Then the teacher, Samantabhadra, the ornament of heaped jewels, seeing the way in which all phenomena arise continuously while being nothing whatsoever, marveled at himself. His own great shouts of laughter—laughter provoked by his amusement at himself—arose naturally from his throat.
“O Vajra Heart Essence of the Speech of All Buddhas, behold the view, naturally occurring timeless awareness. How marvelous—it is beyond positive or negative, beyond view or meditation. The immutable ground of being is free of any benefit or harm, regardless of what has been done or said. Ha! Ha!
“O Vajra Heart Essence of Speech, behold the fundamentally unconditioned way in which things are present. How marvelous—these manifestations undergo no change or alteration. Regardless of how one thinks of them, as pleasant or painful, they are unchanging. Ha! Ha!
“Or Vajra of Speech, behold the empty nature of phenomena, all-pervasive timeless awareness. How marvelous—it is unborn and abides timelessly, coemergent with being itself. Even if a person were to seize a sharp weapon and slay all beings at once, that person’s mindstream would still be free of benefit or harm. Ha! Ha!
“O Vajra of Speech, behold your empty awareness, timeless awareness within which everything manifests. How marvelous—all sensory appearance, however they manifest, arise as your allies. Manifesting in any way at all, they do not stray from their own ground. Ha! Ha!
“O Vajra Heart Essence of Speech, behold empty awareness, the perspective within which everything is free. How marvelous—it constitutes its own greatest ally. Afflictive emotions are naturally freed in and of themselves. Ha! Ha!
“O Vajra of Speech, behold empty awareness, the essence of universal purity. How marvelous—the fruition is discovered naturally, effortlessly. With this single assurance, all of samsara and nirvana is pure in nonduality. Ha! Ha!
“O Vajra of Speech, behold the essence, supreme emptiness, the full expression of everything being at rest. How marvelous—the six classes of beings manifest as the three kayas. Beings awaken to buddhahood all at once without having meditated in the slightest. Ha! Ha!
“O Vajra of Speech, behold the three kayas as supreme emptiness, the timelessly perfect fruition. How marvelous—beyond union or separation, they are a unity throughout the three times. Without one’s engaging in the six perfections, the accumulations are complete in a single moment. Ha! Ha!
“O Vajra of Speech, behold the essence of resting in the immediacy of awareness—supreme emptiness, a state of universal equalness. How marvelous—all plans and actions arise as adornment. All renunciation and acceptance are freed within the view. Ha! Ha!
“O Vajra of Speech, behold the emptiness of emptiness, supreme and timeless emptiness. How ironic—all buddhas find themselves on the edge of an abyss. Meditation involving plans and actions would cause them to plummet. Ha! Ha!
“O Vajra of Speech, behold the reification of emptiness as something that is not empty. How astonishing—some spiritual approaches misconstrue what is nonexistent as having identity. The unborn is attained through what seems to be born. Ha! Ha!”
With these words concerning this supreme marvel, Samantabhadra completely satisfied Vajra of Speech and others of the retinue. Since all sensory appearances arise naturally, manifest naturally, are freed naturally, and are attained naturally within this supreme marvel, they are in nondual union with the vajra of enlightened form.
Within naturally occurring timeless awareness — a state beyond labels, in which phenomena resolve -- whatever arises in its dynamic energy and display is in fact without basis. The way of abiding, in which there is neither bondage nor freedom, is the naturally settled state. What is symbolically labeled “freedom” is simply a state in which things vanish naturally, leaving no trace, and since there is no contradiction in labeling it as anything or nothing, we describe it with the words “timelessly free.”
It is by virtue of the fact that nothing has ever existed that labels can be applied, because there is no connection between the label and the actuality. Given that the actuality does not exist in essence, the label cannot be found even if you look everywhere for it. Therefore, since the label and the actuality have never existed, why would you ever think of them as being connected? Even the terms “awareness,” “dynamic energy,” “display,” and “natural freedom” are merely labels applied to facilitate understanding — simply aids to comprehension through symbols, in light of the fact that there is nothing to label. Since awareness itself does not exist in essence, how could anything that derives from it — a place in which things arise, the process of their arising, or their myriad display — actually exist?
A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission, p. 369
From the Introduction to Maya Yoga (Finding Comfort and Ease in Enchantment) translated by Keith Dowman:
"So this short treatise of Longchenpa...provides the precepts that may instantly illuminate the buddha-reality that is our ordinary everyday experience. It asserts that we are presently under the spell of magical illusion and that by recognition of that fact we are, instantaneously, released from a conceptual cage into an enchanting reality that is pure pleasure itself. This is a manual defining human life lived as enchantment, where the ignorance of delusory samsara proves to be the insight into the Great Perfection of illusion. We begin in the heat of desirous attachment to our egoistic selves, and merely through recognition of our deluded condition, chilled out in the birthless and deathless space of reality, we find respite and release in the magical display of our everyday life." (Page 15)
In the nature of mind, the luminous mind, There is no view or meditation and no disciplinary training, No goal to achieve, no stages or paths to traverse, No mandala to create, no recitation of mantra, No creative or fulfillment stage to practice, No empowerment to receive and no samaya to protect. In the pure reality that is the spontaneity of the now We are free of progressive, goal-oriented practices.
Yet the nature of those practices is luminous mind, For the sun is always shining in spaciousness Notwithstanding the veiling, adventitious, cloud.
The ten goal-oriented techniques are taught, In response to creativity’s chance delusion, As antidotes for those captivated by gradual progress…
The ultimacy of all approaches, however, is the vajra-heart, That marvelous, sublime secret that we all do share, The apex that is unchanging, supreme clear light, Celebrated as the revelation of the luminous heart.
Gradualists with discriminating, moral endeavor Try to extinguish propensities manifesting as mind and mental events That already, naturally, arise as a shining creative display: They aspire to purify the mind that is already pristine awareness.
The supreme view makes no call upon discriminating endeavor, For in reality direct encounter with the essence is inescapable – Self-sprung awareness is the nature of luminous mind. It is unnecessary desperately to search for it far afield. Simply stay in yourself. You will find it nowhere else.
We know that reality itself, like the sun, Stays forever in its natural state of all-embracing clear light; Believing in their attempt to illuminate darkness Others try to imitate the illuminating primordial sun: The causal view is quite different from the supreme view...
Here, we know the alpha-pure luminous mind, The true reality that is ultimate spaciousness, Beyond thought and speech, is perfect insight; We know it as inherently unmoving, intrinsic clear light, In the now, free of all discursive elaboration. It is what we mean by “essence,” analogous to the solar nucleus; Its creativity is non-crystallizing, unceasing pure presence, Transparent and unlimited, Free of conceptual and critical thought, Shining with constant clarity, free of dualistic perception.
Creativity’s pure presence entails intellectual functions, Including dualistic perception and its manifold propensities: The five sense objects, reifications in a nonexistent field, And the five afflicted emotions, affects of a self that has no identity, And all the delusory perceptions of outer universe and inner being. If we fail to realize that delusory samsara, also, emerges from creativity, In error we are trapped in reified perceptual appearance…
Within the essence of immaculate luminous mind There is nothing to see and no act of seeing, Nothing to look at and no one to look, No mind to meditate and nothing to meditate upon: Because the conception and the act are one in spontaneity, Not even a hint of a goal, nor rumor of a destination, occurs.
Because an indeterminate dharma has no structure, There can never be a path to a goal. Because the clear light is already a nondual sphere, No mandala need be visualized by pulsating thought, No mantra, no recitation, no empowerment, no samaya, And no gradual dissolution in the fulfillment stage. Immaculate buddha in buddhafields, already present in the now, Cannot be created by causal concatenation. If complex causality reigns, self-sprung awareness is precluded, For what is compounded is subject to destruction And how can that be called “simple spontaneity”?
So, in the nature of ultimate spaciousness, Beyond causality… Know that the genuine nature of mind, unmotivated, Diffuses all proliferating critical discursive thought.
Spaciousness: The Radical Dzogchen of the Vajra-Heart (Longchenpa, translated by Keith Dowman) Canto Five
From "A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission"
Since all phenomena share an identical context in awakened mind, they are not subject to restrictions or extremes. But those of little merit who are involved in lesser spiritual paths and approaches, as well as beings who are spiritually undeveloped, construct and reinforce individual biases concerning such things as enemies and friends, self and other, philosophical systems, and view and meditation. Awareness is thus confined by their reification of the biases of self and other. Since they do not understand the nature of being, which, like space, is free of bias, they corrupt their recognition of awareness, so that even though self-knowing awareness is present as dharmakaya, they are deluded, not knowing that it is present within them.
How confused are those who experience phenomena in an ordinary way, as sensory appearances perceived in confusion. They are like children who fight and make a lot of effort — building play houses, imitating people explaining or listening to spiritual teachings, and so forth — taking it all to be self evidently true. Though confusion does not exist, these people invest things with identity and so exhaust themselves in their individual states of confusion, playing out the farce of reifying their sense of “I.” This comes down to investing ultimately meaningless sensory appearances with identity.
(Page 349)
Do not adopt postures, suppress your senses, or restrict your speech, for there is nothing to do or to seek.
*
Ultimate reality, the meaning underlying everything, is unborn. With the awareness that concepts and characteristics are likewise unborn, not a single thought process stirring in the mind ever diverges from its unborn state.
*
What is tangible and what is intangible are equal in basic space, buddhas and ordinary beings are equal in basic space, relative reality and ultimate reality are equal in basic space, flaws and positive qualities are equal in basic space, and all directions—above, below, and in between—are equal in basic space. Therefore, whatever display arises from that naturally occurring state, even as it arises, things arise equally, none being better or worse. What need is there to accept or reject them by applying antidotes? When things abide, they abide equally, none being better or worse. Whatever is now taking place in your mind, rest in natural peace. When things are free, they are equally free, none being better or worse. In the wake of being conscious of them, do not continue to suppress or indulge in them.
*
In the same way, all things—the tangible and the intangible, buddhas and ordinary beings, relative reality and ultimate reality, flaws and positive qualities—are equal in that they are all unborn within the basic space of awareness. They are equal in that they simply manifest continuously. And they are equal in that, even as they manifest, they are nonexistent, being clearly apparent expressions of emptiness. This is similar to the fact that, while you can distinguish among directions—above, below, cardinal, intermediate—they are equal in the realm of space.
(Pages 243-244)
"Nothing strays from awakened mind."
"None of the sounds in your present waking state exist as something 'other,' outside the context of awareness."
"In actuality thoughts are without any basis or foundation...even as they manifest in your consciousness, they have never known existence."
"Since samsara and nirvana do not stray from the single state of awareness, if this single awareness is free, then all samsara and nirvana is free."
"What is nonexistent can occur in any way at all."
A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission, pages 256-259
The Twelve Vajra Laughs
(Translated by Keith Dowman)
O Vajra Essence of the speech of Buddha, look through the perspective of self-sprung awareness and morality, philosophy and meditation are superseded! How marvelous! Regardless of any physical or verbal action, the immutable ground remains untouched by benefit or harm and free of profit or loss. HA! HA!
O Vajra Speech! Look at the basic nature of things and the world never sheds its skin nor changes its color! How marvelous! Regardless of positive or negative interpretation, there is no change in reality. HA! HA!
O Vajra Speech! Look at the pristine awareness that is the ubiquitous source, total emptiness, and regardless of the intention enacted it is all marvelous display! How marvelous! Whatever we do is immediately released in the unborn matrix! HA! HA!
O Vajra Speech, listen again! Look through all-embracing pristine awareness, the emptiness of reality—it has been with us from time without beginning. How wonderful! Even if one person kills many others with a sharp knife, at that time neither benefit nor harm would accrue to his nature of mind. HA! HA!
O Vajra Speech! Look through all-illuminating pristine awareness, our own empty cognition, and every appearance arises as a friendly helper! How marvelous! Regardless of whatever appears, nothing ever leaves the ground of being! HA! HA!
O Vajra Speech-Essence! Look through the self-released gestalt of pure empty presence and the nature of the poison is its most effective antidote! How marvelous. Every passion is self-liberating! HA! HA!
O Vajra Speech! Look through pure empty presence, the immaculate essence, and fruition is effortlessly accomplished of its own accord! How marvelous! Through unity, all samsara and nirvana dissolve into nondual being! HA! HA!
O Vajra Speech! Look into the secret abode of the ubiquitous ground, at the super-empty essence, and effortlessly the six types of mythic beings appear in their three gnostic dimensions! How marvelous! They all become Buddha at once without practicing even an instant of meditation! HA! HA!
O Vajra Speech! Look through timelessly perfected fruition, the super-emptiness of the three dimensions, and time is beyond differentiation! How marvelous! Without practicing the six perfections (paramitas), the accumulations of virtue and awareness are completed at once. HA! HA!
O Vajra Speech! Look at the smoothed-out super emptiness of pure simple presence and all deliberate action arises as ornamentation! How marvelous! All discriminatory activity is released through this vision! HA! HA!
O Vajra Speech! Look through ultimate super-emptiness, at the emptiness of emptiness, and all buddhas exists in an abyss! How marvelous! They have fallen due to deliberate meditation! HA! HA!
O Vajra Speech! Look at matter, substantial emptiness—this is the stance where absence is believed to possess identity! How marvelous! We attain the unborn state through birth! HA! HA!
[Longchenpa, translated by Keith Dowman]
An unreleased event is impossible All experience is released, here and now, in luminous mind-- An unreleased event is impossible.
Samsara is released in the now, Liberated as alpha-purity; Nirvana is released in the now, Liberated as spontaneous perfection; Appearances are released in the now, Liberated in their baselessness; Life is released in the now, Liberated in its luminous heart...
The levels and paths are released in the now, Liberated in the absence of … stages; View and meditation are released in the now, Liberated in nondiscrimination; Conduct is released in the now, Liberated in the All-Good; The goal is released in the now, Liberated in the absence of hope and fear; Recitation is released in the now, Liberated in nonverbal expression; Contemplation is released in the now, Liberated in the absence of a field of thought.
Affirmation and negation are released in the now, Liberated in the middle way; Dogmatic belief is released in the now, Liberated in groundlessness; Authenticity is released in the now, Liberated in absence of preconception; Inauthenticity is released in the now, Liberated in indeterminacy; Karma is released in the now, Liberated in its transparency; Afflictive emotion is released in the now, Liberated thorough disinterest; Karmic proclivity is released in the now, Liberated in its baselessness; Karmic result is released in the now, Liberated in the discontinuity of experience.
Catharsis is released in the now, Liberated in nonrepression; Repression is released in the now, Liberated in skylike freedom; Hanging loosely is released in the now, Liberated by the absence of anything to relax; Resting freely is released in the now, Liberated by the absence of anything brought to rest.
Everything is already released in the spaciousness of the now, So any attempt to liberate anything anew is superfluous.
It is pointless to try to release yourself!... Don’t trap yourself! Don’t trap yourself! Don’t cage your mind!
People consensually bound in delusory space-time, Ignorant of their own intrinsic nature become corrupted And they stupefy themselves. … The root of delusion lies in perceiving nondelusion as an abyss. Deluded or not, the same luminous-mind matrix pertains, And therein, in the now, neither delusion nor release occurs. Reification of what arises from luminous mind as display entraps us-- Both confinement and release are nondual, the mind and its field nonexistent! …
In the luminous matrix that is blissful skylike root and base, … samsara is not possible.
In the natural disposition, samsara and nirvana are impossible; Goal-fixation is impossible in the natural disposition; Fragmentation and partiality are impossible in the natural disposition: In the natural disposition, nothing ever crystallizes.
Hitting the Essence in Three Words “The Special Teaching of the Wise and Glorious King” (The Root Text)
Herein is contained The Special Teaching of the Wise and Glorious King, together with its commentary.
Homage to the master! The view is Longchen Rabjam: infinite, vast expanse. Meditation is Khyentse Özer: rays of wisdom and love. Action is Gyalwé Nyugu, that of the bodhisattvas. One who practises in such a way, May well attain enlightenment in this very life. And even if not, what happiness! What joy! A la la!
1. Introducing directly the face of rigpa in itself
As for the view, Longchen Rabjam, Three statements strike the vital point. First, relax and release your mind, Neither scattered, nor concentrated, without thoughts. While resting in this even state, at ease, Suddenly let out a mind-shattering ‘phaṭ!’, Fierce, forceful and abrupt. Amazing! There is nothing there: transfixed in wonder, Struck by wonder, and yet all is transparent and clear. Fresh, pure and sudden, so beyond description: Recognize this as the pure awareness of dharmakāya. The first vital point is: introducing directly the face of rigpa in itself.
2. Decide upon one thing, and one thing only
Then, whether in a state of movement or stillness, Of anger or attachment, happiness or sorrow, All the time, in any situation, Recognize that dharmakāya you recognized before, And mother and child clear light, already acquainted, will reunite. Rest in the aspect of awareness, beyond all description. Stillness, bliss and clarity: disrupt them, again and again, Suddenly striking with the syllable of skilful means and wisdom. With no difference between meditation and post-meditation, No division between sessions and breaks, Always remain in this indivisible state. But, until stability is attained, It is vital to meditate, away from all distractions and busyness, Practising in proper meditation sessions. All the time, in any situation, Abide by the flow of what is only dharmakāya. Decide with absolute conviction that there is nothing other than this-- The second vital point is: decide upon one thing, and one thing only.
3. Confidence directly in the liberation of rising thoughts
At that point, whether attachment or aversion, happiness or sorrow-- All momentary thoughts, each and every one, Upon recognition, leave not a trace behind. For recognize the dharmakāya in which they are freed, And just as writing vanishes on water, Arising and liberation become natural and continuous. And whatever arises is food for the bare rigpa emptiness, Whatever stirs in the mind is the inner power of the dharmakāya king, Leaving no trace, and innately pure. What joy! The way things arise may be the same as before, But the difference lies in the way they are liberated: that’s the key. Without this, meditation is but the path of delusion, When you have it, there’s non-meditation, the state of dharmakāya-- The third vital point is: confidence directly in the liberation of rising thoughts.
4. Colophon
For the View which has the three vital points, Meditation, the union of wisdom and love, Is accompanied by the Action common to all the bodhisattvas. Were all the buddhas of past, present and future to confer, No instruction would they find greater than this, Brought out as a treasure from the depth of transcendental insight, By the tertön of dharmakāya, the inner power of rigpa, Nothing like ordinary treasures of earth and stone, For it is the final testament of Garab Dorje, The essence of the wisdom mind of the three transmissions. It is entrusted to my heart disciples, sealed to be secret. It is profound in meaning, my heart’s words. It is the words of my heart, the crucial key point. This crucial point: never hold it cheap. Never let this instruction slip away from you. This is the special teaching of the wise and glorious king.