THE BASIS OF PURIFICATION

To provide a mere kernel of the basic principles for beginners, the basis of purification—as it is commonly taught in sutra and mantra—is the reality of suchness, or the essence of the bliss-gone ones.

The nature or definition of suchness is resolved in the Victorious One’s middle wheel of teachings in terms of the empty essence, the natural state endowed with the three liberations. In the final wheel of teachings suchness is expressed in terms of the manifest aspect of

luminous wakefulness indivisible from the undefiled enlightened attributes. In mantra, however, suchness is described as vajra mind, which is the unity of these two. This refers to the intrinsic wakefulness beyond expression that is the innate luminosity of one’s own mind.

Moreover, the basis of purification can also be described as the ultimate evam, emptiness with all supreme qualities, the thoroughly immutable great bliss,

indivisible unified wakefulness, the all-pervasive identity, the essence that is beyond destruction and separation, and the unconditioned nature. Everything that manifests arises from this basis.

This includes the impure delusion we initially experience as a sentient being, our mixed pure and impure experiences while a practitioner on the path, and also the entirely pure experience of enlightened bodies and wisdoms at the fruition of buddhahood.

It is said that no matter how things temporarily appear, in their true and ultimate condition they remain primordially as the infinitely pure circle of deities. This is what is seen by the eyes of a buddha whose obscurations have been purified, similar to how a pair of healthy eyes perceives the white color of a conch.

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[[Category:Rituals]