CONSUMMA:rION Buddhahood in the Great Way: A) The universal presence of the Buddha: The analysts say that the arising of the Buddhahood depends on time and circumstances, depends on the soil, the race, the place of birth, and the duration of life 67 But although when the Buddha assumes a speciflc embodiment He is naturally born under particular circumstances, nei ther the specific form nor these particular circumstances limit or exhaust the true nature of the Buddha The Siistra says that in truth the Buddhas are present always (and everywhere).68 The true body of the Buddha is the body of limitless wisdom and unbounded compassion The Buddhas always have compassion for every body Wherever there are old-age, disease and death, wherever there are lewdness, anger and stupidity, there the Buddhas are always born and in the Great Way this truth of the universal presence of the Buddha is taught in various ways.6 If in spite of it there still prevails suffering everywhere, says the Sastra, it is because the accumulated dirt of the sinful deeds of the ignorant which they have committed � ince innumerable kalpas is too thick, too deep So people not see the true merits of the Buddha; they not see Him But does this not mean that merit and wisdom are everywhere by themselves and that the freedom of people depends on these? What has the Buddha to with it? The Siistra answers that although merit and wisdom are universal principles they come to light only through the Buddhas who are in fact their very embodiments It is thus that the awakening of people to the truth of things depends on them For in stance, although ev erybody has eyes, when the sun does not arise no one can see anything And one cannot say "I have my eyes and what have I to with the sun?"70 When one's heart is pure then does one see the Buddha; when one's heart is dirty then one is not able to see Him (u6b) The Buddha knows the time when one's faculties have matured and then !f e renders His help (I26c) B) The physical body and the dharma-body of the Buddha: The Siistra strongly remarks that the analysts exaggerate the importance of bodily features and says that there is nothing special about these to say that they 313 NAGARJUNA'S PHILOSOPHY are only of the Buddha They are found even in other great men like the emperor, although in the latter they cannot be said to be complete In the Buddha, however, they arise as the fruit of the long cultivation of the kinds of perfection, under the guiding light of the perfection of wisdom; only then these features become complete (AJE) and these are specially of the Buddha The essential point is the cultivation of the wayfaring in the light of the p erfection of wisdom The others cultivate merely the acts of charity etc devoid of the perfection of wisdom In them these features have not attained to completeness 71 The Sastra observes that in the Great Way the thirty-two bodily features are taught in regard to the path of merit; and the devoidness of features has been taught in regard to the path of wisdom In regard to the physical body (� ) these features have been taught while the devoidness of features has been taught in regard to the dharma-body (dharmakaya it ) The pbysical body of the Buddha is decked with the thirty-two features and tb eighty minor signs, whereas the dharma kaya of the Buddha consists of the ten powers (+:1J) the four elements of self-confidence (••) the four elem�ts of expertness (1!!t.W) and the eighteen extraor� elements (;f:lt� avet;Jjleadharmii�).72 To these there must be a� element of great love and compassion and the six kinds of abltijiu, M �nstituting the dharmllkaya.n The dharmakiiya is not anything subsc:3ntial; it is also conditionally originated It arises as the fruit of long cultivation in the path of wisdom and compassion; it arises from the togetherness of many factors.74 These elements that constitute the dharmakay being undeftled are truly no occasions for clinging; even these are not anything substantial; these are also condi tionally originated and impermanent In their ultimate nature they are not anything determinate; they are the indeterminate dharma, the un conditioned reality itself In that nature they enter the tathatii, dharma dhiitu, bhutako{i.76 In the world for the sake of those who take delight in seeing the beautiful physical form and through that set their minds on the path, the body of the thirty-two features is manifested This is the mundane truth, but this is ·not to deny the ultimate truth of the indeterminate dharma, nor the conditionedness of the determinate The Buddha takes CONSUMMATION on this embodiment of the thirty-two features and the eighty minor signs only for the sake of those who take delight in beholding Him in that form and this He does as an expedient to create in them an incen tive to fare on the Way Such people not feel delight in a bodily form which is not co mely "Even the delicious food placed in an unclean pot is so�ething in which people not take delight " It is like a pre cious thing tied to a stinking piece of hide.78 By mea ns of the bodily feature s the Buddha benefits the dull in mind, and by means of wisdom He benefits the sharp in mind By means of the elements that deck the mind, He opens the door to Nirv�a, while by means of the elements that deck the body He lays open the door to pleasure in the world of gods and men By means of the elements that deck the mind He enables people to enter the threefold door offreedom; by means of the elements that deck the body He pluck s out all people f rom the ways of evil (viz., from greed, anger and stupidity) By means of the elements that deck the mind He sets people free from their im pri sonment in the three realms of determinate existence 77 It is to be noted that the factors that constitute the dharmakaya of the Buddha, the elements that "deck the mind," viz., the ten powers etc are precisely the different forms of wisdom and compassion The Siistra observes that associated with the great compassion (fr*;IJ!) these are taught in the light of the universal reality, the dharma that is de voi d of birth and death.18 It further observes that all the ten powers of the Buddha are the powers of wisdom, kinds of knowledge; they are the ten different ways in which the knowledge of the true nature of things functions in Him.79 By virtue of these ten kinds of knowledge, the Buddha can move the world, assume different bodily forms, save all people and yet can exceed all these acts.80 Even all the eighteen ex t raordinary elements (���) are only the prajna i tself in different forms.81 The Sastra would say that it is a mistake to think as the analyst s headed by Katya yaniputra do, that the love and compassion of the Bu ddhas are defiled elements The Buddhas have the ability to keep free from clinging to indivi du ali ty (�.�m) and yet help all in the spirit of great compassion.82 The Siistra points out that the Great Com passion is the root of the Way of the Buddha.83 The constitutive factors 315 NAGARJUNA'S PHILOSOPHY of the dharmakaya are the limitless wisdom and the unbounded com passion; these are the different phases, different expressions of the ulti mate truth of the undivided being on the plane of mundane life It is as wisdom and compassion that paramartha regard to wayfaring 316 is relevant to vyavahara, in CHAPTER XII CONCLUSION The import of siinyatii: positive and negative: It is hoped that it is amply borne out in the present work that siinyatii as negation is a rejection not of vyavahiira nor of paramiirtha, but of one's perversions and clingings with regard to things.! The basic perversion is mistaking the unreal for the real, seizing the conditioned as unconditioned, the relative as self contained; this is the root of clinging Negation is not an end in itself; its end is the revelation of tathatii With the rejection of the falsely imagined nature, the true nature of things comes to light As the true nature of things, siinyatii is tathatii which is comprehended at different levels, mundane and ultimate The way that the Madhyamika employs to reveal the true nature of things is negative; but the truth that is thus revealed is the nature of things as they are At the level of the mundane truth the error lies in imagining the substantiality of the non-substantial the self-containedness of the relative and the truth that is revealed by rejecting this false imagination is that all things are essentially relative; the basic elements of existence are not substances, but kinds of condi tioned becoming The error in regard to the ultimate truth consists in imagining conditionedness, relativity, as itself the ultimate nature of things and the truth that is revealed by the rejection of this error is that the conditionedness of the conditioned is not ultimate, that in their ulti mate nature, the conditioned and the contingent are themselves the unconditioned reality, the Nirv1\t.la Relativity as mundane truth has its bearing not only in regard to the basic elements of existence, the con ventional entities, but also in regard to concepts and conceptual systems Siinyatii as criticism lays bare, the basic truth with regard to all con ceptual systems, their origin and their end These constitute essentially expressions of man's thirst for the real and their end is to enable one to comprehend truly and fully the import of the sense of the real in the 317 ... clingings with regard to things.! The basic perversion is mistaking the unreal for the real, seizing the conditioned as unconditioned, the relative as self contained; this is the root of clinging... revealed is the nature of things as they are At the level of the mundane truth the error lies in imagining the substantiality of the non-substantial the self-containedness of the relative and the truth... tionally originated and impermanent In their ultimate nature they are not anything determinate; they are the indeterminate dharma, the un conditioned reality itself In that nature they enter the tathatii,