In any case, this "other shore" is itself only a
figurative expression, it is nowhere and it is everywhere.
The "other shore" is that which is "beyond" all
our conceptions and this is why it is equivalent to
shesrab pharol to chinpa, the going beyond everything
of the highest kind: transcendent wisdom because it
also is a conception of our mind and nothing more
than a raft facilitating the crossing ; the best, the
surest of rafts, but which the transcendent insight (lhag
thong) shows as what it is in reality, that is to say, an
instrument.
Moreover, does the reaching of the other ~bank
mean the attainment of a definite goal ?-This is what
the majority of Buddhists believe. However the point
of view in the Secret Teachings is different.
The man who ,has crossed the river will, perhaps,
rest a while on the shore which he has reached, but
beyond that point extends a country to be traversed,
so the man will arise and continue that journey. The
crossing of the river, the landing on the "opposite
bank" are but a stage.
Stage towards what destination? Taoist mystics
have left us an enigmatic declaration to which the
Masters of the Secret Teaching fully subscribe when,
in a slightly different form, they pose the problem to
their pupils.
IN TIBETAN BUDDHIST SECTS 87
"The country which is nowhere is the real
home."12
On the other hand,. is there any traveller who
makes a crossing? Is there a somebody who reaches
the other shore?
If this was the case, this traveller would carry
with him the "hither shore" into the "beyond", just
as the dust on the soles of one's shoes is carried from
one place to another. The traveller would transform
the "other bank" into "this bank" because here and
there are in him, are him and that outside the mind
which thinks "here" and "there" are no other "here"
and "there".
To go beyond virtue and vice, opinions and
beliefs13 is to go beyond the mental constructions
which are built up by the mind, unceasingly, and to
recognize, by transcendent insight, that they are void
of reality. It is also to recognize, by transcendent
insight, that that which has been imagined as practising virtue, surrendering to vice, as holding opinions
and elaborating theories, as travelling towards a goal
and reaching the goal, is nothing but an inconsistent
phantom, devoid of reality.
12 This sentence is ascribed to the Chinese Master Lii tzii.
13 To one of his disciples who asked him: "If I am questioned
about the opinions held by my Master, what should I say?", the
Buddha replied: "You shall say: the Venerable One holds no
opinions, he is free from all opinions."