THE JO-NAN-PASbhavas ca yadi nirval)am anupadaya tat katham/
nirval)arp nanupadaya kascid bhavo hi vidyate//]NirviilJa is not an entity [9b]: (otherwise) the characteristic of ageing-death
would arise, for there is no entity without the characteristic of ageing-death. If
nirviilJa is an entity, it will be conditioned; for nowhere does a non-conditioned
entity exist. If nirviilJa is an entity, how is it that nirviilJa is independent? For
nowhere does an independent entity exist.-What is it then? The
Miidhyamikakiirikii (25.3) explains:
[ aprahll)am asampraptam anucchinnam asasvatam/
aniruddham anutpannam etan nirval)am ucyate/ /]That which is unrejected and unobtained, undestroyed and non-eternal, unabol-
ished and unproduced is called nirviilJa. Your thesis contradicts this statement.
If you object that this refers to the ran stan, your own opinion that nirviilJa is
the absolute-Meaning itself without a distinction between ran stan and gian stan
is untenable. Moreover, you must explain how the Miidhyamikakiirikiis
25.19-20 are to be understood:
[ na sarpsarasya nirval)at kirpeid asti vise~al)arnl
na nirval)asya sarpsarat kirpeid asti vise~al)arnl/
nirval)asya ca ya kotil). kotil). sarpsarasya cal
na tayor antararp kirp cit susiik~mam api vidyate/ /]Sarrzsiira is in no way different from nirviilJa, and nirviilJa is in no way different
from sarrzsiira; the limit of nirviilJa is the limit of sarrzsiira, and there is no dis-
tinction between them, however subtle.
If all the sources which have constituted erroneous discourses concerning the
system of the two Truths and the theories on the indirect and definitive meanings
of the three Cycles were to be cited in addition, there would be a superabun-
dance; and seeing that details about this are to be found elsewhere, we shall not
expatiate on them here. It has been necessary to explain this much here because
some persons who pride themselves now on being interpreters of the dharma are
embroiled in the very work of Mara inasmuch as they teach that this Jo nan pa
doctrine is similar not only to the Cittamatra but also [ 1 Oa] to the intention of the
Kalacakra and its commentary and also to the essence of the Mahamudra in the
mantra-system. The ominous talk which such an affirmation comprises is like
the shameless cry of a crow;^67 and the errors in this bad theory have therefore
been briefly revealed. But on the ears of those beings without desires who per-
ceive that the good and the bad, gold and aconite, are Equal, how can such talk
have the effect even of the sound of a herdsman's flute?
In Tibet, the land of snows, there exist many different philosophical doctrines,
and it is necessary to identify the sources belonging to the different channels and