The Clear Light Nature of the Mind

From Buddha-Nature
The Clear Light Nature of the Mind

Sonam, Ruth, trans. and ed. "The Clear Light Nature of the Mind." In Buddha Nature: Oral Teachings by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, 19–28. New Delhi: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2003.

The Madhyamika school draws on the Essence of Those Thus Gone Sutra and on Maitreya's Sublime Continuum, according to which the nature of our minds is not affected by the temporary stains which are present, such as the disturbing emotions. The fundamental nature, namely the emptiness of our minds with these stains, is the innately abiding disposition. Nagarjuna in his Praise of the Sphere of Phenomena[1] and Maitreya in his Sublime Continuum compare our minds to a cloudy sky, polluted water and alloyed gold. But the clouds are not an intrinsic part of the sky, nor are pollutants intrinsic to the water, and the alloys are not an integral part of the gold. The mind is not affected in its nature by these temporary stains but is clear and cognizant. This is its conventional nature. The Sublime Continuum says

Like that which is precious, the sky and pure water,
Its nature is always free of disturbing emotions.[2]

      No matter how muddy and polluted the water is, those pollutants do not affect the actual nature of the water. When the water is muddy, a reflection will not appear clearly in it. Similarly, while our minds are affected by these temporary stains, nothing can appear to them very clearly. The pollutants are extraneous to the water. Just so, the mental stains are extraneous to the clear and cognizant nature of our minds. That clarity is its natural condition.
      According to the Madhyamika school, the innately abiding disposition is the reality or suchness of the mind with stains,[3] namely its freedom from the so-called natural stain of true existence. Only the suchness of a mind with stains is called the innately abiding disposition and not every instance of suchness such as the emptiness of a table.
      To the Madhyamikas, the Chittamatra assertion that the seed for uncontaminated mind is the innately abiding disposition, which is simply another name for the cause of the truth body of an enlightened being, is unacceptable. They say that if that were the case then because the developmental disposition is merely another name for the cause of the truth body, there would be no difference between it and the innately abiding disposition. Proponents of the Chittamatra view rebut this by contending that while the seed for uncontaminated mind has not been activated, it is the innately abiding disposition but once it has been activated through hearing and thinking about the teachings, it is the developmental disposition. Thus the two are not the same. They claim that the same fault of there being no difference between the two would apply to the Madhyamikas, who assert that the innately abiding disposition and the developmental disposition are other names for what becomes the truth body of an enlightened being.
      The Madhyamikas answer that the fault does not apply to them because the innately abiding disposition is another name for the reality of the mind, which will eventually be the nature body of an enlightened being while the developmental disposition is the cause of the wisdom truth body. They argue that the seed for uncontaminated wisdom cannot be the innately abiding disposition because according to the proponents of true existence this seed is a product which comes into existence through causes and conditions. The Madhyamikas assert that the innately abiding disposition—the clear and cognizant nature of the mind—is a non-product whereas the developmental disposition is a product, so there is a fundamental difference between these two aspects of the disposition.
      The presentation of Buddha nature according to Maitreya's Sublime Continuum consists of a concise explanation of the topic, its elaboration and the reasons for explaining Buddha nature. The Sublime Continuum presents seven topics or sources of the adamantine.[4] Sources here refer to the collection of syllables, composing words and phrases that act as a source or basis for the elucidation, revelation and understanding of the seven adamantine topics.
      They are said to be adamantine because they are impenetrable and cannot be understood exactly as they are by an understanding derived from hearing and thinking about them. Words cannot fully express them. Nor can conceptual thought completely comprehend them in the way that they are experienced during the meditative equipoise of an exalted one directly perceiving their emptiness or as they are understood by such a one in the period which follows that meditative equipoise.
      The first three are the three objects of refuge: the jewel of the Buddhas, the jewel of the teachings and the jewel of the spiritual community. The fourth topic is the constituent,[5] which here refers to Buddha nature; the fifth is enlightenment; the sixth is qualities, and the seventh is enlightened activity.[6] The first three are the result which is only possible through the presence of Buddha nature, the disposition for enlightenment.
      The Sublime Continuum mentions what is said in the Essence of Those Thus Gone Sutra, namely that all embodied beings have the essence of Those Thus Gone, which is to say that they always have Buddha nature. The Sublime Continuum says

Because the fully enlightened body emanates,
And because suchness is undifferentiated,
And because they have the disposition, all the embodied
Always have the essence of Buddhahood.[7]

      The three ways in which they have the essence of Those Thus Gone, also referred to as the constituent essence of Those Gone to Bliss,[8] are that they share receptivity to enlightened activity, that they have the same fundamental nature and that the disposition is present in them. The first is their receptivity to the enlightened activity which emanates from the truth body. The enlightened activity here refers to virtue. There is no living being who has never created any virtue. To create virtue one must have the potential to do so. This potential is the disposition, the essence of Those Gone to Bliss. All living beings have at some time been born as human or celestial beings, so they have been receptive to the enlightened activity which is a cause for high status, namely the happiness experienced in a good rebirth. They also have the potential to receive the enlightened activity which leads to liberation or enlightenment, states referred to as definite goodness.[9]       The second way in which all living beings have the disposition or Buddha nature is as follows: the fundamental nature or reality of the minds of ordinary beings cannot be differentiated from the fundamental nature of an enlightened being's mind. The reality of the mind with stains is the constituent which is the essence of Those Gone to Bliss. When it is the fundamental nature of the unstained mind of a Buddha, it is the nature body. Here the disposition is considered from the point of view of its nature. Of course, it is possible to differentiate between our minds and the mind of an enlightened being but not from the point of view of their fundamental nature.
      The conventional nature of the mind is its clarity and cognizance. The stains are not an integral part even of the mind's conventional nature. Is there a difference between saying that the mind is not affected by stains and claiming that the nature of the mind is not affected by stains? At present our minds are definitely affected by stains, namely by the disturbing emotions and their imprints. However, if the nature of our minds were affected by these stains, we would never be able to get rid of them by applying their antidotes. For instance, if anger were integral to the mind's nature, we could never hope to become more patient. And further, if anger were a part of our minds, we would be getting rid of our minds at the same time that we rid ourselves of anger.
      The disturbing attitudes and emotions along with their imprints prevent us from seeing both the clear light conventional and ultimate nature of our minds. Exalted beings see the reality of the mind in meditative equipoise, but during the subsequent period the ultimate clear light nature of the mind is again obscured. This continues to be so until one attains enlightenment. The conventional clear light nature of the mind, namely its clarity and cognizant nature, is seen by exalted beings in the period subsequent to meditative equipoise on the ultimate clear light nature of the mind. This conventional clear light nature of the mind can be perceived when the flow of thoughts which hides it is interrupted and discursive thought dies down. Even this state is difficult to achieve.
      The third way in which all living beings have the essence of Those Gone to Bliss is that the disposition is present in all of them. Their innately abiding disposition eventually becomes the nature body of an enlightened being and their developmental disposition, the seed for uncontaminated mind, becomes the bodies of an enlightened being, which are products, namely their wisdom truth body, their enjoyment body and their emanation body.
      When we refer to the innately abiding disposition, we are emphasizing the potential living beings have for enlightenment. When we speak about the reality of the mind with stains, we are referring to the same thing but describing its nature. This presentation of the essence of Those Gone to Bliss indicates to us that we have the complete potential for attaining the truth and form bodies of a fully enlightened being.
      Some Tibetan commentators have said that both the mind's reality and its clear and cognizant nature constitute the innately abiding disposition and that the reality of the mind with stains becomes the nature body of an enlightened being while the clear and cognizant nature becomes the wisdom truth body. Vimuktisena in his Illumination of the Twenty Thousand,[10] which is a commentary on the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Twenty-five Thousand Verses and Maitreya's Ornament for Clear Realization, explicitly states that only the suchness of the mind with stains is the innately abiding disposition which becomes the nature body of an enlightened being.
      If the mind's clarity and cognizance were also the innately abiding disposition, this would conflict with the Madhyamika refutation of the Chittamatrin assertion that the innately abiding disposition is the seed of uncontaminated mind and that it and the developmental dispositions are both products. The Madhyamika refutation was based on the fact that there would be no difference between the two. If the clear and cognizant nature of the mind were also the innately abiding disposition, it would, when freed from temporary stains, become the nature body of an enlightened being, which would then necessarily be a product. But the nature body is not a product—something produced as a result of causes and conditions.
      In the Sublime Continuum there are ten points which directly indicate the clear light nature of our minds and indirectly demonstrate that the stains are temporary. These ten are followed by nine examples illustrating nine points that directly show the temporary nature of our mental obstructions and indirectly indicate the clear light nature of our minds. In fact these two emphasize the same point through affirming different aspects. The ten points in brief are

Identity, causes, effect, function, possession,
Engagement, phases, pervasion, immutability,
And lack of distinction—these are said to be
What is meant by the ultimate sphere.[11]

      The ultimate sphere is the essence of Those Thus Gone. Establishing the clear light nature of the mind, which here refers particularly to its lack of inherent existence, is of supreme importance. The most fundamental of the stains[12] is the conception of inherent existence, which is a distorted perception. If the mind were not empty of inherent existence, then the conception of inherent existence would not be a wrong cognition[13] but would be a perception in accordance with fact and therefore could never be and would not need to be removed.
      This explanation of the mind's clear light nature is based upon a sutra passage saying, "Monks, the mind is not a mind [which is inherently existent]. The nature of the mind is clear light."[14]
      The first of the points, identity,[15] concerns the identification of the clear light nature of the mind in terms of the three points mentioned earlier, namely that all beings possess the potential to receive the enlightened activity of the wisdom truth body, which is compared to a jewel of great power that can fulfill all wishes. All beings have the potential to attain the wisdom truth body themselves.
      There is no difference between the suchness of the mind with stains and the suchness of an enlightened being's mind. Just as space, wherever it is, is a mere absence of obstruction, the suchness of the mind is its mere absence of inherent existence.
      All living beings have the disposition for enlightenment. The innately abiding disposition and the developmental disposition eventually become the nature and other bodies of an enlightened being. The developmental disposition is the seed of uncontaminated mind and holds the moisture of compassion for all living beings, through which the seed will germinate and produce its seedling.
      We cannot point to any living being and say we have never felt compassion for this one because they all, at one time or another, have been in very close relationships with us as our fathers, mothers, partners, siblings and children, and at those times we have had compassion for them. They, too, have all had compassion for us. This means we have the potential for compassion but not that we already have the great compassion which embraces all beings. Our anger at present makes this impossible, and we are not yet equipped with strong enough antidotes to combat it. However, that potential will eventually act as the main cause for the development of great compassion.
      Even when we have developed compassion that extends to all living beings, the seed for uncontaminated states of mind is still present and active because our compassion has not yet reached perfection and will only do so when we attain enlightenment. Love, compassion, the imprints created by hearing, thinking and meditating and the mind with stains itself are all examples of the developmental disposition. Its emptiness of intrinsic existence is the innately abiding disposition.
      The second of the ten points, causes,[16] here refers to the causes for purifying the suchness of its stains and for the development of the disposition to the highest perfection, the truth body.[17] They are belief, uncontaminated wisdom, meditative stabilization and great compassion.
      The suchness of our minds is always present but hidden from us by the stains, and we can only see it when these stains have been removed. We therefore speak of suchness with stains.[18] This is compared to an eye with faulty vision which does not see a distant but clearly visible object. The fault does not lie with the object but with the eye. An objection might be raised that the stains prevent us from seeing the truth body and that one could by the same logic call it the truth body with stains. However, this is not so because the stains that prevent its perception are not in the continuum of the one who possesses the truth body. If the mind did not have a clear light nature and if the stains were an integral part of it, the mind could never be purified of them just as coal, no matter how long one washes it, will never become white.
      The faith of aspiration which comes from belief in or strong admiration for the Mahayana teachings is likened to a seed that leads to the development of the spirit of enlightenment. A Bodhisattva's training in uncontaminated wisdom, specifically the understanding of the fundamental nature of things, is compared to a mother because it gives birth to the Foe Destroyers of the three vehicles. The training in meditative stabilization is likened to the mother's womb. Just as the womb holds the child in a stable environment, concentration creates mental stability. Great compassion is compared to a wet nurse who suckles and nurtures the child. In his Supplement to the Middle Way, Chandrakirti[19] lays emphasis on its importance at the beginning, intermediately and at the end:

Compassion alone is seen as the seed
Of a Victor's rich harvest,
As water for its growth, and as its ripening
Into a source of usefulness.
And so, first, I pay homage to compassion.

      The causes mentioned, such as belief, do not produce the disposition or Buddha nature, but they purify the mental stains and enable the flowering of our Buddha nature. Without the initial fervent belief in the teachings of the Great Vehicle, it is impossible to develop great compassion or the combination of calm abiding and special insight which is unique to that vehicle.
      The third of these points, the effect,[20] refers to the fact that the result of this purification and development is the truth body of an enlightened one. The Sublime Continuum only mentions three bodies of a Buddha—the truth body and the two form bodies. The truth body is utterly beyond all misperceptions that what is unclean is clean, what is painful is pleasurable, what is impermanent is permanent and what is empty of a self has a self.[21] The first noble truth, true suffering has four features: impermanence, painfulness, uncleanness and selflessness. Understanding these features enables one to overcome the misperceptions.
      The truth body of Those Thus Gone or tathagatas is perfect purity because it is free from the natural stains of true existence and because all the imprints of the disturbing attitudes and emotions have been eliminated and brought to an end. It is a perfect excellent self because the non-existence of a self of persons, as attributed by non-Buddhists, and the lack of true existence of that selflessness have been understood directly in a way that pacifies all elaborations of duality, namely appearances of true existence, and prevents them from ever recurring.
      The truth body of an enlightened one is perfect bliss. At present our bodies are the result of contaminated actions underlain by the disturbing emotions. Much more subtle than this is the mental body of an exalted one, the result of both non-deluded ignorance—meaning the subtle traces of ignorance, which remain and act as obstructions to knowledge of all phenomena—and uncontaminated actions motivated by these imprints of ignorance. The truth body of Those Thus Gone transcends even this mental body and is therefore perfected well-being and bliss. It is perfect permanence in the sense of total stability because of the ultimate understanding that both cyclic existence and nirvana are empty of inherent existence and because of ultimate freedom from the extremes of worldly existence and personal peace.
      The misperceptions that what is unclean is clean, what is painful is pleasurable, what is impermanent is permanent and what is empty of a self has a self are distortions with regard to the conventional nature of things. To get rid of them we need to understand well the four features of the first noble truth, which are diametrically opposed to these misconceptions. Recognizing the body's impermanence, its disintegrating nature and how it is governed by other factors helps us to overcome the idea that the body is clean. Understanding its painful nature counteracts our sense of the body as a source of pleasure. Understanding emptiness is an antidote to conceptions of the self as a permanent, partless, independent entity while recognizing its selflessness is an antidote to the conception of the self as a substantially existent self-sufficient entity. In this context misconception in relation to the ultimate consists of thinking that impermanence, painfulness, uncleanness and selflessness have true existence. The selflessness referred to here is a coarse level. When subtle selflessness has been understood, there is no danger that it could be construed as truly existent.
      The four factors of belief, wisdom, meditative stabilization and great compassion, mentioned in the context of the second of the ten points, also act as opponents to these misperceptions. A strong belief in the Mahayana teachings counters any dislike for them and a liking for the unclean nature of cyclic existence and thus leads to perfect purity. Wisdom understanding the nature of reality counters attachment to diverse wrong views of the self and leads to the perfected excellent self of the truth body as mentioned above. Meditative stabilization leads to perfect bliss derived from total concentration. Great compassion leads to perfect permanence because through extensive familiarity with compassion there is an uninterrupted constant flow of it for all living beings.

  1. Dharmadhātustotra, Chos kyi gbyings su bstod pa, P2010, Vol.46. The Indian master Nagarjuna (Klu sgrub, first to second century) was the trailblazer who established the Madhyamika or Middle Way system of philosophical tenets which propound that while nothing has true existence, the conventional existence of actions and agents is feasible. His most famous work, the Treatise on the Middle Way (Madhyamakaśāstra, dBu ma'i bstan bcos, P5224, Vol.95), also called Fundamental Wisdom (rTsa ba shes rab), is a work in twenty-seven chapters which presents the explicit content of the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. Employing a wide variety of approaches and lines of reasoning, it emphasizes dependent arising and explains the paths of insight related to the understanding of emptiness.
  2. rin chen nam mkha' chu dag bzhin // rtag tu rang bzhin nyon mongs med
  3. The reality of the mind with stains: dri ma dang bcas pa'i sems kyi chos nyid, the suchness of the mind with stains: dri ma dang bcas pa'i sems kyi de bzhin nyid
  4. Sources of the adamantine: rdo rje'i gnas
  5. The constituent: khams
  6. The seven vajra topics are: the enlightened ones (sangs rgyas), the teachings (chos), the spiritual community (dge 'dun), the constituent, (khams) which refers to Buddha nature, enlightenment (byang chub), qualities (yon tan) and enlightened activity (phrin las).
  7. rdzogs sangs sku'i ni 'phro phyir dang // de bzhin nyid dbyer med phyir dang // rigs yod phyir na lus can kun // rtags tu sang rgyas snyingpo can
  8. The essence of Those Thus Gone: de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po; the constituent which is the essence of Those Gone to Bliss: khams bde bar gshegs pa'i snying po
  9. High status: mngon mtho; definite goodness: nges legs
  10. The Indian master Arya Vimuktisena ('Phags pa rNam grol sde) is reputed to have been one of the last disciples of Vasubandhu who lived in the fourth century. He was a great teacher of the Perfection of Wisdom sutras and thousands of fully ordained monks attended his teachings. He became head of twenty-four monasteries in the east of India. His two commentaries on the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Twenty-five Thousand Verses are generally referred to as Illuminating the Twenty Thousand (Nyi khri snang ba) in Tibetan. They are Pañcavimśatisahasrikā prajñāpāramitopadeśa śāstrābhisamayālaṃkāravṛtti (Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu Inga pa'i men ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa'i rgyan gyi 'grel pa, P5185, Vol.88) and Pañcavimśatisahasrikā prajñāpāramitopadeśa śāstrābhisamayālaṃkāra kārikāvārtikka (Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa stong phrag nyi shu Inga pa'i men ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa'i rgyan gyi tshig le'ur byas pa'i rnam par 'grel pa, P5186, Vol.88).
  11. ngo bo rgyu 'bras las Idan 'jug pa dang // gnas skabs de bzhin kun tu 'gros ba'i don // rtag tu mi 'gyur yon tan dbyer med ni // don dam dbying kyi gongs don yin zhes bya
  12. The final or ultimate stain: dri ma mthar thug
  13. A wrong cognition: log shes
  14. dge slong dag sems la sems ma mchis te sems kyi rang bzhin 'od gsal ba'o
  15. Identity: ngo bo'i don
  16. Causes: rgyu'i don
  17. Causes for purifying the suchness of stains and for the development of the disposition to the highest perfection, the truth body: de bzhin nyid dri mas rnam par dag pa'i gyu dang rigs yongs su sbyangs ba'i chos sku
  18. Suchness with stains: dri ma dang bcas pa'i de bzhin nyid
  19. The Indian master Chandrakirti (Zla ba grags pa) was one of the main spiritual heirs of Nagarjuna, whose works on sutra and tantra he elucidated and propagated. He lived in the monastic university of Nalanda during the seventh century and was an accomplished practitioner. His Supplement to the Middle Way (Madhyamakāvatāra, dBu ma la 'jug pa, P5261, P5262, Vol. 98) is a commentary on Nagarjuna's Treatise on the Middle Way, which it supplements by explaining the extensive aspect of the path, the practice of skillful means. The subject-matter of the Supplement is presented in terms of the ten Bodhisattva stages. For a translation of the first five chapters, see Jeffrey Hopkins, Compassion in Tibetan Buddhism (London: Rider, 1980; rpt. Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1985) and for a translation and extensive explanation of seven verses of the sixth chapter, see Anne Klein, Path to the Middle (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994).
  20. Effect: 'bras bu'i don
  21. Gone beyond cleanness, pleasurableness, permanence and selfhood: gtsang bde rtag dag gi pha rol tu phyin pa
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