A
letter of advice I offer to you, my noble mother Paldzom;
Listen for a while
without distraction.
Staying
here without discomfort,
I am at ease and free from worries
In a state of
joyful mind.
Are you well yourself, my dear mother?
Here,
in a country to the West,
There are many red and white skinned people.
They
have all kinds of magic and sights,
Like flying through the skies
And moving
like fish in the waters.
Having mastery over the four elements,
They compete
in displaying miracles
With thousands of beautiful colours.
There
is an endless amount of spectacles,
Like designs of rainbow colours,
But
like a mere dream, when examined,
They are the mistaken perceptions of the
mind.
All activities
are like the games children play;
If done, they can never be finished.
They
are only completed once you let be,
Like castles made of sand.
But
this not the whole story;
All the dharmas of Samsara and Nirvana,
Though
thought to be permanent, they do not last.
When examined, they are but empty
forms,
That appear without existence.
Although unreal, they are thought
to be real,
And when examined, they are unreal like an illusion.
Look
outward at the appearing objects,
And like the water in a mirage,
They are
more delusive than delusion.
Unreal like dreams and illusions,
They resemble
reflected moon and rainbows.
Look
inward at your own mind!
It seems quite exciting, when not examined.
But
when examined, there is nothing to it.
Appearing without being, it is nothing
but empty.
It cannot be identified saying, "that's it!"
But is
evanescent and elusive like mist.
Look
at whatever may appear
In any of the ten directions.
No matter how it may
appear,
The thing in itself, its very nature,
Is the sky-like nature of
mind,
Beyond the projection and dissolution of thought and
concept.
Everything
has the nature of being empty.
When the empty looks at the empty,
Who is
there to look at something empty?
What is the use of many classifications,
Such
as 'being empty' and 'not empty'
As it is illusion looking at illusion,
And
delusion watching delusion?
"The
effortless and sky-like nature of the mind,
The vast expanse of insight,
Is
the natural state of all things.
In it, whatever you do is all right,
However
you rest, you are at ease."
This was said by Jetsun Padmasambhava
And
the great siddha Saraha.
All
the conceptual designs,
Such as "it's two!" or "it's not two!"
Leave
them like the waves on a river,
To be spontaneously freed in themselves.
The
great demon of ignorant and discursive thought
Causes one to sink in the ocean
of samsara.
But when freed from this discursive thought,
There is the indescribable
state, beyond conceptual mind.
Besides
mere discursive thoughts,
There is not even the words of 'samsara' and 'nirvana'.
The
total calming down of discursive thought
Is the suchness of Dharmadhatu.
Not
made complex by complex statements,
This unfabricated single bindu
Is emptiness,
the natural state of mind.
So it was said by the Sugata.
The
essence of whatever may appear,
When simply left to itself,
Is the unfabricated
and uncorrupted view,
The Dharmakaya, emptiness mother.
All
discursive thought is emptiness,
And the seer of the emptiness is discursive
thought.
Emptiness does not destroy discursive thought,
And discursive thought
does not block emptiness.
The
fourfold emptiness of the mind itself
Is the ultimate of everything.
Profound
and tranquil,free from complexity,
Uncompounded luminous clarity,
Beyond
the mind of conceptual ideas:
This is the depth of the mind of the Victorious
Ones.
In this there
is not a thing to be removed,
Nor anything that needs to be added.
It is
merely the immaculate
Looking naturally at itself.
In
short, when the mind has fully severed
The fetters of clinging to something,
All
the points are condensed therein.
This is the tradition of the supreme being
Tilopa
And of the great pandita Naropa.
Such
a profound natural state as this,
Is among all the kinds of bliss,
The wisdom
of great bliss.
Among all kinds of delight
It is the king of supreme delight.
It
is the supreme fourth empowerment
Of all the tantric sections of the secret
mantras.
It is the ultimate pointing out instruction.
The
view of 'Samsara and Nirvana Inseparable',
And that of Mahamudra, of Dzogchen,
the Middle Way and
others,
Have many various titles
But only one essential
meaning.
This is the view of Lama Mipham.
As
an aid to this king of views
One should begin with Bodhicitta,
And conclude
with dedication.
In
order to cut off through skilful means
The fixation on an ego, the root of
Samsara,
The king of all great methods
Is the unsurpassable Bodhicitta.
The
king of perfect dedication
Is the means for increasing the roots of virtue.
This
is the special teaching of Shakyamuni
Which is not found with other teachers.
To
accomplish complete enlightenment
More than this is not necessary
But less
than this will be incomplete.
This swift path of the three excellences,
Called
the heart, eye and lifeforce,
Is the approach of Longchen Rabjam.
Emptiness,
the wish-fulfilling jewel,
Is unattached generosity.
It is uncorrupted discipline.
It
is angerless patience.
It is undeluded exertion.
It is undistracted meditation.
It
is the essence of prajna.
It is the meaning in the three yanas.
Emptiness
is the natural state of mind.
Emptiness is the non-conceptual refuge.
Emptiness
is the Absolute Bodhicitta.
Emptiness is the Vajrasattva of absolving evils.
Emptiness
is the Mandala of perfect accumulations.
Emptiness is the Guru Yoga of Dharmakaya.
To
abide in the natural state of emptiness
Is the 'calm abiding' of shamatha,
And
to perceive it vividly clear
Is the 'clear seeing' of vipasyana.
The
view of the perfect Development Stage,
The wisdom of bliss and emptiness in
the Completion Stage,
The non-dual Great Perfection,
And the single bindu
of Dharmakaya,
All these are included within it.
Emptiness
purifies the karmas.
Emptiness dispels the obstructing forces.
Emptiness
tames the demons.
Emptiness accomplishes the deities.
The
profound state of emptiness
Dries up the ocean of passion.
It crumples the
mountain of anger.
It illuminates the darkness of stupidity.
It calms down
the gale of jealousy.
It defeats the illness of the kleshas.
It is a friend
in sorrow.
It destroys conceit in joy.
It conquers in the battle with Samsara.
It
annihilates the four Maras.
It turns the eight worldly dharmas into same taste.
It
subdues the demon of ego-fixation.
It turns negative conditions into aids.
It
turns bad omens into good luck.
It causes to manifest complete enlightenment.
It
gives birth to the Buddhas of the three times.
Emptiness is the Dharmakaya
mother.
There is
no teaching higher than emptiness.
There is no teaching swifter than emptiness.
There
is nn teaching more excellent than emptiness.
There is no teaching more profound
than emptiness.
Emptiness
is the 'knowing of one that frees all.'
Emptiness is the supreme king of medicines.
Emptiness
is the nectar of immortality.
Emptiness is spontaneous accomplishment beyond
effort.
Emptiness is enlightenment without exertion.
By
meditating emptiness
One feels tremendous compassion
Towards the beings
obscured, like ourselves,by the belief in
a self,
And Bodhicitta arises
without effort.
All
qualities of the path and bhumis
Will appear naturally without any effort,
And
one will feel a heartfelt conviction
Regarding the law of the infallible effect
of actions.
If one
has but one moment of certainty
In this kind of emptiness,
The tight chain
of ego-clinging
Will shatter into pieces.
This was said by Aryadeva.
More
supreme than offering to the Sugatas and their sons
All the infinite Buddha
fields
Filled with the offering of gods and men;
Is to meditate on emptiness.
If
the merit of resting evenly
Just for an instant in this natural state
Would
take on concrete form,
Space could not contain it.
The
peerless Lord of the sages, Sakyamuni,
For the sake of this profound emptiness,
Threw
his body into pyres of fire,
Gave away his head and limbs,
And performed
hundreds of other austerities.
Although
you fill the world with huge mounds
Of presents of gold and jewels,
This
profound teaching on emptiness,
Even when searched for, is hard to find.
This
is said in the Hundred Thousand Verses of Prajna
Paramita.
To
meet this supreme teaching
Is the splendid power of merit
Of many aeons
beyond count.
In
short, by means of emptiness,
One is, for the benefit of oneself,
Liberated
into the expanse of the unborn Dharmakaya,
The manifest complete enlightenment
Of
the four Kayas and the five Wisdoms.
The unobstructed display of the Rupakaya
Will
then ceaseslessly arise to teach whoever is in need,
By stirring the depths
of Samsara for the benefit of others
Through constant, all-pervading spontaneous
activity.
In all the Sutras and Tantras this is said
To be the ultimate
fruition.
How can
someone like me put into words
All the benefits and virtues hereof,
When
the Victorious One with his vajra tongue
Cannot exhaust them, even if he speaks
for an aeon?
The
glorious Lord, the supreme teacher,
Who gives the teachings on emptiness,
Appears
in the form of a human being,
But his mind is truly a Buddha.
Without
deceit and hypocrisy
Supplicate him from your very heart,
And without needing
any other expedient,
You will attain enlightenment in this very life.
This
is the manner of the All-Embodying Jewel
Which is taught in the Tantras of
the Great Perfection.
When you have this jewel in the palm of your hand,
Do
not let it meaninglessly go to waste.
Learning,
like the stars in the sky,
Will never come to an end through studies.
What
is the use of all the various kinds
Of the many teachings requested and received?
What
is the use of any practice which is higher than
emptiness?
Do
not aim at having many ascetic costumes,
Such as carrying a staff and wearing
braids and animal
skins.
Leaving the elephant back in your house,
Do
not go searching for its footprints in the mountains.
Mother,
meditate the essence of the mind,
As it is taught by the guru, the Vajra Holder,
And
you will have the essence of the essence
Of all the eighty-four thousand teachings.
It
is the heart nectar of a billion
Learned and accomplished ones.
It is the
ultimate practice.
This
advice from the core of the heart
Of the fallen monk Jamyang Dorje,
Is the
purest of the pure essence
From the bindu of my life blood.
Therefore keep
it in your heart, mother.
These
few words of heart advice
Were written in a beautiful country-side,
The
city of the spacious blue sky,
Rivaling the splendour of divine realms.
To
the devoted Chokyi Nodzom,
My dear and loving mother,
And to my own devoted
students,
I offer this letter of advice.
This
letter to my students was composed by one who goes by
the name 'Khenpo', the
Tibetan Jamyang Dorje, in the
Dordogne Herbal Valley of Great Bliss, in the
country of
France beyond the great ocean in the western direction.
May
virtue and auspiciousness ensue!
(This was put into English, with
the help of Khenpo
Rinpoche, by Erik and Lodro.
Perigueux Retreat 1983)