The Tree of Enlightenment

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CHAPTER NINETEEN e hilosophy of ind nly T he Mind Only school and the Middle Way school are the philosophical backbone of the Mahayana tradition. ere are several names by which the Mind Only school is known, the three most popular being Chittamatra (school affirming Mind Only), Vijnanavada (school affirming consciousness), and Yogachara (school affirming the unity of meditation and action). Yogachara refers to the union of the practice of meditation (yoga) and conduct (achara). e Mind Only school arose as an independent and identifiable philosophical tradition in the fourth century c.e. Two brothers, Asanga and Vasubandhu, played a central role in the formulation and popularization of the philosophy of this school. ey were born in Northwest India, in what is now Pakistan. rough their writings and skill as teachers and debaters, they popularized the Mind Only philosophy within a relatively short time. Both started out as realistic pluralists, and in addition to his many works on the Mind Only philosophy, Vasubandhu is well known for his Abhidharmakosha, a collection of Abhidharma philosophy written from the standpoint of the Vaibhashika school. ese two great scholars were converted to Mahayana and together produced a large number of works defining, categorizing, and setting forth the Mind Only philosophy. Asanga is famous for his Stages of the Bodhisattva Path (Bodhisattvabhumi), Compendium of the Abhidharma (Abhidharmasamuchchaya), written from the Mahayana or Mind Only viewpoint, and many com- 198
mentaries on major works of the Mind Only school. Vasubandhu is renowned for his short treatises on Cognition Only and a treatise explaining the three natures of the Mind Only philosophy. Asanga’s commentaries to a number of important texts of the Mind Only school are attributed by the Mahayana tradition to Lord Maitreya. Although modern scholars have attempted to identify Maitreya with a historical personality, the Mahayana tradition has no doubt that Maitreya is the future Buddha, now residing in Tushita Heaven. e major works of the Mind Only school attributed to him include the Distinction of the Middle from the Extremes (Madhyantavibhaga) and the Ornament of the Mahayana (Mahayanasutralankara). ey are said to have been transmitted by Maitreya to Asanga, who wrote them down and added commentaries. It is in this sense that a large portion of the textual foundation of the Mind Only philosophy is attributed to the future Buddha Maitreya. Like the Middle Way philosophy, the Mind Only philosophy has its origin in the earliest tradition of Buddhism. For example, even according to the eravada canon, the Buddha declared that mind is the creator of all things and referred to the luminous and pure nature of consciousness. e body of Mahayana sutras includes many discourses, like the Lankavatara Sutra, that deal at some length with the fundamental principles of the Mind Only philosophy. A long and weighty textual tradition thus precedes the emergence of the Mind Only tradition as an independent philosophical school. In addition to these textual anticipations in the canons of the Hinayana and Mahayana traditions, we find conceptual antecedents of the Mind Only philosophy in the course of the devel- 199
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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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itself. Indeed, if you look at the
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Recognizing the value and importanc
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the mind on the object without dist
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CHAPTER SEVEN isdom W ith this chap
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Buddhism, faith is preliminary and
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when you are sure you have understo
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will experience the happy effects o
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greed, anger, envy, and jealousy. I
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of samsara, the cycle of birth and
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others are less fortunate, why some
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In the same way, according to the l
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Here we can see at work the princip
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Similarly, there are five alternati
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in heaven can we escape our karma.
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CHAPTER NINE ebirth I n this chapte
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convincing case for the reality of
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death, we are reborn at every momen
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ey suffer from the human beings who
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ealms is undesirable. e three lower
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continue to circle endlessly among
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tinuity of cause and effect exists,
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On the basis of the Buddha’s own
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in this life result in rebirth in a
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less lives, combined with new actio
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impurities are eliminated, actions
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objective is admirably achieved thr
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can understand that fire is hot and
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is process of the constant change o
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emember the certainty of our own de
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their techniques of meditation and
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Although we know that certain thoug
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And when wisdom arises, we experien
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for a collection of trees. In this
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to turn an indefinite experience in
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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
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Page 154 and 155: dissemination of the Dharma. During
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Page 158 and 159: is compassion for all living beings
Page 160 and 161: CHAPTER FIFTEEN e otus utra T he pe
Page 162 and 163: physician who has been away from ho
Page 164 and 165: Just as each plant benefits from ra
Page 166 and 167: nations of his children, the father
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
Page 178 and 179: CHAPTER SEVENTEEN e ankavatara utra
Page 180 and 181: speaks does not participate in thes
Page 182 and 183: and nirvana, both the phenomenal wo
Page 184 and 185: (1) the transcendental dimension is
Page 186 and 187: CHAPTER EIGHTEEN e hilosophy of the
Page 188 and 189: the sutras, and in the approach of
Page 190 and 191: It is interesting to note that thes
Page 192 and 193: far as cause and effect are identic
Page 194 and 195: say that perception is proved by it
Page 196 and 197: there’: they depend, rather, on t
Page 200 and 201: opment of Buddhist thought. We all
Page 202 and 203: milk, but it would appear as nectar
Page 204 and 205: ern science. e atom as well as its
Page 206 and 207: the source of the phenomenalizing a
Page 208 and 209: to cause and effect, to samsara. e
Page 210 and 211: that the philosophy of emptiness wa
Page 212 and 213: Just as this was taking place withi
Page 214 and 215: ience suffused by great bliss. Whil
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Page 218 and 219: the apparatus needed to produce a m
Page 220 and 221: CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE ahayana uddhism
Page 222 and 223: for the practice of unwholesome act
Page 224 and 225: mothers to you, should continue to
Page 226 and 227: dom. Similarly, without a concentra
Page 228 and 229: tary reassociation with fictitious
Page 230 and 231: ese three bodies or dimensions of B
Page 232 and 233: CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO e rigins of the
Page 234 and 235: Let us spend a moment on the origin
Page 236 and 237: throughout India. Nagarjuna and Asa
Page 238 and 239: Asanga asked, ‘Where have you bee
Page 240 and 241: was also a professor at Nalanda. On
Page 242 and 243: CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE hilosophical a
Page 244 and 245: y a magician using certain magical
Page 246 and 247: 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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