of the clear light. As the omniscient Botrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima says in his
Analysis of View and Doctrine,
Buddha-nature cannot be established by absolute proof;
And ordinary sensory perception cannot prove it:
It is proven by inferential logic
And by the direct insight of the noble ones.In the tantras of the mantrayana, such as the Guhyagarbha Tantra, the path of
liberation and omniscience is taught by means of the four kinds of appearances:
appearances in the ground of natural perfection, impure delusory appearances,
appearances while traveling the path, and ultimate appearance as the fruit.
Appearances in the ground of natural perfection as immaculate, undefiled
illusion show that primal awareness abides in the mindstream of all sentient
beings like oil suffusing a sesame seed.
Impure delusory appearances arise out of the ground of being, unrecognized as
primal awareness. This absence of recognition is called “inborn or innate
ignorance.” When conceptual thought becomes increasingly gross and rough and
we misconceive our own envisionment, that ignorance is called “the ignorance of
imputation.” Through innate ignorance, the primal awareness of our self-
envisioned appearances is not understood, and thus we become attached to the
name and form of our personality, which is composed of the five aggregates.
Through attachment to a self, desire for beauty and hostility to ugliness arise, and
thoughts of desire and hatred are generated, like the gathering of black clouds.
Since we do not understand the nature of the objective field just as it is, we
discriminate between enemies and friends, good and bad, right and wrong, and
between what is to be cultivated and rejected, and through such biased
preferential labeling, we wander continuously in samsara. Grasping at objects
where there is nothing, clinging to illusions, holding unity as a multiplicity, and
taking variety as a singularity evince the beginning of impure delusory
appearances, like the credits at the beginning of a movie.
When appearances are taken as the path or the process, from objective form to
the buddha’s omniscience, they have no foundation or inherent existence, and our
envisionment of them as empty form is nothing but magical illusion.
Envisionment is explained as either pure or impure according to its authentic or
inauthentic nature, as either nondelusive or delusive, as primal awareness or
mind, as buddha or as sentient being. In the vision of the noble ones’ primal
awareness, the nature of being and appearance coincide in the great purity of
relativity and absolute sameness, which is the inseparable reality of purity and
sameness and other similar formulae expressing the unity of being and
appearance. Many means of attaining liberation and buddha are taught, but we
must have certainty in the view of the inseparable reality of purity and sameness.
Here, without depending upon the relative path of illusory training in mudra,
mantra, samadhi, and so on, there is no way to attain the level of ultimate nirvana.
This is the path of the yogin.