If it is asked on what these goodnesses depend, and from what they are produced, the real goodness in accord with liberation, the true path, is accumulated as a cause of separation [from defilement]. Therefore, it depends on the alaya of the various habitual patterns. The fruition of separation attained by this cause of separation depends on the gotra or the essence. The essence is therefore the true cause of changeless liberation. That is the main point:
The gotra is the support of the goodness of liberation.This is taught as it is in the final Word of the true meaning sutras, the great teachings of all the buddhas. These are:
In having this we have the luminous nature of mind.
Spotless dharmadhatu is the naturally present gotra.
In its apparent aspect this is the two rupakayas.
These are described by the Uttaratantra's nine examples.
This nature of compassion exists eternally.
The Sugata has said that this is the 'growable' gotra:
Its root is the luminosity of insight-wisdom.
Its essence is [basic] goodness, that does not have the three poisons.
The Sutra of the Questions of King Dharantsvara,These sutras say that within all sentient beings is primordially existing dharmadhatu, the naturally pure space which is the nature of mind. This is tathagatagarbha. It exists primordially. It is changeless. Its apparent aspect is rupakaya, the source of the major and minor marks. Its aspect of emptiness is dharmakaya, primordially and spontaneously present, free from all the extremes of complexity.
The Glorious Mala of the Lion's Roar Sutra,
The Sutra Requested by the Girl Precious One,
The Sutra Requested by the Goddess Immaculate One,
The Sutra of the Dwarf Angulamala,
The Noble Complete Great Nirvana Sutra,
The Sutra requested by Maitreya,
The Tathagatagarbha Sutra, and
The Sutra of the Wheel Curing Sickness.
Its qualities, in their spontaneous presence are exemplified by a jewel; in their changelessness, by space; In moistening and pervading all sentient beings, it is exemplified by pure water. The Uttaratantra says:
Like a jewel, space, or pure water;Even at the very time it is obscured by defilements, its essence is undefiled suchness. The nature of mind is primordial luminosity. The Gyu Tongpa says:
Its nature has never had kleshas.
Mind is not mind. The nature of mind is luminosity.That is the dhatu of buddhahood, the gotra or enlightened family which all sentient beings possess. The Uttaratantra says:
Because the perfect buddha kaya radiates,This should be known to be the good dhatu of the Dharma. It is fundamentally enlightened from the beginning. The Expressor of Marks says:
Because of suchness being inseparable,
And because of possessing the dhatu every sentient being
Always possesses the very essence of buddhahood.
Buddhahood is without beginning and end.The Two Examinations says:
The primordial buddha is without any bias.
Sentient beings are buddhas, in actuality,Even at the time of being a sentient being, the nature of mind has the apparent buddha qualities of rupakaya and the buddha qualities of the emptiness aspect as dharmakaya; but they are obscured by unremoved defilements. This is called the dhatu or enlightened family.
But obscured by incidental obscurations.
When these are cleared away, then they are buddhas.
At the time of buddhahood mind is free from all defilements is called enlightenment. This difference is merely the appearance or non-appearance of the perfected power of the nature, mind itself. It is not maintained that first, at the time of being a sentient being, the qualities are non-existent, and later they are newly produced. This is because they are changeless. The Sutra of the Supreme Appearance of the Essence says:
The dhatu has no temporal beginning.The luminous nature of mind is not obscured by the kleshas. The Uttaratantra says:
It exists as the true state of all dharmas.
Since it exists, all beings have reached nirvana.
As it was before, it will be later.
So it is in the changeless state of suchness.
The nature of the mind is luminosity.The divisions are the primordial gotra and the removable gotra, whose arising depends on clearing away incidental defilements. As for their beginningless existence as dharmin and dharmata, the Nirvana Sutra says:
It is just as changeless as the space of the sky.
By the rising of false conceptions, desire and so forth obscure it,
But its nature is not obscured by incidental defilements.
O son of noble family, the nature of mind is naturally luminous and naturally essenceless. The way naturally pure mind appears is by participating in buddha qualities that blaze with the major and minor marks, and not being separate from them. Nevertheless its empty and apparent natures are distinguished.The established gotra, superimposed on the primordial gotra, is the incidental upaya and prajña of the four paths of learning. It is produced by mind and so forth. Purification occurs through the activities of the two accumulations of merit and wisdom. The Gandavyuha Sutra says:
Kye, sons of the Victorious One! This which is called the gotra of enlightenment is genuine dharmadhatu. It is vast like the sky. When its naturally luminous nature has been seen, training in accord with the great accumulations of merit and wisdom is purified.The Uttaratantra says:
Like the buried treasure and the fruitSvabhavikakaya is mind itself, the naturally existing gotra. This is like a naturally existing jewel. From within it comes the gotra with the nature of the dharmin. Here there are the universal monarch of sambhogakaya, and its reflected emanation, arising in dependence on it, nirmanakaya, the supreme emanation for those who are to be tamed. At the time of existing as a sentient being, these do not appear, because defilement obscures them.
The two aspects of the gotra should be known
They are the beginningless natural presence
And supremacy that truly is received.
As is taught, arising from these two gotras,
The trikaya of the Buddha is attained.
By the first arises the first of the kayas,
By the second rise the subsequent two.
All the splendor of svabhavikakaya,
Like the precious statue of the Buddha.
Is self-arising and therefore unproduced.
It is a mine of precious qualities.
Because of its great dominion over the dharmin
It is fully expressed, like a universal monarch.
Its phenomenal nature is like a reflection,
With emanation-bodies like forms of gold.
By accumulating merit through visualization and so forth, defilements that obscure rupakaya are cleared away. By the accumulation of wisdom through emptiness meditation and so forth, obscurations are cleared away from the dharmata-svabhavikakaya, the body of the self-existing-essence, the nature of dharmas.
The support, the naturally existing gotra, is like clear water. Within it the supported, the established gotra, rises like a variety of reflections. The two exist primordially, like reflector and reflection.
Within the gotra that exists as the ground, the incidentally established gotra exists as the phenomena of knowing mind, as knowable objects. These are respectively support and supported.
The dharmin exists separably with dharmata, the naturally existing gotra. As a separable fruition, it is non-existent. The produced gotra is an antidote to purify defilements. Though the two kayas exist as if they were produced effect and producing cause, there is no actual causation. That gotra makes the perfect buddha qualities be born as the realization of the paths of learning. This is their liberation or ripening as the level of buddhahood. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
The nature and the vast extent of its blossoming;Sugatagarbha pervades all sentient beings. By the nine examples it is taught to exist within the covering of the kleshas. The Uttaratantra says:
That these exist as support and what is supported;
Their existence and non-existence; their buddha qualities
Are what should be known as the meaning of liberation.
A buddha in a decaying lotus, bees and honey.These nine examples are related to the obscured dhatu as it exists in ordinary individuals, arhats among the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas dwelling on the paths of seeing and meditation. Ordinary people are those who have not entered into the path; or those who have entered but with their being obscured by the assembly of the four obscurations, passion, aggression, ignorance, and all of these together. From the four examples of the dhatu within them, first, as for the example of how the essence exists when obscured by propensities of desire, the Uttaratantra says:
Gold within a covering of an unclean nature.
Treasure in the earth, the germ within a fruit,
An image of the Buddha covered up with rags.
A king within the belly of a poor and ugly woman.
Jewels in the earth, within such forms as these,
Obscured by incidental defilements of the kleshas,
This dhatu so exists inside of sentient beings.
Existing in a lotus that is evil-colored,Second, the example of the dhatu existing in a covering characterized by propensities of aggression:
A Tathagata-statue, blazing with a thousand marks,
Having once been seen with the undefiled eye of the gods,
The statue would be removed from its mud-born lotus cover.
For tathagatas dwelling in places without torment
Their intrinsic buddha eye sees what will later be unobscured.
Their intrinsic endless compassion will free it from obscuration.
Like honey that is surrounded by a swarm of bees,Third, the example of the dhatu existing in a covering characterized by propensities of stupidity:
Capable persons have a wish that they could acquire it.
Having seen it is there, by using skillful means,
They completely free it from the swarm of insects,
By the all-knowing eye of the great Sage himself
Having seen that the honey of the dhatu or gotra,
Has obscurations that are like the swarm of bees,
He makes them be completely abandoned and disappear.
Just as kernels of grain still covered by their husksFourth, the example of the essence existing in a covering manifesting kleshas characterized by the arising of passion, aggression and stupidity all together:
Are not usable in that form by human beings,
And they remove the grain from out of the covering husk.
Using the part they want for food and otherwise
Just so, mixed with defiling kleshas of sentient beings,
As many victorious ones as there are in the three-fold world,
If they are not liberated from being mixed with kleshas,
So many will not be made into victorious ones.
Just as on a journey someone's treasured goldAs for the example of the dhatu existing in a covering of habitual patterns of ignorance, in the arhats of the shravakas and pratyekabuddhas:
In the confusion might fall into a filthy place,
That dharmin by falling there, would not have been destroyed,
Remaining there like that for many hundreds of years.
By a god who had the pure eye of the gods,
If the gold existing there was seen and found
People would say the god established that precious thing,
This supremely precious thing, that actually was abandoned,
So the buddha qualities of sentient beings.
Have sunk and disappeared among the filth-like kleshas.
When that was seen by the Sage, to purify them of filth,
For all beings he caused the Dharma to arise.
Just as in the house of a poor man, under the floor,If the covering is abandoned when seen, here is the first of the two examples of what the essence is like:
An inexhaustible treasure might be lying buried;
But he would not know about the existence of the treasure,
Nor would the treasure say to him that it was there;
So with the precious treasure that is within the mind,
Spotless dharmata, with no adding or taking away,
When it is not realized, we experience
The impoverishment of suffering, continuously arising.
Just as in a mango or in other fruitsAs for the second example:
There are undestroyed dharmas of seed and germination,
And then if there is plowed earth, as well as water and such,
The stuff of a king of trees will gradually be established.
So in the fruit of the ignorance of sentient beings,
Within the covering skin is the excellent dharma-element
Which similarly depending on the condition of goodness
Will gradually become the stuff of a King of Sages.
As a precious statue of the Victorious OneFrom the two examples of how, within the covering of defilements to be abandoned by cultivation, there exists the splendor of the good dhatu of dharmas, as for the first:
Might be covered up in dirty tattered rags,
But still a divine one on the path might see and reveal it,
And then it would be said, 'He really dwells on the path.'
So the sugata nature, wrapped in beginningless kleshas,
Having once been seen, even within an animal,
There would be a real means by which it could be freed.
Just as an ugly woman with no one to protect herAs for the second example:
Staying in a shelter for the poor and homeless
Might hold a splendid king in the confines her womb,
But would not know this lord of men was in her belly.
In the refuge mission of life within this world,
Defiled sentient beings are like that pregnant woman.
With no more than she has, she will one day have her protector.
Gestation of the spotless dhatu is similar.
Just as gold ore that has a big nugget inside of itThough the obscurations to the pure ground are many, the same text says:
Has a external nature that is very drab,
But, having seen it, those who know it for what it is,
In order to purify the gold that is inside,
Undertake to remove the outer covering.
Having seen the luminous nature that is within us,
Although it has been covered up by the incidental;
The source of seeing what is precious in sentient beings
Removes the obscurations of supreme enlightenment.
Passion, aggression, and ignorance; active or as an imprint;Joining these examples of defilements and the essence to a determination of their meaning, the same text says:
What is to be abandoned by seeing and meditation;
The higher bhumis respectively impure and pure,
Many defilements are taught by the covering lotus and so forth.
Transcending all the divisions of closely-connecting kleshas,
By these defilements fools and those with the learning of arhats,
Are meant by respectively four and one of these examples.
Seeing and cultivation, and the pure and impure levels
Have two and two comparisons to their impurities.
Just as when a lotus arises from the mud,The Enumeration of Dharmas of the Complete Passing Beyond Suffering of the Noble Ones says:
When it first manifests, the mind is very joyful,
But afterward it decays and there is no more joy;
The joy arising from desire is like that.
Just as delicious honey is completely crawling
With irritated bees that sting like an army of spears;
Just so, if aggression rises, and swarms within our minds
Suffering will be produced within our hearts.
Just as the essence, the kernels of rice and other grain,
Is hidden by an external husk which covers it,
So sight of the essential meaning, buddhahood,
Has been obscured within the shell of ignorance.
Just as filth is something that is unsuitable,
So are those who have desire for these poisons.
That is because depending on the cause of their desire,
What is like filth will be arising everywhere.
Just as when wealth is hidden underneath the ground,
One who does not know this will not attain the treasure,
So the self-arising treasure of the nature
Is hidden in the ground of habitual patterns of ignorance.
Just as by gradual growing of the sprout and so forth
The shell of the seed is sundered, and it falls away,
So by seeing the suchness of the natural state
What is to be abandoned by seeing is reversed.
Those who conquer the essence of transitory collections
Through being connected to the path of the noble ones,
Make wisdom the thing to abandon on the path of meditation.
This is taught to be like being wrapped in rags.
The defilements supported by the first seven bhumis,
Are like the defilement found in the covering of a womb.
Non-thought is like being free of the covering of the womb,
This completes the ripening of the insight of wisdom.
Defilements associated with the three highest bhumis
Should be known to like a covering of mud and clay.
By a great being's having attained the vajra view,
The vajra-like samadhi destroys that covering.
Thus the many defilements of desire and so forth
Are like the examples of a decaying lotus and so forth.
Then the Bhagavan spoke to Kashyapa. O son of noble family, it is, for example, like this. A wealthy king had on his forehead a vajra jewel. With other wealthy ones, radiating power, it touched the heads of those other wealthy ones.This has been taught in many ways. The Hevajra says:
Then the jewel on the forehead sunk inside his flesh, and he did not know where it had gone. Because a wound arose, he asked a doctor, 'Cure me.' From this instruction, a very capable doctor would not treat him for that wound of the jewel going into his flesh, saying these words, 'Kye most powerful one, why are you asking about your forehead-jewel?'
That wealthy one, from aversion, would say to the doctor, 'Because my forehead jewel should not go anywhere.' He would think, 'Is it an illusion that it is not there?' This would produce much suffering.
Then that doctor producing joy in that wealthy one would say, 'Do not produce suffering like that. If you emanate power, the jewel will sink into your flesh, and a mere reflection will appear externally. If you emanate power, hatred will arise. Though the power of the jewel has sunk into your flesh, you did not feel it.'
Not believing these words that were said, the king would say, 'Doctor don't lie. If it sinks into my flesh, which is matter and blood that is very opaque, it is not reasonable that a reflection would appear.'
Then the doctor would say, 'A mirror is likewise opaque, but a jewel will also clearly appear in that. When you have seen that this is like that, a wondrous, marvelous perception will arise.'
O son of noble family, all sentient beings are like that. Since they do not venerate the spiritual friend, though they have the buddha nature they cannot see it. It is obscured by passion, aggression, and ignorance. Many different beings who have so been overcome are within samsara and suffering.
From that nature, O son of noble family, from within the bodies of all sentient beings come the ten powers, the thirty-two major marks, and the eighty excellent minor marks.
Within the body there exists the great wisdomThe Precious Mala says:
The truth of this has abandoned all conceptions.
Universal, it pervades all things.
Embodied existence does not arise from the body.
I and limitless sentient beings are primordial buddhas.The Wisdom of the Moment of Death says:
By the power of discursive thoughts there is samsara.
From that I shall produce the supreme mind of enlightenment.
Whoever realizes mind is a buddha. Produce the supreme perception by not searching anywhere else.The Praise of the Vajra of Mind says:
Water that exists within the earthThe Secret Essence says:
Exists there pure without defilement.
Just so, within the covering of the kleshas,
Wisdom exists without defilement.
Throughout the ten directions and four times,So it is taught, there and elsewhere. In brief, by the example of the great billion-fold expanse of the three-fold thousand worlds it should be known that within all sentient beings primordially exists the kayas and wisdoms of buddhahood, without adding and subtracting, like the sun and its light. That dhatu is always naturally pure. Its self-nature never changes. Its defilements are false conceptions and mere temporary changes. The commentary on the Uttaratantra says:
Perfected buddhas are nowhere to be found.
Except for the perfect buddha, the nature of mind,
Do not look for any other buddha.
The victorious ones themselves, if they should search,
Would never find it anywhere else at all.
O great rishi, The kleshas are darkness. Complete purity is light. The kleshas are weak. Clear seeing is strong. The kleshas are temporary. Natural purity is the root.So it is taught there and elsewhere. Since the dhatu is primordially without defilement, it is pure. Since it is changeless, it is the true self. Since it always exists, it is permanent. Though it falls into the sufferings of samsara, it is not overcome by them, and so it is the perfection of bliss. The Uttaratantra says:
Purity, self-nature, bliss, and permanenceThe dhatu of the tathagata pervades all sentient beings.. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
Are the perfect qualities of the fruition.
Just as space is maintained as eternal and omnipresent,When this essence is obscured by clouds, they do not stain it, any more than the sun when is stained when it is obscured by clouds. At the time of primordial buddhahood, the dhatu exists indestructibly and inseparably. The commentary to the Uttaratantra says:
This too is maintained to be eternal and omnipresent.
Just as space is an aspect found within all forms,
This too is in all the assembly of sentient beings.
The dhatu of the Tathagata existing in the three occasions is present within all beings. All their kleshas and phenomenal appearances are composed of this changeless reality.As regards the three occasions, the Uttaratantra says:
These are the three-fold stages of impurity,The impure situation is that of sentient beings. That which is both pure and impure is that of bodhisattvas. Complete purity is the situation of the buddhas. As nothing is like the gotra, it cannot be exemplified by anything at all. The same text says:
Both pure and impure, and being completely pure.
They are said to be the stage of sentient beings,
That of bodhisattvas, and that of tathagatas.
Since it is completely beyond the worldAs to how it is incomparable, it is essentially single. Therefore, to explain it by many examples from different situations would be merely partial characterization of it.
No example is seen within the world.
Therefore the Tathagata and the dhatu
Are taught to be similar in this respect.
It may be asked, 'How can this gotra be seen as it is?' Beings who do not see the natural state are accepted by the spiritual friend. Those who have devotion to the vehicles of the shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas; and also beings dwelling on the bhumis realize it in a single way. This realization is one with that of the bodhisattvas dwelling on the tenth bhumi. As for this being the way it really is, it is not seen otherwise even by the buddhas themselves. The commentary to the Uttaratantra says:
Seeing clouds and the sun, whether from here on the earth or from the sky above the clouds, we have a similar apprehension. The noble ones whose eye of the mind is pure also see all this very clearly. Bhagavan, your completely pure understanding of dharmakaya sees all the limitless knowable objects pervading the space of the sky.The dhatu or essence is the buddha field of the three kayas of one's own mind itself, along with their wisdoms, existing as the circle of the ornament. How is this seen? Since this is buddhahood, it is properly explained in these texts. By having faith in the paths of learning it is entirely apprehended. The former text says:
The absolute truth of the self-arisen onesThe Sutra on the Essence of Buddhahood says:
Has to be realized by means of faith.
The blazing light in the circle of the sun
Is not seen by those who have no eyes.
No matter what they rely on, individual sentient beings, shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas do not see the essence of the buddhas as it is. For example, as a blind man cannot see what is painted by others in oil colors. When they say, 'It is like this pillar,' he touches the pillar with his hands and grasps it as cold. They say, 'It is like the wings of a swan.' By hearing the sound of the wings of a swan the color of a pillar is grasped as a fluttering sound. He asks, 'What is the color of those wings like?' 'It is like a conch.' By touching a smooth conch, he grasps it as smooth. Just as a blind person does not know colors as they are, seeing the highest nature of buddhahood is very difficult.It is also very hard for sentient beings to realize it. The same text says:
A king assembled many blind men, and having shown them an elephant. Asked to describe the characteristics of an elephant, those who had touched the trunk said, 'it is like a hook.' Those who touched the eye said, 'It is like a bowl. Those who touched the ear said, 'It is like a winnowing basket. Those who touched the back said, 'It is like a tray. Those who touched the tail said, 'It is like a rope.' These blind men were not talking about anything other than an elephant, but they had not understood its totality.Beings who are noble ones have a little realization of it, but not as it is. The Nirvana Sutra says:
The buddha nature is also like that. Those who have said different things, that it is emptiness, like illusion, luminous and so forth, have not realized its totality.
O son of noble family For example, it is like this. A blind man in order to have his eyes healed went to a capable physician. The physician holding a gold knife removed the hindrance. Having cut off the cataract that obscured the eye. He lifted up a finger. When he showed it, the blind man said, 'I do not see it.' If he showed two or three fingers, the patient would say, 'I see a little bit.'If it is asked, 'What is the use of teaching this essence that is subtle and difficult to examine, and that is not seen with certainty while we are sentient beings?'
O son of noble family, if this Sutra of Complete great Nirvana is not taught, as many are not among the bodhisattvas, even after they have perfected the ten paramitas, even when they exist on the tenth bhumi, they will not see the nature of buddhahood. It is like that. When this is taught by the Tathagata, they will see it a little.
The birds soaring in the sky above must examine where the pure sky is. If a swan is in the top of a tree it examines whether it is a tree or water, and thinking about the top of a ship on the ocean, or in space, also knows the top of the second. Though by such examples the essence is not seen, it is taught to be the manner of non-ascertaining seeing.
By teaching that the essence of buddhahood exists within the being of oneself and others, having reversed our discouragement, knowing that establishing liberation is not difficult, we gain confidence. Eliminating contempt for other sentient beings, we respect everyone equally with the teacher as buddhas. Having eliminated not knowing that realization of the kayas and wisdoms exists within one as true reality, prajña realizes the space of the absolute. Knowing the natural state like that, it eliminates glorifications and deprecations of is and is not, eternalism and nihilism. Then wisdom realizes true reality, and the supreme self. Having eliminated pride and desire for anything more, it sees self and other as equal. It is taught that these are the five necessities for the arising of the great kindness for others. The Uttaratantra says:
Like clouds, dreams, and illusions, and the other examplesTo answer that question:
All the dharmas of knowables are always emptiness.
When this has been taught by victorious ones to sentient beings
Why do they also teach them that they have the essence?
Contempt for lesser ones and disenheartened beings,As for those who wrongly slight the body, those enslaved by the golden net of wrong view, or those who support realization of the true meaning of the sutras and secret mantra with partialities, their 'essential meanings' are really provisional. The intention is taught that, 'If the cause occurs, the fruition will arise.'
Joining those who grasp untruth to the truth of Dharma,
For those who have abundant faults of ego-grasping
It is taught so that those like that will abandon them.
It is not like that. That is like the eternal self of the Hindu extremists. 'The two kayas of buddhahood arise from the two accumulations. This should be stated as definitely true.'
O you with your lotus net of eternalism, you truly do not know the intention of saying that there were three turnings to the wheel of Dharma. You are truly grasping the extreme of emptiness.
The first turning of the word, intended for beginners and those of weak mind, made the four noble truths and renunciation into an antidote. This was so that these beings could eliminate samsara, as a means of complete liberation from what is to be abandoned.
In the second turning, intended for them eventually when they had completely abandoned this and for those of intermediate capacity of mind, he taught the eight examples of illusion and emptiness like space. This was a means of liberating them from the bondage of grasping the antidote.
For those who reached that goal and from the viewpoint of those of the highest powers, he taught the self-nature of knowables as it really is. This is not like the self of the heretics. Their impossible self is a nonexistent, exaggerated nature. They make measures of greater and lesser, and therefore they do not maintain the dharmas of the kayas and wisdoms.
The true meaning is not that self and non-emptiness were taught simply as an antidote for you who are attached to egolessness and emptiness. The Nirvana Sutra says:
O son of noble family, moreover it is like this. For example a woman was nursing her small child who was afflicted by mouth rot, and when the child was struck by sickness, that woman too was tormented by suffering, and sought out a physician. The physician gave her as medicine, oil and milk and shakara. When the child was given this to drink, he instructed the woman with these words. 'Because we are giving medicine to this child, for a little while until you, the mother, are cured, it shouldn't be given your milk to drink.' So he would instruct her.Emptiness expresses the idea that the apparent dharmin, from the time it appears, is empty of complexities grasped as one and many, and empty of individual existences, like the reflections in a mirror, that all extremes are completely non-existent, and that non-existent now and primordially, things are not like their confused appearance. The Heart Sutra says:
Then so that it would not nurse, he put bile on the nipples. The child would have said that her nipple was smeared with poison and not suitable for sucking. The child, tormented by thirst, desired the breast, but having tasted it, would not take it.
After being treated by the physician the woman would wash her breast clean. When the child cried, she would go to it. 'Now take the breast and nurse,' she would say. That child, though tormented with thirst, because of the former taste it experienced, would not come when called.
In this instance the mother would give these instructions. 'You have drunk the medicine I gave you before. With this medicine, until the mother is cured, since it is not proper that the nipple be given for nursing, it was smeared with bile. Now, even taking your medicine, the nipple will have no taste in your mouth.' When she said that, gradually approaching as before, the child would drink.
Son of noble family, The Tathagata also, in order to liberate all sentient beings, is the persistent teacher of egolessness to sentient beings. By his having persistently done that, the attitude of 'ego' is non-existent. Suffering is completely eliminated. This is in order to clear away the bad views of the worldly charvakas. By meditating on the dharma of egolessness, the body will become completely pure.
Just as that woman, because of her son, smeared bile on her breast, the Tathagata too is like that. So that there will be emptiness meditation, he teaches that all dharmas are selfless.
Just as that woman later washed off the bile and called her child, saying take the nipple and nurse, my teaching tathagatagarbha is like that. O monks so that you will not be afraid, as the mother called the child, and it gradually drank her milk, O monks, you too should make a distinction. Tathagatagarbha should not be said to be non-existent. In my former sayings in the Prajñaparamita Sutras, which taught emptiness, understand that the intention was merely naturelessness. Otherwise by meditating on the emptiness of nothing at all, the fruition produced would accord with the cause, and the kayas and wisdoms would not arise.
Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Emptiness is nothing other than form. From is nothing other than emptiness. Similarly, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are empty.The Middle Length Prajñaparamita says:
Every dharmin in its own turn is taught to be empty of essence. But if it is also formless, how will there be the view that form is empty?The Uttaratantra says:
The emptiness that has the supreme of all aspectsAnd also:
Is emptiness that is expressed as form.
Here there is nothing at all that is to be cleared away,Its commentary says:
And nothing that is to be added to what there is.
Within reality the real is what is seen.
If thus we see the truth, we will be liberated.
Of what has the characteristic of separability
The dhatu, pure of the incidental, is empty.
Of that which has the characteristic of being inseparable,
The unsurpassable dharmas, the dhatu is not empty.
Why is this taught here? For the reason that it is not contradictory with saying that this dhatu of the Tathagata is by nature completely pure from all the kleshas that are to be cleared away. It is free from incidental obscurations because it is its nature to be so. Within this there is nothing to be added for reasons of phenomenal appearance. Completely undivided dharmata is also its nature. Therefore, sugatagarbha, which has divisions and what is separable, is empty of all the separable coverings of the kleshas. What is indivisible and inseparable from it is the buddha dharmas beyond being encompassed by thought, surpassing the grains of sand in the Ganges. They are not empty.Though obscurations of the two primordial kayas of buddhahood, are cleared away by the two accumulations, they are not producing cause and produced effect. If they were, dharmakaya and sambhogakaya would be composite productions, and hence impermanent. However, dharmakaya is changeless. The Madhyamakavatara says:
When something does not exist in something else, the latter is said to be empty of the former, but we must subsequently assert that whatever remains there eternally exists and is known truly as it is.
The kaya of peace is like a wish fulfilling tree,The Uttaratantra says:
Like a wish-fulfilling, gem it is inconceivable.
Till beings are liberated, it is always in the world,
And it will appear without complexity.
The Mara of Death has been conquered by the Lord of Dharma.Contradicting this idea that it has cause and effect it also says:
Being without essence, he is the permanent lord of the world.
Uncompounded and self-existing,That refutes its having a producing cause and produced effect. Saying it is 'egoless,' 'emptiness,' 'non-dual,' and so forth should be understood in this way. The Great Nirvana of the Noble Ones says:
Unrealized by other conditions,
Having wise and compassionate power,
Buddhahood has the two benefits.
The secret essence of the Tathagata is shown to be the completely pure buddha nature that neither changes nor transmigrates. If it so exists, it is logically wrong for those who are skilled in prajña not to maintain that. To say it is non-existent would be false speaking, and likewise that it has development or succession. Those of the race of fools espouse nihilism, not knowing the secret essence of the Tathagata.So it should be known. The Sutra of Miraculous Display says:
If it is said to suffer, the blissful nature could not be within the body. Stupid fools think, 'All bodies are impermanent.' This is like sending the freshness of awareness into clay. Those skilled in prajña make distinctions. They do not say that everything [conncected with body] is impermanent in every way. Why? Because within our bodies there exists the seed of buddha nature.
Stupid fools grasp the thought that all the dharmas of buddhahood are selfless. For those skilled in prajña, selflessness too is just an abstract label. It should be discriminated as having no true existence. Knowing this, one will produce no doubts about the matter.
When someone says that tathagatagarbha is emptiness, stupid fools give rise to views of nihilism and non-existence. Those skilled in prajña make a distinction. Within human beings there is the single Tathagata. It is said to be eternally existent, unchanging, and does not transmigrate.
If by the condition of ignorance, composite things are said to arise, stupid fools, when they have heard this, think that insight and ignorance must be distinguished as two. Those skilled in prajña realize that their natures are non-dual. That which is non-dual is reality.
When someone says that by formations consciousness arises, stupid fools grasp formations and consciousness as two. Those who are skilled in prajña realize their natures as non-dual. Non-duality is purity.
All dharmas have no self, and tathagatagarbha also has no self. When this is said, stupid fools grasp it dualistically. Those skilled in prajña realize that their natures are non-dual. Self and selflessness are intrinsically non-dual. Tathagatagarbha has been supremely praised by the buddha bhagavats as immeasurable, beyond evaluation, and limitless. I too have taught this in all the sutras about the qualities it possesses.
Those who have wrong craving have the characteristic of never transcending suffering.When this is taught regarding these and those of the cut off family, we may think that not all beings are pervaded by the garbha; but it is not like that. The intention is that those with wrong craving who abandon the Mahayana Dharma will not be liberated for a long time. Those who are reversed from the path are only temporarily cut off from the family of those in whom the path is established. They are not cut off from the dhatu, the luminous nature of mind. The commentary to the Uttaratantra says:
'Those who have wrong craving have the characteristic of never transcending suffering.' This teaches that wrong craving causes hostility towards the Dharma of the mahayana. This is said with the intention that this hostility to the mahayana Dharma will be reversed at another time. Because the dhatu exists with a nature that is completely pure, it is not proper to say that some will never become pure. Therefore the Bhagavat's intention was that all sentient beings without distinction are capable of being completely purified. Though samsara is beginningless, it does have an end. The naturally pure and eternal is obscured by a covering of beginningless obscurations, and therefore not seen, just as gold might be hidden.Since within the dhatu of dharmas all goodness exists, it can always be purified. Though, samsara is beginningless, it has an end. By that is it established.
The reasons that the two gotras are awakened are two. As for the reason that dharmakaya, the naturally-existing gotra, is awakened, the Madhyamakavatara says:
When people hear about emptiness, as ordinary persons,As for the reason that the dharmin-gotra of rupakaya is awakened, the Mahayanasutralankara says:
The highest joy will arise within them again and again.
Their eyes are wet with tears that flow because of this joy.
The hairs of their bodies rise with wonder and stand on end.
Within them the seed of attaining buddhahood exists!
They have become the vessels of direct and straightforward teachings.
Now the absolute truth has really been taught to them.
Why do we become connected vessels,Regarding the benefits of awakening the gotra, the same text says:
Practicing compassion, and devotion,
With dedication to what is truly good?
This is truly explained as due to the gotra.
The lower realms are far off, and liberation is quick.Once the gotra is awakened, from then on we are liberated from the lower realms, like growing jasmine naturally falling to the ground. There is little suffering. By their intense weariness sentient beings will be ripened.
After that occurs, we experience little suffering.
By sadness sentient beings will then be quickly ripened.
If there were no such gotra within sentient beings, no matter what sufferings arose, we would not be saddened. The attitude that aspires to nirvana and rejects samsara could not arise. The attitude of desiring liberation could also not arise. That in some, without being taught by anyone, compassion for the suffering of others arises, and that some who experience suffering develop renunciation and so forth is also due to the power of goodness of the beginningless dhatu of dharmas. The Uttaratantra says:
If there were no dhatu of buddhahood,Being able to see the comparative attractiveness of samsara and nirvana, seeing their faults and virtues is due to the existence of the gotra. If the gotra did not exist, neither would these.
Suffering would never make us sad.
There would be no longing for nirvana,
Or effort and aspiration to that goal.
Thus from the extensive teaching that by having the gotra the essence of buddhahood exists within us, now some summary verses are interposed:
Without exception all sentient beings have sugatagarbha.'If this gotra really exists in everyone, why, pray tell, are we still wandering in samsara?' We exist this way, not knowing our own face, because we vainly grasp at a meaningless ego. We are the lineage-holders of our own kleshas from earlier to later, and as such we are in bad company. We have poverty-mentality. We are conditioned by relative reference point. This is samsara. The Mahayanasutralankara says:
In the covering veil of incidental obscurations,
Exists the primordial lamp, the luminous dhatu of dharmas.
This is the kayas and wisdoms. This itself is the Dharma.
Nothing can be added, and nothing taken away.
Existing within us, this itself is self-existing.
By devoting ourselves to this essence of emptiness and compassion,
Having attained this dhatu, called by the name 'enlightenment,'
We benefit all the host of beings without remainder.
Primordially self-arising, like the sun in space,
When it is obscured by clouds, temporarily dimming the daylight,
Then we experience the dreamlike sufferings of samsara.
So make a powerful effort to clear away obscuration.
Confused incidental appearance, appearances of the six realms,
Are emanated like dreams, from habitual patterns and karma,
Appearing as what never was, is not, and shall not be.
The spontaneous presence of wisdom primordially exists.
It is always there, but nevertheless it is not seen.
As what we perceive in sleep, is not seen to be within us,
Dharmas defiled with false conceptions are vain and futile.
Do not grasp them, but train in the luminous nature of mind.
Grasp the two benefits, bringing wealth to oneself and others.
Well-trained in our kleshas, and in bad company.The Details of Light says:
With impoverished attitude, and relative reference point;
Briefly stated, these are the four that should be known.
These are the degradations that have defiled the gotra.
Primordial luminosity itself becomes ignorant.The All-Creating King says:
So-called 'rising' of mind produces attachment to ego.
By these objects being grasped as being so-called 'others,'
Beings become confused, within the realm of samsara.
Because of their karma of inappropriate joys and sorrows,
They have the experience of individual beings.
This phenomenal play, which is wonderful and marvelous,Also it says there:
Is actionless existence, like the space of the sky.
Ignorance without apprehension of anything,
Rises immediately from nothing but itself.
This is the path that is alike for everyone.
This is the nature as it is within all beings.
Defiled by the removable, it therefore is confused.
By gathering in the light that exists in all directionsThe primordial, luminous nature of mind, empty-luminous self-arising wisdom, is in essence emptiness like the sky. Its nature is luminosity like the sun and moon. The radiance of its compassion arises ceaselessly, like reflections in the surface of an untarnished mirror. The natures of dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya come from within sugatagarbha. Sugatagarbha is entirely without bias and partiality. Its empty essence is also the accommodating space of arising. Its luminous nature naturally abides as the five lights, and these naturally appear as objects. Arising as compassion, this cognitive knowledge of insight-wisdom is maintained to be confusion. The Secret Essence says:
To the limits of the four directions, above and below,
In an unpredictable rainbow whose colors are never fixed
The different kinds of gotra will manifest in appearance.
Suchness moves, but particles never move at all.
This is the principle one of all the five elements.
E MA HO! from out of sugatagarbha,At this time, the aspect that does not know its intrinsic wisdom to be its own nature is co-emergent ignorance. The aspect that fixates its own projections as other is the ignorance of false conception. Because of not knowing that all this has arisen within the natural state, by the power of attachment of ego-fixation to its objects, habitual patterns of the vessel, the external world, ripen as body. Habitual patterns of the essence, sentient beings within the world, ripen as mind. This is confusion, the various phenomena of the five poisons. The All-Creating King says:
From out of our karmic relationships comes confusion.
When the nature of me, the doer of all, is not realized,The root of confusion is not knowing what we are. The Prajñapramitsamgatha says:
The dharmas created by me are imputed with fixed existence.
By the force of desire and craving, apparent things exist.
As impermanent illusion their nature is destroyed.
The partless nature becomes like colors to the blind.
As many sentient beings as there may be,The Prajñaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines teaches that confusion is conditioned by dualistic grasping:
Of lesser, middle, or of higher rank,
All of these have risen from ignorance.
So it has been taught by the Sugata.
Grasping an I and a mine, beings whirl in samsara.The Prajñaparamita in Twenty Thousand Lines says:
Childish sentient beings perceive the non-existence of skandhas as skandhas. They perceive the non-existence of ayatanas as ayatanas. They perceive the non-existence of things that arise interdependently as interdependent arising. Therefore, they are completely within the grasp of the ripening karma of all these dharmas that are wrongly perceived in their interdependent arising.'The primordial natural state cannot exist within samsara. It is not possibler that sugatagarbha should be samsaric.'
As to how these dharmas arise, from the two ignorances come samsaric formations. From that comes the succession of births of individual beings. Name and form are established. When the body has been established by the embryonic stages from an oval to birth, there are contact, perception, feeling, the six ayatanas, and old age and death. So with the twelve links of interdependent arising, we cycle through samsara.
Not so! It is like clear, unmuddied water becoming solid rock-like ice, in a transparent winter wind. From the primordial state, conditioned by the arising of grasping and fixation, confused appearance presents itself as a variety of solid things. A song from the Dohakosha says:
When the wind gets into water and thereby stirs it upSugatagarbha is the primordially pure, changeless essence, dharmakaya, designated as the alaya of reality. When this becomes confused, dharmakaya and the connected wealth of the nature of mind, rupakaya and the buddha fields, all the perfect entities of wisdom, are obscured through the confused grasping and fixation of ignorance.
The softness of the water becomes as hard as rock.
When we are stupefied through being disturbed by concepts,
What was formless becomes completely hard and solid.
This is the due to the alaya of the various habitual patterns. Within sugatagarbha, since beginningless time, have been planted various seeds or habitual patterns of confusion. Their great power becomes individual experiences of the higher and lower realms, and so forth. When we are within dream-like samsara, fixating I and ego, experiencing desire, aggression, and the five poisons, collecting karma and kleshas, from meaningless confusion, we live with a variety of attachments to truly existing entities.
Day and night the wheel of confused appearance continuously turns, and since its succession is groundless, we are never liberated from it. It is like the confusion of a dream. Wandering because of kleshas, because of good and evil, is like a prince wandering along a road, separated from his kingdom. It is intrinsically a time of suffering. Since the prince was born into a royal family, the happiness of true wealth is naturally within him; but now he suffers temporarily. As to what is taught by this example, the Song of the Oral Instruction of the Inexhaustible Treasury, says:
Beings bound in samsara, as if they were tangled in vines,As to the way that tathagatagarbha exists at this time of wandering futilely on the plan of samsara, the Tathagatagarbha Sutra says:
In the desert of ego-grasping are utterly mad with thirst:
Like a prince without a kingdom, separate from his father,
Without a chance for happiness, he gives in to despair.
Kye, Son of the Victorious One, it is like this. For example, the measure of a three-fold thousand world system is one billion. That billion perfectly records the number of all worlds of the three-fold great thousand world system. Similarly the measure of the great surrounding wall of the world is written 'the great surrounding wall of the world.' The measure of characteristics is written 'characteristics.' The measure of the second or middle thousand world realms is 'the second or middle thousand world realm.' The measure a thousand world realms, is 'a thousand world realms.' The fourth thousand world realms is 'the fourth thousand world realms.' The measure of the great ocean is 'the great ocean.' The measure of Jambuling is 'Jambuling.' The measure of the eastern continent Videha is 'Videha.' The measure of the western continent, Aparagodaniya is 'Aparagodaniya.' The measure of the northern continent Kurava is 'Kurava.' The measure of mount Meru is 'Mount Meru.' The measure of the palaces of the gods of the terrestrial realm is written 'the palaces of the gods of the terrestrial realm.' The measure of the palaces of the gods of the desire realm is 'the palaces of the gods of the desire realm.' The measure of the palaces of the gods who course in the form-realm is written 'the palaces of the gods who course in the form-realm.'
A billion is the measure of worlds in a threefold-thousand world system. A billion is also the measure of such worlds that enter into a single atom. Just as an atom enters into those billion worlds, similarly all the particles of atoms without remainder enter into the measure of that billion.
Then living, active beings are born on middle earth, learned and wise with clear minds. Their eye is the divine eye. Everything is completely pure and luminous. By their divine eye they view phenomena. They see those billion worlds within this small atom. Some sentient beings cannot fully understand that. They think, 'Kye ma, by what Mother, by great force of effort was this billion worlds later put in this atom?' All such beings, thinking that, invented a powerful agent. They thought that atom particle had been opened by a subtle vajra to that billion-fold world system in which all sentient beings lived. From one like that, the rest did the same.
Kye Son of the Victorious One, like that the measureless wisdom of the Tathagata dwells within all sentient beings. Within the mind-continuum of all sentient beings it dwells without deception. These mental continuums of sentient beings do not have a measure like that of the wisdom of the Tathagata. Fools bound by grasping perception do not know the wisdom of the Tathagata. They do not know it at all. They have never experienced or manifested it. Seeing how each sentient being is within dharmadhatu is the perception of a master. It is the desireless wisdom of the Tathagata.
Kye ma, these sentient beings do not know the wisdom of the Tathagata as it is. Those sentient beings in whom the Tathagata's wisdom continues to function were directly taught the path of the noble ones. All the perception-created bonds were cleared away. They were eliminated.
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