འཕགས་པ་དགངས་པ་ངས་པར་འགྲལ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད 70

70

not having attained mastery over teaching the Dharma; on the tenth, not obtaining the completely perfected dharmakāya and the specific correct knowledges. Maitreya, on the Tathāgata stage, śamatha and vipaśyanā are the antidotes to the extremely subtle, the most supremely subtle obscurations of afflictive emotion and obscurations to the knowable; and through having thoroughly overcome them, one attains unattached and unimpeded jñāna and vision toward all things, and abides in the exceedingly pure dharmakāya on the ālambana of fulfilled purpose."

"Bhagavān, how should a bodhisattva cultivate śamatha and vipaśyanā so as to fully awaken to unexcelled, perfect bodhi?"

The Bhagavān replied, "Maitreya, in this regard, a bodhisattva who has attained śamatha and vipaśyanā, taking the seven modes of tathatā as a basis, mentally takes up with a concentrated mind the dharmas as they were heard and reflected upon, and inwardly brings to mind the well-considered, well-concentrated tathatā. When they bring tathatā to mind in this way, if the mind remains particularly equanimous even toward all subtle nimittas that arise, what need is there to speak of coarse ones? Maitreya, in that regard, these are subtle nimittas: the nimitta of the mind's grasping; the nimitta of experiencing; the nimitta of vijñapti; the nimitta of afflictive affliction and complete purification; internal nimittas; external nimittas; the nimitta of both; the nimitta of thinking 'I should apply this for the welfare of all sentient beings'; the nimitta of knowledge; the nimittas of tathatā, suffering, origination, cessation, and path; the nimitta of the conditioned; the nimitta of the unconditioned; the nimitta of the permanent; the nimitta of the impermanent; the nimitta of that which is of the nature of suffering and subject to change; the nimitta of that which is not