After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment, you should sit cross-legged upon a comfortable mat {272} with both hands in meditative equipoise. You should focus the mind and meditate that in the right channel are the consonants, ranging from top to bottom, and in the left channel are the vowels, ranging from bottom to top. Below the navel cakra, at the triple intersection of channels, upon a hexahedron, the fire is ignited by the wind. You should visualize that the syllable A is warm and hot to the touch. You should be mindful of this experience in each vertebra, and meditate without wavering.752
Having mastered this stability, through the movement of the vowels and consonants in the right and left channels, you should then meditate focusing on the letter a in the navel cakra, which has the properties of the fire and wind elements and is present within A white chamber of light formed by the hexahedron. A subtle flame burns noisily, incinerating the syllable HAṂ at the crown of the head, so that the generative fluid flows down, coats the extremity of the flame, and dissolves into the syllable A. You should meditate on that.753
[As far as the three phases of yoga are concerned:] From the perspective of the yoga of conclusive attributes, the complete path comprising all the three phases—lower forms, profound mantra, and conclusive attributes—is without error. But, even though you may have sequentially practiced first the lower forms, next the profound mantra, and finally the conclusive attributes, it is said that that sequence is not definitive.754
You should block the right and left channels with the garlands of vowels and consonants. a is in the navel cakra, HŪṂ is in the heart, AṂ is in the throat, HAṂ is in the crown of the head. The three higher syllables have the properties of the water element, while the syllable a in the navel has the properties of the fire and wind elements. From the syllable a the fire burns noisily. It penetrates and melts the syllables HŪṂ, aṃ, and HAṂ, which then directly flow down, forming a coating, and dissolve gradually into the syllable A.
With regard to the yoga of mantra, there are pith instructions of the upper gate and the lower gate, the former comprising three sorts [based on the cakras, the vital essences, and the subtle winds].755 When buddhahood is attained, it is said to be secured through this very means.
[More specifically, the pith instructions based on the vital essences are threefold, including the meditation on the upper extremity, the meditation on the lower extremity, and the meditation on the middle of the body.]756 [First] you should practice the yoga of lower forms [which accords with the generation stage]. Then [with regard to the meditation on the middle of the body]:757 The crown of the head has the properties of the wind element, the heart has the properties of the earth element, the navel has the properties of the water element, and the genitals have the properties of the fire element. The three higher syllables have the properties of the water element.
As the wind moves toward the crown of the head, it causes the generative essence to appear at the syllable HAṂ, and subsequently that wind causes the white generative fluid to appear prominently in the heart, in the navel, and at the tip of the vajra (penis), after which it is reversed upward to the crown of the head, where it dissolves into the syllable HAṂ. [You should know that] as breath is exhaled, the vital essence appears prominently at the tip of the vajra (penis); and as breath is inhaled, it rises higher and dissolves into the syllable HAṂ.
Just as water from a single channel divides into two, at the upper extremity [of the central channel] {273} there are the right channel of the sun and the left channel of the moon. You should meditate in conjunction with the syllable OṂ when the breath is exhaled, in conjunction with the syllable HŪṂ when breath is inhaled, and in conjunction with the syllable ĀḤ when the breath is diffused at the triple intersection of channels below the navel. Bliss will immediately arise.758
Next, you should meditate on the form [of the deity] that accords with the generation stage, and as the eight attributes [of the eight elements] arise,759 you will then connect with the perfection stage.
With regard to the visualization at the upper extremity of the upper gate,760 you should meditate that at the heart cakra there is an open red lotus with four petals, and [at its center] there is a sun disk [with the properties of the fire and wind elements] and a moon disk with the properties of the earth and water elements, with a drop of generative essence between them. The sun and moon disks are conjoined around it [in the manner of an amulet]. There is a fine thread wound around them [back and front] in three strands, and on the side of the moon disk there are seed syllables wound around in three bands—with the thirty-two consonants on the upper thread and the sixteen vowels on the middle thread. On the side of the sun disk there are no seed syllables. You should focus your mind on the vital essence at the middle of this thread,761 observing it there in a hollow in the center of the moon disk. With the sound of TOG, a syllable HŪṂ appears, piercing through the moon disk above. There is a fine thread attached to the HŪṂ, which winds around the moon disk in a circle, turning to the right, and then winds around the sun and moon disks from front [to back], thereby forming a cross. Once the HŪṂ has exited from the hollow, you should continue focusing on the vital essence. That is the form through which the deity is generated in the mantra syllables.762
You may then meditate on the [aforementioned] three phases of yoga[—that is, lower form, profound mantra, and conclusive attributes—] in their totality, and five signs will appear.763
When that vital essence is activated at the upper extremity of the upper gate, you should visualize that there is a vital essence at the center of the conjoined sun and moon disks, which resemble an amulet box, empty in the middle. At its periphery, strung by a fine thread, are the sixteen vowels, with A in the vanguard, and above that, also strung by a fine thread, are the thirty-six consonants, with KA in the vanguard. These strings of letters rotate one by one, without touching, just as gemstone beads are strung with a fine thread in such a way that they do not touch one another. You should then meditate that the wind slightly collides and breaches the top [of the amulet], so that it is loosened. KṢA, the final consonant in the string, brushes against the vital essence, and the syllable A [leading the vowels that follow it] is released, so that the KṢA is dislodged {274} and presses the syllable A inside. You should undertake this meditation repeatedly.
When, on the other hand, the vital essence is activated dependent on the lower gate, you should look for a female consort with the appropriate signs. Having found her, you should undertake the “finger application” (aṅguli’i sbyor ba), and her channel will gently be opened. When that happens, you should not vigorously rub the vajra (penis) but engage in this experiential cultivation in an uncontaminated manner. Settle your mind on that, and later, even without discriminative awareness, realization will arise.764
There are three ways of training the breath:765 (i) relaxed breathing, (ii) counted breathing, and (iii) vase breathing [the last of which requires forceful training].
With regard to the first method: You should examine from where the wind has come, where it goes, and what is its action. Do not let it be purposeful. Even though you want to control it, you should not. Even though you want to inhale it, you should not. You should act freely and without effort.
As to the second method: After that, you should maintain awareness of the wind, counting the breaths. That is to say, you should visualize HŪṂ in the heart cakra. As you exhale breath, you should count or estimate three cycles of OṂ, revolving like a millstone; as you inhale breath, you should count or estimate three cycles of HŪṂ; and as you pause the breath, you should count or estimate the syllable ĀḤ. You should control your breathing by counting in that manner and prolong the pauses.
As to the third method: You should vigorously perform vase breathing, bumping on the ground and exhaling about ten times. Then you should inhale and restrict the breath within, filling the area below the navel. Do not exhale strongly or you will fill the abdomen in the wrong way. You should breathe out twenty-one times and fill the abdomen while maintaining the posture of the lion’s play.766
You may also block the eyes, ears, mouth, and nostrils. Press the vajra (penis) between the thighs and block the anus with the heels. This constitutes the forceful method of breath control. With regard to the duration of this blocking, it should be equivalent to six finger snaps while placing the palms of the hands on the knees.767
Since the complete phases of mantra, form, and attributes appear in a nonarising manner, it is from the attributes that the [forms of the] deities and the mantras appear. Such are the pith instructions of the Great Magical Emanation that are unmistaken with regard to the entire path.
Here I have presented the heart elixir of Marpa,
The essentials that reveal supreme natural liberation,
Conferring the delight accrued from all the texts of Kukuripā on Māyā.
This was compiled from the ancient writings of Ngokpa.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: {275} You should meditate that [you are present as Kharamukha Cakrasaṃvara and that] rays of light are diffused from the syllable HŪṂ in your heart cakra, absorbing the entirety of the inhabited world and its sentient inhabitants into your own body. Your female consort is also absorbed into your heart cakra from the left nostril. The visualization should then dissolve into a form in which you yourself appear as two-armed [Kharamukha Cakrasaṃ-vara], and your teacher is present on the crown of your head. With fervent devotion you should then pray, “May the genuine meditative stability grow in my mind!”769
Then you should visualize that within your heart cakra, there is a syllable a from which, upon a moon disk the size of a split pea, your own awareness is present as a white and red vital essence, the size of an average mustard seed. Hold this in mind! Then gradually you should gently unite the upper and lower winds. After familiarizing yourself with this practice, you should continue to hold it in mind, without letting your mental faculty be diffused elsewhere. As you abide one-pointedly, the meditative stability of bliss and radiance will arise.770
Dependent on that, your mind may become diffused toward other sense faculties, in which case you should undertake the preliminary practices as before. Then, with regard to the main practice, you should meditate on extremely minute white vital essences resting upon moon disks inside your two eyeballs. You should close the eyes and hold these in mind. After maintaining that practice for a while, you may then observe diverse sights, while focusing your mind on the vital essences, without permitting it to be diffused elsewhere. When you have familiarized yourself with this, the form of the vital essences will become radiant and meditative stability will arise on the basis of whatever sights you see. You should acquire some stability in this practice and meditate that those vital essences are absorbed into the heart cakra, whereupon the vital essence of the heart cakra becomes even more radiant and blazing than before. Through meditative equipoise the supreme meditative stability will then arise.771
Thereafter, your mind may become diffused toward the ears, in which case you should meditate on the preliminary practices, as before. Then, with regard to the main practice, you should meditate on two blue vital essences resting upon moon disks inside your two ears. You should hold in mind a direction where there is no sound. After maintaining that for a while, you may then hear diverse sounds, while focusing your mind on the vital essences, without permitting it to be diffused elsewhere. {276} When you have familiarized yourself with this, your visualization of the vital essences will become radiant and meditative stability will arise on the basis of whatever sounds you hear. You should acquire some stability in this practice and meditate that those vital essences are absorbed into the vital essence of the heart cakra, whereupon that vital essence becomes even more radiant and blazing than before. Through meditative equipoise the supreme meditative stability will then arise.772
Thereafter, your mind may become diffused toward the nose, in which case you should meditate on the preliminary practices, as before. Then, with regard to the main practice, you should meditate on yellow vital essences resting upon moon disks inside the cavity of each nostril. You should hold in mind a place where no odor is smelled. After maintaining that for a while, you may then smell diverse odors, while focusing your mind on the vital essences, without permitting it to be diffused elsewhere. When you have familiarized yourself with this, your visualization of the vital essences will become radiant and meditative stability will arise on the basis of whatever odors you smell. You should acquire some stability in this practice and meditate that those vital essences are absorbed into the vital essence of the heart cakra, whereupon that vital essence becomes even more radiant and blazing than before. Through meditative equipoise the supreme meditative stability will then arise.773
Thereafter, your mind may become diffused toward the tongue, in which case you should meditate on the preliminary practices, as before. Then, with regard to the main practice, you should meditate on a red vital essence resting upon a moon disk at the base of the tongue. You should hold this in mind, without tasting anything. After maintaining that for a while, you may then savor diverse tastes, while focusing your mind on the vital essence, without permitting it to be diffused elsewhere. When you have familiarized yourself with this, your visualization of the vital essence will become radiant and meditative stability will arise on the basis of whatever tastes you savor. You should acquire some stability in this practice and meditate that that vital essence is absorbed into the vital essence of the heart cakra, whereupon that vital essence of the heart cakra becomes even more radiant and blazing than before. Through meditative equipoise the supreme meditative stability will then arise.774
Thereafter, your mind may become diffused toward the body, in which case you should meditate on the preliminary practices, as before. Then, with regard to the main practice, you should meditate on a green vital essence resting upon a moon disk at your brow. You should hold this in mind, without touching anything. After maintaining that for a while, {277} you may then touch diverse tangibles while focusing your mind on the vital essence, without permitting it to be diffused elsewhere. When you have familiarized yourself with this, your visualization of the vital essence will become radiant and meditative stability will arise on the basis of whatever tangibles you touch. You should acquire some stability in this practice and meditate that that vital essence is absorbed into the vital essence of the heart cakra, whereupon that vital essence of the heart cakra becomes even more radiant and blazing than before. Through meditative equipoise the supreme meditative stability will then arise.775
Thereafter, you should visualize and meditate on the mental faculty that wanders everywhere, in which case you should meditate on the preliminary practices, as before. Then, with regard to the main practice, you should meditate on a pale-red vital essence that rests upon the red and white vital essence of the heart cakra but is even more subtle than that. You should hold this in mind, in a place that is extremely isolated. After maintaining that for a while, you may then meditate on topics imbued with social diversion. Those objects and thoughts to which your mental faculty becomes diffused should then themselves be absorbed into the pale-red vital essence. You should hold this in mind. When you have familiarized yourself with this, your visualization of the vital essence will become radiant and thoughts will not arise, or else they will arise only slightly and even vanish of their own accord. You should acquire some stability in this practice and meditate that that vital essence is absorbed into the red and white vital essence below it, whereupon that vital essence becomes even more radiant and blazing than before. Through meditative equipoise the supreme meditative stability of calm abiding will then arise.776
Thereafter, you should visualize and meditate on the afflicted mental faculty, in which case you should meditate on the preliminary practices, as before. Then, with regard to the main practice, you should meditate on a pale-red vital essence that rests upon the red and white vital essence of the heart cakra, and upon that there is a blue vital essence. You should hold this in mind, in a place that is extremely isolated. After maintaining that for a while, you may then meditate on topics imbued with objects where diverse afflicted mental states arise. This movement of afflicted mental states, including attachment, {278} should then be absorbed into the blue vital essence. You should hold this in mind. When you have familiarized yourself with this, your visualization of the vital essence will become radiant and afflicted mental states will not arise, or else they will arise only slightly and even vanish of their own accord. You should acquire some stability in this practice and meditate that that [blue] vital essence is absorbed into the pale-red vital essence below. That, in turn, is also absorbed into the red and white vital essence below. That, in turn, is absorbed into the moon disk. The moon disk, in turn, vanishes like clouds dissolving into space. Through meditative equipoise supreme calm abiding will then arise.777
At the end, when you arise from meditative equipoise, you should instantaneously see the appearances of the moon disk and the vital essence that are gradually formed. You should look upon yourself—the Heruka—and external phenomena to be without inherent existence, just as they appear. You should meditate in that manner until the respective signs [of realization] appear. When this is perfected, the meditative stability of calm abiding that is empty and of higher insight that is blissful and radiant will arise. Through that continuum of meditative stability, the pristine cognition of the path of insight will arise, so that buddhahood will be attained.
In brief, this method of training infinitely refines the meditative stability of composure with respect to the gates of the sense faculties, and then, in the main practice, you will settle upon the expressive energy of the imperishable vital essence. Finally, you should visualize that in the navel cakra resembling the coiled Kharamukha Cakrasaṃvara, the fire of the fierce inner heat darts like the tongue of a snake, so that it fills and permeates the interior of the central channel. You should meditate persistently on the union of the upper and lower winds.778
Here I have presented the supreme pith instruction,
The profound essentials that reveal liberation
From the fetters of attachments to the delight and bliss of existence,
Which are not found at all in other instructions.
This was written directly from the mouth [of Lowo Khenchen].
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: (i) You should meditate on your own body as the body of Vajravārāhī. This is the first meditation—the training in visualizing her form. {279} (ii) Next, you should meditate upon a red four-petal lotus in the navel cakra, where there is a red syllable VAṂ. That is the second meditation—the training in the seed syllables. (iii) Next, you should compress the upper wind and meditate that it dissolves into the syllable VAṂ within the navel cakra. That is the third meditation—the training in subtle energy. (iv) Next, you should meditate that, owing to the movement of the maṇḍala of wind derived from the syllable YAṂ in your feet, the fire derived from the syllable RAṂ blazes as far as the genitals; then, through the warming of the syllable VAṂ in the navel cakra, light is on the verge of blazing from the syllable VAṂ, and as light blazes therefrom, the body is transformed into a mass of light. This is the fourth meditation—the training in the body of light. (v) Next, you should meditate that this light resembles hazy clouds vanishing in the sky or rainbow light vanishing in the atmosphere. This is the fifth meditation—the training in luminosity. (vi) Finally, within the disposition of this luminosity, you should visualize that there is a downward-facing white syllable HAṂ, directly positioned at the crown of the head, as before, and that there is an upward-facing red syllable VAṂ, directly positioned at the navel cakra. You should meditate that from that syllable HAṂ of the upper gate, generative essence drips as if on a spider’s thread and penetrates the syllable VAṂ, so that the VAṂ is completely transformed, and consequently you become manifest as the coalescent female deity Vajravārāhī, in the manner of rainbow light. This manifestation arises in the nature of bliss, radiance, and nonconceptualization, but these attributes are not differentiated—they are coalesced owing to the inseparability of bliss and emptiness, and they are coalesced owing to the inseparability of radiance and emptiness. That is the sixth meditation—the training in coalescence.
Here I have elucidated in writing
A text praised for conferring supreme maturational liberation,
Composed by Chel Kunga Dorjé,
Revealing the essentials of the six meditations of Vārāhī.
This was written according to the definitive ancient writings of Chel.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should settle your body into the exemplary sevenfold posture of Vairocana.781 You should clearly regard and maintain the notion of your body as an empty frame and all its hairs, nails, and pores {280} hollow like a sieve. You should also regard and maintain the notion of the body of [your female consort, embodying] the transcendent lady Sahajā, with the nature of an empty frame.782
[Next, the practice of the six doctrines is as follows:]
When the core of your body is upright, you should imagine that the vertical central channel, extending from the genitals to the anterior fontanel, is straight as an arrow, hollow as straw, and radiant like a sesame oil lamp. The right and left channels both converge with the central channel at the
upper and lower gates. At the upper gate they enter into the two nostrils. The cakra of the navel has sixty-four channel branches, the cakra of the heart has eight, the cakra of the throat has sixteen, and the cakra at the forehead has thirty-two. All these have the nature of an empty frame, and the network of the channels, extending as far as the horripilation of the pores, also constitutes an empty frame. This practice is called “holding the family-endowed basis.”783
Next, you should expel the residual breath, and then slowly inhale breath that has the color of smoke and is directly in front, sixteen finger widths from the tip of the nose. It passes from the two pathways of the right and left channels into the lower end of the central channel. At this point you should also draw in the lower wind, and when you are ready to breathe out, you should visualize that it rises upward from the central channel through the anterior fontanel at the crown of the head. Without holding either the upper or lower wind, you should then push out your abdomen and fill it with the middle wind.784
Next, you should visualize that at the upper end of the central channel, which reaches the point between the eyebrows, there is a vital essence of generative fluid with four attributes—it is white, lustrous, round, and bright. As you inhale breath, at the same time you should visualize that vital essence descending within the central channel, pausing in the center of each respective cakra, and gradually appearing at the center of the secret cakra, after which it again rises upward, pale [in color], quickly reaching the upper extremity—the point between the eyebrows.785
Next, you should visualize that from the vital essence within the channel of fierce inner heat, an intensely burning flame spreads throughout all the cardinal and intermediate directions, along with the zenith and the nadir. This nature of fire, endowed with the four aforementioned attributes, then assumes the form of a celestial palace within an extensive and vast protective circle. {281} In this way, the channel of fierce inner heat should be transformed into your dwelling. When you are sitting and lying down, you should visualize that your seat and the ground also are of the nature of fire. In this way, the channel of fierce inner heat should be transformed into your seat. You should imagine that all the clothes that you wear are also of the nature of fire. In this way, the channel of fierce inner heat should be worn as clothing.786
With regard to the pith instructions concerning the illusory body, you should reflect and investigate that all the phenomena of cyclic existence, which are of the nature of suffering, and in particular the aggregates of your own body, and especially your mind, are impermanent and lacking independence, even for a single instant of time. That is to say, they are unreliable.787
On the other hand, since all that appears and exists has been present from the beginning in a pure cycle, you should regard your own physical body as the body of your preferred deity and develop certainty through the twelve similes of magical display. For, with regard to the completely perfect appearance of this buddha body, its lack of inherent existence resembles a reflection in a mirror. Its manifestation in any color whatsoever resembles a rainbow. Its manifestation of two from one resembles a mirage. Its formation from subtle energy and rays of light resembles an optical aberration. Its manifestation of a singular form as a multiplicity resembles the moon’s reflection in water. Its indestructibility by any entity whatsoever resembles a human shadow. Its manifestation in diverse fields and arrays resembles a spirit town of gandharvas. These seven are the similes pertaining to buddha body. Its swift transformations resemble an echo. Its manifestation of a single savor as multiplicity resembles bubbles of water. These two are the similes pertaining to buddha speech. The lack of inherent existence in its experiences resembles a dream. Its manifestation as coemergence resembles a magical display. These two are the similes pertaining to buddha mind. Its swift engagement in enlightened activity resembles lightning. This is the simile pertaining to the essentiality of all three [buddha body, speech, and mind] combined. You should develop certainty and meditate through the approaches of these [twelve similes].788
With regard to the retention of dreams, you should visualize that at the center of the throat cakra is a lotus that has four petals, upon which is a red vital essence with the nature of the fire element. On its [center and] four petals there appear the syllables OṂ A NU TA RA. On falling asleep, you will definitely [know that you are dreaming].789 {282}
As far as your activity [during dreams] is concerned, your dreams can then be transformed, increased, or refined.790
With regard to luminosity, during the daytime you should rely on the experience of luminosity in the disposition of nonconceptualization, and then through its power you will actualize the meditative stability of the luminosity associated with deep sleep, in which bliss, radiance, and nonconceptualization are combined.791
When the circumstances of the intermediate state arise after death, you should skillfully refine in accordance with your past experience the realization that whatever arises is pure appearance. In this way, you will actualize the buddha body of perfect resource during the intermediate state. You should abandon the sustenance of the present life and, until you grasp the next life, experientially cultivate your present circumstance as a corporeal being imbued simply with subtle energy and mind. You should also ascertain the notion that any appearances that arise at the present time contingent on past experiences in fact denote the intermediate state. In this way, the natural expression [of the intermediate state] will be actualized or else phenomena will be transformed into pure appearances.
By having naturally cultivated and experienced the appearances of the intermediate state in this disposition, you will arrive at [the true nature of] dreams. That is to say, whatever appearances of dreams might arise, they will be reminiscent of the intermediate state, and on that basis, you will refine them and take into your own hands the experiential cultivation of natural liberation.
If you have familiarized yourself with that, when the time of death arrives, the conceptual thoughts that partake of eighty natural expressions792 will gradually dissolve, and through the phases of the three perceptions,793 your presence in this life will yield. After you have died, when the appearances of the intermediate state arise in whatever forms, you will comprehend them according to the pith instructions that you previously experienced and, in this way, actualize the level of the buddha body of perfect resource during the intermediate state.794
With regard to the pith instructions of consciousness transference, you should actually visualize in the sky, about one hand span above the crown of your head, your root teacher and the meditational deity in the form of Khecarī, in her celestial palace. You should then visualize within the central channel of your body, at the location of the throat, a white syllable OṂ, encircled by A NU TA RA. Breathe in and simultaneously imagine that from the syllable OṂ of the throat cakra a blue HŪṂ breaks off and appears at the heart cakra. From that, in turn, a red ĀḤ breaks off and comes to rest at the navel cakra. You should hold your breath as long as possible, and then breathe out. {283} After that, you should visualize simultaneously that the syllable ĀḤ of the navel cakra and the syllable HŪṂ merge, and that these in turn merge with the syllable OṂ of the throat cakra. Then the syllable OṂ, with its four surrounding letters, assumes the form of a vital essence that is the essential nature of your body, speech, and mind. Emerging from the anterior fontanel, it finally merges into the heart of your teacher.795
Here I have documented in the manner of a fragment of brocade
That has been extracted from molten gold
The supreme liberation of the knots of extensive delight,
Which derives from the all-pervasive Six Doctrines of Nāropā.
This was extrapolated from the Molten Gold of the Six Doctrines [of Karmapa Rangjung Dorjé] and then written down.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should meditate on the teacher upon a lotus and moon cushion on the crown of your head, and say, “I beseech you, Precious Teacher, to assuage my ailments and demons. I beseech you to purify my negativity and obscurations! I beseech you to let extraordinary meditative stability grow in my mindstream!” You should visualize that within your own head, there is a pristine white hexahedron, resting directly upon which there is a white syllable A, from which nectar arises, filling the body and expelling negativity, obscuration, and propensities in the form of smoky liquid.797 Then your body is transformed, as if into a crystal ball. Cooling nectar will alleviate fevers; red nectar will alleviate colds; red and yellow nectar will alleviate wind disorders, purifying them by balancing heat and cold; and nectar that resembles boiling molten bronze will alleviate demonic possession.798 Signs of this success will arise in actuality and in dreams.799
[The ensuing practice of the six doctrines is as follows:]
As for the fierce inner heat, in the preliminaries your physical body should be visualized as an empty frame that is of the nature of fire,800 and then you should secure the posture of the “six opposing stoves” [of the hands, legs, and elbows].801
Next, you should become manifestly radiant as Vajrayoginī and visualize that the interior of her body is fine and translucent, like an inflated bag of red silk, and that to the left, right, back, and front of the kidney channels there are globes of fire.802 You should then say, “Precious Teacher, I beseech you to let the meditative stability of bliss and warmth and the meditative stability of bliss and emptiness arise within me for the sake of all sentient beings!”803 For the control of the gentle wind, you should perform the yogic exercise of stomach rotation, and thereby imagine that the [four globes of] fire fill the abdomen and clash together, causing pale-red sparks to scatter.804
Next, you should practice the “consumption of the channel of fierce inner heat” and visualize that the syllable RAṂ at the triple intersection of the channels is aroused by the fire and wind, and as the central channel widens, {284} it fills it with fire. Through the yogic exercises that stimulate the body and the yogic exercise of kindling fire with a rubbing stick, the winds below the navel, associated with speech, are united, and you should then focus one-pointedly on the blazing of the fire.805
Next, you should undertake the ancillary practices, known as the “wearing of clothing” that covers the body with fire down to the soles of the feet; the “spreading of the mat,” through which you lie down like a sleeping dog at the gate; and the “riding of the horse,” through which the goddess of wind lifts you up from under the armpits.806
You should [first] refine the [fourfold] “cycle of wind” twenty-one times.807 The empowerment of conditioned existence will then be conferred and white nectar will flow from the body of the teacher at the crown of your head, filling [by stages] your crown, throat, heart, navel, and secret cakras. You should long for the four empowerments808 and meditate on the places of the upper body where obstacles might arise as [precious] “three-eyed gems.”809 You should repeatedly visualize your body like a sieve and expel them. As you strongly intone the syllable HA and pound the back of your fist directly against your chest, diseases will then emerge in the form of steam.810 As far as the lower part of your body is concerned, you should meditate that at the orifice of the vajra (penis), the generative essence wells up within the opening of the slender stem of a red lotus—the essential nature of blood (rakta)—and after adorning the soles of the feet, it is transferred to the crown of the head through the gesture of vajroṣṇīṣa. The visualization entails that the penis (nor bu) appears to be inverted upward into the small intestine, so that you focus your awareness on a red and translucent HŪṂ emerging via the pathway of the central channel as far as the anterior fontanel. Thereby ejaculations can be cut off six times. I have written this according to an oral teaching.811
With regard to the illusory body, you should engender a sense of disillusionment [with impermanent phenomena] and meditate on yourself as Innate Cakrasaṃvara. At the crown of your head is [your teacher in the form] Gathering of All Gurus. You should then say, “Precious Teacher, I beseech you that I might abandon self-grasping, that I might develop in my mind the sense that it is unnecessary, and that I might refine the illusory body and dreams!” The teacher should then dissolve into yourself, and thereafter, whatever appears arises as a magical display.
Those of superior acumen reinforce this during postmeditation, which is free from ideation. Those of average acumen resolutely assert that objective appearances exemplified by the manifestation of one’s own body as Cakrasaṃvara are magical displays and dreams, equivalent to those that merely appear in mind and in speech. Those of lowest acumen abandon the four challenges that concern excessive movement, excessive migration, excessive thought, and excessive chattering; and then {285} they generate compassion for the six classes of living beings who are visualized as present within a hexahedron in the navel cakra.812
Next, you should draw in the lower wind and gradually compress the upper wind, so that six attributes arise—namely, blissful warmth, self-control of dreams, refinement of dreams, expansion [of dreams], the appearance of objective phenomena, and the natural arising [of magical display]. You should determine that illnesses are magical displays and lure demons into the hexahedron. Through the yogic exercise that agitates them, they then suddenly depart, and without attachment, you consider them as natural manifestations of magical display.813
With regard to dreams, you should say, “Precious Teacher, I beseech you that I might abandon self-grasping, that I might develop in my mind the sense that it is unnecessary, and that I might control [the recognition of] dreams!” You should imagine that there is a white vital essence derived from the syllable HAṂ in the crown cakra, and a red vital essence derived from the syllable HŪṂ in the secret cakra. When these [break away] and circle at the heart cakra, the vase empowerment is conferred; when they touch, the secret empowerment is conferred; when there is bliss arising from that touch, the empowerment of discriminating pristine cognition is conferred; and when they dissolve into one another, the fourth empowerment is conferred.814
[For the successful practice of dream yoga] there are nine unerring essentials: the three appropriate times—dawn, daybreak, and sunrise; the three physical postures—cross-legged, crouching, and the reclining of the lion; and the three visualizations—two with ideation and one without ideation. Thereby the white and red vital essences emerge from the right and left nostrils, and at the point between the eyebrows, these are clearly visualized as the male-female Cakrasaṃvara, who then vanishes into light. After that, you should visualize the syllable HŪṂ in the heart of the teacher, at your heart cakra. As you dissolve into the teacher and the teacher into the HŪṂ, and the HŪṂ vanishes into light, you should concentrate on and maintain your singular aspiration, saying, “This is itself a dream.”815
With regard to the refinement of dreams, you should pray, “I beseech you that I might refine my dreams!” There are four phases of this refinement: (i) The refinement by the mind on the body is effected by visualizing Cakrasaṃvara when encountering a frightening precipice. (ii) The refinement of the mind by the body is effected by the absorption of the vital essences of the nine orifices and their subsequent vanishing. (iii) The refinement by means of Nairātmyā is effected by visualizing Nairātmyā in front, with a garland of A syllables in her lotus, and she is then invited into the adamantine gem [of the penis] in the form of blue light. (iv) The refinement by purposeful intent is effected by means of the one-pointed purposeful intent of Nairātmyā alone.816
With regard to the increasing of dreams, you should pray, “I beseech you that I might be able to increase them!” (i) You should increase the number of inanimate objects and sentient beings [in your dreams] from one to ten and so forth, and then reabsorb them into the originals. (ii) You should then increase the number of creatures who would train those beings, emanating cats for mice, {286} wolves for dogs, lions for tigers, cannibal ogres for human beings, and so forth, as well as garuḍas for nāgas, Vajrapāṇi for stroke-causing demons, Hayagrīva for king spirits and bewitchers, and Vajrabhairava for the lord of death; and then those beings will be tamed as you imagine they are struck with the appropriate hand emblems or incinerated by a mass of fire.817
With regard to the emanation of dreams, you should pray, “I beseech you for the power to emanate dreams!” and thereafter emanate whatever forms are appropriate, as before.818
With regard to the transformation of dreams, you should pray, “I beseech you for the power to transform dreams!” Then you may transform (i) sentient beings; (ii) subtle and gross phenomena; (iii) the diverse bodies of deities with different numbers of faces and arms; or (iv) empty appearances, free from attachment.819
[With regard to the perception of the objects that occur in dreams] you should pray, “I beseech you that I might determine the perception of objects!” Consequently, (i) [for those of superior acumen,] there will be clear understanding that there is no objective referent; (ii) [for those of average acumen,] there will be clear seeing of whatever is imagined; (iii) [for those of feeble acumen,] there will be the perception of the mental body flying through space; and apart from them, (iv) for those of lowest acumen, there will be perception of the objects they imagine.820
[As far as the last mentioned is concerned, the visualization is as follows:] Within a skull in a hexahedron at the navel cakra are the syllables OṂ, ĀḤ, HŪṂ, SVĀ, and HĀ. Therefrom Nairātmyā arises, resembling translucent crystal, emanating rays of light of five colors. At their tips the host of deities appears, resounding their respective mantras. Through your making outer, inner, and secret offerings to them, the impure inhabited world and its sentient inhabitants are refined. Then you should either (i) establish the desirable objects that you see within the heart of Nairātmyā, which is densely filled; or (ii) you should regard the objects that appear through the light visualized in the syllable A of Nairātmyā; or (iii) you should diffuse, as before, the objects appearing through the light rays visualized in the syllable A of Nairātmyā.821
With regard to luminosity, as before, you should engender intense disillusionment [with impermanent phenomena]. You should partake of sacramental substances and oily foods [in moderation], adopt a leisurely regimen, and abandon exertion that induces sweat. You should make a burnt offering of sacramental human flesh and human fat, and present an excellent array of communal offerings and torma offerings. Then you should pray, “I beseech you that I might apprehend the luminosity with a mind that actually sees the teachers, the buddhas!”822
Next, you should meditate on the translucent and radiant central channel within your own body. Settle the mind, without wavering, on the syllable A in the navel cakra. Above the cerebral membrane Nairātmyā appears, and the light of the syllable A in her heart purifies the brain, which is the natural expression of delusion.823 Focus one-pointedly on the celestial palace, which is the cranium of the skull, and on the teacher within a radiant and translucent vital essence at the center of the heart cakra. {287} In his heart, too, there is a syllable HŪṂ imbued with the nature of a vital essence.824
Then you should practice the carrying of the three buddha bodies onto the path, and from within that disposition you should intermingle meditative equipoise and postmeditation through the perspective that radiance and emptiness are inseparable. You should above all develop and recognize the certainty that the coalescences of appearance and emptiness, bliss and emptiness, and radiance and emptiness are profound, calm, free from conceptual elaboration, and endowed with the two purities.825
You should persistently engage with the general and specific commitments, and then it will be important to discriminate the definitive dispelling of obstacles, the natural liberation of flaws, the resolution of doubts concerning the successful outcome of the practice, and the distinctions between daytime and nighttime experiences and realizations.826
With regard to consciousness transference, you should pray with intensity, saying, “I beseech you that I may succeed in consciousness transference!” Your own physical body then appears as a tent of blue silk. At the navel cakra within it there is a six-sided hexahedron, which cuts off the entrance to rebirth. Its three lower sides that face downward cut off the entrance to the path of the three lower realms, and the three upper sides face upward and to the right and left of the kidney channels. From within that hexahedron, the central channel rises upward to the dusty white aperture, resembling a skylight, at the crown of the head. In the navel cakra, light is diffused from a white syllable A, causing the abdomen to come into contact with the small of the back, so that the A shoots upward like an arrow through the main pathway of the central channel.
When it emerges from the skylight aperture at the crown of the head and vanishes into light, this denotes the consciousness transference into the reality of the buddha body of reality. When it dissolves into whichever meditational deity you revere—Cakrasaṃvara, Hevajra, and so forth—this denotes the consciousness transference into the coalescent meditational deity. When it enters into the secret womb of white or red Khecarī, whichever is appropriate, this denotes the consciousness transference into the unerring realm of the sky-farers. When it is transferred into the heart of the teacher, this denotes the consciousness transference of the guru’s blessing.827
With regard to the intermediate state, you should pray to the teacher, saying, “I beseech you that I may attain the buddha body of perfect resource in the intermediate state!” Those of highest acumen should, during the luminosity of the first intermediate state, meditate on the child [luminosity that is encountered] within the disposition of the naturally arising mother luminosity. They will acquire the confidence of recognizing and recollecting the mother and child luminosities, as if meeting someone with whom they had been acquainted in the past. Those of average acumen, through the appearance of the body as a deity, of speech as mantra, and of mind as the natural expressive power of the nonarising Great Seal, will be free from the fear and trepidation that arise during the intermediate state of rebirth due to the forms of Yama and the sounds of the reversal of the four elements that manifest as shouts of “Strike, kill!” {288}
Those of lowest acumen will consider external appearances to be the celestial palace and the sentient inhabitants within it to be meditational deities, and then they should meditate on a blue hexahedron in front. You should reflect that those who do not realize this will enter into the womb of a mother, and those who do realize it will think that this is assuredly the palace of the expanse of reality, Akaniṣṭha. You should visualize that at its center, there is a blue HŪṂ diffusing light rays of five colors, so that it purifies your former womb entrances, refines your present womb entrance, and blocks your future womb entrances, all of which lead toward the four modes of birth. From that HŪṂ you become manifest as Cakrasaṃvara, and on the crown of your head is Jetsunma. On the crown of her head your teacher is seated, embodying light rays and bliss. He dissolves into Jetsunma, and therefrom rays of light, of the nature of bliss, penetrate you yourself. You should then meditate that on the right side of the hexahedron, objects giving rise to male hatred appear as the male consort Cakrasaṃvara alone, and that on the left side of the hexahedron, objects giving rise to female desire appear as the female consort Vajrayoginī alone. By presenting and refining mentally emanated offerings, you will attain buddhahood in the buddha body of perfect resource during the intermediate state.828
This clearly sets forth in writing
The natural, experiential cultivation of supreme liberation—
The instructions of the Six Doctrines of Nigumā that confer delight,
Perfect among all the profound instructions.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Samdingpa Zhonu Drub.
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment, the preliminaries concern the three natural states [of body, speech, and mind, which are as follows]: (i) Undistracted by physical activities, your body should be seated in a relaxed manner, with your legs in the adamantine posture, your spine straight, and your hands resting upon your knees. (ii) As far as your speech is concerned, you should desist from speaking but keep your lips open, without closing them. (iii) As for your mind, throughout the three times you should sever the flow of conceptual thoughts and meditate while maintaining the innate natural state, without pondering, without reflecting, and without discursiveness. You should remain focused, uncorrupted by thoughts of desire, and {289} act spontaneously, without turning your gaze toward the front, the rear, the top, the bottom, the right, or the left, and without effort. You should chant the sutras, recite the mantras, and act out of that spontaneous disposition in all your conversations. If your awareness is sluggish, you should raise the gaze of your eyes, and if it is overactive, you should lower the gaze. Again and again you should meditate and maintain your perspective through the blessing of your teacher.830
As for the main practice, there are four defects to be naturally liberated: (i) though [the abiding nature of mind] is too familiar, its face is not seen; (ii) since [the Great Seal cannot be exemplified and] is too profound, it is not recognized; (iii) since [its establishment] is too easy, it is not convincing; and (iii) since [the three buddha bodies] are too noble, they do not enter into your mind. Recognition will come about once you have broken through these impasses.831
In conclusion, the four buddha bodies naturally arise—the buddha body of reality devoid of the conceptual thoughts of the mind, the buddha body of perfect resource imbued with intrinsic awareness, the buddha body of emanation that diversely appears, and the buddha body of essentiality in which these are inseparable. The outcome will be successful through compassion, through the generation stage, through the [control of] wind, and through devotion.832
Here and now I have set forth in written form
This supreme liberation from the knots of delight,
The instruction manual inscribed entirely on palm leaves—
A book that emerged from within an amulet.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Samdingpa Zhonu Drub.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should meditate on the teacher, [seated] upon a lotus and moon cushion on the crown of your head. You should clearly recall the appearance of your teacher’s body just as it is, the sound of your teacher’s voice just as it is, and the understanding and enlightened intention of your teacher’s mind just as it is. With fervent devotion you should have the power to dissolve outwardly [into that visualization], and inwardly your vacillating mind should hover around the tip of your nose. Consequently, you should determine that apparent physical forms are the body of the teacher, words are the speech of the teacher, and intrinsic awareness is the mind of the teacher.834
Thinking that it is through this genuine teacher endowed with the defining characteristics that you will be liberated from cyclic existence—hard to endure—and that consequently cyclic existence will be rendered nonexistent through your teacher’s kindness, you should engage in the power of devotion that makes the hairs of the body stand on end and agitates the eyes with tears. {290} Then say, “I pay homage! I make offerings! I go for refuge! I pray that you turn the wheel of the sacred doctrine and do not pass into nirvana! May this virtuous merit become the causal basis for me being favored by my teacher!”835
In the same manner, you should meditate on the meditational deity, however that appears, and on the magical display [of appearances], however that appears; and these experiential cultivations should also be carried on the path, as above.836
Here I have illustrated in a few clear words
The guidance of supreme liberation in the delightful mind,
Which gathers all aspects carried on the path.
This augments the auspicious path of liberation.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Samdingpa Zhonu Drub.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should visualize yourself as Innate Cakrasaṃvara in male-female union. You should focus on a blue HŪṂ at the fontanel of the male deity, and the red syllable VAṂ at the fontanel of the female deity. The bodies of those deities will become lackluster owing to the blue and red radiance of those two seed syllables respectively. Then blue and red rays of light, of the nature of bliss, gradually emerge from these two syllables, exemplified by sunrise on a snow mountain peak, so that everything is filled and enveloped with the light.
Next, just as an aquamarine and a ruby covered with mud can be cleansed with water, that external radiance [of the syllables] transforms into the nature of internal radiance. You should visualize that at the top of the matted hair of the male deity there is a wish-granting gem, and on its left side a moon disk of the first lunar day. Just above the fontanel there is a crossed vajra supported on his matted hair, and on the black locks of his matted hair there is a circlet of bone and dangling bone ornaments. Between the crown ornaments comprising five dry skulls there are transverse vajras. He has the silken ribbons of a spiritual warrior and three red eyes—blue in the middle and pale at the periphery. The bridge of his nose is high, his brow large, his mouth closed, his earlobes long, his face smiling, and the tips of his upper and lower teeth and incisors are just about visible. His throat is bulbous, his upper body is broad, {291} and his two hands hold the vajra and the bell, embracing his female consort. All of his bone ornaments—the choker, earrings, necklace, shoulder bands, bracelets, waistband, and anklets—are completely white, and his tiger-hide garment is loose at the back. His right leg is drawn in and the left leg extended, pressing down upon lotus and sun cushions and [mats in the forms of] Bhairava and Kālarātrī. The female consort is smiling, wrathful, and energetic, the hair of her head disheveled; and she holds a curved knife and a skull, embracing the neck of the male. Her bone ornaments are shining white, her breasts prominent, her right leg extended, her left leg contracted, in union with the male; and they are sealed within an amulet of blue and red light.838
Consequent on that visualization, you should develop the conviction that your own mind is immortal, untainted by the stains of birth and death. You should equipoise your mind in the body of the deity that appears but lacks inherent existence.839
Here I have presented in writing
The natural face of supreme liberation,
The uncontrived natural state of mind,
The mental faculty that appears totally delightful
And that is free from transitions.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Samdingpa Zhonu Drub.
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment, the Six Doctrines of Sukhasiddhi are as follows:
With regard to the practice of the fierce inner heat, you should secure the six stoves [of the hands, feet, and elbows] and visualize in your own navel cakra a four-petal lotus with five syllables. Next, you should focus on the wind of the rectum, which ignites the fire of the navel cakra, causing the syllable A in the center and the surrounding four syllables HA, RI, NI, and SA to blaze with fire—red and brilliant. Your body will be filled internally with the light of the fire. Then you should mentally repeat HA RI NI SA and maintain the union of the upper and lower winds.841
With regard to the practice of the illusory body, you should visualize that below the lotus of the navel cakra there is a hexahedron containing all sentient beings of the six classes. You should cultivate compassion, and the light of the seed syllables will purify the obscurations of sentient beings. The light itself will then emerge from your own fontanel, with a white radiance in the case of divine goddesses: {292} azure blue in the case of gandharvas, pale yellow in the case of brahmins, pink in the case of human beings, whitish yellow in the case of nāgas, and dark brown in the case of outcastes. These beings have an epicanthus on the eyes and an epicanthic fold on the lips. Below the navel, the lotus of their naked, secret cakra is extensive, with bristling anthers from which a stream of blissful generative fluid is released. It enters through the crown of your head and fills your body internally. You should imagine that bliss will then grow, and you should maintain this natural state of the illusory body.842
With reference to dream yoga, you should focus awareness on the natural experience of blissful warmth in the lotus of the navel cakra, and on the spinning of the letters. You should recognize that dreams are dreams and repeatedly practice their recognition, emanation, and transformation. Objective appearances will then reach the pathway of light that derives from the syllable A, in consequence of which you may see them, just as you wish.843
With reference to the practice of luminosity, you should focus your own mind radiantly on the syllable A, without contrivance, so that the experience of luminosity consequently arises.844
With reference to the practice of consciousness transference, you should visualize the four syllables of the lotus petals as the four elements, and through the sequence of the dissolution of the elements, dissolve them into the syllable a. You should imagine that your consciousness will then emerge [from your body], some distance from the crown of your head, and vanish into the nonarising state.845
With regard to the practice of the intermediate state, from the present moment you should carry forward appearances as deities, sounds as mantra, and recollections and thoughts as reality.846
This tract without addition or omission
Concerns the six doctrines of supreme liberation
That energize the coemergence of the four delights,
Associated with the foremost of all the ḍākinīs of bliss.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Khyenrab Chojé [Rinchen Chokdrub Pelzang of Zhalu].
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should visualize yourself as the body of Nairātmyā. You should meditate that on each of the twenty-one articulations of her spine there is an inch-sized miniature representation of Nairātmyā and that in the middle of the body are the three channels, among which the right and left channels depend upon the central channel, just as creepers entwine around a tree. On the four-petal lotus in the navel cakra, the syllables HA, RI, NI, and SA surround the syllable A—pale blue on the front side, red on the right, yellow on the left, white on the rear, and green in the center. On the crown of the head, inseparable from Virūpa, is Hevajra, with one face and two arms, assuming a dancing demeanor. In the sky in front is Dampa Gyagar, {293} the lower part of his body covered in a woolen cloak. You should meditate that in his hands he holds a reed flute and he is facing toward you. Pray one-pointedly, and say, “Virūpa HŪṂ, Sukha ĀḤ, Dampa Gyagar OṂ!”848
Then you should visualize that from the syllable a resting within the navel cakra an arrow also in the form of the syllable A breaks off, and, dependent on the bow of the central channel, it is propelled by the whip of subtle energy and mind combined and moves upward. You should turn your body alternately toward the right and the left, with your legs in the adamantine posture, and your hands placed upon your pulse of vitality at the wrists. Your eyeballs, too, should move gradually upward. At that time, you should train the pathway of the central channel with the [tightening] noose of the right and left channels, and then the syllable A will emerge some distance above the crown of the head. There you will be blissfully transformed into Nairātmyā, inseparable from Sukhasiddhi, and embrace black Virūpa. You should imagine that the stream of generative fluid arising from this union then descends via the spine, filling the twenty-one aforementioned miniature representations of Nairātmyā, and finally from the navel—the fertile ground of the body—it permeates the entire body.849 Your complexion will be invigorated, your optic nerves will be raised up, your consciousness captivated, and you will refine the empty nature of space, devoid of awareness as well as the fundamental nature of mind endowed with awareness. Having trained in this fundamental nature, you should be relaxed. By being relaxed you will achieve your goal. Such are the crucial points.850
Here I have turned into writing
Sukhasiddhi’s method of adorning the cakra of great bliss—
Supreme liberation from the knots
Associated with the four delights,
Entirely inseparable from Hevajra.
This was compiled from the ancient instructions of Khyungpo Neljor.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should meditate clearly on your teacher in the maṇḍala of your heart. In front you should position a slender stick and stare directly at it without closing the eyes and without moving. You should indeed focus your awareness lucidly on that object, but not settle on it with constraint. {294} Nor should you hold the object in esteem. Instead, without permitting awareness to wander, you should focus for that moment simply on a support where the mind is undistracted and let awareness rest completely in that state, relaxed in its natural modality.
It is important to distinguish quality in meditation. To enhance this state of abiding, you should take a break and rest for a while, before resuming your meditation. After undertaking many short sessions of this sort, you should engage in the four-session meditation. In all the intervals between sessions, you should not lose that disposition but act continuously and constantly with mindfulness. Your eyes may also gaze upon the tip of your nose, but not for long. All modes of activity—moving about, sitting, and so forth—should be undertaken [slowly], like the actions of an invalid.
Next, in the space between the eyebrows, you should visualize a white vital essence, the size of a pea, and focus your awareness upon that for a moment. In that disposition, let the mind relax into its natural modality. To enhance this state of abiding, take a break and rest for a while. After undertaking many short sessions of this sort, you should engage in four-session meditation. In all the intervals between sessions you should not lose that disposition but act as above [continuously and constantly with mindfulness].
Next, you should meditate briefly on a round black vital essence, resting upon a seat, and focus your awareness upon that for a moment. In that disposition, let your mind settle into its natural state of abiding.
In the course of these [visualizations], if you do not focus on [the tip of] the nose upon which [the mind] rests, you will incur the obstacle of having a mind that does not rest. All your thoughts will freely escape, and at that time you will be impeded by conceptual thoughts. So, from the start, you should recognize these thoughts without obstacle. You should grasp the crucial point of not being vexed by meditating, and thereby you will develop a focus on ever more subtle thoughts. By whatever means, you should then let all tarnished thoughts and all other thoughts that arise in the above manner relax directly, and permit all those thoughts that are present to move within a disposition in which the rope of mindfulness is not severed. You should regard them, however many they are; and without allowing even a single one to escape, you should recognize the first one that arises, you should recognize the second one that arises, {295} and you should recognize all those that subsequently arise. Thereby, through your focusing on those thoughts, the continuum of conceptual thoughts will be interrupted. Once conceptual thoughts have been interrupted, the state of abiding will be enhanced and the continuity of occasionally present [thoughts] will be rendered nonexistent.
If the strength of your constitution is impaired when your awareness is agitated due to many ephemeral thoughts, you should recuperate and rest just for a day, and then by resuming the meditation from the beginning you will recover. It is important to partake of nutritious food.
Now, you should meditate similarly, without any referential focus or support for meditation. Here your mind should relax at ease in its own modality, and you should meditate, looking gently wherever it arises, uncontrived, without ownership, and without supervision. Let your mind settle steadily into its natural state. You should for a moment maintain mindfulness of its state, simply without wavering. Otherwise, let it settle into its natural modality, without meditating at all. As far as the sessions are concerned, these should be shorter than before. You should remain calm, take a break, and rest for a while before resuming the meditation. You should meditate in this manner over four sessions, and in all the intervals between sessions you should act continuously and constantly with mindfulness. You may engage in activities in the aforementioned manner. When arising from meditation and taking a break, you should ask yourself how the mind is present, so that whenever you take a break it does not move anywhere; and whenever you stand up, your awareness is slow, relaxed, languid, hazy with regard to perceptions, and loose, without effort. If your awareness does not intentionally engage with objects, and it is said to be present without differentiating anything, the state of calm abiding will arise.
At this point, in order to stimulate your awareness somewhat, you should let it be lucid and vivid. Without wavering in this disposition, you should be mindful of it for a moment, clear and calm, and then take a break and rest, before resuming the meditation. You should meditate accordingly over four sessions, and in all the intervals between sessions you should act without losing that state. You may also engage in activities in the aforementioned manner.
After interrupting the abiding continuity of thoughts in that manner, {296} now, at this time when the quality of meditation is enhanced, you should regard the essential nature of mind with greater intensity. You should observe how the essential nature of mind is present, and you should observe any proper determination that it itself makes concerning itself. Then you should refrain completely, and rest for a while before resuming the meditation. When observing any [proper] determination, you should observe, with regard to yourself, whether recognition is present in your mind, whether emptiness is present without recognition, whether something is present entirely without emptiness, whether from the disposition of emptiness a naked radiance is present, or whatever. You should carry any such experiences [onto the path].
All the crucial points of instruction are contained in this practice: You should ask yourself in what manner the essential nature of mind is present; and consequently, if it is said that an emptiness is present, you are seeing simply one side of it and cannot be introduced to the essential nature of mind. If it is said that no emptiness at all is present, or that a lucidity and vividness is present, you should observe this properly. Until you recognize that state, you cannot be introduced to the essential nature of mind. If it is said that awareness is lucidly present without recognition, you have not seen its essential nature.
Therefore, with regard to this introduction: In general, meditation includes both calm abiding and higher insight. Calm abiding and higher insight are technical terms, the former denoting that a state of abiding is present and the latter denoting that a radiance or luminosity is present. But these alone are not beneficial. Instead, we great meditators must experientially cultivate the naked awareness directly. If that is introduced to you right now, when your mind settles in a relaxed manner into its natural modality, thoughts will subside and be calmed right where they are. If your mind is calmly present in its natural modality, this is said to be genuine calm abiding. Most persons who receive the oral instructions or great meditators should now meditate on that alone. If, on the other hand, you are proud and in addition have too many teachers, you will not be able to meditate, even a little. Yet without that practice there will be no way at all to progress. Within the disposition of genuine calm abiding {297} nothing remains that is deluded, indeterminate, nonsensical, or indifferent. When it is said that “the essential nature of mind is like this,” there is indeed no recognition of anything that should be verbalized in speech, conceptualized by the mental faculty, scrutinized by the intellect, or expressed in words. While there is no such recognition, there should come to you a radiant and unimpeded awareness—exposed, trembling, stark, and distinct, seeing that which has not yet been seen and experiencing that which has not yet been experienced. And then if there is no lack of recognition with regard to this radiance that cannot be verbalized, this is said to be genuine higher insight.
As far as the terms calm abiding and higher insight are concerned, even though these two have a temporal sequence, you should actually meditate on them without differentiation. It is said that no fault will arise from meditating on them completely in that very instant of time. Since you are without all sorts of superimposition, you will not fall into the extreme of eternalism, and since you are intrinsically aware and accomplished through experience, you will not fall into the extreme of nihilism.
Now that you have calmed conceptual thoughts right where they are by relaxing the mind in its natural modality, the [formerly] unrecognized consciousness that is clear, sharp, intrinsic awareness, stark in its natural radiance, is said to be the enlightened intention of the mind of the buddhas. It is said to be the defining characteristic of the mind of sentient beings. It is said to be the abiding nature of all entities. That which is called your own mind is this [formerly] unrecognized, radiant, and sharp awareness, which is introduced by teachers and then cognized by disciples. So, that which was formerly unrecognized is said to be the mind that is now recognized. This is the case for those who attain buddhahood, for those who roam in cyclic existence, for those who have likes and dislikes—in short, for all those who engage with the phenomena of existence and quiescence. Having formerly been obscured by conceptual thoughts, they did not recognize the essential nature of mind, but now, cutting off the continuity of conceptual thought, they do recognize it. Even when the recognition of the essential nature of mind is entirely absent, it is still the intrinsic nature of mind. Even when radiance and vibrancy are absent, they are still the defining characteristics of mind. {298} In the essential nature of empty and radiant awareness, sharpness and clarity are the essential nature. You should achieve a stark recognition of this. Such is the introduction to the coemergent nature of mind.
Here there arises in the format of writing
The way that leads to supreme liberation,
The union in the equipoise of coemergent delight
That is the jewel crest of all instructions of the Great Seal.
This was compiled from the memorandum composed by Gyamawa [Lodro Gyeltsen], based on the teachings of Gyelsépa Tokmé Zangpo.
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment, there ensues the fivefold experiential cultivation of (i) the enlightened mind, (ii) the meditational deity, (iii) the teacher, (iv) the Great Seal, and (v) the dedication of merit.
During this session, you should meditate sincerely, saying, “I will charge my body, speech, and mind to engage in virtuous action!” You should meditate that you instantaneously become Cakrasaṃvara in union with female consort, with a radiant form and steadfast pride. You should then pray, saying, “I pray to Vajradhara, precious teacher of all sentient beings and essential nature embodying all objects of refuge, seated upon a lotus, moon, and sun cushion on the crown of my head!”
Finally, Vajradhara dissolves into yourself and his buddha body, speech, and mind blend together with your own body, speech, and mind. In that state, from within a disposition devoid of sluggish and overactive thoughts of anything at all, you should settle the mind clearly and starkly, without becoming diffused toward anything at all; and you should then secure this by means of the dedication of merit.
Here I have embellished in writing
The essentials of experiential cultivation,
Combining skillful means and discriminative awareness,
The path of emancipation that reveals supreme liberation,
Giving rise to delight that gathers together
All the five essentials [of the Great Seal].
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Chen Ngawa.
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment, the four main points are explained. These comprise (i) the basis that eradicates obscuration, (ii) the presentation of the means of establishing the nature of mind, (iii) the severing of deviations, and (iv) the carrying of the nature of mind on the path.
The mind in the beginning is without point of origin, primordially empty and baseless. In the middle it is nonabiding, and its movement is empty of movement. In the end there is nowhere that it goes; {299} its movement is naturally liberated, and it is neither obstructed nor does it exist at all. Uncovered by the flaws of cyclic existence, it is primordial buddhahood.854
There are six methods of establishing the nature of mind: Your body should assume the sevenfold posture of Vairocana and then: (i) You should be established without laborious effort in the uncontrived, innate disposition of mind, like a mighty garuḍa soaring in the sky. (ii) You should be established in the unwavering disposition of mind, like an ocean devoid of waves. (iii) You should be established in equipoise imbued with radiant space, like a cloudless sun. (iv) You should be established in unimpeded luminosity without grasping, like a small child looking at a temple. (v) You should be established in recognizing all the sensations that arise to be the nature of mind, like the waves of water. (vi) You should be established in awareness that leaves no tracks, like a bird flying in the sky.855
With regard to the severing of deviations, you should determine absolutely not to aspire for buddhahood above, not to harbor doubts toward cyclic existence below, not to be attached to appearances in between, and then your mental faculty should be unengaged.856
With regard to the teaching concerning the carrying of the nature of mind on the path, this comprises six continuous yogas—namely, (i) the yoga that secures appearances during the daytime, (ii) the yoga that carries the attributes of desire on the path as an assist during mornings and evenings, (iii) the yoga that gathers the four powers at twilight, (iv) the yoga that induces knowable phenomena into the vase [of luminosity] at midnight, (v) the yoga that illuminates awareness at dawn, and (vii) the yoga that penetrates pristine cognition to its core at the time of death.857
This presents in writing the teaching concerning:
The eradicating of obscurations in the ground,
The means of establishing the nature of mind,
The severing of deviations,
And the carrying of the nature of mind on the path,
Which constitute the supreme liberation from bondage,
The all-encompassing delight
[Of the four syllables—A, MA, NA, SI.]858
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Yagdé Paṇchen.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should visualize yourself upon a lion throne with lotus and moon cushions, from the four corners of which Brahmā, Indra, Upendra [Viṣṇu], and Rudra appear, with heads bowed, as emanational supports, embellished with divine sacraments, clothing, and gems. Upon it you are seated in the form of Munīndra, {300} golden colored, adorned with the major and minor marks, wearing the three religious robes, the hands in the earth-touching gesture and the gesture of equipoise, and the legs in the adamantine posture. Commencing from the protuberance at the crown of the head, he has a hair ringlet at the forehead, a glorious śrīvatsa at the heart, and the entirety of his body radiates the [eighteen] distinct attributes of the buddhas.860 Even to the extent of the hairs of his head, he is present throughout the three times. From his body, rays of light are diffused, transforming the inhabited world into a pure land and its sentient inhabitants into the body of the Conqueror. These then enter through the billion pores of your own body, so that you appear as the glorious lord-protector of living beings endowed with sight, hearing, memory, and awareness. This constitutes the introduction to the spontaneously present natural expression of the buddha body of emanation.861
Also, you should visualize yourself in the form of Avalokiteśvara, the buddha body of perfect resource, seated upon a lion throne with lotus and moon cushions, with one face and four arms—the first pair of hands in the union of meditative equipoise, the other right hand holding a crystal rosary, and the other left hand holding a lotus. His legs are in the adamantine posture, and in the front of his crown of matted hair there is Amitābha. He has a jacket of antelope hide, and the pores of his skin are filled with buddhas and bodhisattvas from whom light rays are diffused, resembling sunrise on a snow mountain. The inhabited world and its sentient inhabitants are then purified, and you are transformed into the buddha body of perfect resource, endowed with the five certainties.862 This constitutes the introduction to the buddha body of perfect resource.863
Also, you should visualize yourself in the form of Vajradhara, the buddha body of reality, seated upon a throne endowed with excellence—azure blue, like the sky uncovered by clouds, with one face and two arms, holding a vajra and bell that are crossed at the heart. His legs are in the adamantine posture, and the major and minor marks are radiantly perfect. All the parts of his body, which is adorned with silks and gems, are filled with the maṇḍalas of the four classes of tantra, and therefrom rays of light are diffused and absorbed, purifying the inhabited world and its sentient inhabitants and then being reabsorbed into yourself. Your own manifestation also dissolves into this disposition of luminosity and bliss, phenomena are exhausted, and the conclusion is reached. This total withdrawal into the natural state, without verbalization, conception, or expression, which is profound, calm, unelaborate, and uncreated by the intellect, {301} constitutes the introduction to the buddha body of reality.
Here I have illustrated through writing
The supreme doctrine bestowed by Nāropā
Concerning natural liberation—
The teachings that generate delight,
The perfect conclusion to all the instructions of Pullahari.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Venerable Rangjungwa [Karmapa III].
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment: (i) There ensues the indivisibility of subtle energy and mind during the generation stage. Here, having abandoned differentiations between subtle energy and mind, you should nurture mindfulness, without distraction, of the innate personal experience of bliss associated with the body of the deity that manifests in and of itself.
(ii) Next, without [distinguishing between] meditative equipoise and postmeditation, and with certainty that the innate inner state is attained in the vitality of the subtle energy of fierce inner heat, clad in the fire that blazes from the ashé (the stroke of the letter a) of the navel cakra, you should control this wind in the manner of a man riding a horse, an analogy which some from our school of practice employ to describe subtle energy and mind.865
(iii) When control has been achieved, you should instantaneously nurture the naturally occurring radiant and abiding aspects of the original nature of mind and intermingle the perception of fire with the abiding aspect. Whatever arises then becomes the [coalescence of] appearance and emptiness devoid of attachment, the incontrovertible disposition of the illusory body in which subtle energy and mind are indivisible. You should be open and at ease, without discouragement even when under the sway of ill health and at the time of death, and you should develop the conviction that fervent devotion to the teacher alone constitutes the vitality of the path.866
(iv) Next, when you apply consciousness transference at the time of death, the subtle energy and mind will be indivisible. A blue and red vital essence, the size of a pea, in which subtle energy and mind are intermingled, will rise upward from the secret cakra and pass directly from the pathway of the central channel, upward through the anterior fontanel, and settle in the disposition of the abiding nature.867
This is the writing that discloses the supreme
Expanse of the Great Seal concerning natural liberation—
Through the mind of natural delight,
Which in all respects does not differentiate
The common savor of subtle energy and mind.
This was compiled from the instruction of Lhazik Repa.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should establish the scope of the view concerning the meditations of the Fifteen Scrolls,869 [which conclude with the liturgy of] the protector of the transmitted teachings Kholpo Dartochen and so forth; and after that, you should focus on the three phases of essential visualization, {302} focusing on the conquerors of the five enlightened families, in whom the five poisons are the essential nature of the five pristine cognitions.
At the time when dark hatred arises, it is ascertained that the unchanging pristine cognition of reality’s expanse and Akṣobhya are manifesting. Do not enter into the pathway of hatred. If you do enter, the prince will be without a father. Do not impose an antidote upon hatred. If you impose one, the prestige of the prince will be diminished. This is the intrinsic face that appears as hatred. You should establish its entirety, with corners unbroken and sides undamaged, to be the defining characteristic of the adamantine reality of hatred. Without your abandoning hatred, its inherent purity is the Great Seal. That is to say, you should meditate on the scroll that concerns the adamantine reality of hatred.
Then, modulating this according to the [other] enlightened families, pride is [inherently] pure as the pristine cognition of sameness and miserliness as Ratnasambhava, desire as the pristine cognition of discernment [Amitābha], jealousy as the pristine cognition of accomplishment [Amoghasiddhi], and delusion as the mirrorlike pristine cognition [Vairocana]. You should experientially cultivate these in the above manner. The implementation of the respective scrolls concerning these five poisons is sequentially established.
Then, at the conclusion of [the scrolls concerning] the six doctrines [of the perfection stage], there are the essential points concerning consciousness transference and resurrection:870 You should smear the inside of a skull possessing the appropriate defining characteristics with black ink, and directly in the middle of that blackened skull you should inscribe a shining white HŪṂ, which is the seed syllable of the meditational deity. Entering retreat at an auspicious time when the ḍākinīs gather, you should hold a communal offering in general, and particularly on behalf of the ḍākinīs of Oḍḍiyāna and the ḍākinīs who undertake the devouring rites. Tormas adorned with human flesh, incense of human fat, and lamps of melted human fat are the three sacraments of commitment that it is improper to be without.
Once the ḍākinīs have gathered in the above manner, you should present these offerings and then meditate on yourself innately as Cakrasaṃvara or Hevajra, whichever you prefer. You should count [the corresponding mantra] HRĪḤ HA HA OR DEVA PICU, as much as you can. Then, in an isolated grass hermitage, facing west in the morning and east in the evening, you should place the skull with its plinth nearby and in front, and train your gaze upon the syllable HŪṂ inside that skull, settling the mind without wavering. Consequently, {303} after a greater or lesser number of days commensurate with your resources and capacity, light will be diffused from the HŪṂ within the skull, and if smoke billows out, if it shakes or trembles and so forth, these are all signs of accomplishment. Thereupon you should wrap the skull in fine silk and venerate it. You should then cast a torma in the western direction and complete the concluding rite. As a test, you should place on the palm of your hand the corpse of a fly that has fallen into your meal, immediately after it has died. Then you should meditate on the deity and recite the [corresponding] mantra. Focus your own awareness, which was formerly focused on the syllable HŪṂ, directly upon the corpse [of the fly]. If it emits a buzzing sound and flies off, shaking and quivering, you should train repeatedly in that practice, not just once or twice, and then you will succeed [in resurrection]. Formerly the Venerable Marpa in the emanational form of an accomplished master performed this rite of resurrection on behalf of pigeons, lambs, and so forth. Apart from that, since it is difficult even for those who can perform consciousness transference on behalf of animals to reverse [the process], it will be important to exercise judgment.
Here I have extracted and set forth in writing the essentials
Derived from the supreme liberation acquired by Chowang,
The scrolls of instruction that bring delight
To all the disciples of Se
By means of certain secret doctrines.
This was extracted from among the treasure texts [of Chowang] and written down.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should experientially cultivate the essentials without abandoning the three poisons that are the basis of cyclic existence. This is achieved through the essentials that intermingle desire with the pristine cognition of empowerment, hatred with the generation and perfection stages, and delusion with luminosity.
As far as the original abiding nature is concerned, in the case of all sentient beings, natural luminosity denotes the buddha body of reality, the intermediate state denotes the buddha body of perfect resource, and birth denotes the buddha body of emanation.
As far as the modes of appearance [of all sentient beings] are concerned, their maturational body is present during the interval between birth and death, their body of propensities is present during the interval between sleeping and waking, and their mental body is present during the interval between the obstruction of the rebirth process and birth.872
As far as the modes of bewilderment [of all sentient beings] are concerned, these comprise {304} perceptions during the intermediate state from birth to death, propensities during the intermediate state of dreams, and the bewilderment of past actions during the intermediate state of the rebirth process.
As far as the modes of liberation [of all sentient beings] are concerned, those of superior acumen are liberated at the time of death when the two sorts of luminosity are mingled together.873 Those of average acumen are liberated in the intermediate state after death when the three magical displays are present in the mental continuum.874 Those of inferior acumen are liberated in the Great Seal during [the intermediate state] of this life, that is, in their modes of birth.
With regard to the modes of experience that arise on the path: bliss and radiance of the generation stage are refined on the path in the context of daytime appearances, luminosity is refined on the path during nighttime sleep, and aspiration is refined on the path during the intermediate state.
With regard to the modes of actualization in terms of the sense objects, desire is purified through the male-female union of the teacher, hatred for one’s parents from whom one acquires rebirth is purified through the manifestation of that [union], and delusion embodying all fundamental ignorance is purified through the lamp of naturally radiant intrinsic awareness.
Commencing from the foregoing essentials concerning the intermingling [of the three poisons], when death occurs, those of highest acumen transfer consciousness into luminosity, those of average acumen transfer consciousness into the illusory body, and those of inferior acumen transfer consciousness into the grasping of birth. That is to say, if through the power of yogic experience you intrinsically recognize the luminosity of the ground, that will resemble an encounter with an old acquaintance. You may also, at will, transfer consciousness into a pure land where appearances resemble a magical display, or into the womb of a noble family, with parents who act in accordance with the sacred doctrine.
This indeed is the essential point of the aural lineage [of Ngok]—the cycle concerning intermingling and transformation—that is an instruction belonging to the four pronouncements.875
Here I have set forth in writing the quintessence
Of the nectar of the teachings through the lineage of Ngok,
The supreme path of liberation
Gathering the four delights—
The crucial instruction among all the four transmitted teachings.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Ngok Zhedang Dorjé.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should practice according to the first of these four scrolls, which concerns the conclusive meaning of the Hevajra Tantra and was the quintessential oral instruction of Nāropā. It teaches (i) the movement of the ashé by which one progresses from the level of sentient beings to buddhahood, (ii) the movement of the ashé from the navel cakra via the pathway of the central channel, and (iii) the movement dependent on the short path of skillful means that engages the winds of vital breath and exertion.877 That is to say, you should visualize your own body as the deity and meditate on the ashé in the navel cakra, which resembles the moon reflected in a deep well and is the essential nature of awareness, the nature of mind. {305} Next, you should explore its passage through the subtle energy of life breath. Finally, the ashé passes directly upward from within the central channel, in the manner of a shooting star, and at the crown of the head settles into the Great Seal, the nonreferential abiding nature [of reality]. That is the first [of the four scrolls].
The second scroll concerns the conclusive meaning of the Tantra of the Secret Assembly, and it was the quintessential oral instruction of glorious Jñānagarbha. It teaches (i) the magical display of appearances, (ii) the luminosity of mindfulness and awareness, and (iii) the dissolution of the three phases of mind.878 That is to say, the inhabited world and its sentient inhabitants resemble a dream or a magical display, mindfulness and awareness are the nonarising luminosity, and conviction is then found in the midst of bewilderment in your own experience of the three [phases of dissolution at the time of death]—namely, appearance, increase, and attainment.879
The third scroll concerns the conclusive meaning of the Tantra of Great Magical Emanation, and it was the quintessential oral instruction of Kukkurāja. It teaches the severing of conceptual elaboration. By severing the mass of intellectually generated conceptual elaborations in the unchanging essential nature, where ebbing and flowing are naturally liberated, you will be separated from the ebbing and flowing of the subject-object dichotomy, and then, entering into the genuine, innate middle way, your awareness will attain buddhahood in the buddha body of reality.880
The fourth scroll concerns the conclusive meaning of the Tantra of the Four Adamantine Seats, and it was the quintessential oral instruction of the yoginī Kadalīmañjarī. It teaches (i) the yogin’s arrival at the time of death, (ii) the manifestation of convincing immediate signs [of death], and (iii) the absence of doubt concerning the attainment of buddhahood at the time of death. That is to say, when the general outer and inner signs of death have been ascertained, and in particular when the natural sound of the ḍākinīs of the three abodes who have gathered in the secret cave has faded, you should with certainty fix the time [of impending death] at no more than seven days. Then, from the citadel of the navel—the cakra of the coiled nāga, the offspring of awareness will fly, entering through the great pathway of the authentic central channel and come to linger just in front of the throat. On that support you should strongly inhale the outer breath through the two nostrils, and instead of compressing it downward, you should propel it upward. You should turn your eyeballs upward and, above all, bend back the occiput, pressing it with your fingers {306} as you draw the subtle energy upward. Focusing your awareness on that, you will consequently experience a sharp pain as a symptom at the anterior fontanel, and finally the fontanel will become swollen like the egg of a goose. You should then insert a blade of straw within it and achieve confidence [in this practice]. It is said that a yogin such as this will attain buddhahood at the time of death, penetrating pristine cognition to the core, and untainted by negativity and obscuration.881
Here I have set forth in writing the supreme liberation
That was conferred on Tsurton Wang-ngé,
Sung as a song of delight,
Including all the instructions of the four conclusive points,
Derived from Marpa’s scrolls of aural [instruction].
This was compiled from the ancient writings of Tsurton Wang-gi Dorjé.
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment, the six doctrines are as follows:
The method of igniting the fierce inner heat is as follows:883 You should first focus on the ashé. At the triple intersection of the channels [below the navel], the needlelike ashé is extremely red and hot and propelled by the wind from the right and left pathways. Concentrate your body and mind within the central channel where the ashé is warmed by the crackling heat. Then you should adjust the visualization as follows: From wind blowing on the ashé, which has the essence of fire, {316} the fire slightly combusts, so that it becomes larger and larger, four digits in height, and then eight digits. It has four defining characteristics, in that it is hot to the touch, sharp at the tip, gentle, and pliable.884 You should refine this practice, generate the warmth, and at that time wear a cotton robe.
Next, at the crown of your head there is a white downward-facing syllable HAṂ. As the ashé blazes with fire, owing to its light, a cooling generative fluid then emerges from the white HAṂ, permeating everything with whiteness. You should not be distracted from that visualization.
Next, you should become familiar with the three seed syllables of adamantine recitation—HŪṂ during exhalation, OṂ during inhalation, and ĀḤ during the pausing of breath; and you should train in the five buddhas according to their respective colors.885 The earth element is dependent on the bridge of the nose, the water element is dependent on the two lips, the fire element is dependent on retrograde motion (phyi log), and the wind element is dependent on upward motion (steng). Earth is yellow, water is white, fire is red, and wind is blue. Muscle tissue and complexion arise through the earth element. Oiliness of the body arises through the water element. Metabolism arises through the fire element. Lightness of body arises through the wind element. Absence of sensation in the entire body arises through the space element.
On the successful outcome [of this practice], there follows the magical display [of the illusory body], which resembles the alchemical transformation of gold: The nature of mind is a magical display, since it arises as the diverse causes and fruits of virtuous and negative actions, dependent on the diverse appearances of the propensities of past actions. Just as an illusionist can cause many phenomena such as a horse, an ox, a house, and so forth to appear dependent on material objects such as a pebble or a ceramic tile, but these are actually fictitious, in the same way you should refine the certainty that all things of cyclic existence appear but are without inherent existence, in the manner of a magical display, until this [refinement] arises resplendently from the depths [of your experience].886
Next, [you should refine the introduction to pristine cognition] through the light of the sun and moon. This includes [refinement] at times of transition, [introduction to the rays of sun and moon, and establishment of appearances as fictitious in accordance with the twelve similes of illusion].887 Next, [you should untie the fictitious knots of] disparagement and praise.888 Next, all appearances will arise as evanescent experiences, and you should rely on a strong motivation to carry daytime perceptions into the dreams of the night.889
Here you should pray that you might retain your dreams.890 Rest on your pillow, and lie down on your right side. {317} During deep sleep you should examine whether your dreams are retained or not retained. You should recognize your room and your bed. Retention ensues by refining your motivation. When dreams are retained, they are retained by your recognizing that they are dreams. While refining this practice, you should train your dreams by transforming larger appearances into smaller ones, and smaller ones into larger ones. There are four pervasions that are experienced in relation to dream yoga—namely, the pervasion of forgetfulness, the pervasion of wakefulness, the pervasion of bewilderment, and the pervasion of continuity.891
After completing the training in dream yoga, you should enter into luminosity during deep sleep.892 While you are sleeping, you should have affection for and devotion to the teacher. Focus your mind on the heart cakra and rest in a disposition that is without distracted perception and without grasping. Thereby awareness will become radiant without any external reference and without being objectively recognized. Free from the covering of obscuration, the meditative stability of luminosity will emerge. You will awaken from sleep and all your present perceptions will become radiant, without being objectively recognized. You may then train without interruption in the disposition of the Great Seal and thereby traverse the path.
If consciousness transference is to be applied [at death] in a timely manner,893 you should adopt the essential physical posture and visualize the syllable HŪṂ directly at your heart cakra, with your teacher on the crown of your head. Next, visualize that the HŪṂ emerges from your anterior fontanel and is absorbed into the heart of the teacher. When resting in meditative equipoise, you should block the anterior fontanel with the syllable KṢA.
[With regard to the intermediate state after death:]894 Having practiced this in detail during dream yoga, at the time of death you will encounter luminosity, like a calf meeting its mother.895 Once your awareness has awakened from obfuscation, it will become radiant, without being objectively recognized. The natural expression of the five lights will be perfected, without their intermingling.896 Then, when the first weeks of reception and reconnection [with the propensities of your past life] have been completed,897 at this time you should recall the following instruction that you formerly received [concerning the appearance of the mental body]:
Having the bodily form of one’s past and emergent existences,
Complete with all sense faculties, and the power of unobstructed movement…
Visible to those similar in kind and through pure clairvoyance…898
You should then meditate during this life899 where the threefold intermingling of beings, similar in kind within cyclic existence, occurs,900 {318} and starting from now, you should cut off doubts, such as wondering whether buddhahood may be attained. You should know that this is the way of the six doctrines through which you may experientially cultivate the path that escorts all things to their finality.
This commits to writing the abridged essentials
Of the supreme path, combining maturation and liberation—
The doctrines that bequeathed with delight
All the teachings of Mila into the heart of Rechungpa.
This was compiled from the guidance of Zhang Lotsāwa [Jangchub-o].
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment, there then ensues the [nine cycles of] instruction that the melodious voice of Nirdehaḍākinī [the disembodied ḍākinī of pristine cognition] imparted [to Tilopā].902
(i) The first instruction is as follows: “You should untie the knots of the mind through maturation and liberation.”903
In this regard, in the path of provisions, the two provisions [of merit and pristine cognition] are carried on to the path. In the path of connection, the focus is devoid of attachment. In the path of insight, whatever arises is a facilitating instruction.904 In the path of meditative cultivation, afflicted mental states are carried onto the path. In the conclusive [path of no-more-learning], there are the instructions that introduce the fruit.905
In order to sever attachment to the path of provisions, the path of connection has a focus devoid of attachment. In order to sever attachment to the path of connection, the path of insight carries as facilitators all desirable attributes of the senses that appear. Even simple attachment to those facilitators will be severed on the path of meditative cultivation by carrying afflicted mental states onto the path. This completes the first instruction: “You should untie the knots of the mind through maturation and liberation.”
(ii) The second instruction is as follows: “The commitment is that you should look into the mirror of your own mind.”906
In this regard, there are commitments concerning things to be prevented, commitments concerning things to be established, and commitments concerning things that are neither to be prevented nor established.
[Among the first of these categories,] you should not explain the empowerments and sacred doctrine to the immature. You should not reveal the higher paths to unworthy recipients. You should not reveal907 sacred representations in inappropriate locations. You should not explain the sacred doctrine to those lacking devotion. You should not induce those without faith to engage in the path of provisions. You should not accept as a disciple one who is without commitment. You should not revere Hanuman as a teacher.908 You should not befriend messengers. You should not cultivate instructions that rely on words.909
[Among the second category,] you should rely on teachers who are endowed with the lineage. You should cultivate the meditational deities that are the inheritance of your past actions. You should make offerings to the ḍākinīs who dispel obstacles. You should associate with friends who are of harmonious view and conduct. {319} You should cultivate the aural lineage that is the lineage of accomplished masters.910
[Among the third category,] you should not abandon afflicted mental states. You should not rely upon antidotes. You should not cultivate the attributes of the real nature. You should not search elsewhere for the fruit.911 This completes the second instruction: “The commitment [to look into] the mirror of your own mind.”
(iii) The third instruction is as follows: “The sacraments of the commitments bask in the sun of realization.”912
In this regard, there are sacraments of commitment that give rise to cyclic existence, which is the basis of bewilderment, and those that are opposite, basking in the sun of nirvana. In general, the former include sacraments of commitment that generate the three poisons, sacraments of commitment that accumulate negative deeds, and sacraments of commitment that give rise to cyclic existence. Contrary to these are sacraments of commitment that abandon the ten nonvirtuous actions and do not give rise to the lower realms, and in addition to these, there are sacraments of commitment that engage in the ten virtuous actions and attain the higher realms [of gods and humans].913
As for sacraments of commitment that bask in the sun of nirvana, they include those that rely on the object of refuge, those concerning the actions and fruits associated with the vows of individual liberation, those concerning the altruistic mind of enlightenment, and those concerning the introduction to the way of Secret Mantra.914 This completes the third instruction: “The sacraments of commitment bask in the sun of realization.”
(iv) The fourth instruction is as follows: “In conduct you should strike water with a sword.”915
In this regard, there is (i) conduct associated with the threefold vows of Samantabhadra,916 (ii) conduct endowed with the commitments of secret practice, (iii) conduct that retains awareness with carefulness and mindfulness, and (iv) conduct associated with the central channel that is without referential object.
[As to the first of these categories,] you should engage in external conduct symbolizing circumstances that have arisen, you should engage in internal conduct through which the three media [of body, speech, and mind] block the entrances to the three lower realms, you should engage in secret conduct that carries the three poisons onto the path, and you should engage in authentic conduct that introduces bliss and radiance.
In addition, you should engage in physical conduct that pertains to the buddha body of emanation and the vows of individual liberation, verbal conduct that pertains to the buddha body of perfect resource and the bodhisattva vows, and mental conduct that pertains to the buddha body of reality and the vows of the awareness holders.
Furthermore, you should not turn the wheel of attachment and hatred associated with the three poisons. You should not profit from conduct that stockpiles merit. You should not run after this life917 that is preoccupied with the eight worldly concerns. You should not disparage the sacred doctrine on account of your own opinions. You should not deprecate others on account of your own positive desires. You should not engage in study or reflection out of desire for cyclic existence. You should not serve as a household priest for friends or foes. You should not cling to isolation in the borders of your native land. You should not scatter the storm918 of bias, including factionalism. You should not forsake [lowly] sentient beings out of pride. You should not draw the bowstring of enmity toward equals. You should not fire the arrows of jealousy upward.919 {320}
[As for the second category,] secret conduct includes the physical conduct of nudity and loose hair; the conduct of wearing ornaments such as human ash and bone ornaments; and the conduct of holding hand emblems such as a khaṭvāṅga, bell, and ḍamaru drum.920
As for [the third category, which concerns] the conduct of awareness: you should act in the manner of a lion that is fearless and solitary, in the manner of a tiger that is unimpeded and without exhaustion, in the manner of an ox that is intrepid, in the manner of a dog or pig that is without impurity, and in the manner of a child who is without reflection or meditative cultivation.921
As for [the fourth category, which concerns]922 conduct associated with the central channel: you should engage in conduct that is without attachment to magical appearances; you should engage in conduct concerning the inexpressible luminosity of the nature of mind; you should engage in conduct that is nondual and free from activity, transcending the intellect; and you should engage in conduct of conclusive meditation that is free from temporal limitations.923 This completes the fourth instruction: “In conduct you should strike water with a sword.”
(v) The fifth instruction is as follows: “You should spin the wheel of the network of the channels and winds.”924
This instruction comprises (i) the essential nature of the cakras of the channels and winds, and (ii) the activities pertaining to the network of the channels and winds.
[The former includes the channels, winds, and vital essences; and among these, the channels are explained in terms of their shapes, number, and location.] As for their shapes, they resemble a parasol, a rooftop, an amulet, or a lily. As for their number, the outer channels number seventy-two thousand; the inner channels number one hundred and twenty; the secret channels number thirty-two; and the authentic channels number three, which, when condensed, number one. As for their location, the outer channels are located in muscle tissue and skin, the inner channels are located in adipose tissue, the secret channels are located in bone tissue, and the authentic channels are located in secret places. [Among the outer channels,] the longer are a double arm span in length and the shorter are the size of a barley grain or needle, and they are all present within the network of physical channels. The inner channels pertain to conceptual thought, and the secret channels to bliss and emptiness.925
As far as the winds are concerned, these are of three types, resembling kings, ministers, and subjects. There are five primary winds that resemble kings, five ancillary winds that resemble ministers, and hundreds of thousands of winds that resemble subjects. The internal winds arouse the material elements. The secret winds regulate motion. And the wind of pristine cognition actualizes the three buddha bodies.926
As far as the vital essences are concerned [they are also of three types: outer, inner and secret]. Among them, the outer vital essences are the contaminated vital essences present within each of the channels, which number the same as the above [that is, seventy-two thousand]. When these are condensed, urine flows from the left channel, blood from the right channel, and generative fluid from the central channel. The inner vital essence is the naturally arising awareness, and the secret vital essence is the nondual pristine cognition.927
The arising [of the fruition] ensues when [their unelaborated nature] has been experientially cultivated.928 {321}
[In terms of the natural unelaborate state:] the chyle of blood takes the form of light, the chyle of breath is present as the warmth in wind, and the chyle of the vital essences is clear and transparent.929
[In terms of the experiential cultivation of the path, there are four sorts of motion:]930 The first sort is the motion that derives from the winds of the five lights. The second is the motion that derives from the winds of breath. The third is the motion that derives from the winds of attachment. And the fourth is the motion that derives from the winds of the sense faculties.
As far as the [four] motions of consciousness indicative of past actions are concerned: the first is the motion that derives from the substratum consciousness, the second is the motion that derives from the mental consciousness, the third is the motion that derives from the afflicted mental consciousness, and the fourth is the motion that derives from the consciousnesses of the five sensory gates.931
As for the “lamp of the light of ideation and scrutiny,”932 the thickness of its channel is one-tenth of a horse’s tail hair, and its vital essence is the thickness of a white silk thread. The motion of its wind has five aspects: attachment is red, hatred is white, delusion is black, pride is yellow, and jealousy is green. In its center, giving rise to mindfulness, the light that is the support of the generative essence is present as nondual pristine cognition.933 The pristine cognitions then arise [from the five poisons] in the following manner: The mirrorlike pristine cognition arises from hatred, the pristine cognition of discernment arises from attachment, the pristine cognition of reality’s expanse arises from delusion, the pristine cognition of sameness arises from pride, and the pristine cognition of accomplishment arises from jealousy.934
In terms of their [fruitional] manifestation, the channels are the buddha body of emanation, the winds are the buddha body of perfect resource, [and the vital essence is the buddha body of reality].935 This completes the fifth pith instruction: “[You should spin] the wheel of the network of the channels and winds.”
(vi) The sixth instruction is as follows: “You should retain the precious [generative essence] according to the teachings of supreme bliss.”936
This instruction includes (i) the disclosure of empowerment on the path of maturation, and (ii) the generation of the lamp of skillful means on the path of liberation. [As to the former,] empowerment is conferred on a female “action seal” endowed with the defining characteristics that enhance the mantras, and then [her body becomes the deity, her speech becomes mantra, and] her mind becomes innate [pristine cognition].937
[As to the latter,] this concerns the male-female union endowed with the three aspects of authentic perception.938 The female is Vārāhī and the male is Cakrasaṃvara. The vajra and the lotus should be consecrated and slowly rubbed together. [The main practice then has five parts:] (i) the generative essence should descend; (ii) it should be diffused, absorbed, and retained by means of yogic exercises that constitute the elixir of the three buddha bodies; (iii) it should be reversed through essential practices of three sorts; (iv) it should be intermingled, descending to the apertures of the channels; [and (v) the method of introducing pristine cognition should then ensue].939
That is to say, the descent [of the generative essence] should be controlled because it comes of your own power. For retention [of the generative essence], there are yogic exercises in which the body resembles a contracted tortoise, the vomiting of a grunting tigress, and a shooting star. For its reversal, there is the great nail of the syllable HŪṂ [as well as mantra recitation and meditative stability]. As the generative essence intermingles at the apertures of the channels, it has the [white] color of the moon or Vairocana; [and the channel through which it is reversed resembles] a tree or an opened parasol.940 {322} This completes the sixth instruction: “The precious [generative essence] should be retained according to the teachings of supreme bliss.”
(vii) The seventh instruction is as follows: “Awareness is the lamp of the pristine cognition.”941
In this instruction [there are five aspects]: (i) the lamp that seeks conventional methods, (ii) the lamp that reveals the illustrative meaning, (iii) the lamp that unravels the symbolic meaning, (iv) the lamp that inspires experiential realization, and (v) the lamp of self-originating consecration.942
[The first of these lamps has two functions:] it illuminates the extremes of being and nonbeing, and it generates the lamp that transcends the intellect.
[In terms of the former it has four attributes:] (i) it is a material entity because it seeks to attain accomplishment through awareness, (ii) it is within perceptual range of the scriptures because it has contradictions, (iii) it is within the range of hearing because it illustrates the meaning of words, and (iv) it is conceptual because it is examined through discriminative awareness.
[In terms of the latter,] its generation of the lamp that transcends the intellect [has five attributes]: (i) it is not an object of awareness because it is devoid of refutation and proof; (ii) it is not within perceptual range of the scriptures because it is without contradiction; (iii) it is not within the range of hearing because it does not pursue words; (iv) it is not conceptual because, on examination, it is not found; and (v) it is revealed to be realized through the oral instructions of the teacher because it derives from essential [reality]. [This realization, in turn, has three aspects:] (i) realization that comes about when blessings are present, (ii) realization that comes about when there is conviction, and (iii) realization that comes about when there is experiential cultivation. Here, there is no realization943 that comes about through scriptural authority because that to which one is attentive would be subsumed within the three world realms.944
As for the [second] lamp that reveals the illustrative meaning, [this also has five attributes:] (i) it may by exemplified by the knot of a snake that naturally uncoils, (ii) it may be exemplified by a natural bubble of water, (iii) it may be exemplified by clouds that naturally arise, (iv) it may be exemplified by crystal that is naturally clear, and (v) it may be exemplified by the horns of a hare that surpass intellectual understanding.945
As for the [third] lamp that unravels the symbolic meaning, this [has five aspects]: (i) symbols that realize the view, (ii) symbols that experience meditation, (iii) symbols that are blind and unseen, (iv) symbols that are dumb and soundless, and (v) symbols that are crazy and without attachment. [Among these, symbols that realize the view include] symbols that are pointed out but untouched, symbols of the sword that does not cut, symbols of the shoulder that does not stretch, and symbols of the fire that does not burn.946
As for the [fourth] lamp that inspires experiential realization, this [has two aspects]: experiential realization that is without attachment and unrecognized; and experiential realization that is naturally liberated, beyond the intellect.947
As for the [fifth lamp] of self-originating consecration, this [has three aspects]: (i) experience that is soundless in the manner of the bliss of a mute, (ii) experience that is without attachment in the manner of a small child, and (iii) experience that is naturally radiant in the manner of a butter lamp.948 This completes the seventh instruction: “Awareness is the lamp of pristine cognition.”
(viii) The eighth instruction is as follows: “The Great Seal is naturally liberating.”949
In this instruction [there are three aspects: (i) the meditation that roams the mountain hermitage of the sky], (ii) the meditator who enacts the dance of the son of a barren woman, and (iii) the object of meditation that is [the ritual application of] the Great Seal. {323} The last of these [entails eleven procedures]: (i) you should prepare a formless fire pit; (ii) you should arrange [within it] a self-originating effigy; (iii) you should cut the firewood for the rite of Jarokpa; (iv) you should visualize the divine form of the original buddha; (v) you should induce the ritual summons with the blindfold; (vi) you should maintain an unsurpassed focus; (vii) you should scatter the ritual charms of turtle hair; (viii) you should thrust the ritual spike fashioned of the horn of a hare; (ix) you should combust the fire of the end of time; (x) you should offer the flowers of space; and (xi) with lion’s milk as rakta, you should receive the spiritual accomplishment of the kingdom of the mental faculty.950 This completes the eighth instruction: “The Great Seal is naturally liberating.”
(ix) The ninth instruction is as follows: “Common savor is the mirror of external appearances.”951
In this instruction [there are four parts: refinement of visualization, examination of ailments, the experience of common savor, and the expulsion of ailments. Among these, the refinement of visualization is as follows]: the wind of the upper gate and the wind of the lower gate are [separately] present, like heat and cold, or horses and yaks. Pristine cognition should then melt the two sorts of afflicted mental states frozen within the central channel, so that the wind of the upper gate and the wind of the lower gate are fused together.952
[As for the examination of ailments, if you are ill, you should undertake massage, unblock the winds, and sit up straight as an arrow.] You should circulate [the wind] in the manner of a wheel, attract it in the manner of a hook, and elevate it in the manner of the sky. If you are in pain, you should disrupt it by adopting the posture of the lion’s play.953 If you are lethargic, you should secure the lower gate. If you are overactive, you should inflate the base of the small intestine. If the wind is retained within, pristine cognition will arise. If it is dispersed externally, nothing at all will transpire.954
As for the experience of common savor, if the earth element indicative of the lower wind is excessive, you should dispense wind for the earth element and strongly practice the ascetic discipline of physical exercises. If the water element indicative of the upper wind is excessive, you should dispense fire for the water element, focus consciousness upward by means of yogic exercises, and ignite the fire from the syllable HAṂ that emerges from the mouth of the ogre (srin po’i zhal nas).955 If the fire element indicative of the upper wind is excessive, you should focus on the female action seal and elevate the vital essence. If the wind element is excessive, you should dispense earth for the wind element, place the palms together at the crown of the head, stare into the distance, and partake of bone soup. If the fire and water elements are excessive, you should suppress the upper wind. And if the earth and water elements are excessive, you should ignite the lower winds. You should then dispense wind for the earth element, you should dispense earth for the wind element, you should dispense fire for the water element, you should dispense water for the fire element, you should dispense nonarising [space] for the wind element, you should dispense emptiness for bliss, and you should dispense bliss for emptiness.956 This completes the ninth instruction: “Common savor is the mirror of external appearances.”
Among these Nine Doctrinal Cycles of Nirdehaḍākinī, the first four cycles were arranged by Marpa {324} and the last five by Rechungpa, in accordance with the teachings of Tipuwa.
This excellently commits to writing the instructions of Nirdeha,
All the remainder of which Tipuwa bestowed upon Rechungpa.
Dancing with delight, he, in turn, offered their maturation and liberation
In the presence of the supreme Mila.
This was compiled from ancient writings.
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment, there follows the consecration in the symbolic method that pertains to body, speech, and mind:
(i) You should instantly meditate on your meditational deity and ask yourself if the visualization is clear or not. If you say it is clear, you should ask yourself whether that vision was present a short while ago, or whether it was not. If you say it was not, you should then ask yourself whether it may be interrupted or not interrupted. If you say it may be interrupted, then it consists of adventitious thought. It is merely a fleetingly instantaneous support.
Then, again, you should meditate on a color in front. You should ask yourself if that patch of color clearly appears. If you say it does, you should ask yourself if it was present a short while ago, or whether it was not. If you say it was not, then that color is adventitious and fleetingly instantaneous. All phenomena are like that.
(ii) Furthermore, the buddha fields above, the fields of the hells below, and the intellect that apprehends those fields have been fabricated by the mind. These have arisen through conditions, but all thoughts present within the mental faculty are groundless and baseless.
(iii) With regard to the symbols that pertain to speech, you should ask yourself whether you can hear the bodhisattva Caryāmati residing in Cindhona, the citadel of Vajravārāhī.958 If you say you can hear him, you should place your palms together toward him and ask whether you can hear his words. If you say you can hear them, you should ask whether you perceived Caryāmati a short while ago or did not. If you say, with your palms together, that you did not formerly perceive him, then that is an adventitious thought, without inherent existence.
Again, when it is said that the mighty lord of the gods Śakra is present in the divine assembly of Dharmabhadra in Trāyastriṃśa, you should understand that there is one example indicative of this that pertains to speech—namely, when the syllable PHAṬ is discerned in the sky. You should ask yourself whether your sense faculties will [later] not become oblivious to that. If you say that it will be repeated owing to a subsequent instance of that sound, then this is but an adventitious thought. {325} All sights and sounds are like that.
In brief, since there are many indefinite modes of physical conduct that are revealed, they arise through the condition of adventitious thoughts and so they are fleetingly instantaneous, essentially empty, indefinite, groundless, and baseless.
Illustrated by such diverse symbols, naked perception is directly introduced. All that appears is introduced to be adventitious, without inherent existence, like a dream, like a magical display, and like the sky.
If you ask how the five buddha bodies and pristine cognitions abide in relation to that, they are without any ground or basis: The buddha body of reality is nonarising, the buddha body of emanation arises through dependent origination, the buddha body of perfect resource is essentially empty and does not differentiate appearances and emptiness, and the buddha body of essentiality is their inseparability. Apart from their having simply and spontaneously experienced these four buddha bodies, there is no separate fruit that can be obtained by those who have refined a path and so forth. This constitutes the symbolic introduction to the direct path of the Great Seal.
This presents in writing all that arose from the mind of Zhang,
A pleasing and delightful tradition that establishes examples,
Abiding in the nature of mind, teacher of supreme liberation.
This was compiled from the elaborate guidance of Zhang Tselpa.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment, then, on the path of pristine cognition, the supreme accomplishment, you should adopt the essential physical posture within a darkened room.
Just as ordinary visual consciousness engages with sights, the yogin should maintain composure with regard to any apparent signs and objects that arise. Just as two distinct thoughts are not assimilated simultaneously because, when [visual consciousness] is distracted by sights, the sound of a conch is not heard, the yogin should one-pointedly rest the mind on the very inception of anything that appears, so that the mind abides right where it is, uncaptivated by [extraneous] sensations due to past actions and perceptions, its disposition omnipresent, engaging with minimal sensations.
Next, you should apply meditative concentration on smoke and other such [signs of meditative experience that arise], in association with the five sensory consciousnesses, and then direct your ideation and scrutiny imbued with joy and bliss, and your unmoving discriminative awareness, toward the inception of whatever arises. You should maintain composure and meditative concentration, integrating calm abiding and higher insight, in the manner of a mother and child meeting face to face. {326}
Next, you should go back and forth between breath control and adamantine recitation, uniting the sun and moon of the right and left channels and intermingling both subtle energy and mind. Without a sound, you should mentally recite the syllables HŪṂ, OṂ, and ĀḤ that arise from the power of their respective places [in the heart, forehead, and throat]. While maintaining that, you should forcefully induce the union [of the upper and lower winds] in the central channel by means of the vase breathing. In addition, with regard to the upper wind, you should repeatedly apply [the yogic exercise] named “wave of perfect rapture,”960 blocking the movement of the winds of action from above and below and uniting them in the amulet of breath control.
Next, you should retain the intrinsic awareness that experiences bliss when the generative essence is melted by the fire of the fierce inner heat. At each moment of the natural descent of bliss, when the blissful sensations of the body that arise in and of themselves appear commensurate with the objects that appear, you should rest in the essential physical posture.
While you are adopting the yogic gaze of skillful means, there will ensue recollection of that former bliss.
Finally, meditative stability that blocks the perception of suffering will naturally and abundantly arise. Since your body is permeated with chyle, you will actualize miraculous abilities and effortlessly overwhelm external appearances.
Glorious Kālacakrapāda has said, “Those of highest acumen initially acquire realization through the tantra.”961 This implies that there is a secret bond of firsthand guidance and innermost advice. By contrast, it is an essential point that those of inferior acumen will certainly develop the activated fierce inner heat962 within seven days. The successful outcome of this practice was actually granted him by the ḍākinīs at Śītavana.
Accordingly, you should visualize yourself as the meditational deity. In the fireplace of the navel cakra, you should visualize your teacher in the form of the fire of pristine cognition, one inch in size, and the place where your teacher appears is vividly clear. You should fervently imagine that he or she embodies all the objects of refuge—buddha, sacred doctrine, and monastic community.
Then you should sit cross-legged, secure one hand with the other [in the gesture of meditation], bend your neck, straighten your spine and waist, stretch your shoulders,963 and expel the residue of wind [three times]. After that (i) you should inhale gently, long, strongly, and completely, forcing the wind downward.964 (ii) Next, you should hold and fill the upper and lower winds in equilibrium, circulating them back and forth, and filling [the abdomen] with wind. (iii) Next, you should expel this wind [from the abdomen to the apertures of the channels] and shake the body, visualizing that the body is permeated by wind. (iv) Next, you should exhale the wind actually through the nostrils {327} while visualizing that it exits from the tips of the pores.965
[There are seven phases of visualization that then ensue:]966 (i–ii) Firstly, you should concentrate your mind, as if inserting a thread into the eye of a needle, upon the fire at the navel cakra, the size of a pea, which diffuses sparks of flame and is imbued with warmth that can virtually burn the body.967
(iii) Consequently, the sunlike rakta derived from the pathway of the pea-sized vital essence that is of the material of fire blazes and darts in the form of a flame, four digits in height, resembling the tongue of a snake. You should one-pointedly focus on its movement that resembles the tip of a flame flickering in the wind. The tip of the flame then opens the aperture of the central channel. You should let your mind rest without wavering on this flame that is endowed with four attributes968 and that resembles an upstretched yarn of red silk within the clear and transparent central channel, as if a thread were inserted within a crystal.
(iv) Next, you should visualize that from the top of the central channel a bluish-green smoke resembling the smoke of incense emerges from the crown of your head and billows like an open parasol upward into the sky, but you should continue focusing your visualization on the actual fire within the navel and meditate diligently.
(v) Even when that smoke covers your body in the manner of mist descending on a mountain, you should continue to meditate one-pointedly, honing your visualization on the fire burning within the body.969
(vi) Next, you should focus your mind on the twisting flames that emerge from both the crown of your head and your rectum, coiling like a noose and forming a ball of light. You should control this strongly with wind.
(vii) Lastly, you should mentally focus that from within the central channel, all the channel apertures of your body will be filled with fire; and the fire of the mighty disk of the sun outside your body in the four directions will virtually burn your body. Once the rays of the sun encounter the firelight diffused from your body, a conflict between the fiery rays will ensue, so that the outside and inside of your body will crackle with warmth.970
Then you should tense your calves and forearms and fill your body forcefully with wind. Do not pay attention to the freezing cold! Meditate that you are smitten by warmth, heat, and the light of one thousand suns!971
This presents from within the profound essentials of Zhang
The foremost of all the secret advice of Ga Lotsāwa,
The elixir of supreme natural liberation, of delightful bliss,
The supreme medication, the actual experience of fierce inner heat. {328}
This was compiled from the guidance of Lama Zhang Tselpa.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should adopt the essential physical posture, straighten the joints, and adopt the gesture of meditative equipoise, with the eyes focusing on the tip of the nose. You should then ascertain the entrance [to this practice] through the symbolic empowerment of Vajravārāhī, which focuses on the three poisons; and relying on spiritual mentors who are free from two of the four conditions,973 you should comprehend the defining characteristics of your own mind by means of discriminative awareness. That is to say, there is no possibility of arising or ceasing, and the four buddha bodies transcending the intellect are spontaneously present from the beginning. The defining characteristics of all things transcend their illustrative basis. The fish of meaning is caught from the river of words. Through your knowing the sameness of all things, the buddha bodies are fully perfected because all that arises is enjoyed as the shifting display of the buddha body of reality.974
The five distinctive paths, commencing with the path of provisions, should be refined, and in conclusion, you must comprehend through skillful means and discriminative awareness the thirty-seven factors conducive to enlightenment. These include the four applications of mindfulness, the four correct trainings, and the four supports of miraculous ability that derive from that path—their causal basis being based on faith, their path based on mindfulness, and their facilitator being the three modes of perseverance.975 They also include the five powers, the seven branches of enlightenment, and the noble eightfold path, which are the fruits of meditative stability.976
When in that manner conceptual thought is carried on the path by means of the armor of the view:977
The defining characteristics of the mind are unknown,
Just as [the extent of] the space element cannot be examined.
One harboring positive and negative thoughts regarding illusory forms is mistaken,
Like a small child grasping at a reflection as real.
Both meditative equipoise and postmeditation wear each other out.978
Cyclic existence and nirvana are indivisible,
Alike in the nature of the buddha body of reality.
All phenomena are the miracles of space.
If one knows one’s own shortcomings
There will be no need for liberation from fetters.
While nonexistent, appearances are a miraculous display of space.
By knowing this, you will be liberated, as if awakening from a dream. {329}
Diverse appearances are the flowers of space.979
Are the joys and sorrows of children at all true for the ageḍ
They are without advantages, natural manifestations of illusion.
You should examine them, knowing them to resemble this spectacle of space.
From physical forms to omniscience, all things are drawings of space.
Whatever arises is without acceptance or rejection in the expanse of reality.
Since all things are exaggerated and deprecated, they are exposed as fiction.
All meditators determine exaggeration and deprecation to be mind.
You should realize the sole point
That nothing is to be renounced or adopted.
This is the supreme modality of undeviating liberation.
You should look at yourself and know your own shortcomings.
Do not grasp anything at all that arises!
There is nothing elsewhere higher than this supreme path.
These imperceptible, multifarious appearances conforming to habitual propensities
Are the seeds of mental concepts that can all be grasped by the intellect.
Look! Look! You should observe nothing at all!
Look at the one who cuts and severs the doubtful mind!
[And]:980
All hopes and doubts, cyclic existence and nirvana are quiescent in the expanse.
Thereby you will reach upward to the reality of entities.
Always examine this, as if awakening from a dream.
The genuine expanse is itself without speech, thought, and expression.
That which is free from the intellect is held to be the Great Seal.
Next, there is the path of skillful means, which concerns the fierce inner heat:981 Your physical body should assume the empty frame of your meditational deity, and you should adopt, above all, the essential physical posture. The eyes should be concentrated in that manner, and you should meditate that, with the teacher present above your head, your three channels and four cakras are clear and transparent, and that the wind is moving from the left side. You should practice the fourfold application of wind, which entails inhalation, filling, crushing, and elevation, and thereby control the subtle energy and mind, commencing with the ashé (the stroke of the letter a) that is associated with the navel cakra.
You should develop certainty in the bliss and warmth as the fire, expanding from four digits to twenty in height, is progressively inducted through the navel, heart, throat, and crown cakras and throughout the entire body. The successful outcome of this practice is that [the vital essence] will blaze and drip down [through the central channel], like a bristling strand of hair.
To that end, you should rest for a longer time in meditative concentration, at the limits of nonconceptuality, and then chain all the winds together. During inhalation you should not rest. The RAṂ syllables are visualized in proximity to the two kidneys, with the red lotus of the fire element in the navel cakra, and at its center an ashé, which has the nature of fire. {330} You should expel the wind of the right and left channels [into the central channel], and as the fire increases to four, eight, and twelve digits in height, it fills the navel, heart, throat, and crown cakras with fire that is gross and subtle. The subtle and coarse982 vital essence of the melting syllable HAṂ then descends, like a distended thread, so that it fills the cakras in succession.
You should construct this visualization without attachment. As for the method of refining this practice: You should focus on the blissful warmth that burns more intensely and engage in experiential cultivation that combines together the three phases of fierce inner heat—the activated fierce inner heat, the [experiential] fierce inner heat, and the supreme fierce inner heat.983 The melting bliss of the five female buddhas, including Buddhalocanā, will then arise on the basis of subtle energy and mind.
With regard to the method of attaining buddhahood through the illusory body: The preliminaries are as in the practice of the fierce inner heat. (i) You should then meditate on yourself and all appearances as a magical display. (ii) Next, you should praise and criticize your reflection in a mirror. When it evokes neither pleasure nor displeasure, at that moment you should absorb the reflection into yourself and engage in praising and criticizing yourself. As in the case of your reflection, it is certain that no thoughts of pleasure or displeasure will arise. (iii) Next, you should go to a market or a similarly busy place and examine [the praise and criticism you receive] in the aforementioned manner. (iv) If these are rendered nonexistent, you should then have an image of your meditational deity and so forth reflected in a mirror, and once its reflection has appeared, you should absorb it repeatedly into yourself. When you have visualized your own body clearly as the deity, you will have refined the pure illusory body. (v) By refining that, you will attain the supreme accomplishment, if there is no distinction between meditative equipoise and postmeditation. If, however, that distinction persists, you will attain buddhahood during the intermediate state after death.
To practice apprehending dreams, your head should face toward the north. (i) You should actually perceive the Buddha as your teacher, above the crown of your head, and pray that you might apprehend your dreams. Set your mind on aspirational enlightenment, so that all sentient beings might attain the level of an adamantine holder by means of the illusory body. (ii) You should then visualize a red lotus with four petals in the throat cakra, and at its center, as the essential nature of your teacher, is the syllable OṂ. On its four petals the syllables A, NU, TA, RA—respectively, white, yellow, red, and green—are spinning, revolving in a forward motion. You should repeatedly intensify your aspiration to apprehend your dreams. (iii) Next, you should focus your awareness on the syllable a, and you will come to apprehend your dreams while you are asleep, late at night, at midnight, or at dawn. (iv) If you do not apprehend them, you should do so by focusing your awareness upon a glistening pea-sized red vital essence in the space between the eyebrows. {331} (v) If you apprehend and understand your dreams to be dreams, you should then prolong and nurture them. You may increase them from one to two, transform them, apprehend fearful and hazardous situations [as dreams], leap around, and so forth.
As for the practice of luminosity during sleep: You should transform all the entities of your dreams so that they resemble space, without extremes or center. Having nurtured that experience, you should then apprehend the luminosity of the time of death and attain supreme spiritual accomplishment. Consequently, facilitated by that, you should engage in experiential cultivation in the manner of Lawapa.984
For the practice of consciousness transference: Lie down on your right side, with your head pointing north. If you transfer consciousness from within that former disposition of luminosity, those of highest acumen will attain supreme accomplishment, and at the very least, you will acquire a human body inclined toward the sacred doctrine.
You should visualize your own body as the deity, and the central channel the thickness of a bamboo cane. The inhabited world and its sentient inhabitants become radiant as appearances of light, and then melt and dissolve into yourself. You, in turn, are absorbed into the syllable HŪṂ, and then, in the manner of a shooting star, that dissolves into the heart of your teacher, in the form of Vajradhara, who is upon the crown of your head. You should then rest in meditative equipoise. This practice should be refined many times.
Those of highest acumen will master luminosity, those of average acumen will master the illusory body, and those of inferior acumen will transfer consciousness into the human body that they desire.
On the other hand, if you are attached to the past deeds you have accumulated, the reality is that you will wander into the intermediate state after death. So, after approximately three days have passed, the three signs of death will arise.985 Your movement will not be impeded anywhere, with the exception of the Adamantine Seat and the womb of your next rebirth.986
To block your entrance into that womb, you should clearly visualize yourself as the meditational deity and block it by resting in luminosity. Alternatively, you may block that womb entrance by meditating on yourself and all appearances as your teacher in male-female union. You should refine this practice [of blocking the womb entrance] from now onward.
In addition, those in whom attachment arises when they encounter their [future] parents in sexual union should respectfully venerate those two as their teacher or meditational deity in male-female union. Through your making offerings and praying to them, the womb entrance will be blocked. Alternatively, those who are at fault due to harboring attachment or hatred [for their future mother or father] may block the womb entrance by reflecting that this is merely discrimination (dbyed ri she snyams pa).
If, even then, it is not blocked, you should visualize yourself and appearances as the deity, and the body of the deity as a rainbow-colored magical display. You should then intermingle that with luminosity. That is to say, you should rest your mind in the Great Seal, without apprehending clarity or radiance. Thereby it will be impossible for the womb entrance not to be blocked. It should be blocked thereby within the first week, and it should effortlessly be blocked also within the subsequent [six] weeks [of the intermediate state].987 {332}
It is important to persevere in the roots of virtuous action for the sake of deceased persons, and you should emphasize the Great Seal itself, the all-pervasive luminosity that has previously been revealed. There is evidently nothing else apart from these essential points.
This presents in writing the elixir of the entire Great Seal of the Kagyu lineage,
The delightful enlightened intention of Dakpo [Lharjé],
The essential points of liberation,
And the lucid instructions of the Six Doctrines of Tel
According to the supremely secret practice of Pagmodrupa.
This was compiled and reproduced here from the Collected Works of Venerable Pagmodrupa.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment [you should understand the following forty-seven supplementary points]:
(i) [Some hold that] the teachings [of all the conquerors of the ten directions and three times] are distinct [and various], but [in this tradition it is stated that the sacred doctrines of all the buddhas and the descent of their teachings] are one.
(ii) [Some say that the sacred doctrines and philosophical systems of the buddhas are different, but in this tradition it is stated that the vehicles and] the philosophical systems are the auspicious circumstances [of the buddhas].
(iii) [Some hold that] the eighty-four thousand sections of the sacred doctrine [amount to a single ox load and so forth, but in this tradition it is stated that they] are antidotes for the eighty-four thousand afflicted mental states.
(iv) [Some hold that] the twelve branches of the scriptures are different, but [in this tradition it is stated that] all of them are complete in each one.
(v) [Some hold that] the five excellences are [not] completely present in teachings [that are noncanonical],989 but [in this tradition it is stated that] the entirety of cyclic existence and nirvana is subsumed in the five excellences.990
(vi) [Some hold that] the three scriptural collections are [un]connected with each other, [but in this tradition it is stated that] all three are completely present in each one.
(vii) [Some say that, in general, the excellence of the sacred doctrine is not completely present in the introductory chapters of all the scriptures, but in this tradition it is stated that all five excellences are completely present to their fullest extent in all the teachings.]991
(viii) [There are many opinions concerning] the Vinaya, [Sutras, and Abhidharma, but in this tradition it is stated that the teachings of] the common sutras992 and the Cittamātrins are [included within the scriptural compilation of the] Abhidharma.
(ix) [Some hold that the truth will be seen] by entering into the ways of the extremists and the Bonpos, [but in this tradition it is stated that] there is no opportunity for them] to see the truth.
(x) [Some hold that] the extremists and the Bonpos [have nothing at all that is conducive to liberation, but in this tradition it is stated without contradiction that they] do have some elements that are conducive to liberation.
(xi) Some say that all the experiential cultivations of the extremists should be abandoned in that they are without vows or compassion, but [in this tradition it is stated that] the outsiders also keep vows and do have compassion.
(xii) [Some hold that buddhahood will be attained after three “countless” aeons993 through the vehicle of causal characteristics, but in this tradition it is stated that] buddhahood may be attained within a single lifetime, even through the vehicle of causal characteristics.
(xiii) [Some hold that the buddhahood of] the vehicle of the mantras and the vehicle of causal characteristics are not the same, but in this tradition it is stated that] they attain a single buddhahood through their sacred doctrines and courses of experiential cultivation.
(xiv) [Some hold that the three sorts of vows become more open at the higher levels, but in this tradition it is stated that] the three sorts of vows become narrower at the higher levels.
(xv) [Some hold that] the thirty-seven factors conducive to enlightenment are [attributes of] the path and that the buddha level transcends them, but [in this tradition it is stated that] one progresses through the essence of the path [of provisions up to the conclusive buddha level].
(xvi) [Some hold that] pious attendants and hermit buddhas do not attain buddhahood because they are cut off from the family [of the Great Vehicle], but [in this tradition it is stated that] they will ultimately achieve great enlightenment [because they have the causal basis of buddhahood].
(xvii) [Some hold that the vehicles and philosophical systems are indefinable and various, but in this tradition it is stated that all vehicles and philosophical systems constitute the dependent origination of the buddhas].994
(xviii) [Some hold that cyclic existence has no end and some hold that it does have an end, but in this tradition it is stated that] cyclic existence is without end and without conceptual elaboration.
(xix) [Some hold that the eighty-four thousand sections of the sacred doctrine and so forth are specific antidotes for each afflicted mental state that is to be renounced, but in this tradition it is stated that] all aspects of the sacred doctrine are subsumed in each of the vows of individual liberation.995
(xx) [Some hold that the Vinaya of the sacred doctrine is dissimilar in each of the four orders, but in this tradition it is stated that the four scriptural transmissions of monastic discipline that are the roots of] the four orders are essentially identical.
(xxi) [Some hold that] there is no offense when semen is ejaculated during a dream, but in this tradition it is stated that even ejaculation in a dream is an offense.
(xxii) [Some hold that] after attaining the first bodhisattva level there is no fear of being reborn in lower existences, but in this tradition it is stated that even] after attaining the bodhisttva levels, one may be reborn in lower existences.
(xxiii) [Some hold that the provisions of merit constitute a lower accumulation of provisions, but in this tradition it is stated that] the accumulated provisions of merit constitute the [marvelous] experiential cultivations {333}—the provisions accumulated by kuśāla practitioners.996
(xxiv) [Some hold that] when illness and harm afflict practitioners, [outer and inner auspicious coincidences will be beneficial, but in this tradition it is stated that] generosity [and visualization] will be the supreme methods for dispelling these obstacles.
(xxv) [Some hold that the secret mantras are the fourth scriptural compilation, but in this tradition it is stated that] the secret mantras are the essence of all three scriptural collections [and of each of them].
(xxvi) Some hold that the empowerment [of the secret mantras] may not be obtained even though it has been conferred and that it may be obtained even though it has not been conferred, but [in this tradition it is stated that profound empowerment] rituals of [the lineage] are necessary for those of superior, average, and inferior acumen.
(xxvii) [Some hold that the deeds of the three buddha bodies are definitively three in number, but in this tradition it is stated that although this is so] all enlightened activities may be accomplished even through a single [meditational] deity.
(xxviii)[Some hold that] each [meditational] deity has its own [specific] name, but [in this tradition it is stated that] “preferred deity” may be accepted [as a name] for all [meditational] deities.
(xxix) [Some hold that the primary commitments are granted through the secret mantras in all their four phases,997 but in this tradition it is stated that] there is no opportunity to grant the primary commitments through the [secret] mantras [in all their four phases].
(xxx) [Some say that one cannot engage with the meditational deity from the very beginning and that one has to engage gradually, but in this tradition it is stated that immediate engagement, or] nongradual engagement, with the [meditational] deity is the profound essential point.
(xxxi) [Some hold that] the number of recitations in ritual service is important for [stabilizing] the generation stage, but [in this tradition it is stated that] one should know accomplishment to emerge through a host of auspicious circumstances that concern the [meditational] deity.
(xxxii) [Some hold that] asceticism [and so forth] disparages the [meditational] deity, but [in this tradition] it is stated that [the meditational deity] is denigrated by [conceiving of] the ordinary body.
(xxxiii) [Some hold that] the first [three] of the four classes of tantra are [not profound because they are] of provisional meaning, and [they hold that] the unsurpassed tantras [are of definitive meaning because they] alone are profound; but [in this tradition it is stated that] all the teachings of provisional and definitive meaning require [extensive rituals].
(xxxiv) [Some hold that empowerments from the start require engagement in a single extensive ritual, but in this tradition it is stated that] this may be condensed in any [simple] rite in order to train beings.
(xxxv) Some hold that the protective circle formed of [the wrathful deities,] the adamantine fence, [and so forth] is profound, but [in this tradition it is stated that] the [marvelous] protective circle is the armor998 of enlightenment.
(xxxvi) Some hold that the [marvelous, uncommon] experiential cultivation of the [secret] mantras is the [most] profound [oral instruction concerning] the channels and the winds, but [in this tradition it is stated that] training [of body, speech, and mind] is even more important than the channels and the winds.
(xxxvii) [Some say that it is necessary to purify the channels, winds, and vital essences that are impure due to the action of the three poisons, but in this tradition it is agreed that] the purification of the channels, winds, and vital essences that are corrupt and poisonous is especially profound.
(xxxviii) [Some hold that] the commitments [of the disciple] are [most] critical and [the commitments of the master are] not critical, but [in this tradition it is stated that] both master and disciple have commitments that are [reciprocally] equal.
(xxxix) [Some hold that even tenth-level bodhisattvas do not see the substratum consciousness apart from only a single part or aspect, but in this tradition it is stated that] the substratum consciousness may also be seen on other [occasions] by those endowed with blessings.
(xl) [Some hold that the excellent and positive [nonregressive] path commences from seeing the truth of reality, but in this tradition it is stated that] even one of the tenth level may fall into lower realms by having committed a nonvirtuous action.
(xli) Some hold that [the three trainings constitute the further graduated path of the secret mantras, the vehicle of adamantine reality, and that the paths of] the Vinaya, the transcendent perfections, and the secret mantras are not identical; but [in this tradition] it is stated that those [six transcendent perfections] constitute the path of all three vehicles.
(xlii) Some hold that the Great Seal is obscured by both virtuous action and nonvirtuous action, but [in this tradition it is stated that] the buddha body of reality cannot be obscured by the essence of virtuous actions.
(xliii) Some hold that the fruition separated [from obscurations] is without a cause, but [in this tradition it is stated that] there cannot be fruition without a cause.
(xliv) Some hold that the mingling of both the object of meditation and the meditator [in nonduality], as if they were two spaces, is conclusive, but [in this tradition it is stated that] freedom from all conceptual elaboration denotes [the clear realization of] the pious attendants.
(xlv) Some hold that the fourfold action of breath control [and so forth] is profound, but [in this tradition it is stated that] the profound essential is not to hold the breath but to leave it relaxed.
(xlvi) Some hold that consciousness transference denotes the transference into the heart of the teacher [or meditational deity] dependent on [recitation of] HŪṂ or seed syllables, {334} but [in this tradition it is stated that] the supreme consciousness transference should engage with the luminosity of the teacher.
(xlvii) Some hold that when a buddha has entered nirvana, this resembles a fire that has run out of firewood, as if the wood were exhausted and the fire exhausted; but in this tradition it is stated that nirvana is the natural form of enlightenment, the essential nature free from extremes.
The points explained here should be imparted as incremental steps in respect of the Revered [Wheel of Vitality] and The Fivefold [Great Seal]. That is to say, they are to be experientially cultivated.
This sets forth in writing the instructions of adamantine speech
That supremely reveal the natural liberation,
Delightfully and excellently discerning the single savor
Of all sacred doctrines in the expanse of enlightened intention.
This was compiled from The Forty-Seven Adamantine Sayings.999
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment, the practice of the fierce inner heat is differentiated according to both lower and higher methods.1001
(i) [As to the former,] the wind of past actions should be compressed [by yogic exercises,] and there will be a gradual increase in the appearances [of heat, bliss, and nonconceptuality].1002 The sessions of visualization are short but there are many essential points. You should diligently try to secure the physical posture known as the “six opposing stoves.”1003
The inception of postmeditation is then taken as an example of the impure illusory body. From the time of its appearance its modality is empty of inherent existence.
Also, if you do not waver from the aspiration that arises when you lie down to practice dream yoga, the fierce inner heat associated with the wind of past actions will become the basis of your meditative equipoise and the impure illusory body will become your path of postmeditation. For the aspiration associated with dream yoga is an attribute that facilitates perception during the night.
(ii) The higher method, distinct from that, applies the four-session yoga and it emphasizes the fierce inner heat associated with [the wind] of pristine cognition. Here, the upper and lower winds should be united through breath control. The vital essence will then descend from the crown of the head to the [fire in the navel cakra] in the form of an ashé, and the experiences of bliss, radiance, and nonconceptual mind will then follow.
[In this higher method] the primordially pure expanse is the Great Seal, and the natural expressive power of its appearance is the innate fundamental state—the pure illusory body where [pristine] objects are atemporally present.
These pith instructions are the foundation of excellent remedies, resembling the alchemical transformation [of base metal] into gold. As for their practical implementation, once delusion, which resembles that base metal element, has been transformed, it is termed luminosity. Whatever the experiences of bliss and emptiness that arise may be, at that very moment they are spacious, without fabrication or contrivance. The luminosity [that is subsequently experienced] at the time of death is known as “the meeting of mother and child.”
Those who would assume the dance of the mental body [in the intermediate state after death] should be attentive to consciousness transference {335} and recite hik.1004 The arrow and the bow of subtle energy and mind are the devices that direct this visualization. Consciousness transference through1005 the syllable HŪṂ is the short path that subsumes the enlightened intention of the Six Doctrines.
This sets forth in writing the practical method of the Six Doctrines
Through the fierce inner heat, illusory body, dream yoga,
And, similarly, the luminosity that is the glow of total delight,
Its manifestations being the nature of supreme liberation.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of glorious Taklungpa the Great.
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment, [there follows the cycle of the Middle Drukpa, which has three aspects]:
You should experientially cultivate the essential instructions that conceive of the teacher as the three buddha bodies of reality, perfect resource, and emanation. Rising when dawn covers one-eighth of the sky, you should array the visualization in the sky in front of yourself. That is to say, you should conceive of your teacher seated upon a particularly sublime ornate throne, as Prajñāpāramitā, the consort of the conquerors—the natural grace of the uncontaminated buddha body of reality. While verbally chanting the verses of the Fourfold Cycle of the Mother of Space,1007 you should complete one thousand prostrations with your five limbs touching the ground, precisely and without mistaking the number, and then finally you should dissolve the great mother Prajñāpāramitā, who is the essential nature of the teacher, into yourself. Consequently, you should nurture the natural descent of naked intrinsic awareness, however it abides, as the buddha body of reality free from conceptual elaboration, uncovered by the stains of the trichotomy between subject, object, and interaction. You may then attend to [mundane] activities, such as eating at the end of the session.
Next, while conceiving of your teacher as Vajradhara, the buddha body of perfect resource in whom the major and minor marks are perfectly radiant, embodying all the lineage holders, you should do one thousand prostrations as before, and after dissolving that visualization into yourself, you should nurture the unimpeded natural glow of the buddha body of perfect resource that manifests in and of itself.
Next, with devotion you should conceive of your teacher as the buddha body of emanation, Śākyamuni, diffusing light rays in the ten directions, and do one thousand prostrations as before. After dissolving the visualization into yourself, you should hone your own awareness within the disposition where you yourself are the buddha body of emanation, effortlessly acting for the benefit of living beings. Then, finally, the three buddha bodies will have been perfected {336} and you should develop strong devotion and faith from the heart in your actual root teacher. Prostrate toward that teacher with your body, and with your speech recite the words, “All sentient beings who are equal to space go for refuge to the teacher who is the buddha body of reality, to the teacher who is the buddha body of perfect resource, to the teacher who is the compassionate buddha body of emanation, to the teacher who is the buddha body of essentiality, to the teacher who is the precious buddha, and to the venerable lord of the sacred doctrine who is the gracious buddha!”1008
With your mind you should completely abandon [all activities], out of regard for the expression “You know what is to be done!” You should concentrate your body, speech, and mind one-pointedly and be particularly strict while in retreat. In the night you should practice [dream] yoga while sleeping, and thereby you will perfect the provisions, purify obscurations, and forcefully draw the blessings of the body, speech, and mind of the teacher into your own mind, so that meditative experiences and realization gush forth and you become like a son who has followed in his father’s footsteps.1009
As for the guidance that determines auspicious circumstances,1010 you should ascertain [the nature of] fundamental mind and not incite mental obfuscation through a multitude of unnecessary activities. That is to say, you should develop the [commonsense] understanding that vomiting or indigestion are gastric ailments that may occur if you overeat.
Just as [a farmer at the end of] the four agricultural seasons and a trader who has obtained a favorable price for tea may idly rest, after encountering the face of mind you should rely on the common savor without engaging in any activity.
Just as a herdsman on the high plateau is vigilant, wondering whether any enemy, thief, or wolf may approach or not approach his livestock, you should concentrate on the strength of awareness with unwavering vigilance.
Just as a wild ungulate sticks to its own habitat, you should meditate in the manner of a solitary juniper growing on a cliff in a snow range or forest.
You should move about and sit with your body, speak with your voice, and with your mind you should avoid all elaborations. You should not resort to agricultural activities.
Starting with a secluded house or remote dwelling, you should even erect a partition screen around your own bed.
You should cut off the continuity of speech, but when you do speak out, extol your teacher, the sacred doctrine, or spiritual siblings.
You should refine these four pith instructions concerning contentment, renunciation, dispassion, and withdrawal.1011 {337}
If, in addition, you guard the three commitments of unwavering body, speech, and mind, auspicious circumstances will spontaneously emerge, like flies gathering on meat.
As far as the guidance on the common savor is concerned, you should pray fervently to your teacher. This direct liberation without grasping is profound. [Specifically, there are six pith instructions to be observed:]1012
(i) The pith instruction of bringing negative views to the precipice that carries conceptual thoughts onto the path: Here you should discard [conceptual thoughts] with your mind, dispel hope and doubt, and precisely apprehend whatever arises. Even though thoughts might be abandoned, do not abandon them and do not pursue them. Do not rectify them. You should rest in a relaxed manner, wide-eyed and in equilibrium, and let go of egotistical grasping.
(ii) The pith instruction of transforming poison into nectar that carries afflicted mental states onto the path: In this regard, when hatred, delusion, pride, jealousy, or desire suddenly arise, you should precisely apprehend them, remain lucid, and purify them inherently, without abandoning them. You should realize them to be the pristine cognition of discernment, the mirrorlike pristine cognition, the pristine cognition of reality’s expanse, the pristine cognition of sameness, and the pristine cognition of accomplishment, which are the natural expressions of the five families [of buddhas].
(iii) The pith instruction of accepting obstacles as spiritual accomplishments that carries gods and demons onto the path: Here you should precisely apprehend the face of demonic forces and the perception of fearful thoughts when they suddenly arise, and purify frightful perceptions inherently, without abandoning them. That should clearly transpire.
(iv) The pith instruction of enlightened mind that carries the sufferings of cyclic existence onto the path:1013 here you should cultivate compassion for sentient beings and nurture the exchanging of yourself and others, without contrivance.
(v) The pith instruction of the common savor of the elements that carries ill health onto the path: Though you may fall ill, there will be nothing other than this practical technique [that will assist]. Recognize this and abandon [obstacles or ailments] with your mind! You should dispel hope and doubt, and starkly behold the discomfort of your pain. If you probe around your seat, you will not find anything [that will assist], so rest in that disposition! The apprehension of a self is the causal basis of hope and doubt and of ill health.
(vi) The pith instruction of introducing the mother and child that carries death onto the path: Here the “mother” is reality and the “child” is awareness, the true modality of appearances. At the time of death, you should meditate on your teacher. You should recognize conceptual thoughts and act with fervent devotion. You should remain relaxed. By your recognizing the awareness of the moment of death and resting in it, in an uncontrived manner, {338} it is said buddhahood will be attained.
This sets forth in writing buddhahood in the palm of the hand—
The entirety of the means for attainment of the teacher,
The auspicious circumstances, and the common savor,
Which delightfully with joy and responsiveness
Reveals the essentials of supreme liberation.
This was compiled from the instruction manuals of the glorious Drukpa [Tsangpa Gyaré].
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment [there follows the cycle of the Lower Drukpa concerning the five capacities]:1015
Here the visualization is as follows: You should one-pointedly focus on yourself as Vajrayoginī, with a body of fire. Within an aureole of a blazing mass of fire, she appears, with the soles of her feet [resting on] a sun disk below, diffusing red and shining sparks of fire, as if being burned by fire. Above, also, her body blazes as the natural expression of fire, its six ornaments1016 fiery red, blazing outwardly and inwardly on fire. With fervent devotion, until the [molten] fluid from her head almost flows down as far as her heels, you should say, “Grant your blessing that the pristine cognition of blissful warmth may arise!”1017
Finally, you should continuously practice the yogic exercise named “kindling fire with a rubbing stick”1018 and develop strength in both the control of [the winds of] vital breath and exertion. When resting you should nurture your own true nature and do this without distraction.1019
Goaded on by diet and conduct,1021 you should determine that whatever appearances arise, they are a magical display, and by crushing faintheartedness, you should determine that you have the capacity to master the signs that underlie the illusory body.
At the inception of disease and demonic possession, whatever negative circumstances should arise, you should not grasp them but adroitly train in the capacity [to agitate diseases and demonic possession], based on the direct understanding that these are facilitators.1023
Consequently, having taken onto the path whatever arises through the common savor of happiness and suffering, in an unconcerned manner, you should have the capacity to fathom the antidotes for diseases [and so forth].1025
Those who are of happy disposition right now should examine without a trace of fear or apprehensiveness the voidness of inanimate and animate things, and sever their pride, with the capacity to die in the expanse of the Great Seal.1027
This propagates in writing all the instructions of the fivefold capacity,
The supremely compact path
That renounces this life and, with a mind of delight and felicity,
Severs pride concerning the liberation of bondage in the expanse.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Dra Gandenpa. {339}
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment [there follows the cycle of the Upper Drukpa, which has six primary essentials—namely, (i) the primary essential of the five crucial procedures for vigorous breathing, (ii) the primary essential of the training in the red HŪṂ of consciousness transference, (iii) the primary essential of the six adamantine expressions of emptiness, (iv) the primary essential of the sacred doctrine of HŪṂ pertaining to evil spirits that bring diseases, (v) the primary essential of the dream yoga of secret conduct, and (vi) the primary essential of guarding against ejaculation along with the restricted injunction].1029
The five crucial procedures for vigorous breathing comprise inhalation, filling, crushing, ejection of breath in the manner of an arrow, and the union of the upper and lower winds through vase breathing. For the first crucial procedure, inhalation, you should distinguish between the defect [of not knowing] and the advantage [of knowing] the key points of inhalation. Similarly, when you practice the four subsequent crucial procedures[—filling, crushing, ejection, and union—]their practical application is revealed by the teacher in person because there is no tradition for recording these in writing.1030
As for the red HŪṂ of consciousness transference, this is refined by training and application. [First the training is as follows:] Adopting the essential physical posture, you should meditate on the teacher at the crown of your head and imagine that the secret cakra of the teacher and your own anterior fontanel are directly level. Cultivate the utmost devotion! Then, at your navel cakra there is a red HŪṂ resembling coral. It falls freely to the secret cakra and diffuses rays of light like the sting of a bee, incinerating all impurities and filth within the physical body and transforming it, as if the cartilages were inflated with emptiness and radiance.
Next, there are interlinking HŪṂ syllables that break off individually from that red HŪṂ, and respectively block the rectum, the urethra, the navel, the mouth, the nose, the eyes, the ears, and the space between the eyebrows. You should imagine that the anterior fontanel at the crown of your head is suddenly opened and visualize that in the middle of your empty body the central channel has the thickness of a bamboo cane—at its lower extremity reaching the deepest entrails and at its upper extremity penetrating the anterior fontanel, empty and radiant. You should visualize that the HŪṂ of the secret cakra then reaches the navel cakra, shimmering red and causing it to shake and tremble.
[Secondly, the application is as follows:] From within that disposition, the HŪṂ is ejected afar in the manner of an arrow through the central channel, and it enters into the secret cakra of the teacher, so that it passes above the head of the teacher and comes to rest far off in the disposition of the Great Seal, upon the amoliṅga stone platform of Trāyastriṃśa.1031
Reality is nothing at all. [In general,] there is the one-sided emptiness exemplified by nonexistence in relation to existence, {340} there is the ephemeral emptiness exemplified by a vase that is empty of water, there is the emptiness of synonyms that exaggerate and deprecate emptiness and its modalities, and there is the emptiness of the mental faculty that reflects on a single object that is not intellectually established. Here, on the other hand, there is [the modality of the emptiness of the ground], which denotes the emptiness of cyclic existence and nirvana, of everything that appears and exists, untainted by the stains of such [narrow perspectives]. There is also [the modality of the emptiness of the path], which denotes the great freedom from extremes that does not fall into bias. This comprises the emptiness of views, because inclusions such as the statement “my view is this” are not established; and it comprises the emptiness of nonviews, because preclusions such as the statement “it is not this” are not refuted.
Having been transformed in accordance with [the foregoing modality of the path, the modality of the emptiness of the fruition] is neither a profound aspect of the oral instructions of the teacher nor an understanding on the part of the wisdom of the disciples. The original, uncontrived abiding nature is present as such.
The six aspects established in the context of the six [adamantine] expressions comprise these three modalities of the emptiness of ground, path, and fruition, along with the compatibility of these modalities of emptiness, the establishing of emptiness, and, lastly, the defects and advantages that may arise in relation to emptiness.1032
This has two aspects—namely, evil spirits that bring diseases on yourself, and evil spirits that bring diseases on others. [As to the former,] you should meditate on a thumbnail-sized blue HŪṂ in your own heart, and then, differentiated on the basis of heat and cold, you should visualize a white HŪṂ [in the case of fevers] and a red HŪṂ [in the case of colds], which are respectively cold and hot to the touch, within the upper and lower parts of your body. Just as a magnet attracts iron filings, your ailments will be gathered in one fell swoop and finally expelled afar from the crown of the head. [In the case of subsidiary diseases such as tumors,] you should visualize a blue HŪṂ in the place where there is a tumor and gather the disease, as before, expelling it from the fingertips.1033
With reference to evil spirits that bring diseases on others, this conforms with the [aforementioned practice] of expelling the HŪṂ in your own heart. In conjunction with vigorous breathing, you should visualize that a string of HŪṂ syllables, unbroken as a thread, enters though the nose of the invalid and fills their body. All diseases without exception should then be gathered and inhaled through your own nose, along with the string of mantra HŪṂ syllables. Finally, on breathing out clearly, you should imagine that the manifestations of disease vanish like mist in the sky. This treatment for evil spirits that bring diseases appears to resemble the extraction of a painful thorn.1034 {341}
As for the dream yoga of secret conduct,1035 if you carry this [understanding] of the aforementioned gods and spirits as an empty reflection onto the path, you should assume the essential physical posture and meditate as follows, saying, “Since these [gods and spirits] are my parents, I should cultivate loving-kindness. Since these are my teacher, I should pray to them. Since these are my meditational deity, I should request spiritual accomplishment. Since these are innate, I should rest in their disposition!”1036
You should visualize a reddish-yellow downward-facing syllable phaṭ at the orifice of the vajra (penis). Next, imagine that from the tip of the vajra as far as the navel cakra, a string of white HŪṂ syllables is arrayed, and that from your pores the HŪṂ syllables half protrude and half remain submerged within. Then focus your awareness on the syllable HAṂ on the crown of your head and visualize that the string of HŪṂ syllables at the orifice of the vajra surges upward within the central channel to emerge from the crown of your head by a full span.1037
You should guard against ejaculation at six times: (i) If you are about to ejaculate in dreams, you should meditate at the time of falling sleep. (ii) [You should meditate if you are about to ejaculate when the experience of bliss arises, and so forth.] And (iii–vi) [you should meditate at the end of all the four sessions of practice].1038
As for [the restricted injunctions] on guarding against ejaculation by using a device: You should tie a span-sized stick from the waist by a cord and position it upright at the occiput, which is said to correlate with the sacred place of Arbuda. You should not make the mistake of tying the cord at the neck, which is said to correlate with the sacred place of Lampāka.1039 Then close the left channel and there will be no ejaculation. This oral instruction [when it is effective] resembles the play of children.1040
Then there is the guarding against ejaculation by means of sacramental substances [which is a restricted injunction: If the aforementioned device does not help,] you should make a dough combining the following substances—frankincense, which represents the authentic dreadlocks of Yama; mustard, which is the sacramental charm for wrathful rites; menstrual blood; human ash; human brain; deer fat; and human fat. You should knead this with the urine of a [healthy] child under the age of eight, prepare mustard seed–sized pills, and let them dry in the shade. If these are inserted individually into the orifice of the vajra (penis), the pain will cease [and the remedy will be effective].1041
It is said:1042
If you do not maintain all these six primary essentials
From the crucial great corpus concerning mountain retreat,
Even though you have many of the most crucial points,
They will be incomplete, and for this reason
It will be hard to understand the practical application, without error.
This presents in writing the terse and meaningful instructions
Of Yangonpa, endowed with the eye of the sacred doctrine,
Whose Mountain Retreat reveals all delightful key points,
The path of supreme liberation in six primary essentials. {342}
This was compiled from the Mountain Retreat itself.
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment, whenever this body of yours engages in this practice, it is known as the “being of commitment,” but when glorious Jñānanātha becomes vibrantly radiant, the being of pristine cognition is present.
[As to the former, the visualized being of commitment:] At the navel cakra within your body, which resembles a pure and transparent crystal offering lamp, at the triple intersection of the channels, you should visualize the three deities that are naturally present. That is to say, you should meditate vividly on Mahākāla in the form Jñānanātha in the center, raven-faced Kākamukha to the right, and red Caṇḍikā to the left, standing on the channel branches that are the supporting basis of Mahākāla and his consort, and on the channels and vital essences. Next, the being of pristine cognition similar to your visualized form should arrive from the great Śītavana charnel ground and dissolve therein. After that, you should visualize your teacher in the form of the lord of enlightened heritage Innate Cakrasaṃvara, present directly at Mahākāla’s head.
Within the heart cakra of Mahākāla you should visualize the syllable HŪṂ, within the heart cakra of raven-faced Kākamukha also the syllable HŪṂ, and within the heart cakra of Caṇḍikā the syllable bhyoḥ, surrounded by their own respective mantras. Then you should cultivate devotion for the teacher and recite approximately a rosary of the seven-syllable mantra [of Cakrasaṃvara]. From the body of your teacher, Innate Cakrasaṃvara, rays of light of the nature of bliss then appear, penetrating Mahākāla and his consort, so that they are pleased to the utmost. In consideration of the being of commitment, they then diffuse doctrinal protectors resembling themselves from your ten million pores, so that your body is covered, as it were, with armor. Imagining you are protected with the adamantine body, you should then count [the mantra recitations]: OṂ VAJRA KAWUVA VAPAŚAYA MAHĀKĀLA YA HŪṂ HŪṂ PHAṬ.1044 Aroused by the light of these syllables, Caṇḍikā and raven-faced Kākamukha then diffuse forms resembling themselves and eradicate the enemies of the Buddhist teaching, absorbing the strength, capacity, and power of the three planes of existence.
Next, you should absorb these emanations inwardly through the pores of your own body, visualized as Mahākāla, and imagine that they dissolve into one another in the four channels of the navel cakra. {343} The vital essences of the channel branches are then absorbed in the manner of globules of mercury moving in fire and dissolve as offerings into Mahākāla and consort. Next, the ritual acolytes of Mahākāla and the female deities to the right and left also dissolve into the central Mahākāla, so that Mahākāla alone is visualized, and he, in turn, is transformed into the syllable HŪṂ. The parts of that syllable then dissolve in succession, from the subscript vowel u, to the nasalized vibration (nāda), and thence into the visage of your teacher in the form of Innate Cakrasaṃvara, seated in male-female meditative equipoise. Finally, your vitality of pure essence, in the disposition of bliss and emptiness, should settle into the Great Seal.
In that same manner, you should also meditate on the three [aforementioned] deities within the four other cakras—the secret cakra, the heart, the throat, and the crown of the head—and that in succession, these also dissolve into your teacher in the form of Innate Cakrasaṃvara, the disposition of bliss and emptiness.
Next, you should meditate that the three channels are respectively white, red, and pale blue, and that vital essences are present in the five cakras, in their five colors.
Finally, visualizing yourself as Mahākāla, at the secret cakra there is a hexahedron embodying bliss and emptiness, blue on the outside, red on the inside, and in the middle is the female consort Nandikeśvarī. You should meditate that within her womb there is a dark blue HŪṂ, the natural expression of Mahākāla, glistening and endowed with five-colored rays of light, with the brilliance of one thousand suns. This is the supremely crucial point concerning the secret support that is established within the body.
May insightful persons obtain pleasure
Through the higher teachings, trusted above all,
That are simply listed [here] with delight and enthusiasm,
Fulfilling aspirations for supreme natural liberation.
This was compiled and documented in accordance with ancient writings.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should visualize the three channels and five cakras of your own subtle body, radiantly manifest as Mahākāla. Within the navel cakra of emanation there is an ashé (the stroke of the letter a) indicative of nonarising, from which Ekajaṭī then arises. She melts into light that is transformed into four vital essences, among which the upper vital essence appears as your teacher in the form of the solitary hero Hevajra. In the middle of that, where the right, left, and central channels converge with the vital essence, is Mahākāla, with his copper knife–wielding emanation to the right and Śrīdevī to the left. The syllable ya is then diffused from the heart cakra of Mahākāla and the syllable maṃ from Śrīdevī, giving rise respectively to the {344} male yakṣa and female yakṣinī. Two TRI syllables then diffuse from the male yakṣa and the syllable BHYOḤ from the female yakṣinī, and from these, in turn, Putra with his brother and sister appear.1046
The beings of pristine cognition should then dissolve into those visualizations, and the empowerments should be conferred. You should imagine that Akṣobhya [confers empowerment] on the teacher and Mahākāla, and that the crown ornament is conferred on the others by means of the five-pronged vajra, and that they are bound under an oath of allegiance by means of the teacher’s handheld vajra, as he says:1047
This vajra is the great vajra.
It has the blessings of all the buddhas.
If you transgress your oaths,
There is no doubt that this will be terrifying!
SAMAYASMARA SAMAYAMĀTI KRAMA
SAMAYA RAKṢANTU
Thereafter the DEVA PICU mantra,1048 the twelve-syllable mantra,1049 and the RORU mantra1050 should be recited, binding and suppressing them.
The [sequence of the] visualization is that your teacher arouses Mahākāla. Mahākāla then arouses the copper knife–wielding emanation and Śrīdevī. They, in turn, respectively arouse the male yakṣa and female yakṣinī,1051 and they, in turn, respectively arouse Putra with his brother and sister.1052 You should imagine that their messengers who fill the trichiliocosm eradicate enemies and obstructors. Then you should recite OṂ KĀLA YAKṢAYA KĀLĪ YAKṢISĪ YAKṢAPUTRAYE RUṬABHATRAYE RULU RAKṢASĪ HŪṂ BHYOḤ HŪṂ.1053 Finally, the visualization is gradually dissolved; you should let your mind rest on a yellow vital essence, the size of a small seed, and maintain the gentle union of the upper and lower winds.
Next, in that same manner, you should focus on Ekajaṭī as she arises from the ashé (the stroke of the letter a) in each of the other cakras—the secret cakra, the heart, the throat, and the crown of the head—and then rest your mind respectively in the green, blue, red, and white vital essences. Finally, you should visualize the syllable HŪṂ within a hexahedron, which is the secret abode of the female deity in the navel cakra, and become established in that secret support, while meditating also according to the Ritual Application of the Razor Cut.1054
Here I have supremely established and clearly documented
The list of visualizations for the sacred doctrine
That all proclaim to be profound—
The guidance of the path to liberation
Where delight arises and there is a natural descent of bliss.
This was compiled and documented in accordance with the guidance of Yarlungpa Sengé Gyeltsen.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: [You should understand that] the entirety of cyclic existence and nirvana is the arising modality of [the nature of] mind, and apart from that there is no entity that exists. Through this mind—the agent of causes and conditions—there is nothing to be done. It is empty, nothing whatsoever, and the expressive power of its awareness is unimpeded. Form and color are similarly nonexistent anywhere. The dichotomies of singularity and multiplicity, of eternalism and nihilism, and of extremes and freedom from extremes cannot be specifically pinpointed. Anything whatsoever may appear in your own meditative experience that transcends the intellect. That is to say, the nature of mind may manifest as anything whatsoever, it is unlimited, it does not fall into extremes, it is not attached to biased perspectives, it is without exhaustion or increase, and it is without discontinuity.
You should be introduced to this nature of mind through symbols. Concentrate the mind! Do not get lost in the past, and do not get lost in the future! Rest your mind instantly in its natural state, and intensely refine [the awareness] that is without support! You should maintain mindfulness without distraction and nurture the experience of awareness. When you have become familiar with the space [of reality], you will no longer have to exercise control through mindfulness. You will no longer have to depend on antidotes. There will be no discontinuity of your meditative experience that is naturally present, transcending the intellect.
Here I have lucidly set forth in writing
The path that generates delight,
Excellently combining all the essentials of The Trilogy of Spiritual Songs,
The supreme guidance that confers liberation from bondage.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Parpuwa [Lodro Sengé].
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment: your horizon should become luminosity, your body should become the illusory body, and the continuity of your past propensities after death should depend on dream yoga and the intermediate state.
Once you have been reborn in whatever form, the period from your birth until your death constitutes the intermediate state. The path through which the maturational body is attained depends on the channels and winds. To that end, you should intermingle the practice of fierce inner heat with desire, train in magical display, and not transgress this reality.
For this practice, you should first develop a strong aspiration and repeatedly remind yourself that you should understand your dreams in the [nighttime] intervals between the daylight hours. With a high pillow and a comfortable mattress, you should lie down on your right side {346} and visualize in the throat cakra a red lotus with four petals, at the center of which is a white syllable A. When falling asleep, you should have fervent recollection. After sunset, you should focus your mind on a white vital essence between the eyebrows; at dawn, you should focus on the syllable ĀḤ at the throat; and when waking up, you should understand that all phenomenal existence resembles a dream. The signs of successful recognition are that even though you are confronted by water or fire, fall into an abyss, or are pursued or killed, and so forth, you will understand this to be a dream. You should maintain this practice.
The training is as follows: you should aspire in whichever way you can, pondering in your mind whether during dreams you will jump into water, be burned in a fire, behold the domain of Trāyastriṃśa or the twenty-four sacred places, be oppressed by the sun, behold the face of your meditational deity, or listen to the sacred doctrine, and so forth. That is the training.
When training in magical display and refining dreams, if you have thoughts of fear and anxiety because you have jumped into water and so forth, you should abandon your distress, thinking, “This is a dream. This is fictitious. What is terrifying?” You should not transgress this reality.
In refining your dreams, you should understand also that whatever transpires is bewilderment, and during sleep you should then enter into luminosity. You should meditate on the syllable HŪṂ at the center of the heart cakra—with A in front, NU to the right, TA to the rear, and RA to the left. In normal circumstances you should visualize the syllable A; when gross thoughts have subsided and deep sleep has arrived, you should visualize the syllable NU; when subtle thoughts have subsided, you should visualize the syllable TA; and when sleeping at dusk, you should visualize the syllable RA. When sleep is wearing out, these should be absorbed into the syllable HŪṂ. By sleeping accordingly, you will relish sleep as emptiness, experiencing the luminosity of bliss and emptiness.
When the maturational body of the intermediate state is investigated, the mental body consisting of past propensities endures through the intermediate state of the rebirth process, until another body is acquired. {347} At that time, without generating attachment toward a beautiful female form or hatred toward a beautiful male form, you should carry [this experience] as luminosity. [To that end, you should know that] after you have died, you will faint for three days, or for up to five or seven days, as if falling asleep. After waking up, you will be fearful simply of the extent of your dreams. After you have died, the thought will arise that you exist, whereupon the propensities accrued in your past life will finally be continued through reincarnation and you will experience the suffering of the three lower realms, including the hells. Therefore, instead of lapsing into ordinary afflicted mental states of the past, it is said that you should not mistake the thoughts [of the mental body in] the intermediate state for your own mental continuum but actualize them as the buddha body of reality, which is luminosity.
Here I have transformed into writing
The supreme natural liberation of total delight,
The elixir of the enlightened intention of all the accomplished masters,
The instructions that were conferred on the yakṣinī.
This was compiled from ancient writings.
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment, you should stay at an isolated hermitage. When there is sunlight, you should clearly focus on the rainbow light emerging from an egg-shaped crystal and rest [your mind] on the support of that perception. This is [known as] the “mirror of Vajrasattva” that manifests to disciples, in the manner in which Padmasambhava pointed it out to an old man with his staff and to an old woman with his finger.1058
Just as this light is not transformed into any existent entity but may arise as anything whatsoever on the basis of conditions, the entirety of cyclic existence and nirvana—all that appears and exists—is actually the unique vital essence that is not differentiated outwardly or inwardly; a spectacle, radiant and distinct in its rainbow lights. This unique vital essence of appearance and emptiness accommodates the fields of existence, exemplified even by this field of joyous Akaniṣṭha, the supremely secret abode. Indeed, all that may be designated as phenomena is permeated by the sameness of primordial purity and spontaneous presence, like a crystal and its light. You should visualize that though form and color together appear as the diversity of rainbow light, {348} they do not transgress these three characteristics: nonexistence, appearance, and pervasion.
In this timeless liberation, the unique vital essence is dazzling, vibrant, clear, pulsating, quivering, stark, and bright. It neither differentiates nor does it not differentiate between the expanse of reality and awareness. It is devoid of distinguished aspects and distinguishers. It emerges from the uncontrived expanse, as naturally present luminosity. Though it is present to all, there is no one at all who sees it. No one dares appraise it, just like the extent of space. It is radiant and brilliant, like the light of the sun. It is unchanging and steadfast, like Meru, king of mountains. It is profound and bottomless, like the depths of the ocean. It is untainted, like a lotus in the mud. It is intangible, like the moon reflected in water. It arises in all ways, like rainbow clouds in the sky. It is radiantly perfect, like the reflection in a mirror. It is unimpeded in all respects, like a meteorite from the sky. It is uninterrupted, like the flow of a great river. It is the substratum, like the mighty earth. Examples such as these indicate that the unique vital essence unites pristine cognition and the expanse.
Though this adamantine chain of awareness does not exist outwardly or inwardly, owing to the modalities of its appearance, it does appear outwardly and inwardly—outwardly as a precious enclosure of spontaneous presence,1059 and inwardly as naturally radiant awareness and their offspring of pure essence. That is to say, it has three modalities: actual awareness, the natural light of awareness, and the natural conception of awareness, which correspond respectively to (i) the unchanging light of the male that resembles a vibrant painting, distinct and radiant; (ii) the channel enclosure of the female that is of luminous vital essence, radiant and empty; and (iii) the offspring that is the experience of bliss, radiance, and emptiness, born consequent on the entry of the former into the womb of the adamantine queen.
Wish-granting fruit ripens from the wish-granting tree. Waves of nectar emerge from the ocean of nectar. The rainfall of all that is desired cascades from the wish-fulfilling gem. You should not therefore pour nectar into a vase containing the vomit of suspicion that is the negative conceptualizing intellect. You should not grow poisonous fruits from medicinal seeds. {349} You should not cover the light of the sun with darkness. How wonderful! Exactly like this crystal before you, you should understand that internal awareness also has a radiant adamantine chain of light. Exemplified by the unimpeded colors of rainbow light that arise from this crystal, the luminosity of the inception [of awareness] occurs naturally, transforming the four material elements. All the self-manifesting appearances of the channels, winds, and vital essences may assume the form of smoke, mirage, fireflies, burning lamps, light resembling the moon, light resembling the sun, or Rāhu, the eclipser. All these indications that arise and these that do not arise are nonexistent. Indeed, the arising of the expanse and the liberating of the expanse are similar to the coiling and uncoiling of a snake, so you should not be agitated by the demonic forces that would grasp those signs. Exemplified by this crystal, which has no interior content but seems to manifest as appearances, you should not look anywhere apart from your own intrinsic awareness. Since all those apparent signs without exception exemplify the natural manifestation of natural radiance that is uncreated and without effort, they may be engaged without mistaking cause and result.
I have faith in this text that reveals
The supreme path to liberation
From the bondage of the mind,
Through all the essential teachings of Padma,
The symbolic method of the delightful crystal.
This was extracted from the essential instructions of The Gradual Path of Padmasambhava.
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment [there then ensues the threefold guidance of buddha body, speech, and mind]:
(i) The guidance of buddha body concerns the uncommon preliminaries associated with the generation stage. You should confess acts of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct committed by means of the body; and you should train in the acquisition of the three virtuous actions of the body. With certainty that your body has from the beginning been the body of the deity, through that disposition you should clearly visualize yourself as sublime Avalokita, the color of a stainless conch, with one face and four arms. It is said that when cultivating the generation stage, you should observe rainbows in the sky and develop certainty that appearances do exist as form but that tangible phenomena do not exist as form. {350}
Finally, there is the consciousness transference of buddha body in the manner of a mustard seed: you should visualize that the inch-sized being of pristine cognition in the heart cakra is transferred from the pathway of the central channel into the heart of the teacher, present in the sky in front, in the form of Amitābha surrounded by a host of divine princes and princesses, and is then invited onto a pathway of rainbow light, reaching Sukhāvatī.
(ii) The guidance of buddha speech concerns the recitation [of mantras]. You should confess the four [nonvirtuous actions of] lying, slander, verbal abuse, and nonsensical talk, and train so that your speech is never separated from the six-syllable mantra. With a mind that understands speech to be an empty echo from the beginning, you should chant the adamantine song of the six-syllable mantra. This recitation should resemble the sound of thirty-six beehives breaking open, and you should visualize plants, mountains, rocks, earth, stones, and all that appears and exists as the sound of the six-syllable mantra. You should recite OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ without interruption, day and night.
[Finally,] there is the consciousness transference of buddha speech in the manner of a seed syllable: you should visualize that the syllable hrīḥ, which is the support of awareness, the enlightened mind, in the navel cakra is instantly drawn from the pathway of the central channel through the anterior fontanel by the compassionate hook of the lord of enlightened heritage at the crown of your head, where it dissolves into the heart of the teacher, and that the teacher then ascends upward, reaching Sukhāvatī.
(iii) The guidance of buddha mind concerns luminosity. You should confess covetousness, vindictiveness, and wrong views, and develop certainty that mind is originally present as the buddha body of reality. You should adroitly determine the basis of the view that mind is spontaneous and leaves no trace. It is as if the sensations of dampness and warmth were to occur simultaneously in a tangible object, without one following the other. Consequently, you will not eat after satisfying your hunger. You will not drink after quenching your thirst. You will not put on clothes after feeling warm. And you will not search for something after finding it.
[Finally,] there is the consciousness transference of buddha mind into luminosity: this denotes the settling of the mind in the face-to-face encounter of the mother and child luminosities owing to the absence of both the object of consciousness transference and the agent of consciousness transference.
This is the brilliant gradual path of the ten virtuous actions—renouncing negativity,
Where the three transformations [of appearances, sounds, and thoughts] into buddha body, speech, and mind
Are to be cultivated with total delight {351}
And through which liberation, supreme buddhahood, is attained.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Lharjé Gewabum.
After you have taken refuge and set the mind on enlightenment, there then ensues the introduction to words [of symbolic expression] and their meaning.
First, the [words of] symbolic expression are as follows: (i) In the expanse of space, both the sun and moon arise as precious wish-fulfilling gems. (ii) The rainbow colors of the sky should be ensnared by the noose of wind. (iii) The gem of the ocean rides the supreme horse of crystal. (iv) Triumphing over sun and moon, the six classes of living beings incite the conflict1062 of the five material elements and surpass Mount Meru. (v) The man of crystal imprisoned in the ravine of the three worlds instantly circumambulates the three worlds and goes to sleep in his own home.1063
The meaning of these expressions is respectively as follows:
(i) [Externally] in the expanse of space, when the gem of awareness arises as an [adamantine] chain [of light], it is perceived by both the sun and moon, which are the eyes. Internally, at the center of an aureole of light within the heart cakra, the light of the gem of awareness in the form of an adamantine chain then arises at both [optic] channels as the lamp of the empty vital essence, which is the pure essence of the eyes.1064
(ii) When the externally glowing chain [of light] arises in cloudless space and the internally glowing five lights of the expanse arise in the sky, you should focus awareness without distraction and interrupt the movement of wind, so that the vital essences neither quiver nor flicker.1065
(iii) The radiant awareness of the heart cakra then enters through a crystal tube.1066
(iv) It rises unimpededly above the two eyes, whereupon, owing to its nonrecognition, you would roam in cyclic existence. You should therefore not provoke the conflict of the six classes of living beings in the citadel of the five material elements.1067
(v) Then you will be instantly liberated through recognition of the mind, manifesting in the prison perceived as birth and death and you will go to sleep in that expanse, which is the disposition of the buddha body of reality. In brief, although your mind will roam through the three worlds, you will recognize the pure pristine cognition. {352} Fundamental ignorance will be eliminated, and you will maintain the originally secure fortress.1068
Although the essential nature of fundamental reality is not established in terms of cyclic existence and nirvana, the expressive power of awareness in its natural arising will arise as either cyclic existence or nirvana on the basis of whether awareness or fundamental ignorance is present. You should directly behold the awareness that is the natural expression of ultimate reality and that is unknown through words. Although there is neither increase nor decrease in the original seed of reality—the nucleus of the enlightened heritage that naturally abides—even so, because you have experientially cultivated it, the four visionary appearances will successively arise.1069 Although there is nothing to be liberated in the fundamental nature of primordial purity, subtle energy and mind are purified in the expanse by means of these profound essentials. Although buddhahood is referenced through the vehicles in the course of time, liberation occurs instantaneously in the present. Although the aspects of meditative experience are immeasurable, their determination is made without wavering from the single essential nature.1070
This crucial text should be entrusted as a secret expression and concealed from those who are without good fortune.1071
Here I have presented in writing this quintessence
That gathers the most delightful of all [instructions]
Of the Great Seal and Great Perfection—
The enlightened intention of eight accomplished masters,
In Norbu [Rinchen’s] supreme liberation by seeing.
This was compiled from the instruction manual of Drampa [Kunga Zangpo].
After first taking refuge and setting the mind on enlightenment: You should develop fervent faith and devotion because this constitutes the aspiration for exclusive blessing. The esteemed expression “Great Seal” is said to denote the nature of your own mind. If it is not recognized, it becomes this [mundane] awareness harboring all sorts of fantasies. There is nothing at all to be cultivated. Let this awareness rest right where it is, naturally wide open. You should not hesitate, wondering whether this is or is not the Great Seal. From the start you should not indulge in hope for positive outcomes or doubt concerning negative outcomes. Do not pursue the myriad mists of thought. By training repeatedly in this manner, at one specific time you will recognize the nature of conceptual thoughts, and then you will clearly realize that these are without ground and devoid of basis. All attachments will be liberated right where they are. Instantly, the darkness of propensities will recede. {353} That is called buddhahood.
In this instantaneous natural dynamic of the mind, the key point is that appearances are themselves the mind. When you look directly at the essential nature of whatever arises, you are individually aware of all appearances externally, without exception, and of the mind, internally, without exception. Since their arising and liberation are simultaneous, you should focus one-pointedly on that which arises, and in that perspective, it will appear empty of the dualistic grasping and so forth, free from elaborate signs, without conceptual elaboration, empty without any experience at all, and empty without being precisely determined. And while things appear, they are empty, in a common savor in intrinsic awareness. As you abide therein without effort, abiding1073 itself arises spontaneously. This is the yoga that is not to be cultivated.
Here I have set forth in writing the experience of unique liberation (chig grol),
The authentic secret that I received twice,
Which generates supreme liberation of the knots of the mind,
Through delightful enthusiasm for all classes of instruction.
This was compiled from an ancient text brought forth from Kala Dungtso.
So it is that I have here presented
Simply the gist of these one hundred and eight modes of guidance,
Complete in meaning and terse in expression,
In accordance with the writings that I myself obtained from wherever.
After the preliminaries of which all these partake,
Combining common and uncommon instructions,
The sequence of instruction in the main practices is individual and distinct,
Like the threads of a Chinese weaving.1074
Without entangling together the enlightened intentions
Of our predecessors, the supreme lineage holders,
My mind has emphasized the traditions from which they derive,
Without any stains of contrivance.
I have had the good fortune to hear such teachings,
Gathering all the profound essentials explained
By all the learned and accomplished masters of the past, none excepted—
The emanations of the buddhas, in India and here in Tibet.
It is wonderful and marvelous
That you may without hardship and at one time
Study the difficult points and doctrines that I acquired and searched
From each of these profound instructions.
Due to the prevalence of my former provisions [of merit],
I have passed this life in accordance with the lamp of the sacred doctrine,
Seeking, hearing, writing, and pondering;
And, finally, I have set these instructions forth in writing.
May this work nurture the propensities of the sacred doctrine
In my own future lives,
And if there are any interested in it at this time,
May it also be of benefit to them!
These are the verses from the ocean of Drolchok consolidating the written memoranda of the One Hundred and Eight Guidebooks, which enable the essential points of the sacred doctrine to be realized easily and with little difficulty.
MAṄGALAṂ {355}