Knowledge obscurations

སྒྲིབ་པ་གང་ཞིག གཙོ་བོར་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་ཐོབ་པ་ལ་བར་དུ་གཅོད་བྱེད་དེ། ཤེས་སྒྲིབ་ཀྱི་མཚན་ཉིད།
Definition: That which is:

1. An obscuration; and
2. Mainly functions to hinder the attainment of Omniscience.

Divisions:

1. Manifest knowledge obscurations ཤེས་སྒྲིབ་མངོན་གྱུར་པ།
2. Seeds of the knowledge obscurations ས་བོན་གྱི་ཆ།

ཤེས་སྒྲིབ་ལ་ཀུན་བརྟགས་དང་ལྷན་སྐྱེས་གཉིས་སུ་འབྱེད་མི་རིགས་ཏེ། ཤེས་སྒྲིབ་ཀུན་བརྟགས་མེད་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཏེ། མཐོང་སྤང་ཤེས་སྒྲིབ་མེད་པའི་ཕྱིར།
It is unsuitable to divide knowledge obscurations into acquired and innate because there are no acquired knowledge obscurations; because there are no knowledge obscurations that are objects of abandonment of the path of seeing.

ཤེས་པར་གྱུར་པའི་ཤེས་སྒྲིབ་མེད་དེ། བདེན་འཛིན་ཤེས་སྒྲིབ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར།
There are no knowledge obscurations that are consciousnesses because the apprehension of true existence is not a knowledge obscuration.

There are three possibilities between:

• Appearances of true existence/establishment བདེན་སྣང་། (not pervaded by being a knowledge obscuration)
• Factor of mistaken dualistic appearances གཉིས་སྣང་འཁྲུལ་བའི་ཆ། (pervaded by being a knowledge obscuration)

Because the appearances of true existence to the (non-manifest) conventional mind generation in the continuum of a tenth grounder during the uninterrupted path at the end of the continuum is an appearance of true existence but is not a factor of mistaken dualistic appearances; because they are not a knowledge obscuration; because:

• Due to that uninterrupted path being the direct antidote to the subtlest knowledge obscurations, those are posited as non-existent in the continuum at that time;
• They do not fulfil the definition; because they are not the substantial cause of their resultant mistaken dualistic appearances; because the next moment is Buddhahood.

Thus, it is necessary to say that for sentient beings during meditative equipoise:

• The person has appearances of true existence in their continuum because true existence appears to the non-manifest conventional mind generation in their continuum; but
• True existence does not appear to that person because it does not appear to the manifest meditative equipoise in their continuum.

Moreover, appearances of true existence appear to Arya Buddhas because:

1. Appearances of true existence exist;
2. If it is an established base, it is pervaded by being realised by the Exalted Knower of All Aspects; and
3. Buddhas have no implicit realisations and if it is explicitly realised, then it is pervaded by appearing to the awareness realising it.

However, those are not factors of mistaken dualistic appearances or knowledge obscurations because they do not fulfil the definition; because of not arising from the seeds of knowledge obscurations that are their substantial cause.
Instead, they arise from the seeds of knowledge obscurations that are not their substantial cause because they arise from the seeds of knowledge obscurations in the continua of sentient beings.

Their abandonment

• Abandonment of the knowledge obscurations starts from attainment of the eighth ground;
  ས་བརྒྱད་པ་ཐོབ་ནས་ཤེས་སྒྲིབ་སྤོང་བའི་མགོ་རྩོམ་ཞིང་།
• The attainment of Omniscience and the abandonment of the knowledge obscurations are simultaneous.
  རྣམ་མཁྱེན་ཐོབ་པ་དང་ཤེས་སྒྲིབ་སྤངས་པ་དུས་མཉམ།

ས་བརྒྱད་པ་མ་ཐོབ་པར་ཤེས་སྒྲིབ་སྤོང་བའི་མགོ་མི་རྩོམ་སྟེ།
Abandonment of the knowledge obscurations does not start without attainment of the eighth ground because:

• For those not preceded by the Hinayana path, the apprehension of true existence is not abandoned until the attainment of the eighth ground; and དམན་ལམ་སྔོན་དུ་མ་སོང་བའི་ས་བརྒྱད་པ་མ་ཐོབ་བར་དུ་བདེན་འཛིན་མ་སྤངས་པ་གང་ཞིག
• The abandonment of the knowledge obscurations does not start without having completely abandoned the apprehension of true existence. བདེན་འཛིན་མ་ལུས་པར་མ་སྤངས་པར་ཤེས་སྒྲིབ་སྤོང་བའི་མགོ་མི་རྩོམ་པའི་ཕྱིར།

དཔེར་ན། བཙོ་བླག་མཁན་གྱིས་གོས་ཀྱི་དྲི་མ་རགས་པ་མ་བསལ་བར་གོས་ཀྱི་དྲི་མ་ཕྲ་མོ་ཅུང་ཟད་ཀྱང་སེལ་མི་ནུས་པ་བཞིན་ནོ།
For example, a cleaner is not able to eliminate the subtle stains of a garment even in the slightest without having eliminated the coarse stains of the garment.

Up a level: Obscurations and their abandonment