First, one may attain enlightenment directly through the study and contemplation of Madhyamaka. Second, one may use Madhyamaka as the preliminary training and foundation for receiving the direct introduction to the nature of mind in Dzogchen; thereafter, through the guru’s pointing to instruction, enlightenment may also arise.
For example, a person may not yet be enlightened, but through the practice of Madhyamaka, they develop an experiential realization of mere emptiness. If this realization becomes sufficiently profound, and if they have also cultivated a certain degree of bodhicitta, then upon receiving the guru’s instruction pointing to the nature of mind, a single sentence—or even a brief passage—may be enough to bring about enlightenment. Alternatively, if more time is needed, after a period of further training and refinement, perhaps over several years, enlightenment can certainly be attained.
Enlightenment is an extraordinarily remarkable attainment. Particularly within Tibetan Buddhism, it signifies the possibility of attaining Buddhahood during the intermediate state (bardo) and becoming forever liberated from saṃsāra.
Today, people tend to regard billionaires or presidents as extraordinarily successful, yet from a Buddhist perspective, such achievements are not especially significant. We are currently living in the age of the Fivefold Impure World, when the human lifespan is only about one hundred years. In earlier eras, when human beings lived for fifty thousand or even one hundred thousand years, their enjoyments and circumstances were vastly superior. During such times, great Universal Monarchs (Cakravartin) would frequently appear. They were said to rule the entire Sahā World (Sahā-lokadhātu), encompassing all four continents, possess a thousand queens, and govern for immensely long periods, often measured in countless tens of thousands of years.
Even the appearance of such a Universal Monarch is exceedingly rare. Yet if someone attains enlightenment and becomes a First-Bhūmi Bodhisattva (Pramuditā-bhūmi), and if that bodhisattva wished to become a Universal Monarch, they could continue doing so for as long as they desired. Such is the vast merit and fortune associated with enlightenment. Of course, worldly merit and supramundane merit cannot truly be compared; this example merely serves as a rough illustration of the immense difference between them.
Therefore, enlightenment is an achievement of extraordinary significance and represents the most meaningful pursuit in life.
—Excerpted and adapted from The Relationship Between Buddhist Theory and Practice.
This article is a preliminary translation draft and has not yet been reviewed or proofread by the speaker.
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