Entering the Middle Way, 9 May 1991, part 1

Yeah. I’m gonna do it. So we’ll cultivate as our motivation, the awakening heart. We should begin by rejoicing in the fact that we have been born in this world with a human life which is able to practice the Dharma and that we are endowed with wisdom whereby we have the ability to achieve whatever it is that we wish to achieve. And though it’s wonderful that we’ve achieved this human life, if we don’t make use of our human life, then it would go to waste.

How are we how are we to make use of our lives? Ourselves and others are exactly in the same and wanting to be happy and not wanting to suffer. So that the way that we can make best use of our lives is for the sake of eliminating our own and other suffering and bring in ultimate and stable happiness to ourselves and others. So on occasion of actually making use of our life, how are we to proceed? First is the motivation of having a healthy attitude, such an attitude toward our practice.

And then, dependence upon a healthy conduct arising out of that healthy attitude, we carry on a practice of Dharma. And thereby we can achieve the results as was just mentioned, that we can eliminate the suffering of both self and other and bring complete happiness to both self and other. So initially we must develop the motivation of a healthy attitude. And amongst the various types of healthy attitudes that we can develop there is none exceeding that of the awakening heart. That within all of the teachings of the Buddha that he said that there was no greater thought than the thought of the awakening heart.

Cultivating such a healthy attitude as the awakening heart, even for a minute during the course of meditation, creates the positive potential which is almost immeasurable. It’s equal to space. How are we to cultivate such a healthy attitude? We begin by the sake begin by holding others more dear than oneself and in order to free all of them from their suffering and to establish them in happiness. I myself must eliminate all my various faults and bring the consummation of all my excellent qualities.

Achieving that in I can be of immense benefit to all sentient beings. So seek to cultivate cultivate such a motivation as the awakening heart for the next three minutes. Such that with the motivation of benefiting all sentient beings I am going to listen to the essence of the great vehicle, this teaching on emptiness, and thereby in order to study it and cultivate it for the sake of all other. The master of the view of emptiness, Candrakīrti composed the text Entering into the Middle Way, And initially in his composition of the text he offered homage to great compassion saying that it was the foundation of all the excellent qualities of all the three vehicles, and therefore I praise great compassion. So the trainee who is intent on practicing in accordance with the entering into the middle way proceeds in his course of training by first developing a renunciation for cyclic existence, going on to develop love and compassion, then gains a realization of emptiness and then the awakening heart.

The first of the five paths of the great vehicle and from the first then goes on proceeds on to the second path. These first two paths being the paths of ordinary beings. Then the the practitioner the then proceeds on to the third of the five paths of the great vehicle, the path of seeing where she has direct realization of emptiness and thereby becomes a bodhisattva superior. Having achieved the third of the five paths of the great vehicle, the bodhisattva achieves the first of the 10 grounds, whereby beginning the practice of the 10 perfections. Generosity.

On the second ground, the effort in gaining the perfection of ethics. The third, tolerance. The fourth, joyous effort. And the fifth, meditative concentration. So this is the method of proceeding for the bodhisattva training in the context of the entering into the middle way and we likewise should seek to train and proceed in the same fashion.

So we’ve finished the explanation of the first five of the 10 grounds and now we’re going to begin the explanation of the sixth On the occasion of the sixth ground effort is made into bringing to perfection the sixth perfection that of wisdom. The first preceding five perfections being generosity, ethics, tolerance, effort, and meditative concentration. And here the sixth perfection of wisdom is brought to consummation. On the occasion of the fifth ground, that the perfection of meditative concentration is brought to consummation and this mainly entails the development of calm abiding. And by this calm abiding is extremely stable and one becomes expert in calm abiding and achieves a surpassing calm abiding.

And this occurs at the level of the fifth ground. Then one proceeds to take as the object of one’s calm abiding emptiness. So therefore, in dependence upon having achieved a calm abiding on the fifth ground, on the sixth ground one begins the practice of insight meditation. That is special insight with respect to emptiness and becomes expert with respect to gaining the perfection of wisdom. So in the the name of the sixth ground in the Tibetan language is Mngon du Gyurpa, which I’m going to have to decide how to translate either means manifest or approach.

We’ll see how it translates. So on the sixth ground one is said to one will soon achieve Buddhahood. One will quickly, having achieved the sixth ground, one will quickly achieve Buddhahood. Therefore, on the sixth ground one has said that one is approaching Buddhahood, and therefore the name approach. One is approaching and it is just about or they say quickly soon to achieve Buddhahood.

So just as So just as, for example, the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke,, you know he has certain term of office. And when that term of office is about to finish then if he were to retire then the person his assistant or the person under him would be soon to approach his position. Would be approaching the prime ministership upon the just as his term of office is about to finish, then his assistant would be likewise approaching the prime ministership. So, the sixth grounder has very few obstacles, very few faults to be rid of at this point. That it is at this point that the sixth grounder achieves a surpassing perfection of wisdom, becomes expert, becomes develops a very powerful wisdom, and therefore due to the force of this achievement of the perfection of wisdom will quickly attain Buddhahood.

There’s very little obstruction at this point. Therefore, the sixth ground and likewise the sixth chapter is called, The Approach. And the first verse of the sixth chapter proceeds in this way. This is not a literal translation of this first verse. The bodhisattva whose mind is placed evenly in the approach approaches the phenomena of the complete Buddhahood.

He sees dependent arising because he dwells in wisdom he will achieve cessation. So it is at this point that a surpassing perfection of wisdom is achieved. And this wisdom exceeds any wisdom achieved to this point. That is all the various lesser grounds wisdoms do not equal the wisdom which is being achieved here. And due to the force and the potency of this new realized wisdom, the bodhisattva will quickly achieve Buddhahood.

He is approaching Buddhahood. The next verse proceeds to praise the wisdom which is being realized at the sixth ground. This wisdom realizing emptiness is extremely powerful. It has great potency, ability, and it’s very vast in its benefit. And its qualities are being delineated as a way of praise.

And the second verse reads as follows: Just as a person with good eyesight can easily leave many groups of blind people wherever they want to go, in this case too the mind of wisdom leads the virtues with defective eyesight, that is the other five perfections, and takes them to the very state of a conqueror. So there’s an analogy being presented in which the awareness realizing emptiness is being analogized with the eyes of a person, a person having eyes. And the other five perfections that are of generosity, ethics, tolerance, effort, and meditative concentration are analogous to a person with no eyes. There is a case where one person who has sight can lead hundreds of people, blind people. Blind people by themselves aren’t able to reach their destination.

But if even one person who has sight sight has the qualities of being able to lead hundreds of people to their desired destination. Even a single person who has sight can lead hundreds of blind people. Such a person has this ability, this capacity, and therefore in this respect exceeds even though only a single person exceeds all of these hundreds of people with respect to this capacity. So in this analogy, various skillful actions, skillful states such and skillful states such as generosity, ethics, tolerance, joyous effort, and meditative concentrations, states such as love, compassion, the awakening heart, etc. These are extremely skillful states and skillful actions and out of them we create a vast a mass a great volume of positive potential.

They by themselves are like blind people because they are not able to lead us, take us along the path to Buddhahood by themselves. On the other hand, the awareness which realizes emptiness, the perfection of wisdom is like a person with eyes. And this is one individual with sight can lead a 100 blind people, hundreds of blind people to their desired destinations. Likewise, the perfection of wisdom the sixth ground is compared to an individual’s sight. It is able to lead the other states and actions such as generosity, ethics, tolerance, and these positive states to the state of Buddhahood.

It can act as a guide leading them to Buddhahood. So the analogy is that the wisdom realizing emptiness is compared to an individual’s sight and the wisdom realizing emptiness compared to an individual having sight and the other five perfections such as generosity, etc. Are compared to a blind person and through the guiding influence of wisdom then Buddhahood is achieved by the individual. So simply notice that the wisdom realizing emptiness is compared to a person having sight and the other five perfections such as generosity, etc. Are compared to blind individual.

So in this way by setting forth the excellent qualities of the wisdom realizing emptiness in its terms of its ability, its importance, and its power, and its benefit, in this manner praise is being given to the wisdom realizing emptiness of the sixth ground. So the wisdom realizing emptiness is being praised by denoting its excellent qualities. So, in the very onset Candrakīrti said, I am composing the text Into the Middle Way in order to explain the meaning of emptiness. And he promised to set forth the meaning of emptiness and this shows the great importance which is being placed upon understanding emptiness. So then the third verse of the sixth chapter it states as follows, Through both scriptural citation and reasoning Nāgārjuna has clearly revealed his extremely profound phenomena of suchness in the same way as is understood by the Bodhisattvas on approach, that is the sixth ground.

Therefore, in the same way in which suchness has been explained in the textual tradition of Ārya Nāgārjuna, I shall describe it here in full accordance with that tradition. Candrakīrti is saying that I am going to, in setting forth the means of attaining the wisdom, understanding, emptiness of the sixth grounder. I am going to explain it exactly in accordance as Nāgārjuna has explained it in his Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, the fundamental wisdom of the Middle Way text, and I am going to present in an unerring, unmistaken fashion. So emptiness is extremely important, and if we were asked, Who was it that first explained the meaning of emptiness? And would be the Buddha himself.

So the the Buddha spent six years in meditation in a place in India and during this course of his meditations removed all of his various faults and brought to consummation of his excellent qualities and thereby achieved Buddhahood. So upon the attainment of Buddhahood the Buddha paused and said that the Dharma that I have realized, that I have found is extremely difficult to fathom and very profound. And it is like nectar, or in Sanskrit It is that potent, it is that beneficial, it will bring that much well-being. But because it is so difficult to understand and fathom, initially I will not teach it. Nectar.

Nectar. So there are various types of nectar such as the Dharma which is nectar of profound wisdom, but there’s also, for example, the nectar of immortality. And it is by taking it, the very experience of this nectar, once all of one’s various faults are eliminated and one brings, it can achieve whatever ends one desires. At the age of 80 the Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa, parinirvāṇa. Prior to that he prophesied that there would be a Master by the name of Nāgārjuna who would unerringly set forth his teachings on emptiness, and these teachings would be extremely profound and vast and could be easily, correctly understood.

So Candrakīrti was a disciple of Nāgārjuna. Nāgārjuna was Candrakīrti’s spiritual teacher. In fact. But many individuals, Candrakīrti’s students, weren’t able to meet with Nāgārjuna and it was for their sake that he composed the present text which sets forth emptiness in accordance with the teachings of Nāgārjuna. So it is said that Candrakīrti, the disciple of Nāgārjuna, composed the present text Entering in order to explain the profound emptiness. But if one does not understand emptiness profoundly, does not understand emptiness correctly, there can accrue a great fall.

But on the other hand, if one understands it correctly, there is great benefit. So, with respect to the understanding of emptiness there