The Acceptance That Tames Beings with the Sky-Colored Method of Perfect Conduct
Chapter 6

“Furthermore, noble son, bodhisattvas should correctly analyze the aggregate of feeling. What is the aggregate of feeling? The groups of feelings are of six types: feelings that arise through eye contact, ear contact, nose contact, tongue contact, body contact, and mind contact. These are known as the aggregate of feeling. The aggregate of feeling is understood in terms of three types of feelings. What are those three? Pleasant feelings, unpleasant feelings, and feelings that are neither pleasant nor unpleasant. Those three types of feelings are referred to as the aggregate of feeling. Noble son, bodhisattvas should correctly analyze the aggregate of feeling using these eight aspects. What are the eight aspects? Noble son, there are three root afflictions‍—desire, anger, and delusion. Afflicted beings are not free from desires and their defilements have not been extinguished. The three root afflictions enter into the three types of feelings and then different kinds of afflictions emerge. [F.143.a] A bodhisattva should correctly analyze the three types of feelings using the six groups of feelings. They should use the three types of feeling to correctly analyze the arising of the root afflictions, the root of karma, the root of their destruction, and their disappearance.69

“Feelings arise when the characteristics of form‍—whether inferior, blissful, big, small, near, or far‍—are perceived through the eyes. When one perceives forms that are blissful, big, small, near, or far away, the feeling that is the basis for craving is like a water bubble. That is the way that one should correctly analyze feeling when pleasure arises. Just as before, when it was said that the eye is empty of the eye, those feelings that arise like water bubbles are fleeting, devoid of a body, groundless, without form, undefinable, insubstantial, and wordless. Hindrances arise everywhere because of attachment. Bodhisattvas do not perceive feelings as causing arousal, establishment, movement, or accumulation.70 The characteristic of arising has no owner, its cessation has no owner, and thus characteristics and feelings have no owner. All those phenomena that are without characteristics are without a life force and devoid of a life force, without being and devoid of being, without a soul and devoid of a soul, without a person and devoid of a person, and without desire, insubstantial, devoid of characteristics, and without an owner. They have the characteristic of disintegrating, and the suffering associated with perishable formations is insubstantial. Thus, they are empty in the sense that they are free from attachment related to the three times. They are empty in the sense that attachment is inexpressible. They are empty in the sense that attachment is nondual. They are empty in the sense that attachment is unending. They are empty in the sense that attachment is impermanent. They are empty in the sense that attachment is without marks. They are empty in the sense that attachment is without purpose. [F.143.b] They are empty in the sense that attachment lacks feeling. They are empty in the sense that attachment has no agent. They are empty in the sense that attachment has no perceiver. They are empty in the sense that attachment has no receiver. They are empty in the sense that attachment is without liberation. They are empty in the sense that attachment is insubstantial. They are empty in the sense that attachment is without darkness. They are empty in the sense that attachment is devoid of light.

“Bodhisattvas accumulate this apprehension of attachment related to the three times.71 They do not perceive a basis, an agent, or accumulation. They do not conceive of the illusory mind or the desires of the three times as existent or nonexistent or annihilated. They are not attached to any kind of correct understanding, and they do not perceive dualistically that which is completely unsupported, nonabiding, not received, and not transferred. Since they know that all phenomena are included within the realm of phenomena, they do not create any division whatsoever. They understand that the forms to which one is attracted are the mind,72 and they are free from both forms and feelings.

“When one analyzes feelings related to attractive forms as being like water bubbles, and whatever arises as perishing and disintegrating, there is no analysis of formations. Whatever manifests in the three realms is without purpose and is the gateway to liberation. When one cultivates an inexpressible feeling toward attachment across the three times, it becomes a gateway to the creation of the suffering associated with formations.73 The fundamental ground of attachment related to the three realms is without someone who feels and has no afflictions. This lack of marks is the gateway to liberation. The feelings that are the fundamental ground of desire are without acceptance and rejection, without language, without a self, and lack apprehension of letters. When feelings related to the three realms have no object and there is no optical illusion, since formations are pacified, [F.144.a] this lack of self and emptiness is the gateway to complete liberation. When feelings related to all three realms are insubstantial, unmanifested, wordless, inexpressible, and inexhaustible, there is no attachment to anything, so the severe, middling, and minor afflictions are cut off. Just as space has no exertion, the arising of attachment and feelings also have no exertion, are inexpressible, and are nondual. Bodhisattvas have no attachment to feelings related to the three realms in the mind or mental consciousness. They do not apprehend the characteristics of feelings, which are impermanent, suffering, empty, without a self, and the fundamental ground of attachment. This cultivation of acceptance of freedom from characteristics should be viewed as the bodhisattvas’ acceptance that looks after beings.

“The same applies to the sounds in the ears, smells in the nose, tastes on the tongue, tactile sensations of the body, and mental phenomena in the mind. When the mind cognizes a fully arisen pleasant phenomenon that is the fundamental ground of attachment arising in the past, future, and present, and reflects upon that delightful form, sound, smell, taste, or tactile sensation, the mental consciousness has arisen. Feeling is generated by the fundamental ground of attachment. That is how bodhisattvas correctly analyze the mental consciousness and that feelings are the fundamental ground of attachment.

“The objective basis of form is the mind, which is illusory by nature. The term mental consciousness refers to the mind, and it is expressed by the term mental faculty.74 The past mind has ceased, the future mind has not yet arisen, and the present mind and mental consciousness do not abide. They immediately disintegrate and are impermanent, devoid of a body, without essence, wordless, without characteristics, without activity, unchanging, without accepting, without rejecting, without darkness, [F.144.b] and without light. They lack sameness and difference, they are nondual, they are not like two things, and they are insubstantial, without conceit, without elaboration, without addition, without removal, free from all fundamental bases, and like the moon’s reflection in water. Anything remaining that arises in the past, future, or present, any pleasing external perceptual basis, the mind, and the mental consciousness all appear when the conditions are right. Just as the sky and the sun and moon lack the characteristics of both a sky that is not illuminated or illuminating and are mere verbal designations, so too the appearance of a basis of desire to the mind and mental consciousness is inexpressible and nondual, yet verbally designated as having the characteristic of being two things. They are everything from groundless, formless, undefinable, without essence, wordless, and without arousal up to not being displayed,75 and they are all empty from the perspective of desire. The desires of the three times possess a fundamental basis that is composite.76 Thus, when bodhisattvas realize everything from their being baseless up to having absolutely no attachment, their severe, middling, and minor afflictions will be pacified. Just as the sky is without darkness, without light, and lacks characteristics, so, too, the mental consciousness that is the ground of desires also is without darkness, is without light, lacks characteristics, and has no essence. Bodhisattvas are thus not attached in any way to the mind and the mental consciousness. One should cultivate acceptance that the feelings that form the ground of the desires related to the three realms are impermanent, suffering, and empty, lack a self, and are free from characteristics.77 This should be regarded as the bodhisattvas’ acceptance that ripens and looks after beings. That is how one ends the stream of desire.

“Furthermore, noble son, bodhisattvas should carry out a correct analysis that is able to eliminate the arising of anger at the root of the afflictions.78 [F.145.a] Whether they are attractive or inferior, up to those that are near, feelings about the characteristics of forms that appear to the eye are like water bubbles. A bodhisattva correctly analyzes feelings that arise as neither unpleasant nor pleasant. The eye is empty of the eye, and the eye is empty of everything from the consciousness of forms up to all that was mentioned before. Formations that instantly perish are everything from empty from the perspective of anger related to the three times up to being without light. They are empty from the perspective of anger, and the apprehension of the anger of the three times is composite. Anger is everything from baseless up to being free from both the mind that settles on the appearance of a form that elicits anger and the feeling of anger. When the feelings and fundamental bases of anger that arise toward a form that elicits anger are analyzed as arising, perishing, and disintegrating, this should be viewed as the acceptance up to the point expressed in the phrase ‘formations are impermanent.’

“The same applies to the sounds perceived by the ears up to the mental phenomena perceived by the mind. When the mind cognizes an unpleasant and unattractive phenomenon, the source is the fully arisen feeling that is the fundamental basis of anger. Bodhisattvas should thoroughly analyze the way in which the fundamental basis of anger is like the mind. These feelings are everything from without form up to what was explained before. The ground of anger is just like space‍—without aggression and abuse. When the mental consciousness is pacified, there is no anger, there is no abuse, and there is no attachment whatsoever. The feelings that are the fundamental basis of all anger related to the three realms are impermanent, suffering, empty, and lack a self. This cultivation of acceptance that is free from those characteristics should be brought to complete fruition as the bodhisattvas’ acceptance that ripens and looks after all beings. [B6]

“Furthermore, noble son, bodhisattvas see all outer and inner forms with their eyes and understand that whatever forms appear in the past, [F.145.b] future, or present that are mistakenly imputed and shrouded in darkness are the basis of attachment and the basis of anger. When they are apprehended as formations that are blissful,79 eternal, a self, and unwavering, the thief that is the afflictions that apprehend the three realms is born, increases, and subsumes the entire threefold world. Then they approach them dualistically, appropriate them, empower them, and become strongly attached to them. They apprehend countless, infinite causes and conditions and cling to them. They do not reveal that they are impermanent by nature, suffering, empty, and lack a self. They do not analyze their arising, cessation, and disintegration. They apprehend them as a self, a life force, a soul, and a person and they adhere to views of permanence and annihilation. The aggregates, elements, and sense fields are correctly understood as internal and external conditions. They are apprehended as the complete arising of cause, effect, action, and the ripening of action. They are subjected to analysis and then they are not subjected to analysis. They are agitated, then they are not agitated, and then they are pacified. They are correctly realized and correctly understood. Even a conceptual thought about phenomena from someone who has not given rise to the faculty of insight is free from feelings of happiness and pertains to a feeling that is utterly devoid of happiness and suffering.80

“Bodhisattvas should analyze everything that appears as an internal and external characteristic‍—everything that appears as a characteristic of form in terms of the true state of things and suchness. They should analyze81 them in the same way that the basis of attachment and the bases of anger were taught previously. They should analyze82 them from the perspective of momentary disintegration. They should analyze them from the perspective of impermanence, from the perspective of happiness and suffering, from the perspective of self and lack of self, from the perspective of the formations of the entire threefold world, from the perspective of pacifying the unceasing stream of afflictions, from the perspective of pacifying the continual stream that lacks a primary cause and has no master, [F.146.a] and from the perspective of having no attachment to something that is free from duality and unborn. They should understand feelings that are devoid of the suffering and happiness of the entire threefold world and the three times according to an ultimate position that does not give rise to duality. They should understand them according to the position that they are impermanent, the position that they are unceasing, the position that they are an inexpressible continuity, the position that they lack a body, and the position that they are groundless. They should analyze the mind, mental faculty, and consciousness associated with latent tendencies that are devoid of language individually without fixating on those feelings that are neither pleasant nor unpleasant.

“Thus, from the perspective of tranquility there are twelve types of special insight that are related to the cause, the lack of causes and conditions, and the lack of conditions, and this correct insight sees through the darkness of ignorance. What is mental engagement that is improper and a state of ignorance? At what point does one apprehend improper mental engagement? When one apprehends physical, verbal, and mental formations, even the body is based upon the four great elements. As previously stated, those four great elements are unwavering, unchanging, lack a self, and have no sense of ownership. One does not apprehend language in them, and they have no words, and since one does not apprehend them as a self, they are groundless. The mental consciousness is also groundless, does not abide, and is a mere verbal designation. It has no self, no body, and no person. The apprehension of body, speech, and mind is also empty of duality. Therefore, even ignorance is empty. The indeterminate stream of thought does not go away. What appears to have characteristics is inexpressible. Ignorance, craving existence, the mind, the mental consciousness, the three realms, and the apprehension of the three times are not apprehended from the perspective of ultimate truth, and virtue and nonvirtue do not exist in terms of the characteristics of virtue. Therefore, ignorance is empty.

“Then, after ignorance is thoroughly purified, one analyzes formations. The very moment that ignorance arises it does not remain even for a moment and ceases. [F.146.b] In the second moment it is no longer present. Ignorance, which lacks both arising and ceasing, ceases in the first moment and formations arise in the second moment. Therefore, ignorance is empty; its essence has no self. The moment that formations arise, they cease, whether they are physical, verbal, or mental formations. Once physical formations have arisen, verbal formations arise in the ultimate state that is free from attachment. Even from the ultimate perspective of liberation, the continuous stream of mental formations then follows verbal formations. If physical formations do not arise, the activity of the verbal and mental formations will not develop. One investigates the correct understanding of formations, grasping, and the feelings related to physical formations and does not become attached. If mental formations do not arise, the activity of the physical and verbal formations in the three times will neither develop nor be eliminated. If verbal formations do not arise, the activity of the physical and mental formations in the three times will also neither develop nor be eliminated. Since the basis of the characteristics of the three formations is like that, the bases of consciousness and the appearances one experiences in the three realms are neither acquired nor eliminated. Therefore, those formations are empty.

“Since whatever arises naturally ceases according to the final analysis of formations, they accord with utter purity, nonduality, and are without purpose. The definition of formations is that they are empty like space. Physical formations have the ultimate nature of lacking a self. Since they do not arise before, after, or anywhere in between and do not abide, they are empty. Verbal formations also accord with the freedom from language, are like space, and are imputations. Since they are free from the three realms and from duality, they are empty. Mental formations are also not obtained, not actualized, free from all the characteristics of the three times, and without existence, up to being without a person, and are without an agent. They are fabricated by deluded concepts; [F.147.a] they are without darkness, without light, without adoption, without elaboration, wordless, empty, and like space.

“Bodhisattvas analyze the fact that consciousness is conditioned by formations in the following way. Formations arise and cease, but they do not produce the stream of consciousness. The group of six consciousnesses does not abide in terms of having the characteristics of sameness, difference, not having an owner, momentariness, or being established. Consciousness does not apprehend analytical characteristics, internal or external, virtue or nonvirtue, defilement or absence of defilement, conditioned or unconditioned, causes or conditions, feelings related to the three realms and to the three times, the five corrupted sense pleasures, the four great elements, the six realms, cultivation, proper mental engagement, the unhindered path, or consciousness with or without remainder of the aggregates. Therefore, it is not produced by a form, and it is not produced by anything else, up to the mind. Being like an illusory appearance, it is devoid of inherent nature. It is devoid of a body. It is baseless. Since consciousness has not ultimately arisen before, after, or anywhere in between, whenever a characteristic of form appears as a basis of analysis, it is not able to engage it or perceive it. Therefore, consciousness is empty.

“Bodhisattvas analyze the fact that name and form are conditioned by consciousness in the following way. Consciousness arises and ceases in a single instant, and it is followed by the arising of name and form. Name refers to the formless aggregates‍—feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness. Those aggregates are insubstantial objects. Since they are not involved with the characteristics of forms or the appearances of shapes, they are referred to as name. [F.147.b] Form refers to the forms made of the four great elements. The four formless aggregates are immaterial, groundless, insubstantial, without characteristics, and free from characteristics.

“Bodhisattvas do not perceive characteristics of the ripening of feelings. They also do not perceive the apprehension of their causes and conditions and their final result. They do not understand these phenomena as mutually intertwined or separate bases. They do not perceive anything from the ripening of the aggregates of perception, formation, and consciousness up to their full blossoming. Why? Because all these phenomena are free from the three realms. They completely transcend the three times. They have no sameness, they are without clinging, they are not nourishment, they are insubstantial, and they lack attachment and concepts, sound, origination, duality, cause, a fundamental basis, control, death, conditions, and characteristics. They are uncreated, causeless, without possession, inexpressible, not impermanent, not permanent, inactive, and nameless. Since they are baseless, they lack form, mind, concepts, ripening, consciousness, and comparison. They are not truly established and lack the forms related to the three times and the three realms. These four aggregates are like space. They lack characteristics, they are like wind, and they are without concepts. They have the characteristic of being nominal designations,83 and they do not enter into ultimate reality because they are not separate from the three times and lack going. They lack engagement, darkness, light, inherent existence, and they are essentially rootless and wordless. There is no cultivation, arising, nonarising, going, coming, or accumulating at any point. [F.148.a] There is no engagement of characteristics that are imputed on things that describe the entire threefold world. There is no acceptance and no rejection. These four formless aggregates are not involved with characteristics. They do not abide in anything from the image of the objects of the eye, up to the image of the object of the body. They do not abide in the image of the object of the body consciousness. The excluded marks and signs that are the object of the mind, mental faculty, and consciousness are not posited as something that is established.84 These four formless aggregates remain as images, but they do not remain as the images that are the objects of the aggregate of form. These four formless aggregates that are related to the subtle analysis of the characteristics of actions of the three worlds do not abide as object images. They are everything from being devoid of self to being without person. They are inexpressible, and they are wordless. Since these four formless aggregates have the characteristic of being empty, they instantly disintegrate and are not eternal. Since they do not apprehend an object, they are without marks. Since they instantly arise and decrease, they have no purpose. Since they do not cease, they activate insight that is devoid of attachment. Therefore, these four aggregates are empty.

“As explained before, the four great elements that constitute the aggregate of form are empty. The five aggregates that are the basis of grasping do not arise as a stream of moments. Some say that they overlap and they are not nonabiding, but just as the afflictions do not overlap, the five aggregates do not overlap.85 In the first moment, name does not arise without form, and form does not arise without name during the second moment. Instead, all five aggregates that are the basis of grasping arise and cease during the first moment and are no longer present during the two remaining moments. Why? [F.148.b] It is easy to prove that phenomena that are mental factors immediately change. They are insubstantial, disintegrate instantly, and do not remain.

“Bodhisattvas realize that the six sense fields are conditioned by name and form in the following way. The six sense fields arise at the second moment, after name and form have arisen and ceased. The six sense fields are the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. The eye consciousness is not mixed with and is not connected to the ear consciousness, and so forth. Those consciousnesses are not mutually related or exclusive. The apprehension of the activity of the eye consciousness that has arisen cannot act as a moment of ear consciousness, and the apprehension of the ear consciousness cannot produce the cause of the apprehension of the eye consciousness. The same can be said about the other consciousnesses, up to the mental consciousness.

“The eye consciousness is not contaminated by impermanence or permanence‍—it does not arise. It is not contaminated by the extremes of annihilation and permanence associated with the threefold world‍—it does not arise. It does not perpetuate the extreme view that all phenomena and the three times are not differentiated,86 and the same can be said about the other consciousnesses, up to the mental consciousness.

“The eye consciousness is not contaminated by the view of an existent self that is happy or suffering‍—it does not arise. It neither has a self nor lacks a self. It is not attractive or repulsive. It is not conditioned or unconditioned. It neither ends nor is eternal. It is not a mark and is not devoid of marks. It is neither dual nor nondual. It does not apprehend ultimate reality. The same can be said about the other consciousnesses, up to the mental consciousness.

“The eye consciousness is not attached to the characteristics of forms being empty or not empty. It lacks exclusion and difference. It is not contaminated by happiness, suffering, or inner and outer objects that are like mirages‍—it does not arise. It does not exclude the position on the three vehicles and inopportune births or the view of the transitory collection. It does not act in accord with threefold devotion, and it does not stray toward the position of inexhaustibility.87 [F.149.a] Therefore, the moment of feeling in the mental consciousness is neither true nor false, and it is not produced. The same can be said about the other consciousnesses, up to the mental consciousness.

“The nonexistent and illusion-like eye consciousness lacks momentary experiences, lacks knowledge, lacks appearances, and is wordless. It does not arise in a moment and then it ceases.88 Such phenomena arise and cease in a single moment. They are devoid of agents, something that wills them to act, a feeling subject, an agent of feeling, something that produces, something that causes production, something that brings them forth, something that causes them to be brought forth, something that establishes them, and something that destroys them. They arise in the first moment and do not remain for a second moment. They are not made into separate things after they are produced and they do not arise without causes. Since those phenomena have the characteristic of instantly disintegrating, they are empty. They arise and cease based on incorrect imputation, and therefore they are empty.

“Bodhisattvas realize that contact is conditioned by the six sense fields in the following way. The group of six sense fields arise and cease, and in the second moment there is no cause of the arising of the group of six types of contact, from eye contact to mental contact. Eye contact is the eye consciousness contacting the object and acting as a basis. Since it can cause attachment, that arises in the second moment. Both are insubstantial, like something imputed upon space. Contact with the object of the eye does not arise in the second moment to cause attachment to the object present in the eye consciousness. The same can be said about the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind.

“The cause of the eye consciousness is also not something that arises in the second moment so that it would bring about attachment to the nature of the characteristics present in the observation of the form contact.89 Both are insubstantial, like something imputed upon space. [F.149.b] The same can be said about feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness.

“The eye and what the eye sees are nondual because both are insubstantial.90 The eye and what the eye consciousness perceives are nondual because both are insubstantial. The eye consciousness and contact with its object are nondual because both are insubstantial. Similarly, what acts as a basis and what remains by causing attachment are nondual and insubstantial because they are like characteristics imputed upon space.91 These things should be analyzed as being devoid of characteristics. They lack activity, they have the characteristic of being devoid of attachment, and they lack clinging. As for the entirety of the three times and the three realms, if the nonconceptual realm of phenomena and the profound contemplation of phenomena lack knowledge, are free from exertion, and are without hardship, without name just like a young child,92 without conditions, without colors and marks, without basis, without apprehension, and inexpressible, then phenomena and the realm of phenomena are classified into two things that have the same nature as space. By analyzing our own minds, we find that the realm of phenomena that is singular is thus differentiated in a variety of ways, and that it is imputed in terms of names, conditions, colors, marks, and shapes. The five sense pleasures are unborn, without arising, without characteristics, and without definition. The threefold liberation is the innate nature of a single element, the nonconceptual realm of phenomena in all of the three times, and discrimination that is like a path in the sky. Therefore, the object of the eye and the contact that is the object of the eye consciousness are free from engaging the three realms, marks, colors, and shapes, like characteristics that are imputed upon space, and everything one engages is the realm of phenomena. Similarly, their coming together with the ear, nose, tongue, body, [F.150.a] and mental consciousnesses is contact that is nondual as well because both are insubstantial. Therefore, everything included in consciousness, all the instances when contact arises, comprehending everything in the three realms, and comprehending colors, marks, and shapes that lead one to impute upon space is the realm of phenomena.

“When one examines the six sense fields related to contact and understands that examination as evoking origination, all such forms of attachment are bound by language, under the influence of Māra, and accomplish exactly what Māra wants. When the six sense fields related to contact are not examined and they evoke the unborn, exclude all things such as color and shape, instantly disintegrate, and are characteristics that are imputed upon space, this is the comprehension of transcendent, ineffable wisdom. When one relishes forms and analyzes and comprehends the six sense fields and the five sense pleasures related to contact as either permanent or impermanent, all such forms of attachment, up to their verbal expressions, accomplish exactly what Māra wants. But when examination of relishing forms, the five sensual pleasures, and the six sense fields related to contact in terms of permanent or impermanent falls away,93 focusing on the characteristics they evoke and all such forms of attachment are completely severed. That is purifying the path to awakening that leads to understanding what is supramundane and inexpressible. Similarly, when one examines and understands feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousnesses, and the six sense fields related to contact in terms of permanent or impermanent, all such forms of attachment, up to their expression, accomplish what Māra wants. But when one does not relish the five sense pleasures with respect to the mental consciousness and the six sense fields related to contact, they are without darkness, without light, and like space. And when one does not make them into two things, this is the purification of the path to awakening that leads to understanding what is supramundane and inexpressible. [F.150.b] These phenomena are not involved with the momentary stream of thought and perception. Being a combination of separate things, contact is not something that is brought into being. It is also not something that causes the arising of separate things through a stream of moments. It is also not something that causes their cessation. These phenomena arise in one moment and disintegrate in the same moment. They do not abide for a second moment.

“They cease, and then feeling arises in a second moment when the sense fields related to contact, perception, and volition have disintegrated. What are the feelings? The six kinds of feelings consist of feelings that arise through eye contact, through ear contact, through nose contact, through tongue contact, through body contact, and through mind contact. The feelings arise from the arising of contact, but not in a single moment, and not in the moment of apprehending a single action. There are three types of feelings: pleasant feelings, unpleasant feelings, and feelings that are neither pleasant nor unpleasant. As was explained before, one should understand that the three types of feelings associated with the six sense fields related to contact with everything in the three times and three realms are empty. Some say, ‘When the three types of feelings arise from the six sense fields related to contact, they are established through analyzing them just like the aggregates, and that is the view of permanence.’ Others say, ‘When the three types of feelings arise from the six sense fields related to contact, they are established in terms of the nonexistence of the aggregates, and that is annihilation.’ Both those views should be abandoned. Why? The aggregates are nonconceptual, and acceptance is abiding in a state that turns away from both views.

“As an analogy, light illuminates forms, whether they are produced or not produced, of the inanimate realm outside the body made of the four great elements, but it does not illuminate the inside of the body. This light does not arise from the condition of form. It does not apprehend form. It is not the basis of form. [F.151.a] It does not cause one to experience form. Light and form do not interact with each other, and the light does not grasp the marks of those forms. Form, being abandoned, is not something that causes illumination. Light is related to what conforms to the level of form, and it does not arise. Forms and the like are not things that arise. In the same way as with regard to the six sense fields of immediate sense contact with the external, light illuminates the four aggregates that are not form. The three feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousnesses connect with them. Perceptions, formations, and cognition of the consciousnesses do not produce the suffering associated with formations. They do not abide in feelings, they do not accomplish feelings, they do not follow feelings, they do not increase feelings, they are not based on the experience of feelings, they are not based on clinging to marks related to feelings, and they are not based on apprehending feelings. They do not produce the suffering associated with formations among the aggregates that are similar and comparable to the experience of feeling, and they do not produce the suffering of suffering.

“When feelings arise, formations do not cease. When feelings cease, formations do not accumulate. As an analogy, light is cast into space and does not illuminate forms because space and light are both immaterial and inexpressible. In the same way, phenomena, name and form, and feelings cannot be differentiated from each other. The three realms are immaterial, inexpressible, and wordless. They do not abide as a stream of moments. The realm of phenomena cannot be differentiated in terms of mutual accumulation and increase. Therefore, those phenomena are empty. They cease the very moment they arise, and they do not abide in the stream of moments. Therefore, all the three realms, the three times, the aggregates, the elements, and the sense fields lack origination, lack activity, are inexpressible, and are empty. This adornment of flowers by light is known as the mode of abiding in the gateway to the Dharma that illuminates the inexhaustible ocean seal. [F.151.b]

“Feelings arise and cease in the first moment, and craving arises in the second moment. What is craving? The group of six types of craving includes craving that arises through eye contact up to mind contact. When one delights in forms it establishes the stain of ignorance. The dense forest of engagement in the objects of contact such as the body, form, sound, smell, and taste is like space. Feelings that do not conceptualize forms are like a flash of lightning and space. Perceptions are like wind and space. Formations are like a cloudless sky. Consciousnesses are similar to optical illusions and to space. Not understanding forms and imagining them to be eternal, and thus not understanding their impermanent nature, is known as craving.94 Furthermore, not understanding that forms are suffering, not understanding that sounds and smells arise and cease, not understanding this with respect to taste, and not understanding that tactile objects arise and cease and are inexpressible is known as attachment to the basis of craving,95 the proliferation of the three realms, and the state of craving the objects of the three times.

“While ignoble, foolish ordinary beings put great efforts into perpetuating the powerful waterfall of saṃsāra, bodhisattvas should analyze forms in each and every detail, from the ground up, as follows: Forms made of the four great elements have the characteristics of being diseased96 and ceasing.97 Whatever has the characteristic of disintegrating is impermanent. Bodhisattvas should analyze each and every detail in the same way as analyzing the great elements described before. They should analyze each of the five sense pleasures as one would analyze a pillar. Just as a pillar might stand in the sky but is not based there because it is supported by the earth, so too the basis, forms, are like a mass of foam. By apprehending forms and the absence of forms, [F.152.a] one becomes involved with forms and the absence of forms, and one is not free from forms and the absence of forms. However, if one discards the activity of forms and the absence of forms, as well as the forms and the absence of forms themselves, and considers those forms to have no essence, like a mass of foam, one will find that they are empty. Whether they apply or they do not apply, words come forth from the mouth based on the condition of the breath. They are wordless and inexpressible, and one should understand that the sounds of the three realms are empty in the same way. One should understand the smells of the three realms in the same way that the breath contained in the body, the wind that courses through space, and space itself are without smells and empty. One should understand the quality of taste that oneself and the three realms possess is empty in the same way that a pot fills with drops of rain but there is no one who places the drops inside of it. No one accomplishes this. No one does this or causes it to be done. So, it is entirely without anyone who takes hold of it and attends to it. One should understand that the sense of touch related to the three realms is empty in the same way that a pot is not established as being conjoined with space. It is not in space, and space and the pot are free from contact with one another and are inanimate. The wheel of delusion regarding the five sense pleasures leads to craving some desire and craving some form just like a bee drawn to the smell of flowers. One should realize that things are empty of the five sense pleasures.

“Craving for the four formless aggregates has no form, is wordless, and has no intrinsic nature. One should understand that it is empty in the same way that not even the slightest thing exists, as was explained before. The formless aggregates are established upon and possess a mutual insubstantiality just as the movement of the wind depends on space, but the wind does not mix together with or have attachment to space, the wind does not possess anything from space, and both are inexpressible and wordless. They do not harm each other, they do not connect with each other, they do not mix with each other, they are not attached to each other, and they do cause each other harm. [F.152.b] In the same way, one should understand that these aggregates do not arrive at and do not produce real characteristics because all phenomena are unborn. Just as space, wind, and light lack words, are inexpressible, and move together without being attached to each other, so too nirvāṇa is inexhaustible. All phenomena are equal to nirvāṇa in the same way that nirvāṇa is neither an extinction nor not an extinction. One should not apprehend opposing factors in terms of lack of sameness and lack of difference. One should not create duality; after one understands that all phenomena behave in the same way as the realm of phenomena, one does not think that the realm of phenomena and ultimate reality arise or cease in the least. Thus, the nature of the realm of phenomena is groundless, and this is the ultimate reality. What is ultimately real is the nature of all phenomena. This is the position that circumscribes the three fields. It is the position that is without boundary or division. It is the position that is without annihilation and permanence. It is the position of things as they truly are. With this position one encompasses all phenomena. The extent of this position and absence of this position are not two things, because one does not apprehend the craving for existence. The position regarding all things, such as the life force, the being, the soul, and the person, is one of nonduality. The position regarding ultimate reality, the position of the transitory collection, and the elimination of craving are also nondual. And in that way, the position of the transitory collection is what eliminates desire. When one understands in that way, there will be twenty aspects to this view of the transitory collection. Ultimate reality is not the same as involvement with craving. Ultimate reality is without going. It comes to an end in the sense that when it has gone it is not extinguished and is not established, and so craving is the gateway to the inexhaustible because all phenomena are inexhaustible and have no inherent nature.

“Bodhisattvas who understand the unborn nature of all phenomena and cut away all of them in their entirety attain the treasure dhāraṇī of the gateway to acceptance that accomplishes the inexpressible meaning and the manifestation of infinite buddha bodies. [F.153.a] Once they have attained that dhāraṇī, those bodhisattvas display the manifestation of buddha bodies in the ten directions. Without wavering from the equanimity of their vision, they also demonstrate birth and death for beings, even though for them there is no death, no birth, nowhere that one goes, and no coming. For them, formations are devoid of concepts.

“Bodhisattvas who strive in that way and gain such realization know that grasping comes into being in the second moment after one engages the moment of craving. What is grasping? There are four types of grasping: grasping related to desire, grasping related to views, grasping related to discipline, and grasping related to the view of a self. What is grasping that is related to desire? Grasping related to desire refers to attachment that relishes desires, delights in pleasure, and becomes strongly attached. What is grasping that is related to views? Grasping related to views refers to everything from permanence and annihilation up to the sixty-two types of wrong views. What is grasping that is related to discipline? Grasping related to discipline refers to the disciplines, the observances, the austerities, the state of living a religious life, the ascetic qualities, and the strict abstinence taught by the noble ones, as well as the disciplines, the observances, the austerities, the state of living a religious life, the ascetic qualities, and the strict abstinence of the ninety-five nirgranthas. Grasping related to the view of a self refers to thinking, ‘The self, being, the life force, migrators, human beings, living creatures, agents, inducers of action, emerging, something that induces emergence, and the subject that feels, produces, and causes production arise and exist.’ Those are the four types of grasping. Bodhisattvas understand that those are inexpressible and therefore not real and unarisen. [F.153.b] They understand that all phenomena have a single characteristic. That characteristic is understood as lacking any differentiation and as therefore insubstantial, inexpressible, beyond the realm of words, like the reflection of the moon in water, and like space, and the realm of phenomena is understood to lack any differentiation.

“When one delights in and relishes desires, one delights in suffering. That is the basis of desire, and that is clinging. When bodhisattvas see pleasing, beautiful, and attractive forms with their eyes, they understand them in the right way as being like a mass of fire before the eye consciousness. They understand that those aggregates that are not discerned by the eye consciousness are also immaterial, inexpressible, wordless, and not apprehended as real things. Since the eye consciousness is also not apprehended as a real thing, it is immaterial and without characteristics too. Since space, fire, and the eyes are also not apprehended as real things, they are inexpressible and wordless too. Thus, when they perceive an attractive form, up to having a desire for it, they do not apprehend the eye consciousness or the form or even the intervening space as a real thing. The eye consciousness that perceives fire arises and ceases, and is no longer present in the second moment. Feelings arise in the second moment, and bodhisattvas perceive them as masses of radiating light. Those feelings are inexpressible, beyond words, and free from marks. Feelings arise and cease and then perceptions arise as the basis of the next moment. These are perceived like the radiating light of a blazing tongue of flame. After those perceptions have arisen and ceased, formations arise as the basis of the second moment. Bodhisattvas perceive these as radiating lights that are either small or immeasurably large and either far or near. Then, once those formations have arisen and ceased, consciousness arises in the next moment. Bodhisattvas perceive that as a mass of radiating light that arises and disintegrates. [F.154.a] This consciousness is inexpressible and a wordless state. It instantly disintegrates. It is like something imputed upon space. The space around the fire is also insubstantial, inexpressible, and wordless. All those masses of radiating light that they see arise, blaze forth, and cease have the characteristic of being just like space. They are inexpressible and insubstantial. They are innumerable, and each of their light rays is without conditions. Bodhisattvas should analyze the five sense pleasures that arise and cease in the same way that they analyze all of the phenomena that arise and cease‍—that they are like imputations in space, inexpressible, and insubstantial. They should cultivate the acceptance of this fact.”

The Blessed One then expressed this point in the following verses:

“Noble son, what is the grasping related to views? Noble son, there are views that analyze the five aggregates in which one takes pride in the object, engages in false conceptual thought, conceptualizes form because one is overcome by delusion, develops strong attachment to forms, relishes forms, thinks about them as pleasant or unpleasant, becomes arrogant, and does the same‍—from conceptualizing them up to becoming arrogant‍—with respect to feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousness. This is called the view of permanence.

“Noble son, the view of annihilation refers to the denial of the causes, conditions, and fruition of positive and negative actions. In short, the view of annihilation consists of taking any pride whatsoever in this understanding of the actions, activities, fruition, and conduct that are apprehended as the causes of mundane, supramundane, defiled, and undefiled phenomena. All in all, there are sixty-two types of wrong views.

“Thoughts that are based in all of these views of the mundane, supramundane, defiled, and undefiled are understood to have a basis that is endless due to momentariness, similar due to momentariness, and unrelated to anything real. Whatever is groundless is insubstantial and does not go anywhere. Whatever does not go anywhere is neither wholly afflicted nor purified. It does not originate and it does not begin. Whatever does not originate and does not begin is immaterial, does not appear, is devoid of thought, is without going, and is without coming. [F.155.a] It is understood to be momentary in all three times. It is without activity, empty, and inexpressible. Since moments that are related to all three times are empty as a result of being completely momentary, and since anything about a view that is noble, ignoble, worldly, or supramundane‍—and all types of conceit related to views about nonconceptual thought, conceptual thought, conceptualization, causes, production, the body, and the vessel‍—are moments, then, noble son, views related to the three times are entirely empty. They are inexpressible and they are not something in which one should train or train perfectly. They are also not something in which one should not train.98 Discipline, learning, effort, joy, and laziness are not things in which one trains perfectly. The elimination of attachment is not insight, nor is it faulty insight. It is not a moral downfall. Wavering and the absence of moral downfall are neither things in which one trains perfectly nor things that are attained. Nothing is attained and there is no wavering. Worldly and supramundane views, thorough analysis,99 and wavering are not things in which one trains perfectly. That is not the way one should think about objects. The five sense pleasures, the form and formless realms, and the aggregates are also without adoption, and they do not have the characteristic marks of multiplicity.100 Wavering and the views related to the aggregates, the elements, and the sense fields are not things in which one perfectly trains. All views are nondual, empty, immaterial, and inexpressible.

“As an analogy, when someone’s face is reflected in a round mirror, the likeness of that face is not produced by the aggregates, by the elements, or by the sense fields. It is wordless and inexpressible. The same pertains to views that are noble, ignoble, worldly, and supramundane. None of them are produced by the aggregates, [F.155.b] by the elements, or by the sense fields. All those views are inexpressible and wordless.

“As another analogy, noble son, the sun can provide the conditions for a mirage to appear, but the mirage does not abide in the aggregates, the elements, or the sense fields. Similarly, noble son, anything that pertains to noble, ignoble, mundane, or supramundane views is inexpressible and wordless because it is conditioned by something established through delusion, along with grasping.”

Then the Blessed One expressed these points in the following verses:

“Noble son, what is grasping related to discipline? When someone is the least bit arrogant about or fixated on discipline, austerities, observances, and practicing a religious life, they engage in particular forms of penances, restrictions, and practices that bring harm to their bodies in order to destroy all the strong attachments to objects that lead to physical, verbal, and mental actions; [F.156.a] to attain liberation from saṃsāra; and to transcend the three realms. This is grasping that is related to discipline. Noble son, when those who engage in doing harm to the body think, ‘Being affected by the three types of feeling is ignoble. It is pointless, false, and delusion,’ this is conceit about physical discipline. Why? Because the body is unwavering, unchanging, and not affected by any affliction. As an analogy, noble son, although the grains of sand in the Ganges are unwavering and unchanging, they roll down through the natural force of the river’s current. Similarly, although the body made of the four great elements is unwavering and unchanging, the condition of sudden contact is accompanied by grasping, and the body can be submitted to a variety of injuries, such as those practiced among highly advanced ascetics‍—beings belonging to the ninety-five nirgrantha orders and the like. When there is conceit about the physical, verbal, and mental formations of the three times, when one does not understand that they are the same thing as a likeness, and when one does not become tired of physical, verbal, and mental penances, this discipline is contaminated and conflicts with the acceptance of the suffering related to formations that are accompanied by grasping.

“Noble son, what is the cultivation of the acceptance of likeness and sameness? When one does not generate the three vows in the least, this is the cultivation of the acceptance of sameness and likeness. When one develops conceit about the perception of the three vows that is accompanied by grasping, it is contaminated and conflicts with the acceptance of suffering related to formations that are accompanied by grasping. When one understands that the three times have a single taste and are inseparable, that the generation of the three vows is unmoving, that there are no afflictions, and that formations are not purified, this is cultivating likeness and sameness. [F.156.b] Apprehending the nondual objects of the six perfections as lasting and real, conceiving of wisdom in terms of increase, and becoming arrogant about the notion that the three times are truly established is defiled and conflicts with the acceptance of suffering related to formations that are accompanied by grasping. When pride occurs in regard to the nonduality of the six perfections; the fact that the three times are inseparable, unborn, and unceasing; and there being no discontinuation, no permanence, and no increase, this is the cultivation of the acceptance of likeness and sameness. [B7]

“It is defilement when one abandons the vehicles of the hearers and solitary buddhas and develops strong attachment to the good qualities one experiences through pursuing the Great Vehicle, and when one releases a rain of Dharma on beings who are proper vessels and beings who are not proper vessels upon meeting them, and when one thinks about penances and restrictions; apprehends a being, a life force, production, a soul, a person, an agent, and something that causes action in terms of causes and conditions; and dwells on and is arrogant about the fruition of virtuous and nonvirtuous actions. This destroys the acceptance of the suffering associated with formations related to grasping. When one does not think about the vows of the three times related to the vehicles of the hearers and the solitary buddhas, does not conceptualize them, does not cling to them, does not give them up, does not generate them, and does not discard those vows‍—and when one does not think about the vows of the three times related to the unsurpassed Great Vehicle, does not conceptualize them, does not cling to them, does not give them up, does not generate them, and does not discard them; when one does not apprehend them as the true essence of living a religious life; and when one does not apprehend them as having the characteristic of not developing conceit regarding the language related to all manner of formations‍—this is the perfection of the acceptance of the teaching that all phenomena that are alike and the same actually do not arise and are empty. This, too, is seeing the grasping on to discipline as without origination and cessation.” [F.157.a]

The Blessed One then uttered these verses for cultivating this acceptance:

“Noble son, what is grasping related to the view of a self? Even though the self lacks intrinsic nature, nevertheless, out of delusion, the proponents of a self produce a self among the five sense pleasures. From understanding the eye in terms of a self, engaging pleasant or unpleasant states of the eye consciousness, and developing a strong attachment toward what arises, up to understanding the mind in terms of a self, engaging pleasant or unpleasant states of the mental consciousness, [F.157.b] and developing strong attachment toward what arises‍—one should consider all of this as false and delusional. Why? The truth of the six sense fields comes from their respective objects. Noble son, the eye and what conforms to it are not a self. Since there is no self and no ownership, what is conformable to the eye would be self-produced and would not change, if a self or an owner were to exist, so the eye is the self and the owner.103 That is how one should understand everything from the production of consciousness with respect to the eye that is the self, up to bodily contact.

“However, forms are not produced by the eyes, the ear is not produced by sound either,104 and this is the case all the way up to tactile objects not being produced by the body. The body is not produced by touch, forms are not produced by the eyes, and forms, feelings, perceptions, and formations are not produced by the eyes. The eye consciousness is not produced by the eyes, and the eyes are not produced by the eye consciousness. The eyes do not perceive the objects of the ear, the ears do not perceive the object of the eyes, and this is the case up to the fact that the mind does not perceive the objects of mental phenomena and mental phenomena do not perceive the objects of mind. Since the essential nature of all of the six sense fields is that they are apprehended as the causes and conditions of the five sense pleasures and the five aggregates, the internal and external aggregates and the sense fields are all empty of a cause that can be conceived as being mutual. The five sense pleasures and the five aggregates are apprehended as the mutual causes and conditions of one another, but since they have the nature of conceptualization, they are mutually empty. The internal aggregates and sense fields do not have one and the same object either. Since they are neither internally nor externally existent, the internal and external aggregates and sense fields are not objects. In that way, all those inner and outer things are not objects for one another. Although they are apprehended in terms of being each other’s causes and conditions and are not conceptual objects, they reveal the mode of existence105 and the mode of illusion. The mode of illusion is [F.158.a] anything that is not suchness. Whatever is not suchness is nonexistent, whatever is nonexistent is unborn, and whatever is unborn does not cease.

“Noble son, all phenomena lack birth and cessation. Nevertheless, there are foolish ordinary beings who practice austerities, and when they generate what lacks a self and then apprehend it as the cause and condition of nonvirtue they give rise to forms, stray away from liberation, and experience undesirable results in the lower realms for a long time. As an analogy, noble son, wood is not fire, wood does not possess fire, and wood is not mixed with fire. Nevertheless, when a person who wants fire rubs a piece of wood against another piece of wood with their two hands a fire will start and the wood will be consumed by fire. Similarly, noble son, all those external and internal things are empty of each other, and they are not each other’s objects. They are a likeness and lack a self. But even though they are empty, foolish ordinary beings who practice austerities become attached to these empty phenomena that lack a self, and when they congregate they produce the causes and conditions for improper conduct. Those causes and conditions lead them to experience undesirable results in the three lower realms and to circle in saṃsāra for a long time. However, those who understand that all external and internal phenomena have the nature of lacking a self and being empty perfect this acceptance through perfect conduct and they will quickly awaken to unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening.”

Then the Blessed One spoke the following verses to summarize this point:

“Existence that is conditioned by grasping is understood as follows. The four types of grasping are momentary. The second moment that follows the arising and cessation of grasping gives rise to becoming. There are three types of existence: existence related to the desire realm, existence related to the form realm, and existence related to the formless realm. Existence related to the desire realm completely deceives beings. The eight great hell realms, the animal realms, the realms of the pretas, the four great continents, and the six abodes of the gods who live in the desire realm are referred to as the existence of the desire realm of the four-continent world. Existence related to the form realm consists of the sixteen abodes of the gods living in the form realm. This is referred to as the existence related to the form realm. Existence related to the formless realm consists of the four abodes of the gods living in the formless realm. This is referred to as the existence related to the formless realm.

“Noble son, when one apprehends it in terms of causes and conditions, one finds that existence in the three lower realms occurs based on utterly improper mental engagement and conceit with respect to the defiled five sense pleasures. [F.159.a] The states of existence of the eleven other abodes of the form realm are existences that are caused by defilements and virtue. The cause of the states of existence of the five other abodes of the form realm are the objects of apprehending acceptance and the cause of apprehending virtue, which becomes the cause of rebirth on the first to the seventh bodhisattva levels.106 The perfection of acceptance by cultivating emptiness as the single cause of virtue leads to the eighth, ninth, and tenth bodhisattva levels that are states of existence for which it is the single cause of virtue. The states of existence of afflicted buddha realms that are inundated with the five impurities and those states of existence that are related to the singular cause of virtue, such as the perfectly pure buddha realms, arise in the same way that the material objects of the form realms manifest based on virtuous and nonvirtuous causes.

“Becoming free of everything classified as material and immaterial is the cultivation of acceptance. Why? Because both material and immaterial things have the nature of being devoid of concepts, thoughts, and activity, and what is apprehended in terms of causes and conditions is unadulterated, without origination, and without cessation. The bodhisattvas’ cultivation of the acceptance that the activity of all material things, and all formations that are distinct from them, across all three times have the nature of space is referred to as all material and immaterial things. Seeing all the different buddha realms as like reflections of the moon in water or a flash of lightning from out of nowhere, they gain mastery over knowledge of the future related to all the roots of virtue of the three times.

“Noble son, the bodhisattva Puṇḍarīka will be born in this afflicted buddha realm. Adorned by great compassion and steadfast in diligence, he will not apprehend all the aggregates that are the basis of grasping. He will turn away from all forms, he will not dwell on the origination and destruction of all phenomena, and he will not act. [F.159.b] No thoughts or marks related to any formation will arise in him. He will manifest the ultimate reality that is the realm of phenomena, which is without duality and devoid of the afflictions and of the apprehension of everything across the three times. He will not conceptualize anything in terms of increase or decrease. He will not engage in a separation from limitless apprehension of the duality of mind and thought, and he will understand that the realm of phenomena across all three times is a likeness. Noble son, he will not dwell upon or apprehend the qualities related to having the form of a bodhisattva, and he will understand all phenomena as lacking a self and being devoid of persons. The cries and melodious tunes that arise in the three realms and across the three times, and which are devoid of an owner, will not remain and they will not arise. He will know that everything is insubstantial and groundless, since it exists as a likeness, and that everything is devoid of causes and conditions, always free from all manner of formations, and also without concepts, without thoughts, not arising, and not ceasing, and he will not reify anything. That bodhisattva will not conceive of or think about the vehicles of the hearers or the solitary buddhas, and he will not apprehend the cycle of existence and death of beings. He will neither apprehend nor discard great compassion or the mind of awakening that is devoid of permanence and annihilation, and he will cultivate acceptance by comprehending as empty all conduct that arises without a cause. He will then cast off the thick darkness of wandering through every type of existence. He will have a vision like the reflection of the moon in water of the other locations of all of the buddha realms. It will be like a flash of lightning from out of nowhere, and he will master knowledge of the future related to all roots of virtue of the three times.

“As an analogy, noble son, the banks of the flowing waters that surround Lake Anavatapta are filled with large, supremely sweet-smelling flowers called the eyes of perfect recovery. [F.160.a] When the few gods, nāgas, and yakṣas who suffer from severe physical disorders go to Anavatapta and inhale the medicinal fragrance of those great flowers called the eyes of perfect recovery, all the diseases associated with severe eye disorders and all the diseases associated with severe bodily disorders are completely cured. They are not weakened or strengthened by the medicinal fragrance of those great flowers, and they do not take joy in them since they have no concepts, no thoughts, no joy, and no anger. Likewise, since they possess good qualities that cure the illness of beings, noble son, bodhisattvas with great compassion will seek out opportunities to practice the acceptance of emptiness that is wisdom devoid of the hindrances. They will remain in the essence of phenomena of all types of existence and develop a strong desire to engage in wandering from death to rebirth. They will be allured by birth. When they are allured by birth, they will be allured by all phenomena. When they are allured by all phenomena, they will be allured by the attainment of powers related to engaging in the path of the practices of the three vehicles. Why? In regard to their power to proceed in a succession, the aggregates lack such power and they do not unfold in a succession.107 They do not abide in their own spheres; they do not remain in a succession of places. They are momentary and also inactive. They do not abide in a stream of moments.

“Forms across the three times are without form, without size, and devoid of numerous qualities. When one grasps at one thing after another there is manifestation, engagement, clinging, concealment, deterioration, and illumination. As an analogy, noble son, wind does not arise in space, and it lacks everything from manifestation up to thought. Space also does not arise in wind, and so on, up to lacking thought. [F.160.b] Noble son, everything from not arising in the least up to the lack of thought is also like that with respect to all phenomena. Since all phenomena lack movement and lack behavior, distinction, appearance, arising, cessation, annihilation, permanence, concepts, and thoughts, none of them can be understood in terms of arising, nor can they be understood in terms of origination, subsequent arising, or ownership. The aggregates should be understood to arise and disintegrate in the same way that wind neither arises nor ceases in space. They should be understood as entirely devoid of arising, words, and objects. They are not observed to follow all phenomena, encounter them, pass beyond them, or move in succession with them. They are completely without attachment, imputation, and abandoning. Phenomena are not perceived as distinct. They are not perceived in terms of the arising of gateways that dwell in all the phenomena of the three times.

“When bodhisattvas are free from birth and views in that way, and possess the Dharma of the treasury of wisdom that all phenomena do not depend on something else, that things do not manifest dualistically, they overcome the four māras, and they no longer perceive the entire collection of phenomena. Since they are free from all phenomena, they have completely transcended the arising of all three realms and there is no arising, no cessation,108 no death, and no origination. They perceive all realms as like quickly moving clouds and they visit them in order to ripen all beings. Noble son, that is the way that bodhisattvas should cultivate the acceptance of proper conduct in order to completely transcend birth.

“Noble son, it is delusion to think that old age and death are conditioned by birth. Momentary birth feeds109 old age.110 Deluded people are deceived by these external and internal formations. [F.161.a] Moreover, since everything from feelings to consciousness is nondual,111 people are everything from being free from old age and death up to being free from conflict, and are devoid of concepts, devoid of thought, and without deception. In the same way, the life breath112 and consciousness are like space, and thus have the same quality of being without conceptual thought. Not being deceived about that fact leads to being free from the two falsehoods of ignoble beings. Just as the realm of all phenomena is by nature devoid of affliction and unadulterated by old age and death, the eye consciousness is also unadulterated by everything from old age and death, deception, and desire, up to distress. Everything from the ear consciousness to the mental consciousness is also unadulterated by everything from old age and death, deception, and desire up to distress. Furthermore, the eye consciousness is also unadulterated by everything from old age and death, deception, and desire, up to distress. Feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousnesses are also unadulterated, so they are devoid of everything from old age and death and deception, up to distress. Furthermore, the eye, from its aging up to its distress, lacks any connection. When observed as it really is, everything related to the ear, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind, from old age and death up to distress, lacks any connection. When observed as it really is, everything related to forms, from old age and death up to distress, lacks any connection. When observed as it really is, everything related to consciousness, from old age and death up to distress, is no different from the point113 of being free from attachment that is the state of annihilation. Everything related to the life breath and consciousness, from old age and death up to distress, is annihilated to the point of being free from attachment.

“Noble son, bodhisattvas should meditate on the aggregate of feeling in the same way as the aggregates related to feeling. Cultivating this acceptance of the fact that the feelings associated with the three times do not exist in the three realms and arise and disintegrate, and are impermanent, suffering, and empty, should be regarded as the bodhisattva’s acceptance that ripens and looks after all beings. [F.161.b]

“Furthermore, noble son, bodhisattvas should cultivate this acceptance in order to properly analyze the aggregate of perception. What is the aggregate of perception? The six groups of perceptions consist of perceptions generated through eye contact, ear contact, nose contact, tongue contact, body contact, and mind contact. Eye contact is contact that includes the following three things: the eye, consciousness, and generation of the perception of forms. All perceptions originate through the condition of contact that includes those three. It is said that the correct application of the emptiness of formations across the three times to visible forms is that they are not created, are devoid of aspects, and are like a mass of foam. One should not understand the eye consciousness in terms of conceit about it coming and going somewhere. One should understand that the three realms are without location and groundless and that they are everything from being empty of the eye consciousness up to being empty of the mental consciousness. When perceptions of the six sense fields arise, there is feeling. When there is feeling, there are concepts. When there are concepts, there is conceit. When there is conceit, there is grasping. When grasping arises, everything up to distress fully arises. Therefore, bodhisattvas should cultivate acceptance in order to properly analyze perception.

“Bodhisattvas fully understand perception based on their complete understanding of contact that is related to the cultivation of acceptance. They completely understand cultivating that acceptance of the six groups of perception by cultivating the acceptance of everything up to mental perception, and that understanding has no concepts, no thoughts, and no approaching, grasping, manifestation, or attachment to things as real. They are not attached at all to the correct understanding that arises after cultivating the acceptance of the fact that all perceptions lack intrinsic nature and are completely annihilated. They understand that all perceptions related to the three realms and the three times are included in the realm of phenomena, which is groundless, baseless, without confusion, without disintegration, [F.162.a] without adoption, without rejection, and without dualistic activity, and their understanding is completely indestructible. When one does not even apprehend the mind that does not grasp at any perceptions, this is referred to as cultivating acceptance related to the method of pure conduct. Cultivating acceptance of the fact that all perceptions are impermanent, suffering, and empty should be regarded as the bodhisattvas’ acceptance that ripens and looks after all beings.

“Noble son, bodhisattvas should also cultivate acceptance that completely understands formations. What are formations? There are three types of formations: bodily formations, verbal formations, and mental formations. Bodily formations are the movements of inhalation and exhalation. Verbal formations are concepts and discrimination. Mental formations are perceptions and volition.

“Noble son, bodhisattvas should properly analyze the physical formations that are the movements of inhalation and exhalation. The entire body contains 92,000 or more than ninety-nine quintillion pores. Additionally, the entire body has openings the size of the most subtle particles numbering between 99,000 and 110,000. Since satiating a single pore of a flawless person is just like the movement of the breath through the 99,000 openings of all the pores of the entire body, it should be known as the entire movement of inhalation and exhalation called the breath moving through every pore. Bodhisattvas should cultivate acceptance in order to analyze the arising and destruction of the five aggregates related to the inhalation and exhalation through every opening.

“What are verbal formations? Concepts and discriminations arise and cease in a single moment, and for any moment on any given day 6,500,000 people will momentarily arise.114 Concepts, discriminations, and all of the five aggregates that arise for a moment, arise and cease for each of them. [F.162.b] Three types of feelings arise for each of the aggregates. Twelve limbs of origination arise for each feeling. Ninety-eight latent tendencies arise for each of those limbs of origination. Since all three realms arise for each of those latent tendencies, bodhisattvas should view conduct as the origin of the afflictions. These are the verbal formations.

“What are perceptions? Perceptions are the concepts, afflictions, and the afflictions caused by the marks associated with all the wrong views that are related to the movement of inhalation and exhalation.

“What is volition? Volitions, feelings, the aggregates, discriminations, the six sense faculties, and augmentations that surpass the one hundred powers of the afflictions that form the ground of attachment manifest in the time it takes to snap the fingers. More than one hundred that are the basis of anger manifest, more than one hundred that are the basis of delusion manifest, and more than one hundred afflictions related to particular types of behavior manifest. These, noble son, are physical, verbal, and mental volitions. Formations, examination, discrimination, and the movement of inhalation and exhalation are perceived by conceptual thought, and they are the foundation for the passing of thoughts and volitions with respect to perceptions. Thus, the nature of a bodhisattva’s existence and the three times is the body, speech, and mind.115

“Formations are insubstantial and inexhaustible, and the realm of phenomena is devoid of afflictions, so what need is there to arrive at the thorough understanding that the realm of phenomena is utterly pure? The fact that the characteristics of phenomena are completely pure means that one does not find characteristics, does not apprehend them, and they do not arise in the realm of phenomena. They do not accumulate in ultimate reality. The end of formations is the same in that one does not find or apprehend an end of formations and they do not cease. This is the ultimate reality of conceit toward the realm of phenomena.116 It is the end of all phenomena, [F.163.a] and what is the end for all phenomena is the end of the elimination of the three types of formation and the three times. This end is the end of the infinite and endless, the end of what does not follow afterward, and the end of impermanence. Such an end is the end of the equality of the three times; it is the end of the nonduality of the three times, of going to the end, and of the body, speech, and mind.117 The end of all three times is the end of the nonduality in ultimate reality of the three formations. It is the end of nothing whatsoever. It is the end of the nonduality of the complete understanding of contact. It is the end of being free from disintegration. In the same way, it is the end of the understanding of the movement of inhalation and exhalation. It is likewise the end of the twenty views, the end of concepts and discrimination, which are like a tala tree with the top cut off.118 It is the end of volitions that end in a moment and volitions in regard to nonattachment to perceptions. Understanding in this way is an understanding about the end of continuity in regard to the three formations, and it is in regard to this that there is arising with respect to objects and the nonexistence of objects.119 Furthermore, what is called transcending objects refers to the fact that all formations lack consciousness, and the fact that in regard to all formations duality and nonduality are free from engagement, accumulation, and increase in the realm of phenomena that is ultimate reality. In this respect, perfect understanding is the end of all formations’ lack of foundation, and it is free from reverence for the three times. This is the complete understanding of ultimate reality known as completely understanding all phenomena. This eliminates the three types of formations that make one circle in saṃsāra.

“Noble son, a bodhisattva who apprehends the sign that the three formations related to the three times are not eliminated grasps the cultivation of acceptance. Noble son, a bodhisattva who has abandoned the apprehension that the sign of the three types of formations is not eliminated cultivates the acceptance of nonduality. Therefore, noble son, [F.163.b] a bodhisattva should cultivate this acceptance that grasps the three times and the threefold formations as the acceptance by means of the method of perfect conduct for each being. Noble son, one should cultivate acceptance of the fact that formations are impermanent, suffering, empty, and lack a self. This should be regarded as the bodhisattvas’ cultivation of the acceptance that ripens and looks after beings.

“Noble son, what is the aggregate of the arising of consciousness? This refers to the consciousnesses of contact, such as those of the eye and the body, as they pertain to the six consciousnesses.120 Furthermore, those six consciousnesses, such as that of the body, give rise to their respective conceptions and conceptualizations of what is established through contact in the three times, the consciousness that is due to arising in the three times, and what is established through consciousness related to the three times.121 When one apprehends and thinks about craving related to objects it leads to arguments over the doctrine of acceptance. Conceptualizing craving for the objects related to the eyes and forms leads to arguing over and completely abandoning acceptance. The torment that follows contact and feelings leads to destroying and completely abandoning acceptance in regard to the craving for objects. Fixating on the mental faculty leads to confusion and completely abandoning the acceptance in regard to the craving for the realm of perceptions. There is discord and one completely abandons the acceptance in regard to the craving for objects, which brings an end to the three times and the three types of formations. One holds fast to the marks of the three types of formations, completely abandons the acceptance related to craving for objects, and gets into arguments. Apprehending formations that have completely arisen, and completely abandoning the acceptance related to craving for objects, is the complete abandonment of any form of acceptance of the fact that there are no afflictions whatsoever in the realm of phenomena. Noble son, bodhisattvas cultivate the acceptance of the realm of phenomena devoid of afflictions and do not focus on the objects of the six collections of consciousness. This is the nature of cultivating acceptance, and it leads one to think about all objects as the coming together in the sphere of thought of entities that are like illusions.122 [F.164.a]

“In this way, those who cultivate acceptance through individual methods of perfect conduct should exert themselves in the previous actions of the bodhisattvas. When bodhisattvas have carried out a detailed analysis and the root of supreme virtue has completely arisen, they move throughout space and do not focus their attention on, or become conceited about, the three times or all manner of formations. In this way, their cultivation of acceptance of discipline will expand. One may practice the mental consciousness correctly on any path in which the three times and all of the formations have fully arisen. Suchness is insubstantial. Bodhisattvas understand that they should not engage with the three times and formations or cultivate any and all such phenomena. They know that they are free from cultivation and are without tone, without language, and wordless. They know that they do not arise, do not cease, and have no characteristics. They know that they are not the different vehicles, they are not apprehended, they are without marks, and they are not completely isolated. They know that they are inexpressible, without avarice, utterly peaceful, free from momentary apprehension, utterly extinguished, groundless, utterly tranquil, utterly devoid of object, utterly without beneficence, and completely rootless. They know that they are not the sense faculties, they are utterly impure, and they are completely separate, utterly without antidote, devoid of marks and insubstantial, not at all stolen, utterly diffuse, and utterly insubstantial with respect to all phenomena. On this understanding, there is no agent, no subject who feels, no hearing, and there is no apprehender. Individual appearances are like a mirage, like the moon’s reflection in water, and like a reflected image; they have the nature of space and are utterly nonexistent. [F.164.b] All phenomena lack a self. This is the basis of their defining characteristic, the characteristic they have in common, their single characteristic, and bodhisattvas regard all things as grounded in the absence of a defining characteristic. They regard all phenomena, including all the formations and everything that is experienced in the three times, as grounded in suchness. Moreover, since the nourishment given by the bodhisattvas spreads to all beings, this should be regarded as the acceptance that tames beings with light that travels throughout space.

“Noble son, bodhisattvas clear away afflictions in that way in order to cultivate the acceptance related to forms whenever they gently breathe in and out,123 and their thoughts and wishes for all beings reach full bloom. All those acceptances completely transcend the qualities of the hearers and solitary buddhas. All those acceptances perfect the qualities of bodhisattva conduct. All those acceptances gather all the qualities of the teachings of the buddhas. All those acceptances are understood along with the teachings for which other traditions argue. All those acceptances are mindsets that destroy the dense darkness of ignorance. They induce delight in the teachings of the buddhas, they eliminate all obscurations and hindrances, they illuminate all the buddha realms, they instill faith in all the buddhas, they are the perfection of all the perfections, they revel in all the supernormal faculties, and they make one achieve the acceptance of absorptions and dhāraṇīs. This is the acceptance that tames beings with light that travels throughout space by means of various methods of perfect conduct.”

As the acceptance that tames beings with light that travels throughout space using each method of perfect conduct was being proclaimed and explained before the sage Seer, that bodhisattva’s repeated instruction led each and every being equal to the number of pores of all the beings in the ten directions, who are as numerous as all the grains of sand in 6,800,000 Ganges Rivers, to achieve the acceptances of taming beings with light that travels throughout space using each method of perfect conduct. [F.165.a] Thirty-one myriads124 of bodhisattvas each attained the lord of meteors absorption;125 92,000,000 bodhisattvas each achieved the proceeding as a hero absorption. In short, as many bodhisattvas as there are grains of sand in the Ganges each achieved the gateway to the Dharma of acceptance of all manner of various and distinct dhāraṇīs and absorptions.

The Blessed One then uttered the words of this mantra:

Ninety-eight sextillion gods each achieved the acceptance taming beings with light that travels through space using the perfect method of conduct for each one, and gods as numerous as all the grains of sand in the Ganges each attained irreversible awakening.

The Blessed One then uttered the words of this mantra:

As those words were being uttered, 77,000,000 nāgas each achieved this acceptance, and nāgas as numerous as all the grains of sand in the Ganges attained irreversible awakening.

The Blessed One then uttered the words of this mantra:

As those words were being uttered, 22,000,000,000 yakṣas entered the level of nonregression. One hundred thousand yakṣas reached the level of immeasurable nonregression, myriads of asuras entered the level of immeasurable nonregression, and a hundred billion garuḍas, kinnaras, and mahoragas also entered the level of immeasurable nonregression. [F.165.b]

After the Blessed One had uttered those words, the boundless great earths of the ten directions shook in six ways, and countless myriads of divine beings rained showers of divine flowers from the sky. All the assemblies of gods, nāgas, yakṣas, asuras, garuḍas, kinnaras, mahoragas, humans, and nonhumans who had arrived in this buddha realm from countless myriads of buddha realms in the ten directions applauded in unison, and exclaimed, “Excellent, excellent! Blessed One, this explanation of acceptance of the fact that all bodies disintegrate and all sense objects disintegrate, and this exceptional exposition of the acceptance of the fact that the qualities of the four māras do not depend on anything else, is a great wonder that has never been heard of before! It leads to the conduct of the bodhisattva great beings and the accumulation of surpassingly excellent deeds at the places they are to be done. It reveals the acceptance that makes one obtain the entire precious treasure of the thirty-seven factors of awakening. It makes one realize all forms of omniscient wisdom. Explaining this cultivation of the acceptance of all aspects causes beings to attain great compassion‍—the inexpressible goal of the bodhisattva great beings. It reveals the acceptance related to diligence and power by which one accumulates skillful means and great wisdom that ripens all beings.”