The Great Calm Observation, Volume 2, Part 2, Page 2

 iii. The Thinking Mind, and Calm-Observation:

The Sutra bids one to reflect, and one reflects upon the Maha Tantra Dharani - this translates as the Great Secret Essence, which intercepts evil and embraces good. The secret essence is the True Spiritual Aspect of Reality, the Middle Way, and the True Emptiness.

The Sutra says:
"I come from the absolute reality within."

The absolute reality is the aspect of serene extinction. In the aspect of serene extinction there is nothing that is to be sought. Those that seek are also empty of self. Those that are seeking to attain something, those that are clinging to it, those that reason that it is real or that it comes and goes, and those that speak of it or question it are all completely empty in the serene extinction that is Nirvana, which itself is also empty. All of the individual realms of empty space are empty as well. This is the first meditation, on emptiness.

I therefore seek enlightenment in the midst of that in which there is nothing to seek. Like this, the emptiness of emptiness is the law of absolute spiritual reality. So how does one properly seek it? One seeks it in the Six Paramitas¹. This is the second meditation, on that which is temporary.

This is the same as the idea of the eighteen-fold emptiness in The Long Chapter². And the emptiness of the city of Kapilavastu in the Great Nirvana Sutra³, the emptiness of the The One That Has Come, and the emptiness of the Great Nirvana are no different. Because of the insight of emptiness, one is not without observation of it in all things.

• The Universal Way⁴ - Some speak of this by indicating its broadness or its equality. Now we speak of the way as being the teaching. With Prajna there are the four ways to the spiitual reality, which are the fours doors for entering into the clear and cool pool⁵. These are the Ways. Being committed to the principle that is the Great Insight of Equality⁶, it is Universal.
• In making one seek The King of Dreams, there are the preliminary methods of making one observe duality⁷.
• The Sanctuary of Enlightenment⁸ is the Sphere that is the Realm of Spiritual Purity. By clearing away the chaff that is the five conditions of delusion⁹, one reveals the kernel that is the True Spiritual Aspect of Reality¹⁰. This is also concentration and insight being used to adorn the Spiritual Body¹¹.
• The Fragrant Paint is the Supreme Sila¹²
• The Five-Colored Canopy represents observing the five aggregates of self¹³, escaping from its fetters, and raising up the great mercy and compassion that covers the Spiritual Realm¹⁴.
• The Circular Altar is the unchanging ground that is the True Spiritual Aspect of Reality.
• The Silken Banners represent the confusions that fly over the Spiritual Realm being toppled and transformed into the understandings that arouse and liberate. With the banners and the altar being inseparable, so the aspects of arousing and liberating and not arousing and liberating are inseparable¹⁵.
• The Fragrances and the Lamps represent morality and spiritual insight.
• The High Throne represents the emptiness of all things. The Buddhas everywhere abide in this emptiness.
• The 24 Images represent observation of the twelve-fold wheel of causality and conditions¹⁶, both forwards and backwards. This is the wisdom of awakened understanding.
• The Offerings of Food and Drink represent the vinegar of impermanence and suffering, which helps support the path of observation.
• The Newly Cleaned Clothes represent the endurance of extinction. Anger and confusion accumulate and become heavy. In changing the anger that has arisen, one speaks of one's endurance being renewed.
• The Seven Days represents the Seven Branches of Spiritual Awakening¹⁷.
• The One Day represents the One Spiritual True Reality.
• The Three Baths represents observing the One Spiritual Reality and:
       Cultivating the Three Observations¹⁸
         Conquering the Three Obstacles¹⁹ and
          Purifying the Three Wisdoms²⁰

• The One Master is the One True Spiritual Reality.
• The 24 Precepts are observing the twelve-fold wheel  of causality and conditions backwards and forwards, and inspiring the corresponding precepts.
• The Spells are connected to them and respond to them. The Sutra on the Bodhisattva's Necklace clarifies ten readings of the twelvefold wheel of causality and conditions so that there are 120 branches in all²¹. For each branch there is a Dharani Spell. These 120 are generally grouped into three parts which are in a cycle that is:
         Suffering, which is the effect
         Karmic deeds, which is the cause
         Emotional distress

Now, in chanting the spells for these 120 links of causality, it is identical with chanting the spells for the three parts of the cycle, and so in discoursing on the confessions:

• The Practice of Confession is confessing in terms of karmic deeds and sufferings.
• The Principle of Confession is confessing in terms of emotional distress.

The Sutra on the Dharani of the Universal Way says:
"Whether one has violated the precepts of the Sramanera or those of the fully initiated Bhiksu²², by practicing this it is impossible for them not to be born again into the path of enlightenment.
This is the confession of karmic deeds.

"The eyes, the ears, and all the senses are purified."
This is the confession of suffering.

"On the seventh day one will see the Buddhas of the Ten Directions and, upon hearing the teaching, one will attain the stage of no retreat."
This is the confession of emotional distress.

The three obstacles disappear, and the tree of the twelvefold wheel of causality and conditions is toppled. This is called emptying the house of the five aggregates of self²³. Upon considering the True Spiritual Aspect of Reality and properly breaking the threefold cycle of karmic deeds, suffering, and emotional distress, it is called The True Confession of the Buddhas.

2. Encouraging its Cultivation

The Buddhas have attained the Path of Enlightenment because of this Teaching. It is the father and mother of the Buddhas, and the supreme treasure of the world. If one is able to practice it, one will attain the whole treasure. In only being able to read and chant it, one will attain a middling portion of the treasure. In scattering flowers, burning incense, and offering service to it, one will attain a lesser portion of treasure. In this Sutra, the Buddha and Manjusri taught that even the lesser portion of the treasure was unfathomable. How much more so are the middling and higher portions!

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Footnotes:

 1. The Six Paramitas: The Bodhisattva perfections: #1 Generosity (Dana) #2 Morality (Sila) #3 Endurance or Forbearance (Ksanti) #4 Diligence (Virya) #5 Meditation (Dhyana) #6 Spiritual Insight (Prajna)

2. The eighteen-fold emptiness in The Long Chapter: (from the Pancavimsati, the Long Chapter of the Maha Prajna Paramita Sutra) Emptiness that is: #1 internal #2 external #3 internal & external #4 the emptiness of emptiness #5 the great emptiness, #6 of the highest significance, #7 conditional #8 unconditional #9 ultimate #10 without beginning #11 analyzed (in parts) #12 of nature #13 of the self #14 of all elements of existence (dharmas) #15 unattainable #16 of nonexistence #17 of existence #18 of nonexistence and existence

3. The emptiness of the city of Kapilavastu: In the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, Ananda grieves for the demise of the city, which is the home of Sakyamuni, Ananda, and their clan (the Sakyas). The Buddha told him not to grieve as all things are empty, and the city does not really exist. The substantial self-existence of all things is only for those with attachments to the world.

4. The Universal Way: (S. Vaipulya) Broadly and equally applying to all, another name for the Great Vehicle

5. The Four Doors: The tetralemma, the methodology used for refuting conceptual thinking about that which is inconceivable, as in spiritual reality being
#1 Existent
#2 Nonexistent
#3 Both Existent & Nonexistent
#4 Neither Existent Nor Without Existence
The image of the ‘four doors for entering into the clear and cool pool’ comes from The Long Chapter of the Maha Prajna Paramita Sutra (S. Pancavimsati)

6. The Great Insight of Equality: The insight of equanimity or impartiality

7. The preliminary method: The confessional rituals Making one observe duality: The duality of good & evil, the absolute & the mundane, emptiness and that which is temporary

8. The Sanctuary of Enlightenment: The Bodhimandala

9. The five conditions of delusion:
#1 Delusions common to the three realms,
#2 - #4 Those caused by attachments to the realms of #2 desire #3 form, & #4 formlessness, and
#5 fundamental ignorance

10. The True Spiritual Aspect of Reality: The perfect blending of the three truths and the middle way; the true understanding of reality, of the absolute in the mundane, the divine in the ordinary.

11. Concentration and insight being used to adorn the Spiritual Body: Concentration (Samadhi) derives from Calm, Insight (Prajna) derives from Observation; when they are in perfect accord there is the middle way and Spiritual Body (S. Dharmakaya), the Body of Spiritual Truth which illuminates and teaches

12. Sila: The precepts of morality

13. The Five Aggregates of Self: Whose continuity produce the illusion of self-existence #1 Physical Form (the Body) #2 Acts of Will #3 Sensory Perception (Feelings) #4 Thoughts #5 Consciousness

14. The Spiritual Realm: (S. Dharmadhatu) The spiritual world that pervades life everywhere, from the depths of hell up to the supreme enlightenment.

15. Arousing and liberating: When joined together, the confusion arouses and the understanding liberates. As there is emotional distress (confusion), so there is Bodhi (understanding). There cannot be understanding without there first being confusion.

16. The twelve-fold wheel of causality and conditions:  The origination of suffering – the ignorant desire of the self, in a cycle of twelve links

17. The Seven Branches of Awakening: #1 selectivity/application of thought #2 diligence or sustained observation #3 joy and contentment #4 renunciation and emancipation #5 mindfulness or presence of mind #6 concentration #7 equanimity, See the 37 facets of spiritual awakening

18. Three Observations: #1 emptiness #2 that which is temporary #3 the mean

19. The Three Obstacles: #1 emotional distress #2 karmic actions (as the cause) #3 suffering (as the effect)

20. The Three Wisdoms: #1 The wisdom of all #2 The wisdom of various kinds #3 The wisdom of all kinds

21. The 120 Branches: The Necklace Sutra explains the twelve-fold cycle of causality & conditions on ten levels:
#1 The Self or Ego
#2 The Mind
#3 Ignorance
#4 The links depending upon each other to arise
#5 The links supporting each other’s actualization
#6 The body, the mouth & the thinking mind
#7 The past, present & future
#8 The three kinds of suffering; direct suffering, loss or deprivation, passing away or impermanence
#9 Emptiness
#10 Dependent origination

22. The Sramanera: The novice, the novitiate The fully initiated Bhiksu: The monk

23. The House of the Five Aggregates of Self: The five aggregates (S. Skandhas) are the constituents whose continuity produce the illusion of the false self or ego #1 Physical Form (the Body) #2 Acts of Will #3 Sensory Perception (Feelings) #4 Thoughts #5 Consciousness

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