An Introduction to Tantric Buddhism c7.34

c7.34

Āryadeva in his *Citta-viśuddhi-prakaraṇa*,⁵ echoes the views of Yogācāra and Vedānta when he says that as the perception of silver in the shell is effaced only when one perceives it to be nothing but the shell, so all our ignorance vanishes after the realisation of the void (*nairātmya-darśana*); as the perception of the snake is contradicted by the perception of the rope as rope, so also all perceptions of phenomenalisation are contradicted by *śūnyatā* or adamantine knowledge (*vajra-jñāna*). The gem of mind is covered with the mud of beginningless thought-constructions : it shines forth when it is washed with the water of the knowledge of the void and the experience of universal compassion.¹