[Buddhism]SamdhinirmocanaSutra(Cleary)Mahayana.jbig2, Sutry
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BUDDHIST YOGA
A Comprehensive Course
Translated by
THOMAS CLEARY
SHAMBHALA
South Asia Editions
1999
Shambhala South Asia Editions
Horticultural Hall
300 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
© 1995 by Thomas Cleary
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
98765432
Printed in India
Distributed by Rupa & Co., New Delhi, India.
Library of Congress Catalogjng-in-Publication Data
Tripitaka. Sutrapitaka. Samdhinirmocanasutra. English.
Buddhist yoga: a comprehensive course/translated by Thomas Cleary.
—1st ed. p. cm. ISBN 1-56957-106-6
I. Cleary, Thomas.
BQ2092.E5C54 1995 94-46663
294.3'85—dc20
CIP
CONTENTS
Translator's Preface
vtt
1. Introduction
1
5
2. Characteristics of Ultimate Truth
3. Characteristics of Mind, Intellect,
and Consciousness
19
23
27
43
69
91
J05
4. Characteristics of All Phenomena
5. Essencelessness
6. Analyzing Yoga
7. The Transcendent Ways of the Stages
8. Deeds of the Enlightened
Notes
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
The word
yoga
has many meanings, including the ideas of
union, method, effort, and meditation. The elaborate psycho-
physical exercise routines of Hindu Yoga are familiar to West-
erners, but the subtle metaphysics and refined methods of
spiritual development characteristic of Buddhist Yoga are not
well known.
This volume presents a translation of the
Sandhinirmochana-
sutra,
"Scripture Unlocking the Mysteries," a complete classical
sourcebook of Buddhist Yoga. This is one of the main texts of
that stream of Buddhist tradition known as Vijnanavada, "The
Doctrine of Consciousness," or Yogachara, "The Practice of
Yoga."
This sutra, or scripture, provides a remarkably detailed course
in the philosophical and pragmatic bases of Buddhist Yoga. This
is a text that is meant to be read and reread many times as essen-
tial preparation by those who are thinking of undertaking medi-
tation exercises of any sort. This procedure was the classical
way, and many of the shortcomings and aberrations of modern
Western meditation cults can be traced to abandonment of this
tradition.
The
Sandhinirmochana-sutra
is divided into eight sections, in-
cluding an introduction in the classical style. As in the case of
all universalist Buddhist scriptures, the introduction to this text
is an important part of the work, making preliminary presenta-
tions of key principles and practices in a highly concentrated
setting, partly symbolic and partly literal.
vhi
Translator's Preface
The second section of the sutra, entitled "Characteristics of
Ultimate Truth," opens with a discussion of the nonduality of
all things. This is taken to mean that phenomena are in essence
neither "created" nor "uncreated," neither mundane nor su-
pernal. Concluding that the real nature of things is beyond
words, the discussion goes on to depict ultimate truth as inac-
cessible to thought and deliberation, beyond all objects, beyond
all forms, beyond all representation, beyond all controversy. For
the purposes of Buddhist Yoga, therefore, it is essential to un-
derstand that ultimate reality is not a philosophical construct.
The sutra then goes on to discuss the relationship between
ultimate truth and practices. Through an extensive course of
reason based on the logic of metaphysics and corresponding
spiritual experience, the point is established that ultimate truth
and practices are neither one and the same nor completely dif-
ferent. This is an essential insight, one that distinguishes the spe-
cial nature of Buddhist Yoga; it is based on one of the most
important reforms initiated by Gautama Buddha in the spiritual
practices of ancient yoga.
This discussion is followed by descriptions of intellectual and
spiritual conceit consequent upon failure to perceive the ulti-
mate truth pervading all things. The entire section is then closed
with the logical conclusion that all-pervasive ultimate truth is
everywhere one and has no differentiation in itself in spite of
pervading all differentiations. To see the integrity of ultimate
truth underlying the fragmented facade of ordinary experience
is one of the purposes of Buddhist Yoga.
The third section of the sutra's course outlines working de-
scriptions of mind, intellect, and consciousness. Here are found
the classical Buddhist psychological constructs of eight and nine
consciousnesses, which are used as a basis of orientation in yoga.
This brief section of the sutra concludes with a transcendental
description of mastery of these mysteries as a state of conscious-
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