Presentation in Ornament for Mahayana Sutras

Mahayana refuge is supreme due to (all related to bodhisattvas):

1. Proceeding to all objects of observation དམིགས་པ་ཀུན་ཏུ་འགྲོ་བ།
   • they proceed to all sentient beings because they engage for the purpose of liberating all sentient beings from samsara.
   • they proceed to all vehicles because they are skilled in the practices of the three vehicles.
   • they proceed to all exalted wisdom because of possessing skill in both selflessnesses.
   • they proceed to all nirvana because they realise the single-taste of the emptiness of the selflessness of phenomena of existence and peace.
2. Greater promise of their accomplishment སྒྲུབ་པ་ཁས་ལེན་ཆེ་བ།
   • they strive for supreme enlightenment with great delight because they are a great being that knows the qualities of that.
   • they possess the distinguishing feature of practice because of being able to perfectly undertake the hardships of others’ welfare without discouragement.
   • they possess the distinguishing feature of attainment because, having fully enlightened, they become of equal realisation and abandonment to all the Buddhas.
3. Attaining the supreme realisations རྟོགས་པའི་མཆོག་ཐོབ་པ།
   • they possess the distinguishing feature of realisations because they have attained a great heap of merit, become unsurpassed in the three realms, attained the happiness of samsara, completely pacified the great heap of suffering, and have attained the happiness of the supreme awareness, i.e. non-conceptual exalted wisdom.
   • they possess the distinguishing feature of the result because of a great heap of Dharma, the permanent Body (i.e. the strengths), having accumulated the collection of virtue, overcome the imprints of the two obscurations, and attained complete liberation from the extremes of existence and peace.
4. Outshining the Hearers and Solitary Realisers ཉན་རང་ཟིལ་གྱིས་གནོན་པ།
   • Due to: Greater roots of virtue, greater purpose, limitless uninterrupted continuity, and inexhaustibility.
   • Those four qualities possess three functions: Acting to completely ripen mundane and supramundane sentient beings, gaining mastery in qualities, and making unsurpassable qualities inexhaustible.
5. Superiority by way of the entity of their divisions དབྱེ་བའི་རང་བཞིན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་ཁྱད་པར་དུ་འཕགས་པ། (Refuge:)
   • Entity: because of accepting the Buddha as a refuge, due to asserting the supreme Buddha as the actual.
   • Cause: because it is to be known as having arisen from heartfelt love.
   • Result: because it acts to attain the exalted knower of all aspects.
   • Function: because of acting to set all sentient beings in benefit and happiness and to overcome discouragement in undertaking the hardships of others’ welfare.
   • Many qualities: because of possessing definite emergence from the objects of abandonment and the qualities that indicate the two collections

Mahayana going for refuge:

• Possesses the greatness of one’s own welfare because it will increase immeasurable qualities.
• Possesses the greatness of others’ welfare because migrators are pervaded by compassion.
• Possesses the distinguishing feature of application because of acting to increase the unparalleled great Arya’s Dharma.

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