Maha Prajnaparamita Sastra
by Gelongma Karma Migme Chödrön | 2001 | 941,039 words
This page describes “creation minds (nirmanacitta)” as written by Nagarjuna in his Maha-prajnaparamita-sastra (lit. “the treatise on the great virtue of wisdom”) in the 2nd century. This book, written in five volumes, represents an encyclopedia on Buddhism as well as a commentary on the Pancavimsatisahasrika Prajnaparamita.
9. Creation minds (nirmāṇacitta)
When a person possesses a dhyāna, he also possesses the creation minds (nirmāṇacitta) of the lower levels. In the first dhyāna he thus possesses two nirmāṇacittas, that of the first dhyāna and also that of kāmadhātu; in the second dhyāna, three; in the third, four; in the fourth, five nirmāṇacittas.
If the ascetic who is in the second, third or fourth dhyāna wishes to understand, see or touch something, he must resort to a consciousness of Brahmaloka [i.e., of the first dhyāna]; when this consciousness disappears, the perception stops.
The four apramāṇas, the five abhijñās, the eight vimokṣas, the eight abhibhvāyatanas, the ten kṛtsnāyatanas, the nine anupūrvasamāpattis, the nine saṃjñās [of the aśuhabhāvanā],[1] the three samādhis,[2] the three vimokṣas, the three anāsravendriyas, the thirty-seven bodhipākṣikadharmas and all the qualities of this type come from the virtue of dhyāna; here they must be explained fully.
Notes:
The nirmāṇacittas have been studied above (Traité, I, p. 381–382F); see also Kośa, VIII, p. 115–116.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
They are listed in Mahāvyutpatti, no. 1156–1164.
[2]:
The śūnyatā, apraṇihita and ānimittasamādhi defined above, Traité, I, p. 321–324F.