Jamgon Mipham > Quotes

“If the ultimate truth, O Devaputra, were to become the object of body, speech, or mind, it could not be accounted ultimate; it would be relative. On the contrary, O Devaputra, the ultimate truth transcends all expression; it is utterly unoriginate and has no cessation; it is utterly beyond signifier and signified, known and knower. Inasmuch as it transcends even the object of primordial wisdom, which is omniscient and altogether supreme, it is the ultimate truth itself.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Now in the snowy land of Tibet, the great and venerable lord Tsongkhapa was unrivaled in his activities for the sake of the Buddha’s teaching. And with regard to his writings, which are clear and excellently composed, I do indeed feel the greatest respect and gratitude. Nevertheless, there are still some differences between his position and the view of the supreme and holy masters of the earlier tradition; and it is the responsibility of those who uphold that same tradition to treasure its teachings, establishing them by scripture and reasoning.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“If six particles are joined to one, This partless one has gained six parts. If these six particles all coincide, Then even heaps become a single particle. 87 All form, therefore, is like a dream, And who will be attached to it, who thus investigates? The body, in this way, has no existence; What, therefore, is male and what is female?”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“And so, once the perfect meaning (of no-self) is established by reasoning, it is through growing used to this that one comes to see it directly. Moreover, it is affirmed that it is through bringing this familiarization to perfection that the contrary position, the false imputation (of “I”), is arrested from its very foundation. We should be quite certain that this is how one trains on the perfect path.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Therefore, all phenomena have from the beginning subsisted “nondually” in the state of ineffable suchness,166 and it is owing to the power of delusion that they are not realized in this way. Once this failure is removed through familiarization with the path, the nature of phenomena will be directly seen. This is how the matter should be understood.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“To abide in that primal wisdom, wherein all concepts have subsided, is the Great Madhyamaka, the Great Middle Way, free from all assertion.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“On the basis of correct reasoning, beginners must achieve certainty that phenomena are without intrinsic being, and that “absence of real existence” and “dependent arising” are actually the same thing. It is of the highest importance simply to generate an extraordinary conviction that appearance and emptiness are inseparably united—just as with the moon reflected on the water. By relying on this and growing used to it, you will gain an understanding that will indeed correspond to the fundamental mode of being of things. Be that as it may, whatever is apprehended conceptually cannot go beyond the figurative ultimate. You should never say that this and this alone constitutes the meaning of the prajñāpāramitā and that there is no higher ultimate than this. If you do this, you will be taking as definitive what is but a semblance of prajñāpāramitā, the mere object of an ordinary consciousness. The result will be that you will not enter that wisdom that is utterly nonconceptual and is the authentic meaning of prajñāpāramitā, and you will be turning your back on the unmistaken way of penetrating it, namely, an uncontrived resting meditation in which nothing is removed and nothing is added. As long as you fail to relinquish your attachment to the supremacy of your view, actual primordial wisdom beyond all conceptual constructs will not take birth in your mind-stream.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Generally, if one concludes that there is no liberation simply through the path of realizing impermanence and the rest of the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths, one is in contradiction with the sutra that says, “To understand the four noble truths and take them as one’s view: this is the chief protection,” as well as with countless other scriptural passages. One is also in contradiction with the method of constructing logical arguments as described in the “Authority Chapter” and elsewhere.59 This being so, if one denigrates other tenet systems, saying that they do not show the path to liberation (claiming that this is found by the Prāsaṅgikas alone), one is denigrating the path of the noble beings of the three times, and therefore one cannot but commit a root downfall of the Bodhisattva vow and so on.60 Therefore there is indeed liberation through the path of the four truths, which completely realizes the subtle no-self of the person.61 On the other hand, it is said that the proud and pretentious upholders (mngon pa’i nga rgyal can) of the Shrāvaka tenet systems,62 who have no understanding that the dependently imputed self is emptiness, are not liberated by the path of realizing the sixteen aspects of the four truths, which amounts, in their case, chiefly to an understanding of the coarse no-self.63 It is important to distinguish these two cases.64”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“The ultimate is of two kinds: the figurative ultimate (rnam grangs pa) and the nonfigurative (rnam grangs min pa). The first is entirely an object of the (ordinary) mind. It is simply “emptiness of true existence” as a conceptual distinguisher (ldog pa) and is a specification made by the mind (blo’i bye brag); it is no more than an object of the conceptual intellect. It is not the actual, authentic ultimate in itself and yet, because it is the door to the realization of this same ultimate, it is referred to in the texts as the “concordant ultimate” or the “figurative ultimate.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Perhaps one could say that the figurative ultimate is the ultimate that can be talked about. It is moreover only in terms of the figurative ultimate that statements concerning the ultimate—as when one says, for instance, that phenomena are not produced, or that emptiness and dependent arising are synonymous—are made.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Well then, one might ask, what is the point of meditating, telling oneself that phenomena do not exist, given that both their existence and their nonexistence are equally false and unreal? The Madhyamikas reply that it is our clinging to the inherent existence of phenomena, a habit acquired from time without beginning, that, for the moment, binds us in samsara. The antidote to this is quite simply to acquire the habit of considering that phenomena are without intrinsic being. However, both their existence and their nonexistence are equally unreal.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“there is no difference between passing beyond suffering and not passing beyond it. For where nothing is bound, nothing is liberated.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Two sticks that when rubbed together produce a fire are themselves consumed by the blaze. Just so, the dense forest of all conceptual bearings, which posit phenomena as existent and nonexistent, will be totally consumed by the fires of the wisdom of ascertaining that all phenomena are without true existence.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Relative and ultimate, These the two truths are declared to be. The ultimate is not the object of the mind. The mind is said to be the relative.2 It is said that all the phenomena of both samsara and nirvana subsist in the manner of two truths: the relative truth, which is the mere appearance of things in all their multiplicity, and the ultimate truth, which is the true status of these same things, namely, emptiness.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, To say that things exist means grasping at their permanence. To say they don’t exist implies the notion of annihilation. Thus the wise should not remain In “this exists” or “this does not exist.”117”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“When this is demonstrated clearly by reasoned argument, it cannot be logically contradicted by the advocates of real existence who do, nevertheless, deny it. This being the case, one will understand that whereas the interrelation of agent and action, and the causal process itself, are utterly plausible in terms of emptiness, they are unintelligible in terms of truly existing entities.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“the purpose of the systematic analysis of the tetralemma is to show that the true status of phenomena is not to be found in any of these four ontological extremes. Every possible position that the mind can take in its bid to understand the status of existent things is destroyed by systematic analysis. Even though phenomena constantly and inescapably appear to us, when they are examined as to their actual nature, it is discovered that their status is logically inexplicable. Whatever that status may be—and we cannot ignore the fact that things continue undeniably to appear—it is something that the mind is powerless either to conceive of or express. Moreover, the arrival at such an understanding is not an ordinary discovery. It in no way resembles the finding of some hitherto unknown object in ordinary experience. Passing through the different stages of analysis associated with each of the four extremes, the ordinary mind—the mind of everyday experience—is itself brought to the limit of its powers of intellection, which must then be transcended. At that point, it is said, the mind becomes completely still, resting in a state that is completely free of conceptual elaboration (spros bral). It is a state that Chandrakīrti describes as a condition of utter silence. Even though, on the basis of a common experience of consciousness and knowing, this state is beyond the power of ordinary beings to imagine, the freedom from conceptual elaboration—so it is said—is very far from being a state of unconsciousness.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Now it could be argued that if all phenomena are unreal and illusory, like mirages, why should one train on the path, practicing generosity and so on—like tiring oneself trying to buy an illusory horse? The answer is that it is for the end result or rather out of necessity that one simply enters the path without subjecting it to analysis and investigation. But what is this necessity? The fact is that the appearances of samsara and nirvana, illusion-like as they are, are inescapable owing to the power of interdependent origination. And until dualistic, subject–object fixation is dissipated in the expanse of suchness, these same appearances will continue to affect living beings without interruption, helping or harming them as the case may be. It is as a means to remove the suffering of ourselves and others, and in order to find benefit and happiness, that we persevere—not because we believe in the real existence of the path and its result. It is like emanating a phantom army in order to deliver people from their [phantom] enemies, or like trying to wake someone who is suffering in a nightmare.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Since both positions are essentially in agreement, it goes without saying that for both traditions, there is, on the conventional level, a mind that realizes the ultimate. This mind, according to both traditions, has moreover the specific feature of being nondual. This being so, if the mind that directly realizes the ultimate were to be assessed in terms of its own mode of being, then—given that [at that level] there is neither an appearing aspect of the object nor an aspect of the mind related to it—it is evident how difficult it is to envisage, in conventional terms, a mind in which all mental elaboration has been stilled.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“All the arguments that refute the self-knowing mind—just like the arguments that refute the aggregates and so on—are refutations on the ultimate level. It is important to understand that they are not at all refutations on the level of the conventional truth. It is said that in the present (Prāsaṅgika) Madhyamaka tradition, the self-knowing mind and also the alaya are not accepted even on the conventional level. The fact is, however, that on the conventional level, they are neither asserted nor denied. They are refuted only on the ultimate level.29”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Nevertheless, given the various divergent positions that may be adopted, points that differ from others incidentally arise as one speaks about one’s own tradition. But however may be the assertions of the wise and accomplished masters of other schools, I have cultivated the attitude of thinking that they were made according to need and were meaningful for the training of their disciples.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Those who think in terms of an intrinsic being and of otherness, Who hold the view that things exist or don’t exist, Have failed to understood the nature of reality That the Buddha has set forth.43”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“For example, ordinary worldly people are convinced that phenomena are permanent and unitary. They are refuted by the Vaibhāṣikas and Sautrāntikas with their view of indivisible atoms and instants of consciousness. Subsequently, the theory of really existing partless particles is refuted by the Chittamatrins by means of the argument that disproves the belief that cognitions arise in the image of the sources that produce them (skyes la ’dra ba ’gog pa’i rigs pa). Finally, the Cittamātra belief in the true existence of the mind is refuted and demolished by Madhyamaka reasoning such as the argument of “neither one nor many.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Madhyamikas have not, in fact, elaborated any system of tenets based on the true existence of a specifically locatable object called “emptiness,” regarded as something established by valid cognition. The reason for this is that, without referring to, or basing oneself on, a pot or some other actual object capable of being examined, it is not possible to conceive, in isolation, of a “nonthing” or a “nonexistent thing,” a “nonpot” or a “nonexistent pot.” For this reason, the empty pot, in the sense of the nonexistent pot, is a figurative, or lesser form of, emptiness. It is the aspect of the clearing away or eliminating what is “other,” the existent thing.114 Therefore, the Madhyamikas say that because things are deceptive or unreal in themselves, their nonexistence is also clearly and certainly unreal as well.115”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“On the other hand, for those who have no clinging to the true existence of things (even though they appear), relative phenomena do not appear as truly existent. This may be understood from Chandrakīrti, when he says: And thus contrived, phenomena are “all-concealing.”93 Moreover, it is said in the Śunyatāsaptati:94 The things arising from both causes and conditions Are considered to be real, And this is ignorance, our Teacher said. From this the twelve links have arisen. Well, then, one might ask, do not such texts manifestly show that clinging to true existence is the root of samsara? As”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“When one assesses appearances with words and concepts, one may for instance say that phenomena exist or do not exist [according to their characteristics], [or] that phenomena are or are not the mind. But however one may assert them, they do not exist in that way on the ultimate level.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Moreover, whatever the object of elimination may be, it would not be feasible to eliminate its innate aspect without having first eliminated its imputed aspect. And within the innate aspect of what is to be abandoned, it is the obscurations, together with their seeds, that are eliminated, proceeding from the gross to the subtle, so that, by the end of this process, the extremely subtle habitual tendencies, which are like the trace of oil and the perfume of flowers, are exhausted and abandoned. And similarly, until manifest clinging to real existence, together with its seeds, has been eliminated, the habitual tendency to cling to real existence cannot be eliminated. This is all quite true. However, to say that until one is on the verge of eliminating these habitual tendencies, the cognitive obscurations can in no way be removed is not tenable—as I briefly explained above.136 And even though there is a lot that one might say on this topic, I shall not elaborate further.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Rāhula’s Praise to the Mother says: No name, no thought, no explanation is there for the Wisdom that has Gone Beyond; Unceasing and unborn, the very character of open space. It is the sphere of self-cognizing wisdom. To this, the mother of all Buddhas past, present, and to come, I bow.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“On the other hand, to say, with regard to their ultimate condition, that phenomena exist relatively but do not exist ultimately—in other words, to separate the two characteristics of existence and nonexistence each on its own side—is incorrect.”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva

“Whatever the case may be, all the cravings whereby karma is accumulated in the mind-stream of a single individual are elicited by a single innate ego-clinging and have the same object of focus and attitude. They are engaged in by just thinking “I will act to please myself.” They are not engaged in on the basis of the thought “I will act to please my self”—that is, a self understood in terms of qualifications like “permanent, independent” and so on. It is as it is said: And we may see that beings born as beasts for many ages Never apprehend a self unborn and permanent. And yet they clearly have a sense of “I.”82”
― Jamgon Mipham, The Wisdom Chapter: Jamgön Mipham's Commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva