The Changeless Nature

Translators' IntroductionLord Buddha taught the dharma in three main phases of teachingcalled the three dharma chakras or the three 'turnings of the wheel ofdharma'. The first dharmachakra expounded the 'Four Truths of theRealised', the 'Eightfold Path of the Realised' and other fundamentalprinciples, thereby making clear what suffering is, what causes suchsuffering, what really constitutes a definitive end (cessation) tosuffering and what the means are for achieving this definitive end.The teachings given in this first phase are the easiest to understand.The second dharmachakra, also referred to as the 'middle turning'or the 'dharmachakra of no-characteristics', demonstrated the illusorynature of everything and placed the teachings of the first dharmachakrain a much less concrete perspective; suffering was no longersomething to be doted with existential reality and the fundamentalstatements of voidness (sunyata) — 'form not existing', 'sound notexisting' etc. — were postulated to show the void nature of everything.In the third dharmachakra the 'true nature' of everything wasexplained — not just voidness, in the sense of complete absence ornegation, but a void nature, resplendent with all qualities, naturallypresent, which is the essence of all beings; their buddha-nature. Sincethis is the very nature of all beings then by working on it any one ofthem can reveal the enlightened wisdom that is inherent to thatnatureThe subject matter of these three dharmachakras was commentedupon and cross-referenced in the many treatises (sastra) composed bybuddhist scholars after the Buddha's parinirvana. 1 Maitreya composedfive encyclopaedic sastra of which this Mahayana Uttara Tantra Sastra