The Role of the Bodhicittavivaraṇa in the Mahāmudrā Tradition of ...

Mathes: The Role of the Bodhicittavivaraṇa
characteristics, and it is only on the level of conventional truth that they are called
these things.
It should be noted, that ’Gos lo tsā ba gzhon nu dpal’s “element of awareness”
(rig pa’i khams), which does not have any mental forms as characteristic signs,
differs from this Yoga Conduct self-awareness. 54 In ’Gos lo tsā ba gzhon nu dpal’s
eyes, the element of awareness is but a synonym of the ultimate, which is not the
object of reasoning or inferential knowledge; it is rather the experiential object of
the wisdom of the noble ones (that is, an experience beyond duality). 55 To be sure,
positive descriptions of the ultimate in the Third Wheel of the Doctrine do not
refer to something which is in reality, or ontologically, different from what is
implied by the emptiness of the Second Wheel of the Doctrine in ’Gos lo tsā ba
gzhon nu dpal’s eyes. This is most clear in the following passage from ’Gos lo tsā
ba gzhon nu dpal’s Commentary on the Analysis of the Jewel Family:
Even though the emptiness of non-affirming negation taught in the middle wheel
of the doctrine and the truth of the [Buddha]-nature taught in the last [wheel of
the doctrine] are very different with regard to the object of understanding, I do
not assert that the following difference: Whereas [the reality ascertained through]
non-affirming negation is directly realized, the [Buddha]-nature is not directly
realized. Even though there is a difference with regard to the referents of these
words, there is no difference when the happiness of direct [cognition] is realized.
This follows from a number of supreme pith-instructions, and [in these] I put
faith. 56
To sum up, in reality there is only one emptiness for ’Gos lo tsā ba gzhon nu
dpal, but when it is approached directly, it is described in a different way. That
Zhwa dmar pa chos grags ye shes does not mention an “element of awareness” in
his commentary on the Commentary on Enlightened Attitude can be easily explained
by the fact that Buddha-nature is not the topic of the Commentary on Enlightened
Attitude.
Meditation on Ultimate Enlightened Attitude
Of particular interest is also the following stanza, which defines correct meditation
on ultimate enlightened attitude in the eyes of Zhwa dmar pa chos grags ye shes:
[Meditative] stabilization without apprehending [what is conceptually created]
in the mind has the defining characteristic of space. These [yogins] maintain that
54 According to Thrangu Rinpoche one has to distinguish two types of “self-awareness.” One is the
epistemological self-awareness of the Yoga Conducts, and the other one the realization of one’s own
true nature of the mind, or soteriological “self-awareness,” or rather “self-realization” (for a recent
discussion of a similar distinction see also Zhihua Yao, The Buddhist Theory of Self-Cognition [London
and New York: Routledge, 2005], 126-27).
55 Mathes, Direct Path, 348-49.
56 Mathes, Direct Path, 356.
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