Notes on 10 Bhumis

This was written several years ago, primarily as personal notes and as a quick supplement for priests-in-training at the time. Consequently it is quite rough around the edges and presumes some prior knowledge. Feel free to schedule a daisan if you’d like to discuss this aspect of the teachings.

Below are these notes in their raw form.

Umi reflection: Having read through the 10 bhumi a few times, I’m by no means an expert. But, here’s my key takeaways.

The 10 stages are kind of like transcend and include developmental milestones, you can tell where someone is by which characteristics are present in their being. This means that their not discrete, sequential advancements. Rather, they are interpenetrating aspects of what happens as we live this path.

1. Extreme joy
   1. Profound joy arising from firm roots in good practices, caused by no fear due to realized selflessness and inspiring thorough commitment to the mastery of awakening practices.
2. Purity
   1. Keeping the precepts, kind, practicing hard to cultivate good karma, compassionate for those who create suffering for themselves, aiming for buddha-hood, still doubting they can. 
3. Refulgence
   1. Precepts are natural (established in virtue), begin contemplating things like impermanence and suffering. Seeing the peace of the buddhas, they begin pursuing the spiritual life more earnestly, sharing what they know. Realize liberation is in personal understanding of buddha-wisdom… and they’ll do anything to get it. Become adepts at meditations (jhanas 1-4). 
4. Blazing
   1. Personal realization of formless meditations, too late now! Fully integrated with Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Reflecting on teachings of samsara/nirvana/phenomena/non-origination/nature of being. Actualize viryaparamita, vows to attain to buddha knowledge for all beings, non-attached to gross, gentle & kind, coachable, willing to learn, purify practice attitudes, release final doubts about their ability to become buddha. . 
5. Difficult to Conqurer
   1. Stable in mindfulness, pure intent to attain Buddhahood, well established in paramitas. Deep dive into two truths, characteristics, distinctions, structures, nirvana, the path, etc. It all becomes overstood, not understood, and they increasingly show up in the world with kindness and compassion. Become conscientious, hence awake, and full of wisdom. Double down on mastering the skills required to share the dharma. Energetic, contributing to society through knowledge in arts and skills, sciences, writing, medicine… whatever serves. 
6. Presence
   1. Realizing emptiness, signlessness, aimlessness, non-origination, etc. (i.e., understanding what was overstood in stage 5). Equanimity and non-attachment to gross and subtle phenomena. Overstanding conditional creation is not causality – action has no agent, projections are dense clouds. Desire, Form, Formless are one mind. 12 links are becoming in one mind. Penetrating the 12 links. Increasing wisdom – seeking out buddhas to train with. 
7. Far-going
   1. Cultivated realization of emptiness, signlessness and aimlessness, quick access to samadhi, teaching ceaselessly to develop skills to maturity, cultivating the perfections properly (finally) through enough experience and integration of projectionlessness. 
8. Immovable
   1. Stabilized projectionless granting the ability to remain in suchness while contemplating all teachings and awakening pracitces. The ability to effortlessly look in to all forms of wisdom as meditative awareness and the desire not to remain in the deep, peacefull bliss of suchness but compassionately compelled to bring forth the teachings. “It is not by suchness that buddhas appear in the world, but only by vast knowledge unattached to past, present and future.”
9. Good Mind
   1. Certainty in knowledge, commitment to compassion, strong willpower and zeal. Intuiting constructed projections and the resulting strengths and weaknesses of practitioners according to their habits, set beings free by turning them to the path through skillful instruction. 
10. 10.Cloud of Teaching
    1. Deep knowledge of all the teachings and practices which support awakening, profound presence and intellect, and the ability to skillfully articulate the teachings appropriately to the audience. 

Rephrasing the transitions in the poem with this framework we can learn some things. 

The Cloud of Teaching becomes Extreme Joy, Extreme joy becomes Immovable.

Good mind becomes Far-going, Far-going becomes Immovable. 

Purity becomes Refulgence, Blazing becomes Difficult to Conquer

Refulgence becomes Presence, How many times is there absence of characteristics?* 

*they’re all dependent and imagined. They’re all manifestations of suchness, playing off each other as needed for us to walk the path of never-ending unfolding. Knowing this they’re all perfected. 

To the question about the stages being projectionless – projectionlessness is a state that is applied to discerning the nature of being. It’s the reconstruction and integration of this insight into relative function that is our particular flavor. Stages 1 – 7 are preparations for being able to use projectionless states effectively, which is stage 8. Stages 9 & 10 are the maturing of that insight as teachers. A compassionate motivation to attain to Buddhahood allows buddha knowledge to be used for something other than personal liberation.