Buddha nature is hidden below the layers of mental afflictions. It’s a subtractive process to discover it, we don’t have to add anything to be able to create it.
Ācārya Dharmakīrti
Acharya Dharmakirti — from Nalanda — wrote a foundational text Pramāṇavārttika (Commentary on Valid Cognition), a very strong logical argument on reincarnation.
The true nature of the mind is clear light; The mental stains are not true nature, removable, not forever.
Metaphor: Pot Covering Light
Those would be askin to being in a dark room with a source of light covered by a pot.
By piercing a hole in the pot a ray shoots out and reveals us what surrounds us. By cracking it entirely would produce an omnidirectional flow, nothing stopping it or obsuring some if its paths.
Sometimes — when this light is given way — we get glimpses that connect us to this undisturbed feeling of peaceful expanse: when seeing our child, a sunset, and so forth.
If you spring back to the disturbed feeling again, then, the pot has not really been cracked, but instead it’s more like a string pulled it temporarily.
Subtracting Non-Nature Does Not Affect Nature
The example was given of sewage water and wheather we would drink from it when being extremely thirsty. Nobody would: it’s dirty and dangerous. But if it underwent reverse osmosis and various filtering processes Would you then drink it? It was water first and it’s still water now, what changed?
On the other hand we have a golden object. Now the atoms that conform them get altered (inserting protons). The object is still valuable? Is it gold?
Those examples illustrate the difference when a process changes or alters the foundational nature of the object. In the first one it left it untouched, the nature of water remains, simply the extra elements that weren’t beneficial were excluded. But the second we changed the nature of the object directly.
Our mind is like the first case, pue Buddha nature remains, and the mental defilements is what might render us negative.
Question: With the second example I get confused because it might be used to justify the nature of things such as Buddha nature can be altered?
Goals and Obscurations
Goals and Obscurations
In relation to discovering Buddha nature and achieving full potential we set some goals, which get affected by obscurations.
Goal Obscuration To attain fearlessness (Nirvana; partial awakening) Afflictive obscurations To expand happiness to infinity* (Buddhahood; full awakening) Cognitive obscurations * Attaining the second one implies automatically having achieved the first — not the other way around.
DANGER
Don’t impose the meaning you know on this course.
In Mahayana attaining total fearlessness does not bring you ultimate happiness and the following example has been used to illustrate this:
Imagine a conference with the greatest physics PhD students, they are waiting for the speaker to conduct a masterclass. Two different profiles can execute that role:
- Average teacher. Will probably feel some degree of nervousness.
- Albert Einstein. Despite being an expert and not being nervous might feel bored, unstimulated.
Not being controlled by disturbing emotions does not mean you will feel ease.
3 Afflictive Obscurations
Afflictive obscuration Description Contaminated karmas Karma* driven by afflictions Afflition Mental factor the presence of which disturbs the mind Active seeds** of the first 2 Causes that produce the potential to develop them * any action we involve in with body, speech or mind
**2 kinds of seeds: one that’s spoiled (inactive seed); one that’s healthy (active seed).
The worst of the afflictions is ignorance — self-grasping ignorance, it stops you from having the vision of reality. Just like darkness don’t allow to know the place where we are, by light we dispel it. By light! Not by prayer!
Only by giving teaching ignorance can be removed and light of wisdom can activate.
Cognitive Obscurations
They operate on a subtler level than the afflictive obscurations.
The afflictive obscuration would be the solid garlic that someone is chewing which produces the bad mouth smell, and the cognitive obscuration would be the after effect that would remain after that person removed it and brushed his/her mouth: a subtle smell that still remains…
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Remedy Must Match Nature of Defilement
There’s no one-fixes-it-all solution.
Example: Dirty Handkerchief
A person has a beautiful handkerchief. It falls in the ground. Now it’s stained. It affects the owner, now he is sad. But someone grabs it, washes it in water and looks like new, so the owner is happy again.
Another time the handkerchief falls again. It’s stained again. The owner tries washing it without success. What happens?
The answer to that example is clear: the second time it falls the stain might be different, in that case grease. So water can’t fix it, it needs a special detergent.