KEEZEN

The Three Principal Aspects of the Pathby Je Tsong Kha pa
I will explain as well as I canThe essential meaning of all the Conqueror's scriptures,The path praised by the excellent Conqueror children,The port for the fortunate wishing liberation.
Whoever are not attached to the pleasures of mundane existence,Whoever strive in order to make leisure and fortune worthwhile,Whoever are inclined to the path pleasing the Conqueror Buddha,Those fortunate ones should listen with a clear mind.
Without a complete thought definitely to leave cyclic existenceThere is no way to stop seeking pleasurable effects in the ocean of existence.Also, craving cyclic existence thoroughly binds the embodied.Therefore, in the beginning determination to leave cyclic existence should be sought.
Leisure and fortune are difficult to findAnd life has no duration.Through familiarity with this,Emphasis on the appearances of this life is reversed.
If you think again and againAbout deeds and their inevitable effectsAnd the sufferings of cyclic existence,The emphasis on the appearancesOf future lives will be reversed.
If, having meditated thus, you do not generate admirationEven for an instant for the prosperity of cyclic existence,And if an attitude seeking liberation arises day and night,Then the thought definitely to leave cyclic existence has been generated.
Also, if this thought definitely to leave cyclic existenceIs not conjoined with generation of a complete aspiration to highest enlightenment,It does not become a cause of the marvellous bliss of unsurpassed enlightenment.Thus, the intelligent should generate the supreme altruistic intention to become enlightened.
All ordinary beings are carried by the continuum of the four powerful currents,Are tied with the tight bonds of actions difficult to oppose,Have entered into the iron cage of apprehending self (inherent existence),Are completely beclouded with the thick darkness of ignorance,
Are born into cyclic existence limitlessly, and in their birthsAre tortured ceaselessly by the three sufferings.Thinking thus of the condition of mothers who have come to such a state,Generate the supreme altruistic intention to become enlightened.
If you do not have the wisdom realising the way things are,Even though you have developed the thought definitely to leave cyclic existenceAnd the altruistic intention, the root of cyclic existence cannot be cut.Therefore work at the means of realising dependent-arising.
Whoever, seeing the cause and effect of all phenomenaOf cyclic existence and nirvana infallible,Thoroughly destroys the mode of misapprehension of those objects [as inherently existent]Has entered on a path that is pleasing to Buddha.
As long as the two, realisation of appearances - the infallibility of dependent-arising - and the realisation of emptiness - The non-assertion [of inherent existence] - Seem to be separate, there is still no realisationOf the thought of Shakyamuni Buddha.
When [the two realisations exist] simultaneously without alternationAnd when from only seeing dependent-arising as infallible,Definite knowledge entirely destroys the mode of apprehension [of the conception of inherent existence],then the analysis of the view [of reality] is complete.
Further, the extreme of [inherent] existence is excluded [by knowledge of the nature] of appearances[existing only as nominal designations],And the extreme of [total] non-existence is excluded [by knowledge of the nature] of emptiness [as the complete absence of inherent existence and not the absence of nominal existence].
If within emptiness the appearance of cause and effect is knownYou will not be captivated by extreme views.When you have realised thus just as they areThe essentials of the three principal aspects of the path,Resort to solitude and generate the power of effort.Accomplish quickly your final aim, my child.
[extracted from Kindness Clarity and Insight, Dalai Lama XIV, 1981, Snow Lion, USA; translated by Jeffrey Hopkins, University of Virginia.]
SUMMARYThe 3 principal aspects of the path are:
the definite thought to leave cyclic existence and the abandonment of pleasure;
the cultivation of an altruistic intention (strong compassion) by viewing all beings as precious as our own mother;
the correct view of emptiness. Tsong Khapa suggests that possessing one or two of these alone is not enough - all three must be thoroughly and completely developed to create a true Buddhist path. KEY TERMS:
ALTRUISTIC INTENTION - desire to attain enlightenment in order solely to be of help to others; the Bodhisattva ideal of the Mahayana school of Buddhism.DEEDS AND THEIR EFFECTS - karma, the view that all our actions, thoughts and words attract negative or positive seeds which remain with us, acting as causes of future happiness or misery.DEFINITE KNOWLEDGE - knowledge about how things are; realisations, correct views; Buddhist wisdom, especially about the empty nature of all phenomena. DEPENDENT ARISING - objects which arise dependent upon component parts or upon other objects; ie. most things.EMPTINESS - the quality which all things possess; they are empty of inherent existence; their emptiness is the real solid and lasting nature we cannot find in anything through sustained conceptual analysis; thus things are viewed as being fundamentally empty of true existence; a view begun by Buddha, but later elucidated in detail by the Indian sage Nagarjuna (c100-c200 AD).ENLIGHTENMENT - release from samsara and wrong views; attainment of realisation, wisdom, etcEXTREME VIEWS - the extreme philosophical positions of eternalism or nihilism regarding the nature of mind.FOUR POWERFUL CURRENTS - birth, aging, sickness and death. INHERENT EXISTENCE - something which has inherent existence from its own side and is not a dependent arising.SAMSARA - cyclic existence - the physical world, the world we are repeatedly born and reborn into.v SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA, CONQUEROR - the historical Buddha, king of the Shakya tribe, (c563-483BC).SUTRA - a general term for all Buddhist texts, especially those which claim to be the actual word of Buddha; as opposed to 'shastras' or Buddhist commentaries.TANTRA - a specific form of meditation manual for use in the tantric system of Buddhism, almost exclusive to the Tibetan region; also called Secret Mantra or Vajrayana - the 'diamond vehicle'; any one of a number of secret Buddhist texts.THREE SUFFERINGS - desire, hatred and delusion.