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Friday, January 1, 2016

"A Response on the Sugatagarbha and the Dharmakāya" by the Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorjé



In answer to your question, there is a context for which the fruition-sugatagarbha, and the dharmatā-kāya are of the same nature. However, as the causal-sugatagarbha is not the dharmakāya, the dharmakāya itself is the perfection of the two accumulations, it is what brings about the final purification of the two obscurations, and it is free from the obscurations of the five aggregates, the twelve sense sources, and the eighteen elements. Consisting of enlightened activity, along with the five wisdoms and the three kāyas—which are the transmutation of the eight consciousnesses—these are the features that are referred to as “the dharmakāya.”
Thus, the fruition is sugatahood, which possesses both the ultimate aspect of the svābhāvikakāya and the conventional aspect of the rūpakāya. Regarding that, the first topic—the cause of the svābhāvikakāya—does not abide as the essence of the afflictions of the natural and primordial purity of the minds of all sentient beings. As for its name, it is called the sugatagarbha in the context of the tantras of the naturally present affinity, in the treatises of mantra it is given names such as “original buddhahood” and “Hevajra of the ground.”
As for the second topic—the cause of the rūpakāya—the existence of the eleven virtues of love, faith, and so forth being dependent upon the minds of all sentient beings are the habitual tendencies of studying which are aroused based on other conditions, namely the appearance of the buddha in the world.
The awakening of virtuous habitual tendencies is the affinity of flourishing. As this, too, is the sugatagarbha in the context of the tantras, there are some terms employed therein such as the distinctions of the six sense sources and the creation of the habitual tendencies of studying.
Well then, as for the empty nature of mind, when it arises as the various interdependent occurrences of delusion—the fetters of the two obscurations—there is saṃsāra; when the empty nature of mind arises as the various interdependent occurrences of accumulation and purification—the non-deluded liberation from the two obscurations—there is non-abiding nirvāṇa.
Well then, as nirvāṇa is true and saṃsāra is untrue, delusive, and false it therefore means that saṃsāra does not infiltrate objective reality. Since nirvāṇa is undeceiving and non-deluded it is presented as the ultimate truth. Likewise, this presentation of the falsity of saṃsāra and the truth of the ultimate is also not in the context of the uncategorized ultimate. However, it is within the context of asserting the ultimate meaning of what is categorized. As for the context of presenting it as the conventional truth in the tradition of ‘Glorious Moon’ [Candrakīrti], it is not possible for both to be the final sense, and so it is presented provisionally as the truth of the ultimate itself and within that context it is the subject being characterized, which is exclusively the truth of nirvāṇa.
Though this is how it is stated, even this so-called final nirvāṇa is not the genuine absolute. Since that does not transcend compounded phenomena, what is final is not when any single truth is discovered. The non-duality of bliss and emptiness taught in the final mantra treatise(s) and Mahāmudrā as well is what is meant by the inseparable, the union of bliss and emptiness as a single flavor, as the emptiness of the enlightened mind of the ultimate sense that is free from elaboration and the bliss of the enlightened mind of the conventional sense, which is the wisdom mind of love without reference that includes the noble minds of the Mantrayāna. This was answered for Yung Chadrel.


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Original Tibetan Text Source:  Bde gshegs snying po dang chos sku'i dris lan (http://tbrc.org/link?RID=O3LS12537|O3LS125373LS13570$W8039)

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