1

THE STAGES OF THE PATH FOR PERSONS OF GREAT CAPACITY¹

3) Training the mind in the stages of the path for persons of great capacity

a) Showing that developing the spirit of enlightenment is the only entrance to the Mahāyāna

b) How to develop the spirit of enlightenment

i) How the spirit of enlightenment depends on certain causes to arise

a' The development of the spirit through the four conditions

b' The development of the spirit through the four causes

c' The development of the spirit through the four strengths

Respectfully I bow down at the feet of those excellent and revered persons who have great compassion. [281]

After such extended meditation on the faults of cyclic existence from various perspectives, you will see all of cyclic existence as a pit of blazing fire. Then you will be completely consumed with the desire to attain liberation, the elimination of suffering and the afflictions. If you learn the path of the three precious trainings, you will attain liberation, which is free of cyclic existence and is indeed irreversible, unlike the glory of high status within cyclic existence. However, your elimination of faults and attainment of good qualities will be incomplete. Thus, you will not have accomplished your own aims and can only accomplish the purposes of others in a limited way. Eventually, a buddha will exhort you, and you will have to enter the Mahāyāna. Because of this, intelligent persons should enter the Mahāyāna from the beginning. As Āryaśūra’s Compendium of the Perfections (Pāramitā-samāsa) says:²

Once you have abandoned forever the two lower vehicles,

Which possess no power to provide the welfare of the world,

Enter the vehicle which the Conqueror Śākyamuni compassionately taught—

This consists only of helping others. [282]

And also:

When people see that joy and unhappiness are like a dream

And that beings degenerate due to the faults of delusion,

Why would they strive for their own welfare,

Forsaking delight in the excellent deeds of altruism?

When you see that beings have fallen, just as you have, into the ocean of existence and are stumbling, unable to walk in a safe direction, because the eye of wisdom—which distinguishes what to adopt and what to discard—for them is closed, is it not better to care for others and to strive for their welfare, you who are in the Conqueror’s lineage? That same text says:³

Why wouldn’t anyone who is in the Conqueror’s lineage and

Who works for the welfare of the world

Have compassion for those stumbling with their eyes of wisdom closed

And joyously persevere so as to clear away such confusion?

Here, you should use a great person’s joy, charisma, and strength to shoulder the responsibility of others’ welfare, for focusing only on your own welfare is a trait shared even with animals. Consequently, the fundamental orientation of a great person is to focus solely on achieving the happiness and benefit of others. Candragomin’s Letter to a Student (Śiṩya-lekha) says:⁴

Domestic animals eat a mouthful of easily found grass,

And when tormented by great thirst, they happily drink water they find.

Here, those who make an effort at working for the welfare of others

Do so out of charisma, joy, and surpassing strength.

The sun’s great rays shine everywhere, traveling like a horsedrawn chariot.

The ground supports the world without calculating the burden—

Such is the nature of persons of great capacity, who lack any self-interest;

They are consumed with whatever brings happiness and benefit to the world.

One who sees beings tormented by the above-mentioned suffering and who hastens to act for their welfare is called a “person of great capacity” and an “adept.” [283] The same text says:⁵

Those who see beings disturbed by the smoke cloud of ignorance that enshrouds the world,

Helplessly fallen into the blazing fire of suffering,

And hastily make effort as if their own heads were on fire

Are here called “great persons” and “adepts.”

Therefore, the Mahāyāna is the origin of all the good of self and others; the medicine that alleviates all troubles; the great path traveled by all knowledgeable persons; nourishment for all beings who see, hear, remember, and come into contact with it; and that which has the great skill-in-means that engages you in others’ welfare and thereby indirectly achieves your own welfare in its entirety. One who enters it thinks, “Wonderful! I have found what I am looking for.” Enter this supreme vehicle with all of the “strength of an excellent person” that you have. The Compendium of the Perfections states:⁶

This supreme vehicle is realized by genuine wisdom.

From it the omniscience of the Great Sage arises.

He is like the eye of the world,

His radiance like the rays of the rising sun.

Thus, enter the Mahāyāna after you have developed great respect for it induced by seeing its good qualities from various perspectives.

3) Training the mind in the stages of the path for persons of great capacity

Training the mind in the stages of the path for persons of great capacity is presented in three sections:

1.  Showing that developing the spirit of enlightenment is the only entrance to the Mahāyāna

2.  How to develop the spirit of enlightenment (Chapters 1-6)

3.  How to learn the bodhisattva deeds after developing the spirit of enlightenment (Chapters 7 and on)

a) Showing that developing the spirit of enlightenment is the only entrance to the Mahāyāna

Question: Given that you should enter the Mahāyāna in the above-mentioned manner, what is the entrance?

Reply: The Conqueror taught that there are no Mahāyāna vehicles other than the perfection vehicle and the tantra vehicle. Whichever of these two you enter, the only entrance is the spirit of enlightenment. Once you have generated this spirit in your mind, you are recognized as a Mahāyāna practitioner even though you may not have generated any other good quality. [284] When you separate from this spirit, no matter what other good qualities you may have—such as the knowledge of emptiness, etc.—you lapse from the Mahāyāna, falling to the level of a śrāvaka and the like. This point is taught in many Mahāyāna scriptures and is also proved by reason.

The initial entrance into the Mahāyāna is determined by the development of this spirit alone. A subsequent departure from the Mahāyāna is determined by its loss alone. Hence, being a Mahāyāna practitioner or not is contingent upon the existence or nonexistence of this spirit. You become a conquerors’ child immediately after generating this spirit. As Śāntideva’s Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds (Bodhisattva-caryāvatāra) says:⁷

The moment helpless beings, bound in the prison of cyclic existence,

Develop this spirit of enlightenment

They are called “children of the sugatas” . . .

And also:

Today I have been born in the buddhas’ family;

I have become a child of the buddhas.

Thus it says that once you have generated this spirit, you are called “a bodhisattva.” Moreover, the Life of Maitreya (Ārya-maitreya-vimokṩa) speaks of persons being bodhisattvas if they have this spirit even though they have not trained in the bodhisattva deeds:⁸

O child of good lineage, although a precious diamond breaks, it still outshines all special ornaments of gold. It does not lose its name “precious diamond,” and it still removes all poverty. O child of good lineage, similarly, those who have developed the precious diamond which is the spirit of enlightenment and the aspiration to omniscience, although they lack its application, still outshine all the golden ornaments which are the good qualities of the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha. They do not lose the name “bodhisattva,” and they still remove all the poverty of cyclic existence.

Also the protector Nāgārjuna in his Precious Garland (Ratnāvalī) says:⁹

If you and the world

Wish to obtain unexcelled enlightenment,

Its root is the spirit of enlightenment,

Firm as the king of mountains.

Further, the Tantra Bestowing the Initiation of Vajrapāṇi (Vajrapāṇy-abhiṩeka-mahā-tantra) says:¹⁰

“O great bodhisattva, Mañjuśrī, this tantric maṇḍala is exceedingly secret, unfathomable, very profound, and vast. It is unsuitable to teach it to sinful beings.” [285]

“Vajrapāṇi, you say this maṇḍala is very rare. Since I have not heard about it, to whom should it be explained?”

Vajrapāṇi replied, “O Mañjuśrī, once those who have entered meditation on the spirit of enlightenment have attained it, Mañjuśrī, these bodhisattvas who practice the bodhisattva deeds—the door to tantra—should enter into the tantric maṇḍala of the great sublime wisdom initiation. However, those who have not fully attained the spirit of enlightenment should not enter it. They should not even enter and see the maṇḍala. Moreover, do not teach them the gestures and mantras.”

Therefore it is not sufficient that the teaching be a Mahāyāna teaching; it is crucial that the person be a Mahāyāna practitioner. Furthermore, functioning as a Mahāyāna practitioner depends solely on realizing the spirit of enlightenment. Hence, if you have only an intellectual understanding of this spirit, then you likewise have only an intellectual understanding of what it means to be a Mahāyāna practitioner. If the spirit is completely perfect, then the Mahāyāna practitioner is genuine, so strive for this.

In regard to this the Array of Stalks Sūtra (Gaṇḍa-vyūha-sūtra) says:¹¹

O child of good lineage, the spirit of enlightenment is like the seed of all the buddha qualities.

Because you must fully comprehend this statement, I will explain it. When water, manure, warmth, earth, etc., combine with a rice seed, they act as the causes of the rice sprout. If they combine with the seeds of wheat, peas, etc., they act as the causes of these types of sprouts. Therefore these factors are the general causes of the sprouts. But it is impossible for a barley seed, though it combines with those conditions, to be the cause of a sprout of rice, and so on. [286] Thus a barley seed is the specific cause of a barley sprout, and the water, manure, and so forth, that are linked with that seed become the general causes of the barley sprout. Likewise, the spirit of unsurpassed enlightenment is like the seed, the specific cause among the general causes of the sprout of buddhahood. The wisdom that knows emptiness is the general cause of the three types of enlightenment [the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva], just as water, manure, etc. are the general causes of the sprouts. Hence Maitreya’s Sublime Continuum (Uttara-tantra) also states that:¹²

Aspiration to the supreme vehicle is the seed;

Wisdom is the mother for generating the buddha qualities.

Thus the spirit of enlightenment is like the seed of the father, and the wisdom which knows selflessness is like the mother. For example, since a Tibetan father cannot have a boy who is Indian, Mongolian, and so forth, he is the specific cause of the child’s lineage, whereas a Tibetan mother can give birth to a variety of boys and is therefore the general cause of her child. And the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas also depend on wisdom, for the protector Nāgārjuna, in the Praise of the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñā-pāramitā-stotra) says:¹³

The path of liberation upon which the buddhas,

Pratyekabuddhas, and śrāvakas definitely rely

Is just this.

It is certain that there are no others.

The perfection of wisdom is the mother of both Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna disciples, for it is also spoken of as “mother.” Consequently, do not distinguish Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna by the wisdom that knows emptiness but by the spirit of enlightenment and the greatly effective bodhisattva deeds. Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland says:¹⁴

Since the aspirational prayers, deeds,

And complete dedications of the bodhisattva

Are not explained in the śrāvaka vehicle,

How then could you become a bodhisattva through it?

Thus he says that you differentiate these vehicles not by philosophical view but by deeds. If, in this way, even the wisdom that knows emptiness is not a specifically Mahāyāna path, it goes without saying that there are other shared paths as well. [287] Hence it is a clear indication that you have very little familiarity with the teachings when, after you have taken the spirit of enlightenment to be the crucial instruction, you do not practice it, but, after recalling it at the beginning of a session only in words, you intently make great effort at some single, small portion of the path.

In general, just as both father and mother are needed to have a child, you need the entire complement of method and wisdom to have a complete path. In particular, you need the main method—the spirit of enlightenment—and the main wisdom—the knowledge of emptiness. If you only meditate on one of them and diligently seek merely to be liberated from cyclic existence, then you have to meditate on the meaning of emptiness––selflessness––without mistaking meditative serenity for insight. Nonetheless, if you claim to be a Mahāyāna practitioner, then you must be practicing the spirit of enlightenment as well. Why? You need wisdom to prevent falling into the extreme of cyclic existence, and you need compassion to prevent falling into the extreme of peace [nirvāṇa], so wisdom does not prevent you from falling into the extreme of peace. As the venerable Maitreya says in his Ornament for Clear Knowledge (Abhisamayālaṃkāra):¹⁵

Through knowledge you do not abide in cyclic existence.

Through compassion you do not abide in peace.

If you are a Mahāyāna practitioner, you must practice the spirit of enlightenment because even in the Hīnayāna you do not fall into the extreme of cyclic existence and the main thing to be prevented on the bodhisattva path is falling into the extreme of peace.

When the conquerors’ children, who validly interpret the commentaries on the Conqueror’s intended meaning, generate just this precious spirit in their minds, they are amazed and think, “Such a marvelous path has arisen.” However, they do not have this same feeling when they attain a slight good quality pleasing to ordinary persons. Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds says:¹⁶

This altruistic spirit which is not born

In others even for their own sake,

Is a special jewel of the mind,

Bringing an unprecedented wonder.

And also:

Is there any virtue equal to this?

Is there any such friend?

Is there any such merit?

And also:

I bow down to the body of anyone

Who has generated this sacred jewel of the mind. [288]

And:

It is the quintessential butter

Churned from the milk of the sublime teaching.

Thus the spirit of enlightenment is the supreme instruction, extracting the quintessence of the scriptures.

Therefore, although the glorious Atisha held the Madhyamaka view and his teacher Ser-ling-ba (gSer-gling-pa) held the Satyākāravādin view,¹⁷ Atisha attained the spirit of enlightenment by depending on him and therefore took him to be the kindest of his gurus. If those who know the core of the scriptures look at this part of Atisha’s biography, they will gain a great understanding of a key point of the path.

If you generate this spirit in an uncontrived manner after making much effort, you will be imbued with the spirit of enlightenment and then even giving a tiny morsel of food to a crow will be considered a bodhisattva deed. However, if you lack this spirit, even offering a universe of three billion world systems filled with jewels will not be considered a bodhisattva deed. Likewise, actions such as the perfections from ethical discipline through wisdom, as well as meditation on yourself as a deity and meditation on the channels, winds, drops, etc., will also not be considered bodhisattva deeds.

If your precious spirit has not actualized the key point of the practice, no matter how long you try to cultivate virtue, you will not accomplish much. It is like cutting grass with a very dull sickle. If your spirit of enlightenment has actualized the key point of the practice, however, it is like cutting the grass and sharpening the sickle—even when you are not cutting the grass, you will be sharpening the sickle, and when you set to cutting, you cut a large amount even in a short time. Likewise, with this fully actualized spirit of enlightenment, in each instant you are able to easily clear away obscurations and accumulate the collections of merit and sublime wisdom. Even small virtues become extensive, and those that would otherwise be lost after a certain period of time do not end. Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds states:¹⁸

The force of sin is great and extremely intense;

Besides the spirit of perfect enlightenment,

What virtue can overcome it?

And also:

Like the fire at the end of an eon,

It will instantly consume grave sins. [289]

And also:

If even those who think, “I’ll clear away

Just the headaches of living beings,”

Have such a beneficial intention

That they receive immeasurable merit,

Then what is there to say

Of one who aspires to clear away

The immeasurable unhappiness of each being

And to endow each with immeasurable good qualities?

And also:

All other virtues are like the plantain tree—

After bearing fruit they perish.

But this spirit of enlightenment, like a wish-granting tree,

Always bears fruit and never dies, but flourishes.

b) How to develop the spirit of enlightenment

How to develop the spirit of enlightenment is explained in four parts:

1.  How the spirit of enlightenment depends on certain causes to arise

2.  The stages of training in the spirit of enlightenment (Chapters 2-4)

3.  The measure of producing the spirit of enlightenment (Chapter 4)

4.  How to adopt the spirit of enlightenment through its ritual (Chapters 5-6)

i) How the spirit of enlightenment depends on certain causes to arise

How the spirit of enlightenment depends on certain causes to arise is explained in three parts:

1.  The development of the spirit through the four conditions

2.  The development of the spirit through the four causes

3.  The development of the spirit through the four strengths

a' The development of the spirit through the four conditions

l. You develop the spirit of enlightenment either by seeing for yourself the inconceivable power of buddhas or bodhisattvas, or by hearing about them from a reliable person, and then thinking, “This enlightenment in which they abide or which they pursue is very powerful.”

2.  Although you may not have seen or heard of such power in this way, you can develop the spirit by listening to the scriptural collections which take unsurpassed enlightenment as a point of departure, and then aspiring to the sublime wisdom of a buddha.

3.  Although you may not have heard the teachings, you can develop the spirit by understanding that the excellent teaching of the bodhisattvas is about to disappear, and then thinking, “I will definitely develop the spirit of enlightenment so that the bodhisattva teaching will remain for a long time, because the existence of such teaching removes suffering from innumerable living beings.”

4.  Although you have not seen the decline of the teaching, you think, “It is difficult to generate the spirit of enlightenment of even a śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha in these terrible times in which there is a preponderance of ignorance, shamelessness, lack of embarrassment, jealousy, stinginess, and the like. Then what need is there to mention developing the spirit of highest enlightenment? If I were, at some point, to develop the spirit of enlightenment, others would surely follow.” Thus, you generate the spirit of enlightenment through seeing the difficulty required to develop it. [290]

Concerning how the spirit of enlightenment arises from these four conditions, it is said that they inspire you to attain great enlightenment, so a desire to attain enlightenment arises. The ways in which this happens are as follows:

1.  After you see or hear about supernormal powers, you are awed, thinking, “I will attain such an enlightenment,” and then generate the spirit of enlightenment.

2.  Through hearing about the good qualities of a buddha from an instructor, you first develop faith and then there arises a desire to attain these qualities.

3.  On finding the thought of the decline of the Mahāyāna teaching unbearable, you develop the desire to attain a buddha’s sublime wisdom.

In regard to this last point, you see that if the teaching does not disappear, the suffering of living beings can be stopped. So even though your objective is indeed to remove suffering, nevertheless, the principal condition for the spirit of enlightenment arising is your inability to bear the fact that the teaching might disappear. Otherwise, this way of developing the spirit would repeat the explanation (presented later on in this text) of how the spirit arises in dependence on compassion.

4.  After you see how rare this most purposeful spirit is, you develop a desire to attain buddhahood, spurred on principally by this awareness.

With regard to the two components of the spirit of enlightenment—the desire to attain enlightenment and the aim of the welfare of all beings—this fourth development of the spirit of enlightenment is established in terms of producing a desire to attain enlightenment, and is not established in terms of the aim.

Without the desire to attain buddhahood that comes from cultivating faith in a buddha’s good qualities, you cannot overcome the sense of contentment that thinks peace [nirvāṇa] alone is sufficient to fulfill your own aims. The desire to attain buddhahood on account of training in love and compassion and seeing the fulfillment of others’ aims as a necessity can eradicate the sense of contentment that thinks your peace alone is sufficient to fulfill others’ aims, but cannot stop the sense of contentment that thinks peace is enough for your own aims. Besides this desire to attain buddhahood that comes from cultivating faith in a buddha’s good qualities, there is no other way to stop the sense of contentment that thinks your peace alone is sufficient to fulfill your own aims. Indeed, you do need to overcome the sense of contentment that peace alone is enough to accomplish your own welfare because (1) Hīnayāna practitioners, who are merely liberated from cyclic existence, have only a partial elimination of faults and a partial knowledge, and thus lack the perfect fulfillment of their own aims; (2) these practitioners are liberated from the problems of cyclic existence but not from the problems of peace; and (3) the perfect fulfillment of one’s own aims, it is said, is a buddha’s embodiment of truth. [291] Therefore, once you cultivate faith in the good qualities of a buddha, you will see that you must attain buddhahood to accomplish even your own aims, let alone the aims of others. Understanding this is important for causing you not to turn back toward the Hīnayāna.

Among the four developments of the spirit of enlightenment explained above, the first two are not induced by compassion and love. In other scriptures and treatises as well there are many explanations of the development of the spirit of enlightenment as the desire to attain buddhahood induced by just seeing the good qualities of a buddha’s embodiment of truth and embodiment of form. The determination to establish all beings in buddhahood is also said to be the development of this spirit. So you must consider each of these two to be counted as simply “developments of the spirit of enlightenment.” With regard to developing a completely perfect spirit of enlightenment, however, it is not sufficient merely to have the desire to attain buddhahood upon seeing the necessity of fulfilling others’ aims. You must have the desire to attain buddhahood that sees that it is indispensable even for your own aims. Furthermore, this intention must not neglect others’ welfare but be for others’ sake as well, because the Ornament for Clear Knowledge talks about both the intention to attain enlightenment and the intention to accomplish others’ welfare:¹⁹

The development of the spirit of enlightenment

Is the desire for perfect enlightenment for others’ welfare.

b' The development of the spirit through the four causes

You develop the spirit of enlightenment through relying on:

l) a perfect lineage;

2) being sustained by a teacher;

3) compassion toward living beings;

4) not being disheartened by the difficulties of cyclic existence.

c' The development of the spirit through the four strengths

You develop the spirit through relying on the four strengths:

1) the strength of yourself—the desire to attain perfect enlightenment through your own power;

2) the strength of others—the desire to attain perfect enlightenment through others’ power; [292]

3) the strength of the cause—developing the spirit by having been familiar with the Mahāyāna and now merely hearing praise of buddhas and bodhisattvas;

4) the strength of application—in this life, being accustomed for a long time to such virtuous activities as relying upon an excellent being and reflecting on the teachings you have heard.

Furthermore, Asaṅga’s Bodhisattva Levels (Bodhisattva-bhūmi) says²⁰ that after you depend on the four causes and four conditions (whether individually or collectively), you generate a firm spirit of enlightenment if you develop it from your own strength or from the strength of the cause. It is not firm if you develop it from others’ strength or from the strength of application.

Once you have understood well that the teaching in general and the Mahāyāna teaching in particular are about to disappear, and that this time is particularly degenerate, you realize that a spirit of enlightenment developed from the depths of the heart is extremely rare. Rely on an excellent teacher and make an effort to practice—studying and reflecting, etc. upon the Mahāyāna scriptural collection—and plant the root for the development of the spirit from the depths of your heart, not forced by others, nor mindlessly following others, nor through the habit of custom, but through your own strength. All the bodhisattva deeds are necessarily based on it.