World Sacred Scriptures: The wisdom of The Lankavatara Sutra

T herefore, let every disciple take good heed not to become attached to words as being in perfect conformity with meaning, because Truth is not in the Letters.

temple_buddhist

quote 2582 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.311, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

S elf-realization is an exalted state of inner attainment which transcends all dualistic thinking and which is above the mind-system with its logic, reasoning, theorizing, and illustrations.

temple_buddhist

quote 2581 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.311, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T he Tathagatas do not teach a Dharma that is dependent upon letters. Anyone who teaches
a doctrine that is dependent upon letters and words is a mere prattler, because Truth is beyond letters and words and books.
This does not mean that words and books never declare what is in conformity with meaning and truth, but it means that words and books are dependent upon discriminations, while meaning and truth are not; moreover, words and books are subject to the interpretation of individual minds, while meaning and truth are not.

temple_buddhist

quote 2580 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.311, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

B ut if a man becomes attached to the literal meaning of words and holds fast to the illusion that words and meaning are in agreement, especially in such things as Nirvana which is unborn and un-dying, or as to distinctions of the Vehicles, the five Dharmas, the three self-natures, then he will fail to understand the true meaning and will become entangled in assertions and refutations.

temple_buddhist

quote 2579 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.310, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

B ut the cessation of the discriminating-mind can not take place until there has been a "turning-about" in the deepest seat of consciousness. The mental habit of looking outward by the discriminating-mind upon an external objective world must be given up, and a new habit of realizing Truth within the intuitive-mind by becoming one with Truth itself must be established. Until this intuitive self-realization of Noble Wisdom is attained, the evolving mind-system will go on. But when an insight into the five Dharmas, the three self-natures, and the twofold egolessness is attained, then the way will be opened for this turning-about to take place. With the ending of pleasure and pain, of conflicting ideas, of the disturbing interests of egoism, a state of tranquillization will be attained in which the truths of emancipation will be fully understood and there will be no further evil out-flowings of the mind-system to interfere with the perfect self-realization of Noble Wisdom.

temple_buddhist

quote 2578 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.309, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

B y the cessation of the sense-minds is meant, not the cessation of their perceiving functions, but the cessation of their discriminating and naming activities which are centralized in the discriminating mortal-mind. By the cessation of the mind-system as a whole is meant, the cessation of discrimination, the clearing away of the various attachments, and, therefore, the clearing away of the defilements of habit-energy in the face of Universal Mind which have been accumulating since beginningless time by reason of these discriminations, attachments, erroneous reasoning, and following acts. The cessation of the continuation aspect of the mind-system as a whole, takes place when there is the cessation of that which supports the mind-system, namely, the discriminating mortal-mind. With the cessation of mortal-mind the entire world of maya and desire disappears. Getting rid of the discriminating mortal-mind is Nirvana.

temple_buddhist

quote 2577 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.309, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T he five sense-functions and their discriminating and thinking function have their risings and complete endings from moment to moment. They are born with discrimination as cause, with form and appearance and objectivity closely linked together as condition. The will-to-live is the mother, ignorance is the father. By setting up names and forms greed is multiplied and thus the mind goes on mutually conditioning and being conditioned. By becoming attached to names and forms, not realizing that they have no more basis than the activities of the mind itself, error rises, false-imagination as to pleasure and pain rises, and the way to emancipation is blocked. The lower system of sense-minds and the discriminating--mind do not really suffer pleasure and pain-they only imagine they do. Pleasure and pain are the deceptive reactions of mortal-mind as it grasps an imaginary objective world.

temple_buddhist

quote 2576 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.307, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

I ntuitive-mind is one with Universal Mind by reason of its participation in Transcendental Intelligence and is one with the mind-system by its comprehension of differentiated knowledge. Intuitive-mind has no body of its own nor any marks by which it can be differentiated. Universal Mind is its cause and support but it is evolved along with the notion of an ego and what belongs to it, to which it clings and upon which it reflects. Through intuitive-mind, by the faculty of intuition which is a mingling of both identity and perceiving, the inconceivable wisdom of Universal Mind is revealed and made realizable. Like Universal Mind it can not be the source of error.

temple_buddhist

quote 2575 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.307, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

B etween Universal Mind and the individual discriminating mind is the intuitive-mind which is dependent upon Universal Mind for its cause and support and enters into relations with both. It partakes of the universality of Universal Mind, shares its purity, and like it, is above form and rnomentariness. It is through the intuitive-mind that the good non-outflowings emerge, are manifested and are realized. Fortunate it is that intuition is not momentary for if the enlightenment which comes by intuition were momentary the wise would lose their "wiseness" which they do riot. But the intuitive-mind enters into relations with the lower mind-system, shares its experiences and reflects upon its activities.

temple_buddhist

quote 2574 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.307, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T he sense-minds and their centralised discriminating-mind are related to the external world which is a manifestation of itself and is given over to perceiving, discriminating and grasping its maya-like appearances. Universal Mind transcends all individuation and limits. Universal Mind is thoroughly pure in its essential nature, subsisting unchanged and free from faults of impermanence, undisturbed by egoism, unruffled by distinctions, desires and aversions. Universal Mind is like a great ocean, its surface ruffled by waves and surges but its depths remaining forever unmoved. In itself it is devoid of personality and all that belongs to it, but by reason of the defilement upon its face it is like an actor and plays a variety of parts, among which a mutual functioning takes place and the mind-system arises. The principle of intellection becomes divided and mind, the functions of mind, the evil out-flowings of mind, take on individuation. The sevenfold gradation of mind appears: namely, intuitive self-realization, thinking-desiring-discriminating, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, and all their interactions and reactions take their rise.
The discriminating-mind is the cause of the sense-minds and is their support and with them is kept functioning as it describes and becomes attached to a world of objects, and then, by means of its habit-energy, it defiles the face of Universal Mind. Thus Universal Mind becomes the storage and clearing house of all the accumulated products of mentation and action since beginningless time.

temple_buddhist

quote 2573 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.306, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

A s a mirror reflects forms, the perceiving senses perceive appearances which the discriminating-mind gathers together and proceeds to discriminate, to name and become attached to.

temple_buddhist

quote 2572 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.304, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T he mind-system which is the source of the evil out-flowings consists of the five sense-organs and their accompanying sense-minds all of which are unified in the discriminating-mind. There is an unending succession of sense-concepts flowing into this discriminating or thinking-mind which combines them and discriminates them and passes judgment upon them as to their goodness or badness. Then follows aversion to or desire for them and attachment and deed; thus the entire system moves on continuously and closely bound together. But it fails to see and understand that what it sees and discriminates and grasps is only a manifestation of its own activity and has no other basis, and so the mind goes on erroneously perceiving and discriminating differences of forms and qualities, not remaining still even for a minute.

temple_buddhist

quote 2571 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.303, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

A ll things of this world, be they seemingly good or bad, faulty or faultless, effect-producing or not effect-producing, receptive or non-receptive, may be divided into two classes: evil out-flowings and the non out-flowing good. The five grasping elements that make up the aggregates of personality, namely, form, sensation, perception, discrimination, and consciousness, and that are imagined to be good or bad, have their rise in the habit-energy of the mind-system, they are the evil out-flowings of life. The spiritual attainments and the joys of the Samadhis and the fruitage of the Samapatis that come to the wise through their self-realization of Noble Wisdom and that culminate in their return and participation in the relations of the triple world are called the non out-flowing good.

temple_buddhist

quote 2570 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.303, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

B ut when it is pointed out that all things are like a dream and a vision, it means that in one way things are perceived, and in another way they are not perceived; that is, in ignorance they are perceived but in Perfect-knowledge they are not perceived.

temple_buddhist

quote 2569 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.302, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

B y becoming attached to what is seen of the mind itself, there is an activity awakened which is perpetuated by habit energy that becomes manifest in the mind-system. From the activities of the mind-system there rises the notion of an ego-soul and its belongings; the discriminations, attachments, and notion of an ego-soul, rising simultaneously like the sun and its rays of light.

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quote 2568 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.300, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

W hen appearances and names are put away and all discrimination ceases, that which remains is the true and essential nature of things and, as nothing can be predicated as to the nature of essence, it is called the "Suchness" of Reality. This universal, undifferentiated, inscrutable, "Suchness- is the only Reality but it is variously characterized as Truth, Mind-essence, transcendental Intelligence, Noble Wisdom, etc.

temple_buddhist

quote 2567 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.299, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T he five Dharmas are: appearance, name, discrimination, right-knowledge and Reality. By Appearance is meant that which reveals itself to the senses and to the discriminating-mind and is perceived as form, sound, odor, taste, and touch. Out of these appearances ideas are formed, such as clay, water, jar, etc., by which one says: this is such and such a thing and is no other, this is name. When appearances are contrasted and names compared, as when we say: this is an elephant, this is a horse, a cart, a pedestrian, a man, a woman, or, this is mind and what belongs to it, -the things thus named are said to be discriminated. As these discriminations come to be seen as mutually conditioning, as empty of self-substance, as un-born, and thus come to be seen as they truly are, that is, as manifestations of the mind itself,-this is right-knowledge. By it the wise cease to regard appearances and names as realities.

temple_buddhist

quote 2566 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.IV, p.299, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

I gnorant people and worldly philosophers cherish a kind of no-birth, but it is not the no-birth which I teach. I teach the un-bornness of the un-born essence of all things which teaching is established in the minds of the wise by their self-realization of Noble Wisdom. A ladle, clay, a vessel, a wheel, or seeds, or elements-these are external conditions; ignorance, discrimination, attachment, habit, karma, -these are inner conditions. When this entire universe is regarded as concatenation and as nothing else but concatenation, then the mind, by its patient acceptance of the truth that all things are un-born, gains tranquility.

temple_buddhist

quote 2565 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.III, p.298, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

I n like manner, I teach, that there is nothing made nor unmade; that there is nothing that has connection with birth and destruction except as the ignorant cherish falsely imagined notions as to the reality of the external world. When objects are not seen and judged as they truly are in themselves, there is discrimination and clinging to the notions of being and non-being, and individualised self-nature, and as long as these notions of individuality and self-nature persist, the philosophers are bound to explain the external world by a law of causation.

temple_buddhist

quote 2564 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.III, p.298, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

W hen it is clearly understood that there is nothing in the world but what is seen of the mind itself, discrimination no more rises, and the wise are established in their true abode which is the realm of quietude. The ignorant discriminate and work trying to adjust themselves to external conditions, and are constantly perturbed in mind; unrealities are imagined and discriminated, while realities are unseen and ignored.

temple_buddhist

quote 2563 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.III, p.297, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

I teach that the multitudinousness of objects have no reality in themselves but are only seen of the mind and, therefore, are of the nature of maya and a dream. I teach the non-existence of things because they carry no signs of any inherent self-nature. It is true that in one sense they are seen and discriminated by the senses as individualized objects; but in another sense, because of the absence of any characteristic marks of self-nature, they are not seen but are only imagined. In one sense they are graspable, but in another sense, they are not graspable.

temple_buddhist

quote 2562 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.III, p.297, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T he Blessed One, while teaching that all things are un-born and that there is no annihilation, also declares that the world takes its rise from ignorance, discrimination, attachment, deed, etc., working according to a law of causation. Though the two sets of elements may differ in form and name, there does not appear to be any essential difference between the two positions.

temple_buddhist

quote 2561 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.III, p.297, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T hose who believe in the birth of something that has never been in existence and, coming into existence, vanishes away, are obliged to assert that things come to exist and vanish away by causation-such people find no foothold in my teachings. When it is realized that there is nothing born, and nothing passes away, then there is no way to admit being and nonbeing, and the mind becomes quiescent.

temple_buddhist

quote 2560 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.III, p.296, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

T here are two kinds of attachment: attachment to objects as having self-nature, and attachment to words as having self nature. The first takes place by not knowing that the external world is only a manifestation of the mind itself; and the second arises from one's clinging to words and names by reason of habit-energy.

temple_buddhist

quote 2559 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.III, p.296, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

F urther, besides understanding the emptiness of all things both in regard to substance and self-nature, it is necessary for Bodhisattvas to clearly understand that all things are un-born. It is not asserted that things are not born in a superficial sense, but that in a deep sense they are not born of themselves. All that can be said, is this, that relatively speaking, there is a constant stream of becoming, a momentary and uninterrupted change from one state of appearance to another. When it is recognized that the world as it presents itself is no more than a manifestation of mind, then birth is seen as no-birth and all existing objects, concerning which discrimination asserts that they are and are not, are non-existent and, therefore, un-born; being devoid of agent and action things are un-born.

temple_buddhist

quote 2558 | The Lankavatara Sutra
Ch.III, p.296, in Dwight Goddard, A Buddhist bible

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