Practical Ethics and Profound Emptiness

by Jampa Tegchok

  Nagarjuna now describes the unique cause of each sign, one by one. Since we aspire to become buddhas, it is good to know their causes so we can begin to create them. As you read each cause, reflect on how it relates to its result similar to the cause. Contemplate how you can create that cause and generate its corresponding virtuous mental state — beginning now.

  177.Due to honoring caityas and those

  who are worthy, aryas and also elders,

  your glorious hands and feet will be wheel-marked,

  showing that you shall turn the wheel.

  Explanation of the Causes of the Thirty-Two Signs of a Buddha

  (1) Caityas or stupas are monuments that symbolize the Buddha and often house the relics of great masters. Here caitya also refers to the Buddha himself, to something blessed or empowered by the Buddha, and to the arya sangha, our preceptors, and Dharma teachers. Chorten, the Tibetan word for caitya, literally means “basis of offering,” indicating that the Buddha is the basis to whom gods and human beings make offerings. They honor and revere him in this way because he is completely free of all faults and possesses all excellent qualities.

  Those who are worthy include our parents, the ill, and so forth. Elders refers to our seniors. We should help, honor, serve, and benefit these people in every way. As a result, we will possess the sign that is a thousand-spoked wheel on the palms of our hands and soles of our feet. These wheels look as if they were engraved on our skin.

  The wheel represents ability and power — a universal monarch turns the wheel of political power, and a transcendental buddha turns the wheel of Dharma. These wheels and the abilities that they represent arise as a result of having made offerings to buddhas and having honored those worthy of respect for many eons.

  178.King, always be steadfast

  in your commitments concerning the Dharma.

  That way, you shall become

  a bodhisattva who has level and even feet.

  The soles of our feet are arched. In contrast, the Buddha’s feet are level, not concave but full and flat like the underside of a tortoise. If you want to become a buddha who has this sign, carefully guard the precepts and commitments you have accepted without letting them deteriorate, and keep whatever you have learned firmly in mind. This sign also comes as a result of practicing wisdom and method evenly and inseparably while on the bodhisattva path.

  179.Through generosity and gentle speech,

  and by acting beneficently and consistently,

  you will have hands and feet

  with digits joined by glorious webs.

  We have gaps in between our fingers and the toes, whereas a buddha has flesh joining them, like the webbed feet of a swan. This flesh is of the nature of light, so there is no obstruction to putting on a ring, for example. This sign results from practicing the four ways of gathering followers to ripen their mindstreams, as discussed in verse 133.

  180.Through abundantly giving the best food and drink,

  your glorious hands and feet will be soft,

  and you will have a large body

  with seven broadly curved parts.

  Generously offering great amounts of food and drink to those who are hungry and thirsty is the cause for two signs: (4) our feet and hands will be very soft, like the skin of a baby, and (5) the seven broadly curved parts — two hands, two feet, two shoulders, and the nape of the neck — will be full, rather than concave as they typically are for ordinary people.

  181.Through renouncing violence and freeing those to be killed,

  your body will be beautiful, straight, and tall.

  You will have a long life,

  your digits will be long, and your heels broad.

  If we restrain from harming others with malice and save the lives of humans, animals, and insects who are about to be killed, (6) we will have a tall and beautiful body. Such a body will attract others and give us the opportunity to share the Dharma with them. By abandoning crooked or deceptive dealings with others, our body will be straight. These actions also create the cause for (7) our fingers and toes to be long and (8) our heels to be broad.

  182.Through enhancing the practices that you have undertaken,

  you will be glorious, you will have a good complexion;

  your ankles will not be prominent,

  and you will be marked with body hairs that curl upward.

  183.By both learning and imparting with respect

  the sciences, crafts, and other fields of knowledge,

  you will have the calves of an antelope

  and have a sharp mind and great wisdom.

  Keeping our precepts well and spreading the Dharma to others are causes for having (9) good color and ankles that do not jut out, as well as (10) body hairs that lie in an upward direction and curl clockwise. For example, the hair on our arms will lie in the direction of the shoulder rather than the wrist.

  (11) As a result of both having received instruction and having taught the arts, sciences, various crafts, and so forth with respect, when we become a buddha our calves will be beautiful, like those of a special type of antelope, and we will have sharp intelligence.

  184.Through the avowed practice of quickly giving

  your wealth at the request of others,

  your arms will be broad and facile,

  and you will be a leader of the world.

  185.Through seeing to the reconciliation

  of friends who have had a falling out,

  you will be a holy person

  with secret organ retracted into the abdomen.

  (12) When we are committed to generosity and help others immediately whenever they request material aid, we will have long and facile arms. When the Buddha stands up straight his arms are long like an elephant’s trunk and come down to just below the knees. This differs from our arms, which only reach below our knees when we slouch.

  (13) The Buddha’s sex organ retracts inside, like that of a horse. This is a result of reconciling those who are not in harmony.

  186.By giving pleasant and excellent dwellings

  adorned with carpets,

  your skin will have a gentle hue

  like refined, untarnished gold.

  187.Through giving unexcelled authority

  and properly following your guru,

  your resplendent body hairs will grow one by one,

  and your face will be adorned with the forehead curl.

  Through continually offering good dwellings to the sangha, with carpets and cushions for them to sit on, (14) our skin will have a hue like refined gold, and (15) our skin will be soft and fine.

  By repeatedly empowering those who ask for help when we are in a position of power or authority and by correctly following our spiritual mentors when studying and practicing the Dharma, (16) each hair on our body will grow separately from its own pore and curl clockwise, and (17) we will attain the hair curl in the center of the forehead. This curl can be stretched out very far, although usually it stays in its place curled up.

  188.By listening properly, speaking in a pleasing manner,

  and acting in accord with the well spoken,

  your shoulders will be well rounded

  and you will have a leonine upper body.

  Due to not speaking harsh words but speaking in a pleasant way with a happy mind, and by correctly responding in accord with a questioner’s disposition when answering Dharma questions, (18) our shoulders will be well rounded and different from those of others and (19) our chest or upper part of the body will be broad and powerful like that of a lion.

  189.Through serving and healing the sick

  you will have a broad back,

  you will be imperturbable,

  and all tastes will be supreme.

  Providing medicine and caring for people who are ill or injured is a wonderful, virtuous act. When doing this, we should not act as if we were a great lord helping the riffraff, but rather we should help with respect and consideration. For example, before giving food
to someone in need, we should wash it and then offer it respectfully, with both hands. (20) As a result we will have broad shoulders and a broad chest, and (21) we will always experience excellent tastes. Food that tastes awful to us is delicious “food of a hundred tastes” to the Buddha.

  190.By focusing on deeds that accord with Dharma,

  you will have a crown protuberance on your head,

  and your body will also have

  the symmetry of a banyan tree.

  Focusing on deeds that accord with Dharma here means to shoulder the main burden of any work that you do with others. Whether or not you are the leader, for the benefit of many be enthusiastic about the work, take responsibility, and do not hang back or slack off. This brings two signs: (22) the crown protrusion (ushnisha) and (23) a symmetrical body — where the distance from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet is the same as the distance between the fingertips when the arms are outstretched.

  191.Having spoken truthful and gentle words

  for a long period of time,

  you will have a broad tongue, king,

  and your speech will be Brahma’s voice.

  192.Through always and continually

  uttering words that are true,

  you will have a lion’s jaw;

  glorious, you will be undefeatable.

  As a result of speaking truthfully and gently to others over the course of many eons, we will have (24) a long tongue, such that if we stick it out it will reach around to our ears and up to our hairline, and (25) a voice that is exceedingly pleasant to listen to. It is said that Brahma’s voice has sixty special qualities that make it both pleasant and powerful.

  (26) As a result of speaking truthfully to others over a very long period of time, our jaw will be firm and awe-inspiring like that of a lion.

  193.Through behaving with respect

  and serving in the appropriate manner,

  your teeth will be very white and lustrous;

  they will also be even, not jagged.

  194.Having become accustomed

  to words that are true and not divisive,

  you will have glorious teeth, forty in number,

  set closely together and excellent.

  As a result of being respectful to others, serving and honoring them as much as we can over a long period of time, our teeth will be (27) dazzling white and (28) even — all being the same height, without irregular shapes and sizes.

  By habitually and continuously speaking truthfully to others and avoiding divisive speech over a long period of time, (29) we will have forty teeth — twenty upper and twenty lower — not thirty-two teeth like ordinary people have, and (30) our teeth will be well arranged, without gaps in between them.

  195.From gazing on sentient beings with love,

  without attachment, aversion, or confusion,

  your eyes will be sparkling blue

  with eyelashes like a cow.

  Through continually viewing sentient beings with love for eons, and never letting our mind go under the control of attachment, anger, and ignorance, (31) we will have sapphire blue eyes; the white and black parts of the eye will be distinct, and our eyes will not be bloodshot. (32) In addition, our eyelashes will be straight and well defined, like those of a cow.

  As qualities of the Buddha’s form body, these thirty-two signs and eighty marks are the ripening result of meditating on emptiness with unpolluted wisdom for many eons. Because each of the Buddha’s signs is unlike physical attributes possessed by any other being, their corresponding causes must also be unique.

  These signs indicate that the person possessing them is a truly great being, one who has abandoned all faults and realized all excellent qualities. Sentient beings do not possess these signs because they have not yet created the cause by collecting merit and wisdom over many eons. Although the signs of the Buddha are likened to various things, this simply indicates the nearest analogy in our human experience. In fact, there is a world of difference between the jaw of a lion and the Buddha’s jaw, for example.

  To have pure refuge, we need pure faith, and such faith comes from pondering the qualities of the Buddha — in particular the qualities of the Buddha’s body, speech, mind, and awakening activities. To do this, we reflect on the thirty-two signs and eighty marks of the Buddha’s body as well as their individual causes. To meditate on the qualities of the Buddha’s speech, we consider the speech having sixty special attributes or the speech with five branches, together with their causes. Contemplating the qualities of the Buddha’s mind involves considering the twenty-one types of unpolluted wisdom and reflecting on twenty-seven awakening activities of the truth body.

  Lamrim literature usually doesn’t describe the qualities of the Buddha in this much detail. Rather, to develop the faith that leads us to take refuge it recommends meditating on the four qualities of the Buddha’s mind: the Buddha is free from all fears of cyclic existence and personal peace, so he can help others overcome their fear; he is skilled in method and wisdom, so he has effective means to help sentient beings; the Buddha has impartial compassion for all beings without holding some dear and others distant; and he fulfills the aim of all beings whether or not they help or honor him.

  196.Thus you should recognize

  that these are, in brief,

  the thirty-two signs that indicate

  a great lion-like person.

  We generate respect by reflecting on the causes of the signs and marks, for it is indeed arduous to create the causes for all of them. Contemplating that the Buddha completed this great collection of merit solely for the purpose of benefiting sentient beings will inspire our faith in him.

  Earlier, Nagarjuna discussed the filthy nature of the human body — a body caused by self-grasping ignorance. Here, he speaks of the special signs and marks of a buddha’s body, caused by engaging in unpolluted virtuous actions for eons. There is a stark difference between these two types of bodies. It is our choice which one we want to create the causes for.

  197.The eighty marks have love

  as their concordant cause.

  But concerned that this treatise will be too long,

  I will not explain them to you.

  Why the Causes for the Eighty Marks Are Not Explained Elaborately Here

  The eighty marks of a buddha include such things as having fingernails that are the color of copper. The cause shared by all eighty marks is meditating on love — wishing all sentient beings to have happiness and its causes. Generating love for all sentient beings brings many other benefits as well. Each mark also has its own specific causes, but Nagarjuna does not explain them here since they are elaborated in other texts, and he does not want to make this text too long.

  Mark has the sense here of “making known.” When we see these marks we know that the person who possesses them is a great being with a beautiful, good, and pure body. When sentient beings see people with such magnificent bodies, they are very happy and are attracted to them. This facilitates those holy beings’ ability to gather a circle of followers and teach them the Dharma.

  198.Although all wheel-turning monarchs

  have these [signs and marks],

  their purity, beauty, and luster

  cannot compare with a buddha’s.

  Differences between the Signs and Marks of a Buddha and Those of a Universal Monarch

  Wheel-turning monarchs who rule over a world system and solitary realizers have signs and marks but they are only similar to the Buddha’s in appearance. One difference is that the Buddha’s signs and marks are pure, because he has totally eradicated the afflictive obscurations and the cognitive obscurations, whereas wheel-turning kings and the solitary realizers have not. Another difference is that the Buddha’s signs and marks are extremely beautiful and pleasing to see; when others observe them, they feel inspired. Those of the others are not like that.

  In addition, the Buddha’s signs and marks are very clear, like a full, radiant moon. This is because they hav
e arisen through the power of having obtained all excellent qualities and abandoned all obscurations. The causes of the Buddha’s signs and marks and the length of time necessary to create them are also unique. In short, the signs and marks of wheel-turning kings and solitary realizers are incomparable with those of the Buddha.

  199.Each of the signs and marks

  of a wheel-turning monarch

  are said to come from one cause —

  clear faith in the King of Sages.

  200.But even were such virtue to be uniquely amassed over a billion eons,

  it would not be sufficient to produce even a single pore of a buddha.

  The brilliance of the sun has some slight similarity to a firefly. Likewise,

  the signs of the Buddha are slightly similar to those of a wheel-turning monarch.

  To obtain one of the signs of a wheel-turning king, one must have tremendous faith in the Buddha. If this is the case for just one sign, the causes for all of the signs and marks must be enormous. But if we were to collect the causes for attaining all of the signs and marks of a wheel-turning king for a billion eons, we still would not gain even one body hair of a buddha — whose hairs are numberless.

  A firefly’s light glows in the dark. While it is similar to the light of the sun in that both are lights, it is insignificant compared to sunlight. Similarly, there is a vast difference between the signs and marks of a wheel-turning monarch and a solitary realizer and those of the Buddha.

  In short, the signs and marks of the Buddha are far superior from the viewpoint of their purity, beauty, and clarity. They can only arise through collecting merit and wisdom over three countless great eons, and by abandoning everything to be abandoned and perfecting everything to be perfected. Otherwise, it is impossible to acquire them.

  This completes the commentary on part II of the Precious Garland, “An Interwoven Explanation of the Causes and Effects of Higher Rebirth and Highest Good.”