This is the Commentary on the tenth chapter of the Nature Of Mind, The Easer Of Weariness, Prajna Realizing the Ground that does not dwell in the Two Extremes
Having briefly explained the paths that ripen and free, together with the characteristics of the three essences of these, the view, meditation, and action, now there is
X. The View OF Prajna That Realizes The Ground Without Dwelling In Dualistic Extremes:
There are nine main topics.
·
A. The nature of all dharmas consists of the unborn·
B. The view that realizes such-ness·
C. What is to be abandoned·
D. The one who abandons·
E. There is no realization by the words of the doctrine·
F. Passing the pass·
G. The conviction of realization·
H. The primordial liberation of appearance and mind·
I. The dedication of merit
A. The nature of all dharmas consists of the unborn
(i.e. All dharmas are unborn / not-produced, thus empty of inherent existence. Their real nature transcend all four extremes. All views are not absolute, only adapted skillful means: even Madhyamika and Chittamatra.)
Having fully taught the two stages of secret mantra, now we shall enter into the teaching of the nature of all dharmas as the natural state, co-emergent wisdom, the primordially nature-less essential meaning of all Dharmas. As has been explained:
By the yoga that unifies development and perfection.
Dharmas enter into the empty and unborn.
(i.e. No real production, no real cessation, no real existence, no real non-existence...All views are flawed. No absolute, only adapted skillful means.)
"By" this means it starts to do this until it is completely done.
The nature, which should be known is the unborn, transcending the four extremes.
(i.e. About the various four extremes:
The four extremes of existence, non-existence, Eternalism, and nihilism.
The four extremes of production: The arisings of paratantra are essence-less, since; their arising is not established from any of the four extremes:Ø
They do not arise from themselves, because for these arising and an instant in which they arise are contradictory.Ø
They do not arise from something else, since if the essential marks of these others are analyzed, they are not established.Ø
That they arise from both would be doubly contradictory, so that is not established.Ø
They do not arise without a cause, as that is impossible.But I prefer the four extremes of existence, non-existence, both, neither. See "Lokayatika Sutta - The Cosmologist"
"Now, then, Master Gotama, does everything exist?"
"'Everything exists' is the senior form of cosmology, Brahmin."
"Then, Master Gotama, does everything not exist?"
"'Everything does not exist' is the second form of cosmology, Brahmin."
"Then is everything a Oneness?"
"'Everything is a Oneness' is the third form of cosmology, Brahmin."
"Then is everything a Many-ness?"
"'Everything is a Many-ness' is the fourth form of cosmology, Brahmin.
Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathágata teaches the Dhamma via the middle)
The Noble Sutra of the Arising of the Three Jewels says:
If one does not understand
How everything is empty,
The consequence is like making
Everything into space.For everything there is,
No nature at all exists.
Nothing becomes another.
How will an absent nature
Change into something else?
How will the nature-less (i.e. without an essence)
Be anything at all?Therefore it was taught
By the Tathágata.
That everything, even the Dharma,
Is motionless, stable resting.
Changeless and undisturbed, (i.e. Nothing "exist" and "change" in absolute terms. That would be an oxymoron. But it is accepted conventionally.)
It is simply peace itself.As the sky is without awareness,
Not knowing that beings are stupid;
As mountains do not move,
So Dharmas are always motionless.They do not die and transmigrate.
Therefore they are unborn.
So the Dharmas were taught
By the Victorious One.
The Absolute Samadhi says:
Dharmas are without birth
And also without arising;
With no death or transmigration
They do not have old age.Since the Lion of Men has taught this,
Hundreds of sentient beings
Have been established in it.They do not have a nature.
Nor does anything else.
And nothing else has them.They are not internal
And also not external.
So the Lord Buddha taught.
The Gathering of Intentions says:
E MA HO, wondrous marvelous Dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
It is not empty it is not non-empty.
Nor is it conceived as being in the middle. (i.e. Even the Middle Way, the Madhyamika, is merely a skillful means, antidotes.)
Attachments to external objects are abandoned by those objects being known as one's own mind or as the deities and the palace. Although they are known as unborn, even this antidote is essence-less. No one enters into any "nature" of all dharmas. (i.e. No absolute, only adapted skillful means.)
The Commentary Ascertaining the Intention says:
As they depend on mind only,
Thoughts of external objects
Are abandoned and left behind
As nothing whatsoever.Later even that
Is completely left behind. (i.e. All views are flawed, dependently arisen, impermanent. Everything is empty of inherent existence; even this. No absolute, only adapted skillful means; even this. This is a negation without affirming anything.)
The Lankavatara Sutra says:
After they are seen to be mind-only,
They are not conceived as external objects.
After they exist in the perfect state,
They are seen as transcending even mind-only.
The yogin who exists without appearance [1]
By that has the vision of the great vehicle.(i.e. Even the mind-only system, the Chittamatra, is only a skillful means. Madhyamika and Chittamatra are like two opposing theories. But none of them is the real nature of everything, which is beyond all description, beyond all conceptualization. Those two systems are two interdependent skillful means, like any to opposites of any duality. They are like method and wisdom. They are not separate or different, not the same. One implies the other. One has to transcend even this duality. The real nature of everything is called "non-dual" in that sense.)
In that way we enter into knowledge of emptiness.
B. The view that realizes such-ness.
(i.e. All dharmas, including the mind, are empty, but still caused and functional. Not one, not two with the mind.)
There are five sections:
·
1. The natural state (All dharmas are non-dual: not one, not two; not separate or different, not the same)·
2. The refutation of maintaining that appearance is mind (Not from the mind-only; not one)·
3. The phenomenal world is like illusion (Not existing independently of the mind; not two)·
4. Mind is essence-less (Mind: inseparability of emptiness and clarity / cognitive lucidity)·
5. The examples of nature-less-ness (Like water in a mirage, or the moon's form in a pond)
1. The natural state (All dharmas are non-dual: not one, not two; not separate or different, not the same)
Though all the dharmas of samsara and nirvana
Are this simplicity that is without a self,
By fixation and ignorance, we wander here in samsara.
Though Samsára’s joys and sorrows do indeed appear,
From the time they appear, their nature is emptiness.
Therefore, we should know them to be like dreams and illusions.
i.e. The goal is like directly seeing the real nature of any dharma as it arises. Then it is self-liberating. There is no need to reject some, no need to accept any. They are all already pure, unborn. First, we understand this intellectually, and then we meditate in order to see this by seeing the real nature of our own mind.
Though all dharmas are empty and without a self, by not knowing this, by grasping me and mine, there are the dreamlike confusions of samsara. Though individual joys and sorrows may be experienced, they should be known to be nature-less (i.e. without an essence).
The Wondrously Arisen King says:
The primordial universal Buddha dharma,
Is without a beginning, middle, or end, (i.e. no real arising, duration, cessation -- no real production)
Not rightly knowing this nature like the sky,
Fools all whirl about within samsara.But with no bondage and no liberation, (i.e. no real samsara, no real nirvana: they are not separate or different, not the same)
Its nature is like the nature of illusion.
The Secret Essence says:
By conceptions that grasp at self
Space is tied in knots.
Without bondage and liberation,
The actual Buddha dharma
Is primordial self-perfection. (i.e. No real self to liberate. Nothing to learn. Nothing to drop. Nothing to acquire or produce. Nirvana, Enlightenment, are not produced, not caused. We already have the unborn Buddha-nature.)
However in order to teach it
We make up complexities.
By grasping what is selfless as a self there is confusion.
The Noble Clouds of the Three Jewels says:
These are indeed selfless, but for foolish individuals, attached to grasping them as self, in the self-natures of the skandhas, a self exists. By being attached to that, they do not enter into such-ness.
Therefore, like the circle of a whirling torch, they wander in the revolutions of samsara.
These various confused appearances are established through attachment to habitual patterns of mind.
The Lotus Array Sutra says:
The son of the gods, Lotus Array, spoke to Manjushri saying. "Manjushri, were these external objects made by a creator, or how should they be viewed?"
Manjushri said, "Son of the gods, these external objects were not made by a creator. They are appearances of mind or habitual patterns of thought."
The son of the gods said, "However habitual patterns may have matured, how can these mountains, oceans, the sun and moon, and so on appear to be so hard and solid?"
Manjushri said, "Son of the gods, they can so appear. In the great city of Varanasi, a Brahmin named Agnidatta meditated on his body as that of a tiger. The people of the city saw him as a tiger and fled. The city was emptied. By meditating on exhaustion as earth and water, it appears as earth and water. When the monks of yogachara meditate on filth and bones as their former perceptions, they so appear. By unobstructed maturation of habitual patterns, why should all this not appear?"
The son of the gods said, "By the power of maturation of habitual patterns, why have various selves appeared?"
Manjushri said, "All appearances are uncertain. Some appearances of earth are dark. This is earth only perceived as earth. Earth is also perceived as fire. Earth is also perceived as action and enjoyment. Earth is also perceived as suffering. Fire is perceived as fire. Fire is also perceived as action and enjoyment. Fire is also perceived as resting in place. Fire is also perceived as food. Water is perceived as water. Water is also perceived as fire. Water is also perceived as earth. Water is also perceived as amrita. Water is also perceived as resting in place. Space is perceived as space. Space is also perceived as resting in place. Space is also perceived as earth. These perceptions are uncertain. It is by the power of habitual patterns that things appear as they do.
Not certainly fixed as being any one thing, like a dream, things are nature-less (i.e. without an essence). For example, one man may appear in many roles as a friend, an enemy, a monk, a Brahmin, and all kinds of other people with which his appearance is not contradictory. The various appearances of dharmas are essentially without dualistic natures.
(i.e. Nothing is essentially good or bad, pure or impure, pleasant or unpleasant or neutral. All of those judgments are relative to the perceiver, to the circumstances, to the past karma. Things, and people, do not have those characteristics as absolute attributes. Things are without those characteristics, which are merely imputed by the mind. Things are not different or separate, but still not the same either. That is the meaning off non-dual.)
The Dohakosha says:
Just as, when blown by wind, unmoving water
Is agitated into patterns of waves,
Thus like appearance of Saraha to the king
By stirring up oneness various things are produced.Just as for stupid people wrongly looking
One lamp has the appearance of being two,
Thus for the non-dual viewed and viewer, (i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.)
Kye ma! Mind appears as dualistic things.(i.e. Nothing is essentially good or bad...All perceptions are like that. Everything is perceived through the filter of our actual five aggregates. There is no pure objective perception. So all perceived objects are dependent on the perceiver; they do not exist independently of the perceiver. But, still, they are not the same (see next point). So the perceiver and the perceived are not two, not one. All objects are non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.)
Because of wind, the unity of water appears as many waves. One lamp, by pressing the eyes, appears as two. One Saraha is seen as both good and evil. All dharmas, in reality non-dual (i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.), but dualistically grasped, are like these examples. Therefore, in their duality, all dharmas are appearances of what does not exist, like a dream. They should be known to be non-dual. (i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.) (i.e. Using the skillful means of monism as an antidotes to dualism. But the real nature of everything is not two, not one. Non-dual should not be confused with Oneness.)
2. The refutation of maintaining that appearance is mind (Not from the mind-only; not one)
Though phenomena appear within mind, apparent objects are not mind. As for the explanation of this:
Thus all the things that appear to be external objects
Appear within the mind, and yet they are not mind.
Nor do they exist as anything else than mind.
i.e. Appearances are not separate or different than mind, not the same
Though by the force of habitual patterns, there appears
The dualistic appearance of grasping and fixation,
From the time they appear the grasper and grasped have not been two
This is like a face reflected in a mirror.
(i.e. Perceiver and perceived: not two, not one; not separate or different, not the same. We assume that things inherently exist and are perceived objectively by an inherently existing perceiver. But all perceptions are dependent on the perceiver, on the accumulated karma. On the other hand, objects are not the mind, they are not from the mind-only, they are not a-causal and/or non-functional. There is no absolute causality, but no complete absence of causality either. Things are not existent, but still not non-existent either. The non-dual nature of everything is beyond existence, non-existence, both, neither.)
If a face is reflected in a mirror, the clear surface of the mirror can support the arising of the reflection. By the condition of this power of reflection, there is the appearance of the face. However the reflected face is not really a face. So, from the viewpoint of confusion, images of phenomena appear as this variety of things, while those things are really non-existent.
(i.e. Empty of inherent existence, but still dependently arisen and functional. Not existent, not non-existent, not both existent and non-existent, not neither existent nor non-existent. Inseparability of appearances and emptiness. Inseparability of dependent origination and emptiness. The Union of The Two Truths.)
·
When they appear by the conditions of interdependent arising, as confusions of cause and condition, this variety of apparent objects, mountains and so on, is also not mind. (i.e. Not the same as the mind. It is not because everything is empty of inherent existence that they are completely non-existent, or meaningless, of a-causal, or non-functional, or from the mind-only.)·
Nor, as appearances due to confused habitual patterns of mind, are they truly existing objects other than ourselves. (i.e. Not different, or separate, from the mind.) They are phenomena of confused appearance. For someone with floaters, hairs seem to trickle in front of the eyes, but nothing like what appears really exists. These are the same.
Now someone may say, "Earth and rocks and so forth, these appearances, if they do not exist as anything either inside or outside, how could that be? How could they be there at all?"
"Attached to establishing things only in terms of dualistic grasping, you are a pig!" So we should reply.
These phenomena, the phenomenal world of samsara and nirvana, do indeed appear, but from the time they appear, they do not exist as anything external, internal, or in between. Their appearance is like that of the eight examples of illusion.
The Shri Samadhiraja Sutra says:
In a mirror surface or the surface of a vessel
As she adorns herself, a woman sees her face,
Though her entire face seems to appear in these,
It is neither existent or non-existent there.
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
These appearances, appearing while they do not exist, are made to arise as a confused object of grasping and fixations of things as being that way.
·
Grasping, zungwa, is the thought that grasps the thought object arising in the first instant. It is the nature of mind having confused phenomena [2] n·
Fixation, dzinpa is later [3] analysis, the mind-contents.
The Discipline of Avalokiteshvara says:
Grasping, zungwa, the seer, [4] is object grasping mind.
Fixation, dzinpa, is mental contents examining that.
This is the proper account of how it should be known. Most people, learned or unlearned, proudly say,
·
"Zungwa, the grasped," is just the object, appearances of mountains and so forth.·
Dzinpa, "the grasper' is just the subject, one's own awareness."
Well, cowboys, enough of your wrong conceptions! Tell me this -- for noble ones who have 'abandoned zungwa and dzinpa,' do objects appear or they do not?
·
If they appear, according to you, grasped and grasper appear to the noble ones. If the object itself is the grasped and awareness itself is the grasper, they would have to appear.·
If they do not appear, what about the illusion-like appearances of the enlightened noble ones in post-meditation, such as shravaka Arhats who see mountains and viharas. What about the Buddhas' measureless awareness of all appearances of objects in the knowledge of extent?
Many reasoning’s and scriptures call the view that they do not appear a total mistake, let alone being beyond extremes. Dharmakirti says:
Because the wrong path is endless,
They should never have begun.
That appearance is mind has already been refuted, nevertheless, when these mountains and so forth have been made into objects, the mind that first grasps this is "appearance." True, at this point appearance and apparent object are not distinguished. That intellect pure of projecting things externally is to that extent wise. But then by becoming attached to a wrong or exaggerated meaning, it becomes fixated.
The apparent object is not mind. This is because mind exists in its fashion, even if it is nature-less (i.e. without an essence). When it goes into the mode of self and other, mind does not turn into appearances with color and shape. If the apparent object is one's mind, its existence is linked to one's own. If one's mind exists, the object exists. If it does not exist, then the object certainly cannot not exist either. As mind is without color and shape, the apparent object would be so too etc. Since there is certainly appearance, and appearance is mind, that there is mere appearance would entail that there is truly existing mind. This is pretty stupid. Arrogant people, who say the apparent object is mind, are exponents of a most sublime illogic.
Non-Duality: |
||
Not one |
Not two |
Not one, not two / many |
Not the same as the mind |
Not separate or different from the mind |
Inseparability of appearances and mind: |
Appearing as variety |
Without an essence / non-existent arising / nature-less |
|
Not completely non-existent |
Not existent / no essence / nature-less |
Rejecting the four extremes |
Not one |
Not two |
Rejecting the four extremes |
Dependent origination |
Emptiness |
Inseparability of dependent origination and emptiness |
The subtle meaning of dependent origination |
||
Inner and outer dharmins / dharmas |
Dharmata |
|
Not without causality |
Not absolute causality |
About causality and control |
Relative |
No absolute |
Inseparable absolute and relative |
Not rejecting |
Not accepting |
The Middle Way: not accepting, not rejecting |
Method / upaya |
Wisdom / prajña |
Using both method and wisdom |
Practicing the paramitas |
Seeing the emptiness of the three |
The perfection of the paramitas |
Not renunciation, rejection of the world |
Not hedonism, falling for the world |
|
Rupakaya |
Dharmakaya |
Svabhavikakaya: inseparability of the Trikaya, of the two gotras |
3. The phenomenal world is like illusion (Not existing independently of the mind; not two)
Thus, when its reflection appears to arise in a mirror:
Though the image appears, no face is really there.
Nothing goes into the mirror that is other than the image.
But though it does not exist, the appearance of two is there
Know that all the various dharmas are like that.
(i.e. Not existent, not non-existent .
Not independent of the mind, not from the mind-only.
No objective perception, no absence of perception.
No discrimination, non non-discrimination.)
Though the face does not go into the mirror, it appears there. From the time it appears, no dharma other than a face is there either. Just so, from the very time that all the dharmas of the phenomenal world appear within mind, they are established neither as mind nor something other than mind. They are like the eight examples of illusion. The Mula-madhyamaka-karikas says:
Like dream. Like illusion,
Like a castle of the gandharvas,
Like that is birth, and like that is duration.
Like that too is destruction taught to be.(i.e. Section 7 - An Analysis of Composite Products (samskrta) :
Because the existence of production, duration, and cessation is not proved, there is no composite product (samskrta);
And if a composite product is not proved, how can a non-composite product (asamskrta) be proved?
As a magic trick, a dream or a fairy castle.
Just so should we consider origination, duration, and cessation. )
The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
Like the moon that shines in a cloudless sky,
Though a clear, still lake shows its reflection,
The moon does not move from the sky into the water.
All dharmas should be known to be like that.Just as for people by a rocky mountain,
By their singing, talking, weeping, and laughing,
An echo of their singing may arise,
But the melody never goes beyond those sounds,
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
4. Mind is essence-less, (Mind: inseparability of emptiness and clarity / cognitive lucidity)
When these appearances of variety are examined in terms of reasoning:
As long as they [all dharmas, including the mind] are not examined they will
please us.
But when they are examined, they are ungraspable.
On thorough examination, they go beyond speech and thought.
They cannot be conceived as existing or not existing.
Extreme conceptions neither apply, nor do they not.
If we do not examine all dharmas, they appear to be truly existent. If we examine the atoms of external appearances, they are nature-less (i.e. without an essence). No grasped objects are perceived. Inner fixation is a part-less instant beyond any identifiable essence, and so no mind of fixations is perceived. Non-dual (i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.) And free from complexity, this is beyond expresser and expressed.
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Kashyapa, what is this world-transcending medicine? It is exertion that completely seeks out mind. Completely seeking out mind is like this: What is this mind that becomes passionate, aggressive, and ignorant? How does it arise in the past, future, or present. Past mind has ceased and is exhausted. Future mind has not yet arisen. That which is presently arising has no support or duration.
Kashyapa, mind does not exist internally, nor does it exist externally, nor between the two, nor is it perceived as something without these two.
Kashyapa, as for mind, there is no scrutiny, no showing, no appearance, no understanding, no existence.
Kashyapa, even by the Buddhas, mind has never been seen, and never will be seen.
Kashyapa, if mind is sought everywhere; it is not to be found. That which is not to be found, is not to be perceived anywhere. That which is not to be perceived, will not be in the past. It will not be in the future. It will not arise in the present. It will not be something, which has passed away, or something, which is to come. Nor is it something that is arising now. It completely transcends the three times.
Also:
Like mind, all dharmas too are not to be perceived, and therefore they do not exist at all.
The Sutra Requested by Maitreya says:
Mind has no shape. It has no color. It has no existence. It is like space.
The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
Those who wish to enter this sphere of realization of the Victorious One should abandon all wishes, like space. They should abandon grasping of concepts, thoughts, and perceptions. They should enter into this mind like space.
The Mula-madhyamaka-karikas says:
It excludes the expressible
And experience of mind.
Unborn and also unceasing,
With a nature like that of nirvana.(i.e. An Analysis of the Individual Self (atma):
When the domain of thought has been dissipated, "that which can be stated" is dissipated.
Those things, which are un-originated and not terminated, like nirvana, constitute the Truth (dharmata).
Everything is "actual" (tathyam) or "not-actual," or both "acts actual-and-not-actual,"
Or "neither-actual-nor-not-actual": This is the teaching of the Buddha.
"Not caused by something else," "peaceful," "not elaborated by discursive thought,"
"Indeterminate," "undifferentiated": such are the characteristics of true reality (tattva).
Whatever exists, being dependent [on something else], is certainly not identical to that [other thing],
nor is a thing different from that; therefore, it is neither destroyed nor eternal.
The immortal essence of the teaching of the Buddhas, the lords of the world, is
Without singleness or multiplicity; it is not destroyed nor is it eternal.
If fully-developed Buddhas do not arise [in the world] and the disciples [of the Buddha] disappear,
Then, independently, the knowledge of the self-produced enlightened ones (Pratyekabuddha) is produced.)
The All-Creating King says:
It is not a thing whose characteristics are shown.
It is apart from objects perceivable by sight.
It is unknowable by any verbal expression.
This, the essence that does not arise from any cause,
Is free from all the superimpositions of conception.If one wishes truly to realize what is the meaning of this,
By example, it is eternal like the sky.
The meaning is the unborn, the space of dharmata.(i.e. dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their real nature)
Its sign is being the unobstructed nature of mind.Dharmata, itself is like the space of the sky.
It is symbolized by the example of being like the sky.
5. The examples of nature-less-ness (Like water in a mirage, or the moon's form in a pond)
These appearances of what does not exist, though, like an illusion, they appear to arise and so forth:
From the time they appear, their birth and such are nature-less,
Like water in a mirage, or the moon's form in a pond.
Like the moon in water or the water in a mirage, from the very time they appear to arise, they should be realized to be unborn and so forth.
The Secret Essence says:
E Ma Ho! Wondrous marvelous dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
From the unborn is born all that there is.
Yet all this from its birth is birthlessness.E Ma Ho! Wondrous marvelous dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
From the unceasing comes everything that ceases.
Yet in cessation this is ceaselessness.E Ma Ho! Wondrous marvelous dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
From the non-enduring comes everything that endures.
Yet the time of enduring itself does not endure.E Ma Ho! Wondrous marvelous dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
From the inconceivable comes all that is conceived,
Yet conception itself is inconceivable.E Ma Ho! Wondrous marvelous dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
Though from what does not come or go there is coming and going,
The nature of coming and going never comes or goes.(i.e. One side of a polarity implies its opposite. They cannot exist independently. They are not separate or different, not the same. They are inseparable: not one, not two. Existence and non-existence is like that. The real nature of everything, the non-dual dharmata, is transcending these dualities. The Middle Way: not accepting, not rejecting.)
The Dohakosha says:
As various rivers are all one in the ocean,
Many false things are overcome by one truth. (i.e. Inseparability of appearances and emptiness)
By the appearance of the single sun,
Many darkness’s are overcome.Though clouds receiving water from the ocean
May spread until they cover all the earth,
If we are inside them, they are like pure space,
There is no increase and there is no decrease.The Buddha's perfection is completely fulfilled.
Co-emergence is the single nature.
As that all sentient beings arise and cease.
Within it there are neither things nor non-things. (i.e. Not existence, not non-existence, not both, not neither)
As narrow waters become one in the ocean, what appears to be born is one within the unborn. As many darkness’s are overcome by the single lamp of the sun, by knowing the single unborn, all confused appearances are also known as the unborn. When clouds arise and cover the earth, within them there is nothing solid that is great or small or increases and decreases; just so, arising from unborn dharmata, the dharmin appears to arise and cease, but within the unborn nothing increases and decreases. Though within the naturally pure nature of mind, all beings are confused by attachment and grasping, their nature has never moved from the nature of mind. This is because mind itself is the primordially pure nature of things. (i.e. Not the same as the mind, not different or separate from the mind. Inseparability of appearances and mind.)
The Commentary Ascertaining the Intention says:
Subhuti said, formerly when the Lord and I were in a forest, a monk was also there. By perceiving various signs, we verified this. Some said that was by perceived by the skandhas. Some by the ayatanas. Some by the dhatus. Some by interdependent arising and the objects of mindfulness. I said, since the marks of one such dharma are known to be ego-less, they cannot but all be like that.
C. What is to be abandoned
(i.e. Confused appearances based on the belief in inherent existence, in essence)
Thus of these dharmas appearing while they do not exist, which are primordially nature-less (i.e. without an essence):
In particular this appearance of the beings of the six lokas
Is an appearance of things that are not really there.
These are the forms of confusion that come from habitual patterns.
As those whose eyes are filmed see hairs before the eyes,
and, if they want to be cured, must treat the imbalanced phlegm,
those who want to purify confused appearance
Have to take the cure for the film of ignorance.
Those whose sight is obscured by a disorder of the phlegm treat the phlegm, when it appears that hairs are drifting before their eyes and so forth. Similarly sentient beings, are obscured by habitual patterns of grasping "me" and "mine" from beginning-less time, and by the film of ignorance. Though they really exist as mind itself, the luminous nature of Buddhahood, not only do they not see that, but also they experience external stones, rocks, and mountains, and internal attachments and thoughts of the kleshas and suchlike, like hairs in the eyes. From the time these appear they do not exist at all. They are merely seductions for fools.
The Prasannapada says:
Because we follow the errors of ignorance, the world thinks complete absence of nature has a nature. Those who have filmed eyes are attached to the nature of nature-less hairs in the eyes and so forth, by the condition of having filmed eyes; similarly fools whose eyes of intellect are corrupted by the film of ignorance become attached to the nature-less phenomena of things as having a nature.
The Lankavatara Sutra says:
Just as those with filmed eyes,
Wrongly grasp hairs in the eyes,
So these conceptualized things,
Are the false constructions of fools.
The noble ones who actually see nature-less-ness (i.e. without an essence), realize only the purity and essence-less-ness that accord with the essential nature.
The Prasannapada says:
When, those with the eye of undefiled prajña, free from the film of ignorance, use that vision; then just as those who are free from filmed eyes do not see the hairs before the eyes perceived by those who have filmed eyes, the noble ones, who do not see according to the constructions of foolish people's minds, do not see these natures of things. (i.e. Do not see inherent existence, do not see dharmas as having an essence)
Also:
Because the deceptive dharmin beguiles fools, appearance is erroneous, like the seeming circle made by a whirling torch. On the level of no nature, all conditioned things are false, because they are the deceptive dharmin, like the water in a mirage. Whatever is true, like nirvana, is not the deceptive dharmin. Therefore by the reasoning of the teachings and these scriptures, things are established as nature-less (i.e. without an essence).
(i.e. dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their real nature)
D. Abandoning:
Ø
1. How to train in the middle way free from extremes (With insight-wisdom, Madhyamika training away from the two extremes)Ø
2. Cutting the root of mind (Turning inward; all problems and solutions come from inside)Ø
3. The mind arising as the six lokas is unreal (By seeking the mind it is not found; it is beyond all conceptualization)Ø
4. Mind is uncreated or un-fabricated (Just letting it be; not using mind to look for mind; mind cannot be viewed by the mind)Ø
5. Mind as instantaneous (By seeking the seeker, it is not found; objects of conceptual mind are instantaneous / unborn / not produced by a self)Ø
6. Because it is primordially pure, it is without birth and cessation (What is to be found is unborn / not produced : not existent, not non-existent, not both, not neither)Ø
7. Be completely without accepting and rejecting, because this nature of mind is destroyed by understanding it (By stopping the minds outflow; what is to be found is beyond discrimination, beyond conceptualization.)
1. How to train in the middle way free from extremes (With insight-wisdom, Madhyamika training away from the two extremes)
Here is what is said about those who wish to remove the film of this ignorance:
By insight-wisdom, which is the antidote for this,
Emptiness passes the pass of samsaric habitual patterns.
When we gain the conviction that emptiness appears,
The two truths are known as non-dual appearance-emptiness.
Madhyamaka training cures dwelling within the two extremes.
The extreme of existence as well as that of non-existence.
Dwelling neither in samsara or in nirvana,
We will be liberated in the space of the sky.
This is the very essence of the true meaning itself,
The natural state, the nature of the great perfection.
True prajña is one's intrinsic personal wisdom. If by that the nature of dharmas is viewed; all karma, kleshas, habitual patterns, and so forth, confusions of things that appear while they do not exist, are liberated into the emptiness which one has entered.
(i.e. It is enough to directly realized the real nature of our own mind, and thus the real nature of everything, to be automatically completely liberated from the grasps of all of those illusions, from all conditioning, from all attachments.)
The Mula-madhyamaka-karikas says:
Kleshas, karma and all
The doer and the fruitions,
Are like a gandharva castle,
Like an illusion or dream.(i.e. An Analysis of Action (karma) and Its Product (phala):
33. Desires, actions, bodies, producers, and products
Are like a fairy castle, resembling a mirage, a dream.)
The Sutra of the Complete Purification of All Karmas says:
That karma should be viewed as being by nature essence-less emptiness.
It is also empty, because it arises from conditions,
The Sutra Requested by Ma Dröpa [5] says:
What rises from conditions does not arise.
It does not have the nature of arising.
What depends on conditions is called empty.
To know it as emptiness is being heedful
Appearance/emptiness is emptiness merely of true existence.
The Shri Prajnaparamita-samgatha says:
Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form. From is not other than emptiness.
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
That, the nature of form
Is likewise emptiness.
Emptiness is form,
The primordially unborn.
Also:
The nature of passion and aggression is emptiness.
Ignorance and pride are completely produced by conceptions.
Yet these thoughts have not arisen and do not rise.
If we know that, we are among the leaders of beings.
The Sutra of All Dharmas Being Without Arising says:
Passion is not perceived and neither is aggression.
Within this, ignorance also will never be perceived.
All the dharmas are like an unbroken expanse of space.
Whoever knows this is an enlightened victorious one.Divine and non-divine are one in the single nature.
Likewise equal and different are equality.
Because there is no Buddha, there are no Dharma and Sangha.
Whoever has knowledge of that becomes a capable one.The nature of sentient beings is taught to be Buddhahood.
The nature of Buddhahood is taught to be sentient beings.
Sentient beings and Buddhahood are not two different things.
Whoever has knowledge of that becomes an excellent being.
As for relative and absolute being non-dual, truth is inseparable. (i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.) By training in the such-ness of the middle way, the thing-less essence of primordial purity, one will transcend suffering and be liberated from Eternalism and nihilism, and samsara and nirvana. This such-ness is the great perfection beyond being produced or sought.
The All-Creating King says:
All the vessel and essence of the phenomenal world,
Buddhas and beings, arise from the essence, enlightenment.
Therefore pass the pass to primordial non-duality. (i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.)
The Embodiment of the Intention says:
E ma ho, wondrous marvelous Dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
It is uncontrived, unstained, and un-fabricated.
The nature of such-ness is completely pure.E ma ho, wondrous marvelous Dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
As for the groundless, rootless nature of mind,
This is the root of all the various dharmas.E ma ho, wondrous marvelous Dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
The nature-less-ness (i.e. without an essence) that is the nature of things,
Is the spontaneous presence of mahasukha.E ma ho, wondrous marvelous Dharma.
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
It is not empty, and it is not non-empty.
Nor is it conceived to be a middle way.
2. Cutting the root of mind (Turning inward; all problems and solutions come from inside)
In reality appearance does neither good nor harm,
But if we have attachment, we are bound within samsara.
We need not analyze the variety of appearance;
We only need to cut the root of grasping mind.
(i.e. It is not a matter of discriminating between unwholesome and wholesome
dharmas like in the Hinayana. Dharmas are not essentially pure or impure. All of
these are relative, merely imputed by the mind. Thus all dharmas are said to be
pure, beyond pure and impure. Everything is empty of inherent existence, but,
still, because we ignore this and get attached to things, there is samsara.
-- So what we have to do is to directly see the real nature of everything.)
Appearance does not bind. If we are not attached to external assertion and denial, we will not be obscured with internal attachment. This is because no connections will be established. Since it is attachment that binds, as for abandoning attachment, the Dohakosha says:
Where there is attachment that is what is seen.
If there is realization, everything is that.
No one knows anything that is other than that.
That which has been read, and grasped in meditation,
Is also said to be the very heart of the treatises.
When external conceptualizations of apparent form, sound, smell, taste, and touch are analyzed they are nature-less (i.e. without an essence). When there is attachment to what is impure and so forth, even if it is renounced, the one who is attached will not be liberated, because the root of grasping is not cut. If one throws a stone at a dog, not understanding who hit it with the stone, the dog attacks the now-inert stone. Such practice of Dharma will not liberate from the kleshas. When someone throws a stone at a lion, it kills the thrower. Just so, one's own mind, the root of the kleshas of passion and aggression, will be pacified by the examining prajña of nature-less-ness (i.e. without an essence).
The Edifice of the Three Jewels says:
Kashyapa, the single cause of the external many is to be sought within. Kashyapa, in future time proud monks will arise who are like a dog chasing a stone. Kashyapa, how are they like a dog chasing a stone? The dog, frightened by that stone, chases after that stone, but not the one who threw it.
Kashyapa, thus some monks and Brahmins try to separate themselves from inner form, sound, smell, taste, and the touchable. They conceive dharmas as impermanent, deceptive, and destructible; but since they do not know where they came from, if they go among villages, cities, towns, districts, regions, and kings' palaces and retinues, they are still harmed by form, sound, smell, taste and the touchable.If these live in monasteries, at the time of death those who dwell in worldly discipline will be born in the celestial worlds. There too they are harmed by the five desirable qualities. When they have died and departed, they will not be liberated from the lower realms. What are these realms? Those of hell beings, animals, the world of the lord of death, and that of the asuras.
Kashyapa, such a monk is like the dog chasing the stone. For example, though the dog is frightened by the stone, it does not chase the one who threw it but chases the stone. Similarly some monks and Brahmins, frightened by form and so forth, live in monasteries. Though they live in monasteries, if they see the objects of form and so on, they do not know how to keep their inner equanimity.
What arises from that fault? From not knowing, they will live in villages again. There they will again be harmed by form and so on. Even if they experience the enjoyments of the gods, having died and transmigrated from these temporary divine and human births, they will fall into the lower realms. These fools will suffer death and transmigration. They will have a hundred such sufferings. The Tathágata has taught that they are like the dog who chases the stone.
Kashyapa, yogachara monks of times to come will not be like the dog who chases the stone. For example, if people throw a stone at a lion, it knows where the stones came from. It will chase not the stones, but those who threw the stones, so that this will not happen again. Likewise yogachara monks, who have seen desirable qualities, knowing that they have arisen from mind, knowing by examining their minds that these things do not exist, will be liberated. As the lion eats the one who threw the stone, these yogachara monks, when they see external desirable qualities, know that they have arisen from mind, and know the nature of mind to be emptiness. Therefore they liberate it into union with the natural state.
Kashyapa, for example, it is like this. Those skilled in dressage make horses move here and there as they like, Untrained people cannot do that. Kashyapa, the yogachara monk too, enters whatever mental contents are seen to arise and fully experiences them. He has no question about where they come from, and thus completely controls the mind:
As a skilled trainer of horses,
Trains horses to be motionless
Yogacharins see becoming
And remove the conflicts of mindKashyapa, for example it is like this, a secret divine yantra of illness makes life cease. Kashyapa, similarly since all who view conceptually grasp an ego, the power of life of the Dharma is made to cease:
Just as a yantra harms life
And will not bestow any happiness;
Going into the view of ego,
Will destroy the life of Dharma.Kashyapa, it is like this, for example, with whatever persons are bound, from that they need to be liberated. Kashyapa, similarly the mind of the yogacharin, for whatever it has desire, from that it should be liberated:
From whatever binds any persons,
From that they should be freed.
So from obscuring desires
Yogacharins should be freed.
That is the secret of mind.
The Bodhicaryavatara says:
Whoever has no knowledge of this secret of mind,
These will uselessly wander without any aim or meaning.
3. The mind arising as the six lokas is unreal (By seeking the mind it is not found; it is beyond all conceptualization)
Arising as the objects of the six lokas
Within the appearance of mind there is no nature at all .
It is not found by seeking. By looking it is not seen.
It has no shape or color. No essence is there to grasp.
Nothing is either within the mind or outside of it.
Nowhere does it rise or cease throughout the three times.
There are no parts and divisions; no things; no ground or root.
There is nothing to characterize by saying, "It is this."
Mind is beyond the objects of conceptual thought.
If mind is viewed by mind, knowing that no nature at all is identified is knowing the such-ness of the natural state.
The Dohakosha says:
The root of mind is mark-less.
By triple co-emergence
Where it arises it subsides,
There is nowhere it endures.
Also:
The true [6] mind knows no opposite.
Where it arises it sets.
Its outside is within.
Also:
Within the primordially purity
Of the nature of space,
By always looking and looking,
Seeing will be obstructed.
This is beyond conception, thought, and all complexity.
The Noble Sutra of The Source of the Three Jewels says:
There is nowhere dharmas are born
And nowhere they arise.
No dying and transmigration,
Nor any becoming joyful.As the lion of men
Has taught all this completely,
Hundreds of sentient beings have been established in it.It has no essence anywhere,
There is nothing else,
No one has ever found it.
It is not within.External things as well
Are nowhere to be found.
These teachings were presented
By the Lord Buddha himself.Though the Sugatas have taught
The way of peace to beings,
There is no actual being
Who is ever going to find it.These completely teach
The liberation of beings.
Having been liberated,
They liberate many beings.Because all dharmas are taught
To be without a self,
Sentient beings are freed
From this universe of grasping.One is liberated from going [7]
And by liberation from going
One goes to somewhere matchless.The great Sage has attained
The other shore of samsara.
Anywhere else to go
Is never found at all.Elsewhere does not exist,
Any more than coming back.
And yet "I have gone elsewhere,"
Is what is taught in words.One who speaks these words
Also does not exist.
Neither the one who spoke them
Or the words themselves exist.One to whom they are spoken
Also will not be found.
One who knows them also
Is nowhere to be seen.Because of wrong conception
By the power of desire,
All these beings here
Are simply wandering.Whatever being understands
The Dharma of perfect peace,
Sees the self-arising
Of the Tathágata.Peaceful ones completely
Know the highest dharma.
Regarding its being groundless and rootless the Secret Essence says:
As for the groundless, rootless nature of mind,
It is not male or female, nor is it neuter.
It is not mark-less, and has no pedigree.
It has no color, and it has no shape.
It is not existent or anything.
4. Mind is uncreated or un-fabricated (Just letting it be; not using mind to look for mind; mind cannot be viewed by the mind)
Without the increase and decrease of the three times, though it appears to arise continually, it is nature-less (i.e. without an essence). From the time it arises as the six lokas, past mind:
It is seen neither in the past nor in the future.
It does not enter the present, remaining where it is.
Not using mind to look for mind, just let it be.
The past is gone. The future is not yet here. Present mind has no arising, duration, nor cessation. Un-established for even an instant, neither viewed not viewer exist. They are put to rest by themselves.
The All-Creating King says:
Since mind is not a thing that can be viewed by mind,
By looking it is not seen. Let it rest in such-ness.
5. Mind as instantaneous (By seeking the seeker, it is not found; objects of conceptual mind are instantaneous / unborn / not produced by a self)
Thus from the very time of emanation:
Objects of conceptual mind are instantaneous,
Assertions and denials of mere recalled cognition.
There are no in and out from the time that objects appear.
What is sought is produced by the seeker, so it is taught.
So if one seeks oneself, one never will be found.
Whatever conceptions of mind have arisen, if they are searched for, they will not be found, since they are the seeker. By looking for oneself one will not find it, since it is non-dual. (i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.) If examined, oneself is non-existent, and so whatever it perceives is completely pacified.
The All-Creating King says:
Intrinsically existing, motionless self-existence,
Naturally existing, uncreated by anyone;
This uncreated existence of such-ness as it is,
Is taught to be supreme, the uncreated action.
Also:
By looking at one as two, one's meditation errs.
A single nature cannot be established as two.
6. Because it is primordially pure, it is without birth and cessation: (What is to be found is unborn / not produced: not existent, not non-existent, not both, not neither.)
This is the natural state, eternally unborn.
The non-dwelling nature of mind, unobstructed and unceasing,
Groundless, rootless empty pervasion of the three times.
Ground of the ceaseless appearance of variety
With neither things or qualities, how can it be eternal?
Ceaselessly self-arising, how can it be nothing?
Neither dual nor non-dual, it is inexpressible.
Since here there is no existence, there is no recognition.
Its nature should be known to be primordial purity.
Because the naturally pure nature of mind is groundless and rootless, it is said to be empty.
[Tetralemma:]
Ø
Since its arising is completely ceaseless, it is said to be appearance. Since if examined it has no things or characteristics, it is free from the extreme of Eternalism.Ø
Since, as mere apprehension, it is ceaseless, it is free from the extreme of nihilism.Ø
Since there is no other third class which would be bothØ
Or neither,Ø
It cannot be identified as "this." Except by mere expressions like "Naturally pure" it is inexpressible.Ø
It is wisdom un-obscured by extremes.
Saraha says:
As for spotless wisdom, un-obscured by extremes,
Free from actions, it is not accretion of karma.
At any time it is changeless, therefore it is eternal
The net of wrong conceptions is nothing. Though it is divided into enlightened and other aspects the Embodiment of the Intention says:
E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
The truly eternal is eternity.
This great eternal has no antidote.E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
What is truly nothing is nothingness.
Enlightenment cuts the stream of what is wrong.E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
Except for the universal and limitless,
Perfect Buddhahood will not be found.E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
Mind itself is perfect Buddhahood.
No other sort of Buddhahood exists.E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
The three worlds have primordially been the essence,
Un-fabricated, unerring, and self-existing.E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
The nature is this self-existing space.
The perfect Buddha does not need to be sought.E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
State of goodness of all and everything;
Eternal-pervasion, wondrous to be told.E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
Apart from this essence of enlightenment,
No non-realization exists at all.E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
Everything is the Buddha and within it
There can be no obscuration by concept.E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
Since thought itself is the purity of non-thought,
There is nothing other than sugatagarbha.E ma ho, wondrous, marvelous dharma!
This is the secret of all the perfected Buddhas.
Within the primordial essence of the Buddhas
Realization is a spontaneous presence.
7. Be completely without accepting and rejecting, because this nature of mind is destroyed by understanding it: (By stopping the minds outflow; what is to be found is beyond discrimination, beyond conceptualization.)
If it should be examined, it seems to be non-existent.
But if it is not examined, it always will be there.
Within this primordial essence whose nature is non-duality,
There is no conception of accepting or rejecting.
There is no good and evil; there is no hope and fear.
How cold this exist by examining and analysis?
Shun the inconstant crowd of the mind of three times.
(i.e. Seeing the real nature of the mind, and of everything, one understand that everything is nature-less, that there is no real unwholesome or wholesome, no absolute good and bad, nothing to get, nothing to drop. It is just a matter of directly seeing this real non-dual unborn nature to be free from all attachments, all uncontrolled karma formation and all consequential suffering. So let the mind go at peace.)
If with many analyses and examinations one examines the mind, it seems that it does not exist. When it is unexamined, it does not [not] exist either. Therefore it is nature-less (i.e. without an essence). Without accepting, rejecting, hope and fear, be at ease like a destitute haughty Brahmin elephant.
As for the instruction of being naturally in that state of non-aggression without view, thought, examination, memory, and wish, Saraha says:
If the haughty elephant enters accumulations of mind,
If it cuts off coming and going it will be at leisure.
If it is realized like that, there is no place for defilement.
Shameless skillful ones will never realize that.
Also:
By letting loose the elephant of mind;
All the stains of ego all are destroyed.
Like paintings in space, or drinking rippling water,
Let the borders be just as they are.The object elephant's powers having been grasped by the hand,
That will kill it and how will it be autonomous.
The yogin is someone like an elephant-guard...
E. The doctrine is not realized by words
(i.e. The Middle Way: not letting the mind go wild with its fabrications, not controlling the mind. Nothing to get, nothing to drop.)
There are four sections.
·
1. It will not be realized by those who manifest pride (Egotism, seeking knowledge and powers, is not in accord with the goal. They are all based on the belief of inherent existence of something, and for the benefit of an illusory ego. Bodhicitta is in accord with the goal, with the real nature of everything. The perfection of Bodhicitta, using skillful means to exchange self for others, and knowing the emptiness of the three. Uniting method and wisdom.)·
2. As for the teaching that Trikaya is primordially self-existing (There is nothing to accept, nothing to drop. Discrimination is not in accord with the goal. Everything is pure, and self-liberating, when their real nature is seen.)·
3. As for the instruction to abandon attachment (Seeking knowledge, grasping at views, is not in accord with the goal. The real nature of the mind and of everything is beyond conceptualization; all views are flawed.)·
4. As for the instruction of defilement by mind-made meditation (Seeking non-thought, controlling the mind, is also not in accord with the goal. The real nature of the mind and of everything is beyond non- conceptualization; dropping everything is also flawed.)
1. It will not be realized by those who manifest pride. (Egotism, seeking knowledge and powers, is not in accord with the goal. They are all based on the belief of inherent existence of something, and for the benefit of an illusory ego. Bodhicitta is in accord with the goal, with the real nature of everything. The perfection of Bodhicitta, using skillful means to exchange self for others, and knowing the emptiness of the three. Uniting method and wisdom.)
Now there is the teaching that those who evaluate the Dharma merely verbally, will not realize its meaning as it truly is. Keeping track of whether the reason applies to the subject, the forward and reverse pervasions, and what kinds of things agree or do not agree with the reason, we are moved by individual conceptions and kindle erroneous kleshas, so that a bonfire of many sufferings blazes up. Skillful at burning away the true being of oneself and others, such beings manifest pride like a mountain,
The mind of relationship with complexities and concepts.
Is moved, as if by an always blowing blasting wind.
Though a mind like this will have no realization,
Bodhicitta not coming or going, taking or leaving,
Is the all-creating essence of undefiled wisdom,
By resting in that way, that is how it is seen.
(i.e. Seeking the truth and powers for selfish gains is defeating the purpose. And, since it is not in accord with the goal, not in accord with the real nature of everything, it will just not work. The mind will never get enough calm and peace to understand, and directly see its real nature this way. it will simply be afraid and refuse it. One has first to use the skillful means of renunciation, Bodhicitta and exchange self for others.
-- It is not a matter of discrimination like with ordinary knowledge. It is a matter of directly seeing the real non-dual nature of everything.
-- This doesn't mean that concepts are useless. It just means that they are useless without Bodhicitta.
-- Maintaining the separation between self and others is counter-productive.)
Regarding this, the essence or intrinsic nature, the Lankavatara Sutra says:
Sophistic fools examine
What is like a corpse.
Conceptual examination spreads a thousand great nets of complexities that have nothing to do with Dharma. Dharma and the natural state of mind are primordially pure, with nothing that needs to be established or cleared away. Here the Precious Sky Sutra and The Tantra of Oral Instruction accord with the Abhisamayalankara and the Uttaratantra of Maitreya:
There is nothing to clear away,
And nothing to be established.
Reality views reality.
To see that is liberation
Enlightenment, bodhi, in Tibetan is jangchub.
·
Eternally undefiled, it is pure, jang.·
With qualities eternally complete, it is perfect, chub.·
Arising ceaselessly without obstruction, it is called, jangchub sem, the mind, sem, citta, of enlightenment, bodhicitta.
As for the teaching that Trikaya is primordially self-existing, (There is nothing to accept, nothing to drop. Discrimination is not in accord with the goal. Everything is pure, and self-liberating, when their real nature is seen.)
the All-creating King says:
The meaning of jang is this: The essence bodhicitta
Is self arising, primordial, and completely pure,
Everything that is done by the doer of all, the King,
Is completely pure in the state of Samantabhadra,
That is the explanation of the meaning of jang.Chub is like this: The essence is self-arising wisdom.
Appearance and existence, within the vessel and essence,
The Buddhas of the three times and beings of the three realms [8]
As such-ness everything, is perfect everywhere,
As all-pervading perfection chub should be explained.Sem is like this: The essence is self-arising wisdom.
By that the vessel and essence of the phenomenal world
Is entered, empowered, and thereby rendered luminous.
That is the explanation of the meaning of sem.
Since all dharmas are naturally non-dual and pure, if we see essential nature-less-ness, we know how things are.(i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.)
When we realize that the nature of mind has no coming and going, kleshas neither arise nor cease. There are neither abandoning nor antidotes. The kleshas are pure as they are.
The Song of the Oral Instructions of the Inexhaustible Treasury says:
How could either kleshas or antidotes be produced?
People who work on them bind themselves in samsara.
Being liberated by seeing the pith does not depend on abandoning any objects. By knowing the nature of the objects in a dream and the one who grasps them, they are self-liberated. Though others would like to be liberated after abandoning objects, the mere appearance of objects and mind does not bind. However, anyone attached to them is grasped by bondage.
As for the instruction to abandon attachment, (Seeking knowledge, grasping at views, is not in accord with the goal. The real nature of the mind and of everything is beyond conceptualization; all views are flawed.)
Tilopa says:
Appearance does not bind, attachment binds.
Therefore cut attachment, Naropa.
The Dohakosha says:
Thinking, "that is pleasant,"
The mind of equanimity
That cherishes such irritation
Falls away from the essence.Even a little bit
The size of a sesame-hull
Produces forever after
Nothing but suffering.
Mere appearance without assertion and denial does not produce attachment. From merely realizing the unborn essence of mind, the mind will never produce conceptual apprehension. Though conceptual apprehension is produced, it is not outside of the previous essence, and there is no belief in and be attachment to complexities.
The All-Creating King says:
In the uncreated nature, which is like the sky,
How can there be examination and analysis?
The Dharmaraja Sutra says:
When someone is struck with a poisoned arrow, if this is quickly pulled out, that person will be saved. Otherwise, while that person is thinking, "this arose from the feathers, or this arose from the shaft or this arose from the point," the malady will spread, and that person will die.
Similarly, as we examine and analyze many reasons, with the power of the mental conception, kleshas arise and proliferate.
Therefore, the mind should rest in complete non-thought. (i.e. True wisdom is not gained by conceptual thinking, but by directly seeing the truth. This doesn't mean that learning and thinking are useless along the path. It only means that the final step is done without thought. Nirvana is not gained by acquiring knowledge, nor is it by dropping thoughts. It is gained by transcending: going beyond existence and non-existence, beyond accepting and dropping, beyond coming and going ... It is non-dual.)
The theories of arrogant people who conceptualize the meaning in mere words have little grasp of the way things are. By such knowing who will be satisfied? Whoever deteriorates because of not knowing, will dispute the dharma and believe in complexities, they will be far from such-ness. (i.e. The wish to gain knowledge is based on fear or egotism. It is based on the belief of inherent existence of things and self. It is counter-productive to think like that.)
The Dohakosha says:
That beings without remainder are excellent is refuted
Just by the fault of pride that cannot be their character.
Also:
Kye Ho! listen to me my son,
The corpse of argument by joy knows true abiding
Because of the explanations and productions of sentient beings,
And so on, and so on and so on it cannot be realized.
The Commentary Ascertaining the Intention says:
The bodhisattva Arya Dharma said, "When I reached the Buddha field called "Arrogance" of the Tathágata Vast Glory, many kinds of extremists thought up all kind of useless philosophies. They pondered them. They thought about them. They investigated them. Not having realized the true meaning, these sophists argued with each other. They abused. They reviled. Having seen that their philosophies were annihilated they said,
"Kye ma! When the absolute of the Tathágatas is taught to be truly beyond all conceptions, we think that is right!.
The Buddha said, Arya Dharma, now, by really being beyond all concepts, I have become enlightened. Having become enlightened, I have described it. I have clarified it. I have explained that the absolute is individually and personally apprehended by the noble ones. (i.e. It cannot be transmitted like ordinary knowledge; it has to be directly seen by seeking and directly seeing the real nature of our own mind.)
What is apprehended by individual beings is the sphere of concepts. Conceptions are the realm of philosophy. The absolute is inexpressible. Reasoning increases contention. The absolute pacifies contention. Truth cannot be examined, inferred, or pondered by reasoning. The mark-less realization of individual and personal awareness is inexpressible. Therefore it annihilates conventionalities. The absolute Dharma is free from contention. It is beyond the sphere of conceptuality.
The Sutra Encouraging The Excellent Wish says:
Manjushri, those who by having heard much are self-infatuated and haughty, are separated from a true and proper attitude, and the continuum of their minds becomes unruly. Separate from shamatha and vipashyana, they are far from the utter profundity of the Buddha dharma.
Knowing only verbally, such people never accomplish anything very beneficial.
The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
Just as a deaf musician,
Brings rejoicing to others
But cannot enjoy his own music
Such is dharma without meditationA ferryman on a river
Helping others to cross over,
Just staying there till he dies,
Such is dharma without meditationAs the taste of molasses,
Is not known from mere description
Likewise the taste of emptiness,
Must be tasted in meditation.
Seeking the meaning verbally, devoting oneself only to examination and analysis, is not a cause of true wisdom.
The Dohakosha says:
Not drinking the amrita
Of the guru's oral instructions,
Whose coolness satisfies
The torments of the mind,In the desert of treatises,
In that desiccated plain,
Tormented by thirst
One will only die.
The holy guru exemplifying the meaning of profound dharmata is what will satisfy. (i.e. dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their real nature)
Also:
For those who have a wish for rootless such-ness
The guru's oral instructions are enough.
In entering the profound essential meaning, do not hope for enlightenment from merely verbal doctrines of Dharma or mere logical lumping together and hair-splitting. Of these two kinds of philosophical conceptions, conceptions of real borders and dividing points are attached to the true existence of individual beings. When words designating these are postulated according to the mind, there are disputes about the classes of what agrees and does not agree are with them. Having become arrogant about such generalities about the knowable, their individual ideas about things and non- things and so forth, people make up a heap of distinctions, about the ground, form, and so on. Since none of these external natures could be established, their minds evaluate things in terms of superimpositions. Within groundless confused appearance, such doctrines, and their bases of distinction, are nothing but obscuring false conceptions. Don't do this.
The commentary on the Sixty Stanzas on Reasoning says:
Not only are you bound by the beginning-less, universal bondage of the kleshas, but now by bad doctrines you are adding more bonds, like silk worms winding themselves up in their own spittle.
The nature like the sky should be realized to have an essence without divisions. The All-Creating King says:
All of the dharmas exist as examples of bodhicitta.
All are examples of that essence like the sky.
What is being described is the meaning of bodhicitta.
As for the instruction of defilement by mind-made meditation (Seeking non-thought, controlling the mind, is also not in accord with the goal. The real nature of the mind and of everything is beyond non- conceptualization; dropping everything is also flawed.)
Therefore as for the phenomena of incidental obscurations or natural obscurations, there are these incidental verses:
Within the purity of the spotless nature of mind,
Artificial defilements never will be seen.
Here why should we speak of development and perfection?
In meditative purity, defilements are exhausted.
By looking for complexities of developing and perfecting within the primordial spontaneous presence of the nature, the essence without accepting and rejecting will not be seen. Pass the pass into the self-completed great perfection.
The All-Creating King says:
For students who rejoice in counting characteristics,
Counting mantras is taught and developing mandalas,
For whoever has placed their hopes upon the path of Trikaya.
Those who produce understanding by means of heaping up concepts,
For the length of time of a hundred million kalpas
Will never realize the sense of the undeveloped mandala.Kye! for me the teacher, the King, the doer of all,
By accumulations and mandala being self-perfected,
The nature of Dharmata does not need to be created. (i.e. dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their real nature)
As the nature with neither wish nor development,
Know The mandala of the King, the doer of all.
Similarly within the nature there are also no path, meditation, and so forth.
The same text says:
As for bodhicitta, it is like the sky.
Within this nature of dharmas and mind, which is like the sky,
There is no view or meditation, and also no guarding samaya. (i.e. The Middle Way: No meditation, no non-meditation. Using meditation while knowing the real nature of meditation. The same for all other adapted skillful means.)Buddha activity is effortless; wisdom un-obscured.
There is no training in the Bhumis, and there is no treading the path.
There are no subtle dharmas and no non-dual relationship. (i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.)For mind there are no precepts, and nothing to be resolved.
Since this is beyond both exaggeration and denigration,
There is no passing the pass into reality.
This is bodhicitta, the view of the great perfection.(i.e. The perfection of Bodhicitta is practicing it while knowing the emptiness of the three. Discriminating while knowing that no discrimination is absolute. Abiding without abiding. Uniting method and wisdom. This is in accord with the goal, with the real nature of everything.)
The Dohakosha says:
Free from meditation, what is there to wish for?
How will that which is inexpressible be explained?
By the mudra of samsara all beings have been seduced.
Who has not defiled the nature of things as they are?Continuity has no mantra, no goal or meditation.
All these are causes of confusing one's own mind.
Mind's natural purity is unstained by meditation.
Its nature exists as bliss, so do not produce any torment.
The All-Creating King says:
That which is primordial undistracted, and un-lost
Is completely undistracted by the tether of samádhi.But undistracted samádhi can be the deceiver hope, (i.e. the danger of getting attached to a path, to meditation and its results)
Within the provisional teachings of the Mahayana,
When it has been presented in terms of cause and effect.That which is primordial, undistracted, and un-lost
Is the naturally resting nature, apart from cause ad effect.
This is the antidote to establishment and effort. (i.e. The real nature of the mind, and of everything, is beyond causality space time, ...)
F. Passing the pass
(i.e. Seeking with both method and wisdom, until there is nothing else to seek.)
There are four sections.
·
1. Passing the pass into the nature as limitless as space (Equanimity: not accepting and not rejecting or using antidotes; not letting the mind go wild or trying to control it; not turning outward or inward; nothing to get or to drop; without fear or hope -- not attachment to doing or not doing -- Nirvana is not produced by our own effort)·
2. Passing the pass into the unity of the sky at the very moment of realization (Not trying to produce enlightenment. Liberation is not caused by "other", not produced. It is not "other-liberation"; it is "self-liberation", it is "sudden")·
3. The conceptual mind of assertion and denial disappears (No gasping at any view. Not accepting any view, not rejecting any view. There is no possible view of everything of or a self that is not really existent. Seeking and directly seeing the real nature of our own mind is seeing that there is nothing inherently existing -- not finding it. It is the same for all dharmas.)·
4. In encountering the ground, there is nothing to be viewed (The final result: No absolute view gained; no goal reached; nobody getting there. The real nature of the self, and of everything is directly seen. Transcending all dharmas and the self, the Union of the Two Truths.)
1. Passing the pass into the nature as limitless as space, (Equanimity: not accepting and not rejecting or using antidotes; not letting the mind go wild or trying to control it; not turning outward or inward; nothing to get or to drop; without fear or hope -- not attachment to doing or not doing -- Nirvana is not produced by our own effort)
As for passing the path into the single nature, as limitless as space:
Within the primordial purity of the nature of mind,
Without abandoning, antidotes, separation or attainment,
Objects of meditation are superfluous.
Without outer grasping or inner fixation abandon clinging.
Without any grasping of "this," let us cut through attachment.
Without success or failure, abandon hope and fear.
(i.e. Using both method and wisdom. Without controlling the mind, or letting it go wild. Using a raft without getting attached to it. The Middle Way: nothing to accept or acquire, nothing to reject or drop. This is in accord with the goal, in accord with the real nature of everything.)
Within the primordially enlightened nature of mind, there is now [9] nothing to purify, so attachments of accepting and rejecting are unnecessary.
The All-Creating King says:
Kye Mahasattva,
If one wishes to establish one's own mind,
Since it is established by being without desire,
One should rest in the equanimity of non-thought.
Naturally rest in the realm that neither accepts or rejects.
Naturally rest in the state that is naturally motionless.
Since inner and outer grasping and fixation do not exist at all, do not cling.
The same text says:
Without any inside or outside, this is Dharmadhatu.
The aspect that is deep has no conceptual objects.
Since within unity there is nothing to call, "this," destroy the coils of attachment.
The same text says:
As for mind, the nature of it is such-ness.
Therefore all the dharmas are established as such-ness.
Do not fabricate anything in that nature of such-ness.
Also it says that there are neither success nor failure:
There is nothing to succeed at or fail in producing.
Do not be caught within the trap of hope and fear.
2. Passing the pass into the unity of the sky at the very moment of realization: (Not trying to produce enlightenment. Liberation is not caused by "other", not produced. It is not "other-liberation"; it is "self-liberation", it is "sudden")
In insight which is fundamentally without change,
How can the different conditioned phenomena ever arise?
That very arising is liberation from the beginning.
Dharmakaya is one, like water and its waves.
(i.e. Inseparability of appearances and emptiness. Inseparability of the Trikaya. When directly seeing the real nature of the mind, and of everything, there is no more attachments, fears, hope. Everything is already pure, self-liberating. There is nothing to change, nothing to gain, nothing to drop. The mind with or without defilements, with or without thoughts, is the same inseparability of emptiness and clarity / cognitive lucidity.)
Within the changelessness of one's own mind, whatever instantaneous phenomena of joy and sorrow and happiness and suffering and so forth may arise are ungraspable. They liberate themselves with no need of other antidotes.
As for instant self-liberation without before or after, the All-Creating King says:
Liberation is self-liberation.
There is no other kind.(i.e. Self-liberation, in opposition to other-liberation, means that we don't have to change the mind, we don't have to get something or drop something, we don't have to produce something. Nirvana is not produced by our own effort; Nirvana is not caused, thus not impermanent. Everything is already pure.
-- Liberation is "sudden", not produced, not caused.)
Also the Song of the Oral Instructions of the Inexhaustible Treasury says:
That liberated instant is known as Dharmakaya.
"There is another liberation by great bliss."
Though this is said by fools, it is water in a mirage.
Also:
As much as there is emanation from mind,
Just that much the nature of the lord Buddha,
Is otherness like water and its waves.
Such experience arises as we pass the pass into freedom from viewed and viewer.
3. The conceptual mind of assertion and denial disappears: (No gasping at any view. Not accepting any view, not rejecting any view. There is no possible view of everything of or a self that is not really existent. Seeking and directly seeing the real nature of our own mind is seeing that there is nothing inherently existing -- not finding it. It is the same for all dharmas.)
When anything is viewed, the viewer's essence is lost.
Objects and the directions, when sought will not be found.
The seeker too is not perceived in simplicity.
Without an object of action, the actor does not exist.
(i.e. It is because we believe in the objective perception of inherently existing objects of the three realms that, in opposition, we believe in a true permanent self / perceiver. They come together. And when the emptiness of inherent existence of one is directly seen, the emptiness of inherent existence of the other is also seen. -- Or, nothing is seen as truly existing.)
Viewing this arising, when we try to reject the watcher and leave things as they are, while we look for something to reject, not only are there no directions, places, and objects; but the borderless, all-encompassing seeker is not perceivable either. There is no trace of anything to affirm or deny, no reference points at all.
As for the support, mind, being like space, the All-Creating King says:
Not existing, not realized, no vision of anything,
Naturally existing equanimity of non-thought.
As it is eternal, no mind of effort arises.
Mahasukha abides as the essence of all dharmas.
That is how it is encountered.
4. In encountering the ground, there is nothing to be viewed (The final result: No absolute view gained; no goal reached; nobody getting there. The real nature of the self, and of everything is directly seen. Transcending all dharmas and the self, the Union of the Two Truths.)
At that time, realization of the indivisible space of the nature of mind is spontaneously present, and so as to what it is like when the self-existing throne of Dharmakaya is attained, taking as an example the autumn sky:
Reach the primordial state that is spotless like the sky.
Without it’s opposite, resting, how can anything go?
When exhaustion has been reached, there also is no coming.
Nobody looks at nothing, so where could we ever be?
That is a display of vajra song of realization without center or limit. What arises is liberated into space like a dispersing cloud. This is the realization arising at that time. By mixing primordial space, the nature of mind, and its self- arising, self-liberated wisdom, the nature of mind is irreversible from the natural state. We reach the level of the exhaustion of dharmas. This is liberation from the defile of knowledge of assertion and denial that grasps things and characteristics. We reach the stream of dharmata without coming and going. (i.e. dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their real nature) No one goes and there is no place to go. Yogins who reach such a state transcend the objects of confusion. They do not enter the city of samsara. They reach the ground like the sky. The nature of their minds encounters space. The three gates are effortlessly liberated, like clouds disappearing into space, purified into the primordial ground of fixated conceptualization. They see what they are. This is the time when they ascertain the meaning which those of lesser fortune will not see, even if it is explained to them.
The All-Creating King says:
Mahasukha Dharmakaya is perfect within the mind,
Let it pervade without the three times' before and after.
The Dohakosha says:
Kye lord sirs and madams now look here.
I have realized nothing but this itself.
Before a being whose karma is exhausted
Gain conviction about the nature of mind.
The time of encountering it is like that.
G. The conviction of realization
(i.e. Once it is done [having directly seen the real nature of our own mind]: no more question, everything is pure, self-liberating as they emerge, the Union of The Two Truths, no more absolutes, no more attachment, no more uncontrolled karma formation, no more suffering. Great impartiality, equality.)
If this is known, we have a need for nothing else.
Buddhas are nothing now, just as confused as we are.
There are no questions. Rootless mind is gone.
No reference points, no grasping "This," and nothing certain.
Relaxed and even, letting go into unity.
Having realized this, here is the song that is sung.
By the rising of Drime Ozer [10] it goes forth from
the teaching.
All doubts about the natural state are resolved. This is the time of no further aspirations. Other liberated yogins, have the same realization we do. So now, beyond this absence of doubts and questions, no one has anything to teach us.
The Dohakosha says:
Before, behind and in the ten directions,
Whatever may be seen is that itself.
Today like Lord Buddha I have cut through confusion
Now I have no questions for anyone.
That is what it is like.
The former well-ordered sequence of view, meditation, and action, depends on higher and lower stages like a flight of stairs. Its customary attitude regards yogins as higher and lower. Now the mind which asks questions about this is scattered, seeming to lose its ground and root. It finds no reference point at all. Whatever arises is ungraspable, as if one were drunk. Appearances are unrecognizable, as if one were a little child. Without any orderly plan of action, all at once everything is on the same level, naturally, alertly at ease. Without any reference point to lose, there is fundamental oneness beyond grasping. The phenomena of excellence arise within us.
The Dohakosha says:
Realization is like a wish-fulfilling gem.
Its confusion-destroying power is very wonderful.
This is when that happens. What arises--arises as dharmata. (i.e. dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their real nature) When we reach the ground of confusion, it turns out to be pure objectless wakefulness like the space of the sky. All karma and conditionality are liberated.
The Dohakosha says:
Beings by karma are bound to the individual.
Once liberated from karma, they are free.
If one's own being is free, there will certainly be no other.
This is called the attainment of supreme nirvana.
This is when that occurs. Whatever is done is liberated into no reference point. By the arising of the power of non-fixation, one has neither bondage or liberation.
The same text says:
If action and non-action are truly realized,
There is no bondage, nor is there any liberation.
By transmission of the realization of the guru, one is liberated.
The same text says:
That which is the primordial nature of the unborn,
Today I have realized, as taught by the glorious guru.
Becoming god-like, one sings a song of the manifestation of the nature of mind, self-arising wisdom. This is the natural state, beyond existence or non-existence of the natural state. We realize of the pith of the great limitless impartiality. With the rising of the thousand-rayed spotless disk of the sun, the world of good fortune is made to appear. Luminous mind is displayed as the lotus pond called liberation. One should know, "I have gone to mahasukha, the level of Samantabhadra."
H. By the explanation of the primordial liberation of appearance and mind, how we pass the pass into the great perfection, encompassed and perfected as the great miracle.
There are three sections of closing and summary.
Ø
1. The first (The nature of appearances and of the mind)Ø
2. Second section (All dharmas are the same: empty of inherent existence, non-dual, pure, self-liberating)Ø
3. The instruction that the meaning of being without accepting and rejecting is being without grasping and fixation (All discrimination, views, actions, defilements, are based on the belief of inherent existence, on ignorance.)
1. The first has six parts.
Ø
a. The teaching of the emptiness of apparent objects (Inseparability of appearances and emptiness. All dharmas are pure, unborn)Ø
b. The projecting mind is emptiness (Inseparability of mind and emptiness. The mind is pure, unborn: Buddha-nature, primordial awareness)Ø
c. Body and mind are non-dual emptiness (Inseparability of body and mind: not separate or different, not the same. Both inseparability of appearances and emptiness)Ø
d. External objects are uncertain and mind has no reference points (There is no pure perception of objects, no absolute referential, no absolute classification according to essence. No absolute, only relative, only conventional)Ø
e. The reason for these (No absolute characteristics, no absolute time, no absolute space referential, no absolute causality.)Ø
f. The changeless nature of mind (The mind with or without defilements, or thought, is the same: inseparability of emptiness and clarity / cognitive lucidity. It is already pure: Buddha-nature. Samsara and Nirvana are not different or separate, not the same)
a. The teaching of the emptiness of apparent objects, (Inseparability of appearances and emptiness. All dharmas are pure, unborn)
With instruction of appearance and mind as primordial liberation, we pass the pass into the nature of the great perfection:
KYE HO my friends, look at apparent objects.
They are all the unborn. They are empty and equal.
Even though various images rise within a mirror,
The surface of that mirror is really only one,
When reflections arise in a mirror, there is really nothing but the radiance of the one bright mirror-surface, but still these forms appear. So all the dharmas of samsara are nothing else than the nature, emptiness.
The Sutra Requested by Jvnpa says:
As in the disk of a mirror,
Faces may appear,
So un-established dharmas
Ought to be known by Jvnpa.
b. The projecting mind is emptiness, (Inseparability of mind and emptiness. The mind is pure, unborn: Buddha-nature, primordial awareness)
At the time of experiencing the nature-less-ness (i.e. without an essence) of all dharmas, as for appearances:
If we look at the mind that has projected this,
Mind is free from any affirming or denying.
Just as clouds in the sky arise and disappear,
The non-dual miracles of space are purity.
This is the spotless nature that is the primordial Buddha.
This is uncreated self-existing dharmata.
(i.e. dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their real nature)
Awareness, producing the view, is liberated from projecting objects. The phenomena of object-appearance are purified in non-fixation. When clouds fade away after arising in the sky, they go nowhere but space. Self-dissolving, they become invisible. As awareness is liberated from projecting objects, the three times go into the space of realization.
The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
Just as in space that has no clouds at all
Clouds make a sudden appearance everywhere,
And then as they vanish, with no clouds anywhere,
They make us think they went from whence they came,
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
All dharmas first arose from or in the space of the unborn. Now they remain there. In the end, they will be liberated back into it. Awareness of what arises too first arose from the empty nature of mind. In the present it remains there. Finally it will cease there. That is how it should be known. Such a nature is that of primordial Buddhahood.
The All-Creating King says:
As for the sky-like nature of the mind,
The essence of the primordial Buddha, enlightenment,
It does not exist by effort and establishing.
Rest in that uncreated natural purity.
c. Body and mind are non-dual emptiness: (Inseparability of body and mind: not separate or different, not the same. Both inseparability of appearances and emptiness)
There is neither object nor primordial purity.
There is no receiving and there is no letting go,
No bias or partiality, no negation or affirmation.
What appears has no true existence; what rises is emptiness.
All is equality, free from all reference points.
Apparent objects and fixation-producing awareness appear while neither of them exists, as within a dream. They are known without accepting and rejecting, and affirmation and denial.
The All-Creating King says:
That which is only one within the state of such-ness,
Dharmata, appears as five kinds of separate objects. (i.e. dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their real nature)
The five desirables and undesirables then exist.
In single such-ness, there is accepting and rejecting.As these are appearances of self-arising wisdom,
They are not rightly rejected by its own agency.
What is produced by the wrong of rejection is samsara.
Whatever appears is empty of true existence, like the water in a mirage. When this is known, the reflection-like appearance of all dharmas should be abandoned. Then there is equality, essentially providing no reference point for the mind.
d. External objects are uncertain and mind has no reference points: (There is no pure perception of objects, no absolute referential, no absolute classification according to essence. No absolute, only relative, only conventional)
Objects are uncertain, appearing in various ways.
In the great impartiality, mind has no reference points.
So the nature of mahasandhi should be known.
Appearances are not ascertained as one particular thing, but seem to be a variety. The awareness that fixates them also has no reference points. Everything is liberated as the part-less singularity of the great perfection.
The Great Space says:
Whatever appears is uncertain;
Mind too is impartial,
Having no reference points.
Un-fabricated great space,
Manifests as the nature
Of the ultimate great perfection.
e. The reason for these (No absolute characteristics, no absolute time, no absolute space referential, no absolute causality.)
As for establishing the reason:
Within the world of dharmas of samsara and nirvana,
The dharmas of the past are equality without concept.
The dharmas of the future are unborn equality.
The dharmas of the present are non-dwelling equality.
The three times are timeless as equality with no ground.
All there is was always eternally complete.
As for the five fold equality:
·
1. Since all dharmas are equal, they should be known to be without accepting and rejecting, and good and bad.·
2. These dharmas of the phenomenal world are equal in that once they are gone, they will not return.·
3. Since the future ones have not arisen, they are equal in not existing anywhere.·
4. In the present they are equal in that if the apprehension that identifies inner and outer essences is examined, none are found.·
5. Yet equally when unexamined they appear .
The Telling the Marks says:
Remain in realization that the three times are timelessness.
The three times are related by not being established in time, and since they are groundless they are equally empty.
Because everything is unborn they are also equal as Prajñápáramitá. Their duration and cessation similarly from the time they appear are equal in not being established as anything whatsoever.
The Middle length Prajñápáramitá says:
Subhuti, since all dharmas are equality, the perfection of prajña too is equality.
The Sutra of Motionless Dharmata says:
All dharmas by nature are unborn.
By essence they are unmoving.
They are free from the extremes of action.
They are beyond the objects of complexity.
They are primordial equality.
f. The changeless nature of mind: (The mind with or without defilements, or thought, is the same: inseparability of emptiness and clarity / cognitive lucidity. It is already pure: Buddha-nature. Samsara and Nirvana are not different or separate, not the same)
The phenomenal world that consists of samsara and nirvana
Is nothing but an image reflected in the mind.
The nature of that mind is the great space of Dharmadhatu.
The nature of that space is changeless throughout the three times.
That changeless nature was nirvana from the start.
This fundamental enlightenment is Samantabhadra.
Whatever appears is a reflection of confused habitual patterns, arising as if in the surface of a mirror.
The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
Mind is like a painter.
Mind produced the skandhas.
All the worlds there are
Are paintings of the mind.
The phenomenal world is the supported destructible inhabitants, sentient beings, within the destructible environment. By becoming familiar with the habitual patterns of confused mind, they appear to be non-existent from the time they arise like a dream. One gains that conviction about the confused appearances of apparent mind. One gains the conviction that appearance-fixating mind is empty like space.
The Dohakosha says:
Mind should be grasped as being like the sky.
The nature of space should be grasped as being mind.
As for becoming convinced that space is changeless, the All-Creating King says:
Just as the space of the sky is changeless,
The space of the nature of mind is changeless.
What is changeless is the primordial peace of nirvana, the nature of Samantabhadra. The All-Creating King says:
This primordial purity, the unchanging nature of mind
Is the self-existing essence, the doer of all, enlightenment.
2. Second section
There are five parts:
·
a. Inseparable appearance and emptiness are primordially the same (All dharmas are like that: non-dual; not existent, not non-existent, not both, not neither; essence-less but still caused and functional.)·
b. All mentally imputed labeling are empty of essence (All the objects of the three worlds are like that. No exception at all. No elementary components, no primary causes, no final effects, no absolute relations. No absolute theories. No absolute truth, only adapted skillful means. No absolute path.)·
c. Since mind does not emit anything, objects do not arise. (An old example)·
d. Since object and mind are nature-less, they are self-liberated (All dharmas are like that: pure, self-liberating. All non-dual)·
e. If one realizes that what arises is self-liberated, that is sagacious (The skillful means of Oneness.)
a. Inseparable appearance and emptiness are primordially the same (All dharmas are like that: non-dual; not existent, not non-existent, not both, not neither; essence-less but still caused and functional.)
Therefore, all dharmas are primordially and universally included and perfected as the wondrously-arisen nature of the great perfection:
Inseparable and primordial appearance and emptiness.
Simplicity without perception of either one or many.
With neither bias or partiality, all is equal,
Equal appearance and emptiness; equal in truth or falsehood.
Existence is equal and non-existence is also equal.
This is equality transcending all extremes,
The single state of the space of primordial purity.
All dharmas are non-dual appearance/ emptiness beyond complexities of one and many, like space. (i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.) There is nothing solid and definite to them.
The All-Creating King says:
All dharmas have a nature like the sky.
As for the sky itself, it is nature-less (i.e. without an essence).
There is no example of the sky.
All these dharmas without the least exception,
Should be known to really be like that.
Really equality like space, appearances are equally like reflections in a mirror. They are equally emptiness, having no identity [11] of their own. From the viewpoint of confused mind, they are equal in truly existing only in the sense of having causal power. For example, either form or a reflection can produce form-grasping awareness within the eye- consciousness. They are equally false. Their nature-less (i.e. without an essence) state is confused appearance, like the hallucinations created by eating datura plants. [12] They are equally existent, as emanations exhausted in their mere appearance. They are equally non-existent , since their nature is not established, like water in a mirage. They are equally beyond extremes, like pure space. They are primordially equal as the space of dharmata beyond division or clearing away, and without example. (i.e. dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their real nature)
As for their being primordially empty, the Noble Sutra of the Clouds of the Three Jewels says:
Dharmas, primordial emptiness, not coming into being,
Have no going or staying, bereft of all existence.
There is never anything to their illusory nature.Pure of everything, completely like the sky,
The Dharma of the Victorious One has so been taught.
If they were not exhausted, they would not be seen.These dharmas, from the above, have no selves or being.
Even the Buddha's teachings cannot exhaust such dharmas.
The teachings were taught only after such things were believed eternal.
Within samsara nothing conventional will be found.
Things that formerly rose leave no marks at all.
Those of future time are also known like that.They naturally consist of nothing but karma and action.
Both supreme and ordinary karmas rise.
Dharmas are eternal peace that is empty of nature.
They should also all be known as selflessness.
The Moon Lamp explains it the same way.
b. All mentally imputed labeling are empty of essence (All the objects of the three worlds are like that. No exception at all. No elementary components, no primary causes, no final effects, no absolute relations. No absolute theories. No absolute truth, only adapted skillful means. No absolute path.)
All that the mind examines is empty of any essence.
Names are inflated myths of individual essence,
Supposedly to be found in this temporary world.
There is neither true nor false, no connection of body and mind
One does not cover the other. There are neither subject nor object.
The doctrines of the skandhas, ayatanas, and so forth are mere mental imputations. As mentally imputed dharmas do not exist, they are empty of essence. Nominal imputations have no reality internal or external. They are incidental and un-established. The imputation, "This is a real specifically characterized phenomenon." exhausts itself as mere name and concept. Though imputed objects are maintained to be like a fire arising from kindling, like fire in a dream, the natures of these apparent forms of confused habitual patterns are not established. All appearances of the confused viewpoint of samsara are mere superimposed projections. In that sense, from the time such objects appear, they are equal in being only false.
However, if one analyzes apparent objects and the awareness that fixates them, there are neither truth or falsity. Object and perceiver are like space. There is neither related object nor relationship, and so relationship is not real. Nothing has nothing to do with anything. Not only does relationship not exist, but general and particular, though set forth by the mind, are not specifically characterized or identifiable phenomena. Therefore, general and particular are equally either non-imputed phenomena or if they are imputed phenomena, they neither increase or decrease.
So what if relationship and the fixated objects of grasping and fixation are shown by analysis not to exist? Then all the fixations of fools are confused. A small child does has no such superimposed doctrines and distinctions, but later becomes accustomed to projecting obscurations drawn from doctrines of bad learning.
The Complete Ascertainment says:
Beings will become rigidified,
Not seeing how virtue is harmed.
Kye ma! Who dealt this mess?
Unbearable devils of doctrine?
The Middle Length Prajñápáramitá says:
Subhuti, all dharmas are mere symbols, mere imputations. These mere symbols, mere imputations, are incidental. They are empty of essence.
c. Since mind does not emit anything, objects do not arise.
As for the example of the instruction of not fixating this non-relationship:
Just as various forms appear within a mirror,
Phenomenal objects rise in the space of sense awareness.
By grasping them we feel desire and aggression.
Then there is the confusion of the samsaric world.
Bring them all together, not projecting the mind.
No objective phenomena arise within the mind.
Being essence-less, they do not exist as two.
This short passage about the well-known example is added to make this easier to understand. When the reflection of a face appears in a mirror, does one's face eject the reflection so that they become two? Or does the reflection appear to be like the face, while not ejected out of the face? As for individual appearance in the faculties of the six senses, mind does not eject itself as an external object. Nor does the object appear within the phenomenal apprehension of sense awareness. The face does not eject itself and become the reflection or image; but the reflection is supposed to appear like it.
When phenomena arise the way they are grasped by mind is samsaric confusion. If these objects are analyzed, mind is not externally ejected, and the external phenomena allegedly apprehended do not shoot in and arise internally. As what they appear to be, they do not arise anywhere.
The mind of phenomenal arising too is not established externally, internally, or in between. Then fixation of phenomena does not exist. If phenomena are analyzed, they are essence-less. What arises is un-established. Phenomena, object and perceiver are things could not possibly be established.
The Mula-madhyamaka-karikas says:
Where are they supported? Where do they arise?
In brief such things cannot exist as what they are.
And since they cannot be something other than they are,
They are not nothingness, and they are not eternal.(i.e. Section 18 - An Analysis of the Individual Self (atma):
10. Whatever exists, being dependent [on something else], is certainly not identical to that [other thing],
Nor is a thing different from that; therefore, it is neither destroyed nor eternal.)
d. Since object and mind are nature-less, they are self-liberated. (All dharmas are like that: pure, self-liberating. All non-dual)
Appearing like this:
Objects all are one because they are without an essence.
All theories are one because their objects cannot be grasped.
Appearance and mind are not two, but one primordial purity.
There is no need for analysis or examination.
They are a single fundamental liberation,
As the various things in a dream occur within a single state of sleep, all apparent variety is one in nature-less-ness (i.e. without an essence). Appearances seem to arise continually, but thoughts as one can apprehend no essence to them, like waves that are only a state of a single body of water. Just as obscured vision is one with the eye-awareness that grasps it, appearance and mind are one within non-dual dharmata. (i.e. dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their real nature) (i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.) Requiring no examination or analysis at all, beyond examination and analysis, the nature of this pleasure garden in the sky is taught to be that of the sky itself.
The Samadhiraja Sutra says:
Just as with perception of the ego
Train the mind with every kind of awareness.
The essence of all dharmas is emptiness.
They are completely pure like the space of the sky.
The All-Creating King says:
Thus, since all the dharmas of the phenomenal world
Are a unity within the unborn state,
No grasping and fixation are there to be perceived.
Beyond the reach of conceptions of either thought or speech
Their nature is a single space that is like the sky
e. If one realizes that what arises is self-liberated, that is sagacious: (The skillful means of Oneness.)
Non-dual Samsara/ nirvana, is one within the mind:
A variety of rivers are one within the ocean.
All has the equal taste of single co-emergence.
The change of the four elements is one in the state of space,
One in freedom from mental negation or assertion,
One because whatever arises is liberated,
One in the purity of non-duality.
The play of waves is one with the water that is their substance.
Whoever realizes this can be said to be sagacious.
As rivers flowing from the four directions are one within the ocean, samsara and nirvana are one within the mind. The All-Creating King says:
Both the environment and the inhabitants,
Buddhas and sentient beings, all the phenomenal world
Were made by mind, and they are one within the mind.
Whatever changes there may be in the four elements, they do not depart from space. So whatever phenomenal experiences of the view, meditation, action, and fruition may arise are one within the co-emergent natural state.
The Highest Peak says:
That which is co-emergent with the natural state
Is all of one taste with that, and it is one with that.
Assertions and negations that arise within the mind are one in being empty, because they have moved from the such-ness of co-emergent wisdom. As waves are one with water, what arises is one with the unborn. The complexities of mind are one with the nature of mind. That nature is primordially without emanation and gathering.
The Embodiment of Realization says:
Complexity has no complexity.
Discursive thoughts dissolve in the ground like water mixing with water.
The Dohakosha says:
As when water is poured into water,
That water becomes of one taste;
Lord Buddha does not see
Minds having faults and virtues.
The lord Buddha, the nature of mind, is without complexity, beyond objects of seeing. Those who know that are sagacious.
The Avatamsaka Sutra says:
To completely analyze the meaning, within the words of the sagacious there are no conceptual thoughts.
3. The instruction that the meaning of being without accepting and rejecting is being without grasping and fixation
Ø
a. The final summary, introductory (There is no absolute characteristics (all of them are relative, subjective), no absolute difference between dharmas, thus no absolute classification. They are not different or separate, not the same. So there is no absolute basis for discrimination, action or non-action, or any system. No absolute referential. No objective perception. No absolute system or view.)Ø
b. The nature of the great perfection is without fixation (Since there is no absolute referential basis, no elementary dhatus, then there is no dharma at all. Wisdom without fixation is the completeness of being, the nature of the great perfection, the natural state. -- Using both skillful means and emptiness.)
a) The final summary, introductory: (There is no absolute characteristics (all of them are relative, subjective), no absolute difference between dharmas, thus no absolute classification. They are not different or separate, not the same. So there is no absolute basis for discrimination, action or non-action, or any system. No absolute referential. No objective perception. No absolute system or view.)
Here all dharmas are not grasped as different.
These reflections have the nature of non-duality.
This play has no good and evil, accepting or rejecting.
Let us rest where the mind does not fixate duality.
(i.e. There is no absolute characteristics, no absolute classification, no absolute difference between dharmas. They are not different or separate, not the same. So there is no absolute basis for discrimination, action or non-action.)
Since essentially pure such-ness arising as play, is beyond action, seeking, memory, and thought.
As for resting in the non-duality of mahasukha (i.e. non-dual: not one, not two. Not separate or different, not the same.), the All-Creating King says:
Within the unborn, in dharmata completely pure, (i.e. dharmin, the realm of dharmas, and dharmata, their real nature)
The appearance of things that are born rises like a reflection.
Since the nature of what arises is non-dual,
Rest in mahasukha, the effortless nature of such-ness.
b) The nature of the great perfection is without fixation (Since there is no absolute referential basis, no elementary dhatus, then there is no dharma at all. Wisdom without fixation is the completeness of being, the nature of the great perfection, the natural state. -- Using both skillful means and emptiness.)
When one rests there:
Fixed objects
do not arise when there are no reference points.
Insight without fixation
Is the completeness of being,
The nature of the great perfection,
the natural state.
(i.e. There is no absolute characteristics, no absolute classification, no absolute difference between dharmas. They are not different or separate, not the same. So there is no absolute basis for discrimination, action or non-action. -- And no basis for "objects" at all.)
At this time non-fixating insight arises in natural freedom from all assertions and denials. The great perfection is spontaneously present.
The All-Creating King says:
Kye! I, bodhicitta, the king, who am the doer of all, have no glorification and denigration of objects.
I meditate without any thoughts of anything.
Artifacts of the three gates rest naturally as they are,
Naturally liberated, just as they arise.
Just as unborn space transcends all partial divisions,
So the nature of mahasandhi should be known.
I. The dedication of merit
(i.e. The equal nature of all dharmas --> pass the pass of fixations of intellect)
Now there is the dedication of merit:
Thus, because of the equal nature of all dharmas,
Having passed the pass of fixations of intellect.
With limitless awareness bound in servitude,
May our exhausted minds today ease their weariness.
By the merit of presenting this garland of the wondrously arisen Dharma of instantaneous liberation into the essential meaning, may whatever beings there may be, enter into being the space of the great freedom from partiality. The fences of their personal doctrines and their view and meditation do not encounter the nature without bondage and liberation. They are bound in assertion, denial, and so forth, wearied by attachment to true existence. May these rest in spontaneous adherence to the conception-less nature of the great perfection. This the vast space of the doer of all, bodhicitta.
The heaped up clouds in the sky of the unborn essence
Resounding with the thunder of emptiness, effortless such-ness,
By the unmoving nature of mind, the level of enlightenment,
See the inexpressible essence of perfect equality.May the minds of sentient beings, the state of confusion
Which have entered the entrapments of grasping and fixation,
Cross without exception into the nature of purity,
Known as the great vastness, equal space free from existing,
The field of Samantabhadra, where all is eternally perfect.Sailing waters disturbed by conception-related prana,
May all who far from profundity fixate reflected forms,
In the cool lake of non-thought, which is self-arising wisdom
Come to rest in spontaneous motionless clarity.
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE MAMA ARYU PUNI GYANYA PUNDING GURUYE SOHA
White Tara's Long Life Mantra
Wishing Prayer for the Attainment of the Ultimate Mahamudra
Karmapa Rangjung Dorje
Namo Guru
You Lamas, Yidams and Protectors of the power circles,
You victorious Buddhas and your Bodhisattva sons of the ten directions and the three times,
Think lovingly of us and give your blessings
That our wishes may be fulfilled exactly as they are made.Arising from the snow mountain of the perfectly pure thoughts and actions of ourselves and all beings,
May the river of good deeds, unsullied by the concept of a separation into three,
Flow into the ocean of the four Buddha-states.Until that happens, may we, in all lifetimes, from one birth to the next,
Never once hear the sound of pain or suffering,
But instead experience oceans of radiant goodness and joy.Having attained a free and fully endowed birth,
A precious human life with confidence, diligence, and wisdom,
Relying upon a spiritual teacher and receiving his Essential instructions,
May we then practice the precious teachings without hindrance in this and all future lives.Hearing the teachings frees us from the veils of ignorance.
Contemplating the Oral instructions removes the darkness of doubt.
The light arising from meditation makes clear the nature of mind, exactly as it is.
May the light of these three wisdoms increase.May we receive the flawless teachings, the foundation of which are the two truths
Which are free from the extremes of Eternalism and nihilism,
And through the supreme path of the two accumulations, free from the extremes of negation and affirmation,
May we obtain the fruit which is free from the extremes of either,
Dwelling in the conditioned state or in the state of only peace.The basis of purification is the mind itself in its union of clarity and emptiness.
The method of purification is the great Mahamudra Diamond-practice.
What is to be purified are the transitory illusory impurities.
The fruit of the purification is the perfectly pure truth-state.
May this become realized.Overcoming doubts concerning the fundamental teaching gives trust in the view.
Protecting this view without distraction is the essence of meditation.
Correct meditation in itself is best behavior.
May we trust the view, the meditation and the conduct.All phenomena are projections of the mind.
Mind is not a mind; the mind is empty in essence.
Although empty, everything constantly arises in it.
Through the deepest examination of the mind may we find its innermost root.Self-manifestation, which has never existed as such, is erroneously seen as an object.
Through ignorance, self-awareness is mistakenly experienced as an I.
Through attachment to this duality we are caught in the conditioned world.
May the root of confusion be found.It is not existent for even the Buddhas do not see it.
It is not non-existent, being the basis for both samsara and nirvana.
It is not the opposites, nor both, nor something else, but rather their union - the middle way.
May we realize the true nature of mind, which is beyond extremes.It cannot be described by saying, It is.
It cannot be denied by saying it is not.
The incomprehensible absolute reality is not composite.
May we achieve certainty about the correctness of this ultimate meaning.As long as this is not recognized, the wheel of existence turns.
When this is understood, the state of Buddha is nothing other than that.
There is nothing that can be described as either existing or not existing.
May the nature of reality, the true nature of the Buddha mind, be recognized.Appearance is only mind, emptiness is only mind, enlightenment is only mind, and confusion is only one's own mind.
Arising is only mind; disappearance is only mind.
May every doubt and hesitation that concerns the mind be overcome.May we neither be sullied by forced intellectual meditation nor disturbed by the winds of everyday life.
May we skillfully hold onto our practice concerning the nature of mind.May the immovable ocean of meditative peace,
Where the waves of subtle and gross thoughts come to rest through their own power, and
Where the waters of the unmoving mind remain in themselves,
Unspotted by laziness, sleepiness or un-clarity, become stable.If again and again we examine the mind, which cannot be examined,
We see that which cannot be seen, with total clarity, just as it is.
May the faultless mind, freed from all doubts about being and not being, recognize itself.Through the examination of external objects we see the mind, not the objects.
Through the examination of the mind we see its empty essence, but not the mind.
Through the examination of both, attachment to duality disappears by itself.
May the clear light, the true essence of mind, be recognized.Being without intellectual concepts, it is called the Great Sign, or Mahamudra.
Being without extremes, it is called the Great Middle Way, or Madhyamika.
As it embraces everything, it is called the Great Perfection, or Maha-Ati.
May we have the confidence that the experience of one is the experience of the meaning of all.May we constantly and effortlessly experience the never-ending highest joy, which is without attachment,
The clear light that is without categories or veils of obscuration, and
The spontaneous, concept-free state that is beyond intellect.Attachment to pleasant experiences vanishes of its own accord.
Illusory and negative thoughts are in their essence pure, like space.
In that simple state of mind there is nothing that must be given up or developed, avoided or attained.
May the truth of the uncomplicated nature of reality be realized.Although the true nature of beings is always the Buddha essence,
Still we always wander in the ceaseless wheel of life, not understanding that.
May infinite compassion arise for the limitless suffering of all beings.Although this infinite compassion is strong and unceasing,
The truth of its empty nature arises nakedly the very moment it appears.
This union of emptiness and compassion is the highest faultless way.
May we meditate inseparable from it, the whole time, day and night.May we attain the state of Buddha through maturity, realization, and completion,
And develop beings through divine eyes and clear sight arising through the power of meditation.
May we realize the Buddha fields and fulfill the wishing prayer of the perfection of the Buddha qualities.You Buddhas and Bodhisattvas from the ten directions,
Through your compassion and through the power of all the pure and good that exists,
May the pure wishing prayers of ourselves and all beings be fulfilled,
Just as they were made.
Extracted from: "Mahamudra: Boundless Joy and Freedom."
The Mirror Of Essential Points (Dzogchen)
A Letter in Praise of Emptiness From Ven Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorje to his Mother
I pay homage at the lotus feet of Tenpai Nyima, Who is inseparable from Dharma-lord Longchen Rabjam and perceives the natural state of emptiness of the ocean-like infinity of things.
A letter of advice I offer to you, my noble mother Paldzom; Listen for a while without distraction.
Staying here without discomfort, I am at ease and free from worries In a state of joyful mind. Are you well yourself, my dear mother?
Here, in a country to the West, there are many red and white skinned people. They have all kinds of magic and sights, like flying through the skies and moving like fish in the waters. Having mastery over the four elements, they compete in displaying miracles with thousands of beautiful colors.
There is an endless amount of spectacles, like designs of rainbow colors, but like a mere dream, when examined, they are the mistaken perceptions of the mind.
All activities are like the games children play; if done, they can never be finished. They are only completed once you let be, like castles made of sand.
But this not the whole story; all the dharmas of Samsara and Nirvana, though thought to be permanent, they do not last. When examined, they are but empty forms, that appear without existence. Although unreal, they are thought to be real, and when examined, they are unreal like an illusion.
Look outward at the appearing objects, and like the water in a mirage, they are more delusive than delusion. Unreal like dreams and illusions, they resemble reflected moon and rainbows.
Look inward at your own mind! It seems quite exciting, when not examined. But when examined, there is nothing to it. Appearing without being, it is nothing but empty. It cannot be identified saying, "that's it!" But is evanescent and elusive like mist.
Look at whatever may appear In any of the ten directions. No matter how it may appear, the thing in itself, its very nature, is the sky- like nature of mind, beyond the projection and dissolution of thought and concept.
Everything has the nature of being empty. When the empty looks at the empty, who is there to look at something empty? What is the use of many classifications, such as 'being empty' and 'not empty' as it is illusion looking at illusion, and delusion watching delusion?
"The effortless and sky-like nature of the mind, the vast expanse of insight, Is the natural state of all things. In it, whatever you do is all right, however you rest, you are at ease." This was said by Jetsun Padmasambhava and the great siddha Saraha.
All the conceptual designs, such as "it's two!" or "it's not two!" Leave them like the waves on a river, to be spontaneously freed in themselves.
The great demon of ignorant and discursive thought causes one to sink in the ocean of samsara. But when freed from this discursive thought, there is the indescribable state, beyond conceptual mind.
Besides mere discursive thoughts, There is not even the words of 'samsara' and 'nirvana'. The total calming down of discursive thought Is the such-ness of Dharmadhatu.
Not made complex by complex statements, this un-fabricated single bindu is emptiness, the natural state of mind. So it was said by the Sugata.
The essence of whatever may appear, when simply left to itself, Is the un-fabricated and uncorrupted view, the Dharmakaya, emptiness mother.
All discursive thought is emptiness, and the seer of the emptiness is discursive thought. Emptiness does not destroy discursive thought, and discursive thought does not block emptiness.
The fourfold emptiness of the mind itself is the ultimate of everything. Profound and tranquil, free from complexity, uncompounded luminous clarity, beyond the mind of conceptual ideas: This is the depth of the mind of the Victorious Ones.
In this there is not a thing to be removed, nor anything that needs to be added. It is merely the immaculate looking naturally at itself.
In short, when the mind has fully severed the fetters of clinging to something, All the points are condensed therein. This is the tradition of the supreme being Tilopa And of the Great Pandita Naropa.
Such a profound natural state as this, Is among all the kinds of bliss, the wisdom of great bliss. Among all kinds of delight it is the king of supreme delight. It is the supreme fourth empowerment of all the tantric sections of the secret mantras. It is the ultimate pointing out instruction.
The view of 'Samsara and Nirvana Inseparable', and that of Mahamudra, of Dzogchen, the Middle Way and others, have many various titles but only one essential meaning. This is the view of Lama Mipham.
As an aid to this king of views one should begin with Bodhicitta, and conclude with dedication.
In order to cut off through skillful means the fixation on an ego, the root of Samsara, the king of all great methods is the unsurpassable Bodhicitta.
The king of perfect dedication Is the means for increasing the roots of virtue. This is the special teaching of Shakyamuni, which is not found with other teachers.
To accomplish complete enlightenment more than this is not necessary but less than this will be incomplete. This swift path of the three excellences, called the heart, eye and life force, is the approach of Longchen Rabjam.
Emptiness, the wish- fulfilling jewel, Is unattached generosity. It is uncorrupted discipline. It is anger-less patience. It is un-deluded exertion. It is undistracted meditation. It is the essence of prajña. It is the meaning in the three yanas.
Emptiness is the natural state of mind. Emptiness is the non-conceptual refuge. Emptiness is the Absolute Bodhicitta. Emptiness is the Vajrasattva of absolving evils. Emptiness is the Mandala of perfect accumulations. Emptiness is the Guru Yoga of Dharmakaya.
To abide in the natural state of emptiness Is the 'calm abiding' of shamatha, And to perceive it vividly clear is the 'clear seeing' of vipasyana.
The view of the perfect Development Stage, The wisdom of bliss and emptiness in the Completion Stage, The non-dual Great Perfection, And the single bindu of Dharmakaya, all these are included within it.
Emptiness purifies the karmas. Emptiness dispels the obstructing forces. Emptiness tames the demons. Emptiness accomplishes the deities.
The profound state of emptiness dries up the ocean of passion. It crumples the mountain of anger. It illuminates the darkness of stupidity. It calms down the gale of jealousy. It defeats the illness of the kleshas. It is a friend in sorrow. It destroys conceit in joy. It conquers in the battle with Samsara. It annihilates the four Maras. It turns the eight worldly dharmas into same taste. It subdues the demon of ego- fixation. It turns negative conditions into aids. It turns bad omens into good luck. It causes to manifest complete enlightenment. It gives birth to the Buddhas of the three times. Emptiness is the Dharmakaya mother.
There is no teaching higher than emptiness. There is no teaching swifter than emptiness. There is no teaching more excellent than emptiness. There is no teaching more profound than emptiness.
Emptiness is the 'knowing of one that frees all.' Emptiness is the supreme king of medicines. Emptiness is the nectar of immortality. Emptiness is spontaneous accomplishment beyond effort. Emptiness is enlightenment without exertion.
By meditating emptiness One feels tremendous compassion towards the beings obscured, like ourselves, by the belief in a self, and Bodhicitta arises without effort.
All qualities of the path and Bhumis will appear naturally without any effort, and one will feel a heartfelt conviction regarding the law of the infallible effect of actions.
If one has but one moment of certainty In this kind of emptiness, the tight chain of ego-clinging will shatter into pieces. This was said by Aryadeva.
More supreme than offering to the Sugatas and their sons all the infinite Buddha fields filled with the offering of gods and men; Is to meditate on emptiness.
If the merit of resting evenly just for an instant in this natural state would take on concrete form, space could not contain it.
The peerless Lord of the sages, Shakyamuni, for the sake of this profound emptiness, threw his body into pyres of fire, gave away his head and limbs, and performed hundreds of other austerities.
Although you fill the world with huge mounds of presents of gold and jewels, this profound teaching on emptiness, even when searched for, is hard to find. This is said in the Hundred Thousand Verses of Prajna Paramita.
To meet this supreme teaching is the splendid power of merit of many aeons beyond count.
In short, by means of emptiness, one is, for the benefit of oneself, liberated into the expanse of the unborn Dharmakaya, the manifest complete enlightenment of the four Kayas and the five Wisdoms. The unobstructed display of the Rupakaya will then ceaselessly arise to teach whoever is in need, by stirring the depths of Samsara for the benefit of others through constant, all- pervading spontaneous activity. In all the Sutras and Tantras this is said to be the ultimate fruition.
How can someone like me put into words all the benefits and virtues hereof, when the Victorious One with his vajra tongue cannot exhaust them, even if he speaks for an aeon?
The glorious Lord, the supreme teacher, who gives the teachings on emptiness, appears in the form of a human being, but his mind is truly a Buddha.
Without deceit and hypocrisy supplicate him from your very heart, And without needing any other expedient, you will attain enlightenment in this very life. This is the manner of the All- Embodying Jewel, which is taught in the Tantras of the Great Perfection. When you have this jewel in the palm of your hand, do not let it meaninglessly go to waste.
Learning, like the stars in the sky, will never come to an end through studies. What is the use of all the various kinds of the many teachings requested and received? What is the use of any practice, which is higher than emptiness?
Do not aim at having many ascetic costumes, such as carrying a staff and wearing braids and animal skins. Leaving the elephant back in your house, do not go searching for its footprints in the mountains.
Mother, meditate the essence of the mind, as it is taught by the guru, the Vajra Holder, and you will have the essence of the essence of all the eighty- four thousand teachings. It is the heart nectar of a billion Learned and accomplished ones. It is the ultimate practice.
This advice from the core of the heart of the fallen monk Jamyang Dorje, is the purest of the pure essence from the bindu of my life blood. Therefore keep it in your heart, mother. These few words of heart advice were written in a beautiful countryside, the city of the spacious blue sky, rivaling the splendor of divine realms.
To the devoted Chokyi Nodzom, my dear and loving mother, and to my own devoted students, I offer this letter of advice.
This letter to my students was composed by one who goes by the name 'Khenpo', the Tibetan Jamyang Dorje, in the Dordogne Herbal Valley of Great Bliss, in the country of France beyond the great ocean in the western direction.
May virtue and auspiciousness ensue!
(This was put into English, with the help of Khenpo Rinpoche, by Erik and Lodro.
Perigueux Retreat 1983)
Dzogchen Practice in Everyday Life
by HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
The everyday practice of Dzogchen is simply to develop a complete carefree acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit.
We should realize openness as the playground of our emotions and relate to people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy.
We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into ourselves as a marmot hides in its hole. This practice releases tremendous energy, which is usually constricted by the process of maintaining fixed reference points. Referentially is the process by which we retreat from the direct experience of everyday life.
Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by welcoming the sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut through the barriers created by habitual emotional patterns.
When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should develop the feeling of opening ourselves out completely to the entire universe. We should open ourselves with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind. This is the powerful and ordinary practice of dropping the mask of self-protection.
We shouldn't make a division in our meditation between perception and field of perception. We shouldn't become like a cat watching a mouse. We should realize that the purpose of meditation is not to go "deeply into ourselves" or withdraw from the world. Practice should be free and non-conceptual, unconstrained by introspection and concentration.
Vast un-originated self-luminous wisdom space is the ground of being - the beginning and the end of confusion. The presence of awareness in the primordial state has no bias toward enlightenment or non-enlightenment. This ground of being which is known as pure or original mind is the source from which all phenomena arise. It is known as the great mother, as the womb of potentiality in which all things arise and dissolve in natural self-perfected-ness and absolute spontaneity.
All aspects of phenomena are completely clear and lucid. The whole universe is open and unobstructed - everything is mutually interpenetrating.
Seeing all things as naked, clear and free from obscurations, there is nothing to attain or realize. The nature of phenomena appears naturally and is naturally present in time-transcending awareness. Everything is naturally perfect just as it is. All phenomena appear in their uniqueness as part of the continually changing pattern. These patterns are vibrant with meaning and significance at every moment; yet there is no significance to attach to such meanings beyond the moment in which they present themselves.
This is the dance of the five elements in which matter is a symbol of energy and energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a symbol of our own enlightenment. With no effort or practice whatsoever, liberation or enlightenment is already here.
The everyday practice of Dzogchen is just everyday life itself. Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to reach some "amazing goal" or "advanced state."
To strive for such a state is a neurosis, which only conditions us and serves to obstruct the free flow of Mind. We should also avoid thinking of ourselves as worthless persons - we are naturally free and unconditioned. We are intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing.
When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural as eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialized or formal event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity. We should realize that meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and the duality of liberation and non-liberation. Meditation is always ideal; there is no need to correct anything. Since everything that arises is simply the play of mind as such, there is no unsatisfactory meditation and no need to judge thoughts as good or bad.
Therefore we should simply sit. Simply stay in your own place, in your own condition just as it is. Forgetting self-conscious feelings, we do not have to think "I am meditating." Our practice should be without effort, without strain, without attempts to control or force and without trying to become "peaceful."
If we find that we are disturbing ourselves in any of these ways, we stop meditating and simply rest or relax for a while. Then we resume our meditation. If we have "interesting experiences" either during or after meditation, we should avoid making anything special of them. To spend time thinking about experiences is simply a distraction and an attempt to become unnatural. These experiences are simply signs of practice and should be regarded as transient events. We should not attempt to re-experience them because to do so only serves to distort the natural spontaneity of mind.
All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and entirely free from all concepts of past, present and future. They are experienced in timelessness.
The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and inspiration, which arises at every moment, is the manifestation of our clarity. We should learn to see everyday life as mandala - the luminous fringes of experience which radiate spontaneously from the empty nature of our being. The aspects of our mandala are the day-to-day objects of our life experience moving in the dance or play of the universe. By this symbolism the inner teacher reveals the profound and ultimate significance of being. Therefore we should be natural and spontaneous, accepting and learning from everything. This enables us to see the ironic and amusing side of events that usually irritate us.
In meditation we can see through the illusion of past, present and future - our experience becomes the continuity of now-ness. The past is only an unreliable memory held in the present. The future is only a projection of our present conceptions. The present itself vanishes as soon as we try to grasp it. So why bother with attempting to establish an illusion of solid ground?
We should free ourselves from our past memories and preconceptions of meditation. Each moment of meditation is completely unique and full of potentiality. In such moments, we will be incapable of judging our meditation in terms of past experience, dry theory or hollow rhetoric.
Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now, with our whole being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, is enlightenment.
·
All dharmas are equal in being non-produced, without essence, empty but still appearing. Beyond the four extremes of existence, non-existence, both, neither. All views are flawed. No absolute, only adapted skillful means. No basis for discrimination, actions, objects. No basis for fears, or hope in things.