The Tenth Practice of Virtue - Absolute Reality - Jnana Paramita
10. The Practice that is Absolute Reality (Spiritual Wisdom)
The Flower Garland (Avatamsaka) Sutra says:
Children of the Buddha - What is the Bodhisattva Mahasattva’s practice of absolute reality?
These Bodhisattvas realize the highest significance of speech. They are able to practice in accordance with what they teach and they are able to teach in accordance with what they practice. These Bodhisattvas study the absolutely real speech of the Buddhas of the past, present and future, enter into their lineage, and share their good spiritual roots and non-dual speech. With their training being in accordance with that of The Ones That Has Come, they will realize the ten powers of spiritual wisdom:
- The wisdom of knowing right from wrong
- The wisdom of knowing the karmas and retributions of the past, present and future
- The wisdom of distinguishing sharp and dull spiritual capacities
- The wisdom of distinguishing the different spiritual realms
- The wisdom of distinguishing the different kinds of understanding
- The wisdom of knowing where all paths lead
- The wisdom of knowing all meditations, emancipations and Samadhis, and whether they are tainted or pure
- The wisdom of knowing of past lives without hesitation
- The wisdom of having the divine eye
- The wisdom of ending all afflictions (Asravas)
And yet they do not abandon the practices of the Bodhisattvas because they desire to instruct all living beings and make them completely pure.
These Bodhisattvas also bear this highest determination:
- If I attain the supreme universal enlightenment but have not yet made all living beings abide in the supreme path of liberated understanding, I will have violated my original vow. This would not be right, and so I must first make all living beings attain the supreme Bodhi and the Nirvana that is without a trace, and only then attain enlightenment. Why is this so? Living beings have not asked me to inspire the mind. I have acted on my own as an unsolicited friend of living beings, desiring to first make them full of good spiritual roots and make them attain the wisdom of all. I am the best qualified to do this because I have no attachments to the world and because I abide in the supreme stage of self-control. I am free of blinds because I understand that living beings are boundless. I am accomplished because I have realized my original vows. I am spiritually transformed because I am adorned with the merits and virtues of the Bodhisattvas. I am reliable because I have been accepted by the Buddhas of the past, present and future.
Because these Bodhisattva Mahasattvas have not abandoned their original vows they have attained entry into the supreme adornment of wisdom and insight. They have benefited living beings and made them fulfilled. They have completely accomplished their original vows in all things. They have mastered wisdom and insight and made living beings everywhere become pure.
- In thought after thought they travel everywhere throughout the ten directions of the world.
- In thought after thought they visit the inexpressibly countless lands of the Buddhas that are everywhere.
- In thought after thought they see all of the inexpressibly countless Buddhas as well as the adornments of their Pure Lands, revealing and manifesting the mastery of the spiritual power of The One That Come that is everywhere in the empty space of the spiritual realm.
These Bodhisattvas manifest limitless lives (incarnations), entering into the worlds without dependence upon anything. In their lives they manifest all of the lands, all the living beings, all things spiritual and all of the Buddhas. These Bodhisattvas recognize that living beings have various kinds of thoughts, desires, understandings, karmas & retributions and good spiritual capacities. Adapting to these they manifest their lives and straighten them out and subdue them. They observe that the Bodhisattvas are like apparitions, all things spiritual are like mirages, the Buddhas that appear in the world are like reflections, and all the worlds are like dreams they attain the inexhaustible treasury of incarnations in words and meanings. Mastering proper mindfulness, with resolute concentration they understand all things spiritual. With the highest wisdom they enter into all Samadhis and the absolutely true spiritual aspect of reality, abiding in the single nature that is without duality.
Because living beings everywhere are attached to duality, the Bodhisattva Mahasattvas peacefully abide in the greatness of compassion and cultivate the practice of serene extinction like this. They attain the ten spiritual powers and enter into the spiritual realm of Indra’s net. Attaining the liberated understanding of The One That Has Come without hesitation, they are the valiant heroes of humanity with the roar of the Great Lion. Attaining fearlessness, they are able to turn the pure Wheel of the Dharma without hesitation. Attaining wisdom and liberated understanding, they thoroughly understand all the objects of the world. Transcending the whirlpool of Life & Death, they enter into the ocean of wisdom and insight. For all living beings they guard and embrace the True Dharma of the Buddhas of the past, present and future, and they reach to the fundamental source of the true spiritual aspect of reality in the ocean that is spiritual enlightenment (the Buddha Dharma).
When the Bodhisattvas have abided in this practice of absolute reality, all the gods, people, devils, Sramaners (ascetics), Brahmans (priests), Gandharvas, Asuras and others of the world who are intimately close to them will be made to open up and awaken, rejoice and become pure.
This is called the tenth practice of the Bodhisattva Mahasattvas, that which is absolute reality.
