The Three Capable Persons (Practitioners)

(The following transcript is of a talk by His Eminence Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche on The Three Capable Persons, in the context of the stages of the path to enlightenment, given through webcast, as a series of such webcast talks, in July – August 2020, on subjects of spiritual practices requested by others.)

Again today, I’ve been advised to say briefly about The Three Capable Persons. As such, I’ll endeavour to say briefly about it.

As regards the expression, “the stages of the path of the three capable persons”, it is in terms of the levels of the mental continuum of persons—the best, intermediate and the last—doing the practices, or, in terms of the nature of the stages of the path, and thereby persons practising them are called thus. It’s relative to the two.

Generally, the phrase “the three capable persons: best, intermediate and last” certainly would be in the words of the Buddha, in Discourses (Sūtras) and Continuity (Tantras)—although I’ve not seen textual words to quote. Nonetheless, in the commentarial texts to the teachings of the Buddha, the first mention of the phrase “the three capable persons” is in Ārya Asaṅga’s Vinścayasaṁgrhanī (A Compilation of Establishing [Yogācārya Grounds]), one of the five groups of texts on the Grounds. There the phrase appears and in great details the way of differentiating of the three is explained. Likewise, in Ācārya Vasubandhu’s own commentary to The Treasury (Abhidharmakośa) there is the mention of the three capable persons, matching with the terminology as in Lamrim.

Thereafter, to have become widely known and to have become the basis for learning and study for all Buddhists began when Atisha came to Tibet and wrote The Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment. The phrase “the stages of the path of the three capable persons” became widely known, and there greatly flourished forth in the Tibetan Buddhism the way of leading trainees, in stages, through the stages of the path of the three capable persons. And the elucidating commentarial texts came to be called as “the stages of the path to enlightenment”.

The word “person” (capable person) in its original language (Sanskrit) means able or capable. A person who is able to accomplish one’s any aspiration is called “a capable person”; specifically, the term refers to a human being, able to accomplish the ultimate aim.  In general, the [Tibetan] word skyes bu (person) has various ways of usage, when applied with accompanying words: there’s a context when it refers to the male gender, between male and female, and a context when it refers to the entire human species, out of the six species of wandering beings. Here, in the mention of “the stages of the path of the three capable persons” they just refer to human beings, just persons. For instance, in the commentary to The Treasury and The Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment the word used is puruṣa (capable person), whereas in A Compilation of Establishing the word used is pudgala (being), great being, intermediate being and small being. “Being” entails more than human species, it covers all species in general; all sentient persons, all sentient beings. Whichever of the two the meaning is taken it is alright. By way of the mind’s ability and the ways of keeping one’s aspiration, when practising the teachings, the three capable persons are the divisions made.

Going into the details, the incomparable Atisha defines in The Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment:

Whoever by any method
Pursues merely samsaric
Happiness for oneself
Is the last capable person.

This defines the small capable person. Here “samsaric happiness” is not that of this life’s, it’s of the next life. Aspiring to attain higher rebirth in the next life, and that too, “for oneself”, that’s for oneself only. Such a person is called “the last capable person”, or small capable person—in the actual wordings of The Lamp of the Path the word mentioned is “the last”.

“Whoever by any method” has the purport that not only there is the aspiration for higher status (higher rebirth) in the next life, the person knows exactly the methods by which to attain such and does the practices—such a person is called, “the last capable person”. One may have the aspiration for higher status in the next life, but if one does not know the methods, or follows a mistaken method, one would not be included among the last capable persons, thus says [Atisha]. In the assertions of past sublime teachers, of those that pursue this life’s happiness, some are considered as among the last capable persons, some are not, there are varying assertions as regards this.

Nonetheless, to be inclusive to the last capable person, one has to be interested in the higher status in the next life; not only interested, rather one has to be practising as regards discarding [of non-virtues] and adopting [of virtues]. For instance, also among those of outside the path there are many who aspire higher status in the next life, but by not knowing exactly the methods for achieving higher status, rather by following wrong paths—such as, relying on fire mantra, fasting, lounging onto a trident, and so on—they do not become included among those of the small capable persons, although they strive at an apparent methods for achieving higher status in the next life.

Intermediate capable person is defined in The Lamp of the Path as:

Turning away from samsaric happiness
And reversing from non-virtuous actions,
One who pursues merely self-peace,
Is called the intermediate capable person.

“Turning away from samsaric happiness” means one sees this life’s happiness and the higher statuses as a celestial or a human rebirth as all of suffering in nature. There’s the thought of renunciation at samsara, the thought of wanting to emerge out of samsara, and by the force of that thought, for oneself to become freed from samsara one turns away from non-virtues and seeks for oneself the happiness of the peace—nirvanic peace—freed of afflictions and samsara. Such a person is called an intermediate capable person. For a small capable person to pursue the higher status in the next life as a celestial being or as a human is in actuality pursuing samsaric happiness, there’s no intention to seek liberation from the entire samsara by seeing samsara as in the nature of sufferings, there’s no thought of renunciation.

By seeing that even in attaining the higher status as a celestial or as a human in the next life, if one is not freed from the entire samsara there’s no escaping from sufferings, that the entire samsara is in the nature of suffering, and by seeing whatever are under the control of action (karma) and afflictions are of the nature of suffering, that unless one has become freed from samsara there would be the occasions of rebirth in endless bad wanderings (endless lower rebirths), even if one has for now attained the status as a celestial or as a human. Seeing that there’s no essence with samsara, one seeks liberation, the state of peace, only for oneself, and for such an aim one trains on the paths of hearers (śrāvaka) and self-enlighteners (pratyekbuddha, solitary realizers); such a person is called ‘intermediate capable person’; such is the definition, or characteristics, of an intermediate capable person.

Great capable person is defined as:

Whoever by [relating with] sufferings
Within one’s continuum wants totally
To perfectly end all sufferings of others,
That is the supreme capable person.

To see that wherever in samsaric places one is born they would be in the nature of suffering, that unless liberation freed from samsara is attained there would be no permanent end to sufferings, is the thought of renunciation. When an unmade-up (a trained genuine) thought of renunciation has risen in one’s mental continuum, the feeling is that one feels unbearable about the sufferings, by seeing the entire samsara in the nature of suffering; that’s one [aspect of the] thought. Likewise, there’s the thought of wanting to become freed from that suffering; such is called ‘the thought of renunciation’. Such a thought of renunciation aspires oneself to become freed from the sufferings inclusive to one’s mental continuum; similarly, [one relates the same] with all sentient beings to the extent of the space, for equally they have sufferings. Just as one is tormented by sufferings, one sees all sentient beings being tormented by sufferings, and feels immeasurably greatly compassionate towards them, and that great compassion brings about the thought wanting to liberate all sentient beings from sufferings. Such a thought is generated, as the lines say, “Whoever by [relating with] sufferings/ Within one’s continuum wants totally/ To perfectly end all sufferings of others/”; when such a thought of wanting to liberate all sentient beings from all sufferings and place them in the sublime liberation arises, such a capable person is called “great capable person”.

With the great capable person the mere thought of renunciation of aspiring liberation for oneself is not adequate, rather that thought of renunciation feels unbearable about others being tormented by sufferings, and through the force of that thought one generates the great compassion. Having generated the great compassion in one’s mental continuum, then to liberate all sentient beings from sufferings, one would have to attain Buddhahood, the state of exactly knowing all sentient beings’ mental dispositions, thoughts and latent tendencies, and thus to be able to accomplish sentient beings’ welfare effortlessly, spontaneously. Aimed at others’ welfare, the thought aspiring to attain Buddhahood (enlightenment), as a branch for accomplishing others’ welfare, is enlightenment mind (bodhicitta); and in whoever enlightenment mind is present that capable person is called “the great capable person”.

They are the meanings of the three capable persons. In the dialectics’ manner of speaking, they are the definitions of each of the three capable persons.

One who aspires in the next life the happiness merely of celestial or of human, and for attaining that takes up the practice of a correct path, of abiding by the ethics, of eschewing the ten non-virtuous actions and so forth—such a person is a small capable person.

Seeing that even attaining the higher status is not going beyond sufferings, that would be so unless one becomes freed from samsara, one is thus motivated by the thought of renunciation wanting to certainly become freed from samsara, thereby trains on the path—the three trainings of ethics, meditative concentration and wisdom—for attaining liberation; such a person is an intermediate capable person.

Knowing oneself is tormented by sufferings, one relates the same as with others that all sentient beings are tormented by sufferings, and by the force of the great compassion focussed on all sentient beings and feeling unbearable about their sufferings, one seeks Buddhahood, for others’ welfare—such a person is described as a great capable person.

Inclusive to such stages of the path of the three capable persons are the entire meanings of Buddha’s eighty-four thousand heaps of teachings, and of the entire elucidating commentarial texts, that it’s said there is not any that is not inclusive to the stages of the path of the three capable persons. All the varieties of teachings by Buddha can be, in summary, summarized to the stages of the path of the three capable persons, as was summarized and said by Gyalwa Dromtonpa:

The words of The Victorious One are the tripiṭaka,
Adorned by the instructions of the three capable persons;
This precious golden rosary of the Kadam [instructions]
Would be meaningful for any wandering being to follow.

Into the stages of the path of the three capable persons are shown the meanings of all the teachings of Buddha, so whatever level—high or low—of trainees take up the practices they are so readily-applicable to be practised, convenient to practise. The reason why all varieties of teachings by Buddha are inclusive to the stages of the path of the three capable persons is because all the teachings given by Buddha are directly or indirectly for the welfare of trainees, sentient beings. As regards the welfare of trainees, they are inclusive to two kinds: temporary welfare and the ultimate welfare. The higher statuses (higher rebirths) are the temporary welfare; definite excellences are the ultimate welfare.

Why the welfares/interests are inclusive to those two is because Buddha’s enlightened deeds, in accomplishing trainees’ welfare, are of two kinds: to make trainees attain the higher statuses and to make attain the definite excellences. Achieving of the higher statuses, or the methods for achieving them, are inclusive to the stages of the path of the small capable person, or the stages of the path common with the small capable person; there’s not any not inclusive to either of the two. The definite excellences are of two kinds: mere liberation, and Buddhahood, the state of complete enlightenment. If the reference is to mere liberation it refers to hearer’s foe-destroyed state (śrāvaka: arhat; arhacchrāvaka:), of having eschewed afflictive obscurations, and solitary realizer foe-destroyed state (pratyekbuddha arhat; prayetkjina ~); both arhats have eschewed merely afflictive obscurations, thereby have attained mere liberation, a cessation state, of not having to be reborn in samsaric states by the control of karma and afflictions, but since they have not eschewed obscurations to omniscience they are not able to see the mode-of-existence (reality) of all phenomena just as a Buddha would see. And similarly they are not able to perform for trainees benevolent deeds effortlessly and spontaneously as a Buddha would; they do not know all trainees’ mental dispositions, thoughts and latent tendencies. The teachings given by Buddha for hearers and solitary realisers to attain liberation are inclusive to the cycle of teachings on intermediate capable person.

The other part of the definite excellences is the state of Omniscience, All-knower state. As regard the methods for attaining the state of Omniscience, the varieties of teachings of Buddha are of two: discourse category (Sūtra) and continuity category (Tantra). For instance, with the teachings by Buddha Shakyamuni, the teachings were given of the two types: Discourse and Continuity. In the discourse (Sūtra) teachings the means taught for attaining Buddhahood, Omniscience, are the practices of the six perfections and the four attributes of drawing in trainees. The means taught in Continuity (Tantra) are the practices of taking results into the path. Both of them are inclusive to the path for attaining Omniscience.

All the stages of path for attaining the higher statuses and the definite excellences are thus inclusive to the stages of the path of the three capable persons. There are then the path of the small capable person by itself, and the path of the intermediate capable person by itself, on one hand. And on the other hand, the stages of the path common with the small capable person, the stages of the path common with the intermediate capable person, and the stages of the path of the great capable person, where the former two are in the nature of the common stages of the path—many are the contexts they are described as such.

The stages of the path of the small capable person by itself is what is said in The Lamp of the Path, that one aspires merely the higher status in the next life and strives at the means for achieving that. The stages of the path of the intermediate capable person by itself is where one aspires mere state of liberation and trains on the path for achieving the state of liberation, one does not train on it as a preliminary to the path of the great capable person. They are what are called ‘their own path’, their path per se. When the mention is of ‘the common’, ‘the stages of the path common with the small capable person’ and ‘the stages of the path common with the intermediate capable person’ they mean that even for a person training on the great capable person’s path one certainly would need the stages of the path common with the small capable person, the means of attaining the higher status (higher rebirth) in the next life, and  the stages of the path common with the intermediate capable person, the means for eschewing afflictive obscurations, the means for generating a genuine thought of renunciation. Thus even for someone training on the path of the great capable person, as the preliminaries, if one does not precede with having trained one’s mind on the stages of the path common with the small and intermediate capable person it would not be possible to enter directly the path of the great capable person.

As such, also when instructing on the great capable person’s stages of the path the stages of the path of the other two are taught as the preliminaries to that of the great capable person’s path. The reason for that is because the root-like or the essence-like of the great capable person’s path is the great objectless compassion, the great compassion focussed on all sentient beings. For a qualified great compassion to arise within one’s mind one has to know the manner how sentient beings are tormented by sufferings, and there has to be a qualified thought of wanting to liberate them from the sufferings; one has to have indispensably generated that thought.

For arising of the thought that feels unbearable about sentient beings tormented by sufferings, at first, one has to feel unbearable about one’s own sufferings; if there wasn’t such feeling one wouldn’t see one’s own samsaric sufferings as sufferings, and in the absence of feeling unbearable about one’s own sufferings it would be very difficult for arising in one’s mind the great compassion feeling unbearable about other sentient beings tormented by sufferings.

For the great compassion to arise, therefore, one has to have as its preliminary a genuine thought of renunciation focused on one’s own sufferings; that is indispensably needed. As such, one certainly needs to know and reflect on, as the indispensable preliminaries, the details of the sequence of entering samsara through the all-sources [actions and afflictions], samsaric sufferings, and so on, that are taught in the intermediate capable person’s path. For such a genuine thought of renunciation, seeing samsaric sufferings, to arise, one has to, at first, generate the renunciation repelling clinging to this life, that there is no essence with this life, that all activities done for this life have no essence, that they are impermanent. Thus, as the preliminaries to generating renunciation present in the intermediate capable person’s stages of the path, one thinks on the sufferings of the bad wanderings (lower rebirths), and so on, and that this life is impermanent, thereby one has to certainly generate the renunciation repelling clinging to this life. That has to precede indispensably. In such a way, even for someone training on the great capable person’s path one has to certainly train one’s mind on the stages of the path common with the intermediate and the small capable persons.

As such, if leading a trainee, a beginner, on the path is done thus in the practice tradition of the incomparably great Atisha, that’s by leading in stages on the path of the three capable persons, the varieties of the path would be gathered complete, it would be easier for the paths to arise in one’s mental continuum; likewise, there would be no avenues of going wrong, and the practices would come about conveniently. In particular, if one does not know well in completeness the varieties and the order of the path of the three capable persons it would be difficult to know all teachings of Buddha as non-contradictory, for most of the eighty-four thousand heaps of teachings by Buddha were taught directly in accordance with the specific trainees’ mental dispositions, thoughts and latent tendencies, that some teachings given on certain occasions to eschew something were later during other occasions advised not to be eschewed; on some occasions things were described as non-existent, while on other occasions they were described as existent, and so forth—there were such variations. So the way one can understand and practise all the teachings of Buddha, the Victorious One, without contradictions is by practising with reliance on the instructions as that of The Lamp of the Path to Enlightenment, where the stages of the path of the three capable persons are well-ordered, the entire eighty-four thousand heaps of teachings of Buddha are taken into practice upon the same one cushion, in achieving enlightenment. In doing so, one would then be able to have put into practice, and practise in a convenient way.

As such, the distinct attributes listed of the teachings on the stages of the path to enlightenment (lamrim) are that all teachings would dawn upon as instructions [beneficial to the mind]; immediately realising the thoughts of the Victorious One, the Buddha; all teachings [of Buddha] are understood as non-contradictory. For example, in the case of the order of medicines taken by a patient, the medicines taken during rise of fever are not taken when the winds in the body are not in balance, and the medicines that should not be taken during rise of fever would have occasions when they can be taken. Similarly, with Buddha’s teachings, one has to know which ones are to be practised during a beginner’s stage, then what to practise when the mind’s level has reached higher, and what to practise during entry to the great vehicle’s path, and then if one were to enter the mantra vehicle what are the practices to be done at that time; all these are done in entirety without mistakes in the sequence and so forth.

1) All teachings are understood as non-contradictory, 2) all teachings dawn upon as instructions, 3) immediately finding the Victorious One’s (Buddha’s) thoughts, and 4) the major misdeeds cease by themselves—these distinct attributes certainly can be experienced and realised in one’s mind if one has understood well the stages of the path of the three capable persons. The stages of the path of the three capable persons, therefore, are the summaries of the pivots of all the teachings of Buddha, the Victorious One. In particular, for someone like us, who as a beginner, to not go wrong in practising of Buddha’s teachings, to form understanding, by having practised, on the entire teachings, and for generating in stages the entire teachings on one’s mental continuum—provided one has such intention—one has to train on the stages of the path of the three capable persons. One must not get stuck at the own paths of the small and intermediate capable persons, rather to know that the stages of the path common with the small capable person, and the stages of the path common with the intermediate capable person are the preparation or the preliminaries to training one’s mind on the great capable person’s stages of the path. By knowing such, if one is able to take them into practice one would have the hope of making meaningful the life with its attributes of the leisures, and that we would be able to practise well within the short lifespan of the degenerate times, and be able to practise effectively.

In such a way, if one studies meticulously the stages of the three capable persons and does the practices, then I think, really one’s life would become meaningful.

(The video recording of this talk, in Tibetan, can be viewed at this link: https://www.facebook.com/516299501756817/posts/3110747642311977)