..续本文上一页who wish to share the teachings, while others think the teachings are not important and discard them heedlessly. However, the supreme nirmanakaya continuously teaches without hesitation, without reservations. The uninterrupted and spontaneous activities and teachings of the nirmanakaya never end or stop.

　　Three impermanences

　　There are three impermanences:

　　Mentally fabricated emptiness is impermanent.

　　The mind of moving thoughts is impermanent.

　　The composite six consciousnesses are impermanent.

　　Mentally fabricated emptiness is not the emptiness that is the true nature of all things, the true nature of phenomena, rather mentally fabricated emptiness is an idea about emptiness that is created by the mind, so the thought of emptiness is impermanent. Restless thoughts, even beneficent aspirations, are instable and therefore delusive - they are impermanent. The six consciousnesses are impermanent, too, because they are composed of parts and therefore consist of fragments that arise, abide, and pass again.

　　.

　　The relationship between the permanences and impermanences

　　However, the three permanences are present.

　　The three impermanences are stains.

　　The three permanences are wisdom.

　　In this verse, Rangjung Dorje stated that there are the three permanences but that they are obscured by the three impermanences. The three impermanences are the obstructions and the three permanences are ultimate wisdom, which is the ground. The three permanences are present deep down within but obscured by the three impermanences. The three impermanences need to be eliminated and the three permanences need to be uncovered so that the Buddha nature is linked in words and deeds that can fully and wholly reach out to every mode of being and move those it touches with love, compassion, and joy.

　　13. Eliminating Doubts of Other Viewpoints

　　In The Tathagatagarbhashastra, His Holiness the Third Karmapa did justice to six questions pupils may still have had and wrote the following chapter in order to clarify each doubt.

　　Is the Buddha nature a „self“

　　This is not the same as the Tirthika “self”

　　Because that is a mental fabrication and (Buddha nature) is not.

　　In the previous verses, Rangjung Dorje explained that the Buddha nature is immaculate and possesses invaluable qualities of being. It is always present. Isn”t this the “self” that Tirthikas emulate when speaking about atman

　　 No, there is a big difference between the Buddha nature and atman. While both the atman and Buddha nature are described as permanent and as possessing splendorous qualities of clarity and brilliance, there is a different reference. In Hinduism, the self is defined in dependence upon the five skandhas. Sometimes they concentrate on the aggregate of form and call it “the self,” which is an imputation. The Buddha nature is not composed of multifarious parts that constitute a whole; rather the Buddha nature is the actual nature of things, the dharmadhatu. Although atman and the Buddha nature are respected and revered similarly in most religious traditions, the basis is quite different.

　　The Tibetan term for Tirthika is mu-stegs-pa, which preserves the etymology of “someone who has reached the other shore,” but tends to be interpreted as “one who follows a marginal spiritual path.” The Hybrid Buddhist term is in fact derived from the Jain title tirthangkara, which means “a forder” or “ford-maker,” one who has crossed over to liberation. Buddhists used the corrupted version of this title for all non-Buddhist paths in India, which in later times were primarily Jainism and Hinduism. There is in fact no word for Hinduism in the Buddhist vocabulary as it is a recent British term, which has only gained usage within India itself in the 20th century.

　　Is realization of the B…

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