VAJRA POINT III: THE SANGHA

This mind being by nature clear light,
they have seen the poisons to be essenceless.

-Uttaratantra Shastra, BN p. 108

    Je Gampopa (1079-1153) in his Tsokchö Chenmo, writes: If at this moment one wishes to achieve liberation from the cycle of existence, one must recognize ordinary mind for it is the root of all things. That which is designated as "ordinary mind" is one's own awareness. Left in its natural state, this awareness remains unstained by any [nonordinary] perceptive forms, unmuddled by any levels of existential consciousness, and unclouded by dullness, depression or thought. If one has discovered the identity of that mind one has discovered the self-cognizing awareness. If one fails to gain such an understanding, this ordinary mind remains with the coemergence of ignorance. However, the understanding of that mind is called awareness, the essence, the coemergent self-knowing, ordinary mind, unmodulated simplicity, nondiscrimination, and luminous clarity.

    Commentary by Takpo Tashi Namgyal (1512-1587): The aforesaid term "unstained by any [nonordinary] perceptive forms" means that [ordinary mind in its intrinsic nature] is uncorrupted by the intellect's grasp of conceptual formulation or by a supernormal sensation of bliss, lucidity, nonconception, and the like. The term "unmuddled by any levels of existential consciousness" means that the mind's abiding nature or its existential mode has not been veiled by the confusing force of dullness or depression, remaining undistracted by discursive thought or sensual incitement. The term "in its natural state" means that the essential nature of mind, the inmost disposition, or the existential mode that is undistorted by any concern for acceptance or rejection.

-excerpted from Mahamudra, the Quintessence of Mind and Meditation, p. 245, Namgyal, Shambhala, 1986

Thus seeing that beings are utterly pure and that [this purity pervades] their limitless number, they are endowed with the vision of primordial wisdom. I bow down to this [Sangha].

-Uttaratantra Shastra, BN p. 108

The natural condition abides as the very pure ground (bZhi). This has five aspects.

    1. Being naturally empty from the very beginning it has been pure regarding all substantial phenomena and thus it is the very pure sphere (dByings).

    2. The energy of emptiness is unceasing as experience and so from the beginning there has been purity regarding mind appearing to be real.
        This is the very pure pristine cognition.

    3. In the essence having the non-duality of appearance and emptiness, all separate phenomena have been pure from the very beginning
        and so it is the very pure non-duality.

    4. The state has not been created suddenly but has been present from the very beginning and so it is the natural purity.

    5. There are no other phenomena which are not pure from the very beginning and so it is the great purity.

    In brief, the open actuality, the subject, all the possible phenomena of samsara and nirvana, is without anything to be rejected and so is naturally pure. Therefore it is the unlimited purity.

    Perfect purity is introduced in this way so that by removing the wrong idea one will be freed from attachment to the belief that confusion is natural to one's mind. The purpose is the realization of perfect purity. The essence actually is naturally completely pure.

-Padmasambhava excerpted from Simply Being, p. 91-2

Because of its purity of perception by introspective knowledge,
So far as its manner and extent are concerned,
The Community of irreversible Bodhisattvas
[Is endowed] with the supreme qualities.

    By this it is explained, in brief, that the Jewel of the Community of irreversible Bodhisattvas is endowed with supreme qualities, because of its purity of perception by supermundane knowledge, with respect to two aspects, [manner and extent] i.e., 'being as it is' (yathavad-bhavikata and 'being as far as'(yavad-bhavikata). ***

    Here, 'being as it is' should be understood thus: because, they have understood the extremity of non-substantiality (nairatmyakoti) of the whole world called Individualities and Separate Elements (pudgala-dharma-akhya) as it is (yathavat). And this understanding, relating to the non-annihilation of Individualities and Separate Elements because of their nature of absolute quiescence from the outset, is produced, in short, by two causes. Namely, because of the perception of the innate brightness (prakrtiprabhasvarata) of the mind, and because of their perception of 'being destroyed from the outset' (adikshaya), i.e. the extinction of defilements on the mind. Here, these two, are quite difficult to be understood in relation to the fact that, in the immaculate sphere, there is no succession of second mind because both minds, good and bad, act together as one and the same. ***

    Here, 'being as far as' should be understood thus: because they perceive the existence of the Matrix of the Tathagata in all living beings, up to those who are in the animal kingdom, by means of the supermundane intellect (lokottara-prajna) which reaches as far as the limit of all knowable things. And this perception of Bodhisattvas takes place in the first Stage of the Bodhisattva, because [verily in that Stage], the Absolute Essence is realized in the sense of all- pervading' (sarvatraga).