Recent Essays/Post-53

Maitrīpa's True Reality

Maitrīpa

Maitrīpa, according to a common account of the Ultimate Continuum passed down through Tibetan lineages, is said to have rediscovered the text of the Ultimate Continuum and Distinguishing Phenomena and Their Nature. He in fact cites the Ultimate Continuum in his work. Yet, it is curious that Maitrīpa does not use the terms tathāgatagarbha, sugatagarbha, or dhatu in his writings to refer to buddha-nature. He does, however, discuss the luminous and empty nature of the mind both in the contexts of sūtra and tantra traditions.

He uses the term luminosity (འོད་གསལ་) in many of his writings, and it is this innate nature of the mind, which is empty, nondual, open, and luminous, that is the focus of his amanasikāra system. In his presentation of true reality in Ten Verses on True Reality, which succinctly captures his philosophical and experiential stance on reality, Maitrīpa points out how all phenomena are of single taste (རོ་གཅིག་) and without a point of fixation (གནས་མེད་པ་), that the entire world is free from the duality of knowledge and knowables, and that even the assumption of nonduality is itself empty and luminous. Such reality is to be realized through the instructions of a guru, and having realized such "suchness," a yogin moves in the world with eyes wide open, with no fear, like a lion, in any manner he or she chooses, and is beyond worldly concerns, often taking up what looks like crazy behaviors.

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