The Changeless Nature

those extremely erudite in the five main branches of knowledge.Authors other than these are not really well-qualified. Maitreya, theauthor of this work, is better than anyone of those three categoriesbecause he was a great bodhisattva 3 who had reached the highest(10th) stage of bodhisattva development. His actual teaching of thiswork was brought to our world by Acarya Asanga and so importantis this work that it figured among Lord Buddha's predictions, as didAsanga as its transmitter.Prior to Asanga's birth, heretics had caused a serious fire atNalanda university and this had destroyed many precious works. Anun called Mulasila was very worried about the loss caused to theteachings and was inspired to have two sons whom she would rear tohelp strengthen the dharma. One was Asanga, who greatly benefittedthe mahayana 4 and the other was Vasubhandhu who greatly benefittedthe hinayana 5 . Asanga grew up and went into retreat to practicemeditation upon Maitreya. After three years without dramatic result,he felt very depressed and left retreat. Looking up he saw a pigeonleaving its nest in the rock face and noticed how the entrance hole hadbeen worn smooth by the feathers of generations of pigeons. Inspiredto diligence by this example of continual application, he returned toretreat. Similarly, after a further three years he again felt despondentand this time left only to encounter a man rubbing an iron bar with acloth. A fascinated Asanga asked what he was doing and was told thathe was making a sewing needle! Once again inspired, by so muchdiligent forbearance for such a small worldly end, he returned toretreat.After twelve years of meditation in retreat he still had no tangiblesigns of having accomplished anything and, extremely low, he gave upyet again. This time he left and encountered a wretched sick old bitch,her bones protruding and the bottom part of her body mangy andfilled with sores. This miserable sight sparked off great compassionin him. Looking more closely, he could see that the sores wereinfested with worms and that their presence could well be fatal for thedog. He thought hard to find a way in which he could remove theworms without harming them and eventually realised that only hisown body was sensitive enough to remove them safely and that of hisown body only his tongue was really soft enough to remove themproperly.