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Chants of the Dakinis, the Great Secret

The dakini Nigouma, companion and master of Naropa, sings, in her poem on Mahamudra, the Great Seal, ultimate initiation not only of Tibetan Buddhism of the Kagyu school but also of the Kashmiri schools, that Mahamudra describes the state of supreme and natural awakening of the mind, very close to the dzogchen, or Great Perfection:

Don’t do anything whatsoever with the mind—
Abide in an authentic, natural state.
One’s own mind, unwavering, is reality.
The key is to meditate like this without wavering;
Experience the great [reality] beyond extremes. . . .

In a pellucid ocean,
Bubbles arise and dissolve again.
Just so, thoughts are no different from ultimate reality,
So don’t find fault; remain at ease.
Whatever arises, whatever occurs,
Don’t grasp—release it on the spot.

Appearances, sounds, and objects are one’s own mind;
There’s nothing except mind.
Mind is beyond the extremes of birth and death.
The nature of mind, awareness,
Although using the objects of the five senses,
Does not wander from reality.

In the state of cosmic equilibrium
There is nothing to abandon or practice,
No meditation or post-meditation period.³⁷

To encounter such a being who wants nothing from you, who refuses nothing, who takes nothing, and who does not even want to lead you to liberation is the experience of all those who approach an authentic master. Such frequent contact makes us keen to attain the fluidity that we perceived in the mirror held out to us. A master is nothing else but the mirror of our own freedom. In the total easing and opening of the mind, he has no projections; he allows the richness of each moment to pass before him like a parade and contacts his sensorality without making any mental commentary about it. He lives things as they are, in their intensity and their original duration, without adding, without cutting off, without grasping or abandoning. A master is always there, ready for unconditional love.

The “Corpse-Raising Dakini” sings:

Don’t become distracted, but don’t meditate;
To practice like this is skillfulness.
When myriad experiences leave no trace, how great!
To practice like this is liberation.
KYE HO! Wonderful!
Great fresh awareness is the supreme path.

No need to walk—it’s the ground of suchness.^*4
No need to practice, it’s effortlessly accomplished.
AHA! Those who practice this yoga are fortunate indeed!³⁹

How can someone who longs simply to be an entirely unique human, by using the whole range of her corporality, mind, and emotions, come close to this?

In attempting as often as possible to be present to reality, we will make contact with this reality at certain times, miss it at others. Little by little we will taste things in the depth of presence and in the silence of the mind. From living in this space of freedom a few seconds here, a few seconds there, our whole body-mind will turn more and more spontaneously toward presence, simply because it will discover that nothing brings it deeper satisfaction or deeper pleasure.

As we start to get a taste of reality, we will discover that our presence extends to the whole of our mental and physiological functionings. We will be more and more sensitive to the incredible mass of encumbrances to naked reality that we generate. It is then that our attitude will spontaneously and gently change.

Through consciousness, we discover the ways in which we short-circuit life. Consequently, we never adopt a new way of being or pursue a new ideal, because this would be to enclose ourselves once again in concepts. We observe without judgment, and it is this clarity that will shine light on our behavior and lead us, most naturally, to stop blocking the course of life. In order to liberate ourselves, we will observe that we block and how we block.

Someone who desires to be fully alive has to do nothing but observe without inner commentary the automatic mechanisms that stop him from tasting the tremoring vibration of life. This observation alone is the key to our liberation. It requires naked and silent awareness, detached from all objectives. A light and fluid, playful and feline attention, with the absolute ease that precedes the movements of the big cats. Yoginis and yogis are often compared to tigresses and tigers, whose skins they sometimes use for meditating, because they have the same intense liveliness, the same vivaciousness.

Little by little we will see that this play totally changes our relationship with others. We will finally be here, without expectation or plan, without fear, without the need to grasp or reject. We will then feel a profound peace distilled all through our sensitive body, which will have become complete presence and tremoring vibration to the other. The two instruments will be able to tune themselves to each other and vibrate in unison.

In the absence of mental commentary, our entire sensorality will be able to come into a state of vibration and pick up the vibration of the other. In this silence nothing is planned, nothing whose real duration we have not accepted. Nothing that we attempt to increase or make last. Simply movement, flow, plenitude in their intrinsic reality, which nothing comes along to strain or reduce. The spontaneous dawning of acts, deeds, movements, gestures will then make contact with an unknown grace, with a magic all the more real because it is moving and free.

When we have tasted this kind of communication, we will understand to what extent this connection reveals the fundamental freedom of all people, and we will naturally tend toward letting it overflow into all our relationships, simply because we will have lived, in these moments of ecstasy, the experience of being both people and objects. At this point there will no longer be relation to other, which is what the tantrikas call presence to reality.

This is also what Bhaskara tells us in his commentary on the Shiva Sutras: “The senses have the power to make this new creation emerge, as experience proves, because they are sustained by the inborn power of consciousness. It is thus because the power of the senses comes from the absorbing force existing in the Self.”