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>>42373789
The First Ground
The Joyfulness Ground

Sons of the Buddha, suppose there is a being:

Who has deeply planted roots of goodness;
Who has well cultivated the practices;
Who has well accumulated the provisions facilitating realization of the path;
Who has practiced well the making of offerings to the buddhas;
Who has well accumulated the white dharmas of pristine purity;
Who has been skillfully drawn forth by the good spiritual guide;
Who has well purified his resolute intentions;
Who has established himself in the vast resolve;
Who has developed vast understanding;

And who has brought forth presently manifest kindness and compassion, having done so:

For the sake of the quest to acquire the knowledge of the Buddha;
For the sake of gaining the ten powers;
For the sake of realizing the great fearlessnesses;
For the sake of gaining the buddhas’ dharma of uniformly equal regard for all;
For the sake of coming to the rescue of all worlds;
For the sake of purifying the great kindness and great compassion;
For the sake of gaining the knowledge that knows everything
without exception throughout the ten directions;
For the sake of bringing about the unimpeded purification of all buddha lands;
For the sake of knowing all three periods of time in a single instant; and
For the sake of fearlessly turning the great wheel of Dharma.

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>>42373797
Son of the Buddha, the bodhisattva’s generation of such resolve:

Takes the great compassion as foremost;
Takes wisdom as its predominant condition;
Is subsumed within skillful means;
Is sustained by the most superior resolute intentions;
Is aided by the measureless powers of the Tathāgata;
Is accompanied by skillful contemplation and assessment of beings’ strength of courage and strength of knowledge;
Is implemented with the directly manifested unimpeded knowledge;
Is accordant with spontaneous knowledge;
Is able to take on all dharmas of the Buddha in using wisdom in transformative teaching;
And is as vast as the Dharma realm, as ultimately extensive as empty space, and so enduring as to reach the very end of future time.

Son of the Buddha, when the bodhisattva first brings forth this resolve, he immediately:

Steps beyond the grounds of the common person;
Enters the station of the bodhisattva;
Takes birth into the clan of the tathāgatas;
Becomes such that no one can claim his lineage is possessed of any fault;
Leaves behind worldly destinies;
Enters the world-transcending path;
Acquires the bodhisattva dharmas;
Abides in the bodhisattva abodes;
Equally enters the three periods of time;
And becomes definitely bound to realize the unexcelled bodhi in the lineage of the tathāgatas.
The bodhisattva who dwells in dharmas such as these is known as one who dwells on the Ground of Joyfulness, this on account of his being imperturbable.

Son of the Buddha, abiding on the Ground of Joyfulness, the bodhisattva is completely endowed with:

Abundant joy;
Abundant pure faith;
Abundant fond delight;
Abundant happiness;
Abundant exultation;
Abundant ebullience;
Abundant valiant fortitude;
Abundant disinclination to disputatiousness;
Abundant harmlessness;
And abundant disinclination to anger.

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>>42373800
Son of the Buddha, the bodhisattva dwelling on this Ground of Joyfulness:

Becomes joyful due to calling to mind the buddhas;
Becomes joyful due to calling to mind the Dharma of the buddhas;
Becomes joyful due to calling to mind the bodhisattvas;
Becomes joyful due to calling to mind the conduct practiced by the bodhisattvas;
Becomes joyful due to calling to mind the pure pāramitās;
Becomes joyful due to calling to mind the exceptional supremacy of the bodhisattva grounds;
Becomes joyful due to calling to mind the indestructibility of the bodhisattvas;
Becomes joyful due to calling to mind the Tathāgata’s teaching of beings;
Becomes joyful due to calling to mind the ability to cause beings to acquire benefit;

And becomes joyful due to calling to mind entry into all tathāgatas’ knowledge and skillful means.

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>>42373802
He also has this thought:

I become joyful due to turning away from and abandoning all worldly states;
I become joyful due to drawing close to all buddhas;
I become joyful due to departing far from the grounds of the common person;
I become joyful due to drawing near to the grounds of wisdom;
I become joyful due to eternally cutting off any vulnerability to entering the wretched destinies;
I become joyful due to serving as a place of refuge for all beings;
I become joyful due to seeing all the tathāgatas;
I become joyful due to being born into the domain of the buddhas;
I become joyful due to becoming of the same nature as all bodhisattvas;
And I become joyful due to leaving behind the fear of all circumstances that would cause hair-raising terror.

Why is it that, once this bodhisattva has gained the Ground of Joyfulness, he abandons all forms of fearfulness? In particular, they are:

The fear of failing to survive;
The fear of a bad reputation;
The fear of death;
The fear of rebirth in the wretched destinies;
And the fear of the awesomeness of great assemblies.
He succeeds in forever leaving behind all such forms of fearfulness.

And why is this? It is because this bodhisattva has abandoned any perception of a self. Thus he does not even cherish his own body. How much the less might he cherish any provisions or valuables it happens to possess. As a consequence, he is entirely free of any fear of failing to survive.

>>42373815
He does not hope for or seek out offerings from others. Rather, he devotes himself solely to providing for and making gifts to all beings. Consequently he has no fear of a bad reputation. Because he has abandoned the view that conceives the existence of a self and because he does not perceive any existence of a self, he is therefore entirely free of any fear of death. He realizes that once he dies, he will definitely not be reborn apart from the buddhas and the bodhisattvas. Consequently he is entirely free of any fear of falling into the wretched destinies.

He thinks, “That to which I aspire is without equal anywhere in the world. How much the less might there be anything superior to it?” Consequently, he is entirely free of any fear of the awesomeness of great assemblies. Thus it is that the bodhisattva leaves far behind all such circumstances that might otherwise cause fear and hair-raising terror.

Son of the Buddha, this bodhisattva takes the great compassion as foremost. He is possessed of a vast aspiring resolve that no one could obstruct or destroy. Thus he redoubles his diligent cultivation of all roots of goodness, thereby achieving complete success in his aims, in particular doing so:

Through making faith predominant;
Through pure faith;
Through the purity of his resolute faith;
Through the resolute decisiveness of his faith;
Through bringing forth compassionate pity;
Through perfecting the great kindness;
Through remaining free of any tendency to become weary or withdraw from his efforts;
Through being adorned with a sense of shame and dread of blame;
Through perfecting mental pliancy;
Through respectfully according with and venerating the buddhas’ teaching dharmas;
Through insatiably cultivating and accumulating roots of goodness day and night;
Through drawing near to good spiritual guides;
Through always cherishing and delighting in the Dharma;
Through insatiably pursuing extensive learning;
Through engaging in right contemplative investigation accordant with the Dharma he has learned;
Through ensuring that his mind remains free of dependent attachments;
Through not indulging any attachment to receiving offerings, becoming renowned, or receiving expressions of reverence from others;

>>42373828
Through not seeking for any life-supporting material possessions;
Through tirelessly bringing forth jewel-like resolve;
Through seeking to reach the ground of all-knowledge;
Through seeking to gain the Tathāgata’s powers, fearlessnesses, and dharmas exclusive to the buddhas;
Through seeking proficiency in the pāramitās and the other dharmas assisting realization of the path;
Through abandoning all flattery and deceptiveness;
Through being able to practice in accordance with what has been taught;
Through always maintaining adherence to truthful speech;
Through never defiling the house of the tathāgatas;
Through never relinquishing the moral precepts of the bodhisattvas;
Through bringing forth a resolve to gain all-knowledge that is as unshakable as the king of mountains;
Through never relinquishing his endeavours in service to anyone in the world while still perfecting the world-transcending path;
Through insatiably accumulating those dharmas that comprise the factors assisting realization of bodhi;
And through always striving to gain ever more superior realization of the most supremely excellent path.

Son of the Buddha, the bodhisattva who completely develops such dharmas for purification of the grounds as these thereby becomes one who abides securely on the bodhisattva’s Ground of Joyfulness.

>>42373789
no

>>42373789
>now that I have found the light
>what are some practices
>so I can achieve ultimate focus

what is the relationship between this light and focus?

and,
do you gaze the beautiful sun while you listen to the tune of the bird, where are you?... the seer or the listener or...

>>42377342
The light helps drive away sin and thus distractions. The focus is to help me pay attention to my art that I want to make.

>>42378134
>the art of appreciating the light
nice,

you do sungazing? do you appreciate the light of the sun?
do you come up with poems all the time (like the song of that bird as the orange sun comes up)?

>>42378190
I have a nice small pond nearby that the sun hits just right during the summer.

>>42378893
No

>>42378893
>small pond
big win
would you consider growing this near the pond?
https://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=8800

>>42381173
what you mean "No"? sungazing is powerful, the reflections of sun from the surface of water is magical