Part 3c.1 - Vipashyana: The way of training

When shamatha has become workable, as for training in vipashyana:

Then we learn the topic of vipashyana.
All the external appearances of the phenomenal world,
All these various dharmas of samsara and nirvana,
Are like the appearances of a dream or an illusion.
They are like a reflection, an emanation, or echo,
A castle of the gandharvas, an illusion or mirage,
Or heat ripples in the air, totally insubstantial.^[1]
They appear, but within the nature of emptiness.

Meditate on appearances, appearing while they are primordially non-existent, as being like the eight examples of illusion. The Shri Samadhiraja says:

These dharmas are hollow like a plantain tree.
They are ephemeral like lightning in the sky.
They are illusory, like the moon in water.

Also:

Like a castle of the gandharvas or a mirage,
They are like an illusion or like a dream.
All dharmas should be known to be like that.
Meditation on marks is empty of an essence.

The Sky Treasury Sutra (nam mkha’a mdzod kyi mdo) says:

By the single Dharma, all dharmas are illusion,
Like a mirage they are hollow and quite ungraspable.
It should be concluded that they are false and impermanent.
Those not blocked from this go to the heart of enlightenment.

All the vessel and essence of the phenomenal world, as it appears from the viewpoint of confused mind, along with all the dream-like pure appearances of the three jewels, are not really established. By not collecting habitual patterns of the viewpoint of confusion, they are purified. These appearances arise as if they were pure, but since they arise from the viewpoint of dualistic appearance, they are false. The sutras say:

Nirvana too is like a dream, like illusion.

The buddhas appearing from the viewpoint of confusion have the false nature of an emanation, in Sanskrit nirmana, like the moon in water. Appearing while in fact they do not emanate from the space of the dhatu, dharmakaya and sambhogakaya; the pure nature of the buddhas dwelling in Akanishta is not false and non-existent.

By confused conceptions, samsara and its joys and sorrows follow continuously one on the other, like a series of generations. Yet from that very time depending on the unborn nature of mind, there is neither samsara nor no samsara. Samsara is like a dream. From the time they arise within the confused sleep of habitual patterns, confused experiences do not exist at all. The Noble Sutra Requested by the Close Retinue (‘phags pa nye bar khor gyis zhus pa’i mdo) says:

Minds terrified of Hell thus have been taught by me:
Though many thousands of sentient beings have been saddened
By death and transmigration going to the lower realms,
Those beings in actuality never really existed.

Whatever swords, great arrows, and weapons have come forth,
Even if they did harm, they did not exist,
Even as when they were seen to descend upon their bodies.^[2]
A variety of pleasant flowers all in bloom,

As well as pleasant glittering golden excellent mansions
None of these have ever been produced at all.
These are established only in the power of conception.

In the power of conception, the world has been imputed.
By fixating their perceptions fools gave rise to it.
Neither fixation nor non-fixation ever rise.
They are illusory thoughts, no more than a mirage.

In brief, meditate on these darmasof imputed appearances of what does not exist as tenuous and ephemeral like the eight examples of illusion.

1.a) The way they arise

As for not fixating these illusions at all and meditating on them as being like the sky, as for dharmas:

Since all is non-entity like the selfless space of the sky
Meditate in this simplicity, the state of the unborn.
Realize external dharmas as selflessness.
Realize grasping and its objects as natureless.

Those appearances without true existence, except as mere imputations, are really intrinsically non- existent, and are not complex objects. Meditate within that. Eliminate fixated thoughts of external objects, either as truly existent or truly non-existent. When it is realized that the grasped object is unperceived and inconceivable,^[3] attachment to that, the mind with thoughts of grasping it, does not exist. Then the subsequent fixation too cannot exist. Because none of these objects have an essence,

realize and meditate on this as dharmata beyond perception and conception. The Shri Samadhiraja Sutra says:

In limitless kalpas that are already past,
The principal ones of men were led by me.

The great Sage served them as a sturdy ship.
Names arose in the manner of non-things.
As soon as they arose, they existed as space.
All dharmas were taught to be in truth nonthings.

Then giving labels in accord with their marks,
Sounds resounded in all the various worlds.
All the gods emitted excellent sounds.
A nonthing was the alleged Victorious One.

As soon as he was born, he took seven steps,
The Conqueror said all dharmas were unreal.
The Sage who is the teacher of all dharmas,
When the Buddha was victorious over all dharmas,
Like Grass, and toilet sticks, and medicinal rocks,
“Dharmas are unreal,” that sound arose.

As many as the worlds, that many sounds:
“All unreal, entirely unreal.”
Like that, the melodious sound phenomena
Of the Leader of the World supremely rose.

1.b) The thirteen means of resting

1.b.1)) Examining the mind

After meditating like that:

Then examine inner mind in the following way:
Mind has various thoughts is but without an essence
Affirmations, negations, truth and falsity,
Joy as well as sorrow, and also indifference.
It projects various objects, yet they cannot be grasped,
Consider where you come from. Where is this you are now?
Where do you finally go, and what is your color or shape?^[4]
When you examine your thoughts, this is what you will see:

Various objects pleasant and unpleasant, existent and non-existent, true and false, joyful and sorrowful, and so forth arise in your emanation and thought. Where did you first come from? Where are you now? At last where will you go? What is your color? What are your shape and characteristics like? Examine without being distracted for even an instant and try analyze it by examination. The Jewel Heap Sutra says

Kashyapa, here if you ask what is the prajña that discriminates Dharma, it is exertion that thoroughly seeks for mind.

That is the meaning that is taught. By so examining, the object of examination and that same discriminating prajña too are not apprehended. When fire arises from wood, the wood burns, and from that having exhausted the fire’s fuel, both are essenceless. As for realizing it like that, the same text says:

For example, from heating wood with wind, From fire having arisen, it is burned; Likewise when the prajña power has arisen, It is burned away by discrimination.

That is the manner of it.

1.b.2)) How the natural state is seen

This discriminating:

Mind at first is empty of a cause of arising
In the middle of remaining, and at last of ceasing.
It has no color or shape. Its essence cannot be grasped.
The past has ceased, and the future has not yet arisen.
The present does not remain, outside, inside or anywhere.
Know it to be like space, free from complexity.

Thus as for this mind, since it is superficially conceived as if it existed, it is distorted.

In reality, in complete nonexistence since there is nothing to arise, at first it is without any cause of arising. Where nothing arises, there is nothing to endure. Therefore its endurance is empty of essence. In what does not endure there is nothing to cease. Therefore its cessation is empty of individuating characteristics. It has no color, no shape, no manifestation. It will not be found externally, internally, or in between, even if we look for it. The example of this unfindable state is the sky. There is nothing to grasp or analyze. It is elusive, insubstantial, and completely pure, arising in freedom from action and actor. This is realizing the natural state, dharmakaya. The Universal Bliss (bde ba rab ‘byams) says:

As for the rootless nature of the mind,
Emptiness and suchness, eternally so,
Inexpressible wisdom, naturally so,
Ungraspable, it is not found when looked for.

1.b.3)) Resting naturally relaxed

At that time:

At this time, thinking no thoughts within the mind,
Relax like one who has suffered fatigue to the point of exhaustion.
Do not think about anything. Forsake intellectualizations.
Let everything rest in non-dual equanimity.

Letting go of the previous meditation of repeated conceptual analysis of phenomena is like those exhausted by a burden refreshing themselves. We reach the end of our struggle. It is gone. Relaxing into the natural state, without thoughts or mindfulness of anything at all, rest in the blissful brilliance of insight. Let ceaseless appearance go free and disperse like vanishing mist. The Dohakosha says:

That mind which has been bound in entanglements
Will doubtlessly be freed when these are loosened.
The very things that are the bonds of fools,
Completely liberate those who are capable.

In general, in meditating on the mind, when it is grasped one-pointedly, let its intrinsic emanations go as they like. That is relaxing in the natural freshness of dharmata. ??? like a tail. The same text says:

Bonds are our undertakings that go in the ten directions.
If these are abandoned, we rest stable and motionless.
Wrong understanding, known by self, is like having a tail.
Even children like you can directly perceive yourselves.

Like a raven on a ship in the middle of the ocean, the mind emanates outward, saying, “I won’t come back.” Having apparently gone out to external objects but finding none, then it returns inside. There it dwells in self-existing realization of emptiness as before. The same text says:

Objects are pure. There are none to manifest.
We are coursing in emptiness alone.
Like a raven who flies up from a ship,
Having circled and circled, it must return.

When objects of form and so forth are emanated from the mind, they have no true existence. The mind is never dependent on them for an instant. Self-eliminated, they rest in emptiness with nothing

to analyze; for example, as the raven, flying outward from a ship over the ocean, cannot depend on external objects, but returns to the ship.

1.b.4)) How the natural state arises

The way of meditating:

We realize that the individual grasped as “I”
Does not exist as an independent, controlling master.
The mind that fixates one also is without a nature.

By eradicating thoughts attached to self and an owner or master and becoming accustomed to the reality that they are not to be found, the individual who fixates is egoless. Therefore fixation is natureless. Since former objects of grasping are essenceless, grasping too is realized to be essenceless. By the two kinds of self^[5]being realized as empty, neither objects or the one who makes them arise within samsara are established. Samsara is liberated into naturelessness, the liberation of nirvana. This is because samsara is not other than mind. The Dohakosha says:

The nature of samsara is the essence of mind.
Fools take what is said by Saraha in jest.

With such realization, even if there is no liberation during this life, there will be in the next. The Four Hundred on the Middle Way (dbu ma bzhi brgya pa) says:

For anyone who knows this,
If nirvana is not attained,
Within a later life,
It will be without effort.

For example, if because of great virtue or nonvirtue it cannot be experienced, in a later life, acording to this karma of experiencing it, it will surely be experienced, it is said.

1.b.5)) How to attain stability

After stability of shamatha and vipashyana has been attained individually:

Then they are unified as wisdom, the natural state.
Appearance and mind are non-dual, like the moon reflected in water.

When the moon arises in the water of a pond, there is no difference between the water and the form of the moon. So appearance and the mind that fixates it at that time are non-dual. Appearance is grasping. It should be understood that grasping is not said to be the appearing object.^[6] The appearing object and its emptiness are non-dual, like the water and the moon in water.

1.b.6)) How to train in the meaning of non-duality

Though it is like that, by not understanding this:

Grasping duality is confusion in samsara.
Awareness of non-duality goes to the peace of nirvana.
So let us train in the meaning of non-duality.
Unborn dharmas are all of the essence of mind.
The nature of the mind is pure and undefiled.
Rest in this spotless simplicity, empty and luminous.

By grasping what really does not exist as having selfhood, as being independently existing things, the confusion of samsara, already grasped as terrifying, like water in a dream, becomes even more terrifying. Habitual patterns of confused appearance are stabilized when they are not established as anything other than confused appearances of mind. The mind that is the basis of arising of these confused appearances is also pure of nature. It too is essencelessness. Therefore there is no obscuration by kleshas. The Uttaratantra says:

Since the nature of that mind is luminosity, the kleshas are seen to be essenceless. Rest in immaculate wisdom, the essence unobscured by extremes, the essence of simplicity like the sky. Do not struggle with conceptual analysis. If this is done, the nature of mind is obscured, and false conceptions proliferate. This is like a poisonous snake in a basket. Left alone, it does no harm; but it will if prodded. Mind too should be left alone without effort and establishing or accepting and rejecting. The Song of the Oral Instructions of the Inexhaustible Treasury (mi zad pa’i gter mdzod man ngag gi glu) says:

As for the nature of mind, which is the natural state,
It is hard for anyone to realize.
As for the spotless essence undefiled by extremes,
No one should analyze primordial purity.
If it is analyzed, it is like what happens
To a person who teases a dangerous, poisonous snake.

The All-Creating King says:

In that appearances are one in the state of suchness, Within this do not fabricate anything at all.
Rest in the uncreated king of equality,
The ultimate state, the non-thought of dharmakaya.

1.b.7)) How the middle way free from extremes is realized

As for the way of meditating:

By that the disturbances of kleshas are pacified.
We rest within the great wisdom, completely without conception.
Insight, samadhi, and higher perceptions are established.
We realize there are neither grasping nor fixation,
We realize the middle way, which is free from extremes.

Disturbances of the kleshas are pacified. By wisdom with neither grasping or fixation, the samadhi

of complete non-thought, enlightened insight, the buddha qualities of liberation, the five eyes, and the higher perceptions are established. The prajñaparamita-sañcayagatha says:

Dhyana eliminates baser qualities of desire.
Insight, higher perceptions, and samadhi are gained.

1.b.8)) Free from anything to meditate on or a meditater, this is the intention, buddhahood

At the time of meditating:

At this time the mind is like the space of the sky.
Objects are not apprehended by being conceptualized.
The nature is free from any such complexities.
Within this dharmata there is no meditation,
Nor is there any object upon which to meditate.
As there is no agent of action, and nothing to act upon.
This is the state of things as they were at the beginning.
This is the spotless nature, enlightened purity.

At the time of that meditation, from within the mind’s sky-like freedom from emanation and gathering, apparent objects still appear; but since there is no conceptual grasping, these appearances are non-dual wisdom that does not enter into perception of dualistic natures. Since there are neither meditation or meditater, causes of action and their producer are liberated as they are. Dissolving mind and mental contents into space, we reach the space of the primordial nature. This is the goal, the nature of mind. This is abiding in self-existing realization, dharmakaya, buddhahood. The Dohakosha says:

Buddhahood abides as the stream of everything.
Since this is the essential purity of mind,
This itself exists as the spotless, highest level.

As mind and mental contents dissolve into the natural purity of the nature of mind, there is no motion of thoughts. They are like salt dissolved in water. The same text says:

Conceptual mind is motionless and stably resting. Just as salt dissolves and disappears in water,
So the mind dissolves and dissapears in its nature. At that time, self and other are seen as equality.

1.b.9)) The way of realizing dharmata

Moreover, at this time:

There is no grasping of objects in a conceptual way,
As with a mirage, or the moon reflected in water.
There is no conceptualization of a fixater,
What is there is motionless impartiality.
This nondual appearance and mind is the state of the perfections.
Let us drink in^[7] this nature of Dharma like amrita.
Deep and peaceful simplicity, uncompounded and luminous.

Externally, we realize that the five kinds of grasped object are like a mirage, or the moon reflected in water. Therefore, conceptualized perception attached to grasping thoughts as truly existent does not occur.

Internally, we realize that fixating awareness is partless like space, and that fixation is essenceless. Awareness with neither grasping or fixation, fresh reality, without emanation or gathering, is the perfection of prajña. It is profound, peaceful, simple, naturally luminous, individual and personal wisdom. This is like amrita:

Profound and peaceful, simple and luminous, uncompounded
I have found a Dharma that is like amrita.

This side is samsara. The other side is nirvana. The three nonconceptualized paths of learning between the two are the perfection of prajña. The Abhisamayalankara says:

It is not the extremes of this side or the other.
Nor is it a matter of dwelling between the two.
Knowing the different times to be equality,
This is maintained to be the prajñaparamita.

1.b.10)) The way of the ultimate view

As for abiding within this, by the vast, great samadhi without fixation:

When we cross the ocean^[8] from these three worlds of samsara
Within the vast ship of samadhi where there is no grasping,
Arriving at last in the nature of the great perfection,
Along with the bliss of the ground, there is constant mental well being.

When we have crossed the ocean of samsaric complexities, abiding, as if in a ship, in realization of the view of the great vastness, the primordial simplicity of the ground is mixed with the primordial simplicity of the mind at that time. As this non-dual space and wisdom is called “the state of the great perfection,” that is what we have reached. Self-arising, unproduced realization arises perfecting all goals. The All-Creating King says:

Kye, therefore as prophesied by me, the doer of all,
Make unerringly stable the meaning of what you heard.
Arising from buddha activity free from action and seeking,
Unmade realization rises perfecting all goals.

1.b.11)) Identifying the defining characteristics of shamatha and vipashyana.

At the time of meditating in this way, in the mind, which is quiet, without emanation and gathering:

By resting in empty dharmakaya, shamatha,
vipashyana appears as luminous rupakaya.
There are upaya and prajña and the two accumulations.
Both developing and perfection are established.

The empty aspect of nonthought due to resting is shamatha. Its cause is dharmakaya. It is the accumulation of wisdom, prajña and the completion stage. The aspect of appearance due to luminosity is vipashyana. Its cause is rupakaya.

It is the accumulation of merit, upaya and the developing stage. At that time, the six ultimate conceptionless perfections are perfected. The Sutra requested by Pure Special Mind (tshangs pa khyad par sems kyis zhus pa’i mdo) says:

No fixation is generosity.
No guarding of anything is discipline.
No dwelling is that which is desiognated patience.
No effort is what is called exertion.
No wishing is what is designated dhyana.
No conception is what is known as prajña.

As for practice of these six, generosity and so forth, they are perfected not by dwelling on them, but by going beyond any thought of them. At this time true discipline is also perfected. The Sutra Requested by the son of the gods Sthaviramati (lha’i bu blo gros rab gnas zhus pa’i mdo) says:

When discipline and transgression are not perceived, this is perfection of discipline.

The two accumulations are also perfected. The Ten Wheels of Kshitigarbha (sa’i snying po ‘khor lo bcu pa) says:

That non-conceptualization is the accumulations of merit and wisdom.

The Ultimate Wisdom Sutra (ye shes dam pa’i mdo) says:

The bodhisattva Pinnacle of Wisdom (ye shes tog) asked, “How should yogacharin monks gather the accumulations?”

The Buddha spoke, saying, “What is accumulated is merit and wisdom. Accumulation is their manifold increase.”

How is the accumulation of merit gathered?

The Buddha spoke, saying, “It is generosity and so forth, white dharmas, which possess characteristics. How is wisdom accumulated?

The Buddha spoke, saying, “It is prajña and so forth, which possess no characteristics.” How are these two gathered?

The Buddha spoke, saying, “The accumulation of merit is called the accumulation of samsara. It is like, for example, the water in an ox’s track. Why so? It is quickly lost and exhausted. It beguiles fools. Having experienced the happiness of gods and human beings, they whirl about once more in the lower realms.

“The accumulation of wisdom is called the accumulation of nirvana. It is like the water in a great ocean. It is not lost. It is not exhausted. It is not deceptive. It produces attainment of nirvana. O Pinnacle of Wisdom, the accumulation of wisdom alone should be gathered.”

The intention is that things belonging to merit are changed into wisdom by dhyana, and that wisdom in that sense should be emphasized.

1.b.12)) The functions of shamatha and vipashyana

Moreover,

Arousing the prajña that realizes vipashyana,
We can remain within it because of shamatha.

Also our previously becoming acquainted with the meaning of realizing vipashyana, depended on shamatha. Therefore we should certainly try to unify the two.

1.b.13)) The time of realizing non-conception by becoming familiar with this

How so? At this time of meditation:

When we no longer dwell at all in the mental phenomena
Of grasping and fixation of either things or non-things,
Then, in the non-duality of space and wisdom,
Mind and its objects are not perceived, and are pacified.

When one meditates in the genuine meaning, realization that grasping and fixation of things and non- things are natureless is the vipashyana that is “first to be done.” Abiding within the state thus realized, without arising of the phenomena of mind is the shamatha, “to be done later” If space and wisdom are non-dual, union of shamatha and vipashyana as the fruition is established. Then these two should be known as inseparable. The Bodhicharyavatara says:

When neither things or non-things
Exist before the mind,
Other will be absent,
Pacified in non-concept.

It is as taught there.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ripples in the air, transitory light forms on a wall, mirages optical illusions.

[2]:

“...Bodies those weapons did not exist. Omitted for metrical reasons.

[3]:

dmigs can mean perceived, conceived, imagined, or taken as an object of attention. All are relevant and in fact are related in the way we deal with objects.

[4]:

This refers to the mind, rather than the color and shape of the body.

[5]:

Of an individual and of dharmas.

[6]:

The grasping is mental experience. The appearing object appears to be an external object, but is empty.

[7]:

kong du chud means comprehend or assimilatae, but also literally take into the belly.

[8]:

Cross to the other shore of the ocean. Omitted or metrical reasons.