Purification of Karmic Obscurations Thread

Discuss and learn about the traditional Mahayana scriptures, without assuming that any one school ‘owns’ the only correct interpretation.
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Nilasarasvati
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Location: Trāyastriṃśa. Just kidding. What a cool sanksrit word, huh?

Purification of Karmic Obscurations Thread

Post by Nilasarasvati »

For those of you who know Khyentse Rinpoche's 84000 project and those of you who don't, I'd love to start some discussions based on the precious sutras there.
www.84000.co

The Purification of Karmic Obscurations is jawdroppingly profound and I wish I could express more about it. Please read if you haven't, and if you have:

What are some thoughts about this passage:

Then the Youthful Mañjuśrī asked the Bhagavān, “Bhagavān, how can bodhisattvas become unobscured and purified with respect to all phenomena?”

At this question the Bhagavān replied to the Youthful Mañjuśrī, “Mañjuśrī, bodhisattvas who see all phenomena as objects of desire will attain purification from karmic obscurations. Those who see all phenomena as objects of hatred will attain purification of karmic obscurations. Those who see all phenomena as objects of delusion will attain purification of karmic obscurations.

“Furthermore, Mañjuśrī, bodhisattvas who openly delight in the pleasures of the five senses without renouncing or abandoning them, [F.291b] and those who see the Buddha’s teachings as essentially desire will attain purification of karmic obscurations.

“Furthermore, Mañjuśrī, bodhisattvas who pursue enlightenment through the five obscurations, who do not pursue and attain enlightenment, and who do not have obscurations either, will attain purification of all karmic obscurations."

Page 9 of the online text

This is very hmm haw nondual Prajnaparamita stuff...I would love to hear some extrapolation or commentary of any kind on this.
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Wayfarer
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Re: Purification of Karmic Obscurations Thread

Post by Wayfarer »

I listened to the synopsis by the translator. One of the things that immediately struck me was the theme of 'sin and repentance'. The monk breaks his vows, is convinced he is doomed to hell, and then Manjusri intervenes. It is a very human story, and something I can really relate to. Also that site is just amazing, I had never encountered it before.

:namaste:
'Only practice with no gaining idea' ~ Suzuki Roshi
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Astus
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Re: Purification of Karmic Obscurations Thread

Post by Astus »

The idea is summed up in the sayings like "klesa is bodhi" (煩惱即菩提) and "samsara is nirvana" (生死即涅槃). It is to see the emptiness of all, in this cased applied to afflictive emotions. Among the four (in Vajrayana five) knowledges/wisdoms it is the knowledge of equality (samatā-jñāna).

In the Samantabhadra Contemplation Sutra the great repentance is taught:

"Because you have now read and recited the Great-vehicle sutras, the buddhas in all directions will preach the law of repentance. The bodhisattva practice is not to cut off binding and driving nor to abide in the ocean of driving. In meditating on one's mind, there is no mind one can seize, except the mind that comes from one's perverted thought. The mind presenting such a form rises from one's false imagination like the wind in the sky, which has no foothold. Such a form of the law neither appears nor disappears. What is sin? What is blessedness? As one's own mind is void of itself, sin and blessedness have no existence. In like manner all the laws are neither fixed nor going toward destruction. If one repents like this, meditating on his mind, there is no mind he can seize. The law also does not dwell in the law. All the laws are emancipation, the truth of extinction, and quiescence. Such an aspect is called the great repentance, the greatly adorned repentance, the repentance of the non-sin aspect, and the destruction of discrimination. He who practices this repentance has the purity of body and mind not fixed in the law [but free] as flowing water. Through each reflection, he will be able to see the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue and the buddhas in all directions.'"
(Threefold Lotus Sutra, p. 223)

There is also the teaching (or more like lecture) Vimalakirti gave to Upali in the 3rd chapter of the Vimalakirti Sutra regarding breaking the precepts and afflictions. From another sutra about instructing bodhisattvas:

"One should speak like this – do not give up your passion, do not fight your aversion, do not clear away your bewilderment, do not liberate yourself from your body, practise the bad things, do not hold back your views , do not be conscious of the bonds [to the worldly things], grasp for the parts of the personality, amass the spheres of sense-perception, move about among the fields of sense-perception, do not leave the stage of fools, frequent the bad, give up the good, do not think of the Buddha, do not reflect on religious teachings, do not give offerings to the congregation of monks, do not take the training upon yourself, do not seek the peacefulness of existence, do not cross over the river [of existence]. This kind of instructions one should teach and give to the bodhisattva in the beginning of his development.
Why? Because this state of the moments of existence and nothing else is their [true] state .
Foolish people explain things in accordance with moments of existence of arising and moments of existence of disappearance. But this sphere of all moments of existence distinguishes itself by being beyond thought-constructions, and understanding the essential character of all these moments of existence in this way is awakening."

(Bodhisattvacaryānirdeśa)
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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