Jamgön Kongtrul

The following is respectfully quoted from “Buddhist Ethics” by Jamgön Kongtrul:

Fourteen root downfalls of the commitments of training are explained in [Shantideva’s] Compendium of Trainings in accordance with the Akashagarbha Scripture. Five of them apply mainly to kings, one applies exclusively to ministers, and eight apply to beginners. The five [downfalls] that apply mainly to kings who are bodhisattvas-in-training are the following:

1. To steal [or have someone steal] property that has been offered to representations of [the Buddha’s] body, speech, and mind, or to the monastic community.
2. To reject [or cause someone to reject] the teachings of the Universal or Individual ways [by saying that they are not the words of the Buddha or that they are not the means to attain liberation];
3. To harm someone who wears the attributes of a monk, regardless of whether he maintains vows purely or is an immoral monk.
4. To commit any of the five evil deeds of direct retribution, i.e., matricide, patricide, murder of a saint, causing a schism in the monastic community, or out of malice, causing a buddha to bleed; and
5. To profess nihilistic views claiming that actions do not bring results and that there are no future lives, and engaging in unvirtuous types of behavior [or encouraging others to do so].

Five root downfalls that apply mainly to ministers: the first four are the same those prohibited for kings, and the fifth is to plunder a town.

The five root downfalls that apply mainly to ministers who are bodhisattvas-in-training include the first four root downfalls for a king, plus plundering a town and the like.

To plunder [a town] comprises five kinds of ravage: of a village (inhabited by four castes); a town (inhabited by eighteen kinds of artisans); a county (an area that includes several towns); a province (an area consisting of several counties); or a country (an area consisting of several provinces).

The eight root downfalls that apply to beginners are to teach emptiness to the untrained,
To cause another to give up the intention to awaken, to make someone abandon the Individual Way,
To assert that the Individual Way does not conquer emotions,
To praise oneself and belittle others,
To falsely claim realization of emptiness,
To cause a king to inflict a fine and then accept stolen property as a bribe,
To disrupt meditation or to give the possessions of a contemplative monk to one who merely recites scriptures.

The eight root downfalls [that apply mainly to] beginner bodhisattvas are as follows:

1. To teach the profound subject of emptiness to those who are of limited intellect or those who are untrained [in the Universal Way], causing them to be intimidated [by the Universalist’s doctrine] and thereby to lose faith in it.
2. To cause someone to give up the intention to become fully enlightened and to enter the way of the proclaimers or solitary sages when that individual is already following the Universal Way, by declaring that he or she is not able to practice the six perfections and other aspects of [the Universal Way].
3. To advise someone with an affinity for the Individual Way to abandon that path and then cause him or her to enter the Universal Way without special necessity to do so.
4. To believe and to cause another to believe, without any special necessity, that by following the Individual Way, one cannot conquer the emotions.
5. To praise oneself when one is not worthy and to belittle others when they do not deserve it, for the sake of wealth and honor.
6. To [falsely] claim, for the sake of wealth and honor, to have attained [direct] realization of profound [emptiness] by saying that one has understood profound truth and to incite others to meditate to achieve the same goal.
7. To cause a king or other person in a position of power to inflict a fine on a Buddhist monk by slandering him. If as a result the monk steals property of the Three Jewels in order to bribe oneself [the instigator] and one accepts it, one incurs this downfall. If one gives the property to the king, both [instigator and king] incur this downfall.
8. To cause a good monk to abandon mental quiescence or other forms of spiritual practice by imposing unfair punishment on him, or to deprive a contemplative monk of his life necessities to give these directly or indirectly to a monk who merely recites scriptures. If the recipient is an accomplice to one’s act, he or she also incurs this downfall.

These are the fourteen downfalls that apply to acute practitioners, five for kings, one exclusive to ministers, and eight for beginners.

Four downfalls that Apply to Average Practitioners[B’]

Downfalls for average practitioners are to give up awakening mind, be ungenerous, angry, or hypocritical.

Four [downfalls] apply mainly to average practitioners. These are stated in the Compendium of Trainings, based on their presentation in the Skill in Means Scripture:

To abandon one’s awakening mind;
Not to give alms to mendicants
Out of strong attachment and avarice;
Not to forgive
But to strike others in anger
Even though they try to please one;
And to present false teachings as the Buddha’s teachings
Motivated by an emotion or in order to please others.

One Downfall that Applies to Obtuse Practitioners [C’]

An obtuse practitioner must at least maintain the aspiration to awaken.

Having entered the Universal Way, an obtuse practitioner must, at the very least, maintain the aspiration [to awaken]. Accordingly, the Advice to the King Scriptures states that all precepts are fulfilled in this alone. To abandon one’s [aspiration] is a very serious root downfall for any bodhisattva, whether acute, average, or obtuse. The Condensed Transcendent Wisdom Scripture states:

Though [a bodhisattva] may have tread the path of the ten virtues for ten million eons,
If his goal shifts to becoming a solitary sage or a saint,
His ethics deteriorate and his commitments are lost.
Such a setback is far more serious than the defeating offense [of a monk].

The following is respectfully quoted from Jamgön Kongtrul’s “Treasury of Knowledge: Journey and Goal“

On six levels there are the three higher trainings, while on four the results of these are ensured. With the realization of the actual nature of phenomena, five components of practice are successfully refined.

On the first bodhisattva level, one trains in the causes leading to the three perfectly pure higher trainings. One the second level, one applies oneself to the higher training in discipline; on the third level, to that of mind; and on the fourth, fifth and sixth levels, to that of sublime intelligence. Thus, one focuses in succession on the factors that contribute to enlightenment, the Truths, and interdependent origination.

The results of these trainings are as follows: On the seventh level, timeless awareness of what cannot be characterized is ensured; on the eight level, the spontaneously present experience of timeless awareness, on the ninth level, the spiritual maturation of all beings; and on the tenth level, all the supports for meditative stability and power of complete recall.

Once one has directly realized the actual nature of phenomena on the first level, on the second level one trains successively in the component of discipline; one the third level, in the component of meditative stability; one the fourth, fifth, and sixth levels, in the component of sublime intelligence; and on the seventh and higher levels, in the component of complete freedom from anything obscuring the four aforementioned results. On the level of buddhahood, the total refinement of the component of complete freedom from anything obscuring any possible object of knowledge, [2.123.a] as well as the component of the vision that is the liberated state of timeless awareness.

Purity, Elimination, and Realization [e]

Endowed with three causes, what is fundamentally positive becomes even purer. Cognitive obscurations are gradually eliminated, and ten aspects of timeless awareness are ensured.

Due to the three causes (those of making offerings to the Three Jewels, bringing beings to complete spiritual maturity, and dedicating one’s fundamentally positive qualities toward enlightenment) carried out over eons, from the first to the tenth levels these fundamentally positive factors become ever more completely purified. Analogies are used to describe the different degrees of purification that apply to successive levels; one can learn about these in the sūtra the Ten Spiritual Levels.

As for the distinct states of elimination and realization that pertain to those on these levels, the 112 factors to be eliminated on the path of seeing are removed on that path, and those to be eliminated on the path of meditation are removed on that path. But when we discuss the ten levels, on these respective levels there are specific aspects of timeless awareness (that is, of realization concerning the basic space of phenomena) that successively eliminate the cognitive obscurations that are the counterproductive factors specific to any given level.

As well, the five states of fear are eliminated, as the sūtra the Ten Spiritual Levels states:

Immediately upon attaining this level, one is free of the five kinds of fear;
free of the fear of being without livelihood, of death, of not being acknowledged,
of lower states of rebirth, and of one’s retinue. One has no feelings of anxiety concerning these.
Any why, one might ask? These no longer have any hold over one.
Spiritually advanced beings have thoroughly removed
the sufferings of death, illness and aging.
Rebirth takes place due to the influence of karma and afflictive states;
but because they are not subject to these, they are not subject to the rest.

Which is to say, one has eliminated the four “rivers of suffering.” In these and other ways, one has been freed from an inconceivable amount of fear. The point to be understood [4.123.b] is that these processes continue to increase from the first bodhisattva level to the tenth.

Even though one is freed from these four kinds of suffering, one manifests as though one were still not freed, which is to say one consciously takes rebirth in conditional existence. As the same source states:

Because they perceive reality authentically, just as it is,
they have transcended birth and so forth;
nevertheless, through the power of their compassion
they demonstrate birth, death, illness, and aging.

As concerns realization, in meditative equipoise, those on all ten levels realize the spacelike nature of phenomena (that is, the ultimate mode of reality, just as it is, free of the limitations of conceptual elaboration). In postmeditation, they realize the illusion-quality of objects in the phenomenal world (that is, the relative mode of things in all their multiplicity, apparent yet lacking any independent nature of their own).

Other than the authenticity of this actual nature of phenomena, which is initially perceived on the path of seeing, there is no other kind of realization, nothing “new” to be seen; nevertheless, when we consider the distinctions between these ten levels, we can analyze ten aspects of realization as the certain knowledge that derives from eradicating false assumptions in the aftermath of factors to be eliminated having been removed.

The following is respectfully quoted from “Treasury of Knowledge: Journey and Goal“

• Once one has attained the experience of primordial unity that still requires training, one engages in conduct to attain the experience of primordial unity that requires no more training.

These three occasions are dependent on a certain level having been gained, for it is indeed the case that conduct becomes the primary emphasis once the meditative warmth of the stage of completion has been attained.

Thus there are five special occasions. It is not necessary for one to engage in conduct in order for an enlightened embodiment that is simply the unity of one’s subtle energy and mind to be achieved. The first two occasions, which are associated with more ordinary attainments, do not definitely require that one engage in conduct. It is the later two occasions that involve the necessity of one’s engaging in conduct.

Purpose [iii]

The purpose is that of ensuring complete accomplishment of the two kinds of spiritual attainment and of causing those attainments to flourish and swiftly be brought to consummation. Due to the specific variables concerning consorts (such as essence and number), one’s realization of the unity of supreme bliss and emptiness occurs in specific ways. [4.1.44.3]

The following is respectfully quoted from “Myriad Worlds” by Jamgön Kongtrul:

Distinctive Features of Our Own World-System, Endurance

This section has two parts: (1) identification of Endurance, and (2) a supplementary explanation.

[I.C.1]
Identification of Endurance

Inside the great outer rim, within seas of scented waters,
Four jewelled lotuses support
A tiered arrangement of twenty-five world-systems;
The thirteenth is known as Endurance. 

Within the great outer rim of that [arrangement of one] Flower-Filled World are the indescribable oceans of fragrant waters [descending from] the body of Great Glacial Lake, as numerous as the particles in all the buddha realms. In the center of these oceans are seas of scented waters filled with beautiful anthers on which rest four immense jewelled lotuses. A tiered arrangement of twenty-five world-systems is supported by these [lotuses]. In the spaces between each [of these world-systems] are infinite tiers of world-systems, which define their boundaries. The thirteenth of these [twenty-five world-systems] is our own third-order thousand world-system, known as Endurance.
The Sanskrit term for Endurance is sahā, which denotes possession, forbearance, or capacity. All sentient beings who have taken birth in this realm endure emotions and sufferings. In other words, beings possess these [afflictions] in great measure. “Endurance” also signifies the forbearance of hardship. The bodhisattvas of this realm patiently endure [hardship] with exceptional courage and excel in bravery. Thus, this realm is known as Endurance.

[I.C.2]

The supplementary Explanation

This third-order thousand world-system
Is completely encircled by realms–Covered, Surpassing, Stainless, Variously Emerged, etc.–
Equal in number to the particles of this thirteenth world-system.
[Endurance] is spherical, has a four-vajra demarcation. It is supported by a multicolored configuration of wind and rests on a network of lotuses.

This third-order thousand world-system of Endurance alone is encircled by buddha realms equal in number to the particles of this thirteenth world-system. To the east is Covered; to the south, Surpassing; to the west, Stainless; and the north, Variously Emerged. In the intermediate directions are Benefitting, Variously Appeared, Complete Joy, and Activator. Above and below are found Resounding Melody, Not Great, and others. Endurance is spherical and has a four-vajra boundary demarcation. It is supported by a multicolored configuration of wind and rests on a network of lotuses.

Illuminator, the teacher in this [world-system],
Appears throughout the Unsurpassed realms of the pure domains.

The enlightened teacher in our third-order thousand world-system [Endurance] is an emanation of the enjoyment dimension awakening, the great Illuminator. This is a single form whose vast emanations appear throughout all the Unsurpassed realms in the pure domains and teach the Dharma in the midst of all the powerful [bodhisattvas]. The Centrist scholar Dharmamitra explains:

This form, differentiated [from others] by vows, the power of cultivation [of merit and pristine wisdom], and intention, has attained complete enlightenment in one Unsurpassed domain alone. Therefore, myriad forms of the enjoyment dimension of awakening that dwell in all the [other] Unsurpassed realms are solely his apparition manifesting in a vast [display].

This four-continent [world-system] called Destructible
Is surrounded by ten other four-continent [world-systems].

Our four-continent world-system, which is situated in the center of Endurance, is known as Destructible. It is said that even this [world-system] alone is surrounded by ten other satellite four-continent world-systems. Beginning from the East, these are, respectively, Well Protected, Joyful, Unbearable, Excellent Essence, Befriended, Fine Land, Lion inhabited, Well Formed. Above is Bearing Wealth, and below, Radiant Light.

It is taught that these [world-systems] are formed and destroyed together;
This is the experiential domain solely of the lords of the tenth stage of awakening.

The view most widely shared by Buddhist systems is that [the worlds within] any single third-order thousand world-system are formed together and destroyed [together]. Another view states that all the realms of the emanations of a single supreme manifest domain of awakening (such as oceans of realms that are located in the Flower-Filled World) are formed and destroyed together. The magnitude of this latter view is unfathomable to proclaimers and others; it remains the domain of experience solely of the lord [bodhisattvas] of the tenth stage [of awakening].

The following is respectfully quoted from “The Treasury of Knowledge: Myriad Worlds” by Jamgön Kongtrul:

In Sanskrit: Yāna-sarva-mukhebhyah samucchaya-pravacamratna-kośa-sudeśika-śastram sarvajñeya-spharana-nāma

The Encompassment of All Knowledge: A treasury of precious teachings compiled from all the approaches of the systems for spiritual development, a treatise that effectively transmits the three trainings

Namah śrimām-sad-guru-pādāya

[Embodiment] of complete purity and ethics, you stand firm like the golden foundation.
Your beauty reflects your countless contemplations, like the distinct features of the mountains and continents.
Like the sun and moon, your brilliant wisdom illuminates all phenomena.
Supreme sage and achiever of all goals, I revere you.

With the heart of a great hero who protects beings for as long as they exist,
You suffused the universe with your excellent conduct.
Though father to the victorious ones, you manifest as the victorious ones’ son.
Lion of Speech grant me flawless intelligence.
You nuture the seed–the potential or nature of beings–by imparting instructions that mature and liberate them.
You cause others to purify incidental defilements through the twofold path,
And bestow the fruition, the four dimensions of awakening distinguished by great bliss.
To you, my mentor, and to the masters of the lineages, I bow.

Although I lack the intellectual capacity to compile knowledge correctly,
I shall compose a short, clear comprehensive work
In order to ensure that those with insufficient knowledge or interest to understand the texts
Will not lose their opportunity on this isle of treasures.

***

This treatise [The Infinite Ocean of Knowledge] as a whole has [ten] divisions, equal in number to the ten perfections:
The realms that appear during the age of illumination;
Buddha, the Teacher; the doctrine, both scriptural and experiential;
Is the continuation and spread in the Land of Jambu;
Maintaining ethical conduct; learning; reflection; meditation.
Through successively engaging in these, progression through the paths; and realization of the ultimate result.

***

There are general and specific causes and conditions that initiate [the creation of realms]:
For as long as infinite space and sentient beings exist, , sentient beings continue without end.
Those who guided and enlightened guides
Manifest through inconceivable interconnections.
When the characters and dispositions of those to be guided are activated,
[The compassion of] the guides [arises], and the configurations of the realms and the dimensions of awakening appear;
The miraculous methods of guiding others manifest beyond all bounds.
The sphere of reality never changes into something else;
Yet blessings, vows, actions, and natural laws
Cause oceans of realms to appear.
The realm Unsurpassed is free from incidental defilement
And transcends the experience of the three realms: it is indivisible pristine wisdom.
In this self-manifesting, spontaneously appearing [realm,]
Richly Adorned,
Dwells Illuminator, Great Glacial Lake of Wisdom;
A billion realms in his every pore.
Their locations, shapes, sizes, durations, and arrangements are inconceivable.
Within the central minute particle in the palm of his hand lies the Oceanic World-System
That itself contains many world-systems, in the center of which
Lies the realm called Flower-Filled World.
Furthermore, [between the wind] and the Unsurpassed lie one billion four-continent world-systems,
A great third-order thousand [world-system].
Multiplying that by factors of one billion
[Yeilds] Infinite Links, Continuums, Oceans,
And Flower-Filled World.
Each rests on an ocean and [is encircled by] and outer rim.
This is the sphere of influence of one supreme manifest dimension of awakening.
Inside the great outer rim, in a sea of scented water,
Four jewelled lotuses support
A tiered arrangement of twenty-five world-systems;
The thirteenth is known as Endurance. This third-order thousand world-system
Is completely encircled by realms–Covered, Surpassing, Stainless, Variously Emerged, etc.–
Equal in number to the particles of this thirteenth world-system.
[Endurance] is spherical, has a four-vajra demarcation,
And rests on a multicolored configuration of wind and a network of lotuses.
Illuminator, the teacher in this [world-system],
Appears throughout the Unsurpassed realms of the pure domains.
This four-continent [world-system] called Destructible
Is surrounded by ten other four-continent [world-systems].
It is taught that these [world-systems] are formed and destroyed together;
This is the experiential domain solely of the lords of the tenth stage of awakening.

***

In our own world-system, four [ages] occur: formation, abiding, destruction, and vacuity.
Of the two, environment and inhabitants, [a description of] the environment and inhabitants, [a description of] the environmental world [is presented first]:
After the age of vacuity had elapsed at the end of the previous age,
Winds arose from the ten directions, creating a configuration in the shape of a cross;
Rain fell from a cloud, and amidst a mass of water,
A thousand lotuses were seen; thus the Fortunate Age was proclaimed.
The churning of water by wind produce a golden disc,
Upon which rain fell; [this became] the great ocean.
The churning by wind developed the [ocean’s] elements–superior, medium, and base;
These elements formed Mount Meru, the seven mountain ranges, the four continents and the outer rim.
The mountains and continents all extend eighty thousand [leagues] down into the ocean.
Mount Meru rises eighty thousand [leagues] above the ocean.
The four sides of Mount Meru are composed of crystal, blue beryl, ruby, and gold.
The sky [on each side] reflects these colors.
From sea level to half its height are four terraces.
Beyond it are seven golden mountain ranges, Yoke and the others.
The spaces between are filled with seas of enjoyment, which have eight qualities.
The four continents and eight islands
Are semi-circular, trapezoidal, round, and square.
There are numerous unspecified little islands.
The outer rim consists of a mountain range composed of iron;
A salt-water ocean fills the area as far as this range.
North from the center of the Exalted Land, beyond nine black mountains,
Stand the Snowy Mountains, and the north of these the Fragrant [Mountains].
Between these two mountain ranges lies Cool Lake; from its four sides
Four cascades flow in four directions toward the ocean.
A jambu tree adorns the lake’s shore,
And so this continent is known as the land beautified by the jambu tree.
The names of Majestic Body and the others indicate their distinguishing features.
Tail-Fan Island is inhabited by cannibal demons, and the others, by humans.
The hells and the world of the starving spirits are located below the earth.
Animals, the inhabitants of the depths, dwell in the great ocean.
Demi-gods [live] in the crevices of Mount Meru from the water’s edge down.
The Four Groups of the Great Kings reside mainly on the terraces of Mount Meru.
Beings may also dwell in various unspecified secondary abodes.

Above Mount Meru is the heaven of the Thirty-three
In which is found the Victorious Residence, the city called Lovely,
Parks, playing fields, the All-gathering tree, the fine stone slab,
The Assembly Hall of the Excellent Law, as well as the dwelling of the yaksas.
Above, Conflict Free, Joyful, Enjoying Creations, and [Mastery Over] Others’ [Creations]
Rest on riches like cloud formations in the sky.
There are sixteen heavens in the form realm, beginning with Group of the Pure;
Above them all is Lesser Unsurpassed.
The lord bodhisattvas reside above that, according to the Five Treatises on the Stages.
[The heavens] double in size and grow increasingly magnificent.
One third-order thousand world-system is fathomed by the vision of the proclaimers and solitary sages,
Who assert that it is composed of indivisible particles of matter.
The four absorptions of the formless realm and the other realms arise sequentially; [the beings within them]
Diffuse from higher to lower, down to the hells.
Moreover, the four levels of absorption of the formless realm
Are only distinctions in contemplation; they have no form or location.
The form realm: In the fourth level of meditative concentration, [there are] five pure domains and three heavens of ordinary beings.
Three [heavens] are located within each of the lower three levels of meditative concentration.
The desire realm comprises thirty-six types of beings:
Six groups of gods, [humans of the] four continents,
[Inhabitants of the] eight islands, animals and starving
[Beings in the] eight hot hells, and the eight cold hells.
The twenty existences, ten happy and ten miserable,
May also be classified as twenty-eight.
Within the happy existences–the form realm and the rest–
Lifespans and possessions decrease the lower level.
In the miserable existences, suffering increases the lower the level.
The four [levels] of absorption, the four levels of meditative concentration, and the desire realm
Comprise nine levels. In terms of type, there are six [classes of] beings.
A classification of five–human, divine, and three miserable existences–
May be made in terms of paths and courses.
All these beings may be categorized according to the four modes of birth,
Or into pure, corrupt, and indeterminate groups.
During the time of abiding, most beings, except for animals,
Experience consequences that are predetermined.
In our world, humans have a wide variety of lifespans,
wealth, and physical size.
Lifespan decreases from incalculable to ten,
And then increases to eighty thousand, and so on.
During a decline, a rise, and eighteen intermediate cycles,
There are fluctuations. The three continents are places where [consequences] are experienced;
Jambu Land, the most distinguished, is the place of action.
Beings in this world came down from the heaven of Clear Light.
The nourishment derived from meditative concentration and other [pristine] qualities gradually deteriorated due to craving.
The sun and moon provided light, and King Honored by Multitudes appeared.
Then, such distinctions as the four eras and four classes arose.
Wheel-monarchs, who [possess wheels of] gold, silver, copper, and iron,
Appear in this world only when the lifespan is no less than eighty thousand years.
Some say that they reign totally over the third-order thousand world-system.
There are many variations in food, hunger and thirst, color of clothing, night and day, etc.
Beings in lower [realms] do not see those in higher.
At the time of destruction, the miserable realms, beginning with the hell realms, empty.
Gods and humans attain meditative concentration and are born in the form realm.
As the realms empty of inhabitants, the [beings of] the lower realms move higher.
The heavens of the first meditative concentration and below are destroyed by fire.
Space alone remains, a vacuity containing nothing at all.
Again formation occurs, and again abiding, and finally destruction by fire.
After seven such [sequences], a deluge at the end of the eight
Destroys the second meditative concentration and below.
Seven destructions by fire alternating with one by water occur seven times.
Ending with another seven by fire.
Finally, intense wind destroys the third meditative concentration and below.
Because those three contemplations have imperfections [they are destroyed];
The fourth, being free of imperfection, is not destroyed by the elements.
Altogether, sixty-four great cycles of destruction occur.
Each of the ages of formation, abiding, destruction and vacuity
Lasts for twenty intermediate ages; together, these [four] constitute one cosmic age.
Such statements as that in a single age seven fires,
One flood, and one wind arise, destroying the third level of meditative concentration and below,
Reflect different points of view of different systems.
The pure realms and the Seat of Enlightenment, etc., are not destroyed,
Since they are not the result of the origin [of suffering].

The following is respectfully quoted from “The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Six, Part One“ by Jamgön Kongtrul:

Direct Perception of the Sense Organs [1″]

The defining characteristic of the first of these is [bare] consciousness consisting of extraneous awareness, which arises without conceptuality and without bewilderment, directly from the physical sense organs that constitute an individual’s own predominant condition. It has five aspects, corresponding to the direct perception of the [five] sense organs [the eye and so forth] which apprehend their respective sense objects.

Direct Perception of Mental Consciousness [2″]

The defining characteristic of the second is [bare] consciousness consisting of extraneous awareness, which arises without conceptuality and without bewilderment, directly from the sense faculty of the mind that constitutes an individual’s own predominant condition. It too has five aspects, corresponding to the direct perception of the [five aspects of] mind, which apprehend their respective sense objects.

Direct Perception of Intrinsic Awareness [3″]

The defining characteristic of the third is [bare] consciousness transcending all the other aspects of consciousness, which is exclusively introverted (kha nang kho nar ‘phyogs pa’i shes pa).

Direct Perception of Yoga [4″]

The defining characteristic of the fourth is the [bare] consciousness of a sublime being (ārya, ‘phags pa), free from conceptuality and without bewilderment, which derives from the power of genuine meditation (bhāvanā, sgom). When the last of these is analyzed, there are in fact three modes of the direct perception of yoga, corresponding to the [meditations of] the pious attendants, the hermit buddhas (pratyekabuddha, rang rgyal), and the [bodhisattva] followers of the Greater Vehicle–these are exemplified respectively by the path of insight (darśanamārga, mthong lam) attained by the pious attendants, the path of insight attained by the hermit buddhas, [and so forth].