Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal

BODHGAYA AND THE BUDDHA ESSENCE

What is the purpose of a Buddhist pilgrimage? To begin with, the Buddha appeared in India and achieved complete and perfect Buddhahood there. Having achieved complete and perfect enlightenment, he then turned the wheel of the dharma. Buddhists, in remembrance of his activity, therefore make pilgrimages to places that the Buddha had visited. The purpose of our doing so is so that we will remember the Buddha’s good qualities.

We begin by visiting the place where Buddha achieved enlightenment, to see how he achieved enlightenment, and then we go on to visit the various places where he turned the wheel of the dharma. In this way, we develop some awareness and mindfulness of the exalted activity of the Buddha. The purpose of our doing so is that through remembering and being mindful of the Buddha’s deeds, we ourselves are encouraged so that our strength of heart will increase, our longing and admiration for the dharma will increase. Because of this we will enter into the practice of the dharma with great effort, and through practicing, we may achieve the final fruition of the dharma. We call this receiving the blessing of the Buddha or the blessing of these sacred places, or from a worldly point of view, we can say by just recollecting the history of the Buddhist tradition we will develop the aspiration to practice and achieve the fruition. There are, in any case, a great many reasons for going on pilgrimage.

Generally speaking, in this world, which we refer to as Jambudvipa in the Buddhist tradition, there are many different religious traditions. There is a purpose and need for all of these various religious traditions. Non-Buddhist traditions usually believe in a god or a deity. In theistic traditions, when we please that deity we achieve happiness; and by displeasing that deity we incur suffering. However, in the Buddhist way we think about it differently. In the Buddhist tradition we believe the experience of pain and pleasure or happiness and suffering comes about as the fruition of an individual’s actions or karma. In the Buddhist tradition we speak about abandoning negative or wicked states of mind (called kleshas) and, by abandoning these kleshas, we achieve the final fruition of awakening or enlightenment. The Buddha then is a teacher of how to do this and he is the one who gave these teachings.

The Buddha did not begin as a deity. He began as an ordinary, common being. He generated within himself the aspiration to complete enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, called “the mind of enlightenment” or bodhichitta in Sanskrit. Having generated bodhichitta, he began to accumulate the two collections, the accumulation of wisdom and the accumulation of merit. Having completed the collections, he achieved the final fruition. Following his example, many other accomplished persons, great bodhisattvas, achieved the final fruition. Similarly, people such as ourselves, even though we are not great bodhisattvas (we are just ordinary people), nevertheless, by following the various methods that the Buddha taught, we too can generate this aspiration for enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings; having done so we too can accumulate the collections of wisdom and merit and, through accumulating wisdom and merit, bring into manifestation the complete and perfect enlightenment that was achieved by the Buddha.

When we say “Buddha,” we are speaking about the fruition. In Tibetan the word that we use for Buddha is Sang-gyä and those two syllables refer to the two aspects of the good qualities of the Buddha. Whether we are thinking about this in terms of Buddha Shakyamuni, the one who has already achieved Buddhahood, or whether we are thinking about the Buddhahood that we ourselves will achieve in the future, it is the same. It is indeed suitable, appropriate and possible for people such as ourselves to achieve Buddhahood.

At this point we have, however, the obstruction of the various disturbing emotions (Skt. kleshas) that exist within our mind. The principal obstruction is called ignorance. Because of ignorance the various other disturbing emotions arise in the mind, such as desire, hatred, pride, and envy. Ignorance gives rise to two sorts of obstructions, (a) the afflictive obstructions, or klesha-vadana in Sanskrit, and (b) the obstructions with regard to knowledge, or vijnana-vadana. It is because of those two obstructions—the emotional obstructions and the obstructions to knowledge—that we are not able to achieve enlightenment and that we remain in samsara, where we have to undergo all sorts of suffering from all sorts of difficult situations and conditions. In that way, there is a relationship of cause and effect. The cause, ignorance, gives rise to the effect, suffering within samsara. Therefore we need to eliminate those obstructions. That is what the first syllable sang in the Tibetan means. Sang means something like “cleanse” and refers to clearing away, removing, or abandoning these various sorts of obstructions. When that has been done, then various good qualities manifest. If we are speaking about ourselves and say sang, then we are talking about the need to separate ourselves from these obstructions. If we are speaking about the Buddha and we say sang, then we are referring to the fact that he has already done so.

By purifying the obstructions in this way, all the good qualities are brought into a manifest state; the good qualities and wisdom (Skt. jnana) are generated or born within us. When all of the good qualities without exception have been generated within us, then that is Buddhahood, which is what the second syllable in the word Sang-gyä refers to. Gyä means “expand, spread, or develop extensively.” When we say that the Buddha is Sang-gyä, we are referring to the fact that all these good qualities have been developed in a complete and manifest form.

Just as the Buddha accomplished enlightenment, so we too are able to practice the path and accomplish enlightenment. The reason is that whatever causes enabled Buddha to achieve enlightenment, whatever causes existed within the Buddha’s stream of being, exist identically in us. This is summarized when the Buddha said: “All sentient beings have the Buddha essence.”

However, it is not apparent that this Buddha essence exists within all sentient beings. Because if we look at ourselves, we see that we have this fairly crude, ordinary body, this unrefined speech and this fairly confused ordinary mind. Looking through our body, speech, and mind, we don’t see anything we would call the “essence of the Buddha.” What we see, rather, is something impermanent, impure, and dirty. So, we may wonder, “Where is this Buddha essence? It doesn’t exist. I can’t find it. I can’t see it.” However, if you settle this, fundamentally, take this right down to the very basis, then you can understand that the Buddha essence does indeed exist in all sentient beings.

These experiences that we have of body, speech, and mind are appearances based on a fundamental ignorance that we have. Because ignorance covers and conceals the true nature, we are not able to see the true nature of body, speech, and mind. Rather, we have mistaken and confused experiences. To respond to that the Buddha in the Heart Sutra said, “There is no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no form, no feeling” and so forth. He was saying all of these lack inherent existence; they are not established by way of their own nature. They are empty of any nature of their own. As truths for a concealing consciousness, all of these things appear, together with both actions or karma and their effect. So speaking about this in the context of what are known as the two truths, we say that various sorts of appearances do dawn (relative truth): eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, visible forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects and so forth. All these things do appear, dawn and arise, however, ultimately their mode of abiding is that they are like dreams, they are not established and they do not exist (ultimate truth).

All these various kinds of appearances are not established by way of their own nature, they are empty of any such nature. Their emptiness, their lack of any inherent existence, was demonstrated with reasoning by many great scholars and learned persons in the past, such as Nagarjuna, Asanga, and Chandrakirti. However, if we just speak about this from the viewpoint of the experience that we ourselves have, it is like a dream. In a dream all sorts of things appear: visual forms, feelings, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects. All of these things do indeed appear very vividly. But they are just dream appearances, being false and not true. They are not what they seem to be. For example, when we are dreaming we can imagine that we are in a very nice house where everything is very pleasant, well arranged, and delightful. But in fact we are sleeping and we are just in our own ordinary house. The objects and feelings in our dream seem to be appearing very vividly; they appear to be real. In waking life both our body and the external world appear as if they were really and truly existent and established. But in fact, they do not exist, nevertheless, they do appear. They appear, they arise, but they are not established, they do not exist. Ultimately then all phenomena are emptiness, all of these impure phenomena that we experience are emptiness.

What is the nature of this emptiness? Is it an utter non-existence that is a mere voidness? No, that is not what it is. Space, for instance, is voidness, but space is not something that allows various phenomena to appear, to arise, and to dawn. It doesn’t have any factor of luminous clarity (Tib. salwa). Space is just a dead emptiness. This non-existence of phenomena that we call emptiness is also what we call by the name chö-ji-yin or dharmadhatu, where yin or dhatu has the meaning of “space, realm, sphere within which all good qualities can arise, within which anything could arise, could appear, could dawn.” Impure phenomena could arise, pure phenomena could arise. It is entirely suitable, possible or appropriate for any sort of phenomena to appear within that dharmadhatu or “sphere of reality.” That luminous clarity then is the basis for wisdom or jnana.
We speak then about the union of space and wisdom or the union of this yin or dhatu and wisdom. It is an inseparability of luminous clarity and emptiness. Because the nature of this union of wisdom and space is emptiness, stains and defilements are suitable to be abandoned. And because luminous clarity is the nature of this dharmadhatu or sphere of reality, all good qualities are suitable to arise or to be generated in it. This union of space and wisdom, of luminous clarity and emptiness, pervades all sentient beings. It is in the light of this that we say that Buddha essence pervades all sentient beings or that all sentient beings have this Buddha essence.

This inseparable union of space and wisdom is also called by the name “sugatagarbha,” which means “the essence of the one gone to bliss” with garbha meaning “essence” and sugata the name for the Buddha, the one gone to bliss. We say it pervades all sentient beings because the sugatagarbha exists in all sentient beings, and the adventitious defilements (those defilements which are not part of the true nature of mind), can be cleared away. Thus, in the Uttaratantra or the text on “The Hierarchy of Being that Exists within all Sentient Beings,” it is said, “All sentient beings are Buddha, however, these adventitious defilements obstruct Buddhahood.”

Sugatagarbha is discussed in the Uttaratantra in terms of four different topics: (1) The nature of the sugatagarbha, which is as I have just explained. Through listening to such presentations, contemplating their meaning and then meditating upon what one has understood, it is possible to achieve the fruition or effect. (2) Having realized the sugatagarbha and having cultivated the path of that realization, one gradually achieves the bodhi or chang-chub, “enlightenment,” which is the second of the four topics in terms of which the sugatagarbha is explained. (3) When one achieves enlightenment, then various good qualities come along, because the enlightenment that one achieves is of the very nature of emptiness and luminous clarity which has been brought into a manifest state. (4) Finally, the Buddha’s enlightened activity is described in terms of the three bodies of the Buddha.

When we speak about the nature of this enlightenment, we begin first in terms of the extraordinary good qualities that a Buddha possesses. We could elaborate and name these qualities for quite a long time. But we can summarize the extraordinary and marvelous qualities of a Buddha’s mind as knowledge, tender love, and capacity or power.
The first quality, a Buddha’s knowledge, is related to the luminous clarity that is the very nature of the Buddha’s mind and of enlightenment. This exalted knowledge of a Buddha is able to recognize, know, to cognize all phenomena whatsoever, both conventional phenomena and ultimate phenomena. There is nothing whatsoever that is obscured from a Buddha; there are no objects of knowledge that a Buddha does not know; there is no obstruction of anything by anything whatsoever because a Buddha knows conventional and ultimate phenomena. With this knowledge a Buddha sees the situation that various sentient beings find themselves having to endure and the sort of suffering that they have to undergo simply because of being mistaken about the basic nature of reality. By seeing the suffering of sentient beings a Buddha’s tender love comes forth. We say that if the Buddhas just had knowledge and love for sentient beings but had no capacity to do anything for them then it would not be of much use. But because of knowledge and love, the Buddhas are able to have tremendous capacity, tremendous power. Through that sort of capacity or power, a Buddha is able to help sentient beings.

That was a brief presentation of the good qualities of a Buddha’s mind. We could also speak about the good qualities of a Buddha’s body and speech. If we speak about a Buddha’s body, then the good qualities are described in terms of the thirty-two primary and the eighty supplementary qualities.

The fourth topic is called “the Buddha’s enlightened activity” and is described in terms of the three bodies or kayas of the Buddha. These are: (a) The dharmakaya, chö-ku in Tibetan, or “truth body.”(b) The body that appears to students who are said to be pure, those who have achieved a high level. That body is called the sambhogakaya, the “complete enjoyment body.” (c) The nirmanakaya or “emanation body” appears from the perspective of students who are in an impure state: in particular, from among the many types of nirmanakaya there is the enlightened activity carried out by the supreme nirmanakaya, which demonstrates the deeds of achieving enlightenment, turning the wheel of dharma and so forth.