Path to Liberation: Selections of Tibetan Buddhism Texts by the Venerated Patrul Rinpoche (vegetarian), Part 1 of 2

Today, we cordially invite you to listen to excerpts from “An Instruction on the View of the Mahayana: Clarifying the Two Truths,” by the Venerated Master Patrul Rinpoche (vegetarian), where we learn about the perception of various aspects of reality distinctive to the different stages of spiritual progression.

“All that we perceive before we set out on the path belongs to the category of the incorrect relative. When we have reached the stage of ‘aspiring conduct’, if we can integrate some realization into our experience, it becomes the correct relative, but whenever we do not, it is the incorrect relative. Once we reach the bhūmis, all that appears to the mind is the correct relative — ‘relative’ because ‘mere appearances’ have not yet ceased, and [‘correct’] because their falsity is seen directly. These appearances continue to arise from the first bhūmi until the tenth bhūmi, since the age-old habit of perceiving things as real has not yet been abandoned, in the same way that the scent of musk will linger in a container. Eventually, at the level of Buddhahood, when these habitual tendencies have been completely eradicated, there are no dualistic perceptions whatsoever, and one remains exclusively in the ultimate sphere, beyond any conceptual elaboration.”

“Ultimately, we need to realize the indivisibility of the two truths, but claiming that the relative refers to existence, while on the absolute level things do not exist, will never qualify as the view of the Middle Way. When we realize the one genuine nature of the correct relative, the two truths will merge inseparably, beyond the conceptual extremes of existing, not existing, permanence and nothingness. As the Mother Prajñāpāramitā says: ‘The real nature of the relative is the real nature of the absolute.’

The division into the two truths is only a provisional device, based on the distinct perspectives of two states of mind, that is made in order to facilitate understanding. All the various entities which appear to a confused state of mind are labelled ‘relative’, whereas ‘absolute’ refers to a state of mind in which confusion has come to an end and in which there is not even the slightest trace of any conceptual focus, even towards non-existence itself. As it is said: ‘When the notions of real and unreal Are absent from before the mind, There is no other possibility, But to rest in total peace, beyond concepts.’”