by Red Pine
14. How could there be no beings / why teach conventional truths / how do we put an end to views / of eternity or annihilation?22
15. Why do the Buddha and other teachers / not look different from each other / why in future ages / will there be different sects?23
16. What is the cause of emptiness / what does ‘momentary’ mean24 / where does a womb come from / why does the world not shake?25
17. How is the world like a dream or illusion / a city of gandharvas26 / a seasonal mirage / moonlight on the water?
18. Why speak of aids to enlightenment27 / or elements of awareness28 / what causes chaos in a kingdom / why does belief in existence exist?
19. Why does the world not arise or cease / how is it like a flower in the sky29 / how do we know about the world / if you say it transcends language?
20. What is freedom from projection like30 / how is it like the sky / how many kinds of suchness are there / consciousness or paramitas?31
21. How do we progress through stages / who gets free from projection32 / what are the two kinds of no-self / how do we purify knowledge?33
22. How many kinds of knowledge are there / moral codes or beings / who created precious things / such things as gems and pearls?
23. Who invented languages / the different kinds of beings / who was it who revealed / fields of knowledge and technique?34
24. How many forms of poetry are there / what about prose and meter / how many kinds of logic are there / what constitutes an explanation?
25. Where do food and drink come from / what gives rise to sexual desire / what constitutes a king / a minor regent or cakravartin?35
26. How do they protect their realms / how many kinds of deities are there / what is meant by earth / the sun and moon and stars?
27. How many kinds of liberation are there36 / how many kinds of practitioners / how many kinds of disciples / what constitutes a master?
28. How many kinds of buddhas are there / how many lives do they live37 / how many kinds of demons exist / how many heterodox teachings?38
29. How many modes of reality are there39 / how many kinds of mind40 / please tell me, Best of Speakers / what does ‘mere designation’ mean?41
30. Why are there wind and clouds in the sky / why do memory and insight exist / why are there trees and forests / why are there grasses and vines?42
31. Why are elephants, horses, and deer / trapped and caught by men / O, Charioteer of the Mind43 / why are some people despised?
32. Why do we observe six seasons44 / why are there icchantikas45 / how do males and females / and androgynes come to be?46
33. Why do some adepts regress / why do some advance / how do meditation masters teach / what kind of people do they train?47
34. What are the marks and attributes / of beings born in different realms48 / what constitutes material wealth / how is it acquired?49
35. How did the Shakyas come to be / the lineage of the Ikshvakus / who was the ascetic sage / what was it that he taught?50
36. How does the Tathagata appear / in every time and place / surrounded by sons of victors / of different names and likenesses?51
37. Why shouldn’t we eat meat / why is meat proscribed / why are there carnivorous beings / why do they eat meat?52
38. Why are lands and kingdoms / shaped like the sun or moon / Sumeru or a lotus flower53 / a swastika or lion?54
39. Why are lands and kingdoms / shaped like Indra’s net55 / overturned above us / composed of countless jewels?
40. Why are lands and kingdoms / shaped like a drum or lute / or like some kind of flower / or bereft of the sun and moon?56
41. What is an apparition buddha / a buddha of fruition / what is a buddha of suchness / a buddha of true knowledge?57
42. Why in the realm of desire / is enlightenment not attained / why is it found beyond desire / in the highest heaven of form?58
43. After the Sugata enters Nirvana59 / who will uphold the Dharma / how long will the Teacher teach / how long will his teaching last?60
44. How many kinds of attainment are there 61 / how many doctrinal views / what is the cause and purpose / of a code of ethics or monks?
45. Why do sons of victors62 / pratyeka–buddhas and shravakas / experience a hundred transformations / a hundred projectionless realms?63
46. Which powers are mundane / which ones are transcendent / could you please explain / what are the seven stages?64
47. How many kinds of sangha are there / what brings about dissension / what are the texts on medicine / what led to their creation?65
48. Why does Mahamuni / speak such words as these / ‘I am Kashyapa Buddha / Krakucchanda and Kanakamuni?’66
49. Why do you speak of a self and no self / of eternity and annihilation / why not teach the truth / ‘everything is made of mind?”67
50. Why are there male and female trees / karitaki and amali groves / Mount Kailash and the Iron Ring / Diamond Summit and the other peaks?68
51. And why are all these mountains / adorned with countless jewels / rishis and gandharvas69 / please tell us why this is.”
52. After hearing all these gathas / on the teachings of the Mahayana / on the heart of every buddha / the Knower of Worlds then answered:
53. ”Well and ably asked / now listen, Mahamati / the questions you have raised / I will answer one by one:70
54. As for birth and no birth / nirvana, emptiness, and moments / rebirth and no self-existence71 / buddhas and paramitas
55. Shravakas, pratyeka-buddhas, and bodhisattvas / the formless practices of other schools / Sumeru and seas and mountains / continents and other lands72
56. The sun and moon and constellations / asuras73 and gods of other paths / liberations, masteries, and powers74 / meditations and samadhis
57. Extinction and psychic travel / aids and elements of enlightenment / meditations and boundless states / transmigration and the skandhas75
58. Cessation of perception in meditation / thinking and talking during samadhi / conceptual consciousness, will, and mind / the five dharmas and no self76
59. Modes of reality, projecting, and projection / the duality of seeing and seen / spiritual paths and lineages / gold and silver and gems
60. Material elements and icchantikas / chaos and a single buddha / knowing, the known, and instruction / the existence or not of beings77
61. And as for why such animals / as elephants and horses are caught / how reason and illustration work / or how they give rise to proofs78
62. And as for cause and effect / penetrating a forest of doubt / nothing but mind and no visible world / and no sequence of stages79
63. And as for transformations and the end of projections80 / medical treatments and crafts / sciences and arts / and why you ask about these81
64. And as for how to measure / lands and mountains and Sumeru / oceans and the sun and moon / and why you ask about these82
65. And as for the number of dust motes / in beings of different sizes / the dust motes in a realm / or how many in a bow-length83
66. And as for forearms or feet in a krosha / in a yojana or half a yojana / the rabbit hairs in a dust mote or louse egg / the sheep hairs in a barley grain84
67. And as for barley grains in a quart / in a pint or in a peck / in a bushel or ten or a hundred thousand / in a million or a billion85
68. And as for dust motes in a mustard seed / or mustard seeds in a grass grain / or grass grains in a pea / or how many peas in a gram86
69. And as for how many grams in an ounce / or ounces in a pound / or counting on like this / how many of these in Sumeru87
70. As for what you rightly ask / and why should you ask otherwise / but why not ask instead / the number of dust motes in a shravaka / the number in a pratyeka-buddha / in a bodhisattva or tathagata88
71. The dust motes in the tip of a flame / or in a gust of wind / the number in an organ of sense / a skin pore or an eyelash
72. But as for men of wealth and power / kings and cakravartins / and how
they protect their realms / and how they obtain liberation
73. And as for poetry and prose / or why beings want different things / like different foods and drinks / or why there are male and female trees89
74. And as for the diamond-hard mountain / about which you ask / why it resembles a dream or illusion / or a seasonal mirage90
75. And as for why there are clouds / or why there are six seasons / or why there are different flavors / or men and women and androgynes91
76. And as for the wearing of jewelry / and why, Son of Buddhas, you ask about this / or why rishis and gandharvas / adorn these sacred peaks92
77. And as for where liberation leads / or who is bound and who is freed / or the realms of meditation / apparitions and other paths
78. And as for if causation exists / or if causation doesn’t / or how perceptions vanish / or how thoughts are purified93
79. And as for how to transform your thoughts94 / or how to transform your actions / how to put an end to projections / or how to rise from samadhi
80. And as for who breaks through the three realms / and in what place or body / or if beings have no self / why accept the conventional view95
81. And as for asking about my marks / or if I have no self / or if my other bodies / are the product of a womb96
82. And as for views of annihilation or eternity / or how to settle the mind / or language and knowledge / lineages, precepts, and bodhisattvas
83. And as for logic and explanation / masters and disciples / the different kinds of beings / and why you ask about these / and what they eat and drink / and demons, insight, and designation97
84. And as for trees and vines / regarding which, Son of Victors, you ask / and why there are different lands / or who Dirghatapas was98
85. And as for my clan and family / or who my teachers were / and why some people are despised / or why some people meditate / and why there is no enlightenment / in the realm of desire99
86. And as for why it happens / in Akanishtha Heaven100 / or which powers are mundane / or what constitutes a monk
87. And as for apparition buddhas / or buddhas of fruition / or buddhas of true suchness / or buddhas of impartial knowledge / or the nature of the sangha / concerning which, Son of Victors, you ask101
88. And as for lands shaped like a drum, a lute, or a flower / and why some lands are bereft of light / and what the mind is like / during the seven stages102
89. All such things and more you ask / proper for a son of buddhas / in accord with relevant forms / and free from erroneous views103
90. Today I will reveal / truths that transcend words / while I list them one by one / listen well, you bodhisattvas / to these 108 statements:104 / as spoken by buddhas of the past
III105
“A statement about birth is about no birth. A statement about permanence is about no permanence. A statement about characteristics is about no characteristics. A statement about duration and differentiation is about no duration or differentiation. A statement about moments is about no moments. A statement about modes of reality is about no modes of reality.106 A statement about emptiness is about no emptiness. A statement about annihilation is about no annihilation. A statement about extremes is about no extremes.107 A statement about the middle is about no middle. A statement about eternity is about no eternity. A statement about conditions is about no conditions. A statement about cause is about no cause. A statement about passion is about no passion. A statement about desire is about no desire. A statement about expedience is about no expedience. A statement about skill is about no skill.108 A statement about purity is about no purity. A statement about reasoning is about no reasoning. A statement about illustration is about no illustration. A statement about disciples is about no disciples. A statement about masters is about no masters. A statement about lineage is about no lineage. A statement about the three paths is about no three paths.109 A statement about freedom from projections is about no freedom from projections.110 A statement about vows is about no vows. A statement about the three turnings is about no three turnings.111 A statement about appearances is about no appearances. A statement about existence is about no existence.112 A statement about inclusion is about no inclusion.113 A statement about the personal realization of buddha knowledge is a statement about no personal realization of buddha knowledge. A statement about delight in whatever is present is about no delight in whatever is present.114 A statement about lands is about no lands. A statement about dust motes is about no dust motes. A statement about water is about no water. A statement about bow-lengths is about no bow-lengths. A statement about elements is about no elements.115 A statement about enumeration is about no enumeration.116 A statement about higher knowledge is about no higher knowledge. A statement about the sky is about no sky. A statement about clouds is about no clouds. A statement about crafts is about no crafts.117 A statement about wind is about no wind. A statement about earth is about no earth. A statement about reflection is about no reflection. A statement about designation is about no designation.118 A statement about self-existence is about no self-existence. A statement about skandhas is about no skandhas. A statement about beings is about no beings. A statement about intellect is about no intellect. A statement about nirvana is about no nirvana. A statement about knowledge is about no knowledge. A statement about other paths is about no other paths. A statement about confusion is about no confusion. A statement about illusions is about no illusions. A statement about dreams is about no dreams. A statement about mirages is about no mirages. A statement about images is about no images. A statement about wheels is about no wheels.119 A statement about gandharvas is about no gandharvas. A statement about devas is about no devas. A statement about food or drink is about no food or drink. A statement about sexual desire is about no sexual desire. A statement about views is about no views. A statement about paramitas is about no paramitas. A statement about precepts is about no precepts. A statement about suns and moons and constellations is about no suns or moons or constellations. A statement about truths is about no truths. A statement about effects is about no effects. A statement about arising from cessation is about no arising from cessation.120 A statement about medical treatment is about no medical treatment. A statement about attributes is about no attributes. A statement about aids is about no aids.121 A statement about arts is about no arts. A statement about meditation is about no meditation. A statement about delusion is about no delusion. A statement about visible objects is about no visible objects. A statement about protection is about no protection. A statement about genealogy is about no genealogy. A statement about rishis is about no rishis. A statement about kings is about no kings. A statement about grasping is about no grasping. A statement about jewels is about no jewels. A statement about assurances is about no assurances.122 A statement about icchantikas is about no icchantikas. A statement about men and women and androgynes is about no men or women or androgynes. A statement about taste is about no taste. A statement about effort is about no effort. A statement about bodies is about no bodies. A statement about thinking is about no thinking. A statement about movement is about no movement. A statement about sense organs is about no sense organs. A statement about conditioned things is about no conditioned things. A statement about unconditioned things is a statement about no unconditioned things.123 A statement about causation is about no causation. A statement about Akanishtha Heaven is about no Akanishtha Heaven. A statement about seasons is about no seasons. A statement about trees and vines is about no trees or vines. A statement about variety is about no variety. A statement about instruction is about no instruction. A statement about moral codes is about no moral codes. A statement about monks is about no monks .124 A statement about support is about no support.125 A statement about words is about no words. Mahamati, these 108 answers 126 were spoken by the buddhas of the past. These are what you and the other bodhisattvas should study.“127
IV128
Mahamati Bodhisattva again asked the Buddha, “Bh
agavan, in how many ways do the various forms of consciousness arise, persist, and cease?”
The Buddha told Mahamati, “There are two ways in which the various forms of consciousness arise, persist, and cease, both of which are beyond the understanding of logicians. The two ways in which the forms of consciousness arise are as a continuity or as a characteristic.129 The two ways in which they persist are as a continuity or as a characteristic. And the two ways in which they cease are as a continuity or as a characteristic.130 And the different forms of consciousness, Mahamati, have three aspects: an unfolding aspect, a karmic aspect, and an intrinsic aspect.131
“Mahamati, what we generally speak of as eight forms of consciousness can be summarized under three headings: true consciousness, perceiving consciousness, and object-projecting consciousness.132 Mahamati, our perceiving consciousness functions like a clear mirror in which shapes and images appear. Mahamati, although perceiving consciousness and object-projecting consciousness are the cause of whether they are separate from each other or not, perceiving consciousness, Mahamati, is the result of imperceptible habit-energy and imperceptible transformations, while object-projecting consciousness is the result of grasping different phenomena and the habit-energy of beginningless projections.133
