Praxis Thinking

oṃ svabhāva-śuddhāḥ sarva-dharmāḥ svabhāva-śuddho ‘ham

“Oṃ, all dharmas are pure by nature; I am pure by nature.”

Note on Pronunciation

The apostrophe in the syllable ‘ham is a transliteration of the Sanskrit symbol avagraha (transliterated as the nya log character in Tibetan), and is not pronounced. The word ‘ham is actually the Sanskrit word aham (meaning the nominative singular pronoun “I”) with the short vowel aelided (i.e. omitted) and replaced with the avagraha.

credit: rigpawiki.com

See also: “Explanation of …”

Abstraction from “Wheel of the Nine Vehicles“

Sravakas (the hearers)

• View of the hearers is based on realizing one’s selflessness but not that of external phenomena.
• Conduct of Monastics is the observance of  250 vows and of laypersons to cultivate the ten virtues for their own spiritual advantage.
• Meditation is informed by practices that render tranquil, to the point of cessation, the objects of the six sense bases.
• Result of this Foundational Vehicle is the attainment of the exalted state of an arhat, or foe destroyer.

Pratyekabuddhas (solitary realizers)

• View is based on having discerned the difference between absolute and relative truths, having attained emancipation without guidance from a spiritual teacher. To conceive relative truth as an illusory display of the twelve links of interdependent origination and come to realize, like the hearers, the ultimate truth of individual selflessness.
• Conduct is, for the most part, self-serving, with occasional miraculous displays that benefit others. If the solitary realizers decide to teach, they do so by means of their bodies, not by words, and they adopt nonverbal means of communication to give instruction.
• Meditation is on the emptiness of the twelve links in reverse order.
• Result is they become solitary sages, a similar state to that of the sravakas.

Bodhisattvas

• View, individuals and phenomena are empty, devoid of an inherent self.
• Conduct, refrain from committing the ten nonvirtues, while actively engaging in ten kinds of virtue for the benefit of others.
• Meditation is on cultivating the union of tranquillity (Skt. samatha) and insight (Skt. vipasyana) toward freedom from the obscuring layers of ignorance and yielding a nonconceptual state of concentration.
• Result is progression through the ten stages of spiritual development (Skt. bhumi) and attaining complete illumination in the union of the two kayas, the dharmakaya and the rupakaya.

The Bodhisattva Vehicle-also known as the vehicle of perfections (Skt. paramitayana) — takes its name from its cause. The result of the vehicle of perfections is not different from Vajrayana since both fulfill the aims of Mahayana. “The view of those engaged in the cultivation of the six perfections is to realize that the whole of the total affliction that is samsara, in both cause and result, and of the complete purity that is nirvana, in both cause and result, is completely devoid of inherent or true existence on the ultimate level. The meaning of Vajrayana is the indestructible vehicle that takes the mind of the buddhas as the path.

Kriya Tantra Vehicle 

• Conduct entails making offerings to the deity and thereby fulfilling the benefit of self and others by observing the five root and two subsidiary principles laid out in the treatises of this tradition.
• Meditation consists of viewing oneself as the samaya being, or commitment being (Skt. samayasattva), while visualizing the deity in front of oneself as the wisdom being (Skt. jnanasattva). 
• Result, one will attain in sixteen, or even seven, lifetimes the state of Vajradhara of the three families.

Carya Tantra Vehicle

• Conduct, one trains to abide in both the physical and verbal conduct according to the Kriya Tantra while adopting the view of the Yoga Tantra Vehicle.  
• Meditation consists in familiarizing oneself with the four actualities of deity yoga rehearsal —namely, the actuality of oneself as the samaya being, the deity as the wisdom being, the seed syllable at the heart center of both the samaya and wisdom beings, and verbal recitation while discharging and absorbing light rays that issue from oneself and the wisdom being. 
• Result leads to the state of Vajradhara of the four families in seven or five lifetimes.

The first two outer vehicles, Kriya and Carya, are also grouped under the path of purification, since their function is to purify latent defilements and habitual false views.

Yoga Tantra Vehicle

• View of this vehicle has two aspects. According to Vimalamitra, the ultimate aspect is to realize the sphere of reality, “naturally pure wisdom,” while the relative aspect is “the result of realizing this ultimate; namely, the assembly of deities of the five families, or of the vajra family.”
• Conduct, one follows the esoteric scriptures of this tradition and abides by the vows of the five buddha families and the consecration of the five aggregates by the five buddha families.
• Meditation consists of visualizing the deity through images and entering the sphere of reality that transcends images. During the practice of deity yoga, the appearance of oneself as the samaya being and the deity as the wisdom being involve the dissolution of the latter into the former.
• Result, one attains the state of Vajradhara in five or three lifetimes.

The perspective of the inner tantras, absolute and relative truths are inseparable and all phenomena are deemed equal from this perspective.

Mahayoga

• View is to realize reality as-it is and see all phenomena subsumed under samsara and nirvana as inseparable from ones own enlightened awareness. “All this appearance is consciousness alone, devoid of inherent self-nature: naturally present, pristine awareness, manifesting with no fixed abode.”
• Conduct, one observes three sets of root commitments and twenty-five subsidiary ones and abides in a state free from views and moral judgments.
• Meditation, one perceives all appearances as the mandala of the deity, and, during the completion-stage practices, one rests in the state of reality itself— empty and luminous, devoid of elaborations, and beyond conceptualization.
• Result, one attains realization of the five kayas in one lifetime or in the intermediate state, the bardo (Skt. antarabhava).

Anuyoga

• View is to recognize that all dualistic phenomena in samsara and nirvana are no different than the dynamic energy of the nature of mind— the sphere of the dharmakaya-supreme in all aspects and beyond all contrivance. 
• Conduct of this approach accords with the precepts of Mahäyoga.
• Meditation includes the spontaneous generation of the deity while engaging with the vital channels (Skt. nadi), energy winds (Skt. prana), and seminal drops (Skt. bindu), which have always been part of the mandala of the deity. 
• Result is attained in one lifetime.

Atiyoga/Dzogchen

• View is to realize that all phenomena arise spontaneously and are pure in their own ineffable emptiness; that is, to see the nonself of both persons and phenomena without needing to grasp a reference point.
• Conduct is to abide in a spontaneous state without acceptance or rejection, liberated from ensnaring actions and moral vexation. 
• Meditation comprises trekchö and tögel. Trekchö practice aims to overcome the solidity of phenomena and to recognize their primordial purity (kadag), whereas tögel is a method for going beyond pure and impure appearances by means of wisdom’s spontaneous presence (lundrup). 
• Result of the Great Perfection is something that can neither be avoided nor attained. It abides primordially, without birth or cessation.

….

the Tantra of the Heart Mirror of Vajrasattva declares:

The development of mahayoga is like the ground of all doctrines.

The completion of anuyoga is like the path of all doctrines.

The great perfection of atiyoga is like the fruition of all doctrines.

 

from “The Jātakas, Birth Stories of the Bodhisattva” as translated by Sarah Shaw. 
“The Story of More Than a Thousand”
Parosahassa Jätaka (99)
Vol. I, 405-7

A Jātaka is a story about a birth, and this collection of tales is about the repeated births — and deaths— of the Bodhisatta, the being destined to become the present Buddha in his final life. Written in Pali, the language of the Theravada Buddhist canon, the tales comprise one of the largest and oldest collections of stories in the world. The earliest sections, the verses, are considered amongst the very earliest part of the Pali tradition and date from the fifth century CE.

In Jātaka stories the aspect of wisdon (pañna) is often explored in a pragmatic way that presents it as a highly developed canniness or common sense. When the Bodhisatta is applying what is called wisdom, he is often making what we would regard as a careful assessment of the situation when others are not. In this case it is Sariputta who is exhibiting this important quality.

In his last life Sariputta is the Buddha’s chief disciple and is foremost amongst his followers in the excellence of his wisdom (mahapañña). In the Pali canon his name at the beginning of a talk is usually a key that there will be some precise analysis of the subject in question, explained in great detail. In art he is often shown on the right of the Buddha while the other chief disciple, Moggallana, whose expertise is in calm meditation (samatha), is on the left. In this story his wisdom lies in simply paying attention to what the Bodhisatta actually said. The joke is in the use of the word nothing. The Sphere of Nothingness is, in the Buddhist tradition, one of the highest formless meditations, the seventh jhana.

Story from the present
‘Over a thousand meeting fools together’

While staying at the Jetavana Grove the Teacher told a story about a question asked by fools. The incident is told in the Sarabhanga Jataka. Now, one time the monks met together in the dhamma hall. They sat down and discussed the excellence of Sariputta.

‘Friend! Sariputta, the general of the teaching, explains the meaning of a pithy remark by the Buddha,’ one said to another.

The Teacher came in and asked them what they had been discussing while they had been together and they told him.

‘It is not just now, bhikkhus, that Sariputta explains in detail something I have said. He used to do it before too.’

And he narrated this story of long ago.

Story from the past

Once upon a time in Varanasi, in the reign of Brahmadatta, the Bodhisatta was born into a Brahmin family in the north-west. He learned all kinds of craft at Taxila and, abandoning sense pleasures, went forth as a holy man and lived in the Himalayan regions practising the five knowledges and the eight attainments. He had a following of five hundred ascetics. His elder pupil took a half of the group of holy men at the time of the rains and went to the places where men lived to obtain salt and pickles.

Then the time for death came for the Bodhisatta and his pupils asked him about his level of attainment: ‘What excellence have you obtained?’

‘It was nothing,’ he said and was reborn in the realm of the Gods of Streaming Radiance. For, Bodhisattas, even though they may have attained to the highest state, are never reborn in a formless sphere heaven because they do not go beyond the realm of form.

The pupils thought that their teacher had not achieved any attainment and did not pay their respects at his cremation.

The elder disciple returned and asked, ‘Where is our teacher?’

He was told he was dead.

‘Did you ask him about his attainment?’

‘We certainly did,’ they replied.

‘And what did he say?’

‘He said he had obtained nothing! So we did not pay any respects to him,’ they answered.

‘You do not understand what he meant by this’, the elder pupil said. ‘Our teacher had attained to the Sphere of Nothingness.’

Although he explained this to them repeatedly they still did not have confidence in him.

The Bodhisatta, knowing what had happened, said, ‘Blind fools! They do not have confidence in my chief disciple. I’ll make this matter clear to them. So he came down from the Brahma realm and, through his great powers, positioned himself in the sky, with his feet over the top of the monastery and, explaining the power of his wisdom, he recited this verse:

‘Over a thousand fools might, meeting together, grieve for a century;
It is better to have just one man with wisdom, who understands the meaning of what has been said.’

So the Great Being, standing in the sky, taught the dhamma and having woken the gathering of ascetics up he returned to the Brahma sphere. And the ascetics, at the end of their lives, were reborn in heaven realms too.

The Teacher gave this talk about the teaching and made the connection with the story:

“At that time Sariputta was the elder disciple, and I was the great Mahabrahma.”

from “The Copper-Colored Mountain: Jigme Lingpa on Rebirth in Padmasambhava’s Pure Land” Chapter 3. “The Three Levels of the Lotus-Light Palace” herein subsections from commentary on “Stanza 10: The Nine Vehicles”

Expounding on “Outline of the Nine Views“

The Three Outer Vehicles

The spiritual journey of Buddhism starts with the vehicle of the sravakas, the so-called hearers, who heard the teachings of Buddha Sakyamuni. According to the commentary of the learned Indian master Vimalamitra, a key figure in transmitting the Great Perfection teaching to Tibet, the view of the hearers is based on realizing our own selflessness but not that of external phenomena, which they maintain are made of indivisible particles. Their meditation is informed by practices that render tranquil, to the point of cessation, the objects of the six sense bases. Monastics observe 250 vows and laypersons cultivate ten virtues for their own spiritual advantage. While this summarizes the conduct of the sravakas, the result of the Foundational Vehicle is the attainment of the exalted state of an arhat, or foe destroyer.

Next is the vehicle of the pratyekabuddhas, or solitary realizers. These sages have discerned the difference between absolute and relative truths, having attained emancipation without guidance from a spiritual teacher. They conceive relative truth as an illusory display of the twelve links of interdependent origination and come to realize, like the hearers, the ultimate truth of individual selflessness. Pratyckabuddhas attain release when they meditate on the emptiness of the twelve links in reverse order. Their conduct is, for the most part, self-serving, with occasional miraculous displays that benefit others. If the solitary realizers decide to teach, they do so by means of their bodies, not by words, and they adopt nonverbal means of communication to give instruction.” In the end, they become solitary sages, a similar state to that of the sravakas.

The last causal vehicle is that of the bodhisattvas, also known as the Great Vehicle or Mahayana. According to Vimalamitra, in the view of bodhisattvas, individuals and phenomena are empty, devoid of an inherent self. In their meditation, they cultivate the union of tranquillity (Skt. samatha) and insight (Skt. vipasyana). This frees them from the obscuring layers of ignorance and yields a nonconceptual state of concentration. By way of conduct, they refrain from committing the ten nonvirtues, while they actively engage in ten kinds of virtue for the benefit of others. They go through ten stages of spiritual development (Skt. bhumi) and attain complete illumination in the union of the two kayas, the dharmakaya and the rupakaya.

According to Mipham, the sravakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas belong to the vehicle of characteristics because they adhere to the doctrine of causality. He explains that this vehicle teaches the truth regarding the “general and specific characteristics of phenomena” and the “characteristics of total affliction and complete purity” by showing what is to be abandoned and what is to be embraced. In other words, the afflictions of relative truth need to be relinquished so that absolute truth can be attained.

The first three causal vehicles belong to the path of renunciation and rely on external characteristics, causality, and the perfection of virtues. By contrast, the vehicles of Vajrayana teach that affliction and total purity are inseparable and unchanging as the mandala of the awakened body, speech, and mind. From the secret viewpoint of Vajrayana, the recognition of absolute truth is integral to the path of training. The convergence of training and its fruit renders unnecessary the explanations of the lower vehicles. This is because the first three vehicles rely on observable phenomena grounded in space-time causality. In effect, the tantric vehicles -also known as the vehicles of the result— rely on the uncaused state of the mind’s intrinsic nature. As aptly expressed in the Gubyagarbha Tantra, Except for this definitive great secret that takes the result as the path, another definitive secret (path] has never existed…. This is the supreme seal of all [tantras].

The Six Vehicles of the Vajra

In his commentary to Padmasambhava’s exposition of the nine vehicles, the Garland of Views, Mipham explains that the Bodhisattva Vehicle-also known as the vehicle of perfections (Skt. paramitayana) — takes its name from its cause. The result of the vehicle of perfections is not different from Vajrayana since both fulfill the aims of Mahayana. “The view of those engaged in the cultivation of the six perfections is to realize that the whole of the total affliction that is samsara, in both cause and result, and of the complete purity that is nirvana, in both cause and result, is completely devoid of inherent or true existence on the ultimate level.” Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje explains that the meaning of Vajrayana is the indestructible vehicle that takes the mind of the buddhas as the path:

The mind of all Buddhas is indestructible because it is the essence of the nature of phenomena, which cannot be destroyed by any spiritual teaching based upon characteristics (mtshan mar gyur pa’ i chos). Since it is similar to dorjé, the wisdom mind of all Buddhas is called “dorjé” [indivisible and indestructible] and abides as the essence of mantra, as previously explained. The term tekpa, “vehicle,” is used both literally and metaphorically, because it is either the support for the attainment of the mind of all Buddhas, or else the path traversed.

The esoteric teachings grouped under the vehicles of the vajra are subdivided sequentially into three outer tantras and three inner tantras. The first outer tantra is concerned with a variety of ritual activities that lead to personal transformation. The aspirant of the Kriya Tantra Vehicle upholds ritual purity and engages in outer and inner ablutions, reciting mantras, drawing protection circles, displaying mudras, and so on. The Kriya Tantra maintains the performance of rituals with the understanding that all activities are without intrinsic essence. In the Sequence of the Path, it is said that “through discriminating awareness all branches of ritual, according to the tradition of Kriyâtantra, the Sugata made the result into the path.” The meditation of Kriya Tantra consists of viewing oneself as the samaya being, or commitment being (Skt. samayasattva), while visualizing the deity in front of oneself as the wisdom being (Skt. jnanasattva). The conduct entails making offerings to the deity and thereby fulfilling the benefit of self and others by observing the five root and two subsidiary principles laid out in the treatises of this tradition. As a result, one will attain in sixteen, or even seven, lifetimes the state of Vajradhara of the three families.

The second outer tantra is the Carya, less commonly referred to as the Ubhaya Tantra Vehicle. It is also known as the Dual Tantra because it trains one to abide in both the physical and verbal conduct according to the Kriya Tantra while adopting the view of the Yoga Tantra Vehicle. According to Vimalamitra, the meditation of Carya Tantra consists in familiarizing oneself with the four actualities of deity yoga rehearsal —namely, the actuality of oneself as the samaya being, the deity as the wisdom being, the seed syllable at the heart center of both the samaya and wisdom beings, and verbal recitation while discharging and absorbing light rays that issue from oneself and the wisdom being. The result leads to the state of Vajradhara of the four families in seven or five lifetimes. The first two outer vehicles, Kriya and Carya, are also grouped under the path of purification, since their function is to purify latent defilements and habitual false views.

The last of the outer tantras is the Yoga Tantra Vehicle. Its emphasis is not on mere ritual activities of purification but on the integration of external actions with contemplative meditations. The view of this vehicle has two aspects. According to Vimalamitra, the ultimate aspect is to realize the sphere of reality, “naturally pure wisdom,” while the relative aspect is “the result of realizing this ultimate; namely, the assembly of deities of the five families, or of the vajra family.” Meditation consists of visualizing the deity through images and entering the sphere of reality that transcends images. During the practice of deity yoga, the appearance of oneself as the samaya being and the deity as the wisdom being involve the dissolution of the latter into the former. In terms of conduct, one follows the esoteric scriptures of this tradition and abides by the vows of the five buddha families and the consecration of the five aggregates by the five buddha families. As a result, one attains the state of Vajradhara in five or three lifetimes.

For the outer tantras, spiritual realization is attained by invoking, requesting, and serving the wisdom deity, but, for the inner tantras, spiritual attainment is naturally present and spontaneously manifests as the mandala of the deity. In the outer tantras, one maintains a subtle distinction between the two truths (relative and ultimate), deities are not visualized with their consorts, and one cannot attain the result in one lifetime. In contrast, from the perspective of the inner tantras, absolute and relative truths are inseparable and all phenomena are deemed equal from this perspective. Furthermore, the five meats and nectars are tasted, the divinities are visualized in sexual embrace with their consorts, and one can realize the result in this lifetime.

The last three tantras begin with the Mahayoga Vehicle, which contains teachings based on oral transmissions and revealed scriptures. The view of Mahayoga, writes Vimalamitra, is to realize reality as-it is and see all phenomena subsumed under samsara and nirvana as inseparable from ones own enlightened awareness. As stated in the Array of the Path of the Net of Magical Manifestation, a commentary to the main tantra of Mahãyoga (the Gubyagarbha Tantra), “All this appearance is consciousness alone, devoid of inherent self-nature: naturally present, pristine awareness, manifesting with no fixed abode.” In Mahayoga-styled meditation, one perceives all appearances as the mandala of the deity, and, during the completion-stage practices, one rests in the state of reality itself— empty and luminous, devoid of elaborations, and beyond conceptualization. In terms of conduct, one observes three sets of root commitments and twenty-five subsidiary ones and abides in a state free from views and moral judgments. As a result, one attains realization of the five kayas in one lifetime or in the intermediate state, the bardo (Skt. antarabhava).

Next is the Anuyoga Vehicle, also known as Subsequent Yoga because it reveals the path of desire in pursuit of discriminative awareness. The view in this approach is to recognize that all dualistic phenomena in samsara and nirvana are no different than the dynamic energy of the nature of mind— the sphere of the dharmakaya-supreme in all aspects and beyond all contrivance. The meditation includes the spontaneous generation of the deity while engaging with the vital channels (Skt. nadi), energy winds (Skt. prana), and seminal drops (Skt. bindu), which have always been part of the mandala of the deity. The conduct of this approach accords with the precepts of Mahäyoga, and the result is attained in one lifetime.

The inner tantras of Yoga, Mahäyoga, and Anuyoga are grouped under the path of transformation because, during the sadhana practice, the karmic or ordinary winds (that circulate throughout our body and determine our deluded perception of reality) are transformed into wisdom winds. This brings us to the last inner tantra, the Atiyoga Vehicle. Being the ninth and highest vehicle of all Buddhist teachings, it is the path of no-path of the Great Perfection (Dzogchen). For Vimalamitra, the view is to realize that all phenomena arise spontaneously and are pure in their own ineffable emptiness; that is, to see the nonself of both persons and phenomena without needing to grasp a reference point. Practitioners of Atiyoga do not employ focal points or imagery during meditation. Rather, they abide in the innate lucidity of awareness that is naturally free from fixation, “a spontaneous, present, and completely perfect equality, a rootless transparency.” Their conduct is devoid of moral deliberations and calculative actions. As we read in The Ningma School of Tibetan Buddhism, “Other than this there is nothing to be obtained. When everything indeed has been ripened, there is nothing to be reached. This reality is the essence of the path.”

Atiyoga is also known as the vehicle of self-liberation. It is the “king of vehicles,” writes Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, because it holds “the expanse (of reality], the original pure mind-as-such whose natural expression is inner radiance, and the naturally present, unchanging, pristine cognition that spontaneously abides in oneself” According to Longchenpa, Dzog-chen differs from the other eight vehicles because the great perfection of self-arising wisdom exists primordially as the spontaneously accomplished excellent qualities of buddhahood. Furthermore, because the three bodies are inherently complete, it is not necessary to search elsewhere. Thus, the goal is an unwavering and uncontrived state whereby one experiences things as they are, without the distorting lens of nescience.

Since all phenomena are recognized as the dharmakaya’s disclosure, the conduct of Dzogchen practitioners is to abide in a spontaneous state without acceptance or rejection, liberated from ensnaring actions and moral vexation. The meditation comprises trekchö and tögel. Trekchö practice aims to overcome the solidity of phenomena and to recognize their primordial purity (kadag), whereas tögel is a method for going beyond pure and impure appearances by means of wisdom’s spontaneous presence (lundrup). The result of the Great Perfection is something that can neither be avoided nor attained. It abides primordially, without birth or cessation.

The shortcomings of the lower eight vehicles, writes Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje, are that they have “intellectually contrived and altered that which is unchanging exclusively through their suddenly arisen ideas which never experience what in fact is so.” The pious attendants of Foundational Buddhism, the sravakas, the self-centered pratyekabuddhas, and all others who follow the eight paths are censured for their convictions that reality is confined to a subject-object dichotomy. For all their intellectual boasting and scrutiny, adherents of the lower vehicles do not perceive the timeless nature of innate awareness:

The eight lower levels have intellectually fabricated and contrived that which is changeless solely due to fleeting thoughts that never experience what truly is. They apply antidotes to and reject that which is not be rejected. They refer to as flawed that in which there is nothing to be purified, with a mind that desires purifica-tion. They have created division, with respect to that which cannot be obtained, by their hopes and fears that it can be obtained elsewhere. And they have obscured wisdom, which is naturally present, by their efforts in respect to that which is free from effort and free from needing to be accomplished. Therefore, they have had no chance to make contact with genuine ultimate reality as it is.

Despite the divisions of the Buddha’s teachings into vehicles, Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje explains that we should either designate a single vehicle for all Buddhist teachings that aim for enlightenment or apply the names of individual vehicles to each level of realization. That said, from the ultimate perspective of someone abiding in the natural state of mind, there is no vehicle whatsoever. And so, quoting from the Descent of Lanka, he concludes, “When the mind becomes transformed, there is neither vehicle nor passenger.”