Transition Two · From the Bodies to the Wisdom

Part Two hands us a conclusion, and leaves one phrase unopened.

The conclusion: the three bodies—dharma-body, enjoyment-body, transformation-body—are not three separate Buddhas, but one and the same buddha-fruit freedom, divided by "to whom it appears" into three faces, and permanent. One freedom: toward the Buddha's own self-realization, the self-enjoyment body; toward the bodhisattvas of the ten grounds, the other-enjoyment body; toward beings of the lower stations, the transformation-body; and the substance on which all appearing rests, the dharma-body. The name (Part One) is read off, the body (Part Two) is seen—both this one freedom's showing.

The phrase left unopened is four words: turning consciousness into wisdom.

Part Two said the three bodies are disclosed by "turning consciousness into wisdom"—turn away the consciousness hidden at the root of birth-and-death, and the dharma-body is disclosed; the four wisdoms turned out severally bear the three bodies. So it was said; but "turning consciousness into wisdom" itself—the turning of the eight consciousnesses into the four wisdoms—what, in the end, is it? The three bodies being disclosed by it, it cannot be left unseen.

And the moment one looks, that old temptation waits at the door.

What the whole Attainment axis has broken, all along, is one and the same comparing thought: to take the buddha-fruit's virtues for something acquired from outside, beyond the severing of defilements. The freedom of the exhaustion of the outflows was pictured as a spiritual power gained beyond that exhaustion; the ten epithets, as ten virtues earned beyond severance; the three bodies, as three Buddhas set up apart. Come to "wisdom," the same thought arrives again in new dress: to take a Buddha's "four wisdoms" for four lofty spiritual cognitions He acquires after severing the defilements—as though severance were the sweeping-clean of a room, and the four wisdoms four treasure-vessels carried into the room once it is swept.

Part Three says: no. The four wisdoms are not four treasure-vessels carried in beyond severance; they are turned out of those very eight consciousnesses themselves. Turned, not acquired.

In, then: how these four wisdoms are polished out.