MAITRIPA’S WRITINGS ON THE VIEW THE MAIN INDIAN SOURCE OF THE TIBETAN VIEWS OF OTHER EMPTINESS AND MAHAMUDRA (FREE EDITION) BY TONY DUFF PADMA KARPO TRANSLATION COMMITTEE Copyright and Fair Usage Notice Copyright © Tony Duff 2010. All rights reserved. The translations and commentaries contained herein are made available online as a gift of dharma. They are being offered with the intent that anyone may download them, print them out, read and study them, share them with friends, and even copy and redistribute the files privately. Still, the following must be observed: • The files may be copied and given to others privately provided that no fee is charged for them. • Other web-sites are encouraged to link to this page. However, the files may only be put up for distribution on other sites with the expressed permission of the author. • Neither the files nor their content are in the public domain; the copyright for both remains with the author. • In accord with standard copyright law, you may use reasonable portions of these files for your own work, publication or translations. If you do use them in that way, please cite these files as if they were printed books. Please make it clear in your work which portions of your text is coming from our translation and which portions are based on other sources. MAITRIPA’S WRITINGS ON THE VIEW THE MAIN INDIAN SOURCE OF THE TIBETAN VIEWS OF OTHER EMPTINESS AND MAHAMUDRA (FREE EDITION) BY TONY DUFF PADMA KARPO TRANSLATION COMMITTEE Copyright © 2010 Tony Duff. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without permission in writing from the publisher. First edition, November 2008 Second edition, January 2010 ISBN: none Janson typeface with diacritical marks Designed and created by Tony Duff Tibetan Computer Company http://www.pktc.org/pktc Produced, Printed, and Published by Padma Karpo Translation Committee P.O. Box 4957 Kathmandu NEPAL Web-site and e-mail contact through: http://www.pktc.org/pktc or search Padma Karpo Translation Committee on the web. CONTENTS Introduction ................................. v Great Bliss Elucidated ....................... 1 Six Verses on Co-emergence ................... 5 Full Teaching of Suchness ..................... 7 Six Verses on Madhyamaka .................... 11 Glossary .................................... 13 Supports for Study .......................... 23 Tibetan Texts ............................... 27 Index ....................................... 33 iii INTRODUCTION A collection of the writings of Indian masters of Mahamudra was made in Tibet when the Mahamudra teachings were being brought there from India in the eleventh century C.E. by Marpa the Translator and others. The collection contains many small but important texts, for instance, the dohas of Saraha and the texts of Maitripa, both of which are the basis of much of the Kagyu view. Maitripa was a contemporary of Naropa, Marpa’s guru. He was known as a highly accomplished siddha and was especially known for his mastery of the view. When Marpa asked Naropa about the view, Naropa told Marpa that he should get that from Maitripa because Maitripa was the greatest expert in the view at the time. Marpa did so and Maitripa’s teach- ings to him became the basis of the view of the Kagyu lineage in Tibet. Maitripa was famous for having recovered the Ratnagotravi- bhaðga, which later became known as the Uttaratantraśhāstra. This is the fifth of the five works of Maitreya and Asaðga. v vi MAITRIPA ON THE VIEW had been lost for centuries until Maitripa found a copy hidden in a stupa and made a point of republishing it. Maitripa’s view was very much on the side of Maitreya’s presentation and later became the source of the Other Emptiness (Tib. gzhan stong) view in Tibet via his disciple Sajjana. Maitripa wrote on a variety of subjects, both sutra and tantra, but his preference for Maitreya’s way of presenting the view was always prominent in his writings. Samples of his writings on both sutra and tantra are included in this book: one on the practice of Chakrasamvara shows Other Emptiness in a tan- tric context, one on Madhyamaka shows it in the sutra con- text, and so on. Overall, Maitripa’s writings show that he was strongly influ- enced by Yogachara thought and raise many interesting for Tibetan Buddhists points concerning the view. Further Study This is a free version of a full book of Maitripa’s writings. The full book has seven of Maitripa’s texts with an extensive introduction, comprehensive notes, and complete commen- tary to each text. This free version includes only four of the texts and does not include any of the notes or commentary to the texts. The full book is available for purchase through our Padma Karpo Translation Committee web-site (see the copyright page). This publication includes the texts in Tibetan script for those wishing to study the material more closely. INTRODUCTION vii Padma Karpo Translation Committee has amassed a range of materials to help those who are studying this and related topics. Please see the chapter Supports for Study at the end of the book for the details. With my best wishes, Tony Duff, Swayambhunath, Nepal January 2010 GREAT BLISS ELUCIDATED In Sanskrit: mahåsukha prakåùha In Tibetan: bde ba chen po gsal ba In English: Great Bliss Elucidated Prostration to the Buddha. I pay homage to Vajrasatva Whose nature is upaya and prajna; His sort of things will, in summary, Be explained as non-dual great bliss. Development stage is meditated on first, And second is completion stage meditation. Because of that, the principles of this Two-fold meditation will be explained here. Dharmas, in being without conditions, Are ascertained to be birthless; they are, In nature, interdependent origination thus 1 2 MAITRIPA ON THE VIEW Their generation as something born from hūṃ is nothing at all. From emptiness they come as the seed of enlightenment, And from that seed they arise as the form. The form, further, has arrangement and complete arrangement. Because of that, everything is produced in reliance on another. Externals are always two things in conjugation; This, which the Muni taught well, Is the meaning of inner realization that is To be known clearly in the mindstream. What is asserted about the nature of the bliss is that If bliss is a non-existent thing, then it is not enlightenment, And if it is existent but is the great attachment, then It is the cause itself of birth in samsara. What the bliss of interdependent origination is, Is realized as the bliss of original peace, Because of which it is said to be a non-existent thing. Bliss is not existent but it is also not non-existent. Each of those two sides has the unborn; This, the superfact of dharmas, is Truth, which is not evident in falsity, yet Purity’s fictional is consciously known. This, the two truths’ purity, is Emptiness yoga which is the fictional. GREAT BLISS ELUCIDATED 3 It will be accomplished through the practice of non-duality: Meaningless activity is completely abandoned then The yoga of mantra and form I Is easily reached for intelligent ones. Following that, illusion-like, non-duality Brings the sight within itself of the variety. It is there that the authentic limit is entered and Then that the rank of unification will be realized. The yogin who is residing in that unification Works only for the benefit of sentient beings. The yogin who is the deity with blissful mind Is the method of the various chakras; The prajna is said to be its emptiness. That is what I say to you will be my practice! Understand that This prajna-and-upaya I of itself Contains all the purity of outer and inner, As mantra’s yoga of non-dwelling bliss. It is mere interdependent origination therefore It is not the truth and it is not empty. Luminosity, the apparent aspect of the deity, also Is the nature which is without nature— However it is that it appears That as such is emptiness I. What is known as dual and non-dual Is that and that freed from latencies. 4 MAITRIPA ON THE VIEW The yoga creates the pride of the heruka And I utterly abide in the heruka’s fact, and This thing having been taken to be the guru, Intelligent ones preside like lions. For the pure ones come from that purity, the conquerors, this variety in its totality is perpetually inexpressible and for them, this Original unborn, unceasing state, during tens of millions of kalpas of realization for self and other, Having that to be discarded, the appearances of truth and falsity in it, has been ascertained as being in fact the equality of existence and peace. This ascertainment, which is the chakra owner who is the basis of the good qualities of the conquerors, is the empowerment that enables the movement of the vajra dakini. “Great Bliss Elucidated composed by the Āchārya Avadhūtipa, Non-Dual Vajra, is complete. Guru Vajrapāṇi and Mabon translated it. Tony Duff translated it into English. SIX VERSES ON CO-EMERGENCE In Sanskrit: sahajaúhaûaka In Tibetan: lhan cig skyes pa drug pa In English: Six Verses on Co-emergence Prostration to the Vajra Holder. Definite liberation from permanence and nihilism Is what is asserted by those gone to bliss. For dharmas produced from a nature there is Talk rich in establishment and elimination; The ones who do it are called “propounders of existence”. Everything, when finely analysed, is not existent; The ones who do it are called “propounders of non- existence”.