{"id":1035,"date":"2022-11-01T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T13:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2022-11-01T11:51:44","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T15:51:44","slug":"perfect-enlightenment-11-buddha-answers-on-the-stages-of-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/2022\/11\/01\/perfect-enlightenment-11-buddha-answers-on-the-stages-of-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfect Enlightenment 11: Buddha Answers: On the Stages of Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Show scripture (Chinese).<\/span>

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Chinese:<\/h2>\n

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Show scripture (English).<\/span>

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English:<\/h2>\n

Then the World Honoured One, addressing the bodhisattva Universal Vision, said: \u201cExcellent, excellent! Good son, you have asked well for the bodhisattvas and sentient beings of the degenerate age about the stages of the Tath\u0101gata\u2019s practice; about his thought and abiding, and about the explanation of all the various expedient means. Now listen well, and I shall explain for you.\u201d Universal Vision Bodhisattva received this instruction with great joy. The great assembly became silent and listened.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood sons, these newly awakened bodhisattvas and sentient beings of the degenerate age who yearn for the pure enlightened mind of the Tath\u0101gata must correct their thoughts and rid themselves of all illusions, first relying on the Tath\u0101gata\u2019s practice of \u015bamatha. Firmly established in moral discipline and living in harmony with like-minded students, then practicing silent sitting in a quiet room, they should uninterruptedly be mindful of the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis present body is a synthesis of the Four Elements. Hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, bones, marrow, brains and pigment all return to Earth. Saliva, mucus, pus, blood, sputum, scum, phlegm, tears, semen, urine and feces all return to Water. Heat returns to Fire, and movement returns to Wind. When the Four Elements have been separated, where can the false body exist? Now you know that this body ultimately has no substance. As a synthesis it appears, but in reality it is like an illusion conjured by a magician.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen these four factors temporarily combine, the Six Faculties falsely appear; through the internal and external matching of the Six Faculties and Four Elements, there is the deluded apprehension of conditioned energy. Within this conglomeration, there seem to be marks of this conditioned energy, which is provisionally called mind. Good sons, if this false mind does not have its Six Objects, it cannot exist. If the Four Elements are separated, there are no objects to be experienced. At this point, the cognized objects each disperse and vanish, and ultimately there is no dependently arisen mind to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood sons, since the illusory body of this sentient being vanishes, the illusory mind also vanishes. Since the illusory mind vanishes, illusory objects also vanish. Since illusory objects vanish, illusory vanishing also vanishes. Since illusory vanishing vanishes, non-illusion does not vanish. It is like polishing a mirror: when the filth is gone its brightness naturally appears. Good sons, you should understand both body and mind to be illusory filth. When the defiled aspects are permanently extinguished, the entire universe becomes pure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood sons, it is like a pure mani<\/em>-jewel which reflects as all kinds of colors, depending upon its surroundings. The foolish see that pearl as really having these colors. Good sons, the pure nature of Perfect Enlightenment is disclosed in bodies and minds, according to each individual type. When these ignorant fellows say that pure Perfect Enlightenment really has body and mind, it is the same sort of error. It is only because these people are unable to free themselves from illusory appearances that I call body and mind \u2018illusory filth.\u2019 The one who opposes and removes illusory filth is named \u2018bodhisattva.\u2019 When filth is gone, its opposition is removed; then there is no opposition, no filth, nor anything to be named.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commentary:<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

Buddha answers Universal Vision\u2019s inquiry on the stages of practice, they are the various \u201cprovisional expedient means\u201d such as contemplation and abiding. By expedient, the stages are presented on the basis that they are in themselves insubstantial, and the practices are presented on the basis that they are a non-requirement. Take the Pure Land tradition as an example. There was a dh\u0101ra\u1e47\u012b practice with sound as an entrance to the land of eternal quiescent luminescence, but in turn other practices are established expediently, such as reciting Buddha\u2019s name (like a mantra), visualizing Buddha and observing the true appearances during the recitation. All doctrines, then, such as consciousness-only, dharmalak\u1e63a\u1e47a, Madhyamaka, dependent origination, are only expedient means. Even praj\u00f1\u0101 p\u0101ramit\u0101 is an expedient mean; the Buddha-Within is an expedient mean, it is at most an expedient mean leading to the ultimate.<\/p>\n

\"\"Buddha taught the gradual practices began with correct thought. Correct thought means non-thought: when conceptual thoughts no longer arise is considered non-thought. Buddha called this realm primordially pure — thoughts that are conceptual are also contaminated, imagined, pervasive calculating, dualistic grasping, conceptuality, upon which all perception of illusion manifest themselves, all rooted in ignorance. To detach from the illusion begins with this correct view. And following the correct view, becoming free from contaminations, the imagined, and so on is then the correct thought.<\/p>\n

Abiding by the correct thought, one can cut off the contaminated thoughts to arrive at non-thought. The appearance of mind as non-thought is the appearance of the primordially pure perfectly enlightened mind, and therefore, there is not truly a gradual practice. That said, according to the expedient means, Buddha further said, \u201c[F]irst relying on the Tath\u0101gata\u2019s practice of \u015bamatha. Firmly established in moral discipline and living in harmony with like-minded students, then practicing silent sitting in a quiet room\u2026\u201d \u015aamatha means cessation, where it is part of the cessation-observation practice. When mind abides in a realm without conceptualization is the practice of cessation. A practitioner upholds the moral discipline and living in harmony in one\u2019s practice, one follows the stages of practice to the two selflessnesses (selfless of the ego self, selfless of the phenomenal self), which is also called the two emptiness observations (emptiness of the ego self, emptiness of the phenomenal self).<\/p>\n

On selflessness of ego self and phenomenal self... click to show more.<\/span>

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In the practice of the selflessness of the ego self, one begins with the selflessness of body, which is a practice of body-abiding according to the thirty-seven aspects. By visualizing one\u2019s body as an amalgamation of the Four Elements, provisionally labelled as the self, then beyond the Four Elements there is no body to attain, nor is the self attainable. Body and self are what the scripture refers to a false cognition of the Four Elements as the appearance of body-self.<\/p>\n

The subsequent practice is the selflessness of mind. What is mind? The scripture says, \u201cWhen these four factors temporarily combine, the Six Faculties falsely appear; through the internal and external matching of the Six Faculties and Four Elements, there is the deluded apprehension of conditioned energy. Within this conglomeration, there seem to be marks of this conditioned energy, which is provisionally called mind.\u201d This is to say that the Four Elements as the condition become the Six Faculties. The amalgam of the Six Faculties and the Four Elements (\u201cthe internal and external matching\u201d) becomes the apprehensible energy. (Buddhists speak of the non-duality of mind and energy, if the mind is apprehensible, so is the energy.) At this point, the Six Faculties appear to have the apprehensible characteristics, the six consciousnesses becomes functional, capable of making conceptual distinctions, capable of being attached to the Six Objects. The accumulation of this apprehensible energy is provisionally called mind, or what the scripture deems as the false cognition of Six Objects as the appearance of mind-self.<\/p>\n

From the above practices of observing selflessness of body and selflessness of mind, it should become clear that there is not a self that is attainable. This concludes the practice of selflessness of the ego self. What follows is the practice of selflessness of phenomenal self.<\/p>\n

The selflessness of phenomenal self builds upon the selflessness of ego self. Beginning with the wisdom observation of the external body and the inner mind, since they are both illusory manifestations, when the illusory body vanishes, the illusory mind vanishes, the illusory objects also vanish. Since the illusory objects vanish, the vanishing of illusions also vanishes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On the vanishing of illusion... click to show more.<\/span>

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\"\"The vanishing of illusion also vanishes, it is the wisdom where the vanishing of illusion is insubstantial. Say one holds the view of emptiness to observe this vanishing of illusion, this view of emptiness must also vanish; if one holds the view of dependent origination to observe this vanishing of illusion, this view of dependent origination must also vanish. This way, no doctrinal meanings are truly attainable. This explains why Pr\u0101sa\u1e45gika of Madhyamaka tradition does not establish any doctrinal views for themselves, for whatever views encountered can be defeated, and is therefore definitive. The Great Madhyamaka tradition also does not establish any doctrinal views, nor do they uphold the two truths. While they do not aim to defeat any views, they only transcend the views, and are therefore, ultimate.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, Buddha explained the principle behind the vanishing of illusion. The scripture says, \u201cSince illusory vanishing vanishes, non-illusion does not vanish. It is like polishing a mirror: when the filth is gone its brightness naturally appears.\u201d This is to say, even if the vanishing of illusion is insubstantial, one cannot say that the illusion does not vanish. Considering the mirror polishing analogy, by polishing, the dirt on the mirror is gone. When the dirt is gone, the mirror naturally appears. The illusory vanishing is like polishing a mirror, the mirror polishing is itself also illusory, an illusory act, all conventional matters are illusory acts. And yet, despite the vanishing of such illusory acts, they have the capacity of vanishing illusion. Therefore, polishing the mirror has the function of revealing the mirror.<\/p>\n

With this principle in mind, the next section explains what dharmadh\u0101tu is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Click here for an introduction<\/a> on the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buddha answers Universal Vision\u2019s inquiry on the stages of practice, they are the various \u201cprovisional expedient means\u201d such as contemplation and abiding. By expedient, the stages are presented on the basis that they are...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbatoronto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}