The Flight of the Garuda: Teachings of the Dzokchen Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism

The

LIGH of the

GARUDA COMPILE}) AND 'FRAN. LATED BY

Keith Dowman

Teachings of the Dzokchen Tradition

of Tibetan Buddhism

The

F l ig h t G aruda COMPILED AND TRANSLATED BY

Keith Dowman

A

First published 1994 Wisdom Publications 361 Newbury Street Boston, MA 02115 Phone: (617) 536-3358

© Keith Dowman 1994 All rights reserved.

Library ofCongress Catabgtng-in-Publication Data The Flight of the Garuda / (compiled and translated by] Keith Dowman. p. cm. Translated from Tibetan. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 86171 085 1 I. Rdzogs-chen (Rfiin-ma-pa) I. Dowman, Keith. BQ7662.4.F55 1993 294.3'85— dc20 90-26418 CIP 99 98 97 96 95 7 6 5 4 3 2 Cover painting by Terris Temple Photography by Lorene Warwick, courtesy of Steve Johnson, with thanks to Venerable Carol Corradi Set in Adobe Garamond and Diacritical Garamond at Wisdom Publications Typeset by Andrea Thompson Orpheus Korshak Designed by Andrea Thompson & Lisa J. Sawlit

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The publisher wishes to thank Mr. Silvius Dornier and the P , c „A«twn for their generous contributions toward * #• *

C

o n t e n t s

T e c h n ic a l N o t e P reface I n t r o d u c t io n

I. The Theory and Practice o f Dzokchen II. The Language o f Dzokchen E m p t y in g

the

D

epths o f

H

of the

G

65 82

The Flight o f the Garuda is h -G r a n t in g

Prayer

of

Kuntu Z angpo

Introduction

The Wish-Granting Prayer o f Kuntu Zangpo S e c r e t I n s t r u c t io n

53 59

aruda

Introduction

T he W

40

ell

Introduction From"The Sovereign Rite o f Confession..." T h e F l ig h t

3

in a

G

arland of

139 148

V is io n

Introduction Secret Instruction in a Garland o f Vision N otes

\ 57 181 197

G lo ssa ries

I. Selected Tibetan Dzokchen Terms II. Sanskrit Terms III. Numeral Terms

213 215 217

221

S e l e c t e d B ib l io g r a p h y Index

223 V

T e c h n ic a l N o t e

I n my attempt to keep the language o f this book accessible to the layman, the conventions I have adopted are as follows. I have capi­ talized the initial letter o f some com m on English words that denote a transcendental meaning in Dzokchen terminology (e.g. Awareness, Knowledge); but there are few o f these. I have used Tibetan or Sanskrit words in the text only when I have been unable to find an English equivalent. Tibetan words, in their phonetic form, are itali­ cized the first time they are used and thereafter appear in roman. Tibetan proper names appear in a phonetic form in the text with their transliterated form in the index. In the notes (and occasionally in the text), technical Tibetan terms are transliterated (according to the Wylie system) and italicized. M any technical Sanskrit words have now been assimilated into English (yoga, samadhi, nirvana, mandala, etc.); those that have not appear in italics. Whenever the Sanskrit equivalent o f a Tibetan word may be o f use, primarily in the footnotes, I have included it after the transliterated Tibetan word.

P

refa ce

T h i s BOOK CONTAINS the English translation o f four Dzokchen

texts belonging to the N yingm a School o f Tibetan B uddhism . Dzokchen, the Great Perfection, is the quintessence o f the tantric paths to Buddhahood. Among these texts, Secret Instruction in a Garland o f Vision is one of three texts said to have been written by Padma Sambhava, Tibet’s great Guru, who visited Tibet in the eighth century. It belongs to the lam rim genre, a stage-by-stage description o f the path to Buddhahood. The Flight o f the Garuda, written by Shabkar Lama in the nineteenth century, comprises a series o f twenty-three songs designed to inspire and instruct the yogin practising Dzokchen trek-

cho meditation. The two shorter versified works are extracts from liturgical “revealed texts.” Emptying the Depths o f HelU revealed by Guru Chowong in the thirteenth century, provides a Dzokchen confessional liturgy, and The Wish-Granting Prayer o f Kuntu Zangpo, revealed by Rikdzin Godemchan in the fourteenth century as part of an extensive Dzokchen tantra, is a prayer for attainment o f the Dzokchen goal. In the introduction to the book I have attem pted to place Dzokchen in a nondogmatic, less abstract and more hum an con­ text, by providing a subjective explication o f it. Necessarily, west­ ern notions and personal proclivities, needs and biases have slipped into this interpretation. Insofar as m y understanding is imperfect the result is partial and unorthodox. However, the read­ er may benefit from this personal commentary if, through inspira­ tion derived from the translations, he fills the gaps, bridges the contradictions, and jum ps beyond the verbal inadequacies to a Dzokchen view. But no text or com m entary is a substitute for ix

T m f F i .k ; h t

o i: th f.

G

arupa

,» exemplar o f D zokchen attainm ent who p a h sponwneously „a ----

existential condition. The shape of my karmic pred.spos.non led me to the Tibetan Buddhist Tantra and m.tiation into a tantric lineage was inevitable after reaching the requisite degree of honesty necessary to face my deepest proclivit.es w.thout eqmvocat.on and w i t h o u t v e ilin g re in te rp re ta tio n .

So Tibetan Buddhism, d * « > * .» " "V ~ n l u at rU? pred.lect.on though he^heeinnine g | I Had not ^ heard |n ^ the name of Dzokchen, the yoga that guaranic ,u„, j had not yet heard expounded any trad,non that formalized my untutored and disparate intuitions about Real.ty, or the process of realizing it, which seemed to me to be the mam purpose ofMe. It may be that there was never any doubt about my fate that nothing I could do would alter my destmy. But m the Dzokchen view destiny and free-will are no dichotomy: whatever .s arises spontaneously as magical illusion in the ground o f being ne.ther coming into existence nor ceasing to be. In the ceaseless dance of yogins and yoginis in the Buddhaf.eld of Pure Pleasure there is nei­ ther freedom nor bondage, no awareness or .gnorance, no coming or going, no renunciation or self-development, no self-determination or predestination; and if such transcendence is not the present actuality, then it is better to keep quiet rather than utter this or that partial, biased opinion. This may appear to be an elitist viewpoint. It excludes those not yet on the path from knowledge of it. But the truth of Dzokchen is applicable only to those on the path of Knowledge (rigpa). For others there is validity and purpose in the truth of karmic inevitability, moral cause and effect, and the progress of self-determined self-development on a relative level to a place where the Dzokchen vision is glimpsed and nondual precepts have meaning. There was never any doubt in my mind about the credibility of the tradition or its tcachers. The lineage was at least a thousand years old, and before the Communist invasion of Tibet in 1949 the entire culture of the Land of Snows was directed towards the

I n t r o d u c t io n

attainment of the Dzokchen goal or a similar form ulation o f Buddhahood.8 While I was wearing the maroon robe of the Tibetan Buddhist orders, mere mention of the w o rd Dzokchen ro the informed layman would evoke respect for the western student who aspired to it. Acknowledgement of this highest aspiration to a visit­ ing Lama invariably provoked amazement that a foreigner had gained access to Dzokchen instruction, leaving one feeling like a worm aspiring to divine rebirth. Perhaps such a Lama would indi­ cate in his inevitable circumlocutory style that Dzokchen was so secret that even he had no knowledge of it, and certainly never was his conceit so great that he had ever aspired to attain its goal! If he was prevailed upon to impart precepts, he would announce perhaps an elementary topic and speak about the rainbow body, or maybe he would label a talk on karmic retribution an essential lesson in Dzokchen: the theoretical axiom that Dzokchen cannot be spoken of directly is constantly demonstrated by the Lamas in practice. The most potent source of teaching is the mudra, mantra and tantra of the Dzokchenpa Lama’s walking, sitting, talking, eating, drinking, laughing and meditation, while the most potent exterminator of doubt is the real Lamas blessing.9 There were few texts pertaining to Dzokchen available in English translation at that time. The exceptions were the Evans-Wentz books, particularly The Tibetan Book of the Dead and the short text in The Book of the Great Liberation called “The Yoga of Knowing the M ind” which made one feel already at the end o f the path, and— before knowing them— that the Lamas would welcome one as a Buddha from the Western Paradise! The early work o f D r H.V. Guenther, The Jewel Ornament o f Liberation, being a literary transla­ tion of Gampopas renowned Thar-gyen in the Kagyupa Mahamudra'o tradition, was reading highly recommended by the D zokchen Lamas despite the works attribution to a similar though distinct lineage. Dr Guenther s Buddhist Philosophy in Theory and Practice was also available at that time. This work provided a valuable lesson

. . t^3t Was to be transcended once in the manner of analync'hin '^S ^ its definition of the path, its functions had been fu > • use(] t0 describe it, had been and the vocabulary that Gamp ^ Eng|ish was filled in part absorbed. The lack of aV3‘ 3 f liturgical texts that gave first indicaby many literal translations o foundarion practices. For myself cions of the natr 0f ^fnfouragement to learn the Tibetan lanthey also gave the initial tice Gf the liturgical meditation guage not only to faci1 ^ anslation that reflected the original as rites, but also to Produce. "d scriptUral poetry, with multi-layered divine revelation, 0X PS nX .ce. pun and paradox. However, symbolic meaning repl . [ingi music, poetry, engineering— unless an art or science'" P . in’s Sadhana in the manner of can be fully the mahamudra sidd as, Scholar, the Lamas a vise

for meditation

u n n

Tantipa the Weaver or Dharmapa the ta|cnrs should be abandoned . e was complete. This was

t ep^ ^

seeking initiation learnt with

a lesson rnac scvti«« some misgiving.

Then what of the Lamas themselves? The mirror-like inscrutability that provides the perfect tabula rasa for devotees’ mental projection; the unique Tibetan Buddhist sensibility and refinement whereby Buddhafields are simulated in every detail o f the daily round, even to the extent of transforming faeces by mantra into liberating nectar for insects; the humility allowed by the complete self-assurance and integrity of a consummate spiritual aristocracy who have served as the high-priests of Central Asia for centuries with an incomparable magic; and the profound depth o f hum an understanding and responsiveness, which I will call the Buddhas* compassion, exempli­ fied by the exceptional Lama: these four elements can create a cer­ tainty within the seeker that many of these divine beings actually hold rhe secrets that others claim for them, and that their tulkus (incarnations who have undergone unique conditioning) are indeed the tenth or fifteenth reincarnations o f Buddha-Lamas. In the

iKt r o n n t if'TU'lhS

euphoria and with the high expectations of that time there was no difficulty at all in accepting the elder generation of Lamas, those who had completed their training and established themselves as teachers of their peers in Tibet, as accomplished Bodhisatrvas at the very least. Even the younger generation of Lamas, who almost with­ out exception were tulkus whose training had been broken by polit­ ical turmoil, had a certain conviction and awareness about them, together with the same aura of compassion. This added to the sense that Dzokchen training was like a miracle panacea, invariably bringing automatic results. In the older Lamas’ formula for success that brought them disci­ ples from all over the world it may be that the unique element was the extraordinary catalyst to their spiritual evolution provided by barbaric foreign invasion, war, rape and pillage o f their country, their exile, and that vast welter of suffering. As the legends o f the eighty-four Indian mahasiddhas demonstrate, suffering provides the essential motivation for renunciation and meditation practice. In the Lamas’ pure-Iand “exile” means “renunciation o f homeland and family,” a vital precept found in all the texts." Poverty, a practice instituted by Sakyamuni Buddha himself, is a wellspring o f experi­ ential learning, particularly if those with whom the beggar interacts perceive him as a mendicant with some ethical integrity. The monastic cloth has the effect on its wearer o f intensifying the hells and heightening the heavens. The wholesale destruction o f Tibet’s ancient religious culture and the genocidal extermination of “reactionary” monks and lay­ men during the Cultural Revolution of the sixties can in no way be justified. But a Lama whose vision is always a B u d d h a fie ld remarked that the lesson o f impermanence taught by the Chinese Red Guards, the truth of suffering taught by the Peoples Liberation Army, not to forget the instruction on karmic retribution inculcat­ ed by defeat, is worth three lifetimes o f meditation in a hermitaee I he theocracy that was so abused by Maoism was by no means n

1 Hfc rU O rtiv L - L L ^L

quo that

perfect, and the inflexibility and attachment to the

IhadV ossified c a

ih e t a n c o n s c io u s n e s s parts of T Tibetan c ^

The radical solution prov

ers were possesse

^

^

jsm was a he„ ish f

alm o,, geneiically made manifest y we,e t o n b , » standing. T h e y purs e r mutilate uman

c r ie d o u t f o r surgery,

Th« Red G „ „ d k ld , ' divorced from existential undergpd M f e d by a ™ , « . ancj affection, while their follow­ ^ ghost5i by denizens of hell, and by |aw. But this grist to the Dzokchen-

animal SP '"t5J e^ di(at,on that history has recently provided, like Y° g,nS Z of the za-zen master’s cane on the acolyte’s back, can the stroke ^ m ind’s state of awareness. In have a hig y ene ‘ „ hi generation o f Lama-exiles has been

^ ''e x is te n tia l glow radiated from the pain-lines superimposed upon the wind and sun-worn faces of yogins and monks recently descended from the Tibetan plateau in the wmter. This created a strong positive impression upon this cultural exile from the West m auest of the means to deal with his own small burden. Later, the Tibetans’ success in establishing themselves in the harsh alien envronment o f the Indian plains, sustaining c o m m u n a l feeling, mam-

taining their spiritual ptactice, building monasteries and temples to reproduce in detail the monastic ambience they had left behind, all this was nothing short o f magic, or at least the demonstration of mastery of the skilfal means that when applied with flexibility over­ come whatever obstacles arise in the adept’s path. So it was not ony the attraction of the metaphysics, the aesthetics and the t eory ° meditation that brought many o f us to the Lamas, but also the, good humour and a demonstrable power and high awareness

fired in the crucible of vast suffering.

In a broader analysis, social and political circumstances in

I n t r o d u c t io n

conspiring in Europe, ktlicn practice this razors edge is internalized. Passion is not to

I n t r o d u c t io n

be invoked and exaggerated in any public forum. The uncontrolled in is not free of moral cause and effect, and gross literal practice I f these precepts will result in a fall as surely as smoke arises from fire Only if the yogin’s karma is such that his recognition is insuffi­ cient to neutralize gross active manifestation of passion will he fall into the error of taking his meditation into passionate situations outside his retreat hut. The overriding precept is “neither indulge nor reject” in respect of the situations that karma provides, and constant training in this practice modifies karma, as “horizontal,” or linear causation, becomes subservient to the “vertical" effusion of compassionate energy.26

The Path: The Dharma as a Raft The dharma is likened to a raft carrying sentient beings across the ocean of life. On rhe bank of the other shore is the death beyond which is eternal life. In the case of the Dzokchen adept there awaits a rainbow body. The mind of the adept becomes one with the vast field of space that is the ground of being. O u t of this ground are emanated all of samsara and nirvana in variegated lightforms, and tulkus are manifest in bodies of light to work for the salvation of all beings. The raft of dharma is abandoned on the other shore, for here the names o f samsara and nirvana are unknown, the path called no-more-learning begins, and simultane­ ous with the landing is the realization that the dharma is as temporal and ephemeral as the rest of creation and that its truth is expedient to accomplishment of its own end. Its purpose is usurped by no­ purpose, for the keyword on the other shore is spontaneity. Certainly, a purpose can be discerned by the ignorant conceptual­ izing mind, and clearly the intent of all movement and quiescence is the enlightenment of all sentient beings. But the acausal. non­ originated emanations, which comprise the Dance of the D ik in i. arise adventitiously and spontaneously, forming a synchronistic

T h e F l ig h t

o f the

G aruda

pattern lacking evident linear relationship. However, from the point of view of the devotee at the boarding stage on the near shore, the raft seems to be an absolute. There must be no doubt as to the efficacy of the method upon which the sadhakas entire life-fortune and future lives depend. So the Lama and the scriptures make much of the safety of each partic­ ular boat, stressing the superior design and construction that allows quick and easy access to the other shore. In Dzokchen the proclivity for doubt is especially potent, and invariably at some point the questions wWhy meditate? and What use is the dharma?” will arise. Before realization of the nature of reality as emptiness, of form as phantom and illusion, of speech as empty echo, and of the dharma as an expendable prop, becomes a spontaneous and reflex­ ive response, there is danger of the yogin cutting off the hand that feeds him while his appetite is yet unsated. The Flight ofthe Garuda recommends recommitment and re-initiation at the Lamas feet in times of doubt and pride.27

The Path: Vision “Vision” is an unchanging perspective on the nature of reality. The path, the Four Noble Truths, the nature of ignorance and Dzokchen is aJ! “vision.” The concept of vision will be discussed in detail in the introduction to the Garland of Vision (see p. 160). In the four­ fold framework of analysis of the path provided by vision, medita­ tion, action and the goal,28 vision or view is the first head, and everything that can be written, spoken or thought is seen from the standpoint o f Dzokchen vision. Thus this entire work is a commen­ tary on Dzokchen vision and the discursive m ind is the filter through which the vision is expressed. Another analysis identifies “vision” as the starting point, “meditation” as the path and “action” as the goal. No doubt such a view teaches a valuable truth about the

fundamental but limited use of the intellect, but “vision” has another 24

I n t r o d u c t io n

which is best translated as “seeing." This is the practical mCanm8f the precept “vision" as opposed to the theoretical exercise aspCCt ° erbai explanation of the Dzokchenpa's perspective. Perhaps ‘u 1 nly distinction between these two aspects is the level of clarity f the mind involved. When the Lama writes this introduction his ° 1 ^ts are the direct expression of his enlightened detachment at 'he moment of writing. When he rises from his scat of inspiration h i s vision is sustained. He still “sees” all appearances as the Buddhas bldy all sound as the Buddhas word and all thought as the Buddhas u r e gnostic awareness. When the Lama thinks “all emptiness is form and all form is emptiness" (if such an absurdity ever crosses his mind) it is so. When we think such a thought we may be affected for good or bad by the degree of our attachment to the words. There is a dialectic in Dzokchen thought, difficult to catch and analyze, that is effective in detaching the mind from all concepts whatsoever and persuading the intellect chat the middle path of per­ fect detachment is the path to that holistic balance wherein the human potential for power and awareness is maximized. Evidently, this process is not nett neti (“not this, not that"), the process of sys­ tematic denial and refutation of whatever concept arises, which has been employed by Hindu schools to great effect. Rather it is an application of Arya Nagarjuna’s formula of fourfold refutation.-’ The nature of the Dzokchenpas reality is frequently described as “indeterminable”*1or “that which cannot be described by any of the eight extremes”: coming into being, ceasing to be; eternal, momen­ tary; existent, nonexistent; as appearance or emptiness. This inde­ terminable nature of the Dzokchenpas reality can be restated in the anuyoga metaphor: the energies of the right and the left psychic channels emptied into the central channel, the avadhuti W hen a perfect holistic balance is obtained the “excluded middle” is real­ ized. Guru Chowangs confessional Emptying the Depths of Hell is a fine expression of this balancing act. Since no concept is ultimately valid, every concept is valid to 25

T h e F l ig h t

oh t h e

G aruda

some degree. The validity of an idea is determined by its efficacy. Ideas such as those embodied in the Bodhisatrva Vow and the H eart Sutra are universally efficacious, although even these transcendental notions may be poison in the minds of some unbalanced individuals. Every idea has its time and place. From the Dzokchen viewpoint argument as to the ultimate validity of an idea is the occupation of fools.

The Path: Meditation If “vision” is the function of pure perception, “meditation” is an unbroken stream of seeing. (“Action is the dynamic form of the yogins being.) Dzokchen meditation is a formless meditation, which means that there is no object upon which to concentrate, no visualization to construct and contemplate, no distinction made between subjective cognizer and sensory object. Meditation in the Dzokchen context is the active expression of gnostic awareness. It is outside the realm of cause and effect, so there can be no question of directing the mind towards any form of samadhi. Whatever arises appears spontaneously without coming into existence or ceasing to be, and the awareness from which it is inseparable is likewise an aspect of the continuum of space, colour and name that is beyond the function of the mind to express. Attachment and detachment are perceptual errors in the dualistic realm of sensory object and mental subject: in Dzokchen meditation there is no duality and no problem generated by ignorance. The Dzokchen meditations described in the translations herein are “preliminary” exercises. The adjective “Dzokchen” indicates the goal o f a lineage of practitioners, but may not pertain to the defini­ tion o f meditation* as given above. The analysis of consummate Dzokchen meditation is a description of the enlightened mind from the standpoint o f perfect awareness, Knowledge (rigpa)* and remains unutterable.

In t r o d u c t io n

fbe Path'- Action The Dzokchen pa is first a shape-shifter. No outer or inner form es his secret nature, which is emptiness, more than any other no one specific form of practice is correct practice; and no one outer form of conduct can be adopted as a universal method of service to sentient beings over any other. Insofar as each situation demands a different form of response and expression, the Dzokchen in is a chameleon. Just as the chameleon naturally and sponta­ neously changes colour as the chcmistry of response works in his body, so the yogin changes his mudra (gesture, posture) and mantra (spoken word) as the bodhicitta of compassion floods his being at the inception of each new human situation in his sense-fields. The entire gamut of emotivity, intellectual stance and social role com­ prise his wardrobe; he is as much at home in the temple as in a brothel; and his friends may as well be found among thieves as courtiers. Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, the Dzokchenpa can mani­ fest in any form in any milieu. However, until he has reached the end of the path, there are cer­ tain inner modes that the Dzokchenpa may find more expedient than others. After all, the Bodhisattva Vow is an unsleeping master, and some social roles virtually preclude loving ones neighbour on an overt level. So before the drawing of breath also becomes fulfil­ ment of the Vow, it may be expedient to seek situations where altruistic aspiration has free play. Later, when the bodhicitta arises spontaneously in a constant stream, when transcendent compassion is an integral part of every moment of pure sense perception, the Dzokchenpa can manifest only bodhisattvic emanations. Thus the compassionate nature of the Dzokchenpas vision and his conse­ quent activity is not systematically cultivated. Rather, compassion is the goal itself under a different name, and having achieved the goal, nothing that can be done is free from compassionate motivation. As Shabkar Lama says in The Flight of the Garuda, “Coincident with

T h e F l ig h t

of the

G aruda

the development of a happy, glowing, thought-free samadhi is the birth of authentic compassion, which is like the love a mother holds for her only son....This compassion is a very special feature of Dzokchen vision.”3* Whatever his outer form, the Dzokchenpa is always a yogin and

the yoga he practises is atiyoga (sustaining Knowledge). Any other technique from simple calisthenic yoga* to manipulation of the vital breath with mantra and visualization, is employed as required. The Dzokchen-yogins cave is the cave of emptiness, where Kuntu Zangpo, the Primordial Buddha, sits in eternal meditation. In the realm of radiance and vibration he is the yidam deity, his bone ornaments the five passions" recognized as the five aspects of pri­ mal awareness. In the realm of compassionate reflexive action he is Guru Rimpoche; his vajra-sceptre, unfailing compassion; and his bell, penetrating insight into the nature of all situations as emptiness; and so forth. However, in Himalayan Asia many renunciate yogins skilled in yogas besides atiyoga are Dzokchenpas. My first and most loving Dzokchen teacher was a Khampa yogin named Jortrala, who lived near Darjeeling as his patrons house-priest, wore the hair knot, and demonstrated a traditional disregard for personal appearance. Tibetan yogins rarely went naked or wore the single piece of cotton cloth unless they were practising turno* heat-yoga, on the snow­ line. So, the Dzokchenpa may also be a priest, and insofar as many great Lamas of Tibetan refugee society are priests as well as Dzok­ chenpas, the impression is rife that Dzokchen is essentially a monopoly of the hierarchical priesthood o f tulkus. Such an impression is false. Many of the great Lamas of Tibetan refugee society, including the Dalai Lama and, of course, many of the Nyingma School Lamas, are Dzokchenpas, but they all would vie to disavow any superiority in Dzokchen over its humblest mendi­ cant practitioner. The role of priest may actually work against progress in Dzokchen, since the tendency to identify the absolute 28

In t r o d u c t io n

with the sacred, as against the profane, is sometimes present in the priest’s work. Another role expedient in the practice o f Dzokchen is that o f healer Since healing is essentially a reim position o f balance and detachment, the Dzokchenpa w ho stands identified w ith the empty awareness and compassion that transcend all sickness (and health) is in a position to transfer the energy and love required to reimpose equilibrium w ithin the patients unbalanced psycho-organism. Skill in the science o f energy-flows in mental, neural and hemal spheres, in pharmacology and posology, etc., assists the healer’s essentially psychosomatic art. A healer may not always be a D zokchenpa, b u t a Dzokchenpa always has the capacity to heal.

To those ignorant of psychosomatics— and semantics— healing can appear to be magic, and indeed the Dzokchenpa is always a magician in many senses of the word. The magic of shape-shifting and healing has already been mencioned. The magic of the mahasiddhas, such as materialization, walking through rock, speed-walking, alchemical preparation of the elixir of deathlessness, raising the dead, and so forth, (ambiguous statements that must be interpreted on two levels) is attained ar the end of the path. The most important magic, the enchantment that is indicative of the supreme siddhi s accomplishment, is gnostic awareness of the moment-to-moment spontaneous manifestation of the grand sensory illusion that is mahamudra. Then besides those powers, called siddhi* the Dzok­ chenpa has minor powers like extrasensory perception and ability to manipulate “external” phenomena— psychokinesis— that are termed rddhi. There is no inducement to explain the nature of these powers to the sceptically inclined. The sceptic must make the commitment himself and discover experientially the nature of “magic. ” The Dzokchenpa, however, is not ar all a puritan. No vow inhibits him from sensual indulgence or intellectual creativity. No action of body, speech or mind is forbidden him, and his saint­ hood is attained by means other than conformity to moral laws. 29

T h e FtKlHT OF THE Kj AKVu a

Detachmenc from every situation and compassion for every sen­

tient being without exception are the signs o f his achievement. Again detachment is not to be understood as distant diffidence or dispassionate indifference. The scriptural definition moulds the word as “without identification with or separation from.” The actor, the action, and the acted upon are a clear and delightful uni­ tary perception about which the perceiver has an unequivocal atti­ tude of detachment. This prevents involuntary involvement and permits the spontaneous motivating thrust o f compassion to deter­ mine the feeling-tone communicated. The unbroken stream of compassionate detachment is the attitude that outsiders see as sainthood, if the result of the action is perceived as virtuous. To the Dzokchenpa both socially acceptable and non-conventional acts are equally valid means of transmitting joy and awareness. If his karma is so pure that his activity is restricted to conventional virtue, then he will not only be a saint in the mahayana sense but to Christian perception as well. From the Dzokchen standpoint his continuous, compassionate awareness is his great achievement. The Dzokchenpa in any culture is a traveller, a voyager in psy­ chic spaces. In western civilization, where adventure to alien shores, with or without weapons, has always absorbed the inclination to delve into the unknown, the age of terrestrial exploration is over. There is nothing left to explore but inner and outer space. This century has seen a radical intensification of interest in the human mind, and particularly to maps of the psyche drawn by Asians, whose introversive aspirations have been given maximal social sup­ port for millennia. The Dzokchen explorer faces the most danger­ ous path and the most rewarding goal. So the predicament o f a lone space-voyager faced by hostile, disembodied foes on a distant planet may be applied as an analogue germane to the neophyte Dzok­ chenpas career. 1 he Dzokchcnpas milieu is like space because there is nothing substantial in his universe; there are no concrete points o f reference to guide him, no infallible dogma to give his intellect

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or support, and no systematic metaphysical charts to ide him. As in space, there is no upside or downside and no cenfe” or circumference to his mandala, and there is no spiritual gravity to pull him down to earth should he fall. The space-voyager’s fear of the vast immensity that is his environment is similar to the Dzokchenpas apprehensive consciousness floating in the endless expanse of inner space. A voyager or explorer he certainly is, because he left all known mental and spiritual territory behind him when he com­ mitted himself to his samayas, allowing himself to be guided by his spontaneous response to the needs of all sentient beings and the constant imperative to maintain full awareness. He is alone because no matter how close he is to family or dharma-friends, and regard­ less of the density of other beings around him, he must always take complete responsibility for his own actions and accept the karma of others as if it were his own. At the same time he refuses every offer of complicity and the companionship that shares karmic s tr u c t u r e

effect. The illusion of hostility is a common ambience in which the lone-travelling novice on the path finds himself until he learns how to become invisible and how to transform negative elements into friendly aids on the way. Since public morality must remain sub­ servient to the imperatives that keep his samaya intact, if any vicious, socially unacceptable propensities remain, inevitably he will find himself an outsider in the time-honoured tradition o f the sadhu and mystic. This may entail living an alternative, or perhaps deviant, life-style on the fringes of society, forever the scapegoat for the guilty moralist and the self-motivated critic dem anding an homogenous and conformist society. Listen to the w-estern-educated Indian unload his guilt upon the poor H indu sadhu! Even if his socially negative karmas have been exhausted in past lives, regardless of the success of the shape-shifting stratagems that give him the appearance o f conformity, the divergences in the form of the vo^iris inner space set him apart. This leaves him open to the paranoias

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that beset lone individualists. His realization, which maintenance of samaya inevitably brings, elevates him above the level where hostile forces are embodied and seen as hostile men and women. He |ivcs in a world of spiritual powers or psychological forces where it is imperative that a mirror-like clarity of mind is maintained, the better to identify and transfix the enemy. The Dzokchenpa is also a warrior. This is not a traditional con­ cept in any Buddhist scct of any country (except perhaps Japan), but if the use of such a concept as the spiritual warrior serves to elu­ cidate the dharma and attract the warriors mind to the path, then its use is justified. Certainly, on any level of Buddhism other than the Inner Tantra the concept would be inimical to the basic precept of ahimsd (nonviolence); but in the Inner Tantra it has some validi­ ty. In the past it was not thought anomalous in Hindu Tantra that sadhus should be formed into a fighting force, and indeed specific sadhu orders became the martial protectors o f sanatanam dharam in the face of Muslim aggression. There is little scope for such crass litcrality of interpretation in Buddhist Tantra, and certainly for the Dzokchenpa conflict, war, killing and slaughter occur only on a metaphysical plain. The Dzokchen warrior is armed with two high­ ly efficacious weapons and he maintains some important allies. His principal weapons are the phurbu and katvanga The phurbu is a

dorje (vajra-sceptre) with the blade of a dagger at one end. The ngakpa, the Tibetan Dzokchenpa warrior, arrayed in the garb demanded by such a super-ritualized society, carries a symbolic phurbu in his belt, the blades never sharpened, the point as dull as a dogs hind leg. The function of the phurbu is to transfix demons and spirits, liberating them into the space that is their essence. The dorje represents empriness and awareness, and it is the Dzokchenpas penetrating insight into the nature of all things as emptiness that is represented by the point of the dagger. The master’s enemies are deJusive emor/ona] poisons and thoughtforms, neuroses and complexcs, generated by a dark corner remaining in his own mind or

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ated by another beings ignorant mind. They are psycholog.cal functions that appear to have lives of their own to the extent that superstitious human beings propitiate them both ritually and in the course of their daily life and communication with others. Struck by hurbu they dissolve into nothingness, while the minds that pos­ sessed them, having experienced a taste of the emptiness that liber­ ated the spirit, are freed in catharsis. A synonym of these spiritual forces that are the yogins enemies is the evocatively onomatopoeic Tibetan word “gek,” which means liter­ ally “obstacle,” “hindrance” or “obstruction.” In both ritual obser­ vance and meditation the yogin devotes considerable time to exercises invoking and destroying geks>* so that during the periods between meditation he can spontaneously effect the destruction o f whatever obstacles of this nature arise in his path. Geks arise, complete their pernicious tasks, and vanish, with the speed of a changing thoughtform, and there is no time for considered thought and action. Certainly, geks are mainly of diminutive size and mere sight o f the phurbu or dorje is sufficient to dissolve them. But phenomena of the same psychological category can possess an individual to the extent that an observer is convinced that the being possessed and the spirit are one, and this perception, by society at large or by even the afflicted beings close friends, can doom the sufferer to the asylum. It is the Dzokchenpa Bodhisattva’s role to exorcise such spirits: his kind alone in society possesses the skilful means. W hen the nature of the demon or complex is relatively benign but resides con­ tinuously in a fragment o f the psyche o f a man who refuses to acknowledge its presence, it may be the duty o f the Dzokchenpa gently to bring the possessed individual to the recognition that is the prelude to liberation o f the spirit. W hen the spirit is hostile and the proximity of the insight that can destroy it excites it and its host 10 aggressive behaviour towards the bearer o f the awareness, the

Dzokchenpa— the warrior— is forced to engage the enemy with its ost as its protector and agent. In such a situation the danger to the

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Dzokchenpa lies in the tendency ro forget that the host is the suf­ ferer and a victim and so become negatively attached to his own aggression— “to take it personally” as we say— thus becoming impo­ tent to exorcise the spirit. The liberation of spirits is a function of the Dzokchenpa as exorcist as much as warrior, ft must be stressed that although the warrior <jj$_ tinguishes between friend and foe, his attitude towards them both is determined by the same compassion. The compassion towards a friend implies application of a different form of skilful means, bur the motivation is identical. Another way of saying it is that the wrathful face that the Dzokchenpa turns towards hostile beings or spirits is as compassionate as the peaceful mien he shows his friends. The detach­ ment that is neither identification nor separation is the key to this conundrum. So “exorcist” is no mean label; it implies the full detached skill and compassion of the Dzokchen yogin. The life-stories of the Great Guru, Guru Rimpoche, are replete with stories of his successful liberation of petty spirits and his subju­ gation of gods and demons that would serve the dharma as guardians and allies. The monk and abbot Santaraksita, invited bv King Trisong Detsen to ordain the first Tibetan monks and build a monastery, was unable to suppress the ndga-scvpcnts and yaksa-t\tmentals that possessed the ground and building materials. Guru Rimpoche, the warrior-sadhu, subjugated the myriad Tibetan gods and demons as well as their Bonpo shaman devotees whom he encountered as he approached Samye from Nepal, before clearing the area around Samye of all aggressive forces. Afterwards he visited aJl the major mountains in Tibet to suppress the powerful moun­ tain gods, and he also made pilgrimage to the lakes wherein dwelt the life-spirits of the country.36 The victorious Indian sadhu travel­ ling alone in the vast empty spaces and treacherous mountains of the Tibetan plateau, among nomadic M ongol shamans of an aggressive disposition (these same people were then the conquerors o f the whole o f Central Asia), presents the archetypal image of the

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warrior and exorcist. The ngakpas have maintained the t r a d it io n of mendicant Buddhist shamans in Tibet. Since the time of Guru Rimpoche the Tibetans have relied upon the mantric pow­ ers of the exorcist to protect them from external danger. Such re lia n ce may not always effect the defeat of an invading army, but it can leave the defenders morally victorious and spiritually unbowed. The phurbu is the Dzokchenpas weapon against his enemies, while ihc katvanga is his weapon against his own ego. The Tibetan Buddhist katvanga consists of a trident (trisula)* the three-pronged “fork” carried by saivitc sadhus in India and by the Greek god Poseidon, that pierces the centre of a double dorje on a horizontal plane, a “vase of eternal youth” filled with the elixir of immortality, and three human heads below the three prongs. The double dorje, or crossed vajras,37 is the emblem of the karma-family (at the north­ ern direction of the mandala), signifying perfect action accom­ plished spontaneously for all sentient beings. The trident itself by its form indicates the unity of the trinity. The trinity is the three existential modes of the Buddha— dharrnakdya, sambhogakdya and nirmdnakaya— and the unity is the Buddha himself, sometimes expressed as a fourth “body” or mode, the svabhavikakdya, or the unity of form and emptiness. The three correspond to secret, inner and outer planes o f being, and also to ignorance, aversion and desire (although the last two may be transposed circumstantially). Thus the three transfixed heads— the first a blue skull, the second a white “dry” head and the third a red head dripping with blood— represent the Dzokchenpas recognition o f ignorance and sloth, aversion and hatred, and desire and lust, as the three modes of being.38 It is the katvanga of emptiness that pierces the nature of the D zokchen

three principal obstacles to clarity and awareness and transforms them into the primal awareness, radiant clarity and all-embracing compassion of the Buddhas being. Further, it is interesting to note, when Guru Rimpoche was attending Trisong Detsens court while is consort, the Princess Yeshe Tsogyel was banished, the katvanga

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was the form into which the Guru transformed her so that he should always have her with him. Thus the katvanga of emptiness and primal awareness is the Dzokchenpas consort, as well as his most potent weapon. In the warriors perpetual battle to penetrate every obstacle to his enlightenment with emptiness, he has this consort as his constant support. Transformation, as alteration from an inferior to a superior sta­ tus, from ignorance to knowledge, and so forth, is not a concept consonant with Dzokchen atiyoga. The reason is that all things from the very beginning arc pure and complete in the universal ground of being. “Recognition” is the term germane to description of the awakening process of the Dzokchenpa. Thus the five poisons are not to be transformed. They are to be recognized for what thev are and what they have always been: the five aspects of primal awareness. Furthermore, recognition is achieved by withdrawing consciousness from the stressful mental functions of dualization, relaxing into the original nature of the mind, and getting behind the mindscape so full of objects of potential attachment. If he does not fall into an effective pattern of meditation drawn by the instinct that constantly directs him towards maturing experience, there are various techniques that the Dzokchen neophyte may be taught by his Lama to assist recognition of his emotions as aspects of aware­ ness. The recognition can be affected in meditation in the crucible of the mind by provoking emotion and then penetrating its F.mptiness with the insight that has been developed in “insight meditation.”” A more direct and forcible method is through the practice called chad:VI here the yogin repairs to a desolate and fearsome powerplace, such as a charnel ground or the habitation of ferocious demons such as flesh-eaters, spirits of disease, malicious dakinls. anti so fonh. I hen preparing his mind with mantra and music, (demifying wiih the yidain, he invites the spirits to attack him. The four demon s p ir it are those specifically invoked in the tradition

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f Machik Labdron, an eleventh- to twelfth-century Tibetan yogini who established the principal chod lineage in Tibet. Machik prac­ tised sexual yoga, and these four demons, particularly, of course, the devil of emotional passion, are the bane of highly sexed yogins. But through exercise in this yoga, the yogin or yogini is rendered safe when he or she must spontaneously respond to the demons evoked in a passionate relationship conducted in the course of sadhana. Practitioners of this technique are frequently psychologically and physically mauled, but the greatest warriors of chod become adept in the transformation (recognition or release) of every' emotional and spiritual force. Particularly, since the transformation of spirits of disease implies a self-curc, chodpas become immune to illness and learn the art of healing in the process. The Lama will empha­ size the folly of evoking passion in the mainstream of life, no matter what altruistic motive inspires the Bodhisattva neophyte, until one of the pracciccs of cutting attachment described above, or a similar yoga, has been successfully accomplished. In the initial phase of practice, probably the period immediately following discovery of a Lama, it is most advantageous to spend time in retreat, or better still, as a monk or nun in retreat. In such a space a solid foundation can be laid, beneficial habits can be developed, and the mind can be established in the purity affected by the initiation received from the Lama. Most of us must practice no-meditation and no-action in the form of simple purificatory techniques. Further down the path, in freedom from expectation of results, we can assimilate the whole of life’s potential into our practice. Intense intimacy, emotional harmony and trust, and spiri­ tual attunement, can be developed to an optimal degree in a pas­ sionate, sensually interactive relationship, which thus provides one of the most effective situations in which to practise and learn. No better occasion may arise to develop the Bodhisattva’s responsive­ ness. The cynic may laugh because the primary universal motiva­ tion, sexual pleasure, which he considers all in .ill to all, including

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the Dzokchen-Bodhisatcva, is not given prim acy here. O f course sexual desire is the starting point. The sexual centre is the seat of

our vital energy*2 and of KundalinI herself, and the more intense, sustained and object-less is sexual desire the better. But what mu$( be simultaneous with the arousal o f desire is the penetrating insight into desire as emptiness; and the m o tiv a tio n that springs from empty awareness of desire is the Bodhisattvas aspiration of

selfless service. The pure pleasure, dewachenpo, mahdsukha, that is to be found within sexual interaction— which is indeed found if the adepts yoga has been effective and if negative karma is not to be gleaned from the encounter— is the inevitable fruit of all our labour; but pleasure must never be the conscious m otivation. If this moment is to be prostituted to the next, if a relationship is motivated from the beginning by a selfish desire, if lust is not rec­ ognized as emptiness and attachment not destroyed, then the seeds of disaster are sown. Although some physical pleasure is obtained, the result of the relationship may be a break in samaya and an eter­ nity in the Dorje Nyelwa.4* Retribution can take the most violent and sadistic forms; and the negative propensity to repeat the expe­ rience, despite the retribution, will become increasingly hard to resist, until a downward spiral destroys all hope o f even a human rebirth, let alone a rainbow body. The craving for mahasukha, dewachenpo, pure pleasure, kills all chance o f attaining it. The yogin enters a sexual encounter without any hopes or fear, simply enjoying the play of magical illusion, allowing the ramifications of spontaneity to manifest for the sake o f all sentient beings. Non-action is the key to existential involvement in all passionate situations— a sexual encounter, an angry interaction, a proud stance in competition, or a jealous rivalry. 1 he apparent illogicality of the progression o f passionate mental events in the karmic stream is reflected in the superficially structureless nature o f the course of the adept’s life. When the starting point is a turning around in the seat o f consciousness and com m itm ent to the ultim ate Dzokchen

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and the goal is a rainbow body, there is no systematic path. At"the starting point, when no doubt the aspirant will first experi­ ence the spontaneously arising dictates o f responsiveness, karmic cause and effect will still be operative. Even initiation will not nec­ essarily destroy the habits o f a lifetim e or be changed by an immutable conviction that there is a higher vision. So, at the begin­ ning of the path, motivation will be mixed with non-motivation. This will lead to some confusion as periods o f unsatisfactory hori­ zontal, karmically determined action will seem to dominate the moments of eternal, resuscitating vertical effusion that seemingly are few and far between.

The Goal Insofar as Buddhahood is inexpressible and inconceivable it would be best to omit any verbal comment upon it. However, the follow­ ing epigrams, stated or implied in the foregoing commentary, have been useful to me as koans, verbal paradoxes, that point directly at the goal. Only a Buddha can recognize a Buddha. I he Lama is every moment o f perception: all vision is his body, all sound is his speech and all pure awareness is his mind. Nothing exists that is not a function o f mind. Nothing is evil or undesirable but evil thought makes it so

(Honi soit qui m aly pense). *1he starting point is the path is the goal. Anything that promotes certainty in the middle way is the only path. Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.

T H E Fl I C H T O F T H f c U A K U U A

II. T h e L a n g u a g e o f D z o k c h e n If at the beginning there is a viable basis o f understanding between Lama and disciple on a nonverbal level, still there may be many problems of communication in the conceptual realm. The notion of secrecy can be one such stumbling block. The secret or mystic” dimension is the third in a triadic hierarchy o f categories completed by the “outer” and “inner” dimensions. These categories define the relationship between hinayana, prajnaparamitayana and tantrayana, for example. In metaphysical analysis they classify, for instance, the Buddhas Body, Speech and Mind and the three modes or bodies of Buddhas being: nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya and dharmakaya. In Tantra, what pertains to the secret or mystic dimension remains for­ ever secret in the same way that subatomic particles remain hidden from sensory perception. It is impossible to divulge the Buddhas Mind, or the dharmakaya, outside its own frame o f reference. However, in Tantra there are injunctions against the initiate revealing the Gurus precepts transmitted at the time o f initiation. It may be destructive to the faith and comprehension o f the initi­ ate on a different level of practice if he is regaled with precepts irrelevant to his mind-state. For the non-initiate who may be sym­ pathetic to the teaching, it is futile and perhaps destructive to inform his mind with a structure that is significant only after initi­ ation has provided a framework. Lastly, although no harm can be done to the ultimate truth of Tantra, there is the danger o f an out­ sider, either through honest miscomprehension, or through devious twisting o f meaning and rearrangement o f context, representing what is sublime and intelligent as something vulgar and stupid. At worst this can provoke persecution o f initiates, or it can create prejudice and partiality in social consciousness. However, the most important reason for keeping the Gurus precepts secret is to mainrain the yogins integrity during the process o f realization: exposure

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o f sam ayas

outside heart-secrecy will inevitably introduce obstacles

co their fulfilment. The “initiate” in the above context refers to an individual who has experiential knowledge o f the goal o f Tantra. The “outsider” is a person with blinkered vision unable or unready to enter the path, whose spiritual development is limited by mindsets and beliefs labelled as “hedonistic,” “realistic,” “nihilistic” or “eternalistic.”44 Thus an individual who has had mere formal initiation into the tra­ dition may in fact have a non-initiates vision and may be negatively influenced by secret revelations. O n the contrary, the individual who receives initiation spontaneously and informally outside a practice lineage may gain enormous benefit from fortuitously obtained “secrets.” In general, regarding the propagation o f Dzok­ chen instruction outside the framework o f a Guru-disciple relation­ ship, in the light of the inscrutable level o f forever secret mystic realities, and insofar as the current social climate is sympathetic to gnostic traditions, most contemporary Dzokchen Lamas teach and actively support the public dissemination of their lineages’ truths. This discussion o f secrecy has introduced the “secret” or “mystic dimension,” and in the context o f the highest, Inner Tantra,4’ Dzokchen, or atiyoga, is the secret level, anuyoga the inner level and mahayoga the outer level. Dzokchens “secrecy” is a corollary o f its ineffable nature, and, therefore, the adjectives that describe the state of being that is Dzokchen are strained to capture its ambience. In fact, there is little compromise with the statement that the goal is beyond the intellect to comprehend— it is inexpressible. Adjectives employed to evoke this inexpressible existential condition, are indi­ cators of the direction in which the yogin must go to attain it. ^Naked, stripped, stark”; “direct, immediate, here and now”; and natural, simple, pure, uncontrived, unelaborated”: are three strings of such didactic terms. These words indicate the lack o f any con­ ceptual screen between the yogin and his experience, the absence o f any iuc^Sment about the elements o f the situation that confront

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him. and che absence of preconceptions about the nature of reality in general. Any discursive mental activity obscures pure perception. However, aft these statements are examples of the glib, devaluing expression that the precept enjoining the yogin to abhor such attempts at rationalization aims at precluding. There is comfort iQ these statements, but such inteUecmal support is to be avoided if the fuH force of reality is to be experienced in a thoughrfree state. This poi^r is made here in order to stress that the language of the path is 5irjCTurtd with incenoon to induce transcendence of itsdf which is an aspect ol die goal. There is li^e r.tr* in metaphysical concepts of Dzokchen to the ‘r-den: versed in .T^hiyana philosophy. One o f the best and Ti:.: a;ce*‘:bls sources through which an understanding of the bi*:c concept c: Dzc^Jien car: be obtained is Sarahas dohm. v The rxer:: ist :Ctr.::c^. the terminology is different and the parterrj ir.c « cr. "ie patterns— the way in which aspects are related v. crtste a and a pair.— are different. Despite the diflcrSira-u demonstrates not only the expenential proximity of I-.; rjkrJsr. -£ra siddha- or the Ganges Valley to the Dzokchen iniiha.; i f r.onr.-*£i:err. India and Tibet, but also the transcuhura; rjr^re -or no * ;*-*! experience. Li ar.a. ■.« r^e vadkional stricture inevitablv formulated *: stage*

:he padi is avoided. The nature of the traditional torn* U *ine*zzzz»c because the structure and its paru gain meaning only ir. dse iigfr of Dzokchent liberating. socerioiogicaj dvnarr.ic, the for■'aid d m t from ignorance to awaj-enes?, from obscurity to lightTb» ooatBMou* a»aker.:r*g progresses along a path o f meditation th * bm nnu mcreawngjv forrr.!r,s and inexpressible a* exper-,er*a more and more approximates :he ulii.Tiatc ineffable goal Tht ** *“ 6“ w«fc :mpijca:iO^ of ijnrar temporal dr. tk>pmem h » ms bnkauon m that the Dzoiuher. dyiu.*r;c operate* oC-

unc *° a tyndironiaty. H w ea>rr*e dead

I;, i k O i> i.C iiO * .

futile, spiritually obstructive semantic game, for the/ dev.ribe mvstic experience that cannot be exposed to the common light of day without devaluation and dilution of meaning. Nevertheless, this is an attempt to describe Dzokchen terms in a continuing effort to find valid English equivalents, preferably w it h enriching conno­ tations drawn from the western tradition. Not that I>zolcchcn terminology is metaphysically abstruse. I he terms that in the context of a D z o k c h e n song or liturgy are so evocative o f the states *h ey represent are found to be prosaic when extracted from thfrir context. “Space," “light* and “awareness* are the three concepts most fre­ quently employed in Dzokchen texts. The mental activity alienating human beings from immediate, direa experience is referred to frequendy in Dzokchen texts as the dualizing function of the mind. First, separation ls made between subject and object, the perceiver identifying himself with an egorc conioousnest that perceives an isolated, external odvrr. Introversivdv, in the same wav, he alienates himself from aspect* of his own being. With a basu in this fundamental dualinic structure, verbal expres­ sion gains iii meanings from abstract linguistic relationships. In dualwic pbilo*ophiev where “ignorance” U rationalized a* an acceptable norm or idealized for the purpose o f m anipulating ^objective reality,* valid meaning can only be ducovertd in the sphe;e of relativity, in the sphere of objective duality. This state31 eox ts framed in **the law of the excluded m u ld le / Dzokxhcn tnmts unequivocally that on the path of gnome zwarcnes* meaninformed outside the excluded middle arc fpufiott* a/>d deviant aaa that reliance upon such meanings cxaceifaazo the painful alienau<m ^cutcd with continuous Lramroi^raoon.

What the excluded middle represena in Dzokdsea t* deicnbed b r the mandala. G jiu k k t civ fDcsuuog o f nontkttliiy *7 ** urm t o f U dbc •W ieia Areci, unm rdtae perception i* m 2

th« >7xaodaia- The nffhwifd cirfrir

nnrnhd space

pone p a a p c io n d u x f h do dfsttAcnoa b e t m a the icMOfy

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object, the sense organ and the consciousness that is aware of scnsa. tion. Since the consciousness o f the psycho-organism is capable 0f only serial, linear perception (although a subconscious strata con­ stantly synthesizes the streams of data produced by all five senses), when there is full concentration at the door o f one specific sense the mental commentary of "the observer is silenced for a moment. So, in such direct sensory perception, there is intimation o f nondual experience. In the next moment this experience becomes less than perfect if the perceivers clarity of awareness is clouded by either emotivity provoked by the sense objecr or by mental interference. The mental veil may here be defined as the (muted) chatter of men­ tal apparatus engaged in the preparation o f a "linguistic definition” of the perception. Even at the moment o f direct perception when gnostic awareness of emptiness as form and form as emptiness is experienced, the mind is preparing to dualize the situation. Only when there is no emotional attachment to the object o f perception and when the mind is still, emptied o f all discursive thought, can a legitimate paradigm o f nondual, direct perception obtain. The cen­ tre of the mandala represents the emptiness o f the perceptual situa­ tion— there is no substantial essence in subject, object or their interaction. The field of the mandala represents the form— visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory or, indeed, mental. Emptiness and form comprise a unity in the same way that the centre and cir­ cumference of the circle are inseparable. The indivisible relationship between such polarities are called nondual, and ramifications of this

unity that may not be evident are both the beauty o f Dzokchen expression and our linguistic hurdle when approaching these texts. How is this nondual direct sensory experience verbally articulat­ ed. F>vident)y it is not to be done in the manner o f ignorant, dualistic expression. But it has to be done with the same vocabulary and grammar. The sacred languages o f Tibetan and Sanskrit provide vocabularies sanctificd by scripture and the poetry o f the adepts of

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cults. The profane language of commerce and science is illS ted to adaptation to this purpose, although science is increasingly able to provide terminology that compensates for its lack of poetic beauty by a precision o f abstract concept. Some commentators retain Tibetan or Sanskrit terms, and some use the typographical device of putting the initial letters of prosaic words in the upper case to imply a higher order o f meaning. Certainly, insofar as gram­ mar and patterns o f meanings reflect m inds intrinsic psychological structure, its habits of perception and its levels of awareness, the

Dzokchen vision would ideally require a new form o f language. As an increasing number o f English-speaking Dzokchen adepts intu­ itively adapt the material at hand, this language will evolve. The sacred language o f the tantras is mantra: this means that the syllables that comprise a word resonate to a pitch that evokes the prototypical nature o f the form that is being articulated. W hen the master is questioned on this point he is evasive regarding the specif­ ic relationship between sound and form. But there is no ignoring his conviction that sound is intimately related to the realm o f form and has the power to affect it. The Indian story o f one o f the great

ustad sitarists of an earlier generation, whose instrument burst into flame during a perfect rendition o f a fire raga, is explained in terms of the ustads ability to reproduce the sound o f the seed-syllable o f the element fire precisely, so creating fire itself. However, it is a gen­ eral principle in many sacred traditions that it is not so much the form of the consonants as the power and thoughtform inserted into the vowel sound by a master, a siddha, that is efficacious. That the resonance that vibrates in an inanimate object, such as a fine wine glass, a conch shell, or a singing-bowl, is o f the nature o f vowels rather than consonants supports this notion. Meditative experience indicates that the sacred language o f Dzokchen is effective in induc]ng the states o f m ind that are evoked. It is imperative that we take great care in selecting the equivalents o f these terms in English.

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Frequently the need to render the form of a meaning exactly takes precedence over aesthetic demands. A definition of one radical Dzokchen term nonduality—has already been offered. The paradox of expressing the nondual in duaJistic terms is parallel to experience of the relative world in a nondual mode. The next term to be discussed is the synonym of nonduality that indicates that nonduality encompasses duality and that we know nonduality only through a specific mode of awareness that unites polarities and gives the relative world a unity. This term is literally translated as "two-in-oneness, co-incidence,” or “arising as a pair/48 Since absolute nondual reality itself— emptiness— pervades the relative world and does not exist independent of it, the “co-incident pair” of space and Knowledge is given as the primary level of reality. “Space”49 is best conceived as the universal, all-perva­ sive field. Like emptiness itself, it is nothing separate from form, and yet nothing else but it exists. All form is space: thus it is possible for siddhas who have dissolved the constituents o f their body-mind in space, identifying with it, to walk through walls and eat rock. “Space” is no cold, vacuous void. It is the richness of the Goddess Mahamaya, and all the playfulness and energy o f the Dakinl. “Knowledge”50 is an epistemological synonym o f emptiness and the cognitive aspect of space. Again, since the epistemological absolute cannot exist independent of its objective constituent, it is not sepa­ rate from the sensory fields that constitute ordinary knowledge. For this reason it is translated as Knowledge. Knowledge (rigpa) is probably the single most significant term in Dzokchen, and it is peculiar to Dzokchen. It is found in the Dohas o f the mahamudra siddhas, but generally the term “pure awareness”51 is preferred there, where it is used as a synonym o f Knowledge. In Dzokchen the compound phrase Knowledge-Awareness52 (or the Awareness of Knowledge,” where Awareness is the less comprehensive constituent) indicates both the “objective” and

a

“s u b je c tiv e

aspects of Emptiness as the universe (or dharmadhatu) in terms ol

IN T K O D U C i iu m

Awareness

Since sensory consciousness is constantly active, the ^ ^ nOW|ecjgC,Awareness is referred to figuratively as a

m°VC and since Knowledge-Awareness is represented figuratively ^ T a n t h r o p o m o r p h i c a l l y as the Dakini, the constant movement of K owledge is called “the Dance of the D akini.” But it would be orrCct to characterize Knowledge-Awareness as inherently active, ' it is essentially a field co-extensive with Space. Perhaps the best image by which to describe it is that of a whirling firebrand: the body that twirls it remains still, while the whirling flame on the end of the stick creates the impression o f a static wheel o f fire. Fire is sym bolic

of dynamic cognition.

If space (dbyings> dhatu) and awareness (ye shes, jndna ) are the co­ incident pair that form the essence of reality, the nature o f reality is light.5* Again, this light is co-extensive with Emptiness, Space and Knowledge, and insofar as it is inseparable from its forms in the same way that the light o f the sun is inseparable from its source, it is best conceived as a field of lightform in potential. It is for this reason that selwa can be translated as “luminosity” and “clarity.” “Luminosity” is intended to indicate the abstract quality o f light before its emanation, and “clarity” indicates the inherent quality of lightform. Although the image o f the sun and its beams adequately conveys the relationship between light and its manifest qualities, the image fails insofar as the sun is a substantial entity, whereas the source of lightform is empty space. The final attribute o f emptiness to be mentioned is a quality peculiar to the Buddhist analysis: responsiveness. It is the third and final denominator in the list o f categories or aspects by which emptiness can be defined: essence, nature, responsiveness.^ It appears anomalous, an attribute rather than a category. The third °gical category is “fun ctio n ,” or “manifest function,” and the attribute found in its stead is responsiveness and its qualifier is “allp rvasive. h Viewed as a functional attribute of space. Knowledge

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and light, the implication is that the dynamic, the intentionality the purpose o f being, is compassion, which is a synonym o f respon­ siveness and demonstrable as the responsive aspect o f love, and it is this compassion that is co-cxtensive with space, the heart o f the Buddha pervading all beings. Viewed as the potential form or mani­ festation o f emptiness, the implication appears to be that every vibration o f body, speech and mind is a form o f compassionate energy, nothing excluded. Consider the distinction between respon­ siveness and compassion. In Dzokchen, compassion is much more than the virtue o f loving kindness.** Nor does the word compassion in the Dzokchen context denote its English etymological meaning, “suffering together” or “empathy,” although both these meanings may be inferred. Essentially, compassion indicates an open and receptive mind responding spontaneously to the exigencies o f an ever-changing field o f vibration to sustain the optim al awareness that serves self-and-others' ultimate desire for liberation and well­ being. The conventional meaning o f compassion denotes the latter, active part o f this definition, and, due to the accretions o f Christian connotation, response is limited to specifically virtuous activity. “Responsiveness” defines the origin and cause o f selfless activity that can encompass all manner o f response. O n this nondual Dzokchen path virtue is the effect, not the cause; the ultimate compassionate response is whatever action maximizes Knowledge— loving kindness is the automatic function o f Awareness. T h e terms defined above are all synonym s o f emptiness and aspects o f emptiness like facets o f a jewel. I f reality is all creation, then just as the universe, the cosmos* all things under the sun and the totality, give inclusive definitions, so do em ptiness, space, light, Knowledge and responsiveness— they are sim ply different names for the same ineffable reality. Each indicates a different aspect use­ ful in developing a vision o f the path and expressing experience along it. To the yogin they are sacred and secret words that should never be bandied about in idle metaphysical gossip lest the power

*

IN I K U U U C i iw n

f0 fVoke their reality is lost. T h e reaiity they evoke is r« k cred more precious and m ore w orthy o f rcsnerf ,k

con sid -

god; the power these words represent is m ore o o t e m T P a n 'Cular fission and more subtly efficacious than all th

■

dhas. They describe the ultim ate m od e o f b e r n t " ^ o f Buddha, th e dharm akaya. T h ere k n™ ),' ?’ to the Dzokchen master, and th e i l X Z erful Dzokchen koan, is that the D w k r L ,

^ ‘

n u clear sid' “ m are b od y

^ ' CSC,f ,S a pow -

ordinary human being and his im m c d h r / " appCars as an dala, has the same form as our own. ent',r o ™ c n t , his m an-

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EM PT Y IN G

THE DEPTHS OF H E L L by G u r u C h o w o n g

In t r o d u c t io n

Guru Rim poche C h o k i W o n g c h u k , o r G u r u C h o w o n g , is o n e o f the greatest nam es a m o n g th e treasu re-finders o r tertons [g ter ston). He lived in th e th ir te e n th c e n t u r y ( 1 2 1 2 - 1 2 8 0 ) a n d h e ra ld e d a major revival in th e N y in g m a S c h o o l. H is e p it h e t “T h e S e c o n d Guru R im p o c h e ,” w h e n c e his title is d e riv e d , is giv en to o n ly a small elite o f N y in g m a S c h o o l y o gin s. H e was th e s e c o n d o f th e Sovereign Treasure-finders a n d th e se c o n d o f th e T h r e e S u p r e m e Emanations o f G u ru R im p o c h e .57 H e is also said to b e an in c a rn a ­ tion o f the B u d d h a s S p ee ch . T h i s array o f su p erio r q u a Jifica tio n s entitled him to a D a k in i o f sim ila r first ra n k a tta in m e n t, an d he found her in th e first o f th e rwo T ib e t a n yoginis possessing all the marks and signs o f th e D a k i n i 58— J o m o M e n m o P a d m a T s o k y i ( 1 2 4 8 - 1 2 8 3 ) , an e m a n a tio n o f Yeshe Tsogyel. Guru C h o w o n g was b o r n in w estern L h o d ra k , m id w ay b etw een the Bhutan border and Y a m d ro k Lake, w here his fam ily had lived for generations. T h e residence, in L ayak V illage, in w h ic h h e sp en t most o f his life is ca lled G u r u L h a k h a n g . H e was a s c io n o f th e Pang family. T h e fo u n d e r o f th e P a n g lineage, P a n g je T s e n tr a m , was honoured by K in g T riso n g D e ts e n fo r d estro y in g th e B o n M a g ic ia n Nyaring, w ho had a tte m p te d to kill th e K in g b y h u rlin g m e te o rs at him from th e B o n s t r o n g h o ld o n t o p o f H e p o r i , a b o v e S a m y e Chokhor, during th e great k in g ’s p ersecu tio n o f th e B o n sh a m an s. Pangjes son settled in w estern L h o d ra k in L ayak, and his seed p ro ­ ceed a famous lin e o f B o d h isa ttv a tan trik as. Guru C h o w o n g s e d u c a tio n was e cle ctic. H is fath er tau ght h im

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Dzokchen, Chakchen (mahamudra), Z ije and C h o d , the highest meditations o f all schools, and he became highly accomplished in the yogas o f Dorje Phurba (Vajrakilaya) and Shinjeshe (Manjushri Yam antaka). Buf apart from his vast form al b o o k-learn in g , he obtained direct experiential knowledge and em pow erm ent from meditative experience and dream-vision. T h e discovery o f his princi­ pal treasure-trove was attended by amazing visions. He had obtained two lists o f hiding places, one originating with Drapa Ngonshe(*> which had caused disaster to many incompetents who had attempt­ ed to retrieve the treasure, and a list o f twice-hidden books that he had found himself. The nine-headed serpent-demon and awarenessdakini protectors took the form o f a human woman to give Guru Chowong the keys to the treasure-house. As he opened rhe door a gigantic vulture (Garuda) emerged, and recognizing it as the essence o f the treasure he mounted it and flew to the thirteenth stage of enlightenment, where he found a rent o f rainbow light and Dorje Sempa (Vajrasattva), who initiated him in to th e “creativity of Knowledge”60 and presented him with a flask full o f the nectar of immortality. Then from the treasure-house cave he withdrew two large chests containing 108 volumes o f secret instruction and an enormous hollow statue o f the protecting serpent-demon containing four sets o f general instruction. This treasure o f Namkechan,61 the Drakmar Cave o f Chimphu above Samye Chokhor, was the first of his nineteen discoveries made at power-places throughout Central and Southern Tibet: at Lhodrak Kharchu, Samye Chokhor, Samye D rak m ar D rinzang, M on B u m th a n g , T sa n g Tsi N esar, Samye Hepori, Rong Drak and Kyabo, and at m any m inor sires as well. Guru Chowongs vision o f his spiritual father, demonstrating his d ear visionary capacity is also germane to our text. Two young girls g u id e d h im on a winged w h ite h o rse to th e s p h e re o f Guru R im p o ch es present residence— Ngayab Zangdok Peri, the Copper C olo u red M o u n tain Paradise o f Ngayab in the Southw est. Here O rg y cn R im p o ch e transmitted to him the em p o w erm en t o f the

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M a n d a te s c a lle d t h e C o n s u m m a t e S e c r e t . H e a lso Eight

received spec

advice in s tr u c tin g h im to fo llo w th e B o d h isa ttv a

^ / t o reach s e n tie n t b ein g s. (A t th is tim e , as in te r m itte n tly * ___________■ „ cfor __ mN yingm •_______c_i_____i path ana and tto ^ history,. the tem ptation a School

throughoU . . , ____„ rA>. ^ to sell their magical power for personal gain was a particularly yogins ^ ^ negative karma.) G u ru C how ong was then returned ^ h is ordinary state o f consciousness on a shield o f dazzling light. t0 It appears that the bulk o f G u ru C h o w o n g s treasure-texts have been lost Jamgon Kongtrul R im p o ch e, whose lifework in the nine­ teenth century included gathering, editing and ordering the once potent works o f tertons o f centuries past and publishing them in his voluminous com pendium called the Rinchen Terdzo, found only a few' volumes o f G uru C h o w o n g s treasures. A m ong them were The

Consummate Secret o f the E ight Logos M andates and Em ptying the

o f Samsara, which includes The W rathful an d P eaceful D eities o f the Spontaneously O riginated E ight Fierce Logos D eities . The R ite o f D e p th s

Confession an d Restoration o f the Sam aya w hile Em ptying the D epths o f HelU>2 The Sovereign R ite o f Confession A toning fo r Breaches an d Breaks o f the Sam aya an d E xpiating A ll Errors an d Faults, known bv its short title Emptying the D epths o f H ell ( N arak D o n g d r u k is a litany written by Ja m g o n K o n g tru l, in th e n in e te e n th century, based upon the two treasure-texts o f G u ru C h o w o n g m entioned above. Thus seven hundred years after G u ru Chow ong's death his highly potent “secret m antra”64 texts are again in full use by the lin­ eal initiates o f the eclectic Red H at lamas. It is a well known and Highly respected N yingm a S ch o o l litany. The first section o f the rite begins with the yogin visualizing in front o f him the Lam a w h o em bod ies the hundred W rathful and Peaceful Deities. T h e yogin then invokes the W rathful and Peaceful eities, calling them by nam e and o fferin g obeisance with rever­ ence. The Great Treasure-finder assures the practitioner that merely A S°^ ndin^ r^e itames o f the deities with hom age and respect the e ect o f the rite is achieved. Verbal acknow ledgem ent o f specific

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faults and breaks in the vow has the same effect. T h e n relaxing jn m ed itation the yogin recites the H u n d re d Sy llab le M a n tra (the

yigya), Yajrasattvas mantra o f con fession , w ith the certainty that e ish t hundred repetitions in a single s ittin g co n fers rebirth as a Bodhisattva. There follows acknowledgem ent o f the yogins failure to m aintain the R o o t and B ra n ch Vow s, th e ta n tr ic samaya$(*s thereby restoring these com m itm ents. T h e next part o f the rite is the Dzokchen confession which is included herein. T h is concludes the litanv. As addenda, verses are included to be recited with offering o f the butter lamp, the skullcup o f g rain, th e rakta and the

torma-cakes during the eucharistic sacram ent w hen the confession is included as part o f the rite o f gan acakra. A g ain th e purpose is restoration o f the samaya. T h e entire rite is com posed o f a series of techniques that guarantee atonem ent and refulfilm ent o f the samava. How can admission o f error and “sin * be p a n o f D zokchen prac­ tice? Confession is a process o f m ental and spiritual purification indispensable to mental and spiritual well-being. O n a mundane level the pressures o f guilt are released, liberating festering cankers in the subconscious m ind. O n a tra n s c e n d e n ta l level c o n fe s s io n is an acknowledgement o f undesirable, repressed m indform s with coinci­ dent recognition o f their nature as emptiness and liberation. I f guilts, errors and faults are thoughtforms to which the subconscious is nega­ tively attached, then they' may be visualized as spirits or ghosts o f past experience lurking in dark and m urky corners o f the mind. Then confession is self-induced exorcism effecting liberation66 o f these spir­ its. W h en the mind is completely em pty o f these spirits— black, grey or w hite— and when every experience w hatsoever arises fully into awareness leaving no trace, “like the flight-path o f a bird in the skv,v then the mind is fully liberated. As our text states, the “sin” and the sinner

are one: when the undesirable thou ghtform is released the

m in d o f th e p e n ite n t is also lib e ra te d . “ S i n ” in th is co n te x t is defined as an action that is not im m ed iately released and dissolved upon its in c e p tio n . I f the m ind is in n o c e n t a n d in sig h t into all

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as emptiness penetrates each moment o f the continuum ^pcnerKf^ ^ ^ e s , then there is no sin and no sinner but a con^ samava and Buddhahood. It is our moral and mental prexurnmat ^ biases that obstruct spontaneous insight into events °

rv illusion, echo or bubbles on the surface o f the ocean, and r o d u c e what Buddhists call sin. All ignorant sentient beings,

^nd all yo^ins whose mindflow o f pure awareness is broken, even for moment" need the rite o f confession to atone for their sins.

To atone (“at one” in the Buddhist context) means to identify o n e s e lf

with the G u ru , D e ity and D a k in i and thus restore the

samava. The rites o f confession and samaya restoration invariably

come together in tantric practice for they are different sides o f the same coin. Confession is to remember, and hence to relive, experience that was not fullv understood and whose nature w'as not penetrated to its true reality. Samaya restoration is to restore the continuity o f release o f every experience through penetrating insight into empti­ ness and thus to restore the samaya u n ion with the G u ru and Dakini, who represent uninterrupted gnostic awareness. O n the rel­ ative level, where samava means vow or oath, after confession o f failure to maintain a vow, the vow is taken again and thus restored. The Root Vows o f Body, Speech and M ind are as follows: the Vow of Divine Body is to serve and venerate the Guru and to obev• his instruction, to respect the G u ru s Consorts and the yogin s vajra •

brothers and sisters, and to maintain a correct vision o f the Guru: the Vow o f Divine Speech is to practice visualization and recitation in meditation upon the deity regularly and frequently; the Vow o f Divine Mind is to keep the Tantra secret. T h e Twenrv-five Branch y ows are injunctions guiding vision, meditation and action, thus iceeP'ng the samaya o f union with the Guru, Deitv and Dakini intact.

Emptying the Depths o f H ell is a mahavoga text. Virtually all pracl*ces associated w ith th e E ig h t L og os M a n d a te s tall in to the mahayoga category. B u t since D z o k ch en vision is the ultim ate Perspective on everything that arises, no m atter what the form .

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Dzokchen practice embraces all che Techniques o f the hinayana mahayana and vajrayana approaches to Buddhahood. T h e essentia] practice o f Dzokchen is to penetrate each moment o f consciousness with the purifying flame o f awareness as it arises, so the successful Dzokchenpa has no need o f the confessional rites o f the gradual approaches. W hat is provided for him is confession o f lingering traces o f dualistic thought-patterns and dichotom ous concepts confession o f failure in vision: this is precisely the nature o f the verses extracted from Emptying the Depths o f H ell included here. However, in this liturgy there is no trace o f the terminology o f pen­ itent devotee seeking expiation from an external source that would admit a duality o f penitent and confessor. T h e confession is couched in strong affirmative terms strengthening the convictions o f Dzokchen vision, and the confessor is a point instant o f gnostic awareness of infi­ nite empty space as various aspects o f the absolute.68 This point instant o f atonement is a moment in the uninterrupted continuum of naked existential awareness that is neither within nor without. There is no “I” to be the yogins own confessor, nor any “external,” higher plane o f being in which the yogin bathes. Each dichotomy is resolved in an immediate, unutterable, non-objectifiable, moment o f primal awareness. A sense o f contrition is assumed, since contrition is recog­ nition o f the absence o f continuous Buddhahood, and knowledge of the necessity to atone for ones ignorance. It is also recognition of humility in the face o f the divine pride o f the moment o f atonement and primal awareness. However, instead o f contrition toned with selfabnegation and abasement, we have a lament for incorrigible human nature driven by self-destructive desire, ever refusing to see the insub­ stantial universe as an enchanting magical web o f empty illusion, in which Dakas and Dakinis dance in a constant compassionate display o f delight and pure pleasure. Alas! W hat misery! T hu s the self-abasem em characteristic o f the path o f renunciation is replaced with an evocation o f the Bodhisattva Vow. T h e “secret mantra” magic o f the verses should demonstrate their own efficacy.

« 7 W £ S o v e r e ig n R i t e o f C o n f e s s io n A t o n in g f o r

fR0M a r c AND BREAKS OF THE SAMAYA AND EXPIATING ALL BREA ERRORS AND FAULTS”

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H U N G ! H o w fu tile to p ro je c t n o tio n s o f b e in g and nonbeing Upon an u n fo rm ed a n d in c o n ce iv a b le reality -co n tin u u m ! What misery to c lin g to d elu sion s o f a substantial reality! Atone in the spaciousness o f fo rm less, co n c e p t-fre e pleasure. How pointless to p r o jc c t n o tio n s o f pu rity and im purity Upon K untu Z a n g p o ,70 w h o tran scen d s all m oral qualities! How guilt-ridden are th o se w h o c lin g to m o ral dualities! Atone in the spaciou sness o f K u n za n g ’s pure pleasure. How exhausting to c lin g to n o tio n s o f s e lf an d oth ers In the sam eness w h e re su p erio rity a n d in ferio rity c a n n o t be! W hat anxiety to c lin g to th e d u ality o f success and failure! Atone in the sp acio u sn ess o f th e pure pleasure o f sam eness.

How futile to cling to concepts o f this life and the next When the Bodhisattvas m ind is free o f birth and dying! What anxiety lies in obsession with birth and death! Atone in the spaciousness o f the deathless swastika.'1 How foolish to project concepts o f concrete form and substance Upon the cosm ic seed that has no corners or edges! What boredom lies in the lim itations o f squares and rectangles!

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A to n e in the spaciousness o f the a il-e m b r a c in g spherical nucleus. H o w stupid it is to p ro ject n o tio n s o f b e g in n in g an d end In th e timeless, u n ch an g eab le d im e n s io n o f past, present and future! W h a t misery lies in th e du ality o f tr a n s fo r m a tio n and gradual change! A to n e in the spaciousness o f u n c h a n g in g past, present and future. H o w pointless to p ro je c t causa] re la tio n sh ip s U p o n Awareness, n atu rally arisin g w ith o u t stra in or a cc o m p lish m e n t!

W hat g rief lies in distinguishing effort from attainment! Atone in the spaciousness o f effortless spontaneity. How exhausting to cling to co n cep ts o f su b ject and object In Knowledge-Awareness neith er eternal n or temporal! W hat misery to separate tim e from eternity! Atone in the spaciousness o f Knowledge-Awareness. H ow futile it is to hold m ental and physical pain distinct In the formless, pristine reality beyon d con cep tion! W h a t anxiety to separate cen tre from circum ference! A tone in the spaciousness o f th e im m a cu la tely real.

H ow pointless the co n cep ts o f inside an d out In the B u d d has bound less palace th a t has n o measure! W h a t folly to differen tiate len gth fro m breadth! A ton e in the spaciousness w ith o u t m easure o r dimension.

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How m ean in gless are th e p r o je c t io n s o f a b o v e a n d b e lo w In the celestial m a trix th a t has n o h e ig h t n o r d ep th ! \C'hat fo o lish n ess to d u a liz e h ig h a n d low! Atone in th e s p a c io u s n e s s o f th e d im e n s io n le s s y o n i .'How e x h a u s tin g to p r o je c t n o t i o n s o f in s id e a n d o u t In the d h a rm a k a y a th a t resolves ev ery d u ality !

W hat misery to distinguish vessel and contents! A tone in th e s p a c io u s n e s s o f im m u t a b le d h a r m a k a y a .

H ow p itifu l are s e n t i e n t b e in g s , d e lu d e d a n d ig n o r a n t, C o n c e iv in g flu id , fo rm le s s e v e n ts as c o n c r e t e reality.

Man’s bewildered m in d — how sadly errant! In an unborn reality p ro jectin g n o tio n s o f “ I” and "m in e ,” Failing to see the illusory e n ch a n tm e n t o f phenom enal existence, He lusts after possessions and w ealth; Failing to realize the insubstantiality o f samsara He clings forever to equally deluded friends and relations: M ans im perceptive in tellect— how sadly errant! Forsaking th e value o f tru th , striving in unhealthy activity. Ignoring the E x e m p la rs in ju n c tio n , beguiled by irrelevant attractions, Forgetting the im perative o f self-K now led ge, obsessed by idle pleasures, How pitiful are se n tien t beings w ho have lost their wav! Atone in the spaciousness o f n o n d iscrim in atio n .

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by Shabkar Lama Jatang Tsokdruk Rangdrol

In t r o d u c t io n

The rag-clad, lock-matted, mystic-minstrcl hermit o f the Tibetan plateau is a potent archetypal figure in the oriental mythic imagina­ tion. This figure is embodied in Shabkar Lama, Tsokdruk Rangdrol, author o f The Flight o f the Garuda . Shabkar was not a product o f a noble family producing tulkus in each generation— he was o f hum­ ble origin. Lacking the advantages o f a princely education, he was a scholar o f the type who wrote from experience, directly from his heart. Living much o f his youth in the solitude o f cave and her­ mitage, he practised what he wrote and taught. His biography73 is replete with stories depicting the m agnanim ity o f a beggar, the humility o f a saint without a shred o f pretension or affectation, and the good humour and compassion o f a man familiar with the hard­ ship o f life on the survival line. Although he was initiated into a Nyingma School lineage and order, he had little time for sectarian distinctions and to o k in itiation and instruction from Lamas o f every sect. He was a product o f the great eclectic revival in eastern Tibet in the nineteenth century. Shabkar Lama was born in Rekong in Amdo in 1841. T h e great Khyentse W o n g p o , Ja m g o n K o n g tru l Lodro T h a y e and Patrul Rimpoche were his contemporaries am ong the great figures o f the mature bloom ing o f the Eastern Tibetan renaissance. He spent his childhood and y o u th in th e R e k o n g G o m p a .74 R e k o n g was a monastery renowned for its yogin-tantrikas, a school o f ngakpas, whose feared and respected graduates, with their unshorn hairknots roamed throughout T ib et, practising ritual magic for villagers

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_

and teaching Tantra and Dzokchcn to those ready and wil|jn learn. At the age o f twenty Shabkar cook ordination at the Geli^*0 gompa o f Labrang Tashi Kyil75 against his familys will and contr ^ to the custom o f Rekong students. But throughout his life he tained Rekong’s ethos, his appearance resembling that o f a ngaU more than that o f a gelong, particularly during periods o f sustain^ retreat. His preceptor at Labrang, Jamyang Gyatso, directed him to the Lama who was to be his Root-Lama, a districr governor and great Lam a named Choki Gyelpo Ngaki W o n g p o , w ho Jived near Kokonor Lake. Choki Gyelpo Transmitted to him his principal linf o f initiation into the mandala o f Tamdrin (Hayagrlva) and Dorje Phakmo (Vajra Varahi)-76 Tamdrin and Dorje Phakmo in yabyum became Shabkars yidam, his personal deifies. After initiation Shabkar spent several years in rerrcar, practising rhe preliminary techniques, the creative and fulfilment stages and Dzokchen— Cutting Through and Immediate Crossing— according to the Tamphak Yeshe Norbu?7 his Lamas ch ief practice and now his own. After many more years with his Lama, during which time he received all the initiations o f his lineage, he entered a further period

o f rigorous practice. In rhe middle o f rhe K okon or Lake, the vast Turquoise Blue Lake sacred to Avalokitesvara, is an island called Great God Heart o f the Lake, Tsonying Mahadeva. Since no boat was permitted to sully the lake, the island could only be reached on foot, crossing the ice that covers the lake for a brief period each year. Vogins would provide themselves with a years provision and isolate themselves in the perfect solitude on the island at the ccntre o f the Jake-mandaJa. Shabkar remained there three years practising the maha-, anu- and ati- yogas o f the Tam drin-Phakm o cycle. During hi.s sojourn on this island Shabkar wrote The Flight o f the Garuda. It was an early work o f his genius. Shabkar was known as an incarnation o f Milarcpa, Tibet’s Great Yogin, and his Lama, Choki Gyelpo Ngaki W ongpo, as an incarna­ tion o f Marpa the Translator, the family yogin. Milarepas talent in

T

he

F l ig h t

o f the

G a r u d a _______________________

and singing m ystical songs e x te m p o re was shared by comPoSing^ ^ was his propensity for the a n ch o rite s life. B u t the Shabkar* an

^

s Qf the T ib e ta n eth n ic world was also a w an-

yogtn ^rom .^ on pilgrimage th rou g h o u t the T ib e ta n heartland and

7 pHncwaiing his pilgrim age w ith retreats in caves and h erbCy° n he visited A m n e M a c h e n , A m d o’s sacred m o u n ta in ; he muages, ^ ^ R o n g k h o r ( c ir c u m a m b u la t io n o f th e T sa ri PCf ° r ain)* he spent a year at G a n g R im p o c h e , M e. K ailash. O n m°untai^> ^ Labchi> to the weSt o f M t. Everest, it was said o f h'm^'hat whCrever he travelled he left the people established in the Dharma, and w herever he step p ed h e c o n v e r te d “b la c k ,” o r ta rished, worldlings into “w h ite,” o r refined, p ractition ers. T h u s he g ain ed *

his sobriquet “S h a b k a r " (W h ite F o o t). D u rin g his p ilg rim ­

age between retreats, he w ould c o n tin u e his in stru ctio n at the feet o f Lamas o f every s c h o o l, p a r tic u la r ly th e D r u k p a K a g y u , w ith which his own heterogenous b ran d o f y o g in -m o n k m ix had a s tro n g affinity. H ow ever h e was also in te r e s te d in th e K a d a m p a s ( t h e school founded by Atis'a a n d a s sim ila te d b y th e G e lu k p a s ) , an d Tsongkhapa h im se lf, w h o s e g reat w o r k , T he Stages o f th e P ath , received sustained atten tio n from Shabkar. Shabkars study and practice bore fruit in his own writing. H e had

the gift o f speed-writing. It was said that he could write a hundred pages daily. If so, he could have spent only a m onth or so to produce his thirteen volumes o f writing, the c h ie f o f which concerned his principal practice, the Tam drin-Phakm o cycle. O th er volumes treat­ ed the Kadampa School, Bodhisattvahood, the N y in g m a tantras, and Manjus'ri, demonstrating the wide purview o f his scholarship. Shabkars rounded personality is evinced also by his m erito rio u s works: the gift o f a solid gold butter lamp to the great monastery o f Samye; the gilding o f the superstructure o f the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu; the construction o f numerous monasteries and temples in his own Amdo homelands. N o antisocial, cantankerous h erm it, he had the Bodhisattvas ability to transform him self into a receptacle

T

he

Fu g h t

o f the

G a r u im

o f offerings that he used for rhe good o f all sentienr beings Shabkar lived on well inro the nventierh century, passin 1922 at the age o f eighry-one. O n the com pletion o f a |0 ^ ^ his disciples, his spirit left his b od y w hile h ^ ^ CUU1H %v —---I ' ' “ -----c_____ * _c. st," s a f upright in lotus posture. So passed the “carefree spirit” o f the “|jtt|( anchorite” who, in many ways, in example and words, did more » l- - r . l _ _ feed the faith and support the spiritual needs o f the common pcopie than a multitude of rulkus on brocaded thrones. His spirit nevcr returned to inhabit another body, or if it did it was in the obscurity in which the original Shabkar spent much o f his “public” life. His lin­ eage, however, proliferated. Tulshik Rimpoche o f Thubten Choling in Solu, Nepal, is a contemporary practitioner o f his lineage. This, then, is the Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol who wrote and sang The Flight o f the Garuda. In his own judgment he was a simple, perspicacious mendicant without a care in the world. T h e clarity and power of the succinct, simple, expression for which he is justly renowned is evident on every page o f his work. The Flight o f the

Garuda also demonstrates the writers eclectic erudition and the fer­ tile memory that allowed him in his extempore compositions to quote or paraphrase verses o f Sarahas Dohakosa, for instance, and passages from Longchenpas Dzodun, among the works that he lists in his colophon. The Garuda o f the title refers to a m y th o lo g ic a l bird, the Khading. or Khyung, o f ancient Bon legend. It may have been that Khading and Khyung originally represented the powers o f light and darkness in the eternal conflict o f M anichean B o n myth. The Manichean influence on Bon was derived from countries to the northwest of Tibet. Later, Khyung and Khading were confounded, and the bird came to represent the Bon spirit o f fire. It is to be ound, for example, in the upper left-hand corner o f prayer-flags snow ion, earth, tiger, air; dragon, water; and horse, space, com­ plete the symbolism o f the five elements in the prayer-flag). When the Samkr.uc tradition o f Buddhism became dom in ant in Tibet.

T h K FUGMT_OFjHh UAKv. ua _

_ _ _

-----

an d K h y u n g were assimilated to the G aru d a. In the

both Khad'nf

Df ancienc Aryan India, it was G aru d a w ho stole

VediC myt f-m m ortality from Indra, the king o f the gods, in m u ch (hc nectar ^ ^ cosm ic bird Z u stole the T ab lets o f D e stin y the sam e

way ^ ^

Baby|onian myrh. In the later Indian c o n te x t,

fr0mda becam e the vehicle o f V isn u , the Lord o f Preservation and Order

in the cosmos, and particularly Lord K rsnas vehicle. Also, in

he pu ran as and ep ics, as a f ir e - s p ir it , G a r u d a fe a tu r e s as th e p l a c a b l e enemy o f the Naga water-spirits. In T ib e ta n B u d d h ist Tmtra, G aru d a represents the energy o f fire that heals naga-related

diseases, particularly cancer.

In Dzokchen, Garuda is seen to represent the D z o k ch en yogin. The nature o f the bird is illum inated by the an cien t B o n m y th that relates how, at the beginning o f tim e, the K h y u n g m anifested sp o n ­ taneously out o f the c o s m ic eg g as a fu lly m a t u r e b e in g . T h e Garuda can transfer itself instantaneously from o n e place to another. From the mahayana'8 tradition is derived the im age o f the G a ru d a s wings beating in unison to d em onstrate the unitary nature o f d u ali­ ty, particularly the simultaneous arising o f skilful m eans and perfect insight. Then from n atu re, o b s e rv in g th e flig h t o f th e T i b e t a n eaglc-vulture, the D zokchenpa can perceive an analogue o f his ow n effortless path. T h e bird in flight is a w o n d er to behold . G lid in g for miles using the wind s currents to support its weight, its in stin ctu al mastery o f aeronautics is in com parable. T h e sam e kind o f natural* intuitive faculty th a t c o o r d in a t e s th e b ir d ’s flig h t g o v e rn s t h e Dzokchcnpas activity. The two wings that beat in unison in th e G a ru d a s p o e tic flight orm and meaning. U n fo rtu n ately the ab stract, tech n ica l c o n tent o “

The Flight o f the Garuda does n ot lend itself to versification

poetic expression in English, so that the balan ce in S h a b k a r s

fhvth

' n r^‘s translation, in w h ich p o etic fo rm and

*ordsm ^ Cen SaCrlfiwd to cla rit>' ° f m e a n in g . O f t e n , several are required to render a single tech n ical term in to F n « tish ,

T

he

F l ig h t

of the

G aruda

^

and it is impossible to ma.ntain a regular m etre. Rather th.an attempt unsatisfactory versification, I have translated these s0n ■8* into prose, which is a more suitable med.um for their metaphysica| and technical vocabulary. Still, the Garuda** flight should appeit effortless, its wings beating in unison.

The Flight o f the Garuda is a collection o f Dzokchen songs compiled to teach trekcho mediation. Thus in general the structure o f tfce text shows the evolution o f the path. This development is not for­ mulated as an academic treatise on trekcho, since the songs are composed in different styles with different thrusts o f meaning. The songs can be categorized as Songs o f Introduction (Songs Four to Seven, Ten to Iwelve, and Fourteen to Sixteen); Songs o f Precept (Songs Three, Eight and Nine, Thirteen and Fourteen, Sixteen to Eighteen and Twenty-one); and Aphoristic Songs (Songs One and Two, Sixteen, Seventeen, Nineteen and Twenty-two). Some songs combine introduction and precept in an aphoristic form (e.g., Song Sixteen), while others may be an in tro d u ctio n to an aspect of Knowledge with clear instruction on meditation technique (Songs Fourteen to Nineteen, and Twenty-two and Twenty-three). Perhaps the most potent songs are the Songs o f Introduction or Initiation. Shabkar Lama indicates the purpose o f these songs in the final line of each: Such is my introduction initiating recognition of...the original nature o f mind,” or “...our true existential condi­ tion, and so on. The Dzokchen vision that these songs are aimed at initiating and strengthening is not merely an intellectual function, but an opening up o f a channel for Knowledge to flow in; or, if it is an intellectual function, then it is the intellect participating in the destruction o f its own dualizing propensities and other obstacles to the spontaneous awakening o f Knowledge. T h u s these “introduc­ tions” are not philosophical statem ents b u t tools inducing the recognition o f various aspects o f the enlightened m ind that is akin to initiation into Knowledge. T he inspired nature o f the Tibetan

T

he fi

ir.H T

of the

G

aruda

meditative fram e o f m in d d u rin g w h ic h th e so n g s are pottry. the m direct ancj succ in c t style o f expression , an d n o t least sung.lhe c

j- ^

m etaphysical e x p o sitio n an d fo rm u la e, all c o n -

the ?oten^ ° e D zokchen vision spontaneou sly. In S h a b k a r L a m a s spire u° ^he states explicitly th at th e songs shou ld b e s u n g d u rin g S c v e b p m e n t process o f D z o k c h e n vision.

The

“introductory song, initiating recognition o f the o n g i-

. C~ mind, or our original existential con dition/* is precednal nature . . . . . . . Lj b- the first “preceptual song giving instruction on experiential discovery of the nature o f mind. It is only on the basis o f failure to discover any entity which is m ind that this verbal initiation into

the original face o f mind is effective. O u r ingrained, con d ition ed assumption

that the brain as a substantial entity is the m ind, or its

scat, is destroyed by the failure to find an y th in g substantial that can be called mind. “M in d ” im m ediately b ecom es so m eth in g enig­ matic, mystical, transcendental and m agical, and an in tellectu al void. This void is filled by the songs o f in tro d u ctio n , w hich estab­ lish the Dzokchen vision. T h e cy n ic s view, that this is an exam ple of religious conditioning with less reality than the p recon ception s it replaces, is countered by the assertion that the D zo k ch en vision has no intellectual structure and that th e labelling o f attributes per­ formed by these introductions is n ot so m u ch a labelling process o f substantial objective qualities by the subjective m ind as the atta ch ­ ment of verbal symbols to actual experiences o f g n o stic awareness. Searching for the n atu re o f m in d has p o in te d aw aren ess in th e right direction. P ractising th e in s tr u c tio n s d e s c r ib e d in th e s u c c e s ­ sive songs o f precep t m a tu r e s th is a w a re n e s s , a n d as t h e s ta te o f owlcdge grows its a ttrib u te s b e c o m e fo c u s e d . W h a t is essen tially t inconceivable u n u ttera b le g n o s tic c o n d i t i o n is se e n to b e su sce p or

t° , ana^ s*s ky a m eta p h y sica l im a g in a tio n th a t serves to d ire c t

point f tMS Un' tary> gn° Stic aw areness* T h u s S h a b k a r m akes a Bud° d r Sing ^ ai ^ ree moc^es keing— the three Bodies a are in truth a sin gle u n d iffe re n tia te d reality. T h e s e

T

he

F l ig h t

of the

G a r u d a ______ ^

three modes o f being relate to the essence nature and resp0nsiv^ ' o f the unitary state. The unitary state o f being, like the expanding from a point o f origin, contracting lrKo that p0jm expanding again, ad infinitum, is represented by the

** the mandaJa’s centre, diameter and circu m feren ce relate t0^ essence, nature and responsiveness that are the three m ^ ' being. The essential insight is recognition o f the original nalu^ being in its ontological aspect as introduced in Song Six. Shabk names this rhe main practice. This insight precedes the introd tion to the "structure” o f this originai nature, which is Buddha 2 his five modes representing five aspects o f primal awareness. A second series o f songs o f precept give instruction in meditati upon the form o f emptiness, teaching that all phenomena are mind created. The introductions that follow confirm the insighrs tlia arise by applying those precepts. Song Ten introduces the initiaton recognition o f all forms, the product o f dualizing thought processes as mind. Song FJeven gives a complete series o f introductions ininating recognition o f the empty nature o f m ind, the emptiness ot phenomena, the indivisibility o f appearances and emptiness, and finally the inevitable result o f these previous insights— recognition o f natural, spontaneous g n o stic lib e r a tio n . It also defines rhe Cutting Through phase o f D zokchen practice as a twenty-fourhour-a-day meditation. Song Twelve is not a song o f introduction, but it has the same force. It defines the three modes o f being from two different angles: as the dharmakaya and as the rupakaya, as emptiness and as form, as Knowledge and as the forms o f Knowledge that are not separate from it. As Shabkar affirms, this differentiation has the power to initiate recognition o f the pure-lands o f the three modes of being /he projections o f Knowledge, the flow o f spontaneously originated appearances pure from the beginning, are the Buddhas Pure-lands since they are identical to the indivisible light and spacc that i s * dharmakaya. in terms o f the crystal m etap hor that S h a b k a r employ

T

he

F l ig h t

of the

G

aruda

according to the static definition the rupakaya consists i„ this son®’_i|,s natura| glow (sarhbhogakaya) and the m edium o f °f the

s jn that dancing glass (nirmanakaya). According to definition, the rupakaya consists o f inner radiant light

thf- hh

akaya) and unobstructed manifest diversity (nirmanakaya).

r iT c h ie f point in this subtle distinction appears to be that in the latter, dynamic aspect, the nirm anakaya is the diversity o f form elf' the contents o f the vessel o f consciousness, rather than its medium the empty space o f the vessel. T h u s this distinction is co n ­ firming the absolute emptiness o f form while focusing upon the form itself— Buddhafields! Song Fourteen introduces th e yogin to recognition o f sp on ta­

neous release o f the six sense-fields by means o f precepts instructing him in meditation on th e one-taste. Song Fifteen introduces recog­ nition o f the identity o f quiescence and movem ent in the state o f Knowledge.80 T h is paradox is b est e x p la in ed by m ean s o f t h e

metaphor Shabkar employs: the quiescence o f the ocean b o tto m is likened to an inactive, thoughtless m in d , w hile th e rollers and

breakers o f the oceans surface are the active mind. T h e active and inactive are part and parcel o f the same awareness— Knowledge. For this reason it is impossible to recognize a D zokchenpa by his exter­ nal display: no a c tio n o f body, sp e e ch an d m in d c a n ever be

divorced from the ocean o f Knowledge. Later Shabkar discusses th e folly of identifying a quiescent m ind as a realized state. T h e attain­ ment of quiescence in meditation is an accom plishm ent o f the ^ods of the formless realm o f conditioned existence. T h is may be useful in controlling the mind while seeking to help sentient beings o n the relative plane, and it may be the source o f som e divine pleasure, but

it is not a direct means to the Buddhas enlightenm ent, which is lib­ eration from all the polarities o f existence.

ITie first pan o f Song Sixteen is the last song o f introduction, and one sense the climax o f these verbal initiations: it is an introduction ^cognition o f Dzokchen itself. A verse describing the resolution

T

hf

F i .k ; h t

o f thk

G arupa

__

__

of various seeming dualities in the Dzokchen domain removes nun obstacles o f doubt. Then Shabkar assures us that there is a ref]exiVc responsiveness here, implying the redundancy of a nianipulatjVc siddhi-ridden mind, as body, speech and mind function spolUa_ neouslv co fulfil rhe Bodhisatrva Vow. In fact, the compassionate aspect of the realized mind is a special quality of Dzokchen practice Song Sixteen ends with a warning in the only verse touching 0n danger in any o f the songs. This danger is rhe bane o f Dzokchen. h explains whv Dzokchen precepts are so difficult to obtain. For this reason, a Lama who teaches Dzokchen without first ascertaining the moral proclivities o f his students risks p ro d u cin g a lineage of demon-yogins. Shaman magicians may seek Dzokchen instruction with the aim o f harnessing demon-energy for their own dark purpos­ es. With love or money, a student may purchase Dzokchen initiation from an inferior Dzokchenpa wirh the sole inrenrion o f turning his knowledge to selfish purposes o f power and dom in ation. Even though the Dzokchen yogin maintains his Bodhisattva Vow unbro­ ken and his motivation is unblem ished, ir appears that negative effects may still result. In the biographies o f even great Lamas it is recorded that Dzokchen precepts were withheld from them until the end o f their preceptors life, not out o f fear that the disciple may turn Mack, bur rhat selfless, benevolent bodhisatrvic motivation could be blunted. Even Yeshe Tsogyel, G uru Rimpoche's Consort, was no exception and precepts were withheld from her until the end o f her life. W hen Shabkar himself was intent upon obtaining a

rainbow bod y he was warned in a dream by Senge Dongma, the Lion-headed Dakini, that he could certainly obtain it but that his ability to assist others would be vitiated thereby. T h e longer the stu­ dent D zokchenpa spends in d evelop ing and refining the skilful

m csns o f implementing the Bodhisarrva Vow before Dzokchen initia­ tion, rhe more effective will be the compassionate forms he manifests spontaneously after Dzokchen realization. H ow is it that at the threshold o f the Bu dd has realization the

T h e R i g h t o f th y . G a r u d a

prjctii*°ntr

___

n be p o s s e s s e d by the “anti-Buddha”? How is it that j einon o f intense and infinite evil” can possess the

it t h i s n t |ic O zo k ch e n p a in to a b lack m agician? T h e r e mind

severa| factors at work. T h e resolution o f the duality o f

appt’ar virtue

t0 j

can cdUSC a shrinking from virtue and the embracing

ai

indicates. Since all acts are empty illusion there ral reaso n to prefer one over the other, and since guilt, sin

* Jkarm ic retribution are em pty illusion they are no cause fo r 7

^ F u r t h e r , it

a

seems that the deviant yogins power is derived

identification o f the Bu dd ha w ith the m ost subtle

esidue o f his ego. He is convinced that he is the Buddha, “the onet a s t e

of

the dharmakaya.”111 I f the yogin is well founded in the

karma of virtue, with this warning in mind he avoids the destruc­ tion o f the supports o f a virtuous life even though both virtue and vice are equally the illusory play o f the mind. The importance o f a firm foundation in the lower approaches becomes evident at this point. A strong foundation in the Four Noble Truths will obviate the danger, and if the lessons o f Sakvamuni’s three excursions out o f the pleasure-palace into the city o f sickness, old age and death were the cause o f an original turning around in the seat o f consciousness, then b o d h icitta need n ot be d im in ish ed or over­ whelmed by demonic perversions. It is not only an article o f faith but a feet of peak experience that com passionate responsiveness arises coincident with a sa m ad h i o f g e n u in e e m p tin e s s . B u t o n the approach to Dzokchen initiation this statement must be predicated bv prolonged and profound purification practices before Dzokchen precepts are requested, so that there is no hitch when the goal is in sight. This crucial warning ends the part ot Son g Sixteen that initiates recognition of Dzokchen and it ends the songs o f introduction. The Songs o f Precept are straightforward m editation instruction. Mar Lamas poetic genius shows itself here, tor the co n ten t does °t naturally lend itself to poetic treatm ent. T h e first song ot prept is Song Four, which instructs in the exercise o f discovering the

T

he

F l ig h t

of the

G aruda

nature o f m ind. “Discovery o f the nature o f m ind” epic0mpurpose o f D zokchen. In D zokchen m editation there is

n ojh^ L this imperative to find the mind. But in this discursive form meditation belongs to the internal preliminary stage o f Dzol^J^ Shabkar Lama provides the answers in the same song as the ^ tions, assuming that we are intellectually familiar with the ans* and that experiential revelation o f them is all that is necessatv However, a western neophyte will gain important insight into differences between basic oriental and occidental assumptions about the nature o f mind if he forgets the Dzokchen answers until all his own preconceptions have emerged. Song Eight describes another exercise experientially confirming basic Dzokchen hypotheses about mind. “M ind is like the skv* “the radiance o f mind is like sunlight”; “mindforms are ephemeral and capricious”; “all appearances are like reflections in a mirror"; “there is no distinction between appearances and emptiness’; “everything whatsoever is an illusory magical display o f mind.” All these statements are self-evident, says Shabkar, and the principal difference between the Dzokchenpa and the anxious, bewildered worldling is that the former has experiential knowledge of these facts, while the latter is unable to recognize them due to the partial­ ity and bias inherent in a mind split by subject/object dichotomy. The instruction in Song Nine guides the yogin through a partly dis­ cursive analysis o f appearances in order to convince him of the insubstantiality o f all sensual stimuli. This is not an objective scien­ tific analysis o f phenomena. It is an examination o f our actual experi­ ence, which, according to Buddhist thought, is all we can know about the universe.82 To all intents and purposes, from the point of

view o f human consciousness phenomena are mind-created, and these precepts convince the yogin o f this verity. Song Thirteen describes a wonderful meditation that cuts attach­ ment to emotion and uses passion as the source o f Awareness in us five aspects. The mechanics o f the technique are clearly described in

T

hi

F n c .H T O h

the

Ga

ru d a

_____

he iure nature o f transcendental awareness inherent in

^ *°"8’ Emotions is better described like this: thl

T h 'l set o f realizations is based in the reflex intuition that '^ n m e n t o f experience is perfect in its ultimate identievery mom « . . . . . „ Sloth is undiscnminanng and non-judgmental in vision ^ non-prejudiciai in action; indiscriminate lust is unfosed compassion (love with the in fin ite universe as a cu lover); anger, which burns up discursive thought, is the prinvil awareness in intrinsic knowledge;84 coincident with the vanity and pride that bring no fall is a siddhas vision o f uni­ versal sameness; and as for jealousy, there is no room for its passionate attachments and paranoic thought in the reality continuum o f its ultimate sameness.85

This meditation is to be performed during formal sessions and in the meditative state at all tim es. As Shabkar affirm s, o n ce the accomplishment has become a habit, once the recognition o f the purity in passion has become a conditioned response o f mind, reflex intuition takes over. There is no question o f transformation o f pas­ sion here: the term germane to this process is “recognition o f what already exists waiting for revelation.” T h e n at the end o f this song there occurs the statement that logically emerges from practice o f this meditation: “T he greater the passion and the greater the inten­ sity of discursive thought, the greater the dharmakaya.” In this way samsara itself is the Buddhas throne. T his song is also an initiatory introduction into spontaneous release o f the five poisons. Song Fourteen, an initiatory introduction to the spontaneous release of the six sense-fields, con tains explicit in stru ctio n o n a technique to reveal the one-taste o f all things. T h is song scotches residual impression an outsider may have that the one-taste o f emptiness, the fruit o f D zokchen, is a single feeling o f innocuous o equanimity* that the goal is a constant stream o f sensory n the contrary, the vast variety o f sense impressions are 77

T

he

F l ig h t

o f thf.

G aruda

heightened, despite, or indeed because of, insight into the taste o f emptiness. Since empty awareness and the form that sense-impression are inseparable, where the yogin is en jo in ed “observe the mind” in this song he can but become aware o fk detachment and the pure pleasure that accompanies every pe, tion, whether it be pleasure or pain, happiness or sadness. Now0 j in English is adequate to translate the feeling-tone o f the one-tas^ However, the “pure pleasure” o f pain is not a sado-masochis^ ecstacy; perhaps the feeling-tone o f detached enjoyment best con veys the nature o f this pleasure. Songs Sixteen, Seventeen and Eighteen treat the essencc of Dzokchen meditation. Sixteen begins with an initiatory introduction to Dzokchen itself, and each verse is a complete revelation “‘Buddha* is the one taste o f the dharmakaya”; “the compassionate responsiveness that arises coincident with thought-free samadhi is the special characteristic o f Dzokchen vision”; and then M amoralitv is a demonic perversion.” T h e latter part o f this most significant Song Sixteen includes vital advice on the treatment o f doubt and equivocation on the path. Shabkar mentions the most virulent and destructive doubt, namely the thought that meditation is redundaw because no relative cause can effect the ultimate, acausal, sponta­ neous Dzokchen goal. His answer to d o u b t is the True Lama's grace. It is beyond the power o f o rd in ary words to explain « describe to a faithless outsider the nature o f the Lamas b le ssin g , and it is totally unnecessary to convince a yogin o f the power of hi* Lamas mind. Pray, relax and remain aware is Shabkars formula, and he suggests that profound affirmation and renewed conviction will inevitably result. He implies, further, that peak or 'n‘t'at0j| experience implanting the Dzokchen vision can be attained the llama's blessing. T h e dynamic o f this phenomenon is ^escn^, in the (iarlan d o f Vision (pp. 1 8 8 -9 ), and the point to remem here is that if is the all-pervasive Buddha-Lama who is the blessings, not a hum an entity perceived as a separate, $UP

T

he

F ijg h t

o f tt^

G

a r u o a ------------------------------

, Being T h e yogins attitu d e o f su p p lica tio n a n d his fo c u s eternal U‘t

S

em bodied in the Lam a assist this process.

t'Seventeen is another treasury o f preccpts_ It b e g in s w .t h th e

T

hie in ju n ctio n to leave h o m e , fam ily, fr ie n d s a n d n a tiv e v At the b eg in n in g so m u ch ca n b e a c c o m p li s h e d in th e

Z tZ

. p h y s i^ —

from , h , o b j . c , o f ,h e n , , n d s

“ I ! . . The of I ° " S s o n g P ™ » ' f d " * ,l' d instruction upon D z o k c h e n v is io n , m e d i t a t i o n a n d a c t i o n . It describes the meditation o f n o n -m ed ita tio n an d n o th in g c a n b e said here to clarify Shabkars aphorism s o n this to p ic, a lth o u g h v o lu m e s have been written on the topic o f each verse. Song Eighteen provides instruction o n the m e th o d s o f r e m o v in g obstacles on the path. S in c e at n o tim e are t h o u g h t s t o b e s u p ­ pressed or neutralized but rather viewed as allies in m e d i t a t i o n , i f thev arise as obstacles a fault in vision has b e e n revealed. C o r r e c t * vision is accompanied by the relaxed re co g n itio n o f th e n a tu r e o f obstructing thought, w hich Sh ab k a r here d efin es as “th e n a tu r a lly accomplished G reat P e r fe c tio n .” T h i s lead s i n t o i n s t r u c t i o n o n “non-action.” “N o n -actio n ” c a n n o t easily b e d e fin e d , b u t o n e c a n say that it is accom panied by a sense o f p erfect b a la n c e a n d p o is e , even if the non-action is an e x trem e o f a c tio n . P erh ap s th is is t h e place to quote Shabkar on intellectual analysis: “ It is c e r ta in t h a t t h e

imellectua1 with an analytical view o f reality has n o c o n n e c t io n with the Dzokchen Nyingthik.” c c p ^ t I : enty-0 n e ‘S an° ther SOn? - d c o n . i n u e T J i t h m 0fe ^signed f o ^ capacity” ire

m e d ita tio n p re -

in D z o k ^ e n m e d ita tio n “ c h n i ‘«“ ' f° r C u t t i n g T h r o u g h

hose who h ,

W" h

Lama *

spontaneous, effortless ease

' he —

n UStamed

ria l l n i t l a t i o n

,n it 'a to rv sta te w ith

T

he

F l ig h t

of the

G aruda

not require aeons o f practice but which immediately cut throu h the dualities o f mind and the propensities that block recognitj0rj o f intrinsic knowledge. They are all simple but highly efificaciouj techniques, with the exception o f the last one, which requires preparation, detailed visualization and special conditions for j(s p erfo rm a n ce . It is a sim ple version o f th e te c h n iq u e called “Severance” (chod). The final exercise, involving simulated lunacy is one o f the standard, internal, extraordinary preliminary Dzokchen practices. Such a technique has appeared in various forms in the sy n th etic new-age “spiritual d evelop m en t cu lts that have a “tantric” flavour, as well as in popular humanistic psychology. The value o f such an exercise is self-evident, but it must be performed within a supportive context, such as thar o f the Lamas precepts or mental damage can ensue. Songs o f the third type are Aphoristic Songs, those consisting 0f aphorisms. T he Sanskrit sloka, a two-lined metrical verse, is an ideal vehicle o f expression for scripture, epic poetry and so forth. In Tibetan scripture a four-line verse serves the same aphoristic purpose— a literary device to assist the memory. Yogins going into retreat learn by heart such texts o f precept as The Flight o f the

Garuda so that the verse required at any m om ent is ready on the tip o f the tongue. Thus some o f the songs o f precept are couched in aphoristic verse, and some songs consist entirely o f this form— Songs O ne and Two, for example. Each verse is complete in itself and there need be no relationship in co n te n t between one verse and the next. The mahasiddhas treasuries o f dohas are very similar to Songs O ne and Two, a similarity strengthened by sameness in meaning and even in vocabulary and syntax. N o doubt Shabkar Lama was familiar with either the mahasiddhas’ songs themselves or some ported Tibetan plagiarism. /n the context o f the path o f the supreme Inner Tantra, the part

Ih e f light o f the (iaru da discussed and translated here b e lo n g s to

T h e F l ig h t o f t h e G aru d a

r ^ ' c} Ihrough K

K

i n

g

T h r o u g h , w h ic h is th e p e n u l t i m a t e p h a s e o f

n o k c h c n is divided in t o th e tw o levels o f C u t t i n g ho) and Im m ed ia te C r o s s in g {toga!). T h e r e is a s e c i Plight o f the G aruda th a t treats I m m e d ia t e C r o s s i n g

1,(uiparCt° i inner. I m m e d i a t e C r o s s in g is a m o r e d a n g e r o u s v e h iiftaSimih 1 " ^ de

T hrou gh an d its p re ce p ts are n e v e r d iv u lg e d e x c e p t

R e w o r k o f a L a m a -d is c ip le r e la tio n s h ip w h e n t h e y a re

tfiihm thc^ rlraC[jSed. H ow ever, it is p e r m i s s i b l e to g e n e r a liz e a b o u t

jb°Utt°

secret vehicle in so fa r as it s h e d s lig h t o n t h e n a t u r e o f

this m° $^ r0Ugj1 T h ese tw o phases o f D z o k c h e n p r a c t i c e a r e b o t h

Elem entary and serial in relationship. T h e “prim al p u rity ” th at uaJfc Cutting Through and the “sp o n tan eo u s o rig in a tio n * th at ** lifies Im m ed iate C r o s s in g a re d i f f e r e n t s id e s o f t h e s a m e Dzokchen coin and at the same tim e prim al p u rity is th e fo u n d a ­

tion of spontaneous origination o f events o u t o f, an d as th e n a tu re of primal purity. Thus C u ttin g T h r o u g h is th e te c h n iq u e o f d is­ solving all appearances, all e m o tio n and th o u g h t in to th e ir o rig in a l nature of primal purity. V ision, m ed itatio n an d a c tio n w o rk t o g e t h ­ er to produce spontaneously originated K n o w le d g e o f all th in g s as perfect and complete, as space a n d lig h t. E x p e r ie n c e b e c o m e s a continuum of reality where reality is space an d tran sp aren t ra in b o w coloured light.

T h e Song

o f th e

C l e m L ig h t to

o f th e

Visio n

of

C heat P e r f e c t io n

Traverse Q u ic k ly

T

he

C u t t in g T h r o u g h

F light

th e

Pa t h s

of the

to

r,u

w it h t h e and

S tages

G a r u d a **;

NAMOCURUJO:

Homage an d reverence to Lam a C h oki Gyelpo Whose seven-horsed m andala o f all-illu m in atin g wisdom and iovf Radiates all-em bracing beam s o f boundless compassion Instantaneously enlightening beings o f the three realms.

Homage and reverence to Ngakchang Dorje: From clouds o f loving kindness an d compassion piled high In the vast expanse o f his radiant, empty dharmakaya, A downpour o f dharm a descends upon the earth, Upon his fortunate disciple vessels. The winds o f diligence blowing into the unfurled sails o f high aspiration , ‘I he ship o f vision carries a ll beings drowning in the ocean ofexistence To the Island o f fewels, the Buddha's trikdya: I fomage to the captain o f that ship , Jam yang Gyatso! Ih e sun o f wisdom an d love o f these my three Lamas, Radiating warming rays o f potent grace, Struck the white lotus o f this lucky vagrant, And the bud o f Knowledge fully opening A thousand petals o j mystical experience an d insight were expos

Piled high on the pistils o f intelligence Lies nectar that liberates by taste, The am brosial nectar o f these songs o f vision: This I offer to my lucky disciples, the swarm o f bees, To drink in devotion to their hearts content.

SONG ON E: T H E M IR A C U L O U S N A T U R E O F B E I N G 88 EH M A H O ! T h is carefree and free-speaking vagrant w ith th e d eep

intelligence now sings The Flight o f the G aruda, a s o n g o f v isio n , facilitating fast ascent o f all the stages and paths.89 L isten atten tiv ely , my beloved sons and daughters!

Like

the roar o f the dragon, the great name o f Bu dd ha resounds

throughout the universe, in samsara and nirvana. C on stan tly vibrat­ ing in the minds o f the six types o f sentient beings, how w onderful that this resonance is not silent a moment! They may be ignorant o f the Buddhas existence w ithin, b u t how amazing that fools scarch for him outside! Clearly visible like su n ­ shine, bright and radiant, how surprising that so few can see him ! The Mind, the Buddha himself, having neither m o th er n or father howwonderful it is that he knows neither birth nor dying! S u fferin g » our multifarious feelings, how marvelous that he is u n a f f e c t e d rot better or worse!

m inf ' un born a n j p rim a “ y pure— h ow % itself, our natu'rallv'hh '" PCrfeCt‘° n! ln trin sic no niattet what occurs it is 7 n‘uurt'— how m arvelous it is th at released by letting it be!

EH

M

. r G ™

° : ™ £ FU N D W EN ^ « ® ' T ,

t™

tra c tio n ! M t t v L ^ W B ^ d h " -» you realize , h c L miss W h e r e does it exit? C o n s i d e r t h e s e q u e s t i o n s a n d all t h e i r

rJm i f i c a i i ° n s , n d e t a , K

persevere in your careful enquiry, examining the mind until you reach positive conclusion that it is empry, pure and utterly inexpressible, that it is a non-entiry and free o f birrh and death, com ing and going. T h e arid assertions and metaphors o f others— statem ents such as “M in d is emptiness!”— are worse than useless. Until you know the answer yourself such statements tend to bring doubt and hesitation

to the mind. It is like a dogmatic assertion that tigers do in fact live in a country where it is generally supposed that tigers are ex tin ct. It

leaves doubt and uncertainty on the subject. After attentively e x am ­ ining your mind and having established its nature, it is as i f you have explored the valleys and hills where the tigers are said to exist and, having seen for yourself w hether tigers live th e re, are fully informed. Thereafter, if the qu estion o f tigers’ e x iste n ce in th a t place arises, you will have no doubt as to the truth o f the m atter.

SONG FOUR: INITIATION IN T O T H E NATURE. O F M IN D

7

bt

* > ~ r ,n „ d Jc " a Jd Cr »

P=m, o l d ” , to and say

V' d ” ” S a" d d a u 8 W , s ’ S " h" “ l.“ d " a m ' “ ,io n o f y,m '

ro u n (l m

,,0U * d; ° fi " d a "> » T h .s is « ! and w h e n y o u fa ile d to

87

i i t t r i k « i 11 *'•

*•

v j/ m w i

find so m uch as an atom that you could call concrete, th* failure was supreme success.

n^

Firstly, “m in d ” has no origin; since it is originally e m p ^ essence is insubstantial. Secondly, it has no location, no co|(>UrS *** n o shape. Finally, it does not move: without moving, jr without a trace; its activity is em pty activity, its emptiness

cmptY

appearances. M inds nature91 is not created by a causc in the first place, and ‘ not destroyed by an agent or condition at the end. It is a const^ quantiti': nothing can be added to or taken from it, it is incapat/ o f increase or decrease, and it cannot be filled or emptied. Since minds nature is all-pervasive, the ground o f both samsaraand nirvana, it is without bias or partialiry. N o form demonstrates its actuality more clearly than another, and it manifests all and every, thing equally without obstruction. M ind cannot be established or defined as anything at all specific, since it goes beyond the lim itations o f existence and non-existence. W ithout com ing and goin g it is w ithout birth and death, without clarity and obscuration. The nature o f mind in its purity is like a stainless crystal ball: its essence is emptiness, its nature is clarity, and its responsiveness is a continuum . In no way whatever is the nature ot m in d affected by samsaras neg­ ativity. From the first it is Buddha. Trust in this! Su ch is m y introduction in itiatin g reco g n itio n o f the original nJturf o f m in d , the ground o f our being, ou r true existential condition-

j in l:ii< ;i*ro * .......................

S O N C 1 I V I ': A D M I S S I O N O I ; I L L U S I O N

, . , . 1 , 0 - A g ,in . my b elo v ed h e a r t - s o n s , lis t e n ! H e a r h o w * rm.k.ya Kun.u /angpo is tree without need for so m u ch as an PhJ

i

meditation, and how the six types ol h e m p w ander m without having performed even the slightest n eg a n v e o r

vicious *,ct* In ihcr beginning, before anything was, nameless samsara and n irv|,w were pure potential in the original ground of b e in g . I his is how Knowledge arose from the ground at that tim e: in the sam e way that the natural light o f a crystal shines out when a su n b eam strikes jt when the primal awareness ol Know ledge was vitalized by liteforce, the seal o f the Vase o f Eternal Youth was b ro k en and sp o n ta ­ neously originated clear light shone in the sky like the light o f the rising sun, as pure-lands of pure-being and primal awareness/’' Then Dharmakaya Kuntu Z a n g p o understood this to b e his s p o n ta ­ neous manifestation, and instantaneously the o u te r light o f p u re being and primal awareness dissolved in to the in n er cle ar lig h t. In the original ground o f being, pure from the b e g in n in g , he a tta in e d Buddhahood.

We unenlightened beings, however, did n o t u n d e r s ta n d th a t th e nature of spontaneously o rig in ated ap p earan ces was o u r o w n n a t ­ ural radiance, and u n m in d fu l p e rc e p tio n an d b e w ild e r m e n t w e re * c result. I his is called “th e ig n o r a n c e th a t a c c o m p a n ie s e v e ry Perception. r

d » l.gh, we„ p , , ^

„

This b

M

^

-- ------------------------

T

hf .

F l ig h t

of the

G a r uka

•gnorance.” It was at this juncture that we fell into rh rant dualism. C tfdp o| W Thereafter, as the potentialities o f our experience proliferated gradual widening o f the scope o f our activity, the entire samsaric action emerged. Then the three emotional p o iso n s^ ^ 1 together with the five poisons that evolved from them t h e ^ ^ four thousand forms o f passion developing from the five poi so on. Since then, until this very moment, we have endured th* ^ sure and pain o f the wheels constant revolutions. We spin endf^ in this samsaric existence as if tied to a waterwheel. * I f you need elaboration o f this topic, consult Kunkhyen Longchen ’

Treasury o f the Supreme Approach and the Dense Cloud o f Profound Significancey among others.94 Now, although your L am as profound personal instruction has made you aware o f the self-deception and delusion harboured in the dark cave o f your mind, you have also recognized your mind as Buddha. You have encountered the original face o f the Original Lord, the Adibuddha, and you know that you possess the same potential as Kuntu Zangpo. M y spiritual children, contemplate this joy from rhe bottom o f your hearts! Such is my introduction initiating certain recognition o f delusion.

SO N G SIX: IN ITIA TIO N IN T O O U R TRU E EX IST EN T IA L C O N D IT IO N E H M A H O ! Again, beloved children o f m y heart, listen! Mind, this universal concept, this most significant o f words, being no single entity, manifests as the gamut o f pleasure and pain in samsara and nirvana. T h e re are as m any beliefs about it as there are

approaches

T u t - F t I G l j T O F T H E G A R U D A ________ _________

___

1 It has i n n u m e r a b l e s y n o n y m s .

(0 Hi“,ahahtK ular ii <s somc Hindus call it the “S e lf”; the )n the vcTna- |f,|css individual”; the followers o f Mind-only call it pisL'ip'cS sa^j». s()mc call it “perfect insight”; some call it “Buddhasiiiipty mU ^.a|| ^ the “Magnificent Stance” (Mahamudra); some njcutf i Way”; some call it the “Cosm ic Seed"; some call l« e a l i t y - c ° n t i n u u m ” ; s o m e cal1 U t h e “u n i v e r s a l g r o u n d ” ;

it *^e r

. “ordinary consciou sness."9* Since the synonym s o f

S° mC C”\he labels we apply to it, are countless, know it for what it -mind* l ^ n0W jt experientially as the here and now. C om pose * u lse lf «n ' h e n a tu r a l s ta te ° f y ° U r m ' n d s n a t u r e -

When at rest the mind is ordinary perception, naked and unadorned; when you gaze directly at it there is n oth in g to see but light; as Knowledge,96 it is brilliance and the relaxed vigilance o f the awak­ ened state; as nothing specific whatsoever, it is a secret fullness; it is the ultimacy o f nondual radiance and emptiness. h is not eternal, for nothing whatsoever about it has been proved to exist. It is not a void, for there is brilliance and wakefulness. It is not unity, for m ultiplicity is self-evident in perception. It is n ot multiplicity, for we know the one taste o f unity. It is not an external function, for Knowledge is intrinsic to im m ediate reality. In the immediate here and now we see the face o f the O riginal Lord abiding in the heart centre. Identify yourself with h im , my spiritual sons. Whoever denies him , w anting m ore from som ew here else, is like the man who has found his elephant b u t co n tin u es to follow its tracks. He may co m b the three d im e n sio n s o f th e m ic r o c o s m ic word systems for an eternity, but he will n ot find so m u ch as the name o f Buddha other than the o n e in his heart.

----------------------------------------- T

^

R

i g h t o f t h r g

A R U |->a

Such is my introduction initiating recognition of' tial condition, which is the principal realization i n ^ to the Great Perfection.97 wUtt*n8*l'hr^

SO N G SEVEN: ASSERTION O F IN TR IN SIC B U r ^ E H M A H O ! O n c e m o re listen atten tiv ely , m y nobl

H°°t)

daughters. T h e three m odes o f B u d d h as being__ ess * S° nSaH4 and responsiveness— and the five modes o f being, as well**' ^ aspects o f primal awareness are all completed and perf naturally luminous intrinsic knowledge o f the here and now m^ T h e essence o f Knowledge, indefinable by any term such as tJL. shape or other attribute, is the dharmakaya; the inherent r & o f emptiness is the light o f the sarhbhogakaya; and the unimp^j medium in which all things m anifest is the nirmanakaya. T h e three modes are explained figuratively like this: the dharmakar is a crystal mirror; the sarhbhogakaya is its nature— brilliant clarity and the nirm anakaya is the u n o b stru cte d medium in which tlit reflection appears. From the first, peoples m inds have existed as these three modesof being. I f they are able to recognize this spontaneously, it is unneces­ sary for them to practise even so m u ch as a m om ent o f formal med­ itation— the awakening to B u d d h ah o o d is instantaneous. In this introduction to the three m odes they are defined sep arately Jn truth, my heart-children, do n o t fall in to the error of believing them to be separate, belon g in g to differen t continuums. J r o m the beginning, the three m odes o f b e in g are empty anduiw iy pure. U nderstanding them as a single essence that is the union

[ hi- F i.K iu r o r n ik G a r u d a

, and emptiness, conduct yourself in a state of dctachmcru. fjjianc h triaa o f essence, nature and responsiveness, again, corresponds jhar.nakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. Understanding 'hc.se ' hrec 34 ‘ hC niySt‘C Un'0n ° f cm Ptiness and radiancc, conduct y o u r s e l f '" » s t a t e o f d c t a c h m e n t .

sincc the primal awareness o f self-existing Knowledge manifests everything whatsoever, this awareness is the pure-being™ fu rth e r,

of the C re ato r, V a i r o c a n a ; s i n c e it is u n c h a n g i n g and unchange­ able, it is th e pure-being o f Immutable Diamond, Aksobhya-vajra; since it is w i t h o u t c e n t r e or circumference, it is the pure-being of Boundless L i g h t - f o r m , A m i t a b h a ; s i n c e it is also the gem that is the source o f supreme realization a n d relative powers, it is chr

pure-being o f t h e F ou ntain o f Jewels, Ratnasambhava; sin c e it accomplishes all a s p i r a t i o n , it is the p u r e - b e i n g o f the Fulfiller of

All A m b i t i o n , Amoghasiddhi. T h e s e d eitie s are n o t h i n g bu t the creative power o f Knowledge.*9 The primal awareness o f Knowledge is mirror-like awareness because of the manifest clarity o f its unobstructed essence. It is awareness of sameness because it is all-pervasive. It is discriminating awareness because the entire gamut o f diverse appearances is manifest from its creativity. It is the awareness that accomplishes all actions because it fulfils all our ambition. It is awareness of the reality-continuum, the dharmadhatu, because the single esscnce o f all these aspects o f awareness is primal purity. Not so much as an atom exists apart from these, which arc the creativity o f intrinsic knowledge. When a pointed finger introduces you directly and immediately to the three m odes— essence, nature and responsiveness— and the Five Buddhas and the five aspects o f awareness, all together, then wtat is experienced is brilliant, awakened Knowledge unaffected

b.v c ir c u m s t a n c e an d u ninfluenc ed bv "°"

,h ' h " ' “ d

■

'■"‘ . " . c u r e d .

c°gni-

All th e B u d d h as o f the three aspects „ f rW * . C o n sta n tly id e n ti^ y o ^ Z ’ ^ T d a u g h te r s , b ecau se this is ,h= sp tn , u.lli:, o f ^ th r e e asp ects o f t im e .100

' * ' (» * « uddhas of the

K n o w le d g e is th e unstructured, natural radiance o f your own mini so h o w c a n you say that you ca n n o t sec the Buddha? There is noth­ in g at all to m e d ita te upon in it, so how can you complain that med­ ita tio n d oes n o t arise? It is m anifest Knowledge, your own mind, so h o w ca n you say th at you ca n n o t find it? It is a stream o f unceasing ra d ia n t w akefulness, th e face o f your m ind, so how can you say that y o u c a n n o t see it? T h e r e is n ot so m u ch as a moment o f work to be d o n e to attain it, so how can you say that your effort is unavailing? C e n tr e d and dispersed states are two sides o f the same coin, so how ca n y o u say th a t you r m in d is never centred? Intrinsic knowledge is t h e s p o n t a n e o u s l y o r i g i n a t e d th r e e m o d e s o f being, which is ach iev ed w ith o u t striving, so how can you say that your practice fails to a cco m p lish it? It is enough to leave the mind in a state of nona c tio n , so how can you say that you are incapable o f attaining «• Your th o u g h ts arc released at the m o m en t o f their inception, so how c a n you say that th e antidotes were ineffective? It is c o g n i t io n of the here and now, so h ow can you say you do not perceive it?

S O N G E IG H T : T H E M E T H O D O F ATTAINING C O N V I C T I O N H M A H O ! O n c e again, beloved sons and daughters, listen with i

rinn 1 “ M in d in its insubstantiality is like the sky.” Is this true 0 *jV°

children? C o n firm it by relaxing completely and loo mg

S Z ,l7 » ^

- i n d , ^ n 6 with y o u , entire „ ,i„ d . free o f a» —

T

hf .

F l ig

h to fth f.

G

aruda

ness o f the m ind is n ot just a blank nothingness, for -The eI71P ^ js fo e primal awareness o f intrinsic knowledge, without^ ^ ^

Self-existent, natural radiance is tike sun-

^ ' ^ V t h i s indeed true? T o con firm it, relax completely, looking 5fe‘ t|ylt the nature o f your mind. “There is no d ou bt th a t it is im p o ss ib le to o b je c t if y o r grasp hought or the movement o f memory. T h is capricious, changeable 1 o v em m,nr m en t k i* like rhe cosm ic w ind!” Is this indeed so? T o confirm it, r e la x

completely, looking directly at the nature o f your mind.

"Without doubt all appearances whatsoever are our own manifesta­ tion. All phenomena, whatsoever manifests, is like reflection in a mirror.” Is this indeed so? T o con firm it, relax completely, looking directly at the nature o f your m ind. No experience is possible anywhere b u t in the m ind, so there is nothing to see other than that seen at the m o m en t o f vision. No experience is possible anywhere but in the m ind, so there is nothing to meditate upon other than m ind. N o experience is possible any­ where but in the mind, so there is n oth in g to do other than what is done in the mind. N o experience is possible anywhere but in the mind, so there is no samaya to be sustained outside the m ind. N o experience is possible anywhere b u t in the m ind, so there is no goal 10

reached that is not in the m ind. look, and look again. L o o k at your own mind!

watchi eonvinceci^0

attCnt*on *nto cxternal fields o f space, and, attentively ^ ° ur

see ^

moves. W h e n you are

''ttteniion and ° Servat*on t ^lal r^c m >nd does not move, retract your °ncentrate upon the m ind w ithin, and look carefully 4

fo r th e p r o je c to r o f diffused thought When th e r e is n o e n tity responsible for thoucht n th e c o lo u r an d shape o f the m ind. W hen

L ^

C dcci^inea8e

a„ ^

th r o u g h p ra y e r.’” T h u s th e r e c ita tio n 'o f th e s e * ^ nt a skilful m eans o f attain in g Buddhahoo ! j i f f i > u l ( y o g a s , p r o l o n g e d s e r v ic e to th e L a m a , or

with th e H akim . I/i )

^

|Ht

iv7|cf->-G r a n t in g P rayer o f K u n t l Z a n g p o —

—

ho is Kuniu Zangpo? He is the Adibuddha, the PrimaJ, Finally. w pu^£jha. He represents Knowledge-Awareness, and First, ° ”^ nivcfSCt His name means “A ll-G ood,” where his good^ at lS 1 endent and supra-moral. He also represents Dzokchen ness is tr^n fesul[ant phase. Kuntu Zangpos “dynamic” is the power ^ 1

indi or active Knowledge. T h e word “m ind" is rejected o f the danger o f conceiving it as a substantial entity. It conno more than its motive power or intentionality, and its

^odes can be defined as primal awareness, com m unicative vibradon, responsiveness, transform ing activity, and magical quality.’- * These modes are induced by the prayer. The prayer o f the Adibuddha Kuntu Zangpo can be analyzed into two parts. T h e first part explains the nature o f ignorance and the vision o f Kuntu Zangpos reality that ignorance veils. T h e sec­ ond part describes the m editation upon the Five forms o f passion that are intrinsically the five aspects o f awareness. Each section o f this “philosophical” prayer concludes with a vocative statem ent invoking the Buddhas awareness. In the first part, the first sectio n 140 introduces the basic reality o f the ground o f being14' that transcends all dualities, including sam­ sara and nirvana, ignorance and knowledge. T h is is the realm o f Kuntu Zangpo. T h e se co n d s e c tio n d e fin es B u d d h a h o o d as Knowledge o f the ground o f being. T h e third section describes the emanation o f awareness w ithin Knowledge o f the ground and the qualities of this m agnificent vision as it unfolds. Awareness is the radiance o f Knowledge,142 and out o f the undifferentiated union that is Knowledge arise the five aspects o f awareness that are the ivc Dhyani Buddhas. From them the Forty-tw o Peaceful D eities. an from them the Sixty W rath fu l D e itie s, arise in tu rn . T h e ^ e m a n a t i o n from the centre o f passive Knowledge to the sco ^ ^rence ^sence

ac“ ve awareness is a function o f the increasing

aw areness' $ ‘n cc th ese D e itie s are the co g n itiv e 1 e form o f the dance of awareness, w hich is everym an* *

143

■ nmeru, delusion is precluded, passionate psychic enV“ °ws th e ’d yn am ics of the previous m iiom T h e fo u rth section vi ^ ^ em anation is motivated by comw ith o u t: th e G u ru -B u ^ *

io n _ ubiquitous compassion. No

p assio n a n d actu ally fo rm w hatsoever « n o t

emanation (ion. The has been

Z an gpo’s compasstonate mamfa*. ^ ^ -m which Kumu Zangp*

^

^

and perverted through ax

1 •z-'*1 1 L* L , r V 7 “ ^ l , , l O U g n SIX Psv. UL \ c h o lo g ic a l n eu ro ses, w h ich are p rod u ced by karma, and I

evolved fro m w hat in th e beginn in g was our failure to endure* radiance o f clear light. W h en attention lacks focus, and concr ' ' i|_____ • •• «uu cuncei 1 • X I r I. r a* . Cntr^ tio n is ab sen t, an existen tial dread o f life (“the unknown”) is reaction , and fearful insecurity produces the sense o f alienation T is th e basis o f th e wheel o f samsara. T h e wheel is driven by poJ n ou s em otion s that create karm as constantly reinforcing (he propel sities that drive th e wheel. T h e sixth se ctio n re-states the tw ofold ignorance that prevents re co g n itio n o f K u n tu Z a n g p o s reality: the innate ignorance that is a b se n c e o f K n o w led g e arisin g w ith every m om ent o f perception, and co n cep tu a l ig n o ran ce th a t locks us into the prison ofthoughtfo rm s. In n a te ig n o ra n ce re-in itiates the process referred to above in every m o m e n t o f p ercep tio n : existential dread, alienation and pas­ sio n , sustain a v icio u s c irclc o f co n stan tly reinforced karma. Taking refu g e in th e alien ated e g o s thou gh tfo rm s, in labelling, stru ctu rin g an d se le ctin g , th e view o f su b ject/ o b ject duality is acceptcdasa g o d -g iv en verity, an d extern al o b je c ts are conccived as ^'scretc*f\. stan rial e n titie s. T h e fo u rth text translated herein, the

V ision lists th e m o st crass fo rm s o f this ignorance under V is io n .” T h e rem ain d er o f th e prayer provides the spec1 o f v isio n th a t fa cilita te reco g n itio n o f K untu Zangpos rw in th e v a rio u s p sy ch o lo g ica l en v iro n m en ts generate fu n d a m e n ta l passions. T h e d ecep tiv e sim p licity o f language an

cone_

p art o f th e prayer need n o t induce the belie t at a

in . s KX-finiff

Tm : W

ish - G r a n t in g

P r a y ir

o p k untu

z M CPO

o f mind-niaiiipiibfion is involved. This eminently practicable tation is essentially contemplation upon the emptiness Df the o f daily life. As the Buddha guides „s through the various V Z mental events, each dominated by a different passion, at each he exhorts rhe yogin to relax and relieve the stress.m T h i Dzokchen precept repeatedly emphasized in this yoga is '‘Do" 5

) '

Z

U

ing! Indulge and cultivate nothing! R eject and abandon n l l i , Simply he aware and let ,t be!” T o say "Identify the emptiness inh & ent in simple sensory perception o f every situation" would b l nvate the seeking and striving that precludes attainment I n d T f three situations, dominated by desire, hatred and pride wh 6 h yogin stands back, as it were from the violent or at fc a * intense circum stances, d etachin g h im se lf from the charged structures that “conceptual ignorance” has w o v c.H ro u ld him, Kuntu Zangpo expresses the result o f this in terms o f neousiy arising Knowledge. In rhe fourth situation, where je a l o u ^ ' the dominant passion, the word “Knowledge” is replaced h T narysensory c o n s c io u s n e s s ,” ’** im p ly in g th e i U r meanings. Pure sensory awareness free o f e • Cnt' ty ^e two ■he full intensity o f mindfulness g y r a t e d by

.With

«on, gives access to emptiness, suchness, the here-and T o ■ e event, and Knowledge is the cognitive asn ea o f ^ °f * « Buddha is urging us to L P ° f em Ptlne« - Thus Knowledge to assume its i lh t f d ^ o fJ J i k J T * *

^

‘°

a" d a11™ ~ y » w i. is.

«8 or offensive object severing I! T ^ by the fo cin a tbr|ngmg it back, stuff it in to the he ^ ^ t0 the ° b' c a ' ^ ln eafh case the villain f u - Centre~ then- N o-M ind!” ""conscious process o f d iffe° *• ° ^!CCC ‘s dualizing mind,1*' the

;t ■-*kLIf r r r i *

r d °h iK ' , h “ • * » fealm o f the hungry ghosts

Sr- *££££ t ^

£

°T3n object is rk

,

z

»f K,,„„w „ / " ,h“ P1'' " " " i No A

I here is no distinction between self and other i i and em pathy is so strong that we “know” ur J " ' ' and "u t^ mately and fully the m om ent it enters c o n s c io u s ^

n“ 0 f 1 d“ co“ ' ■ * '" n o te fo rm , although this is n ot the orthodox view o f it. Rongzom P an d ita rep orts™ that after singing three songs to the King and ik T w e n ty -fiv e D iscip les at D rakm ar Tsom o Gur kyi Neuchang,'* w h ile rhe disciples rejoiced the G uru composed the two texts and in stru cte d th e K in g in their practice. Perhaps the Garland o f Vision c o m p r is e s th e n o te s th a t th e G uru used to instruct the King. W h a te v e r its precise origin, in a highly concise, mnemonic form, th e levels o f h u m an vision are defined rherein.

B eg in n in g

with

m u n d a n e vision — w hich hardly deserves the term “vision” in the case o f h ed o n istic perception, for instance— the Guru dwells briefly o n th e B u d d hist n on -tan tric levels before treating Dzokchen vision in d etail. T h u s, despite its unusual form, the Garland o f Vision is* te x t d escrib in g “th e stages o f the path” (lam rim), a genre of litera­ tu re m o re rarely indulged in by the Nyingma than later schwF u rth erm o re , although rhe G arland o f Vision has r h , acadetmc

rim stru ctu re, written from a Dzokchen standpoint its accent so p h ic^ a l view^ .1” u p on c x p e n e n•nI a '- i o n rj a th e^r th a n ^p h^ilo ^

J Qn a c co rd in g ro th e Nyingm a bchoJ*

H o w e v e r , th e stag es o f s p i n r u a n in e fo ld e n u m e r a t e

d escription applies on ly to the- first h J •

jt|cred as an introduction to t l i c * 1-'

o f t h e w o r k , w h ic h m a y

c o n s ists o f an analysis o f t ,e

„ „ d an d m ore s i g n ' ^ ^

e w ( M ..-[ h e M o d e o f rhe

|)y ,,k c h c n p a th . I h e 158

c' a r i a n d o f V i s i o n — — .

ss« r

'

.

.

—

■ • „ The second secnon l 8 5) is an analysis o f visio ■ t h e fin al ,

. mAudi p » , * r i i r a n v e

vision>

r^.x-.r

* * *

w

h

i

l

e

G" !f ° / v z : m c d ita iio n

chcopas activity or conduc . % « tnen Lion. However, , the terse com

» ^

on the “lower” eight

Buddhist philosophies »s a s

^

m u n d^a n e

Dand “ kn cho eo n-

o f p re c e p t re g a rd in g ^ hu m an m m (j 1S 0 u t-

Dzokchen vision: no perspective ^ ^ beyond his use as a skilful side the scope o f the D zokchenpas ken o r beyon means in service o f the Bodhisatrya ow D zo k ch en initiates. The Garland o f Vision is well know n am > g ■ Thaye In his short history o f the text153 Jam gon claims that over the centuries many ordinary y g the authentic rendering of th e text an

ma Y

M ined access to ^ am on% ^ at o n |y

them effortlessly attained their goal. It is s“ rP“ sl V anon O n e o f •wo commentaries upon it are found in the Kam a C an o ^ ^ ihescis from early times and one is s, u concept o f “self” (dtman) is in tro d u ced in to any

H in d u

vi

,

view is immediately suspect. T h e tex t ts w ritten f r o m t view of the D zokchenpas rigorous n on d u alism , “vision” is defined in every statem ent.

an

t e

The panditas o f ancient Ind ia applied th e w ord view ^ to their perspectives o f reality, so “view

an d

synonymous. Although these “philosophies

p h ilo so p y

,

rsa can i

evolved in to to rm u a

tions o f doctrine, or even bodies o f d ogm a, in the h rst p ace view was derived from a vision shared synchronistically by various yogins and sages m editating in jungle solitude or m o u n tain fastness, and insofar as religions and schools o f yoga have their foundation^ in experiential mysticism, at this original p o in t o f departure vision is the correct word to use. However, even at th e m o m en t o f vision, in all but a D zokchenpas m in d , a process b eg in s th a t red u ces th e vision to a mere view, and eventually to d ogm a. 1 h is p rocess is described in the text as the cultivation o f any evaluation o t reality in the scopc between a bloated affirm ation giving prim acy to existen ce 161

“

I'm- l ;l n il II |. rill- CtARliDA

and

*lie

exaggerated negation ol* nihilism.

Any

judumciH-il

n o n ol reality is obscu red by th e twin veils o fe m o u v itv and . l ^ ' lM" w• Uk i J o t h e naked reality with em otionally-toned a n a l y s ^ ? ^ ’

' o ch en p a ts ill-lined as iIk* yogin who applies the precm. ul?.. a m . ,ei n b e ." t |K. yogi ns o f t lie lesser approaches to nirvaiu o r P-U**dise are those w ho sim ply can n ot leave it alone hut” strive to .ih er it, stressing existence or nonexistence, self or em p tin e ss o r form , m ale or fem ale principle, inside or c r e a to r o r c r e a tio n , and so o n . Regardless o f the preferred^ in e v ita b ly th ere arises a m ind -created dichotom y that preclude'45 p erfect vision of' reality. Wa A “vision" is a su bjectiv e phenom enon inseparable front the view er. It m ay be as ep h em eral as a bolt o f lightning or a glim p se of fa erie , o r ii m ay be a .sustained m ental penetration o f reality t|Vd, allow s th e visionary to w rite it down in mathematical symbols. Our M ilto n s and D a n te s w rote it dow n in lyrical poetry. A painter or s c u lp to r niav su stain a vision tor the duration ot his creation of a p la stic rep resen tatio n ol it; but in this instance the content of the v isio n is also, partially -it least, im agined, where imagination is an in te rp re tiv e an d creativ e faculty m anipulating images. On tlw con­ trary. (Ik* D / o k ch cn p a s vision em ploys an introspective faculty pene­ tra tin g to th e essen ce, o r essences. T h e visions o f both philosopher an d p o e t delve b en eath th e surface o t'c o m m o n dualistic delusion, in d in th eir n atu re as su b jectiv e, unifying vision they partake of the L o u i e p r o p e r ty o f th e p ro cess, hut im agination, whether ol an in te lle c tu a l, m ct'ap h vsical or a rtistic nature,

a lw a y s

mtruJes. Mi*

Z L ol reality on a ^ ''j^ plane. I bus there are degrees o l m cnul interference, ami die less in tru sion of im .igiuation and intellect die greater potential tor full ed............................... as a m o d ificatio n V i s i o n c a.......... n i k idnescrib , > k 111 »s

gnostic penetration ol a non dicluKotuotts reality. I he IVokdienpte vision is lic e o l all mental activity. W hen the tniiul is silent* "’fo” im a g ifU iio n . im e llc ii anil all ibouglufornts are still* tin* ^ |0l)

indeterm inable .space .(rises, em piv space full of lightlorn). It*.’

........... —

•

..... ............................................. -

i Kr

is all things m anifest

r l“ f .lu 'r 'h c m o r e profound the vision, the more light (.U-n.iM. •>' tl--'r l,s ■. .llul the less concrete the realm o f natural Joniinaitf* flu - f’ e r t C , j| fj ' | | t h t . universe is an ocean o f light with ll"\ f‘>.r,V'/jTtl.e "radiance” so often spoken o f m the D zokchen "S I nert lining to the sariibhogakaya it is apprehended as r ' Viiuht " its basis is the “clear light.* the light o f the ground o f i"-'1* tht- universal foundation, which is as invisible as its con com innt^»« sPontaneity is the It may appear that the first three o f the f Unitary Cause, Sacred Letters, Sustaining C ^

rCaliZations (the

Realization) are arbitrarily or fortuitously r h l 3Ce ^ In,rned iate out of eighty-four potential skilful Z [ od 7 ^ “ K " ° wl^ e * the prmopal means o f practice and

« « e d letters

lowing extract o f his com m entary treatin

u ? ’ ^

fcjnnon, thc relationships o f all the 2 : *

r *

i r "

" r „ ,lu "

««H*a

P

•« « < » ■ cv ' 8 o n "

. ™

ss s p o n ta n e o u s ma

A a rr

in

fol-

F° Urf° Id In tu itiv e : ; r

f

D » k* "

^

««d

as asPects o f the ° f -, h '

ttr '

^

**

* t«iv »n 1

-V*’

thk

G

aruda

T he relationship o f the elements o f the Dzokchcn mode. T he four realizations are the ground; the , 1, are the means; the four degrees are fruition- and entry m to the mandala o f spontaneity is ih e ‘ n o n >n Immediate Crossing. The One Cause T ' 'ns'rut' ters are the ground; sustaining grace is th ^ m e r T ^ kl' direct realization is fruition. In the same Way * and com ponent is the ground; the application componC°8m"V' means; and the fruition component is fruition An “ 'Kt the g ro u n d ; close approach and accom plishme^ h“ means; and sublim e accomplishment is fruition Lik concerning the three stages o f access to the m a n d a la :^ vided hearing is the ground; entry into the mandala by con stant c o n d itio n in g is the means; and consummation of con d itio n in g , actualization and attainment of the great power is fru itio n . T hus having reached the bottom of the matter, ] w ill now explicate the meaning o f sacred letters a little. A n analysis o f the heading “T he M ode o f the Great Perfection”: As it is said, after com pleting the two forms of accumulation (virtue a n d awareness) there is completion, which is th e > . feet io n ” o f the G reat Perfection. Then, since there is no progress along the path and no preparation or application by w a y

o f support as there is in the lower vehicles, .n the final

event Body, Speech and M in d are ptimordially and spent,

£ Perfection.” C o m m i t o n .h e U n ita ry O u *

*■

.

i n s t r u c i ’i o n i n a

G

arland of

.SW R*‘* 1

V is io n

'

1

on -S'acrtd Letters:

C’-**!*101

_ ,

. . .

the fi,,al evcnt G u h yam anIra ls m tuitive realization o f Buddhahood. the three sacred letters being the d o o r to

c a m p le liberation. In the final event the spontaneity of Body. Speech and M ' " d 'S ^o m Pletc liberation. “A " is the

door of non-origination; O is the door o f manifest m irac­ ulous illusion; “O M ” is the door o f nonduality. on Immediate Realization;

C o m m e n t

Direct, immediate realization is the direct, immediate power of perfect insight.'« There is no other immediacy. Further in the same way that gold is tested by melting, cutting and rubbing, thc value o f realization should be established

By

melting it one discovers whether or not a metal is gold- bv cutting it one ascertains whether or not a m etal contains gold: and by rubbing it on a black stone one tests the r 3 scriptural Transmission, there is, in general no I

*

*

j

•

this test o f dharma is similar to the p ro o f o f gold b v m r it. In scriptural transmission there is n o e x tL ■ m e |tm g

.« d „ and b e c „ * i, i, difficult

' I " * 00" ° f " «

(he words of a realized m ind from , hc

«f

understand their m eaning, it is only w hen rh

°

« „ with ,he Lamas s e c i inst„

' h" c »

thereby are removed: this test o f Hha

defects revealed

* tuning i ,

^

™ h

*'

« o , w i,h

—

2

.

" “ r **

" V be mere sound and

r,ence ■* transmitted, reliance „ n

t t

«a-

™ „ ucz z z

u

k

p ro fo u nA

by rubbing it on a black stone. This immcdiacv „ . cidcnt with discriminating perfect i„sieh. stSc°in. actualized through the power o f yog,, lt js ,lw J J #JVJ,en « b R o n g z o m P andita has defined the four re-,I,,

■

g ro u n d and the three com ponents (cogni.ion,* a p i T " 5 '* ^ fruition) as the means. But again we cannot strive to „ a,’d three elements: as Shabkar Lama says in The Flight o f T 'r 'hKe u is the paradox o f “concentrating on something oui, ^ th a t is in d e term in ate . These elements originate spon ^ ' ^ " through transmission or initiatory experience or they do'*'1' 0'" 11' at ail. Even the application com ponent must arise sp(',nta°n" " ?"* a c o n sta n t stream. T he three principles (contingent effect^,k" im perative and categorical imperative) demonstrate the necessity' f the three com ponents. T hen the four degrees, two o f approach and tw o o f accom plishm ent, in Rongzom ’s analysis are the fruition of the three com ponents as skilful means with the intuitive realization a n d confidence o f Knowledge as the ground. The terms “ approach” a n d “a cco m p lishm e nt” 169 belong to mahayoga, where they are used to describe the entire process o f visualization and recitation, and th e n m o re specifically to define success in the yoga: “approach* refers to progressive clarity in invocation o f the deity, and “accom­ p lis h m e n t ” to the process o f id en tific a tio n with the deity. In R o n g z o m s e x p la n a tio n ‘s a ssu m p tio n o f mahayoga practice is im p lic it , b u t it is still clear that in atiyoga there is no progressive developm ent through practice. His analysis o f Sublime Accomplish­ m e n t is m ore systematic than that o f the root text. These ate the three gro ups, or three aspects, o f Dzokchen that are spom aneouv

KC

« «

n,T b H - r ;

"

^ H c T h e n ^ 're a ts ih e suppression ofd en >o"-sP 'rlls*

:

:

:

i

. ^ r o i ir'T lON SECBtT IKS! _

IN A GAR1.ANO OF V IS IO N

—-----------------------

( he Four Demon-spirirs in “Sublime Accomplishment”: lVs|fuCll°

cach 0f

various bodies o f root texts describes a

In SfIier^ cjfic method o f vanquishing the demons. Here the ^ 'h o d ^ v o lv e s the four degrees o f approach and acconv nlCt cnt A c c o rd in g ly , in “approach” rhe com ponent o f k'!dhic>«a'co^n^ 'on ^°r ^ oc^isatcva-cognition] destroys the n Lord of Death with th e samadhi o f non-origination; ^•dose approach” the component o f divine self-identifica-

^

destroys the demon o f em bodim ent with maya-vision

in “accomplishment” the com ponent o f FemaieConsort generation destroys the dem on o f passion w ith the s a m a d h i;

atom-frec samadhi; and in “sublim e accomplishm ent” the component o f means and insight in tandem destroys the divine princes obstructive distractions with the samadhi that is co-extensive with non-referential space. Finally, the ultimate accom plishm ent, the m ode o f the Great Perfection, is described in terms o f its m andala (p. 192). This is a mandala quite different from yantras, the symmetrical designs o f coloured powder or the three dimensional palaces o f the lower vehi­ cles, and no initiation follow ed by siddhi-generating practice is involved. Shabkar Lamas description in Song Twenty-one is an excel­ lent metaphor for a mandala whose form is the universe, the six sens­ esgiving it six dim ensions. T h e “stages o f in itia tio n ” in to this Dzokchen mandala are coincident, b u t R on g zo m Pandica enlarges upon the method as i f hearing, contem plation and m editarion

he

*al events. This should not detract from the essential fact that entrv a c t i o n are one hundred percent dependent upon the spiritual ‘ranSm,tS the root text and the vital initiatory experience. ^uuctm g the Ultimate D zokchen M and ala: 7 I'n t o th e D z o k c h e n M a n d a l a ] is a c h ie v e d b y m e a n s o f

j HE F l i g h t OF THE G a m u m

the Three Secrets [O M A H H U N G ) Furth tuaJ friend who is an unerring cxemplar o f^ e ^ ^ .01 » «piti. listen to the reading o f the root texts with the i inherent in hearing, and the mandala is

^ " 3’ f'*
attached to bSam yas chos ’khor, was the great per ston who discovered the four vol­ umes of medical tanrra, the rGyud bzbi. He was a Guru of Ma cig Lab sgron, amongst others. 60. Rig pa rtsal dbang, the first and last empowerment into the essence VM I* / 1 11« of Dzokchen. 61. The Padma bKa’ thang prophecy srates that uthe treasure of gNam skas (and) mKhar chu will be revealed'’ by Guru Chowong. In the ICags phur (Iron Phurba) Cave of mKhar chu, just over the Tibetan border north of Bum thang in Bhutan* Guru Chowong discovered a maior a major cark ■

« “»■ >•

s

-

D ? « ^ h e n is

^ ,ddhahoodchod is a more gradual approach '° Tibetans po.nt to the heart as the seat o f , ,hod ^ pom , to the brain. ■ “ ° f ,h e m >"d; O c c id e n , a |s

citiatii: in ,he previous ver<et ,he nW was m,nd („ „ „ , Now lhc objcct ,s (hc W

* examination 1

203

° r niind in

itself (sems nyid) bur

^

m ind and its nature are s n s n y id * academic.

haS cstjb^hed K d'S" ncti°" between ^ J *

r^ss sr„g?

With ontological terms. 93.

S

m'X cP,stemological

sKu dang ye she, this pure-Und mandala is a field of in fi.

( , % * • light-

,

ds-

94.

The Theg mchog m d z o d v * the Zab don rgya m'sho'ispri„phm„lK the two texts mentioned here. But ,he first chapter of the L|v work of Longchenpa, Yid bzhin rin po che mdzod, treats the origina­ tion of samsara in detail. See also The Wish-Granting Prayer of Kuntu Zangpo, p. 148.

95.

Nga\ bdag {dtnian); gang zag bdag meek sems (citta)\ shes rah pha mi tu phyin pa {prajndpdramitd)\ bde gshegs snying po {sugatagarbha)\ pbyag rgya chenpo (mahdmudrd); dbu ma (madhya); thigienyaggdg, chos kyi dbyings (dharmadhatu)\ kun gzhi (alaya); tha matshespa.

96. 97.

Rig padNgos gzhi’i gnas lugs dor. discursive examination of mind constitutes preparatory practice in khregs chodand direct realization ot our exis­ tential condition {gnas lugs) is the main practice.

98. 99.

sKu ( kdya). Rig pa* rtsai See Song Twenty-Two.

100.

T h e th ree h u m a n B u d d h a s o f past, present an d future

^

k a ra B u d d h a , S a k y a m u n i B u d d h a an d M aitreya Buddha. Her, he 1 0 8 w r a t h f u l a n d p e ace fu l deities are .m p lie d : see The Pray

K untu

!

is best u „ dcrs[ooti by identifying

h o lo g r a m , p ro je c te d w .c h m .t . 10 2 .

g Z han p ’ h ru l dbang bye

10 3 .

S h a b k a r L a m a uses the te

^

•

^ ^

H i n d u y o g in s . A lt h o u g

^

proba(llv most renowned for ^

s u c h m ir a c u lo u s practices, m an y

?n4

w hjch ;ip p |ies only w o( B uddhist sidd a>

NOTES_

|#4 TboJrgd see P « 1

of th o u g h t, and rtog pa, m ean, are

*• f

£

Tht ! e ,wo “ ™ ’

Diokchen - m ,nd ,U ' h „ . . p « W «iSn if i« r io n .

£ ,h‘ ,.iW „,a»d .l. has no « « * or m a , r a t a *■" signifyu.g a iym m nncal y m m . 'i indicate che “patterning” of the formal Gestalt of the nirmanakaya level. I his patterning is the asymmetrical patterning o f nature, the perfect asymmetry of a tree or the asymmetry o f the structure o f a complex molecule, for instance. See also Garland o f Vision, pp. 185-6, for the mahayoga Dzokchen mandala. 109. In this verse first mention is made of the apogee o f D zokchen attainment— the Rainbow Body { ja ’ lus). Thus “the end o f the path” (mthar thug) implies what appears to be death to deluded observers, but what in reality is a dissolution o f the individuated * dharmakaya, which manifests as the rupakaya in the universal ground of being, and into the dharmakaya that is synonymous with the ground of being. The macrocosmic chalice and elixir manifest for the sake of all beings out of the ground o f being. 110.

rTsal byong.

111. “Adornment" does not imply that mental quiescence is merely a secondary, decorative state of* mind, but rather that it is an im m ac­ ulate mode of mentality, and is, therefore, like a rare jewel **2. gNas gyu rig punr. this phrase indicates the important Dzokch>n precept devised to accelerate the process of i n t c g L * entc of the active and che contemplative modes into tU* ■ ot consciousness with equal value in every sense r l aspect of nondual meditation removes the B u d H h T “ ° n °* th 'S the contemplative mode, which defines m e r lin b,as Awards meditation, and the dangerous assertion t h a t T " f° rmal sittinS inherently supenor to a dynamic state. Sec m ind is 113. gLu Hbyanp snyan mo. Sar ; Eighteen. ' 20>

" 0 ,IK “

'~

of

jH iH .u in ro F T M K C ^,,,

Learning, Music, and Poctrv and r r hegpa; yiwg nsr if the ^ naa ^ o f M

' '

, ftiuirt.

" « " g w ith che s'ravakayana, are conceiv' d in a BUdd',aho.

c

a habit. Examination of die mind is now neous arising „ f Knowledge. No-med„a,ion .nd,

t

***"*

'”

l VZ e ; ° ' ,0nS ° f m c d iU tiw and meditator are bse both meditation and non-medita.ion when both T l « conscious This double negative has the same meaning as N a il's mahamudra statement of simple negation, the oft-quoted lines:

Without thought, deliberation or analysis, Without meditation and without action, Without doubt or expectation. M ental constructs and dualities spontaneously dissolve And the originalface ofreality shinesforth. The mendicant pilgrim is best placed to recognize anonymous, unlearned (or learned) realized beings whose attainment has arisen in spontaneous no-meditation. 116. Go Idog gros: the paradox of discovering immutable samadhi in relaxed, carefree, no-action— framed in the previous verse is restated in this verse as the paradox of no-meditation as sustained 1 17

meditation. Bya bral: this is an epithet with significant outer and inner mean ings. As an epithet it means “a religious mendicant ".thorn any responsibilities," a “vagrant” or “wastrel.” The “duty-free," “workless”; while the inner meaning is non-

1 18.

thc achievement o f spontaneous, acausal 3CII° V 0f lineages. rlJzogs chert snying thig: besides re erring to tradition foremost amongst them the kLong chen snying A * ^ ^ established by the thirteenth century y * rab ‘byams pa (I.ongchenpa), w o “ teaching into a unitary, systematize P , he term indicates a nietaphys'C h.nclu at the heart centre, the th.glenyaggg

"'>■ I 20.

Khrf C>mt ,:iBht. Nine and Thirteen. V c Songs I hrcc,

gter mu and U* uf t|lcory anJ PrJcMLC ^ al|.encoITIp»..ng tht. (;osm.c Seed.

Th'tk hndu. The same term is used in the following verse. The same exorcising seed-mantra is employed in the Tshig gsum *' padbrdrp (Garah Dorje’s The Three Incisive Precepts) meditation, fc creates a scare o f shock that empties thc m ind and allows the space for recognition o f minds original face to arise. 12). practicc is classed as an “internal, extraordinary preliminary practice* in Dzokchen. It is one o f rhe ru bzht.

!2l See the second parr of Song Seven for an identification o f rhe Five 1 E

a

,

h

.

clours . r

energies, the blending of which give rise to the mandala.

P6 R e a p e r mthong gi ngo sprod; mDzod bdun,S h .ng rta gsum; ■ , d L chen rvyab chos nam mkha skor gsum: Zah don rgya mtshot sprit, phung; rDzogs Chen mkha gro snying thig; Sangs rgyas lag

k an&-

, r l 127. In the principal Dzokchen lineage Sri Simha was a significant link in the chain of Guru-disciple relationships that brought the dharma to Tibet. He was the disciple o f Manjusrimitra and the G u r u o f Vimalamitra and Jnanasutra. It is probable that £ri Simhas resi­ dence, So-khyam, was in Central Asia.

T h e W is h - G r a n t in g P r a y e r o f K u n t u Z a n g p o

128. Byang gter.

129. Khyung. Garuda\ sec p.68 . 130. mChog sprul sku mam gsum. See note 57.

!3l. rGyang Yon po lung was a major place of terma concealment {per gnas) in us own right. The cave still exists today in a small grassy valley opposite the Yang ’dul temple and close to the great Bump* of rGyang near l.hatse D/ong in Tsang. 131

m Dvui lnSa- Vajrakila. Us rgyu 1bras. bsnyen s^rub, rtr„ !— /

Iv X o X f7

and

^

^ *--*

Z

*33. Thub bstan rdo rje brag lies on the nonh bank of rhr T between thc c o n t W c c w ith the Kvichu and

>34.

*san&P° River

po Awn bzang/>0 J g o Z t t T ' ^ ^ rgyud is the principal text of the cycle of texm ***e Vision. Novato: Lotsawa, 1987. ---- - Thejewel Ornament o fLiberation. London: Rider, 1959. -—----

The Royal Song of Saraha. Berkeley: Shambhafa. 1973.

Karmav, Saniten Gyaltscn. The G r e a t Perfection, t.ciden: Brill. 1988. Manju&inmra, Nanikhai Norbu and Kennard Lipmaii. trans. I'rtmonital

Experience. Boston: Shambhala, 1987. Namkhai Norbu. The Crystal and th< Way ofUgh', london: Rourlodgc Sc Kcgan Paul, 1986. -

Dzogchen and Zen. Nevada City: Blue Dolphin.

■,w 1-utiHT OF THE G a RUOA

Reynolds, John M . rrans. The Cycle o f Day and Night. N< H ilU 1987.

o .. Azw VorW.Suuon b e Hraint ot . n 1988. Through Seeing Everything in its Nakedness. New York-SS^lf-U tation

T ucci, Giuseppe- The ic * The R e li& n s o f T tb tt. L o nd on: Roudedgc & Kegw

Tulku ThondupP aul. '9 8 0 .

f

TTad itio n o f the Nyingmap*. M ario.:

B uddhayana. 1984.

222

I ndex

of

T

ib e t a n

(w

it h

N

ames a n d

T

erms

T r a n s l it e r a t io n )

Amdo (A mdo), 65, 67 Amne Machen {Am nye rma chen), 67

dzokrim (rdzogs rim), 167 Gang Rimpoche (Gangs Rin po che) (M t

bardo{bardo), 116, 134 Boudhanach Stupa, 67

Kailash), 67 Garuda, 69 Gelukpa (dGe lugs pa), 66

Chakchen (phyagchen), 54

Godemchan (rGod Idem can), 139-141

chU 36-37. 54, 80 Choki Gyelpo Ngaki Wongpo (Chos kyi

gompa (dgon pa), 65 et passim

rgyaJ po Ngag kyi dbang po), 66,82, 122

chomenUhos sman), 166

Gungthang (Gung thang), 141 Guru Chowong (Guru Chos dbang), 53-55 Guru Lhakhang (Guru Lha khang), 53

dewacfttnpo {bde ba chen po), 38

Guru Rimpoche (Guru Rin poche), 11,

dorje (rdo rje), 32, 35, 166

28, 34-35. 53-54, 139-141, 157, 160.

Dorje Nyelwa (rDo rje myal ba), 38

See also Padma Sambhava

Dorje Phakmo (rDo rje phag mo), 66

Guru Rimpoche Choki Wongchuk (Guru

Dorje Phurba (rDo rje phur ba), 54, 139

Rin po chc Chos kyi dbang phvug). See

Dorje Sempa (rDo rje sems dpa’), 54

Guru Chowong

Drakmar Cave of Chimphu (mChims phu Brag dmar). 54

Gyang Yonpolung (rGyangs Lon po lung), 140

Drakmar Tsomo Gur kyi Neurhang (Brag dmar mtsho mo mgur kyi Ne’u chang),

Hcpori (He po ri), 53, 54

158 Drapa Ngonshc (Grwa pa mngon shcs), 54 Drukpa Kagyu CBrugs pa bka’ brgyud), 67 Dzcngdrak Karpo ('Dzcng brag dkar po), 140

Dzodun (mbzod bdun), 68 Diokchen {rdzop chen), 3 et passim Dzokchen Nyingchik (rD/.ogs chcn snying

Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye (‘Jam mgon skong sprul bLo gros mrha' yas) 65,159,160 jjamvangCyatso ('Jam dbyang rgya mtsho)

66 , 82 Jomo Mennto Padma Tsokvi (J0 mo sman mo Padma mrsho skyid). 53

thig), 79 Dzokchcnpa {rdztigs chenpa), 3 ft passim

Kadampa (bKa‘ dam pa), 67

kama (bka'm a), 157 mdogdpal ri), 54

Khading (mKha’ Iding), 69 Khyentse W ongpo (mKhycn bnse dbang po). 65, 159

Ngodmb Gydtscn (dNeo, 0 .

Khyung (Khyung), 69

N yaring (gNya’ rings), 53

Kongtrul Rimpoche (sKongsprul). 5 5 . See Jamgon Kongtrul

N yingm a (rnying ma), 2g tt pa,,-

br,M"). '3‘J.iWc^,

'B'il "

Kunkhyen Longchenpa (Kun mkhyen O rgyen Rimpoche (O rEWn r :„

kLong chen pa). See Longchcnpa

5'‘ ^ G u „ ,Rimps ; R'np»^.

Kuntu Zangpo (Kun cu bzang po), 59, 89. 90

Padm a Sambhava, 139, 157, l?8 Rimpoche

Kunzang (Kun bzang). See Kuncu Zangpo Kyabo (Kya bo), 54

Pang (sPang), 53

kyerim (bskyed rim), 167 Labchi (La phyi), 67

^ ,lru

Pangjc Tsenrram (sPang rje bTsan

Patrul Rimpoche (dPal spru|Rin

Labrang Tashi Kyi! (bLa brang bkra shis dkyil), 66

phurbu (phur bu), 32-33,35,140.166

Layak (La yag), 53 Lhatse Dzong (Lha rtse rdzong). 140 Lhodrak (Lho brag), 53

Rekong (Reb dgongs or Rcb kong), 65 rigpa (rigpa), 6 , 26, 46

Lhodrak Kharchu (Lho brag mKhar chu),

Rikdzin Chcnpo (Rig ’dzin chcn po), 140.

54 Lodro Thaye Kongtrul Rimpoche (bLo

Stt Godemchan Rinchen Terdzo (Rin chcn gter mdzod),

gros m tha’ yas Kong sprul Rin po che), 55. 5 ^ Ja m g o n Kongtrul Longchenpa (kLong chcn pa), 6 8 , 90

55, 159 Riwo Trazang (Ri bo bkra bzang), 140 Rong Drak (Rong brag), 54

lung (lung), 142 Samye (bSam yas), 67 M achik Labdron (M a gcig Lab sgron), 37

Samye Chokhor (bSam yas chos khot), 55.

Milarepa (M i ia re pa), 66

54 Samye Drakmar Drinzang (bSam yas Brag

M o n Bumthang (M on Bum thang), 54

dmar mgrin bzang), 54

tnonlam (smon lam), 142

Samye Hepori (bSam yas He po ri), 54 Namkechan (gNam skas can), 54 Nanam Dorje D u n jo m (sNa nam rDo rjc bdud ’joms), 140 Ngakchang Dorje (sNgags ’chang rdo rje), 82

Ngakpa (sngagipa), 32, 35,65-66 Ngayab Zangdok Peri (Nga yab Zangs

selwa (foal ba), 47 Sengc Dongma (Senge gDong ma),74 Shabkar Lama (Zhabsdbrbbma), 6S40. 122 Shinjeshe (gShin rjc shed), 54

Tamdrin (rTa mgrin), 66

224

IN D E X

£

^

l39’ ,97’ 159 53. 55. 139.157

legaKtiKxtrgab.M, 168, 171 ,onrut{ffor ma). 56, 166 trektho {khregs (hod), 15. 70, 8 !. 168 Trisong Dmcn (Khri srong Idc brtsan), King. 34.35, 53. 140, 158. 160 Tsang (g T « n g ) , 139

Tsang Tsi Ncsar (gTsang rTsis gnas gsar), 54 Tjari Rongkhor (rTsa ri rong ’khor), 67

tsikdon{uhigdon), 160 Tsokdruk Rangdrol (Tshogs drug rang grot). 5