The Changeless Nature

4 The Changeless Natureis one. Its teachings are those of the third dharmachakra. Manycommentaries have been written for Maitreya's text, transmitted intothis world by Acarya Asanga, and the one chosen for this translation'sstandpoint is that of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, whose commentaryis in two main parts: an introduction to Maitreya's work and acommentary on the actual text of the original. A summary ofKongtrul Rinpoche's introduction now follows.I. CLASSIFICATIONThe initial canon (Skt. sasana Tib. bKa'), consisting of theBuddha's expressed teaching, and the treatises (Skt. sastra Tib. bstan.bChos), written by others to elucidate the Buddha's teaching, formthe main buddhist canon. Since Maitreya had been speciallyempowered as Buddha's representative in Tushita, his speech can beconsidered as Buddha-speech and hence this work classified as initialcanon. However, this work is fundamentally an explanation ofBuddha Sakyamuni's own teaching and so it is more appropriate toclass it as a sastra, a treatise.2. ORIGINSome people hold this sastra to be an expression of the cittamatrin2 standpoint but this is erroneous since its ideas stem directlyfrom the third dharmachakra. This expression of the definite absolutenature is derived from the third dharmachakra sutras and in particularfrom one sutra (the dharanisvararajasutra) which was taught at therequest of King Isvara, and which is reformulated here in sevenpoints.3. AUTHORGenerally speaking, sastras should be written by those endowedwith exceptional qualities and the very best authors are those withdirect realisation of sunyata. Second best are those who have haddirect experience of one of the buddha-aspects and third best are