Review of the Structure of The Awakening of Faith
Part One - Eight Reasons for Writing
Part Two - Establishing the Meaning of Mahā-yāna
Part Three, Ch1 - Elucidation (analysis)
- How Suchness of Mind comes to be ‘permeated’ by Ignorance
- How the deluded mind of Ignorance comes to ‘permeated’ by Suchness
Part Three, Ch 2 - Controlling Attachment to Wrong Views
“All wrongly held views are based on the view of self (我見). One will have no wrongly held views if one frees oneself from self. There are two kinds of view of self”
- The view that there is an inherently existent self (ātman)
- Mistaking empty space as the nature of the Tathāgatas (rather, it is like space)
- Mistaking Suchness and Nirvana as nothing but emptiness (the Dharma Body is ‘full’)
- Mistaking the tathāgatagarbha as having distinctions (when it doesn’t)
- Mistaking the tathāgatagarbha as containing birth & death (i.e. saṃsāra)
- Mistaking sentient beings as having a beginning, or starting point (when they don’t)
- The view that there are inherently existent phenomena (dharmas)
- Followers of the Two Vehicles perceive the arising and ceasing of dharmas (i.e. skandhas)
Part Three, Ch 3 - Types of Aspiration for Enlightenment
There are three types of aspiration for enlightenment 發心
- Through faith
- Through understanding and practice
- Through realization
Aspiration through faith
There are three kinds of mind of faith:
- Straightforward Mind (直心) - Correctly mindful of Suchness
- Profound Mind (深心) - Amassing all good roots
- Greatly Compassionate Mind 大悲心 - Wishing to eliminate the suffering of all beings
There are four kinds of upāya (for those of faith):
- Fundamentals of practice (行根本)
- Stopping [bad dharmas] (能止)
- Increasing good roots (發起善根增長)
- The great vow (大願平等)
“The dharma nature is extensive and vast and it pervades all sentient beings. This is because it is uniform and non-dual, cannot be conceived in terms of distinctions between ‘this’ and ‘that,’ and is ultimately quiescent. Because bodhisattvas arouse this aspiration to awakening, they manage to perceive the Dharma Body to a small extent. And because they perceive the Dharma Body according to the power of their vows, they are capable of displaying the Eight Steps of a buddha’s life for the benefit of sentient beings:
- Descending from the Tusita Heaven
- Entering a womb
- Staying in a womb
- Leaving a womb
- Leaving home life
- Attaining awakening
- Turning the Dharma Wheel
- Entering Nirvana
“These bodhisattvas are not yet called the Dharma Body because they have not yet been able definitively to eliminate the residue of their contaminated karmic actions from countless past ages; they still have an association with mild suffering according to the circumstances of their birth.”
Aspiration through Understanding
“Through the dharma of Suchness, they profoundly understand what appears before them, since what they cultivate is free from characteristics.”
Thus conforming to the practice of the six pāramitās.
Aspiration through Realization
“What perceptual field (境界) is realized from the level of pure mind up to the final bodhisattva stage? It is Suchness. It is explained as a perceptual field based on the operating consciousness. With this realization, however, there are no perceptual fields; there is only cognition of Suchness, which is called the Dharma Body.”