In Praise of Dharmadhatu by Nagarjuna & Rangjung Dorge

In Praise of Dharmadhatu by Nagarjuna & Rangjung Dorge

Author:Nagarjuna & Rangjung Dorge [Nagarjuna & Dorje, Rangjung]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2021-06-02T00:00:00+00:00


2.2.1.3.2. Instruction that emptiness is the remedy

You may wonder, “If both something to be relinquished and the remedy have subsided in this way, how is it that the naturally luminous basic element itself exists?”

The sūtras that teach emptiness,

However many spoken by the victors,

They all remove afflictions,

But never ruin this dhātu. [22]

The Bhagavat has spoken in the sūtras about all aspects, starting with form, being emptiness. [15b] The intended meaning of these [sūtras] is that they were spoken in order to remove the afflictions of sentient beings. Those [sūtras] that—in order to remove the many kinds of views in terms of prakṛti, puruṣa, time, Īśvara, minute particles, and extinction—teach on causes and results as well as on samsāra and nirvāṇa (such as [discussing] the skandhas, the āyatanas, the dhātus, and the four realities of the noble ones). By thus teaching on dependent origination, saṃsāra is conceived as what is to be relinquished, and the remedial dharmas are considered as what is to be adopted in a real sense. Therefore, in order to overcome this [initial approach], which [still] represents a [certain] clinging to an identity in phenomena, [the Buddha] taught that all phenomena are without nature. Since both types of identitylessness will be realized through that, the purpose [of the teachings on emptiness] is such [realization]. The Buddha heart—the luminous dhātu—is the wisdom that is completely free from being empty, an entity, both, or neither. [But] it is never the case that the [teachings on emptiness] ruin this [wisdom], that is, teach that it does not exist.673 This principle is stated in many [texts], such as [Nāgārjuna’s] Mahāyānaviṃśikā:

Identity and identitylessness are not real,

They are imputed by ordinary beings.

Happiness and suffering are interdependent,

And afflictions and liberation are just like that.674

Also the Yuktiṣaṣṭikā says:

You are neither liberated through being

Nor through nonbeing from this [saṃsāric] existence.

Great beings are liberated

Through fully understanding being and nonbeing.675

2.2.1.3.3. The manner in which [the dharmadhātu] is not empty of wisdom

Water dwelling deep within the earth

Remains untainted through and through.

Just so, wisdom in afflictions

Stays without a single stain. [23]

For example, the nature of water deep within the earth remains moist, clear, and untainted. Just so, [16a] the stains of the afflictions resemble the earth, and the nature of naturally luminous mind’s wisdom stays without a single stain. It does exist but is just not observable. Through becoming free from [this] condition [of the afflictions], its very nature will appear. Therefore, [also] the conceptions of entities and nonentities being empty, which are like earth, are to be relinquished. In other words, you should let the silt settle. This is also said in the [Mahāyāna]sūtrālaṃkāra:

When murky water becomes clear,

[Its] transparency does not arise from elsewhere,

But it just becomes free from stains.

The same goes for the purity of your own mind.

Mind is held to be always naturally luminous.

It is [only] blemished by adventitious flaws.676

2.2.1.3.4. The manner in which [the dharmadhātu] is empty of something to be relinquished and a remedy

[This is taught by] three verses, the first of which is given in order to teach that this naturally luminous mind is without a self.



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