འཕགས་པ་དགངས་པ་ངས་པར་འགྲལ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 8

8

the manifestation of conceptions through an expedient in terms of conditioned and unconditioned, the occurrence of conceptualization, and the phenomenal appearance of conditioned phenomena exist in the way magical illusions do. That which deludes the mind exists [in the way magical illusions do].⁶⁴ Thinking in that way, they do not express themselves through conventions, such as ‘This one is true but the other is false,’ on account of clinging to these appearances according to the way they see and hear things and thus strongly believing in them. However, they do express themselves through conventions in order to convey the true nature [of these appearances to others], although they do not need to further examine these appearances.

“Noble son, the noble ones are thus completely and perfectly awakened to inexpressible [reality] through their sublime gnosis and vision of this object, but in order to lead [others] to the perfect realization of this very inexpressible nature of phenomena, they label this object with the terms conditioned and unconditioned.”

At that time, the bodhisattva Gam­bhīrārtha­saṃdhi­nirmo­cana recited these verses:

“The profound, which is inaccessible to foolish beings,
Inexpressible and nondual, has been taught by the Victorious One.
Yet, fools deluded by ignorance
Take delight in mental elaborations and dwell on duality.

“Deprived of understanding, afflicted by misunderstanding,
They will be reborn as sheep or oxen.
Casting aside the words of the wise,
They will wander in saṃsāra for a great length of time.”

Chapter 2

Then the bodhisattva Dharmodgata spoke these words: “Blessed One, very long ago in ancient times, beyond as many universes as there are grains of sand in seventy-seven Ganges rivers, I was residing in the world Kīrtimat of the tathāgata Viśālakīrti. There I saw 7,700,000 non-Buddhists, together with their teachers, who had gathered in one place to consider the ultimate defining characteristic of phenomena.⁶⁵