དེ་ལ་དྲང་བའི་དོན་གྱི་མདོ་སྡེ་གང་ཞེ་ན། གང་ཚིག་འབྲུ་བཤད་པ་ཇི་ལྟར་བསྟན་པ་བཞིན་དུ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་ཁོང་དུ་ཆུད་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། འདི་དག་ནི་དྲང་བའི་དོན་གྱི་མདོ་སྡེ་དག་གོ ། ངེས་པའི་དོན་གྱི་མདོ་སྡེ་གང་ཞེ་ན། དོན་གང་བཤད་པ་ཇི་ལྟར་བསྟན་པ་བཞིན་དུ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་ཁོང་དུ་ཆུད་པར་བྱ་སྟེ།
“Now, what is the meaning and what is the letter? The letter refers to involvement in mundane activities, while the meaning refers to a realization of the reality that transcends the world. [MS.123.a] The letter refers to teachings on generosity, discipline, restraint, and contentment, while the meaning refers to teachings on being disciplined, on calm abiding, and on what is not new and has no precedent. The letter refers to the generally agreed-upon explanations of cyclic existence, while the meaning refers to accomplishing that which cannot be experienced. The letter refers to the well-known benefits of nirvāṇa, while the meaning refers to the state beyond constructions that is the complete nirvāṇa naturally present in phenomena. The letter refers to teaching according to the respective vehicles, while the meaning refers to the knowledge that realizes the Dharma of the single path. The letter refers to the teaching on not abandoning any sentient beings, while the meaning refers to the purity of the three spheres of existence. The letter refers to the teachings on disciplining one’s body, speech, and mind, as well as to taking up the training in its entirety, and the qualities of purification, while the meaning refers to the purity of unconditionality, not apprehending body, speech, or mind. The letter refers to teachings on the destruction of malice, harshness, anger, pride, haughtiness, and arrogance and on patient acceptance and gentleness, while the meaning refers to the attainment of a patient acceptance of the fact that phenomena are unborn. The letter refers to teachings on all the different ways of applying vigor with regard to the roots of virtue, while the meaning refers to vigor that is not based on striving after anything or leaving anything behind. The letter refers to teachings on the liberative meditative states and the attainments of concentration, while the meaning refers to the knowledge that lies in cessation. The letter refers to the root of wisdom, which is the ability to retain all learning, while the meaning refers to the object that is beyond description. The letter refers to the elucidation of the thirty-seven elements that are conducive to awakening, while the meaning refers to the manifestation of the fruits of these thirty-seven elements that are conducive to awakening. The letter refers to the elucidation of suffering, its origin, and the path, while the meaning refers to the realization of cessation. The letter refers to the elucidation of the sequence that begins with ignorance and ends with aging and death, while the meaning refers to the cessation of ignorance, the cessation of aging and death, and the cessation of everything in between. The letter refers to teachings on the prerequisites of calm abiding and insight meditation, while the meaning refers to the knowledge of awareness and liberation. The letter refers to teachings given for those who act out of desire, anger, confusion, or a combination of them, while the meaning refers to the unperturbed liberation of the mind. The letter refers to the elucidation of all obscurations, while the meaning refers to liberated unobscured knowledge. The letter refers to expressions of praise of the unlimited good qualities of the Three Jewels, while the meaning refers to the attainment of the actual state that is beyond desire, and the unconditioned good qualities of the Saṅgha. The letter refers to descriptions of the bodhisatva’s training and his development of good qualities, from the time when the awakening mind first arose in him until the time when he sat on the seat of awakening, while the meaning refers to the perfect awakening of omniscient knowledge that takes place in the space of a single moment of thought. In short, whatever is included in the teachings of the eighty-four thousand collections of the Dharma is what is known as the letter, while the object that cannot be expressed by means of any kind of language, any syllables, or any letters, is the meaning.
Bodhisattva, Buddha, Teachings