The Four States: The Connection Between Consciousness and Wisdom

“The Profound Inner Principals”

[By Rangjung Dorje with Jamgon Kongtrul Lordro Taye’s Commentary]

In order to own this text in it's entirety and study it’s instruction, it is mandatory to have
permission from one’s Lama and to be training in the aspects of Mahamudra; Ground, Path and
Fruit.

"The abiding states of the channels, winds, and bindus (which are of the natures of the three
vajras) have been explained. Through the interrelationship of those three, the four states- deep
sleep and the others- manifest. If we do not understand the relationship between the
consciousnesses and wisdoms related to the four states, we will not understand the ways in which
the corresponding stains are purified. Not understanding those, the four wisdoms will not
manifest. When those don’t manifest, the four kayas do not appear. Therefore, following
chapters on channels, winds, and binds, here we present the connections between ground, path,
and result and the interdependence of the consciousnesses of the four states and their abiding
states: the five wisdoms, four mudras, four kayas, and so forth.

Deep Sleep
Among these four states, the state of sleep is described as follows. During deep sleep the alaya is
the primary one among the eight modes of consciousness. As for it’s location, it abides in the
channel at the center of the dharmachakra at the heart. The movements or operations of the six
modes of consciousness are not lucid ones, and they reside in the alaya in the sense of having
dissolved there.
When the delusion of deep sleep is purified, the fruition of luminosity manifests. Its is also called
“mirror-like wisdom,” among the five wisdoms. Among the four kayas, this is the dharmakaya.
Since the dharmakaya is of a nature that is free from conceptual elaborations, it is also
considered to be the nature of the dharmadhatu wisdom.

The Dreaming Mind

The second state is that of the dreaming mind. During deep sleep, the seven modes of
consciousness with their accompanying mental events have dissolved into the alaya. Following
this, mental consciousness is sparked by the life-force wind- afflictive mentation with all of its
latent tendencies- and it surfaces with the formative forces. Moving through the channels, and
under the influence of a sense of self, it projects various dream delusions involving the dualistic
appearances or percepts and perceivers.
When those delusions are purified, the dreaming mind is the sambhogakaya. Objects, faculties
and their consciousnesses are clear and discrete. Since the dream state is beyond having any
reality relating to particles, it is the inseparability of appearances and emptiness. In terms of its
essence, the dreaming mind embodies two wisdoms: the purity of the inward-oriented aspect of
the sixth mentation [or mental consciousness] is the discriminating wisdom, and the purity of the
seventh mentation is the wisdom of equality. Among the five wisdoms, the dreaming mind has
these two aspects.

In Sexual Union
In those of us sentient beings with the desire for sexual union, where does our consciousness
abide during our experience of changeable bliss? Our consciousness (which experiences the four
joys) follows the sequence of the four joys. With the first moment of passion, our consciousness
gathers in the head chakra, at which time bodhicittas with the characteristics of movement abide
there.
Second, when joy is experienced, our consciousness is at our throat. Third, when the supreme joy
is experienced, it descends from the heart to the navel. Our consciousness that is gathered at the
navel causes the “AH stroke’s” fire and the “moon” (which has fallen from the “HAM”) to mix
at the lowermost end of the madhyama. At which point connate joy is experienced within the
shankhini channel.
That connate wisdom is a cognition of a single instant. In terms of its essence, this cognition has
three qualities: it’s eight modes of consciousness are unimpeded in their own natures and are
distinctively lucid; its experience is bliss and its essence is nonconceptuality. Its essence is not
stained by the afflictions. In the context of the ground, this cognition is called “wisdom kaya.”
The other three joys involve conceptuality. Connate joy arises as being of the nature of wisdom;
nevertheless, since it is not recognized, its cessation is followed by the arising of “joy-without-
joy.”
What, however, is the nature of the purity of this state? When the obscurations of confusion
during the state of sexual union have been cleansed by the remedies and purified, everything in
apparent existence is just that: suchness, connate wisdom itself. Thus [the mind during sexual
union] arises as the play of the three kayas. The six modes of consciousness are unimpeded in
their own natures, lucid yet distinct; they are of the nature of the nirmanakaya. Great bliss, which
is without outflows, or defilements, is the sambhogakaya. Mind’s quality of being empty of (the
pervader) and yet naturally luminous is the dharmakaya. That is how the purified mind during
sexual union manifests as the three kayas.
Ordinary Waking Life
The nature of cognition during the ordinary period, that is, our waking state, is as follows. The
alaya consciousness is conditioned by afflictive mentation and so forth, as described above.
Through the interplay of the four conditions (such as the causal condition), the six modes of
consciousness (such as the visual one), connect with the six faculties, which are the dominant
conditions, and manifest as images appearing as the six objects (such as forms). Not
understanding these to be our own mind, we have three types of feelings: happiness, suffering,
and indifference. These feelings produce, respectively, desire, aggression and bewilderment. The
latent tendencies of those afflictions are carried but the immediate mentation and deposited into
the alaya. On the basis of the latent tendencies of the karmic formative forces, again, the karma
of formative forces newly accumulates, causing us to ceaselessly to circle repeadity in samsara.
When the cognition of the ordinary state is purified of obscurations, it is of the nature of the three
wisdoms. Purified afflictive mentation is the wisdom of equality, which acts for the welfare of
others unwaveringly. Purified imagination- that is, the sixth, mental consciousness- is
discriminating wisdom. The purified consciousness of the five sense doors and three objects are
the wisdom that accomplishes activities. Additionally, we should be aware that the purified is in
fact mirror-like wisdom, and that the dharmadhatu wisdom is the primordially pure nature that is
the essence of each of these four wisdoms."
(Following are many remedies, practices and paths for purifying each of these states of being)

“The Profound Inner Principles”

Rangjung Dorje, the Third Karmapa with commentary by Jargon Kongtrul Taye
(The image below is the Body Mandala of the Chamkrasamvara System)