by Longchenpa
Now as a means to escaping the fetters of clinging to these remedies, the middle turning of the Dharma wheel expounds space-like emptiness and the eight similes that illustrate the illusory nature of all things. These teachings were given for the sake of beings of moderate capacity and for those who have trained in the earlier teachings.
The final turning of the Dharma wheel was intended for those who have perfected the previous teachings and for those of great capacity: it expounds the nature of phenomena just as it is. The buddha essence [as taught in the third turning] is not the same as the self of the non-Buddhists who, destitute of true knowledge, impute real existence to the self. This self of theirs has no existence at all. The non-Buddhists quantify it as great or small, and they do not affirm that it possesses the kāyas and wisdoms.
You who say that the teaching on the tathāgatagarbha is of only expedient value have a view that clings to no-self and emptiness—which is no more than an antidote to the self and nonemptiness. It does not constitute the definitive teaching.
In the Parinirvāṇa-sūtra we find the following parable:
This, moreover, is how it is, my noble son. There was once a woman with a very young child that fell ill. Overcome with sorrow, she brought him to a doctor who mixed butter, milk, and molasses and gave the mixture to the child, telling the woman that she must not allow the child to suck from her breast until the mixture had been digested. In order to prevent her child from drinking, the woman smeared her breasts with bile, telling him that there was poison on her breasts and that he should not drink. The child, being thirsty, wanted to drink but, tasting the bitterness of the bile, could not do so. Later, when the medicine had been digested, the woman washed her breasts clean and told the child to come to suckle, for now he could drink. But, despite his thirst, the child would not, remembering the bitterness he had tasted before. Whereupon his mother explained that she had smeared her breasts with bile to prevent him from drinking before the medicine had been digested. But now that it had been digested, she had washed her breasts and they were now no longer bitter. And so the child came slowly back and was able to drink again.
Noble son! In order to liberate all beings, I the Tathāgata have emphatically declared to them the absence of the self. Through earnest practice, beings may understand that there is no mental state called “I” and thus may pass utterly beyond sorrow. Moreover, it was in order to dispel the wrong view of the Cārvākas, and to bring beings to the utterly pure existence of the human state through meditating on the doctrine of no-self, that I the Tathāgata have explained that all phenomena are devoid of self, so that beings may grow used to emptinesss. It was like the woman who, for her child’s sake, had smeared her breasts with bile. And just as later the woman washed her breasts and called her child to drink, so too have I explained the tathāgatagarbha. O bhikṣus, do not be afraid! Just as the woman called to her child, who then came slowly back, you should, O bhikṣus, distinguish these two cases. You should not consider that the tathāgatagarbha is nonexistent. When formerly in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras I expounded emptiness, you should understand that I did so thinking only of the fact that phenomena have no intrinsic being. Meditation on an emptiness that is a mere nothingness will not result in the arising of the kāyas and wisdoms of buddhahood. For a result must follow upon its cause.
It is in such a manner that emptiness means the emptiness of concepts that grasp things, in the very moment of their perception, as being either one or many. It means the emptiness of their intrinsic being. Things are like reflections in a mirror. Emptiness does not mean that things are like imaginary objects that in the past did not exist, that in the present do not exist, and that in the future will not exist. As it is said in the Heart Sūtra: “Form is emptiness; emptiness is form. Emptiness is none other than form, and form is none other than emptiness. The same is true for feelings, perceptions, conditioning factors, and consciousness—all are empty.” And the Middle-Length Prajñāpāramitā declares that every phenomenon is, in its own time, empty by its nature. If there were no form, how could there be emptiness of form?
As it is said in the Uttaratantra,
Emptiness endowed with supreme aspects
Has been likened to a portrait that’s complete.
And,
Therein is nothing to remove
And thereto not the slightest thing to add.
The perfect truth viewed perfectly
And perfectly beheld is liberation.
The buddha-element is void of what is adventitious,
Which has the character of something separable.
This element is not itself devoid of supreme qualities,
Which have the character of what cannot be parted from it.188
It is said in the Commentary to the Uttaratantra,
What is being set forth in this passage? The tathāgatagarbha is in its nature utterly pure. There is no reason at all to remove defilements from it because its very nature is freedom from adventitious stains. And there is not the slightest reason for pure qualities to be superadded to it, for its nature, the dharmatā, is already endowed with pure and inalienable qualities. Therefore the tathāgatagarbha is empty of defilements that are alien to it and that may be removed from it. It is not empty of the inconceivable qualities of enlightenment, which are more numerous than the grains of sand in the Ganges and from which it cannot be parted by any means. So it is said. Therefore, to affirm that it is empty with regard to what is absent from it [namely, defilement] is the correct way of seeing. Furthermore, to say that whatever superior quality it possesses is present in it permanently is to understand the matter properly, just as it is.
The two kāyas of a buddha are present from the beginning. That which obscures them is dispelled by the two accumulations. It is not the case that the action of dispelling is the productive cause of the produced result (of the two kāyas). For in that case, it would follow that the dharmakāya and saṃbhogakāya are conditioned and thus impermanent.
The dharmakāya is therefore beyond all movement and all change. As it is said in the Madhyamakāvatāra,
This peaceful kāya, radiant like the wish-fulfilling tree,
Is like the wishing-jewel that without forethought lavishes
The riches of the world on beings till they gain enlightenment.
It is perceived by those who are beyond conceptual construction.189
And the Uttaratantra says,
Because he has the mastery of every quality,
Because death’s demon he destroys,
Because he is without intrinsic nature
And because he is the lord of all world, he’s permanent.190
And once again, in contradiction of the causal process, it also says,
It is unconditioned and spontaneously present;
It is not known through outer causes;
Endowed with knowledge, love, and power—
It is buddhahood, the fulfillment of the twofold aim.191
It is thus that the process of enlightenment in terms of cause and result—of something that engenders and something that is engendered—is denied. Consequently, the meaning of no-self, emptiness, nonduality, and so on should be understood in the following way. In the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, the Buddha says,
The secret essence of the Tathāgata, the buddha nature utterly pure, is said to be beyond change and movement. Even if it is described as existing, the wise and learned should not cling to it. To describe it as nonexistent is to speak falsely. Inferior people deny it as nonexistent. They fail to understand the secret essence of the Tathāgata. If it is described as suffering, the blissful nature of the body is not understood. Foolish people think that all bodies are impermanent; they consider them like unfired pots. The wise and learned, on the other hand, discern correctly and do not say that everything is at all times impermanent. Why so? Because within this body of ours is the buddha nature, the seed. Fools consider that all the qualities of enlightenment are without self [just emp
ty], but for the wise and learned, the no-self is just an ascribed label, which they understand in terms of the absence of true existence. Secure in this knowledge, they have no doubts about it. When the tathāgatagarbha is described as empty, the foolish, hearing this, conclude that it is nonexistent in a nihilistic sense. But the wise and learned understand the Tathāgata potential as unchanging and beyond all movement. When liberation is said to be like an illusion, fools conclude that to say that beings attain liberation is a teaching of demons. The wise and learned, on the other hand, understand that, among humankind, only the lionlike Tathāgata is everlasting, unchanging, and beyond all movement. When it is said that conditioning factors [the second interdependent link] manifest because of ignorance, foolish people hearing this make a distinction between ignorance and knowledge. But the wise and learned understand that, by their very nature, they are not two, and that genuine reality is the absence of duality. When it is said that because of conditioning factors, consciousness arises, foolish people thing that conditioning factors and consciousness are two different things. The wise and learned, on the other hand, understand that by their nature they are not two, and that the absence of this duality is a genuine reality. When it is said that all things are without self, and that even the tathāgatagarbha is without self, foolish people understand that self and no-self are two different things. But the wise and learned understand that, by their nature, they are not two. Self and no-self are not two by their nature.
The tathāgatagarbha is therefore praised by all the bhagavān buddhas as boundless, immeasurable, and infinite. And I too have expounded it in detail in the sūtras [of the last turning of the Dharma wheel].
When in the Magical Display Sūtra it is said that the Icchantikas192 will never pass beyond sorrow, and when this same text speaks of them as cut off from the buddha-potential, one might conclude that the buddha essence is not in fact possessed by all beings. This, however, is not so. This was said with regard to those who, having given up the teachings of the Great Vehicle, will not gain freedom for a very long time, and to those who, straying from the path, are temporarily separated from the buddha-potential developed on the path. They are not, however, cut off from the luminosity that is the nature of the mind. As it is said in the Commentary to the Uttaratantra,
When the Buddha said that the Icchantikas would never pass beyond sorrow, he was thinking in terms of “another time” (dus gzhan la dgongs nas).193 He said it in order to remove aversion to the Dharma of the Great Vehicle. For it is hostility to the teaching of the Great Vehicle that produces the Icchantika condition. But since they possess the utterly pure buddha-potential, it is wrong to think that they will never become utterly pure. For thinking of the fact that all beings without distinction may be purified, the Buddha declared that “Though [the veil] is beginningless, it has an end. That which is naturally pure and permanent has been enveloped from beginningless time by a sheath [of defilement] and consequently has not been seen. It is like a golden statue hidden beneath a veil.”
From time without beginning, the pure expanse of ultimate reality [the buddha-potential] dwells in all beings. The time will come when each one of them will become utterly pure. “Though the veil is beginningless, it has an end.” So it is established.
The awakening of the two kinds of buddha-potential is accompanied by signs. The signs of the awakening of the naturally present potential that is the dharmakāya (rang bzhin chos sku’i rigs) are described in the Madhyamakāvatāra,
Certain simple, ordinary people,
When they hear of emptiness, will feel
A joy that leaps and surges in their hearts.
Their eyes will fill with tears, the hairs upon their skin stand up.
Such people are the vessels for the teaching;
They have the seed of wisdom, perfect buddhahood.
The final truth should be revealed to them,
In whom ensuing qualities will come to birth.194
The signs of the awakening of the naturally present potential that is the appearance of the rūpakāya (gzugs sku chos can gyi rigs) are described in the Sūtrālaṃkāra,
Compassion prior to embarking (on the path),
Interest and acceptance,
Perfect virtuous practice
Are said to be the certain signs of the potential.
As for the benefits of the awakened buddha-potential, the same text says,
Even if, a long time later, they must go to lower realms,
They will be quickly freed therefrom;
There they suffer little pain,
And wearied with the world, they will bring beings to maturity.195
As the text says, once the buddha-potential has been awakened, then even though it is possible to be reborn in the lower realms, one is quickly freed therefrom, like a ball of silk bouncing up from the ground. Suffering but little, [the bodhisattvas] feel an intense weariness with the world and bring beings to maturity. If beings did not possess this buddha-potential, they would feel no sorrow in the midst of pain, and some of them would feel no impulse to leave saṃsāra and to attain nirvāṇa. Even the desire to be free would not arise in their minds. On the other hand, the fact that, even in the absence of anyone to teach them, some beings feel pity for those who suffer, and feel revulsion with their existential condition when they themselves feel pain—all this is said to be through the power of the pure expanse of ultimate reality [the tathāgatagarbha] that they have within them from beginningless time. As it is said in the Uttaratantra,
If one did not have the buddha-element,
No sorrow would one feel in pain,
No wanting would there be to pass beyond all suffering—
No interest and no aspiration would there be for it.
This seeing of the faults and sorrows of existence,
The qualities and happiness of the state beyond all sorrow,
Comes from the possession of the buddha-potential.
If this potential were not there, it would not come.196
Having thus shown in some detail how the possession of this potential means that one possesses the essence of buddhahood, I will conclude with the following poetic interlude:
Without exception every being has the essence of the Sugata
Enveloped in enshrouding adventitious stains wherein
The clear light, flame of the expanse of ultimate reality,
From time without beginning, dwells.
The kāyas and the wisdoms dwell in every being,
Spontaneously present, never to be parted.
When emptiness and the essence of compassion are achieved,
This buddha-element receives the name of the enlightened state
And brings about the good and happiness of every being.
Present of itself from time without beginning,
But like sun and sky concealed by clouds,
It is obscured by adventitious stains.
Thus pain is suffered in existence, which is like a dream.
Cultivate a strength of diligence in order to remove defilement.
These appearances of the six migrations,
Adventitious and illusory,
Produced by karma and habitual tendencies,
Are but the stuff of dreams.
In the present, past, and future,
They are utterly unreal though they appear.
Primal wisdom, luminous,
Is present of itself and from the very first.
Beings have it constantly, yet at this time they do not see it,
Just as when asleep they do not see their place of rest.
Therefore, do not cling
To what is meaningless, imaginary, defiled,
But in the clear light of the mind’s own nature
Train yourself.
Seize for yourself and others
All the riches of the twofold goal.
Why is it that beings wander in saṃsāra, even though they possess this potential? What is the reason for it?
It is because beings fail to recognize the buddha-potential dwelling within them and instead grasp at a self where there is no self. The conditions for this failure are provided by the unbroken sequence of defilement, by false friends, by indigence, and by lack of independence. It is thus that beings circle in saṃsāra. As it is said in the Sūtrālaṃkāra,
Habituation to defilement, evil friends,
Poverty, subjection to the power of others—
These in brief are threats to the potential:
You should know that there are four of them.197
And as it is said in the Stages of Luminosity,
Beings do not see primordial luminosity.
They call their minds their “I” and cling to “mine.”
“These things,” they say, “are other.” And clinging to a self,
Confused, they wander through the reaches of existence.
Joy and sorrow, all awry, they feel
According to their karma.
And words to similar effect are found in The All-Creating King Tantra.
The primordial, luminous nature of the mind is self-arisen primordial wisdom, empty and clear. By nature, it is empty like space, yet its character is luminous like the sun and moon. And the radiance of its cognitive potency manifests unceasingly and unobstructedly like the surface of a limpidly clear mirror, free from stain. Having thus the nature of the dharmakāya, saṃbhogakāya, and nirmāṇakāya, the sugatagarbha is unconfined and is not limited either to saṃsāra or nirvāṇa. Its empty nature provides the open arena necessary for the manifestation of all things; its luminous character allows the five self-arisen lights to appear as sense objects; and its cognitive potency—self-cognizing primordial wisdom—manifests as the detecting cognition owing to which delusion is said to occur. It is said in the Guhyagarbha Tantra,