Seven Points of Mind Training

Point 3 : Transformation of Bad Circumstances

14: Seeing confusion as the four kayas is unsurpassable shunyata protection.

Point Three : Seeing confusion as the four kayas is unsurpassable shunyata protection.

Commentary :

In the slogan "Seeing confusion as the four kayas / Is unsurpassable shunyata protection," the basic question is who to protect, what to protect. All sorts of other questions are involved as well, but basically we are talking about having an understanding or realization of the way we perceive things as they are.

In perception, first there will be a sense of waiting or openness. There may be uncertainty as to how to perceive things, not knowing how to make a particular situation graspable. Then we have a clear idea of how to organize things. Thirdly, we begin to make a relationship between the two. And finally we have a total experience of the whole. That makes four stages of mind or mental process. These four processes are related with the four kayas: dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya, and svabhavikakaya.

The dharmakaya nature of our relation to the world is usually uncertain, bewildered. Strategies are not yet formed, planning is not completely organized - it is just a sense of basic openness. The nirmanakaya aspect is the second stage of this process. At this point there is some kind of clarity in which we have a basic grasp of the situation generally. And in order to make a link between the uncertainty or openness and the clarity, we need sambhogakaya, which bridges the gap between the two and joins them together. So the dharmakaya and the nirmanakaya are joined together by means of the sambhogakaya. According to this particular tradition, that is the realistic way of looking at things.

Svabhavikakaya is understanding the whole thing, total panoramic experience. When we begin to flash our mind to an object, when we have a grasp of it, when we begin to realize some kind of link between the kayas - that totality is what is known as svabhavikakaya.

The svabhavikakaya is a general state of existence, and that state of mind also contains what is known as transcending birth, cessation, and dwelling. Transcending birth means that thought process does not come up. There is no such thing as the birth of a mind or the birth of a thought taking place in our state of being at all, there is just simply existing and opening. Transcending cessation means that no thoughts actually subside, unless they are replaced and overlapped by something else. And transcending dwelling means that thoughts do not dwell anywhere, although there is some kind of occasional something. So the idea of svabhavikakaya is seeing beyond the birth, subsiding, and dwelling of the thought process.

The reason that the four kayas - dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya, and svabhavikakaya - become a great protection is that we begin to realize the way our mind functions, our state of being. We realize that whatever comes up in our mind is always subject to that flow, that particular case history, that nature. Sudden pain, sudden anger, sudden aggression, sudden passion - whatever might arise always follows the same procedure, so to speak, the same process. Everything is always in accordance with the four kayas. Although we might not regard our own mind as all that transcendent and enlightened or awake, its pattern is still that of the four kaya principles. So the nature of everything is nowness. Thoughts just emerge: you cannot watch their birth, they are just there. They die, they just (Vidyadhara snaps fingers). They don't dwell, they just (Vidyadhara snaps fingers again). The whole thing is a natural process.

This slogan might seem slightly obscure, but it has to do with the absolute bodhichitta concept of understanding your mind by studying and watching yourself and by practicing shamatha and vipashyana. By practicing those disciplines, you begin to realize that the essence of your mind is empty, that the expression or manifestation of your mind is active. That realization can only come about when you are sitting on the cushion. Only on the cushion can you see that your mind has no origin. There is no place from which thoughts arise, as far as you can judge by looking at them. You also have no idea where your thoughts go. Thoughts just come and they just vanish, disappear. Furthermore, you also have no idea where your thoughts dwell - particularly when you have developed a basic sense of mindfulness and awareness.

As you continue to practice mindfulness and awareness, the seeming confusion and chaos in your mind begins to seem absurd. You begin to realize that your thoughts have no real birthplace, no origin, they just pop up as dharmakaya. They are unborn. And your thoughts don't go anywhere, they are unceasing. Therefore your mind is seen as sambhogakaya. And furthermore, no activities are really happening in your mind so the notion that your mind can dwell on anything also begins to seem absurd, because there is nothing to dwell on. Therefore, your mind is seen as nirmanakaya. Putting the whole thing together, there is no birth, no cessation, and no acting or dwelling at all - therefore, your mind is seen as svabhavikakaya. The point is not to make your mind a blank. It is just that as a result of supermindfulness and superawareness, you begin to see that nothing is actually happening - although at the same time you think that lots of things are happening.

Realizing that the confusion and the chaos in your mind have no origin, no cessation, and nowhere to dwell is the best protection. Shunyata is the best protection because it cuts the solidity of your beliefs. "I have my solid thought" or "This is my grand thought" or "My thought is so cute" or "In my thoughts I visualize a grand whatever" or "The star men came down and talked to me" or "Genghis Khan is present in my mind" or "Jesus Christ himself manifested in my mind" or " I have thought of a tremendous scheme for how to build a city, or how to write a tremendous musical comedy, or how to conquer the world" - it could be anything, from that level down to: "How am I going to earn my living after this?" or "What is the best way for me to sharpen my personality so that I will be visible in the world?" or "How I hate my problems!" All of those schemes and thoughts and ideas are empty! If you look behind their backs, it is like looking at a mask. If you look behind a mask, you see that it is hollow. There may be a few holes for the nostrils and the mouth - but if you look behind it, it doesn't look like a face anymore, it is just junk with holes in it. Realizing that is your best protection. You realize that you are no longer the greatest artist at all, that you are not any of your big ideas. You realize that you are just authoring absurd, nonexistent things. That is the best protection for cutting confusion.

This slogan is related with the idea of carrying everything onto the path at the absolute bodhichitta level. It is very tricky. There is some possibility that when you hear that if you just simply meditate on the four kayas, everything is going to be protected, you may think that your kid is going to be protected, your brothers and sisters, your property and your motorcars. But this protection is not quite at that level; it is shunyata protection, which is that you no longer have anywhere to dwell, you are suspended in shunyata. It is a very clever way of approaching the whole thing. You are not talking about egolessness here, you are trying to work out your protection. But you might find yourself being egoless and realizing that there is nothing to protect. So your protection is groundlessness. It is a very clinical approach in some sense. There can be no germs around if you have no ground on which to collect germs.

The idea of the four kayas is not particularly tantric, it is mahayanist high thinking. The kayas appear in the third turning of the wheel of the dharma in the Uttaratantra of Maitreya and in the Diamond Sutra. So this is not particularly a tantric idea. But at the same time, it is tantric in some sense. If I may say so, the idea of dealing with dons and with the protectors is highly influenced by tantra. The whole thing is based on mahayana principles, but there is an undercurrent of techniques that are borrowed from the vajrayana. So the understanding is presented from the mahayana viewpoint, but the techniques are tantric.