The Changeless Nature

Notes 167Therefore, even they must still seek refuge in the buddha.29. Rare and supreme (dKon. mCHog) is the Tibetan equivalent of the Sanskritword 'Ratna' — jewel.NOTES TO PART TWOIntroduction30. The three rare and supreme arise from...: this introduces the four final vajrapoints: buddha-nature, enlightenment, buddha-qualities and buddha activity.31. Suchness: the true nature of the mind, just as it is; also called 'thatness'.32. Those who perceive the ultimate: the buddhas, the all-seeing ones. SeeNote 22 above.33. The potential: strictly speaking, the potential of buddhahood is just thebuddha-nature, which is both the cause and basis for the achievement of thethree jewels. This term is also used in a broader sense which includes not onlythe cause but also the essential conditions for this achievement, theseessential conditions being the three final vajra points — enlightenment,buddha-qualities and buddha-activity.34. 'Ordinary beings': are those who do not have a direct and definite understandingof voidness i. e. anyone up to the 1st deep bodhisattva level. Theyare also referred to as 'immature beings'. The four aspects of the potentialare inconceivable for ordinary beings because of the following seemingparadoxes:1) How can the essence of enlightenment be both pure and polluted?2) What is there to purify if enlightenment is already defilement-free?3) The qualities are inseparable from the buddha-nature, yet why are theymanifest in the buddha and not in beings?4) How can buddha activity be spontaneous and concept-free while havingthe seeming object of benefitting beings?Chapter One — The Buddha Nature1. Undifferentiated: There are no distinctions whatsoever within the suchness:no 'good' one for the buddhas, 'bad' one for beings and so on.2. Potential named after its fruit: Just as a poppy seed is so-called because itwill produce a poppy, given the right conditions, so also is the buddhapotentialnamed after its fruit, being both the cause and the ground fromwhich will arise buddhahood, given the right conditions. Since the poppy seedcontains all the latent nature of 'poppy', which none other does, and sincethis will manifest as a poppy and nothing else, then it merits the name'poppy-seed' and can be truly said to hold the essence of poppyhood.