Everything that is taken as a self;
Everything that is taken as other:
These are simply changing forms of consciousness.

2

Pure consciousness transforms itself
Into three modes: Store consciousness,
Thought consciousness, and active consciousness.

3

The store consciousness holds the seeds of all past experience.
Within it are the forms of grasping
And the dwelling places of the unknown.
It always arises with touch, awareness, recognition, concept, and desire.

4

The store consciousness is clear and undefinable.
Like a great river, it is always changing.
Neither pleasant nor unpleasant, when one becomes fully realized, it ceases to exist.

5

The second transformation of consciousness is called thinking consciousness.
It evolves by taking the store consciousness as object and support.
Its essential nature is to generate thoughts.

6

The thinking consciousness
Is always obscured by four defilements:
Self-regard, self-delusion, self-pride, and self-love.

7

The thinking consciousness also arises with the mental factors
Of touch, awareness, recognition, concept, and desire.
This consciousness ceases when one becomes realized.
It also falls away when consciousness is impaired,
And when one is fully present.
8

The third transformation of consciousness
Is the active perception of sense objects.
These can be good, bad, or indifferent in character.

9

This active consciousness arises with three kinds of mental functions: Those that are universal, those that are specific, and those that are beneficial.
It is also associated with primary and secondary defilements
And the three kinds of feeling.

10

The universal factors are touch, awareness, recognition, concept, and desire.
The specific factors are intention, resolve, memory, concentration, and knowledge.
The beneficial factors are faith, modesty, respect, distance, courage, composure, equanimity, alertness, and compassion.
11

The primary defilements are:
Passion, aggression, ignorance,
Pride, intolerance, and doubt.

12

The secondary defilements are:
Anger, hatred, jealousy,
Envy, spite, hypocrisy, deceit…

13

Dishonesty, arrogance, harmfulness,
Immodesty, lack of integrity, sluggishness,
Restlessness, lack of faith, laziness, idleness,
Forgetfulness, carelessness, and distraction.

14

Remorse, sleepiness, reasoning, and analysis
Are factors which can be either defiled or undefiled.

15

The five sense consciousnesses arise in the store consciousness
Together or separately, depending on causes and conditions,
Just like waves arise in water.

16

Thought consciousness manifests at all times,
Except for those born in the realms of beings without thought,
Those in the formless trances, and those who are unconscious.

17

These three transformations of consciousness
Are just the distinction of subject and object, self and other–
They do not really exist.
All things are nothing but forms of consciousness.

18

Since the storehouse consciousness contains all seeds,
These transformations of consciousness arise
And proceed based upon mutual influence.
On account of this, discrimination of self and other arises,

19

All actions leave traces,
And because of grasping at self and other,
Once one seed has been exhausted, another arises.

20

That which is differentiated
In terms of self and other,
Or by whatever sort of discrimination,
That is just mental projection:
It does not exist at all

21

Appearances themselves
Which arise dependently through causes and conditions
Exist, but only in a partial and dependent way.

22

Ultimately, perfect nature, the fully real, arises
When there is an absence of mental projection onto appearances.
For that reason, the fully real is neither the same nor different from appearances.
If the perfected nature is not seen, the dependent nature is not seen either.

23

Corresponding to the threefold nature,
There is a threefold absence of self-nature.
This absence of self-nature of all dharmas
Is the secret essence of the Buddha’s teachings.

24

Projections are without self-nature by definition.
Appearances too are without self-nature because they are not
self-existent.
Perfect nature is without any differentiation whatsoever.

25

The true nature of consciousness only
Is the true nature of all dharmas.
Remaining as it is at all times, it is Suchness.

26

As long as consciousness does not see
That subject-object distinctions are simply forms of consciousness
Attachment to twofold grasping will never cease

27

By merely thinking
The objects one perceives are forms of consciousness
One does not realize consciousness only

28

One realizes consciousness only
When the mind no longer seizes on any object
When there is nothing to be grasped, there is no grasping
Then one knows – everything is consciousness only.

29

That is the supreme, world-transcending knowledge
Where one has no mind that knows
And no object that is known
Abandoning twofold grasping
The storehouse consciousness is emptied

30

That alone is the pure, primordial reality
Beyond thought, auspicious, unchanging
It is the blissful body of liberation
The dharmakaya nature of the enlightened ones

Adapted from English translations of the Sanskrit original

The teachings on Dzogchen draw from all three dimensions – in fact, it is a remarkable integration of all three of these.

In Dzogchen there are all the practical teachings of Buddhism, and there are all the narrative teachings of Buddhism. But it is the addition of the infinite, timeless dimension that makes these texts and teachings unlike anything else we typically encounter.

How do you suggest infinite reality to minds that are locked into the finite? In the Mahayana one of the ways is to multiply everything in the most extravagant manner possible. We are overwhelmed by innumerable buddhas, innumerable states of perfection, innumerable pure lands.

This is possible because the space of these teachings is a unique space with some unique properties.

For one, it is a space in which whatever you wish comes to be. Space is all accommodating – it contains all possibilities, those imagined and those beyond imagination. What brings a particular possibility to fruition? At the most basic level it is desire or intentionality; it is aspiration.

If you think about it, it is rather uncanny how conveniently even the finite world is set up to accommodate the desires of sentient beings. We do not appreciate this because we are understandably rather spoiled. Over time we have realized hundreds of thousands of desires. We do not think that is anything special. Instead we complain about the few desires that have been frustrated.

Why are desires frustrated? We could speculate on this at some length, but one possibility may be that we do not have unity of desire, strength of desire arising from all parts of our being – that is to say, we want and don’t want something at the same time – so at some level we contradict ourselves. It is that inner indecisiveness of will, that inner contradiction in our own being that perhaps is the largest obstacle we face.

Purification is the clarification of intentionality. That is something we achieve through prayer and meditation.

Of course there is an irony to this – as we begin the work of clarification of desire, we may discover that we don’t really want what we thought we did. We may discover that all desire carries with it a karmic price tag, at the very least keeps us entangled in the process of desiring itself, continually grazing in the fields of desire without ever lifting our heads up to see what is around us.

Contemplatives have always realized the superiority of desirelessness. Desire binds us to the wheel of fortune. Whatever goes up, comes down. Whatever rises, falls. In Buddhism the wheel of fortune is called samsara. It is notorious for being endless, leading nowhere and causing only suffering. This is why the Greek Sage Epicetus advised, “Desire only that everything happen exactly as it does.”

Yet as worldly people it is hard for us to put such sagely advice into practice. Deep down we have some really strong longings, many such longings, and we are very attached to all of them. For this reason it is easier if we just reduce our desires, rather than eliminate them altogether. We must ask ourselves what it is we really want. What do we really believe will guarantee, without a doubt our happiness, now and forever?

We have all heard of tales where by some great luck one is given the chance to make one wish for whatever one wants. Obviously there are many things one could wish for, but if are clever, we realize that the one thing to wish for would be a wish-fulfilling jewel, that is, something that allows us to continue wishing for whatever we want. That would be the smart thing to wish for.

The premise of Dzogchen is that we already have this jewel and don’t realize it. It is our own inherent goodness. Goodness is the wish-fulfilling jewel. Wherever there is goodness there is joy and happiness, wherever it is obscured or lacking there is no happiness, and wherever it is tenuous and partial, happiness is only tenuous and partial.

This is the logic of the Mahayana and Dzogchen practices. In the Mahayana pure land practice we are given a way to drive all our desires into one desire – the desire for rebirth in the pure land of the buddhas. In Dzogchen we desire simply to experience completeness of intrinsic awareness itself. These are not different desires.

In the world of finite or partial realities, the notion that a practice of just calling on the name of Amitabha would open up the door of paradise is a completely absurd notion. But in the world of complete reality – where the infinite has sway – it makes perfect sense. It is a transcendental sort of sense to be sure, one that requires a certain faith in the unseen, the invisible, the nonlinear, and the non-finite.

It is the Mahayana view that no one ever becomes so closed, so jaded, so hopeless that they lose the spark of the infinite altogether. Buddha nature is present in everyone, even if obscured by eons of obscurations. At any moment we can turn to the open space of pure awareness that is within us and glimpse the transcendent.

To live the transcendent each moment of our life – that is not so easy, but to glimpse it, that is not too hard. If we start asking ourselves what it is we really want, eventually we will find that our deepest and purest aspiration – our deepest desire is for goodness itself. There is nothing better.

Plotinus, the great ancient philosopher, would never make any statement about ultimate reality other than to say it was good. That is the only description that speaks to the whole of transcendent reality, not to its manifestation in the realm of partialities.

Goodness makes every other desire desirable. And even more remarkable — just by uncovering that one desire, voicing that one desire, we set into motion the inevitable fulfillment of that desire. If we desire goodness, we will find goodness. If we desire to become Buddha, we will become Buddha. That is the force of aspiration. When we sift through all the partialities of our being, when we lay the competing claims for our attention to rest, and get down to the essential, then our faith comes alive, and we touch the heart of goodness that has been present, everywhere since the beginning of time.

Goodness is not something we can take to the bank and convert into cash. It has no physical substance. Who has ever seen goodness? Actuality, we all have seen goodness. We have felt it and know that it is real. Invisible, yet real. In its reality it has the three dimensions we mentioned before: there is finite goodness, infinite goodness and there is a narrative dimension to goodness. Mahayana and Dzogchen are just that – narratives of goodness.

The goodness that stills desire, the goodness that enlightens us is not finite goodness or narrative goodness, but infinite goodness. When we think of the buddhas, and say the mantras of the buddhas, if in that moment we are happy it is because we are touching goodness in all its dimensions. There is infinite goodness in the buddhas and in their mantras. That is why when you think of them or say their names there is a little jump in your heart. Invisible, yet real. That is what the infinite is like.

The contemplative and philosophical truths of Buddhism arise out of the enlightenment experience of Shakyamuni Buddha. The experience is singular. The possible ways of understanding it are diverse. This is why the dharma is vast. It presents itself in infinite ways according to the needs and desires of sentient beings.

Emptiness is implicit in the Buddha’s earliest teachings. The Buddha denied substance, or ‘thingness’, to reality. Reality is no-thing-ness. There is no higher self or lower self. There is no self at all. What everything has in common is no-thing-ness, not self.

The dharma itself is no thing either. It’s just a glimpse of freedom, the freedom that is possible by avoiding the extremes of nihilism – acting as if nothing matters, and eternalism–acting as if we will live forever.

In the Abhidharma, Buddhist philosophers took an analytical approach to deconstructing appearances into their component, causal conditions. Reality was broken into about one hundred elements. The Yogacara philosophers carried this analysis into the Mahayana, enhancing it within the larger perspective of the Great Vehicle.

These elements form a continuum of potential combinations and arrangements that appearance can take. Knowing the elements means knowing the underlying principles that govern the world as we experience it. Knowing the underlying principles one can apply them in a way that leads to liberation.

Teachings on emptiness, shunyata, come to the forefront in Mahayana in the Prajnaparamita literature. In the Tibetan tradition, the teachings of Prajnaparamita are associated with Nagarjuna and the Madyamika School, although historically these were three independent phenomena.

In the Madyamika view, there are two truths. The absolute truth of no-thing-ness, and the relative truth of phenomena. No-thing-ness and phenomena are always co-present, inseparable. Phenomena arise as an array of sense perceptions, feelings, and thoughts erupting continually in consciousness. Phenomena are the sensual dance of consciousness. If you try to grasp at the dance it will slip through your fingers because it is just dream stuff, no-thing-ness. But you can’t say it doesn’t exist, because it is appearing now. The texts say:

“There might be someone with an intent to know the thoughts of sentient beings in the three times for as many kalpas as sentient beings exist; still he would be unable to know the nature of a single thought of the Buddha.”

In Yogacara, the two truth view was articulated more precisely. The ultimate remains the ultimate. The relative is realized as having two aspects – the actuality of pure experience, the fact phenomena do occur, that appearances are present, even though they are always changing – and the empty nature of any interpretation or explanation we might attach to that appearance.

Consciousness is always interfused with phenomena. Consciousness never changes – consciousness is always consciousness, but phenomena are ever changing. Submerged in phenomena we lose consciousness. Living at the edge of fresh appearance we regain it. The texts say:

“Who does not see the object, sees the wonder.”

Although form and emptiness are inseparable, practitioners sometimes lean one direction or the other. Those who lean in the direction of form take the view that the Buddhist path is one of long, slow incremental steps of reconditioning our awareness to receive the fullness of enlightenment. Those who lean in the direction of emptiness take the view that we are inherently enlightened and only need to stop obstructing its natural presence in our lives.

There is form because the mind craves it. When the mind stops craving form, mind relaxes and form ceases to exist. Form is a product of our desire. Seeing what animates form gives all form a single taste, that of bliss. Bliss is the end of all desire.

But the end can be nowhere else but at the beginning. The present is the source of all thoughts and desires. To attain bliss is not a matter of shuffling desires in some better way, but to let them subside, to become desireless. The bliss of desire is partial bliss, fleeting pleasure. The bliss of desirelessness is complete.

Emptiness is the view of no-view. The school of direct pointing does not have a single tenet. Phenomena rise and fall, yet in the experienced present, nothing rises or falls. It is all already here in the infinite continuum of space-awareness. The texts say:

“The Great Perfection is the Mother who produces all Buddhas. It is the antidote of all activity that involves effort. Whichever path one follows and whatever method one adopts, without realization of the Great Perfection, one cannot attain enlightenment.”

In Dzogchen we do not cultivate an elaborated view. We are not under compulsion to accept or reject anything. Everything is primordially settled. Emptiness is not an object of knowledge. It is not a path. It is not a cure. It is not something that settles or resolves anything. It just is. And you must see it for yourself.

The everyday practice of Dzogchen is simply to develop a complete carefree acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit.

We should realize openness as the playground of our emotions and relate to people without artificiality, manipulation or strategy.

We should experience everything totally, never withdrawing into ourselves as a marmot hides in its hole. This practice releases tremendous energy which is usually constricted by the process of maintaining fixed reference points. Referentiality is the process by which we retreat from the direct experience of everyday life.

Being present in the moment may initially trigger fear. But by welcoming the sensation of fear with complete openness, we cut through the barriers created by habitual emotional patterns.

When we engage in the practice of discovering space, we should develop the feeling of opening ourselves out completely to the entire universe. We should open ourselves with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind. This is the powerful and ordinary practice of dropping the mask of self-protection.

We shouldn’t make a division in our meditation between perception and field of perception. We shouldn’t become like a cat watching a mouse. We should realize that the purpose of meditation is not to go “deeply into ourselves” or withdraw from the world. Practice should be free and non-conceptual, unconstrained by introspection and concentration.

Vast unoriginated self-luminous wisdom space is the ground of being – the beginning and the end of confusion. The presence of awareness in the primordial state has no bias toward enlightenment or non-enlightenment. This ground of being which is known as pure or original mind is the source from which all phenomena arise. It is known as the great mother, as the womb of potentiality in which all things arise and dissolve in natural self-perfectedness and absolute spontaneity.

All aspects of phenomena are completely clear and lucid. The whole universe is open and unobstructed – everything is mutually interpenetrating.

Seeing all things as naked, clear and free from obscurations, there is nothing to attain or realize. The nature of phenomena appears naturally and is naturally present in time-transcending awareness. Everything is naturally perfect just as it is. All phenomena appear in their uniqueness as part of the continually changing pattern. These patterns are vibrant with meaning and significance at every moment; yet there is no significance to attach to such meanings beyond the moment in which they present themselves.

This is the dance of the five elements in which matter is a symbol of energy and energy a symbol of emptiness. We are a symbol of our own enlightenment. With no effort or practice whatsoever, liberation or enlightenment is already here.

The everyday practice of Dzogchen is just everyday life itself. Since the undeveloped state does not exist, there is no need to behave in any special way or attempt to attain anything above and beyond what you actually are. There should be no feeling of striving to reach some “amazing goal” or “advanced state.”

To strive for such a state is a neurosis which only conditions us and serves to obstruct the free flow of Mind. We should also avoid thinking of ourselves as worthless persons – we are naturally free and unconditioned. We are intrinsically enlightened and lack nothing.

When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural as eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialized or formal event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity. We should realize that meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and the duality of liberation and non-liberation. Meditation is always ideal; there is no need to correct anything. Since everything that arises is simply the play of mind as such, there is no unsatisfactory meditation and no need to judge thoughts as good or bad.

Therefore we should simply sit. Simply stay in your own place, in your own condition just as it is. Forgetting self-conscious feelings, we do not have to think “I am meditating.” Our practice should be without effort, without strain, without attempts to control or force and without trying to become “peaceful.”

If we find that we are disturbing ourselves in any of these ways, we stop meditating and simply rest or relax for a while. Then we resume our meditation. If we have “interesting experiences” either during or after meditation, we should avoid making anything special of them. To spend time thinking about experiences is simply a distraction and an attempt to become unnatural. These experiences are simply signs of practice and should be regarded as transient events. We should not attempt to re-experience them because to do so only serves to distort the natural spontaneity of mind.

All phenomena are completely new and fresh, absolutely unique and entirely free from all concepts of past, present and future. They are experienced in timelessness.

The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and inspiration which arises at every moment is the manifestation of our clarity. We should learn to see everyday life as mandala – the luminous fringes of experience which radiate spontaneously from the empty nature of our being. The aspects of our mandala are the day-to-day objects of our life experience moving in the dance or play of the universe. By this symbolism the inner teacher reveals the profound and ultimate significance of being. Therefore we should be natural and spontaneous, accepting and learning from everything. This enables us to see the ironic and amusing side of events that usually irritate us.

In meditation we can see through the illusion of past, present and future – our experience becomes the continuity of nowness. The past isonly an unreliable memory held in the present. The future is only a projection of our present conceptions. The present itself vanishes as soon as we try to grasp it. So why bother with attempting to establish an illusion of solid ground?

We should free ourselves from our past memories and preconceptions of meditation. Each moment of meditation is completely unique and full of potentiality. In such moments, we will be incapable of judging our meditation in terms of past experience, dry theory or hollow rhetoric.

Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now, with our whole being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, is enlightenment.

The wisdom teachings of the Mahayana are contained in three primary sets of writings. The first and oldest of these are the Prajnaparamita texts, which date  to the beginning of the current era.  These wisdom texts go beyond conventional understanding and speak directly to one’s innate enlightened nature.  They are the first pointing out texts –transmitting the transcendent wisdom that sees the emptiness of all conceptualized views of reality.

Later, Nargarjuna applied the insights of the Prajnaparamita to classical Indian philosophy and through his articulation of the nature of emptiness beautifully and impeccably dismantled prevailing scholastic views on the nature of reality, establishing the primacy of the inexpressible as the heart of the Buddhist path. In the Mahayana tradition Nargarjuna is seen as the primary spokesperson of the Pranjaparamita literature.

These teachings were united with the meditative and devotional traditions of Mahayana by a brilliant set of teachers from Gandhara, Asanga and Vasubandu, whose works are the culmination of the early Mahayana  movement.  The school that held this transmission tradition was Yogacara, which became the leading philosophical school in India during the 3rd to 5th centuries, at the same time that Neoplatonism was the leading philosophical school in the Classical Western World. Yogacara teachings still form the philosophical core of the great Buddhist contemplative lineages such as Zen, Mahamudra and Dzogchen. In a similar manner Neoplatonism underlines Western contemplative lineages.

Yogacara translates as “practitioners of yoga” emphasizing the school’s commitment to meditation as the essential nature of the Buddhist path. It is also known as the Consciousness Only School for their central teaching that all reality is a display of consciousness.  

Asanga  

According to the Tibetan tradition, Asanga was born in Purusapura, the capital of Gandhara, of a Brahmin woman who was herself a considerable adept in the teachings of Buddhism and who taught him the “eighteen sciences” which he mastered easily. He became a  monk and for five years applied himself diligently, memorizing one hundred thousand verses of dharma each year and correctly understanding their meaning.

He then left the monastery to practice the Arya Maitreya Sadhana in a cave at the foot of a mountain. For three years, not a single good sign appeared, and he became depressed and decided to leave his retreat. Emerging from his cave he noticed a bird’s nest by the mountain where the rock had become worn just by the brushing of the bird’s wing as it flew back and forth. Realizing his perseverance was weak, he returned to his cave to practice. For three more years he meditated, but again not a single good sign appeared. He became discouraged and left again. This time he saw a rock beside the road that was slowly disintegrating because of the trickle of single drops of water. Inspired by this, he returned and practiced another three years.

When again no signs appeared, he left his retreat a third time. He encountered an old man who was rubbing a piece of iron with a smooth cotton cloth. “I am just finishing this needle,” the man said to Asanga. “I have already made those over there” and pointed to small pile of needles lying nearby. Asanga thought, “If such effort is put into a mundane task such as this, my effort so far has been merely a trifle.”

He returned and meditated for another three years. Although he had by now meditated for 12 years on Maitreya, he still had no signs of favor. He became extremely despondent and walked away from his cave. After awhile he came across a half-dead dog lying beside the road, infested with maggots, crying out in pain. Asanga thought, “This dog will die if these worms are not removed, but if I try to lift them out with my hand, I will crush them.” So using his tongue so as not to hurt them, and cutting off some of his own flesh for them to live in, he bent down to remove them. At that moment the dog vanished and Maitreya appeared, showering cascades of light in all directions.

Asanga burst into tears and cried, “Ah, my sole teacher and refuge, all those years I made so much effort in my practice, exerting myself in a hundred different ways, but I saw nothing. Why has the rain and the might of the ocean come only now when tormented by pain, I am no longer thirsting?” Maitreya replied, “In truth, I was in your presence constantly, yet because of karmic obscuration you were unable to see me. However, your practice has purified your karma and removed your obstacles. Now by the force of your great compassion you are able to meet me. To test my words, put me on you shoulders for others to see and carry me across the city.”

Asanga was overjoyed. Lifting Maitreya onto his shoulders carried him into town, yet no one saw Maitreya. One old woman saw Asanga was carrying a dead dog and that brought her endless good fortune. A faithful servant saw Maitreya’s feet and found himself in a state of samadhi which granted him all the siddhis. Asanga himself realized the samadhi called “Continuum of Reality”. “What is your desire now?” Maitreya asked him. “To revive the teachings of the Mahayana,” Asanga replied. “Well then, hold onto the end of my robe.” Asanga did this and together they ascended to the pure land of Tushita where they stayed for fifty years. Here Asanga mastered the teachings of the Mahayana and received the famous Five Texts of Maitreya, each of which opens a different door of samadhi.

Dedicated to actualizing these teachings, Asanga returned to the earth and built a small temple in a forest.  At first only a few students came to learn teachings from him, but gradually the fame of his doctrine spread and the Yogacara School was established. He became the abbot of Nalanda and lived to be well over 100, but always had a youthful look, with no gray hair or wrinkles.

He compiled many important Mahayana works including what has come to be known as The Five Texts of Maitreya. These include the Abhisamayalamkara (Ornament of Clear Comprehension), the  Mahanaya Sutralankara (Ornament of the Mahayana Sutras),  the Madhyanta-vibhanga (Discourse on the Middle between the Extremes), the Dharma-dharmata-vibhaga, and the Uttaratantra (The Peerless Continuum). His Mahayana-samparigraha (Compendium of the Mahayana), Abhidarma-samuccaya (Compendium of Higher Doctrine),  and Yogacharabhumi-shastra (Treatise on the Stages of Yoga Practice) are also famous.

According to the Tibetan historian Taranatha, Tantric teachings were handed down in secret through the Yogacara lineage from the time of Asanga. In the Tibetan canon are several Tantric works ascribed to Asanga including a Maitreya Sadhana and a Prajna-Paramita  Sadhana.   

Vasubandu 

The cofounder of Yogacara, Vasubandu, is traditionally said to be the younger brother of Asanga. He was also born in Purusapura in Gandhara and became a monk of the Sarvastivadin school.  He went to Kashmir to study their teachings including their renown Abhidharma works. He also was said to possess a complete understanding of the Tripitaka and the tenets of all the Hinayana schools.

Vasubandu wrote Seven Branches of Metaphysics, an encyclopedic work clarifying the main points of teachings of the early Arhats, The Four Oral Traditions of Vinaya on Buddhist discipline, and the most famous compendium of Abhidharma teachings in the Buddhist tradition, the Abhidharma-kosa and a commentary to it called the Abhidharma-kosa-Bhayasa. The Kosa describes the Buddhist path to enlightenment by categorizing and analyzing the basic factors of experience called dharmas.   

Already famous for his intellectual understanding of Buddhism, Vasubandu came to Nalanda University and was converted to the Mahayana by Asanga.  According to a traditional account, Asanga summoned Vasubandu under the pretext that he was dying. When Vasubandu arrived and asked the cause of his illness, Asanga replied, “I have a serious disease of the heart which arose on account of you.” Vasubandu asked, “How did it arise on account of me?” Asanga replied, “Because you do not believe in the Mahayana and are forever attacking and criticizing it. For this wickedness you will be reborn in a miserable existence. Grieving for you has brought me close to death.” Vasubandu was surprised at this and asked Asanga to expound the Mahayana to him. Upon doing so he became convinced of the truth of the Mahayana and asked his brother what he could do to overcome the negative karma he had accumulated.  Asanga answered, “Since your skillful and eloquent speech against the Mahayana earned you this negative karma, you must now use your skillful and eloquent speech to propound the Mahayana.”

Vasubandu went on to write many works which systematized the Consciousness Only teachings including On the Three Natures, the Twenty Verses, and the Thirty Verses, perhaps the most famous of the Consciousness Only texts. He also wrote devotional hymns and commentaries on Mahayana texts, including works of Asanga. He is also credited with being the founder of Pure Land Buddhism.

According to one Tibetan account,

Vasubandu was in the habit of reciting daily the Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 Verses. Once a year he would sit in an iron cauldron filled with sesame oil and for fifteen consecutive days and nights would recite five hundred Hinayana sutras and five hundred Mahayana sutras. After Asanga passed away, he became abbot of Nalanda. Every day he taught 20 classes on various Mahayana Sutras and constantly met in debate and defeated the false views of other teachers. For over 100 years he traveled in India and Nepal establishing the dharma and teaching the Mahayana doctrine.

Many of his debates were with Samyka teachers, a school like Yogacara based on yogic experience that flourished at that time. Other debates were with proponents of yoga as reflected in Patanjali’s famous sutras. 

After a long life, Vasubandu eventually left this world to reside in the Tushita heaven with Maitreya.

Stirmati

Stirmati was one of the famous disciples of Vasubandu. He was born in the southern Indian city of Dandakaranya of low caste parents, and studied with Vasubandu from age seven. He wrote commentaries on Abhidharma and the works of Vasubandu, including the Trimsikabhasya (Commentary on The Thirty Verses).

Dinaga 

Dignaga, another  disciple of Vasubandu, was one of the most respected Indian philosophers. Born in the southern Indian city of Simhavakta to a Brahmin family, he became a monk with a Hinayana teacher, but dissatisfied with the Hinayana teachings went in search of further instruction and met Vasubandu.

Every day he would recite 500 Mahayana sutras. From a tantric master who was an emanation of Heruka he received the empowerment and the “Method of Actualization” of Manjushri. By practicing this, he received a vision of Manjushri, and from then on received teachings from Manjushri whenever he wished.

Dignaga is known as the founder of Buddhist logic. He wrote over a hundred works on logic and other matters including Arya Prajnaparamita -samgraha-karika (A Verse Compendium of the Noble Perfection of Wisdom), and the Pramanasamuccaya (The Synthesis of All Reasoning). The later was such a profound and timely text that according to the Tibetans when Dignaga wrote the salutation to the work, “Homage to him who is Logic personified…”, the earth shook, thunder and lightning flashed, and the legs of all the heretical teachers in the vicinity became as stiff as wood. Using his skills at logic, he became famous as a debater. He was also famous for his miracles and had many disciples. He traveled throughout India establishing Mahayana, and spent many years in Kashmir.  He completed his life meditating in a remote cave in the jungles of Odivisha.

Gunaprabha

Gunaprabha, one of Vasubandu’s closest disciples, is famous for his mastery of Vinaya. He was born in Mathura of a Brahmin family. He studied the Vedic teachings, and the Hinayana teachings in addition to receiving Mahayana teachings from Vasubandu.

According to the Tibetan accounts, he recited the Hundred Thousand Vinayas daily and resided in a monastery in Mathura called Adrapuri that had 5000 monks, all of whom kept the Vinaya rules perfectly.

He composed the Vinaya-Sutra, Basic Teachings of the Vinaya and One Hundred Actions. His Aphorisms of Discipline are one of the “five great books” that form the basis for the twenty year study program in Tibetan monastic colleges.

Vimuktasena

Vimuktasena was another close disciple of Vasubandu. He is famous for his mastery of the Prajna-Paramita sutras. He was born in Jvala-guha in south-central India. He was a devotee of Maitreya and received both advice and teachings from the celestial Buddha.

He wrote a text called Twenty Thousand Lights on the Prajna-Paramitas. Towards the end of his life he became the spiritual guide of a king in South India and supervised twenty-four temples where he widely taught the Prajna-Paramita Sutras.

Dharmapala 

A disciple of Dinaga, Dharmapala became the head of Nalanda after his teacher died. After that he went to Bodhgaya and became abbot of the Mahabodhi Monastery. He died at the age of 32. He wrote a number of original works and commentaries most of which have been lost.

Dharmakirti

Dharmakirti was born in the southern Indian town of Cudamani to a Brahmin family. At an early age he became learned in the arts, the teachings of the vedas, medicine, grammar, and the tenets of the various sages. Then becoming inspired by the teachings of Buddha and the lineage of Pure Consciousness, he took ordination as a monk from Ararya Dharmpala and studied the Tripitaka from beginning to end. Every day he recited 500 different sutras and mantras.

He became a great adept at logic, equal to the master Dignaga himself, and wrote a famous commentary on Dignaga’s Synthesis of All Reasoning. He also wrote Seven Treatises of Logic. His works became the basis for debate training in the Tibetan monasteries. He himself was said to be such an excellent debater that the population of Indian sages of other schools was quite depleted by his efforts, since after losing they had to convert to Buddhism or throw themselves into the Ganges.

Silabhadra

A disciple of Dharmapala, Silabhadra was born to a royal Brahmin family in the East Indian city of Samatata. He was conversant with the teachings of all sects, famous for his mastery of Buddhist sutras and commentaries, and became head of Nalanda where 104 years old, he taught the Chinese Master, Hsuan-Tsang, the Consciousness Only doctrine through his exposition of Asanga’s Treatise on the Stages of Yoga Practice.

Paramartha

Paramartha was one of the great translators of Buddhist texts into Chinese, Paramartha was already a master in India when he traveled to China in 546 at the age of 47. At the request of the emperor of China, he settled in the capital and began the translation of texts. Political instability in China forced him to move quite often, but he was still able to translate the important works of the Yogacara lineage into Chinese including the Abhidharmakosa, the Mahayana-Samparigraha, and various works of Vasubandu. He is also famous for his translation of the Diamond Sutra. All together, Paramartha translated sixty-four works in 278 volumes. His translations made the later success of Yogacara possible in China and inspired Hsuan-Tsang several generations later to travel to India for additional texts and commentaries.

Hsuan-Tsang

Hsuan-Tsang was a remarkable spiritual pilgrim who became one of the most famous Chinese Masters.   The son of a poor Chinese official, he left home at the age of 13 to study Buddhism. According to a traditional account,

During those early years of study, if there was a Dharma Master lecturing on a Buddhist text, no matter who the Dharma Master was or how far away the lecture was being held, he went, whether it was a Sutra lecture, a Shastra lecture or a Vinaya lecture. He listened to them all. Wind and rain couldn’t keep him away from lectures on the Tripitaka, to the point that he even forgot to be hungry. He just took the Buddhadharma as his food and drink. He did this for five years and then took the Complete Precepts.

In 629 at the age of 27, having been a monk for fifteen years, he secretly left China and made the dangerous journey across the silk road to India. Sixteen years later, having learned Sanskrit and studied with the best Indian teachers, he returned with an incredible collection of 657 Indian texts, a number of statues of the Buddha and various relics.  He was acclaimed by the Emperor who supported him the remainder of his life so he could translate the texts and convey the Mahayana teachings to China. On his deathbed he dedicated his merit so that all present would be born again among the inner circle of Maitreya in Tushita Heaven

His Cheng Wei Shih Lun (Treatise on the Attainment of Consciousness Only), a compendium outlining Yogacara doctrine, became the standard text for the Consciousness Only schools of China and Japan.

He translated many other Sanskrit texts into Chinese including the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, which filled 600 volumes, Asanga’s Treatise on the States of Yoga Practice, the Master of Lapis Lazuli Radiance Tathagata which established the practice of the Medicine Buddha in China and the Far East.

Yogacara Masters After Hsuan-Tsang

Kuei-Chi (638-682 A.D.) was Hsuan-Tsang’s most prominent Chinese student. He systematized the Yogacara teaching and established Yogacara as a distinct school in China, called Fa-hsiang. He also wrote commentaries to Hsuan-Tsang’s Yogacara works including the Fa-yuan-i-lin-chang and the Wei-shih-shu-chi.

Hsuan-Tsang also had several notable Japanese and Korean students. Dosho (628-700) studied with Hsuan-Tsang for ten years sharing a room with Kuei-Chi. When he left to go back to Japan he was given sutras, treatises and Yogacara commentaries to help him establish Yogacara there which he did, teaching at Bwangoji monastery. His most famous student is Gyogi (667-748). A Korean student Chiho studied with Hsuan-Tsang and also went to Japan to teach. His pupil Gembo went back to China in 716 and was instructed by Chih-Chou, a pupil of Kuei-Chi. Another early Japanese student who studied with Hsuan-Tsang was Chitsu. “Thus,” as Junjiro Takakusu wrote in his Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy in 1947, “Japan received the orthodox teaching sacrosanct from first-hand authorities of the Indian and Chinese Yogacara School and with the Japanese even now it is the chief subject of Buddhist learning.”

Hosso, the Japanese name for Yogacara, thrived during the Nara period and today several prominent ancient temples are still functioning. Yogacara proper in India and China did not fare so well. The Yogacara School in India became part of a Yogacara-Madhyamika School which thrived in the last centuries before Buddhism disappeared in India under Islamic persecution. This school became influential in Tibet through Santaraksita, one of the first Buddhist Masters to teach in Tibet, and today all Tibetan sects have a strong Yogacara component. This is especially visible in the more contemplative Kagyu and Nyingma practice traditions. Several Kagyu teachers have supervised English translations of Asanga’s works in recent years.

An example of the respect Tibetan teachers have for Yogacara is this appreciation taken from a dharma talk by the Venerable Traleg Rinpoche,

People have generally ignored how Yogacara philosophy influenced Buddhist tantra and its development. Even though it’s quite patent in the writings of Buddhist tantra… Yogacara philosophy itself developed as a reaction against too much theorization. It came to emphasize individual experience and practice,hence the name Yogacara, meaning  practitioners of  yoga… You could not theorize about Yogacara philosophy without meditating. In fact, you could not be a Yogacara philosopher unless you meditate. When we look at the writings of Yogacara philosophy, we discover many tantric concepts mentioned.

The Fa-hsiang  School suffered under the general persecution of Buddhism  in  China during the middle of the 9th century and gradually disappeared.    However,  its works are still  preserved,  and it  was revived in the 20th century  by several Masters  including Ou-Yang  Ching-Wu (1871-1943), Abbot Taiuhso (1889-1947, and Hsin Shih-Li (1883-1968), who wrote A New Doctrine of Consciousness Only in 1944. This revival led to the Hsuan-Tsang’s  Cheng  Wei  Shih  Lun  being translated into English for the first time in 1973 by Wei Tat, a member of a Hong Kong Yogacara group.

Perhaps the greatest success of the Yogacara teachings was in Gandhara where it Third Turning was revealed. There Yogacara became the foundation for Dzogchen which flourishes today in Tibet as the summit of Buddhist philosophy. That is no small honor for the remarkable work the early Yogacara Masters accomplished in clarifying the essence of the Mahayana path.

Although Dzogchen teachings originate in time before time, they are preserved in only two traditions: the Nyingma and Bon traditions of Tibet. In the Nyingma tradition, Dzogchen, called Maha Ati, the Great Completion, is the highest of the nine paths. The Nyingma is the only school that contains the full Mahayana, the full Vajrayana and the full Dzogchen teachings.

The Dzogchen lineage begins with Garab Dorje who may have lived around the 7th century in Uddiyana, the mountainous area north of Gandhara. Garab Dorje received the transmission of Dzogchen directly from the deity Vajrasattva. As a youth he is said to have defeated 500 scholars in debate, and then retired in retreat until the age of 32. At that time, alone in the mountains, he began to receive over a three year period, the 6.4 million verses of the Dzogpa Chenpo. These he taught to his primary student Manjushrimitra.

Manjushrimitra was born in India. He was a Brahmin, a monastic pandit, learned in the five branches of knowledge, and in ‘all the teachings of cause and effect’. He received pure visions from Manjushri telling him a rare event has occurred, that one Garab Dorje was transmitting a teaching beyond cause and effect in a cemetery in Uddiyana and that he should go and receive instruction there. Manjushrimitra went, but brought along eight other pandits who did not believe there were any teachings beyond cause and effect. At the cemetery they engaged Garab Dorje in debate and were all soundly defeated.

Manjushrimitra was deeply upset at his doubts and offered to cut off his tongue, but Garab Dorje told him, “The bliss of self-perfection is beyond any school. The Great Completion is beyond any limits. The teachings of cause and effect neglect the natural state, then try to attain it with effort. Liberate yourself from this attachment.”

Manjushrimitra stayed and became Garab Dorje’s foremost student, receiving the teachings by ‘symbolic transmission’ rather than words. He classified the 6.4 milllion verses of Dzogchen into three categories: the ground teachings of Semde, philosophical teachings on ‘the way the mind dwells’; the path teachings of Longde, on effortlessness; and the fruition teachings of Menagde on the essential points.

Two writings translated into English are attributed to him: A philosophical text called Primordial Experience and a commentary on popular tantric work translated as Chanting the Names of Manjushri.

At his death, he left his last testament, to his primary student, Sri Simha, on the Six Experiences of Meditation:

O son of good family
If you wish to see the continuity
Of naked awareness
Then focus on absolute awareness as the object
Press the points of the body
Close the way of going and coming
Focus on the target
Rely on the unmoving
And grasp the vast expanse

Sri Simha is said to have come from China, where he studied with many teachers there. Avolokiteshvara appeared to him and said he should go to a certain charnel ground in India to receive teachings. He felt he should learn the tantras first and went to Wutai Mountain where he studied tantra for seven years. Avolokiteshvara appeared again, reminding him to go to India. He agreed, but decided it would be best to go by magical means, so he studied for three years to obtain the power of flight walking. Finally, he arrived in India and studied 25 years with Manjushrimitra. He transmited the lineage there notably to Padmasambhava. He arranged the Mennagde teachings into outer, inner, esoteric and innermost esoteric, then concealed these in temples in China and retired to a charnel ground. At his death he left his last testament, The Seven Nails to Jnanasutra:

Homage to perfect wisdom
The unity of uncreated clear light and emptiness
The great self-existing awareness, open and impartial,
Which pervades and abides in all

Nail the original immutable ground
With the seven great nails of the path of the nondual
The difficult path between samsara and nirvana
And the primordial great bliss will arise
Nail together samsara and nirvana
With the unobstructed clarity of pure gnosis
Nail together the observer and the observed
With self-existing clear light
Nail together mind and matter
With the spontaneous stainless essence
Nail together nihilism and eternalism
With liberation from all views
Nail together dharma and dharmata
With absolute awareness
Nail together elation and depression
With the absence of sense impressions
Nail together appearances and emptiness
With the primordial perfection of the limitless space of dharma

Jnanasutra is said to come from eastern India. He and Vimalamitra, who will later went to Tibet and oversaw many translations of Indian Buddhist texts into Tibetan, became friends and students together at Bodhgaya. Vajrasattva appeared to the two of them and said that they needed to go to China to get teachings. Vimalamitra went and received the Dzoghcen teachings there from Sri Simha, but not the texts. He came back and related his experiences to Jnanasutra who went and served Sri Simha for twelve years, getting all the oral instructions, empowerments and innermost esoteric teachings, meditating in the mountains of China, not an easy task, from his account,

The master, Sri Simha, kept behaving in mysterious ways, wandering in charnel grounds, transforming himself into various forms, mingling with dakinis and fearful beings without the slightest fear.

Jnanasutra received the Seven Nails, and then went back to India. There he met up again with Vimalamitra and gave him all the teachings and texts he didn’t get in China. At his death, he left his last testament, The Four Methods of Contemplation to Vimalamitra:

Homage to the primordially pure emptiness
How wonderful! If you train in these, joy will arise naturally
If you wish to attain the state of great equanimity
Gain experience in these contemplations
If you wish to be trained in all esoteric activities
Maintain all the appearances
In the directness of natural contemplation
If you wish to gain strength in your meditation
Remain in the union of mind and phenomena
Through the view of ocean like natural contemplation
If you wish to attain self-liberation from all views
Bring phenomena to cessation
Through mountain like natural contemplation
If you wish to attain all the results as they are
Liberate all the errors in training with the mountain like view

Vimalamitra had now received teachings from Sri Simha and Jnanasutra. He also had pure, direct visions of Garab Dorje. He was invited to Tibet with Padmasambhava by King Trisong Detsen and became famous as one of the first translators of Buddhist texts into Tibetan. He shared teachings with Padmasambhava, and also created his own lineage of teachings which eventually made their way to Lonchenpa in the 14th century.

After teaching in Tibet, it is said Vimalamitra returned to China to meditate on Wutai Mountain where he attained rainbow body. Since then there are many sightings of him. One story tells of a great lama who went there with his disciples. On the mountain, they ran across a grubby shoemaker. The lama went up and talked with him. The disciples saw the shoemaker put his shoes on the lama’s head and force him to drink dirty water from a pail next to him. Understandably, they were all disgusted by this. Afterwards they asked their lama what had just happened. “That was Vimalamitra,” he says, “and I received several important empowerments from him. Obviously your vision is still not pure!”

I stumbled into the nunnery purely by accident. My father was visiting and I had taken him to Lantau Island to see Hong Kong’s most famous tourist sight: the Big Buddha. The Big Buddha was truly a Big Buddha, sitting 34-meters tall on a huge lotus flower in the center of the Po Lin Monastery complex. Having finished our tour of the statue and surrounding temples, we considered exploring one of the nearby hiking trails. The most popular trail, to Lantau Peak, was an almost straight vertical ascent up a mountain 900 meters tall. Not in the mood for so many stairs, I noticed a small sign pointing out the “Fun Walk.” It sounded worth a try and we began to leisurely descend down the other side of the mountain. The road was quiet and bamboo trees sheltered us on both sides. Now and then a trickling creek would end in small, rocky pools.

About halfway down the path, we saw the nunnery. Wandering in to explore, we were warmly welcomed by nuns who had just finished their evening chanting and happened to be having their teatime. They gave us a glass of tea and invited us to sit down and chat. I explained that my family was Buddhist and I expressed interest to visit the temple again – perhaps I could join their meditation. The nuns informed me that mediation was in the evening – from 6-9 pm – so if I came, it was probably better to spend the night. They gave me the number of the Guest House and smiling, encouraged me to call anytime.

A year later, I finally got it together to go back. Frustrated by my own lack of discipline in efforts to meditate myself, I thought a group atmosphere might be what I need. I also knew that the nuns were sure to be planning some special activities for Chinese New Year.

When I called to book with the Guest House, the monk who answered seemed slightly apprehensive. “You realize,” he said, “You must follow the schedule here. We get up at 3:30 in the morning.”

“No problem!” I said, though I had been completely unaware of that fact.

“And the chanting is all in Chinese.” The temperature had also dropped to the lowest Hong Kong sees and I was starting to have doubts about the adventure.

“Is that what they call spiritual materialism?” I wondered to myself, “The idea that waking up at 3:30 in the morning and sitting through something I don’t understand is somehow good for me?”

I arrived at the temple the day before Chinese New Year, exactly at 11:00 just in time for lunch. I followed about twelve monks and fifty nuns into the dining hall where we all sat on long wooden benches at long wooden tables. Each table only had one row. The rows faced each other but there was no talking. Each place had two bowls. After the mealtime prayer finished, nuns came down the rows with big pots, scooping up rice and vegetables for us to eat. There was no meat. The food was fantastic. I tried to savor the taste but everyone was eating quickly and as it was, I hadn’t finished before they rang the bell and began the after meal chant. The other nuns had already cleaned their bowls and began to filter out. I quickly cleaned my bowl and brought it out the back door to several nuns who were washing dishes. They motioned for me to leave the bowls and I went back into the main courtyard.

There, I saw a nun I recognized from the year before. She was the only westerner among them. “Excuse me,” I said, “I need to register at the Guest House.”

“I can take you there” she responded. I asked her name as Ha-si escorted me down the outdoor stairs. The nunnery was joined to a smaller monastery that sat beneath it on the hillside. Between, the two shared a shrine room and dining hall. The monks held most of the administrative jobs.

The monk at the Guest House looked concerned. “Do you know the rules here?”

“I can show her,” said Ha-si, “And while I’m here, I had a question about my seat.”

Later she explained, “They’re nervous about westerners – they think we don’t understand and will disturb the other nuns. Before, I used to live at a Korean nunnery. There, they told you immediately when you did something wrong. Here, they don’t. But they talk about it themselves and you hear later from the others. Actually, the rules are very simple. Always let the nuns go first. Don’t touch anything. Just be aware. I’ll show you where to put your things.”

She introduced me to another nun who was in charge of the sleeping quarters. I was given two blankets, a pillow, and a towel and we climbed to a loft above bunk beds where the nuns slept. Here, in a corner, I set up my bed. By nightfall, several other laywomen had joined me in the loft, among them another westerner, Maríe from Sweden.

Maríe had showed up a few hours after lunch. I was sitting in the courtyard with a nun named Ying-si, shucking peas and chatting in Cantonese. After we finished, Ying-si asked me if I wanted to go for a walk to visit some other nuns. She grabbed some biscuits and off we set, curving down the fun walk.

From the Fun Walk, smaller paths broke off in intervals and we followed one of these to a gate. Ying-si called out something in Chinese, opened the gate and we went inside to a small house and garden where only two nuns lived together. They were having lunch and offered us food, which we politely refused. Ying-si gave them biscuits and tried to make small talk but they seemed disinclined. We said our good-byes and continued down another small path.

“This next house,” Ying-si explained “has a nun who used to be a doctor. She studied in Canada and was a doctor for many years. She can speak English with you!”

“Why do they live in pairs?” I asked.

Ying-si’s answer was non-committal: “Many factors.”

At the next house, the nuns seemed even less interested to chat with Ying-si. She tried to encourage the former-doctor to speak to me, but the doctor told her there was nothing to say. I agreed, really, and tried to butt in with typical Cantonese social niceties, “Well, we won’t bother you, we’d best be going.”

On the way back, Ying-si asked me, “You’re Cantonese is so good, you know, I have a niece who needs an English tutor…” I told her I’m sorry, that my contract didn’t permit outside work.

Back at the nunnery, we spent some time weeding in the garden. Ying-si had been given the job of dispensing manure, made from the nuns themselves, but after opening and examining every barrel, decided to wait until a later date. I wasn’t sure – was it good to have worms or not? I learned that Ying-si had only been a nun for five years. Before that she’d had many boyfriends, she told me.

At 3:30, evening chanting began at the nunnery. Ha-si had found me a bi-lingual copy of their chant book. The text was in several lines – romanticized Chinese at the top, Chinese characters in the middle, and English translation underneath. It was a bit difficult to follow. Sometimes I’d get lost because the romanization was for Mandarin sounds and written in a system long out-dated. Moreover, the majority of the nuns were chanting in Cantonese. If I knew the Cantonese word for a recognized character, I could pronounce it like the rest of the nuns, but when they went too fast, I couldn’t keep up. Too slow was difficult too. All the chanting was sung and if they spent too much time on one word I couldn’t tell when to move on. They hit a bell and drum and hollow wooden instrument the whole time to keep everyone together. There were notations in the book too that I think referred to the rhythm and timing, but I couldn’t figure it out. Anyway, the singing was beautiful and the meaning of the words that I could catch was lovely too. We sang praise to Buddhas of all directions and the voices around me rose and fell in unison with the instruments. The chanting lasted about an hour.

Afterwards, there was more free time and around 5:00 a small dinner was served – just leftovers from lunch in the kitchen. I spent the rest of the hour making sweet Chinese New Year dumplings and chatting in three languages with the other nuns. One of them was kind enough to loan me a couple extra fleeces. The temperature was dropping fast. At 6:00 we filtered into the main hall and began the evening’s meditation. It started with walking mediation around the center shrine. As Ha-si had explained to me earlier, there were three lanes like a racetrack. The innermost lane was for the fastest walkers while the outermost the slowest. So we circled clockwise, interweaving in and out of each other, for a good half hour. Ha-si had showed me how to tuck in the sleeves of the robe I’d just been given, so that they wouldn’t fly out. She also told me not to swing my arms too wide. It was important to be self-contained.

After the walking mediation we took our seats. The nuns sat on a raised platform along the outer wall. The other lay people and I sat on cushions just to the left of the shrine. When the sitting meditation began, the lights were turned out and the whole room was illuminated only by the glow of the candles on the shrine. We sat for an hour and a half in total silence. Normally, there would have been a fifteen-minute break at this point, but tonight was New Year’s Eve and thus a special ceremony. All the monks and nuns filtered into the hall, even the old master who had suffered from a stroke and had to be assisted in walking by younger monks. I took out my book and the evening chanting began. We repeated some chants from the evening session to praise all Buddhas and then added a long prayer to Maitreya. As I tried to imitate the sound of their singing, I caught glimpses of the English translation:

Maitreya dresses as a beggar
He waits in the street for someone to pass by
He is smiling and laughing
When will iron trees blossom?

The chanting ended with long section of full prostrations. We would take turns to bow – half of the room, then the other half. Each group would stay down a good thirty seconds, so it wasn’t very tiring. After the bowing, we began walking chanting. Repeating the mantra, the nuns filtered out of the shrine room in one long line. Outside, they snaked the pattern back and forth across the patio so that everyone would fit. The moon was full and the view off the mountain looked miles down to the glistening lights of the new Hong Kong airport. To conclude the ceremony, we all bowed in front of the shrine. Up on the first patio, nuns put out the sweet dumplings we had made earlier and everyone helped themselves.

Now, bedtime at 9:00. Huddled with all my clothes on and under a large blanket, I kept passably warm – just like camping outside in the dead of winter. I slept lightly and awakened quickly to the sound of a drum through the sleeping porch at 3:30 in the morning. At a quarter to four, chanting began in the shrine room. We welcomed in the New Year with praise to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, prostrations, and singing. I’d given up on trying to follow the translation and watched everyone else to synchronize with the bowing. When the ceremony finished, all the nuns lined up to give lucky red packets to the old master with money inside. The old master, in turn, gave all the nuns red packets, each with $10 inside. As a lay-practitioner, I later returned the red envelope to the shrine.

Now time for breakfast, we filtered into the dining room. We ate in the same way as before, no one speaking. I tried to eat faster this time but only barely managed to finish the generous amount of food before the gong was hit and everyone cleaned up. Afterwards, I was put to the task of cutting off dried mushroom stems while enjoying a glass of milk tea. When I went outside to wash my cup (Ha-si reminded me these things should be done immediately upon finishing) I was startled by the sound of firecrackers. Looking down the hillside over the roof of the shrine room, I could see sparks of light from between the monastery’s buildings. The moon sat full above the dragon-topped roof and a dozen stars shown in the bluish-purple dawn. The sun was just about to rise.

Recitation of the Diamond Sutra began at 7:00. Ha-si was just informing me of this when Maríe came up.

“What time is the diamond Sutra?” she asked innocently.

“What time do you think it is, Maríe?” said Ha-si.

“7:00?” I ventured.

As Maríe walked away, Ha-si complained, “She’s as old as I am. She’s been coming here for years. And she still doesn’t know what time the Diamond Sutra is. The whole thing…it’s about awareness!”

There wasn’t a romanticized version of the Diamond Sutra. Instead they gave me an English copy and I sat at a small table next to Maríe, reading silently to myself while the nuns chanted around me. Early morning sunlight streamed into the room from outside. The chanting was fast paced and beautiful to listen to. Their voices flowed in time with the instruments. The nuns went through it twice.

All phenomena are like
A dream, an illusion, a bubble, and a shadow
Like dew and lightning
Thus should you meditate upon them.

Afterwards, we sat outside and folded paper offerings. Ha-si was in a chatting mood. I learned that she was originally Polish but had immigrated to Canada for political reasons. She lived there for ten years working as a graphic designer. She’d always felt like the cycle of working to make money to buy things and support herself was a second choice, but never realized what the first choice was. Although she knew about Buddhism, she wasn’t yet ready to make the commitment needed to join. Even when she did, she didn’t become a nun immediately. She spent a year teaching English as a Second Language back in Poland but when her teacher requested her to return to Canada, she did and later joined a Chinese nunnery in Vancouver. This nunnery was the same branch and she’d come to Hong Kong four years ago.

Guests were starting to arrive at the nunnery. These Hong Kong residents had begun their new year early by taking a bus from the airport development area to the bottom of the Fun Walk (though I don’t think it was called the Fun Walk from that direction) and climbing the mountain to the nunnery, laden down with gifts for the temple. By 10:00, the numbers had grown and we began to visit every shrine on the premises, at least half a dozen. Apart from the two main shrine rooms in the complex, other shrines sat in nooks in the hillside and only got visited by everyone once a year. Monks, nuns, laymen, then lay women; we bowed and gave offerings, chanting the whole time. I kept forgetting to take off my hat when I bowed and Ha-si would give me reminding looks. By 11:00 we had finished and the line wove into the dining hall where we were served a delicious, plentiful feast and ate in silence.

After lunch I packed up my things, returned my bedding to the nun in charge, and washed my towel. Ha-si escorted me to the Guest House to sign out, interrupted on the way to receive a lucky red pocket from a visiting couple. “Next time, you don’t have to call before you come,” said the monk at the Guest House, then on second thought, “Well, maybe you should – yes it would be better if you do.”

Ha-si walked me to the gate. “I think you did well here; you seemed to catch on quickly. Just remember to pay attention to what’s happening. And after you leave, try to keep the awareness. Just remember that: keep the awareness.”

As I ran down the mountainside, hours of chanting still resounded in my head. At the foot of mountain, I caught a bus and rode back to the city.

Foyan (1067-1120)

The light of mind is reflected in stillness
Its substance is empty of relative or absolute
Golden waves abound
Awareness is constant, in action or non-action
Thoughts arise, thoughts vanish
Don’t try to stop them
Let them flow spontaneously
What has ever arisen?
What has ever vanished?
When arising and vanishing quiet down
The great master appears.
Sitting, reclining, walking around
Presence is continuous
When meditating, why not sit?
When sitting, why not meditate?
Only when you have understood this way
Is it called sitting meditation
Who is it that sits?
What is meditation?
To try to place it
Is using Buddha to look for Buddha
Buddha need not be sought
Seeking takes you further away
In sitting do not look at yourself
Meditation is not realized if there’s a crowd
At first the mind is noisy and unruly
There is no choice but to sit and bring it back
Thus there are many methods
For learning quiet observation
When you sit down to gather your spirit
It scatters
After awhile it eventually calms down
Freeing the six senses.
When the six senses rest a bit
Discrimination occurs
With discrimination there is arising and vanishing
This is just the appearance of one’s own mind
When the mind is brought back to the mind
There’s no need to repeat the cycle
You wear a halo of light on your head
The spiritual flames leap and shine
Completely unobstructed
All inclusive, all pervasive
Birth and death forever cease
No one believes, but it is true
You can turn from ordinary mortal to a sage
In an instant
All over the earth confusion reigns
Best be very careful
Sit up straight
One Suchness embodies All
Utterly still, naturally present
One day you’ll bump into it
This I sincerely hope

Two essential points of traditional Buddhist teaching are the primacy of direct non-conceptual experience, and the importance of adopting a middle way between various extremes of view and practice.

The significance of the first of these is that even although Buddhism has developed and utilized various doctrines, it is not dogmatic. Whether it is the Buddha advising disciples to leave the raft of dharma behind once one has reached the other shore, or Zen teachers urging their students not to mistake the finger pointing toward the moon for the moon itself, both views and techniques are always regarded as vehicles not endpoints in themselves. This point is taken up with particular zest in Dzogchen where in the Kunjed Gyalpo of Garab Dorje we are told that there is no view on which one has to meditate, no commitment one has to keep, and no conduct one has to adopt or abandon. Why? Because holding even such lofty notions as views, commitments, and conduct obscures the natural primacy of the non-conceptual state.

The Buddha taught the middle way as the path between desiring pleasure and denying pleasure. The Buddha also characterized his approach as one that avoided the extremes of eternalism and nihilism. Eternalism is the view that there are definite, enduring divine entities that constitute the real nature of things, while nihilism is the view that the divine is absent from the world and that nothing essentially matters or means anything.

The Buddha critiqued traditional religions, such as the priestly Vedic tradition in India, as being dogmatic, literalistic, and assuming a great deal on the basis of authority and revelation which was not verifiable in any direct way. However, to deny the fixed actuality of the mythical constructs and affirmations of traditional religion is not to deny there is no spiritual meaning in tradition, only that specific expressions of that meaning are not ultimately valid. Nihilism, the opposite extreme, not only carries negation too far in denying experience itself, but is also inconsistent in that by asserting itself as a view it attempts to make an affirmation of negation. The right understanding is to realize that there is no basis for affirmations or negations about reality. In fact, to follow either of these extremes obscures the natural clarity of experience when experienced purely as it is.

In the Mahayana tradition, the doctrine of the middle way is given a more subtle and radical reading by Nagarjuna who denied validity to any conceptual construct whatsoever. In the Mulamadhyamakakarika he shreds the philosophical affirmations of his day, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, concluding that even the distinction between samsara and nirvana is meaningless inasmuch as they too are conceptual points of reference. All distinctions, all mental constructs of whatever grade and type, are empty, shunya, when experienced in primordial non-dual awareness.

The difficulty with Nagarjuna’s radical denial of validity to any construct we could make about reality is that Buddhist teachings themselves are constructs, and silence alone would not make a very lasting tradition. This difficulty is addressed in the doctrine of two truths. In the absolute sense, Nagarjuna is correct, nothing can be posited about reality, for every statement about reality is incomplete and hence untrue. On the other hand, in a relative sense, we can speak to the incompleteness of our experience with preciseness and clarity.

Making this distinction between absolute truth and relative truth preserves the Buddhas’s fundamental adherence to the primacy of direct non-conceptual experience. It also allows full elaboration, on a provisional basis, of the middle path in terms of presenting specific views and practices that help one attain that experience.

However, one is still left with certain questions as to how the relative arises out of the absolute and vice versa. How can any amount of relative practice and insight enable one to experience the absolute? Aren’t they two entirely different orders of understanding? Where is the unity in such a vision? Is enlightenment merely non-conceptuality? If we stop thinking does everything become clear? Buddhism is often understood in such a fashion, as merely being a means to become tranquilly but blankly present. Through meditation, all thought and conflict are abandoned, and one is left the simple pleasures of being alive – the taste of fresh water, the warmth of the spring sun, and the smell of flowers.

Nargarjuna’s analysis was more radical than this. Not only is thought fleeting and provisional, but experience itself is just as fleeting as provisional. The water you are drinking is not real, nor are you, the drinker of the water, real either. Both you and the water, as well as your thoughts about all of this, are all relative, temporal appearances without any ultimate standing.

Nargarjuna denied validity not only to constructs, but also denied validity to dharmas, the constituent elements of reality as posited by the early Buddhist schools. The early Buddhists said that we fundamentally misperceive experience by assuming there is a solid self experiencing everything when in reality we are merely a bundle of aggregates – thoughts, sense-perceptions, feelings, and so on. The perceived world is the same. What we call a cart is in reality just an arrangement of wood and other material , and that no actual cart exists. Everything is only a temporary arrangement of elements. Hence, there is no perceiver and nothing perceived, only dharmas – basic elements of experience – combining, dissolving and recombining themselves in various ways. In a manner somewhat similar to arguments in modern physics, Nargarjuna questioned what dharmas themselves were made of, and demonstrated that they are as much a fiction as anything else.

What do we experience? Is all of our experience unreal? Some Buddhist schools appear to go this direction. The world is not only suffering, but a complete fabrication – one should detach oneself as completely as possible. Buddhist teachings are a fabrication as well, but useful in helping one cut through to emptiness, where the world is clearly perceived as a complete void, lacking any substance or essence whatsoever. Nothing is real, and there is no one to perceive this unreality, but compassion entails that we help sentient beings as best we can, by sharing with them this realization and the relative practices that bring about realization of this ultimate truth.

At some point, as one carries this approach to its logical conclusion, one will wonder, where the middle way that cuts between extremes has disappeared to. Asanga and Vasubandu modified the doctrine of the two truths in such a way as to preserve the depth of the Nagarjuna’s analysis and yet preserve continuity with our basic experience of the world.

Vasubandu accepts the critique of emptiness as it applies to conceptual constructs, but does not extend emptiness in the same way to experience. As to concepts, Vasubandu would agree that conceptual constructs about reality are essentially false, because the immediacy of reality is always free of concepts. Thus one should avoid any fixed assertion or set view about what is, since attachment to such views leads to suffering. All thoughts are empty in that they are abstractions of the full reality of direct experience.

Direct experience is empty in a different way. It is not false in the way that concepts are. It is like a dream. In a dream one does see, feel, hear, taste and touch what seem to be actual objects. We can remember these experiences. Yet the dream is within our mind. The dreamer and the dream are one. So it is with our life in the natural world. Various causes and conditions interweave through countless events causing various appearances to arise. These appearances are tightly woven into our stream of experience. It is consciousness that causes these experiences to arise. This arising and the quality of consciousness that determines our experience comes from seeds planted by past experiences. These seeds reside in a storehouse consciousness, the alaya-vijnana. Thus, the past sets in place karmic propensities that ripen when conditions are appropriate and set into motion event-moments.

Appearances are dualistic by nature. One sees. One hears. One experiences. There is a natural experience of separation between the doer and what is happening. Even though we course along, immersed in what we have realized is a rather disordered world, we feel a sense of independence. And that independence is as real to us as the situations we encounter. Some Buddhist schools teach that all of this is entirely empty, devoid of meaning, without value – nothing at all is really there. However, Yogacara sees the dynamic nature of the oppositions that enable the dream to have appearance. Appearances are real, but not the complete reality. The natural world exists within waking consciousness, as the dream exists within the consciousness of sleep.

Conceptual constructs and appearances constitute two different levels of provisional reality for Vasubandu. Ultimate reality is the underlying emptiness that is reflected through appearances and thoughts. Ultimate reality is Suchness, the completely real, the signless, the ground of all events, pure non-dual presence.

In terms of being, conceptual constructs do not exist in that they are merely wispy descriptors of reality, not reality per se. Appearances exist, but not in the way they appear, differentiated and objectified. The ultimate contains both the existent and the non-existent but its own ontological status is undefined. Since concepts do not have an actual existence, they are neither permanent nor impermanent. The natural world of appearances is characterized by impermanence. The world of appearances is the world of birth and death, in which everything that arises eventually dissolves. The ultimate suffers only the impermanence of its descriptors.

Vasubandu interprets the Four Noble Truths in terms of this understanding. Suffering caused by conceptual constructs (most of our suffering) is unnatural and unnecessary. Suffering caused by direct experience is natural suffering which is part of being within the dream evolved by consciousness. Suffering experienced within ultimate reality is voluntarily taken on. The suffering of conceptual constructs is caused by residual karmic impressions. The suffering of direct experience arises naturally. And ultimate suffering is caused because there is no separation, no self-other distinction.

Conceptual suffering ceases when one is no longer ignorant as to the true nature of constructs, when one realizes their inherent emptiness. Natural suffering ceases when one no longer sees the natural world as permanent and differentiated, separate from oneself. Ultimately, cessation is Suchness. The path to eliminate conceptual suffering is knowledge. The path to eliminate natural suffering is abandoning attachments to things being other than they are. Ultimate truth is attained through direct realization.

Whereas the ultimate exists only in relation to the one truth, it is ultimate in three ways, as regards object, attainment, and practice. It is Suchness, the object of ultimate knowledge. It is Nirvana, the attainment of Suchness. It is the Path, the meditation that leads to Suchness.

–Vasubandu

Ultimately, there is no difference in the three realities since they are all equally existent and non-existent as is Suchness itself of which all reality is a reflection. Thus there is no difficulty making conventional distinctions drawn from the point of view of practice and realization. Dharma is conceptual, practice is natural, and realization is the ultimate understanding of Suchness.

With the non-appearance of duality, the appearance of duality vanishes, and with this disappearance, the complete non-being of duality is understood. With this non-apprehension of duality there is the apprehension of the basic Ground of Events and with this apprehension comes the skillful means by which one and others wishes are fulfilled.

–Vasubandu

The clarity of consciousness that results from seeing the emptiness of concepts and realizing the actual non-dual quality of experience gives birth both to vision and the skillful means necessary to fulfill vision. This vision is fulfilled in this very world, seen as it truly is, in its beautiful, dreamlike wholeness rather than dismissed as an illusion without value.

Thus Vasubandu corrects certain conceptualizations of emptiness that can arise from an improper understanding of emptiness. In doing this he was both reemphasizing the primacy of direct experience over conceptualized views of experience, and also reaffirming the value of the middle way over the extremes engendered by creating unnecessary distinction.

The Yogacara revaluing of reality became the basis for Buddhist practice traditions such as Tantra, Dzogchen and Zen. In these traditions, appearances are not something to be denied but form the basis of liberation itself. The word Yogacara translates to “vehicle of meditation”, and it is in its full embrace of contemplative methods and practices, and its full engagement of the phenomenal world, that Yogacara skillfully displays its realization of the ultimate and complete path.