འཕགས་པ་རྡ་རྗའ་སྙང་པའ་གཟངས་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.9

intro.9

The final main section of the sūtra expounds another set of eleven dhāraṇī gates. After learning about a special gate of nonduality, we learn that one of the main gates of nonduality is the teaching that ignorance is awakening. The teaching then proceeds to elucidate how each of the successive twelve links of dependent origination (apart from the final link, which is omitted) is equated with awakening. Although the idea of nonduality only appears in this final section of the text, it is a key to understanding the overall thrust of the Buddha’s discourse. For when it is understood that all phenomena are equally empty and naturally luminous, the various conceptual constructs and oppositional categories we use to evaluate and distinguish the real from unreal, the good from the bad, the high from the low, collapse and their unfabricated source is revealed. The teaching concludes with a remarkable passage in which the Buddha explains to Mañjuśrī the bodhisattva level for which this teaching is intended: it is intended for “the level of those bodhisattvas who have not set out toward awakening, who have not produced the intention to gain awakening, who do not see buddha qualities, who do not wish to run away from desire, anger, and confusion, who do not wish to go beyond saṃsāra, who do not wish to liberate sentient beings, and who do not wish to realize the buddha qualities.” The work then concludes with a description of the many benefits that derive from bearing this dhāraṇī in mind, holding, reciting, and teaching this text and of the praises of the teaching offered by the assembled audience.