VAJRA POINT II: THE
DHARMA
Shugchang" <bialick@usit.net> Date: Wed Jul
11, 2001
8:02 pm Subject: Vajra Point
II: The Dharma
The sacred Dharma
in terms of the
truth of cessation
does not fall into the extreme of nihilism,
which is
the belief in non-existence,
since the absolute truth, or in other
words,
the dharmadhatu, suchness, the true nature,
exists as the field
of experience
of self-aware primordial wisdom.
-Jamgon Kongtrul, The
Unassailable Lion's Roar, BN, p.105
The path indicated by the Madhyamikas
which emphasizes the emptiness of all conceptual elaboration
(rang-tong) works toward the
Dzogchen teachings on threg-chod
or
cutting through. This is the path of wisdom (yeshe lam). On a lower
level of this spiral, it mirrors the marriage of deep insight and
subtle limitations encountered in the atomic realism of the first
turning. But rather than the radical pluralism of the Abhidharmikas, we
witness a possible slide toward nihilism in the Madhyamikas.
What is called the third turning of
the wheel is definitive and suggests that the form aspect of the great
equation 'form is emptiness', the summary code for the second turning,
has been neglected and forgotten and we are all the poorer and dumber
for it. Awakening is hard enough as it is; no need to tie one hand
behind your back. The path of means (thabs
lam) develops in order to
generate a deeper insight into the natural qualities (gzhan-tong) of
the true nature, and toward this end, we work with form through the
energies of sound and light encountered in all six bardos, like
itinerant prospectors in the Rockies, utilizing the ore of trance and
samadhi, embracing methods such as mantra and visualization,
resurrecting technologies of refinement and purification which had
already been highly developed before the days of the Buddha, but
without the clear fire of emptiness their endeavours were limited. Now,
like graduate students of a sort, having penetrated the naked emptiness
of mind, to enthusiastically engage the luminosity-
clear-light-appearances half of the great yab-yum. This works toward
the Dzogchen practice of thod-gal,
leaping over, which is said to be a
more advanced practice than merely cutting through (threg-cho).
"Shugchang" <bialick@usit.net> Date: Wed Jul 11, 2001
10:01 pm Subject: Re: Vajra Point II: The Dharma
A selection from the Mahaparinirvana
Sutra on the nature of the
Tathagatagarbha Dharma-
In this passage, the
Buddha attempts
to explain mind's inversion of the true meaning. The first time I got a
hold of this kind of teaching, I was overjoyed. Far different fare from
what I'd been used to in terms of the first turning emphasis on
emptiness, impermanence, impurity and suffering. Here was another
movement in the dialectic, shifting from critique, analyze and
annihilate to recognition, effulgence, true self.
"You, monks! From distressing things,
there arises the perception of happiness; from the impermanent, there
arises the perception of the eternal; from the selfless, there arises
the perception of a self; and from the impure, there arises the
perception of the pure. The worldly thus also have the eternal,
happiness, self, and pure. The world-renouncer also has the eternal,
happiness, self, and pure. The worldly Dharmas may have these words but
not their meanings, while the world-renouncer has both the words and
the meanings. And why? Because the dharmas of the worldly have these
four inversions, their meanings are not known. And why is that? They
have ideas that are inverted, mentalities that are inverted, and views
that are inverted. Because of these three inversions, the people of the
world see in the happiness distress, see in the eternal impermanence,
see in the self selflessness, and see in the pure impurity. This is
called inversion. Because of these inversions, the worldly know the
words but do not know their meanings. And what are the meanings? The
selfless is samsara. The self is the Tathagata. The impermanent is the
voice hearer and condition perceiver. The permanent is the essential
body. The distressing is all the outside paths. Happiness is Nirvana.
The impure is the conditioned thing. The pure is the true Dharma
possessed by the Buddha and bodhisattvas. These are called the
uninverted. Because these are not inverted, one perceives both the
words and their meanings. If one wishes to depart from the four
inversions, he should know thus the eternal, happiness, self, and the
pure."
pemakunzang@hotmail.com Date: Wed Jul 11,
2001 11:50 pm
Subject: Re: Vajra Point II: The Dharma
Shugchang wrote:
"What is called the third turning of
the wheel is definitive and suggests that the form aspect of the great
equation 'form is emptiness', the summary code for the second turning,
has been neglected and forgotten and we are all the poorer and dumber
for it."
Yeah. Great way to put it.
In the first turning Buddha relied on
the predilection of existing philosophers (particularly the samkhyas)
to cut up reality into metaphysical (artificial) categories -- but
Buddha used that technique to show the emptiness of self.
In the second turning he turned his
own analysis on the very categories he had created, causing hysteria
and anxiety in some of the hearers (thus the eventual need for the
prajnaparamita teachings to go underground)-- the hearers'
misinterpreting a teaching on the emptiness of phenomena to be a
terrifying nihilism. Here a word needs to be said about the subsequent
developments after Buddha. Those inclined to the first turning reified
all the categories ("dhammas/dharmas") through scholastic literalism
into a dead and deadening philosophy (in the most extreme case
declaring those very categories to be absolutely real, e.g., the
'sarvastivadin - all dharmas are real school') whereby "attainment"
consisted of "seeing dharmas" -- a kind of refined intellectual
exercise that could only occasionally result in realization.
However, in the second turning, his
intention remains cautious, not explicitly declarative, room for
specious mysticism abounds: "form is emptiness, emptiness is form",
chanted like a magical formula, or as Shugchang so excellently said,
"the summary code for the second turning has been neglected and
forgotten and we are all the poorer and dumber for it", and I might
add, regardless of whether it's memorized and repeated. Finally, in the
third turning he explicitly and definitively calls all the categories
fictions, "like the finger pointing at the moon". Then, he is able to
reveal tathagatagarbha, etc.
I know there's a lot more to it than that, but that's my crude summary
of the three turnings.
-kunzang
pemakunzang@hotmail.com Date: Sat Jul 14,
2001 9:18 pm
Subject: Re: Vajra Point II
from Asanga's commentary: What is shown by this sloka?
Because of its being
unthinkable,
non-dual, and being non-discriminative, And because of its pureness,
manifestation and hostility; The Doctrine, which is Deliverance and
also by which arises Deliverance Has the characteristics of the two
Truths.
By this verse, in brief, the Jewel of
the Doctrine is explained as being contracted by eight qualities. Which
are the eight qualities? They are -
1) unthinkability (acintyatva),
2)
non-duality (advayata),
3) non-discriminativeness (nirvikalpata),
4)
purity (shuddhi),
5) [being] manifest (abhivyaktikarana),
6) hostility
[against obstacles] (pratipakshata),
7) deliverance [from passions]
(viraga), and
8) cause of Deliverance (viragahetu).
"Shugchang" <bialick@usit.net> Date: Thu Jul
12, 2001
11:39 am Subject: Re: Vajra Point II: The Dharma
The Dharma of Realization has two
aspects;
1. the truth of cessation is the
realization of the dharmakaya
which has supreme value for oneself
2. the truth of the path is the
emergence of the rupakayas which are of benefit to others.
In the following passage from the
Mahaparinirvana Sutra, the Buddha clarifies the provisional nature of
his teachings on the self, which addressed wrong views regarding the
true nature of the self. Citing naturalistic, occult and eternalistic
notions, he refutes them with statements to the effect that there is no
such self. The true unchanging reality of the self is identical with
the dharmakaya.
"Monks, you should
know that the
heretics have said that the self is like the insect who eats wood,
mates, and makes offspring merely. This is why the Tathagata proclaims
that in the Buddha's Dharma there is no self. It is for the sake of
taming sentient beings, knowing the occasion, and that such
selflessness has its causes and conditions. He also says that there is
a self. He is like that excellent doctor who well knew the elixirs that
were medicinal and not medicinal. It is not like that self the ordinary
man reckons to be his own or the ordinary confused person who reckons
that he has a self. Some have said that is as large as the thumb and
finger, some that it is like the mustard seed, some that it is like an
atom. The Tathagata says that the self is not like any of these. This
is why he says that all things are selfless. Really it is not that
there is no self. What is the self? If something is the true, real,
eternal, the master, that rests upon the nature of being unchanging,
this is called the self. Just as the great doctor well understood the
medicinal elixir, the Tathagata is also so. For the sake of sentient
beings, he says there really is a self. You and the four assemblies
must thus cultivate the Dharma."
"Shugchang" <bialick@usit.net> Date: Thu Jul
12, 2001
6:20 pm Subject: Re: Vajra Point II: The Dharma
The imagined, the other-dependent and
The consummate.
These are the three natures
Which should be deeply understood.
-Vasubandhu on the Trisvabhava
or
Theory of Three Natures
The following outline is adopted from
a writing of Patrul Rinpoche entitled 'Instructions in the Mahayana
View Which Clarifies the Two Truths'. It occupies less than six pages
(Ch. 7) in James Low's book, Simply Being. I have reproduced here only
the briefest outline of that short text. It addresses the Dharma in
terms of both Realization and Practice
The Dharma of Realization
has two aspects, the general natural condition and one's own natural
condition.
I. The General Natural Condition (T. gnas-lugs)
which has two aspects
1. relative aspect
(kun-rdzob)
includes all appearances between the lowest hells and the
post-meditative experiences of the tenth bodhisattva levels. The
relative has two aspects, these being- a. the false relative of
ordinary minds b. the pure relative upheld through tantric view
2. absolute aspect
(don-dam)
natural to buddhas
"Thus at first there is both
appearance and attachment. Then there is only appearance without any
attachment. And finally there is the absence of both appearance and
attachment. Thus there is false understanding, the understanding of
relative knowledge, and the understanding of absolute knowledge."
- Dza Patrul Rinpoche
According to Asanga, these three natures are to be known (the
imagined), abandoned (the
dependent) and purified (the
perfected)
"The three patterns are:
1) the
imagined pattern (S.
parikalpitalaksana), in which
consciousness fabricates illusions and
clings to them as if they were stable and perduring realities;
2) the
other-dependent pattern (paratantralaksana),
which, as the structural
functioning of consciousness, initially supports the imagined
pattern
but can be converted into --
3) the perfected pattern
(parinispannalaksana),
the absence of imagined illusions in the
other-dependent pattern.
When the pervasive force (S. vasana)
of the
underlying seeds of defiled karmic consciousness in the container
consciousness are negated, and the seeds themselves eradicated,
other-dependent consciousness becomes
pure: illusory knowing is
converted into wisdom."
-Realm of Awakening, p. 9
II. One's Own Natural Condition
a. the natural condition of relative appearances and objects of
knowledge: without self-nature, illusory, sky-like
"Mind is without form, without color,
and without resting place, just
like the sky."
-Maitreya's Request
b. the natural condition of mind: non-conceptual, the ultimate
inseparability of the two truths
The Dharma of Practice
there are two ways of practicing these instructions:
1. for the very intelligent who have a good
accumulation of merit,
there is direct (chig-chhar)
practice
In this there is nothing to be cleared
away and
Not even the least thing to be kept.
By really looking at reality
When you really see you will be completely free.
-Maitreya
2. everyone else should start with the four
reflections which turn the
mind and progress through the stages of practice
"Until your mind gains the power of
this understanding you should avoid attachment to all forms of wealth
and possessions. Remain in the mountains like a wild deer and abide on
the path without deviation or backsliding."
-Patrul Rinpoche, Simply Being,
p. 78
VAJRA POINT THREE: THE SANGHA
OUTLINE
CONTENTS