liberation, but entirely due to their extreme confusion about what to adopt and discard, they will not reach the excellent state of nirvana It is like the following analogy: Without taking the medicine a patient will not be cured of his illness Similarly, even if one suppresses manifest disturbing emotions to some extent, one will not gain liberation from cyclic existence except by employing the antidote which completely eradicates them Question: If one is to strive for liberation which ends cyclic existence, advice only about meditation on suchness would be appropriate Why did the Teacher also give advice on giving and ethics? Answer: There is no fault in this One must lead others gradually, distinguishing between those of least, intermediate and best ability Advice about giving is for those who at first are capable only of generosity but cannot give up killing and so forth Thus advice on giving is directed to those of least ability who, for the time being, are not ready to practise ethics and meditation Those of intermediate ability already practising generosity are taught about ethics, since they are ready to take birth as gods or humans Those with the best ability are principally instructed in meditation on suchness, the means to pacify cyclic existence Thus one should always endeavor to the best and think, "Why shouldn't I attain liberation?" It is like the following analogy: According to their ages, one of a king's three sons is taught to recite the alphabet, the second to recite a treatise on grammar and the third a treatise on the use of weapons This is what it means to be knowledgeable about the stages by which trainees are led, since one person must be taught everything gradually If reality is explained to someone as yet unready for such an explanation, that person will deny actions and agents, thinking there is no difference between virtue and ill deeds, and will go to bad rebirths Initially, therefore, they should be taught about virtuous and nonvirtuous actions and about cause and effect since that is easy to understand As it is the proper time, they should thus be prevented from engaging in demeritorious misdeeds Next the coarse self should be repudiated by refuting the referent object of twenty views of the transitory collection14 by means of a five-fold analysis of the aggregates.15 Later, when the mindstream has become receptive, selflessness of persons is taught, and by showing that even selflessness does not exist truly, all views conceiving extremes are prevented Whoever knows these stages of teaching is wise regarding the sequence in which trainees are led It is like a skilled physician who prescribes a bland or oily diet to specific patients Question: By what path is liberation attained? Answer: By understanding that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence Qualm: Since there are limitless things, their realities are also limitless Who could know them all? Moreover, it is said that one cannot attain liberation while there is a single phenomenon one does not know and has not abandoned Answer: There is no fault Whoever sees one thing's fundamental mode of existence which is its emptiness of inherent existence is said to see the reality of all things The King of Meditative Stabilizations says: The Meditative Stabilization of Gaganaganja says: It is like the following analogy: By drinking one drop of sea-water you know the rest is salty "That which is the emptiness of one thing is the emptiness of all" means this very emptiness of true existence is the fundamental mode of existence of all phenomena It does not appear in different ways as blue and yellow However, one should not assert in relation to an inferential cognition that the awareness cognizing the pot's emptiness of true existence cognizes the woollen cloth's emptiness of true existence."' It is like the space in different receptacles Question: If everything is to be given up because of being empty, why does sutra say that one should show respect and create merit? Answer: There is no contradiction To those who fear bad rebirths and want a high rebirth, and who are incapable of meditating on subtle production, disintegration and so forth, Tathagatas speak of attachment to practices like giving and leave aside the understanding of suchness If such an aspiration for merely a high rebirth is disparaged in those who seek liberation, what need is there to mention attachment to wrongdoing? It says, "If all practices must be abandoned in the sphere of nirvana, how much more so malpractices!" It is like the following analogy: When the advent of a universal monarch called Safikha was being predicted, a monk prayed to be that monarch, for which the Teacher criticized him In Varanasi the Supramundane Victor Sakyamuni predicted to the Bodhisattva Ajita: "In the future you will be the Tathagata Foe Destroyer, the fully enlightened Buddha Maitreya At that time there will be a universal monarch called Sarnkha In this very city, while you are alive and when you die, he will make great offerings and will die as a Foe Destroyer." In that gathering there was a monk called Ajita who prayed, "How wonderful if I could be that universal monarch Safikha and rule the four continents." The Supramundane Victor criticized him, saying, "You became ordained to stop suffering Having become ordained you are foolish to seek this suffering." Having said this the Supramundane Victor added, "I not praise the actualization of even a moment's cyclic existence If you ask why, monks, it is because the actualization of worldly existence is suffering For instance if a small lump of excrement smells foul, how much more so a large one!"19 Assertion: If all suffering is stopped by understanding emptiness, it would be appropriate to teach only suchness Answer: That is not so It depends upon differences in receptivity If emptiness is explained to those who are not receptive, it will cause misfortune: either they will reject emptiness, or, misunderstanding emptiness to mean that everything is nonexistent, they will go to bad transmigrations Therefore those with compassion who want the merit of caring for others should never speak about emptiness without first examining the recipient Doesn't even an appetizing and potent medicinal compound turn to poison when given to the wrong patient? It is like giving someone who has not been poisoned an antidote to poison and thereby killing them Matrceta says: One must examine the recipient At the outset one should teach in accordance with how ordinary people accept that things exist Just as a barbarian cannot be guided in a foreign language but must be taught in his own, teaching initially should be in keeping with conventionally accepted things like generosity Ordinary people cannot be guided to an understanding of ultimate truth unless they understand the ordinary, namely the explanation of how conventional things exist [Candrakirti's] Supplement says: One should teach ultimate truth based on an acceptance of conventional existence in one's own system It is like the following analogy: One cannot make a child understand in a foreign language As a means of guiding the world, to eliminate views of non-existence, the Teacher told trainees that everything exists, and to elimi nate conceptions of true existence, he taught that there is no true existence In relation to conventional awareness and analytical awareness he taught existence and nonexistence21 and to eliminate the two extreme views of existence and nonexistence, he taught that both things and non-things" are not truly existent Surely these are simply medicines to remove all views influenced by the sickness of wrong thinking Therefore everything the Teacher said is a means to attain nirvana, taking into consideration individual trainees It is like the following analogy: There were three brothers of whom one became ordained, the second became a harmful spirit with supernatural powers, and the third a hungry ghost The meaning of the analogy is as in Candrakirti's commentary These two went to their brother the monk, who explained the benefits of giving to the harmful spirit, so that he would know what causes prosperity He also taught him about the faults of unethical conduct Having given the hungry ghost a drink to relieve his fiery torment, he told him about the faults of miserliness, to make him understand his suffering.2' Showing how things are free from the extremes of existence and non-existence by teaching that they exist, not exist and so forth is teaching on the ultimate Correctly perceiving the ultimate with supramundane wisdom leads to the attainment of the supreme state of liberation Perceiving it to some extent with the mundane wisdom arising from meditation or from hearing and thinking leads to good rebirths Thus the wise constantly expand their intelligence to think about the inner nature, emptiness It is like the analogy of a thief in the king's palace who was solicited by an immoral woman A thief kept visiting a temple where some monks said, "Please accept a gift from us." When he asked what kind of gift, they answered that it was a religious one: the precepts of basic training However, he said that he could not abstain from killing, stealing, lying or drinking liquor but would give up sexual misconduct So, promising to give that up, he took one precept At night he crept into the king's palace to steal, and there an immoral woman solic ited him but ... giving someone who has not been poisoned an antidote to poison and thereby killing them Matrceta says: One must examine the recipient At the outset one should teach in accordance with how ordinary... one became ordained, the second became a harmful spirit with supernatural powers, and the third a hungry ghost The meaning of the analogy is as in Candrakirti's commentary These two went to their... misfortune: either they will reject emptiness, or, misunderstanding emptiness to mean that everything is nonexistent, they will go to bad transmigrations Therefore those with compassion who want the merit