the ocean of happiness and benefit.
The four immeasurables are the ornaments of mind
As the four continents adorn that central mountain.
May happiness beautify the world to its farthest horizon.
May beings without remainder perfect their livelihood.
From the peaceful wreath of clouds of the play of the three levels,
May the heavens wondrously open with the rain of happiness
With flashing illumination and the thunder of victory
May these four immeasurable benefits reach to the end of time.
The Commentary on Chapter Eight: Producing the Mind of Complete Enlightenment
After the mind has been well trained by the four immeasurable aspirations, we enter the essence of the ocean of
the activity of the buddha sons, our chief topic,
VIII bodhicitta, the mind focused on supreme enlightenment.
There are three general topics.
A. The teaching of meditating on the root of all dharmas, the two bodhicittas
B The extensive explanation of how actually to arouse bodhicitta
C. The dedication of merit.
A. The teaching of meditating on the root of all dharmas, the two bodhicittas
Now arousing the mind of supreme enlightenment will be discussed. As just explained:
When we are well-accustomed to the four immeasurables,
We should meditate on the root of all Dharmas, the two bodhicittas.
This is the root of all dharmas of the world and beyond the world. It is the essence of all paths. It is the guide of
all sentient beings. The steed by which one will quickly cross to the unsurpassable mansion of excellence is the best of
thoughts, bodhicitta. Here we shall learn how to arouse it. The Sutra Requested by Maitreya says:
Maitreya, if a bodhisattva has a single dharma the lower realms will be abandoned. One will
not come into the hands of evil associates. It will be the cause of quickly becoming fully, truly,
completely enlightened. What is this single dharma? It is the most excellent and perfect of wishes,
bodhicitta.
Maitreya, if one has this dharma, the lower realms are abandoned. One will not come into the
hands of evil associates. It will be the cause of quickly becoming fully, truly, completely enlightened.
The Bodhisattva-Pitaka-Sutra says:
Since one will quickly become enlightened with unsurpassable, true, complete enlightenment,
one should train in the best of wishes, bodhicitta.
B. the extensive explanation of arousing bodhicitta,
There are has ten sections.
1. The explanation of the benefits
There are six sections.
a. The benefit of leading from samsara to peace
What are these benefits?
These put an end to the kleshas and the ocean of samsara.
They clear away the fear and suffering of evil deeds.
They conquer the karma and suffering involved with the samskaras,
Leading beings away from samsara and to nirvana.
Regarding liberation from the ocean of samsara, The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
Kye, son of noble family, bodhicitta is like a great ship that liberates us from the stream of
samsara. It is like a heroic guardian who liberates us from fear of samsara and the lower realms.
The Liberation of Maitreya says:
O son of noble family, it is like this. Relying on a heroic guardian, one has no fear of any
enemies. Similarly, bodhisattvas who put their reliance in arousing the wish for omniscience have no
fear of any evil enemy.
The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Like depending on a hero when there is great danger
Even after doing inexpiable evil deeds,
The instant one depends on this, one is liberated,
Why would those who are heedful not rely on it?
All suffering and evil deeds are cleared away. The same text says:
Wishing to destroy the hundreds of sufferings of samsara,
Desiring to clear away the sorrow of sentient beings,
And wishing they will enjoy many hundreds of happiness
One should never let go of the means, which is bodhicitta.
The Sutra of the Instructions of the Glorious Great Vehicle says:
The person who enters into unsurpassable enlightenment without the existence of even an
atom cuts off the evil path of going to the lower realms and the eight unfree states. That person is
separated from the paths of gods and human beings and completely abandons them. Such a person is
not blind or deaf. All the senses are sound.
Burning the firewood of karma and the kleshas, bodhicitta is like a fire. The former text says:
This, like the fire at the end of time, in an instant will certainly burn great evil deeds.
The Liberation of Maitreya says:
By burning away all faults, it is like the fire at the end of the kalpa.
Moreover, by attaining buddhahood, one is led out of samsara. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
If this occurs the immeasurable host of sentient beings
Will attain the ease of the highest state of blissfulness.
b. The benefit of being a shrine for the world
For those who have aroused bodhicitta:
Even while bodhicitta is not yet manifest,
The wholesome stream of compassion is rising ever higher.
In meditation, upaya and prajqa will unite.
All undertakings of body and speech are beneficial.
We become like shrines for all the world and the gods.
Those who have faultlessly aroused bodhicitta, when the mind is in non-conceptual meditation, will be united
with its prajqa and with absorption that never goes to sleep, loses consciousness, or gives rise to the perceptions of
memory. Perception and feeling cease, and there is the absorption of cessation. Always conceptionless, the mind does not
manifest the five situations below. The Thirty Verses says:
As for the arising of mental consciousness,
Mindless sleep and unconsciousness
And the two samadhis
One is always without perception of these.
When this occurs, the bodhicitta formerly aroused remains undamaged and there is continual merit. The
Bodhicharyavatara says:
When this has been grasped, the dhatus of sentient beings
Therefore will be limitlessly liberated,
Since there arises from them the mind of non-returning,
That which is true mind is actually received.
When this has been grasped, even while they are asleep
Or when they are non-attentive, still the force of merit
Which is multifarious and continuous,
As limitless as space, continues performing its function.
All undertakings will be successful. The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
O son of noble family, whoever has aroused the mind of supreme enlightenment, will be
successful in all undertakings. They will always be of one taste with wholesomeness alone.
By arousing this undamaged bodhicitta all virtuous conduct and whatever neutral is done will not be mere
incidental accomplishment; it will become virtue according with enlightenment. One will become a shrine for the world.
The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
Those who arouse bodhicitta will be a shrine for all the world together with its gods.
c. The benefit that virtue increases ever higher
As for this virtue corresponding with merit:
Other kinds of happiness diminish and are exhausted.
The happiness that is established by precious bodhicitta
Rather than being exhausted, will actually increase.
It is like clear water flowing into the ocean,
Or a rich and glorious harvest, growing in fertile soil.
A drop of water flowing into an ocean will not be exhausted but will go on for a kalpa. A sesame seed planted in
good soil will greatly increase. So does the virtue of arousing bodhicitta. The Sutra Requested by Maitreya says:
Manjushri, similarly if we arouse bodhicitta until attaining the unsurpassable enlightenment
of buddhahood, the virtue of that will not be exhausted.
Manjushri, for example it is like this, all seeds which are a suitable source in every suitable
way will grow. As those seeds will grow, the virtue of having aroused bodhicitta will vastly grow.
Meritorious virtue is not like a banana tree, which fruits once, and then is exhausted. The immeasurable fruition
of temporal and ultimate virtue increases inexhaustibly like that of a great tree. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
All other kinds of virtue are like a banana tree
It brings forth fruit but once, then it is exhausted.
However the eternal tree of bodhicitta
Gives fruit that always increases inexhaustibly.
The Basket of Books Sutra says:
Manjushri, it is like this, a variety of trees, having taken in the four elements, will greatly
increase. Manjushri, if the virtuous roots are dedicated to omniscience, having taken in
bodhicitta they will greatly increase.
d. The Benefit of being the Root of all Dharmas.
Moreover, of all dharmas without remainder:
The root, the seed, of all is the nature of compassion.
Even in samsara it yields wholesome fruits.
Its nature is nirvana. It grows to enlightenment.
Strive to arouse this precious bodhicitta fully.
The Sutra Requested by Bhrama says:
Bhrama, what is this excellent thought bodhicitta? As the root of all dharmas, it is like a seed. Why so? From
the seed the sprout, leaves, flower, and fruit arise. Likewise from this excellent thought much
happiness is experienced among gods and human beings. And also it will reproduce omniscience.
The Sutra of Instructions to the King says:
O great king, by the ripening of the karma of the virtuous roots of the wish for unsurpassable,
true, complete enlightenment, you will be born many times among the gods and experience happiness.
You will be born many times among human beings and experience happiness. But if the power is
produced of always being among gods and human beings, then, O great king, the virtuous roots of
bodhicitta will be diminished or not fully developed.
e. The benefit of Suffering being Eased and the Appearances of Wisdom Produced
The immeasurable benefits of arousing bodhicitta:
This is the excellent medicine that cures the ills of beings;
The magic vase that magnifies wish-fulfilling splendor.
This is the sun of wisdom, and the moon that soothes our torments,
With qualities like a host of stars in a spotless sky.
The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
Bodhicitta is the seed of all the dharmas of buddhahood. In making the white dharmas of all
sentient beings increase, it is like a field. In burning away all faults, it is like kalpa fire. In exhausting
all unhappiness, it is like the wealth of the nagas. In accomplishing all goals, it is like the king of wish-
fulfilling gems. In pulling us out of the stream of the river of samsara, it is like an iron hook. In the
world together with its gods, humans, and asuras, it is like an offering shrine. In fulfilling all wishes, it
is like an excellent wishing-vase.
The Bodhicharyavatara says:
This is the excellent amrita of deathlessness
That conquers for sentient beings the fearful Lord of Death.
This is the inexhaustible precious treasure source,
That clears away all the poverty of sentient beings.
This is the excellent medicine of the supreme physician
That completely pacifies all the illnesses of beings.
This is the wishing-tree that eases the weariness
Of beings exhausted by wandering on the path of samsara.
This is the universally supporting bridge
That liberates all beings from fear of the lower realms.
This is the arising of the moon of mind,
That clears away the torment of the kleshas of beings.
This is the great sun that fully bestows on beings
Elimination of the darkness of ignorance,
From churning the milk of teachings of the Holy Dharma
This is the essential butter that arises.
Beings who are travelers, treading the path of samsara,
Wish they could experience the bounties of happiness,
But now at this banquet of the ultimate happiness
These great travelers, sentient beings, will be satisfied.
f. The Benefit of vast qualities
Because these qualities are immeasurable, the mind:
This is as vast as the measureless ocean of dharmadhatu
And the supremely miraculous qualities of the Victorious One.
Within it are limitless cloud-banks of inconceivable merit.
Their nature, always produces happiness and benefit,
Thus the immeasurable dharmas of buddhahood are grasped. The Bodhisattva-Pitaka-Sutra says:
Shariputra, if a bodhisattva mahasattva possesses a certain single dharma, these dharmas of
buddhahood and immeasurable others will be completely grasped. What is this single dharma? It is
the excellent wish for enlightenment.
Shariputra, if a bodhisattva mahasattva possesses this single dharma, these dharmas of
buddhahood and immeasurable others will be completely grasped.
Similarly, many aspects of Dharma will appear and be blessed by buddhahood. The Sutra of the Embodiment of
Genuine Dharma says:
Bhagavan, This excellent wish is the root of all Dharmas. When this wish is absent, one is far
from all the Dharmas of the buddha.
Bhagavan, as for this excellent wish, even if one does not enter into buddhahood, Dharma
words will arise from the center of the sky, and from walls, and trees.
Within this excellent wish of bodhisattvas, from the examination of one's own mind, all the
instructions and teachings will arise. Therefore, Produce the excellent wish for of enlightenment.
Bhagavan, its is, for example, like this. The head, though it is the first of the limbs, is not the
life. Similarly, one who has this excellent wish, does not have the enlightenment of the buddhas.
This is better than making offerings to the tathagatas.
The Sutra Requested by the Householder Glorious Gift says:
Better than persons in the buddha fields
Filled abundantly with the seven treasures,
Who offer them freely to the lords of the world,
Those who have joined their palms in veneration
And bowed to the excellence of bodhicitta
Make an offering that is more noble,
And this is not the end of what is gained.
The Noble Moon Lamp Sutra says:
In the fullness of a thousand million million fields
All the measureless offerings to the Chief of Beings
Would not equal the value of a thought of kindness
The Sutra of Training in the Limitless Gate says:
Bhrama, these three are unsurpassed by offerings and ceremonies for the tathagatas. They have immeasurable
merit. What are these three? They are producing the wish for unsurpassable, true, complete
enlightenment; grasping the Holy Dharma of the tathagatas; and practicing what one has heard.
Bhrama, these three are unsurpassed by offerings and ceremonies for the tathagatas.
Bhrama, if there is entry into the kalpa-long measure of life of the body of the tathagata, the completed ripening
of these offerings would be shown and that kalpa exhausted; but the benefit of the heap of merits of
these three would not be exhausted.
Moreover, liberated from the lower realms, attaining peace, being immeasurable and inconceivable and so forth,
one will be a worthy object of prostrations. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
The moment they arouse the mind of bodhicitta,
These wretched ones who are bound in the prison of samsara,
Will be called the sons of the tathagata
And be worthy of the prostrations of the world
And also:
The low is made high.
The same text says:
Like the excellent elixir that turns things into gold,
It makes this unclean body the body of a Buddha.
What is worthless is turned into something supremely precious,
Therefore firmly grasp this which is known as "bodhicitta."
The Inconceivable Secrets Sutra says:
The merit of bodhicitta
if this were put into form
Would fill the whole of space,
Therefore it is supreme.
The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
In brief, as much as the goodness of the buddha bhagavats are the virtues of arousing
bodhicitta. They are as vast as the sky and dharmadhatu.
Bodhicitta is taught because of the intention of the buddhas to do benefit. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Having intended this over many kalpas,
The enlightened sages see the benefits of this
The praise of the bodhisattvas who possess bodhicitta is like this. These bodhisattvas are a great field. Anyone
who becomes angry with them has immeasurable non-merit whose fruition is the lower realms, the Bodhicharyavatara
says:
Whoever to such patrons as these buddha sons
Produces vicious aggression and animosity,
As many bad thoughts as they aroused, so many kalpas
They will abide in hell, so the Sage has taught.
The Sutra of the Miracle of Attaining Complete Pacification
says:
Manjushri, as many times as they have animosity to a bodhisattva, so many kalpas will they
abide in hell. Therefore don the armor of bodhicitta.
Well if one produces virtue by faith, won't one's merit increase even more? The former text says:
Well if someone produces the supreme mind, The fruition will be more excellent than that.
How will it increase? The Sutra of the Seal of Entering into Certainty and Uncertainty says:
Manjushri, as for its being completely and eternally grasped, for example, if all the sentient
beings in all the worlds of the ten directions were given eyes, someone who did that would not
produce more merit. Or if all the beings of all the worlds of the ten directions were released from the
darkness of a dark prison and established in the happiness of a chakravartin or Bhrama; if a son or
daughter of noble family looks on a bodhisattva with faith and devotion to the mahayana, and expresses
praise, a merit countlessly greater than that will be produced.
Even those who look on a bodhisattva with the mind of the kleshas do not go to the lower realms, but are born in
the higher realms, let alone those who have faith. The Noble Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
The bodhisattva Gaje of good form and pleasant to look upon was begging alms in
Shravasti, when he was seen by a merchant's daughter Palyvn chengyi Chok. The girl lived out
her life tormented by a blazing fire of desire, and then was born among the thirty-three gods. There
the children of the gods remembered their former existences, and she said, "E ma! If by looking at a
bodhisattva even with desire, such a ripening as this arose, what would have happened if we looked
with faith and reverence! Having thought that, they came together with their divine retinues of five
hundred. They offered flowers and so on.
Moreover, even those who by not having faith in them go to the lower realms, finally, guarded by their
compassion, will be liberated beyond samsara. If they are connected by faith, by having that benefit, they will quickly
attain enlightenment. The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Even those who do evil to bodhisattvas, and by those actions go to the lower realms, will be
liberated from there by that bodhisattva with great effort. They will be established in great
enlightenment.
The Bodhicharyavatara says:
By those individuals who have once seen me
Whether thoughts of anger or of faith arise,
Forever after may this always be the cause
Of establishing every benefit for them.
Also:
Even those who harm them will have a connection to happiness.
They will go to for refuge to that source of happiness.
2. the essence
There are seven sections
a. The general explanation of arising and entering
Now the essence of arousing bodhicitta will be explained. Thus for supreme enlightenment...:
Arousal of bodhicitta consists of the desire
Of attaining true buddhahood for limitless sentient beings.
The two kinds are those of aspiration and entering.
Wishing for this is always joined with application
Just as volition to move is always joined with moving.
In arousing bodhicitta, one desires buddhahood for the benefit of others. The Abhisamayalankara says:
As for arousing bodhicitta, for others' benefit.
Because of that one wishes for perfect enlightenment.
Moreover since it is right that this attitude has a beneficial essence, because we discriminate its particulars, by
arousing the essence, the particulars will also subsequently be produced. For example by the arousing of bodhicitta of
aspiring such and such particulars will subsequently be attained.
From the two essences of these bodhicittas, the bodhicitta of aspiration is the intention to attain enlightenment.
Entering is putting that Dharma into practice. Aspiring and entering are like wanting to go and actually going. The
Bodhicharyavatara says: 1.15-16
Briefly this excellent wish, the bodhicitta
Should be known to be divided into two separate kinds,
There is the attitude of aspiring to enlightenment
And that of actually entering into enlightenment.
It should be also be known that the difference of these two kinds
Is like that between wanting to go and actually going.
Thus by capable persons these two bodhicittas
Should be known to have this particular distinction.
Here there are many ways of dividing the classifications. There are the arousal of relative and absolute
bodhicitta. The Nirvana says:
Divided as absolute and relative,
Bodhicitta has two different types.
Also there are the arousal of bodhicitta by ordinary individuals and by the noble ones and the external viewpoint
of sentient beings and the internal viewpoint of the nature of mind. These are also called arousing relative and absolute
bodhicitta. The Sutra of the Great Creation of Bodhicitta says:
The bodhisattva Kashyapa asked, Bhagavan, how is such a mind aroused.
The Buddha spoke, "All dharmas are like the sky without any characteristics. Therefore they
are primordially luminous and completely pure. That is called enlightenment. Giving birth to the
thought of being in accord with that, the precious thought which has not arisen before, is called
arousing the thought of enlightenment, bodhicitta.
There are also three kinds of arousing bodhicitta depending on the three disciplines of the three learnings. The
Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
The thought that vows to be faultless, the thought of collecting virtuous dharmas, and the
thought of ripening sentient beings--Earnestly arouse these three bodhicittas.
On the paths of accumulation and preparation, practice arousing bodhicitta by wishing for devotion. From the
first to the seventh bhumi wish for pure attitudes, on the three pure bhumis for ripening, and on the level of buddhahood
for abandoning obscurations. Regarding these four, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
As for arousing bodhicitta, those on the bhumis
Have the wish for devotion and good attitudes
Then for ripening, and after that as well
They have the wish that obscurations should be abandoned.
There also bodhicittas of aspiring to the five paths of accumulation, preparation, seeing, meditation, and no more
learning. The Prajqaparamita in Twenty Thousand Lines says:
There are beginner's bodhicitta, the bodhicitta of one who is properly-trained, the bodhicitta of seeing
the Dharma, the bodhicitta of complete liberation, and the bodhicitta that is inconceivable by thought. Subhuti,
these are the wish that those who are entering the path may enter it; that those who have entered it should be
properly-trained; that the divine eye may be produced; that one may meditate on the truth of the noble path; and
that the unobscured buddha eye may be obtained.
There are also six divisions depending on the six paramitas. The same text says:
The vast immeasurable mind of the bodhisattvas possessing the six paramitas is not shared with
shravakas and pratyekabuddhas.
There are also ten divisions related to the ten paramitas. The Gew'i Lha says:
Thus, by proper inner resting in meditation, after meditating on the ten bodhicittas,...
According to the dividing points of the stages they are taught by twenty-two examples. According to the
teachings of the Sutra Requested by Understanding Ocean, the Abhisamayalankara says:
These are earth and gold, the moon and fire;
A treasure, a source of precious things, a lake;
A vajra, mountain, medicine, and the spiritual friend;
A wish-fulfilling gem, the sun, melodious song;
A king, a treasury, and a far-reaching highway;
A steed, a fountain; echoes, rivers, clouds;
Altogether there are twenty-two aspects.
As for the respective meanings of these examples, the commentary says that they are:
1 Strong interest
2 wishing
3 lofty attitude
4 application
5 the paramita of generosity
6 ...discipline
7 ...patience
8 ...exertion
9 ...meditation
10 ...prajqa
11 ...skillful means
12 ... aspiration
13 ... power and
14 ... wisdom
15 the higher perceptions
16 merit and wisdom
17 the dharmas according with enlightenment
18 compassion and clear seeing (vipashyana)
19 retention and confident eloquence,
20 celebration of Dharma
21 the path that crosses all at once
22 possession of dharmakaya.
Strong interest is like earth,
Wishing is like gold,
Lofty attitude is like the rising moon.
These three signify the lesser, middle, and greater paths of accumulation.
Application is like fire.
This is arousing bodhicitta on the four levels of the path of preparation.
Generosity is like a treasure.
Discipline is like a source of precious things.
Patience is like a lake.
Exertion is like a vajra.
Meditation is like a mountain.
Prajqa is like medicine.
Skilful means is like a spiritual friend.
Aspiration is like a wish-fulfilling gem.
Power is like the sun.
The perfection of wisdom is like listening to a melodious song.
These designate the first through the tenth bhumis.
Higher perception is like a king.
The two accumulations are like a treasury.
The dharmas according with enlightenment are like a highway.
Compassion and clear seeing are like an excellent steed.
Retention and confident eloquence are like a fountainhead.
These five apply overall to the eighth, ninth, and tenth bhumis.
Celebration of dharma is like an echo.
Crossing all at once is like a river.
Dharmakaya is like clouds.
These three occur in the tenth bhumi, where wisdom and great buddha activity benefit beings.
Commenting on this, the Prasannapada says:
The first three include the lesser, middle, and greater levels of the beginner's path of
accumulation. The next includes the path of entry to the first bhumi. The next include the ten bhumis,
"Supremely Joyful" and so on the paths of seeing and meditation. The next five include special paths.
The next three kinds of arousing bodhicitta concern preparation, real experience, and completion of the
level of buddhahood. Thus, these divisions include everything from the beginner's level to
buddhahood.
Some join the last three to the level of prabhasvara, but this way of explaining the scripture is not right. Those
on that level do not perceive entry into buddhahood, because they do not perceive exhaustion or the final limit. The level
of buddhahood is where the arhats of the mahayana dwell.
The Mahayanasutralankara says:
The arousal of bodhicitta by the sons of the victorious ones
Is taught to be like clouds
By that, it is taught that these twenty-two go from the path of accumulation to the tenth bhumi. Here, if it asked
whether there is arousal of bodhicitta on the level of buddhahood, it is not maintained that there is desire for attainment
here, as with the arousal of bodhicitta by students. This is because buddhahood has already been attained. Also because
one has gone beyond the time of proclamation, there is no arousal of wishes for accepting or collecting anything.
However, absolute arousal of bodhicitta exists for one who has attained dharmata, mounting higher and higher without
harming attainment. This is because emptiness exists without being discarded, and because the great objectless
compassion produces benefits. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
When I see with the Buddha-eye and what arousing bodhicitta I possess, it is beyond the number of
grains of sand of the river Ganges in the eastern part of the world. I teach the Dharma in order to
benefit those sentient beings who have gone into the birth-places of hell-beings, pretas, and animals.
The glorious teacher Jqanakirti said that within the twenty-two above, the first three are aspiring, and the later
nineteen are maintained to be entering]:
Strong interest and so forth, those three divisions
Are the three aspects of the bodhicitta of aspiring.
As for what is called the bodhicitta of entering,
It is explained to have nineteen aspects.
Though he says that, it should be maintained that each of these has two aspects, of aspiring and entering.
Aspiring is intends to realize enlightenment. Entering puts it into effect by engaging with it. Both are necessary in each
case.
As the support of arousing bodhicitta, according to the mind-only school, making what at first was not attained
be attained, one of the seven families of individual-enlightenment, whichever is appropriate, arises. The Lamp of the Path
of Enlightenment says:
The seven families of the pratimoksha
Always have vows of achieving this as other;
However it is not seen as other for those
Who have the good fortune of mahayana vows.
According to madhyamaka, those in whom bodhicitta is aroused and practiced should not be maintained to be
only those who have the free and well-favored body. The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Now to explain the scope of those who have this dharma, countless gods, nagas, asuras, sky-soarers and big-
bellied ones produce bodhicitta, the wish for unsurpassable, true, complete enlightenment.
These two systems are not understood to be contradictory. Thus, at the time of arousing bodhicitta, even if one
has not been imputed with the name of the pratimoksha vows, since one must be able to take vows with a similar
meaning, not to cut off life and so forth, one will certainly have a similar support. That from transgressing their goal a
wrong attitude will arise is certain. If one is not able to take the appropriate version of the pratimoksha vow, nothing at all
will arise. This would contradict the very wish that was being aroused. In brief, for a being who wishes to practice this,
gathering its bases is the bodily support. Having the particular attitudes of faith and so forth is the support of thought.
The Sutra of The Palm Tree of the Three Jewels says:
Because one has faith in the Conqueror and his Dharma,
One also has faith in the highest enlightenment.
If one has faith in the practice of buddha sons,
One will have the attitude of the wise.
As for the support of place, wherever one is born while the cause that damages bodhicitta does not arise, that is
the place.
The three causes of arousing bodhicitta are faith with the Buddha as its object, compassion with sentient beings
as its object, and hearing the benefits of bodhicitta. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
From the power of friendship and from hearing Dharma,
From the cause and roots and from being accustomed to virtue,
There is the Unstable and that which arises stably.
Stabilized by others is arousing bodhicitta.
Relying on true friends, or being urged by the spiritual friend, and having heard the Dharma is the cause of
arousing the unstable bodhicitta of aspiring, which is the first kind to arise. Arising subsequently by the cause of
one's becoming accustomed to virtue and awakening the proper cause, and awakening the root, compassion, is the stable
arising of the bodhicitta of entering. The passage says that there are these. The essence of arousing bodhicitta is entering
into an attitude of aspiration inseparable from the desire to attain complete enlightenment for the benefit of others. What
is included in this becomes the essence of the six paramitas, The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
This bodhicitta also sets out to do benefit for others. It is this nature of aspiring and entering which has
the six paramitas.
Also the two bodhicittas and the three controlling disciplines of a bodhisattva are of one nature. By the wish to
benefit others and good conduct, there is aspiring and entering. The master Sherab Jungne in his The Ornament of the
Sage's Intention says:
Neither of these bodhicittas goes beyond desire for unsurpassable, true, complete enlightenment for the
benefit of sentient beings.
By self-control there is 1) the discipline of control. Since from that benefit for others is produced, there is 2) the
discipline of performing benefit for sentient beings. By increase of the two accumulations and so forth, there is 3) the
discipline of gathering virtuous dharmas. Since all these control unwholesome aspects of one's continuum, they are taught
to be the controlling disciplines of a bodhisattva.
For example, like a wishing-jewel that cures plagues, makes arise what is needed and desired, clears darkness
and so forth, here there are different aspects of one essence.
In the extensive explanation of the individual natures
b. the essences of arising and entering are explained:
Aspiring has the essence of the four immeasurables.
And entering that of the six paramitas, it is maintained.
The Sutra Requested by Manjushri says:
Manjushri, that which aspires to the benefit of others is the great kindness, the great
compassion, the great joy, and the great equanimity. That perfect conduct is also the six paramitas.
Now so that what occurs by means of the individual benefits of these two may be known, let us say a little about
c. the benefits of the bodhicitta of aspiring:
For beings:
Though some may worship the Buddhas to the limits of the directions
For many millions of kalpas, caring only for their own good,
This will not match even a fraction of the merit of aspiration.
The Glorious Account of the Dharmas of Complete Great Nirvana says:
Whoever offers all their lives to all the buddhas
The seven precious substances and the requisites of life And immeasurable offering of the five kinds of food
[?]
More excellent than that is aspiring to enlightenment
For the sake of sentient beings, for just the space of a moment.
The excellent virtues of doing that are limitless.
Moreover:
Whatever being, for even the space of a moment,
Meditates by arousing bodhicitta,
As for the heap of merit of doing that,
It cannot be reckoned by even victorious ones.
d. An example of what it is like:
As for showing its suitability:
Aspiring to lighten even a little the sufferings of beings
Even if this arises only for an instant,
Brings us liberation from the lower realms.
And limitless happiness among gods and human beings.
A friendly ship captain's daughter having given four kasharpani coins and eight and sixteen and thirty-two, by
kicking her mother's head, wounded it. On an island in the ocean, she was welcomed by four divine daughters and eight
and sixteen and thirty two, and when her good actions were exhausted, in the south she was put into an iron house, and in
the instant her head was being drilled she thought, In Jambuling many have struck women's/mothers heads, and these will
certainly come here, but may I substitute for them so that they are not be born here. In the instant of thinking this, the
remaining time of punishment by drilling was over. After that lifetime was done, she was born as a Tushita god.
e. the explanation of the benefits of entering
Though by the bodhicitta of aspiring great benefits are attained, the benefits of entering are limitlessly more than
that:
And yet the rewards of entering are infinitely more.
Because there is always a real and actual application,
All excellent minds that apply themselves thus for even an instant,
Are said to bring together the two accumulations,
Which otherwise would be the task of many kalpas
By lofty attitude, one is entirely elevated. Because the benefits of an instant of application are immeasurable,
even the benefits of an instant of aspiration are therefore immeasurable. The Sutra of the Girl Excellent Moon says:
If from just the thought of helping others
the benefits will be immeasurable,
Why even speak about really doing this?
The Bodhicharyavatara says: 1.27
If merely thinking about performing benefit
Is much nobler than making offerings to the buddhas,
Why even speak of really exerting ourselves
For the happiness of all sentient beings without remainder?
In accord with that, Minag Dungthungchen Sepa, for a period of forty thousand kalpas did pure actions in a
forest and as the bhramin child "skar ma la dga' ba" did so for twenty thousand years. Then having come into a city to beg
alms, he was seen by the daughter of a merchant, who thought, if I don't ask for him as a husband I'll die. To save her life,
by abandoning the pure conduct, collected over twenty thousand kalpas association and so forth, as is said in the Sutra of
the Skill of the Great Secret Path of Upaya.
Aspiration does not have a fruition of continuously arising merit, but the merit of entering has the distinction of
continuously arising. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 1.17
Though from the bodhicitta of aspiration
There is a great fruition in samsaric life,
The merit of this does not continually arise
As it does with the bodhicitta of entering.
f. how by the power of mind, accumulation is combined
Now, by accumulation every instant explaining how many are combined, subsequently the wrong conceptualization of
inferior minds ceases. As for the reason:
So whether all that has been taught to take three countless kalpas
Is completed quickly or after a very long time,
Or there is liberation within a single lifetime,
Actually depends on the power of the mind.
Whatever is done by efforts, means and the highest prajqa,
Is in reality done by this unsurpassable power.
Bodhisattvas of very dull powers need thirty-three innumerable kalpas to attain enlightenment. The paths of
accumulation and preparation take three. Each of the ten bhumis takes three. Those of middle powers need seven. Each
of the paths of accumulation and preparation takes two. The path of seeing takes one, the path of meditation two. Those
of sharp powers take three. The Precious Lamp of the Middle Way by master Bhavya says:
Those of sharp powers take three innumerable kalpas to become completely and perfectly
enlightened. Those of intermediate powers take seven; those of dull powers take thirty-three.
As for these three degrees of sharpness, The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Perfected in three innumerable kalpas,
They will then complete their meditation.
The great commentary on the Prajqaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines says: 545.6
In the first innumerable kalpa they begin the path of accumulation, and go as far as the first
bhumi. In the second, they go from the second bhumi "the spotless one" up to the seventh. In the third,
they go from the eighth bhumi "the motionless one" up to buddhahood.
The Bodhisattva-bhumi says:
For the paths of accumulation and preparation they take one, from the first to the seventh
bhumis they take one, and for the three pure bhumis they take one.
As completing the paths of accumulation and preparation brings us to the first bhumi, the prajqaparamita's way
of explaining the number of innumerable kalpas is of one meaning with that of the Bhumi-collection. In this account of
innumerable kalpas those of sharp and dull powers are distinguished, and though those of sharp powers take three
innumerable kalpas for the gradual stages of the two accumulations, this is from the point of view of one final gathering
into union.
Also since it is explained that for great power of mind every instant combines many kalpas, they do not
necessarily need three countless kalpas. The secret mantra says that from the viewpoint of those of the sharpest powers, by
their great powers of mind every instant combines immeasurable kalpas, and by continuous learning, they are able to be
liberated quickly within a single lifetime and so forth.
After they attain abhisheka, their dwelling in meditation on the two stages of development and fulfillment is
called the lesser path of accumulation. Then if they strive with great effort and skillful means, it is taught that within that
very life they attain the path of seeing. For those who have attained the path of seeing there are no birth or death, so
within that very life, they complete the path of meditation. This is attaining enlightenment.
Also having attained the path of seeing, if they wish, they can establish enlightenment within seven days. The
Prajqaparamita in Twenty Thousand Lines says: {{547.1}}
These great bodhisattvas, having attained with respect to dharmas the dharma eye, if they
wish, in seven days, can be completely enlightened with unsurpassable enlightenment.
The measure of benefits of this is that of the wealth of autonomy, in which whatever we desire is accomplished
and there is only what we like. Whether on the shravaka, pratyekabuddha, or bodhisattva yanas, it is taught that this body
of the noble ones is made to manifest. Therefore, not many can be reckoned as suitable for being liberated in a single
lifetime in the style of secret mantra.
In mantrayana, with its profound skillful means many quickly attain the path of seeing. Up to the path of seeing,
they enter into the particulars of means and effort. Beyond that bodhisattvas of very sharp powers and the vidyadharas of
mantrayana are without distinction in the time of traversing the bhumis. Mantra-practitioner rigdzin noble ones are more
quickly liberated than the duller ones. With exertion, great skillful means, and a life of prajqa their acts are quickly
established in the world. By ordinary ones they are not established, but the example has indeed been understood, and after
one life they do not travel to another. Though the inner luminous nature of mind is not fundamentally established in
existence, merely from abandoning defilements, getting close to it is established. {{548.2}}
g. How joy is produced in these being newly born
ultimate bodhicitta:
This possess the essence of the wishing tree of compassion
As for its bearing well the heavy burden of beings,
In this world even Bhrama and so forth,
Even for themselves have never dreamed of this
Let alone seeking this bodhicitta for other beings
So joy is created in this which has never existed before.
The Madhyamakavatara says:
Intermediate shravaka buddhas and the being the Lord of Sages, All these Buddhas take their birth from the
bodhisattvas,
It is the mind non-dual with the mind of compassion
Bodhicitta, which is the cause of the buddha sons.
Therefore first of all compassion should be praised.
In that way, the wishing tree of compassion bears the burden of the flock of birds of limitless sentient beings.
these as for that ultimate bodhicitta, father mother and so forth wishing benefit for themselves and worldly lords Bhrama
and so forth even those are without is and even for themselves up to now caring only for this life, such an attitude,
previously unborn, should be rejoiced in. {{549.0}} That is what it is saying. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 1.23-5
Even if we include the love of father and mothers
Who has such a beneficial attitude?
Even those who are gods and highly accomplished sages
Or does even Bhrama have anything like this?
If before now none of these sentient beings
Had such an attitude even for their own benefit,
If it was not dreamed of even in a dream,
How would such benefits ever rise for others?
This attitude of benefit by bringing joy to others,
Which does not arise even for oneself
This specially precious thought of benefiting beings
Is an unprecedented wonder which is born.
This wondrously arisen attitude accomplishes the benefit of both self and other. It is the supreme offering to the
tathagata. The same text says: 6.127
This itself is pleasing to the tathagatas
This itself accomplishes our true benefit
This itself removes the sufferings of the world
Therefore by me this always should be done.
Instructing us to arouse bodhicitta, even if we do not attain buddhahood, the Bodhicitta Commentary says:
As for bodhicitta, not producing it
One will never attain the level of buddhahood.
In samsara for doing benefits for oneself and others
No other skillful means exists but this alone.
3. The liturgy of receiving
a. the preliminaries
Collecting the concordant conditions,
There are six sections
b. The object of receiving
Therefore, since arousing bodhicitta is within our power, in the space front visualize an assembly of buddhas and
bodhisattvas. Do as is explained in The Sutra Describing the Virtues of the Field of Manjushri, and perform the liturgy
below. Moreover, the Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment says:
If one does not find a guru,
In receiving the vow from another,
The ritual is said to be valid.
So in former lives Manjushri
By becoming Amwaraja
Aroused the bodhicittas.
The buddha field of Manjushri
As explained in the Ornament Sutra
Is also clarified here.
With the five eyes of the protectors
Perfect bodhicitta
Is produced and provided
For beings as a lamp,
To liberate from samsara:
Hostile and angry attitudes
Miserliness and jealousy
Keeping hold of them from now on,
Until supreme enlightenment,
We will not perform them.
Pure conduct should performed
Evil deeds and desire abandoned.
Rejoicing in the disciplines
We will train in buddhahood
We ourselves will not quickly
Proceed into buddhahood.
While even one sentient being
Remains outside in extremes
The measureless buddha fields
Inconceivable by thought
May they be completely abandoned
Grasped from labeling names and
Fragmented phenomena
Within the ten directions
Their karma of body and speech
Let us purify it all.
Karma of mind is also to be purified.
Unvirtuous actions are to be done.
In that way bodhicitta should be aroused
a) Receiving from a guru
If one does not have the power to do this oneself or one wants to receive it from a guru, as for this precious
attitude:
This also arises from the spiritual friend.
As a rain of all desired falls from wish-fulfilling things,
From a jewel falls a rain of all that is needed or wished-for. So too spiritual friends support the arising of all
good dharmas and the birth of bodhicitta. How? By possessing bodhicitta and being competent in training in it, they are
able to accept students. The Twenty Vows says:
Since they have the power they should accept them.
The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Competent in the meaning of the great vehicle,
Excellent in the discipline of bodhicitta,
Never is the spiritual friend to be let go
Even for the sake of preserving one's life itself.
The Lamp of the Path says: {{552.1}}
Receive the vow from a good guru
Competent in the liturgy of the vow
Who is a master dwelling in the vow.
Grasping its benefits and possessing compassion.
Such a one should be known to be an excellent guru.
b) Creating pure vessels
Such a one:
By a guru who is free from faults having all the virtues,
As for the fortunate student producing joy,
Seeing the faults of samsara and liberation's benefits,
The good dharmas of the provisional and ultimate vehicles,
And the limitless praises of bodhicitta are told.
To teach this again, seeing the faults of samsara and praising
bodhicitta, the guru transforms the mind.
c) Arranging objects of worship and offerings {{552.4}}
Then of arousing bodhicitta
In a clean and pleasant place that is beautified by offerings,
Gather practice articles pleasing to gods and human beings.
Arrange offerings of lights, incense and so on, and gather implements pleasing to gods and human beings.
d) The host of buddhas and their emanations {{552.6}}
Then as symbolized by the representations in front, in front:
Visualize space as being filled with an ocean of buddhas
Together with their sons, like heaped up banks of clouds.
Visualize, as is taught in the Moon Lamp Sutra that they are summoned by the feast of incense and music, and
joining the palms, saying the following three times:
We arouse the vast and excellent bodhicitta.
May all these beings without remainder be enlightened.
May there be no sentient beings who are not vessels.
Approach! Approach! Divine ones who possess the ten powers.
By the power of your timely kindness
May you, the three jewels, care for the welfare of beings.
With mental offerings and those arranged here,
We supplicate the victorious ones and their retinue.
By that from the buddha fields of the ten directions the three jewels approach. Visualize that they fill the whole
of space.
e) establishing our suitability to do this{{553.4}}
How suitability is established for what is visualized really approaching:
It is taught that this really happens, just as we visualize,
This is because of the unspoiled power of our minds,
And also the compassion of the wise and considerate masters.
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Whatever victorious ones we may have visualized
Remain in front of us, and always grant their blessings.
They completely liberate us from the arising of faults.
By possessing the wisdom that knows the buddhas, we supplicate and intend to invite them. Possessing kindness
and compassion, they see us. By their accomplishing buddha activity, they really approach miraculously in an instant.
Why? Since from the viewpoint of the buddhas, sentient beings have no benefits, they do this for the sake of producing
benefit for us. If they come such a long way merely for the food offerings, the merit of bodhicitta must be suitable for the
guests really to approach.
f) Inviting, and offering baths, and adornment
Visualize that they listen eagerly and closely and approach in the space of the sky:{{554.3}}
Then, with joined hands full of a double handful of flowers,
We invite them to be seated, and then we should offer to bathe them,
Also offering garments, ornaments, and the rest.
Produce the excellent visualization that all the three jewels are in the sky, along with their divine palaces from all
the three-fold thousand worlds, whose own place is right here. Invite them to be seated on brilliant lotus, jewel, sun, and
moon seats. The Supreme Insight says:
Without exception you who are the lords of sentient beings,
Divine ones who irresistibly overpower the hordes of maras,
Knowing all things without exception exactly as they are,
We supplicate the bhagavans and their retinues to come to this place.
When this is said, they approach and in a bath-house many divine youths and maidens wash their bodies with
precious jewel-ornamented vases and with immeasurable bath-offerings. After these offerings, they dry them with towels.
Visualizing that we offer them clothing, say these words:
[I think this is the same one in VYS, but I don't have that page here] 555.1
In very fragrant excellent bathing-houses
With brilliant floors that shine like spotless crystal,
Whose pleasant pillars are blazing with precious jewels,
Whose hangings and tapestries are brilliant with pearls,
Are the tathagatas and the buddha sons
With precious vases filled with perfumed water
And an abundance of good and pleasant songs
With joyful music we ask to wash their bodies.
Their external bodies are lovingly anointed
With matchless perfumes, pure and excellent-smelling.
Then for these Sages, with colors that are well-dyed,
We offer them fine garments of matchless fragrance,
Excellent clothing, fine and soft to touch.
And hundreds of excellent ornaments, for all these
The noble ones Samantabhadra and Manju
Avalokiteshvara and others
A fragrant odor fills the billion worlds
The supremely fragrant bodies of the sages.
Blaze with light as they are being anointed,
As if adorned in refined and polished gold.
Having said this, in their dwellings they take their individual seats.{{555.6}}
2) The seven-fold service,
a) The main topic of the seven-fold service,
There are seven sections.
i) prostration
has two sections.
a)) The main topic
First as for the limb of prostration:
Then we should join our palms just over the crowns of our heads,
Like a rising lotus beginning to bloom in some pleasant pond.
With melodious praises, emanating countless bodies,
We should prostrate to those great lords with devotion.
As for joining the palms like a lotus, the Great Liberation says:
Like a lotus that is just beginning to blossom,
We should join the palms of the hands at the crown of the head.
Prostrate to the buddhas of the ten directions.
With their immeasurable bodies like a mass of clouds
The Irresistible Action says:
With the power of aspiration for good action,
Holding all the victorious ones vividly in mind,
We bow with as many bodies as there are atoms in the universe,
We prostrate to all the victorious ones.
b) The benefits
As for the merits of this: {{556.4}}
The merits of this are as many as the atoms of the earth,
With all that are to be found in its many oceans and mountains
Until we have had the body of a universal monarch
As many times as there are atoms in Indra's world,
And finally attain the level of supreme peace,
We would find no such merits in the whole of the three worlds.
As to what the merits of prostration for the sake of arousing bodhicitta are equal to, there is no such thing in the
three worlds. This is because, if we prostrate, trying to do only good, much merit is obtained. The Teaching of the Vinaya
says:
O monks, If you prostrate with faith to a stupa containing a hair of the Tathagatas head or a nail, as for the
ripening of that, as many actions as Bhrama does without the arising of anger, as many as the atoms
reaching up to the golden ground of Indra, that may times we will experience the happiness of a
universal monarch, and go among gods and human beings.
ii) Offering.
a)) The brief teaching
As for the second limb:
Material wealth and offerings emanated by mind
We shall offer them offerings unsurpassably vast.
b)) The extended explanation
has two sections concerning
real offerings
those emanated by mind.
1)) real wealth {{557.3}}
As for arranging real offerings:
Let there be flowers and incense, lamps and food and waters;
Canopies, tasseled umbrellas, and exquisite musical sounds
Victory banners, yak tails, clay drums and so forth;
Body and wealth, and all possessions we cannot part with,
All these we offer to the gurus of sentient beings,
The highest teacher of beings, the Buddha jewel himself,
Along with his retinue of Buddha-sons.
As for offering an immeasurable array of these, the Bodhicharyavatara says: 2.15-17
To the lord of sages, the supreme recipient
We offer such pleasant flowers as the jasmine and lotus,
Utpala and so forth, all those of pleasant fragrance,
Pleasantly arranged in skillfully woven garlands.
The finest incense there is full of pleasant fragrance,
We offer billowing in fragrant offering clouds.
Sumptuous food accompanied with a variety of drinks
Nourishment fit for the gods we offer to these lords.
I offer rows of lamps, finely set with jewels,
Which have been arranged on golden lotus buds...
Also it says: 2.19
Precious parasols with handles made of gold.
Having edges that are pleasantly adorned,
Well-shaped and well-carried by attractive bearers,
We will always offer to the kings of sages.
As for the five sections concerning
2)) Offerings emanated by mind,
a))) The offering of compassion
As for those emanated by mind, the enjoyments of the thirty-three gods and so forth:
I offer pleasant palaces, decked with nets of jewels,
All that there may be in the worlds of gods and elsewhere,
Where cymbals, dances, songs, and praises fall like rain,
Adorned with hundreds of the finest ornaments.
Visualizing all the divine palaces in all the world realms, filled with songs of praise, and a rain of flowers, we
offer them to the holy objects of homage. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 2.18
Palaces of the gods with pleasant songs of praise,
With brilliant hangings embroidered in precious gems and pearls,
All these ornaments, as limitless as space,
I offer to those who have the nature of compassion.
b))) The five unowned offerings
1))) Moreover, in completely pure world realms:
I offer precious mountains, forests, and lotus ponds,
Rippled by the paddling feet of mother swans.
Here fragrant airs arise and medicinal incenses.
Their ravishing perfumes waft from wish-fulfilling trees,
That bow with myriad offerings of fruit and flowers.
The Bodhicharyavatara says: 2.2-3
As many delightful fruits and flowers as there may be
And whatever kinds of health giving medicines,
As many precious jewels as there are in the world
And whatever refreshing clear and pleasant waters,
Likewise mountains made of precious substance
Delightful groves and solitary peaceful places
Adorned with ornaments of exquisite flowering trees,
And trees whose branches are bending down with excellent fruit.
2))) Moreover:
Holding bees in a thousand undulating petals
like a bracelet made of white night lotuses,
Opened by sun and moon beams in a cloudless sky
I offer lovely blue and other lotuses.
3))) And also:
Blissfully perfumed air, scented with sandalwood,
Caressing the flower buds with cool and fragrant breezes,
Caves and rock-faced mountains, meadows of heath-giving herbs,
I offer ponds that are full of fresh and cooling water.
The Bodhicharyavatara says: II.5
Lakes and ponds that are adorned by lotuses
With the fascinating music of the wild geese
Harvests that need no sowing nor effort of cultivation
And other ornaments for those that are worthy of worship.
4))) And also:
I offer the ornaments of this world of four continents,
The white moon of an autumn night, with its rabbit's image,
Garlanded by the constellations of its path,
Auspiciously free from adverse influence of the planets,
And the sun, the beauty of the bringer of day,
With its blazing necklace of a thousand rays.
5)) And also:
The billion worlds, from central mountain to outer circle,
The whole array, with all their wish-fulfilling wealth,
All of the buddha fields throughout the ten directions,
Whose number is as many as all the sands of the oceans,
Having received them into my mind, I offer them,
To all the lord buddha sages together with their sons.
3)) The offering of things that are owned:
Wish fulfilling...
Magical vases and wish-fulfilling trees and cows,
The eight auspicious substances and seven royal treasures.
The seven personal treasures, the silken boots and all the rest
I offer the holy patrons, the great compassionate ones.
As for these mental offerings that fill the whole of space, the seven royal treasures are the precious, wheel, jewel,
queen, minister, excellent steed, elephant, and general.
The eight auspicious substances are white mustard, durva grass, wood apple, vermilion, curds, the medicine bezoar, a
mirror, and a conch shell coiling to the right.
The seven personal treasures are silken boots, cushion, carriage, bedding, throne sword, and a lamb-skin, used as
a rug. All these are offered.
4)) offering the ocean of samadhi,
a)) As for the samadhi offering, by presenting good conduct
and clouds of offerings and so forth, visualize that they are immensely great:
Filling the space of the sky by means of the mind of samadhi,
I offer the outer, inner, and secret offerings,
Great oceanic heaps of clouds of offerings.
b))
1)) From the three aspects, as for the first:
A blazing arbor like floating clouds of beautiful flowers,
Heaps of clouds of amrita, with medicinal herbs and incense,
Clouds of shining lamps, along with food and music,
I offer to the accompaniment of melodious praise.
As to how this is done, the Sutra of the Palm Tree of the Three Jewels says:
A canopy mostly made of various kinds of flowers
Emitting rays of light from the array of brilliant flowers This with its array of various kinds of flowers,
We offer to the mahatmas and the buddha sons.
In the palms of our hands are offerings beyond thought
As we offer these to one of the Victorious ones,
We do the same to all of them without exception.
The miraculous emanations of the rishis are like that.
This is also like what is said in the Avatamsaka Sutra and also the Good Action says:
These oceans of inexhaustible praises
With all the ocean of the different sorts of song
Fully expresses the virtues of all the victorious ones.
Thus, we praise all the sugatas.
2)) The two extraordinary offerings
As for the inner and secret offerings, of mind:
Emanating various clouds of offering goddesses
Of grace and garlands, precious gems and songs and dances
Having limitless clouds of the practice offering
Pleasing all the Victorious ones as well as their sons.
Visualize a host of the eight offering goddesses Vajra Form, Sound, Smell, Taste, and Touch, Mala, Lady
Producer-of-appearance, and the goddess of Flowers, each with her respective offering, filling the sky and making
offerings. That is the offering. This body which is held so dear is also offered as a servant of the three jewels. The
Bodhicharyavatara says: II.5
Reaching to the limits of the vastness of space
All this, which is the property of nobody at all
Having been brought to mind, to these best of beings the sages
Together with their sons, if these have been well-offered,
May the holy patrons with their great compassion
Accept these offerings and look upon us kindly.
I, possessing no merit, am utterly destitute.
I do not have any other wealth that I can offer.
As these lords intend the benefit of others,
For my benefit, may these powerful ones accept it.
To the victorious ones, the buddhas and their sons
In all may lives, I shall always offer all my bodies.
May I be accepted by these excellent spiritual warriors....
iii) Confessing evil deeds
Throughout our lives:
Let us confess the evil deeds that cause samsara.
Arising from the habitual patterns of karma and kleshas,
That we have been accustomed to from beginningless time.
Here from the four aspects of confessing evil deeds, first there are the six gates to what is to be abandoned, evil
deeds. These are body, speech, and mind; and passion, aggression, and ignorance. Toward our country, father and
mother, preceptor, master and so forth, from beginningless time until the present, we have naturally done evil deeds,
having the nature of the ten unwholesome actions and so forth, and if these are renounced, to all these subsequently we
should give food and so forth. The Excellent Action says:
Whatever evil deeds we have committed
Due to passion, aggression, and ignorance,
Through body, speech, and likewise mind...
There are evil deeds done by oneself, which one has made another do, or which one has not done, but in which
one rejoices. Because evil deeds obscure the celestial realms and liberation, they produce the sufferings of the lower
realms. The second method of application is the antidote four powers. There is 1) the power of complete remorse
which greatly repents the bad action. When we having done something bad, by trying again there is 2) the power of
conduct with good conduct as an antidote. Having accepted a vow, 3) the power of control has authority over doing evil
deeds. As by having relied on the three jewels and bodhicitta evil deeds are exhausted, there is 4) the power of support.
The Sutra Teaching the Four Dharmas says:
Manjushri, if bodhisattvas possesses these four dharmas, all the evil deeds which have been
performed and accumulated will be overcome. What are these four? The conduct of complete
repentance, the conduct of the antidote, the power of control, and the power of support.
As for the first, if we do an unwholesome action, we repent it greatly. Second, if we do an
unwholesome action, we try very hard to do a wholesome one. Third, if we genuinely receive a vow,
we attain control over not doing evil deeds. Fourth, we go to refuge with the Buddha, Dharma, and
Sangha, and do not give up bodhicitta.
Third, within the way of application there are the preliminaries, the main topic, and what follows. In
preparation we should think of the immeasurable buddhas and bodhisattvas and go to them for refuge. As for the main
topic, we should remember all our evil deeds and by confessing and repenting of them, all the evil deeds of oneself and
others, are visualized floating blackly above one's tongue. By confessing them, from between the eyes of the buddhas and
bodhisattvas light rays arise. Visualize that they are immediately purified. Then, after many light rays have arisen,
visualize that all evil deeds are purified and the body becomes like crystal. As for the words, the Bodhicharyavatara says:
II.27
Dwelling in all the quarters of the universe,
Complete and perfect buddhas and the bodhisattvas,
You who are possessors of the great compassion,
To you I join my palms and make this supplication.
Here within samsara, from beginningless time
Within this life, and also in may other lives
Though I did not seek to do so, I have done evil deeds
Or though I did not do them, I had them done by others.
Confused by ignorance, I was overcome;
And therefore I rejoiced in all these evil deeds;
But now that I have seen they were pain-producing errors,
Sincerely I confess them to the protecting lords.
By me to the three jewels, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha,
To my father and mother, to the guru, and others
Because of having the kleshas, I have done great harm,
By actions of body and speech, and also in my mind.
By a multitude of wrong-doings I have engendered faults
The evil deeds which I as an evil-doer have done
And which I could not keep from doing in spite of myself,
I confess them openly to the guides of the world.
After that, the essence of whatever evil deeds that have been recognized is purified by being brought into
meditative equanimity like space. The Sutra of the Blossoming in the Ten Directions says:
Whoever wants to repent and purify
Should be straightforward and see things as they are.
Those who are true will therefore view things truly.
Those who see things truly will be free.
That is supreme repentance and purification.
Faults of evil deeds are perceived by the master. Contemplating the master, prostration and offerings are done.
Hanging the upper robe over one shoulder, say. "We supplicate that evil deeds may be abandoned." After that
supplication, take refuge and arouse bodhicitta. Then, having mentally visualized our evil deeds above one's tongue, we
say,
"Whatever evil deeds we have done to the three jewels, to the master, our parents, or other sentient
beings, by the power of ignorance, we repent and purify all these."
By thinking this forcefully, the bodhicitta in the five eyes of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas dwelling in the ten
directions will completely grasp us. For the purpose of attaining the enlightenment of the buddhas, say three times,
"We confess these. From now on we shall try to control ourselves."
After that, enter for a little while into emptiness meditation. Then, from the heart centers of the representations,
white light rays arise. Visualize that body, speech, and mind are purified.
Then in the sight of the master, request the vow. Afterwards the students give thanks, Here at first say the
liturgy with "I," for oneself. Later "we" is said in practicing with others.
Fourth, as for producing knowledge of being able to train in these, the Sutra of the Great Lion's Roar Requested
by Manjushri says:
The karma of evil deeds which we have done because of unawareness should be confessed. Afterwards,
by recognizing and confessing our faults, we shall not remain associated with that karma.
The Revelation of Instructions says:
Those who produce bad karma through evil deeds,
By virtue can put an end to that bad karma,
Like the sun appearing, rising out of clouds,
The Sutra of the Treasury of Buddhahood says:
Even those who have murdered their parents or a buddha, By meditating on emptiness are completely
liberated.
The Revelation of Instructions says:
Those who have done intolerable deeds,
Those who are blocked by having disparaged me,
By fully confessing and controlling themselves
By this will be fundamentally released.
The Spiritual Letter says:
Whoever was careless, then has become careful
Will be as beautiful as the cloudless moon,
And as happy as Angulimala
Was made by attainment of the joy of seeing.
iv) rejoicing in virtue
As for the fourth limb:
May we always rejoice in the limitless stores of merit
That have been accumulated by sentient beings.
If we meditate with rejoicing on our sincere and natural wholesomeness, we will attain the root of virtue,
equanimity, and the merit will be immeasurable. The Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
To weigh the Mount Merus of the cubed thousand worlds
And total up the measure is logically possible.
But this cannot be done with the goodness of rejoicing.
Sincerely rejoice like that, and say these words about the arising of good conduct:
All the merits of beings in the ten directions
Once- and non-returners, and pratyekabuddhas,
The buddha sons as well as all the victorious ones
As many as they may be, we rejoice in them.
v) Urging to turn the wheel of Dharma
As for the fifth limb:
So that all beings without remainder may cross over
We ask that the unsurpassable wheel of Dharma be turned.
The Buddha Bhagavat, after becoming enlightened, did not teach the Dharma until Bhrama offered a mandala and
supplicated him. Similarly, visualizing that we are in the presence of the gurus, we supplicate them, saying:
All those who are the lights of the worlds of the ten directions,
Who have unobstructedly gained enlightenment and awakening,
We urge those protectors for the benefit of all beings
To turn the unsurpassable wheel of the Dharma
By that obscurations of abandoning Dharma are cleared away. From then on, from generation to generation, our
being will always inseparably hold the holy Dharma.
vi) Requesting not to pass into nirvana
As for the sixth limb:
From now until the ocean of samsara is emptied
We supplicate the buddhas and the buddha sons
Always to remain, not passing into nirvana.
Just as formerly our teacher supplicated the spiritual friend Tsanda not to pass into nirvana, so as many buddha
bhagavats as dwell in the world and guru spiritual friends who in their last morning intend to pass into nirvana, we
supplicate to remain until samsara is emptied:
The teachers who intend to pass into nirvana
We request you with palms joined
To remain for as many kalpas as there are atoms in the universe
For the peace and welfare of beings.
By that evil deeds that bring about short life, untimely death, and other dangers to life are purified, and
immeasurable life is established.
vii) Dedicating the merit to enlightenment
As for the seventh limb:
By this merit may we, as well as all sentient beings,
One and all without exception become enlightened.
We dedicate it so that the virtuous roots of ourselves and others may have the goal of complete enlightenment,
and so that that transformation may be the cause of others arousing bodhicitta:
By prostrating, offering, confessing,
Rejoicing, requesting to teach, and asking to remain,
Whatever trifle of virtue we have accumulated,
We dedicate for the sake of enlightenment.
As for the cause of dedication, we are connected with all of the virtue of ourselves and others throughout the
three times. The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
All the virtue as that sentient beings may have
That was and will be, and now is being produced,
The purity of all the goodness there is,
All that goodness is in each of us.
Dedicating the merit of this should be done only by buddhas. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, these virtuous roots, are to be dedicated only by the buddhas. They are not to be
dedicated by shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and those on other levels.
The purpose is so that all sentient beings may attain enlightenment. The same text says:
It is dedicated for the sake of all sentient beings, and not merely for one's own complete
attainment. This is because, by so doing, one would fall to the level of the shravakas and
pratyekabuddhas.
All dharmas are non-existent yet apparent, like dreams and illusions. In dedicating merit, we should know that
merit too is like a dream or illusion. The same text says:
Subhuti, all dharma are like a dream, like an illusion. Merit too should be dedicated as being
completely like a dream, like an illusion.
The Sutra Requested by Bhadra says:
Whoever does not perceive a gift that is given
As being a gift, or being given by anyone,
By this same equality of giving,
May goodness become complete and be perfected.
If, on the contrary, through conception or attachment, one thinks of the virtuous roots as really and truly existing,
that is not good. The Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
Just like eating good food that is mixed with poison
It is taught that the whiteness of dharma is overcome
By being mixed with discursive thoughts and conception.
Also it says there:
Why so? When there are no characteristics, there can be dedication to enlightenment. But
when there are characteristics, there can be no dedication to enlightenment.
Therefore, we should be without conception or attachment. The Abhisamayalankara says:
When this has the aspect of being without characteristics,
Then it has the characteristic of being right.
As for the essence of dedication, by directing the virtuous roots to enlightenment, the mind is transformed and its power is
bound by these particular words.
The Display of Qualities of the Field of Manjushri says:
All dharmas, having been conditioned by these,
Are consecrated by the dedicated roots.
Whoever puts forth such an aspiration,
Such a one will surely establish suchness
As for the difference between dedication and aspiration, words and vows of aspiration after the merit of the
wholesome causes have been dedicated, are dedications. Wishes which are merely wholesome causes dedicated are
aspirations.
Moreover, dedication and the power of the words transform the aspiration of the giver into enlightenment and so
forth. What teachers of today say is said from a viewpoint without certain knowledge. Moreover, since this is personal
testimony, the guru and the Sangha, if they follow those words, accord with establishing mental partialities. When the
words are taught to be truly established up to the first bhumi, they do not follow properly. Visualize that as witnesses of
our establishing dedication in the sky in front, buddhas and bodhisattvas are heaped up like heaps of clouds. Becoming as
kind as the Victorious Ones in former lives, when they gave their own flesh and blood to evil spirits, say as has been
taught:
By this merit may all attain omniscience.
May it defeat the enemy wrong-doing.
From the stormy waves of birth, old-age, sickness, and death,
From the ocean of samsara may we free all beings.
Some say that after this we should expand into empty space, but this is completely improper. If it is asked, but
isn't what they have done conceptionless? Phenomena appear without intellectual understanding. Merit is like a dream.
The one who collects it is like a dream. The practitioner is also like a dream. Though non-attachment to three spheres
as truly existing is called objectlessness, empty meditation is nihilism without any merit at all. We should understand
this to be a bad tradition and abandon it.
In general, whatever merit is produced, the preliminary preparation of excellent bodhicitta has been
accomplished; the main basis, excellent prajqa without conception or characteristics, has been accomplished; and the
conclusion, the dream-like dedication has been accomplished. Connection with these three excellencies is called "merit in
accord with liberation." There is no other cause of the path of buddhahood than this. If this is not accomplished, "that
which is in accord with merit," in the sense of accompanying the fruition of particular merits, should be known as being
exhaustible.
b) How one's being is purified by this
As for the purpose of the aforementioned seven limbs, for example:
Just as, in a piece of cloth that is cleansed by washing,
The colors with which it is dyed shine through in clarity,
Within the mind that is trained by these preliminaries,
Supreme and actual mind will shine through in one's being.
If defilements hinder the arising of genuine mind, it will not arise. If these hindrances are purified, it will arise.
Just so, a filthy cloth that is no longer colored needs laundering is to make its colors be as they are.
c) How those that have this foundation are immeasurable
Those who produce the seven limbs:
And so the limitless fruit of this meritorious practice
Encompasses the whole of space like dharmadhatu.
The Sutra Requested by Glorious Secret says:
Whoever, having visualized the buddhas
Of the ten directions and three times,
Joins the palms, prostrating and offering
Rejoicing in merit, confessing evil deeds,
Urging to teach, and asking to remain,
As for the heap of merits of doing this,
It always arises filling the whole of space.
b. the actual arousing of bodhicitta
{{574.3}}
Now as for the actual main ritual, after doing the preliminaries:
Therefore, after having three times gone for refuge
To the Buddha and Dharma, and to the excellent Sangha,
Supplicate the lords and their sons to consider us.
Just as the former buddhas together with their sons
Dwelled in the practice of arousing bodhicitta.
So from now on, in order to benefit sentient beings
May I dwell in the practice of arousing bodhicitta.
So that those who have not crossed over may cross over,
So that those who have not been liberated may be liberated,
So that those who are not released may be released.
May we establish all sentient beings within nirvana.
And also:
From this time on, taking this name which has been given to me, I so and so, until attaining the essence of
enlightenment, go for refuge to the buddha bhagavats, the supreme ones among those who go on two legs, the supreme
ones among those who are without desire.
To the holy Dharma, the supreme ones of collections, and to the Sangha of those who are non-returners because
they are noble ones, to those three and to all the buddhas dwelling in the ten directions I supplicate. I supplicate the great
bodhisattvas dwelling on the ten bhumis. I supplicate the vajra-holder gurus. Just as formerly the buddha bhagavats and
bodhisattva-mahasattvas aroused the mind of great enlightenment, so I, [the name that was given], too in order that
sentient beings who have not crossed over may cross over, and those who have not been liberated may be liberated, and
those who have not been released may be released, and those who have not gone completely beyond suffering may go
beyond suffering, from this time on until reaching the essence of enlightenment, arouse the mind of great enlightenment.
(Say that three times)
Also, as it is said in the Bodhicharyavatara, after one has previously done the supplication to the three objects of
supplication [as above] : 3.23-4
Just as formerly the all sugatas
Aroused the wish for supreme enlightenment,
And, having done so, dwelled upon the bhumis
Of the training of a bodhisattva
So, for the liberation of all beings,
I shall arouse this wish for enlightenment,
And I shall train successively in the bhumis
Of this training, just as they have done.
Say that three times.
c. Afterwards, as for the short teaching of exertion in the two bodhicittas,
Now that this sequence of stages of bodhicitta has been established, guard the learning and try to produce its
natural benefits. As for the ritual:
Therefore, let us try to arouse these two bodhicittas,
Recite the liturgy three times every day and night.
Cultivating bodhicitta, supplicating, and so forth have many purposes.
4. The purpose of the three recitations of that ritual
The first arouses the bodhicitta of aspiration
The second arouses the bodhicitta of entering.
By the third these two become stable and are purified.
The Ocean Cloud says:
By the first, second, and third recitations, aspiring, entering, and both are made stable and
excellent.
Aspiring and entering have a single essence and are not different things. Though in the ritual they are joined as
if they were different and three different characteristics arise from the three recitations, they are not different in essence.
This is because their nature is a single mental substance, a single time, and a single action. The Bodhisattvabhumi says:
Since these two, aspiring and entering, are inseparable in nature, they are a unity in producing
benefit for others. It should be known that they are not different in nature.
5. as for meditation on joy {{577.3}}
Now that we have aroused bodhicitta:
Now we are the remedy for sentient beings.
We have a bodhisattva name as the Buddha's child.
Within samsara we fearlessly benefit sentient beings.
We are always concerned with their benefit alone.
Thus there is a meaning to samsaric human life.
From the instant bodhicitta is aroused, it is held. Those who have this mind unimpaired are known in the
samsaric world as bodhisattvas. If we do not impair the virtue of our own family, but increase it, we meditate in
immeasurable joy. Directly or indirectly, we benefit sentient beings. If we cannot, still we aspire to do so. The
Bodhicharyavatara says: 3.25
Thus by those who are intelligent,
Having aroused this excellent bodhicitta,
Having entered into and expanded it,
Mind will be ennobled and uplifted.
Today I have the fruition of my life,
I have gained the meaning of human existence,
I am born into the family of the Buddha
I have become a child of the Buddha.
Whatever I may do from this time on,
I will try to act in accord with my family.
I will try to act so as not to trouble
This family which is so faultless and noble.
Like a blind man finding a precious jewel
In a heap of filth and discarded rubbish,
Just like that, and seemingly by chance,
Bodhicitta has been born in me.
How many terms are there for bodhisattvas? There are sixteen. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
They are known as bodhisattva, and mahasattva,
Wise ones, and the excellent luminous ones,
The buddha sons, the ground of victorious ones.
Buddha producers, or the buddha sprouts,
Skillful ones, and excellent noble ones,
Ship-captain guides, and the supremely renowned,
Compassionate ones, and those who have great merit,
Noble lords, and possessors of the Dharma.
These words are said to spread the benefit of bodhicitta to those who have not yet aroused the attitude of
enlightenment, These words are said to spread the benefit of bodhicitta. The forty-fourth Chapter of the Gandavyuha
Sutra tells how Sudhana, after Manjushri aroused in him the wish for enlightenment, went ever more southward to seek
this learning. At the bank of the southern ocean, in a tower called "having an essence ornamented by Vairochana"
surrounded by a retinue of many hundreds of thousands of bodhisattvas, Maitreya was teaching the Dharma. Sudhana
saw him from a distance of five hundred pagtse. He was glad and rejoiced, and did ecstatic prostrations. Having seen
him, Maitreya extended his right hand, and placed it on Sudhana's head. To the retinue he contentedly expressed
Sudhana's praises:
Look now, how with thoughts that are completely pure
This Sudhana, who is born of stable, enduring riches,
Seeking the practice of supreme enlightenment,
This knowing and capable one has come before me now.
Also it says there:
Welcome, you who are kind as well as compassionate.
Welcome to the vast mandala of Maitreya
Welcome to that which viewed, completely pacifies,
And which is not exhausting at the time of practice.
This and so forth was taught. Sudhana joined his palms and requested. "Noble one, if I truly enter into
unsurpassable enlightenment, please teach how I shall earnestly seek the practice of a bodhisattva?
The answer was, "O son of noble family, You have been completely accepted by the spiritual friend.
Why so?
Son of noble family, bodhicitta is like the seed of all buddha dharmas. It is like the growing field of the white dharmas of
all beings. From the essence and benefit of that up to the examples, Sudhana having properly been taught, had these
benefits and immeasurable others.
What is taught here is extensively presented in the sutra.
6. the three aspects that are always to be trained in to take advantage of the opportunity.
a. The brief teaching
After arousing bodhicitta, there should be the stage of serious training in it. This is how to take
advantage of the opportunity.
Having germinated these seedlings of the two bodhicittas
Within the good soil that is the mind of sanity,
Try hard to keep them and increase their purity.
By arousing the luminous mind of bodhicitta repeatedly, things become purer. As for maras and strayings which
we have not able to cut. The Sutra of the Ten Dharmas says:
The precious jewel by nature
Is a source of blazing light.
If we accept and reject,
That beauty is torn in two.
So even having the gotra
Realization of bodhicitta
Must be free of dualistic extremes
So that maras do not arise.
After the sprout of this attitude has arisen, grasp it without deterioration. Purify defilements and strive only in
means of increasing virtue. These are established chiefly by the practice of guarding the supreme mind. The
Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.18
Thus as for this attitude of bodhicitta
I should hold to it and try to guard it well.
Aside from this practice of guarding the mind of enlightenment
What is the use of the many other practices?
Also it says there: 5.1
Those who have the wish to guard this discipline
Should keep and guard the mind, using their fullest attention.
If we have not trained in the discipline of mind,
We shall not be able to guard and keep that discipline.
By letting the elephant of mind go free,
It will produce the harm of the unremitting hell.
But in this way a mad elephant, who is unrestrained,
Will not do such harm as an uncontrolled mind can do.
If the elephant of mind is truly tied,
On all sides by the rope of constant mindfulness,
We shall be in a state that is without all fear
And everything virtuous will come into our hands.
b. The extensive explanation of exchanging self and other and so forth,
Here is the extensive explanation of how is it grasped, purified, and cultivated:
I shall take in all the suffering of sentient beings.
May my happiness become that of these beings.
May we never be separate until they are enlightened.
Let us practice such sending and taking in our thoughts.
I shall meditate on the four immeasurables,
Which are cultivated in the case of aspiration.
Abandoning whatever does not accord with this,
Thereby let us guard the mind of bodhicitta.
That which is cultivated in the case of entering,
Is said to be the practice of the six paramitas.
Try to abandon whatever does not accord with this,
Resting in the nature of aspiring and entering is said to be grasping the mind of enlightenment. Because what
does not accord with this is abandoned, our effort becomes purified.
Cultivating the exchange of our own happiness with the suffering of others is called "cultivating the mind of
bodhicitta." Thus, we can cultivate a great deal joy and happiness, and while we always have happiness alone, we
ourselves bear the burden of sentient beings, and equalize self and other. That self and other should be exchanged is the
collective instruction of the sutras. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Without discouragement I should gather the supports
And making a great effort, I should master myself,
Seeing that there is equality of oneself and other,
I should therefore make an exchange of self and other.
Here as the first topic, when the immensity of the task of benefiting sentient beings and the immensity of
realizing enlightenment is heard, without discouragement, thinking, "How could I do that?" one should try to do so. This
is the fundamental point. Moreover, if lower sentient beings attain the human body, if I from now on make an effort, they
will be established in enlightenment. If these lower ones having looked at the teachings of attaining enlightenment, think
that it is difficult, the Bodhicharyavatara says: 7.17
If I say, "how shall I be enlightened,"
Discouraged, I will not accomplish it.
That is the reason why the tathagata,
The one who teaches truly, taught this truth.
Gnats and flies on meat and honey bees
Likewise mosquitoes and other bugs and worms
Even these by great enough force of effort,
Will gain enlightenment so difficult to attain.
One Like me with the gotra and human birth
Recognizing benefit and harm,
If I keep to bodhisattva conduct
Why should I not attain enlightenment?
The Sutra Requested by Laksang says:
Laksang, Moreover, a bodhisattva should train in this way, thinking, "If even those who have
become lions, tigers, dogs, jackals, vultures, cranes, crows, owls, worms, bees, and carrion flies will
attain enlightenment, those like me who have become human beings, because of that life, why should
we not make an equal effort at attaining enlightenment
Laksang, moreover a bodhisattva should train in this way, thinking, "If a hundred people or a
thousand have realized and attained buddhahood, why should I too not realize and attain it?
The Display of the Basket Sutra says:
Then the power of Avalokiteshvara arose from Singha Ling. In the country Destructible Realm in the
great city "Place of Excrement and Urine," from a place where there were a hundred thousand kinds of
insects, at that time, an emanation arisen from the power of Avalokiteshvara arose in form of the sound
of the insects, saying, "I prostrate to the Buddha.
These insects afterwards remembered "I prostrate to the Buddha." Having conquered the
twenty-peaked mountain of the view of a transitory collection, all these became a bodhisattva named
Fragrant Perfume, who was born in the world-realm of Sukhavati.
There are two ways in which we should make an effort to liberate the limitless sentient beings who have been our
fathers and mothers. Even if we have made no effort at all in regard to the suffering of dwelling in samsara, if we
accomplish enlightenment, it all will be conquered. If we have not previously accomplished that, there is samsara. Since
samsara will occur, we should make an effort to do that. If one will not bear any suffering of fatigue for others, since in
the womb one will certainly bear limitless suffering, which is hard to bear, one should be without discouragement. As for
this,
The Precious Mala says:
For the benefit of measureless sentient beings,
Desiring a measureless enlightenment,
One produces a merit without measure.
From this state of immeasurable enlightenment
By the accumulation of the four immeasurables
We shall not be obstructed and kept off far away.
If we do this, there will be obtained
What is known as "Limitless merit" And "limitless wisdom. "
By those the fearful sufferings of body and mind
Will be quickly cleared away and cease to be.
By one's having a body in the lower realms due to evil deeds,
Sufferings of hunger, thirst, and so forth will arise.
Not made by evil deeds, but by merit,
There is no other samsara.
As for the mental suffering due to stupidity,
Arising from craving, fear, desire, and so forth,
By the wisdom that does not depend on them,
These and that suffering will quickly be abandoned.
By such suffering of body and of mind,
If we thus have been untouched and completely unwounded,
If we have reached the end of our time within the world,
How will we be led by the world, so that we are sad?
If suffering were going to be short,
Why speak of its being long and hard to bear?
If we were happy because there was no suffering,
How could we fall into harm for a limitless time?
Here, if we did not have any bodily suffering,
How could there be any mental suffering?
As for this because of compassion in the world,
We remain here, staying for a very long time.
Thinking in this way, we will not be discouraged,
Having the attitude that buddhahood is far off.
Having exhausted defilement, for the sake of virtue,
One should always strive to attain that blessed state.
If one thinks, "how could one bear to remain thus for a long time within samsara for the benefit of sentient
beings?" that is not how it is. Since bodhicitta exists, one is happy, and since in that sense there is no suffering, one can
bear it. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 7.28ff
By merit the body will be in a state of happiness.
And when because of knowledge the mind has become happy,
Though they remain in samsara for the benefit of beings,
How will those who have compassion then be sad?
As for this, because of the power of bodhicitta,
Having exhausts the power of former evil deeds,
One will therefore gather up an ocean of merit.
This is explained as better than the shravakas.
Therefore, mounted on the horse of bodhicitta,
Which clears away all weariness and desperation,
One will go from happiness to happiness.
Knowing bodhicitta, who could then despair?
All sentient beings have the nature of illusion, whose painting-like phenomena and space appear as the
primordial unborn. Therefore, in truth there is nothing that needs to be done, and we should rejoice. The Spiritual Letter
says:
As for mind it should be understood
Like paintings done with water, earth, and stone.
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says: 586.5
For example, though the space of the sky has been there for more kalpas than there are grains
of sand in the river Ganges, it has no sadness or depression. The space of the sky is not born,
destroyed, burned up,
or separated.
Why so? Because the space of the sky is not a real thing. Similarly, for the bodhisattva who
knows that all dharmas are not real things, the attitudes of sadness, weariness, and depression will not
be produced.
We need not be concerned with establishing enlightenment and performing benefits for others. These manners
also are thought to arise according to the oral instructions of the mahayana. We should establish thirteen varieties of
benefit. What are these? All sentient beings are equal in having been our fathers and mothers again and again, are equal.
As at that time by their kindness there was only benefit, one should return their kindness and do benefit for sentient
beings. The Noble Sutra of Complete Nirvana says:
This great earth has been made merely as a lump the size of a pea. If one counts the single
sentient beings who have not been my father and mother, though this great earth is exhausted, the
count of a even single sentient being who has not been my father and mother will not be exhausted.
Moreover, if we count the times we have been benefited by sentient beings, it is a greater burden of deeds than
we can keep in mind, so that we shall be overcome. To clear it away, we should also benefit sentient beings. The Lung
Namje says:
Plains and mountains and oceans are not my burden;
My great burden is unacknowledged deeds.
Moreover if sentient beings are happy and well-off, though indeed we do not need to benefit them, since for us
they formerly did evil deeds, if they are oppressed by the sufferings of samsara and the lower realms, in order to clear
away the faults done by us, we should benefit sentient beings.
Moreover, sentient beings as one wish happiness and do not want suffering, but, because the means of doing this
is obscured for them, they are tormented by suffering alone, and in order to eliminate this, we should benefit sentient
beings.
Moreover, though immeasurable sentient beings were led by the former buddhas of the past, they were not
uplifted and those buddhas were not able to tame them. If these are not led by us, the gotra of the mahayana family will be
broken. Sentient beings will be without refuge or protector, and so we should benefit them.
Moreover, by the force of I and ego-grasping, they are blown about by the wind of the kleshas. Since they have
gone wrong, if I speak an aspiration that I will make an effort in order to tame them, what benefit should be done for
others?
Moreover, though all dharmas are empty and egoless, sentient beings who do not realize this, like people in a
dream, should inspire our compassion. If they are not guided, since compassion in particular will be killed, also we should
do benefit.
Moreover, though we wander here in samsara, sentient beings giving rise to kleshas of resentment and so forth
arise. Now, even if the object of establishing personal enlightenment becomes more attractive than sentient beings, still I
should benefit them. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Many who have pleased these sentient beings
Have reached perfection by their doing so.
Moreover, by having really performed benefit for others, because the power of benefit for oneself is established,
also one should benefit them. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
What truly establishes self-benefit is also this itself.
Moreover, if one performs benefit for sentient beings, since the buddhas will be pleased, also we should perform
benefits. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 6.119
Unless sentient beings are made to rejoice,
There is no other way to please the victorious ones.
Moreover, though bodhicitta may be aroused, if benefit is not established for sentient beings, we will fall into the
state of shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, and therefore we should benefit sentient beings.
In brief, while even one sentient has not been liberated from samsara, until then remaining in samsara, we
should do benefits. Day and night without sadness and weariness, if I try for ten hundred million kalpas, and know that
within the being of one sentient being happy mind will arise for an instant, I should try with great power of mind. The
Mahayanasutralankara says: 590.4
The buddha sons rely on making supreme exertion.
If they completely ripen the host of sentient beings,
In order that one other mind may be rendered happy,
They will be happy to work for ten thousand million kalpas.
That is how benefits should be performed. The supporting troops are of four kinds. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 7.31
Devotion , steadiness, joy, and release.
First, the troops of devotion. Since one is devoted to the beneficial qualities of bodhicitta, happiness is
established and unhappiness is rejected. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 7.31
Devotion is produced by fear of suffering
And thinking of its beneficial qualities.
Second, the troops of steadiness. If I do not arouse bodhicitta, I am just giving up. Having aroused it, by means
of sending it forth, even thinking, "this will be bad," we should persist and not lose it. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 7.46
Then with the observance of Vajra Victory Banner
Undertaking that, one should meditate with pride.
First examine the situation's possibilities
Seeing whether it should be undertaken or not.
It is better not to undertake it at all
Than that having once begun, we should then turn back.
{{591.2}}
Third, the troops of renouncing. Sometimes not harming sentient beings depends on the minor precepts of the discipline
as explained being given to equanimity. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.42
As for relating to fear and celebrations and so on,
If one cannot do it, then one should just relax.
Fourth, the troops of joy. By enjoying and rejoicing in benefiting sentient beings and practicing the discipline,
one enters into it. The Letter to Students says:
Whoever for the benefit of others cuts off their heads
Is like a lotus, the rejoicing eye opening treasury of vision For its own benefit by a white parasol covered,
The divine level too should be thought of like a sharp sword with whetted edge.
The wholesome is what we should devote ourselves to or since it is the cause of the celestial realms and
liberation, it should always be done. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
In spacious fragrant coolness in the heart of a lotus
Made brilliant by the food of the teachings of the Conqueror
My excellent body rising as the Sage's light makes it blossom,
Remaining before the tathagata, By virtue becoming his.
The Bodhicharyavatara says: 7.42
Wherever and they go, there by the merit of that
They will be presented with the worship of fruition.
In terms of the viewpoint of sentient beings, since of all sentient beings none has not been our father, mother,
and relative, we should benefit them. By becoming a field establishing enlightenment, from that viewpoint we benefit
them; and since buddhahood produces joy also from that viewpoint we establish benefit. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
6.113
Sentient beings as well as the Victorious Ones
Likewise make buddhadharma be established in us.
So why do we not have such respect for sentient beings
In the way we do for the Victorious Ones.
Also it says there: 6.125 {{592.4}}
In order to bring rejoicing to the tathagatas,
From now on, with true comportment serve the world.
Meditating on self and other as equal explains what is done in the ordinary equality meditation. As for the
extraordinary, first producing the perception of one like an enemy as one's mother, see it as a happy occasion for oneself
and if ultimate good is established, rejoicing, since these are without distinction, meditate thinking "How may I establish
this person's benefit?" From one sentient being, one should meditate up to those as limitless as space.
As for exchanging self and other, from the training on that, whatever happiness and merit one has, all that one
completely gives forth thinking, "by that merit incidentally may they attain the higher realms and ultimately buddhahood,
may I be covered with the suffering of their bad karma exchanged for that, and having received that, by its ripening within
my being, for their benefit, may I experience many sufferings in the lower realms."
From the depths of the bone core of the heart, having trained the mind in such an exchange with one sentient
being, one should go on to them all. By that, because of beginningless very powerful evil deeds, I later will experience the
lower realms and so forth, much karma will be exhausted, and much happiness will be attained. The Bodhicharyavatara
says: 8.131 593.5
My happiness and the sufferings of others,
If these situations are not truly exchanged,
The state of buddhahood will not be reached,
And in samsara I will have no joy.
Here some say: "All dharmas are similarly conditions of this. At the summit of aspiration they are consecrated."
If one says that, it is not proper. This is because oneself would always be falling into samsara. Also when something
unmeritorious has been done, since one is aiming at enlightenment, if one so dedicates it, it would be meritorious, since
there is dedication to this special aim. Though in so saying words of Mara have indeed been produced, nevertheless such
an answer should be explained. If for the sake of others one aspires to later remaining within extremes and so wandering
in samsara, then it follows that even Manjushri is wandering there. His prayer says:
For the sake of every sentient being
May I later remain within extremes.
and that would send him there. Even if one exchanges self and other, there is no real exchange with sentient beings.
Even when there is, it is completely exhausted, since there would be immense merit. Since the mentally exchanged
sentient beings and oneself are both one's own mind, the suffering of others will not ripen within us, and our own
happiness will not go forth to others. Thus, it is taught that no karmic effect is transferred. The Hundred Actions says:
{{594.5}}
What is done by oneself is not transferred to others.
And the karma of others likewise is not ours.
If the share collected by one were to be effective
Sentient beings would be obscured by darkness.
As for evil deeds, since they are not virtuous roots, it is not suitable to dedicate them as a cause. Other than the
lower realms and suffering, they are not the cause of anything else.
The Lung says: {{595.1}}
These virtuous roots are dedicated to unsurpassable enlightenment.
From that, it is therefore taught that the roots of evil deeds are not dedicated to unsurpassable enlightenment.
Therefore, virtuous causes are what is dedicated by aspiration, and though this is done, unsuitable causes are not also
dedicated, just as space is not dedicated to enlightenment. Therefore, do not think in such a way, and if this should not
even be heard, what need to speak of proclaiming a view that accords with it? As purifying and augmenting will be
explained below, they are not elaborated here.
c. How one should rely on mindfulness and awareness,
In this way, day and night:
Always mindful, ever-aware, and being careful,
I will abandon what is unwholesome, creating an ocean of virtue.
Thus by those three meanings, the chief of disciplines is guarding one's own mind from the assembly of kleshas.
Moreover the mind should be guarded by mindfulness, awareness, and, carefulness. Here by being mindful of
their beneficial qualities and disadvantages of their degeneration one will not be harmed, and by remembering one's own
essence, should not be allowed to degenerate. Like the string of a tensed bow, its being just so is very important. Why so?
If mindfulness and awareness degenerate, the wholesome degenerates, and the non-wholesome easily arises in an instant.
The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.27 {{596.1}}
The bandits of non-awareness are following
After the degeneration of mindfulness;
Though merits have been fully accumulated,
As if they were snatched away by a thieves and robbers,
One will have to go to the lower realms.
As for the kleshas, this pack of thieves and robbers,
They are seeking their chance to get to us.
When they have found their chance, they ravish virtue.
Even lives of the higher realms are overcome.
Therefore we should keep hold of our mindfulness
Never letting it go to turn into somewhere else.
If it has gone, there will be harms of the lower realms.
Thinking of that keep a close track on mindfulness.
Mind should be guarded with completely pure awareness of discipline, its beneficial qualities, the disadvantages
of its degeneration, the faults and virtues of samsara and nirvana, and so forth. For example, older generations of the
world by being aware of many good and bad natures, put aside evil actions and entered into good ones and likewise into
the Dharma. By being aware of all virtuous aspects day and night, they actually established them. Within their three
gates they examined virtue and non-virtue as they arose, and counted the little pebbles of these. Putting aside non-virtue
and entering into virtue, they guarded awareness. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.18
The situation of the body and mind
Ought to be examined over and over again.
Just doing this, to tell the situation briefly,
Is the definition of guarding one's awareness
Thus mindfulness and awareness are what is chiefly guarded. The same text says: 5.23 {{{597.1}}
As for those of you who wish to guard the mind,
Guard your mindfulness and likewise your awareness
Even if in doing so you lose your life.
I thus join my palms in my beseeching you.
Also guard the mind by being careful. With self-control comes, there is self-respect in not producing the kleshas.
Having had to be ashamed before others, one is conscientious about guarding against non-virtue. These two have the
essence of carefulness, and by that one guards against the kleshas.
Moreover, by being careful there is elimination of the kleshas and the virtuous activities of liberation. The
Compendium of Abhidharma says:
What is carefulness? When having tried to live with non-passion, non-aggression, and non-
ignorance, we meditate on virtuous dharmas, and guards the mind against all defiled dharmas, we
possess the karma that completes all the perfections and fully establishes them.
If carefulness exists, all goodness and virtue will be established. If it does not exist, they will not. It is also
taught to be the root of all he dharmas of buddhahood.
The Spiritual Letter says:{{598..}}
Carefulness is the place of amrita. Without that care,
It is taught that one achieves the place of death.
Therefore, in order that virtuous dharmas may increase,
Always act devotedly with carefulness.
The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
Generosity, discipline, and likewise patience and so on,
As many virtuous dharmas as anyone may mention,
The root of all of these virtues is this carefulness.
The Sutra Requested by Jewel-Crown says:
What is carefulness? It is just that which establishes virtuous dharmas. By the carefulness of
the bodhisattvas, the essence of enlightenment is made beautiful. It is the root of the dharmas of
enlightenment. It is the place of the dharmas that establish wisdom. The main support {{598.4}} of
virtuous dharmas is individually grasped. Formerly heard dharmas do not go to waste. Dharmas that
should be gathered are gathered. Dharmas of obscuration are not gathered.
Thus if mindfulness, awareness, and carefulness are not accomplished, what we have formerly heard
degenerates. Though mere faith, hearing, and effort exist, they are covered with fallen muddiness. Since they are impure,
there is no liberation from samsara and the lower realms. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
{{598.e}}
For one who has a mind without awareness,
Hearing, contemplating, and meditating
Will be like water in a leaky vase.
They will not remain in memory.
Even in those who have heard any things,
Faith, and any genuine perserverence
Will be transgressed like falling in the mud
If there is the error of non-awareness.
On all occasions examine the mind, and whatever distractions there may be, if we have to enter into them, what
is on the side of virtue and accords with that, with its retinue, we sincerely devote ourselves to its proliferation, and that
non-virtue should not increase. When the virtuous exists alone, dhyana and so forth will enter into absolute virtue, and
produce equanimity without remainder. Whatever and wherever something is to be produced, other than that many
imperfections should not also be entered into. This is because they are hindrances to establishing that.
Thus, at the time of generosity, even if there is supreme discipline, except for merely not transgressing it, effort
in it is rested in equanimity, and we must put our effort into generosity. At such times, giving and hindering by knowing
how to distinguish higher and lower is important. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.42-4
Thus at the times of generosity,
Let discipline rest in equanimity.
Whatever is intended, act on that.
Do not think of anything other than that.
By always thinking of that very thing
It will in a little while be accomplished.
In that way all good will be produced.
Otherwise neither one will be accomplished.
The Tsanaka says:
If with the former unfinished, one practices another,
One will be exhausted and neither will be produced.
If we do not keep one foot set steadily,
Lifting the other will be a cause of falling down.
The Bodhicharyavatara says:
For the sake of the small, do not lose the great.
Chiefly think of the benefit of others.
The Compendium of Instructions, Shantideva's commentary says:
A medicinal tree must always be kept alive. If it is alive, it will be associated with benefit for others. Just so, this
body
should be kept and not given up, until one attains the bhumis of the noble ones. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.87
Because of impure notions of compassion
The body should not be lightly given up.
In such cases, small virtue may be accomplished, but if former great virtue is lost, the lesser will also be left
behind. As the virtues of the paramitas are trained in and gathered they become progressively more and more exalted. As
the higher are produced, the lower are made into equanimity. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.83
The paramitas of generosity and so forth
Are progressively more exalted than the last.
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Though some person with a joyful mind
Gives generously for even a hundred years,
One who keeps pure discipline for a day
Is much nobler than that other person.
Guarding by knowing the proper occasion is important. Moreover, the details of daily Dharma practice and
details of eating food and so forth, and actions of conduct should be briefly told. First, on arising, rise after remembering
the three jewels and bodhicitta, if even in dreams we have done evil deeds, they should be confessed right away, and if
there was virtue, that alone should be rejoiced in. This is because both day and night the habitual patterns of mind are the
same. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Shariputra, if one meditates daily on the perfection of prajqa, it will increase. By meditating
in dreams, it will also increase. This is because daytime and dream are without distinction.
Then with the previously taught liturgy take the vow of arousing bodhicitta. The aspects of day and night should
not deteriorate at all, so that they will be enhanced and increased. Then whether or not we want food, remembering the
three jewels, offer one of the four parts. One is left to be given to those who may unexpectedly arrive. One pinch and so
forth is offered as a torma. One part is eaten by ourselves. Also one part may be given to the three jewels, one to the
protectors, and one to ourselves. The leftovers are offered to bhutas who are able to receive them. The Compendium of
Action says:
Food should be divided in four parts.
The first is offered as pure food for the gods.
After that one to the guardian protectors.
Very large tormas are to be presented.
Remaining from one's personal food and drink
The leftovers are given to the bhutas.
According to what is taught in the vinaya of the holy Dharma, of three parts the first is offered to the three
jewels, the second left for monks, brahmins or kshatriyas who may happen to come by, the third one enjoys.
At the time of eating, eat with the attitude that food is unclean, the attitude of sadness, and the attitude that one is
benefiting a city of the family of worms and that for a little while one should dwell in a great ship crossing to the essence,
enlightenment. However, do not eat with any attitude that increases desire and greed.
Also of the four parts of the body, one is empty, two are food, and one is drink. The Eight Aspects says:
Two parts are food that is eaten
One part is said to be drink
One part is of air and so forth.
Those complete the four parts.
Or also according to its arising from the basis of food, there are three parts, two of which are food and drink, and
one of which is empty. If there is starvation, a host of worms will harm one, certain illnesses will arise, and one will not
be able to undertake actions. If one is very full, in consequence many illnesses will arise, and it is said that there are the
faults of samadhi becoming unworkable and so forth. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.85
One should eat no more than what is sufficient
That is how one should eat. Then the subsequently-impermanent mind establishes the dedication of food. As
explained in the scriptures:
The patron king and
The host of other beings,
also living in cities
May they always gain happiness.
Then if one is going somewhere, looking ahead just a yoke's distance to examine the path for living beings, one's
mind will not be deceived. The Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
Look for just a yoke's distance, and in going one's mind
will not be confused. Also look with eyes cast down and if someone comes smiling say, "It is good." At dangerous times
look in all directions. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
As for giving in to useless distraction,
We should never aimlessly look around.
Keeping my mind always true and resolute
We should always keep the eyes cast down.
However simply for the sake of comfort
Sometimes one should look to the directions.
If some should then appear before one's eyes.
One should look at them and bid them welcome.
To watch for dangers on the path and so on
Look again and again to the four directions.
For comfort, having turned the head around,
One should look and check the path behind.
Having examined both before and behind,
One should proceed and either come or go.
Thus on all occasions one should act
by because of having knowledge of what should be done.
Then, sitting under trees and so forth, perform what is good, meditating, reading, and so forth. Sometimes if one
wants to listen to the Dharma, one should see noble persons. Never speak haughtily and roughly. One should speak as is
taught in the Moon Lamp
Before a great being like you, how could I not be confident. You have great prajqa.
That and so forth is how one should speak. If someone wants to hear the Dharma, it is explained that we should
examine whether they are a vessel. If great things are explained to those of small mind, they will abandon Dharma and go
to the lower realms. The Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
When they hear, those of small mind will abandon.
Having abandoned, they will be without refuge,
They will go to the unremitting Hell.
Likewise small things should not be told to great people. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.90
Those who are suitable vessels of the vastest Dharma
Should not be joined to teachings meant for lesser beings.
Explaining the Dharma to a woman alone without a companion is inimical to pure conduct, and one will become
the object of slander. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.89
Nor to a woman without some other person there.
The White Lotus says:
The wise, when at any time
They explain the Dharma to women,
Should not go alone.
They should not stay and joke.
Moreover the path of conduct should not be explained to those who do not respect it and so forth. The
Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.88
Do not explain the Dharma to those with no respect.
To those who wrap the head, like people who are sick
Who carry a sword or staff, or have a parasol
Or anyone who wears a hat upon the head.
Then in a spacious place ornamented with lion thrones and so forth, without personal desire for respect,
veneration, and so forth, one explains the Dharma with an attitude of benefiting others. The White Lotus says:
In a clean and pleasant place, on a spacious seat,
Excellently arranged and carefully-spread,
Well painted with the finest excellent colors,
Well-dressed, wearing a good clean Dharma robe,
Always without the least desire for these,
Eating and drinking any food and drink,
Not having a wish for one's clothes and for one's seat,
One's robe, and medicines for curing sickness,
Not receiving anything from one's retinue,
Skillful in respect to others, may I always
Establish these sentient beings in buddhahood.
To benefit the world, may I think of the Dharma,
As the total requisite of my happiness.
That is how it should be done. Whatever sorts of persons one meets with and whatever they say kill pride and
without disrespect smilingly give the teachings in pleasant speech. The Moon Lamp says:
Smiling like the waxing moon and gentle
To the older generation and the younger
One should always speak with sincerity.
And be without pride in everything that is done.
The pleasant conversation of the world
One should speak properly in a timely way.
A variety of distracting words of chatter
Because of fear one never ought to speak.
Pleasant speech and praise may be used when without loss for oneself they make the minds of others happy. The
Bodhicharyavatara says:
To all of those that we hear who may have spoken well
We should tell them so and say to them "well said!
If one sees persons performing meritorious actions,
praising them creates supreme and excellent joy.
If they are hidden, good qualities should be spoken of.
And if they are spoken of, we should repeat that later.
If someone talks about our own good qualities,
Think that virtue in general is known and understood.
All undertakings are done so that we can be happy
This is rare for even those who have the price.
In view of that, let us be happy at finding joy
In any virtuous deeds that may be done by others.
Nothing will be lost by acting in this way,
And in the coming life we have great happiness.
But faults will make us here unhappy and miserable
And in the life to come we have great suffering.
When speaking we should be relevant and to the point
Keeping the meaning clear and speaking with pleasing speech.
We should have abandoned both passion and aggression
Speaking softly and only for a moderate time.
Then by this rejoicing, excellent ones are perceived as teachers, middling ones as companions, and lesser ones as
retinue, old ones as fathers and mothers, young ones as children. Those of the same age are perceived as brothers and so
forth, and by that they are made devoted. The Sutra of the Ten Dharmas says:
By body, speech, and mind being separate from receiving evil topics perception is produced of the
preceptor as teacher. Perception of the preceptor as master is produced. Behaving purely for the older,
middle, and young generations, they are so perceived, and devoted reverence is produced.
Generations of Beings says:
Holy ones will never pamper their bodies.
The spiritual friend relies on a gentle manner.
If one is near them a particle of their virtues,
Even if one does not practice, is established.
Hidden transgressions and subtle improprieties should not be done. The same text says:
As for unseen evil deeds that may be done,
As with poisonous food, how will there be happiness?
That by the gods and the purified eyes of accomplished yogins
These will not be seen is quite impossible.
Thinking how the freedoms and favors are so difficult to obtain and how the arising of a buddha is difficult and
so forth, be conscientious. The Sutra requested by Guarder of the Horizon says:
A buddha, a great sage who benefits the world
Only arises once in a thousand million kalpas,
Now that they have attained the holy freedoms and favors,
Those who want liberation should abandon unconscientiousness.
This body, to guard the Dharma, should be guarded from sickness and dvns. Thinking of it as a ship, do not
reject its food, clothing, and so forth. We should not torture ourselves with useless mortifications and ascetic practices.
The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.70
Even as a mere support of coming and going
The body should be thought of as being like a ship.
In order to establish benefits for beings,
The body must become a wish-fulfilling body.
The Four Hundred says:
Though this body indeed is seen as an enemy,
Properly regulated, it lives for quite a long time.
From that a large amount of merit can be attained.
Also it is impermanent and the mind that aspires to enlightenment should be produced. The Expression of the
Realization of the Seven Princesses says:
Samsaric bodily life is a dewdrop on the grass.
If one is long accustomed to not depending on it,
One will always attain the state of mahasukha.
Life is also guarded because of its bestowing wealth. For the sake of the great Dharmas of arousing bodhicitta
and so forth, life must be guarded without deprivation. The Sutra of Instructions to the King says:
By me, the bestower of wealth, the body, is guarded.
Bestowing wealth and the body, life is guarded.
Bestowing wealth and body, as well as life,
The Dharma especially is to be guarded.
The mind should be examined. By eliminating faults that are seen, the kleshas will not become firmly
entrenched. The Request of Bhrama says:
If one completely knows the faults of mind,
The faults of mind will not be stabilized.
If mindfulness is good within the mind,
One will attain the place of faultless peace.
Moreover, a tooth stick, spit, excrement and so forth should be disposed of in a solitary place not frequented by
people, where it will inconspicuous. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.91
Personal refuse such as tooth cleaning sticks and spit
Should not be thrown away where they will be visible.
It is vulgar for persons to urinate and so forth
In water or on good land that is used by other people.
The Vinaya also teaches that defiled things should not be thrown away in usable water and so forth. Also at
mealtimes, the Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.91
We should never eat with a mouth that is full of food, Noisily, or with talking, or with an open mouth.
Wherever we are, and particularly with the guru or among many people, indecorous bodily behavior, sleeping,
lying, stretching the soles of one's feet forward, rubbing ones hands together, and so forth, should not be done. Be
straightforward. Everything should be done gracefully. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.92-3
One should not stretch the soles of the feet toward other people,
And likewise not rub the hands together in their presence.
One should never travel lying in a bed
Nor be alone with women who are committed to others
Having seen and asked the conduct the world approves,
One should abandon anything that will be offensive.
Sloppy worship, laughing at the view, flirting, and all such unpacified aspects body, speech, and mind should
above all be completely controlled and tamed. The Flower Garland of Vinaya says:
Songs, and dances, and jingling ornaments,
Any seeing and entering into them
As well as the evil of having directly transgressed,
Are causes of straying from the life of discipline.
So doing necessarily leaves one far from enlightenment. The Sutra Requested by the Guarder of the Horizon
says:
Uncontrolled, and wild and arrogant;
Disrespectful and proud, with much desire;
With rigid kleshas and overcome by them,
Such people are far from supreme enlightenment.
As those who do not tame themselves cannot tame others, first we should make ourselves peaceful and tamed.
The Compendium of Limitless Good Qualities says:
Some, while they have not tamed themselves speak the words of noble enlightened beings.
Acting in contradiction to their own words, they cannot tame others. When we have realized this,
placing all beings in our hearts, we should try a little to tame what is untamed in ourselves.
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Those who have not crossed cannot bring others across.
Those who are not liberated cannot liberate others.
Those who are blind cannot show the path to others.
Those who are liberated can liberate other beings.
Those with eyes can show the path to those who are blind.
The Ten Dharmas says:
Just as I make an effort so that all sentient beings may cross over, make an effort so that all
sentient beings may be liberated, make an effort so that all sentient beings may enter into peace and
gentleness; since by not taming, pacifying, and guarding myself, this will not be my lot, I should be
pacified, tamed, and guarded.
Similarly, if by others benefit is received and harm arises for myself, let it be a cause of good karma and
enlightenment. Among all like one who endures sadness and weariness from others by producing a very humble mind or
outcast-like {{612.2}} perception, become gentle, do what needs to be done, and remembering all that is said, be heedful
and conscientious. Disparaging others and behavior because of desire and aggression should not occur even in dreams.
Daily, morning, noon, afternoon, and night, and again late at night, at midnight, and early in the morning, there should
be threefold accumulation of prostrations, confession of evil deeds, and dedication of merit. Train in chanting the Three
Accumulations, and confessing falling away from enlightenment. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.98
Three times in the day and also three at night
Chant The Sutra of the Three Accumulations.
Moreover in all actions and behavior one should spend one's time in virtue alone. The Mahayanasutralankara
says:
As in the activities of the buddha sons
They formerly entered into the various realms of the senses,
Just so by words according with my family,
What they formerly did for beings I too shall do.
That is the idea. It is taught extensively in the Completely Pure Realization of the Flower Garland of
Buddhahood:
When bodhisattvas enter into a house, they arouse bodhicitta, thinking "May all sentient
beings attain the city of liberation." Similarly, When they go to sleep, they attain the dharmakaya of
the buddhas. When they dream, they realize that all dharmas are like a dream. When they awake, they
awaken from ignorance. When they arise, they attain the body of buddhahood. When they kindle a
fire, the fuel of the kleshas is burned. When it blazes, the fire of wisdom blazes. When they move, they
attain the amrita of wisdom. When they eat food, they attain the food of samadhi. When they go forth,
they are liberated from the city of samsara. When they descend stairs, they are entering samsara to
benefit sentient beings. When they open a door, they open the gates to the city of liberation. When
they shut a door, they shut the gates of the lower realms. When they set out on a path they tread the
path of the noble ones. When they go upwards, they bring all sentient beings into the happiness of the
celestial realms. When they descend, they cut the continuity of the three lower realms. When they
meet sentient beings, they meet buddhas. When they step forward, they are going to do benefit for
sentient beings. When they lift sentient beings, they are bringing them out of samsara. If they see
persons who possesses ornaments, they will attain the major and minor marks. If they see persons
without ornaments, they will possess the qualities of purity. If they see a full vessel, it is filled with
buddha qualities. If they see an empty one, faults are emptied. If they see people rejoicing, they will
rejoice in the Dharma. If they see them sad, they will be sad about compounded things. If they see
happy sentient beings, they will attain the happiness of buddhahood. If they see sufferings, all the
sufferings of sentient beings will be pacified. If they see sickness, there will be liberation from sickness.
If they see returning of kindness, they are returning the kindness of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas.
If they see it is not acknowledged, they are not acknowledging wrong views as kindness. If they see
disputes, they can eliminate all the disputes of the fathers. If they see praise, all the buddhas and
bodhisattvas are praised. If they see discussions about the Dharma, the confidence of the buddhas is
attained. If they see bodily form, they see all the buddhas without obscuration. If they see a stupa, they
become a stupa for all sentient beings. If they see merchants, they will attain the seven aryan riches.
If they see homage, they arouse bodhicitta, thinking, "May the world along with its gods attain the
non-manifestation of the center at the crown of the head.
Moreover, for all who are uselessly disturbed, with sadness and fickleness of mind, doodling in the sand,
babbling, thinking discursive thoughts and so on, when distractions arise, until they have abandoned these by mindfulness
and awareness, may all the actions of body and speech and the thoughts of mind be caused to become Dharma. When
they go to sleep at night, lying on the right side, may they sleep with their heads in a northerly direction. Remembering
death and recollecting the three jewels, may they sleep resting their minds in dharmata like the sky. The
Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.96
As the Lord slept, passing into in nirvana,
So should we sleep in the desired direction.
Day and night aspire to the activities of the excellent noble ones, or sing the meditation songs of the masters, the
Seventy Aspirations and so forth, performing them before statues, stupas, and so forth. Here as to what is taught by the
"Twenty Verses" The Precious Mala says: {{616t}}
1 To the Buddha, the holy Dharma, and the Sangha,
And also to the assembly of bodhisattvas
Always paying homage and going to them for refuge,
Let us prostrate to those who are worthy of veneration.
2 We should bring evil deeds to a state of total extinction
Completely accomplishing all that is meritorious
As for the merits of the host of sentient beings
We should rejoice in any merits that they have.
3 Having bowed our heads and joining our palms together, 616.2
For the sake of their turning the wheel of the Dharma
And so that they will remain among beings in this world,
We therefore make supplication to the perfect buddhas.
4 By the merits of having performed this liturgy
Whether it is performed or not performed by me
As a result may sentient beings without exception
Possess the unsurpassable attitude bodhicitta.
5 May sentient beings have perfect spotless faculties
Their lives transcending any lack the excellent freedoms
And have complete control over all their actions
And be well nourished having all their needs fulfilled.
6 May all embodied beings abiding in the three realms
Have jewels in their hands as a sign of ultimate wealth
May all the requisites be utterly limitless
And in samsara may they be inexhaustible.
7 Always having all that is indispensable
May they become supreme and turn into excellent beings.
6 May embodied beings have all the required knowledge
And the ability to do what must be done.
8 May they have excellent color, and excellent healthy bodies.
May they be exalted and brilliant in their presence,
May they be without any illness and suffering,
And may they have tremendous power over life.
9 May they all be capable in the ways of upaya,
Free from any kind of fear of suffering,
May they be diligent in relation to the three jewels,
And possess the great wealth that is the Buddha and Dharma.
10 May they be joyfully kind and very compassionate
Resting all the kleshas in equanimity,
Adorned with generosity and discipline,
Along with patience, exertion, meditation, and prajqa.
11 May they completely perfect the two accumulations.
May they be glorious with the major and minor marks.
As well as the ten bhumis, which are beyond conception;
May they attain the various powers and masteries.
12 May we and other sentient beings, whoever they are
Be adorned by virtues such as these above,
And be liberated from all our various faults
Like the kind and excellent being known as Maitreya.
13 May we be the hope of every sentient being.
Completely having perfected all good qualities;
And always may we have the power to clear away
The suffering of all embodied sentient beings.
14 In all the various worlds whatever beings there are
Who are afraid of anything, may all those beings
Who even hear so much as the sound that is our names
By having done so, later become completely fearless.
15 May beings by seeing us and by remembering us
And even by their only having heard our names
Be sure of the natural state that is free from all disturbance
And so attain complete and perfect enlightenment.
16 And in all succeeding generations of beings
By means of having gained the five-fold higher perceptions.
Always for any sentient beings that there may be
May we continue to do such benefits as these.
17 Whatever beings there may be within the world of samsara
Desiring the performance of any evil deeds
Nevertheless may even these be without harm,
Reversing evil action once and forever after
18 The physical elements, earth and water, fire and air,
Are like a field full of health-giving medical herbs
Or a forest of trees that grows in the wilderness.
They ceaselessly provide what people naturally want.
19 Though the lives of sentient beings are impoverished
May I become even poorer by making this exchange:
May their evil deeds all ripen in myself.
May all my share of happiness ripen in other beings.
20 All the sentient beings who remain in the world of samsara
Who are not liberated, may as many as that
All without exception be completely transformed
Attaining the unsurpassable state of enlightenment.
Saying this three times, three times a day brings inconceivable merits. The Bodhicharyavatara says
Therefore, in the presence of a representation
Or otherwise as it may be appropriate,
Say these twenty verses from the Precious Mala
Three times every day and three times every night.
Also this was taught by the Buddha Bhagavat:
If the merit of saying these words were given form,
As for being more numerous than the sands of the Ganges
Even the realm of the world could not contain it all.
Moreover as the sutras and the Bodhisattvapitaka say, devote day and night to training. Why? The dreamlike
freedoms and favors are only there for an instant. They are impermanent like a bubble in water. If while we have them
we do not set out on the path, we cannot do so later.
7. The explanation of the twenty downfalls, together with the associated qualities:
Train in keeping these two bodhicittas without harm.
Five downfalls like wrong view are said to be like a king.
Five like staying in cities are like his ministers.
Eight are like his subjects, and two are common to all.
Altogether, twenty is the number of these.
It should be known that what accords with these is harmful.
Not having them, one avoids the harm of these downfalls.
It should be known that practicing this accords with goodness.
This follows the Essence of Space Sutra, where altogether nineteen root downfalls are taught. The five characterized as
being like a king, are: 619.4
1 appropriating the property of the three jewels,
2 inflicting punishment of a monk who possesses discipline,
3 drawing a renunciate away from discipline,
4 committing one of the five inexpiable actions, and
5 holding to wrong views.
Those which are characterized as being like a minister are staying in
1 villages,
2 their vicinity,
3 cities,
4 towns and
5 their environs.
The eight characterized as ordinary are
1 teaching emptiness to those of untrained mind,
2 turning back from dwelling in the mahayana
3 having abandoned individual enlightenment, to join the mahayana, 4 to fixate the shravaka and pratyekabuddha
vehicles and enter into fixation
5 for the sake of possessions and veneration to praise oneself and disparage others;
6 and to speak of one's own profound patience.
7 to cultivate and take the property of the three jewels
8 to give the wealth of shamatha to recitation.
As for those common to all, abandoning the mind of entering makes nineteen, on top of which The Edifice of the Three
Jewels says
abandoning the mind of entering, not uniting with the wholesome,
making twenty. The Moon Essence Sutra and the Akashagarbha Sutra also explain abandoning the mind of entering as a
downfall.
If these downfalls arise, since this is unsuitable for a bodhisattva, one should try to remedy them. In the Twenty
Vows four root downfalls are taught:
1 For the sake of possessions and veneration praising oneself and disparaging others,
2 To those who are suffering and without a protector not giving goods and dharma because of miserliness;
3 not hearing confessions storing up anger,
4 Abandoning the mahayana and teaching a facsimile of Dharma.
The four root downfalls, they are intended being like being conquered.
By desire of possessions and veneration
Praising oneself and disparaging others,
And those who suffer without a protector
Stingily not giving wealth or dharma
Not hearing confessions of other people
But rather heaping up anger at others,
Leaving the path of mahayana
Teaching facsimiles of the Dharma.
{{621.2}}
According to the teacher Asanga and his followers, four root downfalls are explained and also the manner of
receiving bodhicitta is explained as arising from pure mind, depending only on homage and offerings, first by asking
whether one's being has been defiled with obstacles, they will have very little ripening, and later one says the precepts,
If any of the four root downfalls have arisen, the way of remedying them is that the twenty vows should be taken
again, during which ones defilements should be confessed three times to one's superiors before one. So it is maintained.
This should not be accepted more than three times, as it is explained in the
Bodhisattvabhumi.
The followers of the master Nagarjuna explain the way of receiving as karma arising in pure continuum,
producing the seven limbs. The ocean-like assembly does not ask about former obstructions and does not talk about later
training. What is to be guarded against is the nineteen or twenty root downfalls.
The way of remedying in the Akashagarbha Sutra is that after supplicating, one remedies them. This is done as
many times as the downfalls received. As for these two traditions, the mind only and madhyamaka are different.
Now the associated factors are explained. As for the factors associated with these downfalls, for example,
associated with wrong view is the obscuration of mere devotion. From this fault, one should have the idea of them all.
The virtuous attitude and so forth that abandon wrong view are said to be without the fault. By not being obscured by the
association, one is also said to be without the fault. All that is associated with virtue is said to be what one should train in.
In particular what is connected with benefiting others is the real thing that should be trained in.
8. The individual ways of guarding aspiring and entering,
a. The way of guarding aspiring
has two sections.
1) The brief teaching
Now the individual ways of guarding aspiring and entering will be explained. Now as to how aspiring is
guarded by accepting and rejecting, as many things as are to be trained in the details of those, in brief:
Briefly four black dharmas ought to be avoided.
Four pure white ones should earnestly be performed.
2) The extensive explanation,
a) The instruction to abandon the four black dharmas. {{ 622.5}}
In detail, as for the first four:
These are the four black actions that are to be avoided:
Cheating any persons who are worthy of respect,
Feeling regret for things that should not be regretted,
Speaking unpleasant words to those who are holy ones,
Behaving deviously toward sentient beings in general.
Since these are the four black dharmas, they should be abandoned. The Edifice of the Three Jewels Sutra
Requested by Kashyapa says:
Kashyapa, if one posses these dharmas, bodhicitta will be forgotten. What are these four?
Slandering the guru and those who are worthy of respect. Producing regret in others for things that
should not be regretted. To bodhisattvas who have aroused bodhicitta speaking with the fault of an
angry mind. Behaving deviously and deceptively to sentient beings.
b. The instruction to practice the four white dharmas
As for the four white dharmas:
These are the four white dharmas in which we should place our trust:
Relying on holy ones and giving praise to their virtues,
Encouraging sentient beings to do what is truly good,
Arousing the perception of the teacher within the children.
High-mindedly do goodness and benefit for beings.
Abandoning what is false has the ground of the virtue of benefiting sentient beings. As for producing
perceptions of bodhisattvas as teachers, they become special companions on the path. Dwelling in the excellent thought of
non-deception is symbolized by relying on the holy ones and praising them. This is the consequence of all virtues. As for
establishing all sentient beings on the path of mahayana, having particular purity, first producing bodhicitta is urged. The
Edifice of the Three Jewels says: {{624.1}}
Kashyapa, if one has these dharmas, bodhicitta will not be forgotten. What are these four?
Conscientiously not speaking falsely, producing perception of bodhisattvas as teachers, dwelling in the
excellent thought of not behaving deviously and deceptively toward sentient beings, and truly
establishing all sentient beings in the mahayana.
As for guarding by means of what is to be stabilized, the Shri Samadhiraja Sutra says:
O prince, if one has four perceptions, bodhicitta will be stabilized. What are these four? they
are perception of true spiritual friends as buddhas, perceiving the Dharma taught by them as the path,
perceiving those who practice it as companions on the path, and perceiving all sentient beings as one's
only child.
b. Guarding the Mind of Entering
As for explaining the details of guarding the bodhicitta of entering:
Considering others' welfare as more important than ours,
This is the practice trained in by the bodhisattvas.
If they benefit others the seven evils of body and speech,
Are actually beneficial, when they can be performed,
However, the three of mind are never to be done.
and also:
By desiring peace and happiness for one's own benefit
Even goodness is a downfall for the buddha-sons.
For the benefit of others, even that which is evil,
Ought to be practiced, the Victorious One has taught.
There are three aspects.
1 One should learn to abandon what is to be abandoned.
2 One should learn to know what is to be known.
3 One should learn to practice what is to be practiced.
{{625.2}} Within the first is the way of guarding the mind from the root downfalls, the kleshas, and the fault of
useless activity. From the four ways of training in knowing when to give and hinder, the first three were spoken of above.
As for the last, if there is an opportunity of giving through the ten non-virtues of body and speech, if it will be for others'
benefit, know that it should be done. The greatness of one's own virtue will not be obscured by that, and on top of that,
having observed an occasion for the three increases mahasattvas should perform the seven non-virtues. What is the
benefit? Minak Dunguchen, having seen many persons killed by selfish desire, the guide, by compassion, in order that
there may be liberation from limitless samsara, seems to cut off life.
Some though there is wealth, by miserliness will not give.
When there is a time of famine, if it will save lives, for the benefit of both, what was not given by the rich is
taken, to give to the poor.
The bhramin's child skar ma la dga' ba is tormented by the desires of others. By desiring the goal of reversing the
certainty of death, wrong activity seems to be performed. In order that those who will certainly be killed may be liberated,
there seems to be false speaking. Having deceived the companions of the evil-doer, for the purpose of reversing them
from being led into the lower realms, there seems to be slander. In order to purify the suffering of those who have
suffering, making up and telling various stories, or telling jokes, there seems to be frivolous speech. In order to reverse
those who will certainly undertake evil deeds, they seem to speak harsh words. These things are done because the purpose
is virtuous.
The three evil actions of mind, should never be done, because they are only bad. Though some say that there is
an opportunity of doing them, the vow is total. Manjushri having reversed the first ones, by dwelling among the Hindus,
when he was taming Kuntu Gyu, he is taught not to have fallen into accepting the wrong views that arose, and though
such a teaching is thus practiced, thus, by that in body and speech, to Kuntu Gyu he taught language with the rising of
wrong view, but when wrong view arose in their minds, to these by and by he expressed the virtues of the three jewels, so
how would this come about? Therefore he never performed these actions of mind.
Well by doing unvirtuous actions of body and speech, he transgressed. Isn't it like eating poison? Virtuous
mind, as in mantra, by grasping poison is without fault. The Twenty Vows says:
If these are done with compassion and for the sake of kindness
It is virtuous mind and the act is without fault.
But the Objects of Mindfulness says:
Though it is taught that a sentient being who cuts off one life will be tormented for an
intermediate kalpa in the ephemeral hells, and though it is taught that an evil deed is always done if
one thinks that; because the Buddha's word is intended for the minds of sentient beings of different
capacities, that sometimes one and sometimes many and sometimes certain and sometimes uncertain
are taught should be known not to be contradictory.
The Praise of the Teachings says:
Because of what is given and what is being held back,
Sometimes the words to you are "it is one and certain.
Sometimes "it is not certain" also has been said.
Therefore these are not in mutual contradiction.
In such a way there is provisional meaning and true meaning. Having the intention and what should be known
to have the four hidden intentions, is very much in contradiction.
These divisions will be explained extensively below. As for training in the means of knowing knowables, the
Mahayanasutralankara says:
As for any not known by the buddha sons,
Such knowables as these do not exist.
Contemplation and learning should be earnestly undertaken in the worldly topics or sciences, and whatever
world-transcending dharmas there are. This is so that omniscience may be obtained. If one summarizes these, there are
five divisions to keep track of; arts, crafts, the art of reasoning, the reasoning of Buddhists, and the reasoning of non-
Buddhists. The same text says:
If there is no effort with the five topics of reasoning, Even the supreme noble ones will never be
omniscient. Cut off other pursuits, strive for your own omniscience.
In particular when the details of the vow of training are known, it is very important to guard them. Moreover, in
the way previously taught, downfall and non-downfall, associated qualities, what is to be trained in, and the reason why
this is done should previously be known. There are twenty root downfalls. Because these downfalls are absent, we are
joined to virtue and there is no downfall. Moreover when we enter into meaningless speech, entertainments, and so forth;
if passion and aggression are produced, the fault of having kleshas will be produced. Even if these have been produced,
when one enters there is no need to grasp them, and by mindfulness and awareness, meaningless kleshas are produced. If
we enters into passionless for the sake of others, there is no downfall. If we enters into desire, there is the fault of that. It
is associated with it. If one enters simply the joy of others, it is the same. One should learn, meditate, and so forth that the
antidotes are impermanent. When one has seen transgressions, confess and renew the vow. For example, if for reasons
not connected with virtue, we dig up the earth, we commit faults of uselessly cutting roots and so forth. If the same thing
is done for the sake of virtue, there is no downfall. While we does not remember that it is useless, there is the associated
fault of doodling in the sand. One should learn that this should be accomplished with mindfulness and awareness.
Having remembered what is to be learned, it will be renewed, and our vow will be renewed. All actions of body, speech,
and mind should be known to be joined to that. If there is transgression, from also knowing how to renew, if aspiration is
transgressed it can be cured. Moreover, as for the conditions of transgression, discouragement, procrastination, and
entering into other paths; as for discouragement, if we thinks that we cannot produce the benefit of others as we can one's
own benefit, we get discouraged. As for the antidote, because we have attained the freedoms and favors at this time of
arousing bodhicitta, discouragement is abandoned. As for the praise of confidence, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
{{630t}}
Sentient beings become human
So that every measureless instant
They can try to gain perfect enlightenment.
So let us not be discouraged.
As for procrastination, not seeing the benefits of the path, and having seen the faults of asceticism, as an antidote
to that, having been taught the benefits and joy of it, as for the instruction in patience, the Bodhicharyavatara says: 7.30
Therefore, having mounted the horse of bodhicitta,
Which clears away all weariness and discouragement,
One goes on from happiness to happiness.
Knowing bodhicitta, who could then despair?
If one grasps the paths of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas as being better than the mahayana, also one will be
sent into them, so as an antidote, from the two meditations on transgression and benefit, as for the shravakas and
pratyekabuddhas being far from perfect enlightenment the Manifestation of Enlightenment of Vairochana says
The paths of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas are eighty-thousand great kalpas away from the
unsurpassable fruition.
As to the immeasurable benefits of the mahayana, the Bodhicharyavatara says: 7.29
As for this, because of the power of bodhicitta
Former evil deeds will completely be exhausted.
Because a heap of merits is accumulated,
It is nobler than the path of the shravakas.
The Precious Mala says: 630.6
There is no looking at the benefit for oneself
The benefit of others is joyful as one taste.
The arising place of virtues in the mahayana.
If mind is sent outward one is far from enlightenment, and the sufferings of samsara and the lower realms are
immeasurable. As for the way of curing, before statues and so forth with remorse and repentance confess and take the
vow. Also this arises by practicing as before. The number required is uncertain.
As for the method of remedying the bodhicitta of entering, conditions of defilement are three: the bodhicitta of
aspiring is lost; The opposing root downfalls arise; the condition of abandoning training is offered.
As for the faults of defilement. If formerly accumulated merit manifests, by its being degraded later, we will
have no happiness, we will not meet with the mahayana, and by breaking one's vow our place will become degraded. By
the heaviness of defilement, we will wander for a long time in the lower realms. The Letter to Students says:
Those even when alone will truly examine their minds
Producing an association with genuine karma
On the earth, at the center they become principal holy ones.
These excellent students will respect the guru
Modest, producing a host of virtues, noble people.
Supremely motionless, they follow the view of kindness
For even those brilliant ones rejoicing in truth and tradition,
Life is easily lost and there are no promises.
For a while all beings have faults and evil deeds
That will send them all into unbearable hells
Throwing away the natural state, indeed they suffer.
For the wise on earth what suffering is worse than this?
Whoever receives the sages' life-granting Dharma path
Like a great ship, having received it, they throw it away again.
In the midst of the ocean of samsara like dancers
Think the deceptive thought that their joy is assured.
Therefore, the Bodhicharyavatara says:
Though merit is easily defiled
Mind is never defiled.
dge ba gzhan yang nyams bla yi
sems ni nam yang nyams mi bya
If one breaks the session, if it is lost, with repentant mind having confessed as before by practicing the rite three
times it will be renewed. The count is uncertain. By the mahasiddha Nagpopa three means of renewal are taught. Lesser
ones by the power of grasping things as solid, having apprehended them in their minds, confess their faults before others.
By subsequent vows, as they are gradually distanced from those faults, rising from the downfall occur.
The middle ones, having pleased the deities of vidya mantra and secret mantra, the bodhisattva Akashagarbha
and so forth, having attained the blessing of the deity, arise from that downfall.
Some who are excellent, when someone says they have a downfall, remain effortlessly within bodhicitta. As to
how, it is taught in the Noble Mahayana Sutra Teaching that all dharmas are Without Arising:
Manjushri, the bodhisattva who knows no-action and no-arising attains complete purity from karmic
obscurations.
Here, "we should follow this" is well-thought. Those of inferior mind do so before the bodhisattva Sangha or a
special object. They supplicate having performed the seven-fold service, or should renew them, or supplicate such and
such a mahasattva to consider them:
For I, so and so, such and such a downfall has arisen. This for the sake of all sentient beings, I confess
and supplicate it be made pure.
Say this three times, and because of others:
These transgressions I see as transgressions and from now on I will control and vow well to avoid them
633.6
Let that be vowed. By saying that one is liberated from faults, according to the Bodhisattvabhumi. Also in between
perserveringly doing the developing and fulfillment stages of the deity before their respective yidam deities, having done
the seven-fold service, by confession and having retaken the vow, they remedy the downfall. Here the deity of vidya
mantra in general is Shri Akashagarbha. If one wants to confess before him, one should confess continuously day and
night. From the time one arises this is done. In the later part of the night to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten
directions, and in particular Shri Akashagarbha, call by name and prostrate, and continuously speak out strong
confessions of one's evil deeds of transgression. When dawn comes, say this:
Please do what I ask. For Shri Akashagarbha, if I confess my transgressions, having
purified them, by consider, quiet them and grant your blessings.
Say that three times. When the sun rises, in view of purity of transgressions, body and mind are happier than
before, and even the sun arises more gently. The air is pure, and good dreams display themselves, so it is taught.
Some excellent beings, sitting cross-legged, first call by name whatever dream and illusion-like transgressions
there are. In the space in front are the buddhas and their sons. After confessing to them, identify the essence of these very
transgressions outer, inner, and in between, by having examined their color, shape, and so forth. They do not arise from
anywhere, do not abide anywhere, and do not go anywhere. Knowing them to be in nature like space, resting within that
state, one will be liberated from all transgressions. The Extensive Sutra of the Great liberation in the Ten Directions says:
If the bodhisattva has four dharmas, all will arise separated from degeneration of discipline
and the faults of the kleshas. What are these four? Because dharmas have no coming, dharmas are
ceaselessly seen, because dharmas arise interdependently through causes and conditions, and because
they are empty of nature. If they have these four, there will be no arising of degeneration of discipline
and faults of the kleshas
The Dharmaraja Sutra says:
One sentient being, if one knows non-duality, all obscurations will completely be abandoned.
For example, as on a mirror a with a thousand years accumulation of dust, there can later be not a
particle, this too is like that. For example, in a dark empty house, dark for a thousand years, though
darkness has lasted for a thousand years, a lamp will make it non-existent. So by the mind knowing
the genuine truth of essencelessness, the evil deeds of countless kalpas will instantly be removed.
The Sutra of Entering into the Absolute says:
The son of the gods White Lotus asked, Manjushri, "How should karmic obscurations of be
abandoned?"
He replied, "Son of the gods, as for karmic obscurations, if one knows that karma itself is primordially
unreal, it will effortlessly be cleared away. That is like wiping with a cloth a conch that is covered by
charcoal. These are guarded against by means of knowing their objects, it has been taught.
9. The teaching of the stages by which beings should practice this
Now, by means of practicing what is to be practiced, guarding is taught. From the two sections of the individuals
by whom it is practiced and how it should be practiced, as for the first:
As for the buddha-sons, there are three kinds of them.
Those who have freed themselves and desire to free all beings,
These are the bodhisattvas, who are like a king.
Those who want liberation for both themselves and beings
These are the bodhisattvas who are like a helmsman.
Those who free beings and then desire their own peace
These are the bodhisattvas who are like a shepherd.
It is taught in the sutras that these are liberated,
In thirty-three measureless kalpas, in seven, or in three,
Respectively, in accord with their powers of gaining it.
This is called arousing the great desire of bodhicitta of a bodhisattva. After first having become enlightened
ourselves, later we free beings; for example, as a king, having attained a kingdom, desires to establish his subjects in
happiness. Arousing such bodhicitta like Manjushri is explained in many sutras.
The desire to liberate oneself and other beings equally is called "arousing the bodhicitta of true wisdom." The
boat-passengers and oneself equally want to go to the other side of the river. First having liberated sentient beings,
desiring to liberate oneself primordially, is called the arousing of bodhicitta of which there is no example. Shepherds of
sheep, goats, and oxen, when they see narrow defiles and fearful places, or else when in front of them these have entered
them, make every one come out again. This is arousing bodhicitta for sentient beings like that of Manjushri and
Shakyamuni. Here those of dull powers take thirty-three and the middling seven, and the sharpest three lifetimes to
perfect unsurpassable enlightenment. The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Those arousing the bodhicitta of the great desire will be liberated from samsara in thirty-three
countless kalpas. Those who arouse the bodhicitta of genuine wisdom will reach it in seven. By
arousing the unexampled bodhicitta, they will become completely enlightened in three inconceivable
kalpas. Why so? Because they have powers that are small, middling, and great. For example, they are
like a universal monarch, the pilot of a ship, and a parent.
Thus, and so forth it is extensively taught.
10. from the two methods of training in what should be practiced, the activity of the victorious ones,
a. The brief teaching of the six perfections
The buddha sons must train themselves in everything,
But chiefly in the practice of the six perfections.
The Spiritual Letter says:
Generosity, discipline, patience, and exertion
And likewise the paramita of imponderable prajqa,
By that treasury of powers of the Victorious One
One reaches the other shore of the ocean of samsara.
One trains in what is explained. From the common and individual natures, the common also has six parts.
Without conceptualizing the three spheres of actor, action, and object, the thought of giving one's possessions to
another, along with the seed of virtue, is the perfection of generosity. Its action is to pacify the poverty of others.
Without conceptualizing the three objects, thoughts of abandoning the faults of samsara and nirvana, along with
their seeds, are the perfection of discipline. Its action is to eliminate obstructions.
Without conceptualizing the three objects, bearing harm and weariness and not being afraid of their nature is the
perfection of patience. Its action is agressionlessness.
Without conceptualizing the three objects, joy in virtue is the perfection of exertion. The action is that merit
increases.
Without conceptualizing of the three objects, one-pointed mind is the perfection of meditation. Its action is that
the kleshas are pacified.
By not conceptualizing the three objects, realization of the nature of dharmas becomes the perfection of prajqa.
The action is that knowables are realized and, that one is liberated from samsara.
These paramitas have four virtues. By envisioning enlightenment as the benefit for others they are vast. By
establishing true goodness and loftiness, they are precious. By transcending the world, they are without materialism. By
the increase of merit, they are inexhaustible. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Vast and not materialistic,
Precious and inexhaustible,
Of generosity and the others
These four virtues should be known.
In three inconceivable kalpas or more depending on the first paramita, loftiness is established and the kleshas
abandoned.
the count of six paramitas is fixed. The same text says:
Enjoyment and the body are both completely perfected.
By perfect acts and retinue one is elevated.
One never again will be in the power of the kleshas,
And anything one does will always be correct.
Second, in terms of doing benefit for others, with a view to accomplishing benefit for oneself, the count of six is
fixed. The same text says:
Not impoverished and completely not injurious,
Patient with injury and not growing weary of action,
One has an excellent reason for one's feeling of rejoicing:
The benefit of others is one's own benefit.
Third from the viewpoint of the three trainings, as for the count of six paramitas being certain, the same text says:
Of the six paramitas of the Victorious One,
When they are classified from the viewpoint of the three trainings
The explanation is that the first has three divisions
The second has two divisions, and the third has one.
One includes all three, with three divisions described.
The first three are gathered under the training in supreme discipline. Generosity is the cause, discipline the
essence, and patience the particular expression.
The next two are gathered under training the mind in meditation.
Prajqa is gathered under the discipline of prajqa.
Exertion alone gathers them all together, being associated with them all.
Describing them as being understood in stages, the same text says:
The later depend on the earlier
Since they are lower and higher,
And since they are fine and coarse,
They are taught to be in stages.
Since they arise in successive order from earlier to later, these are stages of cause and fruition. Since discipline is
more excellent than generosity, there is a gradation from worse to better. The earlier they are, the coarser they are, and
the easier to understand and realize. The later they are, the subtler and more difficult they are, so there are gradations of
fine and coarse. They are described from those three viewpoints.
As for the way of practicing, practice generosity with no hope of complete ripening. Again and again in this
samsaric realm guard discipline that does not aspire to the higher realms. To endure everything patiently, meditate on
patience. Exertion gathers all these virtues together. Meditation eliminates ideas of the formless realms. Prajqa should
be established non-dually with upaya. The same text says:
Generosity without hope
Discipline not desiring
Samsaric agitations.
Patience bearing everything,
Exertion gathering virtue,
Dhyana that is not formless,
Prajqa possessing upaya,
These are the six paramitas.
By their stability
We are united with truth.
As for the ascertaining features the same text says:
Removing poverty, obtaining coolness, and bearing anger,
Union with passionlessness, and grasping of the mind,
Are said to be done for the sake of knowing the absolute.
Removing poverty is generosity. Cooling the torments of the kleshas, and guarding against them is discipline.
Forbearance of inner anger is patience. Union with the level of buddhahood is exertion. One-pointedly grasping mind is
dhyana. Knowing the nature of dharmas, absolute truth, is prajqa.
b. The extended explanation of the individual natures of the perfections,
1) Generosity,
a) Identifying the object,
Now from the six explanations of the individual natures, as for the nature of generosity:
Seeing that sentient beings are tormented by poverty,
b) The general teaching on the nature:
They give them limitless gifts of desirable articles,
Like food and clothing, horses, wagons and oxen.
Greater are such gifts as one's own sons and daughters.
But greatest is to give one's head and eyes and such.
This establishes worldly and spiritual benefit.
c) The benefits of generosity:
Thus we will conquer all our avariciousness.
Consequently giving rise to wealth for others.
Material generosity perfects the accumulation of merit and Dharma-generosity the accumulation of wisdom.
Without avariciousness, the continuity of birth as a preta is cut off. Actual wealth arises for the benefit of others. The
world of the noble ones is grasped. The Sutra Taught by Questions says:
By material generosity the accumulation of merit is perfected. By Dharma-generosity, the
accumulation of wisdom is perfected. These two establish omniscience. What is material
generosity? It is like this. There is giving, great giving, and supreme giving. Giving is of food,
clothing, chariots, and elephants to others. Great giving is of sons, daughters, and spouses. Supreme
giving is of things difficult to do. Heads, eyes, arms, legs and so forth are given.
What is Dharma-generosity? The lesser is giving pens, ink, and books. The greater is giving
teachings, of the shravakas, of the pratyekabuddhas, or of the supreme Dharma, according to the
fortunes of beings. To enter into grasping unsurpassable enlightenment and display the inconceivable
Dharma like the sky is the supremely great.
Householder bodhisattvas practice chiefly material generosity, and renunciates Dharma-generosity. About this
the Mahayanasutralankara says:
Bestowing benefits,
And depending on mind, the root,
Perfect both action and mind
Accepting these two and perfecting
While being without stinginess,
Giving dharma and things without fear.
Having known such generosity,
There is genuine accomplishment
For those who are capable.
The essence is being without miserliness. The cause is pure, generous thoughts. The fruition is perfection of
body and enjoyment. The action is taking care of both oneself and others, and perfecting the two accumulations.
As for distinguishing the qualities, the same text says:
Buddha sons, when they meet with students, give even their lives.
Even if they receive compassion from other beings
They take no care of fruition of human hopes and wishes.
Generosity brings all beings to the three enlightenments.
By the wisdom of generosity having been perfected,
They are placed in the inexhaustible realms of purity.
2) Discipline,
1) Explanation of the nature and expression of praise
As for the explanation of the perfection of discipline, since externals are non-existent, the inner abides in
enlightenment:
By controlling ourselves with the highest discipline,
Peace and happiness of mind will be attained.
By prajqa we will gain perfection of the two benefits.
2) the brief explanation of what is to be trained in and the instruction to guard it:
The vows and accumulations of Dharma and benefiting beings,
Buddha sons will always guard these three disciplines.
3) The divisions of individuals who guard it and the explanation of the root as bodhicitta:
Householders take the precepts of a lay disciple.
Renunciates take the vows of monk, shramanera, or novice,
And the discipline of guarding both the two bodhicittas
Here, in addition to whichever of the seven pratimoksha, or self-liberation vows may be appropriate, there is the
vow of the bodhisattva discipline, including vows of arousing the two bodhicittas of aspiring and entering. The single
bodhisattva vow has no divisions corresponding with the seven families of personal enlightenment. Those seven families
are the male and female genyens, getsuls, and gelongs, and the lay disciples. Counting male and female observers of the
precepts for a day there are nine families. On the side of householders, the vows of genyen and day-precepts are divided
into two. On the side of renunciates, there are getsuls, genyens, and fully ordained gelongs. It is said that on top of these
the vows of arousing the two bodhicittas are possessed. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
As for those who dwell on the side of the renunciates,
They have an amount of virtue that is immeasurable.
With regard to householders industrious with their vows
They are more excellent than even those bodhisattvas.
That explains the renunciate bodhisattvas. The sutras say:
Householder bodhisattvas and renunciates,
Those who have the forms of females and of males
Supremely many billions and millions have one means.
Of the two kinds of genyens, as for genyens who observe a few precepts, there are the "root four genyens," who
keep the four root precepts, and abandon wrong objects of sexual desire. Genyens of pure conduct, keep these basic four
and also abandon impure conduct.
As for the getsuls, the Radiant says:
Renouncing cutting off life, and taking the goods of others,
Impure acts and false speech, alcohol and so forth,
Dances, garlands and such and sitting on high seats,
And receiving food, gold, or silver any time after noon,
Because of taking these ten precepts, the mind is also guarded from the associated faults.
For women there are also the twelve renunciation producing antidotes of not touching anyone and so forth.
Since women have greater kleshas, they are studied for two years to see if they can keep their vows and if they are stable.
For gelongs there are four basic rules involving expulsion from the Sangha, the additional thirteen precepts, and
the thirty of abandoning, which if they are broken one must abandon the object involved and so forth, 253 precepts in all.
Gelongmas, fully ordained nuns, have 364 or more. This is according to sarvastivadins, mahasangikas, sthaviras and
many others in the collections that they individually revere regarding training in different disciplines. The Bhumi
Collection says:
When in addition to the precepts of renunciation, they have those of arousing the bodhicittas
of aspiring and entering without corruption, this is said to be bodhisattva renunciation. Those who
have this discipline have a discipline that binds their being away from corrupting activity. This is
called the precept of supreme discipline.
In terms of the merit of the attitude of renunciation these are together with Bvn. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
5.11
Attaining the wish for renunciation of such things
Is what is explained as being the perfection of discipline.
Restraining natural degrading activity, the vows of personal liberation bind non-merit. In samsara the gods
must take human bodies in order to attain the happiness of the benefit for oneself. Not only do they not take care of others,
but accomplishing benefit for them is only is taught within the bodhisattva discipline. As for mantra discipline, in
addition, the karma and kleshas involved in ordinary grasping are abandoned, and in the two stages of meditating in the
stages of development and fulfillment, one is made into a worthy vessel.
At the time of the vows of personal liberation there is no opportunity of properly committing faults of the nature
of the ten non-virtues. In the bodhisattva vow seven can be committed to benefit others. Mantra depends on the skillful
means of non-abandoning or non-renunciation. As fire arises from wood, this cause of the arising of wisdom is produced
only by that profound path.
Within the continuum of a single being, the single essence exists with different aspects. If objects of choice occur
simultaneously, the higher ones are preferentially guarded. The lower part is gathered into it. Though there seems to be
complete contradiction with the lower part, the essence is not lost, and so there is no real contradiction.
For example, in tantric practice drinking is not a violation, even though drinking liquor is taught to be a
downfall by the shravakas, and by the bodhisattvas said to be an associated fault. At that time, the object must not be
consumed by the practitioner as a monk or bodhisattva. But when the deities are visualized, things change. Things must
become intoxicating liquor. By mantra, mudra, and samadhi, they are transformed into amrita and one is supposed to
enjoy them. Perceptions and thoughts must become many other things, transformed into perceptions of gods and
mandalas. By their becoming amrita and faultless divine offerings, feast practice is perfected. By meditating with the
accompaniment of view and samadhi, the good qualities become exalted, and in such a way the nature of these precepts
will all be known.
In brief, however faults are produced, they are stopped. The good qualities if goodness is produced, are
bestowed. Generally, to know this clearly by visualizing is very important. The Precious Mala says:
Generally it is done by visualizing
Therefore this is praised in all the shastras.
In brief, guarding the mind from harmful behavior for the benefit of others is the vow of discipline. By the two
accumulations and the six perfections, an assembly of good qualities which have not previously arisen are produced.
Increasing this arising is the discipline of gathering virtuous dharmas. They are chiefly gathered by discipline of mind.
Those skilled in upaya, whether real or from one's mind, accomplish the benefit of sentient beings. By the four bases
being gathered, others are made joyful, their situations uplifted, and good and virtuous seeds of ultimate certainty planted.
Such caring for the happiness of others is the discipline of producing benefit for sentient beings.
By these three disciplines, the three disciplines of the path are accomplished. Having perfected the two
accumulations, one becomes enlightened.
1) By the discipline of the vow, one attains perfect abandonment of the two obscurations and their habitual
patterns. 2) By the discipline of gathering virtuous dharmas, perfect realization is attained of nature, extend, and
so forth.
3) By the discipline of benefiting sentient beings, one attains perfect buddha activity, taming whatever needs to
be tamed along with the spontaneous arising of the two benefits. The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Kashyapa, this bodhisattva discipline has three aspects. There are the discipline of the vow,
the discipline of gathering virtuous dharmas, and the discipline of accomplishing benefit for sentient
beings. By the discipline of the vow, the mind is guarded from what is unwholesome. By the
discipline of gathering virtuous dharmas, the virtuous roots are established. By the discipline of
accomplishing benefit for sentient beings, one devotes oneself to the benefit of others.
The Mahayanasutralankara says:
These six accomplish peace by having wished for it.
They will give the gift of life in the higher realms,
They are the supports of peace and fearlessness
By them one will possess the accumulation of merit.
One attains the nature of the symbolic signs.
One has the topics that are contained within the vow.
Having completely known a discipline like that,
Those who are capable will really establish it.
The essence has seven limbs. These are the topics of discipline. Bound by the vow of personal enlightenment,
are
1). The perfect procedure
2). The sphere.
Only the subtlest faults are viewed as topics of fear. The bases of the precepts are genuinely received. They are learned.
So it is explained on the level of the shravakas.
3). As for the cause, it makes one attain peace, nirvana.
4). As for the fruition, one exists in the higher realms.
5). As for the action, it produces the support of all the good qualities. The kleshas are pacified and one is made fearless
about oneself and others.
6). As for the good qualities, it possesses the accumulation of merit.
7). As for the divisions, there is that arising from receiving the harvest of genuineness, and that attained by dharmata.
The first, is personal liberation. In attaining dharmata, both samadhi and spotless karma arise. There is the mind of
actual samadhi and the path of seeing and so forth, the undefiled level of the noble ones. The Abhidharmakosha says:
It is called the vow of personal liberation
Spotlessness and samadhi will arise as a result.
These disciplines are undefiled. They are not changeable by downfalls. They are not mixed with the personal
liberation of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas. The sutras are not lacking, since they are part of the mahayana. Having
those four aspects, they should be produced as the support of good qualities. The Spiritual Letter says:
Your discipline is undefiled, and indeed not lacking.
Not mixed, and unchangeable, it is a pure reliance.
Discipline, whether at the levels of cause or causeless
Is taught as the ground and support of all good qualities.
As for these virtues of discipline, The Mahayanasutralankara says:
The buddha sons always receive discipline of the nature of the vow and effort. Though they
have no desire for the celestial realms, they genuinely attain them even though they produce no desire
for them. By this discipline, all beings are also established in the three enlightenments. By the wisdom
of discipline being completely accomplished, they are inexhaustibly established in the pure realms.
3) Patience,
a) the general teaching on the divisions,
{{652.3}}
Then as for the perfection of patience:
Three kinds of patience also need to be established.
One gives no thought to how much suffering is involved
In the various kinds of outer and inner injuries.
Because of compassion one has devotion to the Dharma.
Third there is that of compassion that has no reference point.
Not getting angry at harm or injuries produced by externals is the patience of fortitude. Enduring hardships in
liberation and in establishing the dharma for oneself and others, this patience does not care how much suffering is
involved.
Compassionate patience is being tireless in benefiting others.
Not being afraid of the profound meaning of emptiness is the compassion having no reference point of nature.
As for the meaning of these, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
Fortitude knows but does not care how much it must bear.
As for compassion, patience depends upon that dharma.
As for the five benefits, they are truly explained.
They are the producers of the two benefits.
Having the main thing and all the ascetic practice
There is the patience that aspires to those three things.
When patience such as that has been completely known,
By the wise it is said that it is truly established.
The essence is not being angry with others and bearing adversity. The cause is compassion. The five benefits
are the fruition. The sutras say:
1 There is not much resentment and discord.
3 There is much happy and blissful mind.
4 There is no regret at the time of death.
5 The body abides in peace,
6 and one will be born in the bliss of the celestial realms.
Their result is to produce benefit and happiness for both oneself and others. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
The buddha sons bear all the harms of human beings which is very hard to do. Since they
cannot care for the celestial realms, they are not afraid of not going there, and do not care about their
benefits. By that same patience they establish all sentient beings in enlightenment. By the wisdom of
patience being completely accomplished, they place beings inexhaustibly in the pure realms.
b. The way of meditation
{{653.6}}
As for the brief teaching of meditating on patience:
Just as no greater evil exists than that of aggression,
No merits are so difficult as those of patience.
By strenuous efforts in these various kinds of patience,
Let us strive to quench the great fires of aggression.
The supreme good is enlightenment. Moreover, the merit established by patience is greater than others. The
greatest suffering is hell. Since this is produced by aggression, and since there is no greater evil than that, by various
means, it should be joined to austere meditation on patience. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 6.2 {{654.3}}
Just as there is no evil which is as bad as aggression,
No austerity is so difficult as that of patience.
Therefore it is proper that we should strive earnestly
Meditating on patience in various different ways.
The Spiritual Letter says:
There is no austerity like that of patience
Though we cannot do away with occasions of anger
By abandoning anger, there is irreversibility.
By this being attained, buddhahood is promised.
c) Many objects are tamed by taming mind alone
If each of many objects of anger has to be dealt with, it will never be accomplished and they will not be pacified.
As for the means of bearing them:
The uncontrolled harm of things is entirely limitless.
We can never succeed in pacifying them all.
When mind alone is tamed, then everything will be tamed.
So guard the diligence of keeping mind subdued.
The Bodhicharyavatara says: 5.12 {{655.1}}
Unruly sentient beings are as limitless as space
It will never be that all of them are subdued;
But if thoughts of aggression alone have once been overcome
That will be like conquering all our enemies.
d) How harm is a condition of establishing patience:
The good of patience comes about depending on harm.
Such qualities as kindness and compassion rise.
Enemies, like teachers, are friends to enlightenment.
Rely on them patiently, feeling respect and joy.
Just as masters and preceptors are beneficial to renunciation, if one has no enemy, patience will not arise, and
therefore we should put up with enemies. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 6.103-5
{{655.3}}
If we do not endure them in a patient way,
The cause of gaining merit will thereby be prevented.
It is only we who are our own obstruction
Hindering what is the cause of gaining merit.
That which if it there another comes to be.
that is the vary thing which is called the other's cause,
That on whose occurrence something comes to be
How can that be called a hindrance to it?
The timely appearance of a beggar seeking alms
Does not produce a hindrance to generosity
Calling those who are bestowers of renunciation
Obstructions to it is equally unsuitable.
Times of harm, conditioned by minor suffering of unhappy mind and so forth condition the arising of
compassion and sadness and so forth, and therefore we should bear them. The same text says: 6.21
{{655.e}}
Moreover as for the virtues arising from suffering,
By sadness, it clears away arrogant haughtiness
For those within samsara compassion will arise.
Evil is avoided and we rejoice in virtue.
Those without merit can attain it by meditating on bearing angry thoughts. They can feel joy in them and be
devoted to them like the teacher. The Uttaratantra says:
With Joy and devotion like that for the teacher.
Also it says there:
Therefore if we have a completely angry mind
And patience arises only in dependence on that
Since that is the very thing that is the cause of patience,
It is worthy of homage like holy Dharma itself.
e) The thought that the condition of anger arises from oneself.
This will never be accomplished without ourselves,
Just as an echo arises from mutual dependence.
This mass of terrible harms that one has turned to evil,
Proliferates due to karma and incidental conditions.
So it is to be expected that this would come about.
The only means by which this karma can be exhausted
Is taming the mind and therefore we should strive for this.
If we were not there, our anger and contention with others would not arise. Anger and contention mutually
depend on each other. If we do not harm others, harm to ourselves will not arise. Therefore it is useless to do harm,
and certainly it is proper to bear it. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 6.106
Thus if we do no harm to any other persons,
There will be no one who will then do harm to us.
Therefore not established with work and weariness
This is like a treasure appearing in our house.
As they are associated with enlightened activity
Then I should rejoice that I have enemies.
When some little condition to harm me is produced, that arises from my own former karma, and so it is proper to
bear it. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 6.46
Being summoned to action by my personal karma,
Those who do harm to me arise within my life.
If I am angry, with what actually harms me, that materialistic anger is properly directed at sticks and so forth or
at unpleasant words. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 6.41
657.4
Though actually it is done by the stick that he is using,
If it is to the user that I address my anger,
As he as well as I is motivated by anger
It is all the fault of anger--I should be angry at that.
In particular, if we are angry when unpleasant words are spoken by other people, not being angry at the inner
source, one's own ear, but being angry at the external speaker is illogical, because it produces suffering. If one thinks like
that, fame and praise are harmful, and drive us to the lower realms. Patience is the opposite. The Bodhicharyavatara
says: 6.100
As for me who am devoted to liberation
I should not be bound by possessions and social position.
Why should I be angry at the very persons
Who are producing liberation from this bondage
When they wish for me to be in suffering,
It is actually like a blessing by the Buddha,
I will go by that to the level without outflows.
Why should I be angry at the occurrence of that?
Also: 6.103
If it is merely because of obstruction by my faults
That I will not be patient with this enemy
It is only I who will be hindering
That which is an occasion for and cause of merit
If harm is a prerequisite for patience, anger is not the right response. If harm comes from one's own karma, it is
not the enemy that harms us. If it is nonexistent, even generosity will not help. Having let it go, everything becomes like
waking from a dream. The limitless purposes of beings and harms of wealth are bondage. Again: 6.55
Since worldly possessions are producers of hindrance,
If I do not want these hindering blockages,
I should throw away these troublesome possessions
Lest the evil of my deeds be stabilized.
It is even better if I die right now.
There is no profit to living long in wrong livelihood.
Even if I should live for a very long space of time
There will always be the suffering of death.
Supposing that one person awakens from a dream
In which was experienced a hundred years of happiness,
And another person awakens from a dream
Having experienced happiness only for an instant.
For both these persons, who have woken from their dreams,
That happiness they dreamed about will not return.
Likewise whether life is either long or short
At the time of death it is over just the same.
Having great possessions, and great abundance of wealth
Even though I live happily for a very long time,
As if I were ravished by a conqueror
I shall go forth in nakedness with empty hands.
Being angry about being disparaged and insulted makes no sense. Fame is just words. Such words are mere
material things without the least benefit. The same text says: 6.90
As for veneration and honor, praise and fame
Coming from these there is no merit and no life,
There will be no more strength, and sickness will not be absent.
Nor will the body be better off than it was before.
If we truly know what is to our benefit,
What is the benefit of things that are such as these?
If we wants only a little nominal happiness,
Let us rely on gambling, liquor, and so forth.
The benefit of fame takes away one's wealth,
Or If we should be killed in the pursuit of honor
How will anything be done by these mere words?
If we die, then who will have that happiness?
If their castles of sand collapse and fall to pieces,
Children start to cry, hurt by the pain of that.
Thus when there is damage to my praise and fame,
My own mind is like the mind of a little child.
Some think that because of unpleasantness, there is anger. If we become angry and say unpleasant words, why
not be angry at our own words? We may wish to say them, but nothing requires us to be angry because others are
arrogant. Since we are unhappy, anger that our own mind is angry is what is suitable. We are just being unhappy with
ourselves. Others' words are formless and do not transfer to us, but we eagerly assimilate them and, therefore, become
unhappy. If we were not unhappy, there would be neither harm nor benefit. All happiness and unhappiness of the
preceding instant have ceased, like the definite appearances of yesterday morning. As last night's dream will not return,
is not perceived, and is without nature, then equally there are no feeling to be the ground of anger. The appearances of
today, and the dream of last night are similar. Neither is worthy of attachment with joy and sorrow as truly existing.
f) The thought about fabrications existing or not:
If sudden unwished-for events unpleasantly occur,
If such fabrications exist, then why should they be unpleasant?
If they do not why bother to be concerned with them?
Therefore let us try to be patient with conditions.
When desirable and undesirable things arise, if these fabricated things are there, in an effort of upaya there will
be unhappiness, so skillful means are no use. If they are not there, there is no making or not making unhappiness. That
there is unhappiness, cannot be reversed. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
If such fabrications as these the fabrications exist
Why should we be unhappy because of such an existence?
If the fabrications are actually non-existent
What is the sense if we are made unhappy by them.
Therefore, sentient beings each performing their own actions, know relationships of mother, father, and so on;
For the benefits of samsara and so forth these should not be put up with. But for the sake of the master, preceptor, guru,
and the three jewels, we should not be angry with others. If there is such a harmful misfortune, it cannot be reversed. If
there is not, it will not be produced. By the praise and blame of others immense benefit or harm can therefore not result.
The teaching of the nature of anger as emptiness.
g) What is the nature of this unpleasantness and harm:
If examined, they depend on a nature like empty space.
Happy and sad and joy and sorrow, good and evil,
Grasping these dualistically has no use or meaning.
Try to see everything with equanimity.
Harm-producing forms and one's own form are without a particle of difference, and so doing harm and being
harmed do not exist. The minds of both are not perceived at all externally or internally. Their words too, if examined
have no nature at all, and so the one who harms, harm, and the object of harm are empty of nature. As for joy and non-
joy, good and bad, nothing is ever lost at all. For even the appearance of harm no essence is established. These phantoms
and mirages etc. are like the eight examples of the confused relative. In the absolute, meditate on patience like space, The
Bodhicharyavatara says: 6.32
If thus we knows these apparitions as phantom-like,
There will be neither subject or object for our anger.
Also, if we consider primordially unborn emptiness, The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Thus for things like that which are completely empty
What is there to gain, and what is there to lose?
and also the Bodhicharyavatara says:
What joy is there to be found, and also what non-joy?
If one tries to examine these and look for them
Everything like this is like the space of the sky
It should be grasped as being completely like the ego.
Thus, if one meditates with many skillful means, patience will be established without hindrance. The
Bodhicharyavatara says:
If we are thirsty, they will not easily be at hand.
These are things do not exist in any way at all.
By familiarity with that, in this life we are on friendly terms with everything, and by things being pleasant we are
happy. Later we attain the special celestial realms and enlightenment. The same text says: 6.133
Arising from the cause of rejoicing by sentient beings,
May we see in the future attainment of buddhahood.
Why do we not see that in this very life
There could be great splendor, glory, and happiness?
By the patient endurance of samsaric life,
There are lack of sickness as well as beauty and splendor.
There is support of life that lasts for a very long time
And the bliss of becoming a universal monarch.
4) Exertion,
a) How it is for individuals who have it
Now there is the explanation of the perfection of exertion. For beings..
Joyful in the wholesome nature of this effort,
Wholesome dharmas are not exhausted, but gather like clouds.
Or bees within a cluster of fragrant lotus flowers.
The scriptures say:
By exertion enlightenment exists,
But by non-exertion it does not.
By exertion happiness is gathered.
By exertion good qualities increase.
b) The incompatible aspects:
What does not accord with this is the three kinds of laziness,
Attachment to bad actions, discouragement, self-contempt,
Not accomplishing good is the ground of every evil.
What is excellent is damaged and troubles will increase.
With laziness, faults increase, virtue is obscured, and our wishes not accomplished. To give the divisions:
Laziness attached to bad actions concerns acts that hinder holy Dharma, and agitate the mind, like always
counting our goods and so forth.
Seeing difficulties, joining ourselves to the thought "Surely it can't be done," is the laziness of discouragement.
"Someone like me couldn't do it!"-- such a discouraged attitude is the laziness of self-deprecation. The
Bodhicharyavatara says: 7.3
There is the laziness of attachment to bad actions
That of discouragement, and that of self deprecation.
c) The measureless good qualities
As for the good qualities of the opposite of laziness, exertion:
Whoever has exertion is praised by all the world.
Whoever has exertion, accomplishes human wishes.
Whoever has exertion, their virtues will increase.
Whoever has exertion will pass beyond suffering.
To summarize the immeasurable benefits of exertion, we will be praised by worldly ones and will accomplish the
goals of our aspirations. Good qualities will increase. Buddhahood will be attained. The same text says: 7.1
That only with exertion enlightenment exists,
Is like there being no motion without the wind element.
So without exertion no merit will arise.
d) The instruction that one must have exertion as a means to these benefits:
Whether in the highest dharmas of worldly goodness,
Or in those of the path that leads beyond the world,
There are dharmas of defilement and those that are without it,
What is bad is abandoned and what is good accomplished,
So let us make strenuous exertions, and truly stay with them,
So long as buddhahood has yet to be accomplished.
Going ever-higher to greater and greater truth,
Let us strive that long without any slackening.
For as long as we have not attained buddhahood, we should try to attain its superior qualities. In doing so we
should rejoice in virtuous actions. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Who without exertion enjoys happiness.
As for the divisions, the armor of exertion is practicing virtue as a cause of overcoming the four maras.
The exertion of preparation completes the ten paths. Having formerly done that the exertion that accomplishes
the goals of sentient beings is the cause of completing the goals of oneself and others.
There are the also three exertions in the dharma by exertion in body, striving in speech, and endeavoring in
mind. Also the Compendium says:
There are the exertions of armor, preparation, absence of despondency, irreversibility, and
never regarding as enough, with the mind completely joyful.
Or the Lankavatara Sutra says:
With exertion is that by which there is striving in the upper and the lower parts. Having seen what
accords with yoga, exertion in order to eliminate discursive thoughts, is the perfection of exertion.
The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Truly rejoice in virtue
Rely on faith and on zeal,
Increase the virtues of mindfulness,
As an antidote for the kleshas.
Its quality is passionless;
As for the seven kinds
Having known such exertion,
The wise will truly accomplish it.
Joy in virtue is the essence. Faith and zeal is the cause. Increasing mindfulness, samadhi and so on is the
fruition. A happy mind without the three poisons is possession of the quality.
If it is divided, in each of the three precepts, it is always produced and is devotedly produced, by body speech,
and mind respectively. With armor-exertion that makes seven kinds. As for the qualities, the Mahayanasutralankara
says:
The nature of the exertion which is without example
Is the armor-application of the buddha sons.
Having destroyed the hosts of their own and others kleshas,
They attain the fruition of ultimate enlightenment.
By this very exertion, all beings are established
In the possession of the three enlightenments.
By the wisdom of exertion being completely accomplished,
They are established inexhaustibly in the three realms.
5) Meditation,
a. The cause establishing meditation,
Whoever has the wish to cultivate meditation
Should abandon all the distractions of various entertainments.
Pleasurable objects, like clouds in an autumn sky,
Ephemeral in their nature are no more stable than lightning.
Enjoyments are no more lasting than illusory palaces.
They are untrustworthy, and we should abandon them.
Instead we should rely on the peace of leafy forests.
All compounded things are impermanent. Wealth is fickle. Life is impermanent. Since all this is always
essenceless, we should try to meditate alone in peaceful forests. The Personal Liberation says:
After they have heard much,
Abiding in leafy forests,
Their lives slip away in happiness.
The Talk of Solitude says:
In cloud canopies of enjoyment,
Displays like flashes of lightning.
Are destroyed by the winds of this life,
Like lotuses floating on water.
Quickly seeing the deceptions
Of youthful embodied beings,
The wise will therefore establish
Meditation and samadhi,
Turn quickly to the practice
Of the ultimate yoga.
b) The concordant qualities:
The presence of desires will only produce a struggle.
In seeking, collecting, and guarding them there is suffering.
Arrogance, craving, and greed, increase our stinginess.
We are led to the lower realms, and kept from the higher ones.
Therefore be content, and let desires be few.
External amenities are the source of much unhappiness of seeking, guarding, endangering, unhappy mind,
craving, arrogance, hypocrisy and so forth. Since they make one fall into the lower realms, they should be abandoned.
Nagarjuna says:
By the suffering of seeking, guarding, and gathering,
Wealth should be known to be a limitless destroyer.
"Therefore be content, and let our desires be few." The Spiritual letter says:
Knowing how to be content among all wealth,
Is said to be the best teaching of gods and human beings.
Let all know content. If they know that excellence,
Even possessing no wealth, there will be genuine wealth.
i) Things as a cause of suffering.
With many things there are also many sufferings. For example:
Though by bodily wounds we may be full of suffering,
The suffering of riches is even worse than that.
Those who cut down their possessions have limitless happiness.
There will be less danger of being persecuted.
There will be no fear of thieves and enemies.
Praised by everyone, we stay upon the path.
Duties will be few and mental karma less.
So let us always train in having few desires.
If our desires are few, we are praised by all. If we have no wealth, we do not have to guard it from enemies and
thieves. With few actions and body and mind at ease, we will practice samadhi, with little hypocrisy and so forth, and
with many good qualities. The more the wealth, the more the suffering for those who possess it. As nagas have many
snake-like heads, they have much suffering. The Spiritual Letter says:
As many as the possessions are the sufferings.
However, those with few desires are not like that.
As many as the heads of supreme kings of the Nagas,
So many are the sufferings rising from possessions.
Great desire for external things produces suffering. Internally, the desires of sentient beings involve
immeasurable faults. By contention, passion, and offenses against pure conduct, the lower realms arise. All concerned
are degraded and so forth. Since these arise from grasping desire and craving as pure, this should be abandoned. The
Precious Mala says:
Sexy bodies of women
Are mostly in the mind
Their bodies in reality
Are really no so nice.
The mouth has rancid saliva.
Garbage sticks in the teeth.
In the nose are pus, and mucus.
The eye is a glass of tears.
The torso is full of filth,
And buckets of lungs and livers.
Fools who have not seen women
Desire their bodies most.
Like an ignorant person craving
A bucket of shit as a bauble
Such are these fools of this world
In their ignorant lust for women.
Also:
Whether bodies are good or bad,
Whether they are old or young,
If the bodies of women are nasty,
How will desire arise?
What is filthy, though secretly
It may have good color and form,
Is not worthy of desire,
Such is the form of woman.
The inner bones are covered
With an external skin.
There is a decaying stench,
That seems quite unbearable.
When what is unseen is like that,
This pretty skin is unclean.
A container of filthy heaps,
How could it ever be clean?
A jar full of shit is degrading
To even its outer brightness.
This body so full of shit,
How is it any different?
And more:
However you wash the body,
it shows the dirt it is.
If that does not teach impurity,
What good will a lecture do?
Of this body so received
To make a graceful display
E ma, how thoughtless and foolish!
E ma, how worthy of shame!
ii) The faults of worldly people and companions:
Limitless evil comes from gladly suffering fools.
The increase of evil deeds is the source of unhappiness.
Good decreases, giving rise to strife and kleshas.
We become ungrateful and are hard to satisfy.
There are many frivolous actions and distracting entertainments.
As we would from fire or snakes or vicious beasts,
Let us give a wide berth to all the attentions of fools.
In particular in sentient of the present dark age, who were not liberated by seven generations of previous buddhas
and so forth, ultimate wildness, evil deeds, and kleshas increase. Virtue and peace are abandoned. They return benefit
with harm. They uselessly afflict others in body, speech and mind. They disparage holy dharma and individuals
associated with it. They have many purposes and many actions. With many occupations and distractions, kleshas
naturally arise. Like living among carnivorous beasts, fire, or poisonous snakes, they are hard to deal with. The Entering
into the Sphere of All the Tathagatas says:
As we will never be joyful
Among fierce ravenous beasts,
Likewise dealing with fools,
There is no happiness
The Bodhicharyavatara says:
If we acts like those with the fortune of fools,
We will certainly go to the lower realms.
Letting ourselves be led by those of unequal fortune,
What will come of associating with such fools?
For a moment or two they may be our companions,
Then within an instant they turn into enemies.
They become angry even when things are going well.
Ordinary people are difficult to please.
If we speak of their benefit, they get angry at that,
They go on to reverse our benefit as well.
If we do not go along with what they have to say,
Because they get angry, they will go to the lower realms.
Higher ones they envy, competing with their equals.
Arrogant to inferiors, or when they are praised,
If something unpleasant is said they give way to anger.
What benefit can be expected from these fools?
If one associates with them, it is impossible that passion, aggression, and empty chatter will not arise. The same
text says: 8.13
Whenever one associates with fools like these
They always praise themselves and denigrate anyone else.
With talk of their rejoicing in samsara and so forth,
Some sort of unhappiness will certainly arise.
The suffering of those who so depend on their own partialities of desire and attachment becomes our own
burden. By such real bonds, our minds are bound. By associating ourselves with their thoughts, one's dharma will be
damaged. If we are with them, there is no devotion. If we are separate, there are immeasurable damages of unhappy
torment. The same text says: 8.7-8
If for sentient beings we have produced desire,
That which is genuine is entirely obscured.
Even the thought of being sad at samsara is destroyed.
In the end we shall surely know the pains of suffering.
There by thoughts that are concerned with only this
This life will pass away in futile meaninglessness.
By our associating with impermanent friends
Even the eternal dharma will be destroyed.
From the desires of foolish individual beings, comes our own non-completeness. the Dharma of holy liberation
is not established because of depending on these. Instead, first staying alone in forest and mountain solitudes, not
meeting with human beings, we should meditate. The same text says:
By these one's benefit will never be accomplished.
Since for oneself this benefit will not arise,
For a long time we will be distracted by these fools.
That is how one should think about it. Moreover, even if the oral instructions have been heard from the holy
gurus, if they are not kept familiarly in mind, one will not be liberated from samsara. Therefore it is important to become
familiar with them.
iii. The instruction of resorting to solitary places
As long as the mind has not attained stability,
So long will we be seduced by the wiles of external objects.
So let us stay in the joy of secluded forest places.
That is how mind and the oral instructions are mixed into one taste. Until one attains stability, the beginner
should rely only on solitude free from occupations. The Basket of the Three Jewels says:
Beginners, in order to fully pacify the mind
And completely tame it, should stay in solitude.
iv) The instruction to remain in solitude all one's life
Once one is in a solitary place where no one is, isolated from all beings and fears, one is urged.
Until this body is hoisted by four pallbearers,
And turns to smoke upon a crackling funeral pyre,
Strictly keeping to peaceful places of meditation,
Conquer the enemy of sidetracks of body and mind.
Thinking of the impermanent nature of life, one practices samadhi in a peaceful place. The Talk on Solitude
says:
Until this body by four persons
Is hoisted up upon a litter,
For so long strictly solitary,
Samadhi's peace should be my practice.
This is also taught in the Bodhicharyavatara 8.34
v) the praise of forest solitudes.
Now the virtues of the forests are explained:
In forests clear water, flowers, and fruits are plentiful.
There is excellent housing in mountain caves and sheltering rocks.
In solitudes graced by the shade of overhanging branches,
Many birds and deer dance by the river banks,
Exquisite with colorful flowers and the songs of bees.
Forest solitudes in shady valleys are the best. The ground is covered with verdant grass, adorned with a myriad
of flowers. It is full of sounds of cool waterfalls and the songs of humming bees. In the faces of the rock mountains, under
sheltering rocks are many fine natural houses. Clean water adorned by flowers and leaves is sufficient food.
Accompanied by birds and wild animals, one has happy companions. Living with them in those places of samadhi, our
aspirations from the beginningless past will be joyfully fulfilled. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 8.25
Trees and birds and various wild animals
Who dwell within the forest make no unpleasant sounds.
There is happiness if they are one's companions.
Therefore, may we always stay together with them.
When we am staying in caves or in empty temples
Or we make my dwelling by staying under trees,
May we never look back, but instead of that
May we always cultivate passionless detachment.
In places on the earth for which we have no grasping
Which are by their nature wide and unconstrained,
Acting autonomously and without desire
May we always stay in places such as these.
Also:8.37
Therefore very bright and joyfully content,
Happy in a pleasant forest with few thoughts,
All agitations will vanish and be pacified.
Therefore may I always remain in solitude.
Also: 8.85
Contention and kleshas are emptied in these peaceful forests.
In the fortunate, cooled by moonlight in groves of sandalwood,
Whose fine and joyful houses are tremendous slabs of rock
Fanned by the soundless motion of the forest wind
The wish to help other beings is naturally engendered.
The Spiritual Letter says:
Adorned by the waxing disk of the moon
Great rain clouds pile up, as if buckled at the waist
By seeing mountain forests there is passionlessness
The nature moves like wind touching one's life with fortune.
With the crowd of capering wild animals seen in the forest
All is very delightful, and one is full of happiness.
This forest where one does as one likes goddesses secretly
Arriving come to visit one in one's rock shelter.
vi) How it arises in solitude with impermanence.
In those places fragrant with juniper trees and various kinds of sandalwood, with the scent of grass and flowers
arising, with the aroma of incense and medicinal herbs:
Meditation naturally grows in pleasant solitudes.
Sweet with the fragrances of incenses and herbs.
Enjoy the four seasons, as they turn in a lotus pond,
The heat of summer, fall and winter, and the spring.
Let your sadness grow along with the gradual change,
As you contemplate the impermanence of life.
Filled by the fragrance of incense and medicinal herbs, pleasantly scented like ponds of great lotuses, fresh
breezes softly rise. By the example of the passing seasons, impermanence and strong sadness arise in one's being.
Relating to no one, there is neither passion and aggression. There is no need for mental grasping. Other people are not
viewed and need not be. One need have nothing to do with the struggles of life. Without desire or discouragement arising
from others, happiness is autonomous. Even by the powers of the gods this is not attained. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
{{677.1}}
8.87-8
In Empty houses, under trees, and in natural caves,
Abiding in such places for as long as we wish
Abandon all the suffering of grasping and guarding
Without dependency, and acting as we will.
Passionless because of acting autonomously,
Without the least relationship with anyone
Knowing the contentment of such a happy life,
For even powerful lords attaining this is hard.
The Spiritual Letter says:
On the shores of forest streams of pristine water,
Blissful solitude is full of happiness.
As if daughters of the gods were swaying their fragrant censors of fragrant smell.
Bearing as ornaments continuous garlands of flowers,
Overpowering, as if it were divine,
The trees are perfect in root and fruit and leaves of green.
In forest independence fall cooling mountain streams,
Flowing in a place where there is no desire.
Beside its wide rivers fruit and flowers fall as ornaments
We are free and delightfully unseduced by a hell hole house.
In wide mountain valleys without any people very happy,
With vast experience of waving garlands of blue forest growth
At the waterside pleasant waterfalls, sounding like a drum,
Not a place for kleshas, so travelers proclaim.
Conquering our relationship with desires and the three worlds,
Shown as illusion, mirage, the moon in water, or waves.
vii. In those places how the mind becomes workable:
In some of those peaceful places:
See how bones are strewn about in a charnel ground,
Think how our bodies will be scattered in that way.
As we see the futile compounds of samsara,
Any joy we feel vanishes in the distance.
Always at peace, because there are no strife and kleshas,
Let the happiness of our minds be workable.
There are limitless good qualities such as samsara's sadness, contention, and kleshas being completely pacified.
The Gongpa Zhupa says:
By devotion to places of mountains and forests,
The source of good qualities will be increased.
By resorting to solitary places,
The five desires will be completely abandoned.
Therefore living unprofessionally
Remaining with that which is not spoken by words
Having virtuous dharmas must not be harmed
By mutual confusion and talkativeness.
Peaceful empty solitude, is praised by the buddhas.
Therefore let aspiring bodhisattvas
Always put their reliance in solitude.
Do not produce desire in the cities.
viii) The benefits of relying on solitude
As for these groves or excellent qualities:
Victorious ones have praised such forest groves as these.
Saddened by samsara they keep to solitude.
The merits of making seven steps in their direction
Are such that the heap of merit that we would accumulate
By making offerings to the buddhas for a kalpa,
Buddhas as many as the grains of sands in the Ganges,
Would never equal the hundred-thousandth part of them.
Therefore let us keep to these forest places of peace.
If someone worships the buddhas with material things for a kalpa, if with the mind of sadness one takes even
seven steps to go forth into the solitude of forests, charnel grounds and so forth, that has a much greater merit. The Shri
Samadhiraja Sutra says:
If one person offers flowers, incense, food, and all the articles related to happiness to all the buddhas for a kalpa,
and another with completely sad mind keeping to solitude, takes only seven steps, the heap of merit of that is
immeasurably greater than the first.
Completely abandoning any view of body and life,
Meditating in the highest peace of emptiness,
The mind with exertion and with supreme exertion
Like a wild animal should stay in solitude.
ix) The divisions of how to meditate, together with the qualities
Now as for the explanation of how to meditate. In the forest:
Therefore, taking a cross-legged posture on our seats,
Meditate with a one-pointed mind without distraction.
Practice the attitude of a child in a temple;
Then the perfect discrimination of reality;
Then the holy meditation of the happy tathagatas.
We should know the names of the three kinds of samadhi,
Experienced by the noble ones who have entered the path;
As well as the four-fold dhyanas and four-fold formless attainments,
The experiences of those who have yet to enter it.
The mind that delights in desirable things will be abandoned.
Insight, samadhi, and higher perceptions will manifest.
There will be the five eyes and the four legs of miracle.
The mind will be transformed, becoming autonomous.
The essence of dhyana is that the mind one pointedly grasps a good object, whatever it may be. The Light of the
Path says:
On whatever object may be suitable
The mind should be well-placed.
Sit on a seat. When the mind is placed in meditative equipoise, the complexities of appearance subside. As we
undertake to make apparent objects of one taste with the eye of dharmata, they do not become invisible, but become
ungrasped phenomena. Thus in one's own time, seeing apparent objects is like opening the eyes to two natures at once.
Sir or madam when the eyes are closed,
Such is the mind that is poised in meditation
Sir or madam when the eyes are open,
Such is the attainment of subsequent knowledge.
Meditation on the single nature is shamatha. Post-meditation is vipashyana. These two have one mind, one
essence, one time, one object, and are one in their action of abandoning obscuration. The Small Commentary says:
The pure world, having the aspect of completely not grasping subject and object, includes the
subsequent mind as a fruition in accord with itself, reversing perception of form and so on.
The appearances of meditation do not block appearances, but they are pure of concepts. Apparent rocks and so
on, the ordinary objects of the five senses, are worldly and are so labeled. But since at that time they are without the
aspects of grasping and fixation, they are also non-conceptual mind. The very mind of appearance at that time, labeling
appearance and emptiness as equal, is included in subsequent mind. Meditation and the substance which is mind are
one, so meditation naturally abandons grasping and fixation. Accordingly post meditation is of one nature with the
dharmas of form, feeling and so forth. It has abandoned perception attached to them in terms of grasping and fixation.
Post-meditation purified by meditation is called "letting loose" attachments of grasping and fixation and so on.
As for meditation and post-meditation being of one nature, everything exists at the time of meditating in samadhi until the
seventh bhumi, and this letting loose of existence. Up to then individuals do not exist as a single essence. The
Uttaratantra says:
The mind always accomplishing actions
Blazing like fire,
Peaceful samadhi and absorption
Are always equalized.
There are three divisions to the extensive explanation. The formless dhyanas of samadhi in the mind of someone
not dwelling on the path, are called "the samadhi of a child's enjoyment." For those dwelling on the path, the samadhis of
the paths of accumulation and preparation produce the path of liberation. Completely revealing the meaning, this is called
the samadhi of completely revealing the meaning. From the first bhumi onward, the samadhis of the noble ones are called
the spotless samadhi or the joyful samadhi of the tathagatas. The Lankavatara Sutra says:
{{682.4}}
The samadhi of child's enjoyment,
Fully revealing the meaning
And the samadhi of the tathagatas.
The stages are as in that passage. As for the fruition, the Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
By samadhi, lesser desirable qualities are rejected
Insight and higher perception with samadhi are established.
As for the meaning of these, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
As for mind, it dwells, and rests internally.
Mindfulness and exertion are what are depended on.
By that the production of bliss is subsequently produced.
One is empowered with the objects of higher perception.
Then the three chiefs of dharmas come into existence.
Having known such samadhi, skillful ones fully establish it.
The essence is grasped within the mind. The cause is continuous mindfulness and exertion. The same
text says:
Having realized a flash of this with agitation,
One should do this repeatedly again and again.
The action is production of bliss. This is the support of establishing miraculous ability. The fruition is
establishment of the higher perceptions, miraculous abilities and so forth. Among the divisions are the three samadhis of
abiding in happiness within this very life, the establishment of all good qualities, and performing benefits for sentient
beings.
{{683.4}} As for the first dhyana, as good qualities arise from inner dhyana, one attains joy and bliss. In the
stage of access, and in having barely attained the main part there are conceptual thoughts and sustained scrutiny.
The main body in particular has no conceptual thoughts and only sustained scrutiny.
The main parts of the second, third, and fourth dhyanas, have mental apprehension without thought and
analysis. These dhyanas of which the earlier ones are preparations for the later, are explained in the Bhumi-Collection.
The samadhi that establishes all good qualities when the six pure perfections and so forth are established is the
samadhi of one-pointed mind.
The samadhi establishing benefit for sentient beings, focuses one-pointedly on the benefit of beings, from the
main body of this samadhi, one produces the benefits and so forth of what is desired and what one is interested in.
As for the good qualities, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
The sons of the Victorious One have many samadhis, establishing all samadhis. The
samadhis exist by invoking bliss, and by the arising of compassion they support lesser beings. By that
very samadhi all sentient beings are established in the three enlightenments. By the wisdom of
samadhi, when this has been completely accomplished, they are inexhaustibly established in the pure
worlds.
6) Prajqa that realizes the natural state also has three sections.
a) The extensive explanation of the nature of the three prajqas
Then as for the perfection of prajqa:
There are three stages as we develop in prajqa.
These are hearing, contemplation, and meditation.
By vipashyana the host of kleshas will be abandoned.
By completely knowing the natural state of dharma and dharmin,
From living within samsara, we go to the peace of nirvana.
Hearing is the producer of knowledge of the nature, the natural state of all dharmas as they are.
By contemplating what has been ascertained, and producing liberation from the ocean of samsara by meditation,
it is maintained to be prajqa, which means supreme knowledge or awareness. The Small Commentary says:
Its sources are hearing, contemplating and meditating, or the union of samadhi. By the prajqas arising
from the main body of meditation and post-meditation..."
Prajqa is called vipashyana or clear seeing. It is more excellent than the other perfections. However, the prajqa
arising from hearing on the level of an ordinary being is also important, because someone who has not heard, one cannot
contemplate and meditate. The Uttaratantra says:
Practice of generosity is the establisher.
As discipline meditates on the celestial realms,
Defiling kleshas are completely abandoned.
Prajqa entirely abandons all kleshas and knowables.
By that there is supremacy caused by hearing.
Also:
Prajqa is supreme. As for its ground
It is hearing, so hearing too is supreme.
In this case, wishing to know the nature of all dharmas is resolved by hearing. Here the presentation follows the
Precious Key that Makes One Meet and Evaluating the Treasury of Holy Dharma. From the two sections of the first, as
for the presentation of provisional meaning and true meaning, the dharmata of all dharmas is suchness, naturally pure
space, the nature of mind, in naturally pure luminous realization. Changeless, it transcends birth, abiding, and
destruction. Its essence is the space of the sky. This is the true meaning. Words of the Buddha and shastras that teach
this are included within the true meaning.
The dharmin is things that appear. this includes arising and ceasing, coming and going, pure and impure; the
details of the skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas and so forth. This is the dream-like appearance of variety evaluated by the
details of speech, thought, and expression. All these teachings of exaggeration are the provisional meaning. All words of
the Buddha and shastras that teach this are included within the relative.
For example, saying or thinking, "The nature of the mind is like the sky." and becoming haughty about that is
relative. To say, "That which has the nature of the absolute is the true meaning," is as it should be. The Praise of the
Madhyamaka Inconceivable by thought says:
The emptiness of dharmas is the true meaning, so it is taught.
What arises and ceases, the life of beings and so forth,
Is taught to be the provisional meaning and relative.
The Shri Samadhiraja Sutra says:
As the Tathagata, who is the teacher, formerly taught,
There are particular sutras distinguished as the true meaning.
Those which teach sentient beings who are ordinary people,
All such dharmas are those within the provisional meaning.
The Sutra Taught by the Noble One Inexhaustible Intellect says:
If it is asked which sutras are sutras of the provisional meaning? Which are sutras of the true
meaning? Those sutras which are teachings for the purpose of entering into the path are called the
provisional meaning. Those sutras which are taught for the purpose of entering into the fruition are
called the true meaning. Those sutras are called the provisional meaning which teach a self, sentient
beings, life, persons, individuals, the arising of emotions, and an ego who owns the emotions and is
a doer and a feeler, explaining these in a variety of words, and teach being egoless and having an ego.
Those sutras are called the true meaning that teach emptiness, marklessness, wishlessness,
uncompoundedness, the unborn, the non-arising, no things, no ego, no beings, no life, no individual,
and no self, and that the gate of complete liberation is unobstructed.
It is said that one should rely on the sutras of the true meaning and not on the sutras of the
provisional meaning.
In brief, the natural state, and the sutras that teach it are called the true meaning and the sutras of the true
meaning. The many means for entering into the nature, involving confused, impure dharmas which instruct the minds of
sentient beings, and all the teachings of their divisions and so forth, are known as the provisional meaning and dharmas of
the provisional meaning. This is how it is explained in the Mirror of Viewing the Aspects of Dharma and the First Key of
Revelation. In order to explain these and so that the intended meaning may be realized, from the two explanations of the
intention and the concealed intention, first, as for the intention, explaining with a little exaggeration, these teachings have
a manner which is not completely straightforward. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Equality and other-meaning
And similarly other times,
And the thoughts of individuals
Should be known as the four intentions.
The intention of equality has the intended meaning that dharmakaya is equality, saying "at that time we will
completely see the tathagatas." It is like that.
As for the intention of meaning as other, having intended the three naturelessnesses, "all dharmas are
natureless," is taught. Thus, the characteristics of false conceptions are essenceless, since these are not established as real
at all. The arisings of paratantra are essenceless, since, their arising is not established from any of the four extremes:
They do not arise from themselves, because for these arising and an instant in which they arise are contradictory. They
do not arise from something else, since if the essential marks of these others are analyzed, they are not established. That
they arise from both would be doubly contradictory, so that is not established. They do not arise without a cause, as that is
impossible.
The mere arising of whatever appears, mere interdependent arising like dream or illusion, is appearance of what
does not exist. The Sutra of the Appearances of Wisdom as the Ornament says:
Manjushri, as for dreams, what appears there does not exist. Similarly all dharmas are
appearances of what does not exist.
From that they are taught to be illusion, mirage, a city of the gandharvas, the moon in water, reflection, and
magical emanations in space. In true reality, they have no absolute essence. This is the absolute. This is because their
nature is impure and so forth and their complex essence does not exist. The commentary Ascertaining the Intention of the
Sutras says:
Characteristics are essencelessness. Birth is essencelessness. The absolute is essencelessness.
Having realized that, I taught that all dharmas are essenceless.
The intention of other times, it is like saying, "by merely grasping the spotless moonlight of the Tathagatas
marks, buddhahood is attained." This is not attained in isolation, but having gathered the former assembly of these, one
will always become enlightened by them.
As for the intention of thoughts of individuals, for some attached to the view of grasping supreme discipline, it is
like praising generosity as a lesser discipline.
Second, the hidden intention is so that those who delight in external things can grasp the genuine path or
meaning. "Spotless moonlight," doesn't depend very much on what has that name. While according with their
phenomenal style, a non-according meaning is explained. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
The hidden intention of making one to enter,
The hidden intention of other characteristics
The hidden intention of the antidote
The hidden intention of a transformation.
Shravakas and the essence
Thus tame faults and as for profound expression
These are the four called the hidden intentions.
As for the first, the hidden intention of making enter has the goal of making enter into the mahayana some of the
family of shravakas who do not enter because they have been frightened by emptiness. To them it is said that form exists.
The hearers, understanding that it really exists, enter. The actual intention of the explainer is that all appearances exist
like a dream.
The hidden intention of characteristics is so that the essenceless natural state may be known. It is taught that all
dharmas are essenceless. The three essencelessnesses of parikalpita, paratantra, and parinishpanna have already been
explained.
As for the hidden intention of the antidote, some say Shakyamuni's body and length of life were short, with the
intention of implying that he was less than other teachers. When it is said, "At this time I become the tathagata
Vairochana," the hearers understand that he is equal to rupakaya. The explainer intends that he is equal to the completed
accumulations, attainment of dharmakaya, and the benefits done for sentient beings. The Abhidharmakosha says:
As for the assembly of all the enlightened buddhas
In the sense that all the buddhas go to dharmakaya
Their body and the like are said to be equal to this
It is not that their bodies and families are literally so big.
As for the hidden intention of transformation, this dharma may be easy to understand, and in order to pacify the
fault of people thinking that a dharma which is actually easy to understand is less than others, they teach it so that it is
very hard to realize. For example, the Shrine Room of Telling the Reason Why says:
Father and mother are to be killed
The king is doubly cleaned, and
If one conquers the country
Together with its surroundings,
Those people will become pure.
Here "father and mother" are craving and grasping at samsaric formations. Alaya is a "king," since it is the
support of the various habitual patterns. The bhramin's view of a transitory collection and discipline training in virtue and
grasping supreme asceticism are those who have the two purities of nature and the incidental. The "country and
surrounding regions" are the eight consciousnesses having the inner ayatanas of grasping and fixation. "Conquering"
them means that if they are purified, one becomes enlightened.
Here two secret intentions, whichever is appropriate, make of one nature what is particular and different. As for
the distinction of these two, Lotsawa Loden Sherap says that another meaning than what is thought by the speaker is
understood for the speaker's words by the hearers. This is the intention. The meaning understood by the speaker, but not
understood by the hearers is the secret intention. So it is explained and the Thekpa Dukyi Drelpa Shejar says:
This intention, is only mentally presented in mind, and from the viewpoint of the external
grasper it is not openly proclaimed. The intention is secret to this viewpoint of the external grasper.
These two should be known to be without contradiction. Someone may explain that it has such and such an aspect, and
intending that it does not depend on whether it is in fact grasped or not grasped by the other. This may be asked by
another and so forth. Since not all proclamations of the teachings are complete, the rest of what is intended is the real
intention. In order to bring benefit to others, to some degree depending on a double meaning, teaching in according with
their appearances, it is called secret intention.
Understanding depends on the other understanding what is said by the sayer, as completed by another meaning.
Therefore it is merely not false. These are the two keys of the view of scripture. Thus word, meaning, intention, and the
purpose of the occasion since they are of many kinds, knowing that the sutras and tantras are revealed in this manner is
very important.
That two meanings are evaluated from two presentations of the Dharma treasury, first, as for the teaching in the
style of the two truths, The Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
The buddhas having taught the dharma
Properly depends on two truths.
These are the worldly relative truth
And the truth of the ultimate meaning.
The Sutra of the Meeting of Father and Son says:
The truths of those who are skilled in the world are just these two.
You have received no others, nor were they seen by me.
These are the relative truth and the absolute truth
Besides them there is no third truth of any kind at all.
Here the mere nature of so called dharmas is made into a basis of division. Then the way things appear is called
the relative truth and the way things are is the absolute truth. These two are divided. Also, within the way things appear,
there are the confused and non-confused. The first is the nature of speech, thought, and expression at the time of existence
as a sentient being. This is all and everything that arises as confused appearance, grasping, and knowledge. This is also
all that is delusive, changeable, miserable, and so forth. It is the appearance of objects to a confused mind. They are the
labels of speech, thought and expressions of the minds of sentient beings. As the imputed labels of such a mind, they do
not touch the reality of buddhahood, and are called confused. The appearances and understanding of this time depend on
dualistic appearances of incidental truth and falsity, the true and the false relative. These have an effective power
according with appearances. They arise from causes. They are isolated by examination. They appear in an accordant
way. Collected under earth, water, fire, and air, with the knowledge of what is intrinsic to these, they are the true relative.
Appearances that have no effective power, like the appearance of two moons if we put pressure on the eye, are the false
relative. The Two Truths says:
They appear to have an effective power,
By whether they really have it or do not,
They are distinguished as being true or false.
These divisions of the relative are made.
Both of these, when their nature is examined, are equal. They are equal in arising from habitual patterns of
confusion. They are equal in appearing to the individual senses. Though temporarily from the viewpoint of confusion
they are effect-producing appearances, all the objects viewed by the eye-consciousness and so forth are equally natureless.
The non-confused relative is two. There is the non-confusion of fruition, the wisdom of the ground, together
with the buddha qualities, and the previous impermanent, called non-confused from the viewpoint of crossing over to the
nature. The commentary to the Uttaratantra says:
All truths of the path are compounded. All compounded things are deceptive.
This is taught because such things necessarily change and develop. However the compounded other and the
deceptive are not the same. By attaining the fruition, alone with knowledge of the rupakaya of the buddhas, these dwell in
Akanishta. This is changeless. It is permanent and self-existing. It is the treasury of perfect buddha qualities. As the
great appearance of the mandalas and so forth, it is perfected mastery of the wisdom of extent. Though as appearance it is
called relative, since it is inseparable from dharmakaya, it abides changelessly like the sky. These will be extensively
explained below.
Nirmanakaya is composed of the appearances of students. By the compassion of the buddhas these are
spontaneously present. From the viewpoint of the minds of those who are to be tamed there seems to be change, but in
reality no change exists. Like the moon in water, from the condition of vessels it appears to change, but the real thing,
whose characteristics are not established, is changeless. Just so, though a body appears to beings who are to be tamed, its
essential characteristics are not established. These three kayas are of one nature without gathering or separation. This is
because dharmakaya is changeless. Moreover, just as the moon in the sky though establishing the moon in the water is
not of one nature with it, similarly, though emanations spontaneously appear from the state of sambhogakaya,
sambhogakaya is really changeless, and nothing is really established. Though from the viewpoint of those who are to be
tamed there appears to be change, none of the things that change are established. Therefore, all aspects of appearance,
pure and impure, are gathered under relative truth.
Absolute truth is the nature of things as they are. The Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
Not known from another, and peaceful,
Not complicated by complexities.
Without discursive thought and different meanings.
These are what are called its characteristics.
All the dharmas of samsara and nirvana are primordially natureless. They transcend all objects of speech and
thought. Not realized by concepts, they are not classifiable by mind. They have no proclamations of sameness and
difference. The same text says:
The buddhas, the protectors of the world,
Are also the amrita of the teachings.
The meaning is not one, nor is it different.
It is neither nothingness nor eternal.
From the viewpoint of mind, the phenomenal world of samsara and nirvana is labeled with differences of good
and bad. However, since everything is primordially pure as the nature of the sky, there are no pure, impure, both, or
neither. "It is completely pure" means it is beyond this sense presented by the mind. The same text says:
All is not true and not not true
It is not both true and not true,
It is not neither true or not true.
That is the teaching of the buddhas.
The viewpoint of the nature is beyond all proclamations. This is because it is beyond all identification of
essences. Though, "It is like this," has been proclaimed, this is the view of ego and so forth. Such statements fall into the
extremes of eternalism and nihilism. The Sixty Verses on Reasoning says:
If it is proclaimed that this is a actual thing
Passion and aggression will arise from such a view.
It will be impatiently and unsuitably grasped.
From that contention and controversy will arise
Since the nature is without assertions, it proclaims no objects, has no proclaimer, and is not identified as
anything at all. This is why it is said, "It is faultless." The Elimination of Controversy says:
If I had any assertions,
Then I would have these faults.
But since I have no assertions,
I do not have these faults.
The natural state or naturally pure essence of all dharmas is profound, peaceful, and free from all the extremes of
complexity. It has no assertions or proclamations. It is the purity of primordial space. Though its essence is inseparable,
if one divides it in terms of mental exaggerations, there is birth and the unborn. Though these and everything else are
established by the mind as emptiness, as complexities of the unborn there are the unliberated accountable absolute and the
unaccountable absolute liberated from all the complexities of born, unborn and so forth. The Two Truths says:
Though birth and so forth are hindered by proper reasoning,
They are explained in a way according with the real
The birthless where all complexities are pacified,
Is given the merely symbolic name "the absolute."
Here if one explains the divisions according to the oral instructions, from the sphere of dharmadhatu which
alone is classified as the ground, come the apparent aspects, like illusion, mirage, the moon in water, and so forth. Since
the nature of what appears does not exist, this is called relative truth. The Sutra Requested by Jvnpa says:
In the surface of a spotless mirror,
Just as the moon may seem to be appearing,
Even though its nature is not established,
So the forest of dharmas should be known.
Ordinary people see appearances as really truly existing, but yogins see them as uncertain, merely like a dream.
Elusive and evanescent, tenuous and diaphanous, they are simply unexaminable. Knowing all these misty appearances to
be unexaminable is realizing relative truth. They are not harmed by the conditions of appearance. When there is
attainment, these appearances are established as the beginningless miracles of beings and so forth. Not proclaimed as
anything at all, whatever appears is natureless; mind reaches it without any differentiating of truths. If one attains this
wisdom of the noble ones, the buddha fields and so forth appear, and since there is no attachment to their true existence,
this is called the true relative. All conceptions and appearances of a mind attached to their true existence are the false
relative. The source of arising of lack of attachment to true existence and all its appearances are the true relative.
In the absolute too, there is no attachment to the nature of mind, the natureless way things are, and all the
dharmas included within that nature like the moon in water. Confused appearances are known to be essentially natureless
as groundless mere appearance. Liberation of existence and non-existence and such mental conceptions into space is
realization of the natural state. Realization of that nature as the absolute is called mind that realizes the absolute. The
Praise to the Mother by Rahula, one of the sixteen sthaviras, says:
Prajqaparamita inexpressible by speech or though
Unborn, unceasing with a nature like the sky,
Only realized by discriminating awareness wisdom.
I prostrate to the mother of the victorious ones of the three times.
According to that, discriminating awareness wisdom is absolute. Realizing that is realizing the absolute. The
two truths are not different like two horns on a yak. When the way things are in the relative is like the moon in water, the
apparent form of the moon is the relative. The moon's being without true existence is the absolute. The single nature of
these two, appearing as what does not exist in the water of a pond, are the inseparably united two truths. Mind that
realizes the two truths.
The dharmas of appearance, form, sound, smell, taste, and touchables, along with mental conceptions that assert
and deny them, are all confused appearances like the eight examples of illusion. Realizing that what appears does not
exist is called setting out from the monastery of samsara on the path of liberation.
If one mentally analyses, what does not bear analysis is relative. What does is absolute. The details of the
conceptual are found to be only relative. How so? That which bears the analysis of mind either depends or does not
depend on the mind. What does not is not classified conventionally as bearing the analysis. If it does, whether or not
mind bears the analysis, these two are not a single aspect, since the mental examination is one thing, and it is only an
object of mind. Therefore it is relative. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 9.2
The absolute is not within the sphere of mind.
It is maintained that mind is merely relative.
That is how it is explained. In brief, the complexities of mind and the appearances of complexity are the
viewpoint of the relative. The non-existence of complexities, the mind in which grasping and fixation have dissolved, and
the appearances of such a mind are known to yogins as the absolute. Since the two truths are inseparable, the relative
therefore may also be absolute, as different aspects of a single essence.
According to what is proclaimed here, though the essence has no singularity or difference at all, according to
worldly usage it is said that the two truth are of one nature. According to what is proclaimed by doctrine, what appears
according to the relative, and should appear either according to the relative or not appearing according to the relative,
therefore has the fault of also not appearing according to the relative. The Commentary Ascertaining the Intention says:
As for the compounded and the marks of the absolute,
These have separate marks of one and different
What is characterized as being both one and different?
This has not been properly dealt with up to now.
Though it is taught to be without the division of one and different, it is really non-dual. Of these the Miraculous
says:
Inseparable absolute and relative
Is the great mandala of truth.
Moreover, regarding the differences used in presenting the two truths, there are:
1. The difference of two aspects of one essence,
2. Difference of essence,
3. The difference that refutes one, and
4. The difference of different distinctions within one meaning.
From those four differences, this is the first, making distinctions of aspects within a single essence.
It is not a distinction merely of conventional names, since there are different characteristics and aspects. The
essence is not different, because the essence does not exist, and because the two truths are "inseparable" merely
conventionally. It is not merely the difference that refutes one, since there are no individual natures within it, and since
the single ground would have to be divided. Therefore, merely conventionally, it is like water and the moon in water,
different aspects of a single essence. The Commentary on Bodhicitta says:
As molasses has many natures
And the nature of fire is heat,
Therefore of all dharmas
The nature is emptiness.
Also:
The relative is explained as emptiness.
Because it is produced and impermanent,
Emptiness alone is relative.
If it does not exist, it does not arise.
Also the Five Stages says:
The relative and the absolute,
Are individual aspects.
What is true is mixed.
This is explained as union.
In the absolute there is no distinction of one and different at all. The Sutra Requested by Maitreya says:
The inexpressible space of compounded characteristics is neither these themselves nor something other.
In the true account there are:
1. other extremes are hindered,
2. existence of/as things, and
3. the true account depending on purpose.
Of those three, it is the first. Certainly being liberated and not liberated from things is really contradictory. By refuting a
third heap, the partialities of asserting and negating, these two are a valid account.
Since objects depend on the perceiver, when they are postulated, objects are confused mind that has not reached
the ultimate, and ultimate non-confused mind does not go beyond duality. {{703.4}} Here the dharmas of samsara and
nirvana are all confusion, and since dharmata is the non-confused object, that for the powers of mind there are two objects
is certain. The causal power is something like the high points of art in relief. The Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
By seeing all things as being true and false,
Things are grasped as having a dual nature
Seeing what objects are is the absolute.
False seeing is taught to be the relative.
If one divides according to the different doctrines, the shravakas analyze the absolute as instantaneous awareness
by mind and things that cannot be harmed by being broken up by a hammer and so forth. Continuity of awareness and
coarse things are relative things that are really instantaneous. The instantaneous partless atoms of coarse things are
maintained to be absolute. The Abhidharmakosha says:
Whatever is said by the Bhagavan to be other than mind
That does not enter into being the same as mind.
Like water and a vase such things are relative,
Such existence is other than absolute existence.
Some Sautrantikas according with reasoning say according to the Complete compendium of Valid Cognition:
That which has a productive power is absolute
What is otherwise exists as the relative.
So the general definitions are explained.
In the mind-only school the object and perceiver of dualistic appearance are relative truth. Non-dual knowledge
is maintained to be absolute truth. The Compendium of the Essence of Wisdom says:
So-called parts of things do not exist,
Therefore it follows that there are no atoms.
Conceived appearance of individual things
does not exist in experience like a dream.
Liberated from grasping and fixation,
Consciousness alone is absolute.
This perfection of the ocean of mind
Is famed as the tradition of yogachara.
For svatantrika madhyamaka whatever appears is relative, and is like illusion and so forth. It is not absolutely
established, like space. The Conquest of Illusion says:
The conceptual relative, like the absolute,
Is liberated from conceiver and conceived.
As for the prasangikas, what appears is relative and emptiness is the absolute; but what is called these is without
difference, dharmata transcending all sameness and difference, free from all the extremes of complexity. From the time it
appears this is rightly maintained to be unborn, unceasing, and without coming and going. The proclaimed relative alone
is refuted. The Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
While you maintain paratantra to be real
I do not proclaim the relative.
This is saying: If you think, "These appearances, are indeed established to arise and so forth," Arising and non-
arising, establishment and non-establishment are external labelings of mind, so how will they really exist? However,
though your doctrine is refuted, mere appearance is not refuted. Aryadeva says:
Just as appearances are not refuted,
Because they arise in mutual interdependence;
In this repeatedly becoming suffering,
Conceptions of true existence are cleared away.
Appearance in this case is appearing as if non-existent. The Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
Form, sound, and taste and touch
And smell's arisings are only
Like a castle of the gandharvas
Like dream or like illusion
Like an illusory person
And like a mere reflection
Pleasant and unpleasant
Even if they arise,
Where and what are they?
Here what is grasped is that all-inclusive all-good aspect of natureless appearance. When each of these aspects is
joined to its own attachment to true existence, they become very silly bad doctrines.
As for the distinction between these two truths, the nature without speech, thought, or expression is absolute
truth. Appearance and what is imputed, being said, thought, and expressed by mind is relative truth.
If it is asked whether this absolute truth is realized or not realized by mind, the essence of the absolute transcends
realized and realizer, and is not classified as being realized. The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Kashyapa, what is the absolute, emptiness? It is not viewed by anyone. It is not actualized. It
is not accomplished. It is not attained.
Well don't the noble ones realize it? "The mind arisen in accord with the absolute," is a string of emptied words.
Chandrakirti says:
For the person with a mind in accord with emptiness, "Emptiness is realized," is said, but really there is
no such thing as realization of emptiness.
For example, by realizing that the sky is accommodating, the sky itself does not become an inseparable part of
the mind. The Diamond Sutra says:
Those who see me as form
Those who know me as words
Are dwelling on wrong paths.
These persons have not seen me.
What is meant by the buddhas
Is the view of dharmata.
The leaders are dharmakaya.
Dharmata is not a knowable,
So consciousness cannot know it.
At the time of enlightenment, since the absolute and buddhahood are not different, realized and realizer are non-
dual. The time of seeing the truth of the noble ones, is also the time of seeing the nature of mind and the wisdom of
actuality as non-dual. Since realizer and realized are non-dual, becoming exhausted in a struggle between realization and
non-realization is meaningless. By saying that the essence of the absolute is without realized and realizer, it follows that
it will not be realized by individuals. But since this is not connected with the meaning, there is a gap in the explanation.
"This fire is hot and burns." By saying this, it follows that it was not done by the acts of persons. We should
think of the former expression as also like that. Though space is beyond the extremes of thinking and conception, it is still
encountered by persons. Just so, the absolute beyond the expressions of complexity is encountered by yogins. What's
more, it liberates from suffering and manifests the ultimate luminosity of mind. It is genuine, true, and right.
Moreover, if one does not know the nature of the two truths, one does not the profundity of suchness. The
Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
Whoever does not completely know
These divisions of the two truths,
These also do not completely know,
The profundity of the Buddha's teaching.
As for the good qualities of knowing this:
Those who put their reliance on these two-fold truths,
Glean the accumulations of enlightenment.
These will cross from samsara to the perfection of wisdom.
Moreover, as for all dharmas being the appearance of what does not exist, insofar as they are completely
contained within the play of emptiness they are suitable, and otherwise they are not suitable. The
Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
Whenever emptiness is suitable
Then everything will be suitable.
Whenever emptiness is not suitable,
Then everything is unsuitable.
Also:
Though these emptinesses are entirely proper
Non emptiness is not proper in the least.
In brief, impure, confused dharmas, the dream-like relative are not true, deceptive, a childish betwixt and
between. Except as mere evanescence, they have no nature or identity. The luminous nature of pure dharmata, the
profound peace and simplicity of the natural state of wisdom, is changeless, self-existing, inconceivable dharmata.
In relative truth, the accumulation of merit is hollow like dream and illusion. The accumulation of wisdom of
absolute truth is dharmata like the sky. By meditating on that as a fruition, the holy rupakaya and holy dharmakaya are
both made to manifest.
With that, the first storehouse, the presentation of the two truths, has been taught. Now the nature of
all dharmas as dependent arising will be taught. The Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
There are no dharmas
That do not arise interdependently,
Therefore there are no dharmas,
That are not emptiness.
In explanation of this, the nature arises interdependently. Samsara arises interdependently. Nirvana arises
interdependently. From these three, as for the first, the dharmata or nature of samsara and nirvana does not come from
anywhere. It does not go anywhere. It does not abide anywhere. Since the dharmin depends on dharmata, the dharmin,
from the very time of appearing to arise and cease, is free from all the extremes of complexity of birth, abiding, and
destruction. This is the nature of the middle way. The Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
What arises interdependently is explained as emptiness.
It is classified in dependence on that relationship.
That itself is called the path of the middle way.
The Lankavatara Sutra says:
Abandoning eternalism and nihilism,
Free from partialities of existence and non-existence,
Total realization of the middle way,
This very thing which is known as the path of the middle way,
Has been explained by me and also by all the buddhas.
All impure appearance and the awareness that grasps it is the dimness of hairs floating in the eyes. From the
very time of their seeming appearance, they do not exist at all. The same text says:
No nature, no apprehension,
No reality, no support,
This corpse-like foolishness
Is labeled as wrong knowledge.
These errors float like the hairs
That are seen by persons with floaters.
Likewise conceptions of things,
Are wrongly imputed by fools.
The three worlds are mere imputation.
The confused appearances of dream do not exist before sleep and after waking, but in between they seem to
appear. These present appearances of the six realms are non-existent within the primordially pure realm of the first nature
of mind. Since the nature of mind is completely pure of these present confusions, there is no such thing as a time when it
becomes enlightened. In the middle these appearances appear while they are non-existent. Their arising, abiding, and
destruction does not exist, and therefore in their essence there is neither birth nor destruction. Earlier, now, and later they
have no arising in space. The Subsequent Tantra of the Creator of All says
Since later space is changeless,...
To explain, confused appearance is a mere labeling with names. Its nature does not exist like a sky-flower or the son of a
barren woman. If that nature is realized, one is liberated:
There is no worldly birth or destruction
Like a flower in the sky.
By your prajqa and your compassion,
Do not conceive of existence
Nor yet of non-existence.
All dharmas are mere illusion.
Abandon mind and consciousness
With eternity and the void.
Moreover, the eight consciousnesses depend on the alaya of the various habitual patterns, and confused habitual
patterns of appearance as external objects. All this is false conception. It is temporary, without benefit, apparent though it
does not exist, and ignorant. Confused thoughts that grasp at ego and ego-fixation rendered it without benefit. As for
suffering within this dreamlike attachment to true existence of sentient beings, the Song of the Inexhaustible Treasury
says:
The game which I have made,
Fools grasp and solidify.
At the time of appearance, from the very time when memory and understanding arise, they are primordially
empty, beyond all the extremes of complexity. The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
The sons of the conquerors are destroyers of everything.
Samsara is primordially empty of existence.
A partial emptiness is that of the extremists.
The wise do not dispute with any fools like these.
Existence and non-existence, having or not having a certain quality, true and false, pure and impure are all
mind-created doctrine and therefore false conceptions. They should be cast away. The same text says:
Those with conceptions impute existence and non-existence.
By such examination suffering is not pacified.
Both existence and non-existence are extremes.
In the same way, pure and impure are mere extremes.
Those who are wise do not abide in the middle either.
Also, the Sutra of the Irreversible Wheel says:
Existence is one extreme.
And non-existence a second.
One as such mere extremes
Are ego and non-ego
And eternalism and nihilism.
As for people being bound by their respective conceptual doctrines, the Lankavatara Sutra says:
Words that know things are grasped
Like proliferating insects.
Fools unskilled in relationships
Are bound by inferior doctrines.
All dharmas whatever and whenever arise interdependently. They are unborn, unceasing, without coming and
going, not single things and not different things. They are neither nothingness nor eternal. They have a nature in which
all complexities have been completely pacified. The Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
What arises interdependently
Is ceaseless and unborn
Neither nothingness or eternal
Without any coming or going
Not different things nor one thing.
Pacifying complexity
Is the teaching of peace
To the perfect buddhas who said this,
To those holy ones I prostrate.
In brief, the nature of all dharmas is primordially pure. This is the nature or ground of interdependent arising.
Now, the interdependent arising of samsara will be explained. What appears as external objects, the mind's
apparent objects, appear in the form of mountains, walls, earth, water, fire, air, and space, conventionally symbolized as
forms, a roll of cloth, the combined strands of a rope, single strands of long yak hair woven into cloth, the phenomena of
things arising from causes and condition, and that and that being produced of similar and dissimilar kinds. All these are
called external interdependent arising. They arise one depending on another, and therefore there is seeming external
appearance of material things. Compounded from ignorance up to old age and death, there is inner interdependent
arising. The Lankavatara Sutra says:
Mahamati, just as from a lump of clay a pot arises, similarly from threads come cloth, from
individual hairs weaving, from seeds a sprout, a stalk and so forth, from people churning diligently
curds of butter, so Mahamati, in external interdependent arising, from earlier to later they arise.
Internal interdependent arising is like this. Arising from the dharmas of ignorance and
craving and so forth, has been given the name of internal interdependent arising.
Not recognizing primordial individual and personal wisdom is the great ignorance. From that samsara is
produced, and from consciousness up to old age and death the nidanas arise in an unbroken interdependent connection
from one to the next. The Spiritual Letter says:
From ignorance comes formations, and from that consciousness, Then there is name and form, and from that
the six ayatanas, Then contact, taught to enable the source of everything.
From contact there comes feeling, which is the source of all.
From the ground of feeling, craving will arise.
From craving, comes clinging, from that is birth from life to life.
If birth exists, there is suffering, sickness, and old age
Loss of what is desired, death, and destruction and so on.
Suffering and the skandhas thus become very great.
From the twelve extensive treatments of the divisions of this, as for 1) ignorance, first there is the natural state,
the primordial purity of dharmata, the essential nature, and the dharmas exhibited by that By not correctly knowing these,
because of formations of samsaric karma, patterns of conditioned 2) formations arise. Here body, speech, and mind,
obscured by ignorance, are not in accord with what is wholesome and meritorious. The ten virtues and non-virtues and
the three neutral actions are formations.
By these virtues the celestial realms are attained and by the non-virtues the lower realms. The neutral ones
associated with these two are like non-virtue. The Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
From the obscurations of ignorance there is therefore rebirth.
The three formations and manifestation of formations,
These are the karmas go into our being beings.
By the karma of formations, there is that which is produced and one enters into the corresponding phenomena.
The awareness so-produced is 3) consciousness. The Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
Having the condition of formations there is consciousness
By consciousness entering into ones own happiness as a sentient being. The red and white bindus, the aspect
consisting of gathering prana and mind, come feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. These are the four
skandhas of name. Form is frozen by being established as the skandha of form. This is called 4) name and form. The
same text says:
If one enters into consciousness,
If there is name and form, there will be desire.
In the mother's womb from entering into consciousness, name and form are established. That form goes on from
the embryonic stage of an oval and so on to the completed body. At that time by the arising of the eye, ear, nose, tongue
body and mind, there are the 5) six ayatanas. The same text says:
As for name and form, if desire arises,
Then the six ayatanas will arise.
Then by gathering together objects, the senses, and mental attention, 6) contact arises. For example, as from
bringing together form, the eye organ, and the eye consciousness, the eye-awareness arises, just so, from name, form, and
consciousness, in the mother's womb, contact arises. The Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
In dependence on these six ayatanas
After that true contact will arise.
In dependence on name and form, and production of memory
There can only be arising or birth.
Thus depending on name and form,
Consciousness will arise.
From name, form and consciousness
That which is gathered together
is known as contact. From that contact...
From contact arises 7) feeling. From objects being pleasing, displeasing or in between therefore arise feelings of
pleasure, displeasure, or neutrality. The Spiritual Letter says:
Feeling is the source of all.
From feeling, 8) craving proliferates. The child in the mother's womb by feeling pleasure, and liking that, has a
craving for happiness and, from feeling pain, and wanting to get rid of that, has a craving to get rid of unhappiness. From
the neutral there is craving for equanimity. These three arise. The same text says:
By the condition of feeling there is craving
The object of one's feeling will be craved.
That which is desired from craving will be the object of 9) clinging. The same text says:
Because of craving there is also clinging.
There are four different kinds of clinging.
The Prasannapada says:
Thus there is attachment to feelings, and as for that desire, from having the condition of
craving, there is the cause of being impelled, desire, and discipline, and view, and practice, and
complete grasping to the four kinds of expressions of ego.
Also at the time of craving there are according, non-accord, what is between the two, and
clinging to oneself, those four.
From clinging there is 10 becoming srid pa As for the five skandhas, form, feeling, perception, formation, and
consciousness, since they are becoming, that arises. The same text says:
When close clinging to this object exists
Of the clinger becoming will arise.
If there is no close clinging to the object,
One is liberated with no becoming.
That becoming therefore is the five skandhas.
What is first generated from that, is that future 11) birth arises. The same text says:
From becoming there is birth
Having been born, growing up, 12) aging and dying, with the cessation of life, arise. The same text says:
Old age and death and fearful suffering
And pain together with cries and lamentation
Unhappiness and quarrelsome discord
All of these arise from having been born.
The sutras say:
From that birth old age completely ripens
In death, the decrepit skandhas are destroyed.
As for suffering, while one is a sentient being, while dying, because of delusion there is torment of the heart
together with desire. As for lamentation, through suffering such expression of speech is motivated. Suffering is harm
within the five senses. Unhappiness happens when unpleasantness occurs. Quarrels arise from so much suffering and
unhappiness.
From these interdependent arisings from earlier to later comes what is called causal arising. Since consciousness
of inner earth, water, fire, air, space is produced by gathering together the six dhatus, the former said to arise from them as
a condition. The Noble Rice Stalk Sutra says:
Similarly the causes for the two inner interdependent arisings arise. What are these two?
They are the cause and condition. What is the cause of inner interdependent arising? This is when
conditioned by ignorance there are formations. Conditioned by formation, there is consciousness.
What is condition of interdependent arising? It is the gathering together of the six elements.
What is that like? It is like this. The gathering of the dhatus of Earth, water, fire, air, space, and
consciousness is viewed as the condition of inner dependent arising.
This is from the viewpoint of the mahayana. According to the shravakas, the skandhas are ignorant when there
is the karmic action of kleshas from former lives. These five skandhas are formations when there is obscuration from the
karma of former lives. The five skandhas are consciousness on the occasion of entering a womb. The five skandhas are
name and form in an oval embryo and so forth, before the five senses have developed prominently. The five skandhas are
the six ayatanas from the time the gates of sense have developed, and the five skandhas until one is able to perceive
objects. The five skandhas become contact after one is able to perceive and grasp objects, but while one does not yet know
the particulars of pleasure and pain. The five skandhas are feeling from the time when one grasps the particulars of
pleasure and pain, but cannot copulate. The five skandhas are craving from when one grasps the power to copulate but
has not accepted an object of desire. the five skandhas are clinging on the occasion of accepting an object of desire. The
five skandhas are becoming while subsequently collecting karma. Then in the beginning of the next life, when the five
skandhas arise from the mother's womb, that is birth. Then in the name and form of the next life, the four nidanas of the
six ayatanas, contact, craving, and feeling age and die. The Rice Stalk says:
What are the ayatanas of name and form?
They are what is subjected to age and death
From feeling up to birth is similar.
The Abhidharmakosha says:
The first ones and the last ones, two and two
Have eight more between completing them.
Ignorance is the occasion of former kleshas.
As for formations it is the five skandhas
Unified with the karma of former consciousness.
Name and form it continues from that time
Until the six ayatanas are developed.
From there until the three collections is contact.
Until feeling knows the causes of pleasure and pain.
From feeling to copulation is called craving.
When one desires the act of copulation
That is the activity of clinging.
Because one has attained it, very quickly
Its fruition, becoming, will arise.
The resulting action also is becoming.
Actually being reborn is the stage of birth.
While one has feeling, there is old age and death.
There are two ways, instantaneous and gradual, of exhausting these twelve links of interdependent origination.
From the instantaneous viewpoint, by the power of self and other, it is impossible that there is a time when life is
cut off. Therefore doing evil deeds is ignorance. The aspect of entering into karma from doing evil deeds is formations.
The awareness at the time of producing karma is consciousness. Then there are the name and form and the six ayatanas
of oneself and others. Then being pierced by the weapon of desiring happiness for oneself and suffering for others is
contact. The pleasure and pain of that is formation. From that entering further and further into joy is craving.
Remaining into the later arising of that is clinging. Possessing the five skandhas of that is becoming. The present and
future aspect of that is birth. The aging and death of that is completed in the instant of completing the action.
Involved in this there are three kinds of instant. First is the smallest instant of vividly entering into knowledge of
knowables. Then there is an instant of action, which is a hundred and twenty times that. From the time an action is
begun until it is completed is called an instant of completing action. If the continuity is counted, the mind only
school maintains that one cycle of cause and effect is completed in two lives. In a former life the six causes are completed.
In this the six fruitions are completed. By that one goes to the next life. The six causes are ignorance, formation,
consciousness, craving, clinging, and becoming. The six effects are the rest.
According to the shravakas, one round of cause and effect is completed in three lifetimes. Depending on the
cause of the ignorance and formations of the former life, the fruition in this life is the five consciousness and so on. In
dependence on the cause of the craving, clinging, and becoming of this life, the fruition in the next life is birth, and old
age and death. As to the purpose of knowing these the Abhidharmakosha says:
By those between the earlier the and later extremes
Ignorance can completely be eliminated.
With that the explanation of interdependent arising within samsaric existence is completed. Now there are the
two kinds of interdependent arising of nirvana. These are those of the path and the fruition.
As for the path, the root of entering into the twelve manners of samsaric interdependent arising is ignorance.
That is reversed by the insight of wisdom. By familiarity with the three prajqas, hearing, contemplating, and meditating,
the first root, ignorance, is eliminated. By eliminating that, the others depending on that are eliminated one after another.
By exhausting the cause of entering into craving, one will cross over from abiding in samsara. The Spiritual Letter says:
By the cessation of birth, all of these will cease.
The Mulamadhyamakakarikas says:
As soon as ignorance ceases
Formations will not arise.
On cessation of ignorance,
By knowledge one meditates.
By the ceasing of that and that
That and that will not manifest.
Suffering and skandhas alone
In that way really cease.
Yogins who aspire to liberation from the cause should not collect the confused karma of samsara. The fruition is
that later there will be no samsaric arising, and therefore formations will have been blocked. The same text says:
The root of samsara is conditioned formations.
Therefore the wise do not produce formations.
As for the interdependent arising of the fruition, after buddhahood, the production of benefits for beings is like
dream or illusion. This will be extensively explained below. As this knowledge of the inclusion of all dharmas under
interdependent arising is itself included within the absolute truth, one passes beyond suffering to nirvana. The same text
says:
Whoever has seen interdependent arising
By that has seen the truth of suffering,
The cause of suffering, and its cessation,
And the path to that is seen.
These are called the two storehouses of the great teachings of the Buddha because all dharmas are included
within them. Among things that should be known they are of the highest importance.
b) The teaching of appearance as unborn, the explanation of prajqa itself,
The meaning resolved by that:
These appearances have been unborn primordially.
Being without an essence, they are like reflections.
Nevertheless, they still appear as variety.
Having seen the interdependence of the pure nature,
We quickly contact the highest level of non-dwelling.
Thus all the appearances of outer and inner dharmas are like the reflection of the moon arising in water. What is
without an essence appears as variety. The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
When at night there seem to be moons in water,
Though these appear in clear and untroubled lakes;
The moons in water are empty, hollow, and essenceless.
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
Meditate like that, knowing that the dharmas of samsara and nirvana are natureless. Things appearing as
external variety are actually within the insight of non-existent arising. If the mind lets these two rest without emanation
and gathering, not perceiving any dharmas other than that, the mind enters into a sky-like state. This absolute space of
subsiding is the perfection of prajqa. The Bodhicharyavatara says: 9.34
When things and non-things
Do not exist before the mind,
Then without phenomena as other
Without conception, there is perfect peace.
Saraha says:
Liberated from meditation and meditator,
Not moving from that is what is called meditation.
Mind does not exist at such a time.
Mahamudra has no hope of fruition.
The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Revelation of true and excellent knowables
Depends on the samadhi of meditation.
It is completely free from all the kleshas.
Prajqa well explains the livelihood.
They are the highest dharmas of fruition.
The existence of these is said to be three-fold.
Having completely known this kind of prajqa,
Capable ones establish reality.
The essence is that knowables are realized. The cause depends on samadhi. As fruition, one is liberated from
the kleshas. The Prajqaparamitasamgatha says:
By prajqa, when the nature of dharmas has been completely known, one is completely released from
the three worlds.
As for the action, with pure livelihood, after the Dharma has been well explained, doubts are cut off. The same
text says:
The herd-bull of men, as he turns the precious wheel,
Teaches Dharma to beings so that suffering will be exhausted.
As for the qualities, by prajqa one reaches the city of liberation. The divisions are hearing, contemplating, and
meditating. The preliminaries, main body, and post-meditation of samadhi are the three prajqas. As for their virtues, the
Mahayanasutralankara says:
The buddha sons know all aspects of what phenomena are. Why even mention that they have
passed beyond suffering, and that they are the retinue where attachment of mind is completely unborn.
c) Summary of Prajqa
By this same prajqa all beings are established in the three enlightenments of body, speech, and mind. By the
wisdom of prajqa being completely grasped, one is inexhaustibly established in the pure worlds. Without prajqa one will
not have the fortune of liberation:
Having prajqa, we will be set free by upaya.
Just as saying a mantra can stop the action of poison,
If there is no prajqa, upaya will put us in bondage.
Tormenting us like a medicine that itself becomes a disease.
Therefore, arouse the prajqa that sees the natural state.
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Kashyapa, those who possess prajqa are completely liberated by upaya. Those who do not
possess prajqa are completely bound by upaya.
The Dohakosha says:
Those who dwell in emptiness, separate from compassion
Never will attain the path to supremacy.
But if one meditates on compassion alone
These too abide in samsara, and do not attain liberation.
Those who are able to join the two of these
Have an abode in neither samsara nor nirvana.
Also:
By that which is a chain for binding fools,
Capable ones are quickly liberated.
Knowing the nature of all dharmas, if one strives to the utmost, one will quickly be liberated. The Noble Sutra
Showing the Arrangement says:
Those who with great earnestness and exertion fully practice this dharma; the unborn, unceasing,
utterly profound emptiness; will quickly become conversant with the dharmadhatu of the bodhisattvas.
They will have perfect retention and confident speech, completely gather the unsurpassable dharmas,
be praised by the buddha bhagavats, and abide in completely pure discipline. Having attained
completely pure patience, unsurpassable exertion, meditation without conception, and the great prajqa,
they will quickly become completely enlightened. By being in the heart of enlightenment, with their
parasols borne by the four great kings, they will be supplicated to turn the wheel of Dharma. Producing
the great light for gods and human beings, they will fully establish them in enlightenment.
7) Summarizing the meaning of these six perfections
Now, for the concluding summary, from generosity to prajqa:
When we are in the practice of the six paramitas
We should know that we are beings like illusion.
Not perceiving their three-fold division in samsara,
By the wholesomeness of the two accumulations
We attain the peaceful level of the Victorious One.
Thus by the collective wholesomeness of these six perfections, from the moment of performing them without
attachment to the true existence of the ego of a doer, an object of action, and a virtuous act, with the attitude of an
emanation or illusion-like action, one will quickly attain buddhahood. The Sutra of the Clouds of the Three Jewels says:
Whoever does not conceptualize virtue or anything that is done, will gather the two
accumulations of merit and wisdom with non-conceptual perfect exertion. These should be practiced
with the attitude that they are like a mirage, an illusion, or an emanation.
If by prajqa there is pure view, and by upaya there is pure action, one will not stray from the path. Flawless
buddhahood will be established. The siddhis of flying in the sky and so forth will be accomplished. Atisha says:
Thus if the view is completely unobscured
And the action is completely pure,
One will not go upon the path of straying,
And will go to the place of Akanishta.
c. The dedication of merit for the three general topics
Now the merit is dedicated for the benefit of sentient beings:
Thus by the rain that falls from these clouds of auspiciousness,
The crop of sanity grows within the minds of beings.
Impoverished by the host of evils of samsara,
May the weariness of mind today be brought to rest.
The virtuous roots of intellect and the pure space of the spotless fields, arising as the natural state, pile up as
thick clouds. By the cooling rain of Dharma amrita continuously falling, for all beings, when the harvest of exertion in
the supreme virtue of Holy Dharma has been established, may the poverty of samsara and all its sufferings of poverty
mentality be pacified. May they be satisfied by the virtues of the essence of enlightenment. May their weariness be eased.
In the assembly of tormenting fires of suffering of this world
By the continuous falling of the rain of Dharma amrita
After all beings have realized the absoluteness of mind,
Cooled and refreshed, may they attain the ocean of wisdom.
In this beautiful ocean filled with lotus buddha qualities,
Relying with sincere devotion on the paths and bhumis,
Moved by the shining waves which are the six perfections
May they swim in the sea of vastness of the two accumulations.
Having seen all dharmas to be like dream and illusion
May the mind of attachment to true existence vanish.
May the state like emanation produce the accumulations.
May the entire phenomenal world of samsara/nirvana
Be revealed as total purity in a single instant.
Chapter IX: UNIFYING THE DEVELOPING STAGE AND THE PERFECTING STAGE
After training our being by the paths of the ordinary vehicles, comes the path manifesting the unified kayas
within one lifetime. The ninth topic of the main subject is the chapter on the Practice of Unifying the Developing Stage
and the Perfecting Stage. The general topic has three sections,
A. Resolving the view
B. Practicing the meditation
C. Dedicating the merit.
A. Resolving the view,
There are nine sections
1. The instruction to train in the vajrayana, the essence of the teachings:
When the excellent mind of bodhicitta has been aroused,
We can enter into the stages of developing and completion,
As they occur in the outer and inner secret mantra.
As just explained, after being taught how to enter according to the vehicles of cause and characteristics, as the
fruition, there is the instruction to enter the vehicles of secret mantra. The details of these vehicles are the current topic.
2. Why mantrayana is more noble than the stages of characteristics.
Why?
Here there are many means and also no difficulties.
Though the meaning is one with that of the other yanas,
There is no confusion about the means of entering.
Those of the sharpest powers are empowered in these four,
Kriya, Charya, and yoga, and also anuttara.
Though the buddha taught inconceivably many vehicles in accord with the minds of sentient beings, they are all
included within three. The mahayana is taught to have the duality of cause and fruition. The causal vehicles are taught to
be the means of first entering. Their fruition is taught to be the vajrayana. The Net of Miracles of Manjushri says:
By the skillful means of the various vehicles,
Having the divisions of the benefit of beings,
As for the definite outcome of the three vehicles,
It exists as fruition, the single vehicle.
These vehicles are also ascertained as two. Since individuals in the mahayana have two families, it is taught that
there are two kinds of skillful means or paths. Individuals who have little craving for desirable qualities or who have
renounced these desirable qualities, and wish for liberation, are taught the bodhisattva vehicle. For those unable to
abandon desirable qualities, there is the skillful means of the stages of secret mantra.
These two families train in their two paths until the path of seeing arises. The time when this arises is called the
path of seeing by the bodhisattvas. This same wisdom of complete non-thought is designated "the supreme siddhi of
mahamudra" by mantrayana. The time until this arises, using the individual methods of these paths, is respectively
long and short.
In the vehicle of characteristics, apparent aggression is abandoned, and by kindness alone without many other
means, the attempt is made to gain the one benefit or goal, establishing the fruition. There are great agonies of asceticism.
It is not skillful in profound means of practice. Since it is a means of practice for those whose powers are relatively dull,
all this is practiced by dualistic abandoning and antidotes. Since the aspect to be abandoned is not brought to the path,
half of what there is never becomes part of the path. This is a narrow path and a lesser cause of enlightenment.
The tantras reject those methods. When apparent aggression is produced, there are many means for dealing with
it. Here too there may be kindness, or in the developing stage it is seen as illusion-like, or in the completion stage as the
wisdom of non-thought, or by working with that very aggression, it becomes the mirror-like wisdom, and so forth.
Asceticism of body, speech, and mind plays a minor part. When the single goal is established, since this and that means
beyond the scope of thought are possessed, it is established with certainty. Having been produced for those of sharpest
powers, kriya, upa, yoga, and the great yoga of anuttara-tantra are taught. The Lamp of the Three Methods says:
Not unintelligent about the single goal,
Having many means and therefore not ascetic,
Having been produced for those with the sharpest powers,
The mantra vehicles are especially noble
3. Why those to be tamed are taught
Why are these four tantras taught?
They are graded by time and caste, and powers of the mind.
The yugas are krita and treta, dvapara and kali.
Bhramins and kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras are the castes;
The powers are dull and average; sharp and very sharp.
Kriya chiefly teaches baths and cleansing rites.
Chary teaches that actions of the body and speech
Are equal in importance with meditations of mind.
Yoga teaches that meditation is most important.
Actions of body and speech are just accompaniments.
Annotator is free from actions of the three gates.
There is no conception of separate subject and object.
Their ultimate concern is the luminous nature of mind.
Cleansing rites are few, or even are discarded.
In regard to time, kriya is completed in one kalpa. Since there will be no cause of manifesting the kleshas of a
sentient being, like the humanoids of Kurava the northern continent, kriya yogins do not depend on vows and discipline,
or virtuous antidotes of mind. Purificatory rites of body and speech and actions alone become the focus.
In regard to the four castes, the bhramin or priestly caste is tamed by means of rites of purification and
asceticism, without engaging in others. Those of dull powers who do not understand the great undertakings of mind, can
see this Dharma of actions of body and speech, and enter into those. Depending on those three purposes they are taught
tantras chiefly teaching washing, rites, and purification, Amoghabasha, and Supreme Insight, Well Established, the
Appearance of the Three Worlds, etc.
Also, this is most taught in the first krita yuga, because little secret and stealthy desire arises as a cause of
manifesting kleshas.
In the times of enjoyment and light karma of the treta yuga, actions of body and speech are constrained, and
objects of purification and rites become one of two goals, for those of the warrior-ruler kshatriya caste who are not so
entirely devoted to purification rites. Having realized things realizable by middling powers, they are taught upa tantras,
the Lotus Peak and others with their three families of deities. Acts of body and speech and meditation of mind are equally
taught.
In the dvapara yuga, kleshas are coarser, and meditating according to mental activity and so forth becomes the
goal. The merchant vaishya caste is widely devoted, and this is taught for those who are capable and of sharp powers,
chiefly with mental meditation, with those of body and speech just as an accompaniment. In yoga tantra they abandon the
lower realms and are taught the Vajra Space and so forth.
In the kali yuga, when lives are about a hundred years, the dark age, the time of indolence of impetuous
stupidity, the goal will come about only by means of mind. Tribal people or the shudra caste, have no purificatory rites at
all, but great ascetic discipline. This is to be realized by those of very sharp powers, from all actions of body, speech, and
mind not being conceptualized with grasping and fixation, accepting and rejecting, asserting and denying, hope and fear
and so forth, but being realized as non-dual. Since the nature of mind, the greatness of primordial buddhahood is self-
existing, there is the great dharma that seeks for no other buddha than that, anuttara yoga tantra. The Net of Miracles
with its short explanation of peaceful and wrathful deities, Chakrasamvara, Guhyasamaja and so forth are taught. The
Secret Establishment says:
Since students have the time
And the fortune of being tamed
The four great styles of mantra
Are famed throughout the world.
4. The three from kriya to yoga
These individual stages are explained:
The Sage has said that the tantras of kriya, chary, and yoga
Are the tantras of action, total comportment, and mental union.
Kriya is the tantra of action, upa that of comportment, and yoga that of yogic union. These three famous tantras
were taught by the Sage. They resemble the vehicles of external marks in having rites of purification and vows of activity.
The Sage called them the tantra or continuity vehicles.
5. How these are classified as the external secret mantra
As for these great tantras:
These are the outer mantra. One cannot meditate
On yab yum deities, united in sexual union.
There is no teaching of the five meats and the five amritas.
They remain entirely in rites of purification.
In kriya and upa tantra there are male and female sattvas. These deities of vidya mantra and dharani
remain in the manner of master and servant and companion respectively, and there is no union with them. In yoga tantra
the great four-fold arrangement of the mandala is taught as sambhogakaya, but there is no union with it. By meditating
successively on upaya and prajqa, the developing and completion stages are separated. There is no use of the five meats
and five amritas as samaya substances. These are grasped as defiled objects to be purified. The Tantra of the Play of the
Great Power says:
Clouds of enjoyment of upaya and prajqa
Are the principal means of establishing wisdom.
As for the five meats and the five amritas
And the highest play of mahasukha
These wonderful ways of being are absent here.
Those with the lesser fortune of tormenting rites
Of purity do not have such things as these.
6. The divisions of the three inner tantras
As for the divisions of the three inner tantras:
There are three divisions within anuttara tantra,
These are the father and mother and the non-dual tantras.
Respectively each of these has as its emphasis
The developing and perfecting stages and their union.
These three yanas are known as maha, anu, and ati.
The deities may unite, and in holy substances
There is no distinction of what is clean or defiled.
Rather it is taught that all is of one taste,
Regarded as the play of a single mandala.
The Guhyasamaja and the Yamantaka and such yoga tantras are mahayoga, the aspect of the skillful means of
the developing stage. the completion stage of mahayoga chiefly teaches prana. These include Yangdak, Vajrakilaya,
Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, and so forth.
The prajqa mother tantras are called anu yoga. Chiefly the completion stage of prajqa is taught. The
completion stage also chiefly works with the elements of bodhicitta and bindu, desiring the completely non-conceptual
wisdom of bliss and emptiness.
The non-dual tantras, The Great Net of Illusion and so forth, are called ati yoga. This chiefly teaches the essence
of prajqa and upaya without adding and taking away, the union of the developing and fulfilling stages. In the completion
stage from prana, nadi, and bindu are created bliss, luminosity, and non-thought, and the inconceivable luminosity of the
great wisdom. Each of these three, as a symbol of the union of upaya and prajqa, visualizes the embrace of yab yum.
Since the meaning of this is being without accepting and rejecting, denying and asserting, clean and defiled, and such
accepting and rejecting of good and bad, there is a play of samaya substances such as meat and liquor and so forth, and it
is maintained that all dharmas are one in the enlightened mandala of primordial buddhahood. The king of the tantras that
ascertain the suchness of the secret essence The Great Net of Illusion says:
Since it is the characteristic of all dharmas that they have a single essence with primordial buddhahood,
they are inseparable from it.
7. How these are individually maintained
As for the way of maintaining these tantras:
In kriya we are inferior and the gods supreme.
We are like servants and the deities are the masters.
By practicing in that style, the siddhis will be received.
In Chary we view ourselves and the gods as being equal.
We are samayasattva, the deity jqanasattva.
The deity occupies the space in front of us.
Siddhi is received in the style of two friends.
In yoga while the two are actually non-dual,
The god is summoned to union and afterward dismissed.
Siddhi is received like water poured into water.
In kriya tantra, the jqanasattva deity is said to be like a king. We as servants hope to receive siddhi. The Tantra
of Receiving the Siddhis of all the Families says:
The lord is viewed as a king,
And we see ourselves as servants.
Siddhi, the essence of tantra,
Is excellently received.
As for upa tantra, in front of the samayasattva, our visualization of the deity, we receive siddhi from the
jqanasattva deity, visualized as a friend or companion. The Razor of the Three Families says:
With the deity as friend or companion
Ultimate siddhi is to be received.
In yoga tantra, we meditate on ourselves in union with the deity. The jqanasattvas of union are drawn in and
dissolve into us. By sealing with the four mudras and so on, even when the offerings, praises, recitation, and so forth have
been finished, one still supplicates. When non-duality actually occurs, siddhi is said to arise. The Dorje Jungwa says:
We receive non-dual dharmadhatu and
The highest ultimate siddhi.
We are blessed with the tathagata, padma, and vajra families of the external mantra, sealed with the samaya,
dharma, karma, and maha-mudras.
8. The ways in which the highest three are the principal ones
As for mahayoga-tantra:
In maha, the chief means is prana and the developing stage;
In anu the dhatu and prajqa in the completion stage;
In ati it is the wisdom where everything is non-dual;
But in all of them all dharmas are eternal equality.
The practice is done in the style of knowing that this is so.
Since all dharmas exist as primordially unborn emptiness, the nature of mind is known to be natureless like the
sky. As for the practice, the Secret Assembly says:
Since these things are primordially unborn,
There are neither dharmas nor dharmata.
They are natureless like the space of the sky.
This is the way enlightenment is taught.
This was explained above. The Miracles of Fierce Lightning says:
E ma'o! free from all dharmas of things,
Free from skandhas and dhatus, and ayatanas,
We completely abandon grasping and fixation.
Since all dharmas are natureless equality,
One's own mind is also primordially unborn.
This is what is called the nature of emptiness
When this is known, the stage of visualizing the mandalas of the father tantras of upaya becomes upaya. The
pranas of the five elements are completely purified. Luminosity/emptiness, the wisdom of complete non-thought, is the
main point. By that the supreme and ordinary siddhis are established.
In the mother tantras of prajqa, complexities of the developing stage are minimized. The dhatu of the great bliss,
the space of speech, is the mandala of the bhaga or womb of the syllables. In the stages leading to supreme enlightenment,
another's body is the prajqa or mudra, and in one's own body, depending on upaya, mahasukha establishes enlightenment
by the wisdom of the four joys.
In the non-dual tantras, as distinguished from both these stages, luminous dharmata, the great wisdom without
one and many, is the main point and enlightenment is established. There is the three-fold luminosity of bliss, clarity, and
non-thought. First from the workable dhatu self-existing samadhi arises. From that, supreme unchanging bliss pervades
the whole of space, filling it with undefiled bliss. In the central channel the great essential clarity of the other two
luminosities occurs. By the power of the inner five pranas, the motionless luminous clarity of wisdom arises in the four
dhyanas. Externally the five lights of the five wisdoms, appearing as kaya, bindu, and shining light, fill the whole of
space. The Net of Miracles of Manjushri says:
This vivid shining of the light of wisdom
Is the lamp of wisdom which is the light of beings.
This, the great brilliance, is luminosity.
Also:
To view possession of the garland of brilliance is sweet.
The blazing light of goodness is the glorious knot of eternity.
As the radiance of the five lights enters into the central channel, when the essence of the earth prana enters,
mind rests within it. As external yellow light illuminates Ratnasambhava, pride is transmuted and the wisdom of equality
is revealed. We are empowered with the samadhi of the ground of exhaustion, crossing to the southern ratna family pure
land, Ratnakuta.
By the essence of the water prana entering the central channel, within it the essence of undisturbed mind is
illuminated. Externally, by white light by illuminating Akshobhya, the mirror-like wisdom is revealed. Hatred is
purified. We are empowered with the exhaustion-water samadhi, crossing to the eastern vajra family pure land, Abhirati.
By the prana of the fire essence entering into the central channel, within it the blissful heat arises. Externally by
red light illuminating Amitabha, discriminating awareness wisdom is revealed. We cross to the western padma family
pure land, Sukhavati.
By the prana of the air essence entering into the central channel, within the movement and increase of mind is
attained. Externally, by green light illuminating Amoghasiddhi, the all-accomplishing wisdom is realized. Envy is
purified. We are empowered with the exhaustion-prana samadhi, crossing to the northern karma family pure land of,
Karmaprasiddhi.
By the prana of the supreme non-conceptual space essence, universal dharmata, entering into the central
channel, within there is complete non-thought. Externally, by blue light illuminating Vairochana, the dharmadhatu
wisdom is revealed. Ignorance is purified. We are empowered with the exhaustion sky-realm, Akanishta Gandavyuha,
the pure land of Heavenly Enjoyment. The Great Net of Illusion says:
Thus the fortunate yogin
Has the five lights of the wisdoms.
The five kayas cross to their lands.
The five exhaustions are gained.
9. The way of meditating on all dharmas as the nature of the mandala
Now as for the teaching that all dharmas, as the complete perfection of buddhahood, have the nature of the three
mandalas:
Since we and all other beings are primordially enlightened,
The style of meditation involved in the two stages
Sees the dharmas of skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas
As being the luminosity of a single mandala.
All dharmas should be known to be of the nature of the three mandalas of primordial buddhahood. Within the
mandala of the nature of the ground as spontaneous presence, there is conviction about the view. Within the mandala of
the path as profound samadhi, one practices meditation. Within the mandala of the fruition as supreme enlightenment,
the two benefits are perfected.
Within the first there are two divisions. These are the pure ground, the natural state, and the impure ground, the
way of confusion. The first is the primordially empty nature of mind, the essence of dharmakaya. Its arising as the
luminous nature of sambhogakaya is the source of nirmanakaya. It is open and accommodating like the sky. It is
luminous like the sun and moon. As with a wish-fulfilling gem, all that is desired is self-arising. The five kinds of kaya,
speech, mind, quality, and action exist primordially as the intrinsic qualities of buddhahood. The Secret Essence says:
Emptiness is the mind of self-awareness.
This is primordial knowledge of egolessness.
There is neither concept nor conceiver.
Therefore the fixated memory is transformed.
Wondrous body and speech and the field of qualities
Are the same and not other. That is how it is.
Also the All-Creating King says:
Kye! listen to me mahasattva:
The nature of me, the doer of all, enlightenment
Is a self-existing nature that does not need to be sought.
This is trikaya, the essence of all the victorious ones.
My uncreated nature exists as dharmakaya.
My uncreated essence is sambhogakaya.
My manifested compassion is nirmanakaya.
No fruition established by seeking has been taught.
Primordial self existence, it does not need to be sought.
Above what is referred to by such passages was called the dhatu or essence. This exists primordially with the
spontaneous presence of the buddha qualities.
The impure ground, the way of confusion, is as already described. The Secret Essence says:
E Ma'o, from out of sugatagarbha
Comes the confusion of karma, our discursive thoughts.
Variety, mind, and action, existing, suffering and such;
The "me" and the "mine" are grasped as being individuals.
Also:
It is faulty concepts that are the root of samsara.
These have their arising when there are thoughts of self.
The powers of sense, birth and destruction, body and action,
The infernal machine of existing, suffering, and so on;
Is nothing whatsoever except a misconception.
From the individual rounds of beings within the six lokas, in particular for human beings, at the beginning of
their confusion, when they are grasped by existence in a womb, at first the two eyes and the knot of nadis in the navel
develop. Then the body is produced from the essences which will become the sense-faculties, existing as the three nadis.
Within them are the three syllables OM AH HUM. Externally these produce the three supports of body, speech, and
mind. Internally, they produce the three supports of passion, aggression, and ignorance. Secretly they produce the
supports of enlightened body, speech, and mind.
The central channel reaches above to the aperture of Bhrama, and below to the secret place. The white Roma
nadi and red Kyangma are to right and left of the light blue central channel. In enlightened body, speech, and mind they
are the three-fold existence of mahasukha.
Mutually and continuously they have twenty-one knots. These are the chakras of the nadis: The navel
emanation chakra has sixty-four nadi petals. The throat enjoyment chakra has sixteen. The heart dharmachakra has
eight nadi petals. If they are joined with the four kayas and the different wisdoms, in addition to these, at the crown of the
head, there is the chakra of great bliss with thirty-two nadi petals. From the viewpoint of the five self-existing kayas, in
addition to these, in the secret place, is the chakra of guarding bliss with seventy-two nadi petals, which has the powers of
the essential elements.
If the six chakras are listed in order, the secret center is the chakra of wisdom. The throat center is the chakra of
enjoyment-activity. The central channel is the chakra of mahasukha. The crown of the head is the chakra of the realm of
space. The heart is the dharmachakra. The navel is the chakra of emanation.
According to The Net of Illusion, they are the seeds of purifying the impure six kinds of sentient beings. The
purifiers are the six sages of the six realms. When they are purified by the six perfections, the six wisdoms, the usual five
wisdoms plus the inconceivable wisdom, are attained.
Each chakra with the first knot between each one makes twelve. Completing these at the end, pure prana as a
thirteenth is maintained to complete the bhumi of the great wisdom.
The Kalachakra has six chakras and six nadis between them. These have twelve kinds of ejection of prana,
associated with the twelve nidanas. The power of not ejecting bindu, turning it back above to the secret wisdom chakra, is
said to be a sign of the first bhumi. One kind of ejection of prana is stopped. One nidana is purified. Similarly, between
that and the space of the sky chakra twelve levels are crossed. Twelve kinds of ejection of prana are stopped. Twelve
nidanas are purified. By the bindu reaching the sky realm chakra, it is maintained that one is enlightened.
According to the Root tantra of Miracle there are two chakras. These are the peaceful heart chakra and the
wrathful crown chakra. Within these the coarse nadis are equal to the number of deities. These are 42 and 58, 100
altogether. The fine nadis are countless. The Great Illusion says:
Roma, Kyangma, and Kundarma.
Are between the chakras like pillars.
The branching petals are countless.
As for elements and pranas,
The descending wisdom nadis
Are a thousand in number.
As the square of seventy two,
There are twenty thousand
And 600,000 pranas.
These have been maintained
to be the great moving ones.
There are 84,000 others.
The Five Hundred Thousand says:
The associated nadis
Spread and fill the body
These 72,000 nadis.
In the body are goddesses.
Also:
Of the 72000 nadis,
the different kinds are explained.
In one day there are said to be 620,000 actions of prana. They make up a "horse" to carry the 84,000 small
moving ones, whose number is equal to that of the false conceptions and kleshas. When kleshas are moving about, it is
maintained that an equal number of these pranas are moving about. By nature the male prana, "moving upward," dwells
above, and the female prana, "downward voiding," dwells below. As for the mother, if the I prana "equally-abiding" co-
exists, the three existences are explained.
As for the pranas in the nadis there are the following:
1 life-holder,
2 equalizer,
3 fire,
4 upward moving,
5 downward voiding.
As said above. The actions are
1 maintaining life,
2 bodily existence,
3 making heat,
4 the exhaling and inhaling of the breath,
5 going, staying and casting off impurities.
These are called ordinary and the five external pranas.
The five internal pranas are the five pranas of the five elements. These are:
the yellow earth prana,
the red fire prana,
the white water prana,
the green air prana,
the blue space prana.
As for their functions, they exist as a support for the inner skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas. When impure they
are the ground of proliferation of the five poisons, and when pure of the five wisdoms.
The five secret pranas, the five wisdoms, have no coarse forms.
The great essential elements are two, the white and the red. From roma and kyangma they abide in the petals of
the individual nadis. For women, left and right are reversed. In particular, the moon, roma, descends from above at the
crown of the head. The sun, kyangma, rises from the A below in the secret place.
In a man's kyangma and woman's roma at the bottom there is a knot, so that the red and white elements do not
drip. As the knots in the nadis are released, the virtues of the paths and bhumis are perfected. As the knots in the central
channel are released, two by two, each of the ten bhumis are perfected. In attaining the good qualities of those, each of the
essential elements and prana elements seem to enter them.
For example, as the first two nadi knots are released, the two essences enter into the central channel. When the
four great nadis of the navel emanation chakra are released, the qualities of the first bhumi appear to arise. When the
nadis of the four chakras are released, the four kayas are attained and the four wisdoms manifest.
Now in the ordinary nadi knots the red and white essences exist as the embrace of the hero and heroine. The
veins are like water pipes, and the elements like the water inside them. Prana is like pressure. Their going and coming
when moved by that, constitute the vajra body. This is the support of the great wisdom.
In particular in the Mahamaya Tantra, in the empty center of the heart, the essences go into eight subtle nadis as
if they were being licked up. There are three dharmata nadis, one wisdom nadi, three autonomy nadis, and one quality
nadi. The Secret Drop of Vimala says:
The way they exist is known to be eight-fold.
The commentary says:
In the empty center of the heart, the essence in the nadis goes into the eight subtle nadis as if they were being
licked up. There are three dharmata nadis, one wisdom nadi, three autonomy nadis, and one quality nadi.
These eight should be known like that.
The central three are the support of the unchanging dharmata of trikaya. In front the nadi of
mirror-like wisdom produces the support of the four wisdoms. Behind and to the right are the nadis of
qualities producing the support of the arising of the buddha fields, palaces and so forth. To the left, by
the three poisons autonomy nadi, confused appearance of the individuating characteristics of the three
realms is produced.
Moreover, in the sheath of the dharmata nadi, in the midst of drops of yellow light, the
letters of the ground of purification, SU and TRI, are the seeds of asuras and animals. The purifier OM
is the essence of the kayas and wisdoms. The intrinsic light of the syllables is like a brocade tent. In
the square sheath of the blue wisdom nadi, is the purifier HUM and the ground of purification the seeds
of gods and human beings A and NRI [with backwards kiku] They have white, red, and blue light.
In the red semi-circular sheath of the autonomy syllables the purifier is AH and the ground of
purification is the seeds of the pretas and hell beings PRE and DU. Also at the time of impurity,
habitual patterns produced by karma and kleshas are collected above the six syllables. The retinue
created by anger, resentment, and so on are collected above the DU; by desire above the PRE; by pride
above A and NRI; by envy above SU; and those created by ignorance are collected above the TRI. At
the time of realization, the virtues of the intrinsically-existing power of wisdom are collected above the
three syllables of body, speech, and mind.
Meditations on forms of the deities and so on connected with body are placed above OM. Those involving
mantra recitation and so on are above AH. Meditation on non-thought and so on are above HUM. The letters that are the
ground of purification and all the habitual patterns above them are purified. The same text says:
In the dharmata-nadi a yellow light dwells. The shape is spherical. It is like flowing mercury.
The essence is OM. The seed is SU and TRI. The colors of these three are like a brocade tent.
Within the wisdom nadi is a blue light. Its shape is square. It is like a noose or coiled snake.
It is like a lump of violet amethyst crystals. The essence is HUM. The seeds are A and NRI.
In the autonomy nadi is a red light. Its shape is a red semi-circle. The style is of illusory
refreshing-cleansing water like the brilliant arising of dawn. The color is the red of molten copper.
The essence is AH. The seeds are PRE and DU.
At the time of non-realization, with A NRI and so forth, it is the cause of samsara. At the time
of realization, there are TE O and so forth. Mixing these two is called "quasi-mixing, since bodhicitta
is as before."
The four nadis are the natural state of consciousnesses. The same text says:
The four aspects, and six particulars, in the middle of eight...
Four refers to the dharmata, wisdom, autonomy, and quality nadis. As for the particulars,
there is yellow light existing as alaya consciousness, blue light existing as the mind consciousness, red
light existing as klesha-mind, and dark red light existing as the five sense-consciousnesses.
At the side of the yellow light are OM SU, and TRI. Covered by the blue light are HUM A
and NRI. Covered by the red light are AH PRE and DU. The dark red light has the faults and virtues.
A and NRI cause corruption of the breath. SU and TRI cause corruption of the nadis. PRE
and DU cause corruption of the blood.
As for the arising of gods and human beings, by producing the mind consciousness, the seeds
A and NRI are embodied.
As for the arising of animals and asuras, by producing alayavijqana, the seeds SU and TRI are
embodied.
As for the arising of the pretas and hell beings, from producing the five consciousnesses and
klesha mind, the seeds PRE and DU are embodied.
Thus all the sentient beings of the six lokas individually exist.
In the center of the eight nadis in the heart center, is the essence of the nadis, like white silk cords, very fine, like
twisted single hairs of a horse's tail. The mixed essence of blood and breath, is very subtle, consisting of dharmakaya
bodhicitta having light of the five colors, the luminosity of dharmata. The Description of the Marks says:
The splendid knot of eternity of excellent blazing light.
In the heart palace of the dharma field of Akanishta, the buddha embodying the tathagatas of the five families,
Samantabhadra, remains continuously for all time. The Two Examinations says:
The great wisdom has its dwelling in the body.
Conceptions are abandoned in the truth.
Universal wisdom pervades all things.
Embodied existence does not arise from the body
Also:
This is also known as great sugatagarbha.
The Uttaratantra says:
Because the perfect buddha kaya radiates
Because of being inseparable from suchness,
And because of having the gotra, all embodied beings,
Always have the essence of buddhahood.
The Dohakosha says:
Though there is something somewhere, in a certain place,
That does not entail that it must always be seen.
It is explained by the shastras of the capable ones,
That buddhahood in the body is not realized.
Buddhahood is the wisdom nadi. When all the essences of prana and mind are gathered together, the field of
nirvana, spontaneous appearance, the house of light, the wisdom-lamp of the bardo, arises. This is the completely pure
field of Akanishta called Gandavyuha. If yogins make an effort, all the essences of prana and mind will be perfected
there. The aspect of appearance, the five lights, and the aspect of emptiness, dharmakaya, will be mixed in one taste. The
two accumulations of the path will be completed. As the two kayas manifest we become "enlightened in Akanishta."
The light of wisdom in the central channel and the nadis are one with this, in the sense that the nature of mind is
the support of luminosity. How is this explained? From the central channel, in the center of the heart, comes very subtle
light like ten separately divided single hairs of a horse's tail transparently existing, connecting the pranas.
If it is made into a support, some masters say that this is the true central channel, so that the three nadis need not
be combined in the central channel. Though they explain it that way, since as all the pranas enter the central channel, the
essence of the prana of the central channel must enter into the wisdom nadi, it is suitable for them to be connected.
At the time of death all the essences and pranas collect in the central channel. The pranas and essences of the
central channel are gathered into the ultimate essence, and from that luminosity is maintained to arise. The kayas and
fields of the five families are taught to arise by the essence of this during five days of dhyana in the bardo. Therefore this
essence is the very secret great ultimate secret. The Commentary of the Secret Drop says:
"In the center of the eight,"
They are therefore one. Thus the essences of the nadis go into the eight subtle nadis as if they were being licked up. Their
shape is said to be like eight twisted cords.
The eight main essences, the ultimate nadi essences, are like white silk cords, with a shape is like twisted cords.
In size, they are like ten divided hairs of a horse's tail. Within these, which are like white silk cords, goes the blood
essence of a vibrant vermilion like the mother's essence. Within that the essence of breath like bright, pure gold in a
brocade, curls like steam. Within that the breath essence is light of various colors. The interior of that light is called the
center. "Na," in, has the meaning that they abide within it.
In the center of that light abides the great bindu, bodhicitta. It is like precious jewel anthers in a pipe of molten
gold or filled full of the white precious stone kekeru. It abides there with a color like the rising sun. Since that is the
essence of dharmadhatu, the cause of the absolute and relative, "I prostrate to that."
Since this luminous nature of mind is all-pervading, all beings are primordially enlightened. Even when they
are wandering in samsara, that mind does not move and is not harmed or degraded. By their being enlightened it is no
better than it was before. The Uttaratantra says:
Later as before,
Changeless dharmata.
The Fierce Lightning says:
Clouds of bodhicitta spread and pervade everywhere, as oil pervades sesame seeds.
Then also this is taught:
E Ma'o, Primordial Dharma completely pure.
Though it appears as variety, conceptually it is secret.
This is because its essence is inexpressible.
It is hard to teach to those who are not vessels.
E Ma'o, In the primordial purity of the three-fold world,
By faulty conceptions conceiving of ego, the root of samsara,
Beings who have aimlessly wandered over a very long time
Grasp at inappropriate objects of joy and sorrow.
By the power of errors of their wrong conception,
They wander among the turning wheels of samsara.
Without things of wrong conception there is bodhicitta.
Even that hellish machine is its inexhaustible ornament.
The five degenerations are places of happiness.
The five skandhas are completely perfected as the kayas.
The root of samsara itself, all our faulty conceptions,
Is explained to be the essence of enlightenment.
The outer and inner vessel and contents of the world
Are thus the father and the mother of the enlightened state
By that it is taught that all dharmas exist as bodhicitta. With that the teaching of the way of confusion of impure
sentient beings is completed. Now there is the teaching that all is primordially enlightened.
The five skandhas, though apparently impure, have the enlightened nature of the five fathers. The five elements
have the enlightened natures of their five consorts. All concepts are enlightened in the mandala of bodhicitta, and there is
not even an atom of dharmas other than that. The Secret Essence says:
E Ma'o,
As for the five-fold limbs of the vajra skandhas,
They are known as the five perfected buddhas.
The many dhatus and ayatanas
Are the various bodhisattvas appearing in person.
Earth and water are Lochana and Mamaki.
Fire and air Pandaravasini and Tara.
The space of sky is the consort of the Lord.
Everything in the three realms is the Dharma.
Without remainder this is the buddha field.
Dharmas that are other than buddhahood
Never will be found by buddhahood.
In particular, buddhahood is the luminous nature of mind. The Kunje says:
As for there being a buddha who is other than the mind,
This has never been taught by the King, the Doer of All.
It will not be taught later and it is not taught now.
Therefore we should know that mind is buddhahood
The Secret Assembly says:
External to the preciousness of mind,
There are no buddhas and there are no sentient beings.
The Establishment of Wisdom says:
Ultimate luminosity of mind,
Total purity of buddhahood,
Self-arising, unmade by anyone,
Having existed from all eternity.
In brief, all appearances are the mandala of body. All sounds are the mandala of speech. All cognitive
apprehension is the mandala of mind. These three should be known. The Kunje says:
Kye! the teacher of teachers! The doer of all, the King,
Makes a display of the essence mandala of body.
Thus all the dharmas of appearance and existence
Have been displayed as the unborn state of dharmadhatu.
For the sake of their inmost meaning, No accepting, no rejecting,
This too is displayed by me, the doer of all, the King.
Kye! the teacher of teachers! The doer of all, the King,
Makes a display of the essence mandala of speech.
Thus are all dharmas, resounding with the voice of meaning,
Revealed to be the spoken word of unborn space.
They embody the inexpressible heart of speech.
This too is my display, as the doer of all, the King.
Kye! the teacher of teachers! The doer of all, the King,
Makes a display of the essence mandala of insight.
All concepts involved with knowing and remembering
Are seen as myself, the unborn, the doer of everything.
The body, speech, and mind of me, the doer of all,
Are mandalas resting in uncreated naturalness.
Having realized the meaning of this state
Perfected in a moment, without any need for arrangement,
One enters the essential heart of the self-existing.
Thus the appearance of variety is produced. Since it is natureless, it is exhaustion/perfection. The mandala of
the fundamental meaning should be known to be without producer or produced. Regarding the nature of that mandala,
the same text says:
Kye, as for the mandala of me the Doer of All,
It is taught as a perfect self-arising mandala.
By perfecting the essence of all without remainder,
There is no birth and there is no proliferation
The uncreated mandala is perfect all at once.
Kye, in the center without error, essence of the meaning,
Samsara is perfected as the bliss of samsara/nirvana.
That is the mandala that is the root of all essences.
Realize that all mandalas are included in that.
Kye, the mandala of me the King, the Doer of All,
Is the perfect mandala of all without remainder.
By whoever perfects it, that will be realized
Learn the meaning of the uncreated mandala.
Kye by me the teacher of teachers, the Doer of All,
By the unborn mandala of bodhicitta,
All-pervading, without any coming and any going,
By realizing that one enters the meaning of the unborn.
Therefore, vajra beings, you as well as I,
Should realize the meaning that does not exist in the world.
Anyone who has the realization of that
Will be empowered as the King, the Doer of All.
All the skandhas, dhatus, ayatanas and so forth, the viewpoint of everything that appears, are enlightened as the
nature of the deities. There are no good and evil, or accepting and rejecting. From the viewpoint of empty dharmata,
complexities of existence and non-existence are completely pacified. This is the fundamental mandala of the
spontaneously present nature. By realizing that, all the dharmas of the phenomenal world of samsara and nirvana are
known as the mandala. Whatever appears is cherished as wisdom. The Secret Essence says:
By the yogin who realizes the great perfection,
The origin of suffering is realized as the mandala.
By these the teaching of first resolving the view is completed.
B. the explanation of meditation practice, together with its action of ripening and freeing.
1. The brief teaching of how to do the meditation of the developing stage
There are five sections
a. Meditation in the style of being born from an egg
Second, within the practice of meditation, there are the stages of the power of ripening the ground, and the stages
of developing and completion that liberate the path. From the three sections of extensive explanation of the actions
associated with these and with the associated samayas, now there is the brief explanation of the way of meditating in the
developing stage:
There are four styles of practice that match with the four births.
To cleanse habitual patterns of being born from an egg,
By going to refuge and arousing bodhicitta,
And briefly doing the practice of the developing stage,
Complete the offerings that invite the field of merit.
And also by meditation on the absence of self-nature,
Previously completing the two accumulations,
Extensive meditation, through their being primordial,
On both the stage of development and the stage completion,
Is like an egg from which a bird will then be hatched.
Perform the short and elaborate development and completion.
In this first stage of secret mantra, in however many samadhis of visualized deities as we meditate, habitual
patterns of the four modes of birth are trained and harmonized. These are taught as four. The Net of Miracle says:
There are four modes of birth that are to be purified.
Therefore, visualization has four different stages.
These are the greatly complex and the complex,
And those without and completely without complexity.
This is explained as it was clearly presented by the great master Vimalamitra. Those who are born from an egg
are as if twice-born. When one meditates on the samadhi of great complexity, first one goes for refuge and arouses
bodhicitta. One instantly visualizes oneself as the chief deity and consort. In the space in front, one invites the mandala of
the deities. One makes offerings and praises to that mandala, confesses evil deeds, rejoices, invites the turning of the
wheel of dharma, supplicates for desirable qualities, and dedicates the merit. Then after one says "VAJRA MUH go to
your own places," or meditates for a while in objectless meditation, one gathers the two accumulations of merit and
wisdom. This is the brief meditation.
Then, arising from emptiness and meditating on the mandala of the individual deities is the extensive
meditation.
b. Meditating in the Manner of being born from a womb
From that, there is a brief treatment of meditation with few complexities:
In purifying vasanas of being born in a womb,
There is refuge, bodhicitta, and the seed from emptiness;
The symbol, then the body with its rays of light and such.
Then the extensive stages, as they were done before,
Development and completion do not have the brief version first;
As from prana and mind, and both the red and white bindus
Come oval, oblong, lumpy, becoming solid and so on,
Until at last the completed body has been born.
Just as for those who are born from the womb the body is born after being gradually completed, in this kind of
development meditation first one goes to refuge and arouses bodhicitta. Then with the svabhava mantra from emptiness,
just as the red and white bindus gather together to constitute consciousness, there is the seed syllable of the deity, for
example HUM. Like the development of the embryo as an oval and oblong, from HUM comes a vajra. Like the oblong
and solidification, from the vajra as a cause of the body comes a mass of the five lights, and as the embryo, like Vishnu's
body manifesting as a fish and a tortoise, from the light comes the body, and the meditation of the developing stage is
completed.
Sometimes, from the seed comes a mass of light and syllables, from which the body is maintained to appear. As
the brief developing stage and offerings to the field of merit are omitted, there are fewer complexities.
c. Meditating in a way like birth from heat and moisture:
To purify patterns of birth arising from heat and moisture,
After refuge and bodhicitta, just from speaking the name
The luminous deities will arise from emptiness.
Then one meditates on development and completion.
As life can be born from a combination of heat and moisture,
And thus its birth will be accomplished with great ease,
There is no need for complexities of seeds and symbols.
Just as birth from heat and moisture is easily established, having gone to refuge, and aroused bodhicitta, just
from saying and remembering the name of the deity it is visualized from emptiness. Here the complex stages from the
seed syllable up to the body are omitted.
d. Meditation in the manner of spontaneous birth:
To purify the vasanas that lead to spontaneous birth,
Development and completion are clear instantaneously.
As what has spontaneous birth will be born in a moment,
Meditation in the stages of development and completion
Need not come gradually from the name [of the deity.]
As what is spontaneously born is instantly established, on remembering the deity the meditation is instantly clear
and complete. The deity is visualized from the name alone and complexities are unnecessary.
e. Which style should be chiefly used:
Thus when we deal with these four styles of meditation,
Chiefly in meditating in these ways which are summarized,
In order to cleanse the vasanas, meditate on them all.
In particular the beginners should use the birth from an egg.
When there is some steadiness, use the birth from a womb.
When steadiness is great, use birth from heat and moisture.
When we are truly familiar, becoming perfectly steady,
Then we should use the instant style of spontaneous birth.
Persons should train in all the styles of meditation. Chiefly we should use the style of womb-birth. Beginners
should meditate from stage to stage, training in these ways of meditation as summarized. Moreover, having meditated
many times on the developing stage, one should then chiefly train in the completion stage. These four stages respectively
should precede the first, second, third, and fourth of the four ways of meditating in the completion stage.
2. the ways of entering into the completion stage,
From the four sections
a. The ways with and without appearance.
Now we shall enter into the completion stage:
From the time they appear, their nature is simplicity.
As for the stages of unwavering form-meditation,
Beginners should stop attachment to the developing stage.
Mere appearance will remedy attachment to true existence.
Stabilized ones should break attachment to completion.
Emptiness will remedy fixating characteristics.
Thus, having gathered in gradually there are nada and bindu, and very fine life letters like a hundred divided
hairs of a horse's tail. That dissolves into dharmadhatu and rests there. Beginners meditate in the formless completion
stage. By that conceptual attachment to the individualizing marks of things of the developing stage is overcome. In the
developing stage, rest in motionless mind without emanation or gathering. The arising of the wisdom of bliss, clarity, and
non-thought is the completion stage with appearance. As the object of meditation for those with little familiarity or
stabilization, it produces the antidote to one-sided attachment to emptiness.
b. The way of arising of developing and completion without gathering or separation.
Of this meditation:
Later whatever appears is the means of development.
Awareness without a grasper is the prajqa of completion.
There is never anything added or anything taken away.
Here as before, by becoming very familiar and stable, all activities become appearance/emptiness,
sound/emptiness, insight/emptiness. This is prajqa in which natures are not truly existent. This arising of naturally non-
conceptual shamatha is the completion stage of the pure nature. The completion stage of many individual tantras is taught
in accord with this. This is from the general viewpoint. Some mahayoga texts have five stages:
1). a self-blessing stage
2). a vajra variety stage
3). a jewel fulfilling stage,
4). a jalandhara (net-holder) stage,
5). an inconceivable stage.
In the first, to produce shamatha, meditate in the developing stage, within the heart center visualizing bindus as
globes of light.
Externally the motion of prana arises. After the time of the colors of the five elements has passed, by meditating
in that way, all external sickness, dons, evil deeds, and obscurations are purified.
At the time of entering internally, similar to attainment of the buddha qualities and so on, in the light of the heart
center, mental grasping is quickly uplifted by establishing the wisdom of non-thought.
As for attaining the ordinary and supreme siddhas, the Five Stages says:
Always there within the heart,
The single bindu has no arising.
For the person who becomes familiar with that
Wisdom will certainly arise.
Bindu has already been explained.
Second, in the vajra variety stage, the pranas are united. In the center of the five chakras meditate on the five
symbols of the five families. In the head is a wheel, in the throat a jewel, in the heart a vajra, in the navel a lotus, and in
the secret space a sword. During the meditation, the buddhas of the ten directions and so forth dissolve into the respective
symbols. By meditating that the mind grasps them, shamatha arises.
Third, in the jewel fulfilling stage, by the play of coemergence or great bliss, from within the four chakras the
wisdom of the four joys is produced and wisdom is recognized.
Fourth, in the jalandhara stage the symbols of the five families become the bodies of the deities. By the descent
of amrita from the place of union of the deities and their consorts, the body is filled. By the bliss of the fire of tummo
burning the HAM syllable, the mind is focused on bliss. By the firelight of wisdom of tummo all the realm of the
tathagata is burned and consumed. The Dakini Ocean says:
As tummo burns at the navel
All the joints will be consumed.
As the eyes and such are burned
By that the bindu drips.
As it goes to the ends of the nadis
Of which there are 72,000
Like threads woven into in a net
By its passing the taste is experienced
By that there is realization of union and the focus of samadhi increases.
As for the inconceivable stage, In the center of the globes of light in the heart, from visualizing HUM and the
individual seed syllables of the deities, light is emanated. It touches all of samsara and nirvana. Buddhas and beings, all
the realms of the animate and the inanimate, melt into light and dissolve in the light in the heart center. The body
dissolves into light. The light dissolves into the HUM, and that into the shabkyu. That dissolves into the body of the
syllable, then into the head and the crescent, the crescent into the bindu, and the bindu into nada, the non-conceptual
space which is the source of bindu.
In emanation, from emptiness, expand that these proliferate from one to another and are as before. As for
meditating that they dissolve again, the meaning is inconceivable dharmata, as the union of vipashyana and shamatha.
Having attained that is enlightenment.
Beginners meditate stage by stage. Having done that training, they train as the stages arise in their being, not
necessarily in the order they were taught.
c. The process of meditation in the developing stage and completion stage.
What is accomplished in these ways of meditating in the developing and completion stages?
Development stops attachment to appearance as truly existing.
Completion abandons the thought that it is just illusion.
When there is no attachment to appearance or emptiness,
Then there is the pure nature that is without duality,
Between the stages of development and completion.
The developing stage meditates on the external environment as the palace. Grasping the ordinary appearance of
objects as individuating characteristics of earth and rocks and so on is abandoned. By meditating on the inhabitants,
sentient beings, as gods and goddesses, attachment to the individuating characteristics of sentient beings and desire and
hatred toward them is abandoned. A clear view of one's own skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas, clearly perceives that this is
primordially so. By that obscurations of rupakaya are abandoned. The collection of merit is completed. The arising of
the samadhi of shamatha and so forth has many purposes.
In the three tantras of external mantra, yoga tantra and so forth, the developing stage is sealed by the four
mudras. There is meditation on the four objects of mindfulness body, feeling, mind, and dharmas, as illusion-like, and the
gathering together of meditation and post-meditation. Though these occur, the profoundest great stages are absent in
these vehicles.
In anuttara tantra, prajqa and upaya beyond the scope of thought are taught. By meditating on the completion
stage, there is little attachment to the previous developing stage. All dharmas, like illusion, are abandoned. Free from all
conceptual thoughts of "this and that," having purified the obscurations of dharmakaya, one is joined to the natural state.
This is realization of mahamudra.
Here the nature is the primordial existence of the ground, the nature of the vajra body. Having come to know the
nature of mind and the essence of reality, one becomes familiar with them. Here one depends on one's own body as the
upaya and the body of another as the prajqa or wisdom-consort. One's own body is used in tummo, illusory body, dream,
luminosity, bardo, transference and so forth. These completion stage practices establish enlightenment through effort in
one's own mind without dependence on another.
When using the body of another, the yogin goes to the pith of prana, nadi, and bindu, and makes bliss into the
path. As for the purpose, by abandoning attachment to the developing stage, the divine nature is realized, and by the
particular means employed, bliss, emptiness, and non-thought arise. By everything being brought to the path, whatever
appears arises as dharmata. By realizing the wisdom of co-emergence, doubts are washed away, and so forth beyond
measure.
As for the teaching of the nyams, the experiences, of buddhahood:
Here the vajrayana reaches its ultimate end.
Those persons who are sharp in the powers of their minds
Will attain to perfect buddhahood within this very life.
Then in every world where there are beings to be tamed,
Their various buddha activities will be spontaneous.
This secret path of directness is utterly profound.
It is the path that is taken by countless vajradharas.
It is the path that should be used by fortunate ones
Who want to be liberated within this very life.
This path liberates those of sharp powers of mind within this very life, so that before long the great deeds of a
buddha spontaneously arise for whatever beings there are in the world to be tamed. The Tantra of the Vajra Secret says:
As for the siddhi of unsurpassable mantrayana,
When someone practices totally using the highest effort,
There is enlightenment within this very life.
Then the teacher acts within the field of beings.
This is the ultimate path directly to enlightenment,
As it was formerly traveled by countless vajradharas.
Those of good fortune who desire liberation should depend on this path, and strive appropriately with great
effort.
d. The power of ripening the ground,
There are three sections teaching the stages
1) As for its being received in general and in terms of our own tradition
Now as for the teaching of the stages of the power of ripening the ground, mantrayana:
Using whichever of these tantras arouses devotion
Let us establish the state of perfect enlightenment.
First consider the precepts taught in each tradition
Of initiation, permission blessings, and empowerment.
By doing so our minds will be completely ripened.
"Abhishiqca" occurs when defilements are washed away, and by powers being established "empowerment"
arises. Because defilements in the being of students are purified, powers are produced of later attaining the enlightenment
of buddhahood and meditating on particular incidental paths. After the details of the initiatory liturgies of permission
blessings, empowerments, and so forth of the various individual tantras have been explained, one starts to practice.
In the initiatory rites and permission blessings of kriya tantra, depending only on the mandala, disciples are
empowered by the water of the vase and merely by the mantra permission blessings being bestowed, they become suitable
vessels for meditating on the view.
In upa tantra, by the empowerments of the five abhishekas of insight, six with the discipline abhisheka, disciples
become suitable vessels.
In yoga tantra, preceded by the five abhishekas of insight, when the vajra master abhisheka has been completely
bestowed, students become suitable vessels. Here the empowerment uses a sand-painting mandala, one painted on cloth,
one of flower clusters, or the body mandala. By the lesser empowerment there is a mandala of images, in the middle one
uses only heaps of flowers or symbols of the deities and so forth. The highest, the body mandala, is bestowed depending
on the body, speech, and mind of the guru. The Ghanta says:
Though from two created essences
These students desire empowerment,
These beings are non-dual
With the self-existing mandala.
2) How the four unsurpassable empowerments are completely received
In these ways:
Within the excellent, secret path of the mahayoga,
There are the four empowerments producing ripening,
and development and completion, that bring us liberation.
The vase empowerment is that which purifies the body.
The secret one the speech, and prajqajqana the mind.
The word empowerment is that which cleanses habitual patterns.
Also by this empowerment the siddhis are conferred.
The first three of these complete the accumulation of merits.
The fourth empowerment completes the accumulation of wisdom.
The obscurations of kleshas and knowables are removed.
So through the ripening of gaining the four empowerments,
Cultivate liberation through development and completion.
In the tradition of mahayoga there are the well-known four empowerments:
1) The vase empowerment purifies defilements of body. One is empowered to meditate in the developing stage.
2) The secret empowerment purifies obscurations of speech. One is empowered to meditate on tummo or
chandali.
3) The prajqajqana empowerment purifies obscurations of mind. One is empowered to meditate on bliss
emptiness, the wisdom of complete non-thought.
4) The precious word empowerment purifies all defilement. One is empowered to meditate on mahamudra, the
natural state.
By the first three the accumulation of merit is completed. Obscurations of the kleshas are purified. By the fourth
the accumulation of wisdom is perfected. Obscurations of knowables are purified. If they are related to the paths and
bhumis, the vase empowerment is the path of accumulation, the secret empowerment is the path of preparation.
Prajqajqana is the path of seeing. By the empowerment in mahamudra the path of meditation is completed. By
completing these four empowerments one is ripened. By meditating in the developing and completion stages, one is freed.
3) The peak of all the yanas
Now from the teaching of the stages of secret mantra in general, in particular the peak of all tantras is entered
according to the Non-dual Tantra of the Great Illusion:
Whoever wants to enter the vision of ati yoga,
Receiving full empowerment, possessing the samayas,...
First, in the stages of empowerment, Lesser ones use a sand mandala, and supreme ones enter using the mandala
of the body of the vajra master. The great bliss mandala uses the mandala of the two bodies of the father and mother, and
the details of the five families as depicted in the sand mandala. The Secret Tree says:
As for the mandala of mahasukha,
There are two ways of dividing and also five.
If those who have faith have also completely entered,
Desire and pleasure become equanimity.
Here the ten empowerments of benefit and the five empowerments of power are completed. As for the first ten,
according to the same text they are those of the:
1). head ornament
2). crown
3). garland,
4). armor
5). victory banner
6). mudra,
7). parasol
8). vase,
9) eating the five meats
10) drinking the five amritas.
The second five are:
1). The empowerment of the listener, the student
2). The empowerment of the explainer, the teacher
3). The empowerment of buddha activity for the benefit of others
4). The empowerment of the universal word of a vajra king
5). The empowerment of the supreme secret
These fifteen are divisions of the four empowerments. The ten including the vase empowerment are preliminary
to the action of the vase and are collectively called the vase empowerment. From the secret empowerment the supreme
secret and prajqajqana empowerments arise.
As for the word empowerment, after the empowerment of the universal word of a vajra king has been taught, the
explainer and buddha activity empowerments are the action of this.
As for the listener, since upaya is increased, it is included within these. If the way of inclusion is done
differently, the benefits will not arise, so do not proceed in that way.
If these empowerments are completed or also if other unsurpassable empowerments like these are obtained, then
one has the good fortune of practicing the path of these.
e. The details of the associated practice and samaya are explained as additional points.
Now from the two sections on the practice of mantra and samaya,
1) the samayas connected with the empowerments will be explained.
a) The essence of samaya is the particular excellent thought of guarding without faults the good discipline of
entering into mantra.
b. The divisions are the root and branch samayas.
a) The essence of samaya
Within the first are the three samayas of body, speech, and mind.
1) The body samaya
In the body samaya one meditates on the bodies of the deities, and refrains from unwholesome actions of body
such as cutting off life, taking what is not given, dirty deeds, and all their aspects.
2) The samaya of speech
In the samaya of speech one recites mantra and eliminates the four unwholesome kinds of speech and all their
aspects.
3) The mind samaya
In the mind samaya, one meditates in profound samadhi and refrains from the three unwholesome actions of
mind and all their aspects.
In brief, in bodily practice of ordinary aspect of body, speech, and mind, does not contradict the samaya of true
body, speech, and mind. If one divides these rather briefly, the Wheel of Entering into the Discipline of the Array of
Samaya says:
From beings' thirty-three ripenings,
There are three samayas of mantra.
To fix the particulars,
Of body, speech, and mind,
Each of these has nine.
They are known from the aspects
Of entering and action.
Samayas of body, speech, and mind exist because beings exist primordially as buddhas. Since siddhi is attained
from not transgressing these, they ought to be kept. The threefold samayas of body that ought to be kept are outer, inner
and secret. Each of these is again divided into outer, inner, and secret
1). In the outer of outer one abandons taking what is not given 2). The inner of outer is abandoning dirty deeds
3). The secret of outer is abandoning the cutting off of life.
The Mansions of the Vajra Essence Tantra says:
The outer samaya of body
Is divided into three.
By taking what is not given
The external is transgressed.
The limbs of the sign of transgression
Are outbreaks of disease.
An unbearable variety
Arises in the body.
Dirty deeds are the inner
As a sign of transgressing this
There will be diseases
Arising in the senses.
Cutting off life is the secret.
As a sign of transgressing this
Disease of the vessel of meaning
Will be experienced by yogins.
Regarding the means of keeping these, the Tantra of Unbroken Samaya says:
By a yogin who has the signs,
For outer of outer activities
Seven clay sculptures and drawings,
will liberate evil deeds.
Samaya is guarded by making colored statues and paintings of the gods seven times. Also the same text says:
The way for the inner of outer
Is sculpting seven statues
By consecrated efforts
And offering them to the guru.
One should make seven statues of the deities of mantra and offer them to the guru. Also the same text says:
If the sign has arisen
Of secret of outer transgression,
Nine or eleven vajras
Or bells should be offered the guru.
As for the outer, inner, and secret of inner, the Golden Mansion Tantra says:
As for outer of inner, relatives
And their fathers and mothers,
As well as one's own body
Should never be degraded.
The inner of inner, in general,
For the greater and lesser vehicles,
Is desiring to enter, and entering
and as for entering,
Degrading or trying to harm
The grasped reflection of body,
If the ornament is degraded,
The body of buddhahood
Redeems it a hundred times.
For the secret of inner,
Because one's personal body
Is the mandala of deities,
Eat medicine and food
That have been mixed with poison.
Even if stabbed by weapons,
Be without the path of defilement,
Or receiving a hundred bodies,
Later they will experience
the torments of the hot hells.
In amending these violations, confess with remorse. As for the three of the secret of body, the Glorious Edifice
of the Sun and Moon Tantra says:
If with vajra brothers and sisters
One defiles the body ornament,
Offending with striking hand
If another enters into it
This will increase the cause
Of the unremitting Hell.
Within it greatly mixes
And widely proliferates.
Even just as a joke
Striking or trying to strike
If even in a dream,
One so endangers one's consort,
Until one has confessed it,
This equals the actual deed.
The secret of secret, the guru
Do not defile even his shadow
In Guru's pure presence also
One should never grasp a weapon.
Do not extend hands and feet
Or lie down in his presence.
Sit properly cross legged
And do not turn the back.
Shoes, and seats, and mounts
And elegant ornaments
Such things as parasols
Ought to be left behind.
In the guru's pure house also
One should never hold
Or keep within the hand
A weapon or a stone.
100,000 times worse
Is disrupting the teacher's house,
And doing any evil deed
That makes a mock of his body.
Such limitless evil deeds
As carelessness with the guru
If one does not scrutinize them,
Will have limitless consequence.
Even if one had attained
The supreme kayas of fruition
The ripening of this
Would be indescribable.
Evil deeds involving the guru involve karma a hundred thousand times heavier than others. If they are done,
confess them continuously for a whole day. Even if they were not actually done, anything involving his body, should be
confessed before him.
The samayas of speech are three times three in a similar way.
1). In the outer of outer, abandon speaking falsely.
The Edifice of the Wheel Tantra says:
By devoted practice of mantra,
Beings are purified.
By having spoken false words
Because of selfish desire
And having taken delight
In the speaking of such words,
We will lose the ability
To recite mantra genuinely.
With others our speech will be impotent.
By harming our own speech
The tongues of other beings
Will descend on us like vultures.
With a body covered with moles.
We will live in the north.
We will experience suffering
In various lower realms.
2). The inner of outer is not speaking slander.
The same text says:
Those beings who dwell in mantra
But tear at others with slander,
When they teach the dharma
Will never gather a retinue.
Whatever they do goes wrong
If this is not analyzed,
They will make many enemies.
Who stab their bodies with weapons.
Having died and been reborn,
They will have bodies with claws.
Then they will experience
A succession of lower realms.
3) The secret of outer is not speaking harshly of others.
The same text says:
Speaking harshly builds up karma
Both earlier and later
Beings without kindness are angry
Even with their friends.
They overturn even the Dharma.
When they die and transmigrate
These very arrogant people.
Will go to the lower realms.
As for the inner:
4). If one reviles those who speak the Dharma, that is the outer. 5). If those who practice, that is the inner.
6). If those who meditate, that is the secret.
The Array of Samaya Tantra says:
Those who glorify and denigrate
And speak reviling words
Of those who are abiding
In the discipline of mantra,
And of those who teach the Dharma
And of practitioners,
And those who meditate,
Diminishing others' discipline,
Diminish their own possessions
Certainly forgetting
And totally overthrowing
The Dharma for themselves.
Against their expectations
They will then experience
Sufferings without limit
Within the lower realms.
7. The outer of secret is reviling and denigrating one's vajra brothers and sisters.
8. The inner is to speak disparagingly of the guru's consort and close retinue.
9. The secret is denigrating the guru. The Chagya Nyijor Tantra says:
With Vajra brothers,
the consort and retinue,
If they violate in speech
Within the three lower realms
For a hundred million kalpas
They will suffer especially
Harshly and unendurably.
Beings who experience this
As a later sign
Of what they formerly did,
In their successively experience.
By former deeds, during this life,
Their station will be low,
Even if formerly high.
As soon as they are reborn
They will experience this.
As for the karmic destiny
They have produced by that,
In this life as servants
The karma of speech they hear
Will come from the tongues of the retinue
and other lesser beings
The stream of speech which is pure
Of the incidental will cease.
With the guru's wife and children,
And whomever is close to him,
If one violates the command
and transgresses in one's speech
The karma is twice the former.
Of the guru in particular
If root and branch violations
Are spoken in one's speech,
If one has speaks exaggerations
Or denigrating words,
It is a thousand times worse.
The ripening is unbearable.
By gradations one becomes separate,
Torn away from the holy guru,
This occurs at once.
The samayas of mind are also three times three.
1). As for the outer of outer, ill-will is abandoned.
The Tantra of Receiving the Essence says:
Those who to vajra holders
Either others or themselves
Harbor malicious ill-will
Their bodies will have lesions.
For every time they have done this,
Receiving 5000 bodies,
They will certain be born in hell.
2). The inner of outer is abandoning craving and malice.
The Meteoric Iron Blazing Like Fire says:
If for an ordinary being,
The mind of ill-will arises
Their evil deed will be equal
To an ordinary person
Who has cut off 300 lives.
If possessing signs of a teacher
Embodied ones go wrong,
with one who abides in mantra
It is a hundred times that;
With vajra brothers and sisters
It is seven times more;
With a guru of tantra
Still a hundred times more;
And with one's own root guru
A hundred thousand times.
3). The secret of outer is perverting the doctrine of oneself and others.
As for a person who does this, the Great Array says:
Of either the doctrines of oneself or others
If one makes a wrong path which degrades the Dharma,
One violates this root samaya of mind.
In the earthly realm the sufferings of fire
Will be experienced for a very long time.
By one's own wrong views of doctrine arising,
There will be no way to be free from hell.
From the three of inner mind,
4). The external is wrong action,
5). The internal is wrong meditation
6). The secret is wrong view.
What is wrong is to be abandoned. The Tantra of the Crystal Palace says:
Wrong view, meditation, and action
These are the great wrong path.
All the sufferings of beings
Will ripen within the mind.
As for the three secret ones,
7). The external is not paying attention to the meditation and action.
8). The inner is not paying attention to the yidam deity.
9). The secret is not paying attention to the guru and one's vajra brothers and sisters.
The Cast Lotus Expanse says:
One whose action of mind is frivolous
Transgressing in the dharmas of attention
Who has not properly turned the mind to them,
With destroyed and violated intention
Will experience suffering in the Avici Hell.
Remedy violations of every aspect of these and try to confess them. That completes the teaching of the root
samayas.
2) The five times five branch samayas,
a) The samayas of the five things to be known.
Since all dharmas are primordially enlightened, it should be known that:
1). the five skandhas are the five fathers,
2). the five elements are the five consorts,
3). the five consciousnesses are the five bodhisattvas,
4). their five objects are the five female bodhisattvas,
5). the five collections of thoughts are the five mandalas.
The Array of the Three Samayas says:
First as for the samayas of things that should be known:
The five skandhas, elements, and consciousnesses
The five organs, and their objects, and such things
Are in nature the deities and the mandala.
It is also explained like that in the Kunje.
b) The five samayas that are to be performed
These are the great samaya. By those who are capable, when they are performing benefits for others, there may be cutting
off life, taking what is not given, impure conduct, and false speaking. The same text says:
As for the samayas to be performed
Tana, gana, taking what is not given
Dirty deeds, and false speaking,
As for its five aspects those wise in skillful means
if they see that harm will come from not performing them
They will do them.
Also the Bodhisattva pitaka says:
For those who have great skillful means,
The kleshas are the limbs of enlightenment.
In accord with that explanation, without being bound up with one's own benefit, acting when there is an
opportunity to benefit others is as taught previously.
c. the samayas of the five things to be accepted,
Excrement, urine, rakta, white bodhicitta, and human flesh are the five essences. The former text says:
As for the five samayas,
Of the five to be accepted
They are excrement, and so on,
the five samaya substances.
Regarding their qualities the Vajra Tent of the Dakinis says:
Yogins who are relying
On immovability
Will abandon all diseases.
And always have great brilliance.
As for the vajra sun
It never will grow old.
Relying on vajra Dharma,
One has all one needs.
Creatures' bodily vajras
Are the king who possesses the meaning.
All splendid goals are accomplished
That yogin will go to peace.
By drinking the immovable
Sustained 5000 fold.
One's throne will then express
Ten million vajra suns.
Times beyond all measure
In countless numbers of lives.
As limitless as space,
Being drawn by seven horses,
With two limitless vajra suns,
Are the roots of gathering a retinue.
If yogins depend on these,
They are equal to those of good fortune.
d. The samayas of the five things that are not to be abandoned
The five poisons or kleshas should not be viewed as enemies, as they are by the shravakas. Being of the nature of
wisdom, they should be brought to the path. The former text says:
As for the five samayas
Of not abandoning,
The five poisons of the kleshas,
Passion, aggression, and so forth,
As the great secret vajra samaya,
The five kleshas are transformed,
Becoming the five wisdoms.
These five poisons are not abandoned
But accepted as the five wisdoms.
If the five poisons are exhausted by skillful means they are not abandoned because:
1). They become associated with the path,
2). They are of the nature of wisdom,
3). They are primordially unborn space,
5). All dharmas are of the nature of equality without accepting and rejecting.
These are called the samayas of not abandoning. The ordinary forms of the five poisons are not made into the
path even in vajrayana. In reality, when they are exhausted by skillful means, and bodhisattvas make them into the path,
the purified kleshas are gathered into one.
e. The five samayas to be established
One makes an effort to establish the previous five topics within one's being. The same text says:
As for the five samayas
Which are to be established,
The five skandhas and five elements,
The consciousnesses and objects,
Are established as the mandala.
Perfecting the three samadhis
And the five aspects of ritual.
The mandala of the five families
Of victorious ones is established.
Our minds should therefore strive
In these samadhis and rites.
The three samadhis are:
1 the suchness samadhi
2 the all-illuminating samadhi
3 the cause samadhi
The five rites are:
1 visualizing the deities
2 reciting mantra
3 meditating in samadhi
4 abiding in samaya
5 offerings and torma
In general according to the Miracles of Secret Mantra the Secret Essence has five root samayas, ten branch samayas, and
four great samayas, nineteen altogether. The root five are
1 not abandoning the three jewels
2 reverence for the guru
3 not cutting short mantras and mudras
4 being kind to those who genuinely abide on the mahayana
5 not speaking the secret to others
The same text says:
Not abandoning the matchless,
Reverencing the guru,
Not cutting off mantra and mudra,
Being kind to those
Who abide on the genuine path,
Never telling the secret
To those who are outsiders.
These five are the root.
Within the ten branches are the five samayas of not abandoning. The same text says:
Ignorance and passion,
Aggression, pride, and envy
These are the five samayas
That are not to be abandoned.
As for the samayas of the things to be accepted it says:
The red and white essences,
Human flesh, and excrement
Are the pure vessel and essence
And should not be rejected.
The four great samayas are the fundamental four, regarding cutting off life and so forth.
In new translation mantra, samayas to be guarded and samayas to be performed are distinguished. As for the
first, fourteen root downfalls and so forth are explained in their particular traditions. As for the second, knowing the
nature of the five meats and five amritas, one should enjoy them.
The five meats are those of the cow, elephant, dog, human, and horse. The five amritas are excrement, urine,
semen, blood, and brains. and so on. As for the benefits of eating these, the Shri Guhyasamaja says:
As for the high samaya
Of eating human flesh,
The excellent three vajras
Will be established by that.
As for the high samaya
Of eating human shit,
One will be the leader
Of all the vidyadharas.
By the high samaya
of eating the flesh of cows,
One has the five attainments
Of the higher perceptions.
By the pure samaya
Of eating the flesh of horses,
One becomes a master
Of invisibility.
By the high samaya
Of eating the flesh of dogs,
All the host of siddhis
Are perfected and established.
By the high samaya
of eating the flesh of elephants,
One becomes supreme
A solid vajra sender.
Also:
The flesh of cows and horses
Should be eaten as food
If we eat no other food
great minded bodhisattvas
And buddhas will be pleased.
also:
Excrement and semen,
Blood and all the others,
Should be offered to deities.
When this is done the buddhas
And bodhisattvas are pleased.
If one does not have them, make food in their form or visualize eating them. The same text says:
As for pure human flesh
If it is fully visualized,
One will gain all the siddhis
That are part of the secret body,
The secret speech, and mind.
also:
If none of the meats are there,
One can visualize them.
Performing this vajra union,
One will be blessed by the buddhas.
By practice of these actions like those of worldly degraded people, liberated from all attachment, one will have
the virtues of being without good and evil, pleasing the dakinis and mahasiddhas, and so forth.
4) How to guard these samayas
They are guarded by means of mindfulness, attention and conscientiousness, by being upright, and having fear
and reverence.
As for mindfulness, not forgetting the details of samaya, and what is permitted and prohibited, one keeps them in
mind. Day and night one makes vows of bodhicitta and confessing and vowing to refrain.
As for conscientious attention, having examined to see whether the three gates abide in samaya or not, if
anything that one does goes against samaya, one abandons it. What does not go against it, one practices.
As for being careful, as one is careful about great enemies and friends, when samaya is harmed and there is
danger of going to the lower realms, hold it very tightly.
As for shame, if ones samayas proclaimed before the guru are transgressed, thinking that no one is lower than
oneself, one should exhaust or avoid the slightest fault of the root and branch violations depending on oneself.
As for decency the guru, yidam, dakinis, and great beings are decent individuals. If one thinks they have been
agents of degradation, depending on others, one should guard against that.
As for guarding fear, having thought of one's faults of transgression against samaya, we should not let go of it
even if we die.
As for guarding devotion, inspired by the great benefit, devotedly guard samaya.
5) The meaning of the word, "samaya," dam tshig in Tibetan, has two meanings. If what is true and holy "dam" is
guarded, non virtue is burned away, "tshig." Also, if one transgresses what is holy in body, speech and mind, one will be
damned and burned in the fires of hell. The Tantra of the Array of Samaya says:
SA, in producing that level
If, MA, it is not transgressed,
All the siddhis will be bestowed.
YA, if this is weakened
DAM, it must be restrained
If this should be let go
That is called transgression,
TSHIG, if that is transcended,
We experience fires of suffering.
As for the benefits of guarding samaya, within this life all our wishes will be established, everyone will be
pleasant to us, all the dakinis will bless us, all the accumulations will be gathered, and no obstacles will arise. Even if our
effort and powers don't go the distance, as long as samaya is not transgressed, in seven lives or sixteen we will certainly be
liberated, attaining ultimate buddhahood. The Secret Essence says:
By abiding within the samaya of equality
The equality of the great perfection will be gained.
The two bad consequences of transgression within this life are that everyone will be unpleasant and there will be
many diseases and obstacles. What we want will not be established. Even if it rains, little will grow and so forth--
everything we do will go wrong, and various kinds of unpleasantness will arise. Not to mention that in the next life, we
will go to hell. The same text says:
Those without root defilements
Need not struggle to cure them.
An instant of denying them
And faults will not arise.
But if there is transgression
Of the major root samayas
All practice will go wrong.
Various unpleasant fruitions
Are gathered in spite of ourselves.
If there is transgression
Of the branch samayas,
Without attaining fruition,
We fall to the lower realms.
The Two Examinations says:
Snakes who tell the secret
And thieves who steal the dharma,
Set fires all over the earth.
Also:
Plagues and calamities
And various obstacles,
Kings and fires and serpents
Floods, dakinis, and bandits
Vicious attacks of Dvns
And agents of perversion.
Destroyed by such assassins
Beings will go to hell.
6) Means of confession
Now the means of confession are explained.
a) Divisions
Divided by time all transgressions are of four kinds:
1). Going against samaya is not longer than a day.
2). Less than a month is a fault.
3). A breach is more than that up to a year.
4). Up to two and three years is severance of samaya.
Transgressions up to these, if they are confessed with great exertion, are purified. It is taught that confessions of
those which cannot not be purified will not be received by one who is like the guru. The Tantra of the Array of Samaya
says:
Generally for the different samaya transgressions
The division is distinguished by the time.
Going against samaya is violation
Which has lasted not longer than a day.
If one makes confession of the object
It is fully remedied by that.
A fault of samaya lasts up to a month.
It is remedied by strong remorse.
If one breaches samaya for a year
Uninterrupted confession will remedy that.
A longer time of up to two or three years,
Is said to be a severance of samaya.
It is repaired with immensely strong confession.
More than three years, is simply incurable.
If it is received, both master and student burn.
Certainly in the subterranean realm
They will only suffer continuously.
Transgressions are classified either depending on the essence or on time. Those known by the essence are
transgressions of the root and branch samayas described before. For those depending on time, the degree of transgression
depends on how soon it was confessed. By teaching these, the divisions are fully explained. As for how to amend, the
same text says:
Going against samaya is confessed
With the performance of a ganachakra.
Transgression is remedied by one's possessions.
Breaches are repaired with spouse and children,
With possessions and acts of body, speech, and mind.
Severance is remedied with one's life.
Faults up to a day are remedied by a ganachakra. Having joined one's palms before the guru and so forth, say:
Guru, great vajra holder please consider us. For us by the power of confusion such and such
errors have arisen. These, which we purify by confessing, we supplicate you to purify.
Say this three times, with lamentation and remorse. Later commit yourself to keep trying not to do these things
again. By the gate from which the transgression arose, as an antidote do homage and so forth.
For violations up to a month, offer your cherished possessions to the person who was the object. Then remedy
with a ganachakra as before.
For those up to a year, in addition to that, impoverish yourself, and offer your cherished spouse and children.
Up to three years, also with strong effort accomplish heavy deeds of sacrifice for the sake of others, gurus, and so
forth.
Moreover, transgressions done in dreams, and bad lapses of slandering others should be told. Examining to see
what was said of others in speech or mind, even in fun, all these should be confessed. The Great Array says:
To the guru and close retinue
To vajra brothers and sisters,
Not the smallest evil
Of spoken words should be said,
In nuance or reality.
Or just in dream or mind,
They all should be confessed.
If actual and mental faults,
Remain ungrasped by memory,
Passed by and not confessed,
Pulled down by that halter
One goes to the lower realms.
When one has done these, one will be liberated from the transgression by: Performing feasts, fire offerings, and
service to the guru in body and speech, requesting empowerment, in the four periods doing the hundred syllable mantra,
offering mandalas, trying to establish the ten virtues such as furthering life, reciting sutras and dharanis and so forth,
expressing the virtues of others, telling one's hypocritical transgressions to all tantrikas in the ten directions, wishing for
virtue, and pleasing those who rejoice in it, and meditating in samadhi and on kindness and so forth, the four
immeasurables, etc.
To confess and remedy offenses worthy of hell, if this is done on the eighth day of the lunar month, all
transgressions up to that time will be remedied:
b) The Liturgy
In the space in front visualizing the guru, yidam, and assembly of deities of the mandala, prostrate, make
offerings, and confess the evil deeds.
Then, from their body, speech, and mind, there arise red, white, and blue light rays. By their dissolving into
one's own body, speech, and mind, all transgressions and defilements are purified. After the evil deeds and obscurations
of all sentient beings are also purified, they become light and dissolve into the heart center of the guru.
Here, while the mind rests in equality like the sky, as one does the dedication, it is excellently taught that all
transgressions will be purified.
As for the measure, if the obscurations have been purified, in dreams one will be dressed in white, one will reach
the peaks of mountains, the sun and moon will rise together and so forth. That completes the presentation of samaya.
7) the conduct accompanying that
a) General
the benefits of the view and meditation, and the special qualities are established. As for the essence, after one meditates
in samadhi, guarding the experience in post-meditation brings the benefit of mixing meditation and post meditation.
Moreover in terms of the lesser conduct of shravakas and the supreme conduct of bodhisattvas, as the benefit for oneself,
by pacification and taming one binds non-virtue of body and speech. As the benefit for others there is the conduct of the
six perfections.
the four teachings of the vast and extensive secret mantra for:
i). Beginners
ii). Those for whom a little experience has arisen
iii). Those with a little stability
iv). Those who have attained great stability.
i). As for the first, chiefly activities between sessions are done. There are the yogas of food, torma, making tsha
tshas, water offering to the pretas, mandalas, prostrations, and reciting sutras; seven fold service, offerings of writing and
such, the 10 dharma activities.
As for the practice, the preliminary part is arousing bodhicitta. The main part is the unborn. Afterwards
complete by dedicating the merit. As for the ten dharma activities, The Tantra of Realizing all the Actions of the Oral
Instructions says:
Transcribing, doing pujas, giving, and listening;
Reading and comprehending, explaining, and reciting,
Contemplating and meditating on these things.
These ten acts of dharma have limitless merit.
ii). When a little experience has arisen through these, it is called the practice of Samantabhadra. As for the
second topic, the practice of those for who this has arisen somewhat, the experience arising in meditation becomes of
equal taste with post-meditation, joined with all the self-appearances of the senses. As within the meditation of the
developing stage, when one is meditating on the mandala of the yidam deity; in post-meditation too all appearances are
viewed as the illusion-like divine mandala. Become familiar with that. Within the meditation of the completion stage,
whatever experiences of the nyam arise are joined in equal taste to all the self-appearances of post-meditation. In brief,
when the practitioner rises from meditation, and when various objects are experienced, at the time of enjoying form,
sound, smell, taste, and touchables, all these are known to have the nature of the deities. These are also known as one's
own mind. The mind is known as emptiness by the deities' divine realization and activity. By that there is the divine
offering of the play of wisdom. Practice this as dharmata dissolving into dharmata. All the sense appearances of post-
meditation become associated with the path. One's own five skandhas are OM, the five fathers. Form and so forth, their
five objects are SUM, the five consorts. Obscurations and so forth are HUM, the offering deities. One practices by
visualizing these. The Secret Essence says:
The senses, and the limbs and consciousness,
Become the completely ripened syllable OM.
Meditate on the perfect mandala
And on the mandala of the wrathful ones.
Form and sound, smell and taste and touch
Become the completely ripened syllable SUM.
Meditate on the mandala of the consorts.
And on the mandala of the wrathful consorts.
Clothes and ornaments, eating, drinking, and songs,
Verses and dances, heaped-up clouds of feasting
Are known as HUM, when they are fully practiced.
The wondrously risen mandala is attained.
These are known as secret or insight activities. Whoever does them between sessions will have these beneficial
experiences, and by relying on non-harming, harm will be abandoned.
iii). In the practice when experience is slightly stabilized, since these same experiences are beneficial, the
discipline of insight should be practiced. This is with, without, and completely without complexity.
1))) The practice with complexity is undertaken by those who are young in age with much vigor and little
prajqa. In a retreat house, doing sadhana, they do a ganachakra and confession. Have collected yogins and yoginis,
complete in their ornaments, equal to the number of deities, and having meditated on the developing and completion
stages, at the end while doing songs and dances, manifest desire without clinging. In six months, or whatever it takes,
siddhi will be attained.
2))) The practice without complexity, is to be done by those of middle age, prajqa, and vigor. Like the other
before, practice alone with an authentic consort or perhaps two or three together.
3))) The practice supremely without complexity is done by those who are old with little vigor but much prajqa.
In solitary places like charnel grounds, abandoning physical consorts, they unite directly with the vidya of co-emergent
wisdom herself, and do kusulu practice.
Except for eating, sleeping and voiding waste, they abandon all other activities, and practice in emptiness.
Moreover since these are practices of taming the kleshas by wisdom, these words are said. In these cases if there
are many emanations and gatherings of insight, finally the various activities of "cutting the continuity of the city" of
samsara will be completed, and the primordial activity of doing nothing at all will be established. That is the benefit off
these practices. The Song of the Oral Instructions of the Inexhaustible Treasury says:
Sometimes abiding in charnel grounds the "lamps" are practiced.
With fearless mind one sleeps in places haunted by pretas.
Associating with outcasts, the wheel of taste is straightforward.
There is no "who does what" and no grasping the proper rules.
There is an assembly of sacred celebration
Yogins come together with many songs and dances,
With flutes and other instruments, they make delightful music.
The assembly sing and dance with the six dances of heruka
Their minds are so uplifted that there is no sadness at all.
Wearing robes on their backs and ornamented with copper,
With wheels in the topknots clinging to their heads.
All their limbs adorned with ornaments of bone,
With elephant and tiger skins tied above and below,
Carrying khatvangas and sounding the bells in their hands.
They excellently perform the actions of the great secret,
The delightful celebration of intoxicated insanity.
Forbidden activities that are shameful to perform,
Like drunken elephants plunging hugely into a lake,
Performing degraded acts, they are freed like a flying arrow.
This is the called the "activity of all the protectors." The Guhyasamaja says:
All the acts of desire,
If one manages to do them,
Just as one would like,
By such a wealth of union,
One quickly gets enlightened.
Also:
Unbearable self-denial
Is not to be relied on.
Rely on desirable qualities
To quickly be accomplished.
What's more, by this path without accepting and rejecting, the buddhas are very pleased. The same text says:
Buddhas and bodhisattvas
And those who know the practice
Of the highest action of mantra,
Attain immovability,
Supreme in the highest Dharma,
By relying on all enjoyables.
That these practices are connected with the proper kinds of beings and times is important. If beginners do this
feast practice or try to perform the "activity of all the protectors," they will just go to the lower realms.
8) Fruition: the two siddhis
a) relative
Having attained the benefits of the path by these activities, one will quickly attain the two siddhis. There will be
the eight karmas, eight ordinary siddhis, and so forth. As for the eight karmas, the Two Examinations says:
The powers, higher perceptions, destroying hosts of enemies, driving away, killing, magnetizing, pacifying, and
enriching will really be performed.
As for the eight ordinary siddhis, the Vajra Tent says:
With these there is no problem.
The eye potion and swift running,
The wondrous enchanted sword,
Finding treasures under the earth,
Magic pills and flying,
Becoming invisible,
The elixir for making gold.
By pleasing the vajra-holders.
One quickly becomes accomplished.
The Secret Essence says:
The mudra of songs and dances
Goes in a rush to the sky.
The mudra of songs and verses,
Attains the siddhis of Dharma.
The mudra of dress and ornament,
Gains the blazing, invincible king.
The mudra of eating and drinking,
Grants wish-fulfilling amrita.
The mudra of vowels and consonants,
Makes anything into anything.
b) absolute
Supreme siddhi is the establishment of buddhahood. The Two Examinations says:
As for trikaya being within the body,
That should be expressed by the form of samsara.
As for trikaya being completely known,
That is expressed by the wheel of great bliss.
By that the explanation together with the subsidiary points is completed.
3. The path that produces liberation, the extensive explanation of the developing and completion stages.
a. The developing stage
There are five sections.
1) Meditation on the protection circles:
Now we will enter into the details of meditation on the mandalas of samadhi. In a solitary and compatible place
Sitting in cross-legged posture upon a comfortable seat,
Having taken refuge and aroused the bodhicitta,
Then from within the nature of simplicity,
Where dharmas all are empty and ego does not exist,
The syllable HUM arises, then in turn from that,
Extending above and below, as well as in all the directions,
The deployment of the protective circle is huge and vast.
Its ten spokes have the marks of the ten wrathful deities.
The circle is splendid with blazing fire within and without.
First, as for the preliminaries, sit cross-legged on a comfortable seat. Visualizing the guru and the assembly of
deities of the yidam mandala in space, take the three refuges and as it is explained in the Sparking Precious Net:
Myself as well as limitless sentient beings,
Are in reality primordial buddhas,
By I who know that this is really so,
May supreme bodhicitta be aroused.
Having said that three times, with the SVABHAVA mantra all dharmas are established as the great emptiness.
This is the suchness samadhi. The Great Development and Completion says:
HUM
The nature of bodhicitta, which is completely pure
Is primordially unborn, and eternally all-encompassing,
Limitless, topless and bottomless, boundless in every direction,
A non-existing, unperceivable state of simplicity,
Inexpressible beyond thought, a perfect space of equality.
The Principal Heruka says:
This inconceivable space of dharmadhatu
Is free from all concepts and discursive thoughts.
This inconceivable space of dharmadhatu
Is not perceived, as space is not perceived.
Meditate like that. From the state of dharmakaya is manifested the auspicious coincidence of the arising of
rupakaya. As all lesser productions are exhausted in the empty nature of the great perfection, one necessarily unties the
knot of attachment to things and characteristics. The Stages of the Path says:
By emptiness all paths are marklessness.
Attachment to ego-grasping is liberated.
Then, in order to untie the knot of one-sided attachment to emptiness, there is meditation in the all-illuminating
samadhi. The appearance of all dharmas is natureless. With illusion-like compassion, meditate for a little while the
natural luminous wisdom of self-awareness without a grasper. The same text says:
Get accustomed to the king of self-awareness,
And so supreme enlightenment will be gained.
Therefore after the suchness of seeing this
Rest in the ground of arising of compassion.
Their rising in sequence like this is a certainty.
Then from the two sections on the cause samadhi, play is the circle of what is to be guarded. Here from HUM,
in the limitless universal brilliance of the space of the sky, comes a ten spoked wheel. Between rim and center, in the
empty space inside, which is equal to dharmadhatu, the ten spokes are transformed into ten lotus, sun, and moon seats
marked with HUM.
Above is Humkara. To the east is Vijaya. To the southwest Blue Danda. To the south Yamantaka. To the
southwest Achala. To the west Hayagriva. To the northwest, Not Attained by Others To the north Amritakundalin. To
the northeast All-Victorious in the Three Realms, below Mahabala.
Each of them has one face and two arms ornamented with all the supreme and nirmanakaya ornaments The
right leg is bent and the left extended. They hold scepters symbolizing their respective families or a bell and vajra. the
two wrathful ones above and below are of the tathagata family. They hold wheels. Those to the east and southeast, of the
vajra family, hold black and white vajras. Those to the south and southwest, of the ratna family, hold dark yellow gems.
Those to the west and northwest, of the padma family, hold dark red eight petalled lotuses. Those to the north and
northeast, of the karma family, hold dark green crossed vajras and swords.
In the extensive version, in their three centers and six hands are the lady tramens. Their six feet are on the seats
of the protectors of the ten directions Each has the five symbols signifying increase and so forth of the five families.
These should be learned elsewhere.
As for the main topic, the cause samadhi: Having meditated on oneself briefly as the chief deity, see the palace,
whether visualized or not, as empty. It is joined with the meditation of the seed syllable of visualizing the deity.
2) Meditating on the mandala
Above and below the center of this protective circle, in the great space between the spokes on each of which is
one of the ten wrathful ones, in the center is a four-spoked wheel from the transformation of BHRUM:
In the center is the great mandala of Samantabhadra.
There are four sides, and four gateways, topped by aches.
The five-colored walls have ledges where there are the five sense-pleasures.
The cornices have garlands with jeweled pendent strings.
The eaves are decorated with balustrades and railings.
Ornamenting the dome is a precious-jewel vajra.
There are eight charnel grounds that surround the mandala.
In the center there is a seat of a lotus, sun and moon,
Supported by lions, elephants, horses, peacocks, and shang shang
This is the visualization of the support, the palace. The display of the field and palace is within the luminous
nature of mind is. This is the dwelling place of Samantabhadra. Moreover within each of the visualizations is the
mandala of Samantabhadra. Meditate on this as being as limitless as the sky.
To the right and left of each of the four gates, are the two pillars of the gateways. The three gates of liberation are
in every direction.
The body of the palace is cubic. The five layered wall is blue, green, red, yellow, and last white. These five are
transparent like a rainbow. The four raised areas are the four wisdoms, the mirror-like wisdom and so forth. As a symbol
of the dharmadhatu wisdom, in the middle is a circular vase pervading the whole of space. At the top of these walls are
the precious cornices. On top of those are the precious eaves in the form of little dome-like shapes, outside of which
are variegated chains of garlands and pendants of jewels and pearls. Moving with the sun and moon pranas, supporting
the chains, is a precious railing, built in the shape of chvrtens.
In the middle is the vase like a circular raincoat. the shrine hall's stratified roof above the eaves, covering the
internal space, has a roof in two stages, above, in the center, center and on the four sides spreading like a five pointed
vajra fence. It is marked at the top with a vajra and precious jewel finial.
At each side of the gates in the four directions two pillars support the archways. Each archway has four layers,
adorned with various ornaments. On top of them is a wheel turned by two deer, at whose center is a life tree of precious
substances.
At the four corners are victory banners and on long poles are hanging pennants. From the edges of the stories
tipped with precious bells, are lifted garlands stretched from the center of the vajra finial to the sides of the archways, from
their jingling giving a pleasant sound.
There are Jeweled yak tails and silk tassels , with precious staffs and sun and moon finials. There are many
kinds of deities and divine ornaments, and heaps of offering clouds from all the ten directions.
Outside the outer walls are ledges of desirable qualities, red where many transparent-appearing offering
goddesses on sun and moon seats pour offerings of the five desirable qualities with a flourish.
Then there is a courtyard or field, green appearing around which, in the eight charnel grounds, are the eight self-
arising stupas, Deje Tsegpa and so forth, and Garab Dorje (Prahevajra), Manjushrimitra, Padmasambhava,
Vimalamitra, and so forth, the eight teachers. The charnel grounds are adorned with eight fires, eight lakes, eight clouds,
eight trees, eight lokapalas, eight deities, eight nagas, and so forth.
In the center of the palace is a throne whose center is adorned with a lion, the east with an elephant, the south
with a horse, the west with a peacock, the north with a shang shang. On that is a sun, moon and jewel seat. In the other
places of the deities, meditate that there are self-arising lotus, sun, and moon seats equal to the number of the deities. The
Secret Essence says:
Wisdom is visualized in the four directions and center.
With the spontaneous presence of the limitless mandalas,
By yogins with realization of the great perfection,
The mandala of the source of arising is realized.
A wheel with four spokes and a rim, a courtyard adorned by a cube.
Having square gateways, with music like heaps of various clouds.
This is adorned by forty-two different mandalas.
Great lion, elephant, horse, and garuda thrones float in space
With sun and moon and lotus or jewel seats.
Here as the garuda and peacock both are alike in overcoming poison, there is no distinction between union and
purification in overcoming the poison of desire.
The four great layers of the archways are divided into halves by sub-layers
making eight. The Fierce Lightning of Illusion says:
In the space which is the space of the human mind
The edifice of the four elements is spontaneously present.
On top of that arising from the four kinds of jewels
Spontaneously present and completely immeasurable,
As for the beautiful ground which is supported by that,
It is carpeted with various kinds of jewels.
Giving way when pressed down, raising back on lifting,
On that there is the edifice of the palace itself.
With its cubic shape it is very beautiful.
It is made of four different kinds of precious jewels.
In the center of the structure is a four spoked wheel,
Also made of four different kinds of precious jewels.
At the peak of the vase is the crest ornament of dharma,
Variegated like the feather of a peacock.
Each of the four gates is adorned with an arch.
At the sides are eight pillars holding up the archways.
At the center of each is a vertical four spoked wheel.
The navel supports a tree made of precious substances.
The squares of the courtyards are beautifully brilliant.
The precious light rays collect together like a staff.
The deities have seats of a lotus, sun, and moon.
They sit on blazingly brilliant excellent jewel seats.
The foot supports of the precious thrones are beautiful.
The excellent ornaments that adorn this wondrous palace
Blaze with suns, and moons, and various precious jewels.
Canopies, victory banners, food, and parasols,
Flowing silken streamers and long garlands strung with pearls,
Covered with ringing bells and the finest yak tail whisks,
Adorned with various kinds of musical instruments.
The assembly of worldly deities is beautiful.
These and other ornaments are inconceivably excellent.
The four gates of the palace are adorned with elephants.
The silk tassels hanging from the archways
Are brilliant with a cascade of golden bells,
And chains with the symbols of the three excellent jewels.
The front of each gate is adorned with matching potted palms.
They have fine form and fragrance, and shine with radiance.
In these potted palms are cuckoos and so forth
Auspicious birds whose melodious voices resound with song.
In front of each gate is a washing pond of excellent shape,
Whose water fully possesses the eight limbs of excellent taste
In each are inconceivable countless gods and goddesses.
Outside the surrounding walls of this palace of deities
Are peaks and places for walking of indescribable beauty.
These and so forth are inconceivably excellent.
Primordially self-established without needing to be sought.
If this mandala is associated with the three purities of ground, path, and fruition, the ground is that all sentient
beings exist like that primordially. Therefore the four gates are the four immeasurables. The four archways are the four
foundations of mindfulness. The five-fold wall is the five wisdoms. The eight pillars are the limbs of the eight-fold noble
path. The bells, collections of za ra or bakuli, garlands of suns and moons, yak tails and jewels are the five senses and
powers. The parasols are dharmadhatu. The wheels are the four truths. The cornices are the changeless nature of mind.
The garlands and pendants are the seven limbs of enlightenment. The eaves are the great compassion. The stupas of the
railing are inconceivable dharmata. The circular vase is the wisdom of dharmadhatu. The four rises are the four excellent
wisdoms. The five seats are the essential purity of the five poisons. The vajra and jewel finial is the primordial luminous
nature of mind. The eight charnel grounds are the eight consciousnesses. The eight teachers are the eight self-arising
wisdoms. The eight fires are the completely torment of false conceptions. The eight trees are the eight natures of the
kleshas. The eight ponds are the eight-fold purifying path. The eight deities are the eight gates of siddhi. The eight
nagas are the assembly of eight qualities. The eight lokapalas are the eight collections of merit and wisdom. That faults
at the time of impurity and enlightened virtues correspond two by two is kindness. For example, as the five kleshas are
counted as an aspect of the five wisdoms.
If they are connected to the path, they are associated with the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment. The four
archways are the four foundations of mindfulness. The four tassels or ribbons are the four genuine abandonments. The
four ornaments of wheels and so forth are the four legs of miracle. The five-fold wall is the five faculties The cornices,
garlands and pendants, eaves, railings, and overflowing containers are the five powers. The five animals, the lion and so
forth, plus the sun and moon are the seven limbs of enlightenment. The eight pillars are the eight limbs of the noble path.
The stairs by which the gates are entered are the six perfections. The four pillars are the four immeasurables. These
three together at each gate are the three gates of liberation. These are the virtues from the path of accumulation through
the path of meditation.
If it is connected with the fruition, the connection is with the qualities of the level of buddhahood. As for the 37
factors of completing the path, from this way of connecting, in particular the four fearlessnesses are the lion-thrones. The
ten powers are the elephant thrones. The ten faculties are the peacock thrones. The four legs of miracle are the horse
thrones. That all knowables are unobstructed is the shang shang thrones. The five wisdoms are the walls. The
inexhaustible wheel of ornament of body, speech, and mind is the swirling light rays. The protectors of beings are the
parasols. The matchless finial and so forth are adornment by the ultimate buddha qualities. These are arranged as in the
Net of Illusion. The details are as extensively explained there.
Though some tantrikas say that these things that are connected are not really in the mandala, this tradition of
mantra is a wrong conception. Here the beautiful symbols appear like reflections in a mirror. From the power of display
of these qualities, the palace and deities naturally-arising like a rainbow should be known to exist spontaneously. When
the ground is free from all obscurations, the power of self-appearances of Akanishta actually will manifest. The Net of
Illusion says:
The inconceivable self-existing mandala
By which all sentient beings are consecrated,
Possesses the perfection of all mandalas
Along with their environments and inhabitants.
c. Meditating on the deities
Now we shall discuss the mandala of the inhabitants, the deities. Within this palace, on thrones of lions and so forth, from
the transformation of the seed syllables of the individual deities:
There are the deities of the five families with their consorts There are also eight male and eight female
sattvas.
There are also four male and four female door-keepers.
The buddhas of the six lokas are in their proper places.
Their bodies, perfect in color, scepters, and ornaments,
Emanate limitless light rays to the limits of the directions.
In the center is Vairochana together with Akashadhatvishvari, dark blue. In the east is Akshobhya together with
Mamaki, white. In the south is Ratnasambhava together with Buddhalochana, yellow. In the west is Amitabha together
with Pandaravasini. In the north is Amoghasiddhi together with Tara.
On the ground below them is a four-spoked wheel. There the five families abide. Outside of the wheel is a
square and four square patterns. At each of the bordering corners inside and out there are two deities making eight
altogether.
At the southeast corner is Kshitigarbha and Lasya, the goddess of grace green-blue. In the southwest is
Akashagarbha and Mala, dark blue and blue In the northwest are Avalokiteshvara and Gita. In the northeast are
Samantabhadra and Gandhe green-yellow.
On the edges of the courtyards are the six buddhas. At the east gate are Yamantaka and his consort. At the
south gate are Vijaya and consort At the west gate are Hayagriva and his consort. At the north gate is Amritakundalin
and his consort. They stir up the continuum a little so that it will unite.
d. How to meditate on the great mandala of the environment and inhabitants.
In particular as for its being taught that action and doer are displayed in the courtyard, this is the courtyard of
Vairochana's heart:
Within the heart-center of the principal deity,
Ground-Samantabhadra is being embraced by his consort.
His body is adorned with the major and minor marks.
In color he is like a spotless sapphire sky.
He is seated in cross-legged posture in a blazing globe of colors?
Meditate that from this light rays are emanated.
They purify the vessel and essence of the world.
All is completely pure as the gods and goddesses.
In the heart center of Vairochana on a sun and moon disk is Samantabhadra, in meditation with his consort,
dark blue. By the emanation of light rays of all colors, all the environment and inhabitants of the phenomenal world
become one with the palace of deities. Meditate that all dharmas become of the nature of the buddha field of Akanishta
Gandavyuha. As this is joined with the texts, the Fierce Lightning says:
In the numerous host of wisdom deities
Who are the inhabitants of this palace
The deities are united with their consorts.
At the center in the heart of the glorious palace
Is Vairochana along with his mudra consort.
They are of the color of Indranila.
As their emblem they hold wheels in their hands.
In front of that hero is Vajrasattva with consort,
Having the colors of conch shell and of crystal.
As their sign they hold vajras in their hands.
To the right is the Bhagavan Ratnasambhava.
He is of yellow color like Jambunada.
As his sign he holds an eight sided jewel.
Behind is lord Amitabha, colored like ruby.
As his emblem he grasps a crimson lotus.
To the left is the lord Amogasiddhi.
With a body color like Indranila.
As his emblem he is bearing a sword.
They are all adorned with peaceful ornaments,
And are wearing the crown of the five families.
They are sitting in full lotus posture
With long necklaces and customary armlets.
Their bracelets and their earrings are exquisite.
The major and minor marks are all complete.
The consorts who are embraced with the left arm
Are Samantabhadri and Lochana
Mamaki, Pandaravasini, and Tara.
They embrace the lords of upaya with the right hand.
With the left they grasp their signs and bells,
With customary ornaments like the fathers'.
The spokes of the wrathful wheel are self-existing.
In front of it there is a beautiful rise.
In the deities' hands are vajras of light blue.
Their sign is the three pointed vajra that they hold.
To the right of these is Kshitigarbha.
Green-blue in color grasping a precious sprout.
Behind this mandala is Akashagarbha.
He is blue and holding his symbol, a sword.
To the left embraced by beautiful Gita.
Lord Avalokiteshvara is light red.
He grasps a lotus, his customary sign.
His topknot is adorned with jqanasattvas.
He sits in the cross-legged position of the sattvas
Adorned with the customary ornaments.
Embracing these above four deities
Are the consorts Nritya, Lasya, Mala, and Gita.
Their right hands by upaya grasp the principals.
The left are in dance mudra, with mirror, and mala
They have a vina; and their ornaments
Are like those of the principal deities.
As for the beautiful squares that are at the borders
They are white to signify kindness or maitri.
They are adorned with beautiful snake-wood gandis.
In the square that is on the southern border
Is Nirviranavishkambin who is blue,
Holding in his hand a dharmachakra.
Beautiful on the border to the south-west
Is light red Maqjushrikumara.
He holds as his symbols a lotus and sword.
Beautiful on the border to the north-west,
Is Samantabhadra yellow-green in color.
His emblems are a jewel and ear of grain.
At the corner of the northeast intermediate direction
To the left of these who were just described above
Embracing these above four deities
Are the consorts gandha, pushpa, Gita, and Dhupa
With their right hands they embrace their consorts.
With the left they are holding their own signs.
With customary ornaments as before.
At the four gates are the four conquerors.
Blazing Yamantaka is dark blue
With a goat's head holding the scepters of confidence
Dwelling as the guardian of the east
Is blazing Vijaya, who is dark yellow,
Holding a vajra at the southern gate.
Blazing dark red is horse-headed Hayagriva,
Holding a skull and snake at the western gate.
Blazing Amritakundalin, dark green,
Holds a crossed-vajra at the northern gate.
He is standing in a dancing posture,
Adorned with the various charnel ornaments.
All these show their teeth in a frightening way
They are all enveloped in blazing fires
The sounds of HUM and Phat are loudly resounding.
Embracing these above four deities
Are Shemo, Gyaljema, Tamdrinmo, and Khyilma.
Awesome, holding iron chains and bells.
Their scepters are iron hooks and iron nooses.
Their accoutrements are like those of the conquerors.
Those at each of these gates are self-existing.
Within the beautiful courtyards of the palace,
Are the great sages, the six nirmanakayas.
They show whatever bodies are needed for taming.
And so the accoutrements they show are uncertain.
In these beautiful courtyards, in the front and back
Are Jepapo and -mo, of sky-like color.
They are resting in the state of samadhi.
These and so forth are inconceivably excellent,
Unexpressed and inexpressible.
The palace is filled by a host of deities.
The limitless mandala is self existing.
In the heart centers of these excellent deities
Are jqanasattvas whose light is full of colors
On their tongues are the syllables of their signs.
Their own signs clearly appear over all the mudras.
They are of every color, with all the styles,
Soft, supple, caressing, yielding, and young,
Clear, brilliant, and abundantly bountiful
They are consecrated with brilliant blazing.
That divine nature illumines the mandala.
Pure of the five skandhas, these are the pure deities of the five families. The deities with their consorts are
explained as the union of appearance and emptiness. The eye, ear, nose, and tongue are the four inner bodhisattvas.
Form, sound, taste, and touch are their four consorts, the four inner female bodhisattvas. The pure eye, ear, nose, and
tongue powers are the four external sattvas.
The four times, the past, future, present, and inconceivable dharmata, are the outer female bodhisattvas. Touch,
the toucher, the touched, and awareness of touch having symbolized sense consciousness, sense, sense-object, and the four
gates are the pure forms of the four ayatanas arising from sense consciousness. All dharmas are neither eternal nor
nothingness. They have no self-natures and no characteristics. These are the four gates of dharmata.
The pure existence of the six kleshas, six perfections, six kinds of beings, and six purifying sages, and alaya and
alayavijqana is Samantabhadra and his consort. All these deities presently divided from alaya are joined to the collections
of consciousness with their faculties and objects. This is the situation of impurity. If they are purified, they are joined to
the wisdoms and buddha fields. Knowing them in that way is knowing them as the pure deities.
e. How to recite the mantra
After the nature of the mandala thus elucidated has been known as one's own mind, from the seed syllables in
the heart centers of the deities filling the space of the sky, the mantra garland goes from the mouth of the deity into that of
the consort, and from the secret space, on the tips of whirling light rays, come a host of syllables and bodies of deities and
countless scepters. In the world they do benefit for sentient beings. Think that the self-sound of mantra resounds like a
thousand thunders OM AH HUM SVAHA or OM HUM HRAM HRIH AH.
Recite the three syllables and the seeds of the five buddha families.
They become unborn sound-emptiness, like an echo.
Let yourself come to rest in this unfabricated state.
Recite the three syllables and the seed syllables of the five families. It is like the unborn roar of a thousand
thunders. Within that rest in meditation without artificiality. Also abandoning the faults of additions and omissions and
reciting too fast, slow, weakly or, strongly, do the recitation. This very sound emptiness of reciting the mantra is the
completion stage of sound. From that state, undisturbed mind and yoga without attachment should be produced.
b. The completion stage,
There are three sections
1. The main explanation of how to meditate
At this time:
Our minds are eternally of the nature of the deities.
Our bodies are the mandala; the words of our speech are mantra.
Within the great wisdom everything is self-perfected,
Wisdom and samaya are a non-duality.
Nothing needs to be summoned and there is nothing that comes.
Therefore, there is nothing that we could ask to depart.
There is no good and evil, no accepting and no rejecting.
This primordial mandala has always been within us.
By supplicating when we know that this is so,
This, which is unestablished, will never be made to be.
Having supplicated simply by knowing that all dharmas are the single mandala of buddhahood, we do the
recitation, offerings, and praises, within the state of everything being the great spontaneous presence of the nature of one's
own mind. Nevertheless in the yanas below yoga tantra there is attachment to the duality of good and evil, and therefore
the jqanasattva enters into one from outside, and also the departure of the deities after the session is not explained in the
same way. The Wondrously Arisen King says:
Within the primordial mandala of self-existing equality,
Having attained the knowledge that one was always there,
By different stages of mind involved with meditation,
Inviting and supplicating is not necessary.
Since body is established as the deity, speech as mantra, and mind as samadhi, practice does not differentiate
samayasattva and jqanasattva. There is no contradiction between this and saying that beginners and those who delight in
complexity should invite jqanasattvas and make offerings and praises to them. The Secret Essence says:
We enter the three thousand worlds as a few tiny syllables,
From space we invite the mandala make our offerings.
2. How afterwards one gathers everything into the conceptionless.
Afterwards, there is a gradual gathering in of attachment.
Rest in simplicity without conceptions of anything.
When not there in illusion like the moon in water,
Dedicate the merit to help all sentient beings.
Here beginners gradually gathering in, meditate on emptiness and then by having trained in that very
visualization of exhaustion, meditating within the illusory state of appearance/emptiness, dedicate the merit.
3. The stages during the sessions
Act as if all is illusion, emptiness/luminosity.
All appearances and sounds are deities and mantra.
All memories and thoughts are self-arising wisdom.
From moment to moment this should be known unwaveringly.
During meditation on the mandala of the deities, and also in post-meditation, the environment, the apparent
phenomena of the world, are the palace, and the beings who inhabit the world are the gods and goddesses. All sounds are
mantra. All cognitions are self-arising wisdom. They rest shimmering in the great non-grasping where whatever arises
and is encountered is liberated. So that they do not become ordinary appearances and thoughts of the five poisons, try to
remain there undistracted day and night.
c. The accompanying samaya and action/practice,
1) The instruction to keep pure samaya,
Now as accompaniments to the practice of secret mantra:
Let us purely keep our root and branch samayas.
Know and accept them purely. Do not give up, but act.
Five times five samayas are meant to be accomplished.
These twenty-five can be summarized under body, speech, and mind.
Let us try to keep our minds completely pure.
As explained before, guard the three root samayas and the five times five branch samayas. In brief, train in mind
being pure and faultless as the chief samaya. The Tantra of the Array of Samaya says:
What is often talked about
As "samaya blah blah blah"
Is guarding one's own mind
In a state of purity.
Samaya is a great wonder.
So all the buddhas have taught.
The Individual Enlightenment says:
Performing no evil deeds,
Acting in perfect virtue,
One's mind is completely tamed.
Thus it is taught by the buddhas.
That is enough for a brief summary, but for the extended version, there should be as many samayas as the
assembly of thoughts of sentient beings. The Secret Essence says:
As for this samaya
It is most wonderful.
In the ten directions
In all of the six lokas,
As many as thoughts of beings
Inhabiting the three realms,
There are that many samayas
For the purpose of taming them.
Accountable samayas exist in relation to relative truth. In relation to absolute truth all dharmas are
inexpressible, beyond any limits that could be guarded, the great suddenness, the unestablished samaya of Samantabhadra.
The same text says:
As the unestablished ultimate,
The mudra of supremacy,
The King Samantabhadra,
Everything is established.
The All-Creating King says:
Kye! As for the samaya of me the doer of all,
It is unborn like the sky, beyond all partiality,
Without the duality of guarding and non-guarding,
Realize the samaya of the King, the doer of all.
2) Delineating the particular times of practice and accomplishing
Moreover to complete the two accumulations and pacify all hindrances accomplish siddhi and therefore remedy
all violations:
On the fifteenth day of the month and the time of the new moon,
And also on the feast days of the eighth and twenty-ninth,
And the tenth day and night of the waxing and waning moon,
Perform the proper approaching and accomplishing
With feasts and offerings, confession and amending.
There are six times for accomplishing siddhi and the remedy of confessing. These are the fifteenth day of the
month, the time of the empty sky of the new moon, and the eighth, twenty-fifth, tenth, and twenty-ninth days of the
month. On these externally dakinis are abroad, and internally the pranas are especially well-gathered in the nadis. These
are called "the times of close gathering." In particular, the night of the tenth day of the waxing moon and the night of the
twenty-fifth, the tenth day of the waning moon, in the places of practice, those who have the dakini practices gather to
accomplish whatever karmas they want to attain. They should exert themselves in the four, approaching and so on, and
make feast offerings and confessions. By that, on these days of the month all transgressions will be remedied. The
supreme and ordinary siddhis are quickly accomplished. Moreover in single trees, rock mountains, islands in lakes and,
so forth there are gatherings of the dakinis at the auspicious times, which are therefore called places of "gathering near."
The four inner chakras are always included in the dhatu and wisdom. This is called "gathering at the auspicious
time at the place of drawing near."
The external places are the twenty four places and so on. The "near" place, is any place where the dakinis are.
Internally they are the twenty four places of the petals of the nadis, the crown of the head and so on. The secret great bliss
is the ground of offering. This is the "place of drawing near.
3. How from the virtues the fruition manifests,
Since on all these days the supreme level is chiefly established, arising from the secret individual tantras and oral
instructions:
Let us earnestly try to reach the profoundest piths
Of the yoga of prana and mind, of nada and bindu.
By meditating on the path that unifies,
The experiences of bliss, luminosity, and non-thought.
Let us be vajra-holders within this very life.
Let us attain the state of perfect enlightenment.
As for the supported, the samadhi mandala, yogins familiar with the upaya of the developing and completion
stages always train in the completion stage of the great wisdom, knowing how to meditate on the above-taught nature of
prana, nadi, and bindu as it is and in its ultimate arising. When one dwells in non-dual wisdom, by the tummo of the
navel, the drops of the melting element at the crown of the head, the great essence, fall from the throat into the heart
center. They activate the secret center and the downward going prana is reversed. By its essence going into the heart, the
support of the above-mentioned bodhicitta, mixed with light, is touched by that, so that the luminous nature of mind is
pervaded by mahasukha even more than before.
When the nature of bliss, luminosity, and non-thought arises, rest in the subtle light of the heart center. By the
arising of inconceivable wisdom whose body is space, this is called treading on the level of the great dhyana. At that time,
body, speech, and mind become one and inseparable, and it is said that the three realms are not separate.
Also as for the nadi petals of the heart center and their essences, the Commentary of the Secret Drop says:
"Whoever has that absorption" and so forth, means whoever has that absorption has the essential
nature. If it so exists, as for the white silk essences of the nadis which are like twined cords, their
producing the essence of the skandhas from non-obstruction is the essence of arising. It appears as
earth. This is the consort who illuminates the buddhas' eyes, Buddhalochana. That is the wisdom of
the great emptiness. It produces the support of everything not being other than the state of complete
purity.
These white silk cords, are vibrated by the vermilion sound essence. As for its existing like
the essence of the mother, since it has made the skandhas primordially pure, that arising essence
appears as water. This is the consort Mamaki. The wisdom of equality is the nature that combines all
these in a single space without separation.
The breath-essence, gold, existing under the earth as mere vapor, producing the primordial
support of the rising and motion of the skandhas, appearing as the air element is Tara and all-
accomplishing wisdom. This nature produces the essence of great bliss.
Moreover, the primordial heat-essence, like the sun resting in a mirror, existing as a mere
fragrance, ripens as the apparent element fire. This is Pandaravasini and discriminating awareness
wisdom. It is the wisdom lamp of realizing everything as the space of mahasukha.
In the center of that light, consisting of the great bindu, bodhicitta is the great essence. It
produces the support of the primordial luminosity of the skandhas. It is the essence of arising,
appearing as space and the nadis. That is the wisdom of the great pervasiveness, the consort
Samantabhadri revealing the luminous state of everything as the space of authenticity,
appearance/emptiness. The essence like a flower of molten gold is prajqa, the nature of all the consorts.
What is like precious saffron anthers is the essence of the king of Upaya, Samantabhadra, and so forth,
the father deities. Moreover, the precious white stone ke ke ru, seemingly filling all gaps, is the mirror-
like wisdom. By that the essence of bodhicitta is seen as if unseen, without a seer, and nothing to see.
That which is the father is the mother. That which is the mother is the father. They are seen as
radiance without difference. That should be viewed as that having that itself. That is called bindu.
What exists in that way is the union of upaya and prajqa. Not only that, but it exists as all the three
realms. That nature of bodhicitta is viewed. It should be continuously viewed and magnetized.
In the center of the eight nadis of the heart, are the essence nadis, divided like ten hairs of a horses tail and no
bigger, and within that the blood essence is the breath. The essence of breath is luminous like light. For example, like the
oily wick of a blazing lamp, self-arising wisdom is luminous with the brilliance of the five lights. The essence of the
elements goes up and down, since they dwell there like many oils, and like the blazing up of a luminous lamp, self-arising
wisdom also produces great luminosity within the body, and in all the nadi petals. Since bliss increases, it arises as the
wisdom of self-awareness. Here appearance is the five fathers. All the solid earth of the nadis and so forth is
Buddhalocana. Moisture and water are the great essence Mamaki. Bliss and heat are Pandaravasini. Lightness and
movement are Tara. Since simple space is inseparably united with these ladies, this is called the great union. At that
time, the body, speech, and mind syllables of the nadis blaze with light. When the syllables of the basis of purification
have been burned, no karma and habitual patterns are conceptualized. Liberation of samsara into dharmata is produced.
This is supported by the nadis. By breath bliss is moved. By heat bliss is ripened. By space, the space of
equality/equanimity of the great perfection is produced. Realization of the complete liberation of the three worlds as
Samantabhadra is produced. The same text says:
If it is asked, "If one meditates like that, what happens,
and from what does it arise?" What is being talked about is the wisdom of buddhahood. It is the arising
of space as form. The great yoga is not different from the three realms. From what does it arise? From
the great essence, profound and unbroken, from that it arises. If it is asked what comes from that, From
that that arises. That itself arises, so it is said.
When bindu-bodhicitta has just become workable and radiant, above and below OM are SU and TRI
and above and below HUM are AH and NRI. Above and below AH are PRE and DU blazing with
light. The bindu drops of the essence become natureless. Since bindu is natureless, in the nadis like
white silk cords no bigger than ten hairs of a horse's tail only the vibrating vermilion essence of the
mother exists producing desire within the great bliss. By that blazing with light, the breath essence like
gold in a brocade, abiding as a mere vapor produces movement within the great bliss. That blazes with
light. Within it the essence of heat, like the sun in a mirror, existing as a mere fragrance, ripens the
great bliss. Blazing with light, it becomes the natureless great essence.
Arising only in the form of space, all the three worlds spontaneously rise as non-
individualized wisdom, so it is said. This bindu-bodhicitta arising as the form of space is dharmakaya.
That is called "just so."
Then within the navel the nadi petals blaze, and regarding how the heart bodhicitta is illumined by that and
made to blaze with light, the same text says:
The secret prajqa bindu is called space and so forth. This secret prajqa is called the bindu
having the nature of Samantabhadri. This is dharmadhatu. Where does it dwell? In the navel. In the
center of sixty-four nadis dwells the sun. What is its nature like? It is like prajqa and upaya. Arising
from that bindu, all marks being grasped is the fathers. It is upaya. As for this natureless bindu being
dharmadhatu, this is prajqa, the mothers. Thus bindu consists of inseparable prajqa and upaya. From
that bindu form and the three realms arise. All these elements in a mandala of forty-two do not become
many Becoming a mandala, since all these are the bindu of dharmadhatu, they are said to develop or
be sealed as everything. Here the five wisdoms are spontaneously present. They exist and are seen as
five and so-called. As the above essences become radiant from the power of heat, their heat descends.
This is the bindu of the nature of Samantabhadri. Its dissolving downward is called "descending." The
bindu of the nature of Samantabhadri blazes with light. This is called the blaze of dissolving into the
essence of the heart center. By this the great essence brilliant gold, until then existing under a
covering, having existed as a mere vapor, blazes with light, having become the radiant drops of the
essence. Without the ground of breath, it becomes ever weaker until it is motionless. If that motion is
absent, its causeless fruition existing as the great bliss is called the great-bliss offering. That heat of
great bliss dissolving into the above bindus is called urging the bindus to blaze with light. Moreover,
by the heat of the heart center the bindus descend. By their touching the bliss heat in the center of the
nadi petals, again that heat becomes the essence. When it dissolves into the heart-center essence, by the
ceasing of the cause of coarse prana, bindu rests without coming and going in the heart. Existing
motionlessly, it is dharmata, absolute truth.
Then by the heat of the heart center, touching the essence in the center of the nadis of the throat, the essence
proliferates in the heart. Also, by the ceasing of prana it rests in dharmata, about which the same text says:
This light of the great essence dissolving into the bindu of the throat, is called union. Where
does it dwell? In the center of sixteen nadis, as a lotus blossom, it is said to be in a nadi mandala of two
fives and six. Energized by the heat below, it blazes with light. Existing as the great bliss, this is called
the great bliss. The great bliss is spontaneously present. After this it does not move back. The great
rejoicing should be offered. By what is called the merit of the arising place of knowables and so forth,
knowables are objects, and arisings are thoughts. Exhaustion is radiant bindu. This is called the
wisdom of exhausting thoughts through light and luminous bindu. Bindu itself without nature appears
as the great bliss. This is called the music of the play of bliss. That is called bindu entering into and
dwelling in the place of great bliss.
Moreover, when the heat of the heart center dissolves into the throat-bindu, prana and thoughts do not wander.
This is the virtue of breath dissolving into bindu. As for heat, at the time of non-identification, or non-grasping at
essences, when passion has been exhausted, there is the wisdom of great bliss. As for breath, at the time of non-
identification, when aggression is exhausted, it is the wisdom of luminosity/emptiness. When the empty hollows of the
nadis are not identified, that is the time of exhausting ignorance, the wisdom of the simplicity of dharmadhatu.
Now the heat of the throat enters the essence at the crown of the head. Regarding how the wisdom of bliss,
luminosity, and non-thought is produced, the same text says:
"In a mandala of three tens and two" and so forth having come into the center of thirty-two,
having come into the center of space, it exists as moon-bindu-bodhicitta.
That same bindu is the substance of buddhahood, dharmakaya, the main point. The
perfection of the mandala of the ten directions and four times is this itself. Body, speech, mind, quality,
and action are this same bindu.
But after the bindu of the great bliss has been touched by the light of that throat bindu,
dissolving into light, it becomes a coronation vase of the nature of the great bliss. The three realms
become non-different. After wisdom has arisen in the form of space, it becomes dharmakaya pure
of all things. In this sense, the yogin who becomes dharmakaya will see the faces of all the buddhas at
once.
Moreover, that great essence in the center of the space chakra at the crown of the head, blazing with light
because of that heat, is the mahasukhakaya. Having reached that, by enlightenment one treads on the level of the great
ushnisha. If the four stages of this are briefly summarized, first in the center of the navel, the aspect of heat, the bindu
having the essence of the sun, in the center of sixty-four nadis, is made into a condition by touching the heat in the essence
of the heart center. Then the wisdom of nirmanakaya is realized.
When the heat blazes upward touching the great essence of the heart center, the prana and breath essence
subsides. False conceptions are pacified. This is the wisdom of sambhogakaya. Since the essence of this mode of
dharmas is free from producing movement, prana and mind dissolve back into luminosity as the great wisdom. However,
as for the essences increasing in the nadi petals being the wisdom of bliss-emptiness, it is not so. These essences are
collected back into the essences in the center of the four essence chakras. A non-supreme luminosity arises. The bliss-
heat-desire aspect is the wisdom of bliss. The moving breath prana-dissolving aspect is the wisdom of luminosity. Mixed
with the space element aspect within the nadis, these arise as the three wisdoms of non-thought. This is called the
circle of the three wisdoms. As for the fruition of all these, incidentally one has mastery over life and is established as a
rigdzin of mahamudra. By attaining the virtues of the paths of seeing and meditation, as signs of that level one sees many
buddha fields, accomplishes great samadhis and miracles, and benefits beings with inconceivable emanations and
Dharmas. Finally, by buddhahood, the spontaneous presence of wisdom manifests. The same text says:
"This is the ultimate empowerment." As for this and so forth, the yogin who is capable of this
is empowered with mastery of life and so forth, whatever is desired. There is no other empowerment
than this. By oneself existing as the mandala, as above in the supreme samadhi, one becomes the
mandala. Here by this self-existing buddhahood in which the two accumulations are perfected,
since one becomes all mandalas, their many enjoyments and ornaments do not fail to occur, this is
called the ornament.
"By the dual perfection, the union of bindu...," Since bindu is workable, there is dharmakaya.
This arises from perfecting the two accumulations. Such a yogin by the great compassion for sentient
beings of the ten directions and four times, does benefits like dream or illusion and liberates them from
samsara.
By these passages the teaching of extraordinary completion stage is completed. Now as for the summary of the
developing and completion stage:
By having the single yoga,
All mandalas are accomplished.
Therefore this itself
Develops as well as perfects
The realm of Samantabhadra.
Moreover as above,
In regard to elaboration,
There are complex and very complex,
and also supremely complex.
Inconceivable to thought,
the limitless mandalas
Become spontaneous presence.
These are the incidental verses.
Here first is the presentation from the viewpoint of those who are not able to enter into the extensive developing
stage or only devote themselves to the completion stage with little elaboration. As for the explanation that all will be
meditated upon by meditating on the single deity, after going to refuge and arousing bodhicitta, as it says in the Secret
Essence:
This rootless nature of mind
Is the root of all the dharmas.
The nature of the mind
Is the nature of the syllables,
The precious wishing clouds.
Also:
A is the middle way
Of having no conceptions
In between emptiness
and a non-empty reality,
All is just a name,
A whirling syllable garland
Abiding as all the buddhas.
By reciting A A A, all dharmas in a state without one and many are unobscured in the center of a sky free from
clouds. In the center of the sun and moon shining brilliantly with rays of light, glorious Samantabhadra and
Samantabhadri are non-dual. Having the mudra of meditation, as the nature of dharmakaya they are without the
customary ornaments. Meditate on them in the midst of encircling light rays of the five colors, and that by the light of the
palaces of Akanishta all the space of the sky is filled, so that the phenomenal world blazes with light.
OM AH HUM A A. Saying this as many times as you can, rest in the ultimate space of the sky. By this
meditate on all the mandalas of the buddhas, since this is their source. The Secret Essence says:
In the limpid center of space on a sun and moon,
Meditating on the king of wisdom,
Seated cross-legged, in meditation pasture,
We are meditating on all the mandalas
Of the victorious ones without remainder.
Then as for how meditating in a single completion stage is meditating on them all, visualize that in the heart of
the one meditating like that, brilliantly blazing globes of light, having the radiance of the five wisdoms of non-thought,
take hold of the mind and render it immovable. When prana becomes immovable, whatever is perceived will not exist.
One can rest for a day and night within the wisdom without one and many. Lights and rainbows appear. Buddha fields
are visibly seen. By mixing day and night the mind rests in self-awareness wisdom with no rising or setting. Except for
making clear that one's mind has been like that primordially, in attaining buddhahood no other nature is attained. The
Secret Essence says:
In the four times and in the ten directions
No other perfect buddha will be found.
Mind itself is perfect buddhahood.
Do not search for any other buddha.
This kind of developing and completion stage unites all the mandalas of developing and completion. All the
siddhis are accomplished. Little omissions and additions to rituals are no hindrance to siddhi. There are measureless
benefits. The same text says:
By completely uniting all mandalas,
All mandalas are accomplished.
Now there will be no transgressions
Of additions or omissions.
Now, as explained above, in the brief teaching and the details of the extensive meditation on the mandala, these
details should also be trained in. First, train successively in the three samadhis, the suchness samadhi and so forth until
the signs are attained. Then from a white A by emanating and gathering fine A's, emanate and gather the vowels and
consonants. Do the same from the seed syllable of the deity. The same text says:
A
From white A which has become completely stable,
Other very fine A syllables emanate.
Having filled and illumined the directions,
Even when they are gathered back again,
They are stable without increase and decrease.
From these the brightly blazing assembly of names
Is similarly emanated and gathered back.
Meditate on the seed syllables of the deities until they are clear. The virtues of this are long life, freedom from
disease, not being harmed by obstacles of obstructing spirits and dvns, accomplishing the four karmas, and uniting with
the supreme level. The same text says:
This dependent arising
of the vajra siddhi
Becomes the cause of wisdom.
Then meditate successively on the body of the deity, the ornaments, the syllable at the heart center, and the
consort. Then while meditating on the retinue, Akshobhya and so forth, one after another, meditate on development and
completion as one. At this time the signs of perfecting the path of accumulation arise.
Then on a rise in front visualize the retinue with Akshobhya as the principal one. Perfectly visualize behind the
mandala the retinue with Amitabha as the principal one. This is the mandala of three groups. Train in these as body,
speech, and mind.
Then on a rise to the south and north visualize the mandalas of Ratnasambhava and Amoghasiddhi. These are
quality and action. This is the mandala of five groups.
Then with the gate-keepers in union with their consorts, this is the root of all mandalas. There is no need to
meditate on any other, since this is the mandala in which all others are included. These gatekeepers of the four directions
are the gatekeepers of the four directions of all mandalas. For example, below the rise in the east are Ankusha and consort
as gatekeepers. To the right below Ratnasambhava are Pasha and consort. The west and north are similar. The faces
of all these deities are seen from whatever direction they are viewed. The same text says:
From every direction their faces are clear and vivid.
Meditate on them facing in the direction of the principal deity. At that time, the virtues of the four stages of the
path of preparation are perfected.
Then in the four directions above and below meditate on the mandalas of the five families.
In the east is the mandala of Vajrasattva, like that there are 5 x 5. In the south, west and north too, are three
more, with 5 x 5. In the center is the mandala of Vairochana with 5 x 5. Within the 25 mandalas, the number of deities of
the root mandala is 42 2.[ 422?]. The rises 38 8 [388?] these 170 x 5 = 850, [810?] by meditating on those the virtues of
the path of seeing are perfected.
Then the 1000 and 20,000 appearance-producing buddhas of the lower seven bhumis are perfected.
Then meditating on those as limitless as space, there are limitless self-existing mandalas. The virtues of the
three pure levels are perfected. These very numerous teachings are established. This style is explained in the Great Net of
Illusion Some deities are deities of blessing body, speech, and mind. Some are crown-ornament deities. Some are heart
syllable jqanasattvas. These divisions should be understood from the Secret Essence and so forth. By that the explanation
together with the subsidiary points is completed.
C. The dedication of merit
Now there is the dedication of merit:
Thus by this utterly secret, unsurpassable heart,
Beset by karma and kleshas of beings here in samsara,
Yet living so close to the palace of Sri Heruka himself,
May the weariness of mind come to rest this very day.
By the power of wondrously risen unsurpassable virtue, may all beings preoccupied by the games of the kleshas
be liberated from the city of samsara. May they effortlessly reach the primordial city of Heruka whose primordial ultimate
nature is self-existing. May they be confirmed by joy. May their weariness be relieved by the goodness of the Dharma of
complete liberation.
Fully illumined by massive accumulations of virtue,
By the limitless radiant wisdom of the sun and moon,
May beings truly vanquish the darkness of the four continents.
May appearance of the good path of freedom be produced.
From the principal essence amid a measureless ocean,
By the crown jewels of the nagas, the two accumulations,
May degenerations of many births be cleared away.
By the wealth of the Dharma wishing-rain, may they be fulfilled.
By the power of riding the horse of the excellent vehicle,
Completely carried away from the three worlds that burden beings,
When all has been transformed to the path of enlightenment,
May they cross to the city of the great liberation.
This is the Commentary on the tenth chapter of the NATURE OF MIND, THE EASER OF WEARINESS, Prajqa
Realizing the Ground that Does not Dwell in the Two Extremes
Having briefly explained the paths that ripen and free, together with the characteristics of the three essences of
these, the view, meditation, and action, now there is
X. THE VIEW OF PRAJQA THAT REALIZES THE GROUND WITHOUT DWELLING IN DUALISTIC
EXTREMES.
There are nine main topics.
A. The nature of all dharmas consists of the unborn.
B. The view that realizes suchness.
C. What is to be abandoned.
D. The one who abandons.
E. There is no realization by the words of the doctrine.
F. Passing the pass.
G. The conviction of realization.
H. The primordial liberation of appearance and mind.
I. The dedication of merit.
A. The nature of all dharmas consists of the unborn
Having fully taught the two stages of secret mantra, now we shall enter into the teaching of the nature of all
dharmas as the natural state, co-emergent wisdom, the primordially natureless essential meaning of all Dharmas. As has
been explained:
By the yoga that unifies development and perfection
Dharmas enter into the empty and unborn.
"By" this means it starts to do this until it is completely done. The nature which should be known is the unborn,
transcending the four extremes. The Noble Sutra of the Arising of the Three Jewels says:
If one does not understand
How everything is empty,
The consequence is like making
Everything into space.
For everything there is,
No nature at all exists.
Nothing becomes another.
How will an absent nature
Change into something else?
How will the natureless
Be anything at all?
Therefore it was taught
By the Tathagata.
That everything, even the Dharma,
Is motionless, stable resting.
Changeless and undisturbed,
It is simply peace itself.
As the sky is without awareness,
Not knowing that beings are stupid;
As mountains do not move,
So Dharmas are always motionless.
They do not die and transmigrate.
Therefore they are unborn.
So the Dharmas were taught
By the Victorious One.
The Absolute Samadhi says:
Dharmas are without birth
And also without arising;
With no death or transmigration
They do not have old age.
Since the Lion of Men has taught this,
Hundreds of sentient beings
Have been established in it.
They do not have a nature.
Nor does anything else.
And nothing else has them.
They are not internal
And also not external.
So the Lord Buddha taught.
The Gathering of Intentions says:
E MA HO, wondrous marvelous Dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
It is not empty, it is not non-empty.
Nor is it conceived as being in the middle.
Attachments to external objects are abandoned by those objects being known as one's own mind or as the deities
and the palace. Although they are known as unborn, even this antidote is essenceless. No one enters into any "nature" of
all dharmas. The Commentary Ascertaining the Intention says:
As they depend on mind only,
Thoughts of external objects
Are abandoned and left behind
As nothing whatsoever.
Later even that
Is completely left behind.
The Lankavatara Sutra says:
After they are seen to be mind-only,
They are not conceived as external objects.
After they exist in the perfect state,
They are seen as transcending even mind-only.
The yogin who exists without appearance
By that has the vision of the great vehicle.
In that way we enter into knowledge of emptiness.
B. The view that realizes suchness
There are five sections.
1. The natural state:
Though all the dharmas of samsara and nirvana
Are this simplicity that is without a self,
By fixation and ignorance, we wander here in samsara.
Though samsara's joys and sorrows do indeed appear,
From the time they appear, their nature is emptiness.
Therefore, we should know them to be like dreams and illusions.
Though all dharmas are empty and without a self, by not knowing this, by grasping me and mine, there are the
dreamlike confusions of samsara. Though individual joys and sorrows may be experienced, they should be known to be
natureless. The Wondrously Arisen King says:
The primordial universal Buddhadharma,
Is without a beginning, middle, or end,
Not rightly knowing this nature like the sky,
Fools all whirl about within samsara.
But with no bondage and no liberation,
Its nature is like the nature of illusion.
The Secret Essence says:
By conceptions that grasp at self
Space is tied in knots.
Without bondage and liberation,
The actual Buddhadharma
Is primordial self-perfection.
However in order to teach it
We make up complexities.
By grasping what is selfless as a self there is confusion. The Noble Clouds of the Three Jewels says:
These are indeed selfless, but for foolish individuals, attached to grasping them as self, in the
self-natures of the skandhas, a self exists. By being attached to that, they do not enter into suchness.
Therefore, like the circle of a whirling torch, they wander in the revolutions of samsara.
These various confused appearances are established through attachment to habitual patterns of mind. The Lotus
Array Sutra says:
The son of the gods, Lotus Array, spoke to Manjushri saying. "Manjushri, were these external
objects made by a creator, or how should they be viewed?"
Manjushri said, "Son of the gods, these external objects were not made by a creator. They are
appearances of mind or habitual patterns of thought."
The son of the gods said, "However habitual patterns may have matured, how can these
mountains, oceans, the sun and moon, and so on appear to be so hard and solid?"
Manjushri said, "Son of the gods, they can so appear. In the great city of Varanasi, a bhramin
named Agnidatta meditated on his body as that of a tiger. The people of the city saw him as a tiger and
fled. The city was emptied. By meditating on exhaustion as earth and water, it appears as earth and
water. When the monks of yogachara meditate on filth and bones as their former perceptions, they so
appear. By unobstructed maturation of habitual patterns, why should all this not appear?"
The son of the gods said, "By the power of maturation of habitual patterns, why have various
selves appeared?"
Manjushri said, "All appearances are uncertain. Some appearances of earth are dark. This is
earth only perceived as earth. Earth is also perceived as fire. Earth is also perceived as action and
enjoyment. Earth is also perceived as suffering.
Fire is perceived as fire. Fire is also perceived as action and enjoyment. Fire is also perceived
as resting in place. Fire is also perceived as food. Water is perceived as water.
Water is also perceived as fire. Water is also perceived as earth. Water is also perceived as
amrita. Water is also perceived as resting in place.
Space is perceived as space. Space is also perceived as resting in place. Space is also
perceived as earth. These perceptions are uncertain. It is by the power of habitual patterns that things
appear as they do.
Not certainly fixed as being any one thing, like a dream, things are natureless. For example, one man may
appear in many roles as a friend, an enemy, a monk, a bhramin, and all kinds of other people with which his appearance
is not contradictory. The various appearances of dharmas are essentially without dualistic natures.
The Dohakosha says:
Just as, when blown by wind, unmoving water
Is agitated into patterns of waves,
Thus like appearance of Saraha to the king
By stirring up oneness various things are produced.
Just as for stupid people wrongly looking
One lamp has the appearance of being two,
Thus for the non-dual viewed and viewer,
Kye ma! Mind appears as dualistic things.
Because of wind, the unity of water appears as many waves. One lamp, by pressing the eyes, appears as two.
One Saraha is seen as both good and evil. All dharmas, in reality non-dual, but dualistically grasped, are like these
examples. Therefore, in their duality, all dharmas are appearances of what does not exist, like a dream. They should be
known to be non-dual.
2. The refutation of maintaining that appearance is mind
Though phenomena appear within mind, apparent objects are not mind. As for the explanation of this:
Thus all the things that appear to be external objects
Appear within the mind, and yet they are not mind.
Nor do they exist as anything else than mind.
Though by the force of habitual patterns, there appears
The dualistic appearance of grasping and fixation,
From the time they appear the grasper and grasped have not been two
This is like a face reflected in a mirror.
If a face is reflected in a mirror, the clear surface of the mirror can support the arising of the reflection. By the
condition of this power of reflection, there is the appearance of the face. However the reflected face is not really a face.
So, from the viewpoint of confusion, images of phenomena appear as this variety of things, while those things are really
non-existent.
When they appear by the conditions of interdependent arising, as confusions of cause and condition, this variety
of apparent objects, mountains and so on, is also not mind. Nor, as appearances due to confused habitual patterns of
mind, are they truly existing objects other than ourselves. They are phenomena of confused appearance. For someone
with floaters, hairs seem to trickle in front of the eyes, but nothing like what appears really exists. These are the same.
Now someone may say, "Earth and rocks and so forth, these appearances, if they do not exist as anything either
inside or outside, how could that be? How could they be there at all?"
"Attached to establishing things only in terms of dualistic grasping, you are a pig!" So we should reply.
These phenomena, the phenomenal world of samsara and nirvana, do indeed appear, but from the time they
appear, they do not exist as anything external, internal, or in between. Their appearance is like that of the eight examples
of illusion. The Shri Samadhiraja Sutra says:
In a mirror surface or the surface of a vessel
As she adorns herself, a woman sees her face,
Though her entire face seems to appear in these,
It is neither existent or non-existent there.
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
These appearances, appearing while they do not exist, are made to arise as a confused object of grasping and
fixations of things as being that way. Grasping, zungwa, is the thought that grasps the thought object arising in the first
instant. It is the nature of mind having confused phenomena n Fixation, dzinpa is later analysis, the mind-contents.
The Discipline of Avalokiteshvara says:
Grasping, zungwa, the seer, is object grasping mind. Fixation, dzinpa, is mental contents examining
that.
This is the proper account of how it should be known. Most people, learned or unlearned, proudly say, "zungwa,
the grasped," is just the object, appearances of mountains and so forth. dzinpa, "the grasper' is just the subject, one's own
awareness."
Well, cowboys, enough of your wrong conceptions! Tell me this--for noble ones who have 'abandoned zungwa
and dzinpa,' do objects appear or they do not?
If they appear, according to you, grasped and grasper appear to the noble ones. If the object itself is the grasped
and awareness itself is the grasper, they would have to appear.
If they do not appear, what about the illusion-like appearances of the enlightened noble ones in post-meditation,
such as shravaka arhats who see mountains and viharas. what about the buddhas' measureless awareness of all
appearances of objects in the knowledge of extent? Many reasonings and scriptures call the view that they do not appear a
total mistake, let alone being beyond extremes. Dharmakirti says:
Because the wrong path is endless,
They should never have begun.
That appearance is mind has already been refuted, nevertheless, when these mountains and so forth have been
made into objects, the mind that first grasps this is "appearance." True, at this point appearance and apparent object are
not distinguished. That intellect pure of projecting things externally is to that extent wise.
But then by becoming attached to a wrong or exaggerated meaning, it becomes fixated.
The apparent object is not mind. This is because mind exists in its fashion, even if it is natureless. When it goes
into the mode of self and other, mind does not turn into appearances with color and shape. If the apparent object is one's
mind, its existence is linked to one's own. if one's mind exists, the object exists. If it does not exist, then the object
certainly cannot not exist either. As mind is without color and shape, the apparent object would be so too etc. Since there
is certainly appearance, and appearance is mind, that there is mere appearance would entail that there is truly existing
mind. This is pretty stupid. Arrogant people who say the apparent object is mind, are exponents of a most sublime
illogic.
3. The phenomenal world is like illusion
Thus, when its reflection appears to arise in a mirror:
Though the image appears, no face is really there.
Nothing goes into the mirror that is other than the image.
But though it does not exist, the appearance of two is there
Know that all the various dharmas are like that.
Though the face does not go into the mirror, it appears there. From the time it appears, no dharma other than a
face is there either. Just so, from the very time that all the dharmas of the phenomenal world appear within mind, they are
established neither as mind nor something other than mind. They are like the eight examples of illusion. The Mula-
madhyamak-akarikas says:
Like dream. like illusion,
Like a castle of the gandharvas,
Like that is birth, and like that is duration.
Like that too is destruction taught to be.
The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
Like the moon that shines in a cloudless sky,
Though a clear, still lake shows its reflection,
The moon does not move from the sky into the water.
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
Just as for people by a rocky mountain,
By their singing, talking, weeping, and laughing,
An echo of their singing may arise,
But the melody never goes beyond those sounds,
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
4. Mind is essenceless,
When these appearances of variety are examined in terms of reasoning:
As long as they are not examined they will please us.
But when they are examined, they are ungraspable.
On thorough examination, they go beyond speech and thought.
They cannot be conceived as existing or not existing.
Extreme conceptions neither apply, nor do they not.
If we do not examine all dharmas, they appear to be truly existent. If we examine the atoms of external
appearances, they are natureless. No grasped objects are perceived. Inner fixation is a partless instant beyond any
identifiable essence, and so no mind of fixations is perceived. Non-dual and free from complexity, this is beyond
expressor and expressed. The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Kashyapa, what is this world-transcending medicine? It is exertion that completely seeks out
mind. Completely seeking out mind is like this: What is this mind that becomes passionate,
aggressive, and ignorant? How does it arise in the past, future, or present. Past mind has ceased and is
exhausted. Future mind has not yet arisen. That which is presently arising has no support or duration.
Kashyapa, mind does not exist internally, nor does it exist externally, nor between the two,
nor is it perceived as something without these two.
Kashyapa, as for mind, there is no scrutiny, no showing, no appearance, no understanding, no
existence.
Kashyapa, even by the buddhas, mind has never been seen, and never will be seen.
Kashyapa, if mind is sought everywhere, it is not to be found. That which is not to be found,
is not to be perceived anywhere. That which is not to be perceived, will not be in the past. It will not
be in the future. It will not arise in the present. It will not be something which has passed away or
something which is to come. Nor is it something that is arising now. It completely transcends the
three times.
Also:
Like mind, all dharmas too are not to be perceived, and therefore they do not exist at all.
The Sutra Requested by Maitreya says:
Mind has no shape. It has no color. It has no existence. It is like space.
The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
Those who wish to enter this sphere of realization of the Victorious One should abandon all
wishes, like space. They should abandon grasping of concepts, thoughts, and perceptions. They should
enter into this mind like space.
The Mula-madhyamaka-karikas says:
It excludes the expressible
And experience of mind.
Unborn and also unceasing,
With a nature like that of nirvana.
The All-Creating King says:
It is not a thing whose characteristics are shown.
It is apart from objects perceivable by sight.
It is unknowable by any verbal expression.
This, the essence that does not arise from any cause,
Is free from all the superimpositions of conception.
If one wishes truly to realize what is the meaning of this,
By example, it is eternal like the sky.
The meaning is the unborn, the space of dharmata.
Its sign is being the unobstructed nature of mind.
Dharmata, itself is like the space of the sky.
It is symbolized by the example of being like the sky.
5. The examples of naturelessness
These appearances of what does not exist, though, like an illusion, they appear to arise and so forth:
From the time they appear, their birth and such are natureless,
Like water in a mirage, or the moon's form in a pond.
Like the moon in water or the water in a mirage, from the very time they appear to arise, they should be realized
to be unborn and so forth. The Secret Essence says:
E Ma Ho! Wondrous marvelous dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
From the unborn is born all that there is.
Yet all this from its birth is birthlessness.
E Ma Ho! Wondrous marvelous dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
From the unceasing comes everything that ceases.
Yet in cessation this is ceaselessness.
E Ma Ho! Wondrous marvelous dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
From the non-enduring comes everything that endures.
Yet the time of enduring itself does not endure.
E Ma Ho! Wondrous marvelous dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
From the inconceivable comes all that is conceived,
Yet conception itself is inconceivable.
E Ma Ho! Wondrous marvelous dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
Though from what does not come or go there is coming and going,
The nature of coming and going never comes or goes.
The Dohakosha says:
As various rivers are all one in the ocean,
Many false things are overcome by one truth.
By the appearance of the single sun,
Many darknesses are overcome.
Though clouds receiving water from the ocean
May spread until they cover all the earth,
If we are inside them, they are like pure space,
There is no increase and there is no decrease.
The Buddha's perfection is completely fulfilled.
Co-emergence is the single nature.
As that all sentient beings arise and cease.
Within it there are neither things or non-things.
As narrow waters become one in the ocean, what appears to be born is one within the unborn. As many
darknesses are overcome by the single lamp of the sun, by knowing the single unborn, all confused appearances are also
known as the unborn.
When clouds arise and cover the earth, within them there is nothing solid that is great or small or increases and
decreases; just so, arising from unborn dharmata, the dharmin appears to arise and cease, but within the unborn nothing
increases and decreases. Though within the naturally pure nature of mind, all beings are confused by attachment and
grasping, their nature has never moved from the nature of mind. This is because mind itself is the primordially pure
nature of things.
The Commentary Ascertaining the Intention says:
Subhuti said, formerly when the Lord and I were in a forest, a monk was also there. By
perceiving various signs, we verified this. Some said that was by perceived by the skandhas. Some by
the ayatanas. Some by the dhatus. Some by interdependent arising and the objects of mindfulness. I
said, since the marks of one such dharma are known to be egoless, they cannot but all be like that.
C. What is to be abandoned
Thus of these dharmas appearing while they do not exist, which are primordially natureless:
in particular this appearance of the beings of the six lokas
Is an appearance of things that are not really there.
These are the forms of confusion, that come from habitual patterns.
As those whose eyes are filmed see hairs before the eyes,
And, if they want to be cured, must treat the imbalanced phlegm,
Those who want to purify confused appearance
Have to take the cure for the film of ignorance.
Those whose sight is obscured by a disorder of the phlegm treat the phlegm, when it appears that hairs are
drifting before their eyes and so forth. Similarly sentient beings, are obscured by habitual patterns of grasping "me" and
"mine" from beginningless time, and by the film of ignorance. Though they really exist as mind itself, the luminous
nature of buddhahood, not only do they not see that, but they experience external stones, rocks, and mountains, and
internal attachments and thoughts of the kleshas and suchlike, like hairs in the eyes. From the time these appear they do
not exist at all. They are merely seductions for fools. The Prasannapada says:
Because we follow the errors of ignorance, the world thinks complete absence of nature has a nature.
Those who have filmed eyes are attached to the nature of natureless hairs in the eyes and so forth, by
the condition of having filmed eyes; similarly fools whose eyes of intellect are corrupted by the film of
ignorance become attached to the natureless phenomena of things as having a nature.
The Lankavatara Sutra says:
Just as those with filmed eyes,
Wrongly grasp hairs in the eyes,
So these conceptualized things,
Are the false constructions of fools.
The noble ones who actually see naturelessness, realize only the purity and essencelessness that accord with the
essential nature. The Prasannapada says:
When, those with the eye of undefiled prajqa, free from the film of ignorance, use that vision;
then just as those who are free from filmed eyes do not see the hairs before the eyes perceived by those
who have filmed eyes, the noble ones, who do not see according to the constructions of foolish people's
minds, do not see these natures of things.
Also:
Because the deceptive dharmin beguiles fools, appearance is erroneous, like the seeming
circle made by a whirling torch. On the level of no nature, all conditioned things are false, because
they are the deceptive dharmin, like the water in a mirage. Whatever is true, like nirvana, is not the
deceptive dharmin. Therefore by the reasoning of the teachings and these scriptures, things are
established as natureless.
D. Abandoning.
1. How to train in the middle way free from extremes
Here is what is said about those who wish to remove the film of this ignorance:
By insight-wisdom, which is the antidote for this,
Emptiness passes the pass of samsaric habitual patterns.
When we gain the conviction that emptiness appears,
The two truths are known as non-dual appearance-emptiness.
Madhyamaka training cures dwelling within the two extremes. The extreme of existence as well as that of
non-existence.
Dwelling neither in samsara or in nirvana,
We will be liberated in the space of the sky.
This is the very essence of the true meaning itself,
The natural state, the nature of the great perfection.
True prajqa is one's intrinsic personal wisdom. If by that the nature of dharmas is viewed; all karma, kleshas,
habitual patterns, and so forth, confusions of things that appear while they do not exist, are liberated into the emptiness
which one has entered. The Mula-madhyamaka-karikas says:
Kleshas, karma and all
The doer and the fruitions,
Are like a gandharva castle,
Like an illusion or dream.
The Sutra of the Complete Purification of All Karmas says:
That karma should be viewed as being by nature essenceless emptiness.
It is also empty, because it arises from conditions, The Sutra Requested by Ma Drvpa says:
What rises from conditions does not arise.
It does not have the nature of arising.
What depends on conditions is called empty.
To know it as emptiness is being heedful
Appearance/emptiness is emptiness merely of true existence. The Shri Prajqaparamita-samgatha says:
Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form. From is not other than
emptiness.
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
That, the nature of form
Is likewise emptiness.
Emptiness is form,
The primordially unborn.
Also:
The nature of passion and aggression is emptiness.
Ignorance and pride are completely produced by conceptions.
Yet these thoughts have not arisen and do not rise.
If we know that, we are among the leaders of beings.
The Sutra of All Dharmas Being Without Arising says:
Passion is not perceived and neither is aggression.
Within this, ignorance also will never be perceived.
All the dharmas are like an unbroken expanse of space.
Whoever knows this is an enlightened victorious one.
Divine and non-divine are one in the single nature.
Likewise equal and different are equality.
Because there is no Buddha, there are no Dharma and Sangha.
Whoever has knowledge of that becomes a capable one.
The nature of sentient beings is taught to be buddhahood.
The nature of buddhahood is taught to be sentient beings.
Sentient beings and buddhahood are not two different things.
Whoever has knowledge of that becomes an excellent being.
As for relative and absolute being non-dual, truth is inseparable. By training in the suchness of the middle way,
the thingless essence of primordial purity, one will transcend suffering and be liberated from eternalism and nihilism, and
samsara and nirvana. This suchness is the great perfection beyond being produced or sought. The All-Creating King
says:
All the vessel and essence of the phenomenal world,
Buddhas and beings, arise from the essence, enlightenment.
Therefore pass the pass to primordial non-duality.
The Embodiment of the Intention says:
E ma ho, wondrous marvelous Dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
It is uncontrived, unstained, and unfabricated.
The nature of suchness is completely pure.
E ma ho, wondrous marvelous Dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
As for the groundless, rootless nature of mind,
This is the root of all the various dharmas.
E ma ho, wondrous marvelous Dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
The naturelessness that is the nature of things,
Is the spontaneous presence of mahasukha.
E ma ho, wondrous marvelous Dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
It is not empty, and it is not non-empty.
Nor is it conceived to be a middle way.
2. Cutting the root of mind:
In reality appearance does neither good nor harm,
But if we have attachment, we are bound within samsara.
We need not analyze the variety of appearance;
We only need to cut the root of grasping mind.
Appearance does not bind. If we are not attached to external assertion and denial, we will not be obscured with
internal attachment. This is because no connections will be established. Since it is attachment that binds, as for
abandoning attachment, the Dohakosha says:
Where there is attachment, that is what is seen.
If there is realization, everything is that.
No one knows anything that is other than that.
That which has been read, and grasped in meditation,
Is also said to be the very heart of the treatises.
When external conceptualizations of apparent form, sound, smell, taste, and touch are analyzed they are
natureless. When there is attachment to what is impure and so forth, even if it is renounced, the one who is attached will
not be liberated, because the root of grasping is not cut. If one throws a stone at a dog, not understanding who hit it with
the stone, the dog attacks the now-inert stone. Such practice of Dharma, will not liberate from the kleshas. When
someone throws a stone at a lion, it kills the thrower. Just so, one's own mind, the root of the kleshas of passion and
aggression, will be pacified by the examining prajqa of naturelessness. The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Kashyapa, the single cause of the external many is to be sought within. Kashyapa, in future
time proud monks will arise who are like a dog chasing a stone. Kashyapa, how are they like a dog
chasing a stone? The dog, frightened by that stone, chases after that stone, but not the one who threw
it.
Kashyapa, thus some monks and brahmins try to separate themselves from inner form, sound,
smell, taste, and touchables. They conceive dharmas as impermanent, deceptive, and destructible; but
since they do not know where they came from, if they go among villages, cities, towns, districts,
regions, and kings' palaces and retinues, they are still harmed by form, sound, smell, taste and
touchables.
If these live in monasteries, at the time of death those who dwell in worldly discipline will be
born in the celestial worlds. There too they are harmed by the five desirable qualities. When they have
died and departed, they will not be liberated from the lower realms.
What are these realms? Those of hell beings, animals, the world of the lord of death, and that
of the asuras.
Kashyapa, such a monk is like the dog chasing the stone. For example, though the dog is
frightened by the stone, it does not chase the one who threw it but chases the stone. Similarly some
monks and brahmins, frightened by form and so forth, live in monasteries. Though they live in
monasteries, if they see the objects of form and so on, they do not know how to keep their inner
equanimity.
What arises from that fault? From not knowing, they will live in villages again. There they
will again be harmed by form and so on. Even if they experience the enjoyments of the gods, having
died and transmigrated from these temporary divine and human births, they will fall into the lower
realms. These fools will suffer death and transmigration. They will have a hundred such sufferings.
The tathagata has taught that they are like the dog who chases the stone.
Kashyapa, yogachara monks of times to come will not be like the dog who chases the stone.
For example, if people throw a stone at a lion, it knows where the stones came from. It will chase not
the stones, but those who threw the stones, so that this will not happen again.
Likewise yogachara monks who have seen desirable qualities, knowing that they have arisen
from mind, knowing by examining their minds that these things do not exist, will be liberated. As the
lion eats the one who threw the stone, these yogachara monks, when they see external desirable
qualities, know that they have arisen from mind, and know the nature of mind to be emptiness.
Therefore they liberate it into union with the natural state.
Kashyapa, for example, it is like this. Those skilled in dressage make horses move here and
there as they like, Untrained people cannot do that. Kashyapa, the yogachara monk too, enters
whatever mental contents are seen to arise and fully experiences them. He has no question about where
they come from, and thus completely controls the mind:
As a skilled trainer of horses,
Trains horses to be motionless
Yogacharins see becoming
And remove the conflicts of mind
Kashyapa, for example it is like this, a secret divine yantra of illness makes life cease.
Kashyapa, similarly since all who view conceptually grasp an ego, the power of life of the Dharma is
made to cease:
Just as a yantra harms life
And will not bestow any happiness;
Going into the view of ego,
Will destroy the life of Dharma.
Kashyapa, it is like this, for example, with whatever persons are bound, from that they need to
be liberated. Kashyapa, similarly the mind of the yogacharin, for whatever it has desire, from that it
should be liberated:
From whatever binds any persons,
From that they should be freed.
So from obscuring desires
Yogacharins should be freed.
That is the secret of mind. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Whoever has no knowledge of this secret of mind,
These will uselessly wander without any aim or meaning.
3. The mind arising as the six lokas is unreal
Arising as the objects of the six lokas
Within the appearance of mind there is no nature at all.
It is not found by seeking. By looking it is not seen.
It has no shape or color. No essence is there to grasp.
Nothing is either within the mind or outside of it.
Nowhere does it rise or cease throughout the three times.
There are no parts and divisions; no things; no ground or root.
There is nothing to characterize by saying, "It is this."
Mind is beyond the objects of conceptual thought.
If mind is viewed by mind, knowing that no nature at all is identified is knowing the suchness of the natural
state. The Dohakosha says:
The root of mind is markless.
By triple co-emergence
Where it arises it subsides,
There is nowhere it endures.
Also:
The true mind knows no opposite.
Where it arises it sets.
Its outside is within.
Also:
Within the primordially purity
Of the nature of space,
By always looking and looking,
Seeing will be obstructed.
This is beyond conception, thought, and all complexity. The Noble Sutra of The Source of the Three
Jewels says:
There is nowhere dharmas are born
And nowhere they arise.
No dying and transmigration,
Nor any becoming joyful.
As the lion of men
Has taught all this completely,
Hundreds of sentient beings
have been established in it.
It has no essence anywhere,
There is nothing else,
No one has ever found it.
It is not within.
External things as well
Are nowhere to be found.
These teachings were presented
By the Lord Buddha himself.
Though the sugatas have taught
The way of peace to beings,
There is no actual being
Who is ever going to find it.
These completely teach
The liberation of beings.
Having been liberated,
They liberate many beings.
Because all dharmas are taught
To be without a self,
Sentient beings are freed
From this universe of grasping.
One is liberated from going
And by liberation from going
One goes to somewhere matchless.
The great Sage has attained
The other shore of samsara.
Anywhere else to go
Is never found at all.
Elsewhere does not exist,
Any more than coming back.
And yet "I have gone elsewhere,"
Is what is taught in words.
One who speaks these words
Also does not exist.
Neither the one who spoke them
Or the words themselves exist.
One to whom they are spoken
Also will not be found.
One who knows them also
Is nowhere to be seen.
Because of wrong conception
By the power of desire,
All these beings here
Are simply wandering.
Whatever being understands
The Dharma of perfect peace,
Sees the self-arising
Of the Tathagata.
Peaceful ones completely
Know the highest dharma.
Regarding its being groundless and rootless the Secret Essence says:
As for the groundless, rootless nature of mind,
It is not male or female, nor is it neuter.
It is not markless, and has no pedigree.
It has no color, and it has no shape.
It is not existent or anything.
4. Mind is uncreated or unfabricated
Without the increase and decrease of the three times, though it appears to arise continually, it is natureless.
From the time it arises as the six lokas, past mind:
It is seen neither in the past nor in the future.
It does not enter the present, remaining where it is.
Not using mind to look for mind, just let it be.
The past is gone. The future is not yet here. Present mind has no arising, duration, nor cessation. Unestablished
for even an instant, neither viewed not viewer exist. They are put to rest by themselves. The All-Creating King says:
Since mind is not a thing that can be viewed by mind,
By looking it is not seen. Let it rest in suchness.
5. Mind as instantaneous
Thus from the very time of emanation:
Objects of conceptual mind are instantaneous,
Assertions and denials of mere recalled cognition.
There are no in and out from the time that objects appear.
What is sought is produced by the seeker, so it is taught.
So if one seeks oneself, one never will be found.
Whatever conceptions of mind have arisen, if they are searched for, they will not be found, since they are the
seeker. By looking for oneself one will not find it, since it is non-dual. If examined, oneself is non-existent, and so
whatever it perceives is completely pacified. The All-Creating King says:
Intrinsically existing, motionless self-existence,
Naturally existing, uncreated by anyone;
This uncreated existence of suchness as it is,
Is taught to be supreme, the uncreated action.
Also:
By looking at one as two, one's meditation errs.
A single nature cannot be established as two.
6. Because it is primordially pure, it is without birth and cessation:
This is the natural state, eternally unborn.
The non-dwelling nature of mind, unobstructed and unceasing,
Groundless, rootless empty pervasion of the three times.
Ground of the ceaseless appearance of variety
With neither things or qualities, how can it be eternal?
Ceaselessly self-arising, how can it be nothing?
Neither dual nor non-dual, it is inexpressible.
Since here there is no existence, there is no recognition.
Its nature should be known to be primordial purity.
Because the naturally pure nature of mind is groundless and rootless, it is said to be empty. Since its arising is
completely ceaseless, it is said to be appearance. Since if examined it has no things or characteristics, it is free from the
extreme of eternalism. Since, as mere apprehension, it is ceaseless, it is free from the extreme of nihilism. Since there is
no other third class which would be both or neither, it cannot be identified as "this." Except by mere expressions like
"Naturally pure" it is inexpressible. It is wisdom unobscured by extremes. Saraha says:
As for spotless wisdom, unobscured by extremes,
Free from actions, it is not accretion of karma.
At any time it is changeless, therefore it is eternal
The net of wrong conceptions is nothing. Though it is divided into enlightened and other aspects the
Embodiment of the Intention says:
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
The truly eternal is eternity.
This great eternal has no antidote.
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
What is truly nothing is nothingness.
Enlightenment cuts the stream of what is wrong.
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
Except for the universal and limitless,
Perfect buddhahood will not be found.
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
Mind itself is perfect buddhahood.
No other sort of buddhahood exists.
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
The three worlds have primordially been the essence,
Unfabricated, unerring, and self-existing.
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
The nature is this self-existing space.
The perfect Buddha does not need to be sought.
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
State of goodness of all and everything;
Eternal-pervasion, wondrous to be told.
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
Apart from this essence of enlightenment,
No non-realization exists at all.
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
Everything is the Buddha and within it
There can be no obscuration by concept.
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
Since thought itself is the purity of non-thought,
There is nothing other than sugatagarbha.
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected buddhas.
Within the primordial essence of the buddhas
Realization is a spontaneous presence.
7. Be completely without accepting and rejecting, because this nature of mind is destroyed by understanding it:
If it should be examined, it seems to be non-existent.
But if it is not examined, it always will be there.
Within this primordial essence whose nature is non-duality,
There is no conception of accepting or rejecting.
There is no good and evil; there is no hope and fear.
How cold this exist by examining and analysis?
Shun the inconstant crowd of the mind of three times.
If with many analyses and examinations one examines the mind, it seems that it does not exist. When it is
unexamined, it does not exist either. Therefore it is natureless. Without accepting, rejecting, hope and fear, be at ease like
a destitute haughty bhramin elephant. As for the instruction of being naturally in that state of non-aggression without
view, thought, examination, memory, and wish, Saraha says:
If the haughty elephant enters accumulations of mind,
If it cuts off coming and going it will be at leisure.
If it is realized like that, there is no place for defilement.
Shameless skillful ones will never realize that.
Also:
By letting loose the elephant of mind,
All the stains of ego all are destroyed.
Like paintings in space, or drinking rippling water,
Let the borders be just as they are.
The object elephant's powers having been grasped by the hand,
That will kill it and how will it be autonomous.
The yogin is someone like an elephant-guard...
E. the doctrine is not realized by words,
There are four sections.
1. it will not be realized by those who manifest pride.
Now there is the teaching that those who evaluate the Dharma merely verbally, will not realize its meaning as it
truly is. Keeping track of whether the reason applies to the subject, the forward and reverse pervasions, and what kinds of
things agree or do not agree with the reason, we are moved by individual conceptions and kindle erroneous kleshas, so
that a bonfire of many sufferings blazes up. Skillful at burning away the true being of oneself and others, such beings
manifest pride like a mountain,
The mind of relationship with complexities and concepts.
Is moved, as if by an always blowing blasting wind.
Though a mind like this will have no realization,
Bodhicitta not coming or going, taking or leaving,
Is the all-creating essence of undefiled wisdom,
By resting in that way, that is how it is seen.
Regarding this, the essence or intrinsic nature, the Lankavatara Sutra says:
Sophistic fools examine
What is like a corpse.
Conceptual examination spreads a thousand great nets of complexities that have nothing to do with Dharma.
Dharma and the natural state of mind are primordially pure, with nothing that needs to be established or cleared away.
Here the Precious Sky Sutra and The Tantra of Oral Instruction accord with the Abhisamayalankara and the Uttaratantra
of Maitreya: 39
There is nothing to clear away,
And nothing to be established.
Reality views reality.
To see that is liberation
Enlightenment, bodhi, in Tibetan is jangchub. Eternally undefiled, it is pure, jang. With qualities eternally
complete, it is perfect, chub. Arising ceaselessly without obstruction, it is called, jangchub sem, the mind, sem, citta, of
enlightenment, bodhicitta. As for the teaching that trikaya is primordially self-existing, the All-creating King says:
The meaning of jang is this: The essence bodhicitta
Is self arising, primordial, and completely pure,
Everything that is done by the doer of all, the King,
Is completely pure in the state of Samantabhadra,
That is the explanation of the meaning of jang.
chub is like this: The essence is self-arising wisdom.
Appearance and existence, within the vessel and essence,
The buddhas of the three times and beings of the three realms
As suchness everything, is perfect everywhere,
As all-pervading perfection chub should be explained.
sem is like this: The essence is self-arising wisdom.
By that the vessel and essence of the phenomenal world
Is entered, empowered, and thereby rendered luminous.
That is the explanation of the meaning of sem.
Since all dharmas are naturally non-dual and pure, if we see essential naturelessness, we know how things are.
When we realize that the nature of mind has no coming and going, kleshas neither arise nor cease. There are neither
abandoning or antidotes. The kleshas are pure as they are. The Song of the Oral Instructions of the Inexhaustible
Treasury says:
How could either kleshas or antidotes be produced?
People who work on them bind themselves in samsara.
Being liberated by seeing the pith, does not depend on abandoning any objects. By knowing the nature of the
objects in a dream and the one who grasps them, they are self-liberated. Though others would like to be liberated after
abandoning objects, the mere appearance of objects and mind does not bind. However, anyone attached to them is grasped
by bondage. As for the instruction to abandon attachment, Tilopa says:
Appearance does not bind, attachment binds.
Therefore cut attachment, Naropa.
The Dohakosha says:
Thinking, "that is pleasant,"
The mind of equanimity
That cherishes such irritation
Falls away from the essence.
Even a little bit
The size of a sesame-hull
Produces forever after
Nothing but suffering.
Mere appearance without assertion and denial does not produce attachment. From merely realizing the unborn
essence of mind, the mind will never produce conceptual apprehension. Though conceptual apprehension is produced, it
is not outside of the previous essence, and there is no belief in and be attachment to complexities. The All-Creating King
says:
In the uncreated nature which is like the sky,
How can there be examination and analysis?
The Dharmaraja Sutra says:
When someone is struck with a poisoned arrow, if this is quickly pulled out, that person will
be saved. Otherwise, while that persons is thinking, "this arose from the feathers, or this arose from the
shaft or this arose from the point," the malady will spread, and that person will die.
Similarly, as we examine and analyze many reasons, with the power of the mental
conception, kleshas arise and proliferate. Therefore, the mind should rest in complete non-thought.
The theories of arrogant people who conceptualize the meaning in mere words have little grasp of the way things are. By
such knowing who will be satisfied? Whoever deteriorates because of not knowing, will dispute the dharma and believe
in complexities, they will be far from suchness. The Dohakosha says:
That beings without remainder are excellent is refuted
Just by the fault of pride that cannot be their character.
Also:
Kye Ho! listen to me my son,
The corpse of argument by joy knows true abiding
Because of the explanations and productions of sentient beings,
And so on, and so on and so on it cannot be realized.
The Commentary Ascertaining the Intention says:
The bodhisattva Arya Dharma said, "When I reached the buddha field called "Arrogance" of
the tathagata Vast Glory, many kinds of extremists thought up all kind of useless philosophies. They
pondered them. They thought about them. They investigated them. Not having realized the true
meaning, these sophists argued with each other. They abused. They reviled. Having seen that their
philosophies were annihilated they said, "Kye ma! When the absolute of the tathagatas is taught to be
truly beyond all conceptions, we think that is right!.
The Buddha said, Arya Dharma, now, by really being beyond all concepts, I have become
enlightened. Having become enlightened, I have described it. I have clarified it. I have explained that
the absolute is individually and personally apprehended by the noble ones.
What is apprehended by individual beings is the sphere of concepts. Conceptions are the
realm of philosophy. The absolute is inexpressible. Reasoning increases contention. The absolute
pacifies contention. Truth cannot be examined, inferred, or pondered by reasoning. The markless
realization of individual and personal awareness, is inexpressible. Therefore it annihilates
conventionalities. The absolute Dharma is free from contention. It is beyond the sphere of
conceptuality.
The Sutra Encouraging The Excellent Wish says:
Manjushri, those who by having heard much, are self infatuated and haughty, are separated
from a true and proper attitude, and the continuum of their minds becomes unruly. Separate from
shamatha and vipashyana, they are far from the utter profundity of the Buddhadharma.
Knowing only verbally, such people never accomplish anything very beneficial. The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
Just as a deaf musician,
Brings rejoicing to others
But cannot enjoy his own music
Such is dharma without meditation
A ferryman on a river
Helping others to cross over,
Just staying there till he dies,
Such is dharma without meditation
As the taste of molasses,
Is not known from mere description
Likewise the taste of emptiness,
Must be tasted in meditation.
Seeking the meaning verbally, devoting oneself only to examination and analysis, is not a cause of true wisdom.
The Dohakosha says:
Not drinking the amrita
Of the guru's oral instructions,
Whose coolness satisfies
The torments of the mind,
In the desert of treatises,
In that desiccated plain,
Tormented by thirst
One will only die.
The holy guru exemplifying the meaning of profound dharmata is what will satisfy. Also:
For those who have a wish for rootless suchness
The guru's oral instructions are enough.
In entering the profound essential meaning, do not hope for enlightenment from merely verbal doctrines of
Dharma or mere logical lumping together and hair-splitting. Of these two kinds of philosophical conceptions,
conceptions of real borders and dividing points are attached to the true existence of individual beings. When words
designating these are postulated according to the mind, there are disputes about the classes of what agrees and does not
agree are with them.
Having become arrogant about such generalities about knowables, their individual ideas about things and non-
things and so forth, people make up a heap of distinctions, about the ground, form, and so on. Since none of these
external natures could be established, their minds evaluate things in terms of superimpositions.
Within groundless confused appearance, such doctrines, and their bases of distinction, are nothing but obscuring
false conceptions. Don't do this. The commentary on the Sixty Stanzas on Reasoning says:
Not only are you bound by the beginningless, universal bondage of the kleshas, but now by
bad doctrines you are adding more bonds, like silk worms winding themselves up in their own spittle.
The nature like the sky should be realized to have an essence without divisions. the All-Creating King says:
All of the dharmas exist as examples of bodhicitta.
All are examples of that essence like the sky.
What is being described is the meaning of bodhicitta.
As for the instruction of defilement by mind-made meditation
Therefore as for the phenomena of incidental obscurations or natural obscurations, there are these incidental
verses:
Within the purity of the spotless nature of mind,
Artificial defilements never will be seen.
Here why should we speak of development and perfection?
In meditative purity, defilements are exhausted.
By looking for complexities of developing and perfecting within the primordial spontaneous presence of the
nature, the essence without accepting and rejecting will not be seen. Pass the pass into the self-completed great perfection.
The All-Creating King says:
For students who rejoice in counting characteristics,
Counting mantras is taught and developing mandalas,
For whoever has placed their hopes upon the path of trikaya.
Those who produce understanding by means of heaping up concepts,
For the length of time of a hundred million kalpas
Will never realize the sense of the undeveloped mandala.
Kye! for me the teacher, the King, the doer of all,
By accumulations and mandala being self-perfected,
The nature of Dharmata does not need to be created.
As the nature with neither wish nor development,
Know The mandala of the King, the doer of all.
Similarly within the nature there are also no path, meditation, and so forth. The same text says:
As for bodhicitta, it is like the sky.
Within this nature of dharmas and mind which is like the sky,
There is no view or meditation, and also no guarding samaya.
Buddha activity is effortless; wisdom unobscured.
There is no training in the bhumis, and there is no treading the path.
There are no subtle dharmas and no non-dual relationship.
For mind there are no precepts, and nothing to be resolved.
Since this is beyond both exaggeration and denigration,
There is no passing the pass into reality.
This is bodhicitta, the view of the great perfection.
The Dohakosha says:
Free from meditation, what is there to wish for?
How will that which is inexpressible be explained?
By the mudra of samsara all beings have been seduced.
Who has not defiled the nature of things as they are?
Continuity has no mantra, no goal or meditation.
All these are causes of confusing one's own mind.
Mind's natural purity is unstained by meditation.
Its nature exists as bliss, so do not produce any torment.
The All-Creating King says:
That which is primordial undistracted, and unlost
Is completely undistracted by the tether of samadhi.
But undistracted samadhi can be the deceiver hope,
Within the provisional teachings of the mahayana,
When it has been presented in terms of cause and effect.
That which is primordial, undistracted, and unlost
Is the naturally resting nature, apart from cause ad effect.
This is the antidote to establishment and effort.
F. Passing the pass
There are four sections.
1. Passing the pass into the nature as limitless as space,
As for passing the path into the single nature, as limitless as space:
Within the primordial purity of the nature of mind,
Without abandoning, antidotes, separation or attainment,
Objects of meditation are superfluous.
Without outer grasping or inner fixation abandon clinging.
Without any grasping of "this," let us cut through attachment.
Without success or failure, abandon hope and fear.
Within the primordially enlightened nature of mind, there is now nothing to purify, so attachments of
accepting and rejecting are unnecessary. The All-Creating King says:
Kye mahasattva,
If one wishes to establish one's own mind,
Since it is established by being without desire,
One should rest in the equanimity of non-thought.
Naturally rest in the realm that neither accepts or rejects.
Naturally rest in the state that is naturally motionless.
Since inner and outer grasping and fixation do not exist at all, do not cling. The same text says:
Without any inside or outside, this is dharmadhatu.
The aspect that is deep has no conceptual objects.
Since within unity there is nothing to call, "this," destroy the coils of attachment. The same text says:
As for mind, the nature of it is suchness.
Therefore all the dharmas are established as suchness.
Do not fabricate anything in that nature of suchness.
Also it says that there are neither success nor failure:
There is nothing to succeed at or fail in producing.
Do not be caught within the trap of hope and fear.
2. Passing the pass into the unity of the sky at the very moment of realization:
In insight which is fundamentally without change,
How can the different conditioned phenomena ever arise?
That very arising is liberation from the beginning.
Dharmakaya is one, like water and its waves.
Within the changelessness of one's own mind, whatever instantaneous phenomena of joy and sorrow and
happiness and suffering and so forth may arise are ungraspable. They liberate themselves with no need of other antidotes.
As for instant self-liberation without before or after, the All-Creating King says:
Liberation is self-liberation. There is no other kind.
Also the Song of the Oral Instructions of the Inexhaustible Treasury says:
That liberated instant is known as dharmakaya.
"There is another liberation by great bliss."
Though this is said by fools, it is water in a mirage.
Also:
As much as there is emanation from mind,
Just that much the nature of the lord Buddha,
Is otherness like water and its waves.
Such experience arises as we pass the pass into freedom from viewed and viewer.
3. The conceptual mind of assertion and denial disappears:
When anything is viewed, the viewer's essence is lost.
Objects and the directions, when sought will not be found.
The seeker too is not perceived in simplicity.
Without an object of action, the actor does not exist.
Viewing this arising, when we try to reject the watcher and leave things as they are, while we look for something
to reject, not only are there no directions, places, and objects; but the borderless, all-encompassing seeker is not
perceivable either. There is no trace of anything to affirm or deny, no reference points at all. As for the support, mind,
being like space, the All-Creating King says:
Not existing, not realized, no vision of anything,
Naturally existing equanimity of non-thought.
As it is eternal, no mind of effort arises.
Mahasukha abides as the essence of all dharmas.
That is how it is encountered.
4. In encountering the ground, there is nothing to be viewed.
At that time, realization of the indivisible space of the nature of mind is spontaneously present, and so as to what
it is like when the self-existing throne of dharmakaya is attained, taking as an example the autumn sky:
Reach the primordial state that is spotless like the sky.
Without its opposite, resting, how can anything go?
When exhaustion has been reached, there also is no coming.
Nobody looks at nothing, so where could we ever be?
That is a display of vajra song of realization without center or limit. What arises is liberated into space like a
dispersing cloud. This is the realization arising at that time. By mixing primordial space, the nature of mind, and its self-
arising, self-liberated wisdom, the nature of mind is irreversible from the natural state. We reach the level of the
exhaustion of dharmas. This is liberation from the defile of knowledge of assertion and denial, that grasps things and
characteristics. We reach the stream of dharmata without coming and going. No one goes and there is no place to go.
Yogins who reach such a state transcend the objects of confusion. They do not enter the city of samsara. They reach the
ground like the sky. The nature of their minds encounters space. The three gates are effortlessly liberated, like clouds
disappearing into space, purified into the primordial ground of fixated conceptualization. They see what they are. This is
the time when they ascertain the meaning which those of lesser fortune will not see, even if it is explained to them. The
All-Creating King says:
Mahasukha dharmakaya is perfect within the mind,
Let it pervade without the three times' before and after.
The Dohakosha says:
Kye lord sirs and madams now look here.
I have realized nothing but this itself.
Before a being whose karma is exhausted
Gain conviction about the nature of mind.
The time of encountering it is like that.
G. The conviction of realization
If this is known, we have a need for nothing else.
Buddhas are nothing now, just as confused as we are.
There are no questions. Rootless mind is gone.
No reference points, no grasping "This," and nothing certain.
Relaxed and even, letting go into unity.
Having realized this, here is the song that is sung.
By the rising of Drime Ozer it goes forth from the teaching.
All doubts about the natural state are resolved. This is the time of no further aspirations. Other liberated yogins,
have the same realization we do. So now, beyond this absence of doubts and questions, no one has anything to teach us.
The Dohakosha says:
Before, behind and in the ten directions,
Whatever may be seen is that itself.
Today like Lord Buddha I have cut through confusion
Now I have no questions for anyone.
That is what it is like.
The former well-ordered sequence of view, meditation, and action, depends on higher and lower stages like a
flight of stairs. Its customary attitude regards yogins as higher and lower. Now the mind which asks questions about this
is scattered, seeming to lose its ground and root. It finds no reference point at all. Whatever arises is ungraspable, as if
one were drunk. Appearances are unrecognizable, as if one were a little child. Without any orderly plan of action, all at
once everything is on the same level, naturally, alertly at ease. Without any reference point to lose, there is fundamental
oneness beyond grasping. The phenomena of excellence arise within us. The Dohakosha says:
Realization is like a wish-fulfilling gem.
Its confusion-destroying power is very wonderful.
This is when that happens. What arises arises as dharmata. When we reach the ground of confusion, it turns out
to be pure objectless wakefulness like the space of the sky. All karma and conditionality are liberated. The Dohakosha
says:
Beings by karma are bound to the individual.
Once liberated from karma, they are free.
If one's own being is free, there will certainly be no other.
This is called the attainment of supreme nirvana.
This is when that occurs. Whatever is done is liberated into no reference point. By the arising of the power of
non-fixation, one has neither bondage or liberation. The same text says:
If action and non-action are truly realized,
There is no bondage, nor is there any liberation.
By transmission of the realization of the guru, one is liberated. The same text says:
That which is the primordial nature of the unborn,
Today I have realized, as taught by the glorious guru.
Becoming god-like, one sings a song of the manifestation of the nature of mind, self-arising wisdom. This is the
natural state, beyond existence or non-existence of the natural state. We realize of the pith of the great limitless
impartiality. With the rising of the thousand-rayed spotless disk of the sun, the world of good fortune is made to appear.
Luminous mind is displayed as the lotus pond called liberation. One should know, "I have gone to mahasukha, the level
of Samantabhadra."
H. by the explanation of the primordial liberation of appearance and mind, how we pass the pass into the great perfection,
encompassed and perfected as the great miracle.
There are three sections of closing and summary.
1. The first has six parts.
a. The teaching of the emptiness of apparent objects,
With instruction of appearance and mind as primordial liberation, we pass the pass into the nature of the great
perfection:
KYE HO my friends, look at apparent objects.
They are all the unborn. They are empty and equal.
Even though various images rise within a mirror,
The surface of that mirror is really only one,
When reflections arise in a mirror, there is really nothing but the radiance of the one bright mirror-surface, but
still these forms appear. So all the dharmas of samsara are nothing else than the nature, emptiness. The Sutra Requested
by Jvnpa says:
As in the disk of a mirror,
Faces may appear,
So unestablished dharmas
Ought to be known by Jvnpa.
b. The projecting mind is emptiness,
At the time of experiencing the naturelessness of all dharmas, as for appearances:
If we look at the mind that has projected this,
Mind is free from any affirming or denying.
Just as clouds in the sky arise and disappear,
The non-dual miracles of space are purity.
This is the spotless nature that is the primordial buddha.
This is uncreated self-existing dharmata.
Awareness, producing the view, is liberated from projecting objects. The phenomena of object-appearance are
purified in non-fixation. When clouds fade away after arising in the sky, they go nowhere but space. Self-dissolving, they
become invisible. As awareness is liberated from projecting objects, the three times go into the space of realization.
The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
Just as in space that has no clouds at all
Clouds make a sudden appearance everywhere,
And then as they vanish, with no clouds anywhere,
They make us think they went from whence they came,
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
All dharmas first arose from or in the space of the unborn. Now they remain there. In the end, they will be
liberated back into it. Awareness of what arises too first arose from the empty nature of mind. In the present it remains
there. Finally it will cease there. That is how it should be known. Such a nature is that of primordial buddhahood. The
All-Creating King says:
As for the sky-like nature of the mind,
The essence of the primordial buddha, enlightenment,
It does not exist by effort and establishing.
Rest in that uncreated natural purity.
c. Body and mind are non-dual emptiness:
There is neither object or primordial purity.
There is no receiving and there is no letting go,
No bias or partiality, no negation or affirmation.
What appears has no true existence; what rises is emptiness.
All is equality, free from all reference points.
Apparent objects and fixation-producing awareness, appear while neither of them exists, as within a dream.
They are known without accepting and rejecting, and affirmation and denial. The All-Creating King says:
That which is only one within the state of suchness,
Dharmata, appears as five kinds of separate objects.
The five desirables and undesirables then exist.
In single suchness, there is accepting and rejecting.
As these are appearances of self-arising wisdom,
They are not rightly rejected by its own agency.
What is produced by the wrong of rejection is samsara.
Whatever appears is empty of true existence, like the water in a mirage. When this is known, the reflection-like
appearance of all dharmas should be abandoned. Then there is equality, essentially providing no reference point for the
mind.
d. External objects are uncertain and mind has no reference points:
Objects are uncertain, appearing in various ways.
In the great impartiality, mind has no reference points.
So the nature of mahasandhi should be known.
Appearances are not ascertained as one particular thing, but seem to be a variety. The awareness that fixates
them also has no reference points. Everything is liberated as the partless singularity of the great perfection The Great
Space says
Whatever appears is uncertain,
Mind too is impartial,
Having no reference points.
Unfabricated great space,
Manifests as the nature
Of the ultimate great perfection.
e. The reason for these
As for establishing the reason:
Within the world of dharmas of samsara and nirvana,
The dharmas of the past are equality without concept.
The dharmas of the future are unborn equality.
The dharmas of the present are non-dwelling equality.
The three times are timeless as equality with no ground.
All there is was always eternally complete.
As for the five fold equality:
1. Since all dharmas are equal, they should be known to be without accepting and rejecting, and good and bad.
2. These dharmas of the phenomenal world are equal in that once they are gone, they will not return.
3. Since the future ones have not arisen, they are equal in not existing anywhere.
4. In the present they are equal in that if the apprehension that identifies inner and outer essences is examined, none are
found.
5 Yet equally when unexamined they appear. The Telling the Marks says:
Remain in realization that the three times are timelessness.
The three times are related by not being established in time, and since they are groundless they are equally
empty.
Because everything is unborn they are also equal as prajqaparamita. Their duration and cessation similarly from
the time they appear are equal in not being established as anything whatsoever. The Middle length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, since all dharmas are equality, the perfection of prajqa too is equality.
The Sutra of Motionless Dharmata says:
All dharmas by nature are unborn. By essence they are unmoving. They are free from the
extremes of action. They are beyond the objects of complexity. They are primordial equality.
f. The changeless nature of mind:
The phenomenal world that consists of samsara and nirvana
Is nothing but an image reflected in the mind.
The nature of that mind is the great space of dharmadhatu.
The nature of that space is changeless throughout the three times.
That changeless nature was nirvana from the start.
This fundamental enlightenment is Samantabhadra.
Whatever appears is a reflection of confused habitual patterns, arising as if in the surface of a mirror. The
Avatamsaka Sutra says:
Mind is like a painter.
Mind produced the skandhas.
All the worlds there are
Are paintings of the mind.
The phenomenal world is the supported destructible inhabitants, sentient beings, within the destructible
environment. By becoming familiar with the habitual patterns of confused mind, they appear to be non-existent from the
time they arise like a dream. One gains that conviction about the confused appearances of apparent mind. One gains the
conviction that appearance-fixating mind is empty like space. The Dohakosha says:
Mind should be grasped as being like the sky.
The nature of space should be grasped as being mind.
As for becoming convinced that space is changeless, the All-Creating King says:
Just as the space of the sky is changeless,
The space of the nature of mind is changeless.
What is changeless is the primordial peace of nirvana, the nature of Samantabhadra. The All-Creating King
says:
This primordial purity, the unchanging nature of mind
Is the self-existing essence, the doer of all, enlightenment.
2. second section
There are five parts.
a. Inseparable appearance and emptiness are primordially the same
Therefore, all dharmas are primordially and universally included and perfected as the wondrously-arisen nature
of the great perfection:
Inseparable and primordial appearance and emptiness.
Simplicity without perception of either one or many.
With neither bias or partiality, all is equal,
Equal appearance and emptiness; equal in truth or falsehood.
Existence is equal and non-existence is also equal.
This is equality transcending all extremes,
The single state of the space of primordial purity.
All dharmas are non-dual appearance/ emptiness beyond complexities of one and many, like space. There is
nothing solid and definite to them. The All-Creating King says:
All dharmas have a nature like the sky.
As for the sky itself, it is natureless.
There is no example of the sky.
All these dharmas without the least exception,
Should be known to really be like that.
Really equality like space, appearances are equally like reflections in a mirror. They are equally emptiness,
having no identity of their own. From the viewpoint of confused mind, they are equal in truly existing only in the sense
of having causal power. For example, either form or a reflection can produce form-grasping awareness within the eye-
consciousness. They are equally false. Their natureless state is confused appearance, like the hallucinations created by
eating datura plants. They are equally existent, as emanations exhausted in their mere appearance. They are equally
non-existent, since their nature is not established, like water in a mirage. They are equally beyond extremes, like pure
space. They are primordially equal as the space of dharmata beyond division or clearing away, and without example. As
for their being primordially empty, the Noble Sutra of the Clouds of the Three Jewels says:
Dharmas, primordial emptiness, not coming into being,
Have no going or staying, bereft of all existence.
There is never anything to their illusory nature.
Pure of everything, completely like the sky,
The Dharma of the Victorious One has so been taught.
If they were not exhausted, they would not be seen.
These dharmas, from the above, have no selves or being.
Even the Buddha's teachings cannot exhaust such dharmas.
The teachings were taught only after such things were believed eternal.
Within samsara nothing conventional will be found.
Things that formerly rose leave no marks at all.
Those of future time are also known like that.
They naturally consist of nothing but karma and action.
Both supreme and ordinary karmas rise.
Dharmas are eternal peace that is empty of nature.
They should also all be known as selflessness.
The Moon Lamp explains it the same way.
b. all mentally imputed labelings are empty of essence
All that the mind examines is empty of any essence.
Names are inflated myths of individual essence,
Supposedly to be found in this temporary world.
There is neither true nor false, no connection of body and mind
One does not cover the other. There are neither subject nor object.
The doctrines of the skandhas, ayatanas, and so forth are mere mental imputations. As mentally imputed
dharmas do not exist, they are empty of essence. Nominal imputations have no reality internal or external. They are
incidental and unestablished. The imputation, "This is a real specifically characterized phenomenon." exhausts itself as
mere name and concept. Though imputed objects are maintained to be like a fire arising from kindling, like fire in a
dream, the natures of these apparent forms of confused habitual patterns are not established. All appearances of the
confused viewpoint of samsara are mere superimposed projections. In that sense, from the time such objects appear, they
are equal in being only false.
However, if one analyzes apparent objects and the awareness that fixates them, there are neither truth or falsity.
Object and perceiver are like space. There is neither related object nor relationship, and so relationship is not real.
Nothing has nothing to do with anything. Not only does relationship not exist, but general and particular, though set forth
by the mind, are not specifically characterized or identifiable phenomena. Therefore, general and particular are equally
either non-imputed phenomena or if they are imputed phenomena, they neither increase or decrease.
So what if relationship and the fixated objects of grasping and fixation are shown by analysis not to exist? Then
all the fixations of fools are confused. A small child does has no such superimposed doctrines and distinctions, but later
becomes accustomed to projecting obscurations drawn from doctrines of bad learning. The Complete Ascertainment says:
Beings will become rigidified,
Not seeing how virtue is harmed.
Kye ma! Who dealt this mess?
Unbearable devils of doctrine?
The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, all dharmas are mere symbols, mere imputations. These mere symbols, mere
imputations, are incidental. They are empty of essence.
c. Since mind does not emit anything, objects do not arise.
As for the example of the instruction of not fixating this non-relationship:
Just as various forms appear within a mirror,
Phenomenal objects rise in the space of sense awareness.
By grasping them we feel desire and aggression.
Then there is the confusion of the samsaric world.
Bring them all together, not projecting the mind.
No objective phenomena arise within the mind.
Being essenceless, they do not exist as two.
This short passage about the well-known example is added to make this easier to understand. When the
reflection of a face appears in a mirror, does one's face eject the reflection so that they become two? Or does the reflection
appear to be like the face, while not ejected out of the face? As for individual appearance in the faculties of the six senses,
mind does not eject itself as an external object. Nor does the object appear within the phenomenal apprehension of sense
awareness. The face does not eject itself and become the reflection or image; but the reflection is supposed to appear like
it.
When phenomena arise the way they are grasped by mind is samsaric confusion. If these objects are analyzed,
mind is not externally ejected, and the external phenomena allegedly apprehended do not shoot in and arise internally. As
what they appear to be, they do not arise anywhere.
The mind of phenomenal arising too is not established externally, internally, or in between. Then fixation of
phenomena does not exist. If phenomena are analyzed, they are essenceless. What arises is unestablished. Phenomena,
object and perceiver are things could not possibly be established. The Mula-madhyamaka-karikas says:
Where are they supported? Where do they arise?
In brief such things cannot exist as what they are.
And since they cannot be something other than they are,
They are not nothingness, and they are not eternal.
d. Since object and mind are natureless, they are self-liberated.
Appearing like this:
Objects all are one because they are without an essence.
All theories are one because their objects cannot be grasped. Appearance and mind are not two, but one
primordial purity.
There is no need for analysis or examination.
They are a single fundamental liberation,
As the various things in a dream occur within a single state of sleep, all apparent variety is one in naturelessness.
Appearances seem to arise continually, but thoughts as one can apprehend no essence to them, like waves that are only a
state of a single body of water. Just as obscured vision is one with the eye-awareness that grasps it, appearance and mind
are one within non-dual dharmata. Requiring no examination or analysis at all, beyond examination and analysis, the
nature of this pleasure garden in the sky is taught to be that of the sky itself. The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
Just as with perception of the ego
Train the mind with every kind of awareness.
The essence of all dharmas is emptiness.
They are completely pure like the space of the sky.
The All-Creating King says:
Thus, since all the dharmas of the phenomenal world
Are a unity within the unborn state,
No grasping and fixation are there to be perceived.
Beyond the reach of conceptions of either thought or speech
Their nature is a single space that is like the sky
e. If one realizes that what arises is self-liberated, that is sagacious:
Non-dual Samsara/ nirvana, is one within the mind:
A variety of rivers are one within the ocean.
All has the equal taste of single co-emergence.
The change of the four elements is one in the state of space,
One in freedom from mental negation or assertion,
One because whatever arises is liberated,
One in the purity of non-duality.
The play of waves is one with the water that is their substance.
Whoever realizes this can be said to be sagacious.
As rivers flowing from the four directions are one within the ocean, samsara and nirvana are one within the
mind. The All-Creating King says:
Both the environment and the inhabitants,
Buddhas and sentient beings, all the phenomenal world
Were made by mind, and they are one within the mind.
Whatever changes there may be in the four elements, they do not depart from space. So whatever phenomenal
experiences of the view, meditation, action, and fruition may arise are one within the co-emergent natural state. the
Highest Peak says:
That which is co-emergent with the natural state
Is all of one taste with that, and it is one with that.
Assertions and negations that arise within the mind are one in being empty, because they have moved from the
suchness of co-emergent wisdom. As waves are one with water, what arises is one with the unborn. The complexities of
mind are one with the nature of mind. That nature is primordially without emanation and gathering. The Embodiment of
Realization says:
Complexity has no complexity.
Discursive thoughts dissolve in the ground like water mixing with water. The Dohakosha says:
As when water is poured into water,
That water becomes of one taste;
Lord Buddha does not see
Minds having faults and virtues.
The lord Buddha, the nature of mind, is without complexity, beyond objects of seeing. Those who know that are
sagacious. The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
To completely analyze the meaning, within the words of the sagacious there are no conceptual
thoughts.
3. The instruction that the meaning of being without accepting and rejecting is being without grasping and fixation
a) The final summary, introductory:
Here all dharmas are not grasped as different.
These reflections have the nature of non-duality.
This play has no good and evil, accepting or rejecting.
Let us rest where the mind does not fixate duality.
Since essentially pure suchness arising as play, is beyond action, seeking, memory, and thought, as for resting in
the non-duality of mahasukha, the All-Creating King says:
Within the unborn, in dharmata completely pure,
The appearance of things that are born rises like a reflection.
Since the nature of what arises is non-dual,
Rest in mahasukha, the effortless nature of suchness.
b) the nature of the great perfection is without fixation
When one rests there:
Fixed objects do not arise when there are no reference points.
Insight without fixation is the completeness of being,
The nature of the great perfection, the natural state.
At this time non-fixating insight arises in natural freedom from all assertions and denials. The great perfection
is spontaneously present.
The All-Creating King says:
Kye! I, bodhicitta, the king, who am the doer of all,
have no glorification and denigration of objects.
I meditate without any thoughts of anything.
Artifacts of the three gates rest naturally as they are,
Naturally liberated, just as they arise.
Just as unborn space transcends all partial divisions,
So the nature of mahasandhi should be known.
I. The dedication of merit
Now there is the dedication of merit:
Thus, because of the equal nature of all dharmas,
Having passed the pass of fixations of intellect.
With limitless awareness bound in servitude,
May our exhausted minds today ease their weariness.
By the merit of presenting this garland of the wondrously-arisen Dharma of instantaneous liberation into the
essential meaning, may whatever beings there may be, enter into being the space of the great freedom from partiality. The
fences of their personal doctrines and their view and meditation do not encounter the nature without bondage and
liberation. They are bound in assertion, denial, and so forth, wearied by attachment to true existence. May these rest in
spontaneous adherence to the conceptionless nature of the great perfection. This the vast space of the doer of all,
bodhicitta.
The heaped up clouds in the sky of the unborn essence
Resounding with the thunder of emptiness, effortless suchness,
By the unmoving nature of mind, the level of enlightenment,
See the inexpressible essence of perfect equality.
May the minds of sentient beings, the state of confusion
Which have entered the entrapments of grasping and fixation,
Cross without exception into the nature of purity,
Known as the great vastness, equal space free from existing,
The field of Samantabhadra, where all is eternally perfect.
Sailing waters disturbed by conception-related prana,
May all who far from profundity fixate reflected forms,
In the cool lake of non-thought, which is self-arising wisdom
Come to rest in spontaneous motionless clarity.
XI
The Commentary on the Eleventh Chapter THE NATURE OF MIND, THE EASE OF WEARINESS, the CHAPTER OF
THE PATH, SPOTLESS DHYANA, THE UNION OF SHAMATHA AND VIPASHYANA
Now that we have gained confidence in the view of the great freedom from extremes, the nature of all dharmas,
there is
XI. Meditation, the chapter of spotless samadhi
There are four parts.
A. Having, resolved the view, the teaching of meditation.
B. The teaching of the gradations of powers by which one meditates.
C. The explanation of the stages of the path of meditation.
D. The dedication of merit.
A. Having resolved the view, one should meditate:
Having explained the view of the great freedom from extremes, the natural state like the sky, in which all
dharmas are by nature unborn; now there is the teaching of meditation, self-arising wisdom luminous like the sun and
moon. As just explained:
And so when we have seen the equality of all dharmas,
It is important to rest within the natural state.
After first cutting through extremes with the view, by meditation rest within that. Otherwise we will not be
liberated from the host of kleshas or perfect the virtues of the path. Therefore we really ought to meditate. Rest in the sky-
like purity of the natural state, cutting through complexities of hope and fear. The All-creating King says:
Kye Ho vajra being! Now meditate on the meaning.
In dharmata enlightenment without any meditation,
There are neither meditation or its object,
To rest in the nature without meditation is meditation.
The meaning is the unborn, which is the meaning of all.
When the marks of discursive thought are apprehended as suchness,
None of the motions of memory, discursive thoughts, and mind,
Can cause the least distraction from the unborn state.
When it is known that thinking like that is meditation,
Resting in non-meditation will never be distracted.
Also:
Kye Ho vajra being! Now you should meditate well!
Whatever appears, all the dharmas of sight and sound,
To one who well knows the meaning, are only that single meaning.
When the nature has manifested, that which has been shown,
Is realized to be the nature of the unborn itself.
Hopeless fearless non-distraction is meditation.
After hearing, contemplate and meditate on the meaning. This is so that the essence may arise in our being.
The Sutra of Ascertaining the Truth of Suchness says:
Shariputra, if someone listens to the Dharma for ten kalpas, and someone else meditates for merely the time of a
finger-snap in the samadhi of suchness, the merit of the second will be increased much more than that
of the first.
B. The gradation of powers of those who meditate into high, middle, and low
1. Those of the highest powers,
a. How the very highest will be liberated:
Meditators:
There are levels of this teaching for those of different capacities.
Those of the highest powers will be liberated
By their realization of the natural state.
Meditation and its object are seen to be non-dual.
The phenomenal world is liberated as the ground.
Unbounded insight flows along like the stream of a river.
Having the good fortune of formerly accumulated merit, those of the highest powers, with the condition of the
holy guru, are liberated just by realizing that they are already liberated. This brings them into the natural state beyond
meditation and meditator, like the sky. Without needing to work at meditation, their constant yogic union with the nature
of mind is like the stream of a river. The All-creating King says:
Kye! what is taught by me the teacher the doer of all,
Is the all-inclusive unborn, completely pure samadhi.
Not depending on coarse conditions of meditating or not,
The object of meditation is whatever dharmas appear.
There is no particular way of where and how to rest.
This is liberation of things as they are without seeking is meditation.
Kye! within these oral instructions of non-meditation,
Since this is the meaning that goes beyond words and speech,
No former generations taught the doer of all.
Later ones will never teach the doer of all.
Even now the doer of all is not being taught.
Kye! By the teacher of teachers, the doer of all, the King,
The meaning is being displayed of unerring realization,
The essence beyond all glorification and denigration,
Like meditation and non-meditation disputing space.
b. Becoming Space free from meditation and meditator.
When such meditation becomes Space, as for the meaning or object:
We cannot delineate sessions with a definite, "this is it."
All is self-liberated as the field of Samantabhadra.
This self-arising vastness, which is the space of the ground,
Is suchness which has been like that from all eternity.
There is no straying, and also, there is no place we could stray.
It takes no special skill. We get no profit from it.
Convinced that there is no attainment nor non-attainment,
We are buddhas right now, without even having to ask.
Yogins like this are universal like the sky.
When we have been liberated from attachment to true existence, there is no meditation on antidotes. For that
matter, there is no meditation at all. There no breaks between sessions. We continually abide in non-attachment to true
existence. This play without fixation, self-liberation beyond partiality, is experience of the field of Samantabhadra. The
All-Creating King says:
Kye! if we have attained the empowerment of the King,
Insight does not fabricate, suchness always rises.
Absence of cause and conditions is the path of excellent peace.
What rests in the ground is resting in itself.
The great upaya of the King, the doer of all,
Is the empowerment of ultimate realization.
If we enter into all objects exactly as they are,
We know both faults and virtues as equality.
Then we go beyond both entering and non-entering.
The changeless self-existence of the field of the King
Is the self-perfected nature--No progress, no renouncing.
As when we meditate on things and characteristics, there are no identifying signs and criteria. The same text
says:
Like the dharmas of grasping at things and characteristics,
Criteria and signs are non-existent, like space.
With nothing we are supposed to reach, there is nowhere to go astray. With nothing in particular we are
supposed to look at, the seer can have no obscuration. The same text says:
As for this itself, the nature of bodhicitta,
It is the essence of all the dharmas without remainder.
The unborn is completely pure and unobscured.
Without a path to tread, there is no such thing as straying.
Because of straying, obscuration, purification, improvement, view, and meditation, we look right at the nature of
mind without seeing it, and obscuration arises. Trying to progress where there is no such thing is already straying. The
same text says:
Within bodhicitta, the single nature of all dharmas,
Counting the one with numbers is straying and obscuration.
Progressing where there is no progress, straying rises.
By having a view about how things are without conception,
The nature is not seen and there will be obscurations.
From the time we become convinced that our own mind is really the primordial self-existence of buddhahood,
we know enough not to aspire to any buddhahood other than that. From that very moment we abide on the level of
buddhahood. The same text says:
Since the nature of mind is primordial enlightenment,
We cannot succeed or fail, and there is no hope and fear.
Also:
Since I, the doer of all, am that which is all-inclusive,
Therefore I am explained to be complete perfection.
From the triple nature of me, the doer of all,
Teacher, teaching, and retinue all arise into being.
With those the label "doer of all" has also arisen."
First, as for nature of the perfect teacher,
From the self-arising wisdom of me, the doer of all,
The triple nature of the three kayas has arisen.
Trikaya is taught to be the three-fold perfect teacher.
Regarding such a mantra-yogin the same text says:
The individual body of a god or human being
Is realization, dharmata, and buddhahood.
c. The instruction of how intermediate and lesser ones should meditate
Those of average and low capacities
Have to make an effort to be familiar with this.
Until fixations of ego have subsided into space,
They must use various skillful means of meditation
Because they are not free of ego-grasping, the cause of samsara, those of average and lesser powers have to work
hard at meditation. Here there are distinctions between meditation and non-meditation and the grasping and fixation of
mind subsiding or not subsiding into space. The All-Creating King says:
As for duality and pure non-dual wisdom
They are labeled as meditation and non-meditation.
d. The suitability of meditation
Those who have not reached self-arising and self-liberation, have the usual ordinary thoughts:
Evil discursive thoughts have led them into samsara.
To be free from these they use the means of meditation.
Later vast prajqa rises, free from all extremes.
By conceptions one falls into samsara, Dharmakirti's Praise to Manjushri says:
Conceptions are great ignorance.
It is these that make us sink
In the ocean of samsara.
If we are without conceptions,
We will pass beyond
the sufferings of conceptions.
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
By constant conception we wander
In the wilderness of samsara.
Because of constant formation
Of karma and the kleshas,
Hundreds of sufferings
Are made to manifest.
Since these are pacified by meditating, by doing so the prajqa in which all dharmas are perfectly liberated is sure
to arise.
e. The need to unite shamatha and vipashyana
Kleshas are first suppressed by one-pointed shamatha.
Then, by vipashyana, they are eradicated.
The All-Supreme Clouds says:
By shamatha the kleshas are suppressed.
By vipashyana they turn into perfect enjoyment.
The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Having learned the kleshas will be overcome
By vipashyana possessing excellent shamatha;
First of all one should search for shamatha,
Established by genuine joy, without any worldly desire.
Regarding the single essence and the dualistic individual, resting or being in the first is shamatha. Luminosity
or clarity of the second is vipashyana. Shamatha and vipashyana are unified by realizing luminosity/emptiness free from
extremes. This is liberation from samsara. The Spiritual Letter says:
Without any prajqa dhyana will not exist.
Without any dhyana, also there is no prajqa.
Where these exist as two, there is samsara.
Get rid of it like a trace of polluted seas.
Difference has two divisions. There is difference according to words and difference according to the meaning.
As for the first, hearing about one pointed mind, is shamatha. Realizing the meaning of this is vipashyana.
As for the second, by meditating, first, establishing one pointedness is shamatha. Later, realizing that as
natureless is vipashyana. The Clouds of the Three Jewels says:
Shamatha is one-pointed of mind. Vipashyana distinguishes dharmas as they really are.
The Commentary of Ascertaining the Intention says:
There are two kinds of shamatha and vipashyana, according respectively to prajqa and the
oral instructions. As for those arising from prajqa, mental comprehension of the words of the twelve
aspects of sutra is shamatha. Realization of the meaning is vipashyana. As for that arising from the
oral instructions, producing motionless mind by the oral instructions is shamatha. Realization of the
meaning of that is vipashyana.
f. The explanation of the reason
The reason:
For the highest, evil thoughts dissolve in dharmakaya.
With neither good nor evil, we need no antidote.
Average ones meditate on unity with clear brilliance.
Thoughts of good and evil vanish into space.
Then there is realization of unity like the sky.
Lower ones first must search for the peace of shamatha.
Attaining a steady ease, whatever may be perceived.
Then, by vipashyana's discriminating awareness,
Everything is liberated as the ground:
Inner as well as outer, appearance as well as mind.
Thus, it is important to know the gradation of powers.
Those who come to an island of gold, will not find ordinary rocks and stones, even if they look for them. So, for
those of supreme powers, whatever arises is liberated as dharmakaya. When the antidotes are liberated into space,
meditation with sessions and breaks is unnecessary. The All-Creating King says:
In uncreated suchness, the Buddha's realization,
How can conceptions of mind and mental events arise?
By knowing how to rest in unborn suchness itself,
One is free from characteristics of doing and seeking.
Average ones, by realizing the view, rest within the unborn, clarity free from drowsiness and discursiveness, like
a motionless undisturbed pond. By that they unify shamatha and vipashyana. After discursive thoughts subside into
space, sky-like realization arises. The Basket of Holy Samadhi says:
If we rest the mind
Exactly as it is,
In the dharmata of suchness,
Experience unobstructed
By any names arises.
This is called samadhi.
Lesser ones are stirred up like unruly monkeys and can hardly rest at all. They moisten the mind with one-
pointed shamatha, Then as a further antidote, by meditating on vipashyana they discriminate all dharmas as natureless
emptiness and all appearances as illusion and so forth. By that they realize the unborn. The Sutra Requested by Maitreya
says:
Having established shamatha, train in vipashyana.
From the three sections on
2. How those of average powers should meditate, first there is:
a. The instruction to rest in non-thought
Those who have average powers in their ways of meditation also are of three kinds:
Now meditation for those of average powers is taught.
Just as when troubled water is being tossed by waves,
Reflections of bright stars are unsteady and unclear,
The undisciplined mind is lured into unsteadiness,
When it becomes preoccupied with complexities.
The luminous nature of mind and the clarity of wisdom,
The stars of the eyes and higher perceptions, do not arise.
Unwavering one-pointed meditation is important.
When water is agitated by waves, reflections that may arise are not grasped. Though the mind has self-existing
virtues of the higher perceptions and so forth, because of disturbing waves of false conceptions, these virtues do not
manifest. Therefore meditating in unity is important. The Dohakosha says:
By waves of prana included in the mind
Moving and stirring, the mind becomes unruly.
If the co-emergent nature is realized,
By that one's nature will be stabilized.
Rest like that, with no disturbance by the waves of thoughts. The water of mind will rest motionless, self-
illuminated by the luminous lamp of the nature of mind. The same text says:
The excellent lord who is without any waves,
Samadhi without disturbance, will occur.
Rest in the water and the self-luminous lamp.
Not coming and going or accepting and rejecting.
b. The extensive teaching of how to meditate
1) The points of posture and means of resting
Free from the three extremes, rest in the nature of the three motionlessness.
The body is like Mount Meru, with the seven points of posture,
Because the senses are free from the limits of extremes,
Sensation is like the stars reflected in a pond.
The empty, luminous mind is as clear as the shining sky.
Neither drowsy or discursive, rest in simplicity.
As for the seven points of motionless body, as one meditates:
1 the legs are crossed
2 the hands are in the meditation mudra
3 the back is straight
4 the tongue touches the palate
5 the breath is slow
6 the eyes are focused on the tip of the nose
7 the neck is slightly bent forward.
As for motionlessness of the senses, the eyes do not fidget. The ears, nose, tongue, and body are not hindered.
Whatever forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, and thoughts may arise, their sense doors are not hindered, but neither do
we pursue them. The five eyes, the divine eye and so forth, and the six higher perceptions, are virtues of resting the mind.
If the doors of perception are hindered, clarity will not be attained. If we follow after thoughts, their continuity will not be
cut. We will be no different from ordinary people.
Therefore, within the motionless pond of sense-awareness, meditate by letting objects of individual appearance
arise without obstruction, like reflected stars and planets. If that discrimination of objects is not grasped, in addition to no
harm being done, individual virtues will arise. This non-conceptualization of phenomenal appearance is the wisdom of
non-conception or non-thought.
If there are no phenomena, the mind perceiving these will also be absent. With apprehension neither of thought
nor non-thought, the wisdom of complete non-thought will be absent. Therefore, when objects appear in the senses, rest
in non-thought. By the guru of individual and personal awareness, there will be a gap in the coming and going of
thoughts. This is the cessation of prana, and at that time realization will manifest. Though the prana of breathing moves
in the nose and mouth, thoughts will not move. In this gap in complexities, the time of simplicity where thoughts are
pacified, there is no need to meditate on the antidote. Why talk about needing an antidote for complexity, in the presence
of the yogini of simplicity, prajqa? Saying that is it not necessary, the Dohakosha says:
The eyes are not closed, and mind too is unhindered.
As for cessation of prana, the glorious guru is realized.
At that time the cause of prana does not move,
Let alone with the yogini at the time of death.
That pith-resolution is called naturalness or non-fabrication of the six senses. Though objects appear within the
senses, sense awareness does not conceptualize them. They rest naturally. Realization of luminous ultimate samadhi in
addition to that is not only not harmful, but facilitates the blossoming of enlightenment. The same text says:
As great an assembly of sense objects as may befall,
These without selfhood and karma completely blossom.
Motionless mind resting without the extremes of complexity will arise within the motionlessness of the body and
senses. As for resting in that clear mind without complexities, not moving from luminosity, the same text says:
Things and non-things both are bonds of the Sugata.
Do not distinguish samsara from equality.
The yogin and the oneness of the natural state
Should be known to be like water poured into water.
At that time, objects appearing as external things, and the non-thing mind of inner awareness, preoccupied with
thoughts within, bind co-emergent sugatagarbha. Because of that obscuration there are samsara and nirvana and good
and bad. Even our own samadhi, because of attachment and grasping, will not be produced at all. By not conceptualizing
things and non-things, when the time arises of not wishing for anything else, all the entities of false conception without
remainder dissolve into the ground, the nature of mind. When mind becomes motionless and stable, we are liberated from
samsara. Without dualistic grasping and attachment to self and other, we attain the body of dharmakaya, the great
transcendence of thought and expression. The same text says:
When we completely analyze things as well as non-things,
There all beings without remainder are dissolved.
Then mind is motionless, becoming totally stable,
It is self-liberated from the things of samsara.
When both self and other are completely unknown,
Then the unsurpassable body will be attained.
The All-Creating King says:
Kye! within the realm of suchness of mahasukha
Do not exert the three gates; do not produce fabrications.
Do not engage the mind or follow after marks.
Rest in the meaning of bliss, which is self-arising wisdom.
This is realization of self-rising luminosity.
This is the actualization of buddha activity.
This is the realization of the doer of all the King.
2) How virtues arise
When one meditates like that in complete simplicity:
This is the single nature of the primordial state,
Dharmakaya with no perception of grasped and grasper.
In the spotless luminosity of the heart of the sun,
There arise bliss, luminosity, and complete non-thought,
And there is neither any center or any limit.
By passing beyond conception and thought into dharmata, discursive thoughts dissolve into space.
Then there arises realization of the equal taste of dharmakaya, the luminous great perfection together with the
nyam, the experiences of bliss, luminosity, and non-thought. This is the great symbol beyond example and
meaning. The All-Creating King says:
The three times are a single one without distinction.
Arising is primordial, with neither before nor after.
Because dharmakaya is one and completely all-pervading,
One rests within the nature of the greatest of the great.
Also:
This wondrously arisen play is free from karma like space.
From thoughtless ignorance that immediately arises.
The Dohakosha says:
If we try hard, holding the guru's instruction,
Co-emergence will doubtlessly arise.
Its colors and qualities, unexampled by letters,
Are ineffable and pointless to describe.
Like attachment to the heart's bliss of a princess,
Who can teach that ultimate lord of Being?
The Sutra of the Ultimate Samadhi says:
In the state of dharmata,
Inconceivable by thought,
As mind rests without thought,
Experience without bias
Will certainly arise.
This is called samadhi.
3) How to realize dharmata
When this co-emergent self-arising wisdom arises, from the viewpoint of the mind of the yogin:
Appearance and emptiness are an all-pervading unity,
Transcending all the extremes of existence and non-existence.
Samsara and nirvana are not conceived as two.
Knowing and its objects are of a single essence.
See these as neither equal or not with dharmata.
The inner and outer dharmin, the eight examples of illusion, and dharmata, the essence by nature unborn, are
not different. This is seeing the overall unity of appearance and emptiness. The All-Creating King says:
Whatever appears is one in the state of suchness.
As for this unfabricated king of equality,
Realization of dharmakaya, arises from within.
The nature of mind beyond the extremes of existence and non-existence, the pure motionless luminosity of
wisdom, arises as the non-dual play of samsara and nirvana. The same text says:
Pacifying beginning, middle, and end,
Pacifying samsara and nirvana,
With the spontaneous presence of great bliss,
By matchless wisdom aware of autonomy,
Dharmas will not arise as something other.
At that time, knowable objects and the knower, mind, arise as the equality of non-dual wisdom. The same text says:
Both inner and outer are subsequently inner.
This profound aspect has no conceptual objects.
4) The main cause of the wisdom of the noble ones
This is the cause of wisdom that sees the noble truths
Then the eye of mind, which is the seer of suchness,
Will perfectly establish the buddhadharmakaya.
May the fortunate rest in this equality.
From becoming increasingly familiar with wisdom without complexity, the path of seeing and the others above
are self-established. As to how this occurs, the Namnge says:
This what is real and what is not
Having become completely familiar with these,
If that familiarity is perfected,
The fruition is bliss, luminosity, and non-thought.
c. The extensive teaching of the eight means of resting
1) Resting undistracted in simplicity
As for resting without many distractions of emanation and gathering,
In the unborn nature of mind, which is purity like the sky,
Events within the mind are not solidified.
But left to fade and vanish like a heap of clouds.
Rest in what is and what eternally has been so,
The undisturbed awareness of simplicity
Rest thoughts and mental contents as they are in the sky-like nature of mind, watching them fade away like
clouds. As for meditating in that undisturbed state, the nature which is exemplified, the All Creating King says:
Kye Ho vajra being, meditate in suchness.
By realizing liberation a it is,
Undistracted resting in the nature is effortless.
All is self-arising and also self liberated.
Also:
This unborn nature of mind that is like the sky
Is unborn and ceaseless. Rest within that nature.
2) Resting in clear luminosity without disturbance
While resting in clear luminosity without disturbance:
We should let ourselves be like a clear and vacant ocean,
Free from the turbulent waves of grasping and fixation.
Clear because mind does not arise, smooth because it is not discursive, be like an ocean resting where it is, clear
and pure of conceptual disturbances and defiling thoughts. The All-Creating King says:
The samadhi of a clear and peaceful ocean
Is not produced by word-dependent mind.
It is suchness pure of all disturbance.
Also:
When this is known, by resting within it undisturbed,
Not engaging in effort, the mind does not train in antidotes.
Objects are not abandoned, and mindfulness is not gathered.
Since anything that arises is itself the meaning,
Enter into the meaning of me the doer of all.
3) Resting free from partiality like the sky
Resting free from partiality like the sky:
We should let ourselves be like an empty, luminous sky,
Impartial and free from any clouds of discursive thought.
Rest in the primordially empty sky-like nature of mind, without emanating and gathering discursive thoughts.
The All-Creating King says:
Kye great vajra being, now you should meditate.
Within the enlightened nature that does not accept or reject,
Rest like space, without fabrications of body and mind.
Not meditating, because of being completely without
The attachment and fixation involved with attaining perfection,
Completely peaceful like space, free from all disturbance,
Have nothing to do with objects or notions of realization.
4) Resting in spontaneous actionlessness
As for resting free from assertion and denial, hope and fear:
Let us be firm and steady like the King of Mountains.
Free from hope and fear, let us neither affirm nor deny.
With the mind motionless like the king of mountains, rest without discursive thoughts of denial and assertion.
The All-Creating King says:
Kye! the teacher of teachers, the doer of all, the king,
Cuts the bonds of duality by realization,
By simply resting in uncontradicted equality,
Realization of me, the doer of all, is established.
That which binds, discursive thought, has been cut through.
Not working on liberation, never gaining nirvana,
The essential meaning does not fixate biased conceptions.
Do not meditate on the goal, nor objects of compassion.
5) Resting in apparent objects as unobstructed
Resting the five gates in their intrinsic luminosity:
We should let ourselves be a clear and luminous mirror,
Within which apparent objects are like ceaseless reflections.
In the openness of clear and luminous mind, rest undistracted as the variegated apparent objects of the senses
vanish like mist. The All-Creating King says:
Kye, therefore vajra being now you should meditate.
Though our natural wisdom lies beyond conceptions.
In realizing it conceptual meaning need not be abandoned.
Just go beyond objects and do not guard consciousness.
As things are clearly the essence, do not meditate.
With phenomena clearly the essence, neither hope not fear.
6) resting in the clear luminosity of primordial liberation
Resting in clear luminosity, undefiled by antidotes:
Like a rainbow, eternally liberated as it is,
Let us shine purely, neither drowsy nor discursive.
As for resting without drowsiness or discursiveness in the clear luminous openness of mind, the All-Creating
King says:
Kye Ho vajra being, now you should meditate well.
By appearance of the goal as the pure space of the unborn,
Apparent things are not seen, and fear is not produced.
Appearance is self-liberation into the unborn.
Liberation realizes empty suchness in non-meditation.
Rest like that. Knowing appearance as emptiness is knowing that it is like a rainbow.
7) Resting one-pointedly like an archer
Resting with one-pointed attention:
We should let ourselves be undistracted like an archer,
In natural wisdom that neither gathers nor emanates.
Resting with mind undistracted from dharmata, precisely and directly focus the eyes like an archer aiming an
arrow, the All-Creating King says:
The oral instruction is that this essence of non-meditation
Ought to be grasped with undistracted mindfulness.
8) Resting without action in spontaneous presence
Having put ourselves at ease, as for resting there:
Let us be like those who are sure their work is done,
And rest in spontaneous presence with neither hope nor fear.
To rest mind as it is, resolving it into the spontaneous resting of dharmakaya, relax naturally into absence of
hope and fear. Then stay there. The All-Creating King says:
Kye, the yogin who enters and meditates on this path
Dwells from now on on the level of the Victorious One.
Not fixating realization, not grasping with partial bias,
Go into the essence beyond success and failure.
Having relaxed the three gates naturally, rest in mere non-distractedness with no need for concentrated
mindfulness. Even if we let ourselves be distracted and fall into ordinariness, our ordinary awareness rests in spontaneous
non-distraction. The same text says:
Kye, for the teacher of teachers, the doer of all, the king
In dharmata without meditation, thought, or concept
To rest while thoughts subside, is falling into samsara.
Seeking and meditating is the path of conceptualization.
How so? The same text says:
Kye O vajra being, now meditate in suchness.
Let the body be, and do not blunt the senses.
Do not try to discipline speech in any way.
Let the mind rest where it is. There is no need to move it.
By meditating in this actionless buddha activity,
Doing nothing at all the goal will be perfected.
Also:
Kye, to yogins having the fortune of entering all at once,
When realization of the doer of all is taught,
Not intimate mindfulness of the Space of realization,
But no meditation or entering is what they should be taught.
9. summarizing the meaning of the eight means of resting
Of these eight means of resting:
Here within the natural purity of samadhi
Shamatha and vipashyana are unified.
When we rest within the unborn, that is shamatha.
Vipashyana is simple, luminous emptiness.
They are united by having an essence inseparably one.
With neither grasping nor fixation, there is naturally pure samadhi. This is how to unify shamatha and
vipashyana. Resting in being is shamatha. The luminosity of that time is vipashyana. Although this is said, these are
inseparable, and from the time they are labeled as "unity," they are indivisible. In shamatha, "resting in peace," any
perception of resting in peace is pacified. In vipashyana, "clear seeing," conceptualization of clear seeing does not occur.
Therefore they are inseparably one in the natural state. The Bodhisattva Pitaka Sutra says:
The bodhisattva's shamatha is contemplation of reality. Not even perception of peace exists.
Vipashyana sees the view, but never looks back even at the view. Therefore, what is seen is genuinely
seen.
6. Treading the Path
Having learned how to see the inexpressible by the eight means of resting, now, as we rest like that, there is the
explanation of how to tread the path by means of four kinds of wisdom. Of these four, as for the teaching of
1) The wisdom of appearance
As by the eight means of resting the mind rests in the natural state:
Now this profound and peaceful simplicity of mind
Sees the truth that is inexpressible by speech,
The wisdom of appearance, utterly without concept,
The luminosity known as prajqaparamita.
The first arising of clear, luminous, motionless wisdom is the wisdom of appearance. This is the peace of mind's
entering into the nature of mind beyond speech, thought, and expression. Its luminosity is the meaning of perfect
knowledge, the prajqaparamita. The Precious Ocean says:
There are four kinds of luminosity.
After them is the level of the great wisdom.
Appearance is completely without conception.
The wisdom of increase comprehends illusion.
Final attainment, the path of the noble ones.
Complete attainment, finished with that path.
Nyime Namgyal connects these with the four situations of the bardo. They are explained as ways of liberation.
Those who attain recognition that things are like that right now are liberated.
Though at this point realization is not complete, by the wisdom of appearance first arising, one recognizes the
nature of mind, the wisdom of the natural state.
By the path of liberation being already accomplished, one has planted the seed of enlightenment.
2) The wisdom of luminosity:
By seeing this the mind is totally in peace.
There is little attachment to affirmation and negation,
Regarding the various dharmas, external and internal.
Impartial compassion arises out of this emptiness.
Inspiring us to virtuous actions for self and others.
At this time we have an enjoyment of solitude,
Feeling a need for few distractions and entertainments.
Even in dreams our behavior will be wholesome and proper.
Now we are taking command of the path to liberation.
When wisdom recognizes the luminous nature of mind as the ground, incidental false conceptions are liberated
as they are, and the mother and son luminosities mix. By only virtuous behavior, there is the outer variety of the five
dharma objects.
The mind of inner cognition complete with its assertions and denials, is free from all attachment. From the self
luminous emptiness of mind, by the arising of impartial compassion for sentient beings near and far, one also benefits
oneself. One encourages only virtue. One delights in isolated mountain valleys, forests, and so on, abandoning
distractions and occupations. With this absence of unvirtuous thoughts, finally, even in dreams, only white and virtuous
appearances rise. With body, speech and mind completely trained, "shinjang," the virtues of the path of accumulation are
in one's being. In the meditation hall one sees various manifestations of luminosity. The Lankavatara Sutra says:
Without any thoughts, having straightened the body,
To the Buddha and also to enlightenment
Having done prostrations again and again,
We should meditate on selflessness.
If having yoga we meditate on that,
We will have the lotus life empowerment.
We will be protectors for all beings.
If those possessing yoga make an effort,
Like the space of the sun and of the moon,
Mind is radiant and lotus-like,
Depicting truth like fire in the sky
Then:
At that time the godlike hand of buddhahood
By having arisen from all the buddha fields,
Anoints their heads with blessing and empowerment.
This is a sign of engagement with the real.
3) The wisdom of proliferation
With these:
Then by greater and greater familiarity,
Clarity and wisdom are more than they were before.
Appearance is realized to be like dreams and illusions.
When born and unborn alike are seen to be non-existent,
Dharmas are of one taste in non-duality.
This proliferating wisdom becomes complete non-thought.
We attain meditation that is adorned with joy.
By becoming more and more familiar with these former realities, obscurations to the empty luminous mind of
self-arising wisdom diminish. There are great waves of prajqa, samadhi, and enlightened experience. External
appearances are naturally seen as dream and illusion. The many natures of dharmas arise as realization of one taste.
Resting in this space-like state is the wisdom of proliferation. The Stages of the Path of Miracle says:
Even in dreams illusion will be seen.
It proliferates and increases.
4) The sign of attaining heat
At this time:
Now both body and mind are purer than before.
There is spotless realization of prajqa and upaya.
Through the higher perceptions, compassion accomplishes benefits.
Saddened with samsara, we thoroughly renounce it.
Even in our dreams, all dharmas are realized thus.
Our bodies will have no lice or nits, or any worms.
We will be free from drowsiness and discursiveness,
Established in the state of samadhi day and night.
Such people will quickly see the path of the noble ones.
By spotless realization, there is the special sign of body and mind being shinjanged. By resting day and night in
the samadhi of special union, we become inseparable from it. By compassion, activity to benefit beings, sadness and
extraordinary renunciation for samsara arise. Even in dreams, all dharmas are seen as dreams, illusions, and so forth.
There will be no worms within the body and no lice and other parasites on its surface. One will attain the signs of the
path of preparation and quickly come in contact with the path of seeing. The former text says:
By its increase, it is not difficult
To attain fully the path of the noble ones.
5) The wisdom of the noble ones which is attained
Through greater familiarity this will be more intense.
The sun of wisdom that is realized through samadhi,
Arises now although it never rose before.
Now that we have seen the meaning of its being said
That there exists a single equality of all dharmas,
Possessing the eyes and higher perceptions unobscured,
We see limitless hundreds, thousands, and millions of buddha fields.
This is the spotless wisdom of the noble ones.
This is the manifestation of what we call "attainment."
First, by having seen the spotless wisdom of the luminous nature of mind, what is called the wisdom of
"attainment" is gained.
Internally the hundred and one pranas of the nadis of the heart center are purified. The wisdom of the red and
white essence elements becomes increasingly luminous, and also by illuminating the other chakras, the 1200 special prana
minds are supported, and by the 1200 pranas of the kleshas ceasing, according to mantrayana the inner elements appear
as the primordial buddha fields.
According to the vehicle of characteristics, seeing the faces of a hundred buddhas and so forth is explained as
external appearance manifesting as the buddha fields. According to the level of the bhumis, there are the eyes, and higher
perceptions of an individual being, and obscurations and obstructions are greatly purified, so that one attains non-
obscuration. Seeing false conceptions for what they are, one is completely liberated from the kleshas that are to be
abandoned. Realization of luminous wisdom manifests. The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
Oppressions cease and indignities of the lower realms.
One is free from fear of samsara, unharmed by anxiety.
We are liberated from fear. By becoming familiar with this seeing which has been attained, the dharani-cloud of
wisdom arises.
6) The first attainment of the wisdom of the noble ones:
By letting this increase, grow ever greater and greater still,
The samadhi of realization has countless qualities.
Dharmata is the same whether concepts are there or not.
The nourishing clouds of spotless wisdom still increase.
Meditation and non-meditation are not two.
Resting in meditation then becomes eternal.
Emanations beyond the compass of thoughts will be displayed.
We enter limitless buddha realms and visions of wisdom.
Becoming familiar with what has been seen is the path of meditation. By lesser, middle, and greater
attainments, the previously explained countless virtues of each of the bhumis are attained. By emanations, one benefits
sentient beings. From the first to the seventh bhumis, conceptions in post meditation, separate meditation and post-
meditation. By the manifestation of the three pure bhumis, one is without these conceptions. Meditation and post-
meditation are mixed because they have the single taste of wisdom. The Uttaratantra says:
The mind that always acts and accomplishes
Blazes like a fire.
There and so forth it has previously been explained.
7) How the noble ones are perfected by full attainment
With these special qualities of the vajra body:
With nadis and elements pure, prana as well as mind
Are supreme in great and spotless qualities,
Then there are what are called the wisdoms of full attainment.
Here the path of the noble ones will be completed,
and then enlightenment will quickly be attained.
This is the yana of the heart of luminosity,
Whose fruition liberates fortunate ones within this life.
The wisdom of the path of meditation is called the wisdom of full attainment. By meditating on the eight-fold
noble path, there is co-emergence, and many stains are cleared away. In general, the virtues of the paths and bhumis
appear from the workability of nadi, prana, and bindu. They also become workable through the accumulations of merit
and wisdom and through efforts of purification as required.
There are twenty-one knots in the central channel. By releasing the first two, there is the first bhumi, and so on,
until by releasing the nineteenth and twentieth the virtues of the tenth bhumi arise. The purified is the petals of the nadis.
The purifier is that by wisdom proliferating in the nadi petals, confused appearance attending on prana dries up and is
emptied. By the purifier, the wisdom essence in the wisdom nadis, prana enters into the complete motionlessness of non-
thought. Realization of the paths and bhumis arises.
Moreover, by the workability of the navel emanation chakra, the virtues of union with the accumulations arise.
One sees the face of the nirmanakaya buddha. By the throat enjoyment chakra becoming workable, the fields of
sambhogakaya appear. By the heart chakra becoming workable, there is the path of seeing. By the throat, the
sambhogakaya qualities of the bhumis from the first to seventh appear. By the crown center becoming workable, the
virtues of the three pure bhumis arise. When the twenty-first knot of the central channel is released, all the surrounding
nadis are completely purified, so that the kayas and wisdoms appear.
The Vajra Miracle says:
As for the bhumis and the virtues of the bhumis
From growing and diminishing in the nadis
There is the action of prana and great bliss.
The purifier and ground of purification
Reciprocally wax as the other wanes.
Samsara and nirvana wax and wane.
The chakras, counted as three or four or five
Two times two times that are not perfected,
As the last tenth bhumi, the bhumi of wisdom.
By milking it is said to go up and down.
As explained above, the three chakras correlate with the three kayas. The four accord with those, with the
mahasukhakaya as the fourth. The five are completed by those with the great wisdom as fifth. The twentieth knot of the
chakras is that of the tenth bhumi. The twenty-first is that of perfect buddhahood. When these are released one after
another, we enter into luminosity. How the natural knots in the nadis are released will be additionally explained in
connection with the bardo.
In the situation where the arising of the four luminosities is recognized, as previously taught, the wisdom is in
the middle of the central channel luminosity nadi. In the center of the heart the nature of the great essence arises at the
time of arising and dissolving. As for the way it dissolves, The Subsequent Tantra of the Manifestation of Wisdom says:
At the time of death of sentient beings,
Form dissolves and passes into sound.
Sound and smell, and taste dissolve in touch.
Touch dissolves in the space of dharmadhatu.
At that time the Play of Wisdom says:
First earth dissolves in water.
Then water into fire.
Then fire into air.
Then air into consciousness.
The grasping and fixation
Comprising consciousness,
Now enter luminosity.
By form dissolving into sound, form becomes unclear. By earth dissolving into water, bodily strength
diminishes. By sound dissolving into smell, the ear no longer hears sound. By the dissolving of water into fire, the moist
aspect dries up. The blood essences are forced into the nadis and collect in the roma and kyangma nadis. By smell
dissolving into taste, the nose no longer smells odors. By the dissolving of fire into air, heat is gathered in from the
extremities and enters into the essences in the petals of the four chakras. By smell dissolving into touch, the tongue no
longer experiences taste. By prana dissolving into consciousness, breathing ceases. All the essences of roma and
kyangma go upwards to the tip of the nose.
When touch dissolves into dharmas, the body no longer experiences touchables, and its luster fades.
Consciousness enters into luminosity. The HAM at the top of the central channel dissolves into the white essence of
roma. The red A at the nose dissolves into the red essence of kyangma. By the wisdom of the heart center dissolving into
the great essence of luminosity, after subtle and coarse thoughts have ceased, luminous wisdom arises. The buddhahood
that intrinsically exists within mind appears. From the empty nature of mind the four luminosities of dharmakaya arise,
and from the aspect of appearance, the five luminosities of the spontaneous presence of rupakaya arise.
First are the wisdoms of appearance, proliferation, attainment and complete attainment. As for the first, at the
instant when consciousness dissolves into luminosity, the external sign or appearance is light rays of the five colors,
having merely the aspect of a mirage. This arises when the five essences of the elements dissolve into the center of the
heart. The inner sign or essence is that the wisdoms of bliss, luminosity, and non-thought arise like a mirror. The
Commentary on Non-duality says:
First that mirage is seen,
With light rays of the five colors.
Also:
Appearance of knowables is complete non-thought.
Within that luminosity, abandoning grasping thoughts
Arising does not arise, and neither does the prana.
As they rest quietly, that is the first situation.
By that wisdom, the thirty-three thoughts arising from aggression cease. The Embodiment of Action of
Aryadeva says:
What are the names of the thirty-three thoughts? Non-passion, intermediate non-passion,
extreme non-passion, mental going, coming, suffering, intermediate suffering, extreme suffering,
peace, discursive thoughts, fear, intermediate fear, extreme fear, craving, intermediate craving, extreme
craving, clinging, non-virtue, hunger, thirst, feeling, intermediate feeling, extreme feeling, the
apprehender, apprehended, discrimination, shame, kindness, intermediate kindness, extreme kindness,
fear, hoarding, and envy. Those are the thirty-three naturally existing thoughts.
Second, at the time of the wisdom of the dissolving of the proliferations of appearance, there is a paleness like
that of the rising moon. By the mind entering into alaya, the white radiance of the nadi of arising shines. The inner sign
is that more luminous than before, that is not fixated. The Namgyal says:
The second is like the moon.
Also:
Proliferating aspects are complete non-thought.
Greater luminosity does not fixate thoughts.
Subtle wisdom is non-thought that is free from prana,
In the second situation of resting quietly.
By that wisdom, the thirty-three thoughts arising from passion cease. The Embodiment of Action Chvd|
says:
What are the forty thoughts arising from passion?
1 desire, chags pa
2 intermediate desire, chags pa bar ma
3 extreme desire, kun tu chags pa
4 joy, dga' ba
5 intermediate joy, dga' ba bar ma
6 extreme joy, shin tu dga' ba
7 rejoicing, rangs pa
8 extreme gladness, rab tu mgu ba
9 wonder, ngo mtshar
10 laughing, bgod pa
11 satisfaction, tshim pa
12 embracing, 'khyud pa
13 kissing, 'o byed pa
14 sucking, 'jib pa
15 stable confidence brtan pa
16 play rtsen pa
17 pride, nga rgyal
18 action, bya ba
19 association, 'grogs pa
20 power, stobs pa
21 forgetfulness, dbrog pa
22 delight, spro ba
23 the union of co-emergent joy, lhan cig byed pa'i dga' ba la sbyor ba
24 union with supreme joy, shin tu dga' ba la sbyor ba
25 grace/ playfulness/ flirtatiousness, sgeg ma
26 complete grace , rnam par sgeg ma
27 the fruition of moods zhe 'bras,
28 virtue, dge ba
29 clear words, tshig gsal
30 truth, bden pa
31 untruth, mi bden pa
32 certainty, nges pa
33 clinging, nye bar len pa
34 the giver sbyin pa po
35 criticizing others, gzhan skur pa
36 bravery, dpa' bo
37 shamelessness, ngo tsha med pa
38 deceptiveness, gyo sgyu
39 attractiveness sdug pa
40 wildness, mi srun pa
41 great dishonesty. gya gyu che ba.
These are the forty? thoughts arising from passion.
Third, as for the wisdom of dissolving of proliferation into attainment, the external sign is like the rising of the
sun or brilliance of fire. It appears to be orange. As the klesha mind dissolves into alaya, it is the radiance of the nadi of
discriminating wisdom. As the internal sign, wisdom that does not grasp bliss/luminosity arises even more than before.
The All-Victorious says:
The third is like the sun.
Also:
The wisdom of attainment is complete non-thought.
Not even luminosity, it is very subtle.
Complete luminosity of prana and mind arises
This is the third situation of resting quietly.
By this wisdom the seven thoughts arising from ignorance cease. The Embodiment of Action says:
What are the seven thoughts arising from ignorance? Dullness, true forgetting, confusion,
having nothing to say, sadness, laziness, doubt. All these seven thoughts arising from ignorance cease.
Fourth, the wisdom of attainment dissolving into complete attainment is like dark blue or green twilight. It is
the radiance of the central nadi as the ignorance of alaya dissolves into dharmadhatu. The inner sign is that even more
than before all stains of attachment to clarity and luminosity are purified. The All-Victorious says:
The fourth is like darkness
Also:
Complete attainment is spotlessness without conception.
It is self-arising and self-luminous.
Supreme samadhi has no coarse or subtle natures.
This is the fourth situation, changeless and all pervading.
At that time, the blood and breath essences in the red and white cord-like veins of the heart completely dissolve
into the bindus of A and HAM and the wisdom of ultimate simplicity manifests. This is the buddhadharmakaya. By the
successive arising of these four stages of luminosity, A and HAM are gathered into the nadi petals of the heart, gradually
dissolving into the great essence in the nadis, which they become.
At the time of the first three luminosities, coarse obscurations dissolve into space. At the time of the fourth, by
the dissolving of subtle ones, this moment without all obscuration arises, revealing the first primordial liberation. This is
the time when buddhahood manifests. This renunciation of the buddhas is irreversible. As for its being reversed, though
there is such renunciation in the path of the buddhas, if it is not recognized for what it is, this is reversible in those without
such renunciation.
As for its being irreversible if it is recognized, when we are liberated at the time of recognition, the higher
perceptions and so forth are attained without defilement, and there is no place to turn back to from the luminosity of
dharmakaya.
The self-existing luminosity of rupakaya arises after the four moments. The All-Victorious says:
Fifth, within that cloudless sky,
Non-thought without center or limit arises.
First, from that dark blue radiance, like a cloudless autumn sky, there rises the mandala cluster of Vairochana.
Here within the luminosity of his heart center is the pith of the bodies and buddha fields of the five families. Then the
mandala clusters with Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, and Amoghasiddhi as the principal deities, along with
their retinues, arise. Self-arising from the radiance in their hearts, at that time the mandala of the vajra space of
Akanishta also arises. Those who have formerly encountered and stabilized this will be liberated at that time.
Moreover since the moments of luminosity are days of samadhi, by having now meditated in samadhi, discursive
thoughts will then not be emanated, and the former clear luminosity of the space of cessation will exist, just so, for a long
time. Since the instants of the bardo are the stages of samadhi, from now on it is very important to stabilize them. If these
are not recognized, the dream-like bardo of becoming will instantly appear, half of former appearances, and half of those
of our later existence and place. When these arise, the best reversing the fearsomeness of the bardo by its lack of true
existence, the middle like the illusions of the developing and fulfillment stage, and the lowest by going to refuge and so
forth. It is taught that they are born in the celestial realms and liberated there.
That completes the exposition of how to tread the path of the four luminosities, together with the subsidiary
points.
7. How those of lesser powers, by becoming gradually accustomed to the means of resting, can also accomplish the state
of a vidyadhara.
There are three sections, the brief teaching, shamatha, and vipashyana.
a. The brief teaching:
In the stages of meditation for those of lesser powers,
At first there is a separate training in the skills
First of shamatha and then of vipashyana.
After both are stable, these meditations are unified.
Training in this involves innumerable techniques.
b. Shamatha,
1) Taming discursive thoughts
How is it done?
First, regarding the stages of practicing shamatha,
We should stay seated within a solitary place.
In- and out-breaths are counted and colors visualized
Remain for several days to tame discursive thoughts.
At the time of meditating, stay in a place free from disturbances of people and occupations, danger, and so forth,
among things which the mind naturally grasps as pleasant. Sitting cross-legged, rest the hands on the knees. Of the three
luminous nadis, as from white roma one exhales the breath from the right nostril, all sickness, dvns, evil deeds, and
obscurations are purified, like smoke escaping from a cook-house.
When it enters in, the samadhis of the buddhas and so forth becoming light, enter from the left nostril into the
red kyangma. Visualize that they dissolve in the central channel, and that for a little while the pranas above and below
the hearth of the Sage are grasped and united. Also in gradually sending as before, hold the rest a little while.
As for the colors of pranas, if the three places of the prana of spring are thickened by phlegm, the antidote is the
green air prana. To clear away the heat of fire from the three of summer, there is the white water prana. For the three of
autumn, to clear away the motility of bile, there is the yellow earth prana. For the three of winter, as an antidote to cold
and dampness, meditate on the red fire prana.
As for their shapes, meditate on the essences of prana and mind in the heart center as like a bow, triangular,
round, and square. Those are their corresponding touchables.
As for counting, breaths up to seven are mentally counted.
Beginners should visualize the exhalation of that prana going four cubits and so forth from the nostrils, then
more and farther until it fills the whole of the three realms. Make the mind completely undistracted. At the time of
drowsiness, not keeping it inside, eliminate it by forcefully expelling outward. At the time of arousing virtue, faith,
and so forth, hold them inside. After training prana for some days, completely non-conceptual shamatha of the clear and
luminous mind arises. At that time, because the coarse pranas are motionless, mind is without thoughts, and the white
and red essences of roma and kyangma are the motionless sun and moon. Within, as that motionless prana remains in
non-thought within the central channel, co-emergent wisdom is recognized. The Dohakosha says:
In those whose prana and mind are without wandering,
The sun and moon are inactive and unengaged.
Those who do not know, exhale their minds at this time.
2) Holding the object one-pointedly
Then coarse discursive thoughts are suppressed, and after meditating in that way:
Practice the four immeasurables and the two bodhichittas.
Then, within the practice of the developing stage,
Meditate in one-pointed attention without distraction
On whatever spiritual object may be appropriate,
Such as a picture or a book of the holy texts.
Then train in the four immeasurables, kindness and so forth or in the bodhichittas of aspiring and entering. The
Bodhicharyavatara says:
Pacify thoughts and meditate on bodhicitta.
Do that or the developing stage. The Dohakosha says:
Grasp with the mind the form of the deity, painted etc.
The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
With a statue that is gold in color,
Entirely beautiful, of the Lord of the World,
The mind of one into whom this image enters
Meditates in the way of a bodhisattva.
Do that briefly. Alternately, those unfamiliar with the former objectless meditation can take some appropriate
good object and meditate on it without being distracted to anything else. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Having focused the mind on the object of meditation,
Never let yourself be distracted away from it.
3) The actual samadhi of shamatha
Resting in this way, the mind becomes workable.
It keeps to its object and does not go anywhere else.
It will stay as long as we rest in meditation.
When body speech and mind are pervaded with spiritual joy.
One pointed unwavering shamatha has been established.
The mind stays on its objects until we leave off meditation and does not emanate concepts. Mind and body are
blissful. In speech one says little and the words are smooth and soft. This is the time when one pointed shamatha is
established. The Sutras say:
O monks, the body and mind of me the yoga practitioner are workable. Preoccupation with
food is small. There is little speech and words are soft. The skin is supple and smooth.
From the two sections on
c. Vipashyana
1) The way of training.
When shamatha has become workable, as for training in vipashyana:
Then we learn the meaning of vipashyana.
All the external appearances of the phenomenal world,
All these various dharmas of samsara and nirvana,
Are like the appearances of a dream or an illusion.
They are like a reflection, an emanation, or echo,
A castle of the gandharvas, an illusion or mirage,
Or heat ripples in the air, totally insubstantial.
They appear, but within the nature of emptiness.
Appearing while they are primordially non-existent, meditate on appearances as being like the eight examples of
illusion. The Shri Samadhiraja says:
These dharmas are hollow like a plantain tree.
They are ephemeral like lightning in the sky.
They are illusory, like the moon in water.
Also:
Like a castle of the gandharvas or a mirage,
They are like an illusion or like a dream.
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
Meditation on marks is empty of an essence.
The Sky Treasury Sutra says:
By the single Dharma all dharmas are illusion,
Like a mirage they are hollow and ungraspable .
It should be concluded that they are false and impermanent.
Those not kept from this go to the heart of enlightenment.
All the vessel and essence of the phenomenal world as it appears from the viewpoint of confused mind and all
dream-like pure appearances of the three jewels are not really established. By not collecting habitual patterns of the
viewpoint of confusion, they are purified. These appearances arise as if they were pure, but since they arise from the
viewpoint of dualistic appearance, they are false. The sutras say:
Nirvana too is like a dream, like illusion.
The buddhas appearing from the viewpoint of confusion have the false nature of an emanation, in Sanskrit
nirmana, like the moon in water. Appearing while in fact they do not emanate from the space of the dhatu, dharmakaya
and sambhogakaya; the pure nature of the buddhas dwelling in Akanishta is not false and non-existent. By confused
conceptions, samsara and its joys and sorrows follow continuously one on the other, like a series of generations. Yet from
that very time depending on the unborn nature of mind, there is neither samsara nor no samsara. Samsara is like a dream.
From the time they arise within the confused sleep of habitual patterns, confused experiences do not exist at all. The
Noble Sutra Requested by the Close Retinue says:
Minds terrified of hell thus have been taught by me:
Though many thousands of sentient beings have been saddened,
By death and transmigration going to the lower realms,
Those beings in actuality never really existed.
Whatever swords, great arrows, and weapons have come forth,
Even if they did harm, they have never existed.
Even as these weapons descend they do not exist.
A variety of pleasant flowers all in bloom
Elegant golden houses, with a pleasant glow,
None of these have ever been produced at all.
These are established in the power of conception
In the power of conception, the world has been imputed.
By fixating their perceptions fools have done that work.
Neither fixation nor non-fixation ever arise.
They are illusory thoughts, no more than a mirage.
In brief, meditate on these dharmas of imputed appearances of what does not exist as tenuous and ephemeral like
the eight examples of illusion.
a) The way they arise
As for not fixating these illusions at all and meditating on them as being like the sky, dharmas:
Since all is non-entity like the selfless space of the sky
Meditate in this simplicity, the state of the unborn.
Realize external dharmas to be non-entity.
Realize grasping and its objects as natureless.
Those appearances without true existence, except as mere imputations, are really intrinsically non-existent, and
are not complex objects. Meditate within that. Eliminate fixated thoughts of external objects, either as truly existent or
truly non-existent. When it is realized that the grasped object is unperceived and inconceivable, attachment to that, the
mind with thoughts of grasping it, does not exist. Then the subsequent fixation too cannot exist. Because none of these
objects have an essence, realize and meditate on this as dharmata beyond perception and conception. The Shri
Samadhiraja Sutra says:
In limitless kalpas that are already past,
The principal ones of men were led by me.
The great Sage served them as a sturdy ship.
Names arose in the manner of non-things.
From the time they arose, they supremely existed as space.
All dharmas are taught to be in truth like space.
Then in accord with imputed characteristics,
Sounds resounded in all the various worlds.
All the gods emitted excellent sounds.
Unreality was the alleged Victorious One.
As soon as he was born, he took seven steps,
The Buddha all dharmas were taught as unreal.
The Sage who is the teacher of all dharmas
When the Buddha was victorious over all dharmas,
Like Grass, and toilet sticks, and medicinal rocks,
"Dharmas are unreal," the sound arose.
As many as the worlds, that many sounds:
"All unreal, entirely unreal."
Like that, the melodious sound phenomena
Of the leader of the world supremely rose.
b) The thirteen means of resting
a) Examining the mind
After meditating like that:
Then examine inner mind in the following way:
There is no essence in separating conceptions of mind.
Affirmations, negations, truth and falsity,
Joy as well as sorrow, and also indifference,
Project their different objects, yet we cannot grasp them.
Consider where we come from, and where is this we are now?
Where do we finally go, and what is our color or shape?
Examining this in our thoughts, this is what we shall see:
Various objects are defined as pleasant and unpleasant, existent and non-existent, true and false, joyful and
sorrowful, and so forth. In reality, without any essence at all, at first they are without any cause of arising. Where nothing
arises, nothing can endure. Therefore their endurance is essenceless. In what does not endure there can be no cause of
cessation.
These objects are empty of individuating characteristics. They have no color, no shape, no manifestation. They
will not be found externally, internally, or in between, even if we look for them. The example of this unfindable state is
the sky. There is nothing to grasp or analyze. Objects are elusive, insubstantial, and completely pure. They arise in
freedom from action and actor. This is realizing the natural state, dharmakaya. The Universal Bliss says:
As for the rootless nature of the mind,
Emptiness and suchness eternally so,
Inexpressible wisdom, naturally so,
Ungraspable, it is not found when looked for.
b) Resting naturally relaxed
At that time:
At this time, thinking no thoughts within our minds,
Relax like someone who suffers fatigue to the point of exhaustion.
Do not think about anything. Forsake intellectualizations.
Let everything rest in non-dual equanimity.
Letting go of the previous repetitious steps of conceptual analysis is like relieving someone exhausted by a
burden. We reach the end of our struggle. It is gone. Relaxing into the natural state, without thoughts or mindfulness of
anything at all, rest in the blissful brilliance of insight. Let ceaseless appearance go free and disperse like vanishing mist.
The Dohakosha says:
That mind which has been bound in entanglements
Will doubtlessly be freed when these are relaxed.
The very things that are the bonds of fools,
Completely liberate those who are capable.
In general, meditate on the mind. When it is grasped one-pointedly, let its intrinsic emanations go as they like.
That is relaxing in the natural freshness of dharmata. Discursive thoughts are like growing a tail. The same text says:
Bonds are our undertakings that go in the ten directions.
If these are abandoned, we rest stable and motionless.
Wrong understanding is realized to be like a tail.
Even children like you can directly perceive yourselves.
Like a raven on a ship, the mind emanates outward, saying, "I won't come back." Having apparently gone out to
external objects, then it returns inside. There it dwells in self-existing realization of emptiness as before. The same text
says:
Objects are pure. There are none to manifest.
One is coursing in emptiness alone.
Like a raven who flies up from a ship,
Having circled and circled, it must return.
When objects of form and so forth are emanated from the mind, they have no true existence. The mind is never
dependent on them for an instant. Self-eliminated, they rest in emptiness with nothing to analyze; for example, as the
raven, flying outward from a ship over the ocean, cannot depend on external objects, but returns to the ship.
c) How realization arises
The way of meditating:
We realize that the individual grasped as "I"
Does not exist as an independent, controlling ego.
The mind that fixates one also is without a nature.
By eradicating thoughts attached to self and ego and becoming accustomed to the reality that they are not to be
found, the individual who fixates is egoless. Therefore fixation is natureless. Since former objects of grasping are
essenceless, grasping too is realized to be essenceless. By the two kinds of self being realized as empty, neither objects
or the one who makes them arise within samsara are established. Samsara is liberated into naturelessness, the liberation
of nirvana. This is because samsara is not other than mind. The Dohakosha says:
The nature of samsara is the essence of mind.
Directly know that fools are skewered by an arrow.
With such realization, even if there is no liberation during this life, there will be in the next. The Four Hundred
on the Middle Way says:
For anyone who knows this,
If nirvana is not attained,
Within a later life,
It will be without effort.
For example, even if experiencing great waves of happiness and unhappiness is impossible, there is the karma of
experiencing nirvana later.
d) How to attain stability
After shamatha and vipashyana are individually stabilized:
Then they are unified as wisdom, the natural state.
Appearance and mind are non-dual, like the moon reflected in water.
When the moon arises in the water of a pond, there is no difference between the water and the moon. So at the
time of appearance and the fixation of appearance, the mind that fixates is non-dual with appearance. Such false
appearance is grasping. Grasping should not be understood as the apparent object. The apparent object and its emptiness
are non-dual, like the water and the moon in water.
e) How it is non-dual
Though it is like that, by not understanding this:
Grasping duality is the confusion of samsara.
Awareness of non-duality goes to the peace of nirvana.
Therefore, let us train in this non-duality.
Dharmas are of the essence of mind, and thus unborn.
The nature of the mind is pure and undefiled.
Rest in this spotless simplicity, emptiness/luminosity.
By grasping what does not exist as selfhood, independent reality, the confusion of samsara, already grasped as
terrifying, like water in a dream, becomes even more terrifying. Habitual patterns of confused appearance are stabilized
when they are not established as anything other than confused appearances of mind. The mind that is the basis of arising
of these confused appearances is also pure of nature. It too is essencelessness. Therefore there is no obscured by kleshas.
The Uttaratantra says:
Since the nature of that mind is luminosity, the kleshas are seen to be essenceless.
Rest in immaculate wisdom, the essence unobscured by extremes, the essence of simplicity like the sky. Do not
struggle with conceptual analysis. This obscures the nature of mind. Proliferating false conceptions are like a poisonous
snake in a basket. Left alone, it does no harm; but it will if teased. Mind too should be left alone without effort and
establishing or accepting and rejecting. The Song of the Oral Instructions of the Inexhaustible Treasury says:
As for the nature of mind, which is the natural state,
It is hard for anyone to realize.
As for the spotless essence undefiled by extremes,
No one should analyze primordial purity.
If it is analyzed, it is like what happens
To a person who teases a dangerous, poisonous snake.
The All-Creating King says:
Just as appearances are one in suchness,
Within this do not fabricate anything.
Rest in the uncreated king of equality,
The ultimate state, the non-thought of dharmakaya.
f) How the middle way free from extremes is realized:
The way of meditating:
By that the disturbances of kleshas are pacified.
We rest within the great wisdom, completely without conceptions.
Insight, samadhi, and higher perceptions are established.
We realize there are neither grasping or fixation,
As well as the middle way, which is freedom from all extremes.
Disturbances of the kleshas are pacified. By wisdom with neither grasping or fixation, the samadhi of complete
non-thought, enlightened insight, the buddha qualities of liberation, the five eyes, and the higher perceptions are
established. The Prajqaparamita-samgatha says:
Dhyana eliminates baser qualities of desire.
Insight, higher perceptions, and samadhi are gained.
g) Free from anything to meditate on or a meditator, this is buddhahood
At the time of meditating:
At this time the mind is like the space of the sky.
In this space of simplicity no objects are perceived.
Within this dharmata there is no meditation,
Nor is there any object upon which to meditate.
There is no agent of action, and nothing to act upon.
This is the spotless purity of buddhahood.
At the time of that meditation, from the mind's sky-like freedom from emanation and gathering, apparent objects
still appear; but since there is no conceptual grasping, these appearances are non-dual wisdom that does perceive dualistic
natures. Since there are neither meditation or meditator, causes of action and their producer are liberated as they are.
Dissolving mind and mental contents into space, we reach the space of the primordial nature. This is the goal, the nature
of mind. This is abiding in self-existing realization, dharmakaya, buddhahood. The Dohakosha says:
Continuous buddhahood has no exclusions.
Since mind itself is essentially purity,
This itself is the spotless, ultimate level.
As mind and mental contents dissolving into the natural purity of the nature of mind, there is no motion of
thoughts. They are like salt dissolved in water. The same text says:
Mind is motionless and stably resting.
As salt dissolves and disappears in water,
So the mind dissolves into its nature.
Self and other are seen as equality.
h) The way of realizing dharmata
At this time:
There is no grasping of objects by any perception/conception.
Any more than with a mirage, or the moon reflected in water.
Perceiving no fixation, impartial and undisturbed,
When appearance and mind are non-dual, the perfections will be there.
Let us appreciate the amrita of dharmata.
Deep and peaceful simplicity, uncompounded and luminous.
Externally, we realize that the five kinds of grasped object are like a mirage, or the moon reflected in water.
Therefore, conception/perception attached to grasping thoughts as truly existent does not occur.
Internally, we realize that fixating awareness is partless like space, and that fixation is essenceless. Awareness
with neither grasping or fixation, fresh reality, without intermediate processing by emanation or gathering, is the
perfection of prajqa. It is profound, peaceful, simple, naturally luminous, individual and personal wisdom. This is like
amrita:
Profound and peaceful, simple and luminous, uncompounded
I have found a dharma that is like amrita.
This side is samsara. The other is nirvana. Perceiving neither, the three paths of learning between the two are
the perfection of prajqa. The Abhisamayalankara says:
It is not the extremes of this side or the other.
Nor is it a matter of dwelling between the two.
Knowing the three times to be equality,
This is maintained to be the prajqaparamita.
i) The way of the ultimate view
As for abiding within this, by the vast, great samadhi without fixation:
Let us cross the ocean of these three worlds of samsara
Within the vast ship of samadhi where grasping is never found,
Arriving at last in the nature of the great perfection.
Along with the bliss of the ground there is a constant well being.
When we have crossed the ocean of samsaric complexities, abiding, as if in a ship, in realization of the view of
the great vastness, the ground is primordial simplicity. The mind at that time is mixed with simplicity. This non-dual
space and wisdom is called "the great perfection," so that is we have reached. Self-arising, unproduced realization
perfects all goals. The All-Creating King says:
Kye, therefore as prophesied by me the doer of all,
Make unerringly stable the meaning of what you heard.
Arising from buddha activity free from action and seeking,
Unmade realization will complete all goals.
j) Identifying the defining characteristics of shamatha and vipashyana.
At the time of meditating, as the mind is quiet, without emanation and gathering:
Within this peaceful resting, or being, of shamatha,
A being which is the emptiness of dharmakaya,
Vipashyana is appearance of luminous rupakaya.
These are upaya and prajqa and the two accumulations.
Both developing and perfection are established.
The non-thought emptiness of resting is shamatha. Its cause is dharmakaya, completing the accumulation of
wisdom and prajqa. Appearance because of luminosity is vipashyana. Its cause is rupakaya, self-accomplishing the
accumulation of merit and upaya. At that time, the ultimate six conceptionless perfections are perfected. The Bhrama
Special Mind Requesting Sutra says:
No fixation is generosity.
No guarding is discipline.
No dwelling is called patience.
No effort is exertion.
No wishing is known as dhyana.
No conception is prajqa.
As for practice of these six, generosity and so forth, they are perfected not by dwelling on them, but by going
beyond any thought of them. At this time true discipline is also perfected. The Sutra Requested by the Sthavira
Devaputramati
When discipline and transgression are not perceived, this is called perfection of discipline.
The two accumulations are also perfected. The Ten Wheels of Perfecting the Bhumis says:
That non-conceptualizing is the accumulations of merit and wisdom.
The Ultimate Wisdom Sutra says:
The bodhisattva Pinnacle of Wisdom asked, "How should yogacharin monks gather the
accumulations?"
The Buddha spoke, saying, What is accumulated is merit and wisdom. Accumulation is their
manifold increase.
How is the accumulation of wisdom gathered?
It is generosity and so forth, white dharmas, which possess characteristics.
How is wisdom accumulated?
It is prajqa and so forth, which possess no characteristics
How are these two gathered?
The accumulation of merit is called the accumulation of samsara. It is like, for example, the
water in an ox's track. Why so? It is quickly lost and exhausted. It beguiles fools. Having experienced
the happiness of gods and human beings, they whirl about once more in the lower realms.
The accumulation of wisdom is called the accumulation of nirvana. It is like the water in a
great ocean. It is not lost. It is not exhausted. It is not deceptive. It produces attainment of nirvana. O
Pinnacle of Wisdom, the accumulation of wisdom alone should be gathered.
The intention is that things belonging to merit are transformed into wisdom by dhyana, and that wisdom in that
sense should be emphasized.
k) The functions or actions of shamatha and vipashyana
Arousing this prajqa that realizes vipashyana,
We can remain within it because of shamatha.
Our previously becoming acquainted with the meaning of realizing vipashyana, depended on shamatha.
Therefore we should certainly try to unify the two.
l) the time of realizing non-conception by becoming familiar with this
At this time of resting any attachment in equality:
When we no longer dwell in the mental phenomena
Of grasping and fixation of either things or non-things,
That is the non-duality of space and wisdom.
Mind and its objects are not perceived, and are pacified.
When one meditates in the genuine meaning, realization that grasping and fixation of things and non-things are
natureless is the vipashyana that is "first to be done." Abiding within the state thus realized, without arising of the
phenomena of mind is the shamatha, "to be done later" If space and wisdom are non-dual, union of shamatha and
vipashyana as the fruition is established. Then these two should be known as inseparable. The Bodhicharyavatara says:
Neither things or non-things exist before the mind,
Other will be absent, in the peace of non-conception.
the six sections on
2) How to establish samadhi by becoming familiar with this.
a. The virtues of samadhi
How, by becoming familiar with this, are the virtues of samadhi established? Though the mind possesses these
virtues primordially, when they are obscured by defilements, they do not appear. Meditating in shamatha and vipashyana,
we have an opportunity to purify all these obscurations. When the false conceptions of mind dissolve into space:
Whenever the nature of mind, in primordial purity,
Is free from temporary, incidental false conceptions,
Then the nine dhyanas and miraculous experience,
As well is the various higher perception will be there.
Countless clouds of samadhi are spontaneously present.
When the incidental false conceptions of mind are purified,
a host of good qualities are established, such as the nine dhyanas.
b. Explanation of the nine dhyanas
i) What are they?
When the mind, with desire to be in its natural place,
Meditates one-pointedly on anything,
With discursive thought and analytic discernment,
With bliss, and well-being, the first dhyana has arisen.
When meditation so analyzes without fixation,
That luminous mind of bliss and well being is the second dhyana.
When meditation neither conceives or analyzes,
Steeped in bliss and well-being, the third dhyana has arisen.
Then when meditation has gathered in its bliss,
There is the fourth with all the benefits of well being.
Here for mind with the wish for cessation, there are the four dhyanas, and the five formless attainments. These
nine samadhis are the nine ultimate absorptions. Here, the mind of desire becomes one-pointed. The above-described
union of shamatha and vipashyana is the wisdom of complete non-thought. By meditating within it, the mind of bliss,
luminosity, and complete non-thought of wisdom are attained from the desirable support of being a human being. The
support is attaining human birth with the freedoms and favors.
From access and the main meditation of the mind of dhyana, access is the preparatory stage. It is said that
some do just the main meditation. Also each dhyana is said to be the access to the next.
1) When the mind rests one-pointedly, there is access to the first dhyana, which can handle anything. It has the
discursive thought that one should meditate. By joining this to resting in complete non-thought, together with analytic
discernment of the peak of mindfulness, there is the real object of meditation, the wisdom of non-thought. It examines
thoughts and the boundary of meditation and post-meditation.
2) As for the second dhyana, from the access of the first, one joins non-thought only to analytic discernment
without examination by discursive conceptual thoughts. The main object is luminosity and non-thought.
3) As for the third, from the access of the second, transferring by being without either examination of discursive
thought or analytic discernment, the special main object non-thought arises.
4) As for the fourth, from the access of the third, together with joy and bliss attained by samadhi, the special
object arises. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
The first dhyana has conception and discrimination.
The second discriminates without conception
The third's attention neither conceives or discriminates
Bliss-gathering attention is the fourth.
ii) How the mind attains formless dhyana
The mind of dhyana:
Then the mind is pure translucency like space.
This attains the ayatana of limitless space.
Then there is mind, without the complexities of all dharmas,
Attainment of the realm of limitless consciousness.
Then there is simplicity with neither mind nor appearance,
Attainment of the realm of nothing whatever.
Mind freed from complexities of existence and non-existence,
Is within the realm of neither existence nor non-existence. Then there is cessation of the nature of mind,
Composed of all the different complexities of the kleshas.
This is when the peace of nirvana is attained.
5) From the support of dhyana arise the special formless minds. First there is realm of limitless space. As all
dharmas are pure like space, there is steady attention to the undefiled essence.
6) Limitless consciousness is mind-only. There is attention on limitless mind, without beginning and end.
7) As for nothing whatsoever, because of non-conception or non-thought, the mind sees nothing at all.
8) The peak of samsara is attention to mind beyond all extremes of existence and non-existence.
9) In cessation, all the complexities of mind cease. The Commentary on the Madhyamakavatara says:
Cessation occurs because all complexities of the mind cease.
To classify, after the mind examines and analyzes there is discriminating cessation. Not examining, resting in
dharmata is non-discriminating cessation. Moreover, the cessation of the bodhisattvas, because of compassion, still looks
after sentient beings. The Madhyamakavatara says:
Though this is indeed samadhi of all-inclusive cessation,
Compassion remains, arising for helpless sentient beings.
If it is asked, but then complexities do not cease, do they? In the compassion of the wisdom of complete non-
thought, complexities do not exist. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Within the nine ultimate absorptions, there is the goal, "I should produce absorption." In
general in the dhyanas of ordinary beings and noble ones, aside from attaining the great fruition of the
mind of equal space, there is the bliss of shamatha. Having thought, "all dharmas are like space,"
within that state, from the subsiding of the engagements of mind, one is impelled into the formless
states of mind up to the peak of samsara.
Noble ones, in particular, by the wisdom of vipashyana, attain the unified nature that does not
grasp dharmas as "me" and "mine." Having attained the mind of a great being, by attaining the
supreme wisdom whose meditation sees as far as Akanishta, they pass beyond suffering to nirvana.
Within this mind are all the virtues of the formless dhyanas. Though these samadhis are included
within it, the mind does not have the individuating characteristics of those realms. Therefore, noble
ones of the great vehicle do not fixate the arising of these realms.
iii) The way of practicing the nine dhyanas.
As just explained:
Then at the end we practice the skills of these nine dhyanas
Either in order, or out of order on the spot.
We shall have the knowledge, both for ourselves and others,
Of all the actions done in former and later lives.
We shall know the places where their minds will go.
Having completely eliminated the obscurations,
We shall see their deaths and births and transmigrations.
We shall manifest one and many emanations.
Because there are no kleshas, we shall have the wisdoms
That know the nature of dharmas and also their extent.
We shall see buddha fields filled with buddha-sons.
By meditating on the ultimate samadhis the formerly unknown eyes and higher perceptions become unobscured.
There are miraculous displays, and the virtues of leaping up from bhumi to bhumi. Having seen the buddha fields, we
listen to the dharma there, perfect the accumulations, and so forth. Finally, from the three ways of meditating on these
objects, as for the yawning lion, having meditated upward by stages in the four dhyanas and four formless attainments,
also meditate by stages downward as if one were climbing up and down a nine-runged ladder. The Middle Length
Prajqaparamita says:
If it is asked, "what is the samadhi of the yawning lion of a bodhisattva mahasattva?" it is like this. One
fully attains the first dhyana. After saying, "I am resting there," after ceasing with that it is taught that
after that one goes on up to the peak of samsara, and then back down to the first dhyana.
As for the lesser sudden approach, after having meditated upward on the dhyanas, formless attainments, and
cessation, one should jump back down to the first and meditate there.
From the two sections of the greater sudden approach, going up to cessation in a similar way, meditate on the
first dhyana. Having meditated on cessation, do likewise in each to cessation. Having entered into each, meditate on
them by turns. As for entering into non-meditating mind, having arisen from cessation, produce the mind of non-
meditation. So gradually meditate down until the first dhyana.
Similarly the way is taught that without the first dhyana, entering into the second, one should go upward to
cessation, and meditate downward on each one. Then leave out the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, all eight, up
to the eighth. Then meditate downward on each one. The Abhisamayalankara says:
In the nine dhyanas including the stage of cessation,
Both having gone and come in a twofold way,
Desire that realizes consciousness
Will grasp the border of non-meditation.
As for the sudden approach, among the dhyanas
Having skipped the first and second and third,
The fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth,
Go up to cessation in different ways.
The eyes and higher perceptions have been discussed.
c. The time of attaining the three samadhis
At the time of attaining the special samadhis:
Fully realizing appearance as illusion,
We shall have attained the illusion-like samadhi.
Since disturbance is pacified, the mind is free from torment.
Then there is the samadhi like a spotless moon.
In a single equality no dharmas are perceived.
There is the samadhi like a cloudless sky.
There will be countless hundreds and thousands of such samadhis.
The single disk of the sun, by dispelling darkness is called the "light-maker". By radiating light rays, it is the
"one with a thousand lights." By making lotus blossom, it is called "the friend of the lotus." It has many such different
names. Similarly, when appearance is realized as illusion, one-pointedness on that is called the illusion-like samadhi.
Pacifying the darkness and torment of the kleshas is the spotless moon samadhi. Realizing that all dharmas are like
space is the cloudless sky samadhi. By the manifold increase of the virtues of these and other samadhis, within a single
mind, hundreds, thousands, and countless others are attained. The illusion-like samadhi and so forth are taught in the
sutras.
d. Briefly the relationship of vipashyana and shamatha to samadhi
Vipashyana is the meaning of total realization,
And proper shamatha will grasp this one-pointedly.
So retention and samadhi are in spontaneous union
The words and sense of the dharma, which have been well realized by discriminating vipashyana, are therefore
one-pointedly grasped and kept in ones being by shamatha. As for vipashyana, within that retention, shamatha is resting
in samadhi. The Blossoming Wisdom says:
Vipashyana is the keeper
Of the gate of Dharma.
Shamatha is samadhi.
Regarding that grasper, the Tantra of Well-establishing says:
As to the why of "keeper,"
There are three kinds of keeping.
Both words and meaning are kept,
And good karma kept from damage.
Because of keeping these,
It is called their keeper.
By that the details of the subject are completed.
C. The stages of the paths of meditation on this
There are explanations of the purposes of the paths of accumulation, preparation, seeing, meditation, and no more
learning. With the final summary, there are six sections.
1. The path of accumulation
a. The lesser path of accumulation:
Now as for the particular paths and their divisions which should be known:
We are liberated by treading the five paths.
On the lower level of the path of accumulation
We should meditate on the four objects of mindfulness.
These four objects are body, feeling, mind, and dharmas.
Since all the buddhas attained enlightenment after having traveled over the five paths, their details are described here.
The first, the path of accumulation, starts from the time of first meditating on producing the mind of supreme
enlightenment. Until heat arises in one's being, the realizations of hearing, contemplating, and meditating along with the
virtuous accumulations of samadhi are the path of crossing to the land of liberation.
The cause of this path is awakening the gotra, the enlightened family. This is dependent on the newly aroused
bodhicitta of the mahayana. The fruition is the four subsequent paths. Semantically, it is called the path of accumulation
because it chiefly "accumulates" hearing, contemplating, and merit.
Of the three divisions, in the lesser chiefly meditate on the four objects of mindfulness, body, feeling, mind, and
dharmas, both in meditation and post-meditation.
Here in meditation meditate on the bodies of oneself and others as being like space. Post-meditation is like
illusion. Also, as an antidote to desire, meditate on perceptions of impurity.
Feelings too in meditation are not conceptualized, and in post-meditation are meditated on as being hollow and
insubstantial like a plantain tree. Turn the attention to suffering.
Meditate on mind as unborn and impermanent.
Meditate on dharmas as only names and merely illusory. The Sutra Teaching the Topic of Enlightenment says:
Whoever sees body as being like space, has the object of mindfulness of looking at the body
with the body. Feelings are not conceived as internal, external, both, or neither. This is the object of
mindfulness that looks at feelings. Mind is merely a name. By its nature it is unborn. Whoever sees
this has the object of mindfulness of mind. Whoever sees all dharmas as non-dual has the object of
mindfulness of dharmas.
b. The middle path of accumulation
After developing the former path from becoming familiar with it, meditate on the four means of true
abandoning:
On the middle level of the path of accumulation
We truly abandon the four attachments to good and evil.
By yearning, effort, diligence, and exertion.
So that non-arising of non-virtue will be produced, yearning is produced, and effort. One tries diligently and
exerts oneself to abandon persons and so forth that produce the non-arising of virtue; and in order that its arising may
increase, one produces effort and so forth, those four. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Subhuti, what are these four true ways of abandoning. They are like this. In order that non-arising of
the non-virtuous may be produced, one produces yearning. One makes an effort. One is diligent. One
undertakes to exert oneself supremely.
c. The greater path of accumulation
On the greater meditate on the four legs of miracle.
yearning, investigation, contemplation and mindfulness.
Meditate on the four legs of samadhi-miracle, yearning, investigation, contemplation, and mindfulness. The
Mother says:
The yearning samadhi leg of miracle and these others, four altogether are taught.
On the greater path of accumulation, discipline is directed at enlightenment and we make an effort at yoga by
binding the gates of the senses, understanding the proper measure of food and not sleeping in the first and last quarters of
the night. By remaining conscientiously in non-accepting and non-rejecting there are delight, unreproaching happiness,
joy, faith, devotion and other such virtues that are causes of liberation. By making an effort in hearing, contemplating,
and meditating, we are joined to the path of preparation. Also from the lesser path of accumulation one starts gathering
the accumulations for three countless kalpas. The Summary of the Vehicles says:
Those with the powers of fortune and ripening,
Becoming specially supported minds
As bodhisattvas over three countless kalpas,
They will make an effort it is taught.
At the time of meditating on the four objects of mindfulness, the time of arising of the path of preparation is
uncertain. As for the particular antidotes of this path, when we have conceptually seen how formations do damage, the
antidotes completely eliminate them. As for what is abandoned, when we have seen the faults of defiled dharmas, the
corresponding attachments that make them manifest are cut off and abandoned. As for what is realized, mostly the two
egolessnesses are realized in a general way through hearing and contemplating. There is also the arising of realization
from meditation. The General Compendium says:
Prajqa arising from meditation is also relevant.
As for qualities, there are the eyes, higher perceptions, and all kinds of others. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
At that time from out of the stream of Dharma
From the buddhas there are shamatha and vast wisdom,
Extensive oral instructions will be attained.
Also:
Dwelling completely within the gates of Dharma,
One is instructed by seeing tathagatas,
As if led away from strife and contention,
One is led from the manifold thickets of faults
To be established in true enlightenment.
At the time of attaining the greater path of accumulation one is mindful of the three prajqas of hearing,
contemplating, and meditating, the three jewels, and the three characteristics of all compounded things as
impermanent defiled and painful. All dharmas are empty, selfless, nirvana and peace. These are the four mudras of
Dharma. Also faith, exertion, mindfulness, samadhi, and prajqa are the five according with liberation, not arising
within the essence of the senses. One meditates on discipline and generosity, the free and well favored body and birth, and
the inhaling and exhaling of the breath. If the practice is completely performed, one should meditate on impure
perceptions and the eight thoughts of a great being.
In preparation, first meditate on taking refuge and arousing bodhicitta. To accomplish the final purification,
meditate on the nine impure perceptions. These are that the dead body of oneself and others become:
1). rotten
2). worm-eaten
3). bloody red
4). green
5). black
6). devoured
7). scattered
8). burned
9). decomposed.
For desire meditate on impurity, for hatred kindness, and for ignorance interdependent arising. The Sutra
Requested by Pungzang says:
Desire is mostly eliminated by one's having viewed
Impure flesh and fat, and skin and skeletons.
Aggression by the stream of kindness and compassion,
And ignorance by the path of interdependent arising.
As for the Eight thoughts of a great being, the Commentary on the Twenty-thousand says:
One thinks the thought, 1) "I am always able to remove suffering from sentient beings," and
the thought, 2) "I am always able to establish beings who are afflicted by poverty in great wealth," and
the thought, 3) "A body of flesh and blood can always be of use to sentient beings," and the thought, 4)
"I could always benefit sentient beings by staying in hell for a long time," and, 5) "By worldly and
world-transcending great wealth, I can always fulfill the hopes of sentient beings," and, 6) "Having
become enlightened, I could always eliminate the sufferings of sentient beings," and the thought, 7)
"the arising of what does not benefit sentient beings, the taste of the absolute being analyzed away as
unity, words that do not make all beings think, livelihood that does not benefit others, and likewise
body and prajqa and wealth and power, and rejoicing in doing harm to sentient beings--in all
generations may these never occur," and the thought, 8) "because the fruition of the evil deeds of
sentient beings always ripens in myself and the fruition of my virtue always arises in them, may they be
happy."
Meditate on these together with taking refuge and arousing bodhicitta. Moreover, as taught before, meditate in
the realm of complete purity.
2. the path of preparation
Then there is the explanation of the path of preparation:
There are four divisions of the path of preparation.
In the stages of heat and peak we meditate on the five powers
Faith and energy, awareness samadhi and prajqa.
In patience and highest dharma these five are the five supreme forces.
The support of the path of preparation is beings of any of the six realms in whom the greater path of
accumulation has arisen and been finished. Countless gods, nagas, asuras, and so forth for whom it arose are described in
the sutras. The support of thought is any of the six desire or samadhi levels. The cause is finishing the greater path of
accumulation. The Small Commentary says:
According with liberation, for delighted sentient beings there are therefore the aids to
liberation.
The essence is the worldly wisdom arisen from meditation. The four divisions are heat, peak experience,
patience, and highest dharma. There is meditation in the stages of heat and peak experience on faith, exertion,
mindfulness, samadhi, and prajqa. They are called powers because they actually produce the power of arousing
bodhicitta. The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Faith and these others are explained as powers.
Moreover there are the four wisdoms of the four paths of preparation. First, as for the heat of the mahayana, in
attaining the wisdom of appearance, all dharmas are seen merely as mental appearances. By non-attainment the arising of
worldly meditation, the antidote to grasping the true existence of objects is produced. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Like that for bodhisattvas,
Within their meditation,
Except as expressions of mind,
All objects are unseen.
As for such appearances, certainty in the dharma produces mental patience. The Sutra of Possessing the River
Gate says:
As for patience with the appearance of knowables, the thought of certainty in the dharma is
the designation of the word.
That is also presented in the Mahayanasutralankara commentary. Peak experience is the wisdom of intensified
appearance. Because the appearance of dharmas is intensified, by making an effort to meditate on egolessness, meditation
on appearance arising as the middle way is attained. The Sutra of Possessing the River Gate says:
In order to intensify
The appearances of dharmas,
One should make a total
And persevering effort.
Patience is an aspect of the wisdom of suchness. Meditation-arisen appearance is grasped as consisting of mind-
only. Supreme attainment of that produces an antidote for attachment to external objects. The same text says:
As for having intensified
The appearance of all the dharmas,
One should dwell in mind only.
Then all appearances,
Will truly appear as mind.
At this time distraction
Of grasping will be abandoned.
The distraction of fixation
Then will remain alone.
As for the highest or supreme dharma, the immediately preceding wisdom undistracted grasping of the meaning
arising in meditation on mere appearance is completely perfected. There is nothing between this and attainment of the
path of seeing of the mahayana. The same text says:
At that time unobstructed
Samadhi is quickly reached.
The four aspects of ascertainment are each divided into three as lesser, middle, and greater, making twelve
altogether. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Thus in terms of the aspects of ascertainment,
There are lesser and middle, and the great.
As for the particular antidotes, suppression is the antidote of abandoning. In general the four kinds of antidote
are:
1). antidote of eliminating,
2). antidote of abandoning,
3). supporting antidote,
4). antidote of keeping one's distance.
Of the two kinds of abandoning antidote, suppressing abandons by keeping down manifestations. In abandoning
from the root the seeds are also cleared away, as with an unobstructed path. As for the special characteristics of
abandoning, the seeds of obscuration and their manifestations are kept down, and one is liberated from the poverty and
degeneration of individual beings. As for the special characteristics of its realization, by the wisdom arising in worldly
meditation, the two egolessnesses are realized in an abstract way. As for the virtues, it is taught that from clouds of the
three jewels there are many samadhis, dharanis, higher perceptions, and so forth.
As for what makes the path of preparation higher than the path of accumulation, though it is without distinction
from the greater path of accumulation in meditation arising, in terms the wisdom of complete non-thought not being very
clear, the two are distinguished as relatively near and far from the path of seeing. The Great Commentary on the Eight
Thousand says:
If there are no obstacles, this "very nearly arising of the path of seeing," should be known as
especially according with the aspect of liberation.
3. The path of seeing
Then as for first seeing the wisdom of the noble ones:
The path of seeing occurs at the first bhumi called "supreme joy."
Here we meditate well on the seven limbs of enlightenment.
Joy and shinjang here are added to the five powers.
On completing the great supreme dharma, there is the arising of the wisdom of the path of seeing. It has the
nature of sixteen moments. For each of the four noble truths:
1) suffering
2) the cause of suffering
3) the cessation of suffering
4) the path leading to cessation
there are:
1). acceptance of knowing dharmas
2). knowing dharmas
3). acceptance of subsequent cognition
4). subsequent cognition
As for these sixteen natures, The Abhisamayalankara says:
According with the four truths of suffering and so forth
There are dharma knowledge, and subsequent cognition,
With the acceptance of each, the instants of these natures,
And the way of knowing all these, is called the path of seeing.
The commentary says:
Of the individual truths, acceptance of knowing dharmas, knowing dharmas, acceptance of
subsequent cognition, and subsequent cognition, as for the natures of these sixteen moments, on the
occasion of knowing all these, there is the path of seeing.
The body of a being that is the support of this wisdom is one with the greater supreme dharma. It may be that of
any of the beings of the six realms. It is not the seeing of the view of the shravakas. The support of thought is the four
dhyanas. The main cause is finishing the level of supreme dharma. Accumulation and preparation are the external causal
factors. The fruition is production of the subsequent two paths. In the essence, by dividing the four noble truths,
depending on defilements of the dhatu being abandoned, there are the sixteen moments. From the defilements and
antidotes, as for the first, there are five kinds of defiling views. These are:
1). views of a transitory collection,
2). views that fixate extremes,
3). wrong views,
4). fixating a view as supreme, and
5). fixating discipline and asceticism as supreme.
Also there are the five defiling non-views of doubt about these. By the ten kleshas of these ten defiling views
arise in the desire realm, there is a wrong way of entering each of the four noble truths. There are forty wrong ways
altogether.
For the two above, defiling views and non-views, for each of the four truths, there are also nine times four times
two wrong enterings due to the nine bases of enmity, or seventy-two. Thus, all the kleshas abandoned by seeing, are 72 +
30 or 112. The Universal Compendium says:
As for the hundred and twelve kleshas, those are the kinds of kleshas to be abandoned by
seeing.
As for enmity not entering into the four levels of dhyana and the four formless attainments, since one's being has
been moistened with shamatha, the nine tormented states of mind which are the bases of enmity are absent. Within these
nine are
A. the three thoughts regarding oneself
1). This has harmed me before.
2). It will do so now.
3). In the future too, it will do so.
B. the three analogous thoughts about harm to friends
C. the three analogous thoughts about benefit to enemies
As for the ways of wrong entering by these kleshas, taking the truth of suffering as an example:
1) By the view of a transitory collection, within the truth of suffering one fixates me and mine.
2) By the view that grasps extremes, within the truth of suffering one fixates the extremes of existence, non-existence,
eternalism, and nihilism.
3) By wrong view, one grasps the truth of suffering as non-existent.
4) By ignorance, one enters not knowing the characteristics of the truth of suffering.
5) By doubt, one enters doubting whether the five skandhas do or do not suffer.
Within these five ways of entering,
1) Because of attachment to desire, desire is produced.
2) By pride, haughtiness and arrogance are produced.
3) By fixating the view as supreme, the supreme ultimate is fixated.
4) By fixating discipline and asceticism as supreme, one fixates the path to purification and liberation.
5) The way of entering with enmity toward what does not accord with these five, produces aggressive thoughts.
Entering the other three truths should be similarly understood. Moreover, the name of the truth of cessation is
conceptualized, and one does not perceive the real entering of it.
As for the divisions of the antidotes, by seeing the kleshas of the three realms, the kleshas which are to be
abandoned are abandoned. Here for the truths of suffering, its cause, cessation, and the path, there are the four
acceptances of knowing the dharmas.
These characteristics cannot be within in one mental substance within one instant of arising time, since there are
four aspects individually regarding the four truths, seeds of being seen and abandoned, and since the completely
abandoning antidote is not without obstruction. They are abandoned by a hundred and twelve separate instants of seeing
and abandoning.
Moreover, the direct cause of acceptance of knowing the dharmas of the individual four truths, and the
corresponding things to be abandoned are encountered as two potencies. At a second time, the main cause and its
corresponding to-be-abandoned are encountered as two non-potencies. At a third time, the arising of the four dharma
acceptances and all their corresponding to-be-abandoned subtle seeds are abandoned in the manner of being
simultaneously made to cease. The Uttaratantra says:
As the sprout and so forth gradually arise,
As the husk of the seed is cut and split apart,
So by having seen the ultimate nature of suchness
What is abandoned by seeing is driven out.
In the one mind-substance, the individual dharmas of the four truths are an antidote that is a path of complete
liberation from the kleshas, which are aspects of those four truths about the three realms. Similarly with the four
acceptances and the four subsequent knowledges, this is the path of the special antidotes of keeping one's distance. These
abandonments also deal with the two obscurations. They liberate from these two. The Center and Limit says:
The two-fold obscurations
Of kleshas and of knowables,
As for those obscurations
When they have been exhausted,
That is called liberation.
As for the distinctions of these two, The Uttaratantra says:
Where there are thoughts of avarice and so forth,
These are called the obscuration of kleshas.
Where discursive thoughts of the three realms,
These are called the obscuration of knowables
The obscuration of kleshas is the avarice and so forth of an unpacified mind, whose essence is likely to be
obscured by unhappiness.
The obscuration of knowables it thoughts of grasping and fixation, the object and perceiver without freedom
from attachment to the true existence of the three realms, where the essence is likely to be defiled or obscured by
unhappiness.
False conceptions of the obscuration of the kleshas are abandoned by seeing. The co-emergent kleshas are
abandoned by meditation.
As for the obscuration of knowables, coarse thoughts of grasping and fixation are abandoned by seeing. Subtle
ones are abandoned by meditation.
As for the distinctions of realization: By world-transcending prajqa, the two egolessness are realized in
perception. The qualities are the previously mentioned hundred and twelve of the first bhumi.
As for the distinction of time, first by the revelation of the four truths there is the one time of the four
acceptances. After that, there arises the one time of the four knowledges. After that arises the one time of the four
acceptances of subsequent cognition. After that, by the arising of the single time of the four subsequent cognitions, in the
four moments of completing the action, the essence of four kinds and sixteen aspects arises. There is simultaneous
realization of the four truths, and so the four acceptances gradually arise.
Those things abandoned by seeing are instantly abandoned by acceptance of the
Dharma. This happens in stages over the four aspects of the path of seeing.
Moreover, at the time of the first bhumi, one meditates on the seven limbs of enlightenment. What are they?
The Spiritual Letter says:
Mindfulness, investigating dharmas, and exertion
Joy, shinjang, samadhi, and equanimity;
These are the seven limbs of enlightenment.
This assembly of virtues makes one attain nirvana.
How so? The Sutra Teaching the Side of Enlightenment says:
1) Manjushri, for whomever there is no mindfulness and therefore no attention, seeing all
dharmas as unreal is the limb of enlightenment of true mindfulness.
2) Manjushri, for whomever, because of completely not practicing virtue, non-virtue, or what
is neutral, all dharmas are eliminated and unperceived, there is the limb of enlightenment of true
investigation of dharmas.
3) Manjushri, for whomever, because of having destroyed perception of a body, there is
neither accepting or rejecting of the three worlds, there is the limb of enlightenment of true exertion.
4) Manjushri, for whomever because they have destroyed joy and non-joy, all formations do
not produce joy, there is the limb of enlightenment of true joy.
5) Manjushri, for whomever, because conceptual things are not conceived, the mind has
become completely trained for all dharmas, there is the limb of enlightenment of shinjang.
6) Manjushri, for whomever, because they think of all dharmas as destroyed, mind is not
conceived, there is the limb of enlightenment of true samadhi.
7) Manjushri, for whomever, because they do not dwell on anything, depend on anything,
produce passion, or produce bondage, there is equanimity whose sight does not follow after dharmas,
this attainment of joy is the limb of enlightenment of true equanimity.
d. The path of meditation
Because of becoming familiar with what has been seen:
There are lesser, middle, and greater paths of meditation.
Each of these again has been divided in three.
From lesser lesser to greater greater there are nine.
These are stainless, light-producer, and brilliant shining;
Difficult to conquer, presence, and far-going,
Immovable, good understanding, and finally cloud of dharma.
On these we travel over the noble eight-fold path,
Right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood,
Right effort, right mindfulness, and last right meditation.
The path of meditation accords with the true meaning seen on the path of seeing, producing ever higher
familiarity with this. The Abhisamayalankara says:
With the path of seeing
Ascertain the limbs.
With the path of meditation,
Contemplate over and over.
Encounter and true perception
Are the path of meditation.
Within the path of meditation there are lesser, middle, and greater, again divided into three, so that there are
nine in all. What are they?
The lesser lesser is the second bhumi, the spotless one.
The middle lesser is the third bhumi, the light producer.
The greater lesser is the fourth bhumi, the brilliantly shining.
The lesser middle is the fifth bhumi, the one difficult to conquer. The middle middle is the sixth bhumi, presence.
The greater middle is the seventh bhumi, the far-going one.
The lesser greater is the eighth bhumi, the immovable one.
The middle greater is the ninth bhumi, good intellect.
The greater greater is the tenth bhumi, the clouds of Dharma.
Regarding these nine levels, the same text says:
As for these nine bhumis, the greater greater and so on
They are antidotes to defilements, lesser of lesser and so forth,
On these paths those defilements will be purified.
What is abandoned by meditation also has greater, middle, and lesser, and they are similarly divided into nine as
greater greater, middle greater, lesser greater, greater middle, middle middle, lesser middle, greater lesser, middle lesser,
and lesser lesser. On the nine levels of the stainless one and so forth they are gradually abandoned.
Moreover, these go from the lesser lesser, the second bhumi, the stainless one, on which the greater greater
defilement is abandoned by meditation, up to abandoning the lesser lesser defilement to be abandonment by meditation on
the greater greater path of meditation, the tenth bhumi.
These terms have the approach that coarser defilements are called greater and subtle ones lesser. The bodily
support arising on these paths of meditation is the same as for the path of seeing. For the most part they are men and
women of the three continents and gods of the desire and form realms. Other births are possible, and so the bodily support
that has achieved birth can be any. The same text says:
The fields and the practice exist like an illusion,
Samsara is received according to one's thoughts.
The support of mind is said to be mostly the four dhyanas and whatever others there may be. The cause is the
first three paths. The fruition is the path of no more learning. The essence, is that depending on the antidote for
abandoning particular defilements on the nine bhumis there are
1) union,
2) the path of non-obstruction
3) the path of complete liberation
4) the special path.
These also abandon the obscurations of those bhumis. Union and the path of non-obstruction are the antidote of
abandoning. The path of complete liberation is the antidote to the support. The special path is the antidote of keeping
one's distance .
For example, at the instant of the arising of the wisdom of the second bhumi, by the finish of the previous one of
the first, manifestations of suppressing kleshas that obscure the second are abandoned.
While the wisdom of the second arises unobstructed, the corresponding apparent seeds of mischievous discipline,
intrinsic but uncertain in their manifestation, are completely abandoned.
In the second instant, there is the main object. By the path of complete liberation, the antidote to the support is
produced.
At the end of the bhumi, the level of the special path is the antidote of keeping one's distance.
From the first instant of these bhumis until they are finished, their individual obscurations are abandoned in this
way. These defilements are completely exhausted and abandoned at the same time the bhumi ceases.
Here these days some coarse describers of the perfections say that all abandonings by seeing are abandonment on
arising. They maintain that all that is abandoned by meditation is abandoned by the path of cessation. By this stupid kind
of antidote guarding and dharmas are seen as being the same thing. The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Here by bodhisattvas, at the time when this spotless one has completely arisen, the defilements
of mischievous discipline are completely abandoned.
From that, up to the tenth aspect of defilements that do not accord with the tenth bhumi, at the time when these
bhumis arise, having been abandoned on the path of non-obstruction, by the path of complete liberation the antidote to the
support is produced, until by the special antidote, the obstruction of keeping one's distance is abandoned.
Moreover, if all that is abandoned on seeing is abandoned by meditation on things as they are, how can these
things be abandoned at all?
The quality was already explained in the case of the previous bhumi. As for how the 9 defilements of the 9
bhumis are abandoned, there are six co-emergent stains:
1) desire,
2) enmity,
3) pride,
4) ignorance,
5) the view of a transitory collection,
6) the view that fixates extremes.
By divisions of the realms, in the desire realm there are all 6. Within the dhyanas and formless attainments,
enmity is absent, so there are 5 and 5 there, 16 altogether.
By the levels, in desire there are 6. There are 4 dhyanas + 4 formless attainments. With those 8, counting 5,
there are 26. [46?]
Divided by greater and middle, the 6, plus greater and middle [and another?] desire = 9. In the other 5 are also 9
each, = 54.
In the 4 levels of dhyana, since enmity is discarded, the greater middle 5 kleshas are 9 and 9 of 45. [?]
Similarly in the formless realm, there are 45 in 5 sets. By combining them, those things abandoned by
meditation are 440. [?]
The way of abandoning is that by union they are suppressed. By having no obstacles they are really abandoned.
By complete liberation, the antidote to the support is produced. By the special path by the means of producing the antidote
of keeping one's distance, within the nine bhumis the manifestations and seeds are abandoned.
Within these bhumis one completely meditates on the eight-fold noble path. The Spiritual Letter says:
Right view, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness
With right samadhi are limits placed on speech and action.
Right thought is concerned with the eight limbs of the path.
Meditate on these for the sake of producing peace.
The Sutra Teaching the Side of Enlightenment says:
Manjushri, wherever someone sees all dharmas as without inequality and non-dual, this is
right view.
Manjushri, wherever someone sees all dharmas as unseen, seeing them as without thought,
without conception, completely without discursive thought, this is right thought.
Manjushri, wherever someone sees all dharmas as inexpressible, this is right speech.
Manjushri, completely establishing all dharmas in a manner without effort and without
establishing is right effort.
Manjushri, seeing all dharmas without engaged attention and mindfulness is right
mindfulness.
Manjushri, since all dharmas are not conceptualized, they are naturally at rest in meditative
equality/equanimity. Seeing them in the non-disturbance of non-conception is right samadhi.
If one looks at the intrinsic essence of these bhumis, it is beyond conceptual thought. The Avatamsaka Sutra
says:
As for these bhumis of the buddha-sons, their appearance is utterly and completely pure, like
the track of a bird in the sky.
By clearing away the details obscuring the dhatus, they are transformed into the ultimate dhatu, and one looks
with the vision of buddhahood. This is differently presented. At the time of the final purification of individual
defilements, the primordial space of the dhatu or luminous buddhahood is seen in its intrinsic luminosity, like the moon
appearing by the power of the time of the month. The Praise of Dharmadhatu says:
Just as in the cycle of the moon,
It is seen to grow from moment to moment,
So the ones who dwell upon the bhumis,
Are gradually seen to be increasing.
Just as on the fifteenth day of waxing,
The circle of the moon is round and full,
So at the completion of the bhumis,
Dharmakaya is said to be complete.
e. The path of no more learning:
Reaching the end of practice on these four paths of learning,
Involved with the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment,
Then we reach the final path of no more learning.
Here in non-dwelling nirvana we pass beyond suffering.
When accumulation of the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment on the paths of learning is finally complete, the
level of no more learning, the enlightenment of buddhahood manifests. Here the bodily support, according to the ordinary
vehicles, is of the bhramin or kshatriya castes of Jambuling. According to the mahayana, it is maintained that by attaining
the sambhogakaya realm of Akanishta, the buddha is born with that as a support. It is the same as the support of a
bodhisattva of the tenth bhumi.
The support of thought is the four dhyanas. The cause is the four paths of learning of the mahayana. The
fruition is establishing limitless beings in enlightenment by the great buddha activity. As for the essence, the
inexhaustible body, speech, mind, quality, and action of the level of buddhahood is the sphere of the ornament. As for
abandoning, the two obscurations together with their habitual patterns are abandoned. The Vajra Peak says:
The kleshas and likewise birth,
And likewise the obscurations
Of kleshas and knowables,
Completely incompatible,
These classes are overcome.
That is the explanation
Of ultimate buddhahood.
As for the distinguishing characteristics of the realization, one realizes complete perception of dharmakaya. The
commentary to the Uttaratantra says:
Bhagavan you have limitless comprehension of dharmakaya
Limitless knowables pervading the space of the dhatu are seen.
As for the qualities, all the limitless world-transcending qualities are perfected. The Precious Mala of the
Middle Way says:
By the buddhas, other than that,
In the palace of omniscience,
That vastness is expressed
By saying they have the ten powers.
As for each of these powers
The alaya of beings
is already immeasurable.
The immeasurableness of the buddhas,
Is said to be comparable
To the space of all the directions
With its earth, water, air, and fire.
It is said to be just that.
6. The final summary expressing the purpose of the paths and bhumis
Now the final summary tells the purpose of these paths and bhumis.
No buddhas have ever arisen anywhere at all
Without having first gone through these ten bhumis and five paths.
Liberated through many lives in many kalpas,
This is the path where all of them have placed their trust.
Those on the vehicles of either cause or fruition,
Must learn these paths and bhumis and travel over them.
It is impossible that unsurpassable enlightenment should arise without fully completing the paths and bhumis.
The Sutra of Buddhas and Beings says:
Those who attained the kalpa's buddhahood
Who became its lord steersmen, all of these
Arose by having traversed the paths and bhumis.
Therefore desiring the treasury of the Buddha,
Supported by ultimate buddhahood, strive on these.
Aside from this path, it will not rise from another.
Whether buddhahood is attained over many kalpas, in ten lives, six, and so forth, or very quickly in one life, one
must travel according to the paths and the bhumis. That is because the obscurations of these must be purified and their
good qualities perfected. These days, when people try to attain buddhahood without depending on the paths and bhumis,
the accumulations are not perfected. The obscurations are not purified. Exponents of this manner of maintaining say that
without completing the paths and bhumis enlightenment is attained, and that the same blessings manifest in another way.
But this would contradict the great learned and accomplished ones of the sutras and tantras, and the great treatises.
Therefore, try to train in the genuine paths and bhumis.
D. The dedication of merit
Now as for the dedication of the merit to perfect enlightenment, this true way:
When all beings by this essence, profound and luminous,
Have thoroughly pacified disturbances of mind,
Exhausted by long belief in complexity here in samsara,
May the mind today relieve its weariness.
Cooled by the appearance of the rain of this good presentation of this true, great path, by the quietly falling water
of merit flowing into the filled ocean, when the disturbance of the kleshas of beings have been completely pacified, may
this nature of mind exhausted by the beginningless complexities of samsara ease its weariness in the hermitage of the
natural purity of dharmakaya mahasukha.
May the mirror-like wisdom, the great full lake of dharmata,
In equality of non-thought, free from the stains of extremes,
Reaching the goal of renunciation/realization,
Fulfill without remainder all the hopes of beings.
Those who wander alone in the darkness of ignorance,
Oppressed by suffering in the torments of the three fires
Sightless and separate from the path of liberation,
Not remaining here, may they soon attain nirvana.
Though they have the freedoms and favors without exception,
They are impermanent and essenceless.
Having abandoned all unwholesome evil deeds,
Without exception may they attain enlightenment.
XII The Commentary on Chapter 12: THE LIMBS OF THE PATH OF SKILLFUL MEANS IN ESTABLISHING
SAMADHI
Having practiced in that way, we are unified with the ultimate fruition, buddhahood. Now
XII. The chapter on actions of benefit has three sections. These are
A. The instruction to train in dhyana
B. The cause of establishing the teaching of the three immovable samadhis
C. The dedication of merit.
A. The instruction to train in dhyana.
Having explained the extremely profound way of meditation, now the truly established nature of its limbs will be
discussed. As just explained:
Thus, in order to unify our meditation,
There is training in the three limbs of unwavering samadhi.
The essence of the path to be perfected, the special dhyana, also has three limbs of union by which it will be
perfected.
B. The three immovable samadhis
there are two sections,
1. The brief teaching
2. The extended explanation.
1. The brief teaching
These three limbs are like this:
The first is the procedure for the one who wants to achieve it.
The second is the means of how we ought to practice.
The third is non-duality, the essence of the practice.
All true samadhi involves these three:
1). The individual by whom it is established
2). The means for establishing it
3). The essence which is established.
2. The extensive explanation
There are three sections
a. The procedure by which it is established
b. The skillful means by which it is established
c. The three-fold essence of the practice of non-duality.
a. The procedure by which it is established
There are five parts of the procedure, for the one who wants to practice.
1) the practice for renunciates,
First the individual:
Those who practice this must have renunciation,
Keeping their bodies far from the bustle of civilization;
Keeping their minds far off from the host of complexities;
In such a way, samadhi will quickly be established.
With body and speech disturbed by the bustle of activities, and mind disturbed by a thousand nets of
complexities, if one does not even practice shamatha, why speak of samadhi? Therefore, keep the body far from the rat-
race, alone in a solitary place like a remote forest. Keep the mind far from the host of complexities. Then within one's
being, moistened by shamatha, profound samadhi will be established. The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
Prince, therefore those desiring samadhi should forsake places disturbed by bustling activity,
and exert themselves while remaining alone in a solitary place.
It will not be established, while living in a house. The same text says:
Whoever stays inside or outside a house
As for attaining completely pure enlightenment,
Such a buddha has never arisen yet.
They do not exist, and never will.
2) That those who are disciplined and have heard much will establish samadhi:
They should have faith and humility as well as modesty.
With care and pure discipline, they should delight in goodness.
Knowing much and desiring little, they are content.
In such a way, samadhi will quickly be established.
By having faith, it will be established. By having faith in the Dharma, one enters and remains, and one's
excellent faith will therefore increase more and more. The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
For persons who have faith
White dharmas arise by themselves.
With "humility as well as modesty," meditating in samadhi, enthusiastically not giving up, one will produce
yogic union. These take care of guarding the mind from disturbance, and so samadhi will be established. The Sutra on
Ultimate Samadhi says:
By care, humility, and modesty
Ultimate deep samadhi will be established.
Regarding establishing it by discipline, the former text says:
Having discipline and staying with that,
One will attain the excellent peace of samadhi.
Rejoicing in virtue and having heard much, having few desires and knowing what is enough one will establish
samadhi. The Moon Lamp says:
Desiring excellent qualities, and knowing what is enough
Having heard much of the Dharma, but reducing personal baggage,
Staying in solitude, rejoicing in being alone,
By this it is not hard to gain this supreme samadhi.
3) Establishing it by abandoning the five obscurations:
Controlled in mind and body, they love to stay in solitude.
They abandon the love of chatter, and being drowsy or lazy.
Neither wild or regretful, they have little to ask of others.
In such a way, samadhi will quickly be established.
PL Uncontrolled body and mind, wildly discursive, contradict the path of peace. Living in cities and such places
swarming with people, one will be distracted, and vipashyana will be interrupted. A place of relationships with many
people and dear friends is a place of passion and aggression contradictory to samadhi. Those whose samadhi is damaged
by delight in talking will obscure and hinder its arising. They will therefore give birth to much hostility and contention.
If these are abandoned, samadhi will naturally develop, and the dharma of the Victorious One will be grasped. The
former text says:
Without preoccupations, delighting in solitude
With few acquaintances, pure of sleep and laziness,
Neither depressed or manic, body and mind are controlled.
By that it is not hard to gain supreme samadhi
The Wisdom Mudra says:
One's body far from crowds, completely devoted to peace,
As graceful as a deer, will be the cause of non-dwelling.
Like air within the sky, without desire for things;
One will grasp the Dharma of the Victorious One.
4) Its being established by staying in solitude with few activities:
Without the bustle of cities and people who live in them,
In solitary places with little need of support.
They have no connection with various goals and actions.
In such a way, samadhi will quickly be established.
Those who depend on and frequent cities, the people who are part of them, crowds, and places where people
congregate, rather than remaining in solitary places as renunciates, because of the completely distracting objects and many
activities of this life, non-dual never establish the samadhi of peace. When we live with few associates, objects and
activities, wholesomeness will naturally develop. Samadhi will be established, because there will be many proper attentive
apprehensions of the mind. The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Future monks, easy going, not controlling distraction,
Infatuated with property and being reverently served,
Will just get angry with anyone who is disciplined.
Those desiring samadhi should not attend on these.
Rather staying alone, they should put extremes to rest
Living like that they should rejoice in solitude.
With only proper attentions, they will produce transcendence The Spiritual Letter says:
Really trying to see the ultimate absolute,
Becoming accustomed to training in proper kinds of attention--
There is no other Dharma than having such virtues as these.
5) For those having the family of the mahayana it will be established:
Caring little for happiness in this life or the next,
Or to attain nirvana for their own benefit,
Desiring liberation for the sake of other beings,
They are sad with samsara and have renunciation.
In such a way, samadhi will quickly be established.
These remain in peaceful solitude, entrusting themselves to samadhi for the benefit of others. Aspiring to the
self-serving peace and bliss of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas is not the path of holy beings abiding in the great
vehicle. They do not wish for the fruition of happiness in this life or the next or for peace as a benefit for oneself. These
individuals are sad with samsara, and practice dhyana with an attitude of renunciation, for the sake of the sentient beings
of samsara. The True Samadhi says:
Completely not desiring the happiness of samsara,
Free from the wish of seeking solitary peace
For compounded beings one has a feeling of sadness
Because of that, supreme samadhi is established.
None of the joys of this life are desired. In particular, train in diminishing personal baggage by purifying the
craving for wealth. The Spiritual Letter says:
Like evil villains, and poison, weapons, foes, and fire
The mind of happiness is expelled because of desire.
Therefore liberate the skandhas from desire.
The Lord of Sages taught that their fruit is like a kimba
Therefore abandon it. By being bound in its chains,
In the prison of samsara these worldly ones are bound
Within, sexual passion is what must chiefly be abandoned. The same text says:
Separate yourself from women with princess bodies.
Do not crave the nine holes of such a stinking vessel,
Like a vessel of everything filthy, covered by skin and ornaments,
See it as something that properly ought to be put aside.
The Objects of Mindfulness says:
Woman produces ruin
In this world and the other.
Do yourself a favor.
Have nothing to do with them
The Bodhisattva Pitaka Sutra says:
Even If one examines a thousand world realms, there is no enemy like my wife.
In brief, the idea is that the most predominant kleshas in our being should be examined and rid of first. All
attachment for objects of the six senses should be abandoned. The Spiritual Letter says:
Whoever is stable, for the objects of the six senses
Always unstable and forever moving about,
With the attitude of war, must conquer these enemies.
At first the capable will have to be very brave.
And also:
Gambling and physical pampering.
Lazy good for nothing associates,
Boozing and night-time tomcatting,
And addiction to nasty gossip,
These six should be abandoned.
By grasping our own dharma as supreme, we disparage others, and doubt profound Dharmas. We will grasp the
impermanent as permanent, the untrue as true, the erroneous as ultimate, and the suffering of samsara as happiness.
These last four errors entirely unite one with samsara, so these are the chief things to abandon. The same text says:
Though we grasp ascetic discipline
Supremely with the body,
The four errors, views, and doubts
Completely united these three
Block the gates to the city
Of ultimate liberation.
This should be well known.
In particular, if there is gain there is joy, and if loss sorrow; and if there is happiness there is joy and if
unhappiness sorrow; if one becomes famous there is joy, but if disparaging and unpleasant things are said, there is
sorrow; when there is praise, we feel joy, and, when there is blame, sorrow. These eight worldly dharmas should certainly
be abandoned. The same text says:
Joy and sorrow,
Loss and gain,
Praise and blame,
And pleasure and pain,
These, by the Worldly-wise
Are called the eight worldly dharmas.
Let us produce equanimity
For these non-objects of mind.
In regard to establishing the seven riches the same text says:
Purity and discipline,
Learning and generosity,
Spotless perfect humility,
Modesty, and prajqa,
These are the seven riches
As they were taught by the Sage.
Householders and so forth should encourage others to virtue and establish supportive activities. The same text
says:
Hurting people and theft,
And sexual peccadilloes,
Desire for drinks and snacks,
Delight in high seats and music
Dances and special garlands--
Abandon these and follow
The discipline of the arhats.
If one has these eight limbs,
Reconciliation,
Desirable activity,
A pleasant godlike body
For men or women is taught.
In brief, meditators dwelling in solitude, by the discipline of their vows restrain the mind from what is associated
with evil activity. By the discipline of gathering wholesome dharmas, samadhi, liberation, and so forth that were not
possessed before are established. Wholesome dharmas that were formerly possessed increase. We spend our time day and
night on the side of wholesomeness alone. By the discipline of performing benefit for sentient beings, those remaining in
samsara are urged to virtue. Those desiring the Dharma who have gone wrong in the ongoing rules of discipline, those
whose Dharma was too much for them, should be made to rejoice. Finally, do not injure even birds, beasts, insects, ants
and such sentient beings. Giving them food and so forth, speak the name of the Tathagata, proclaim the names of the
three jewels, and always think that even these will certainly get enlightened eventually. Always think, "May these be
liberated as my retinue," and "Even these may be emanations."
Having thought that, arouse devotion and sacred outlook. Even if it exists now today produce matchless
apprehension of separation and impermanence. Not even for an instant being mundane, let the mind spend time only
with the wholesome.
b. how this is accomplished by the limbs of the skillful means of practice
There are two sections
1) General means of practicing shamatha and vipashyana,
2) Individual means of practicing shamatha and vipashyana,
1) the means of practicing shamatha and vipashyana, has three parts.
a) Abandoning and antidotes
Two meanings/benefits:
Then in regard to the limbs of practice,
These five obscurations ought to be abandoned:
Being drowsy, dull, discursive, disconsolate, or doubtful.
Practice the union of shamatha and vipashyana.
Being drowsy and droopy will obscure shamatha.
Discursiveness and depression disrupt vipashyana.
Doubt harms both, incompatible with either one.
Yogacharins have five obscurations of dhyana. Within true shamatha revealing clear luminosity, by being drowsy and
droopy, depression is produced. Within the one-pointed lucency of vipashyana, by being discursive or disconsolate,
proliferation of thoughts is produced. When there is doubt, neither shamatha nor vipashyana is established. As for
drowsiness, or sleepiness, entering into it involuntarily, the mind is gathered up. Dullness is a neutrality where objects are
not clearly known. These should be abandoned. The Spiritual Letter says:
Discursive-disconsolate; malicious; dull and drowsy;
Interested in desire; and being doubtful.
These five obscurations are errors about the wholesome.
It should be known that they are plundering thieves.
Discursiveness and disconsolateness are taken as one. Drowsiness and dullness are one. With interest in desire,
malice, and doubt there are five.
b) Clearing away hindrances:
These five obscurations can be summarized
Under the headings of drowsiness and discursiveness.
If there is drowsiness, we should try to refresh our practice.
If there is discursiveness, meditate one-pointedly.
Drowsiness and dullness are depressive sinking, so meditate trying to adopt a refreshed and revitalized attitude.
If there is discursiveness about other things or people, try to meditate on the nine means of resting.
c) Relying on unifying the antidotes
It is like this:
Vipashyana without shamatha is discursive complexity.
Without vipashyana, shamatha will go nowhere.
It is the highest path when these two are combined.
This is the antidote for the two obscurations.
Prajqa unmoistened by shamatha is only verbal understanding. Shamatha uncompleted by vipashyana, is neutral
and cannot be expected to elevate one above the seeds of samsara. Therefore, try to unify them. The Spiritual Letter says:
Without any prajqa, samadhi does not exist.
Without samadhi, also there is no prajqa.
Where there are both, the black ocean of samsara,
Will have be searched for like the tracks of cattle.
2) Individual means of practicing shamatha and vipashyana,
Of the two individual explanations of shamatha and vipashyana,
a) shamatha,
There are four sections
i) The cause of its being established,
Here first:
When body, speech, and mind, and intellect are at ease,
Then it can be said that shamatha is established.
There is equanimity with the natures of all dharmas,
The chief ancillary is that all conceptions are pacified.
In samsaric style, the mind is grasping a single object.
The complete non-thought of samadhi is established by putting the three gates completely at ease. By putting the
body at ease, the nadis are put at ease. By putting the nadis at ease, prana is put at ease. By putting prana at ease the red
and white essential elements are at ease, naturally collecting in the petals of the four chakras and so forth. Then the
mental resting of shamatha is naturally established. This is because the supports of mind, the elemental essences,
motionlessly collect in one place.
Within this, the nature of mind continually exists in its natural state, even, uninterrupted ungraspable,
inexpressible equality that does not come, go, or remain anywhere at all.
The half of this that is the aspect of vividness and transparency is vipashyana. The aspect of being and resting is
shamatha. Their non-duality is called their union. Because it always exists in all beings, luminous clarity is easily
encountered when there is the remedy of exhaustion through natural motionlessness and so forth. Whatever is done by the
yogin, whether emanating or resting, by knowing shamatha/vipashyana where everything is left as it is without fabrication
or defilement, there is liberation.
ii) The way of grasping the object
As for the way in which the mind grasps a single object:
One kind has an apparent object and one does not.
Either kind can be external or internal.
In all that makes four ways the object can be grasped.
When there is an apparent object of shamatha,
It will be form and such, the objects of the five senses.
That without form is one-pointed resting in non-thought.
External objects are things like rocks and trees and statues.
Internal ones are like the inverted heart-center lotus
First, as for the way the mind grasps, in shamatha with an apparent object, the mind rests with constant and
motionless one-pointedness on form, sound, smell, taste, and touchables, whatever objects there may be. Internally,
unsupported by appearance, the mind grasps complete non-thought.
Within the body, on bodies of gods, mantric syllables, or the downward-opening heart lotus and scepters and
emblems, the chakras and so forth, or by meditating on light and so forth, the shamatha of the five complexities arises in
shamatha which is predominantly bliss.
Externally, if one grasps rocks, trees, images of bodily forms, and so forth without distraction, also the clear and
luminous half of shamatha will arise. Here because predominating complexities are grasped as external, their
proliferations are grasped as internal. By the diminishing of thoughts, if they are grasped as internal, by drowsiness
predominating, they will be grasped as external. Moreover, by the mind having first grasped something with
characteristics, afterwards the state without characteristics will arise.
Those who do not know this, if their minds grasp bodily forms and so forth, go into complexity, so when they say
they are resting in a state without complexity of nothing whatsoever, they miss the point. This is the speech of those with
little experience.
Here though one's mind seems to be steadily on/directed toward something, at the time of first being directed
toward that, a thought precedes it. Then, not remaining on the appearance of that object, the mind without emanating and
gathering is substanceless, pure, and vivid, like an autumn sky free from clouds does not rest there and cannot possibly do
so.
In a state without appearance, even if the mind grasps, further damage will not occur. If there are such faults,
one will not be harmed by drowsiness or discursiveness and cannot possibly be. In brief, not entering into the appearance
of objects, with a mind resting free from emanation and gathering is called dhyana. Whatever the mind grasps, whether
with or without appearance, by realization of bliss and the experiences of luminosity, and non-thought, the ornament, the
great non-fixation free from extremes, must arise. If it doesn't arise, there are faults. If it does arise, the samadhi of
genuine dhyana in which upaya and prajqa are non-dual will arise within us.
***
iii) The limbs of means:
In brief:
To rest the mind one-pointedly on a single object
Is the means by which shamatha will be established.
The object on which one wants to rest is one pointedly grasped by the mind. Then by the nine means of resting
the mind, it should be stabilized.
On that object the mind should
(1) rest and
(2) continually rest.
If it emanates outward, the mind should be
(3) brought back to resting.
As one becomes more and more assiduous, there is
(4) thoroughly resting.
When that has produced joy, there is
(5) taming,
(6) pacification of the faults of distraction.
When sleepiness, dullness and so forth have been cleared away, there is
(7) complete pacification.
Non-emanation of other produces
(8) one-pointedness.
By not struggling with that, there i
(9) resting in equanimity.
The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
Resting the mind, continually resting, bringing back to resting, taming, pacifying, complete
pacifying, one-pointedness, and resting in equanimity.
iv. The means of practice:
When one-pointed shamatha has arisen by means of this,
By reason of its stabilization and spreading outward,
The wisdom of vipashyana will proliferate.
It is important to gain the benefit of this
That it should be mixed with everything we do.
Relying on this, in freshness of both body and mind,
We should meditate as is described before.
It will quickly be established by doing this.
It is not achieved merely by the condition of the mind's having achieved one-pointedness, since that is not
suitable for mixing with vipashyana. At that time one-pointedness is mixed with vipashyana, clear seeing of illusion and
so forth. Also shamatha is mixed with emanation and gathering and so forth. If this is not done, after the mind has been
distracted by emanated objects, by meditating as before, attaining self-control over the object on which one wants to rest,
and the period for which one wants to rest, and the way in which one wants to rest, the power of resting and disengaging
will arise. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
By that, having made that increase,
By that increase having gone far,
The main practice of resting will thus truly be attained.
b) Vipashyana
There are eight sections
i. The principal feature and the subsidiary aspects that are like its retinue.
Having trained in shamatha:
For whoever wants the clear seeing of vipashyana
Within the limpid clarity of the luminous mind,
Discriminating awareness is the principal aspect.
Being and resting within the equality of non-thought
Exist in the form of a retinue surrounding that.
At the time of shamatha, within luminous mind, the clear state of looking at the nature of dharmas is the
principal feature, like the ruler. The luminous aspect of the mind of non-thought, not emanating, exists as the retinue or
the ordinary people.
ii) Training in the skill of discriminating vipashyana
Discriminating vipashyana:
Here there are the two aspects of dharmin and dharmata.
The dharmin is viewed like the eight examples of illusion.
As for dharmata, the way that we should train
Is that phenomena are the emptiness of space.
By resting within suchness, wisdom will arise.
From stabilized meditation, examine in detail the essence of these external appearances, the dependent arising of
the dharmin, appearing as dream, illusion, and so forth. Meditate within that as long as is desired. The Ten Circles of
Kshitigarbha Sutra says:
All these dharmas are like
An illusion or a mirage.
A dream or trick of the eyes,
An echo or emanation
Like colored scarves of a dancer
These should be realized.
I bow down to this
As an excellent field of merit.
Looking at it like that, rest without mental struggle in dharmata, the naturally existing unborn, like space. The
Precious Treasury of the Unborn says:
Not realizing anything, also not thinking anything,
Create nothing artificial; let the nature be.
That is the precious treasury known as the unborn.
All the victorious ones of the three times have gone there.
Meditating in that way, within the realization that all objects are like illusion, do not enter into fixation. Within
realization of the nature like space, arises the wisdom of unobstructed objects of appearance, the natural wisdom of
simplicity, emptiness/luminosity. The All-Creating King says:
Kye! As for me enlightenment, the doer of all, the king,
I am a perfect mirror that looks at all the dharmas.
All that rises is natureless in luminosity,
It is taught that by not looking there is the luminous nature.
Within the realm of suchness, which is the unborn,
Realize the great seeing, without any objects to look at.
iii) The benefit of training in drowsiness and discursiveness as play
In the pond of this vipashyana meditation:
In relying on this, we should train on the various dharmas as play,
Viewing them purely as non-dual illusion and emptiness.
When there is proliferation, we should compose the mind
Within the equality that is found in shamatha.
At this time in luminosity like the sky
We see in simplicity the empty, luminous essence.
This frees us from the two-fold clouds of the obscurations.
Sometimes there rises the luminosity like an ocean.
Within its clarity, what arises is liberated.
It is important to gain the benefit of this,
And that it should be mixed with everything we do.
Thus vipashyana will quickly be established.
In the pond of vipashyana, the unborn, proliferate many dharmas of denying, affirming and so forth. Train in
them as a play of vividly insubstantial illusion, passing the pass into non-dual illusion. If thoughts emanate, meditate as
before in shamatha. Relying on that state, meditate on the eleven apprehensions below. Moreover, examine the
conceptions of independent arising and so forth. If because of these there is emanation, meditate in shamatha and do not
analyze. If by this there are conceptualizing thoughts, put the mind in a state of non-thought that does not flicker with
conceptual analysis. To prolong this, contemplate the reason for completely grasping the mind. Contemplate the reason
of shamatha, not moving the mind from resting. Contemplate the reason for vipashyana, the half of luminous clarity.
Contemplate the reason for non-dually mixing luminosity and emptiness in union. Contemplate the reason for
equanimity, the natureless equality of all dharmas. The Middle length Prajqaparamita says:
1 Apprehend with thoughts and analytic discrimination;
2 Without thoughts, apprehend with just analytic discrimination
3 Apprehend with neither thought nor analytic discrimination.
4 Apprehend shamatha.
5 Apprehend vipashyana.
6 Apprehend their unity.
7 Apprehend the reason for completely grasping the mind.
8 Apprehend the reason for shamatha.
9 Apprehend the reason for vipashyana.
10 Apprehend the reason for their union.
11 Apprehend the reason for equanimity.
That is the meaning. If the mind emanates, tame it. If it becomes drowsy, refresh it. By training in the skill of
uniting shamatha and vipashyana, the ocean and waves arise like luminosity that has become space. The object that is the
mind's reference points rest without fixation in luminosity/emptiness. This is unharmed by the waves of flickering
thoughts that are self-liberated at the very time of their arising as our own nature. Like clouds and the sky, as the
imputations of vipashyana becoming space, the luminous nature of mind is seen, changeless, free from stains of
artificiality, naked luminosity/emptiness. Even if mind exists, it exists within dharmata. Confidence is attained that it is
primordially pure of existence and non-existence. By manifestation arising as the play of dharmata, whatever appears is
known as the play of wisdom. This is the time when conditioned appearances are liberated as naturally arisen wisdom.
By seeing the essence of one's own mind as trikaya, one is liberated from the dharmas of characteristics of effort and
establishing. The All-Creating King says:
Kye ho, listen to me now O mahasattva!
As for dharmakaya, it is bodhicitta.
As for Bodhicitta, it is dharmakaya.
Not even an atom was fabricated by anyone.
Therefore, there is neither buddhahood nor mind.
As for Sambhogakaya, it is bodhicitta.
Bodhicitta likewise is sambhogakaya.
All the different forms arising from the mind
Are not anything else other than sambhogakaya itself.
As for Nirmanakaya, it is bodhicitta.
Bodhicitta likewise is nirmanakaya.
There is no other producer of benefit for beings.
All of the buddhas throughout the three divisions of time
Are not anything else than bodhicitta itself.
Previously, the buddhas abiding in the past
Saw self-realization of unfabricated mind.
At this time the buddhas dwelling in the present
Are the realization of unfabricated mind.
Now they do benefits for others, sentient beings.
In time to come for buddhas arising in the future,
This naturally existing nature of the mind
Is not destined to have its former fabrications,
Now the mind of samadhi has no fabrications,
Having remained to the end on the path of non-fabrication
iv) Having trained in both, as for inseparably uniting them
Thus having trained individually in shamatha and vipashyana, inseparably unite these two so that awareness and
emanation rest in equality/equanimity:
In the union of shamatha and vipashyana
It is equal whether awareness rests or proliferates.
Both are primarily the wisdom of non-thought.
The encompassing style of this unification is its freedom
From all the complexities of existence and non-existence.]
Both within the principal wisdom of non-thought
Are the retinue of undisturbed simplicity.
As for "union," when the excellent essence of luminosity/emptiness arises, emanation and resting are not
contradictory. The main point is wisdom that does not grasp apparent objects, the freedom from confusion of non-
thought. The nature of awareness that does not move from this state exists as a retinue. Though the principle thing is
always the non-dual nature of mind, at the time of meditating in shamatha/vipashyana this is easy to realize. Therefore, it
possesses those means of non-distraction as a retinue or aspect. Nagarjuna says:
When grasping and fixation
Go into non-duality,
Not different from the nature,
They are said to be in union.
At that time, by the subsiding of incidental complexities, the nature of mind, goes into the ground, like water
poured into water. There is no division in their equal taste. The Dohakosha says:
The mind of the natural state,
For the yogin in unity,
Should be known to be
Like water poured into water.
v) The non-duality/dual non-existence of arising and liberation
At the time of abiding in that union, concepts:
Because we rest in the state of letting things be as they are,
By their very arising things are liberated.
Therefore we are resting within equality,
Unifying shamatha and vipashyana.
Bliss, luminosity, and non-thought will then arise.
Appearance and emptiness are the spontaneous presence
Of upaya and prajqa, developing and completion.
Like waves being pacified within water, whatever thoughts arise, instantly having gone into natural arising as
they are, rise and are liberated at the same time, this is vipashyana, clear seeing of liberation by arising. This
accumulation of merit with appearance is the spontaneous presence of the developing stage.
Self-pacified intrinsic self-awareness , abiding with luminous clarity, is shamatha. It is the perfection of the
accumulation of wisdom which is without appearance. Their unified nature primordially abides as spontaneous presence
of mind. The All-Creating King says:
Knowing this, abide undistracted in the real,
Do not make any effort or train the mind in antidotes.
Do not postulate objects or rest in mindfulness.
Whatever arises then will be the meaning itself.
So enter into my world--be the doer of all.
vi) Meditation to train in the skills and to dispel.
By meditating in this union undefiled by fabrication:
Moreover we should train in the individual skills
Both of shamatha and of vipashyana
As antidotes for discursiveness and drowsiness.
And if drowsiness and discursiveness increase,
We should meditate in order to dispel them
In addition to vipashyana, one should meditate on shamatha. By meditating in vipashyana when there is
drowsiness and shamatha when there is discursiveness, there will be liberation from these faults.
vii) The explanation of what is gained:
When there is the benefit, like a clear and cloudless sky,
Looking into total space with the sun at one's back,
Simple awareness of emptiness/luminosity rises.
At the time of a cloudless sky, when faults have been put behind, look with the outlook of the ushnisha. The
luminosity/emptiness that indeed arises at that instant is the wisdom of union. The Prajqaparamita-samgatha says:
Examine the pure space which is the meaning of this.
viii) How the outer, inner, and secret luminosities arise.
At that time:
Outer space is pure, but only an example,
Of the greater inner space of the nature, dharmata.
The secret space is the heart of luminosity.
Know realization as being composed of these three spaces.
When we look at the example of external space, the meaning, self-awareness actually arises. As for the arising
of the realization of secret wisdom, this is what all the instructions of the ultimate meaning are really teaching. The
Dohakosha says:
However, the sayings of the guru should be viewed as one.
Also:
Entering into the essence of the sayings of the guru
Is like seeing a treasure placed in the palm of your hand.
The All-Creating King says:
If one wants to realize what this truly means,
Mix with the example, the purity of the sky.
The Middle Length Prajqaparamita says:
As for producing the yogic union of the perfection of prajqa, union with space is produced.
The Dohakosha says:
The nature of mind should be grasped as being like space.
The nature of space should be grasped as being mind.
The example is the luminous, empty, unobstructed outer space of the sky. Awareness at this time too is
luminous, empty, unobstructed wisdom. That is inner space.
That empty, luminous, simple wisdom arises co-emergently with the experiences of bliss, luminosity and non-
thought. By that all dharmas are self-liberated into the characteristic of space. This liberation of all fixations of things
and characteristics is the secret space of the great luminosity. At that time, there are the ten signs of smoke and so forth,
1) smoke
2) mirage
3) firefly
4) lamp
5) blazing
6) moon
7) sun
8) Rahu
9) cha shas or mchog gi cha
10) bindu seeing.
and the appearance of the five lights [bindus of the five buddha family colors]. By the entering of prana and mind into the
central channel, space is completely illuminated. The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
From the nature without conception and perception,
Come the varied phenomena of the mandalas of light.
These several luminosities that shine in the center of space,
By expressing variety, have never risen at all.
Signs of true and stable samadhi arise within one, even if one does not want them.
c. The practice of non-duality,
From the eight limbs,
1) The great perfection beyond accepting and rejecting,
Third meanings:
The limbs of the essence are establishing non-duality.
This is the great perfection, where all is of equal taste.
Accepting and rejecting are things that should not be done.
Cast away attachment to any objective reference.
Attachments to the grasper are the formations of samsara.
Without fixated objects, as it is in space,
There is no bondage and also there is no liberation.
The essential nature is beyond effort and establishing and accepting and rejecting, like space. Realizing this is
the view. Not being distracted from this is meditation. Therefore, having become aware that this meditation is beyond
existence and non-existence, accepting and rejecting, and hope and fear, attain stability by meditating in this samadhi.
Since here there is no thought of improvement, why speak of any other meditation. The All-creating King says:
Since desiring bliss is the sickness of desire,
By not desiring bliss, bliss will be received.
By establishing buddhahood, there is no establishment.
The nature that need not be sought is spontaneously present.
Do not conceptualize, and the nature need not be sought.
Also:
Kye mahasattva,
If you wish to establish the nature of your own mind,
As it is self-established when you are without desire,
Do not establish the equanimity of non-thought.
Rest in the sphere of the nature that does not accept and reject.
Naturally rest in the state of natural motionlessness.
As for mind, the essence of it is suchness.
All of the dharmas, likewise, are established as suchness.
Do not fabricate within the state of suchness.
Do not establish anything other than the essence.
If it is sought, the buddha-space will not be found.
It was already made, it need not be made now.
It was already established. That need not be done again.
Meditate in non-thought. Don't realize anything.
If fixation and attachment exist, one will not be liberated from samsara. The Song of the Oral Instructions of the
inexhaustible Treasury says:
If the mind of yoga is drunk
With the poisons of hope and fear,
Co-emergent wisdom
Will be bound in place
Having no reference point,
We will be beyond bondage
As well as liberation.
The same text says:
The ultimate vajra mind
Has neither hope nor fear.
Even going to hell,
We will not suffer there.
Even in fruition,
There is no more to gain.
Having abandoned benefit
And harm by pleasure and pain,
By good and evil actions,
These will not grow and diminish.
Wanting a better Buddha,
Besides this non-duality
The realization of wisdom,
One should be called a fool.
2) The teaching of the meaning of this by example
As for the extensive explanation of this nature of dharmata beyond accepting and rejecting
For example:
Like various reflections and the surface of a mirror,
Such are the various dharmas and the state of emptiness.
As reflections are not something other than the surface of a mirror, all dharmas should be known as emptiness.
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
In a pure and luminous mirror,
As reflected natures appear,
All dharmas are reflections
To be truly viewed as unborn.
3) The example of assertion and denial
Just like various clouds within the space of the sky,
Such are various affirmations and negations
As they are found within the space of the nature of mind.
Accumulating and dissipating moment by moment, clouds do not move from the space of the sky. Similarly,
whatever affirmations and denials arise within the space of the mind do not move from the space of the nature of mind.
The Newly-strung Mala of Oral Instructions says:
All clouds are within the sky.
All thoughts are in dharmata.
4) The example of realized experience:
Just like various rivers in the expanse of the ocean,
Is realized experience in the space of meditation.
As tributary streams are one in the ocean, experiences of realization are of one taste with the meditator. The
same text says:
Within the limitless ocean of precious qualities,
All the various waters of experience
Flow together and then they are naturally motionless.
A stable mind is characterized by wish-fulfillment
5) The example of samsara and nirvana:
Like various illusions and the space of emanation;
Such are the variety of samsara and nirvana
Emanating within the space of dharmata.
Illusions are natureless from the time they appear. Just so, be aware that samsara and nirvana do not move from
dharmata. The Sutra Requested by Bhadra says:
Dharmas, in the nature of illusion,
Are taught as emptiness of any essence.
The Dohakosha says:
That which is samsara is that which is nirvana
6) The example of mind and the nature of mind:
Like the space of the ten directions that is without a ground,
Is the state that views eternally liberated dharmas.
As water pours into water without duality,
So mind and the nature of mind cannot be separated.
The space of the sky has no different natures; so all dharmas are of non-dual nature. The All-Creating King
says:
Just as the sky is inseparable,
All dharmas are inseparable.
When water is mixed with water, they are not two. When thoughts that arise within the space of the nature of
mind dissolve back into the ground, these also are not two. The Golden Mala says:
As water dissolving in water is not two,
So it is with mind and the nature of mind.
7. The example of thought and non-thought:
Just like various dreams within the state of sleep,
Such is the state of the action that does not accept or reject.
Just like an ocean and the waves within its waters,
Such is equality of discursiveness and non-thought.
Dreams do not move from sleep. So all that is accepted and rejected is of one taste in non-duality, the same text
says:
Dreams are luminosity in the Space of sleep.
Dharmas are luminosity non-dual from emptiness.
Waves are made of water. They are not something other than water. Thoughts and non-thought are the same.
The Dohakosha says:
So long as there are emanations of mind,
So long there is the nature of lord Buddha.
Can there be otherness of water and waves?
8. The example of hope and fear:
Just as we are happy with a successful business,
There are neither hope or fear within fruition.
Know the monolithic state of the great perfection
To be the all-encompassing space of dharmata.
When we successfully take care of business, the mind is in a relaxed and comfortable state without hope or fear.
Just so, having gained conviction that buddhahood is one's own mind, one is relaxed and comfortable within that. The
same text says:
If a mad elephant should get its mind together,
It will stop coming and going, and start resting at its ease.
Thus for realization, there is nothing else to look for.
If this state of the nature of mind, self-arising wisdom without accepting and rejecting, is fully complete, there is
liberation from perception of the characteristics of action and seeking. The All-Creating King says:
This path has no completion of anything at all
Perfect as one, perfect as two, perfect as all,
It is therefore the bliss of the perfection of action.
It is perfect as one as perfect bodhicitta.
It is perfect as two as perfect actions of mind.
It is perfect as all as perfection in its fullness.
By this teaching of the unity of perfection,
One will dwell in realization of buddhahood.
By the reality of this perfection of everything,
Everything is really made to be complete.
Whoever so abides within this established action
Whether this body is that of a god or human being,
Is enlightened in dharmata, benefiting beings,
With effortless non-establishing, dwells in perfect bliss.
C. The dedication of merit
Now the merit of these sayings is dedicated:
Thus by the single taste of difference as non-dual,
All beings are liberated from self as well as other,
From grasping subject as well as fixations of the object.
Exhausted here within the confusion of samsara
By the perception and conception that "this is it,"
May mind this very day relieve its weariness.
This supremely wondrous merit, vast and non-dual, is like immaculate space. May those in the realms of beings,
exhausted in samsara by the confusion that grasps duality, though they have become far-distanced from this, as a hundred
light rays of merit are emanated by the bhumis and divine realms, ease their weariness in the pleasure grove of the
Buddha Bhagavat, built of flowers.
Realms of the gods adorn the sky above the earth,
Arising on red supporting feet of spotless light,
To these seven levels of noble ones may all beings cross.
May they have the vast wealth of the Buddha's treasury.
In their mountain peaks and forests may they be delighted
with lands of herbs adorned with flowers and flowing water.
Because of having passed through this life successfully,
May liberation and its qualities be established.
As the moon, only beautified by being wreathed in clouds,
Makes white kumut lotuses stretch into space and bloom,
By this may the "good light rabbit " of peace be grasped.
For beings without remainder, may there be the ground of life.
. This work is part of a trilogy. The other titles are like this one except for substituting bsam gtan, dhyana/
meditation and sgyu ma/ illusion for sems nyid. Dzogchen or ati is the tradition that this teaching is part of, and
also its fruition. A basic understanding of the titles is that samsara involves sufffering and weariness. The view
that sees the nature of mind, practicing meditation, and regarding activity from the viewpoint of all things being
illusory are means of easing or weariness or relaxing tension. The result of doing so is resting in the great
perfection.
The three means regarded from the viewpoint of the great perfection produce the fruition. If they are
samsarically regarded they are part of the problem. The Sanskrit offered for sems nyid is citta, whose primary
meaning is mind in the conceptual sense, the very thing that needs to be eased. In the same way meditation as the
notion that our being is intrinsically bad and needs to be made into something else is a problem. Illusion in the
sense of clinging to confused views and goals is a problem.
This points out a central point of ati, that this very world of samsara
is the world of nirvana, when we relax our confused fixations about it and stop struggling with the projects that
confusion suggests of saving ourselves and the world from spiritual degradation.
. This work is part of a trilogy. The other titles are like this one except for substituting bsam gtan, dhyana/
meditation and sgyu ma/ illusion for sems nyid. Dzogchen or ati is the tradition that this teaching is part of, and
also its fruition. A basic understanding of the titles is that samsara involves sufffering and weariness. The view
that sees the nature of mind, practicing meditation, and regarding activity from the viewpoint of all things being
illusory are means of easing or weariness or relaxing tension. The result of doing so is resting in the great
perfection.
The three means regarded from the viewpoint of the great perfection produce the fruition. If they are
samsarically regarded they are part of the problem. The Sanskrit offered for sems nyid is citta, whose primary
meaning is mind in the conceptual sense, the very thing that needs to be eased. In the same way meditation as the
notion that our being is intrinsically bad and needs to be made into something else is a problem. Illusion in the
sense of clinging to confused views and goals is a problem.
This points out a central point of ati, that this very world of samsara
is the world of nirvana, when we relax our confused fixations about it and stop struggling with the projects that
confusion suggests of saving ourselves and the world from spiritual degradation.
. Mind, sems, sometimes = samsaric mind sometimes = sems nyid the nature of mind = enlightened mind.
. realm. The same name is used for a bodhisattva personifying the sambhogakaya buddha field of Vairochana.
. bstan bcos, usually treatise or shastra. Here KPSR said that the sense was more the teachings in general, and
US said that the connotation was teachings delivered for certain purposes.
. This increases merit so that enlightenment is gained. If reasoning is rightly used it inspires people to appreciate
directly the experiential meaning of the teachings and teacher. But often the result is just the opposite, to make it
all seem very conceptualized, abstract, and proud of its orthodoxy. It becomes uselessly circular. The teachings
are true because the Buddha taught them, and the Buddha is an authentic, true person because the teachings say so.
We have to be inspired to see for ourselves what is meant. For example, the Gelugpas often begin more with
reasoning and then practice. The Nyingmas and Cages tend to start in the middle with some of both. But in the
end, if they practice well, they all go to the same place. KPSR.
. central = where the Buddha's teaching is taught.
. HVG., literally something like "perverted the limits of action."
. Having the perfections pertaining to oneself, and having the perfections pertaining to others altogether perhaps.
. This passage consists of mnemonic cues, comprehensible only if one already knows the list.
. The title means Entering the path to enlightenment.
. rtog pa.
. dpyod pa.
. sems 'byung.
. rtog.
. spyi la dmigs par mthong ba'i rtog pa.
. sems.
. blos shes bzhin.
. dmigs pa: actually can mean perceive, apprehend, imagine, or conceive in different contexts. However
conceptualization is explained in terms of imagery, minimizing this distinction somewhat.
. Treasury of elements of existence
. Entering the Middle Way.
. Great: beyond mind and not mind, all-inclusive.
. rig pa: VCTR liked insight (= wisdom) because the same word is used for conceptual understanding.
Awareness or apprehension. Sometimes kaya and wisdom is used to express the enlightened object and perceiver.
. bslang.
. From the Sanskrit, this seems to be a copyist's error me (flames) for mo (women)
. 'gro rnam 'byed kyi mdo: [Analytic discrimination of going/beings //?
. I.e. monks and lay-people.
. The seven aryan riches, 'phags pa nor bdun, faith, discipline, generosity, learning, decency, modesty, and
prajqa.
. sa gsum: over on and under the earth.
. {gser gyi ri bdun the 7 golden mountains [[from Abhidharmakosha: surrounding Mt Meru [[mu khyud a'dzin, [rim] rnam a'dud, rta rna, [horse's ear] lta
na sdug, [Pleasing-to-the-eye] seng ldeng can, [ Acacia [sandalwood] Forest] gshol mda'a a'dzin, [plow] gnya'a shing a'dzin [yoke]] ES
Beyond Mt Meru and completely surrounding it like curtains are seven mountain ranges, each forming a square. These seven golden mountain ranges [are
named according to the shape of the peaks] Yoke, plow, Acacia [sandalwood] Forest, Pleasing-to-the-eye, Horse's Ear, Bent, and Rim: Myriad Worlds 110.
. as far as Nyashing Dzin and the other... Usually the outer volcanic iron mountains are called the Horse Face Mountain Range. Since Nyashing Dzin is
already said to be one of the inner mountains, this may be a copyists error.
. It contains a thousand squared or a million worlds.
. It contains a thousand cubed, or a billion, worlds. However, Mipham argues in his commentary on Kalachakra that the proper meaning is a realm of three
thousand worlds like ours, and cites texts that have this approach.
. The first buddha of the present kalpa.
. As a name = Kuvera.
. Some think legs pa = sadhu just has the sense of guard well. Sadhu means good, i.e. a religious renunciate devoted to goodness.
. Below, upon, and above the earth.
. Forces of sudden affliction by madness and calamity, for Tibetans personified as demons
. lto 'phyes, a sort of python demi-god, not the same as nagas.
. a'phags pa'i nor bdun.
. A long verse passage.
. Flowing in four directions from Mt Kailasha, these are the Ganges, Yamuna, Bhramaputra, and Indus.
. The precious wheel, gem, queen, elephant, horse, treasure-vase, and minister.
. A kind of yaksha with animal head
. lus srul po ES.
. The Life of Yeshe Tsogyal has some similar passages for any heterosexual females who may feel left out.
. blo. Nothing to do with low blows.
. These are the three poisons or root kleshas.
. shes pa.
. yul so so.
. sems, the sense identified with grasping.
. yul can gyi blo.
. yid la byed pa.
. rang ngo.
. Yoga practice.
. mtshan nyid, rnam grangs. mtshan nyid is the same word logicians use for the defining characteristics
discovered by valid reasoning. The word is one of the categories refuted by madhyamaka (what isn't?) but even
there it is allowed validity conventionally. Here, provocatively, it is simply equated with being wrong, and
distinguished from the accountable, which here is the sphere of conventional truth and falsity.
. kun btags.
. rin po che sna bdun.
. rang [gi] snang [ba]. see glossary.
. It could also be said that if everything is mind, the term makes no distinction and is meaningless. Both of
these arguments involve some questionable assumptions about what kind of distinctions are possible.
Conceptualizing experience can be subtler than dividing bricks into piles.
. This takes mind in the limited samsaric sense.
. The approach is like that of madhyamaka. If we take our ordinary concepts as literal descriptions of absolute
reality, it is easy to get into trouble by inferring contradictory propositions.
. rang gi sang ba.
. don spyi.
. This appears to be addressed to an exponent of madhyamaka who holds that external objects truly exist from a
conventional viewpoint, though not from the viewpoint of analysis for the absolute.
. Ordinary language distinguishes my sensations (personal appearances) of this flower from the flower itself,
although there is no double vision of both at once. For example, if I close my eyes, the sensations vanish, but the
flower does not.
. This is a play on gnyis med which can mean either both are not (existent) or not two = non-dual. In the
Tibetan the reader has to try possible combinations of the above and pick the one that seems to fit best.
. snang ba, appearance, as used in Tibetan can mean something in mind, but can also include external objects,
which appear to us to exist and to be directly perceived. However the characteristics of eg a tree are no more
predicable of mind than those of a perception of a tree. Neither, therefore an be the same as mind.
. Red and white can have the sense subjective and objective.
. rang rig. Sometimes Longchenpa says things that sound similar, but would never say that such things
transcend emptiness.
. By identifying mind, true existence, and appearance, it will follow, although this is not what these exponents
of mind-only want to say, that what appears is what truly exists and that the confusions of the relative are absolute
and truly exist.
. sems rig pa.
. Mipham's Shentong Senge Ngaro helps clarify this kind of reasoning considerably, explaining in what sense
positive statements like those of the Uttaratantra can and cannot be made about the absolute.
. rang mtshan pa gzhan.
. khams
. dpe bsdu'i bye brag.
. Explained in the STSN. Any truth in appearance, including wisdom, is annihilated, while the concept of
emptiness is fixated as a negative eternal absolute.
. srab mthug.
. Lord of Death and King of Hell.
. gro bzhin skyes rna bye ba ris.
. Wooden clacker.
. Cleaned it up, eliminated each other.
. Or fermenting grain.
. Iron trees of hell with sharp leaves etc.
. 1 having blisters; 2 bursting blisters 3 swo tham tham pa: teeth chattering 4 achu 5 ALAS! 6 ut pa la ltar7
pad ma 8 pad ma che.
. blong blong: made dark and filthy, or suffering from intense panic.
. Guenther reads this as "the country of Magadha."
. khal: 25-30 lb.
. cf. JOL p. 61
. Such as yakshas, mountain-top spirits, powerful rakshasas and their kings cannibal demons drinking blood
and eating corpses and such, often harmful, especially if not propitiated. Vaishravana is a king of these and
Ravana is their supreme king, supposed to live in Sri Lanka.
. {'dul ba lung gzhi'i mdo} - pn Sutra on teachings that are the bases of discipline.
. ngal snabs read nar snabs.
. KPSR explains this by saying it means the skandhas are closely associated with suffering. etc.
. ES Four Currents {'dod pa}, = desire {srid pa}, existence {ma rig pa}, ignorance {log par lta ba}, - wrong
views.
. rtog pa of the pars rtog dpyod, conception and analysis which are linked to grasping and fixation.
. Air.
. The first dhatus appears to = physical element, while the second also seems to have the sense of the 18 dhatus.
. The sense in which there is a time of becoming enlightenment vs. enlightenment being primordial reality.
. rig.
. yid or sems.
. gzung ba'i rtog pa. Longchenpa uses the two terms as equivalent.
. 'dzin pa'i rtog pa. Sometimes dpyod pa instead of rtog pa.
. vasanas, bag chags, stored habitual patterns.
. dbyen spyos
. Klesha mind is the main villain here. There is some ambiguity about conception generating mental
consciousness.
. yul and yul can.
. yid.
. Cf. a second account below. In general it is said that dhyana 2 eliminates concept and analysis, dhyana 3
concentrated joy, and 4 bliss, leaving several other factors such as those named.
. in the god realms.
. The Ornament of Clear Realization.
. Compendium of the Perfection of Knowledge.
. The main objection seems to be not frivolity but possibly misleading people.
. Treasury of the Clear Presentation of Dharmas.
. cf. {'bras bu lnga} - rgyu mthun gyi 'bras bu dang, bdag po'i 'bras bu dang, skyes bu byed pa'i 'bras bu dang,
rnam smin gyi 'bras bu dang, bral ba'i 'bras bu ste lnga'o,//.
the five fruitions are the fruition according with the cause, dominant fruition, being-producing fruition, fruition of
ripening, and fruition of separation. The last applies only to good actions.
. Guenther has 2 extra lines p 62.
. Son of Champion Wealth.
. Going to Ceylon
. When these relative virtues are practiced in the absence of prajqa.
. Empty continuity? It could also mean thousand tantras.
. Dharmakaya
. Rupakaya.
. Their true enlightened nature
. Or a statue in a clay mold.
. 1 Passion, 2 aggression, and 3 ignorance; 4 all acting or as 5 imprint;
That to be abandoned by 6 seeing and 7 meditation;
The higher bhumis relatively 8 impure and 9 pure. This summarizes the relationship of the nine
examples to the defilement removed and the level of the path on which the removal occurs.
. This can also be read as saying that there are further rag-like obscurations to be abandoned BY wisdom on
the path of meditation of the second to sixth bhumis. It can be read as saying that this is done by the analytic
meditation which establishes universal lack of true existence and self-nature. Longchenpa reads the passage as
saying that is nihilism which rejects the wisdom of sugatagarbha. Mipham's Lions Roar that Proclaims Shentong
is a good source for sorting out the issues involved.
. cf. UT page 40.
. kha myag. It affects the mother too.
. gzhan dbang VCTR.
. 6 paramitas and compassion.
. The glossary to the Rain of Wisdom q.v. says they are like the seven aspects of supreme union: evidently
natureless, filled with the wisdom of bliss-emptiness, possessing changeless mahasukha, they have all enjoyments
without suffering, their changeless wisdom bliss is uninterrupted, they are filled with the great compassion.
Taming others in all the times and directions they have continuity.
. ES lists a The Arya-subhapariprcha-nama-tantra Good Army Tantra dpung bzangs kyi mdo.
. mgron, also entertainments, festivities, invitation as a guest
. The five powers and faculties of a buddha.
. karma.
. That accomplishes wishes.
. River of ashes and boiling water in the fourth supplementary hell.
. stong can mean either, and both work in context.
. dpyod here is on the level of direct comprehension.
. mhkhen po, upadhyaya. Learned one, teacher, preceptor. This is the way the teacher is thought of in
hinayana, as opposed to the guru of vajrayana
. BCV ci nas ting 'dzin brtson pa ni As for trying to keep samadhi in every way
com ci nas rtse cig sems kyis ni
============================
bdag gi yod 'di gar /spyod/dpyod ces.//think "where is mind
. com srog la bab kyang srung shig ces BCV thams cad 'bad pas...with every effort.
. spyan lnga BVC spyan sna before their eyes.
. bcv rnam comm rnams: pronunciation and meaning the same.
. com chags pa bcv chags par
. bvc sa rko rtsa com sa brko rtswa. no difference pronunciation and meaning.
. bcv dor com btang. Can be synonymous, but might not.
. bcv brtan pas com par. No difference in meaning.
. bav 'am or com dang and.
. slu sems bcv bslu sems. No difference in pronunciation or meaning.
. comm 'gyod BCV 'gyed: no difference in meaning.
. com yid ni brtan por. bcv de ni brtan par referring back to another "yid." Same meaning.
. bcv brtan stable, trustworthy com brten: supporting, trustworthy.
. bcv bcas dang com dang bcas. No difference in meaning.
. bcv yid 'di this mind com yid ni, as for mind. No real difference in meaning.
. com sprul zhing nga rgyal med pa ni: Without emanation and pride: Error. A plausible copyists mistake. bcv
sprul pa bzhin du nga med par.
. bsngo. The same word is used for dedication the merit.
. Something like eight stupas or eighth stupa.
. Sa skya = place having white earth, lime, or chalk.
. = child or fool listening.
. dgrar bcas = with enemies.
. This story ifs the subject of the Gandavyuha Sutra.
.
. Body, speech, and mind.
. {gsung rab yan lag bcu gnyis} - twelve divisions of the teachings. 1) {mdo 'i sde}. = general teachings. 2)
{dbyangs kyis bsnyad pa'i sde}. = hymns and praises. 3) {lung du bstan pa'i sde}. = prophecies. 4) {tshigs su bcad
pa'i sde}. = teaching in verse. 5) {ched du brjod pa'i sde}. = aphorisms. 6) {gleng gzhi'i sde}. = pragmatic
narratives. 7) {rtogs pa brjod pa'i sde}. = biographical narratives. 8) {de sta bu byung ba'i sde}. = narratives of
former events as examples. 9) {skyes pa'i rabs kyi sde}. = {jatakam} narratives of former births. 10) {shen tu rgyas
pa'i sde}. = extensive teachings. 11) {rmad du byung ba'i sde}. = narratives of marvels. 12) {gtan la dbab pa'i sde}.
= teachings in profound doctrines.
mdo sde dbyangs bsnyan lung bstan tshigs su bcad
ched brjod rtogs pa brjod dang de ltar byung
gleng gshi shin tu rgyas dang skyes rabs bcas.
gtan phab rmad du byung ba'i sde rnams so
Sutra and geya vy_kara_a and g_th_,
Ud_na and nid_na, avad_na and ityukta,
Jataka vaipulya, adbhuta[dharma], and upadesha.
. {dge bsnyen} - layman, lay devotees, virtue obtained, people with the five precepts [not to kill, not to lie, not
to steal, not to take intoxicants, not to engage in sexual misconduct], [upasika]. The five to be renounced for
laymen, lay-vows. see also under renunciate and layman {dge tshul} - novice, novice monk, [shramanera].
novitiate . those five with the addition of afternoon food, singing and the wearing of ornaments, the ten to be
renounced by novices {dge slong} - fully ordained monk with 250 precepts, --ma nun with 350.
. Like buddha family.
. The Tibetan for "jewel" in this case literally means "rare and excellent."
. The new transmission schools call the inner tantras anuttara yoga, and say that it has within it father, mother,
and non-dual tantras, eg. Hevajra, Chakrasamvara, and Kalachakra. The nyingmas usually say that beyond
mahayoga are two more vehicles, anuyoga and ati yoga. This passage has been phrased to work in both cases.
. gzungs can also mean to the power of retentiveness of what is learned on all levels. G: spiritual sustenance
. {kun tu sbyor ba gsum} - the three fetters. 1) {'jig lta} = {'jig tshogs la lta ba} -view of a transitory
collection, futile view, perishable view. - satkaryadrsti futile view, wrong view believing in the real "I" and mine
in the many impermanent, perishable entities included within the five perpetuating skandhas. futile view. belief in
the transitory collection, parikalpitasatkagadrsti, intellectual futile view. 2) {tshul brtul mchog 'dzin} -holding a
discipline as paramount. 3) {the tshom nyon mongs can} -possessing the klesha of doubt.]
. {rgyal srid rin chen sna bdun} - the seven precious royal possessions. 1) {'khor lo} -, {rtsibs stong} -1000
spoked wheel. 2) {nor bu} -, {yid bzhin nor} -wish-fulfilling gem. 3) {btsun mo} -queen 4) {glang po} elephant -,
{khyu mchog glang} herd-leader or bull elephant. 5) {rta mchog} excellent horse - 6) {khyim bdag} -steward. 7)
{dmag dpon} -general.
. {'dod lha drug} - the six kinds of desire gods/ gods in the realm of desire, [{rgyal chen bzhi} - {sum cu rtsa
gsum pa} - {'thab bral} - {dga' ldan} - {'phrul dga'} - {gzhan 'phrul dbang byed} {'phrul dga'} - Delighting in
creation, the Nirmanarati devas, delight in emanation, one of the 28 classes of gods in the 'dod khams, desire
realm.
. {gzhan 'phrul dbang byed} - constantly enjoying pleasures provided, one of the 28 classes of gods in the
desire realm, land of controlling other's emanations, the Paranirmitavasavartin gods, Heaven of controllers of
others's emanations, the 6th heaven in the realm of desire gods.
. Youth, prince.
. Lord of third and highest first dhyana realm.
. bsam pa dag pa bcu. The following may or may not be the same: As for the ten purities, there are 1-3)
virtue, 4-6) study, 7) the path, 8) knowing what is not the path, 9) the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment chos
sum bcu bdun and 10) producing the ripeness of sentient beings. The first two are counted three times for body,
speech and mind.
. Dharma, meaning definitions, and brilliant confidence.
. the eighth bhumi.
. This and "at the end above: rgyun mthar.
. The four dhyanas, four formless attainments, and samapatti of cessation.
. Or forgotten.
. These are buddha qualities.
. sprul sku gsum, bzo ba'i sprul sku, skye b'i sprul sku, mchog gi sprul sku. OR skye ba'i sprul sku, mchog gi
sprul sku OR sna tshogs sprul sku; 'gro 'dul sprul sku and rang bzhin sprul sku: The working or various t|lkus are
gifted individuals, artists, craftsmen, scientists etc who so benefit beings. The born or taming t|lkus are the
rinpoches usually called t|lkus, who have taken human birth in order to tame beings by the dharma. The supreme
t|lku is the Buddha.
. Here, as in the name of the Gyalwa Karmapa, karma is synonymous with buddha activity.
. {nges par 'byed pa'i cha dang mthun pa bzhi}: {drod} {rtse mo} {bzod pa}{'jig rten pa'i chos mchog}.
. {dad pa gsum} - ES Three Faiths. Sincere faith {dang ba'i dad pa}. conviction {yid ches pa'i dad pa}. and
irreversible devotion {phyir mi ldog pa'i dad pa}. the three kinds of faith. inspired, aspiring, and confident faith [or
confidence]
{dad pa} - Faith, as one of the eleven virtuous mental states, devotion, to have/ feel faith, to wish, thirst, to believe,
willingness to participate. yid ches pa dang/ dang ba dang/ 'dod pa gsum -
Another list in Tilopa biography:
By means of the ten causes, two types of faith arise: outer faith and inner faith. There are three types of outer faith:
faith of faith, faith of desire and faith of trust.
The object that gives rise to the faith of faith is the three jewels. The object that gives rise to the faith of
desire is the four truths...[details omitted]... relying on samsara and nirvana, knowing what to accept and what to
reject are the essence of the faith of desire. The object that gives rise to the faith of trust is both virtuous and evil
deeds. Do not make white actions the ground of all dharmas.
Inner faith also has three aspects. The first: the object of the faith of faith is the holy guru who is the
authentic embodiment of all places of refuge. The second, the faith of desire, is the desire that the mind of the holy
guru and one's own mind be inseparable. It is the desire to mix together the guru's mind and one's own mind at all
times, day and night. The third is the faith of trust: One should attain confidence in the knowledge of the
realization that the body, speech, and mind of the guru and one's own body, speech, and mind are inseparable.
. Who is the true spiritual friend, [cut for meter.]
. bde ba or virtue.
. good, evil, and neutral. Cut for meter.
. An onion is good western equivalent.
. Variant: commentary has give credence to complexities.
. dam pa gnyis.
. good, evil, and neutral. Cut for meter.
. An onion is good western equivalent.
. Variant: commentary has give credence to complexities.
. dam pa gnyis.
. There are some problems with section headings in this chapter not being of the number claimed.
. The commentary says nine.
. gsang ba bsam gyi mi khyab pa'i mdo.
. most translations say something like "reflected on this."
. phyung: give remove reveal, draw out.
. dga' byed, joy producer. Sanskrit equivalents are Rama or Nanda.
. Supreme among those who possess glorious [buddha] qualities.
. The text here says de dag, "they," but otherwise only one seems to be mentioned.
. among the animals
. A class of pretas.
. Gold, silver, turquoise, coral, pearl, emerald, sapphire.
. I like what HVG did with this one
. Kettle-drum style.
. I.e. the Buddha.
. Attaining the first bhumi, supremely joyful.
. Subject, action, and object of an action. Has other meanings in other contexts.
. Can also mean non-conceptuality, non-perception, imagelessness.
. True, absolute, ultimate. Below, three excellencies = ^_________^
. Can also mean dyer, and that would be the most likely meaning for these words in isolation, but that does not seem to be the most likely meaning in this
case. Of course this is using the root verses to explain the commentary.
. This seems to correspond in a general way to Chapter 51 of Cleary's translation pp. 328 ff. There are one differences in detail
. Where the previous passage is more like a summary this is a particular verse on p 339 of Cleary:
Look at Sudhana, son of compassion and love, universally kind;
Welcome tranquil eyes, do not flag in practice.
. Next verse. The differences here seem to come from differences in translation in different versions.
. The same also means kindness.
. P. 349 Cleary
. Cf. Cleary p. 350. This is summary.
. Trungpa Rinpoche had a catchy quote that might be a variant on, this something like:
Like swarming bees on honey or flies on rotten meat
Creating an all consuming power of effort
We shall gain supreme enlightenment.
. de kho
. One of the four scriptures of the Vinaya.
. Shantideva says dpung. Longchenpa glosses this as dpung tshogs: troops. Ie it is a metaphor of battling evil.
. grel chen substitutes 'dun pa "aspiration.
. In a good sense, so that one is steadfast and confident.
. Situation, conditions, specific application.
. [[always exert yourselves to guard]]
. read srog shing.
. gong nas gong du literally means higher and higher. This is thog med bzang po's reading. Other translations have eg "generosity is highest than
others."
. It is conceivable than inanimate things are meant.
. The Triskhanda Sutra, in ed. Bereford Mahayana Purification Practices, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives Dharamsala, 1978
. nga pa.
. {'phags pa'i nor bdun} - the seven aryan riches/ faith, discipline, generosity, learning, decorum, modesty, and knowledge, knowledge/ intelligence.
. {ldem por dgongs pa rnam bzhi} - Four Kinds of Covert Intention . The covert intention with respect to entry into the teaching {gzhugs pa la ldem por
dgongs pa}. or avatarabhisandhi., in respect of characteristics {mtshan nyid la ldem por dgongs pa}. or lakshanabhisandhi., in respect of antidotes {gnyen po
la ldem por dgongs pa. or pratipak_h_bhisandhi., and in respect of interpretation {bsgyur ba la ldem por dgongs pa}. or pari__man_bhisandhi. Refer to
Fundamentals, Pt.3, [GD-MK]
. Do my message.
. longs spyod: often enjoyment, but that is too fruition oriented for this case.
. Aggressive actions etc.
. pratimoksha, so so thar pa.
. cho ga, spyod yul.
. Although this is seemingly contradicted by common experience, strictly speaking it should be said that when the karma connected to harm has been
worked through, no further harm will take place.
. ^___ ____ ___^ seem =.
. yung drung.
. The ninth dhyana is then called the "peak of samsara."
. rdza: substance.
. mthong ba'i chos la bde bar gnas pa'i bsam gtan. ES. [sder gnas read bder gnas]
. bsam gtan.
. dga' bde. bde is frequently translated bliss.
. nyer bsdogs
. bor rtog. read brtag pa. Guenther has an interesting discussion in PPA 49ff suggesting that the Pali usage (used by the schools who most emphasize this
meditation) is a little different than this, drawn from the Bodhisattvabhumi of Asanga. He says that in the former brtag pa, vitarka, combines notions of
examining, positing, forming the basis of judgement and introducing new contents to the mind, while dpyod pa, vichara, involves sustained analysis. In this
case the contrast is not between greater and lesser degrees of conceptuality in cognition.
. dpyod pa. Rtog dpyod: conception and discernment, ideas and scrutiny.
. yid la byed pa.
. shed.
. .
.
.
.[tribal or common].
. rngam glog is also the name of a deity.
. This can also be a name for Mount Meru, which has sides of precious substances.
. bldad pa.
. sbubs.
. . See chos dpal rgya mtsho's commentary for details. .
. Lord of the mandala, Vairochana and his consort Akashadhatvishvari.
. dran rig.
. Snying po'i don la blang 'dor med pa'i phyir, could mean because within ultimate sugatagarbha there is
nothing to accept or reject, etc, but that seems less clear.
. grags shing gnas, OR exist and are known by talked about in sounds of speech.
. bkod, also as display just above.
. Ordinary meanings and communication seem to become a universal display of teachings. VCTR said that at
a certain point on the path this may be intense enough to become a sense of being haunted.
. Here the essence of the concepts of ordinary understanding, rig pa is transparently seen rig as rig pa in the ati
sense, insight-wisdom beyond concept. Longchenpa takes pains to point out that the difference between this and
saying conceptual mind is Buddha is as great as that between heaven and earth. This sort of passage is behind the
VCTR translation of rig pa as insightwhich is both ordinary and extraordinary.
. ...Three mandalas.
. rdzogs. This is similar to emptiness/luminosity.
. gshags.
. The net of nadis and prana, which when mastered gives mastery of the network of interdependence.
. bdegs = btegs
. don snod. With intensified neurosis or psychosis one becomes like a broken vessel that cannot hold the
teachings.
. chagya nyi is two mudras, jor might be union, application, or wealth.
. tana gana = sbyor sgrol, union and liberation. Liberation sometimes = killing. The other action is
consuming intoxicants in feast practice. These five are the negation of the five precepts of getsul vows or which
often accompany refuge vows for lay disciples.
. The five amritas substituting human flesh for brains.
. bud med kun usually means "all women.
. This suggests, but doesn't actually say live 5,000 years.
. rang snang.
. Kayas and amritas.
. This could mean that their seed syllables or symbolic emblems are on the spokes, a not infrequent feature of
sadhanas, and perhaps of another version of this practice. However the visualization as described says only that
the wheel arises from H__ and that from it come ten seats marked with the same syllable.
. Sambhogakaya
. Beams over the main shrine area that protrude.
. phibs.
. pu shu.
. {lda ldi} - silk tongues tied together at the upper end in garlands ste a particular kind of offering hung on
house tops, fringe or tassel, string of beads or flowers, cloth wreath.
. [also name of deity] , Deje Tsegpa.
. The roof structure over the square.
. tsong tsong.
. bsil ba dang, zhim pa, yang ba, 'jam
pa, dvangs pa, dri ma med pa, lto la mi gnod pa, mgrin pa la mi
gnod pa bcas yon tan sna brgyad dang ldan pa'i chu bzang.
. sometimes also azure
. Guenther says: 1" of light.
. tshon gang as above.
. Lapis lazuli.
. pi wang
. .
. 'byung ba.
.
. Like "sphere" in English it doesn't mean something technical like chakra but just the place where it happens.
. noose.
. Confused dualistic appearance.
. Skyes pa: might mean person, birth, or object of arising. The overall point would be the same.
. This split in time distinguishes the terminology from the more common use of the same words by
Longchenpa and others, to refer to the simultaneous split of non-dual vision into the duality of subject and object.
. gzig pa. Leopard. Presumably for gzigs: usually honorific for see or realize. Perhaps just elegant here.
. Ma dros pa: Lake Manasvowar which never gets warm.
. dam pa as in don dam pa.
. 'gro, going cal also mean beings.
.
. As opposed to the pure fruition approach where it is said that primordially here is nothing to purify.
. Another pen name of Longchenpa, "Spotless Rays of Light."
. rang mtshan: individualizing characteristics.
. Datura contains alkaloids like scopolamine which can be dangerously toxic.
. spyod: Including realization and activity
. spyod bsdus (sgron ma?).
. it is logically possible to read the last as a general characteristic of all the others, though in fact there is nothing in the grammar to encourage this.
. khams 'dus.
. Ripples in the air, transitory light forms on a wall, mirages optical illusions.
. dmigs can mean perceived, conceived, imagined, or taken as an object of attention. All are relevant and in fact are related in the way we deal with
objects.
. of an individual and of dharma.
. Also Saraha.
. rtog pa. Thought or conception. But like dmigs pa, it is commonly used to refer to any conceptualized samsaric perception.
. blo bde.
. This is discussed in hinayana texts like Buddhagosha's Path of Purification.
. Source of proliferation, [of dharmas] ^____^ has negative connotation like the spread of fire or plague] space is still a non-thing dharma.
. Usually neither perception not non-perception.
. The nine dhyanas have a particular focus, so they are to that extent consciousness rather than wisdom without reference point. But that consciousness
does have a sense of border--like the phenomena around a black hole.
. VCTR 73, p 63, 3rd is effort. The point is still emptiness of mind, but rather than analytical or illusion-like emptiness, spontaneous presence and activity
is emphasized.
. 'dun dang 'bad rtsol brtson 'grus bzhis: Guenther: willingness, eagerness, resoluteness, perserverence.
. sems = bsam thought or mind = contemplation; and mindfulness = exertion VCTR
. Second time.
. thog bsring ES
. cho ga.
. Poisonous cucumber causing thirst and then death.
. They don't fit the list in the root verses. E.g. malice and desire are not mentioned at all there.
. yid la byed pa bcu gcig.
. What yogachara calls bon-duality, madhyamaka calls non-true existence.
. rang rig.
. dmigs
. the moon, with its rabbit's image.
72
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The Great Perfection, The Nature of Mind, The Easier of Weariness
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