Source and licence: Translated by Ilia Durovic. © Ilia Durovic, 2017. Partial translation, verses 1-36 (the translation in the TBI files stops at verse 36). Tibetan page numbers of the edition used are kept as in the file.
The Root of the Difficult Points of Mind and Basis-of-all
by Je Tsong kha pa (1357-1419)
translated by Ilia Durovic
1113
1. I pay obeisance with my head to the wise among the wise,
Who teach perfectly, un-mistakenly and without admixture,
Through having interiorised, as it is, the worthy Utterance and the worthy Path,
Trail travelled by the Conquerors and the Scions of the Conquerors.
2. I will explain, here, in dependence on the utterances of the Guru,
For the sake of healing my memory and
Teaching clearly mind and basis-of-all,
The extremely difficult topics of the treatises of the Vijñaptimātrins.
3. After Ārya Nāga, prophesied as upholding
The Supreme Vehicle [propounded] by the Holy Speech,
Spread the Supreme Vehicle,
Before Asaṇga, who fulfilled the prophecies, pioneered the track,
Mādhyamika only.
4. The definitions, proofs and
Refuting the assertions of the nine and the one,
One should know the basis-of-all and the afflicted mind
By the four entities [and] aspects.
5. I assert that, within the two definitions,
The definition [of] basis-of-all,
Being subdivided into supporting and supported,
Has two aspects.
6. Regarding that, the supporting basis-of-all has
Entities, sentient beings and imprints
Cognition not cognising,
Neutrality, contact and so forth
The five. By the power of the seeds,
7. I assert both the observed because of the appearance
As place, entity and body.
1114
8. As to both apprehended factors of basis-of-all,
Since they are apprehended by the five consciousnesses and
Are imputed terminologically by the sixth,
They are determined in both Realms:
9. Were this not so, a Formless one
Would not have gone beyond the discrimination of form and
It would ensue that it would be on a ground endowed with form
Since, apart from appearing as form to consciousness,
Outside, nothing exists.
10. In the Lower, as well,
Should all beings and environments
Appear to the basis-of-all of one sentient being,
The hells would appear, as well, to a god of the Form Realm,
The beings and environments of gods
Would appear, as well, to denizens of hell and
Manifold objects of the eons
Would appear to ordinary beings as well.
11. Directly: sense-organs, entities.
Indirectly, whatever can appear
As objects of it’s six collections,
Is also posited as object of the basis-of-all.
12. Objects of the six, apart from organs and entities
Do not become objects of the basis-of-all
Because the sixth is the imputing subject and
The basis-of-all is devoid of apprehending the variegated.
13. Because of being the basis infused with imprints and
Because of engaging manifestly
The virtuous [and] non-virtuous in one continuum
It is established as unstained and neutral.
14. Because [it is] neutral and not clear,
Definitely the five, contact and so forth.
Sensation is intermediate.
15. Because it is conjoined
With the Self,
Basis-of-all.
16. [It] engages the continuum uninterruptedly
Until remainderless and vajra-like.
17. Through infusing the supported,
The seed basis-of-all,
When the basis infused is
Manifestly oriented towards ceasing
A potency has been placed. The basis infused
18. Is endowed with five characteristics:
Stable, neutral, that which is infused,
Being related to the infuser and
Having become the support of one limit.
19. Outer, inner and unclear,
Both, conventional and
Ultimate object, all of these
I accept as the six aspects of seeds
20. Moreover, the three, imprints of manifest verbalisation,
Of the view of the Self and of the limbs of existence.
21. The four aspect of seeds:
The common, the uncommon,
Those with sensation and those without. The assumption of bad states,
22. Pliancy, completed behavior and
The uncompleted
Are also said to be the four.
23. From their base, imprints are, moreover,
Neither substantially one nor different.
24.Since the objects of observations of seeds exist and
The seeds of the five migrations
Would become erroneous and
The realms as well would become erroneous: [they] are not one.
25. Since on one base, two basis-of-all
There would be, they are not distinct.
26. Therefore, they are ineffably
Neither just that nor other from the base,
Because of abiding as mere imputed existents.
27. Irrespective of whether the depositor is virtuous and so forth,
The deposited imprint is neutral.
28. The assertion that [they] are fully-characterised virtue
Or non-virtue has no proof.
29.The mode of deposition of imprints is threefold.
Abiding in thusness, previously ungenerated,
I accept both of these.
30. Because of being conjoined
To all thoroughly afflicted phenomena,
Causal or resulting things,
Basis-of-all!
31. Therefore, Those who have attained Dominion and Arhats
Have no basis-of-all
Because neither depositor exists.
32. The definition of the afflicted mind is:
A matured component of the basis-of-all and
With the view of the Self, obscured but neutral
With only nine: contact, lust and so forth.
33. At the period of equipoise on cessation,
Finally: the Ones having attained Power, the Arhats.
34. Even were the apprehension of the person,
Which is the afflicted depositor, negated,
Because its mere cognitive clarity exists and
Because the potency to generate the apprehension of phenomena has not been negated,
Both defects, the absence of mental consciousness and attaining Equality,
Are abandoned at a remove.
35. The existence of a mind and consciousness basis-of-all
Different from the six consciousnesses
Should be interiorised
Through credible scripture and logic.
36. Although countless logical proofs
Are stated in the system of the treatises of the Vijñaptimātrins,
Since they are summarised into eight, that:
Appropriation, the first and clarification
Seeds, karma and physical sensation and
Equipoise and transference at death are inappropriate
I will explain these.
Notes
1. Sk. Ālayavijñāna, Tb. kun gzhi rnam shes. There is an important shift in the etymology of the Sanskrit and Tibetan terms which is quite significative. The Sanskrit prefix Ālaya, deriving from the root ā-√lī, refers to an abode or a dwelling (hence, Himālaya, the “abode of snow”). The term Ālayavijñāna, when translated directly from Sanskrit into English, could therefore be rendered as “store-consciousness (in keeping with Étienne Lamotte’s translation as “conscience-réceptacle” in his French version of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha), whereas the Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit, kun gzhi rnam shes, should be translated as ” basis-of-all consciousness”. It is worth keeping in mind that, as the Tibetan translations were official, state-funded, translations, the translation of Ālayavijñāna as kun gzhi rnam shes represents the dominant gloss of the term Ālayavijñāna among the Paṇdits working at Samye. We have chosen to translate the term in keeping with the Tibetan and not the Sanskrit etymologies, as the commentary will be given based on a Tibetan text.
2. Je Tsong kha pa’s auto-commentary on the “Root of the Difficult points of Mind and Basis of All” (yid dang kun gzhi’i dka’ gnas rgya cher ‘grel ba”, hence “AC”, 629:3 indicates that this stanza down to “pioneered the track” teaches the chronology of the arisal of the Cittamātra view.
3. In the Laṇkāvatāra Sūtra, Nāgārjuna is considered to be a 1st Ground Bodhisattva whereas in the Mahāmegha Sūtra, he is asserted to be a 7th Ground Bodhisattva. According to Geshe Yama Rinchen, while Nāgārjuna was, in reality, a 7th Ground Bodhisattva, to ordinary beings, he appeared as a 1st Ground Bodhisattva.
4. The three prophecies of the advent of Ārya Nāgārjuna in the Sūtrapitaka are:
1.In the Laṇkāvatāra Sūtra (Tibetan version):
In the South, in the land of Beda
One whose name will be Nāga
Known under the name of the “Glorious Bhikṣu”
Will destroy the biases of existence and non-existence
And after explaining my Teachings,
The peerless Mahāyāna, in the world
Will realize the Ground of Extreme Joy
And go to Sukhāvati.
2. In the Mañjuśrī Mūla-tantra:
Four hundred years after the Buddha’s Nirvāṇa, there will live a monk named Nāga, who will obtain muditabhūmi and will live six hundred years. He will acquire the Mahamayurividya and know the truth of essencelessness. He will ascend to the heaven of Sukhāvatī on his death and in due course will certainly attain Buddhahood.
3. In the Mahāmegha Sūtra:
Ānānda, this Licchavi youth called “Joy-when-seen-by-all beings”, when 400 years after my Parinirvāṇa have elapsed, will be a fully ordained monk named Nāga who will spread widely my teaching. Finally, in the world realm called the “Pure Illumination”, he will become an Arhat, an Utterly Enlightened Being named Jñānākāraprābha.
I refer the interested readers to the analysis of the relation between the Nāgārjuna of faith and the Nāgārjuna of history in my introduction to the “Bodhicittavivaraṇa”, pp. 35-43.
5. AC, p.629.4-5 states:
After the Muni had entered into equipoise in the Dharmadhātu (i.e. died), the teachings of the Mahāyāna set in Jambudvipa: only the teachings of the Hearers remained and Buddhist systems of Tenets as well comprised only the Vaibhaṣika and so forth . . .
6. The prophecy of the advent of Ārya Asaṇga is to be found in the Mañjuśrī Mūla-tantra:
The Bhikṣu called “Asaṇga”,
Learned in the meaning of the Śastras,
Will distinguish in numerous guises
The definitive and interpretable meaning of the Basket of Sūtras.
That Being, teacher of knowledge to the world,
Will become one who is endowed with the distinction of the Treatises from within.
The realisation of that knowledge
Is called the “ Messengeress of Sāla”;
By the power of her mantra,
A good mind will be generated.
For the teachings to subsist for a protracted period,
He will summarise the meaning of the Sūtras.
Upon the disintegration of his body, he will betake himself to the Land of the Gods,
Living for one hundred and fifty years.
After experiencing lasting bliss
While transmigrating among transmigrators
That Great Being will culminate
By attaining Enlightenment.
7. AC 631:5-6 – 632:1 adds:
Well then, should one enquire how the Mahāyāna was present before Asaṇga pioneered the track, [as was said in the root text] before . . . The Mādhyamikas, only, since, before Asaṇga, a commentary other than in the mode of the Mādhyamikas on the intent of the utterances of the Tathāgata, that very dependent origination, bereft of the extremes of permanence and nihilism, did not exist, the sole clear propounder of the Mahāyāna was Nāgārjuna.
8. Note the dual particle dag
9. Sk. ālambana, Tb. dmigs pa
10. The Desire and Form Realm. This stanza has given rise to numerous, particularly difficult debates.
11. The two lower Realms, the Desire Realm and the Form Realm.
12. As is made clear in the two preceding verses:
As to the apprehended factor of basis-of-all
[It is] apprehended by the five consciousnesses
The apprehended factor of the basis-of-all and that which is directly observed by the basis-of-all are synonymous.
13. Tb. bsgo gzhi
14. Tb. ‘chol ba (non-differentiative form)
15. Tb. so so
16. Tb. khong du chud par byed
17. The three and-a-half previous verses are a direct quote from Asaṇga’s Viniścayasaṃgraha (Bstan ‘gyur dpe bsdur ma, vol. 74, p. 4.5-7).