Part 3 - The path of seeing

Then as for first seeing the wisdom of the noble ones:

The path of seeing is at the first bhumi called “Supreme Joy.”
Here we meditate well on the seven limbs of enlightenment.
Joy and pliancy here are added to the five powers.

On completing the great supreme Dharma, there is the arising of the wisdom of the path of seeing. It has the nature of sixteen moments. For each of the four noble truths of:

1. suffering
2. the cause of suffering
3. the cessation of suffering
4. the path leading to cessation

there are:

1. acceptance of knowing Dharma
2. knowing Dharma
3. acceptance of subsequent cognition
4. subsequent cognition

As for these sixteen natures, The Abhisamayalankara says:

According with the four truths of suffering and so forth
There are knowledge of Dharma, and subsequent cognition,
With the acceptance of each. The instants of these natures,
And the way of knowing all these, are called the path of seeing.

The commentary says:

Of the individual truths, acceptance of knowing dharmas, knowing dharmas, acceptance of subsequent cognition, and subsequent cognition, as for the natures of these sixteen moments, on the occasion of knowing all these, there is the path of seeing.

The body of a being that is the support of this wisdom is one with the greater supreme Dharma. It may be that of any of the beings of the six realms, though this is not the view of the shravakas.

The support of thought is the four dhyanas. The main cause is finishing the level of supreme Dharma. Accumulation and preparation are the external causal factors. The fruition is production of the subsequent two paths. In the essence, by dividing the four noble truths, depending on defilements of the dhatu being abandoned, there are the sixteen moments. From the defilements and antidotes, as for the first, there are five kinds of defiling views. These are:

1. views of a transitory collection as a self,
2. views that fixate extremes,
3. wrong views,
4. fixating a view as supreme, and
5. fixating discipline and asceticism as supreme.

Also there are five defiling non-views of doubt about these. By the ten kleshas of these ten defiling views arising in the desire realm, there are corresponding wrong ways of entering each of the four noble truths, making 10 x 4 = 40 wrong ways altogether.

For the two above, defiling views and non-views, for each of the four truths, due to the nine bases of enmity explained below there are also 9 x 4 x 2 = 72 wrong enterings. Thus, all the kleshas abandoned by seeing total 72 + 40 or 112. The Universal Compendium says:

As for the hundred and twelve kleshas, those are the kinds of kleshas to be abandoned by seeing.

As for enmity not entering into the four levels of dhyana and the four formless attainments, since one’s being has been moistened with shamatha, the nine tormented states of mind which are the bases of enmity are absent. Within these nine are the three thoughts regarding oneself:

This has harmed me before.
It will do so now.
In the future too, it will do so.

The three analogous thoughts about harm to friends

The three analogous thoughts about benefit to enemies

As for the ways of wrong entering by these kleshas, taking the truth of suffering as an example:

By the view of a transitory collection, within the truth of suffering we fixate me and mine.
By the view that grasps extremes, within the truth of suffering we fixate the extremes of existence,
        non-existence, eternalism, and nihilism.
By wrong view, we grasp the truth of suffering as non-existent.
By ignorance, we enter not knowing the characteristics of the truth of suffering.
By doubt, we enter doubting whether the five do or do not suffer.
        Within these, five ways of entering,
Because of attachment to desire, desire is produced.
By pride, haughtiness and arrogance are produced.
By fixating the view as supreme, the supreme ultimate is fixated.
By fixating discipline and asceticism as supreme, the path to purification and liberation is fixated.
The way of entering with enmity toward what does not accord with these five, produces aggressive thoughts.

Entering the other three truths should be similarly understood. Moreover, the name of the truth of cessation is conceptualized, and we do not perceive the real entering of it.

As for the divisions of the antidotes, by seeing the kleshas of the three realms, the kleshas which are to be abandoned are abandoned. Here for the truths of suffering, its cause, cessation, and the path, there are the four acceptances of knowing the Dharma.

These characteristics cannot be within in one mental substance within one instant of arising time, since there are four aspects individually regarding the four truths, the seeds of being seen and abandoned; and since the completely abandoning antidote is not without obstruction. They are abandoned by a hundred and twelve separate instants of seeing and abandoning.

Moreover, the direct cause of acceptance of knowing the dharmas of the individual four truths, and the corresponding things to be abandoned are encountered as two potencies. At a second time, the main cause and its corresponding to-be-abandoned are encountered as two non-potencies. At a third time, the arising of the four dharma acceptances and all their corresponding to-be-abandoned subtle seeds are abandoned in the manner of being simultaneously made to cease. The Uttaratantra says:

As the sprout and so forth gradually arise,
As the husk of the seed is cut and split apart,
So by having seen the ultimate nature of suchness
What is abandoned by seeing is driven out.

In the one mind-nature, the individual dharmas of the four truths are an antidote that is a path of complete liberation from the kleshas, which are aspects of those four truths about the three realms. Similarly with the four acceptances and the four subsequent knowledges, this is the path of the special antidotes of keeping one’s distance. These abandonments also deal with the two obscurations. They liberate from these two.

The Center and Limit says:

Two obscurations are taught
Of kleshas and of knowables,
When they have been quite exhausted,
That is called liberation.

As for the distinctions of these two, The Uttaratantra says:

Where there are thoughts of avarice and so forth,
These are called the obscuration of kleshas.
Where discursive thoughts of the three realms,
These are called the obscuration of knowables

The obscuration of kleshas is the avarice and so forth of an unpacified mind, whose essence is likely to be obscured by unhappiness.

The obscuration of knowables is thoughts of grasping and fixation, the object and perceiver without freedom from attachment to the true existence of the three realms, where the essence is likely to be defiled or obscured by unhappiness.

False conceptions of the obscuration of the kleshas are abandoned by seeing. The co-emergent

kleshas are abandoned by meditation.

As for the obscuration of knowables, coarse thoughts of grasping and fixation are abandoned by seeing. Subtle ones are abandoned by meditation.

As for the distinctions of realization: By world-transcending prajña, the two egolessness are realized in perception. The qualities are the previously mentioned hundred and twelve of the first bhumi.

As for the distinction of time, first by the revelation of the four truths there is the one time of the four acceptances. After that, there arises the one time of the four knowledges. After that arises the one time of the four acceptances of subsequent cognition.

After that, by the arising of the one time of the four subsequent cognitions, in the four moments of completing the action, the essence of four kinds and sixteen aspects arises. There is simultaneous realization of the four truths, and so the four acceptances gradually arise.

Those things abandoned by seeing are instantly abandoned by acceptance of the Dharma. This happens in stages over the four aspects of the path of seeing.

Moreover, at the time of the first bhumi, we meditate on the seven limbs of enlightenment. What are they? The Friendly Letter says:

Mindfulness, examining dharmas, and exertion
Joy and pliancy, samadhi and equanimity;
These are called the seven limbs of enlightenment.
This assembly of virtues makes us attain nirvana.

How so? The Sutra Teaching the Side of Enlightenment (byang chub kyi phyogs bstan pa’i mdo) says:

1) Mañjushri, for whomever there is no mindfulness and therefore no attention, seeing all
dharmas as unreal is the limb of enlightenment of true mindfulness.

2) Mañjushri, for whomever, because of completely not practicing virtue, non- virtue, or what is neutral, all dharmas are eliminated and unperceived, there is the limb of enlightenment of true investigation of Dharma.

3) Mañjushri, for whomever, because of having destroyed perception of a body, there is neither accepting or rejecting of the three worlds, there is the limb of enlightenment of true exertion.

4) Mañjushri, for whomever because they have destroyed joy and non-joy, all formations do not produce joy, there is the limb of enlightenment of true joy.

5) Mañjushri, for whomever, because conceptual things are not conceptualized, the mind has become completely trained for all dharmas, there is the limb of enlightenment of pliancy.

6) Mañjushri, for whomever, because they think of all dharmas as destroyed, mind is not conceived, there is the limb of enlightenment of true samadhi.

7) Mañjushri, for whomever, because they do not dwell on anything, depend on anything, produce passion, or produce bondage, there is equanimity whose sight does not follow after dharmas, this attainment of joy is the limb of enlightenment of true equanimity.