The Lankavatara Sutra

by Red Pine

  412 Samsara refers to birth and death and is the counterpoint to nirvana. The Buddha’s teaching here is aimed at those shravakas who would deny their own existence in order to get free of the suffering of existence.

  413 The Buddha talks of existence and rebirth as skillful means to those not ready for the teaching of no-birth, of non-arising. Thus, he urges them to do good deeds and accumulate merit so that they will enjoy a good rebirth where they will hear the teaching of non-arising once more.

  414 Bodhiruchi and Shikshananda omit ch’ao (transcend, rise above).

  415 Section XLVI. Over the past few sections, Mahamati has shown that he is still clinging to words. Words, phrases, letters—these are all traps for meaning. Once you catch the meaning, forget the trap.

  416 The Sanskrit is naman-pada-vyanjana-kaya (word-phrase-letter-unit), where kaya (body) is glossed as sumukti (combination).

  417 The Sanskrit vyanjana refers to a written letter but also to that elementary unit of linguistics known as a “phone,” which includes consonants and vowels.

  418 The Sanskrit pad means “foot.” Following footprints, the animal is found. Following phrases, the meaning is discovered. But once the meaning is discovered, words and phrases can be forgotten.

  419 The formless skandhas include sensation, perception, memory, and consciousness: aspects of our awareness we can name but cannot point to.

  420 Section XLVII. Having dealt with speech, the Buddha now deals with silence. During his years as a teacher, the Buddha declined to answer certain questions as not answerable, such as whether the universe is eternal, or whether the body and soul are one or separate, or whether a tathagata exists after death. But he also used silence when the question was not worthy of a response. Here, however, his silence does not have so much to do with the question as with the questioner.

  421 These four possibilities, repeated endlessly throughout this sutra, summarize the views of other paths whose validity the Buddha denied. Thus, the Buddha taught his disciples to avoid them. See also Section L.

  422 Referring to the skandhas of form, sensation, perception, memory, and consciousness.

  423 Form and the formless skandhas (sensation, perception, memory, consciousness) represent individual characteristics, while whether the skandhas are permanent or impermanent, the same or different, represent shared characteristics.

  424 In the abhidharma matrices of various Buddhist sects, the Sanskrit term samskara refers to anything created or conditioned and includes everything except space and two kinds of cessation and, according to some sects, nirvana. The same term also refers to one of the five skandhas.

  425 Referring to the four elements of earth, water, wind, and fire, or of solidity, fluidity, mobility, and heat.

  426 The Buddha only lists one possibility among the many proposed by followers of other paths as to whether one’s life/spirit is the same as or different from one’s body. As to the origin of our life and body, followers of some schools attributed them to our parents, others to a creator. Hence, it came down to a matter of belief versus a refusal or inability to answer.

  427 With those whose roots are mature, the Buddha speaks all day without saying a single word. With those whose roots are immature, the Buddha doesn’t speak and yet still speaks.

  428 Section XLVIII. The Buddha returns to Mahamati’s earlier claim that for things to be both non-arising and illusory is a contradiction. The Buddha likens Mahamati’s attachment to words to an elephant in a quagmire and considers the possibility of responding with silence but decides to teach with direct statements instead. Thus, he addresses the major contentions of followers of other paths to which he often remained silent. Not only do projections not arise, nothing arises.

  429 Because a characteristic appears, there must be a time when it was not present. Thus, it cannot possibly be permanent.

  430 Because a characteristic appears, it is no longer rising. Hence, its non-arising exists.

  431 Thus, there is no need to look beyond what exists for what does not arise or for what is permanent.

  432 Of the following three verses, the first two refer to the previous section. Hence, the separation of these two sections is artificial.

  433 Two prominent schools of Hindu philosophy.

  434 Section XLIX. The Buddha introduces the four levels of attainment that characterize the shravaka path. Although shravakas are criticized throughout this sutra as not worthy of emulation, in this section the Buddha treats their attainments, and the relinquishing of their attainments, as stages on the path to personal realization.

  435 The two kinds of no-self include no self among persons and no self among dharmas or things, while the two obstructions referred to are those of passion and knowledge.

  436 The first fruit of the shravaka path is that of the srota-apanna. The term srota-apanna means “those who find the river”—the river of impermanence.

  437 These three are selected from a longer list of ten delusions, which include five simple delusions: desire, anger, delusion, pride, and doubt, and five acute delusions: belief in a body, extreme views, heterodoxies, obsessions, attachment to codes. In this case, belief in a body is an elementary problem suffered by all srota-apannas, while attachment to codes bedevils the advanced practitioner.

  438 The Sanskrit is sahaja (born together, natural). The meaning is that belief in a body is the fundamental ignorance with which each life begins.

  439 These are two of the three modes of reality, the third being perfected reality. Belief in a body based on the skandha of form is an example of dependent reality and is innate. Belief in a body based on the four formless skandhas is an example of imagined reality and is a projection.

  440 This last clause is not clear in any version. I’ve followed Gunabhadra, I think.

  441 In this case, what exists is form and what does not exist are the four formless skandhas. Their non-appearance would be death.

  442 There are three objects of doubt: reasoning, doctrines, and teachers.

  443 This refers to those who are reborn as a human in the realm of desire once more, after which they attain liberation in one of the heavens in the realm of form.

  444 This refers to those who are not reborn in the realm of desire but in the highest heaven in the realm of form, where they then attain liberation.

  445 All translations read this paragraph differently. I’ve followed Gunabhadra.

  446 This refers to those who are free from rebirth in any of the three realms and who attain nirvana at the end of this life.

  447 This is how Gunabhadra and Bodhiruchi read this paragraph. Shikshananda reads it differently: “this refers to those who attain meditations, samadhis, liberations, higher powers, and masteries and whose passions, sufferings, and projections no longer exist.”

  448 These refer to the four boundless meditations (apramana or brahma-vihara) in which practitioners give rise to feelings of infinite friendship, compassion, joy, and equanimity and to the meditations in the four formless heavens (arupya-dhatu).

  449 The word mieh (cessation) is missing from Gunabhadra’s translation. Apparently a copyist error, it appears in Bodhiruchi and Shikshananda. It also appears in Gunabhadra’s summarizing verse.

  450 The highest of nine meditations (samjna-vedita-nirodha-samapatti).

  451 This poems also appears at the beginning of Section XXI.

  452 Section L. Two kinds of knowing, one that functions in private and leads to liberation, and one that functions in public and leads to attachment. These also refer back, respectively, to object meditation and beginner meditation in Section XXXVII.

  453 The Sanskrit is buddhi.

  454 This is quite a mouthful in Sanskrit: vikalpa-lakshana-graha-abhinivesha-pratishthapika.

  455 As elsewhere in this sutra, the tetralemma of four possibilities is only applied to the first series. The reader is expected to fill in the missing possibilities: namely, “both existence and nonexistence” and “both permanence and impermanence, a
nd neither permanence nor impermanence.”

  456 These comprise the syllogistic logic used by other paths to establish what is real. Here, however, “characteristics” have been added to the standard trio of proposition, reason/cause, and example/metaphor.

  457 The dharma cloud (dharma-megha) stage is the tenth and final stage of the bodhisattva path.

  458 This is not a reference to the ten vows made by bodhisattvas at the beginning of the path but to a different set of vows made at the end of the path. Focused on the liberation of beings, they begin with: “If beings are inexhaustible, my vow is inexhaustible.” The same vows are then applied to worlds, space, the realm of reality, nirvana, the appearances of buddhas, the knowledge of a tathagata, the objects of the mind, the realms entered by buddha knowledge, and the knowledge that turns the wheel of the Dharma.

  459 This list of attainments is a short version of a longer list that appears in the Mahayana Samparigraha Shashtra. This last sentence also presents in summary form the characteristics of the three bodies of every buddha.

  460 Section LI. The nature of what we consider the material world is explained differently by different schools, Buddhist or otherwise. But a common concept in all their explanations is that of the four elements: water, heat, wind, and earth as the basis of the material world. The Buddha does not deny the material world, only that the way we identify and thus know objects in that world, including the world itself, is a product of our minds. This section, thus, refers back to “object meditation” of Section XXXVII.

  461 The Sanskrit is bhuta (or maha-bhuta) for the elements and bhautika for the elemental forms compounded of the elements, namely the five sense organs and the five sensations.

  462 Name, appearance, and projection are the first three of the five dharmas—the other two being correct knowledge and suchness.

  463 Consciousness here represents the four formless skandhas (sensation, perception, memory, and consciousness), while the four elements represent the skandha of form. The Buddha mentions consciousness because, if the five skandhas were created by the four elements, when the body dies, consciousness should cease. But it doesn’t. Hence, the four elements cannot be the cause of consciousness.

  464 The reference here is to the skandhas and back to the statement in the previous paragraph that the skandhas arise from the elements.

  465 The Sanskrit is bhava-linga-lakshana-grahana-samsthana-kriya-yoga-vat. I’ve followed Gunabhadra, who takes these as comprising the necessary concomitants of the skandha of form.

  466 Even if the four elements could be linked to the skandha of form, they cannot be linked to the four formless skandhas of sensation, perception, memory, and consciousness.

  467 Section LII. Having said that the four elements do not give rise to the five skandhas, the Buddha proceeds to review the five skandhas, which turn out to be empty. And although the skandhas or anything else that might be used to characterize the individual are empty of anything that might exist by itself, they also form the basis by means of which bodhisattvas help others.

  468 At the beginning of this sentence, Sanskrit texts insert this: “Because they lack anything on which to depend and because they obstruct the practice of buddha knowledge.” However, none of the Chinese translations follows suit.

  469 Gunbhadra does not say what to get rid of. I’ve added “projections” from Bodhiruchi and Shikshananda.

  470 The Sanskrit is vivikta (separation/detachment), which is also used with the meaning of nirvana in LXX and LXXVII.

  471 The unshakeable (acala) stage is the eighth stage of the bodhisattva path, which is marked by the forbearance of non-arising. However, Bodhiruchi, Shikshananda, and the Sanskrit text all have the distant journey (duramgama) stage, which is the seventh stage.

  472 The Sanskrit is mano-maya-kaya (mind-made body). Some also call it the “astral body.” See Section XLVII as well as Section LVII for more on this.

  473 Section LIII. The Buddha reviews four heterodox views of nirvana, all of which involve the end of consciousness. He then presents his own view that it is the cessation of conceptual consciousness. In Section XXXVIII, he says transformation of consciousness is nirvana. Same thing.

  474 These four kinds of nirvana present the progressive cessation of the skandhas of form, sensation, perception, and memory.

  475 The consciousness that projects is also called conceptual consciousness. It is the sixth form of consciousness whose function is to conceptualize the sensations of the five forms of sensory consciousness.

  476 The Sanskrit for conceptual consciousness is mano-vijnana.

  477 The seventh form of consciousness is the will, or self-consciousness. The Sanskrit is manas. Some commentators interpret “seventh” here and throughout this section as referring to “the seven” other forms of consciousness and not just to the seventh. However, this section only talks about the sixth, seventh, and the eighth forms of consciousness and not the other five. Moreover, the Buddha nowhere advocates the cessation of the eighth form of consciousness, only its transformation. Hence, the last line of the text cannot be referring to “the seven” other forms of consciousness.

  478 Shikshananda misunderstands the thrust of this line and has the seventh form of consciousness arising.

  479 The Sanskrit for repository consciousness is alaya-vijnana.

  480 The will is the seventh form of consciousness in the scheme of eight forms of consciousness.

  481 That is, a body that survives from one life to the next.

  482 The Sanskrit is citta-kalapa and refers to all eight forms of consciousness. However, in this section only the sixth, seventh, and eighth are mentioned.

  483 This poem is handled differently by each translator. I’ve read the entire poem as part of the commentary on conceptual (projecting) consciousness that begins with the previous poem and ends with the following poem.

  484 Section LIV. Having said that the cessation of conceptual consciousness, the consciousness that projects, is nirvana, the Buddha now reviews a dozen types of projection. Once one understands that the realms on which they are based have no self-existence, projections no longer arise. And when projections cease, one attains the personal realization of buddha knowledge. Also of note here is the relationship between imagined reality and dependent reality stated at the end of this section and which dominates the subsequent section. Because imagined reality is based on projections, and projections have no self-existence, it is the same as perfected reality. This was not lost on China’s early Zen masters who often turned to this identity in their teaching.

  485 Along with the dependent and perfected modes, this is one of the three modes of reality. The Sanskrit is parikalpita-svabhava.

  486 In Section XXXIX, the Buddha says there are two kinds of self-existence, one of which involves words and the other of which involves objects. The twelve kinds of projection listed here can be subsumed under these two headings.

  487 Thus, projections concerning the teachings of buddhas are meant.

  488 Referring to the four elements.

  489 If I have understood this correctly, and I’m not sure I have, it would seem that the entities that have no cause are projections of non-arising.

  490 This “golden thread” was a term used by fortune-tellers in India in reference to good fortune coursing through one’s life. Bodhiruchi also has “golden thread.” However Shikshananda and the Sanskrit have “needle and thread.”

  491 Continuity here refers to the belief by followers of other paths in a continuous substance that survives death.

  492 This is aimed at Hinayana practitioners, who see samsara as bondage and nirvana as emancipation.

  493 This represents the position of Paramartha: that imagined reality and dependent reality are connected. Hsuan-tsang’s view was that they are not connected.

  494 Section LV. The Buddha does not so much repeat what was said in the previous section as expound on something that appeared in the background, namely, the three modes of real
ity. As before, he tells Mahamati to transcend projection. But transcending projection does not mean going beyond it, for there is no place to leave and no place to go to.

  495 Imagined reality does not come from dependent reality. It is a misperception of it.

  496 Conventional truth is based on a material world, and ultimate truth is based on the emptiness of that world. Meanwhile, the truth of other schools is based on a creator or first cause that is itself free from cause and is the origin of all worlds.

  497 This and the previous two comparisons refer to the three modes of reality: imagined reality (someone who contemplates), dependent reality (cataracts), and perfected reality (gold), all of which turn out to be without self-existence and thus not realities at all.

  498 An example given by commentators for this last line has flowers in the sky producing fruit.

  499 This refers to the twelve projections of the previous section. The Sanskrit text alone has “ten.”

  500 The referent of this is uncertain. Some commentators say it refers to mind, will, conceptual consciousness, body, world, and seeds. Others cite the six kinds of causes listed in Section XXXI: immanent, connecting, apparent, instrumental, manifesting, and potential. My own sense is that it refers to the five forms of sensory consciousness along with conceptual consciousness.

  501 The Sanskrit is tathata, the fifth of the five dharmas. That is, they distinguish them without distinguishing them. There is nothing outside of suchness.

  502 This verse summarizes the relationships between the first three of the five dharmas (appearance, name, and projection) and the two modes of imagined and dependent reality.

  503 Bodhiruchi, Shikshananda, and the Sanskrit insert the following verse here: “If perfected reality was real / it wouldn’t exist nor not exist / and if it neither existed nor not / where would the two realities be.” I’ve based this translation on Shikshananda’s version. Since it is missing in Gunabhadra and does not follow from the previous verse, I have relegated it to the notes.