Part 2 - The path of preparation

Then there is the explanation of the path of preparation:
There are four divisions of the path of preparation.
In the stages of heat and peak we meditate on the five powers^[1]
Faith and energy, awareness, samadhi and prajña.
In patience and highest Dharma these five are the five supreme forces.

The support of the path of preparation is beings of any of the six realms in whom the greater path of accumulation has arisen and been finished. Countless gods, nagas, asuras, and so forth for whom it arose are described in the sutras. The support of thought is any of the six desire or samadhi levels. The cause is finishing the greater path of accumulation. The Small Commentary says:

According with liberation, for delighted sentient beings there are therefore the aids to liberation.

The essence is the worldly wisdom arisen from meditation. The four divisions are heat, peak experience, patience, and highest Dharma. There is meditation in the stages of heat and peak experience on faith, exertion, mindfulness, samadhi, and prajña. They are called “powers” because they actually produce the power of arousing bodhicitta. The Middle Length Prajñaparamita says:

The power of faith and these others are explained.

Moreover there are the four wisdoms of the four paths of preparation. First, as for the wisdom of attaining the appearance of the heat of the Mahayana, all dharmas are seen merely as mental appearances. By the appearances arising in worldly meditation not occurring at all, the antidote to grasping the true existence of objects is produced. The Mahayanasutralankara says:

Then occuring in such a way as that
For bodhisattvas in their meditation,
Except for being expressions of mind,
All objects are entirely unseen.

As for such appearances, the patience of thinking truly about dharmas is produced. The Salty River Sutra says:

As for “appearance,” the patience of truly thinking about is the designation of the word.

That is also presented in the Mahayanasutralankara commentary. Peak experience is the wisdom of intensified appearance. Because the appearance of Dharma is intensified, by making an effort to meditate on egolessness, meditation on appearance arising as the middle way is attained. The former text says:

In order to intensify appearances of dharmas,
We should make a total and persevering effort.

Patience is an aspect of the wisdom of suchness. Meditation-arisen appearance is grasped as mind- only. Supreme attainment of that produces an antidote for attachment to external objects. The same text says:

Having intensified the appearance of dharmas,
We should then abide within mind-only.
Then all appearances of different objects,
Will truly and completely appear as mind.

Distraction of the object that is grasped
Will be fully abandoned at this time.
Distraction of the grasper^[2] of that object
Will be left entirely alone.

As for the highest or supreme Dharma, the immediately preceding wisdom, undistracted grasping of the meaning arising in meditation on mere appearance, is completely perfected. There is nothing between this and attainment of the path of seeing of the Mahayana. The same text says:

At that time unobstructed
Samadhi is quickly reached.

These four aspects of ascertainment are each divided into three as lesser, middle, and greater, making twelve altogether. The Mahayanasutralankara says:

Thus in terms of the aspects of ascertainment,
There are lesser and middle, and the great.

As for the particular antidotes, suppression is the antidote of abandoning. In general the four kinds of antidote are:

1. antidote of eliminating,
2. antidote of abandoning,
3. supporting antidote,
4. antidote of keeping one’s distance.

Of the two kinds of abandoning antidote, suppressing abandons by keeping down manifestations. In abandoning from the root the seeds are also cleared away, as with an unobstructed path. As for the special characteristics of abandoning, the seeds of obscuration and their manifestations are kept down, and we are liberated from the poverty and degeneration of individual beings. As for the special characteristics of realization of this, by the wisdom arising in worldly meditation, the two egolessnesses are realized in an abstract way. As for the virtues, it is taught that from clouds of the three jewels there are many samadhis, dharanis, higher perceptions, and so forth.

As for what makes the path of preparation higher than the path of accumulation, though it is without distinction from the greater path of accumulation in meditation arising, in terms the wisdom of complete non-thought being clear and unclear, the two are distinguished as relatively near and far from the path of seeing. The Great Commentary on the Eight Thousand says:

If there are no obstacles, this “very nearly arising of the path of seeing,”
should be known as especially according with the aspect of liberation.