Resolution of doubts on the realm of non-abiding nirvāṇa (Chapter Eight)

CMP 8.1

They call the coarse [level] that which consists of sound; the subtle, likewise, that which consists of mind; that which is devoid of mind is the supreme state of the yogins. Thus [it is said].

CMP 8.2

That reality is to be experienced for oneself; it cannot be told to another. It is to be reached through devotion and cultivation, and cannot be reached otherwise.

CMP 8.3

Having known reality, then having made devotion day and night—in that supreme nirvāṇa, the peaceful, unsurpassed state—

CMP 8.4

—then, by the power of that devotion, fashioned by the strength of cultivation, there arises in him a certain supreme form, born of bliss.

CMP 8.5

Arisen all at once ("dhag!") into manifest shape, blazing forth yet [also] taking the form of dissolution, illuminating all this—earth, atmosphere, and heaven—together with [all] moving and unmoving things.

CMP 8.6

By the force and power of cultivation, [it is] the blissful [state] consisting of wisdom and means, wholly freed from all afflictions, adorned with all [auspicious] marks.

CMP 8.7

Arisen from the knowledge of emptiness, free of duality, supremely blissful, endowed with the best of all aspects, free of grasped and grasper.

CMP 8.8

Cognition is illusion-like, pure, limpid, naturally stainless, transcending sound, smell, and taste, and likewise free of touch.

CMP 8.9

It is seen, supremely, only in samādhi, with the eye of knowledge—divine, like a shadow or an illusion, possessed of a divine form.

CMP 8.10

With its garland of surging waves of knowledge, [taking] manifold, various bodily forms—those who cultivate reality attain a body resembling the rainbow (indrāyudha (rainbow; the illusory rainbow-body of the adept)).

CMP 8.11

By the power of the yoga of cultivation and by the keeping of the pledges, such a form is attained—one that is not to be uttered even by the Conquerors.

CMP 8.12

Where there is no body, speech, or mind—the supreme, all-pervading place—there, by force of the [oral] transmission, one's own form is contemplated into being.

CMP 8.13

Oh, how marvelous! Oh, the peaceful, the supra-sensory! Oh, the supremely profound buddhahood, the highest state! Thus [it is said].

CMP 8.14

Oh the Vajra! Oh the Vajra! Oh the teaching of the Vajra! Where there is no body, speech, or mind, there [the divine] form is contemplated into being. Thus [it is said].

CMP 8.15

It is also said by the venerable Bhaṭṭāraka-pāda: "There is no hollowness in your body, nor flesh, bone, or blood; you have shown forth a body like a rainbow in the sky."

CMP 8.16

There is no disease, no impurity in [your] body, and no arising of hunger or thirst; [yet] by you, for the sake of conforming to the world, worldly activity has been displayed. Thus [it is said].

CMP 8.17

In the Sarvakalpasamuccaya too he says:

CMP 8.18

Having grasped the pure heart [-essence], [there is] the contemplation of the vajra-body; firm, substantial, without hollowness—he has attained the vajra-body. Thus [it is said].

CMP 8.19

(In Apabhraṃśa-flavored verse, addressing the goddess Prajñā:) "O you equal to space, free of dust, bearing the best of forms, bodiless, markless, daughter of wisdom; deep ocean of virtues, compassionate, peerless one—place your hand upon my head!" Thus [it is said].

CMP 8.colophon

[Here ends] the eighth chapter, the resolution of doubts about the integration [of the stages, concerning] the realm of non-abiding nirvāṇa (apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa (non-abiding nirvāṇa, the bodhisattva's non-localized liberation)). // 8 //