Samdhinirmocana-sutra

NotesL An important passage, for here the text rejects the analogy of visionto understanding, and thus theories of naive realism.1 These are basic doctrines of early Buddhism. They permeate the PaliNikayas and the Chinese Agamas.5 The above analyses, as well as those that follow, are a resurrectionof Abhidharma practice, but now brought within the critical theoryof Yogacara, based on the three patterns of consciousness.1 An affirmation of the validity of Madhyamika thought and practice,to which Yogacara brings its theory of conscious interiority.5 This seems to be a negation of the notion of a Buddha essence, suchas taught in the Tathagatagarbha tradition, and in some Yogacaratexts influenced by that tradition.5 Note that this text presents a two-body account of the Buddha. Incontrast, later Yogacara texts presented the more familiar three-bodydoctrine, which included the Enjoyment body along with the Dharmabody and the Transformation body.1 The pattern for the Transformation body is taken from the narrativeaccount of the life of the historical Buddha Sakyamuni.1 That is, the Sutra, the Vinaya, and the Abhidharma. The followingitem speaks of the matrix, which is the technical language evolvedfor the task of systematic analyses and interpretation, i.e., the tasksof Abhidharma.* Again note the Yogacara recovery of reason, put into service for otherdependentAbhidharma.* Ineffability is then no barrier to the performance of true and validreasoning, and the transcendence of the unconditioned no obstacle torigorous thought.116