The Tree of Enlightenment

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objective is admirably achieved through the teaching of interdependent origination, which safeguards not only our understanding of the conditioned and impermanent nature of the personality, but also our understanding of the reality of the law of cause and effect. In the context of interdependent origination, we have established the conditioned and impermanent nature of the personality, or self, by exposing its dependent nature. In the chapters that follow, we will arrive at the impermanence and impersonality of the self through examining its composite nature and analyzing it into its constituent parts. By these means, we will elucidate the truth of not-self that opens the door to enlightenment. 128
CHAPTER ELEVEN e ree niversal haraeristics T he subject of this chapter is the three universal characteristics of existence. is is an important part of the teaching of the Buddha. Like the Four Noble Truths, karma, interdependent origination, and the five aggregates, the teaching of the three characteristics is part of what we might call the doctrinal contents of wisdom. In other words, when we talk about the knowledge and understanding that are implied by wisdom, we have this teaching also in mind. Before we examine the three characteristics one by one, let us try to come to an understanding of what they mean and in what way they are useful. First of all, what is a characteristic and what is not? A characteristic is something that is necessarily connected with something else. Because a characteristic is necessarily connected with something, it can tell us about the nature of that thing. Let us take an example. Heat, for instance, is a characteristic of fire but not of water. Heat is a characteristic of fire because it is always and invariably connected with fire, whereas whether or not water is hot depends on external factors – an electric stove, the heat of the sun, and so forth. But the heat of fire is natural to fire. It is in this sense that the Buddha uses the term “characteristic” to refer to facts about the nature of existence that are always connected with existence or always found in existence. e characteristic “heat” is always connected with fire. We can understand something about the nature of fire from heat. We 129
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The Tree of Enlightenment Dr Peter
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CONTENTS About the Author..........
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Part ree he ajrayana Chapter Twenty
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out the uthor P eter Della Santina
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uthor’s ote F rom 1983 to 1985 wh
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ship. Finally, I want to thank all
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CHAPTER ONE uddhism: odern erspeiv
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mind, while in traditionally Buddhi
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is story illustrates the practical
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one’s own personal experience is
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e procedure adopted here is analyti
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transformation, whereas in Buddhism
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emained separate and distinct, but
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coveries at Mohenjo-daro and Harapp
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Whereas in the religion of the Indu
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look at some of the prominent facts
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Buddhism was a protest against, or
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CHAPTER THREE e ife of the uddha N
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inated by the correctives of renunc
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Siddhartha, being the faster runner
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permanently put an end to suffering
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CHAPTER FOUR e our oble ruths W ith
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the formula of the Four Noble Truth
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measures to remedy the disease. Suc
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lives often brings us into contact
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all right, but it would be still be
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as we take the tree stump to be a p
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ply because we have not experienced
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emedy the situation here and now, t
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earth, water, fire, and air, the su
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overly tight string produces an unp
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CHAPTER FIVE orality I n Chapter 4
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you will find that the basic rules
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In this context, right speech impli
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ever, some of the developments in r
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Very briefly, these are the origin,
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CHAPTER SIX ental evelopment I n th
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ing the way we experience things an
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Page 80 and 81: Recognizing the value and importanc
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Page 84 and 85: CHAPTER SEVEN isdom W ith this chap
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Page 88 and 89: when you are sure you have understo
Page 90 and 91: will experience the happy effects o
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Page 94 and 95: of samsara, the cycle of birth and
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Page 98 and 99: In the same way, according to the l
Page 100 and 101: Here we can see at work the princip
Page 102 and 103: Similarly, there are five alternati
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Page 106 and 107: CHAPTER NINE ebirth I n this chapte
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Page 112 and 113: ey suffer from the human beings who
Page 114 and 115: ealms is undesirable. e three lower
Page 116 and 117: continue to circle endlessly among
Page 118 and 119: tinuity of cause and effect exists,
Page 120 and 121: On the basis of the Buddha’s own
Page 122 and 123: in this life result in rebirth in a
Page 124 and 125: less lives, combined with new actio
Page 126 and 127: impurities are eliminated, actions
Page 130 and 131: can understand that fire is hot and
Page 132 and 133: is process of the constant change o
Page 134 and 135: emember the certainty of our own de
Page 136 and 137: their techniques of meditation and
Page 138 and 139: Although we know that certain thoug
Page 140 and 141: And when wisdom arises, we experien
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Page 146 and 147: We discussed this in Chapter 11, wh
Page 148 and 149: CHAPTER THIRTEEN e undamentals in r
Page 150 and 151: art wo e ahayana
Page 152 and 153: to have taught innumerable living b
Page 154 and 155: dissemination of the Dharma. During
Page 156 and 157: school of realistic pluralism known
Page 158 and 159: is compassion for all living beings
Page 160 and 161: CHAPTER FIFTEEN e otus utra T he pe
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Page 164 and 165: Just as each plant benefits from ra
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Page 168 and 169: But because our ambitions and aspir
Page 170 and 171: the Mahayana tradition. It is also
Page 172 and 173: e passage from wisdom to the perfec
Page 174 and 175: independent existence of things. On
Page 176 and 177: ory as well as to meditation. In th
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN e ankavatara utra
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speaks does not participate in thes
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and nirvana, both the phenomenal wo
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(1) the transcendental dimension is
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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN e hilosophy of the
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the sutras, and in the approach of
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It is interesting to note that thes
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far as cause and effect are identic
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say that perception is proved by it
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there’: they depend, rather, on t
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CHAPTER NINETEEN e hilosophy of ind
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opment of Buddhist thought. We all
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milk, but it would appear as nectar
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ern science. e atom as well as its
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the source of the phenomenalizing a
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to cause and effect, to samsara. e
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that the philosophy of emptiness wa
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Just as this was taking place withi
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ience suffused by great bliss. Whil
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it white, blue, or otherwise?’ Su
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the apparatus needed to produce a m
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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE ahayana uddhism
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for the practice of unwholesome act
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mothers to you, should continue to
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dom. Similarly, without a concentra
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tary reassociation with fictitious
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ese three bodies or dimensions of B
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO e rigins of the
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Let us spend a moment on the origin
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throughout India. Nagarjuna and Asa
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Asanga asked, ‘Where have you bee
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was also a professor at Nalanda. On
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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE hilosophical a
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y a magician using certain magical
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e object now appears to him without
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Mahayana both in its starting point
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR ethodology A s
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death, whereas nirvana is unconditi
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and nirvana is intellectual or dire
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us we can see that not only are obj
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lizes a variety of phenomena, and t
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE yth and ymbolis
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necklaces of severed heads, ornamen
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of knowledge in the Garden of Eden.
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alike, the name of a thing is a sou
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Red, which is the color of fire, is
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On the broadest level, we have been
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e idea of interpenetration is found
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the realm of the hell beings. It is
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sees no distinction between samsara
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ody of each individual person. ey a
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You can see how, in the Vajrayana t
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(4) death and impermanence, and (5)
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that these general preliminaries ar
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and others require alternative ritu
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of conditioned reality, they do not
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it is then the task of the practiti
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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT e ajrayana nit
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formation of the five aggregates in
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eserved for actually introducing th
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environment, the situation of the i
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initiation. ese methods or keys are
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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE ajrayana uddhis
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ties, and his achievement of Buddha
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the tutelary deity, in other words,
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and the sound of the mantra so that
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CHAPTER THIRTY n ntroduion to the b
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is said that when he returned to ea
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and so forth. is is the difference
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ontology, which means the study of
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ticularly interested here. ese are
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esponsibility because if the self i
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emained silent, and after a time Va
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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO ethodology I n t
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already have some intellectual acqu
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To arrive at the ultimate picture o
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these component parts do not exist
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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE nalysis of ons
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(lokiya) and are concerned with the
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ditioned by any of the three unwhol
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we have fifty-four types of conscio
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CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR e orm and ormle
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as evidence of the existence of a t
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‘striking,’ or ‘mounting.’
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formless-sphere absorption, which d
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CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE upramundane ons
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ness (the fruit consciousness of th
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consciousness, the fruit consciousn
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e clarity of that flash remains for
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CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX nalysis of ental
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to a particular object whereas atte
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e third group of unwholesome mental
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disassociated with knowledge, or as
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CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN nalysis of oug
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Heedlessness is the source of death
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ere are four types of physical thou
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sciousness, too, are either wholeso
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where he is. He stretches out his a
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ply have subjective and objective f
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porary thought about matter. Scient
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sciousness. is intermediate positio
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e only way we can avoid this plural
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existence, (12) repetition, (13) ka
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vious karma has an influence and se
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lar way identifiable in terms of th
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CHAPTER FORTY e irty-even aors of n
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Mindfulness with regard to the body
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Truths and in the destruction of th
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iver the eastern part and the other
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ment, equanimity is that integrated
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are the keys to self-development, a
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of right effort, right mindfulness,
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conditioned, relative, and empty na
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The Tree of Enlightenment

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