BUDDHA NATURE IS NOT LIKE A ‘CHILDLESS WOMAN’S CHILD’: THE CLARITY ASPECT OF BUDDHA NATURE AND MIND: The importance of bodhicitta, devotion and recognising the nature of mind as a union of clarity-emptiness (Magic Key, Day 8, Thrangu Rinpoche)

“It is not completely non-existent emptiness, mere nothingness like space, or the child of a barren woman.” –Khenpo Gangshar in the Magic Key to the Philosophical Tenets commentary

“When we think about that emptiness of space what is it like? It is inanimate, there is no clarity to it in any way. But when we talk about the essence of  the dharma expanse (cho-ying) and awareness (ye-she), these two are indivisible. So there is the expanse (ying) but it is permeated and pervaded by the awareness (yeshe), this is the clear aspect of the mind.”

–9th Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche (Magic Key teaching, Day 8)

Continuing with the overview and transcription of the 9th Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche’s teachings on Nyingma and Dzogchen master, Khenpo Gangshar’s Magic Key to the Philosophical Tenets commentary, here is an overview of Day 8 of that teaching. The full transcript can be downloaded here.

In this teaching, the 9th Thrangu Rinpoche calls the ‘Empty-of-Other’ (Zhentong) view the bridge between the Sutras and Tantras and focuses first on the importance of motivation, of bodhicitta and its two aspects, compassion (wanting to benefit others) and attaining awakening (enlightenment). After that, he focuses on the commentary and what it says about on the nature of mind itself, the emptiness and clarity aspect and how they are indivisible. Without the correct view, one’s practice cannot be ‘in accord’ with the secret mantra Vajrayana practice.

After that, he focuses on the commentary and what it says about on the nature of mind itself, the emptiness and clarity aspect and how they are indivisible. This is followed by a Q & A, which ends with a lovely explanation on why sentient beings, even though they have Buddha Nature, become confused in samsara in terms of focusing only on the clarity/awareness aspect of mind, the knowing and appearances, but not recognising the emptiness aspect.

Contents

• The importance of bodhicitta motivation.
• Two aspects of the meaning of bodhicitta: benefiting others and attaining enlightenment.
• Immeasurable Equanimity as the first aspect of benefiting others.
• The power of a single act with bodhicitta – Buddha’s previous life action that gave rise to bodhicitta.
• “There is no mind in mind” and emptiness vast as space but permeated by awareness (yeshe).
• Meditation and resting in the nature: nothing to add or take away from the nature of mind.
• The importance of gathering accumulations and following a qualified guru.
• Question and Answers.

Music? Heart of Gold by Neil Young, Mantra of Compassion by Deva Premal and for those who think the phenomenal expanse of reality is also mere emptiness, Lateralus by Tool.

Compiled and transcribed by Adele Tomlin, 17th August 2023.

The importance of bodhicitta motivation and how it is different from the Hinayana vehicle

In this section of the teaching, Thrangu Rinpoche talks about the difference between the motivation of the Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhist vehicles:

“Generally, when we talk about the motivation for the Hinayana vehicle the motivation is primarily too free oneself from the suffering of samsara, and to attain liberation that is the primary motivation. Is this a bad motivation? It is not a bad motivation; it is a wonderful motivation. We need to free ourselves from samsara, it is important to do so. Also, when we talk about the listeners the people who practice the Hinayana vehicle, do they really only work for their own  just relieve their own suffering? They don’t actually. They teach their students how to live their life, they take care of students, they teach students how to practice and get them to practice and help these other students. But when they give their Dharma talks, they basically they say you need to free yourself from samsara. They primarily say this, but they do not say “Oh you need to develop the ability to free all other sentient beings from samsara as well,” they primarily say you need to  free yourself from samsara.

So, for this reason we do not say that this is a vast sort of motivation this is why we say that this is a smaller, and limited motivation. So, what is it that is lacking here? Well, what is lacking here is the compassion there is not quite enough compassion there. There also is not quite enough of the of the full knowing, sherab the wisdom that goes with that. So, because of that the motivation  is somewhat smaller, limited.”

Two aspects of the meaning of bodhicitta: benefiting others and attaining enlightenment

Then, Rinpoche explains the two aspects of bodhicitta, and how the first aspect of it compassion, must be for all sentient beings and not biased to those we like, or feel close to in terms of culture, nationality, race and so on:

“When we say bodhicitta, what is the main thing that we mean by that? Bodhicitta actually has two characteristics and  these characteristics are to bring benefit to others and  to wish for perfect enlightenment. So, here when we talk about bodhicitta it has to have these two characteristics bodhicitta,  wanting to benefit of others and to wish for perfect enlightenment. So, it has these two characteristics and the first of these characteristics is compassion.  If we have that then of course, we have to have compassion but  it’s a compassion for all sentient beings. What type of compassion do we need to have? We need to have the unbiased compassion. If there is a bias there then of course it is still compassion, and all sentient beings actually do have compassion within them because all sentient beings have buddha nature. However, that compassion is often obscured by veils and obscurations, and there comes to be a bias.

For example, some people have compassion for humans but not compassion for animals, or it might be the other way around. Some people might have compassion for animals but only for those fuzzy ones that live on the land and not for those scaly ones that live in the water. Or they might only have compassion for the scaly ones that live in the water and not for the fuzzy ones that live on the land, or even the creepy crawly ones that live on the land.  So, there are different sorts of compassion that we might have. Some people might have compassion for like among humans you might have compassion for your countrymen the people in your country, but you do not have compassion for all those people in those foreign lands. So, there is a bias that comes about in our compassion. So, because of that bias, even though there’s compassion, there often comes to be a sort of malice, hatred, or  evil thoughts. Or there is pride or a jealousy that comes up and so we need to have the unbiased compassion. We need to work for the benefit of all sentient beings who are the same, to bring sentient happiness to all sentient beings and free them all from suffering. They all want to be happy and free of suffering  and they all want it together. So, we need to have that compassion that is unbiased. But is compassion alone enough? It is not, we also need to have the wisdom, or the prajñā.”

Immeasurable Equanimity as the first aspect of benefiting others

“In the Words of my Perfect Teacher by Patrul Rinpoche it says that when we meditate upon love, compassion and the four immeasurables, the first of the immeasurables that we meditate upon is immeasurable equanimity towards all sentient beings. So, for all sentient beings we do not try to increase or develop our compassion or our love, but we also do not let ourselves stray into hatred or malice instead we just have a sort of neutral and even equanimous feelings for all sentient beings. Then when we develop that unbiased feeling, so we gradually train in not feeling like we have compassion for one side, and malice for another, rather we train in having an equanimous feeling for others.

As that develops, then we will be able to have a compassion that is truly  unbiased, and a compassion that is vast. This will be a peaceful sort of compassion it will not be that combative sort of compassion, with a competitive sort of nature and so on. This is the  compassion for all sentient beings. This is the first aspect of the two characteristics of the Mahayana vehicle, to bring a benefit to all sentient beings.”

The power of a single act with bodhicitta – Buddha’s previous life action that gave rise to bodhicitta

“Because the Buddha appeared in the world and the Buddha taught the dharma then look at how the activity has spread all throughout the world. So, this is  this  but this all came about because of what the buddha talked about in a Sutra. The Buddha said  “when I was a when I was a poor brahmin, I offered a bowl of soup to the Buddha and through that I developed the mind of bodhicitta.” So,  this is the first time that the Buddha developed bodhicitta. When he first developed bodhicitta he had been born as a poor brahmana many eons ago….“ So,  he made the aspiration that just as you this buddha Shakyamuni, the same size body that you have the same lifespan that you have, the same retinue of people, the same sort of activity, so too will I awaken to Buddhahood.” So, this all came out of offering one bowl of soup and on generating bodhicitta. This is the benefit of it, so this all came about because of that one thing.

 So sometimes we might wonder whether bodhicitta has power, or if it does not have power, but we can see that actually it can have that much power. So, when we are sitting here and we think to ourselves, we have to develop bodhicitta and we might wonder well “Is this really bodhicitta? Is this really doing anything, does this do any good at all? Am I doing really anything at all? “ Well, you just have to remember this and realize in the future this will have vast results.”

The nature of mind: there is no mind in mind

Thrangu Rinpoche then turns to the Magic Key commentary on the nature of mind and its emptiness:

“When we think about the dharma nature, the buddha nature, the nature of mind, all of these things, is it something or is it nothing? It is possible that we might have that sort of  doubt and so here Khenpo Gangshar gives the answer, and the answer is basically what I have said before:

“It is not completely non-existent emptiness, mere nothingness like space, or the child of a barren woman.”

It is not nothingness, not like just blank empty space, it is not like the child of a childless woman who does not have a child  can’t exist. It is not just blank emptiness.  Then, you might wonder then if it is not nothing, is it something, is it permanent? The text continues:

“It is not truly existent, non-empty permanent thing, such as the self of the non-Buddhist.”

So, is it something truly existent like the self of the non-Buddhists? it is not like that either when we look for it, we cannot find it is  also  emptiness.

“As it says in a Sutra: “There is no mind in mind” (སེམས་ལ་སེམས་མ་མཆིས་ཏེ་).

Emptiness vast as space but permeated by awareness (ye-she)

In the next page of the commentary, Khenpo Gangshar refers to what is meant by ‘clarity’ (sel-wa) and emptiness (tongpa-nyi) and how they are indivisible:

“When we think about that emptiness of space what is it like? It is inanimate, there is no clarity to it in any way. But when we talk about the essence of  the dharma expanse (cho-ying) and awareness (ye-she), these two are indivisible. So there is the expanse (ying) but it is permeated and pervaded by the awareness (yeshe), this is the clear aspect of the mind.

So, when we look at the mind is there some sort of a thing that is a solid thing that we can find? We can’t  find it from the very beginning it has been  it has been unborn non-arising it is emptiness but is it nothing at all it is not. It has the clarity, it can know and see everything, it can understand anything, it is always clear, it is this union of the clarity and of the emptiness. The clarity and the emptiness are indivisible so it is not like you can say “okay this is the clarity and this is the emptiness in there together,” it is not like that.  there is no way that you can divide the clarity and the emptiness, there is no way you can separate or divide them in any way.”

[Author’s note: The fundamental clarity/awareness aspect of mind, reminds me of this 1750 diagram of the universe by Thomas Wright from his groundbreaking science/poetry book A New Theory of the Universe, for there to be phenomenal appearances within emptiness there has to be an observer/awareness.]

And then:

“As it is  said  here, Maitreya explained the way to rest in equipoise within the nature of that dharma nature as follows. So, what Maitreya said in both the Ornament of Clear Realization and in the  and in the Supreme Continuum (Uttaratantrashastra/Gyu Lama) and it reads in this:

“There’s nothing to dispel, nor anything at all to add, by actually viewing actuality(yangdag) , if actually seeing [that] there is liberation.”

So, when we look at the nature of the mind, or we talk about the dharma nature the union of clarity and emptiness is there something that we need to get rid of? There is nothing that we need to get in there. Is there something new that we need to add to it in any way? There is nothing new that we need to add to it. The nature of the way it is the nature of how it is right it is perfect, so by viewing rightness rightly and by seeing right liberation so if we just know the nature as it is without altering it, then we are liberated. So, this is what  Maitreya’s wrote in the Ornament of Clear Realization and in the Supreme Continuum (Uttaratantrashastra).  This is also actually the same as what it says in the short Vajradhara lineage prayer in the third verse, where it says:

 “Whatever arises rest simply, not altering it and just that fresh essence of thought.””

Khenpo Gangshar also mentions the importance of  our meditation being in accordance with the secret mantra Vajrayana vehicle:

“So, when we do the meditation, what is it that we need to do the meditation well? We need to do the meditation in a way that is compatible with the vehicle of profound secret mantra. So, we need to be able to practice in a way that is compatible with the secret mantra of Vajrayana, and the instructions on Mahamudra and Dzogchen. This also comes from the paramita vehicle, the sutra vehicle such as the prajnaparamita sutras, as well as in the Supreme Continuum, so it does appear in those texts as well.”

The importance of gathering accumulations and following a qualified guru

Then  Khenpo Gangshar gives a bit of advice, which reads:

“ Until one’s intelligence (lo-dro) reaches the profound intent of the dharma nature of equality.”

So, until such time as this wisdom, whether this means  the certainty that comes out of inference, or whether it means the actual, direct experience that comes from meditation, until we have that real certainty, that sort of wisdom, we need to train in this way.

“One should follow the glorious guru, pleasing them in the three ways: through gathering merit, purifying obscurations and so forth.”

So, we need to gather the accumulations of merit, and how is it that we do this? We do this primarily through the practice of the six transcendences. We gather the accumulations of merit. Among these, what is our own particular special way of doing that?  Well, if we want to gather the accumulation of merit, we make mandala offerings and we also do the Chod practice of offering our body.”

Question and Answers