The Dzogchen Primer
Page 31
f nges shes, lit. “certainties,” is used here to mean extreme views, such as eternalism and nihilism, which state that phenomena definitively do or do not exist.
g “Here srid pa (samsaric existence) refers to anything that one believes to be real and to which one is attached.” [DILGO KHYENTSE RINPOCHE]
h Since the view is the realization of emptiness, the realizer, what is realized, and the process of realization are recognized as being without any intrinsic reality. They only appear as the illusory magical display of awareness, empty and naturally radiant.
i The union of appearances and emptiness, awareness and emptiness, bliss and emptiness, and clarity and emptiness.
j This means acting without conceptualizing, in the realization that the actor, the action, and the object acted upon are all without intrinsic reality.
31
THE SONG OF REALIZATION
Milarepa
Namo Guru.
Jetsün Milarepa then went from Kyirong in Mang-Yül to Nyanang, and his former benefactors were overjoyed. “Please stay always here in Nyanang,” they begged. There was a cave below a belly-shaped boulder between some old trees, and while he resided there, the monk-teacher Shakya Guna and some laypeople of Nyanang came before him.
“While elsewhere in meditation in mountain retreats, please tell us about the progress you reached and the confidence that you attained,” they asked. In reply, the Jetsün sang this song.
I bow at the feet of Marpa the Translator.
While meditating at other mountain retreats,
I found a confidence in nonarising.
My clinging to former and future lives as two has dissolved.
The six types of experiences have turned to lies.
Doubts about birth and death are now cleared.
I found a confidence in equality.
My clinging to pleasure and pain as two has dissolved.
The experience of feelings has turned to lies.
Doubts about what to accept and reject are now cleared.
I found a confidence in indivisibility.
My clinging to samsara and nirvana as two has dissolved.
Training in the paths and levels has turned to lies.
Doubts about hope and fear are now cleared.
The laypeople then said, “What other realization arose in you?” Milarepa replied, “I realized the way to go about spiritual practice that accords with the understanding of common people.” He then sang this song.
When from outside arose the causal conditions of parents,
When from within arose the all-ground consciousness,
And in between, when having attained the perfect human body,
Today I have avoided a rebirth in the three lower realms.
When from outside arose the experiences of birth and death,
When from within arose revulsion and faith,
And in between, when thinking of the sacred Dharma,
Today I have escaped the foe of family and home.
When from outside arose the circumstance of the father guru,
When from within arose the intelligence of former training,
And in between, when having gained a confident understanding,
I have no feeling of doubt about the Dharma.
When from outside arose the six classes of beings,
When from within arose impartial compassion,
And in between, when remembering the meditation experience,
My compassion avoids being mere selfish ambition.
When from outside arose the self-liberated three realms,
When from within arose self-existing wakefulness,
And in between, when possessing the confidence of realization,
I have avoided the dread of evil.
When from outside arose the fivefold sense pleasures,
When from within arose the insight of no clinging,
And in between, when engaged in the conduct of equal taste,
I avoid clinging to the duality of pleasure and pain.
When from outside arose the vanishing of conceptual practice,
When from within arose the absence of hope and fear,
And in between, when free from the disease of deliberate effort,
I escape the clinging to good and evil as two.
The monk-teacher Shakya Guna then said, “The Jetsün’s realization has always been excellent! Though I met the Jetsün in the past, I have not received an instruction in which I can trust and rely. Now please be kind enough to bestow empowerment and pith instructions upon me!”
After having given him empowerment and instruction, the Jetsün sent him to practice meditation. The monk-teacher gained some experience and related it to the Jetsün.
“If these perceptions and samsara do not exist, then there seems to be no need for practice. If the mind does not exist, then there seems to be no doer. If there is no master, then one does not know how to practice. Please clarify these and also give me the pointing-out instruction to the nature of mind.”
In response, Jetsün Milarepa sang this song.
The nature of perceptions is nonarising.
If something arises, it is your clinging to its reality.
The nature of samsara is groundless and rootless.
If something has ground and root, it is your thought.
The nature of mind is unity.
If there is partiality, it is your attachment.
The nature of a master is to possess a lineage.
If you invent your own, you are deluded.
While the mind itself is like the sky,
It becomes obscured by thoughts, like the clouds from the south.
The pith instructions of the qualified guru
Are like gusts of strong wind.
Thought as well is luminous wakefulness.
Experience shines like the sun and moon.
Vivid beyond the ten directions and three times,
Intangible, it is beyond words.
Its certainty shines like the planets and stars.
Whatever arises is great bliss.
Its nature is the simplicity of dharmakaya.
The six sense impressions are the continuity of emptiness.
Effortless, spontaneous, unconditioned,
In this state, beyond self and others,25
I remain continuously in nonclinging wakefulness,
Without any separation from the three kayas, amazing!
“Monk-teacher, do not cling to the fame and happiness of this life. Do not pursue words of sophistry. Equalize your life with practice! Since this is the way to be practiced by everyone, you should practice the meaning of these words.”
Then Milarepa sang this song:
Fortunate and noble people,
Don’t you know that the things of this life are beguiling?
Don’t you know that enjoyments are magical displays?
Don’t you know that samsara is in fact nirvana?
Don’t you know that pleasures are just a dream?
Don’t you know that that praise and blame are just echoes?
Don’t you know that perceptions are just your mind?
Don’t you know that your mind is the Buddha?
Don’t you know that the Buddha is dharmakaya?
Don’t you know that dharmakaya is your innate nature?
When you realize this, all that you experience is included within mind.
Day and night, look into this mind.
When looking into this mind, it is not a thing to be seen.
Let be in this state of not seeing.
I do not feel that Mahamudra’s nature
Can in any way be matched.
So, I remain in the state of nonclinging mind.
Meditation and postmeditation are indivisible,
So I no longer have meditation stages.
Whatever is experienced is empty in essence,
So there is nothing for mindfulness to hold or lose.
&n
bsp; I have tasted the flavor of nonarising,
And likewise realized its practice.
The training in karma mudra,
The practice of the nadis, pranas, and bindus,
Reciting mantras and visualizing the deity,
Contemplating the four Brahma abodes, and so forth—
These are all ways to enter this Supreme Vehicle.
Even if you were to meditate on them specifically,
It will not suffice to give up desire and anger.
Perceptions are your own mind,
So understand that this mind is empty.
When you no longer part from the experience of realization,
The keeping of discipline, making offerings, and so forth
Are all contained within that.
After hearing this, the monk-teacher Shakya Guna only practiced and attained an extraordinary level of experience and realization. The monk-meditator Töngom became one of the close disciples.
This was the story of accepting the monk-teacher Shakya Guna in the Belly Cave at Nyanang.
Translated from Mila Gurbum by Erik Pema Kunsang, 2001.
32
ROOT OF MAHAYANA
Padmasambhava
Sit on a comfortable seat, straighten your body, and expel the stale breath.
Supplicate the Three Jewels and generate devotion to your guru.
Apply mindfulness and reflect in the following way.
This bodily support adorned with the perfect freedoms and riches,
Like the udumbara flower, is extremely hard to find.
If you skillfully take advantage of it,
Then this find has great value, exceeding that of a wish-fulfilling gem.
Therefore follow spiritual guides and virtuous friends
At all times and on all occasions.
Giving up concerns for this life, and for the sake of the future,
Exert yourself to quickly take advantage of it, for if you don’t, [it will not last].
Like the rising and setting of the sun and moon, composite things are impermanent.
The time of death lies uncertain, like a flash of lightning in the sky.
At the time of death nondharmic things are of no help at all,
So practice the sacred and sublime Dharma correctly.
The root of practicing the sacred Dharma is the law of karma.
Through evil deeds and nonvirtues you will go to the three lower realms.
By virtuous actions you achieve the higher realms and liberation.
Therefore apologize for evil deeds and make the wholehearted vow to refrain from them.
Diligently take up the roots of virtue.
Prostrations and circumambulations purify the wrongdoings of your body.
Reciting and reading the Buddha’s words purify the obscurations of your speech,
And supplicating the Three Jewels pacifies the faults of your mind.
Always train correctly in being mindful, careful, and conscientious.
In particular, for accomplishing the state of emancipation,
With the recognition and remembrance that all of samsara
Is like a fiery pit, a garden of razors, or a forest of swords,
Arouse again and again the intense and genuine attitude
Of desiring to be quickly freed from the three sufferings.
At some point, when you understand that all samsaric grandeur
Is impermanent, inconstant, and illusive,
Fascination with even the splendor of Brahma and Indra
Will have no occasion to arise for as much as an instant.
While truly perceiving the Three Precious Ones, the Roots, and the guardians of the Dharma
To be the unfailing and permanent protection,
Regard them respectfully as your refuge until enlightenment
In order to free yourself and others from the terrors of samsara.
Using your own experience as a measure,
Arouse the bodhichitta of aspiration
Through the four immeasurables of love, compassion, joy, and impartiality
In order that your mothers, all beings, may have happiness and be free from suffering.
With the intent of pursuing complete enlightenment solely for the sake of others,
Give away, like grass, your body and possessions,
And give the relief of protection to those disturbed by dangers.
Practice the Dharma yourself and establish others in it.
With the intention of renouncing, a thoroughly delighted frame of mind,
Constrain yourself from committing the negative misdeeds of your three doors.
Practice as much as you can the conditioned and unconditioned virtues,
And motivate yourself to carry out all your deeds for the sake of sentient beings.
In order never to be overcome by harm-doers,
Cultivate patience through mindfulness of the demerits of anger.
Joyfully undertake hardships for the sake of the Dharma,
And be unafraid of the profound emptiness.
By awakening a courageous fortitude for what is virtuous,
Don the armor of tirelessly engaging in bodhisattva deeds.
Exert yourself without distraction throughout day and night,
And cast away weariness when achieving the welfare of others.
With the thorough intention to calm your mind,
Take the mundane dhyanas as the foundation.
Through fully accomplishing samadhi with vipashyana,
Enter the domain of experience of the tathagatas.
By means of the intelligence that fully discerns phenomena,
First comprehend the words of all teachings through learning.
Next seek an understanding of their meaning through reflection,
And finally realize the meaning through meditation.
Having ripened your own being, gather followers through generosity,
Delight them with pleasing words, and comfort them by being consistent.
Through counseling them in meaningful conduct, fully establish them, temporarily and ultimately,
In the splendor of benefit and well-being.
As the essential point, take upon yourself the burden
Of all the miseries of sentient beings.
Give away your happiness and virtue to the six classes of beings,
And train in compassion and bodhichitta without being carried away by difficulties.
In particular, external objects grasped by fixation
Are all unreal and appear like an illusion,
Not permanent, yet their transiency is able to function.
They are not singular since a variety emerges and changes.
They are not independent but follow the karmic deeds.
They are not particles since partless atoms do not exist.