by Dalai Lama
27. P. sīlabbata-parāmāsa. The term has several different translations. In Pāli parāmāsa means “misapprehension.” It seems the corresponding Sanskrit term may be spelled similarly to the term meaning “supreme,” and thus the Tibetan term is often translated as “holding bad rules and practices as supreme.”
28. “Eternalism” in Buddhist philosophy is not the same as the eternalism that is a philosophy of time.
29. Tibetan Buddhism calls these sixty-two “bad views,” but does not speak of them in the context of the mental factor of wrong views. Tsongkhapa discusses these in Illumination of the Thought (Dgongs pa rab gsal).
30. This is sometimes translated as “shamelessness,” referring to the lack of the good kind of shame that feels badly about our poor behavior.
31. MN 148.28 speaks of three underlying tendencies: attachment to sensuality, anger, and ignorance. MN 64.3–6 speaks of five underlying tendencies: view of a personal identity, doubt, view holding bad rules and practices, sensual desire, and malice. These five are also the five lower fetters. The Jñānaprasthāna — the last text in the Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma — explains ten underlying tendencies that are the same as the ten root afflictions in the Sanskrit tradition.
32. See Padmanabh S. Jaini, “Smṛti in the Abhidharma Literature and Development of Buddhist Accounts of Memory of the Past,” in In the Mirror of Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, ed. Janet Gyatso (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), 47–60. Also see Collett Cox, “The Sarvāstivādin Path of Removing Defilements,” in Paths to Liberation: The Marga and Its Transformations in Buddhist Thought, ed. Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Robert M. Gimello (Honolulu: Kuroda Institute / University of Hawaii Press, 1992), 70–72.
33. Origin and disappearance refer to their transient nature. Gratification is the attraction or enjoyment we have, danger is the unpleasant consequences that come from afflictive involvement, and escape is the freedom we wish to attain.
34. The Treasury of Knowledge contains two other categories of defilements that overlap with these twenty. The ten full entanglements (pāryavasthāna) are: (1–2) Lack of integrity and inconsideration for others interfere with ethical conduct. (3–4) Jealousy (being mentally upset by another’s success) and miserliness (possessiveness that opposes giving Dharma, possessions, and skills) are inconsistent with benefiting others. (5) Restlessness is agitation. (6–7) Regret and lethargy are inconsistent with concentration. (8) Sleep is the gathering in of the mind that leaves one incapable of controlling the body. Sleep and regret are full entanglements only when they are afflictive. In the Compendium of Knowledge regret and sleep are listed as variable mental factors because they may accompany virtuous mental states. (9) Wrath includes all types of anger directed at sentient beings and inanimate objects (except malice and harmfulness). (10) Concealment is hiding disgraceful behavior.
The six stains (mala) are: (1–2) Pretension (misleading others) and deceit (crookedness of mind that leads to acting in a distorted manner) are forms of dishonesty. (3) Haughtiness is smug complacency. (4) Spite is holding firmly to disgraceful behavior and not accepting good advice. (5) Resentment is continued animosity. (6) Harmfulness is cruelty that injures others with weapons or harsh words.
35. According to Asaṅga, the definitions of pretention and deceit are reversed.
36. Bhikkhu Bodhi differentiates these two, saying that the auxiliary affliction of arrogance is a manifest affliction, whereas the underlying tendency of arrogance is an unmanifest potential or seed that will become a manifest affliction when provocative circumstances are encountered. Personal correspondence.
37. After speaking of the pollutants, Vasubandhu addresses the floods (ogha) and yokes (yoga), saying they are four in number: attachment, existence, ignorance, and views. They are called floods because they carry us away to rebirth in saṃsāra. They are called yokes because they tie us to rebirth in saṃsāra. He does not include views as a pollutant because the pollutants establish us in saṃsāra, whereas views alone, without being associated with other afflictions, are not sufficient to do this.
38. View of extremes holds the aggregates to be either eternal or nonexistent. According to the Vaibhāṣika and Sautrāntika schools, when one attains nirvāṇa without remainder, the aggregates cease to exist, so there is no person who actually possesses this type of nirvāṇa because without the aggregates, a person cannot exist. Since one part of view of extremes holds the aggregates to be nonexistent and accords with the above way of defining nirvāṇa without remainder, this view is neutral, not nonvirtuous.
39. See The Foundation of Buddhist Practice, chapter 3.
40. Here we note a difference between true origins, which include karma, and afflictive obscurations, which do not. True origins are the source of all types of duḥkha; afflictive obscurations are what must be overcome to attain liberation. Once afflictions are overcome, the karma causing rebirth can no longer ripen.
41. The Pāli tradition does not set out five paths, as does the Sanskrit tradition. It speaks of seeing and meditation, but not the path of seeing or the path of meditation.
42. Cittamātrins have a complex presentation of seeds and latencies and how they produce both the object and the consciousness cognizing it. This explanation will be saved for a later volume in the series.
43. The Tibetan word nang wa can be translated as either “appearance” or “perception.” “Appearance of inherent existence” makes it seem that the problem is on the object’s side — that phenomena appear inherently existent. However, the problem is actually on the subject’s side — the mind is obscured and perceives things as if they were inherently existent. But “perceive” is not exactly the right word either, because it implies direct perception, and inherent existence also appears to conceptual consciousnesses.
44. Vaibhāṣikas are an exception to this. Their position differs from that of the Prāsaṅgikas with whom we are now concerned.
45. These were described while commenting on the meaning of dhammatā, the nature of things, in DN 14.
46. This and other examples from DN 14 are commonly given in the ancient commentaries. More research needs to be done on the meaning of dharma causality. Bhikkhu Bodhi speculates that it may include the causality of progressing on the path, with one realization being the cause of the next.
47. See Leti Sayadaw, The Niyama-dipani: The Manual of Cosmic Order, http://mahajana.net/texts/kopia_lokalna/MANUAL04.html.
48. Pratītyasamutpāda is translated as “dependent origination” when speaking about the twelve links and as “dependent arising” when speaking of the broader sense in which all phenomena are dependent and therefore empty of true existence.
49. The length of a moment varies according to the context from the tiniest nanosecond to the length of time to complete something to a lifetime. Here it refers to the length of time it takes for first-link ignorance to cause second-link formative action.
50. Geshe Lhundrup Sopa, with David Patt, Steps on the Path to Enlightenment: A Commentary on Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo, vol. 2, Karma (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2005), 326.
51. Chim Jampalyang, Ornament of Abhidharma: A Commentary on Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmako´sa, trans. Ian James Coghlan (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2019), 411.
52. The bardo may last up to forty-nine days. If a new rebirth has not been found, at the end of each week there is a mini-death at which time it is possible for a new karma to ripen.
53. Pāli Abhidhamma commentaries say that in the moment just after the cessation of the rebirth-linking consciousness, the same type of consciousness apprehending the same object continues uninterruptedly when there is no cognitive process, until the arising of death consciousness. This consciousness is called the life-continuum. According to a more detailed explanation, the bhavaṅga follows immediately after the rebirth-linking consciousness and is a product of the same karma that produced the rebirth-linking consciousness. The bha
vaṅga is a deep, underlying consciousness that accounts for the continuity of mind coming from the living being in the previous life. It is not a continuous consciousness, an independent consciousness, or a permanent self; it arises and passes away in each micro-moment. During the lifetime, the bhavaṅga arises whenever there isn’t a cognitive process, maintaining the continuity of mind. At the end of life, the life-continuum becomes the death consciousness. After death, the rebirth-linking consciousness and so forth of another set of twelve links occur. In this way, the mindstream (P. cittasantāna) flows on from conception until death and from death to the new birth, revolving like the wheel of a cart (CMA 228).
54. In other contexts “name” includes consciousness and refers to the mind as a whole.
55. This is from the Sūtra viewpoint. From the Tantric perspective, beings in the formless realm still have a very subtle body — the subtlest wind that is one nature with the subtlest mind.
56. This is according to Chim Jampalyang’s commentary on the Treasury of Knowledge.
57. See LC 1:311–12.
58. These seven are the mental contemplations of a mere beginner, individual knowledge of the character, belief, thorough isolation, withdrawal or joy, analysis, and final training. Sometimes an eighth contemplation, the mental contemplation of the result of final training, is listed. This is the actual dhyāna or meditative absorption.
59. Daniel Cozort, Unique Tenets of the Middle Way Consequence School (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1998), 182.
60. The Pāli tradition prescribes the eightfold path as the remedy to cyclic existence.
61. Among the eighteen early schools the Sarvāstivāda, which later became influential in Tibet, asserted an intermediate state between one life and the next. The Theravāda commentarial tradition rejected this, saying that the consciousness separates from one body and in the very next moment the rebirth consciousness takes place in the new existence. Nevertheless, there is mention in the Pāli sūtras of the “being to be reborn,” or gandhabba (MN 38.26 and MN 93.18). The Pāli sūtras do not explain the meaning of gandhabba, but treat it as if the listeners already understood its meaning. Buddhaghoṣa explained a gandhabba as a being who is going to be reborn — that is, the consciousness of a being who has passed away that is in a condition suitable for taking rebirth. In the case of a human birth, the gandhabba will be born as the child of two parents with whom it has a karmic connection.
In other contexts, gandhabba refers to semi-divine spirits inhabiting forests and plants or to a type of celestial musician.
62. Geshe Yeshe Tabkhye, “Dependent Arising, the King of Reasons Used to Distinguish the Ontological Status of All Things,” trans. Geshe Damdul Namgyal and Joshua W. C. Cutler, unpublished manuscript. This essay on dependent arising acts as an introduction to Kamalaśīla’s commentary on the Rice Seedling Sūtra, which Geshe Thabkhe translated into Hindi.
63. The sūtra’s Tibetan title is Yod pa nyid la sogs pa’i bye brag rnam par ‘byad pa zhes bya ba’i chos kyi rnam grangs kyi mdo. The sūtra passage is cited in Vasubandhu’s Explanation of the Divisions of the First Factor of Dependent Arising (DK, vol. chi, 5a, 4.xz; the citation is from Geshe Thabkhe’s unpublished manuscript, “Dependent Arising”).
64. Excerpt from Geshe Thabkhe’s unpublished manuscript, “Dependent Arising.”
65. See The Foundation of Buddhist Practice, chapter 2, for an explanation of reliable and unreliable awarenesses.
66. There is discussion regarding to what extent this joy is physical, because input from the five senses is subdued as concentration deepens.
67. Usually joy is said to accompany the first dhyāna, although here it arises before the attainment of access concentration, which is prior to the first dhyāna.
68. An exception is someone who followed the śrāvaka or solitary realizer path to arhatship, later entered the Mahāyāna, and is on the bodhisattva path of accumulation or preparation.
69. Jeffrey Hopkins, Maps of the Profound (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2003), 692.
70. John Ireland, The Udāna and the Itivuttaka (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 2007), 200.
71. A difficulty arises in speaking of nirvāṇa with remainder in this way. In the lifetime that they attain liberation, arhats may be beings in the desire, form, or formless realm. Clearly those in the desire and form realms have polluted bodies. Arhats in the formless realm have only four mental aggregates, so we cannot say their bodies are polluted. Saying their mental aggregates are polluted is awkward because their mindstreams are temporarily free from afflictions owing to their deep concentration. Thus it is a bit difficult to posit an illustration or an example of the polluted aggregates of formless-realm arhats. On the other hand, it is difficult to say that they have no polluted aggregates, because they have nirvāṇa with remainder in their continuums.
72. Espousing three final vehicles, Cittamātra Scriptural Proponents do not assert that arhats directed exclusively to their own personal peace enter the Mahāyāna. However, they say that an arhat whose liberation is transformed can enter the Mahāyāna and attain buddhahood. He makes this transition from nirvāṇa with remainder; it cannot occur from nirvāṇa without remainder because the continuity of mind has ceased at that time.
73. This and the two citations below from the Udāna were translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
74. Pāli commentaries say that all āryas from stream-enterers on up can gain access to this state. However, some people say that there doesn’t seem to be evidence for this position in the sūtras: according to the sūtras, arhats alone can enter this samādhi.
75. Bhikkhu Bodhi, personal correspondence, August 6, 2017.
76. This is another case of the name of the result being given to the cause. His Holiness gave another example: A commentary to the Ornament refers to great compassion as the Bhagawati — the one who is completely subdued — indicating the Buddha. In fact, great compassion is neither full awakening nor the one who is completely subdued. Rather, the name of the result — Bhagawati — is being given to the cause — compassion — because great compassion is an essential cause of buddhahood.
77. Questions that spark much debate arise: What does it mean for a consciousness to exist or be present? If the clear light mind exists but is not active while the coarse consciousnesses are manifest, is it present? There are two main views. According to one view, if a consciousness is present, it needs to be manifest. In this case, the clear light mind is present only when the coarse consciousnesses have subsided and it is manifest. But in that case, the clear light mind would not exist continuously, so how could it be the basis for saṃsāra and nirvāṇa?
According to the other view, a consciousness need not be manifest in order to be present. It may also be present in a dormant form. In this case, the clear light mind is present even when someone is going about their daily life and the coarse consciousnesses are active.
This brings up a further question: For a consciousness to exist, it must have an object, so if the innate clear light mind exists and is present while the coarse consciousnesses are manifest, what is its apprehended object? When the coarse levels of mind are active, they are dominant and are cognizing their apprehended objects. In that case, the subtler mind would be inactive and not apprehend anything. Lacking an apprehended object, how can we say that consciousness exists? On the other hand, that consciousness is the basis for saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, so how can it not exist continuously? This is a thorny topic!
Everyone agrees that when the coarse levels of mind have been absorbed, the innate clear light mind is manifest. In ordinary beings, this occurs primarily at the time of death. This subtlest clear light mind is free from afflictions because they were absorbed when the coarse minds and winds ceased functioning during the dying process. As such, unlike the coarse states of mind, this clear light mind can never be nonvirtuous or afflictive, and through tantric practice it may be transformed into virtue. This is one reason why Tantra is said to be
profound.
78. Several other terms are also used in the discussion of buddha nature. In some circumstances they are used interchangeably, in others they have a slightly different meaning. In addition to the above terms, other terms include buddha essence (tathāgatagarbha, T. bde bzhin gsegs pa’i snying po) and element of sentient beings (sattvadhātu, T. sems can gyi khams), or simply element. Gotra (T. rigs), which is translated as nature or disposition, as in buddha nature or buddha disposition, may also be translated as lineage, trait, or family.
79. The Cittamātra Scriptural Proponents is the only Mahāyāna tenet school asserting that not all sentient beings can attain full awakening. Some people postulate that speaking of icchantikas is done to warn practitioners not to become lax or negligent.
80. There are different views about whether the five sense consciousnesses are included in the transforming buddha nature. Some sages say they are not, because alone the sense consciousnesses do not have the ability to accomplish the path — they are neither stable nor continuous. Only the mental consciousness can practice and realize the path. The mental consciousness leads the sense consciousnesses, which alone are blind with respect to emptiness. Others say that because the sense consciousnesses go with the mental consciousness to awakening they are part of buddha nature. The mental consciousness generates bodhicitta and realizes emptiness, so the sense consciousnesses also attain awakening.
81. These are the stages that spiritual practitioners actualize as they progress toward their spiritual goal.
82. Tsong-kha-pa Lo-sang-drak-pa, “Extensive Explanation of (Chandrakīrti’s) ‘Supplement to (Nāgārjuna’s) “Treatise on the Middle”’: Illumination of the Thought,” trans. Jeffrey Hopkins, unpublished manuscript.
83. Both Cittamātrins and Mādhyamikas agree that afflictions are adventitious, but they differ in explaining how they are adventitious. This affects their explanations of the clear light mind. Cittamātrins say the clarity and cognizance that are hallmarks of the conventional nature of the mind constitute the buddha nature. Because mental factors come and go while the nature of the mind remains clear and cognizant, they say the afflictions are not an inherent property of the mind. Nāgārjuna and the Prāsaṅgikas assert that because the mind is primordially pure of inherent existence, the afflictions derived from self-grasping ignorance are not an inherent property of mind. In short, whereas the Cittamātrins explain the undefiled nature of the clear light mind from the viewpoint of its conventional nature, Nāgārjuna does so from the viewpoint of its ultimate nature.