PART II THE THREE DOORS OF LIBERATION

We have just completed the discussion on the teaching of the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence. Through the study and analysis of the teaching of the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence we realize that this teaching is the fundamental for one who wishes to practise the Buddhist teachings. However, what follows we will discuss, are more special and propound, from the perspective of Mahāyāna ideas, – the Three Doors of Liberation. The realm of the Three Doors of Liberation is very different from that of the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence. If the teaching of the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence is represented on the basis of the arising and ceasing of all phenomena – the realm of birth-and-death, then the teaching of the Three Doors of Liberation escapes all; it will give us an opportunity to understand a realm wherein there is no birth and no death – that is the realm of liberation. The teaching of the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence, for the researcher, is the fundamental teaching, and is also the key to enter the Three Doors of Liberation. If we don‘t understand the teaching of the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence we will not understand the teaching of the Three Doors of Liberation, and the way to liberation will never be fulfilled. The Three Doors of Liberation (Trivimokṣa-mukha), which comprehend Emptiness (śūnyatā), Signlessness (animitta), and Wishlessness (apraṇihita) as its members, are accepted

124 by all schools of ; however the Theravāda school does not emphasize this wonderful teaching, but it is there.257 These Three Doors which are sometimes called the Three Concentrations (Trisamādhi), are widely recommended as subjects of practice. Among these three, Emptiness may be regarded as the most fundamental, embodying the other two. The Buddha in the Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra says that ―All are void, signless, and wishless. You must shun signs, existence, and the false that there are beings.‖258 When we apply this teaching into the religious life, and when we truly enter these doors, we dwell in concentration and are liberated from fear, confusion, and sadness.

257 , The Heart of the Buddha‟s Teachings - Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation, New York: Rider, 1999, p. 146. 258 The Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 482.

CHAPTER 1 EMPTINESS

Emptiness (śūnyatā) is much the best known. The sentence ―All things are empty‖ was very popular in Mahāyāna Buddhism. It means that everything is non-existent, that all experienced phenomena are empty (śūnya) and vain, and thus that all objects and qualities are negated in both ontological and ethical sense. But this negation is not mere nothingness. It rather indicates an affirmative absolute being, freed from objectifications and qualifications. The notion of emptiness is, although, significant in most versions of Buddhism, it is crucial to Mahāyāna Buddhism. The term ―śūnya‖ appears quite early, in the period of Theravāda Buddhism, but Mahāyāna Buddhism, which arose later, at about the time of Christ, made this notion of emptiness its fundamental standpoint. According to Edward Conze, the term is used sparsely in the scriptures of the Sthaviras, and on occasion it may represent an old tradition but indicates Mahāyāna influence.259 The notion of emptiness has various particular nuances in the different Mahāyāna schools. According to the Mādhyamaka, it is equivalent to dependent origination (pratītya-samutpāda); meanwhile, for the Yogācāra, it is a direct realization of the non-existence of a perceiving subject and perceived object, said to be the natural state of the mind. In the philosophical doctrine of Śūnyavāda (the Way of Emptiness), it is not to be equated

259 Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India - Three Phases of , Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2002, p. 59.

126 with nihilism since the term is equivalent in meaning to suchness (tathatā) and ultimately reality or ultimate truth (-dhātu).

1. THE MEANING OF EMPTINESS

Emptiness is the English word, translated from the term, ‗śūnyatā‘. Its objective is ‗śūnya‘. The term ‗śūnya‘ seems to derive from the root ‗śvi‘ ‗to swell‘; the connection apparently being that something which looks swollen from the outside is hollow inside.260

Indian mathematicians called the zero, which they had invented, ‗śūnya‘,261 and the term ‗śūnya‘ then was understood as ‗nothing‘. This meaning is not suitable to the Buddhist emptiness. Although the term ‗śūnyatā‘ can be understood as emptiness, void, vacuum, blank, sky, space, atmosphere, non-existence, non-entity or absolute non-existence, utterly devoid or deprived of, etc.,262 but in Buddhism, it should not be understood as ‗nothingness‘. According to Buddhism, emptiness always means empty of something, it does not mean ‗nothingness‘.

The Cūḷasuññata-sutta tells us that the palace of Migāra‘s mother is although empty of elements of elephants, cows, horses and mares, empty of gold and silver, empty of assemblages of men and women, but not empty of the order of monks. Likewise, a monk, when practices on emptiness, even when he reaches the highest stage of in the formless world, his mind is free from all canker of ‗outflowing impurities‘ (āsava) and obtains Arhatship; and yet there remains the disturbance of the six sensory fields that, conditioned by

260 Edward Conze, Buddhism, New York: Philosophical Library. n.d., p. 130. 261 Gadjin M. Nagao, Mādhyamika and Yogācāra, Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1992, p. 209. 262 Thomas E. Wood, Nagarjunian Disputations: A Philosophical Journey Through an Indian Looking-Glass, Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1995, p. 126.

127 life, are grounded in this body itself. Thus his corporeal being, which even the can never nullify, is his ultimate disturbance.

He regards that which is not there as empty of it. But in regard to what remains he comprehends: ‗That being, this is‘. Thus, Ānanda, this comes to be for him a true, not mistaken, utterly purified and incomparably highest realization of (the concept of) emptiness.263

It is obvious that emptiness in Buddhism is not nothingness. According to Gadjin M. Nagao, the Sutta states that emptiness is non- being on the one hand but that there is, on the other hand, something remaining therein which, being reality, cannot be negated. Emptiness includes both being and non-being, both negation and affirmation. He concludes this is the true definition of emptiness.264 However, the researcher does not agree with this idea, because if we understand the meaning of emptiness in the Sutta in this way, we will fail to explain the statement of the Buddha in the Sūtra of the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines where he goes further to describe emptiness as the immeasurable: ―And what is emptiness, that is also immeasurableness.‖265

For the researcher, emptiness means purity. When the mind is impure, one will see things to be impure. With the impure mind, he will make a distinction between things: this thing is good, this thing is bad, this thing is neither good nor bad, and so forth. The notion of two extremes like good and evil, subject and object, existence and non- existence, dharma and adharma, etc. also arise therefrom. The notion

263 M. N., III, N0: 121. 264 Gadjin M. Nagao, Mādhyamika and Yogācāra, Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1992, p. 53. 265 The Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 347.

128 of the self is not the exceptive. His mind then will become limited within the notion of a thing to which he tends. This notion, according to Buddhism, especially to the Yogācāra School, is merely the imagination of the mind. When the mind is purified, the limit of all notions: good – evil, subject – object, like – dislike, existence – non-existence, dharma – adharma, etc. will be escaped; the notion of the self will also be nullified; the things then will naturally become pure. It is true that things are impure owing to the mind is impure. When the mind becomes pure, one realizes that things never be impure. As the saying goes ‗The scene never be beautiful when one is in the state of unhappiness‘. When the mind escapes the limit of all notions and becomes pure, it will become immeasurable, and the things then will also become immeasurable. This is the meaning of emptiness, and is also the reason why ‗Enlightenment‘ or ‗Nirvāṇa‘ to be described as ‗emptiness‘ or ‗immeasurableness‘, and the nature of all dharmas is equal to the Buddha‘s nature.

Understanding emptiness in this way we can easily understand why some scholars explain emptiness as the absence of something,266 or emptiness is understood as ‗conditioned existence‘.267 (The former explains emptiness on the basis of non-self, meanwhile the latter stresses much on the conditioned co-production). The absence can be understood here, is the absence of the notion of the ‗self‘ or ‗intrinsic being‘, the notion of the two extremes, distinguishing mind; briefly, it is the absence of all imagination minds. The Theravādins explain

266 See: Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India - Three Phases of Buddhist Philosophy, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2002, pp. 59-60; Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Heart of the Buddha‟s Teaching- Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation, New York: Rider, 1999, p. 146. 267 Har Dayal, The Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, p. 244.

129 emptiness as the absence of the self, because the Buddha in The Godatta Sermon says that ―void is this of self or of what pertains to self.‖268 With this explanation, emptiness is synonymous with the third characteristic of existence – Non-self.269 The Mahāyānists, especially the Prāsaṅgikas explain things do not possess the intrinsic reality that one naively thought they did. Nāgārjuna says that things can only be understood in terms of dependent origination. They are neither really born nor really destroyed, ―What has arisen from conditions has been said by you to be un-arisen; that is not born with an own being, therefore it has been proclaimed to be void.‖270 According to the Prāsaṅgikas, ‗dependence‘ does not mean dependence upon causes and conditions as understood by the Theravādins, but dependence upon the conceptual designation of a subject, because whatever comes into being in dependence upon other conditions must be devoid of intrinsic origination.

That which is born from conditions is un-born, For it is devoid of intrinsic origination. That which depends upon conditions is declared empty. One who knows this emptiness remains tranquil.271

There are eighteen or twenty kinds of emptiness can be found in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras. They are listed as follows:

1. Inward or internal Emptiness (adhyātma-śūnyatā). 2. External Emptiness (bahirdhā).

268 S. N., IV, 296-7. 269 See: Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India - Three Phases of Buddhist Philosophy, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2002, pp. 59-60. 270 Nāgārjuna, The Hymn to the Unthinkable One of the Catustava, verse: 3. 271 The questions of Anavatapta Sūtra, see: The Dalai , Essence of the Heart , USA: Wisdom, 2002, p. 111.

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3. Emptiness, which is both internal and external. 4. The Emptiness of Emptiness. 5. Great Emptiness. 6. The supreme or transcendental Emptiness (paramārtha). 7. The Emptiness of the compounded phenomenal elements (saṃskṛta). 8. The Emptiness of the uncompounded noumenal elements (asaṃskṛta). 9. Absolute Emptiness (atyanta). 10. Emptiness without beginning and end (anavarāgra). 11. Emptiness without the residuum, or ceaseless Emptiness (anavakāra). 12. Emptiness by nature (prakṛti). 13. Emptiness of all phenomena (sarva-dharma). 14. Emptiness of Characteristics (lakṣana). 15. Non-acquisitional Emptiness (anupalambha). 16. Emptiness of Non-existence (abhāva). 17. Emptiness of Existence (svabhāva). 18. Emptiness of both Existence and Non-existence. 19. Emptiness of that which is not a characteristic (alakṣana). 20. Emptiness of other-existence (para-bhāva-śūnyatā).272

According to Har Dayal, the last two items are found in the Dharma- Saṅgraha. And the Śata-sāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra applies these different aspects of śūnyatā to all the concepts and categories of Buddhist philosophy (rūpa, vedanā, etc.), and even to the attributes of a Buddha.273

272 See: Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, p. 246. 273 Ibid.

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Beside the -pāramitā Sūtras, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra also mentions seven kinds of emptiness, some of which are included in the list given above. They are:

1. The Emptiness of individual marks, or characteristics (lakṣana). 2. The Emptiness of self-nature (bhāvasvabhāva). 3. The Emptiness of no-work (apracarita). 4. The Emptiness of work (pracarita). 5. The Emptiness of all things in the sense that they are unpredictable (nirabhilāpya). 6. The Emptiness in its highest sense of ultimate reality realizable only by noble wisdom. 7. The Emptiness of mutuality (itaretara).274

Although the Buddha expounded emptiness in many ways, but the only aim is that he wants us to extinguish all notions in the mind. When the mind exists no notion, it is called emptiness, true emptiness, is equal to Nirvāṇa; properly speaking, it is Nirvāṇa. It means that the Mind, the Emptiness, and Nirvāṇa are the same (the Mind = the Emptiness = Nirvāṇa = 0). When one attains this state he is called to be attained ultimate liberation, Nirvāṇa.

2. ALL DHARMAS (THINGS) ARE EMPTY

In Buddhism, the teaching of selflessness of the person and selflessness of phenomena is also very important. ‗Person‘ here refers to our strong sense of self, the ‗I‘ with which we refer to ourselves. ‗Phenomena‘ refers primarily to the mental and physical aggregates of

274 The Laṅk., 74.

132 the person, but includes all other phenomena as well. In the Mahāyāna, this teaching was totally accepted. The concept of selflessness of the person in the tradition, according to Gay Watson, was extended to distinguish both the selflessness of persons and that of phenomena. 275 Meanwhile, The Theravāda schools, especially the Vaibhāṣika School and the Sautrantika School accepted only the selflessness of the person. They spoke only of the importance of meditating on the selflessness of the person, but did not accept any notion of the selflessness of phenomena276 although the root of such teaching exists in the early Buddhist work, the : ―All dhammas are without self.‖277 However in the Mahāyāna, this lack of self in all things, person and phenomena, was expanded into the central doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā), and it is this doctrine that is at heart of Mahāyāna Buddhism. And the most important saying in this doctrine is ―All dharmas are empty.‖278

As we have known, the doctrine of Emptiness does not accept the intrinsic existence in things, therefore, all the schools accept this doctrine – the Mahāyāna, in particular the Mādhyamaka schools, do also accept the saying ―All dharmas are empty‖. When the Mādhyamakas speak of ‗all dharmas are empty‘ (śūnya), it means specifically that all dharmas are empty of inherent existence (svabhāva).279 They have no essence. They are only relative.

275 Gay Watson, The Resonance of Emptiness - A Buddhist Inspiration for a Contemporary Psychotherapy, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2001, p. 72. 276 The , Essence of the , USA: Wisdom, 2002, p. 100. 277 The Dhammapada, 279. 278 The Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 482. 279 Tibetan writers give a series of equivalents for the expression ‗inherent existence‘ as it is used by the Prāsaṅgika , among which is ‗self‘, ‗truly existing‘, truly established‘,

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2.1. The Five Aggregates Are Empty

The five aggregates () are the basis for all Buddhist teachings. The Buddha although delivers his teachings in many ways, many areas, and in various levels, but it is not out of the five aggregates. When he delivers the teaching of he says that material shape is impermanent; feeling, , mental formations and consciousness are impermanent. When he delivers the teaching of Emptiness, he also says that the five aggregates are empty. Although the teaching he delivers, which is in this way or that way, this area or that area, this level or that level, belongs to the Threravāda or the Mahāyāna, in which, the five aggregates also play an important role. Therefore, when we discuss the doctrine of Emptiness, we must also discuss the five aggregates.

The Heart Sūtra tells us that the Bodhisattva Avalokita (avalokiteśvara) while deeply practising the Perfect Wisdom (Prajñā- pāramitā) he found the five aggregates empty:

Avalokita, the Holy Lord and Bodhisattva, was moving in the deep course of the wisdom which has gone beyond. He looked down from on high, he beheld but five heaps and he saw that in their own-being they were empty.

When we say that the five aggregates are empty, first of all we should understand why they are empty, and empty of what? A cup is full of water we cannot say the cup is empty. When we pour out the water in the cup we can say the cup is empty of water. Empty means

‗ultimately existing‘, and ‗existing from its own side‘- that is, existing completely independently from the mind which apprehends the entity concerned (Paul William, Mahāyāna Buddhism - The Doctrinal Foundations, London: Routledge, 2002, pp. 60-61.)

134 empty of something. The cup cannot be empty of nothing. Empty does not mean anything unless we know empty of what. The cup is empty of water, but it is not empty of air. To be empty is to be empty of something. This is quite a discovery. When we speak of the five aggregates, we should understand they are the five groups that comprise a human being. And when we say that the five aggregates are empty, we should understand they are empty of a separate self or intrinsic existence (own-being). They have no essence. They are only relative. That means none of these five aggregates can exist by itself alone. Each of the five aggregates has to be made by the other four. They have to co-exist. They have to inter-be with all the others (this notion is expressed in The Avat. Sūtra). Because, according to Nāgārjuna, emptiness is grounded in, and indeed is, the very interdependence expressed by dependent origination in its simplest form, the emptiness of inherent existence or self-sufficient essence of mutually dependent processes. In the dedicatory verses of The Mmk. he writes:

I pay homage to the Fully Awakened One, The Supreme Teacher who has taught The doctrine of relational origination, The blissful cessation of all phenomenal thought constructions.

Non-origination, non-extinction, Non-destruction, non-permanence, Non-identity, non-differentiation, Non-coming (into being), non-going (out of being).280

280 Anirodham-anutpādam anucchedam-aśāśvataṃ,

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For Nāgārjuna, ‗emptiness‘ and ‗dependent origination‘ are not only relative, but they are one and the same: ―contingency is emptiness.‖281 Even the verses above tell us that ‗emptiness‘, ‗dependent origination‘, and the ‗state of the blissful cessation of all phenomenal thought constructions‘ are not different. This is suitable to what we explained in the item ‗The meaning of emptiness‘ – that is, emptiness means purity. Understanding this, we will not feel to be bewildered when reading the paragraph:

Here, O Śāriputra, form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is form, the same is true of feelings, , impulses and consciousness.282

As we have said above, ‗emptiness‘, ‗dependent origination‘ and the ‗state of the blissful cessation of all phenomenal thought constructions‘ are not different. They are unitary. They are synonymous with the ultimate purity of the mind. Why? Because, in ‗emptiness‘ there is no intrinsic being, no notion, no imagination; in ‗dependent origination‘ there is no intrinsic being, no notion, no imagination; and in ‗the state of the blissful cessation of all phenomenal thought constructions‘ there is no intrinsic being, no notion, no imagination. ‗Intrinsic being‘, ‗notion‘, and ‗imagination‘ arise because of the delusion of the mind. The mind imagines that there is an intrinsic being

Anekārtham-anānārtham anāgamam-anirgamaṃ, Yaḥ pratītya-samutpādaṃ prapañcopaśamaṃ sivaṃ, Deśayāmāsa saṃbuddhaḥ taṃ vande vandatāṃ varaṃ. 281 Nāgārjuna, Mmk., 24:18. 282 The Heart Sūtra.

136 which is unchanging, and exists forever in things; and then clings to it, considers it as own-nature or the self. But it is true that this nature never exists in things. The doctrine of Dependent Origination gives us this information. This doctrine says that a thing never exists alone. It bases on many conditions. According to the Avat. Sūtra, things are ‗inter- being‘. They contain together.283 This thing contains all other things and vice versa. A cup can contain all the cosmos. A paper so too, can contain all other things. Basing on this teaching Khánh Hỷ, a Vietnamese master, said:

The entire cosmos can be put on the tip of a hair, And the sun and the moon can be seen in a mustard seed.284

Therefore, we cannot point to one thing that does not have a relationship with the cup, or the paper we have just mentioned. When we look deeply into a sheet of paper, we realize that this sheet of paper is made of non-paper elements. A cloud is a non-paper element. The forest is a non-paper element. A logger is a non-paper element. Sunshine is a non-paper element. Water is a non-paper element, so on and so forth. The paper is made of all the non paper elements to the extent that if we return the non-paper elements to their sources, the paper is empty. Empty here is the empty of self-nature, is not nothingness. Hence, when we look at a paper we see that the paper is empty; and in the empty, we also see the paper and other things. The empty now does not differ from the paper, and the paper does also not differ from the empty. Like wave and water, they are not different.

283 This notion is expressed in the book four - The Formation of the Worlds of the Avat. Sūtra. 284 These two sentences are translated by Thích Nhất Hạnh. See: Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Heart of Understanding, Delhi: Full Circle, 2008, p. 16. We can also see the translation from Cường Từ Nguyễn in the Zen in Medieval Vietnam - A Study and Translation of the Thiền Uyển Tập Anh, USA: University of Hawaii, 1997, p. 190.

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Wave is water; and water is wave. Wave does not differ from water, and water does not differ from wave. This is the meaning of the passage: ―Form is emptiness and the very emptiness is form; emptiness does not differ from form, form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form that is emptiness, whatever is emptiness that is form.‖

This explanation is also applied to feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness. It means that these four aggregates are empty of self-nature. They exist in the meaning of dependent origination. In feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness we can see the meaning of emptiness; and in emptiness we can see the existence of these four aggregates. Therefore, in the cup, or the sheet of paper we can not only see the existence of forms, but also of feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness. In brief, the five aggregates are emptiness, and the very emptiness is the five aggregates; the five aggregates do not differ from emptiness, and emptiness does not differ from the five aggregates; whatever are the five aggregates, they are emptiness, whatever is emptiness, that is the five aggregates. Emptiness and the five aggregates are equal and pure.

2.2. Eighteen Dhātus Are Empty

In Buddhism, the term dhātu is also used with reference to eighteen elements which are obtained when existence is analysed from the point of view of epistemology. This analysis is a modification of the āyatana- analysis with the respective consciousness added. The six sense-organs which are described as ‗internal bases‘ (ajjhatika-āyatana), and the six sense-objects described as ‗external bases‘ (bāhira-āyatana) plus the six consciousnesses that are brought about from the contact between these twelve, constitute the eighteen elements. These eighteen elements consists

138 of the six sense-organs, namely, eye (cakkhu/cakṣu), ear (sota/śrota), nose (ghāṇa/ghrāṇa), tongue (jivhā/jihvā), body (kāya) and mind (mano); the six sense-objects, namely, form (rūpa), sound (sadda/śabda), smell (gandha), taste (rasa), touch (phoṭṭhabba/spraṣṭavya), and objects of mind (dhamma/dharma) plus the six cognitions, namely, eye-consciousness (cakkhu-viññāṇa/caksur-vijñāna), ear-consciousness (sota-viññāṇa/śrotra- vijñāna), nose consciousness (ghāṇa-viññāṇa/ghrāṇa-vijñāna), tongue- consciousness (jivha-viññāṇa/jihvā-vijñāna), body-consciousness (kāya- viññāṇa/kāya-vijñāna), and mind-consciousness (mano-viññāṇa/mano- vijñāna).

This is a classification of all phenomena. Although there are various ways in which phenomena can be categorized, but according to , the eighteen elements are a comprehensive classification of all phenomena. For him, the division into eighteen elements is a method of classifying phenomena in terms of their nature.285

The general definition of these eighteen elements given is that they bear their own characteristics, or their own intrinsic nature.286 Each element bears its own nature; no two elements bear the same nature, and no two characteristics are found in one element. They are discrete elements to be found when the existence is analysed from the standpoint of epistemology.287 Since the Buddha says that all phenomena are emptiness, so the eighteen elements are also emptiness.

Therefore, O Śāriputra, in emptiness there is ... no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables

285 Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Heart of Wisdom - The Essential Wisdom Teachings of Buddha, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1996, p. 99. 286 The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. IV, ed., G.P. Malalasekera, Ceylon: The Government of Ceylon, 2000, p. 571a. 287 Ibid.

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or objects of mind; no sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to: no mind-consciousness…288

The empty of the eighteen elements, like the empty of the five aggregates, is the empty of intrinsic nature. We cannot find the intrinsic nature which exists in any of these eighteen elements. The own intrinsic nature of a thing we attribute to it, is only the conception of it, or the specifically temporary classification of things on the sphere of phenomena. It is the imagination, the creation of the mind. It is not true.

In the sphere of phenomena, we admit that the own intrinsic nature of the eyes is the capability of seeing. With his eyes, one can see forms and their colours. For a blind man, he also possesses his eyes, but why does he lacks of that capability? It is true that if the eyes posses no eye-sense-power, the eyes are not capable to see objects. The blind man, owing to the lacking of this power, cannot see objects. It means that one can see the objects unless all conditions that belong to eye must exist. If the eyes posses the eye-sense-power but lacking of eye- objects or eye-consciousness, the eyes can also not see. The Buddha tells us that the eighteen elements are arisen from conditions, then we cannot find the intrinsic existence in them. We cannot find the intrinsic existence in the six sense-organs, in the six sense-objects, in the six cognitions, in any of these eighteen elements. In brief, the eighteen elements have no self-nature.

According to the teaching of Dependent Origination, especially the teaching in the Avat. Sūtra, not one of these eighteen elements can

288 The Heart Sūtra; see: Edward Conze, Buddhist Wisdom - The Diamond Sūtra and the Heart Sūtra, New York: Vintage Spiritual Classics, 2001, p. 97.

140 exist by itself, because each can only inter-be with every other element. In the eye-element we can see every other element, and in every other element we can see the eye-element. This is the meaning of the notion: ‗the one is the all, and the all is the one; the one is in the all, and the all is in the one‘ as represented in the book four – The Foundation of the Worlds of the Avat. Sūtra. And this is also the meaning of emptiness in everything (all dharmas).

Without the one, the multiple does not exist; without the multiple, the one does not exist; for this reason things arisen in dependence, are devoid of essential characteristics.289

This notion we call ‗inter-being‘ or ‗sameness‘, is not only applied to the five aggregates or the eighteen elements, but also to everything in the world.

Moreover, since each atom is a reflection (pratibhāsa) of every other atom, and since each dharma is fully present (vyāpti) in every other dharma, there is a perfect sameness (samatā) between all things in the universe, negatively expressed as śūnyatā or emptiness and positively expressed as amalacitta or purity.290

Since things (all dharmas) are understood as being arisen from conditions, we realize that the self-nature has been thought to be true, is only to be the imagination of the mind. And since things exist without self-nature, the notion of coming (into being) and going (out of being) does not exist. It is also from the very imagination of the mind, Đạo

289 Nāgārjuna, The Śūnyatāsaptatikārikā, verse: 7; see: Fernando Tola and Carmen Dragonetti, On Voidness – A Study on Buddhist Nihilism, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2002, p. 73. 290 Steve Odin, Process Metaphysics and Hua-yen Buddhism – A Critical Study of Cumulative Penetration vs Interpretation, Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1995, p. 18.

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Hạnh, a Vietnamese of the Lý Dynasty, the Twelfth Century, concluded:

If you think in terms of existence, then even a grain of sand is existent, If you think in terms of non-existence, then all phenomena are non-existent. Existence and non-existence are like reflections of the moon in water, Don‘t be attached to existence, or take emptiness as empty.291

3. EMPTINESS AND NIHILISM

Emptiness and nihilism have the totally different meanings. As we have known, nihilism is a theory to hold that nothing exists at all; accurately speaking, it is a belief that nothing has meaning or value. The Buddha tells us that one who holds this view, believes in nothing, thinking: ―There is no (result of) gift, there is no (result of) , no (result of) sacrifice; there is no fruit or ripening of deeds well done or ill done; there is not this world, there is not a world beyond; there is not a mother, there is not a father, there are not spontaneously uprising beings; there are not in this world recluses and brahmans who are faring rightly, proceeding rightly, and who proclaim this world and the world beyond, having realized them by their own super-knowledge.‖292 Meanwhile, emptiness is not nothingness; it is the empty of self-nature. It is not the belief in things, but the insight in things – seeing things by perfect wisdom.

291 See: Cường Từ Nguyễn, Zen in Medieval Vietnam - A Study and Translation of the Thiền Uyển Tập Anh, USA: University of Hawaii, 1997, p 179. 292 M. N., I, 287.

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Emptiness is not easy to understand. Its meaning is very profound. One who wants to understand this teaching, first of all he must understand the fundamental teachings in Buddhism, like, the teaching of Impermanence, the teaching of Non-Self, the teaching of Dependent Origination, the , etc. Moreover, like any other Buddhist teaching, Emptiness is the teaching for practice, not for reasoning; therefore, one may likely misunderstand its meaning if he does not bring it into practice.

The fourteenth Dalai Lama says that those who were to embrace the apparent literal meaning of the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtras before seeing into the Buddha‘s true meaning, they would be in danger of falling into the extreme of nihilism.293 According to Harsh Narain, in the early days of , scholars were unanimously of the opinion that Śūnyavāda was rank nihilism or negativism, that it countenanced a view of reality as pure void.294 Burnouy described the doctrine as a nihilistic scholasticism. For H. Kern, Śūnyavāda is ‗complete and pure nihilism‘. And M. Walleser said, ‗negativism which radically empties existence up to the last consequences of negation‘. H. Jacobi told that on the Mādhyamika view, ‗all our ideas are based upon a non-entity or upon the void‘. According to A. B Keith, Mādhyamika‘s reality is ‗absolute nothingness‘.295

S. N. Dasgupta regards śūnyavāda as ―neither idealism nor realism nor absolution, but blank phenomenalism which only accepts the phenomenal world as it is but which would not, for a moment,

293 The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Essence of the Heart Sūtra, Boston: Wisdom, 2005, p. 42. 294 Harsh Narain, The Mādhyamika Mind, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1997, p. 49. 295 For all these references, see F. Th. Stcherbatsky, The Conception of Buddhist Nirvāṇa, Leningrad, 1972, p. 37.

143 tolerate any kind of essence, ground or reality behind it.‖296 Har Dayal supports this idea, holding that ―Some Buddhist philosophers go further and explain śūnyatā as absolute non-existence (abhāva). The authors of Pr. Pā. Śata. and Vajra. Pr. Pā. seem to revel in a veritable orgy of negation,‖ and then he quotes some sections in the Pr. Pā. Śata. (Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā) to defend the idea: ―The Pr. Pā. Śata. says: ―Ignorance is non- existent; the saṃskāras are none-existent; Consciousness, Name-and- Form, the Sixfold Sphere of the Senses, Contact, Sensation, Craving, Grasping, Becoming, Birth, Eld-and-Death are all non-existent (avidyamāna) ... A bodhisattva does not find and discern the origination or cessation, corruption or purification, this side or the other side of anything or phenomenon. If a clever magician or his apprentice were to create a great crowd of people in a square and preach the Perfection of Wisdom to them in order to establish them therein, then he would not thereby establish any being in the Perfection of Wisdom, because all things and beings are of such a nature that they are illusory (māyā- dharmatā) ... All dharmas exist in that they do not exist. They are not merely empty; they are identical with Emptiness. They are transient, painful, non substantial, quiescent, void, signless, aimless, unproduced and unrelated. There are no form, sensation, perception, volitions and consciousness; no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind; no forms, sounds, odours, savours, tangible things and mental objects; no pain, or its origin or cessation; no Eightfold Way; no past, present or future; no uncompounded elements; no Bodhisattva, no Buddha and no Enlightenment ... A Bodhisattva is himself like a phantom of illusion (māyā-puruṣa).‖ Thus does the Pr. Pā. Śata. expound its doctrine of

296 S. N. Dasgupta, Indian idealism, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1962, p. 79.

144 negation, which is surely carried to the utmost limit. The Vajracchedikā Pr. Pā. exhibits the same tendency. It declares that there are no individual, no qualities, no ideas, no doctrine, no beings to be delivered, no production or destruction, no Bodhisattva, no Buddha and no Bodhi. Such absolute nihilism seems to border on absurdity.‖297

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama says: ―It is important to know that the Buddha‘s teachings are most certainly not nihilistic as that term is understood by philosophers, nor does the Buddha‘s teaching on the emptiness of inherent existence entail mere non-existence.‖298

These scholars understand emptiness as nihilism or absolute nihilism because: first, they are not the Buddhist practitioners; and second, they regard this teaching as a mere philosophy. As we earlier said, the teaching of Emptiness is not for reasoning, but for practice. Moreover, we know that all the Buddhist teachings are not the mere philosophies, because they go beyond all kinds of reasoning of philosophy. If one considers them as mere philosophy and searches their meanings through the reasoning of philosophy, one cannot understand their true meanings. Hence, if we consider the teaching of Emptiness as a kind of philosophy, we can never reach the true meaning of it, and the result is that we misrepresent it. In this regard, Edward Conze remarks: ―When ‗emptiness‘ is treated as a philosophical concept by untutored intellects which have no wisdom, it causes much bewilderment and remains barren of spiritual fruits.‖299

297 Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, pp. 244-245. 298 The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Essence of the Heart Sutra, Boston: Wisdom, 2005, p. 42. 299 Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India - Three phases of Buddhist philosophy, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2002, p. 243.

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Again, it is very easy to realize the view to hold that emptiness is nothingness or nihilism is not correct, because if the view were correct, then all the teachings of the Buddha would become useless and meaningless, and the appearance of the Buddha and all other saints in this world would also become meaningless and needless. The following saying of the Buddha in the Alagaddūpamasutta of the M. N. ensures the argument:

Although I, monks, am one who speaks thus, who points out thus, there are some recluses and brahmans who misrepresent me untruly, vainly, falsely, not in accordance with fact, saying: ‗The recluse Gotama is a nihilist, he lays down the cutting off, the destruction, the disappearance of the existent entity‘. But as this, monks, is just what I am not, as this is just what I do not say, therefore these worthy recluses and brahmans misrepresent me untruly, vainly, falsely, and not in accordance with fact when they say: ‗The recluse Gotama is a nihilist, he lays down the cutting off, the destruction, the disappearance of the existent entity‘. Formerly I, monks, as well as now, lay down simply anguish and the stopping of anguish. If, in regard to this, monks, others revile, abuse, annoy the Tathāgata, there is in the Tathāgata no resentment, no distress, no dissatisfaction of mind concerning them.300

And Nāgārjuna affirmed that emptiness is not nothingness. He was afraid we would misunderstand the meaning of the teaching of Emptiness, so in the Mmk., he wrote: ―Emptiness, however, is not annihilation; life-process is also not eternal; the imperishability is of

300 M. N., I, 40.

146 action – such is the doctrine taught by the Buddha.‖301 He was indeed cognizant of the possible dangers involved in a ‗nihilism‘ or ‗nothingness‘. He was aware that the idea of nothingness could eliminate even the empirical conception of a person (pudgala) and of elements (dharmas) and enthrone itself as the ultimate truth or reality. Hence his rather bold declaration: ―Those who are possessed of the view of emptiness are said to be incorrigible.‖302

From the affirmation of the Buddha and of Nāgārjuna as quoted above as well as the discussion in this chapter we can conclude that emptiness is not nothingness or nihilism.

4. MEDITATION ON EMPTINESS

We have already discussed the teaching of Emptiness as a doctrine. Through this, we can probably understand its meaning, and can distinguish it with nihilism. Now we go further to another aspect of the teaching – that is meditation on emptiness. Meditation on emptiness is the high level of meditation in Buddhist practice, which is practised by who have experienced for long long time for transforming their mind. When a Bodhisattva practises this kind of meditation, and attains the empty mind, his mind escapes all notions of the world, and always abides in the . -ho-yen – a Chinese Zen Master describes this meditation as follows:

Although there are many texts on meditation in Mahāyāna, the highest of all [the method taught] is that of immediate access to the middle way. In the practice of this immediate access there are

301 Nāgārjuna, Mmk., 17:20. 302 Ibid., 13:8.

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no means or approaches (thabs, fang-pien). One meditates [directly] on the true nature of dharmas.

In this connection, ‗dharmas‘ means the mind, and the mind is without origination. What has no origination is empty. It is like empty space. It is not the object of the six senses; therefore one knows emptiness [only] through awakened insight. When one practices true awakened insight, there is no insight either. Therefore, one dwells not in the knowledge of any ideas or concepts, and meditates directly on the equality of all dharmas.303

Before going to the realm of meditation on emptiness, first of all we should examine the meaning of the ‗middle-way‘. ‗Middle-way‘ means ―stand in the middle‘, or ‗avoidance of all extremes‘. It was early understood as avoidance of indulgence in the pleasures of senses on one side and self-mortification asceticism on the other;304 and then its meaning was gradually widened, composed of the refraining from choosing between opposing positions, and in relation to the existence or non-existence of all things. This meaning was although found in the early Buddhist scriptures, but was much stressed and perfectly developed in the Mahāyāna, especially in the Mādhyamika schools. The Buddha while delivering the sermon to the venerable Kaccāyana, taught, ―Everything exists: – this is one extreme. Nothing exists: – this is the other extreme. Not approaching either extreme the Tathāgata teaches you a doctrine by the middle [way].‖305 Nāgārjuna repeated

303 Peter N. Gregory, Sudden and Gradual – Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, ed., Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991, p. 101. 304 This meaning was found in the first sermon of the Buddha to the five monks at Isipatana in the Deer-Park. See: S. N., V, 421. 305 S. N., II, 17.

148 these words of the Buddha in his Catustava – Hymn to the Unthinkable One: ―‗It exists‘ – the doctrine of eternality; ‗it does not exist‘ – the doctrine of annihilation. Therefore, the doctrine free from the two extremes has been taught by you‖306 and explained: ―If there is existence, there is non-existence; if there is something long, similarly, (there is) something short, and if there is non-existence, (there is) existence; therefore, both are not existent.‖307

In the ‗middle-way‘, the notion of the two extremes does not exist. Existence and non-existence, long and short, unity and multiplicity, past and future, defilement and purification, correction and fault, birth and death, suffering and happiness, coming and going, enchainment and liberation, so on and so forth, are the two extremes. If one grasps after them, accepts duality, Nāgārjuna says, he is not a ‗knower of reality‘. Reality here is the true nature of things. It is devoid of all notions, it is empty. According to Nāgārjuna, the middle-way is the true nature of all things which neither born nor dies, and which cannot be defined by either of the two extremes, existence or non- existence. This true nature of things is non-substantiality or emptiness. Therefore, the middle-way is itself the emptiness. Candrakīrti tells us that ‗emptiness‘, ‗dependent origination‘, and ‗the middle-way‘ are the synonymous words. In the , he says:

A carriage is designated in dependence on its parts, the wheels and so forth. Whatever is designated in dependence on its own parts is not produced through any intrinsic being, and non- production through any intrinsic being is emptiness. Emptiness,

306 Nāgārjuna, The Hymn to the Unthinkable One of the Catustava, verse: 22. 307 Ibid., 13.

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defined as non-production through any intrinsic being, is itself the Middle Way. That which is not produced through any intrinsic being cannot possibly be existent, and yet because it lacks non- being either can it be non-existent. Therefore, on account of its avoiding the two extremes of being and non-being, emptiness, defined as non-production through any intrinsic being, is called the Middle Way, or the Middle Path. So it is that the following expressions are various synonyms for dependent origination: ‗emptiness, ‗dependent origination‘ and ‗the Middle Way‘.308

Thus, practising meditation on emptiness means we practise to see the things in the middle-way, wherein they exist in dependence, without intrinsic being.

In the practising, the point of our practice is ―every existing object in the world is empty. This means that no object in the world is good or bad from its own side. An object becomes good or bad according to our perceptions, and these perceptions are dictated very precisely by the good or bad imprints we put in our mind in the past. Problems are not problems from their own side; rather, there is something in our mind making us see the problem as a problem. Every problem can be turned into an opportunity, because no problem is a problem in and of itself.‖309

The Mahāsuññatāsutta tells us that if a monk wants to see things empty, he should, first of all, steady, calm, make one-point and

308 C. W. Huntington, JR Geshe Namgyal Wangchen, The Emptiness of Emptiness - An Introduction to Early Indian Mādhyamika, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2003, pp. 40-41. 309 Geshe Michael Roach, The Diamond Cutter – The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life, New York: Doubleday, 2003, p. 186.

150 concentrate his mind precisely on what is inward.310 According to the Sutta, the monk should aloof from pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskilled states of mind, enters on and abides in the four kinds of infinite meditation (jhāna).311

When the monk abides in this level of the meditation, and when all problems in him were to be transformed (the problems can be transformed through action, speech and thought), his mind becomes purified, and the wisdom of freedom then automatically arises in him. However, the wisdom of freedom and the purity of the mind which he has attained are not perfect (because, in his mind the notion on things still arises. He still distinguishes: this thing is good; this thing is bad; this thing is good I should do, this thing is bad I should avoid, this is happiness I am enjoying, this is Arhatship, this is the way leading to Arhatship, etc.) In order to make them (the freedom of mind and the freedom of wisdom) perfect, the monk must enter on another level of the practice – that is cultivation of perfect wisdom. This practice is bodhisattva‘s. It is very high. A Bodhisattva wants to enter on and abide in this wisdom he must spend for long long time to practise the Six Pāramitās. When he reaches and abides in the perfect wisdom his mind becomes quite tranquil: it is near to the state of Ultimate Nirvāṇa; and through this wisdom he sees things empty. Although the practice is very high but the monk must experience if he wants to see things empty or to enter into Ultimate Nirvāṇa. The Bodhisattva Avalokita, because of basing on Perfect Wisdom, sees the five aggregates empty (the Heart Sūtra). In order to know how a Bodhisattva cultivates perfect wisdom

310 M. N., III, 111. 311 Ibid., 105-8, 111-114.

151 and abides in emptiness to see things we should listen to the conversation between the Buddha and the Venerable Subhuti in the Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra:

Subhuti: How should a Bodhisattva, who courses in perfect wisdom, achieve the complete conquest of emptiness, or how should he enter into the concentration on emptiness?

The Lord: He should contemplate form, etc., as empty. But he should contemplate that with an undisturbed series of thoughts in such a way that, when he contemplates the fact that ‗form, etc., is empty‘, he does not regard that true nature of dharmas [i.e. emptiness] as something which, as a result of its own true nature [i.e. emptiness] is a real entity. But when he does not regard that true nature of dharmas as a real thing, then he cannot realize the reality-limit.

Subhuti: With reference to the Lord having said that ―a Bodhisattva should not realize emptiness‖, how does a Bodhisattva who has stood [firmly in the repeated practice of] this concentration [on emptiness] not realize emptiness?

The Lord: It is because a Bodhisattva contemplates that emptiness which is possessed of the best of all modes [i.e. of the six perfections]. He does, however, not contemplate that ‗I shall realize,‘ or ‗I should realize,‘ but he contemplates that ‗this is the time for complete conquest, and not for realization.‘ Without losing himself in the concentration, he ties his thought to an objective support [for his compassion] and he determines that he will take hold of perfect wisdom [which is essentially skill in

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means], and that he will not realize [emptiness, because its realization is not the final goal]. Meanwhile, however, the Bodhisattva does not lose the dharmas which act as the wings to enlightenment. He does not effect the extinction of the outflows [which would prevent renewed rebirths], but over that also he achieves complete conquest.312

Standing in ‗emptiness‘ means standing in ‗perfect wisdom‘. When the Bodhisattva stands in emptiness, his mind exists no notion. Therefore, the Buddha says: ―He does not contemplate that ‗I shall realize‘, or ‗I should realize‘.‖ In another place of the Sūtra, the Venerable Subhuti said to Sakrakausika – the chief of gods:

Through standing in emptiness should he stand in perfect wisdom. Armed with the great armour, the Bodhisattva should so develop that he does not take his stand on any of these: not on form, feeling, perception, impulses, consciousness; not on eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; not on forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables, mind- objects; not on eye-consciousness, etc., until we come to: not on mind-consciousness, etc., until we come to: not on the elements, i.e., earth, water, fire, wind, ether, consciousness: not on the pillars of , right efforts, roads to psychic power, faculties, powers, limbs of enlightenment, limbs of the Path; not on the fruits of Streamwinner, One-Returner, Never-Returner, or Arhatship; not on Pratyekabuddhahood, nor on . He should not take his stand on the idea that ‗this is form‘, ‗this is feeling‘, etc., to: ‗this is Buddhahood.‘ He should not take his stand on the

312 The Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 370-1.

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ideas that ‗form, etc., is permanent, [or] impermanent‘; that ‗form is ease or ill‘; that ‗form is the self, or not the self,‘ that ‗form is lovely or repulsive,‘ that ‗form is empty, or apprehended as something.‘ He should not take his stand on the notion that the fruits of the holy life derive their dignity from the unconditioned. Or that a Streamwinner is worthy of gifts, and will be reborn seven times at the most. Or that a One-Returner is worthy of gifts, and will, as he has not yet quite won through to the end, make an end of ill after he has once more come into this world. Or that a Never-Returner is worthy of gifts, and will, without once more returning to this world, win Nirvāṇa elsewhere. Or that an Arhat is worthy of gifts, and will just here in this very existence win Nirvāṇa in the realm of Nirvāṇa that leaves nothing behind. Or that a Pratyekabuddha is worthy of gifts, and will win Nirvāṇa after rising above the level of a Disciple, but without having attained the level of a Buddha. That a Buddha is worthy of gifts, and will win Nirvāṇa in the Buddha-Nirvāṇa, in the realm of Nirvāṇa that leaves nothing behind, after he has risen above the levels of a common man, of a Disciple, and of a Pratyekabuddha, wrought the weal of countless beings, led to Nirvāṇa countless hundreds of thousands of niyutas of kotis of beings, assured countless beings of Discipleship, Pratyekabuddhahood and full Buddhahood, stood on the stage of a Buddha and done a Buddha‘s work, – even thereon a Bodhisattva should not take his stand.313

Meditation on emptiness is very high. A Bodhisattva wants to abide in this meditation he must cultivate perfect wisdom. When this

313 Ibid., 34-7.

154 meditation is abided and perfect wisdom has been attained, his mind is free from all dual views, quite purified and tranquil. He does not stand in either extreme to see things, but he sees things in the middle-way. Because of standing in the middle-way, the Bodhisattva sees things empty. This is the true practice of a Bodhisattva on emptiness.

The teaching of Emptiness is very important in Mahāyāna Buddhist practice. This teaching is very high and profound in meaning and therefore difficult to understand. It although denies all things in the world but does not affirm them as nothingness. In order to understand this teaching one must understand the true nature of all things. It means that he must, first of all, understand all other fundamental Buddhist teachings, such as: the Four Noble Truths, the Eight-Fold Path, Impermanence, Non-Self, Dependent Origination, etc. This understanding does, of course, not come from the knowledge of criticism or of analysis of things but from the practice. Through the practice one can purify the mind and transform the knowledge, thereby, realizes the true nature of things and see them as they really are. Therefore, we can partly understand why the teaching of Emptiness is called the ‗door of liberation‘ or the ‗concentration‘, and why a Bodhisattva practises emptiness on things without giving up the practical morality.314 Moreover, on the sphere of practice one can realize emptiness as the ground of everything. Everything is possible because of emptiness. Without emptiness, everything is impossible. If one is not empty, one cannot be here. And if others are not empty, they cannot be there. Because others are there, one can be here.

314 The Gaganagañja Sūtra said: ―The doctrine of the Emptiness of all existences, realized in the present and in the past, without giving up the practical morality of the Bodhisattva.‖ See: Śāntideva, The Śik. Sam., 117.

CHAPTER 2 SINGLESSNESS

The Second Door of Liberation is Signlessness (animitta). The teaching of Signlessness is also very important in Mahāyāna Buddhism. It is much stressed in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras. Discussing the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras one can not just discuss the teaching of Emptiness, but the teaching of Signlessness, because the teaching of Signlessness in these sūtras, is as much important as that of Emptiness. As Emptiness, the teaching of Signlessness plays an important role in the formation of the Prajñāpāramitā thought. However, Signlessness has received less attention than Emptiness despite it is no less puzzling. The teaching of Signlessness is also very difficult to understand. Its meaning is very profound, and has close relationship with Emptiness. One cannot understand the teaching of Signlessness if he does not understand the teaching of Emptiness. Even the term ‗signlessness‘ or ‗animitta‘ itself shows us the fact of the problem. The Buddha said: ―All dharmas are signless.‖315 One should understand all dharmas have no fixed sign, because they have no special nature. They are essentially void.

1. THE MEANING OF SIGNLESSNESS

Animitta is the Sanskrit term. It is a negative term of nimitta. The term ‗nimitta‘ has been usually translated as a ‗sign‘, a ‗form‘, a

315 The Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 482.

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‗mark‘, an ‗image‘, etc. Thích Nhất Hạnh explains it as an ‗appearance‘ or the ‗object of perfection‘.316 In accordance with him, Edward Conze says: ―The word ‗sign‘ (nimitta) occurs conspicuously in the formula which describes the restraint of the senses. When presented with an object through any one of the six senses, one should ―not seize on its nimitta or anuvyañjana‖. Here nimitta is explained as the general appearance and anuvyañjana as the secondary details‖317. And according to him, ‗sign‘ can be classified into three kinds which correspond to the three levels of the apperception of stimuli – the sign as an object of attention, as a basis for recognition, and as an occasion for entrancement.318 Meanwhile, Damien Keown bases his explanation on the perception (the subject of perception), considers the term as a technical term in Buddhist psychology and philosophy denoting the cognition or apprehension of forms; saying: ―The term denotes the basic data of perception such as colours, shapes, sounds, and so forth which are then processed by ideation (saṃjñā).‖319 But according to Bikkhu Analayo, the term ‗nimitta‘ has two meanings: the first is a ‗sign‘, in the sense of being a characteristic mark of things; the second is the term suggests the ‗idea of cause‘ which is synonymous with such terms as nidāna (reason), hetu (cause) and paccaya (condition).320 However, during the process of interpreting of the term he stressed much on the second meaning. He said: ―Thus the nimitta is a central factor in the operational mechanics of memory and recognition, since it

316 Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Heart of The Buddha‟s Teaching - Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation, New York: Rider, 1999, p. 148. 317 Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India - Three Phases of Buddhist Philosophy, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2002, p. 62. 318 Ibid. 319 The Dictionary of Buddhism, compiled by Damien Keown, India: Oxford, 2003, p. 193b. 320 The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. VII, ed., G.P. Malalasekera, Ceylon: The Government of Ceylon, 2003, p. 177b.

157 is with the help of such a nimitta that the aggregate of perception or cognition, saññā, is able to match information received in the present moment with concepts, ideas and memories.‖321

Although ‗nimitta‘ is understood as a thing which belongs to physical or mental factor, like a table, a house, a man, or the idea, the concept of these things; or as the perceiver or the perceived, the subject or the object; but according to the Yogācāra, all of these are the imagination, not the absolute; they are always changing, and can mislead man.

As an objective (part) t‘is totally imagined, As the Constructor of that thing imagined It is (reality) interdependent, And as the merger of the subject with the object T‘is called (the Absolute) The non plus ultra of Reality.322

Therefore, the Buddha in the Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra (5) said: ―Wherever there is possession of marks (signs) there is fraud, wherever there is no-possession of no-marks (signlessness) there is no fraud.‖323

According to the Buddha, things are signless. Seeing things as signlessness means seeing the reality, the absolute truth. The Dictionary of Buddhism compiled by Damien Keown (p. 15a) defines ‗signlessness‘ as the absence of perceptual attributes. In the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism which published by the Government of Sri Lanka (vol. I, 1997, p. 675b),

321 Ibid. 322 The Madhyānta-Vidhanga: Discourse on Discrimination between Middle and Extremes Ascribed to Bodhisattva and Commented by atind Sthirama, Stanza: 1.5. 323 See: The Vaj. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, trans., Edward Conze, Roma: Is. M.E.O, 1957, p. 68.

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―signlessness‖ means no sign. Saying, ―All dharmas are formless, because they have no special nature. They are essentially void‖. This meaning is based on the concept of noumenon, ―The noumenon, as it is beyond all kinds of forms, is called ‗formless‘ (animitta).‖324 Otherwise, ‗signlessness‘ is yet understood as synonymous with Nirvāṇa, because Nirvāṇa has no sign. It is free from all kind of signs.

According to the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra, dharmas become neither united nor separated and have neither colour and form nor quality of obstruction. All dharmas have one nature, that is, signlessness.325 The Ratnakūṭa Sūtra mentions that the essential nature of all dharmas is emptiness, the nature of all dharmas is to have no- nature. As all dharmas are empty and have no peculiar nature, they have one common nature, viz..., signlessness. As they are signless, they can be pure. As they are empty and have no peculiar nature, they cannot be manifested in sign.326

Hence, in order to see things as signlessness, one must abandon the grasping of reality through sign, and should not believe in his perception so much.

2. ALL CONDITIONED THINGS ARE SIGNLESS

In our life, we have a habit to see things by their appearance, and consider it as real; but we do not know that things have no sign; the true nature of things is signless. Water is in a square container, we say that its sign is squareness. If it is in a round container, its sign is roundness. When we open the freezer and take out some ice, the sign of that water

324 The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. I, ed., G.P. Malalasekera, Ceylon: The Government of Ceylon, 1997, p. 676a. 325 Taishō, vol. VI, p. 906. 326 Ibid., vol. XI, p. 29.

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is solid. Chemists call water H2O. The snow on the mountain and the steam rising from the kettle are also H2O. Whether H2O is round or square, liquid, gaseous, or solid depends on circumstances. H2O has no fixed sign. The Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra says that if a Bodhisattva still sees things through ‗sign‘ he is considered as unskilled in means.

He courses in a sign when he courses in form, etc., or in the sign of form, etc., or in the idea that ‗form is a sign‘, or in the production of form, or in the stopping or destruction of form, or in the idea that ‗form is empty,‘ or ‗I course,‘ or ‗I am a Bodhisattva.‘ For he actually courses in the idea ‗I am a Bodhisattva‘ as a basis. Or, when it occurs to him ‗he who courses thus, courses in perfect wisdom and develops it,‘ – he courses only in a sign. Such a Bodhisattva should be known as unskilled in means.327

In Buddhist practice, why must a Bodhisattva see things as signlessness? We know that in our world, the world of distinction, dharmas are considered as existents, and each dharma as a ‗sign‘. A man or a woman is also a ‗sign‘. According to the Buddha‘s teaching, a man or a woman is compounded from the six elements, i.e., the element of earth, of water, of fire, of air, of space, and the element of intelligence. And these elements are regarded as without self-nature.

2.1. The Element of Earth

The element of earth328 includes the internal element of earth and the element of earth outside.

327 The Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 11-12. 328 Śāntideva, The Śik. Sam., 245-246.

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The internal element of earth: whatever in the body is perceived as hard or solid, i.e., hair and down, nails, teeth, and so forth.

The element of earth outside: whatever outside is perceived as hard or solid, i.e., trees, chairs, tables, houses, mountains, and so forth.

The internal element of earth and the element of earth outside do not come from anywhere when they arise, and do not go to anywhere when they disappear. When the body arises, its hardness also arises. But the hardness does not come from anywhere, and being checked is not stored up anywhere. There comes a time, when the body finds the end of its course in the cemetery; then the hardness is putrid, and being checked goes to nowhere. One cannot find it in the east, or in the south, or in the west, or in the north, or up, or down, or in an intermediate point. Likewise, the hardness of a tree, or of a house, or of a mountain, etc. comes from nowhere when it arises, and goes to nowhere when it disappears. The hardness of a salt one cannot find before it arises, and where it goes when it is dissolved in water. We are told that the arising of the element of earth is void, and its destruction is void, and when the element arises its nature is void. So the element of earth is not recognized as being this element except by convention; and this conventional expression is not a man and is not a woman. Properly speaking, the element of earth is signlessness.

2.2. The Element of Water

The element of water329 includes the internal element of water and the element of water outside.

The internal element of water: the water that is in the body of each separate person; that which consists of water, the nature of water,

329 Ibid., 246-248.

161 is grease; that which consists of grease, the nature of grease, is the liquidity accepted and received, viz. tears, sweat, snot, oil, serum, marrow, fat, bile, spittle, pus, blood, milk, piss, and so forth.

The element of water outside: whatever is liquid, fluid, is external, referable to outside, that is to say: cloud, oil, petrol, water in a river, and so forth.

The internal element of water and the element of water outside do not come from anywhere when they arise, and go to nowhere when they disappear. A time comes, when the tears flow, this watery element does not come from anywhere. A time comes, when the internal element of water is dried up; when it dries up and ceases, it does not go anywhere. Similarly, the element of water outside, like a cloud in the sky, a dew on the blade of grass, water in a river or in the great ocean, etc., does not come from anywhere. According to the Buddha‘s teaching, there comes a time, when there are only scattered spots of water left in the great ocean, even not a drop of water is left in the ocean enough to wet the first joint of the finger; but all this watery element, disappearing, does not go anywhere. Verily, the arising of the element of water is void, and its disappearing is void, and even it is there, this watery element is by nature void. So this watery element is not perceived as such by nature except by way of convention; and this conventional expression is neither man nor woman.

2.3. The Element of Fire

The element of fire330 includes the internal element of fire and the external element of fire.

330 Ibid., 248.

162

The internal element of fire: whatever in the body is felt and received as fire, fiery, hot; that is to say: whatever makes the body warm or hot; whatever causes it properly to digest what is eaten, drunk, chewed; excess of which causes feverishness; etc…

The element of fire outside: all without that is felt and received as fire, fiery, hot; such as whatever men seek for from things connected with fire-sticks or grass by means of powdered cow dung or cotton or similar fluff, which arising burns even a village or a district, or a even continent, or a thicket of grass or a forest or firewood until it burns out, and so forth.

The element of fire does not come from anywhere when it arises, and when it ceases, it does not go anywhere into store. This element is by nature void from the arising until its disappearing. So it is not perceived as being the element of fire by nature except by way of convention; and this conventional expression is neither a man nor a women.

2.4. The element of air

The element of air331 includes the internal element of air, and the element of air outside.

The element of air internal: whatever in the body is air, airy, lightness, buoyancy; namely: rising and falling airs, wind in the side, back, or belly, knife-like, razor-like, piercing, needle-like, wind- swellings, spleen, breathings in and out, rheumatism, and so forth.

The element of air outside: without the body there are winds in front, to the right, behind, to the left, with dust and without dust small

331 Śāntideva, The Śik. Sam., 248.

163 and big. When a great hurricane arises, it can blow down the biggest and highest trees, the houses, etc.

The element of air does not come from anywhere when arises, and does not go anywhere when ceases. It is signless.

2.5. The Element of Space

The element of space332 includes the element of space internal, and the element of space external.

The element of space internal: whatever within the body and in each several body entering and pervading of the nature of space that can be described as within it, not occupied or penetrated by skin, flesh, or blood; that is to say: what in the body is the aperture of the eye, the mouth, the door of the mouth, throat or gullet, by which one eats, into which it descends, through which what is eaten or drunk or consumed or swallowed oozes downwards.

The element of space external: without the body, what is not occupied or penetrated by form, not surrounded, hollow and empty.

The element of space internal and the element of space external do not come from anywhere when they arise, and do not go anywhere when they disappear. When the organs of sense appear and occupy the element of space, the term ‗internal element of space‘ is used. But it does not come anywhere. When all that bears form becomes space, it does not go anywhere. Or a man might cause to be dug in some dry spot a well or a pit, the space does not come from anywhere. Or when he fills up again that well or pit, the space does not go anywhere. The element of space must be regarded as present everywhere. It is void by

332 Ibid., 249-50.

164 its nature, negative by its nature, it has nothing to do with manhood or womanhood. It is signless.

2.6. The Element of Intelligence

Recognition of objective form is dependent upon the organ of sight; etc. So, the recognition of any colour or shape is called the element of intelligence acted upon by the sense of eye; etc. Hence, the perception of the six objects of sense through the six senses is called the element of intelligence.

The element of intelligence is not dependent upon the senses, not drawn from the objects, not placed between them, not within, not without, not between both. It arises from conditions. On this reason, when it arises it does not come from anywhere, and when it ceases it does not go anywhere. And because its very arising is void, its disappearing is void; when arisen also, by its nature it is void. So, the element of intelligence is not recognized as such by nature except by convention. This convention is neither man nor woman.333

We have just examined the six elements that form a man or a woman, in which we do not find any nature to be called ‗man‘ or ‗woman‘. The element of earth is not a man or a woman, because it is not perceived as a man or a woman in itself. The element of water is not a man or a woman, because it is, in itself, not perceived as a man or a woman. The element of fire, of air, of space, and the element of intelligence are respectively not a man or woman, because they are respectively not perceived as a man or a woman. Even these six elements are not recognized as being themselves respectively. We cannot find any nature in these elements; how can we find the nature of

333 Ibid., 250.

165 man or of woman in them? Therefore, the so called man or woman is signless.

Moreover, when we go further we realize that the mind is also signless. When we examine the senses we realize that they neither come from anywhere before arising nor go anywhere after disappearing. When the senses are arrested, these are called ‗matter‘. The sight is arrested in form, therefore the forms are called the matter of sight. So the hearing is arrested in sounds, and so forth. When we see something, our eyes contact that thing by clinging; we say that the sight is arrested in form. It means that there is a falling upon form or an arresting upon form. As having known, the sight falls on forms in three ways: upon agreeable forms with the idea of agreeableness, upon repellent forms with the idea of repulsion, upon forms indifferent with observation. So the mind upon things arises, and so forth. These matters are called the province of mind, for here the mind moves and ranges. When the mind moves pleasantly on forms not disagreeable forms, by that passion arises in it. When it moves with repulsion upon disagreeable form, by that hatred arises in it. Upon forms indifferent it moves bewildered, by that bewilderment arises in it. So with sounds and the rest a three-fold idea arises as before. The Buddha said that the senses are like illusion, sense-objects are such stuff as dreams are made of. A foolish, untaught worldling does not know this, but believes in them as true. The following passage from the Śik. Sam. explains this idea more clearly:

Even so, sir, a foolish, untaught worldling when he sees agreeable forms, etc., believes in them, and believing in them is pleased, and being pleased feels passion, and feeling passion develops the action that springs from passion. Threefold by body, fourfold by

166 voice, threefold by mind; and that action, developed, from the very beginning is injured, hindered, distracted, changed, not going towards the east, not south nor west nor north, not up nor down, nor to the intermediate points, not here nor across, nor betwixt both. But when at life‘s end the time of death comes, when the vitality is checked by the exhaustion of one‘s allotted span, by the dwindling of the action that is his share, the action becomes the object of the mind in its last consciousness as it disappears. As for instance when a man is awakened from sleep the idea occurs to his mind, this is a girl. So, sir, by the object a first consciousness belonging to arises from two causes, the last consciousness as its governing principle, and the action as its support: he is born either in hells or in the womb of beasts or in ‘s realm or in a demonic body, or amongst men or gods. And if this first conception belonging to the birth immediately after it has been destroyed, a new series of thoughts arises; where the experience of the ripening of the act is to be felt. There the arresting of the last consciousness is known as ‗rebirth‘, the manifesting of first consciousness is known as ‗arising‘. So, sir, nothing goes from our world to another, but rebirth and arising take place. So, sir, the last consciousness when it arises does not come from anywhere, when it ceases it does not go anywhere; action arising does not come from anywhere, ceasing it does not go anywhere; first consciousness too arising does not come from anywhere, ceasing does not go anywhere. And why so? Because it is naturally negative. The last consciousness is of itself void, action is of itself void, the first consciousness is of itself void,

167

rebirth is of itself void, arising is of itself void. And the irresistibleness of action comes into play and the experience of ripening, and then is there no doer, no feeler, except by conventional name.334

We cannot find any sign exists in the mind. Whatever arises from the mind we cannot find its sign, because it is a conditioned thing. It arises from the contact between the senses and sense-objects. It comes from conditions, then goes from conditions. It does not come from anywhere, and nowhere to go. It is void. Whatever is void that is signless. Therefore, we can say the mind is signless.

The elements are signless because the elements have no nature, and arise from conditions. The mind is signless because the mind has no nature and arises from conditions. Thus, we can conclude that all conditioned things are signless.

3. THE ABSENCE OF THE EIGHT KINDS OF CONCEPTION

Conception is something conceived in the mind. It is an idea about what something is like, or a general understanding of something. It is arisen from the process of the perception of something, correctly, is the result of the perception of that thing. And each conception is considered as a sign. There are innumerable signs, because things exist in the world are innumerable, and then the conceptions of them are also innumerable.

The Mahāyānist Buddhist thought tells us that all conceptions are illusory. This thought can be easily found in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, especially in the Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra. The Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra does

334 Śāntideva, The Śik. Sam., 252-3.

168 not accept any conception in any form as true, in which the most well- known is the eight kinds of conception, namely, a self, a person, a being, a living soul, a dharma, a no-dharma, perception, and non- perception. In these eight kinds of perception, the first four refer to mistaken beliefs in some kind of an individual ego, current among Non- Buddhists. They are nearly synonymous. And the last four refer to misconceptions about the nature of dharmas, current among Buddhists. According to the Sūtra, these conceptions can mislead us if we cling to them and consider them as true. And although they are only eight, but include all things and their conceptions.

3.1. The Absence of the Four Conceptions Related to an Individual Ego

The use of the four terms ‗self‘ (), ‗person‘ (pudgala), ‗being‘ (sattva) and ‗living soul‘ (jiva) in the Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, according to Mu Soeng, is a rhetorical device whose aim is to disabuse the reader of any notion of an abiding entity to be found anywhere.335

3.1.1. No Perception of a Self

The self is the supposed center around which our sense of ownership is organized. The Sūtra says that ―no perception of a self‖ means no belief in the existence of an ego as distinct from the five aggregates (skandhas), an ‗ego‘ being defined as that of which we could say, ―This is mine, I am this, this is myself‖. Hui-neng explains: it is the absence of the five skandhas, ―no matter, sensation, conception, conditioning, or consciousness.‖336

335 Mu Soeng, The - Transforming the Way We Perceive the World, Boston: Wisdom, 2000, p. 85. 336 Hui-neng, The Sutra of Hui-neng - Grand Master of Zen - With Hui-neng‟s Commentary on the Diamond Sutra, trans., Thomas Cleary, Boston: , 1998, p. 100.

169

3.1.2. No Perception of a Person

A person is what is observed from the outside as a social entity, it is a self-identification that results from the role one plays in each environment. The Buddhists see the term ‗person‘ as no more than a conventional name for a conglomeration of physical and psychological elements that changes from moment to moment and have the appearance of unity. ‗No perception of a person‘ means no belief in the existence of a permanent entity which would migrate from rebirth to rebirth, or understanding the gross elements are not substantial and ultimately disintegrate.

3.1.3. No Perception of a Being

A being is the sense through which an individual separates what seems to be inside from what is outside the self – the separation of subject and object, the experiencer and the experienced. ‗No perception of a being‘ means no belief in a continuous separate individual identical with himself at different times, who could validly differentiate his internal constituents from what is outside him. For Hui-neng, ‗no perception of a being‘ means no mind being born and dying.337

3.1.4. No Perception of a Living Soul (or No Idea of Life Span)

A living soul is the unifying source of an individual‘s life, the embodied self that identified with the body and the mind. ‗No perception of a living soul‘ means no belief in the existence of a unifying and vivifying force within an individual organism which, for the span of a life-time, would persist from conception to death. With his own explanation

337 Ibid.

170

Hui-neng said: ―Our bodies are originally nonexistence – how can there be a liver of life?‖338

In effect, the four terms, i.e., ‗self‘, ‗person‘, ‗being‘, and ‗living soul‘ are nearly synonyms for a sought-after essence that is imperishable and that makes its appearance in different incarnations where it retains some semblance of continuity. And the belief in this essence is popular in the Buddha‘s time. How could he deny it? The Buddha‘s teaching of Non-self (anātman) was a revolutionary stance within the context of the religious beliefs at that time. He questioned the existence of an independent, imperishable, unchanging essence anywhere in the mind-body system of the individual (the five skandhas), but he did not go so far as to assert that there is no psychic continuity. He did not teach a nihilistic doctrine of ‗no soul‘. For him, ‗soul‘ and ‗no soul‘ are the two extremes. What he proposed was a personal investigation of the two extreme beliefs of ‗soul‘ and ‗no soul‘ and seeing both of these beliefs as mere points of view that lead to attachment and suffering. His teaching of the ‗Middle-Way‘ is to see all determinative points of view as erroneous.

The Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra rejects these four images because according to the doctrine of Emptiness, they do not exist at the beginning. They are mere linguistic usage and that nothing corresponding to them is to be found anywhere. In short, all things are empty, and hence no sign is to be found in them. We cannot find the image of a self, of a person, of a being, of a living soul in things. Properly speaking, these four images exist due to our imagination.

338 Ibid.

171

Therefore, in the pure mind of a Bodhisattva, there is no perception of a self, no perception of a person, no perception of a being, and no perception of living soul.339

3.2. The Absence of the Four Conceptions about the Nature of Dharmas, or the Middle Way

Dharma and no-dharma, perception and non-perception are the conceptions about the nature of dharmas. These are the beliefs in the two extremes which are also rejected by the Buddha himself in this Sūtra.

3.2.1. No Perception of a Dharma

The term ‗dharma‘, according to the Dictionary of Buddhism compiled by Demien Keown, has three meanings. First, it refers to the natural order or universal law that underpins the operation of the universe in both the physical and moral spheres. Secondly, it denotes the totality of Buddhist teachings, since these are thought to accurately describe and explain the underlying universal law so that individuals may live in harmony with it. Thirdly, it is used in the system of taxonomy to refer to the individual elements (dharmas) that collectively constitute the empirical world. Some of these elements are external to the perceiver and others are internal psycho-logical processes and traits of character.340

This definition does not seem to persuade D. J. Kalupahana. For D. J. Kalupahana, the definition of the Buddha in the M. N. is the

339 ―Because no Bodhisattva who is a true Bodhisattva entertains such concepts as a self, a person, a being, or a living soul.‖ The Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 3. 340 The Dictionary of Buddhism, compiled by Damien Koewn, India: Oxford, 2003, p. 74.

172 clearest of dharma. In the Ariyapariyesanasutta, the Buddha said: ―It occurred to me, monks: ‗This dharma, won to by me is deep, difficult to see, difficult to understand, tranquil, excellent, beyond dialectic, subtle, intelligible to the learned. But this is a creation delighting in sensual pleasure, delighted by sensual pleasure, rejoicing in sensual pleasure. So that for a creation delighting in sensual pleasure, delighted by sensual pleasure, rejoicing in sensual pleasure, this were a matter difficult to see, that is to say causal uprising by way of condition. This too were a matter difficult to see, that is to say the tranquillising of all the activities, the renunciation of all attachment, the destruction of craving, dispassion, stopping, Nibbāna.‖341 Basing on this declaration of the Buddha, D. J. Kalupahana concludes: ‗dharma‘ has two meanings: ‗dependent arising‘ (paṭicca-samuppāda), and ‗freedom‘ (Nirvāṇa); saying that all other uses of the term ‗dharma‘ can be subsumed under one or the other of these two meanings.342

‗No perception of a dharma‘ means not cling to any form of dharma. Edward Conze understands ‗dharma‘ as something arises; or correctly speaking, dharmas are all things in the phenomenal world, including total physical elements and mental factors. He explains: ―the Bodhisattvas know that dharmas do not exist, and they reject the Abhidharmist conception of a multiplicity of separate dharmas, or ultimate entities.‖343 Meanwhile, Hui-neng explains it as the truth, the teaching of the Buddha, the way to Prajñāpāramitā, ―There is no image

341 M. N., I, 167. 342 The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. IV, ed., G.P. Malalasekera, Ceylon: The Government of Ceylon, 2000, p. 441. 343 Edward Conze, The Buddhist Wisdom - The Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra - Translation and Commentary, New York: Vintage Spiritual Classics, 2001, p. 27.

173 of truth means being detached from labels and beyond appearances, not trapped in words.‖344

3.2.2. No Perception of a No-dharma

The term ‗no-dharma‘, according to Edward Conze, has two meanings: First, the negation of the multiple dharmas opens up one vast emptiness. This ‗no-dharmas‘ is more real than the dharmas, but cannot be the object of any possible perception. Secondly, the ‗no-dharma‘ envisaged here is not a simple and clear-cut negation, in that emptiness lies somewhere between affirmation and negation, between ‗is‘ and ‗is not‘.345 For Edward Conze, ‗no-dharma‘ is near to ultimate truth or Nirvāṇa, therefore no perception exists in it. However, Hui-neng explains the term ‗no-dharma‘ as the non-truth. It means that whatever is not the Buddha‘s teaching, and does not lead to Prajñāpāramitā is to be called ‗no-dharma‘. Thus, he said: ―To say that there is no image of nontruth either means it cannot be said there is no truth to Prajñāpāramitā. If you say there is no truth to Prajñāpāramitā, this is repudiating the teaching.‖346

3.2.3. No Perception

‗Perception‘ means the way to notice things through the six senses. It is also called the subject of cognition. ‗No perception‘ means the perception itself has no self-nature. It is also meant clinging not to the perception or the subject itself, because there is no subject that exists without object. The Bodhisattvas have no perception at all,

344 Hui-neng, The Sutra of Hui-neng - Grand Master of Zen - with Hui-neng‟s Commentary on the Diamond Sutra, trans., Thomas Cleary, Boston: Shambhala, 1998, p. 101. 345 Op.cit., p. 27. 346 Op.cit., p. 101.

174 because perception normally assigns properties to things, and they know that this arrangement is not found on fact.347

3.2.4. No Non-Perception

Non-perception is the negation of perception. However, the conception of non-perception itself is also the affirmation. The Bodhisattvas also have no non-perception, because they continue to perceive things as other people do, in spite of their knowledge that these perceptions, and the assumptions they take for granted, have no ultimate reality.348

Indeed, a ‗dharma‘, a ‗no-dharma‘, ‗perception‘, and ‗non- perception‘ are the conceptions of the two extremes. They are not the true dharma, but considered as the misconceptions of dharma. The true dharma which has been fully known and demonstrated by the Buddha himself is very propound, difficult to see, difficult to understand, and beyond all conceptions, ―This dharma which the Tathāgata has fully known or demonstrated – it cannot be grasped, it cannot be talked about, it is neither a dharma nor a no-dharma.‖349

The dharma which the Buddha has fully known and demonstrated is the ultimate and unconditioned reality, or the Perfect Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā). This dharma, in both its subjective and objective form, cannot be grasped, i.e., at the time when it is heard one cannot seize upon it as either a dharma or a no-dharma. It cannot be talked about, i.e., at the time when it is preached, one must remain aware that

347 Edward Conze, Buddhist Wisdom - The Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra - Translation and Commentary, New York: Vintage Spiritual Classics, 2001, p. 27. 348 Ibid. 349 The Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 7.

175 the talk aims at something so high and transcendental that words cannot ever reach it. In other words, it is the truth beyond words that can only be intuited. It is not a dharma because it is not a separate thing accessible to discriminative thought. It is not a no-dharma because it is not the negation of dharma. It is calm and peaceful.350 It is suchness, because outside suchness no separate dharma can be apprehended, that could stand firmly in suchness.351 The Licchavi Vimalakīrti describes it as the inconceivable liberation, or ultimate liberation.

Furthermore, reverend Śāriputra, the Dharma is without taint and free of defilement. He who is attached to anything, even to liberation, is not interested in the Dharma but is interested in the taint of desire. The Dharma is not an object. He who pursues objects is not interested in the Dharma but is interested in objects. The Dharma is without acceptance or rejection. He who holds on to things or lets go of things is not interested in the Dharma but is interested in holding and letting go. The Dharma is not a secure . He who enjoys a secure refuge is not interested in the Dharma but is interested in a secure refuge. The Dharma is without sign. He whose consciousness pursues signs is not interested in the Dharma but is interested in signs. The Dharma is not a society. He who seeks to associate with the Dharma is not interested in the Dharma but is interested in association. The Dharma is not a sight, a sound, a category, or an idea. He who is involved in sights, sounds, categories, and ideas is not interested

350 The Holy Teachings of Vimalakīrti - A Mahāyāna Scripture, trans., Robert A. F. Thurman, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991, p.50. 351 The Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 453.

176

in the Dharma but is interested in sights, sounds, categories, and ideas. Reverend Śāriputra, the Dharma is free of compounded things and uncompounded things. He who adheres to compounded things and uncompounded things is not interested in the Dharma but is interested in adhering to compounded things and uncompounded things.352

In brief, this dharma is synonymous with ultimate reality, suchness, emptiness, inconceivable liberation, perfect wisdom, etc. It is signless. One cannot see it through any conception, because wherever there is conception, there exists self-nature. The Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra (6) says that if those who have a perception of either a dharma, or a no- dharma, they will thereby seize on a self, on a person, on a being, and on a living soul. The dharma is beyond all conceptions. In the dharma, there can be no conception of a dharma or a no-dharma, perception or non-perception. These conceptions are mere linguistic constructs. In the same way, a self, a person, a being, and a living soul are linguistic constructs. In actual experience, mind-states are arising and passing away with great rapidity without any permanent entity experiencing those mind-states. For a Bodhisattva to be caught in these conceptions would mean to be caught in delusion. Therefore, in the Bodhisattva‘s mind no perception of a self takes place, no perception of a person, no perception of a being, no perception of a living soul. Nor does he have a perception of a dharma or a perception of a no-dharma. No perception or non-perception takes place in him.353

352 Op.cit., p. 50-1. 353 The Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 6.

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4. BUDDHA HAS NO SIGN

In Buddhism, the final stage of attaining Buddhahood is equated with the acquisition of the thirty-two bodily marks which is distinguished from those of other men. But as in the world around us we should not look for ‗signs‘ anywhere, so in the Buddha we should not look for the thirty-two bodily marks of the superman. Just as it is a mistake to look for ‗signs‘ in things, so it would be a mistake to look for the thirty-two bodily marks of the Buddha in order to recognize him.

The Lord asked: ―What do you think, Subhuti, can the Tathāgata be seen by the possession of his marks?‖ – Subhuti replied: ―No indeed, O Lord, not by the possession of his marks can the Tathāgata be seen. And why? What has been taught by the Tathāgata as the possession of marks, that is truly a no-possession of no-marks.‖ The Lord said: ―Wherever there is possession of marks there is fraud, wherever there is no-possession of no-marks there is no fraud. Hence the Tathāgata is to be seen from no-marks as marks.‖354

Traditionally, after a long period of striving through many lifetimes in the cultivation of the Six Perfections (Pāramitā), the Bodhisattva comes into ‗possession‘ of all the thirty-two marks that indicate his Buddhahood. The idea is that these thirty-two bodily marks are a result of countless altruistic meritorious deeds, but at the same time it would be a delusion to believe that the Six Perfections should be practised simply in order to attain them. Moreover, it would, indeed, be a mistake to suppose that Buddhahood is some real, actually existing, condition produced as a result of the gained from the cultivation

354 Ibid., 5.

178 of the Six Perfections. It is true that one side of the Buddha, his glorified body adorned with the thirty-two marks of the superman, is in fact the fruit of this merit. But the real Buddha, in his , is without these marks. In his true reality the Buddha is not produced by anything, and he is also not marked off from anything that would be different from him. Nāgārjuna said:

The Tathāgata is neither the aggregates nor different from them. The aggregates are not in him; nor is he in the aggregates. He is not possessed of the aggregates. In such a context, who is a Tathāgata?355

The Buddha here is the Wisdom, the Enlightenment. It is easy to see here the Buddha, as he is perceived with the eye of faith, is contrasted with the Buddha as wisdom conceives him. And the point of view of wisdom is declared to be the superior and final one.

Mahāyāna Buddhism tells us that the Buddha has a three-fold body (trikāya). The three bodies of the Buddha are the Dharmakāya (Dharma Body), the Saṃbhogakāya (Bliss Body), and the (Phantom or Transformation Body). Both the Saṃbhogakāya and the Nirmāṇakāya are projections of the Dharmakāya.

4.1. Dharmakāya

The Buddha is in his essential nature identical with the ultimate truth or absolute reality known as the ‗truth body‘ or Dharmakāya. According to the Yogācāra, the Dharmakāya is the unformed, unmediated, primordial consciousness. It is the final development of Buddhahood,

355 skandhā na nānyaḥ skandhebhyo nāsmin skandhā na teṣu saḥ, tathāgataḥ skandhavān na katamo „tra tathāgataḥ. (Mmk., 22:1.)

179 an abstract resolution of all dualities (in emptiness), beyond any conceptualization or designation. The Dharmakāya is beyond time and space. In the truth body or Dharmakāya, the Buddha has no shape or colour, and since he has no shape or colour, he comes from nowhere and there is nowhere for him to go. The Buddha‘s body in this aspect has no sign.

4.2. Saṃbhogakāya

The Saṃbhogakāya is the subtle, quasi-material body, neither a fully relative nor a fully absolute body through which the Buddha highly developed practitioners on the path of Buddhahood. Saṃbhogakāya is also translated as ‗communal enjoyment body‘, which communicates the idea of sharing in the joy of a community both in causal and effective modalities. It operates in non-human time. Arising from the truth body (Dharmakāya), Saṃbhogakāyas take on the appearance of the many different Buddhas mentioned in Mahāyāna sūtras, such as Amitābha, Akṣobhya, or , each one thought to reside in their own particular . There, adorned with the thirty-two major and eighty secondary signs of perfection they communicate the dharma to select audiences of Bodhisattvas and gods.

4.3. Nirmāṇakāya

The Nirmāṇakāya is the body of the historical Śākyamuni Buddha – the body to be adorned with thirty-two marks, visible to ordinary human beings and intended to inspire people to embark on the path of dharma (enlightenment). In this body the Buddha also has illness, old-age, and death like other people so that he is easy to teach them the world is impermanent, suffering, and nothing forever exists.

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The Nirmāṇakāya is the proactive aspect or projection of the Dharmakāya in the phenomenal world. It is an act of reimagination of a Buddha in the ordinary world. The Nirmāṇakāya operates in human time.

The basic notion of the doctrine of the trikāya is that Buddhas operate simultaneously in the conventional and absolute realms. It might be more accurate to say that their consciousness remains grounded in a realization of śūnyatā and the ultimate non-dual nature of reality even as they engage in the world of appearances and conventional reality. Thus they do not get caught in karmic formations for themselves.

Therefore, we should not see the Buddha through ‗signs‘. If we look for him merely by means of bodily marks, means that we are identifying the Universal Monarch (the Chakravatin) with the Buddha.356 And if we cling to the physical appearance (the five aggregates) and consider it as the Buddha, means that we are deluding ourselves. We will never be able to discern the true Buddha. The Buddha tells us:

Those who by my form did see me, And those who followed me by voice, Wrong the efforts they engaged in, Me those people will not see.

From the Dharma should one see the Buddhas, From the Dharma-bodies comes their guidance. Yet Dharma‘s true nature cannot be discerned, And no one can be conscious of it as an object.357

356 The Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 26. 357 Ibid.

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The true Buddha is the Dharmakāya itself – the formless, boundless reality underlying all form. This Dharmakāya is Śūnyatā, the teaching of Śūnyatā by the Buddha is the expression of the Dharmakāya. This Dharma expression is the true guidance for all aspirants. Yet the true nature of Dharmakāya, being Śūnyatā itself, cannot be discerned and cannot be known as an object. It can only be known as suchness of both the subject and the object, or can only be intuited, not known, at least as an object. Thus, seeing the Buddha in the aspect of the Dharmakāya or Śūnyatā means seeing the true Buddha.

5. MEDITATION ON SIGNLESSNESS

In our habit we usually see things through signs but we do not know that this seeing has misled us, because ―Wherever there is possession of signs there is deception, wherever there is no-possession of no-signs there is no deception.‖358 The Mahāvedallasutta359 tells us that attachment is productive of signs, hatred is productive of signs, confusion (ignorance) is productive of signs. When all cankers are destroyed, these () are got rid of, cut off at the roots, made like a palm-tree stump so that they can come to no further existence in the future. To the extent that freedoms of mind are signless, unshakable freedom of mind is shown to be their chief, for that unshakable freedom of mind is void of attachment, void of hatred, void of confusion. Thus, signs are deception, are only the imagination of mind. They are not true. The true nature of things is signless. Things are signless.

Deception is born from signs, that signs are arisen from the three poisons; so we can say wherever there are the three poisons there is

358 Ibid., 5. 359 M. N., I, 298.

182 possession of signs, and wherever there is possession of signs there is deception. The three poisons are the origin of signs and deception. Because of the three poisons we do not know what is real and what is unreal. We always live in deception. We cling to the signs of things and consider them as real; therefore, we cannot touch the reality of things. Under the Buddha‘s eyes – the eyes without dust or without the three poisons, the existence of the signs of all things is only the imagination of the mind. Signs are unreal. The Laṅk. Sūtra says:

…… that all things are Māyā because they are both alike in being imagined and clung to as having multitudinousness of individual signs, but that all things are like Māyā because they are unreal and like a lightning-flash which is seen as quickly disappearing. Mahāmati, a lightning appears and disappears in quick succession as is manifest to the ignorant; in the same way, Mahāmati, all things assume individuality and generality according to the discrimination [of the mind] itself. When the state of imagelessness is recognized, objects which are imagined and clung to as in possession of individual signs cease to assert themselves.360

Practising the meditation on signlessness is necessary for us to free ourselves. Until we can break through the signs, we cannot touch reality. The reality of things is signless. As long as we are caught by signs we will suffer. In the world of phenomena, nothing can be described in terms of just one sign. Water is in a round container, its sign is roundness. If it is in a square container, its sign is squareness.

360 The Laṅk. Sūtra, 110.

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Even it can become solid or gas such as ice or steam. We can describe it as roundness, squareness, solid, gas, etc., dependent on circumstances. When we examine our body we realize that our body is also changing in appearance due to every period of our life-time and the circumstances we have experienced. The appearance of our body in the youth time is very different from the time when we were five, or the appearance of the old man. Accurately, the appearance of our body is changing year by year, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, moment by moment if we deeply look into it. Our mind is likewise. It is always changing. So, things have no fixed sign. Things have no self-nature. Our fears and attachments come from our being caught in signs. Until we touch the signless-nature of things, we will continue to be afraid and to suffer. Before we can touch the nature of water (the reality) we have to let go of signs like roundness, squareness, hardness, heaviness, lightness, up, and down. Water is, in itself, neither round nor square nor solid. When we free ourselves from signs, we can enter the realm of reality. But until we can keep in mind any image of water, we are still caught by signs.

The greatest relief is when we break through the barriers of sign and touch the world of Signlessness or Nirvāṇa. Signlessness and Nirvāṇa are synonyms. Sometimes Nirvāṇa is called Signlessness because Nirvāṇa has no sign. Enter into the world of Signlessness means enter into Nirvāṇa. How could we enter into the world of Signlesness? Where should we look to find it? We should not look to find the world of Signlessness out of the world of Signs. Without signs we could not touch signlessness. We could not touch the suchness of water if without water. If we throw away the water, there is no way for

184 us to touch its suchness. We touch the water when we break through the signs of the water and see it by true nature. The true nature of the water is the ‗inter-being‘ of water. It is present everywhere and in anything. It is beyond all appearances and all conceptions of water. It is neither water nor no-water. It is the suchness. Its ground of being is free from birth and death. When we can touch that, we will not be afraid of anything.

If we see the signlessness of signs, we see the Buddha, ―The Tathāgata is to be seen from no-marks as marks.‖361 The Tathāgata is the other name of the Buddha. It means the true nature of things, or the wondrous nature of reality. In order to see the true nature of things, we need to look beyond the signs of things. To see the wondrous nature of water, we need to look beyond the sign of the water, and see that it is made of non-water elements. In the water we can see the flower, the tree, the man, the mountain, the earth, the sun, the whole universe. If we think that water is only water, that is not the sun, the earth, the mountain, the man, the tree, the flower, etc., we cannot touch the true nature of water. When we can see that the water is the sun, the earth, the mountain, the man, etc., that just by looking at the sun, or the earth, or the man, or the flower we can see the water, this is the true nature of the water. Seeing the water is seeing the whole universe, this is the seeing of the signlessness of signs. This seeing is called the seeing of Perfect Wisdom.

The Six Pāramitās are the ways lead us to this seeing – the seeing of Perfect Wisdom. They are Dānapāramitā (Perfection of Generosity),

361 The Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 5.

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Śīlapāramitā (Perfection of Morality), Kṣāntipāramitā (Perfection of Patience), Vīryapāramitā (Perfection of Energy), Dhyānapāramitā (Perfection of Meditation), Prajñāpāramitā (Perfection of Wisdom). The Bodhisattva abandons all signs, despite they are the signs of the ways themselves, when practises these kinds of perfection. The Buddha teaches: ―Bhikshus, you should know that all of the teachings I give to you are a raft. All teachings must be abandoned, not to mention non- teachings.‖362

When we practise the Six Perfections we should not cling to any sign of our practice. When we practise the Perfection of Generosity, for example giving something to someone, we should not think: ‗this is my gift‘, ‗I am a donor‘, ‗the other is the recipient‘, but we give in the indiscrimination mind: ―Those who have set out in the Bodhisattva- Vehicle should give gifts without being supported by the notion of a sign.‖363 Likewise, we do not cling to any sign when we practise the Perfection of Morality, and so on. And when we accomplish the Six Perfections we truly enter into the world of Signlessness.

In the Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, the Venerable Subhuti says that when the Bodhisattva enters into the realm of Signlessness or the Perfect Wisdom, he should not course in any conception, even the conception of the Perfect Wisdom. The text says:

He should not course in the skandhas, nor in their sign, nor in the idea that ‗the skandhas are signs,‘ nor in the production of the skandhas, in their stopping or destruction, nor in the idea that ‗the skandhas are empty,‘ or ‗I course,‘ or ‗I am a Bodhisattva.‘ And

362 Ibid., 6. 363 Ibid., 4.

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it should not occur to him, ‗he who courses thus, courses in perfect wisdom and develops it.‘ He courses but he does not entertain such ideas as ‗I course,‘ ‗I do not course,‘ ‗I course and I do not course,‘ ‗I neither course nor do I not course,‘ and the same [four] with ‗I will course.‘ He does not go near any dharma at all, because all dharmas are unapproachable and unappropriable. The Bodhisattva then has the concentrated insight ‗Not grasping at any dharma‘ by name, vast, noble, unlimited and steady, not shared by any of the Disciples or Pratyekabuddhas. When he dwells in this concentrated insight, a Bodhisattva will quickly win the full enlightenment which the Tathāgatās of the past have predicted for him. But when he dwells in that concentration, he does not review it, nor think ‗I am collected,‘ ‗I will enter into concentration,‘ ‗I am entering into concentration,‘ ‗I have entered into concentration.‘ All that in each and every way does not exist for him.364

The concentration when being entered into and abided in, the mind of the practitioner (the Bodhisattva) is free of all signs. Everything, for him, becomes serenity. As the saying of Vimalamita goes: ―The mental concentration (samādhi) that does not dwell on any sign is serenity. The mental concentration that does not escape from any sign is serenity. Not to generate any sign is serenity. Not to stop any sign is insight. The limit of the object is serenity. Not to fall beyond the limit of the object is insight.‖365 For him (the Bodhisattva), the water now is not only water, but it is the whole universe. When he sees the

364 The Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 12-13. 365 See: Peter N. Gregory, Sudden and Gradual - Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, ed., Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991, pp. 109-110.

187 water, he sees the whole universe. When he touches the water, he touches the suchness of water. This is the true concentration, the perfect concentration. When he abides in this concentration, he abides in the Perfect Wisdom or in Nirvāṇa.

In brief, signs arise from mind, that the nature of mind is ineffable, and that the essence of mind is the enlightenment itself. Of course, mind has no self-nature. It is signless. The reason is that signs arise from mind because mind is impure. When impure mind arises, discrimination arises, the concepts of self-nature arise, and then signs arise. We cling to the appearances of things, the false concept of good and bad dharmas, dharma and no-dharma, because we have been engaging in deluded discrimination of the mind. When the mind is to be purified and becomes pure the discrimination disappears, the substance to be realized, everything is to be serene, we see signs as signlessness; that is called the freedom of the mind from signs. The mind is to be free from signs means the mind is empty of self-nature, beyond being and non-being, beyond all discursive construction. If we investigate all dharmas in the same manner, with an understanding which is spontaneous, we will realize the true nature of things, and attain the signless mind.

CHAPTER 3 WISHLESSNESS

The third door of liberation is Wishlessness (Apraṇihita). The teaching of Wishlessness is also much important, but has received less attention than the former two. The Buddha said: ―All dharmas are wishless.‖366 All dharmas are wishless because all dharmas are empty and signless. They have no self-nature. Moreover, all dharmas are wishless because all dharmas are already and fully in us. Buddha-nature is also already and fully in us. The Sad. Puṇ. Sūtra tells us that the Buddhas, the World-Honoured Ones, appear in the world for one great reason alone – that is, they wish to show the Buddha-wisdom (already in us) to us and enlighten us to it.367 We do not have to run anywhere to become someone else. There is no need to put anything in front of us and run after it. There is nothing to do, nothing to realize, no program, no agenda. We already have everything we are looking for, everything we want to become. We are already a Buddha.

1. THE MEANING OF WISHLESSNESS

‗Wishlessness‘ is the English word, which is translated from the Sanskrit term ‗apraṇihita‘ (the : appaṇihita). Sometimes ‗apraṇihita‘ is also translated as ‗‘. The term ‗apraṇihita‘ means ―non-

366 The Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 482. 367 See: Chapter Two of the Sad. puṇ. Sūtra: Expedient Means.

189 action‖ or ―non-occurrence‖.368 It is literally that one ‗places nothing in front‘, and it designates someone who makes no plans for the future, has no hopes for it, who is aimless, not bent on anything, without predilection or desire for the objects of perception rejected by the concentration on the signless.369 According to Thích Nhất Hạnh, the meaning of the term is ―there is nothing to run after, nothing to attain or realize, nothing to be grasped.‖370 Of course, ‗apraṇihita‘ (wishlessness) ―does not at all mean the annihilation of a substance, but the mere act of non-willing. That which willed hitherto wills no longer. Since we know this essence – only in and by the act of willing, we, the subjects of cognition, are not in a position to say or to grasp what it furthermore is or does when it has given up this act.‖371 Briefly, ‗Wishlessness‘ is synonymous with ‗Complete Enlightenment‘, ‗Ultimate Liberation‘, or ‗Absolute Nirvāṇa‘.

‗Non-action‘ here is easy to be misunderstood. It is not one of idleness. We should be careful not to be trapped by the limitations of language here. ‗Non-action‘ does not mean idleness. It is the state of Enlightenment, of Liberation, of Nirvāṇa, the state of accomplishing everything after making the effort to practise the Six Pāramitās, wherein there is nothing to do, nothing to realize, no program, no agenda. One who attains this state means he accomplishes everything. He has nothing to do, nothing to wish. Hence, this state is called

368 The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. I, ed., G.P. Malalasekera, Ceylon: The Government of Ceylon, 1997, p. 676a. 369 Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India - Three Phases of Buddhist Philosophy, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2002, p. 67. 370 Thích Nhất Hạnh, Cultivating the Mind of Love, India: Full Circle, 2008, p. 69. 371 George Grimn, Buddhist Wisdom: The Mystery of the Self, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999, p. 58.

190 wishlessness or aimlessness. The finely tuned kind of action that the Buddha has in mind, however, is a kind of pure awareness. Sometimes it is called ‗non-action action‘.

We are conditioned in a million ways by our experience. We do not live naturally. We live according to our programming. We might think that simply to be would not involve us in any character-training, but in Buddhism we discover that only the developed character has the capacity simply to be. We need to make effort to live in accordance with what the Buddha taught, to apply ourselves to seeing what is going on in us, as it is going on, in order to transform ourselves, to purify our mind, toward liberation, Nirvāṇa. That is to say, happiness is not in outside; happiness is already in us. Nirvāṇa is not in outside; Nirvāṇa is already in us. We do not have to travel further to look for happiness, to look for Nirvāṇa. We already have everything we are looking for. We have the stores of treasure but we do not know how to use – even we do not know about them at all. We always run after things to seek happiness (in sense-pleasures) in order to satisfy our craving. We are like the son of a rich man372 who abandoned his father, ran away, and lived for a long time in another land. As he grew older, he found himself increasingly poor and in want, and hurried about in every direction, seeking for food and clothing. Or we are like the poor man who does not know that he had a priceless jewel which was to be sewed in the lining of his robe, but still journeyed here and there to other countries, to seek food and clothing to keep himself alive.373 Therefore, we always live in suffering.

372 The Sad. Puṇ. Sūtra, chapter 4: Belief and Understanding. 373 Ibid., chapter 8: Prophecy of Enlightenment for Five Hundred Disciples.

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We suffer because of our craving. That, craving is the manifestation of ignorance; hence, we can say, owing to ignorance we do not know the stores of treasures in us, or owing to craving we do not discover the stores of treasures in us. According to Buddhism, craving is the character hinders us (toward Nirvāṇa). And what we use to call ‗craving‘ we also call ‗will‘, ‗greed‘, ‗wish‘, ‗desire‘, ‗longing‘. ‗Craving‘ is the cause of all kinds of suffering. It needs to be transformed. Nrivāṇa is the state of liberation of all kinds of suffering. Nirvāṇa is truly a store of treasures in us. It is defined as the extinction, or stopping, of craving. If Nirvāṇa is defined as the extinction or stopping, of craving, why do we desire it; and how is it that the sages are called ‗prone and inclined to Nirvāṇa‘, and yet do not desire it?

Nirvāṇa is the final result of our practice, the goal of our aiming. But ―Nirvāṇa is an object of our craving only in so far as one forms a mistaken idea of it. Under the influence of ‗sensuous craving‘ one may strive for Nirvāṇa because of the bliss, joy and delight associated with it. Under the influence of ‗craving for more becoming‘ one may expect from it some kind of personal morality, treat it as a means of achieving perpetuity for oneself. Under the influence of the ‗craving for extinction‘ one may hope that it will fulfill the wish to get rid of oneself, misconceive Nirvāṇa as a kind of death followed by mere nothingness, and fail to see the difference between a desire for the extinction of craving and a craving for extinction. As a matter of fact, Nirvāṇa cannot satisfy the first kind of craving because it gives no- sense-satisfaction, but is based on the denial thereof, i.e. on ‗dispassion‘ (virāga), the complete absence of delight in sense-objects. It cannot satisfy the second and third kinds of craving because it involves the

192 cessation of personal existence, and is yet not the same as its bare extinction.‖374

Of course, Nirvāṇa is not an object of our craving. Nirvāṇa cannot satisfy any kind of our craving, because in Nirvāṇa no craving exists. Nirvāṇa is also not a goal at which we aim because Nirvāṇa has no subject or object. Nirvāṇa is aimless. However, while we are still at a distance from Nirvāṇa, we may desire it, strive and live for it. Once it is attained, all wishing or aiming, even for Nirvāṇa, will cease.

Although we all think that ‗Nirvāṇa could be attained or realized‘ but in fact there is nothing to be attained or to be realized. ‗Attain‘ means we attain something we did not possess in the past. It means that the thing we attain, must come from outside. Nirvāṇa does not come from outside. Nirvāṇa is already in ourselves. And ‗realize‘ means we realize something inside or outside us. It means there exists the subject and the object, in which Nirvāṇa is the object of our cognition. Nirvāṇa does not exist as the subject or the object. Otherwise, Nirvāṇa is not a substance. Nirvāṇa is the state escapes all substance. In this case, Nirvāṇa is synonymous with emptiness, with signlessness. And thus, Nirvāṇa could not be attained or realized. When the reverend Śāriputra asked a goddess who lived in the house of the Licchavi Vimalakīrti: ―What have you attained, what have you realized, that you have such eloquence?‖ The goddess replied: ―I have attained nothing, reverend Śāriputra, I have no realization. Therefore I have such eloquence. Whoever thinks, ―I have attained! I have realized!‖ is overly proud in

374 Edward Conze, The Buddhist Thought in India - Three Phases of Buddhist Philosophy, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2002, p. 67.

193 the discipline of the well taught Dharma.‖375 The reason that the goddess said ‗I have attained nothing‘, ‗I have no realization‘ because all dharmas are empty; all dharmas are signless. If those who reach this understanding (wisdom), he truly reaches the Ultimate Nirvāṇa. Thus, the Bodhisattva Avalokita said to the revered Śāriputra: ―Therefore, Śāriputra, in emptiness there is neither form, nor feelings, nor perceptions, nor mental formations, nor consciousness; no eye, or ear, or nose, or tongue, or body, or mind; no form, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind; no sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to: no mind-consciousness element; there is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no cessation, no path; there is no wisdom, no attainment, and even no non-attainment. Therefore, Śāriputra, since Bodhisattvas have no attainments, they rely on this perfection of wisdom and abide in it. Having no obscuration in their minds, they have no fear, and by going utterly beyond error, they will reach the end of Nirvāṇa.‖376

Nirvāṇa is not a substance. Nirvāṇa cannot be realized as the subject or the object. Nirvāṇa escapes the entire subject and object. It is empty and signless. Because Nirvāṇa escapes all things, then there is nothing to do, nothing to realize. And because Nirvāṇa is already in us, so there is nothing to attain. When we live fully with the state of Nirvāṇa, we will wish nothing. This is the true meaning of wishlessnes

375 The Holy Teachings of Vimalakīrti - A Mahāyāna Scripture, trans., Robert A. F. Thurman, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991, p. 60. 376 The Heart Sūtra.

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2.

Bodhicitta is an important concept, and a key term in Mahāyāna Buddhism, denoting the state of mind of a Bodhisattva. It has usually been translated as ‗the Thought of Enlightenment‘, or ‗the Enlightened Mind‘. ‗Bodhi‘ means ‗enlightened‘, and ‗‘: ‗thought‘, ‗heart, ‗soul‘, ‗mind‘.377 The term ‗Bodhicitta‘ has been understood under two levels: the relative (saṃvṛti) or the mind (citta) of a Bodhisattva directed towards enlightenment (bodhi); and the absolute (paramārtha) or the mind whose intrinsic nature is enlightenment.378 These two levels are also described as the ethical and the metaphysical.379 The meaning of the term, on the first level, involves two parallel aspects: the directed towards enlightenment for oneself, and for all living beings.380 On the second level, the term means the enlightenment itself. The Bodhicitta is said to be latent in all beings and that is merely a manifestation of the Dharmakāya (Dharma-body), or Bhūtatathatā (suchness of existence, i.e., the Universal Spirit) in the human heart.381

2.1. Bodhicitta as the Mind Directed towards Enlightenment for Oneself and for Others

This explanation is supported by many Buddhist scholars. To express his support on this explanation, Har Dayal stresses that ―Bodhi-

377 Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, p. 59. 378 The Dictionary of Buddhism, compil., Damien Keown, India: Oxford, 2003, p. 36b. 379 The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. III, ed., G.P. Malalasekera, Ceylon: The Government of Ceylon, 1999, p. 184a. 380 The Seeker‟s , reprinted and donated by the Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation, Taiwan, 1998, p. 63a. 381 Op.cit.

195 citta simply means: ‗the Thought of bodhi‘. The word citta … Here it means ‗thought, idea‘.‖382

We know that the goal of all Mahāyāna Buddhist practice is to attain enlightenment or achieve Buddhahood, that the precondition for Buddhahood is the Bodhicitta (the Thought of Enlightenment) itself. Thus, a Bodhisattva‘s career is said to commence with the ‗production of the thought of enlightenment‘ (bodhicittotpāda). He thinks of becoming a Buddha for the welfare and liberation of all beings. He resolves to save himself and, above all, to save others.

In order to practise the Bodhisattva‘s path and to attain the goal of the practice (Buddhahood), one must generate the thought of enlightenment. He should reflect that birth as a human being is a very rare privilege.383 He may be born as an animal, a or a denizen of purgatory384 many times, and there is no chance of becoming a Bodhisattva in those existences. Even if he has escaped these three realms of calamity, it is extremely difficult to get the perfection of the favourable conjuncture that is indispensable for his initiation as a Bodhisattva. He may be born as one of the long-lived devas, who cannot aspire to enlightenment, although they are very happy. He may be born among foreigners or in a barbarous country. He may be defective in his faculties and organs. He may be misled by false doctrines. And he may find himself on earth during a period has no Buddha, no Dharma; for the perfect Buddhas are very rare.385 He should consider himself

382 Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, p. 59. 383 Śāntideva, The Śik. Sam., 2. 384 The Sad. Puṇ. Sūtra, Chapter 3: Semile and Parable. 385 Op.cit.; Ibid., I.

196 fortunate in being free from the prevention of these eight difficulties and disqualifications, and above all, in being born as human being at all and being practised the Buddha‘s teachings, for these privileges are the blessings that perhaps fail to one‘s lot only once in billions of years. Besides, he also thinks of his own sufferings in the human body like birth, illness, old-age, and death, and so forth, and the sufferings of others. Reflecting on these sad states he should resolve to become a Bodhisattva in order to save himself and to save all creatures.

Har Dayal holds that a Bodhisattva produces the Thought of Enlightenment for the sake of his own good, and of the welfare and liberation of all living beings. To clarify this idea, he quotes Śāntideva in the Bcv, III, 22:23, who writes: ―As the Buddhas of yore accepted the Thought of bodhi and regularly followed the discipline of the Bodhisattvas, even so I too produce (in my mind) this Thought of bodhi for the good of the world, and I will follow that discipline in due order.‖386 He also quotes the saying in the Bodhisattva Bhūmi: ―He thinks thus: ‗O may I obtain supreme and perfect Enlightenment, promote the good of all beings, and establish them in the final and complete Nirvāṇa and in the Buddha-knowledge!‘ Such is his (prarthanā).‖ And he concludes: ―The two objects (ālambana) of the Thought are thus bodhi and the good of the living beings (Sattv- ārtha).‖387 Geshe Kelsang Gyatso supports this idea by setting forth ten benefits of generating Bodhicitta. They are: (1) entering the gateway to the Mahāyāna, (2) becoming a Son or Daughter of the Buddhas, (3)

386 Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, p. 61. 387 Ibid.

197 surpassing Hearers and Solitary Realizers, (4) becoming worthy to receive offerings and prostrations from humans and gods, (5) easily accumulating a vast amount of merit, (6) quickly destroying powerful negativities, (7) fulfilling all our wishes, (8) being free from harm by spirits and so forth, (9) accomplishing all the spiritual grounds and paths, and lastly, (10) having a state of mind that is the source of peace and happiness for all beings.388 He also says that to prevent the Bodhicitta from degenerating one must make the promise three times with the following words:

From this time forth until I become a Buddha, I shall keep even at the cost of my life A mind wishing to attain complete enlightenment To free all living beings from the fears of Samsara and solitary peace.389

When the Bodhicitta has been attained, it can be rendered firm and strong like adamant, the aspirant then becomes a true Bodhisattva, the love and the aspiration to rescue all beings and the determination to attain Buddhahood in him become too much strong.

A Bodhisattva, who has once attained the Bodhicitta must not swerve from the right path or abandon the career. He is always remembered by the Buddhas of all times since he has accepted the Bodhisattva‘s path. He reflects that he has given a sacred promise to all beings, whose welfare and liberation depend on him. So he should not give up his Bodhicitta, even if Māra (the god of Desire and Death) tries

388 Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, The - The Essential Practices of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Delhi: New Age Books, 2002, pp. 9-10. 389 Ibid.

198 to weaken his resolve with the most dreadful menaces and threats. With this thought he can complete the path and attain Buddhahood.

2.2. Bodhicitta as the Ultimate Truth

The second meaning of the term ‗Bodhicitta‘ is described as the Ultimate Truth – that is the Enlightenment itself. This meaning can be found in the works of Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu and . According to the explanations of these Buddhist writers, Bodhicitta is synonymous with Perfect Enlightenment or Buddhahood. It is latent in every sentient being. It must be awakened and cultivated.

D.T. Suzuki quotes Nāgārjuna, who explains the term as ―Bodhicitta is free from all determination, i.e., it is not included in the categories of five skandhas (factors of existence), twelve āyatanas (elements of sense-perception), eighteen dhātus (physical elements), it is not a particular existence which is palpable. It is non-ātmanic, universal. It is uncreated and its self-essence is void.‖390 He also quotes Sthiramati, who says: ―Nirvāṇa, Dharmakāya, Tathāgata, Tathāgatagarbha, Paramārtha, Buddha, Bodhicitta, Bhūtatathatā – all these terms signify merely so many different aspects of one and the same reality and Bodhicitta is the name given to a form of the Dharmakāya (Law-body) or Bhūtatathatā (Suchness of existence) as it manifests itself in the human heart, and its purification or negatively its liberation from all egoistic impurities constitutes the state of Nirvāṇa.‖391 Basing on these explanations, D.T. Suzuki defines the term Bodhicitta as ―intelligence – heart‖, and says: Theoretically speaking … the Bodhi or Bodhicitta is in every sentient being …. In profane heart, it

390 D.T. Suzuki, Outlines of Mahāyāna Buddhism, UK: London, 1907, p. 297. 391 Ibid., 299.

199 may be found enveloped in ignorance and egoism.‖392 M. Anesaki also takes a metaphysical view of Bodhicitta, and defines it as: ―the primordial essence of our mind, which in itself consists in the Supreme Bodhi.‖393 The concept of Bodhicitta in this level of meaning is described as indefinable. It is immeasurable (aprameya), infinite (aparyanta), and indestructible (akṣaya).394

Vasubandhu in his Bcp. Sū. Śās. compares Bodhicitta to the ocean: ―In the beginning when the great ocean manifests itself, it should be known that it is the store of all kinds of jewels, inferior, medium and superior, valuable and invaluable wish yielding gems. Just so, at the beginning, Bodhicitta, too, should be thought of as the store of gods, men, disciples, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, merits, meditation and wisdom.‖395 This description of Vasubandhu tells us that attaining Bodhicitta means attaining everything. It is not different from what Nāgārjuna and Sthiramati describe in their works respectively as quoted by D.T. Suzuki (we have just mentioned above). It means that Bodhicitta is the same as Complete Enlightenment. Nirvāṇa, Bhūtatathatā, Tathāgatagarbha, Buddha-nature, and so forth, and as such it is universal, being latent in all beings. This latent Bodhicitta has to be awakened and cultivated. If one awakens and cultivates the Bodhicitta in himself he will surely attain it. Attaining the Bodhicitta in oneself means he lives fully with the pure mind or the mind of complete enlightenment in him. The Bodhisattva Path is the only path to help him

392 Ibid., pp. 311, 303. 393 The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, V, ed., J. Hastings, 1908, p. 450. 394 Vasubhandu, The Bcp. Sū. Śās., 209f. 395 Ibid.; see also The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. III, ed., G.P. Malalasekera, Ceylon: The Government of Ceylon, 1999, p. 185b.

200 live fully with this mind. In order to live fully with this mind, he, first of all, should awaken it and then cultivate it.

The Bcp. Sū. Śās. (p. 211) enumerates ten qualities that one, who aspires to awaken the Bodhicitta in himself, should cultivate. He should gather friends (paricinoti Kalyāṇamitrāṇi), worship the Buddhas (pūjayati buddhān), acquire roots of merit (Saṃgṛhṇāti Kuśalamūlāni), search the good laws (gaveṣayati praṇītadharmān), remain ever compassionate (bhavati nityaṃ suratacittaḥ), bear all sufferings that befall him (Kṣamate duḥkhānyāpatitāni), remain kind, compassionate and honest (bhavati maitraḥ, kāruṇikaḥ), remain even-minded (bhavati samacittāśayaḥ), rejoice in Mahāyāna with faith (śraddhayābhinandati mahāyānaṃ), and search the Buddha-wisdom (gaveṣayati buddhaprajñāṃ). Four other qualities, too, are mentioned in the same text, namely, reflecting on the Buddhas (anuvicintayan buddhān), reflecting on the defects of the body (pratyavekṣamānaḥ kāyasyādīnavān), being compassionate towards beings (dayamānaḥ sattveṣu), and searching after the highest fruit (gaveṣayannuttamaṃ phalaṃ).

After awakening the Bodhicitta in him, the aspirant should make a vow (praṇidhāna) to live fully with it – that is to attain Complete Enlightenment. Vow (Praṇidhāna) is the mind of aspiration and determination to attain Buddha-hood and to rescue all living beings. The Boddhisattvas are said to base on this vow can attain Buddhahood [as the case of the Bodhisattva Dharmākara with his Forty-Eight Vows,396 or the Four Vows of the Buddha Sakyamuni397 were made when he was as a Bodhisattva, and so forth]. The Avat. Sūtra says:

396 The Sukhāvatī-vyūha, ed., F. Max Müller and B. Nanjio, UK: Oxford, 1883, p. 2ff.

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Having aroused this determination, they are able to know the first attainment of true awakening as well as the final release of all Buddhas of the past, are able to believe in the roots of goodness of all Buddhas of the future, and are able to know the knowledge and wisdom of all Buddhas of the present. The virtues of those Buddhas, these enlightenment beings can believe in, can accept, can cultivate, can attain, can know, can witness, and can perfect; they can be equal, of the same nature, as the Buddhas. Why? Because these enlightenment beings arouse their aspiration in order not to let the of all enlightened ones die out; they arouse their aspiration in order to pervade all worlds; they arouse their determination in order to liberate the beings of all worlds; they arouse their aspiration in order to completely know the formation and disintegration of all worlds; they arouse their determination in order to completely know the defilement and purity of all beings; they arouse their minds in order to know the purity of the realms of desire, form, and formlessness in all worlds; they arouse their determination in order to completely know the inclinations, afflictions and mental habits of all living beings; they arouse their aspiration in order to completely know the faculties and means of all beings; they arouse their determination in order to completely know the mental activities of all beings; they arouse their aspiration in order to know all beings‘ knowledge of past, present, and future. Because they have set their minds on enlightenment, they are always, remembered

397 Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai, The Teaching of Buddha, Delhi: Sterling, 2006, p. 12; The Sutra of Hui-neng - Grand Master of Zen - With Hui-neng‟s Commentary, trans.,Thomas Cleary, Boston: Shambhala, 1998, p. 39; Hilda Gutiérrez Baldoquín, The Dharma, Color, and Culture - New Voice in Western Buddhism, ed., California: Paralax, 2004, p. 137.

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by all the Buddhas of past, present, and future, and will attain the unsurpassed enlightenment of all Buddhas of all times. Then they will be given the sublime teachings of all Buddhas of all times, and will be actually and essentially equal to all Buddhas of all times. Having cultivated the methods of fostering the path used by all Buddhas of all times, consummated the powers and fearlessnesses of all Buddhas of all times, and adorned themselves with the unique qualities of all Buddhas of all times, they will thoroughly attain the knowledge and wisdom to explain the truth of all Buddhas of the cosmos. Why? Because by means of this determination they will attain Buddhahood.398

Therefore, vow (praṇidhāna) is very important and indispensable for those who aspire to attain Buddhahood, to live fully with the Bodhicitta in themselves.

There are various formulas of Bodhisattva‘s Praṇidhāna to be found in the Mahāyāna texts. But the most detailed formula is found in the Da. Bhū. Sūtra, which mentions Ten Praṇidhānas (Vows, Aspirations, or Wishes). The aspirant has to cherish these Ten Praṇidhānas for his own well-being and for the good of others. These, in brief, are: (1) to provide for the worship of all the Budhas without exception; (2) to maintain the religious discipline that has been taught by all the Buddhas and to preserve the teaching of the Buddhas; (3) to see all the incidents in the earthly career of a Buddhas; (4) to realize the thought of enlightenment, to practise all the duties of a Bodhisattva, to acquire all the pāramitās and purify all the stages of his career; (5) to mature all beings and establish them in the knowledge of the Buddha, viz. all the

398 The Avat. Sūtra (The Flower Ornament Scripture), trans., Thomas Cleary, Boston: Shambhala, 1993, pp. 411-412.

203 four classes of beings who are in the six states of existence; (6) to perceive the whole universe; (7) to purify and cleanse all the Buddha- field; (8) to enter on the great way and to produce a common thought and purpose in all Bodhisattvas; (9) to make all actions of the body, speech and mind fruitful and successful; (10) to attain the supreme and perfect enlightenment and to preach the doctrine.399

When the mind of aspiration and determination to attain Buddhahood and to liberate all living beings in him has been aroused, the aspirant officially becomes a Bodhisattva; and from then on, the Six Perfections (Pāramitās) are the foods to nourish his Bodhi-mind. These Six Perfections are: the Perfection of Giving (Dāna), the Perfection of Morality (Śīla), the Perfection of Patience (Kṣānti), the Perfection of Effort (Vīrya), the Perfection of Meditation (Dhyāna), and lastly the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñā).400

The Bodhisattva has also to cultivate the Ten Bhūmis (ten stages, or levels) in parallel with the Six Pāramitās. These Ten Bhūmis are summarized as: (1) Pramuditā-bhūmi (Joyful stage): the Bodhisattva overcomes the former difficulties and enters this stage just after the awakening of the Bodhi-mind which annihilates all his previous sins; (2) Vimalā-bhūmi (Pure): freedom from all possible defilement (all immoral conduct and disposition are eradicated); (3) Prabhākarī-bhūmi (Luminous): through meditation the Bodhisattva strengthens and

399 The Da. Bhū. Sūtra, ed., J. Rahder, Louvain, 1926, pp. 14-16; The Bcp. Sū. Śās., pp. 214 ff; see also Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, p. 66; The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. III, ed., G.P. Malalasekera, Ceylon: The Government of Ceylon, 1999, p. 186. 400 The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. III, ed., G.P. Malalasekera, Ceylon: The Government of Ceylon, 1999, p. 186b; A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, compiled by William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000, 267a.

204 deepens his insight; (4) Arciṣmatī-bhūmi (Brilliant): all good qualities are vigorously pursued; (5) Sudurjayā-bhūmi (Hard-To-Conquer): the Bodhisattva denotes himself to his own development and to the welfare of others; (6) Abhimukhī-bhūmi (Facing Forward): great wisdom is attained and insight into the true nature of all phenomena; (7) Dūraṃgamā-bhūmi (Going Far): the power of skilful means (upāyakauśalya) is attained; (8) Acalā-bhūmi (Immoveable): the possibility of falling back is gone forever; (9) Sādhumatī-bhūmi (The Good): the Bodhisattva becomes a great preacher and preaches the doctrine in manifold ways to the beings of all world-systems (lokadhātu) in order to convert them; (10) Dharmameghā (Cloud of The Dharma): this stage closes the career of a Bodhisattva. Here he attains all forms of concentration. The Bodhisattva in this stage reaches full perfection and is consecrated as a Fully Enlightened Buddha. He is a personification of love and sympathy, which freely issue from the foul of his inner will. He pays special attention to the Perfection of Wisdom without lacking in respect for other perfections.401

When the Six Pāramitās and the Ten Bhūmis have been accomplished, the Bodhisattva is said to have accomplished the Bodhisattva Path. His mind then becomes totally pure. It is equal with the mind of all Buddhas. This mind is called the Bodhi-mind, the Buddha‘s mind, or also called the Buddhahood. When the Bodhisattva attains this mind (the Bodhi-mind) means he attains everything. As the saying of Vasubandhu goes: ―Just so, at the beginning, Bodhicitta, too,

401 The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. III, ed., G.P. Malalasekera, Ceylon: The Government of Ceylon, 1999, pp. 75-78; A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, compiled by William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000, p. 47b; The Dictionary of Buddhism, compiled by Damien Keown, India: Oxford, 2003, p. 34a.

205 should be thought of as the store of gods, men, disciples, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, merits, meditation and wisdom.‖402 Therefore, a Bodhisattva is said to attain the Bodhi-mind is also meant he attains the mind of wishlessness.

3. BODHISATTVA’S COMPASSION

We have discussed the Bodhi-mind (Bodhicitta) or the mind of a Buddha and understood that a Bodhisattva attains this mind means he attains fully Enlightenment or attains Buddhahood. In order to attain the Bodhi-mind the Bodhisattva must, first, produce the thought of enlightenment for himself and the mind to rescue all beings, and then cultivate them. To produce the thought of enlightenment for oneself and the mind to rescue others mean to awaken the Wisdom (Prajñā) and the Compassion in him. These two virtues are said to be latent in every sentient being. The Bodhisattva is said to attain fully Enlightenment or Buddhahood means he attains the Perfect Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā) and the complete Compassion in him. The Perfect Wisdom, we all know, is the Buddha-wisdom, the wisdom of non-discrimination, or the wisdom of wishlessness. But is the compassion – the mind to be directed towards the liberation of others considered as the mind of wishlessness?

Compassion (karuṇā), a virtue which is important in all , is particularly emphasized in the Mahāyāna. In Buddhism, it generally figures as the second of the Four Brahmavihāras or Divine Abidings [Loving-Kindness (Mettā), Compassion (Karuṇā), Sympathetic Joy (Muditā), and Equanimity (Upekkhā)]. In early

402 The Bcp. Sū. Śās., p. 209; see also The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. III, ed., G.P. Malalasekera, Ceylon: The Government of Ceylon, 1999, p. 185b.

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Buddhism as well as in the Theravāda, it is described as the quality which is cultivated especially through the practice of meditation and is directed towards other beings without restriction. In the Mahāyāna, Compassion is the active sympathy403 and emphasized as the necessary complement to Wisdom (Prajñā) and as an essential ingredient in the perfection of the Fully Enlightened. For the Mahāyānists, it is no less important than Wisdom. Compassion is an activity directed towards beings, because benefiting others is the Bodhisattva‘s primal concern. Owing to his deep compassion, a Bodhisattva refrains from entering Nirvāṇa. So long as his fellow beings are not saved. Rejecting even the exquisite pleasure of Nirvāṇa, he devotes himself to the works of benefiting others. Compassion and Wisdom, thus, are described as the two cardinal virtues, the indispensable constituents of Enlightenment. They are compared to the two wheels of a cart or the two wings of a bird. Basing on these two wings the Bodhisattva can fly anywhere he wants in order to rescue beings.

As having known, the Bodhisattva practises Compassion since he arouses the Bodhi-mind in himself and cultivates it through the Six Pāramitās and the Ten Bhūmis of the Bodhisattva Path; and the Compassion becomes complete when he attains Enlightenment. This great virtue which is regarded as an attribute of a perfect Buddha, of an enlightened Bodhisattva, and of an enlightening Bodhisattva, is exhibited, practised and developed chiefly by Giving (Dāna), Morality (Śīla), and Patience (Kṣānti): ―Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I vow to cultivate compassion and learn to protect

403 The Seeker‟s Glossary of Buddhism, reprinted and donated by The Corporate Body of The Buddha Educational Foundation, Taiwan, 1998, p. 121a.

207 the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life‖. And ―I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of others species on earth.‖404 Or because of the suffering of famine, a Bodhisattva cultivates Compassion and practises the Giving. Even when he gives to all beings body and life and all the roots of good, he expects no return.405 In the Ten Bhūmis, Compassion is affirmed to be set up from the first stage, ―The first [stage in generation of the thought of awakening] is dominated by compassion directed toward the liberation of all living beings; and fixed in happiness that grows from the vow of universal good. Because he has obtained [the thought of awakening], from this moment on he is designated by the title Bodhisattva.‖406

Compassion is a virtue which is expressed through action or the motive of action of one to others and for the sake of others without selfishness. A Bodhisattva shows his compassion chiefly by resolving to suffer the torments and agonies of the dreadful purgatories during innumerable aeons, if need to be, so that he may lead all beings to perfect Enlightenment.407 Through his pain in donating the flesh cut from his own body he knows firsthand of the agony endured by others in hell and the various bad migrations, and he straightaway put forth a

404 Hilda Gutierrez Baldoquin, The Dharma, Color and Culture: New voices in Western Buddhism, ed., California: Parallax, 2004, p. 144. 405 Śāntideva, The Śik. Sam., 146. 406 C. W. Huntington, Jr. and Geshe Namgyal Wangchen, The Emptiness of Emptiness - An Introduction to Early Indian Mādhyamika, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2003, p. 149. 407 Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, p. 178.

208 supreme effort that these sufferings may be eradicated.408 Because of his great compassion the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha makes his vow to help and liberate all sentient beings residing in the hells. The famous pronouncement ―If I do not go to hell to help them there, who else will go?‖409 is the manifestation of his compassion. He takes a vow: ―Not until the hells are emptied, will I become a Buddha; not until all beings are saved, will I certify to Bodhi.‖410 The Śik. Sam. says that a Bodhisattva desires Enlightenment first for all beings, and not for himself.411 He is consumed with grief on account of the sufferings of others, and does not care for his own happiness.412 He desires the good and welfare of the world.413 He regards all living beings as if each were his only son and loves them as parents love their children, and he wishes the highest blessedness for them, that they will be able to pass beyond the ocean of birth-and-death.414 He also thinks: ―All living beings are also my sons, and I am the son of all beings. In this life no one is really a son or a stranger to anyone.‖415 His love to all beings is the same without discrimination. He is like a mother, a father, a relative, a friend, a slave, and a teacher for all sentient beings.416 Because his love to all beings is equal without discrimination and he

408 Op.cit., p. 150. 409 http://venchinkung.com/bodhisattva-ksitigarbha/. 410 The Seeker‟s Glossary of Buddhism, Reprinted and donated by the Corporate Body of The Buddha Educational Foundation, Taiwan, 1998, p. 320a. 411 Śāntideva, The Śik. Sam., 146. 412 Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, 178. 413 Ibid. 414 The Holy Teachings of Vimalakīrti - A Mahāyāna Scripture, trans., Robert A. F. Thurman, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991, p. 43; see also: Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai, The Teachings of Buddha, Delhi: Sterling, 2006, p. 13. 415 Śāntideva, The Śik. Sam., 19. 416 Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, p. 178.

209 loves them more than he loves himself,417 then he becomes sick when they are sick, and is cured when they are cured.418 The Holy Dharma- samgīti Sūtra tells that ―Every case of the Bodhisattva‘s bodily action, or verbal action, or mental, as it goes on, is regarded from the point of view of his fellow-creatures, is under the constraining power of mighty compassion, has as its object to establish the weal of all creatures, as the result of taking thought for the weal and happiness of all beings.‖419

In the Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, the venerable Subhuti said: ―I do not look for a Bodhisattva who goes on the difficult pilgrimage. In any case, one who courses in the perception of difficulties is not a Bodhisattva. Because one who has generated a perception of difficulties is unable to work the weal of countless beings. On the contrary, he forms the notion of ease, he forms the notion that all beings, whether men or women, are his parents and children, and thus he goes on the pilgrimage of a Bodhisattva. A Bodhisattva should therefore identify all beings with his parents or children, yes, even with his own self, like this: ‗As I myself want to be quite free from all sufferings, just so all beings want to be quite free from all sufferings‘. In addition with regard to all beings one should form the notion: ‗I ought not to desert all these beings. I ought to set them free from the quite measureless heap of sufferings! And I should not produce toward them a thought of hate, even though I might be dismembered a hundred times!‘ It is thus that a Bodhisattva should lift up his heart. When he dwells as one whose heart is such, then he will neither course nor dwell as one who perceives

417 Ibid. 418 ―The sicknesses of the Bodhisattvas arise from great compassion‖. The Holy Teaching of Vimalakīrti - A Mahāyāna Scripture, trans., Robert A. F. Thuman, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, p. 43. 419 Śāntideva, The Śik. Sam., 117.

210 difficulties.‖420 The venerable Subhuti continued his saying: ―And further a Bodhisattva should produce the thought that ‗as in each and every way a self does not exist, and is not got at, so in each and every way all dharmas do not exist, and are not got at.‘ He should apply this notion to all dharmas, inside and outside. When he dwells as one whose heart is such, then he will neither course, nor dwell, as one who perceives difficulties.‖421

The question is that if a Bodhisattva produces the thought that all dharmas do not exist, they are empty; and he regards them as being like the reflection of the moon in water, or men created by magic, or like a face in a mirror, or like the water of a mirage, or the sound of an echo, the mass of clouds in the sky, or the previous moment of a ball of foam, or the appearance and disappearance of a bubble of water, or like the core of a plantain tree, a flash of lightning, or a sprout from a rotten seed, like a tortoise-hair coat, or like the track of a bird in the sky, the pregnancy of a barren woman, the perception of colour in one who blinds from birth and so on; how does he generate the great love toward living beings?

According to the teaching of Vimalakīrti, just as the Bodhisattva has realized the true nature of all dharmas, he considers all living beings as empty; even he himself is also empty. It does not mean that living beings do not exist, and the Bodhisattva does also not exist at all. The Bodhisattva considers all dharmas as empty because his mind is free of them. He clings not to dharmas due to he considers them without intrinsic being. In this way, the Bodhisattva generates the love

420 The Aṣṭa. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 28. 421 Ibid., 29.

211 toward all living beings. The love that the Bodhisattva generates towards all living beings is truly a refuge for all living beings. It is peaceful, not feverish, accords with reality, without conflict, non-dual and imperturbable. The love is that because it is free of grasping, free of passions, equanimous in all three times, free of violence of the passions, involved neither with the external nor with the internal, and totally ultimate.

Thereby he generates the love that is firm, its high resolve unbreakable, like a diamond; the love that is pure, purified in its intrinsic nature; the love that is even, its aspirations being equal; the saint‘s love that has eliminated its enemy; the Bodhisattva‘s love that continuously develops living beings; the Tathāgata‘s love that understands reality; the Buddha‘s love that causes living beings to awaken from their sleep; the love that is spontaneous because it is fully enlightened spontaneously; the love that is enlightenment because it is unity of experience; the love that has no presumption because it has eliminated attachment and aversion; the love that is great compassion because it infuses the Mahāyāna with radiance; the love that is never exhausted because it acknowledges voidness and selflessness; the love that is giving because it bestows the gift of Dharma free of the tight fist of a bad teacher; the love that is morality because it improves immoral living being; the love that is tolerance because it protects both self and others; the love that is effort because it takes responsibility for all living beings; the love that is contemplation because it refrains from indulgence in tastes; the love that is wisdom because it causes attainment at the proper time; the love that is

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liberative technique because it shows the way everywhere; the love that is without formality because it is pure in motivation; the love that is without deviation because it acts from decisive motivation; the love that is high resolve because it is without passions; the love that is without deceit because it is not artificial; the love that is happiness because it introduces living beings to the happiness of the Buddha. Such, Mañjuśrī, is the great love of a Bodhisattva.422

The Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara is a typical example. He generates the great love towards all living beings because he has already abided in the Perfect Wisdom and the Great Compassion. He is said to manifest different kinds of forms to liberate living beings in the worlds of ten directions, ―Inexhaustible Intent, this Bodhisattva Perceiver of the World‘s Sounds has succeeded in acquiring benefits such as these and, taking on a variety of different forms, goes about among the lands saving living beings.‖423 The Bodhisattva Bhūmi declares that only the perfect Buddhas and very advanced Bodhisattvas can act purely altruistic motives, as when they condescend to be born in a lower world for the benefits of all living beings.424 The Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra says that although a Bodhisattva has led uncountable number of living beings to total Nirvāṇa but he realizes no being at all has been led to total Nirvāṇa.425 Thus the conclusion is that Compassion is the Mind of Wishlessness.

422 The Holy Teaching of Vimalakīrti - A Mahāyāna Scripture, trans., Robert A. F. Thurman, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991, pp. 56-57. 423 The Sad. Puṇ. Sūtra, chapter 25: Universal Gateway of the Bodhisattva Perceiver of the World‘s Sound. See: The , trans., Burton Watson, Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1999, p. 302. 424 See: Har Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, p. 180. 425 The Vajra. Pra. Pā. Sūtra, 3.

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4. MEDITATION ON WISHLESSNESS

The purpose of our Buddhist practice is to attain Supreme Nirvāṇa or to become a Buddha. According to the Mahāyāna , the Buddha tells us that we already have the Nature of Buddha or Nirvāṇa; only live in mindfulness we can touch it. And if we live fully with it, we are called a Buddha [Buddha is one who is said to have already attained Complete Enlightenment or Ultimate Nirvāṇa].

However, we all have the tendency to struggle in our body and our mind. We think and believe that happiness is possible only in the future; Nirvāṇa is also possible only in the future. Buddha is a fruit which is possible only in the future. We do not know that happiness is already in us; Nirvāṇa is already in us. Buddha-nature is already in us. The realization that we have already arrived, that we do not have to travel any further, that we are already here, can give us peace and joy. The conditions for our happiness and so on, are already sufficient. There is no need to run, strive, search, or struggle. We only need to live mindfulness, allow ourselves to be in the present moment, we will be able to touch them. In other words, we are already a Buddha. 426 Everything is already in us. We do not need to put an object in front of us to run after, believing that until we get it, we cannot be happy. That object is always in the future, and we can never catch up to it.

When we are eating, we should eat the food in the mind of happiness and enjoy it in every moment. We should not think that until we get full, we cannot be happy. Happiness is already in us. It will be present in every moment if we know how to live with it. When we

426 See: The Sad. Puṇ. Sūtra, chapter 2: Expedient Means.

214 practise the Buddha‘s teaching, we should practise with the mind of happiness, and enjoy ourselves to the practice in every moment. We should not think that until we attain Nirvāṇa or become a Buddha, we cannot be happy. If we think that the purpose of our practice is to attain Nirvāṇa or become a Buddha and consider Nirvāṇa or Buddha as a goal at which we aim, we will never attain it. We should not consider Nirvāṇa or Buddha as an object at which we aim. Nirvāṇa or Buddha is neither the subject nor the object. It is beyond all conception of the subject and the object. We should also not consider it as the Self to which we cling. Nirvāṇa or Buddha is not the Self. It is empty of the Self and all conceptions of the Self. Because Nirvāṇa or Buddha is not the Self then we attain nothing. The Heart Sūtra says that there is ―nothing to attain.‖ And Thích Nhất Hạnh teaches: ―We meditate not to attain enlightenment, because enlightenment is already in us. We don‘t have to search anywhere. We don‘t need a purpose or a goal. We don‘t practice in order to obtain some high position. In aimlessness, we see that we do not lack anything, that we already are what we want to become, and our striving just comes to a halt. We are at peace in the present moment, just seeing the sunlight streaming through our window or hearing the sound of the rain. We don‘t have to run after anything. We can enjoy every moment. People talk about entering Nirvāṇa, but we are already there. Aimlessness and Nirvāṇa are one.

Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with the eyes of love.‖427

427 Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Heart of the Buddha‟s Teachings – Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation, London: Rider, 1999, p. 153.

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To live in mindfulness can help us live in happiness and see ourselves and the things outside clearer; however, it does not mean we already live in wishlessness. In order to enter into the meditation on wishlessness, or we can say in order to attain the mind of wishlessness we must not only practice to live in mindfulness, but we must also practise to see things by their nature and practise equanimity (upekṣā).

We practise to see things by their nature means we practise to see all conditioned things like the Five Skandhas, the Six Āyatanas, the Twelve Āyatanas, the Eighteen Dhātus are impermanent, without self. Things and all the conceptions of things are empty and signless (This practice had been already represented in the former chapters). The Dharma Seal Sūtra428 tells us that when we escape the seeing of self in things we will not cling to things. We will not say that forms are true; perceptions are true. We realize that forms and perceptions of forms are impermanent, without self. They arise from conditions, so they are empty and signless. That perception is the manifestation of consciousness, so consciousness is also empty and signless. When consciousness is realized as empty and signless, what is to do; what is to wish; what is to make effort?

In parallel with practising to see things by nature, we must also practise Equanimity (Upekṣā). Equanimity is the state of mental equilibrium in which the mind has no bent or attachment.429 It is a virtue of liberation, and an attitude to be cultivated as opposed to

428 See The Kinh Pháp Ấn, translated into Vietnamese from the Sūtra No.104 of Āgamas in the Great New Chinese Tripiṭakas by Thích Nhất Hạnh, Lá Bối, p. 4. 429 The Seeker‟s Glossary of Buddhism, reprinted and donated by The Corporate Body of The Buddha Educational Foundation, Taiwan, p. 190b.

216 simple indifference or lack of interest.430 We practise Equanimity (Upekṣā) means we cultivate the mind of abandonment and halt. Sensual-pleasure is the cause of suffering. Indulgence in it will bring about harm, damage, breaking up, disintegration, and finally suffering. Seeing its danger, we practice to abandon it. Evil state will harm us, make us suffered and will lead us to the lower realms in the next lives; we practise to abandon it, transform it from our body, speech, and mind. We practise the abandonment of things does not mean we do not need the presence of things, but we halt to attach to them. Moreover, when we practise to see things through their nature we realize that things are neither good nor bad. Seeing things good or bad is the seeing of the two extremes. This seeing is wrong. It will lead us to suffering. Seeing so, we practise to abandon it, not cling to it; and cultivate our mind in order to see things in the middle-way. The Six Pāramitās and the Ten Bhūmis are the methods of our practice. They will lead us to the seeing of the middle-way and the total equanimity. Sthiramati in his Triṃśikā says:

Upekṣā is equilibrium (samatā) of the mind, tranquil flow (praśaṭhatā) of the mind, and effortlessness (anābhogatā) of the mind. By three words, the stages of indifference at the beginning, middle, and end are respectively illustrated. Here, inequality of the mind is either mental depression (laya) or mental exaltation (). Upon extinction of this inequality, one first attains equilibrium of the mind. Then [as for praśaṭhatā] without volitional effort and without special exertion, the concentrated and even mind takes place in due order, and this is the tranquil

430 The Dictionary of Buddhism, compiled by Damien Keown, India: Oxford, 2003, p. 318b.

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flow of the mind. However, in this stage, the mind is still followed by the anxiety of mental depression and exaltation, because it has not been cultivated for a long period of time. After that, [as for anābhogatā] since the meditational exercise reaches higher and higher degrees and its adversaries [such as diversity of the mind] become farther and farther away, this anxiety is nullified. Then, the stage of effortlessness of the mind is reached by one for whom there is no need to make any effort to obtain remedies for mental depression and mental exaltation.

And this has the function of giving a foundation for not allowing the space where all principal and secondary defilements arise.431

We practise meditation on wishlessness means we practise to live in mindfulness, to see things by nature, and to abandon all wrong perceptions of things. When we really live in mindfulness in every moment, really see things as empty and signless, and really escape all wrong perceptions of things, we are said to be free of all things, to attain Liberation, Nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa is the state in which exists no wish. Hence, when we attain Nirvāṇa means we attain Wishlessness.

Nirvāṇa, Enlightenment, Buddha, Bodhicitta, Buddhahood, Buddha-Wisdom, Perfect Wisdom, Compassion, Tathata, Tathāgata, Buddha-Nature, Tathāgatagarbha, Bhūtatathāta, etc. are the synonymous terms, and are the goal of the Mahāyāna Buddhist practice. It is obvious that the purpose of the Mahāyāna Buddhist practice is to attain Enlightenment or Nirvāṇa, or to become a Buddha. In order to attain

431 Gadjin M. Nagao, The Mādhyamika and Yogācāra - A Study of Mahāyāna Philosophies, Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1992, p. 92.

218 the goal, one must go on the Bodhisattva Path, awaken the Bodhicitta in himself and cultivate it by the Six Pāramitās and the Ten Bhūmis. One cultivates the Bodhicitta means he cultivates the Wisdom and the Compassion in himself. These two virtues are said to be indispensable for a Buddha. Of course, on the path still much striving and great efforts are needed to cultivate himself, to transform all the defilements in his mind in order to attain the goal. When the mind becomes totally pure, the goal is said to be attained, all striving and efforts will cease, because he ―has done what had to be done‖, he realizes that he has attained nothing, has realized nothing, and has become nothing. Whatever he had desired to realize, to attain, or to become, is already in him. Nirvāṇa or Buddha is already in him. The so-called Nirvāṇa or Buddha that he has been said to attain or to become is only the state he has lived fully and exactly with himself.

From the analysing of the Three Doors of Liberation we realize that the teaching of these three doors is very high and very profound. One can perfectly not understand it if without practice. In the philosophical area, the teaching of the Three Doors of Liberation perfectly represents the ultimate reality of all things where all perceptions are extinguished. If ‗emptiness‘ concerns ontology, ‗signlessness‘ belongs to the domain of epistemology, then ‗wishlessness‘ pertains to the volitional sphere.432 It is true that the teaching of these three doors is very important in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Un-exceedingly speaking, this teaching plays a foundational role in the formation of Mahāyāna Buddhist thought. It is considered as the bridge

432 See: Edward Conze, Buddhist Thought in India - Three Phases of Buddhist Philosophy, Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2002, p. 68.

219 between the world of phenomena and the world of ultimate reality. One cannot reach to the world of ultimate reality without this teaching. Ultimate Nirvāṇa, or Buddhahood then, for one, is still a secret term, and its fruit no one would attain. Moreover, if without this teaching, one could profoundly and convincingly not understand and describe or represent the concept of the world of ultimate reality, and the concept or the theory of ultimate Nirvāṇa, or of Tathāgatagarbha, etc. would not been set up. Otherwise, if one understands this teaching he can easily understand all other teachings of Buddhism. Edward Conze says that ―Once the three ‗doors to deliverance‘ are understood, the higher teaching of Buddhism will present no further serious difficulties, and everything becomes almost self-evident.‖433 Thus, understanding the Three Doors of Liberation will help one much in the Mahāyāna Buddhist practice. And once these three doors are truly entered, one is said to reach the world of ultimate reality – that is to say, he attains Liberation, Nirvāṇa, or becomes a Buddha.

433 Ibid.