Entering the Middle Way, 4 April 1991, part 1

My motivation cultivating the awakening heart. Holding, cherishing oneself is the root of all faults; cherishing others is the root of all excellent qualities. Therefore, we should seek to develop the qualities of love and compassion, thinking that by cherishing others more than myself, I will establish all sentient beings in complete happiness and free them from their suffering. But, if in order to lead all sentient beings into happiness bereft of all suffering, if I myself have not reached there, then there’s no way I can lead others to that same level. Therefore, for the sake of all sentient beings, I must eliminate all my various faults and bring to consummation all my excellent qualities.

So for the next three minutes we’ll cultivate the motivation for listening to the present teaching, which is that in order to actually eliminate all my various faults and bring to consummation all my excellent qualities, I must know the methods, the practices, whereby to achieve this end. And in order to understand the various practices, the various methods, then I am going to engage in the training within the essence of the great vehicle Dharma, that is emptiness. And in order to understand essence of the great vehicle Dharma, I am going to train within the present text, that of entering into the middle Way. So with such a beneficial intention, I am going to listen to this present teaching. So, of the 10 chapters of entering we have completed roughly the first two and now we’re going to begin at the third of the 10 chapters.

So, we are moving through the 10 grounds, and these are the levels of a superior, one who has direct realization of emptiness. And each of these 10 grounds taking up a particular perfection. In the first ground, taking up the perfection of generosity. In the second, the perfection of ethics. And here, on the third ground, taking up the perfection of patience or tolerance.

10 grounds are the unfoldment of the power of the exalted wisdom realizing emptiness, increasing greater and greater in its power. The Bodhisattva Superior has as an accompanier during this process of moving through the 10 grounds, each of these 10 perfections. So at the first ground there is an accompaniment with the direct realization of emptiness, there is the perfection of generosity. And the second ground, and accompanying it with that realization of emptiness, the perfection of ethics. And here on the third ground, the bringing to perfection the practice of tolerance.

The first ground is called the Very Joyful. And why is it given that name? Because it is through the he has progressed through of the path of preparation, and now has achieved the path of has achieved the path of seeing. And at this level, at the path of seeing, that the bodhisattva achieves his initial direct realization of emptiness. And it is by this realization that he is able to eliminate all the various obscurations, that he is able he will be empowered by this realization to bring about vast welfare of sentient beings, and Buddhahood is very near now, having achieved this.

So he experiences a great joy in having attained this level. So this, therefore, it is termed the very joyful. The second ground is termed the stainless. On the second ground, the second ground is termed the stainless, and how does it achieve, how does this name come about? It is at the level of the second ground that the bodhisattva brings to perfection the practice of of ethics.

And this is to say that there now arises for the bodhisattva no occasion where he involves himself in any type of improper ethics. That he has abandoned all faults whatsoever of ethics, that all improper ethics have completely been extinguished. He is completely without the stains of improper ethics. Therefore, it is termed the stainless. Then the third ground is termed the luminous.

So, we can determine the reason for calling the third ground the luminous by the explanation of the first verse of this chapter, which you have, it’s verse 28, in which it says, Because the light of the fire, wholly consuming, the fuel of objects of knowledge arises, this third ground is called the luminous. So, I’m beginning with an explanation of abandonment. Objects which are to be abandoned. There are two types, two levels of abandonment. There are the obstructions to liberation, or the afflictive obstructions, and there are the obstructions to knowledge, or the knowledge obstructions, or the obstructions to omniscience.

So the afflictive obstructions and the knowledge obstructions are two levels of abandonments. So these are obstructions. And what do we mean by an obstruction? Obstructions have two qualities. One, they obstruct from the attainment of higher qualities.

And they also obstruct one from seeing the mode of abidance, or the reality of objects of knowledge. So, in one case they obstruct or hinder the attainment of higher qualities, and the other they obstruct or hinder one from realizing, from seeing the nature, the mode of abidance, or the reality of objects of knowledge and knowables. The main that which is mainly obstructed by the afflictive obstructions is the liberation from cyclic existence. The main, the afflictive obstructions mainly hinder the attainment of liberation from cyclic existence. How do the afflictive obstructions hinder one from the attainment of liberation?

It is and what is the afflictive obstruction? Mainly within the Prāsaṇgika Madhyamaka school, it is posited as ignorance which grasps at true existence. Ignorance which grasps at true existence is the afflictive obstruction. And due to the ignorance, we generate the various afflictive emotions such as attachment and hatred, but also the various other types of afflictive emotions, all the afflictive emotions such as the six root afflictive emotions, the 20 secondary afflictive emotions, various types of incorrect views, all arise out of the basis of ignorance grasping at true existence. So, then there’s the second level of obstructions, the knowledge obstructions.

And what do we posit as knowledge obstructions? Knowledge obstructions are the latencies or the predispositions to the afflictive emotions of grasping at true existence. The latencies left by the grasping at true existence are the these latencies influence under the power, under the influence of these latencies objects appear to us to truly exist. Under the influence of these latencies of the afflictive emotions such as the grasping of true existence, objects appear to us to truly exist. This is the knowledge obstruction.

So it is the latencies of the grasping a true existence which are the knowledge obstructions. And the reason it is this level of obstruction is termed knowledge obstruction. It’s because due to this level of obstruction, we are obstructed from gaining knowledge of all phenomena. And by knowledge, it is the direct realization of the various natures, the reality of both profound and vast types of phenomena. So it is said that it obstructs us from gaining the knowledge of all phenomena.

Therefore, is termed knowledge obstruction. So a a Buddha is one who directly realizes all phenomena, and the obstruction to realizing all phenomena is the knowledge obstruction. Therefore, the main obstruction to the attainment of Buddhahood is the knowledge obstruction. The first line, it’s the second line here in the translation, presents an analogy. It says, The fuel of objects of knowledge arises.

Now, the fuel, fire completely consumes the fuel, the fuel of objects of knowledge. And what the fuel, the objects of knowledge is referring to in this analogy is the obstructions to knowledge. So the fuel of objects of knowledge are the knowledge obstructions which are burnt up by the fire. And the fire here is the exalted wisdom of meditative equipoise on emptiness of the tenth ground. This is likened to a fire.

So this is the tenth it is the exalted wisdom of the tenth ground which completely consumes, eliminates the knowledge obstructions. So the fire is likened likened to the exalted wisdom on the tenth ground. And though, at the level of the third ground, there is a sign arises that which prophesizes the near attainment of the fire of the tenth ground. And this is the sign is the light. It says the light of the fire.

And this light is like a portent of the coming of the fire of the tenth ground, but it is a light, and it is like the light of the dawning sun, which is extremely orange, a bright orange in color. And this is the light which shows at this time, which portends the arising of the fire of the tenth ground exalted wisdom. So, at the level of the third ground, one has the light, which is a portent of the fire consuming the knowledge obstructions of the tenth ground. When one arises out of the meditative equipoise of the third ground into subsequent attainment, all phenomena are as if illuminated by this wisdom of the third ground. And therefore, it is because of this luminous quality during one’s subsequent attainment, having arisen from meditative equipoise, that all things are illuminated by this wisdom.

And therefore it is at this ground that it is called luminous. So the verse goes on to say, For a copper splendor like the sun appears to the Sugata’s child. And in this wisdom of subsequent attainment, having arisen from meditative equipoise, there arises a reddish illumination again and again to the bodhisattva, which is a portent of the arising of the fire which will eliminate all the knowledge obstructions in coming to realize all phenomena directly. And this, the redness is compared to, it’s like the redness of the sun or like a copper color. The third grounder, bodhisattva, has extremely vast qualities qualities and tremendous compassion, taking to mind all sentient beings.

For us as ordinary beings, there are nine occasions in which anger can arise. For example, of these nine occasions, the first, by way of example, would be that this person has harmed me in the past, or this person is harming me presently, or this person will harm me in the future. That is to say, there would be the occasion of getting angry as a consequence of being harmed in the past, present, and future with respect to oneself. And again, there are additional three occasions when we conceive of someone harming our friend in the past, our friend in the present, our friend in the future, so that would be another three possible occasions making thus far six. And the third the last three occasions would be toward those who we conceive of as having helped this person has helped has helped my enemy in the past, this person is helping my enemy presently, or this person will help my enemy in the future, making a total of nine occasions in which anger can arise.

The third grounder has completely ceased the possibility for anger to arise in any of these nine occasions. Therefore, there is no possibility for the third grounder to develop anger. So due to the great qualities and the extensive practice of the third ground bodhisattva, there is no occasion that anger will arise with respect to any sentient being. Then reading from the root text itself, verses twenty nine and thirty. Though another unjustifiably disturbed by anger cuts from his body, flesh, and bone bit by bit for a long time, generates patience strongly toward the mutilator.

Also, through viewing these phenomena as like reflections, what bodhisattva sees selflessness is cut, by whom, just how, and when he will be patient. So here it is at the of the third ground, is attaining the unsurpassed or surpassing perfection of tolerance in this way. Though the bodhisattva has no occasion for generating anger toward others, there are occasions when others will generate anger toward the bodhisattva. So out of the another person’s anger that this person may actually begin to cut the flesh of the bodhisattva even down cutting through the bone? And the the way that this angry person is cutting is not very quickly, because this wouldn’t create a great deal of pain, but very slowly, excruciatingly slowly.

This would cause much more pain. But in fact, this person is cutting off thin slivers one after another. So in though this angry person is afflicting this excruciating pain, the third grounder generates no anger whatsoever. Not only does the bodhisattva not generate anger toward this person, but he understands that this person is creating an extremely negative action. That it’s a type of action which will definitely the result of which will be a rebirth and a bad migration where this being will have to undergo tremendous sufferings in the future.

And all out of a sense of seeing that this being is involved creating such a great unskillful action, he generates not only does he not generate anger, he generates compassion for this person. So, not only does the third grounder develop no anger, but understanding that an individual is creating the cause for future sufferings, the third grounder develops toward this individual even though he is afflicting excruciating pain, a great compassion and love. And this represents the surpassing of tolerance or patience. So it is in this manner, the development of compassion that one attains this surpassing patience. In terms of compassion, one attains surpassing patience.

But not only does his his perfection of tolerance become surpassing by the power of his compassion, but also by the power of his realization of emptiness. So, it is by but additionally by the view, his realization of emptiness that the surpassing perfection of, in this instance, tolerance arises because he is able to view, to directly realize that the individual who is cutting him, the action of cutting, and the flesh which is being cut do not naturally exist, that they appear as a reflection, like the reflection in a mirror. When we look into a mirror, a face appears and it’s not really a face, it’s simply a reflection of a face and not holding that face as real. Likewise, the third grounder does not hold as real, that is to say as inherent existing, the individual cutting, the cutting, the action of cutting, and the flesh which is being cut. And in this manner, additionally, the surpassing perfection of tolerance is attained.

So the the in the the third grounder attains a surpassing tolerance by means of the combination of the conduct, in this instance, of his compassion, and in terms of the view that is his realization of emptiness. So, though when they someone may harm us, for example, an enemy, that it makes no sense to retaliate because by through our retaliation and bringing harm to others, though we do not want suffering, we are creating the causes for our future suffering. So, this is incompatible with our actual desire that we don’t want to suffer, and by retaliating to the harm which has been brought to us, we are we will experience suffering in the future. So, this is in contradiction to our own desires.