The Lankavatara Sutra
Page 14
“Mahamati, what is the projection of views? This refers to the projection of erroneous views of existence or nonexistence, or of sameness or difference or both or neither, which followers of other paths imagine and cling to. This is what is meant by the projection of views.
“Mahamati, what is the projection of reasoning? This refers to arguments whose logic and conclusions involve conceptions of a self or what belongs to a self. This is what is meant by the projection of reasoning.
“Mahamati, what is the projection of arising? This refers to attachment to the arising of something whether or not causes exist. This is what is meant by the projection of arising.
“Mahamati, what is the projection of non-arising? This refers to the non-arising of whatever exists being due to the non-functioning of causation and the arising of entities that have no cause.489 This is what is meant by the projection of non-arising.
“Mahamati, what is the projection of continuity? This refers to something that continues between one thing and another, like a golden thread.490 This is what is meant by the projection of continuity.491
“Mahamati, what is the projection of bondage and emancipation? This refers to attachment to causes and conditions that bind or unbind, as when a person attempts to tie or untie something. This is what is meant by the projection of bondage and emancipation.492
“These are the different characteristics common to imagined reality to which all foolish beings are attached as existing or not existing.
“Mahamati, what those attached to dependent reality are attached to is the self-existence of the projections of the objects to which they are attached. Although they appear like so many illusory entities, foolish beings imagine them as different from illusions. Mahamati, the illusions and the objects are neither separate nor not separate. If they were separate, the illusions would not be the cause of the objects. If they were not separate, the illusions and the objects would be indistinguishable. But they are distinguishable. Hence, they are neither separate nor not separate. Therefore, Mahamati, you and the other bodhisattvas should not become attached to whether the illusions of dependent and imagined reality are separate or not or whether they exist or not.”493
LV494
The Buddha then repeated the meaning of this in verse:
1. “When the mind is tied to external realms / knowledge is subject to speculation / where freedom from projection prevails / impartial wisdom rises
2. What exists in imagined reality / in dependent reality doesn’t / imagined reality is what is grasped / dependent reality is not imagined
3. Where a myriad distinctions arise / like illusions they aren’t real / where characteristics multiply / because they’re projections they aren’t perfect
4. Characteristics are mistakes / rising from a mind in bondage / projections of what isn’t known / based on dependent reality495
5. What exists in imagined reality / is simply dependent reality / projections of all kinds / based on dependent reality
6. There’s conventional truth and ultimate truth / and a third that denies causation496 / projections refer to conventional truth / their cessation is the realm of sages
7. Like someone who contemplates / who perceives a multitude in one / where no multitude exists / this is what projections resemble
8. Like someone with cataracts / who imagines different forms / which neither are nor aren’t cataracts / dependent reality is thus mistaken
9. Like gold that has been refined / free of dross and impurities / the sky without a cloud / imagined reality purified497
10. Imagined reality doesn’t exist / dependent reality does / assertions and denials / by projections are undone
11. If imagined reality doesn’t exist / and dependent reality does / if one doesn’t and the other does / from what doesn’t comes what does498
12. Thus is dependent reality / based upon projection / from which name and appearance follow / giving rise to more projections
13. Though they remain unperfected / once you get past all projections / knowledge is thus purified / this is ultimate truth
14. Projections are twelve in number499 / dependent reality is sixfold500 / the knowledge known to oneself / includes not one distinction
15. The truth includes five dharmas / reality has three modes / practitioners who distinguish these / don’t separate them from suchness501
16. Dependent reality and appearances / imagined reality and names / from the characteristics of projection / dependent reality arises502
17. In the radiant light of wisdom / dependent and imagined reality vanish / nor does perfected reality exist / so how is anything distinguished 503
18. Because their natures are distinguished / the two realities are established / where a myriad projections appear / lies the realm of pure buddha knowledge
19. Imagined reality is like a painting / projecting dependent reality / something other than projection / this is the view of other schools504
20. What is projected by projection / they see coming from causes / beyond the duality of projection505 / this is where perfection occurs.”
LVI506
Mahamati once more asked the Buddha, “Bhagavan, please tell us what characterizes the personal realization of buddha knowledge and the one path so that507 by becoming well-versed in what characterizes the personal realization of buddha knowledge and the one path, I and the other bodhisattvas need rely on nothing else to understand the teachings of buddhas.”
The Buddha told Mahamati, “Listen carefully and ponder this well, and I shall now instruct you.”
Mahamati answered, “May it be so, Bhagavan,” and gave his full attention.
The Buddha said, “The teaching known and passed down by the sages of the past is that projections are nonexistent and that bodhisattvas should dwell alone in a quiet place and examine their own awareness. By relying on nothing else and avoiding views and projections, they steadily advance to the tathagata stage. This is what characterizes the personal realization of buddha knowledge.
“Mahamati, what characterizes the one path? When I speak of the one path, I mean the one path to realization. And what does the one path to realization mean? Projections, such as projections of what grasps or what is grasped, do not arise in suchness. This is what the one path to realization means. Mahamati, the one path to realization is beyond the reach of followers of other paths or shravakas or pratyeka-buddhas or even Brahma508 but not tathagatas. This is why I speak of the one path.”
Mahamati asked the Buddha, “Bhagavan, why then do you teach three paths and not teach one path?”
The Buddha told Mahamati, “Because neither shravakas norpratyeka-buddhas enter nirvana by themselves, I do not teach them the one path.509 Because shravakas and pratyeka-buddhas attain liberation through training in detachment by the tathagatas and not through their own power, I do not teach them the one path. Also, Mahamati, I do not teach shravakas and pratyeka-buddhas the one path because they have not yet put an end to the habit-energy of karma or the obstruction of passion.510 Because they are not aware that dharmas have no self, and they are not free of karmic deaths,511 I teach them three paths.512
“Mahamati, once they put an end to all the habit-energy that gives rise to passion and realize that dharmas have no self, by putting an end to the habit-energy that gives rise to passion, in their affliction-free realms513 they will wake up to the nonexistence of the samadhis to which they have been addicted. And once they are awake, they will enter that highest of transcendent, affliction-free realms where they obtain an inconceivable, invincible dharma body complete with every virtue.”
The Buddha then repeated the meaning of this in verse:
1. “A path for gods and Brahma / one for shravakas and pratyeka- buddhas / another for tathagatas / these are the paths I teach514
2. As long as the mind keeps turning / these paths never end / when the mind finally ceases / there is no path or one who walks it
3. The path that isn’t made / thi
s is my one path / to attract and guide all beings / I teach different paths
4. The three kinds of liberation515 / just like dharmas have no self / when passion and knowledge are the same516 / liberation is transcended
5. Like floating logs at sea / forever rolling with the waves / thus are foolish shravakas / at the mercy of the wind of characteristics
6. Though they keep passion from rising / the force of its energy remains517 / addicted to the bliss of samadhi / they dwell in affliction-free realms
7. But having no final goal / and having no place to retreat to / in their samadhi-born bodies / they pass through kalpas unaware
8. Like someone who is drunk / who wakes up when the wine wears off / their awakening is the same / and their buddha body too.”
Chapter Two. Mahamati now rises from the assembly and asks the Buddha a series of questions. Comprising half the sutra, this second chapter introduces us to the transformation of vision whereby external or internal worlds are seen as nothing but perceptions of our own mind. Although some commentators see this chapter as dealing with a series of unrelated topics, each section leads to the next in orderly progression, albeit a progression that might make more sense to a practitioner than to a student of philosophy. My translation of this and the remaining chapters is based on the Chinese translation of Gunabhadra. For those passages where I have preferred the translation of Bodhiruchi or Shikshananda or the Sanskrit, I have mentioned this in my notes.
1 Section I. This marks the beginning of what most scholars think was the original form of this sutra. In order to avoid repetition, I have omitted the initial paragraph of Gunabhadra’s translation, which is substantially the same as the initial paragraph of Bodhiruchi’s and Shikshananda’s translations and the Sanskrit in Chapter One.
2 Requesting instruction involves expressing reverence with the body, the mouth, and the mind. In this case, the Buddha helps Mahamati make such a request.
3 I have preferred Bodhiruchi’s reading of the last two lines of this verse and also of the following three verses.
4 In this first series of verses, Mahamati presents his understanding of the Buddha’s teaching as well as his own attainment. The “world” refers to the stage we clothe with reality in order for our mind-play to have some credence. In light of the Buddha’s wisdom, it does not exist. In light of the Buddha’s compassion, it does not not exist.
5 Worldly “things” are produced by the magician of the mind to decorate the stage on which the play of life and death is performed. They include those that are intangible as well as those that are tangible. The compound “mind and consciousness,” or citta-vijnana, is used in this sutra to refer to the eight forms of consciousness, with citta referring to the alaya-vijnana, or repository consciousness, and vijnana referring to the remaining seven, which include the will, or self-consciousness, conceptual consciousness (which takes the will as its organ and the following five as its object), and the different forms of sensory consciousness.
6 Shikshananda and the Sanskrit follow this verse with two verses that are not present in Gunabhadra or Bodhiruchi: “His dharma body is a phantom / what is there to praise / knowing nothing exists or arises / this is what we praise in buddhas. The Buddha is not an object of sensation / to see no names is to see the Buddha / in regard to Shakyamuni / how can praise or blame be apt?”
7 Gunabhadra expands this verse into six lines. I’ve followed Bodhiruchi, Shikshananda, and the Sanskrit, all of which render it in four. Unlike Hinayana Buddhists, who see nirvana as the final goal of practice, Mahayana Buddhists see it as a higher form of delusion still involving the dualities of subject and object, existence and nonexistence. These initial verses, although spoken by Mahamati, refer to the view from a buddha’s perspective, a view in which Mahamati is well-versed but which he has yet to experience for himself.
8 An understanding of the doctrine of non-arising is associated with the eighth stage of the bodhisattva path. The problem with “arising” (or ceasing) is that it divides the past (or future) from the present. It designates states of existence and nonexistence.
9 Section II. This section presents what is essentially a Buddhist catechism, or list of topics that would have been studied at a Buddhist vihara or academy during the period when this text was compiled—albeit, a list representing all levels of knowledge, from the most rudimentary to the most advanced. Some commentators have tried to see an order in the list, but I’m of the opinion it is merely an example of the way the repository consciousness works: you never know what seed is going to sprout next. After listening to Mahamati’s questions in verses 4–50, the Buddha repeats them in verses 52–90. However, he does not repeat them all and even adds a few of his own, as if in anticipation of questions that might have been asked but weren’t. In any case, these questions are merely fodder for the Buddha’s teaching in Section III.
10 The number 108 was often used to refer to any large number. Mahamati’s questions do not, in fact, total 108. Some commentators wonder if this suggests that we don’t have them all, that some were deleted over time. Even if we don’t have them all, I think we have enough.
11 The personal experience of that realm which is free from projection, free from subject and object, is this sutra’s underlying teaching and will be referred to repeatedly. Thus, the following series of questions, which range from the mundane to the transcendent, are answered before they are asked. Self-realization can begin anywhere, with any thought. And why not this very thought? Curiously, in his commentary on the Lankavatara, written after working on Shikshananda’s rough draft, Fa-tsang notes that the 36,000-stanza version of the text (of which we have no other information) included a chapter devoted to explaining these 108 questions. But given the Buddha’s answers to these questions, I would think any further explanation would be irrelevant, if not misguided.
12 The lands in which buddhas appear and teach are meant here, and “attributes” refer to the thirty-two physical attributes of every buddha. Throughout this sutra, the term “other paths” refers to non-Buddhist teachings.
13 The ten stages of the bodhisattva path are meant here. As for freedom from projections, nir-abhasa has often been translated as “imageless.” Monier-Williams’ definition is “non-erroneous appearance.” But the usage of this term in the Lankavatara concerns the absence of self-generated images or appearances. Hence, I have usually translated this term as “freedom from projections” or “projectionlessness. ” Mahamati anticipates the qualifying condition of “self-realization." Only when one is free of the projections of the mind can one apprehend what is real. Gunabhadra adds an extra line here: “what does ‘freedom from projection’ mean?” But no other edition follows suit.
14 Jina-putra—meaning “son of the victor”—is used synonymously with bodhisattva.
15 The three paths normally include the two lesser paths of the Hinayana, namely those of the shravakas and pratyeka-buddhas, and the greater path of the Mahayana walked by bodhisattvas. However, in Section LXVI of this sutra, the Buddha says there is one path for gods and Bhrama, one for shravakas and pratyeka-buddhas, and one for tathagatas. After the last line, Gunabhadra alone adds: “Would you please explain?”
16 What the Buddha criticizes in this sutra is the belief in the reality of cause and effect, not the operation of cause and effect.
17 Meditations aimed at transcending the three realms and entering the formless realm were practiced by Hinayana and Mahayana monks as well as by followers of other paths. Usually four formless meditations are listed: meditation on limitless space, limitless consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception. Complete cessation of perception, to which the last two of these meditations refer, was one of many descriptions of nirvana, which was the goal of Hinayana practitioners.
18 The ten stages of the bodhisattva path are meant here.
19 The three realms of desire, form, and formlessness. If people leave these behind, how do they become bodhisattvas?
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nbsp; 20 The Buddha distinguishes eight forms of consciousness: the basic five (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile), along with conceptual consciousness (mano-vijnana), self-consciousness or will (manas), and repository or storehouse consciousness (alaya-vijnana), which is sometimes referred to in this sutra simply as “mind.”
21 The Sanskrit word gotra refers to membership in an ethnic, familial, or religious group, and the word is usually translated “family,” “lineage,” etc. Here, it also refers to the potential for spiritual advancement, while agotra (no lineage) refers to the absence of such potential among those who are spiritually barren, such as icchantikas. For more on this, see sections XX and XXII.
22 Views of life and death in terms of something that lasts forever or the end of all that exists were the two extremes that Buddhism’s Middle Way sought to avoid.
23 In the centuries following the Buddha’s Nirvana, his followers established dozens of sects. Here, though, the Sanskrit specifies the Naiyayika, who didn’t appear as a sect until the second century and who otherwise refer to non-Buddhist proponents of logic.
24 A kshana is the shortest imaginable period of time. Not only can the question about a womb be read as a conundrum (which comes first: the baby or the womb?), it can also be read as referring to the tathagata-garbha (womb of buddhas) or the alaya-vijnana (repository consciousness).