Samsara, Nirvana, and Buddha Nature

by Dalai Lama

  Continuing to practice, stream-enterers gradually reduce layers of afflictions. When sensual attachment and malice have been subdued to a certain degree, they become once-returners, so-called because they will take only one more rebirth in the desire realm. Once-returners may still create destructive karma, although it is weak.

  Ordinary beings are attached to the self, and while dying the fear that they will no longer exist arises, followed by craving for saṃsāric aggregates. This precipitates the bardo state. Attachment to self may arise in stream-enterers and once-returners, but investigating it with wisdom, they cast it out. It does not arise in nonreturners.

  Once-returners continue their practice, and when the five lower fetters — view of a personal identity, doubt, view of rules and practices, sensual desire, and malice — are eliminated, they become nonreturners, so-called because they are never again born in the desire realm. Since destructive karma is created only in the desire realm, nonreturners no longer create it. Like stream-enterers and once-returners, nonreturners are still reborn under the power of afflictions and karma. When they abandon all afflictive obscurations completely, they attain the śrāvaka path of no more learning and become arhats — those who have attained liberation and are totally free from cyclic existence.

  Although arhats no longer create new karma to be born in saṃsāra, the potency of previously created karmic seeds that could bring a saṃsāric rebirth remains intact. However, because they have eliminated all afflictions, those seeds are not nourished by craving and clinging and do not produce new rebirths.

  Karmic seeds of completing karma remain on arhats’ mindstreams and these may ripen. The most famous example of this occurred to Maudgalyāyana, one of the Buddha’s chief disciples. Many lifetimes ago, he had killed his parents. Although he had been born in the hell realm as a ripening result of that deed, the fruit of that karma had not yet been exhausted. Some non-Buddhists knew that Maudgalyāyana was foremost among the Buddha’s disciples in terms of his supernormal powers and would use those powers to bring people to the Buddhadharma. Jealous of the Buddha and his followers, they directed some thugs to kill Maudgalyāyana. Maudgalyāyana wished to spare them the nonvirtuous karma of killing an arhat and so tried to use his supernormal powers to escape. Due to the karmic seeds remaining from having killed his parents, his supernormal powers failed; the thugs beat him severely and left him for dead. Maudgalyāyana crawled to the Buddha, paid final homage to him, and passed away. Although he experienced physical pain from the beating, he was not upset or angry.

  While arhats are alive, intentions arise in their minds, but they do not leave any traces. The Dhammapada compares the action of arhats to the flight of birds across the sky (92–93):

  Those who do not hoard [anything] and are wise regarding food,

  whose object is emptiness, the unconditioned, freedom —

  their track cannot be traced,

  like the path of birds in the sky.

  Those whose pollutants are destroyed and who are unattached to food,

  whose object is emptiness, the unconditioned, freedom —

  their path cannot be traced,

  like the path of birds in the sky.

  While alive, arhats are free from saṃsāra although they still have the saṃsāric aggregates — especially the bodies they took at birth, which are ripening results of polluted karma. Their bodies are true duḥkha, so their nirvāṇa is called “nirvāṇa with remainder (of the polluted aggregates).” When they die, all karmic seeds vanish on their own without a remedy being applied, although the latencies of afflictions still remain on their mindstreams. Leaving the five polluted aggregates and taking mental bodies (T. yid lus) that are not made of atoms, arhats now have a nirvāṇa without remainder. They remain meditating in peaceful nirvāṇa for eons, until the Buddha wakes them and encourages them to become fully awakened buddhas. They then generate bodhicitta, take birth by the power of prayers and aspirations, and enter the bodhisattva path.

  Bodhisattvas on the paths of accumulation and preparation are born in saṃsāra owing to ignorance. From the path of seeing onward they are āryas and take birth according to their compassionate wishes and intentions and no longer experience birth, aging, sickness, or death under the power of afflictions and karma. By the force of their fervent compassionate intentions and stainless altruistic prayers, they may choose to take birth in a particular family or country to benefit the beings there. When doing so, they appear to experience everything ordinary beings do, yet their experience is very different from ours because of the intensity of their realization of emptiness supported by bodhicitta. Because they have not yet eradicated all afflictive obscurations, these ārya bodhisattvas are said to be in saṃsāra, but not of saṃsāra.

  When sharp faculty bodhisattvas attain the path of seeing, due to the force of their great resolve and bodhicitta, their bodhicitta transforms into the bodhicitta that is the purity of the extraordinary great resolve. From the path of seeing onward, bodhisattvas also gain a mental body that arises from unpolluted karma — the intention to assume such a body — and the subtle latencies of ignorance. This body is not one entity with the mind, but it is said to be in the nature of mind, because like the mind, it is not made of atoms and lacks physical impediment. It is unpolluted and free of physical pain, although until bodhisattvas attain the eighth ground it is not free from the pervasive duḥkha of conditioning.

  To benefit us ordinary beings, these ārya bodhisattvas take or emanate a form similar to ours and show the aspect of sickness, aging, death, and so forth. These bodies are not true duḥkha.

  If they manifest in the animal, hungry ghost, or hell realms to benefit sentient beings there, they are not beings of that realm; they are merely assuming that appearance. Bodhisattvas who practice Tantra actualize an impure illusory body and then a pure illusory body, even when they still have a polluted human body. The actual or ultimate unpolluted body is attained at buddhahood.

  Ārya bodhisattvas progress through the ten bodhisattva grounds that occur on the paths of seeing and meditation. Until they reach the eighth ground, afflictions may still manifest in their minds, but they don’t remain long and do not function as afflictions usually do in that they do not disturb the mind. Ārya bodhisattvas create only unpolluted karma.

  Unless they had previously become śrāvaka arhats, ārya bodhisattvas are not liberated from saṃsāra until the beginning of the eighth bodhisattva ground. At this time, they have purified all afflictive obscurations and become pure ground bodhisattvas. Since cognitive obscurations still remain on their mindstreams, they must exert subtle effort to motivate their physical and verbal actions done to benefit of others. During the three pure grounds, they gradually abandon cognitive obscurations, and at the Mahāyāna path of no more learning when the cognitive obscurations have been fully pacified, they become buddhas who spontaneously and effortlessly act for others’ welfare until saṃsāra ends.

  Some ordinary beings are born in pure lands such as Sukhāvatī, Amitābha Buddha’s pure land, as a result of special virtuous karma and sincere virtuous aspirations and prayers to take rebirth there. Birth in Amitābha’s and Akṣobhya’s pure lands is not taken under the power of afflictions and karma and is not in the twelve links. The bodies of ordinary beings born there are not true duḥkha. Although many beings born in those pure lands still have self-grasping and other afflictions, these do not arise in manifest form, so they do not create karma for rebirth in unfortunate realms. Because they practice the path diligently, they no longer create karma for rebirth in saṃsāra and attain full awakening in the pure land.

  REFLECTION

  1. Review the stages of the path to liberation for those following the Śrāvaka Vehicle.

  2. Review the stages of the path to full awakening followed by those in the Bodhisattva Vehicle.

  3. Get a sense of your potential. Realize that you can progress through these paths and stages and attain the peaceful results.


  The Two Obscurations

  The minds of ordinary sentient beings are veiled by two types of obscurations: afflictive obscurations and cognitive obscurations. The former principally prevent liberation from saṃsāra; the latter are mainly obstacles to full awakening. The state of having eliminated afflictive obscurations is nirvāṇa, or liberation. The state of having additionally removed cognitive obscurations is full awakening, nonabiding nirvāṇa, and buddhahood.

  Afflictive obscurations (kleśāvaraṇa) are coarse and subtle self-grasping ignorance and its seeds and the three poisons of confusion, attachment, and animosity and their seeds. In short, afflictions and their seeds constitute afflictive obscurations.

  Cognitive obscurations (jñeyāvaraṇa) are more subtle and difficult to remove from the mindstream. Compared with afflictive obscurations, which are like onions in a pot, cognitive obscurations are like the smell that remains after the onions have been removed. Cognitive obscurations are the latencies of self-grasping ignorance, the latencies of the three poisons, the mistaken dualistic appearances that arise from them, and the defilement (āvaraṇa) of apprehending the two truths as different entities. All of these are abstract composites, not consciousnesses (although some contest this point).

  The word appearance does not adequately indicate the meaning of the Tibetan word snang ba, which can refer to either appearance or perception. By saying “appearance of inherent existence,” we may mistakenly think that the obscuration is external to our minds — that phenomena from their side appear inherently existent — whereas the obscuration is associated with our minds — we “perceive” inherent existence, which does not exist at all. Please keep this in mind when we talk about the appearance of inherent existence.

  The aspect of the mind that continues to have the mistaken appearance of inherent existence is called “manifest cognitive obscuration,” while the latencies left from the afflictions that cause these appearances are called “factors of a seed.” The latencies are subtle tendencies (T. bag la nyal). By their power, the mind continues to have the appearance of inherent existence.

  Mistaken dualistic appearances are the aspect of the mind that continues to have the mistaken appearances of all internal and external phenomena as existing inherently. This aspect of the mind obscures all six consciousnesses — the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness. Both ordinary beings and āryas who are not in meditative equipoise on emptiness have these mistaken dualistic appearances. The only consciousness in sentient beings’ continuums that lacks them is āryas’ exalted wisdom in meditative equipoise on emptiness.

  Within the appearance/perception of inherently existent objects, one part exists and one part does not. A flower exists, but its being inherently existent does not. The flower is not a cognitive obscuration, but its appearing to be inherently existent is. When the mind is freed from this mistaken appearance, conventionally existent things do not cease to exist; rather, they no longer appear inherently existent.

  The defilement of apprehending the two truths as different entities prevents seeing all phenomena — veiled truths and their emptiness — simultaneously. Since arhats and pure ground bodhisattvas have this defilement, they cannot simultaneously cognize the two truths. They must alternate consciousnesses: their meditative equipoise on emptiness sees only emptiness; veiled truths, which are the substrata — that is, they are the objects that are empty — do not appear to that mind focused on emptiness. When they arise from their meditative equipoise on emptiness in the time of subsequent attainment, they know conventionalities but cannot perceive their emptiness directly. Because this defilement has been eradicated in buddhahood, buddhas can directly and simultaneously know the two truths.

  Latencies of attachment and other afflictions also cause arhats to have dysfunctional behaviors of body and speech (dauṣṭhulya) that are breaches of discipline. Arhats may inadvertently jump around owing to the latency of attachment. They may spontaneously call someone a name owing to the latency of anger. Their clairvoyance may be unclear owing to the latency of ignorance. These infrequent occurrences are not due to any negative intention or ignorance on arhats’ part, for they have eliminated all afflictions. Candrakīrti’s Autocommentary to the “Supplement” says:

  Although arhats have abandoned afflictions, they have the latencies, due to which they will jump as they did when formerly they were monkeys . . . Those latencies are overcome only in omniscience and buddhahood, not in others.69

  The same idea is also found in later Pāli commentaries. They explain that although arhats have eliminated all obscurations due to afflictions, they still have latencies of afflictions, which can induce conduct that is a breach of decorum. This is because unlike the Buddha, arhats have not eliminated the obstruction to all-knowing and thus do not know all existents. The commentary to the Udāna says:

  A vāsanā [latency] is a mere capacity to behave in certain ways similar to the behavior of those who still have defilements; it is engendered by the defilements that have been harbored in the mind from beginningless time, and remain in the mental continuum of the arhat even after the defilements have been abandoned, as a mere habitual tendency. The vāsanās are not found in the mental continuum of a buddha, who removes the defilements by abandoning the obstruction to all-knowing, but they are found in the minds of hearers and solitary realizers.70

  An example is the bhikkhu Pilindavaccha. Although he was an arhat and had eradicated conceit and contempt, he continued to address fellow bhikṣus as outcastes. This occurred owing to the force of predispositions (latencies) established by his habitual behavior as a brahmin during five hundred previous lives.

  Some schools speak of non-afflictive ignorance. To Vaibhāṣikas, this mainly impedes attaining all-knowing and consists of the four causes of non-knowingness: (1) non-afflictive ignorance of the profound and subtle qualities of a buddha, (2–3) ignorance due to the distant place or time of the object, and (4) ignorance of the nature of the object, such as the subtle details of karma and its effects. According to Prāsaṅgikas, non-afflictive ignorance refers to the latencies of ignorance and is not a consciousness.

  Nirvāṇa

  All Buddhists seek nirvāṇa, but what is it? In general, nirvāṇa is a state or quality of mind. It is not an external place, nor is it something reserved for a select few. Nirvāṇa is attainable by each and every sentient being.

  Nirvāṇa is the ultimate nature of our minds — the emptiness of the mind that has been totally cleansed of obscurations. Wisdom directly realizes the emptiness of all phenomena, including the emptiness of the mind itself. This wisdom gradually purifies the mind of defilements. As it does so, the emptiness of that mind, which is one nature with that mind, is also purified. The purified state of the emptiness of the mind that is free from afflictive obscurations is an arhat’s nirvāṇa; the purified state of the emptiness of the mind that is free from both afflictive and cognitive obscurations is the nonabiding nirvāṇa of a buddha.

  All produced things naturally cease because momentary disintegration is part of their nature; their cessation doesn’t depend on some other cause or condition that is a counterforce. However, the true cessation that is the severance of afflictions does not occur in that way; it is not the natural disintegration of a thing when its causal energy ceases. True cessations come into existence due to wisdom, a counterforce that has been deliberately cultivated. Wisdom destroys ignorance such that it can never arise again; it severs the continuity of ignorance completely. By meditating on the reasonings that refute inherent existence and establish the lack of inherent existence, we generate the ārya path, the wisdom that directly realizes emptiness. This wisdom apprehends the opposite of ignorance. Whereas ignorance apprehends phenomena as inherently existent, wisdom apprehends them as empty of inherent existence. In this way, wisdom uproots ignorance and its seeds. By the cessation and nonarising of ignorance, all other afflictions cease as well. Formative actions also cease, as do the remaining links.
r />   There is debate whether nirvāṇa is a nonaffirming negative — a simple negation that doesn’t imply anything — or an affirming negative — a statement that negates one thing while implying a positive phenomenon. An example of the former is “The I is empty,” where nothing positive is implied. An example of the latter is “The I that is empty,” which asserts a positive phenomenon — the I — while negating it being inherently existent.

  Some people say nirvāṇa is an emptiness, the lack of inherent existence that never existed. This is a nonaffirming negative, a permanent phenomenon, and an ultimate truth. Others say nirvāṇa is the extinguishment of the afflictions, which did exist. It is an ultimate truth but not an emptiness. Here is how I see it. Nāgārjuna said (RA 42cd):

  Nirvāṇa is said to be the cessation of the notions of things and non-things.

  Nirvāṇa is the extinction of afflictions means not only that afflictions (things) have been extinguished but also that there are no inherently existent afflictions (non-things) in nirvāṇa. This beginningless absence of inherently existent afflictions is emptiness, an ultimate truth.

  The absence of afflictions that is nirvāṇa, a true cessation, is a non-affirming negative. The afflictions can never again arise because their causes have been completely eradicated. If nirvāṇa were an affirming negative, a having-ceased of the afflictions rather than their total extinguishment, then the afflictions could arise once again. This is because the having-ceased of impermanent phenomena such as the afflictions can produce a result. However, in nirvāṇa, the afflictions and their causes can never again reappear. Nirvāṇa is the emptiness of the mind that is totally purified of afflictions. Nothing else is being affirmed.