Meditate on the Cause of the Image

"How do all the innumerable images come about? One comes to known that they come about from contact. And this contact is of two kinds, namely: 1) contact by defilement, and 2) contact by Emancipation. If the image comes from ignorance, we call this ‘contact by defilement'. What comes about from ‘brightness’ is called ‘contact from Emancipation'. The contact from ignorance calls forth an inverted image, and that from Emancipation calls forth a non-inverted image. When one has meditated on the cause of the image, then meditates on the karmic result."

Bodhisattva Kasyapa said to the Buddha: "The inverted image comes about from the image of defilement. All the holy persons, truth to tell, possess inverted images and, however, do not possess defilement. How do I to understand this?"

The Buddha said: "Oh good man! In what way does a holy person possess an inverted image?"

Bodhisattva Kasyapa said: "Oh World Honored One! All the holy ones, on seeing a cow, gain the image of a cow and say this is a cow. Seeing a horse, they gain the image of a horse and say this is a horse. The same applies to man, woman, big and small, house, vehicle, come and go. This is an inversion."

"Oh good man! All beings possess two kinds of images, namely: 1) the current image (conceptual) in the world, and 2) the image from clinging. All holy people have only the image current in the world, but not any image from clinging. All beings gain the image of clinging because of the meditation by evil sensing. All holy persons do not gain the image of clinging because of [their] awakening to good. Hence, all common mortals are classified as of the inverted (image), while the holy people are not so classified, although they may know.

Having meditated on the cause of the image, a person who is wise, then meditates on the karmic results. One suffers such karmic results of evil images in the realms of hell, hungry ghosts, animals, and of humans and heavenly. As I have done away with the image of the evil awakening, I have cut off ignorance and contact. So, the image is gone. When one ends with the image, the person also removes the karmic consequences. To cut off the cause of the image, the wise person practices the Noble Eightfold Path. Oh good man! Anyone who meditates thus is called the one who practices pure deeds.

Oh good man! So I say: 'In the poisonous body of the being there is an all-wonderful medicine. Though in the Himalayas there is a [type of] poisonous grass, there is [also] an all-wonderful medicine '."

Read More on the Nirvana Sutra, Chapter 44 - On Bodhisattva Kasyapa 5.

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