The Middle-Length Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment

Tsongkhapa, Philip Quarcoo

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781614294436
• eBook ISBN: 9781614294597
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Buddhism

The first complete English translation of renowned scholar-saintTsongkhapa's Middle-Length Treatise on the Stages of the Path. Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), the author of the well-known Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment and the teacher of the First Dalai Lama, is renowned as one of the greatest scholar-saints that Tibet has ever produced. A dozen years after writing the Great Treatise, he wrote the Middle-Length Treatise on the Stages of the Path, presented here in its first complete English translation. Half the length of the well-known Great Treatise, this work similarly presents a systematic overview of the Buddhist path. Tsongkhapa begins by abridging the longer work, distilling its explanations for quicker integration. He presents a series of meditations, beginning with recognizing the rarity of our human existence and the great opportunities it affords, followed by reflections on impermanence, suffering, and the promise of liberation from our past actions, until proceeding to the path of bodhisattvas, whose universal compassion seeks to free every being from suffering. Tsongkhapa gives especially detailed instructions on samatha, the deep meditative concentration that is a precondition for the highest insight into the nature of reality. The final and largest section, on that very insight, is unique to this work, particularly Tsongkhapa's presentation of conventional truth and ultimate truth. Those new to Tibetan Buddhist teachings will benefit from the approachable style of this classic handbook for enlightenment, and beginners and longtime practitioners alike will cherish the clear guidance from one of Tibet's great luminaries.

Meditative Stabilization and Wisdom

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Śamatha and Special Insight

HOW TO TRAIN IN THE LAST TWO PERFECTIONS IN PARTICULAR

TRAINING IN THE last two perfections in particular consists in methods for cultivating śamatha and special insight because those two are included, respectively, in the perfections of meditative stabilization and wisdom. This has six points: the benefits of cultivating śamatha and special insight, demonstrating that these two include all concentrations, the nature of śamatha and special insight, the reason both need to be cultivated, how their order is definite, and how to train in each of them.

THE BENEFITS OF CULTIVATING ŚAMATHA AND SPECIAL INSIGHT

The Unraveling the Intent Sūtra teaches that all the mundane and supramundane excellent qualities of the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna are results of śamatha and special insight. Someone might wonder, “Aren’t śamatha and special insight excellent qualities of a mind that has attained a meditative state? How is it possible that all those excellent qualities result from those two?” Actual śamatha and special insight are indeed excellent qualities of the mind that has attained a meditative state, as explained below. Therefore not all the excellent qualities of the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna are results of the two. Nevertheless, all the concentrations that include a single-pointed mind placed on a virtuous object are included in the category of śamatha, and all the virtuous wisdom minds that individually distinguish the ultimate mode of being from things in their variety are included in the category of special insight. It is with that intended meaning [179] that all the excellent qualities of the three vehicles are said to be results of śamatha and special insight. Hence there is no contradiction.

The Unraveling the Intent Sūtra also says:

After beings have cultivated

special insight and śamatha,

they gain complete liberation from

the bondage of negative tendencies and signs.

The meaning of this verse is that “negative tendencies” are the imprints that remain in the mindstream and are capable of generating increasingly erroneous subjective states, while “signs” activate the imprints for perpetual attachments to erroneous objects. Instructions on the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitopadeśa) explains that the former are eliminated through special insight and the latter through śamatha. Although those are the benefits of what are known as śamatha and special insight, statements on the benefits of meditative stabilization and wisdom should also be understood as the benefits of these two. They have the same meaning even though they are not called śamatha and special insight.

DEMONSTRATING THAT THESE TWO INCLUDE ALL CONCENTRATIONS

The Unraveling the Intent Sūtra says that all the limitless concentrations proclaimed in the Mahāyāna and the Hīnayāna are subsumed under śamatha and special insight. Therefore, since those who strive in concentration cannot investigate all its limitless manifestations, they should thoroughly investigate how to practice the epitome of all concentrations, śamatha and special insight.

THE NATURE OF ŚAMATHA AND SPECIAL INSIGHT

The nature of śamatha is set forth in the Unraveling the Intent Sūtra:

Dwelling alone in solitude, you settle the mind within and attend to those very phenomena you have been reflecting on just as they are. Whatever mind it may be, since that mind of attention is continuously directed inward, it is called attention. Repeatedly placing it in this way, it becomes stable, and when physical and mental pliancy arise, this is called śamatha.

The meaning of this is that if the mind attends to it continuously without distraction and stays on the object by itself so that the bliss and joy of physical and mental pliancy arises, the concentration becomes śamatha. This will arise from merely keeping the mind inwardly focused on its object of visualization without distraction; it does not depend on comprehending ultimate reality. [180]

The nature of special insight is set forth in the same sūtra:

After achieving physical and mental pliancy, you abide in that state and eliminate other aspects of mind. With strong resolution you finely investigate the very phenomena you have been reflecting on just as they are, the object of concentration being an internal image. Thus, with regard to the images that are the objects of your concentration, any differentiation of the meaning of those objects to be known, any thorough differentiation, full investigation, full analysis, forbearance, acceptance, classification, viewing, and conceptualization is called special insight. In that way the bodhisattva is skilled in special insight.

Here, “differentiation” is a differentiation of things in their variety, and “thorough differentiation” is a differentiation of the ultimate mode of being. “Investigation” is a coarse investigation, and “analysis” is a subtle analysis. The Cloud of Jewels of Sūtra says:

Śamatha is a one-pointed mind;

special insight is fine investigation.

Venerable Maitreya also says [in Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras 14.8]:

Distilling words about phenomena¹⁰⁷

should be known as the path of śamatha,

while a full analysis of their meanings

should be known as the path of special insight.

And (18.66):

In reliance on proper stability,

śamatha and special insight

serve to place the mind on mind

and thoroughly differentiate phenomena.

This says that placing the mind in reliance on correct concentration is known as śamatha, and the wisdom thoroughly differentiating phenomena is known as special insight. Bodhisattva Levels presents it just like that, and the second Stages of Meditation also says:

Once distraction toward external things has been pacified, resting with joy and pliancy within the mind itself, continuously and naturally engaging its internal object, is called śamatha. At the time of abiding in that śamatha, any thorough analysis of suchness is known as special insight. [181]

Instructions on the Perfection of Wisdom explains this in the same way.

According to Bodhisattva Levels and Instructions on the Perfection of Wisdom, śamatha and special insight can each have both the ultimate mode of being and things in their variety as its object. Therefore śamatha and special insight are not differentiated by way of their objects. There is śamatha that realizes emptiness, and there is also special insight that does not realize emptiness. Also, when the scattering to external objects has been pacified and the mind abides on an internal object, this is called śamatha, whereas seeing something special or superior is called special insight.

Some claim that the mind abiding nonconceptually without a vibrant clarity of cognition is śamatha whereas if it does have a vibrant clarity it is special insight. But this is not correct because it contradicts everything explained above and because this distinction is merely the distinction between concentration with or without laxity. This is also because every concentration of śamatha must definitely be free of laxity, and in every concentration that is free from laxity, clarity of the mind will definitely arise.

Thus to identify whether a mind is a concentration or a wisdom that observes emptiness, you must check whether that mind realizes either of the two selflessnesses. This is because there are countless nonconceptual concentrations of bliss and clarity in which the mind is not directed at the ultimate nature of an object. It is established by direct perception that it is possible for a mind to apprehend without discursive thought but not find the view that realizes the ultimate mode of being. Therefore there is not the slightest contradiction in the arising of nonconceptual concentrations that do not understand emptiness. From that point of view, when the mind is held for a long time, the power of the mind being so held gives rise to serviceable winds. Bliss at that time is not precluded because when the serviceable winds arise, it is natural for bliss and joy to arise in the body and the mind. Once that has arisen, the power of one’s clear sensation of bliss and joy produces clarity in the mind. Therefore you cannot posit that all blissful, clear, nonconceptual concentrations realize suchness. Consequently, since bliss, clarity, and nonconceptuality arise in concentrations that do realize emptiness, and since there are also many concentrations in which the mind is not directed at emptiness and yet do have bliss, clarity, and nonconceptuality, one must distinguish between the two. [182]

THE REASON BOTH NEED TO BE CULTIVATED

Why is it not enough to cultivate either śamatha or special insight? Why must one cultivate both? To illustrate, when you light a butter lamp at night in order to look at murals, if the butter lamp is both very bright and does not flicker due to wind, you will see the painted figures very clearly. However, if the butter lamp is not bright or is bright but flickers in the wind, you will not see the forms clearly. Likewise, with respect to viewing the profound meaning, you will see suchness clearly if you have both the wisdom that ascertains the meaning of suchness without error and the imperturbability of a mind that stays on its object at will. However, if you do not have the wisdom that realizes the ultimate mode of being, you will not penetrate the ultimate mode of being no matter how much you familiarize yourself with concentration, even if you have nonconceptual concentration and your mind remains unscattered. On the other hand, if you have the view that comprehends selflessness but you lack the firm concentration in which the mind remains single-pointed, you will be unable to see the meaning of the ultimate mode of being clearly. Therefore both śamatha and special insight are necessary.

The second Stages of Meditation says:

With special insight alone without śamatha, the yogi’s mind is distracted to other objects, and it will be unstab...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword by His Eminence Ling Rinpoche
• Translator’s Preface
• Preliminaries
• The Stages Shared with Persons of Lesser Capacity
• The Stages Shared with Persons of Medium Capacity
• The Stages of Persons of Great Capacity
• Meditative Stabilization and Wisdom
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Authors
• Copyright