Illuminating the Intent

Those engaged in study and reflection who — however much they engage in the study of the treatises of the systems of the great charioteers — never find ascertainment with respect to their own personal practice are clearly not approaching their study and reflection in an effective manner.

As such, even were they to strive hard in the Great Vehicle, they would fail to extract its value.

Therefore, we must strive to understand how to traverse the stages of path.

As for how the Precious Garland presents the path, lines such as “the roots of this are an awakening mind” and “all the practices . . . preceded by compassion” were already cited above.

In the same work, it says:

It also outlines how to train in them with the complimentary factor of compassion.

In this way, [Nāgārjuna] teaches us how the awakening mind — the basis of the bodhisattva deeds — comes first and how, through these deeds, we traverse the ten grounds of a bodhisattva.

In elaborating on this rough summary of the body of the path, Nāgārjuna speaks in his Compendium of Sutras about how finding a life of leisure and opportunity as well as finding faith in the teaching are difficult, and how, compared to these, generating of the awakening mind is even more difficult to achieve.

He also provides extensive explanations of topics such as how attaining great compassion for sentient beings is difficult, and how, compared to all the things mentioned earlier, it is even more difficult to achieve the elimination of the karmic obscuration borne of injuring a bodhisattva, elimination of the thought disparaging them, elimination of the acts of Māra, and elimination of the deed of abandoning sublime Dharma.