INTEREST, DETERMINATION, INTENSIFIED INTEREST
WHICH STAYS WITH ITS OBJECT [mos
pa]
What is intensified interest? It is to stick to the determined
thing just as it has been determined, and the function of intensified interest
is that it cannot be taken away.
-Abhidharmasamuccaya
It is an awareness by which one stays with what the mind [yul can] has
logically established as this is so and not otherwise. Here, its specific
function has been described in the words, 'it cannot be taken away', because
when one has a firm conviction about the object, one is certain and cannot
be swayed by anyone. For example, if one thinks about who is the infallible
refuge, the Buddha or another, then one will find out that only the Buddha
is the infallible refuge. Then one becomes certain, through valid means
of cognition, that the teachings of the Buddha and the community which
has realized the teaching are infallible refuges. Anyone who has this firm
conviction cannot be swayed by any other opinion and is counted as
a Buddhist. On this basis the bright qualities of (spiritual progress)
increase.
The Buddha has said that
The root of everything positive
Is the intensification of interest.
That root always matures
By producing an effect.
-Bodhicaryavatara