Also see: Buddhahood: The End of All Emotional/Mental Afflictions and Knowledge Obscurations
Someone asked me, "How do you understand the alaya-consciousness relative to Anatta and Emptiness?
We're doing some 3rd Karmapa study on this and it seems the alaya is the key to Buddhahood. Somehow there is a change of state which transforms alaya-consciousness into mirror-like wisdom... aka perfect perception of all conditioning everywhere... no more purity or impurity.
Fascinating stuff for me, I hadn't realized this layer existed beneath even Anatta."
I replied:
The ālaya consciousness is fully transformed when not only anatta is realized, but also twofold emptiness is fully realized and actualized to the point of exhaustion of the two obscurations in completeness.
There is a relevant quote from the Lankavatara Sutra in the long ATR guide https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2022/06/the-awakening-to-reality-practice-guide.html:
"On distinguishing the difference in attainment between an Arahat or Pratyekabuddha and a Buddha, the Mahayana scripture Lankavatara Sutra states,
“…Therefore, Mahamati, the assurances given to shravakas and bodhisattvas do not differ. Mahamati, what doesn’t differ is the taste of liberation when shravakas and pratyeka-buddhas or buddhas and tathagatas get rid of the obstruction of passion, not when they get rid of the obstruction of knowledge. Mahamati, the obstruction of knowledge is purified when they see that dharmas have no self. The obstruction of passion is removed prior to this when they become accustomed to seeing that persons have no self. It is when the seventh consciousness ceases that they are liberated from the obstruction of dharmas. And it is when the habit-energy of the repository consciousness ceases that their purification is complete.”
“[To attain Buddhahood], you must free [yourself] from 2 obscurations and 4 mara.” – John Tan, 2020
According to Kyle Dixon (2021):
“According to Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna there are two obscurations that prevent us from fully knowing the nature of phenomena. The first is called the afflictive obscuration, which is the fetter of an internal subjective reference point that the self is attributed to, and the second is called the cognitive obscuration, which is everything else that stands apart from our deluded sense of self, so all objects; persons, places, things.
For some reason these obscurations can be uprooted at different times.”
Someone suggested that Buddhahood is an athletic project. Soh replied:
“Buddhahood is not an athletic project but the elimination of the twin obscurations*. Several years ago, John Tan had a series of breakthroughs and he told me he had very little knowledge obscurations left after that. (He is not claiming some sort of finality) And that is over a decade after he wrote the 7 stages, etc. So there is plenty more to unfold and anatta is just a beginning.
After anatta, it will be good to look into this compilation of post-anatta advice and the Rigpa Wiki entry on Two Obscurations.”
Two Obscurations (*Tib. སྒྲིབ་པ་གཉིས་, dribpa nyi; Wyl. sgrib pa gnyis) — emotional and cognitive obscurations.
Emotional Obscurations are defined according to their essence, cause, and function.
- Essence: They are the opposite of the six paramitas, as described in the Gyü Lama:
"Thoughts such as avarice and so on, These are the emotional obscurations."
- Cause: Grasping at a personal ego, or the “self of the individual”.
- Function: They prevent liberation from samsara.
- Essence: They are the opposite of the six paramitas, as described in the Gyü Lama:
Cognitive Obscurations are also defined according to their essence, cause, and function.
- Essence: They are thoughts that involve the three conceptual ‘spheres’ of subject, object, and action. The Gyü Lama states:
"Thoughts that involve the three spheres, These are the cognitive obscurations."
- Cause: Grasping at phenomena as truly existent, or, in other words, the “self of phenomena”.
- Function: They prevent complete enlightenment.
- Essence: They are thoughts that involve the three conceptual ‘spheres’ of subject, object, and action. The Gyü Lama states:
The cessation of the seventh consciousness occurs after the first obscuration ceases (i.e., at the arahat or eighth bhumi). Meanwhile, the cessation of the habitual tendencies pertaining to the eighth consciousness (ālaya) occurs when the two obscurations are exhausted (Buddhahood).
There is also a very old quote by John Tan from 2006:
"Yes LongChen, very very well said. What you described is very true about the experience of non-duality and no-self is really referring to the illusionary view of a subject-object split. In actuality, there is no such split and, like what you said, there are varying depths and degrees to this experience of non-duality. It will be good to find out more about the 7 factors of enlightenment and five wisdoms in Buddhism.
Sensation is just a word. However, when we name it as ‘sensation’, there are whole lots of imprints and definitions that come along with it, making it difficult to see it in its ‘raw’ form. So what is ‘sensation’ in its raw state? It is what we call Presence, our Pristine Awareness. And yes, they are all just THAT, that ‘sensation in raw’, and the purpose of why Buddha taught mindfulness becomes clear; it is to experience “all is just that”, the One Reality. This must be experienced intuitively and directly. There is no other way.
Next, we must experience more clearly its emptiness nature. Awareness is a luminous presence with emptiness as its nature. Its nature is empty in the sense that there is no way you can point to a who, a place, or a moment in time and say “here it is”. It subsides as it arises and never remains. It is symbol-less and therefore we should not rest ourselves in either form or formless. It is neither this nor that and not even an ‘IT’. Simply empty of a ‘self’! A Source that cannot be pinned down is purely an ever-manifestation of phenomena that rolls on. Its arising and ceasing are best described in the following:
- When there is this, that is.
- With the arising of this, that arises.
- When this is not, neither is that.
- With the cessation of this, that ceases.
(Dependent Origination – DO)
Do not even ask where it comes from and where it goes. To ask is to satisfy our cognitive thirst. In actuality, it is nowhere to be found, only mere arising and ceasing in raw. The profundity of DO has no depth; zoom deeply into it. Sense the entirety of the moment, the manifolds of Presence, the vividness, texture, and fabric of the raw experience. Earnestly experience the luminous and emptiness truth of our nature.
The experience of this is the awakening of the mirror-like wisdom. This is important because it is the base that prevents us from falling into lower realms. But contrary to what is commonly explained as a clear mirror reflecting phenomena—which is still dualistic—you will not be able to accept such a view. Instead, it is a wisdom that totally transforms the wrong view of phenomena as “out there or in here” to all being manifestations of our pristine awareness due to its emptiness nature. It is the experience of Dharmakaya."
- collection of old forum posts with John Tan/Thusness: https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2019/01/thusnesss-conversation-between-2004-to.html
Mr. W: "So the obscurations are just seeds within the alaya. They can be purified (transformed), but it seems that this isn't the path to Buddhahood... the 3rd karmapa says that it is impossible to purify the entire Alaya because it is endless in subtlety and the stains also reform as fast as you can purify at some point. They say only through a change of state does the entire Alaya drop away (or more accurately is seen through). I'm very curious about how this comes about... it seems that level of insight is almost impossible on our own."
Soh:
It is always through deeper and deeper wisdom, paired with shamatha/samadhi, that progress is made. As John Tan mentioned, deeper cognitive obscurations are released with further progress, but this process is always related to deeper insights.
Once you cut the root of ignorance, the branches fall apart. There is no need to deal with the branches one by one.
Tilopa said:
“Though darkness gathers for a thousand eons.
A single light dispels it all.
Likewise, one moment of sheer clarity
Dispels the ignorance, evil and confusion of a thousand eons.”