Moon of Liberation said, “O Diamond Matrix, tell of the disposition of those who approach the third stage.”
Diamond Matrix said, “The enlightening beings who have thoroughly purified the mind in the second stage come to the third stage. One enters the third stage by ten conscious focusings of the mind: purity, stability, disillusion, dispassion, nonregression, steadfastness, ardor, tirelessness, high-mindedness, and magnanimity. By consciously focusing the mind on these ten things, one enters the third stage.
“Furthermore, the enlightening beings in this third stage examine the impermanence of all that is conditioned, as it truly is; and they examine the painfulness, impurity, unreliability, destructibility, instability, instantaneous arising and passing away, not-coming-to-be-previously, not-reaching-the-past, and nonperdurance in the present of all that is conditioned. Seeing all conditioned things in this way, the enlightening beings, seeing themselves without refuge, without protection, in grief, sadness, distress, bound by likes and dislikes, with much suffering, dejection, and turmoil, without resources, burned by the fires of lust, hatred, and delusion, filled with many diseases, cause their minds to be more and more liberated from all conditioned things and direct their minds toward enlightened knowledge. The enlightening beings also recognize the inconceivability of enlightened knowledge and recognize its incomparability, its immeasurability, its difficulty of access, its independence, its freedom from afflictions, its freedom from distress, and how it arrives at the city of fearlessness and never comes back from it, and how it saves many people.
“Thus observing the immeasurability of enlightened knowledge, and observing how full of ills all conditioned states are, the enlightening beings further develop ten feelings toward sentient beings: the feeling that they are without a leader or a refuge; the feeling that they are always destitute; the feeling that they are burned by the fire of passion, hostility, and folly; the feeling that they are locked in the prison of existence; the feeling that they are always veiled in sleep in the thickets of afflictions; the feeling that they are incapable of viewing things objectively; the feeling that they have abandoned the desire for good; the feeling that they have lost the way to enlightenment; the feeling that they go along with the flow of the mundane whirl; the feeling that they have lost the means to liberation.
“Seeing the world of sentient beings so full of afflictions, the enlightening beings arouse their energy, thinking, ‘I should rescue and liberate these beings; I should purify and emancipate them; I should lead them, direct them, make them happy, develop them, and cause them to reach perfect peace.’
“Thus disillusioned with all conditioned things, considerate toward all sentient beings, seeing the benefit in omniscience, taking refuge in enlightened knowledge, dedicated to the salvation of all beings, the enlightening beings reflect thus: ‘By what means can these beings, fallen as they are into so much misery, be lifted out of it and established in the ultimate bliss of nirvana and be caused to attain freedom from doubt about all things?’ It occurs to these enlightening beings, ‘The means to do this is nowhere else but in the realm of knowledge of unobstructed liberation; and the knowledge of unobstructed liberation is nowhere else but in awareness of all things as they are; and awareness of all things as they are is nowhere else but in transcendent knowledge of the unconditioned and unproduced; and that light of knowledge is nowhere else but in contemplation by the analytic intellect skilled in meditation; and that contemplation by the analytic intellect skilled in meditation is nowhere else but in skill in learning.’
“The enlightening beings thus apply this contemplative knowledge to the quest of the Buddha Way, day and night intent on hearing the Teaching, desirous of the Teaching, enjoying the Teaching, delighted in the Teaching, relying on the Teaching, devoted to the Teaching, concentrated on the Teaching, intent on the Teaching, taking refuge in the Teaching, dwelling on the Teaching, saved by the Teaching, acting in accord with the Teaching.
“While the enlightening beings are thus focused on the quest for the Buddha Way, there is nothing they do not give up—goods, supplies, dwelling, precious things, even their own bodies—and because of their desire for truth they do not consider this difficult to do; they only consider it difficult to find a person who utters the truth, who teaches even a single phrase of truth. For the sake of the Buddha Teaching there is no external thing whatsoever that they are attached to that they do not give up, and there is nothing whatsoever within themselves that they do not give up. There is no service to teachers they do not take on; there is no pride or conceit they do not abandon and no humility of action they do not accept; there is no physical suffering they do not bear. They are more glad to hear a single verse of the Teaching that they have not heard than they would be to get a galaxy full of jewels; they are more glad to hear a well-spoken verse than they would be to gain kingship; they are more glad to hear a new phrase of teaching spoken by a complete buddha purifying enlightening practice than they would be to attain godhood for many hundreds of thousands of eons. If someone should declare to the enlightening beings, ‘I too have a phrase of teaching spoken by a perfectly enlightened buddha that purifies the practice of enlightening beings, which I will tell you if you throw yourself in a great blazing pit of fire and endure the agony,’ the enlightening beings think, ‘For the sake of even a single phrase of teaching spoken by a completely enlightened buddha I could even bear to hurl myself from the heavens into a whole galaxy of fire, to say nothing of an ordinary pit of fire. Indeed, we should seek the Buddha Teaching even through all the afflictions and pains of hells, to say nothing of the pains of life in the human world.’ They seek the teachings with such heroic vigor as this, and they contemplate the teachings truthfully as they hear them. Furthermore, having heard these teachings, with profound meditation in their own minds, alone in solitary places, they think, ‘It is by realization and practice of the Teaching through appropriate methods that these doctrines of Buddha are to be followed they cannot be clarified just by talk.’
“Enlightening beings in this stage of Refulgence leave desires and evil and unwholesome things for the sake of realization of the Teaching and its practical application: with thought and reflection, becoming aloof, joyful and blissful, they attain the first stage of meditation and abide there. By cessation of thought and reflection, inner purity, and mastery of single-mindedness, free from thought and cogitation, concentrated, joyful and blissful, they attain and abide in the second stage of meditation. By freedom from desire for joy they abide in equanimity; with mindfulness and precise knowledge, they experience physical bliss: as the sages say, those who are dispassionate, mindful, blissful, and detached from joy attain to and abide in the third stage of meditation. By the abandonment of pleasure and pain, and by the disappearance of former joy and dejection, free from both pleasure and pain, equanimous, with pure mindfulness, they attain to and abide in the fourth stage of meditation.
“By transcendence of all perceptions of form, by disappearance of all perceptions of objects, by not placing the attention on various perceptions, they attain to and abide in the realm of infinity of space, aware of infinite space. Totally transcending the realm of infinity of space, they attain to and abide in the realm of infinity of consciousness, aware of boundless consciousness. By totally transcending the realm of infinity of consciousness, they attain to and abide in the realm of nothingness, aware of the absence of anything at all. Totally transcending the realm of nothingness, they attain to and abide in the realm of neither perception nor nonperception. This is done on a basis not of enjoyment, but only for the purpose of accomplishment of practical application of the Teaching.
“With minds imbued with kindness, broad-minded, magnanimous, nondualistic, immeasurable, free from hostility and enmity, unobstructed, unafflicted, extending everywhere, they travel to the farthest reaches of the cosmos, reaching all worlds throughout space. In the same way, with minds imbued with compassion, joy, and equanimity, broad-minded, magnanimous, nondualist
ic, without hostility or enmity, without obstruction or affliction, reaching everywhere, they roam throughout the cosmos, to all worlds in space. They experience many kinds of miraculous actions, even shaking the earth; being one, they become multiple, and having become multiple, they become one; they are able to appear and disappear; they go through walls and even through mountains, just as through space; they travel sitting through the sky like birds; they emerge from and sink into the earth unhindered as though in water, and walk on water as on earth; they produce smoke and flames like a great bonfire and emit water from their bodies like great clouds, by which torrents this world system, set ablaze, is annihilated; even the sun and moon here, powerful and mighty, they take in hand, and extend their power even up to the heaven of Brahma; by the divine ear, purified, beyond humans, they hear both celestial and human voices, whether soft or loud, far or near, hearing even the sounds of insects; they know the minds of other beings, other persons, as they really are—they know if they are covetous or desireless, if they are hateful or not, if they are deluded or not, if they are afflicted or not, if they are small-minded or broad-minded, if they are magnanimous, if they are beyond measure, if they are confused or not, if they are concentrated or not, if they are liberated or not, if they are defiled or not, if their minds are crude or not—all this they know as it really is; in this way they know the minds of other people as they really are. They remember many former abodes: they remember one lifetime, two, three, four, five, ten, one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred—they remember hundreds of lifetimes, many hundreds of lifetimes, many thousands of lifetimes, many hundreds of thousands of lifetimes, many hundreds of thousands of billions of trillions of lifetimes; they remember the age of becoming, the age of disintegration, the age of becoming and disintegration, and remember many ages of becoming and disintegration, hundreds of ages, thousands of ages, hundreds of thousands of ages, hundreds of millions of ages, hundreds of billions of ages, up to hundreds of billions of trillions of ages—they know, ‘I was in such and such a place named such and such, of such and such a family, of such and such a caste, with such and such a diet, with such and such a life span, abiding so long, experiencing such and such pleasures and pains; I died there and was born here, died here and was born there’—they know many kinds of former abodes, including their characteristics, appearances, and speech there. With the divine eye, purified, beyond that of humans, they see beings, dying, being born, of good character, of bad character, in good states, in bad states, inferior, superior, following the force of their deeds; they know beings as they truly are: ‘These beings are badly behaved in thought, word, and eed, they slander the sages, they entertain false views; owing to the pursuit of actions based on false views, by that cause, that condition, after the disintegration of the body and death they fall into states of woe and are born in hells. These other beings are virtuous in thought, word, and deed, they do not slander the sages, they see rightly; because of their deeds and undertaking of duty based on right views, after they die they are born in blissful states in heavens.’ Thus, by the divine eye, purified, beyond that of humans, they see beings, their characteristics, appearances, and speech, dying, being born, of good and bad appearance and character, in good or bad states, inferior and superior, according to their deeds—they know them as they truly are. They enter and arise from these meditations, liberations, concentrations, and attainments, without being born by their force. If they see somewhere where the elements of enlightenment may be fulfilled, they are purposely born there by willpower because such is the mental consistency of enlightening beings, having accomplished skill in means.
“The enlightening beings in this stage of Refulgence see many buddhas, by great vision and the power of will they see many hundreds of buddhas, many hundreds of thousands, millions, billions, trillions of buddhas, by great vision and willpower. Having seen those buddhas, those completely enlightened ones, they honor and make offerings to them with great earnestness, providing them with food, clothing, medicines, and seats and beds. They also provide comforts for enlightening beings and honor the religious community. They dedicate these roots of goodness to consummate enlightenment. They also attend those buddhas, respectfully listen to their teachings, take up and maintain the teachings, cause them to be repeated, and apply and practice them according to their ability. They observe the absence of process and nonextinction and conditionality of all things; all their bonds of desire become weaker, all their bonds to form, all their bonds to existence, all their bonds of ignorance become weaker, and their bonds caused by views have already been removed. Wrong desires are gone from the enlightening beings in the stage of Refulgence because of countless eons of nonaccumulation, and so are wrong hatred and misguided delusions, because they do not produce or accumulate them. Their roots of goodness become clarified, purified, and useful. Just as gold in the hands of a skillful smith remains the same weight, in the same way the wrong desire, hatred, and delusion are gone from the enlightening beings in the stage of Refulgence, not being accumulated for countless ages, while their roots of goodness become clarified and purified and useful.
“Furthermore, their patience and gentleness are purified, as well as their friendliness, freedom from anger, imperturbability, calmness, freedom from pride and self-abasement, freedom from desire to be honored, freedom from desire for reward for what they do, honesty, and nonentanglement—all these are purified. For them, among the four means of salvation, beneficial action is paramount, and among the ten transcendent ways, transcendent tolerance is paramount, while they practice the others according to their power.
“This is a summary of the third stage of enlightening beings, the stage of Refulgence. The majority of the enlightening beings in this stage are Indras, chiefs of the celestial beings of the thirty-three heavens, capable, powerful, providing means of detaching beings from lust and desire, skilled in extricating beings from the mud of desire. Whatever the enlightening beings do—whether by charity, kind speech, beneficial action, or cooperation—their thoughts are always fixed on Buddha, the Teaching, the Community, enlightening beings, the practices of enlightening beings, the transcendent ways, the stages, the expertises and unique qualities of buddhas, including complete omniscience. To what purpose? To become the best of beings, unexcelled leaders and guides, and ultimately omniscient refuges.
“Those who seek to be thus undertake the appropriate effort, by which they instantly attain a hundred thousand concentrations, see a hundred thousand buddhas and recognize their power, shake a hundred thousand worlds, go to a hundred thousand lands, illumine a hundred thousand worlds, mature a hundred thousand beings, live for a hundred thousand eons, penetrate a hundred thousand eons past and future, contemplate a hundred thousand teachings, and manifest a hundred thousand bodies, each body accompanied by a hundred thousand enlightening beings. Then enlightening beings with the power of vows perform, by the excellence of their vows, countless transformations of their bodies, auras, mystic powers, vision, spheres of operation, voices, conduct, adornments, power, resolutions, and performances.”
Then Diamond Matrix spoke these verses explaining the meaning of this stage:
With pure minds, full of virtue, keen of mind,
Dispassionate and unregressing,
Steadfast, ardent, firm, energetic, magnanimous,
They enter the third stage.
In the third stage, Refulgence, they contemplate
The principle of suffering, impermanence, impurity,
Dissolution, evanescence, momentariness, inefficiency,
And absence of coming and going, of all that is conditioned.
They see the conditioned as sickness, accompanied by grief and lament,
Affliction, bound by attraction and aversion,
An abode of suffering and unhappiness, like blazing fire,
All this endlessly arising together.
Disillusioned with all states of being, unattached,
Single-mindedly s
eeking enlightened knowledge,
They see the knowledge of buddhas as inconceivable,
Unthinkable, incomparable, free from affliction.
Seeing buddha-knowledge free from all ills,
They pity those who are helpless, forever destitute,
Burned by the fires of passion and folly,
Minds bound by a hundred miseries in hellish existences.
They undertake steadfast effort to save those veiled in afflictions,
Those who are without insight, who have little will,
Who are deprived of the jewel of the way of enlightenment,
Following the flow of the mundane whirl, afraid of liberation.
Seeking knowledge, unattached, acting for the sake of the world,
They consider how the liberation of the world may be caused—
It is nowhere but in the unobstructed knowledge of the enlightened,
And the endless knowledge of Buddhas is born of wisdom.
Reflecting that wisdom comes from learning,
Enlightening beings strive diligently as learners;
Day and night, in the cause of learning, doing nothing else,
They seek the truth as the ultimate goal.
The Flower Ornament Scripture Page 93