The Great Chariot

by Longchenpa | 268,580 words

A Commentary on Great Perfection: The Nature of Mind, Easer of Weariness In Sanskrit the title is ‘Mahāsandhi-cittā-visranta-vṛtti-mahāratha-nāma’. In Tibetan ‘rDzogs pa chen po sems nyid ngal gso’i shing rta chen po shes bya ba ’...

3d) The human realm

1) The torments of the eight sufferings:

Now, though they have attained the higher realms:

Humans also have no chance of happiness.
There are sorrows, unhappiness, strife, and war and such,
Before we are rid of one, we suffer with another.
Sometimes our food is changed by being mixed with poison.
Food, clothing and requisites fail us, and therefore we get sick.

Later sufferings we have ripened then come forth.
There are the three kinds of suffering and also the following:
Birth and age, sickness, death and hostile people;
Being parted from those we love and what we want,
As well as the pain of having to deal with what we get.
The suffering of these eight is without measure and end.

What kinds of suffering do people have? The three great root sufferings are the sufferings of:

  1. Suffering,
  2. Change
  3. Conditioned existence.

The eight kinds of suffering that always grasp us in samsara are:

  1. birth,
  2. age
  3. sickness
  4. death
  5. meeting with hostile enemies
  6. being separated from dear intimates
  7. not getting what we want
  8. sufferings intimately associated with the five skandhas.

In the suffering of suffering, one misery is heaped on another. It is like our father dying, and then our mother dies too.

In the suffering of change, as much as one's present pleasure is the suffering it emanates. This is like a house falling apart when someone has not been careful about the site, or poison mixed with food.

The suffering of conditioned existence is like having eaten poison. Though our food, clothing and activities are not directly harmed, they are involved in the subsequent sickness; or from one's faculties being injured, later injuries follow on that. The Vinaya Scriptures say:

The misery of samsara
Arises from the skandhas.
There are the three sufferings
Of suffering, change, and conditions.
From the eight varieties,
People suffer terribly.

2) The Suffering of Birth

The suffering of birth is predominantly before birth occurs. Thus wandering in the intermediate state between lives, as for smell-eating spirits who enter into it when they grasp existence in the mother's womb:

Prana mind and bindu and ignorant consciousness.
Gather as oval and oblong, and then a solid lump,
Then we are like a disk, then like a fish and tortoise,
In seven weeks a body is gradually engendered.

When the mother is tired, hungry or thirsty, hot or cold,
Even a little bit, we suffer immeasurably.
Dark and close, it is fearful with an unpleasant stench.
We must suffer unbearable suffering of restriction.

After seven weeks, for twenty-six following
Things like the senses and limbs and body hairs are established.
For a total period of thirty-six weeks,
The bodily embryo grows and gains the power to move.

Then between the binding apparatus of bones,
By our karmic energy we are turned head downward.
In danger of death we suffer, like the Crushing and Joining Hell.
After birth, being touched is like being skinned alive.
Being washed is like our flesh being scraped away with razors.

From the intercourse of the father and mother in the confines of the mixed essences of the red and white bindus, consciousness enters. In the first week, the embryo has the shape of a fluid oval like mercury. In the second, there is an oblong shape like mucus[1]. In the third there is a lump shaped like a finger.

In the fourth there is a hard lump like an egg. In the fifth, there is a disk like a lotus petal. In the sixth, it is like the fish as which Vishnu incarnated. The seventh is like a tortoise. For example, the head, feet, and hands are very non-prominent like those of a tortoise.

Then up to twenty-six weeks, the limbs of the body, the fingers, the eyes and other senses and their supporting structures, the hair of the head and body, the heart and veins on the inside, the prana and dhatu essences, blood and lymph, masculine and feminine organs, and so forth develop along with the ayatanas.

Then up to the thirty-sixth week, in the body that has developed, because of the essence of food eaten by the mother, and the essence of drink, actions of eating and drinking are performed. There is occasional movement and restless thoughts, and the body becomes uncomfortable.

During these stages, the fetus dwells in darkness. It seems close and disgusting. There is the suffering of being restricted, and if the mother's belly is too well satisfied, it thinks it is being squashed by mountains and oceans. If she is tired and strongly agitated, there is suffering like being thrown over a cliff.

Infant boys, remain with their faces looking inward from the mother's right side, covered by their two palms. Girls stay looking outward from the left. Then, by the wind of karma, their heads turn upside down. Having been extruded through the pelvic girdle, at birth they suffer as much as those in the Hell of Crushing and Joining. As soon as they are touched, it is as if their skin was being taken off. When they are washed, they suffer immeasurably, as if their flesh were being cut off with razors. The sufferings of growing, can be briefly seen from those of entering the womb. Of these the Letter to a Student says:

Confined, in a place that engenders unbearable noxious stenches,
Very close and narrow, remaining in thick darkness,
Dwelling in the Hell-like place that is the womb,
The body, completely restricted, must suffer great suffering.

The baby’s body is slowly ground like sesame seeds
Crushed in an oil press, then somehow it is born.
However, those who do not lose their lives like that
Indeed will experience excruciating pain.

The being’s body that has existed within that filth
Is encompassed in the womb’s moisture and has a terrible smell
The abundant harm of that torment is like a breaking boil,
Or being about to vomit, so that memories are lost.

3) The suffering of old age

Then in stages:

The suffering of age is very hard to bear.
After youth decays, there will be no more pleasures.
We cannot get up and down without the help of a staff.
Bodily heat is impaired, so food is hard to digest.
As strength is failing, going, staying or moving are hard.

We are nothing but joints. We cannot get where we want to go.
The senses fail. The eyes are dim and cannot see.
We cannot hear sounds or apprehend touches, tastes and smells.

Memory is not clear. We sink into murky darkness.
Enjoyment of things is failing, with few good qualities.
Delicious food and such appear as the opposite.
As life declines there is fear of death and disturbance of thought.

Like a child's, our patience and span of attention are small.
We are quickly gone, like a lamp whose oil is spent.

By the slipping away of youth, the strength of the body deteriorates. We become nothing but joints. Food does not nourish. The senses are obscured. The eyes are fuzzy. The ears are deaf. The tongue stammers. Memory is lost. Objects and food that were previously delightful are no longer pleasurable. To the dimming sense organs of the tongue, food and drink do not taste like they did when we were young. We are afraid of death. Like a child again, we have little patience. There are such immeasurable sufferings. The Letter to a Student says:

Then as for those persons, age, the hand of the Lord of Death,
After it has grasped them, with no chance of letting go,
Their hair turns gray and white. All their collection of teeth,
As if it were for a joke, are entirely taken away.

Then their joints become entirely unhinged.
Their minds become impaired. Their walking deteriorates.
As the body, in its dissolving, takes on a tremor,
Certainly evil deeds will only increase further.

From the senses having gradually grown dull,
Though there is desire for objects, power has been impaired.
As for the situation into which they will go,
They have fear for it, as if they were in Hell.

4) As for the suffering of sickness:

The suffering of sickness is very hard to bear.
The bodily nature changes, and mind becomes unhappy.
Our enjoyment of things no longer give us pleasure.
There is increasing fear that we will lose our lives.
We wail in lamentation about this unbearable suffering.

When we are afflicted with sickness our minds are distressed and no joy arises. Perception is interfered with, and we are irritated. We must die, or sometimes we just think it would be better if we did. We want to die, but at the same time the torment of dying rivals Hell. The Commentary on the Praise of the Hundred Actions says:

As for embodied beings tormented by sickness,
Their sensations are like the sensations of being in Hell.
Then those become even more intense as time goes on.
Such is the pain of beings who cling to cyclic existence.

5) The suffering of death

When our time is exhausted, or even if it is not exhausted, but there is untimely death:

The suffering of dying is even greater than this.
There is our last meal, and our last words are spoken.
For the last time we get dressed. We go to our final sleep.
Body and life, attendants and servants, are left behind.
Friends and relations, wealth and enjoyment, are left behind.
We cannot stay, but still we fear to go alone.

For the last time we lie down, rest, talk, eat, and get dressed. We come to the last appearances of this life. Attendants and enjoyments are left behind. We have no power to keep living, and leave alone and companionless. Having thought about how we will do it with an unhappy heart, with a strong feeling that our essence is being destroyed, life ceases. We experience wandering in the bardo.

Without refuge or protector, our bodies are lifted on a litter. We are taken to the charnel ground. We are eaten by jackals and so forth. Our assembled intimates suffer immeasurably. The Letter to a Student says:

How will it be for me. The fearful Lord of Death,
Walking on my head, will oppress it there is no doubt.

The pain will seem to be like the pain of the Vajra Hell.
Those who harm the mind, after they have oppressed it,

Relatives and the household, with tears streaming down their faces,
With suffering hearts, will view this pain like vajra.

That tormenting me, infiltrating my deepest nature,
Will be most unmbearable, like entering murky darkness.

This body that was guarded so zealously, with such effort
And all its accustomed pleasures will be completely lost.

As I am firmly bound at the feet of the Lord of Death,
My head tuft will be cut off. My worth will be determined.

As I am taken by him, while I weep and cry,
By those persons related to me, it will never be heard at all.

Between water hard to cross and suddenly looming boulders,
Entangled in sharp piercing thorns, those on this frightful path,

With the noose of time tied round their necks, will be driven and herded
With clubs by the savage minions of the Lord of Death.

6) The suffering of meeting with enemies:

By the suffering of meeting people who are hostile
We are oppressed by fear of being unpleasantly harmed.

If we meet with hostile enemies, we will no longer be able to have our bodies, lives, and enjoyments.

7) The suffering of being separated from those dear to us:

To separate from people and the countries that we love
Causes sorrow, lamentation, and unhappiness.
Remembering their qualities, we are tormented by longing.

If we are separated from our dear friends and relatives who are kind to us, remembering their qualities, our minds are tormented with suffering.

8) The suffering of deprivation.

As for the suffering of being deprived of desirables:

In the suffering of being deprived of what we want
A tormented mind arises, when we do not succeed,
Worn out by poverty, like hungry and thirsty ghosts.

If we do not succeed in our goals, our minds are unhappy. When we are deprived of possessions or of something desirable, we are tormented by unhappiness.

9) The suffering of defilement:

Form, feeling, and perception, formations, and consciousness
Which comprise the five closely connected[2]skandhas,
Because of defilement are the ground of all suffering.
They have been said to be its source, support, and vessel.

The Middle Length Prajñaparamita says:

Subhuti, because the closely connected skandhas are defiled, they are the place of all suffering. They are the support of all suffering. They are the vessel of all suffering. They are the source of all suffering.

Moreover, since form manifests the harm of suffering, it is its place.

Since feeling takes on suffering, it is its vessel. Since perception is the first gate to being disturbed by conceptualization, it is its support. Since the doer and understander arise among formations and consciousness, they are its source.

These are also so explained in the Great Commentary on the Prajñaparamita in Eight Thousand Lines.

10) The instruction of exertion in the means of liberation from this.

Now there is the instruction on eliminating unhappiness:

Thus within the limits of this human world,
With suffering as cause and effect, there is no happiness.
To be liberated from this, think of the excellent Dharma,
That offers the means of liberation from samsara.

For some, by the action of the cause of suffering, unhappiness, there is subsequent suffering. For some there is present suffering by the fruition of former actions. We need to be be liberated from that.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

ngal snabs read nar snabs.

[2]:

nyer len gyi phung po. Khenpo Palden Sherab Rinpoche explains this by saying it means the skandhas are closely associated with suffering. etc. Another common interpretation is that the skandhas perpetuate their own samsaric existence

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