Basis-Consciousness

I thought this was an interesting little excerpt, so I'd like to share it. It covers a lot of ground in just a paragraph.



The union of emptiness and interdependence is to be understood as follows. As long as we have not realized the nature of our mind we are subject to the normal course of the twelve links of interdependent origination. Absence of realization is ignorance and from this starting point the subsequent eleven links will form one after the other, each giving rise to the next. Thus everything continues in one way. However, once we realize the nature of our mind, the links of interdependent origination are traced back to their source and in this way dissolved: when there is no ignorance the other links cannot come about. This is emptiness. Once emptiness is realized, this is enlightenment. Emptiness is limitless and therefore beyond any definition in terms of "It is this," "It is not this," and so forth; it cannot be restricted to such limitations. When the nature of mind is realized, this proves to be the nature of all phenomena, the essence of everything. This is what is meant here by the term "basis-consciousness". The secret of the essence of everything is the fact that everything is buddha and thus beyond any limitation. In my view this is quite easy to understand once the proper connection is made. Without this it could be quite complicated.

--from The Third Karmapa's Mahamudra Prayer by Tai Situ Rinpoche, trans. and ed. by Rosemarie Fuchs, published by Snow Lion Publications