大乘集菩薩學論

The Establishments of Mindfulness

Chapter 13. Part 2

The treatise says:

Here the establishment of mindfulness of feelings has been briefly explained. Next, the establishment of mindfulness of the mind is clarified. As the Ratnakūṭa Sūtra says: "The Buddha said: O Kāśyapa, with regard to this mind, sometimes there arises affection and delight, sometimes there arises loathing and aversion; sometimes there is much defiled attachment.

Concerning those three kinds, how can one know them fully? If the past has already ceased, the present does not abide, and the future has not yet come; not within, not without, and not in the middle—it cannot be obtained at all. Moreover, the mind cannot be seen by means of color, it cannot be displayed, it cannot be counteracted, it cannot be contemplated, it cannot be illumined; it is non-abiding and non-attached, yet the mind is everything.

The Tathāgata constantly has nothing to be seen, except that which can be observed. There is no separate object-realm; there is only the conceptual notion of dharmas that still remains as a counterpart. O Kāśyapa!

The mind is like an illusion, changing and unreal. Because of grasping, manifold kinds arise. The mind is like empty space, for it is the gathering-place of the afflictions and the secondary afflictions, the adventitious dust.

The mind is like a river, swift-flowing, arising and ceasing without resting; the mind is like a bright lamp, which is the conditioned arising of causes and conditions; the mind is like a flash of lightning, momentary, within the span of an instant; the mind is like an evil friend, able to produce all sufferings; the mind is like one who goes fishing, conceiving of suffering and pleasure alike; the mind is like a weakling, becoming the locus of harm and vexation; this mind is like a yakṣa, draining away the vital essences; the mind is like a raging thief, robbing away all the roots of good; the mind is like lamplight, constantly emitting colors; the mind is like a battle drum, which when heard compels one to fight; the mind is like a slave, greedy for tastes;

the mind is like a sea turtle that has found a place of refuge; the mind is like a piglet, living amid impure things yet conceiving of them as fragrant.

The Buddha said: O Kāśyapa! One who seeks the mind clearly cannot obtain it. Because it cannot be obtained, there is nothing that can be obtained. Throughout all the times—past, present, and future—it cannot be obtained at all, and so one can surely escape from the three realms; both existence and non-existence."

Moreover, the Ratnacūḍa Sūtra records: "The mind does not dwell on the outside, therefore it cannot be seen; within the aggregates, the bases, and the elements it likewise cannot be seen. In this way, when one seeks for it, it likewise cannot be seen. By what condition do the various ones arise? It is said that the mind takes this as its object. Why is it said that the mind cannot be seen? One should know that the mind is like a sharp blade that can slay itself. Moreover, the mind is also like a fingernail cutting the fingernail. Thus it may be said that the mind's not being seen is likewise so. Just as a person traveling far, though the body moves lightly, cannot be made ill by the wind, so too the external realm cannot obstruct it.

O son of good family! It is as when a person, at the six bases of this realm, binds both himself and others. When the mind has no affectionate attachment, the body is not scattered. That is, within meditative concentration, the nature of the mind abides on a single object and attains freedom from obstruction. This is the establishment of mindfulness of the mind."

Moreover, the Akṣayamati Sūtra records: "With regard to the dharmas associated with practice, one cultivates and adorns them, and the mind does not perish with respect to the nature of dharmas (Dharmatā). How is the nature of dharmas adorned, while the mind too is like a magical illusion? If one relinquishes all that one possesses, one can dedicate it to the dharma-nature of the mind.

This is the purifying adornment of the buddha-lands. The establishment of mindfulness of dharmas is this: As it is there said, the bodhisattva, with respect to dharmas, does not contemplate the practice of dharmas, for dharmas are without anything that can be contemplated. If it is not the Buddha-Dharma and not the bodhisattva path, then all dharmas are likewise not apart from this.

Having understood this clearly, one attains the samādhi of great compassion. With regard to all dharmas there is neither affliction nor non-affliction, and one attains the three-wheeled non-conceptualization. Why is this so?

Because one clearly understands that the characteristics of dharmas and the nature of dharmas have no two characteristics. This is that the nature of the afflictions is non-accumulating—the nature is free of greed, the nature is free of hatred, and the nature is free of delusion. If one can awaken to this, that is Bodhi.

To understand clearly that the nature of the afflictions is itself the nature of Bodhi—this is the establishment of mindfulness of dharmas."

Moreover, the Ratnacūḍa Sūtra records: "O son of good family! When the bodhisattva, with regard to dharmas, contemplates the establishment of mindfulness of dharmas: if a dharma arises, that is birth; if a dharma passes away, that is cessation. That is to say, with respect to dharmas, at that time there are self, person, sentient being, life-holder, householder, man, pudgala (the sentient being possessed of feeling), the mind-born child, and then there arise old age and death...

As for accumulation, it is the gathering together of deeds; if there is no accumulation, then the deeds have not yet been gathered together. As for the wholesome and the unwholesome, again they do not affect the deeds. Nor is there even the smallest dharma that arises without causes and conditions, and so, with regard to the profound and subtle abode of dharmas, the bodhisattva's mind of omniscience does not depart from any of it."

As the Lalitavistara records: "Here, because there is formation (saṃskāra), although it is fabricated by the mind, it is like a jar—impermanent, breaking up and dissolving. Formation is like a city in which there is nothing at all, ruined by rain. Earth and mud, not being firm, gradually are destroyed by friction.

Again, it is like a riverbank built up of accumulated sand, weak by its own nature because the water erodes it. Formation is like the wind extinguishing the lamplight, and so it arises and ceases and does not remain. Formation is also like standing water that can be held back.

Formation is also like a plantain tree, without substance. Again, it is like a fist thrust into empty space to frighten a fool. And so, whether it is straw and grass and the like fashioned into a turtle, relying upon tiles and bricks, it can be altered and has never yet had a single function.

All the parts, mutually relying upon their aggregation, are altered. Here, before and after, none of it can be obtained. It is like a person who holds fire in both hands, and as the wood shakes and the breath is held, the fire is not produced.

When the various conditions depart from the fire, then according to their strength or weakness it is extinguished. With regard to formation in this way, there is an impression and that which is impressed. If both oneself and others can escape from the place of annihilation and permanence and from deeds—it is like knowing that a merchant who enters upon a perilous and dangerous road then attains safe passage."

The treatise says:

Through ignorance, craving, and the afflictions, karma takes the perfuming as its condition so as to form the aggregates, the bases, and the elements. In the supreme sense, none of them can be obtained at all.

The Purity of Self-Nature

(Ātmabhāvapariśuddhiḥ

Paricchedaś Caturdaśaḥ)

Chapter 14. Part 1

The treatise says:

Having spoken of the establishments of mindfulness, next is spoken the entry into liberation of the pudgala (the sentient being possessed of feeling), the definitive accomplishment that accords with emptiness, the severing of this root; the removal of the afflictions and the non-cultivation of those practices. Moreover, as the Tathāgataguhya Sūtra records: "The Buddha said: O Śāntamati! It is like a tree named Palāśa. If its root is cut away, then all its branches and leaves wither and decay. O Śāntamati! Here too it is likewise so: if one severs the view of the body (satkāyadṛṣṭi), then one can eradicate all the afflictions."

The treatise says:

The discernment of the nature of emptiness has innumerable forms and characteristics. As the Candrapradīpa (Moon-Lamp) Sūtra has a verse:

If anyone believes the teaching of the Tathāgata,
The precepts of the Buddha are ever made manifest;
One should remember that women must be kept far away,
And know that the Dharma is ever, by nature, without error.

He plucks out all the arrows of suffering,
And bestows medicine to bring about ease;
He becomes the Two-Footed Honored One in the very present,
Knowing that the self-nature of dharmas is ever non-dual.

Just as the four limbs are originally within the bodily life,
Even if struck by mistake with staff and cudgel it does not matter;
The power of patience is sublime, like the bright moon,
Knowing that the self-nature of dharmas is no different.

Suppose that a hundred times one enters the evil destinies,
Yet one is ever perfumed and cultivated with the marks of goodly form;
Further one is able to obtain the five spiritual powers,
And the Buddhas, abiding in peace, deliver sentient beings.

The Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (Bhagavatī) says: "Moreover, O Śāriputra! The great bodhisattva who wishes to accomplish the body of a Buddha with the thirty-two (32) marks of a great being and the eighty (80) excellent characteristics: with regard to all sentient beings he should keep in mind the mind of Bodhi and not let it be damaged. With regard to the bodhisattva practices he attains the state of never forgetting. He departs from evil companions and from wrongful deeds. He draws near to the Buddhas, the bodhisattvas, together with the good and wise friends, and so forth, and he subdues the celestial demons and purifies the karmic obstructions. With regard to all dharmas being without obstruction, he should study the Prajñāpāramitā.

Moreover, O Śāriputra! When the great bodhisattva gives rise to each single thought of this kind in his mind, he can surely pass beyond the world-systems numerous as the sands of the Ganges to the east, and go to all the other directions to study the Prajñāpāramitā. Moreover, O Śāriputra! Suppose the great bodhisattva were in the buddha-lands of the ten directions—he would study the Prajñāpāramitā, and it is again said to be likewise so. And, more broadly, as all dharmas are without self, he eradicates the karmic obstructions that bind, and thereupon he sees the self-nature of all dharmas as unceasing."

As the Pitāputrasamāgama Sūtra says: "The Buddha said: O Great King! These are the six elements, the six bases of contact, and the eighteen mental supports of subtle character. These arise on account of conditions.

What is called the six elements? They are the earth element, the water element, the fire element, the wind element, the space element, and the consciousness element. What are the six bases of contact?

They are: the base of eye-contact, which sees with regard to form; the base of ear-contact, which hears with regard to sound; the base of nose-contact, which can smell odors; the base of tongue-contact, which can taste flavors; the base of body-contact, which draws near and feels touch; and the base of mind-contact, which then knows with regard to dharmas. What are the eighteen mental supports of subtle character? That is, the eye sees form and then gives rise to delight, gives rise to distress, gives rise to keeping or discarding.

These are the six faculties, each taking as its condition that delight, and the three kinds—therefore they are named the eighteen mental supports of subtle character.

O Great King! What is the internal earth element? It is that which is produced within the inner body, such as hair, body-hair, fingernails, teeth, and so forth.

If the internal earth element does not arise, and moreover there is no occasion, then it does not perfume the deeds. O Great King! If, with regard to a woman, one reflects in this way upon the inner body, there then arises affection and delight.

Through the union of the two kinds there is produced the kalala (the father's semen and the mother's blood). Moreover, just as through reflecting upon their similar union it comes to be produced, it has no fixed location. If the two women have no fixed location, neither is there any birth.

If it could be produced through reflection, again that is not this place. Its self-nature is unreal and is not in mutual correspondence. How then is this said to be a firm nature?

O Great King! The firm nature is established by similarity. Ultimately this body is burned up and dissolves into ruin and destruction. Then that interval of space is the place to which it returns. That solid nature comes from here. Again, it does not come from the directions above or below. O Great King! This is the internal earth element, and so it should be known."

The Treatise of the Compendium of Trainings of the Mahāyāna Bodhisattva (Mahāyāna-Bodhisattva-Śikṣā-Saṃuccaya)

End of Scroll the Seventeenth