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, wh