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

Mathes: The Role of the Bodhicittavivaraṇa
so that sentient beings who are unsaved may be saved, that those who are not
liberated may be liberated, those who are not consoled may be consoled, and those
who have not completely passed into nirvāṇa will completely pass into nirvāṇa.
Bodhisattvas whose conduct is the way of secret mantras [first] generate the
enlightened attitude which in terms of apparent [truth] has the nature of aspiration,
and must then generate ultimate enlightened attitude by the power of meditation.
Therefore I will explain its nature. 23
Based on the already mentioned equation of supreme enlightened attitude with
emptiness, the generation of ultimate enlightened attitude is in fact nothing else
than realizing emptiness in meditative equipoise. This becomes clear from the way
Zhwa dmar pa chos grags ye shes explains this passage:
Ultimate supramundane enlightened attitude, which is the object of the wisdom
of the noble ones, must be generated in [one’s own mind]-stream the same way
[one generates] realization through the accumulation of wisdom, [that is, by] the
power of meditation in which one familiarizes oneself with a mind in equipoise
[resting] in true nature of phenomena. 24
In ordinary Great Vehicle (also referred to as the Way of Perfections
[Pāramitāyāna]) such an ultimate enlightened attitude can be only cultivated from
the first bodhisattva-level onwards, because a direct realization of emptiness usually
starts from the path of seeing. This means for ordinary practitioners that they must
first approach emptiness with the help of reasoning found in the analytical
Madhyamaka works, and since it is difficult to integrate an analytical understanding
of emptiness into one’s meditation practice, the accumulation of merit and wisdom
takes a long time. In the Way of Mantras (Mantrayāna), however, emptiness can
be directly experienced with the help of skillful means, such as using blissful states
of mind in order to interrupt the process of false imagining. In his commentary on
Maitrīpa’s Ten Stanzas on True Reality (Tattvadaśaka), Sahajavajra (eleventh
century) distinguishes a third way of realizing emptiness, namely the wisdom of
reality or the Great Seal, from the Way of Mantras and the Way of Perfections.
The Ten Stanzas on True Reality propagates a direct approach to reality which is
in accordance with Madhyamaka, but mainly relying on pith-instructions. In other
words, reality is not only understood to be neither existent nor non-existent, but
23 Lindtner, ed., Bodhicittavivaraṇa, 184, lines 7-18: sangs rgyas bcom ldan ’das rnams dang / byang
chub sems dpa’ chen po de rnams kyis ji ltar byang chub chen por thugs bskyed pa de bzhin du/ bdag
gis kyang sems can ma bsgral ba rnams bsgral ba dang / ma grol ba rnams grol ba dang / dbugs ma
phyung ba rnams dbugs dbyung ba dang / yongs su mya ngan las ma ’das pa rnams yongs su mya ngan
las bzla ba’i phyir dus ’di nas bzung nas byang chub snying po la mchis kyi bar du byang chub chen
por sems bskyed par bgyi’o/ /byang chub sems dpa’ gsang sngags kyi sgor spyad pa spyod pa rnams
kyis de ltar kun rdzob kyi rnam pas byang chub kyi sems smon pa’i rang bzhin can bskyed nas/ don
dam pa’i byang chub kyi sems bsgom pa’i stobs kyis bskyed par bya ba yin pas de’i phyir de’i rang
bzhin bshad par bya’o//.
24 Zhwa dmar pa chos grags ye shes, Byang chub sems ’grel gyi rnam par bshad pa, 68, lines 13-16:
’phags pa’i ye shes kyi yul du ’gyur ba’i don dam pa’i byang chub kyi sems ’jig rten las ’das pa de ni/
chos nyid la mnyam par bzhag pa la sems goms par byed pa’i bsgom pa’i stobs ye shes kyi tshogs kyis
rtogs pa ji lta bzhin rgyud la bskyed par bya ba yin te/.
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