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

Mathes: The Role of the Bodhicittavivaraṇa
Sūtra on Revealing the Intention usually point out that with this fourfold meditation
practice the notion of Mind Only is only the first step, which is left behind in the
ascent to the remaining levels. Understood in this way, Mind Only and the
three-nature theory do not pose any obstacle to a Centrist’s using the hermeneutics
of The Sūtra on Revealing the Intention. 11
Whether one takes the Second and Third Wheels of the Doctrine to be on an
equal footing or follows The Sūtra on Revealing the Intention more strictly in
claiming that only the Third Wheel of the Doctrine has definitive meaning, it is of
utmost importance for such hermeneutic approaches to adduce the Nāgārjuna works
which equate emptiness with the ultimate sphere of reality (dharmadhātu) or
supreme enlightened attitude, because this implies that Nāgārjuna himself first
established emptiness with the help of his analytical works (which are considered
to be commentaries of the Second Wheel of the Doctrine), only to adopt a more
positive approach in his works on the Third Wheel of the Doctrine. In this respect,
it is of interest that the Compendium of Sūtras (Sūtrasamuccaya; said to be by
Nāgārjuna) quotes and discusses certain Great Vehicle sūtras (such as The Sūtra
of the Noble Queen Mālā [Śrīmālādevīsūtra]) which restrict the dictum that all
phenomena lack an own-being (that is, their emptiness) to the level of the
phenomenal world. In order to show that there is ultimately only one single vehicle
(yāna), the compilers of the Compendium of Sūtras even quote from the Sūtra of
the King Dhāraṇīśvara (Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra) the example of the threefold
purification of a vaiḍūrya stone, which illustrates the successive teachings of the
three wheels of the doctrine. 12 This implies that the Second Wheel of the Doctrine,
which teaches the emptiness of the Perfection of Insight Sūtras, is outshone by a
final wheel of the doctrine that describes the ultimate in positive terms (that is, as
a Buddha-nature according to the Commentary on the Analysis of the Jewel Family
[Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā]).
Even for those Centrists who were more critical of The Sūtra on Revealing the
Intention and the Sūtra of the King Dhāraṇīśvara, the Commentary on Enlightened
Attitude still had an important role to play, because when presenting Madhyamaka
as an independent Great Vehicle school in all its aspects, they faced the problem
that the analytical works of Nāgārjuna lack a detailed presentation of common
Great Vehicle elements such as the path, compassion, and enlightened attitude. It
was probably also for this reason that the attribution of the Commentary on
Enlightened Attitude to Nāgārjuna has never been questioned by any Centrist in
Tibet.
The Commentary on Enlightened Attitude also played an important role in
providing doctrinal support to the Great Seal tradition of the Dwags po bka’ brgyud.
The Seventh Karma pa chos grags rgya mtsho (1454-1506) thus included it in his
11 See Mathes, Unterscheidung, 161-62.
12 Bhikkhu Pāsādika, ed., Sūtrasamuccaya, Tibetan translation (Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag i
Kommission, 1989), 129-30.
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