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Ten Conditions to Develop

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The Ten Conditions for Omniscience to Develop: The first topic of The Ornament of Clear Realization is the ten causes or causal conditions for wisdom of the Buddha, to be developed: 

1. Bodhicitta

We must first develop a desire to help all sentient beings reach enlightenment.

2. Practice instructions

We must learn about the Buddhist path and apply ourself to these instructions. These instructions are found in the five paths.

3. The four stages of definite separation

We must go to through the four stages on the Path of Junction: 1. warming to the experience of emptiness 2. summit to the experience of emptiness 3. forbearance, realization of the dharmata 4. highest worldly dharma, threshold to experiencing true reality.

4. Buddha-nature, the basis for our practice

Our whole development of realization relies on the fact that we and all other sentient beings possess Buddha-nature (Skt. gotra, Tib. rigs). 

5. The Objects of Focus

We must realize the emptiness of phenomena and we develop understanding of these through understanding eleven kinds of subjects such as understanding created and uncreated, ordinary and extraordinary, positive and negative actions, etc.

6. The Purpose

We need to understand the purpose for studying the Prajnaparamita and cultivating the bodhisattva path.

7. Armor-like Practice

Finally, there are four different practices we need to do to understand. This practice is perfecting the six paramitas.

8. Applied Practice

We need to then apply the four dhyana meditations to our practice

9. The Practice of Accumulation of wisdom.

We need to practice the accumulation of merit and the accumulation of wisdom

10. The Practice of Certain Release

We need to understand the inseparability of samsara and nirvana 

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The Five Paths

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These five paths (Sanskrit panca-marga, Tibetan lam lnga), toward enlightenment,   are referred to many times in “The Ornament of Clear Realization” A Commentary on the Prajnaparamita of the Maitreya Buddha:

Path of Accumulation (S. sambhara-marga, T. chogs lam)
Practice of the four foundation of mindfulness, what to adopt, and what to avoid

Path of Preparation/Unification (S. prayoga-marga, T. sbyor lam)
Profound insight into the Four Noble Truths, cutting of root attachments

Path of Insight/Seeing (S. darsana-marga, T. mthong lam)
Realization of the Four Noble Truths, entry into first bodhisattva level, realizing the emptiness of phenomena

Path of Cultivation/Meditation (S. bhavana-marga, sgom lam)
Development of insight, entry into the second through ninth bodhisattva levels

Path of No-More-Learning (S. asaiksha-marga, T. mi  slob pa’i lam)
Also called, Path of Fulfillment (S. nishtha-marga). Attaining complete mediation (S. samadhi), and Buddhahood

Maitreya Bodhisattva at the Thikse Monastery in Ladakh, India. Cropped source Wikimedia
Maitreya Bodhisattva at the Thikse Monastery in Ladakh, India. Cropped source Wikimedia
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On a count

If one must make an accounting,
It is of, 
Their own blessings they should 
Take to counting.

“The soul’s made of stories, not atoms, everything that ever happened to us—people we loved, people we lost… people we found again against all the odds—“

The Eleventh Doctor 
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Dedication of Merit

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With intent to:

Arouse skillful means of bodhichitta to ensure accumulation of positive merit; avoid conceptualization so merit is not destroyed by circumstance;  seal action by dedicating accumulated merit…

“By this accumulation of virtues, May I attain all-seeing omniscience and may all faults be annihilated. The whirling turbulent waves of birth, old age, sickness and death, from this ocean of Samsara, May I liberate beings.”

All beings are Buddhas, but this is concealed by adventitious stains. When their stains are purified their Buddhahood is revealed.

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Concentrate, Contemplate, Meditate…

Concentration of Mindfulness of Breathing (Ānāpānasati)

Mindfulness of breathing developed and repeatedly practiced, is of great fruit, of great benefit; mindfulness of breathing developed and repeatedly practiced, perfects the four foundations of mindfulness; the four foundations of mindfulness, developed and repeatedly practiced, perfect the seven enlightenment factors (mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity); the seven enlightenment factors, developed and repeatedly practiced, perfect clear vision and deliverance.

Concentrate, contemplate, meditate…

This is a certain body among bodies, namely, the breath.

  • Know, “I breathe in long”; or “I breathe out long.”;
  • Or “I breathe in short”; or “I breathe out short.”
  • Experience the whole body breathe in, thus breathe out
  • Calm the body formations breathe in, thus breathe out

Abide contemplating body in body, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief regarding the world.

This is a certain feeling among feelings, namely, the complete attention to in-breathing and out-breathing.

  • Experiencing rapture breathe in, thus breathe out
  • 
Experiencing bliss breathe in, thus breathe out
  • Experiencing the mental formations breathe in, thus breathe out
  • Calming the mental formations breathe in, thus breathe out

Abide contemplating feelings in feeling, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief regarding the world.

There is no development of mindfulness of breathing in one who is forgetful and does not clearly comprehend.

  • Experiencing the mind breathe in, thus breathe out
  • Gladdening the mind breathe in, thus breathe out
  • 
Concentrating the mind breathe in, thus breathe out
  • Liberating the mind breathe in, thus breathe out

Abide contemplating mind in mind, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief regarding the world.

Having seen with understanding what is the abandoning of covetousness and grief, become one who looks on with complete equanimity.

  • Contemplating impermanence breathe in, thus breathe out
  • Contemplating fading away breathe in, thus breathe out
  • 
Contemplating cessation breathe in, thus breathe out
  • Contemplating relinquishment breathe in, thus breathe out

Abide contemplating phenomena in phenomena, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having put away covetousness and grief regarding worldly attachments.

Concentrate, contemplate, meditate, liberate .

Continue reading “Concentrate, Contemplate, Meditate…”

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Composition on Dissolution of Illusion

Pale reflective of a brilliant jewel, the Satipatthana

The Four Arousings of Mindfulness,
the right path, for attainment…

Contemplating internally and externally
origination and dissolution,
ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful…

Without illusion for illusion conditioned composite, dispelled:

Abiding, contemplating…

1) Without covetousness and grief in body
for body conditioned composite…

Awareness of the body as transient, compound form.

2) Without covetousness and grief in feelings
for feelings conditioned composite…

Awareness of feelings as conditioned, reactive responses.

3) Without covetousness and grief in consciousness
for consciousness conditioned composite…

Awareness of mind as habituated, temporary moods.

4) Without covetousness and grief in phenomena
for phenomena conditioned composite…

Awareness of phenomena as constructed mental states. 

Contemplating internally and externally
origination and dissolution,
ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful.

This is the only way for the purification of beings,
for overcoming sorrow and lamentation,
for the destruction of suffering and grief.