The Lankavatara Sutra

by Red Pine

  178 The body that accompanies this samadhi is one of the three projection bodies. For more on this, see Section LVII.

  179 I have followed Edgerton’s reading of abhinivrtta here in maya-vishaya- abhinivrtta (to depart illusory realms). Gunabhadra has “give rise to illusory realms.” Shikshananda has “enter illusory realms.” And Bodhiruchi has “which is composed of illusory realms.”

  180 Tushita Heaven is where bodhisattvas are reborn prior to their final rebirth, the one during which they attain buddhahood. Akanishtha Heaven is the highest heaven in the realm of form and where buddhahood is attained.

  181 We can see from Mahamati’s “question” that according to his view, buddha knowledge is the end of the path to buddhahood. Thus, he reviews the attainments of its final stages—namely, the eighth through the tenth stages. Only Gunabhadra includes the modifier “ever-present” (ch’ang-chu) before “body” (shen). This entire paragraph should be understood as belonging to the beginning of the next section.

  182 Section XII. Among the three aspects of buddha knowledge mentioned in the previous section, the first was freedom from projections, which is often misinterpreted to mean nonexistence. Here, the Buddha steers his audience past the shoals of arguments involving views concerning either existence or nonexistence, as both are nothing but the perceptions of one’s own mind. The validity of any ontological argument is thus denied, as is the relevance of such arguments.

  183 What causes rabbit horns is the misperception of rabbit ears as rabbit horns.

  184 The arguments here are simplified to the point where they don’t quite tell us enough. The first position is based on the idea that if the existence of an entity ends when the causes that support its existence end, then it doesn’t exist in the first place. Hence, the reason rabbit horns don’t exist isn’t because they are a mistake of perception, but because their necessary cause, namely, the mistake of perception, doesn’t exist—or it shouldn’t, once one has a better view. And since the causes on which anything is based eventually cease to exist, nothing exists. The logic of the second is based on the idea that as long as something is composed of some kind of underlying entity, it must also exist. Thus ox horns are real, while rabbit horns are not. For the Buddha, both positions are beside the point. The only reason anything can be said to exist or not is merely a matter of projections, which are themselves nothing but perceptions of the mind.

  185 Here, “it” refers to “discrimination.”

  186 Section XIII. As elsewhere in this sutra, not all of these verses repeat what is said in the prose that precedes them. In this case, they point beyond the alternatives of existence and nonexistence to what cannot be described, only experienced. In that regard, they summarize much of the foregoing and not just the preceding section.

  187 I’ve followed Bodhiruchi for this line. Gunabhadra has: “There is no form or mind,” which is not the teaching here. Shikshananda agrees with Bodhiruchi: “What the mind sees does not exist.” The Sanskrit has drshyam na vidyate cittam / cittam dyrshyat pravartate which translates to: “Mind does not exist as what is visible / but the mind emerges from what is visible.” Form is used here to represent all the skandhas, of which it is the first of five.

  188 Section XIV. Like all bodhisattvas, Mahamati has vowed to liberate all beings, hence he asks whether such liberation, or “purification” of the mind, occurs by degrees (krama-vrittya) or all at once (yugapat). The Buddha presents a series of eight metaphors, four of which demonstrate how purification takes place by degrees and four of which demonstrate how it takes place all at once. The first four are said to relate to the early stages of the bodhisattva path and the second four to the later stages. What is noteworthy is that in the light of the two kinds of no-self, beings do not purify their own minds, rather their minds are purified by buddhas.

  189 The Sanskrit is vishuddhi, meaning “clear,” “pure,” “free from error.”

  190 The amalalamla, or Phyllanthus emblica.

  191 These four similes liken the purification of the mind by degrees to a fruit that develops naturally, a vessel produced by a creator, a living thing produced by a nonliving thing, and a skill that requires time and effort.

  192 Images in a mirror are formless until someone distinguishes them as to color and shape. The mirror itself reflects without distinguishing among forms.

  193 The terminology used here in reference to a buddha’s three bodies is unique to the Lankavatara but commensurate with the standard trio of Mahayana Buddhism: dharma-kaya, sambhoga-kaya, and nirmana-kaya, or the bodies of truth, realization, and appearance. In this case, the nishyanda buddha is associated with “personal realization” and thus with the body of realization, while the dharmata buddha represents the truth on which that realization is based and thus the body of truth. The word nishyanda means “result” or “outcome,” but it also means “to flow from.” Hence, some see it as referring to the result of attainment while others see it as referring to its origin in the dharmata buddha.

  194 Akanishtha Heaven is the highest heaven in the realm of form. It is also the place where buddhas are enlightened and where they are said to attain their sambhoga–kaya, or body of realization.

  195 These four similes liken the purification of the mind to a mirror that reflects without making distinctions, a light that illuminates without making distinctions, all-inclusive consciousness, and personal realization. In the last of these, the word tun (all at once) appears in Shikshananda and the Sanskrit but not in Gunabhadra or Bodhiruchi. It could be argued that the reason it is omitted here is that the difference between “all at once” and “by degrees” is no longer relevant.

  196 Section XV. Each of the three buddhas mentioned in the Lankavatara is associated with one of the modes of reality. The dharmata buddha establishes the dependent reality of personal realization, the nishyanda buddha reveals the imaginary reality conjured by the mind, and the nirmita-nirmana buddha teaches the perfected reality of spiritual practice.

  197 Because the nishyanda buddha is said to arise from the dharmata buddha, this buddha is sometimes called the dharmata-nishyanda buddha. At the end of the next paragraph, the Buddha reverts to the simpler term.

  198 The three modes of reality include an imagined reality (parikalpita-svabhava ), a dependent reality (paratantra-svabhava), and a perfected reality (parinishpanna-svabhava). Dependent reality is also referred to as pratitya- samutpada, or the reality of “dependent origination,” which was the reality realized by the Buddha the night of his Enlightenment—but not before he had broken through the imagined reality of ignorant beings as well as the perfected reality of the spiritual elite.

  199 Just as a magician fabricates forms that people imagine as being what they are not, thus does our repository consciousness produce our world of objects as well as our sensory bodies, both of which we imagine to be real, out of the seeds of habit-energy from past discriminations that we once more imagine as being what they are not.

  200 Transcending appearances of the mind, the dharmata buddha does not teach, does not speak, but only establishes the buddha realm on which personal realization is based.

  201 Here and elsewhere, Gunabhadra translates this as hua-fo (apparition buddha). This is the buddha that appears in the world.

  202 The Sanskrit is niralamba.

  203 Section XVI. The attainments of shravakas and bodhisattvas are compared. Although both are capable of attaining the truths associated with personal realization, shravakas remain attached to the self-existence of dharmas and thus are not free of the habit-energy of such projections and the endless round of existence it entails, however subtle.

  204 The Four Noble Truths are the truths meant here.

  205 The Sanskrit is acintya-parinati-cyuti. Death and rebirth so subtle it is barely noticed.

  206 This is apparently a reference to early Hinayana sects, such as the Sarvastivadins, who believed all dharmas contained something that was not subject to creation or destruction.

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07 I have followed Shikshananda in inverting the order of the last two sentences.

  208 Section XVII. This section makes my head hurt. The Buddha contrasts the ultimate reality of personal realization with the “first causes” of other paths and thankfully moves on.

  209 The Sanskrit is nitya-acintya (eternal-inconceivable). This expression was used by other schools as an appellation for the creator or for other “first causes.”

  210 The Sanskrit karana means “cause,” but it also means “creator” and thus “first cause.”

  211 Amen.

  212 Section XVIII. Not only do followers of other paths cling to nihilistic views, shravakas do, too. Compounding their misunderstanding of samsara (wandering, birth, and death), they misunderstand nirvana (no breath, extinction), and finally misunderstand the teaching of citta-matra (mind-only) meant to liberate them, seeing it as nothingness. The Buddha points instead to the projections that comprise repository consciousness as the source of the problem and to their transformation into correct knowledge through personal realization, not through nihilistic practices.

  213 The Sanskrit has “they do not know the difference between samsara and nirvana.” Suzuki saw the problem with this and rendered it “they do not know that birth-and-death and Nirvana are not to be separated the one from the other,” changing the text’s avishasajnah to avishasajnah.

  214 People talk of differences among the shravaka, pratyeka-buddha and bodhisattva paths, but differences are only conceptual. Such people also misunderstand “the projection-free realm” as another form of nihilism. Although the “three paths” are normally understood as referring to those of shravakas, prateyka-buddhas, and bodhisattvas, the Buddha defines them elsewhere in this sutra as a path for gods and Brahma, a path for shravakas and pratyeka-buddhas, and a path for tathagatas.

  215 Gunabhadra omits the negative pu (not) in this sentence. However, it is present in the translations of Bodhiruchi and Shikshananda and present as an equivalent negative in the Sanskrit and seems called for here.

  216 Section XIX. Not only is cessation an illusion, so is birth. Ignorant people believe in existence and nonexistence, that things come into existence, persist, then cease to exist. The buddhas teach that things neither exist nor do not exist. What seems to exist or not to exist are projections of things as existing or not existing. Things themselves do not arise. There are no such things as things, only the projections of things. Instead of arguing that things arise as the result of causes, and because they do not exist by themselves they are empty of self-existence, and because they are empty of self-existence, they neither arise nor cease, the Lankavatara sees this as the long way around and simply denies that anything arises in the first place. Arising is a delusion. Nothing arises. The relevance of the Buddha’s discussion of dharmas and non-dharmas at the end of Chapter One becomes clearer now.

  217 A popular saying among Buddhist masters comes to mind: “Outside of the mind, there are no things. Outside of things, there is no mind.”

  218 The repository consciousness has no form; it is the grasping and the grasped that have form. Once transformed, another name for the repository consciousness is the Great Perfect Mirror Mind.

  219 Section XX. The concept of lineage (gotra) was and still is important in Indian culture and law. It is through such means that people establish their identity. Although the Buddha associates the first three lineages with the three paths, his intent here is to go beyond the paths to the realizations on which they are based and to emphasize that buddhahood is open to all. What lies in the background here is the importance of the teachers with whom one comes into contact and not their doctrines. Also, this is aimed at instilling an awareness of how to adjust one’s own instruction of others.

  220 According to commentators, these lineages of realization (abhisamaya-gotra ) are based upon the habit-energy from what one has learned in the past: upon hearing the expedient teachings taught by a nirmana buddha, one joins the shravaka lineage; upon hearing the teaching of dependent origination taught by a nishpanna-nirmitta buddha, one joins the pratyeka-buddha lineage; upon hearing the teaching of detachment taught by the dharmata buddha, one joins the tathagata lineage; upon hearing all three teachings and believing and doubting at the same time, one joins the indeterminate lineage; and not believing any of these teachings, one joins the distant lineage.

  221 Gunabhadra’s Sanskrit text apparently had bhinna-gotra (distant lineage—as in “distant relation”), not a-gotra (non-lineage—as in “no relation”), which is what all other texts have. Gunabhadra’s text, I feel, is superior here, as the Buddha does not support the exclusion of anyone from access to a lineage of realization, even those who reject the basis for such a lineage, as the icchantikas do in Section XXII.

  222 It was while cultivating dependent origination (pratitya-samutpada) that Shakyamuni experienced enlightenment.

  223 Gunabhadra has “the eighth stage.” But the attainments listed here do not correspond to that stage of the bodhisattva path, as described by Gunabhadra elsewhere in his translation. In this case, I have turned to Bodhiruchi and Shikshananda, both of whom have the “fifth and sixth stages,” which agrees with what the Buddha says elsewhere in this and other sutras.

  224 “Karmic deaths” refer to rebirth in accordance with one’s karma, whereas, due to the vows made by bodhisattvas, their subsequent rebirths transcend such perceptible realms.

  225 Only Gunabhadra includes this first clause attributing what follows to the fifth of the five lineages.

  226 This refers to the Sarvastivadin school of early Buddhism. The Sarvastivadins thought there was a substance that survived death. Here, the Buddha provides an abbreviated list of possibilities. I’ve followed Edgerton in reading posha as equivalent to purusha, with which it is linked, and thus the Chinese compound chang-yang-shih-fu as one term, namely “individuality.”

  227 This refers to the Hindu sect of the Vaisheshikas.

  228 Bodhiruchi and Shikshananda have yuan-chueh (pratyeka-buddha). I’ve followed Gunabhadra, who has ke-pieh-yuan (differing-conditions), referring to the twelve links on the chain of dependent origination that begins with ignorance and ends with old age and death.

  229 Shikshananda and the Sanskrit texts combine the first two of these four and thus list only three such lineages.

  230 This refers to the three modes of reality (tri-svabhava): imagined reality, dependent reality, and perfected reality.

  231 This refers to the three modes of non-reality (tri-asvabhava): form, life, and reality.

  232 This is identified as the repository consciousness in the translations of Bodhiruchi and Shikshananda.

  233 Referring to the shravaka, pratyeka-buddha, and tathagata lineages, and not the distant lineage.

  234 Nirabhasa-bhumi. The eighth stage of the bodhisattva path, beyond which the ninth and tenth stages are those of buddhahood.

  235 Whereby repository consciousness turns out to be the tathagata-garbha, or womb of buddhas.

  236 The point of this last sentence is that one’s path is not as important as the lineage of realization to which one belongs.

  237 Section XXI. Another case where the verses do not at first seem to recapitulate the preceding prose section. But on a closer reading, the first verse dismisses the goals of the shravaka path, the second verse introduces the use of expedient teachings while dismissing the goals of the pratyeka-buddha path, the third verse turns to the tathagata path, and the fourth verse finds even the highest meditative realms, be they Hinayana or Mahayana, unequal to the teaching of mind-only.

  238 These are the four heroes of the shravaka path: the srota-apanna, who reaches the river of impermanence; the sakrid-agamin, who is reborn once more; the anagamin, who is not reborn as a human but among the gods; and the arhat, who is not reborn at all.

  239 Referring to pratyeka-buddhas, who cultivate in solitude.

  240 Again, the realm free from projections is a characteristic of the eighth stage of the bodhisattva path
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  241 These are the names of meditations in the realms of form and formlessness which some liken to nirvana.

  242 Section XXII. Having considered the karmic lineages that make buddhahood possible for us benighted beings, the Buddha now turns to those who in some quarters are said to lack such a possibility, the icchantikas. At issue here is whether or not all beings have the buddha-nature. The Buddha offers a novel solution. All beings have the ability to become buddhas. It only takes instruction and the willingness to be instructed. Hence, bodhisattvas cultivate patience. In fact, given their vow not to enter nirvana until all others do so, some bodhisattvas assume the guise of icchantikas in order to liberate them. As noted earlier, icchantikas make up the “distant lineage” of Section XX. They are distant relations, but still relations.

  243 The word icchantika is derived from icchatva, meaning “desire.” Thus, icchantikas refer to “pleasure seekers.” According to the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths, desire is the cause of suffering. Thus, devotion to desire is tantamount to rejection of the Dharma and the possibility of liberation.

  244 The first part of this section is handled differently in each translation. I’ve followed Gunabhadra (and the reading of his version by Tseng Feng-yi and T’ung Jun). Bodhiruchi has: “Mahamati, what is the path of no lineage? It is that of the icchantika? Mahamati, icchantikas have no potential for nirvana. And why not? They don’t believe in liberation, so they don’t enter nirvana.” Shikshananda has: “Furthermore, Mahamati, why do the icchantikas among these (apparently referring to the indeterminate lineage of the previous section) have no desire or delight for liberation? Because they have forsaken their good roots or because they have made vows concerning beings without beginning?”

  245 This sentence is only present in Gunabhadra and Bodhiruchi.