In the Uttaratantra-sastra text, there is a constant repetition with regard to the nature of the Dharmadhatu, the nature of ordinary beings, bodhisattvas, and the Buddhas, as being pure, clear, unstained by the faults of ordinary beings, and not undergoing any change. At the same time, there is a constant emphasis on the nature of defilements, the ignorance that produces duality and suffering, as being temporary and adventitious, and being able to be removed. Furthermore, it is said that those same defilements have been close to the element, the dharmadhatu, but have never been connected to it. The constant repetition of these points shows two things: 1) the nature, which is not connected to the defilements since beginningless time, is free from the duality of subject and object, 2) because the duality is caused by the adventitious defilements. Thus, the cause for the duality is not a characteristic of the tathagatagarbha, the dharmadhatu, or the nature of beings. It is a characteristic of the two veils that cover nature, the obscurations of beings. In this paper, we will examine how that nature is beyond the subject-object duality, and how the duality in the perception of beings, “perverted view,” is caused by the defilements, which are adventitious in nature. For this, I will look at passages of texts from Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé’s (Wyl. Jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mthaʽ yas) commentary and the The Lamp That Excellently Elucidates the System of the Proponents of the Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka (Wyl. Dbu ma gzhan stong smra ba’i srol legs par phye ba’i sgron me) by the 8th Karmapa, Mikyö Dorje (Wyl. Mi bskyod rdo rje).
The Uttaratantrasastra gives nine examples1 regarding the tathāgatagarbha, the nature that has been separated from the adventitious defilements since beginningless time, but at the same time covered by them (Maitreya 2018, 148). These examples reassure the practitioner that even though the defilements have been close to the element, they do not affect it:
This tathagatagarbha, the true state by nature pure, abides within the many-millionfold shroud of the afflictions. These are defilements that are by nature adventitious. Although they [have been] close to buddha nature since beginningless time, they are not connected with it. This is clearly and fully illustrated by means of nine examples…
The goal of these examples is to create an understanding that the causes that produce suffering are not equal to the nature of the being. Nevertheless, they obscure this nature from manifesting fully. This tathāgatagarbha heart, as Mikyö Dorje mentions, is neither existent nor nonexistent, nor existent and nonexistent, as well as nothing else than these; it is awareness that is aware of itself and dwells as the nature of complete mental peace (Brunnholzl 2015, 810). It also has the aspects of luminous clarity, unchangingness, and the disposition to accomplish the state of Buddhahood (Maitreya 2018, 168). It is beyond the extremes of eternalism and nihilism, and, even more, it is not established by the conventional mind, by logic, or by speech, since all of these are subject to the subject-object duality, and thus pertain to the adventitious stains rather than the nature itself (Brunnholzl 2015, 811). It is thus through the quality of self-awareness that the nature of the element is established as non-dual. This is so because, by definition, an awareness that points outside is aware of something other than itself, creating duality. This is true for the analytical mind that has an object to analyze. It is the case for a mind that is always engaged in conceptual elaborations and volitional thinking, which include the thinker and the thought, the concept maker and the concept. Thus, this kind of conventional mind always falls into either eternalism, that things exist or nihilism, that nothing exists. Such is the nature of the non-reflexive awareness – the awareness that needs an object. Instead, the capacity of the mind to be self-aware, which is hidden for ordinary beings, which Mikyö Dorje speaks about, is awareness that is aware of itself, a luminous non-conceptual mind or so-called reflexive awareness that does not have an external object of awareness, which makes it non-dual (Brunnholzl 2015, 809). Therefore, this nature is non-dual. Mikyö Dorje writes:
Therefore, [what actually happens is that] what represents the naturally luminous mind of ordinary beings will touch the tathagata heart. The meaning of mind’s being naturally luminous is that [dualistic] mind disappears in the natural expanse [of mind’s nature]—seeming phenomena are empty of a nature of their own, while luminosity is inseparable from the tathagata heart. The nature of this inseparability is the svabhavikakaya (“nature kaya”). If it did not exist, nothing in samsara and nirvana would be possible (Brunnholzl 2015, 813).
This non-dual self-awareness, therefore, is present at any moment within beings, regardless of how thick their obscurations are, and regardless of their dual perception. However, it is not recognized.
This inability to see this tathāgatagarbha, the dharmadhatu, the nature of beings and phenomena, is the improper mental activity, which causes karma and the adventitious defilements, which which in turn obscure this nature and therefore duality and suffering arise:
The kernels of rice and other grains cannot be seen since they are concealed by their husks, by the beards and different layers of skin. Likewise the vision of the meaning of the tathagatagarbha, of the dharmadhatu, which is by nature clear light, is also obscured by the dormant tendencies of mental blindness, of ignorance, and so on, which are similar to an eggshell. Thus they cause it not to be seen… (Maitreya 2018, 164)
Beings assume that the appearing aspect of phenomena is the phenomena’s true nature itself – something solid, unchanging, possessing characteristics such as big, small, red, white, pleasant and unpleasant. This “perverted view” causes one to perceive phenomena inside oneself and outside as having a different nature and thus beings perceive the world in a dualistic manner – subject and object duality – which creates karma and the afflictive emotions of desire-attachment, aversion, and ignorance, the cause that perpetuates the cycle of suffering. For these reasons, beings undergo birth, sickness, old age, and death without any agency. The nine examples we mentioned above not only show that the nature is pure and unchanging but also emphasize that the defilements are adventitious and removable. However, since one is not aware of these two facts, beings undergo constant suffering. Let’s take the first of the nine examples to demonstrate the above functioning of the dualistic mind (Maitreya 2018, 168). The example reads:
Seeing that in the calyx of an ugly-colored lotus
a tathagata dwells ablaze with a thousand marks,
a man endowed with the immaculate divine vision
takes it from the shroud of the water-born’s petals (Maitreya 2018, 150).
This example tells us that through their primordial wisdom, the Buddhas can see that the nature of the tathagata, the true state that they rest in, is present within all sentient beings, even those abiding in the lowest hells, and they show this to beings, thus relieving them from their adventitious stains. All other eight examples function in the same way, showing the fault of beings that cannot see this nature, the self-aware non-dual primordial wisdom, which is present in them, and instead they mistake the appearance aspect of phenomena as the true nature, which causes the emergence of duality and suffering.
Therefore, the duality that beings experience is not something inherent in their nature, the tathāgatagarbha, but is rather the works of the adventitious defilements. These adventitious defilements are caused by improper mental activity, the inability to see their nature and instead seeing the appearance as the true nature, which, on the other hand, also causes the defilements, thus producing a circle to take place in the stream of their minds, and thus they experience suffering. The nature, on the other hand, is the self-aware luminosity that has been free from these defilements since beginningless time, and thus not affected by duality. Therefore, sentient beings experience duality due to their obscurations, but their self-aware nature is beyond this duality, allowing the element to be non-dual while present among the dual perception of ordinary beings, as explained by the nine examples above.
Footnotes
- Just as a good buddha statue is present within the shroud of a decaying lotus (1), just as pure honey is present amid a big swarm of bees (2), just as the grain is contained in its husk (3), just like gold in the midst of filth (4), just like a precious treasure in the ground under a poor man’s house (5), just like the shoot of a mighty tree grows and increases from a tiny fruit (6), just like a statue of the Victorious One inside a tattered rag (7), just like a universal ruler of mankind in the womb of a woman of miserable appearance (8), and just as at the time when the mold is removed a precious image is present under a layer of clay (9), this undefiled expanse, the buddha element, definitely abides within all sentient beings, obscured by the defilement of the adventitious mental poisons. (Maitreya 2018, 149) ↩︎
Bibliography
Brunnholzl, Karl. 2015. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge Between Sutra and Tantra. Tsadra Foundation Series. Boulder: Shambhala.
Maitreya, Arya. 2018. Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra with Commentary. Commentary by Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé. Translated by Rosemarie Fuchs. Boulder: Shambhala.