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Clarity Equal to the Limit: The Unborn Root Tantra of Great Sky Vajrasattva

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The Unborn Root Tantra of Great Sky Vajrasattva


In the Indian Language this book is:

Vajra Khasa Mula A

In the Tibetan language it is:

rDo rje sems dpa' nam mkha' che rtsa ba’i rgyud skye ba med pa

In the English language it is:

The Unborn Root Tantra of Great Sky Vajrasattva


Chapter 1: Division of the Twenty Five Views


Homage to the Blessed One, Great Sky Vajrasattva!

I once proclaimed these words:

The Blessed One Great Bliss, the Greatest of the Great, dwelt in the unexcelled space of the most attractive depths, the place that cannot be named. Being unexcelled, he looked upon his disciples. He straightened his body up into a place that can be designated, and is most attractive. Then the Bodhisattva Vajra of Supreme Delight,[299][300]Vajra Garden of Charm, Most Firm, along with the demoness Enlightenment and many others scattered a hundred bundles of Mandarava flowers. They said to the Blessed One:

Please give instruction

On the meaning which is without appearance.

So the Blessed One arose from his samadhi on the profound space without appearance, and gave instruction:

The unexcelled vehicle has no superior!

He who mounts the Great Vehicle

Will definitely get out of the many Samsaras!

This is where the other vehicles are supported,

So it is proper to meditate on this vehicle!

He who meditates on this vehicle

Is equal to the Victorious Buddha!

The Great Vehicle is the Bodhicitta!

One who desires the enlightenment of the Buddha

Is characterized by the Bodhicitta!

The mind is called: "multifaceted,"

And because the precious ocean of the vajra

Is multifaceted

It is called: "mind."

Therefore he who sees the mind itself

Knows all the Sutras,

And all the Discipline.

Emotional obstructions are purified

By knowing the mind itself.

The view of the mind itself,

However,

Is dear.

The various ways of moving about

Are the dharmas of Samsara.

Enlightenment does not think or wander.

It is pure from the primeval,

So there is nothing to purify.

It has energy and strength,

For it abides as a remedy.

It has no true nature,

For it has been since before time.

It remains perfect,

For it is spontaneously perfect.


The vehicles of commitment

Are the fortress of life.

All that has not been gathered

Is spontaneously perfected

Upon finding the roots of the fortress’s walls.

This requires serving the guru.

The basis of failure

Is inadequate inquiry into what is possible.

It is therefore proper to serve the guru.

Buddhahood is found

By inquiring into what is possible

And performing service.

You simply must serve a guru!

The cause of companionship

Is not to be removed from relatives and friends.

You find the Victorious Ones of the three times

By association with them throughout the three:

Before,

After,

[And now].

Some will come forth who divide things up

Without a system.

Buddhahood is actualized without them.

That which is called: "the mind"

Is the Buddha.

Therefore you who desire to be Buddhas,

You who desire to acquire attainments,

You who desire to know enlightenment,

Be adept in the meaning of the view

Of the mind itself!

Thus the Blessed One gave instruction.

Then Vajra of Supreme Delight, Most Charming Vajra, and many others threw flowers and other wonderful things, and asked:

The instructions given by the Blessed One Úâkyamuṇi, the Master of Bliss, say that: “One must know all the many things to be one." So now the audience asks:

Master of Sages!

Mind of Total Liberation!

What does the great Master of the Mind

Think about the proclamation:

"After doing what is blissful,

Do what is meaningful"?

You have the clear moon

Of the mind of total liberation,

Thus you are the unexcelled Great Vehicle.

Please differentiate the meanings of the view!

So they spoke.

The Blessed One equanimously entered the samadhi of undefiled total liberation, and said:

The unexcelled vehicle

Is not to divide cause and result.

There is the body of the result

Without traversing the cause.

The mine from which all vehicles come forth

Is known as: "The Great Vehicle,"

For within the unexcelled Great Vehicle of the Vajra

Are two vehicles,

Three vehicles,

And four vehicles

Gathered into the unexcelled vehicle.

Even with the washing away of the world

At the end of an eon,

There is never no sky.

The mind has no birth or death,

Even when wandering in the world,

There is no speech or designation,

For the Bodhicitta.

It is because it is perfect

That the domain of all subjects and objects

Is called: "The Great Vehicle."


Then the Blessed One equanimously entered the samadhi called: "The Victorious One Who Does Not Divide the Undivided," and said:

The view of the Great Vehicle is divided into twenty five. The view of the Great Perfection is divided into five. The five of the Atiyoga are explained as follows:


"Atiyoga" is abiding in the reality of dharmas, the Bodhicitta, great bliss, your own true nature. This is Atiyoga.

Ati is natural abiding,[300]

The river of great bliss which contains all things,

The state of equipoise

That does not divide cause and result,

Where all the world and its living beings

Are uncontrived.


The Atiyoga of the Atiyoga is that the above mentioned natural abiding is without speech or thought.

This supreme secret reality

Will not be heard from others

With the ear organ,

And even with the organ of the tongue

Not even an atom can be said of this.

The Anuyoga of the Atiyoga is where one does not remain in this uncontrived natural abiding, the Bodhicitta, but awareness rises out of the Dharmadhatu into thusness and comes to understand its own abiding. Practice is performed without duality.

In the Anu

One cannot abide in thusness.

Awareness perceives thusness,

So there is equipoised abiding

In non-engaged practice,

Yet there is clinging to duality.


The Mah›yoga of the Atiyoga is abiding in the equipoised state of the reality which is contained in the world and its living beings. This is the Bodhicitta. It transcends the extremes of birth and cessation, and has no center or boundary. It is said that even the three:

Attraction,

Aversion,

[And ignorance]

Come forth from the path of great enlightenment.

The five benefits of the practice of all things

Are the ornaments of comprehending reality.


The Yoga of the Atiyoga is where awareness designates a reality for every dharma, while ultimately [[[awareness]] and reality] are united in non-duality. Relatively, the awareness is itself united to a god or goddess by means of a ceremony.

In thusness awareness arises from

The Dharmadhatu.

It rises out,

But these two are non-dual.

Even Generation[301]

And Invitation[302]

Are non-dual union,

And what comes out of them

Is natural abiding.

These are said to be the five.


The view of the Anuyoga is divided into five:

The Atiyoga of the Anuyoga is where all the dharmas that go beyond Samsara and Nirvana and are without boundary or center are the river of no seeking, the Total Base of the Bodhicitta.[303] This is the unspeakable depth. It is uncontrived. Hence there is no remedy or purification through a path. Cause and result are not divided into two, for one does not look toward the cause. There is nothing in the apparent world which was not a Buddha from the primordial. Samsara and Nirvana are without duality. This goes beyond the conventions of words and letters. There is not even an atom of it to be spoken of. It is samsara that is the river of bliss,


For it is not sought.

It is free from the path,

For it is uncontrived.

It has no cause or result,

For it is the result.

Without birth or cessation

Nothing is intuited.

The Anuyoga of the Anuyoga is the circle of all appearance, the Bodhicitta, the completely pure sky, the Bhaga ocean, the completely pure dimension. Awareness rises up from this dimension and comprehends that this dimension is without indicators. This awareness is itself understood to be empty and without indicators. Both the awareness and its domain are understood in non-duality to be without indicators. The understanding that even the meat, the ritual implements, and so on, are indivisible from the mandala of the god or goddess is the Anuyoga. It is said that the All Good is the expansive Dharmadhatu. Awareness comes out of this dimension into thusness.

Awareness is itself our domain.

Our domain is itself awareness.

Awareness and its domain are indivisible.

This non-duality is the Anu.


The Anuyoga itself is the understanding which comes when the uncontrived is seen without divisions. This happens without coming out of or not coming out of the above mentioned [[[Dharmadhatu]]], and even if one practices using the five kinds of meat, the five kinds of ritual implement, and so on, one perceives that they are undefiled by problems. Even when everything that is of the senses or is in the domain of the senses is transformed into the mandala of a god or goddess there is no problem. They exist without transformation in the essence of the Dharmadhatu, so [this view] is something that seems to have no problems. The real Anuyoga is to be rolled around like a clay Phurbu dagger.

The depths of the completely pure great path

Are the vital essence of enlightenment,

From the primeval.

See the vital essence of vital essences

By practicing all things!

The natural understanding of the vital essence

Through practicing all things

Is itself the Anu.

This was actually taught!


The teaching on the Mahâ of the Anu is the aware understanding that beginningless reality is without embellishment. Understanding[304] is the best knowledge.[305] The understanding that the Base[306] is not an entity is itself a holy method. This is comprehended, and so is understood, in a single instant. Equanimity understands in a single instant of awareness that the true nature of Samsara and Nirvana is without duality. Abiding in the state of method and knowledge is the Mahâ.

The understanding of how things are

Is not subtle.

The miracle of awareness

Understands in an instant

That the dharmas of Samsara and Nirvana

And the Three Bodies

Are non-dual.

This is called the Mahâ of the Anu.


Yoga is a gradual perception. One perceives that all appearance comes forth through the blessings of the five elements. Then one perceives that the five elements come forth through the blessings of the Mothers of the Five Families. Then one perceives that the Mothers of the Five Families come forth through the blessings of the completely pure Dharmadhatu. Then one perceives that the completely pure Dharmadhatu comes forth through the blessings of the letter A. Then one perceives that gods and goddesses, as well as male and female Brave Hearts come forth through the blessings of the Dharmadhatu. The practice is that the Body, Speech, and Mind of the god or goddess and one’s own body, speech, and mind are united in non-duality. Therefore it is Yoga.

One sees the thusness

Of all benefits and powers

Gradually;

The indivisible union

Of [first] Generation

And second Invitation

Is Yoga.


The Atiyoga of the Mahâyoga is the aware understanding that the reality of dharmas, the Total Base of the Bodhicitta, which has not arisen and is unborn from the beginning, is without birth or cessation. It is a river of equipoise in which there is nothing in the world or among its living beings that is not without birth and cessation. One roams about with the simple understanding that awareness is itself without birth and cessation from the primordial. One abides in just this, and does not practice anything else, so this is an unexcelled practice. One does not leave the experience of this understanding behind, so this is an unexcelled commitment. One perceives the core of the above mentioned understanding, and does not look at anything else, so this is an unexcelled view. One abides without wavering in the above mentioned state, so it is the unexcelled meditation. The awareness designates and analyses the uncontrived essence of reality just as it is, and becomes engaged. This is not an understanding, but it is a river.

Awareness designates

The uncontrived way things are

As being without birth and cessation.

The total equanimity in that great bliss

That does not take up or abandon anything

Is clearly the Atiyoga of the Mahâ.


The Anuyoga of the Mahâyoga is that awareness itself comes forth from the above mentioned birthless and deathless reality, is uncontrived, and has no true nature. The intellect dwells in the understanding that it has no birth or cessation, but is unable to remain [in this understanding] without changing. The appearance of any reality there may be is created without a true nature. The practice is to practice anything at all. The Anu of the Mahâ is where a river of understanding is lacking.

The awareness comes to understand

That the reality of thusness

Is without true nature,

But it cannot be a river for this.

The essence of awareness appears as something!

The great wave of practice

Is to practice anything at all!

Because one becomes aware it is Anu.


The Mahâyoga itself is the aware understanding that the reality of all dharmas, the inexpressible dimension, is ultimately without true nature. This is knowledge. When one becomes aware of this lack of true nature one is made to understand that there is no true nature. This is method. The relative reality is when one joins with the Dharmadhatu through the awareness that methods and knowledge are non-dual. All the appearances of gods and goddesses in the relative appear to self-appearing awareness, but are essentially empty. Relative reality is the clarity in appearance's lack of true nature. The view is to perceive the relative and the ultimate as non-dual. The practice is also a non-dual practice.


The view of the Yoga, the Kriya, and others,

Is that the ultimate and the relative are non-dual:

They are ultimately inseparable,

But everything in the relative

Is either pure or impure.

[The view of] the vehicle of the Mahâyoga

Is that they are ultimately inseparable,

And also inseparable in the relative.

One perceives purity and impurity

To be non-dual.

This is a private doctrine among yogins.


The Mahâyoga of the Mahâyoga is to remain in the state mentioned above. The view is the perception that the ultimate and the relative are non-dual. The practice is also non-dual. The relative appears as gods and goddesses, but their bodies are not generated by the branches of a ceremony. Awareness is clear in an instant, and the true essence of awareness appears in this very clarity.

Whatever appears in non-duality

Appears as the object of awareness.

Turning this appearance into a river

Is the Mahâyoga of the Mahâ.

The Yoga of the Mahâyoga is that the awareness understands what has already been mentioned, but is attached, and therefore cannot practice it. It is there, but it cannot be practiced. A knife sitting in the water will not cut anything, but you can't put your foot on it.

The awareness sees

That the ultimate and the relative are non-dual,

But cannot apply this.

All dharmas without exception

Are held to be either pure or impure.

The Atiyoga of the Yoga is when there is understanding, through the smallest of the blessings of what was mentioned above, that the Dharmadhatu is beyond the imagination, and when [this understanding] becomes a river.

One understands this profound domain

Through the blessings of being blessed by

The expansive Dharmadhatu,

The All Good.

The Ati is to remain without change

In this understanding.


The indicator of Yoga is union with a god. The elucidation of Yoga in nine branches is Yoga where indicators appear to be gods. This is clear, but the true Yoga is the Yoga of reality without indicators.

He who applies the two indicators

Has the view and practice

Of the Yoga of applied knowledge.

The perception and practice

Of both relative and ultimate

Is Yoga.


The Anuyoga of the Yoga is the understanding that there is nothing in the world or among living beings that is not Vajrasattva, the true nature of the Bodhicitta.

That which is the true nature of awareness,

Vajrasattva,

Is the awareness of the Bodhicitta.

The understanding of Vajrasattva

Is the Anuyoga of the Yoga.


The Mahâyoga of the Yoga is the failure to understand the ultimate and the relative. The experiential elements[307] and sense bases[308] all appear as gods and goddesses in the relative. The elements and what is made up of the elements all appear as gods and goddesses. One becomes attached to this appearance, and does not practice in the ultimate.

One does not understand

Either ultimate or relative.

One is attached to the relative,

And the intellect does not dwell on the ultimate.

One perceives the awareness to be a god,

And is attached to this.

This is the Mahâyoga of the Yoga.


The Yoga of the Yoga is the elucidation of the body of the god through the nine branches of ceremony.

One does not understand things

That have no indicators,

And one is attached to indicators themselves.

The intellect dwells on indicators,

And rejects what is not indicated.

One becomes attached to indicators as being gods.

This is called the Yoga of the Yoga.


The true Atiyoga is a rapid mouth-spoken introduction which uses Vajrasattva of the Great Sky. How is the introductory meaning taught? The Atiyoga of the Great Perfection is the Total Base of the Bodhicitta, the great pervador, inexhaustible space. It is free from the conventionalities of speech, from the primordial. It is the self-arising Blessed One, the vital essence of vital essences. It is profound, beyond the imagination, not perceived and not intuited. It is free from the conventions of speech. It is a self-arising domain

The vital essence of the ineffable

Is beyond the imagination.

It is an inspiration.

There is nothing real about

This unembellished true nature.

It is unembellished.


The Anuyoga of the Atiyoga is the realm of the pure sky, the essence of spontaneous perfection. It is the inexhaustible Dharmadhatu. It is the Total Base, the All Good Mother, the depth without deeds and searching, the spontaneously perfect reality, the non-appearing space, the domain of all the oceans which have no border or center, and it plummets all the world and its living beings to the end. It is said that:

The vital essence,

From the primeval,

Is enlightenment.

Thoughts of seeking

Do not move the Dharmadhatu.

It is magnificent from the primeval,

For it is spontaneously realized.

The Atiyoga of the Atiyoga has precisely the same meaning as is taught above, but is unspoken.


The unspeakable depth of the ocean,

The unthinkable space of the Bhaga,

Thusness beyond the imagination,

Is without thought,

And goes beyond the objects of speech.


The Mahâyoga of the Atiyoga is the understanding by the awareness in a single instant that the beginningless Dharmadhatu, which is all things, goes beyond the boundaries of birth and cessation, and is a non-dual equanimity.


It is known in a single instant

That the identity of knowledge and methods

Is the master of methods that has every benefit,

That all things are beyond the imagination

In total equality,

And that their true nature

Is the basis of equality.


The Yoga of the Atiyoga is to remain where the three realms and everything made up of the elements is the body of the Thus Gone One. The five aspects of actual enlightenment are perfected in a single moment. The five aspects of enlightenment are clear, and one associates with the Thus Gone Ones of the four families. One attains actual perfect Buddhahood at the peak of Mt. Meru. To be ready to be Vairocana is the Yoga of the Atiyoga.


The mind of all sentient beings

Is called a: "lord"

For it is firm.

One meditates that

Everything is the body of the Thus Gone One,

The five actual enlightenments.[309]

Then, a son of noble family,

In a single instant,

Not gradually but at one moment,

Becomes associated with the Thus Gone Ones.

He becomes an actual Buddha

At the peak of Mt. Meru.

To be ready to become Vairocana

Is the Yoga of the Atiyoga.

This teaches the chapter entitled Division of the Twenty Five Views.


Chapter 2: The Conclusion


Then the Blessed One dwelt in the vital essence of the enlightenment called Unwavering Mind. He spoke words which make everything without exception into enlightenment:

The bliss-wind of perfection,

The dimension of equality,

Is unsought from the primordial.

Seeking and attaining are Samsara.

The unsought is understood naturally,

And one is placed in the state of unwavering clarity.

This is the unchanging, unwavering Vajra Body.

The supreme great vajra is without superior.

All things are in the experience

Of the Bodhicitta.

This is ineffable.

It goes beyond words.

If you understand these words ,

The Bodhicitta is not a rarity.

If you know the Bodhicitta

You are close to the protecting Buddha.

You are equal to all the Victorious Ones,

And are inseparable from them.

The uncontrived view

Is the experience of the All Good.

The practice is to abide in this

Without joining or separation.

The commitments are not broken,

For this is completely pure.

Uncontrived meditation is to place oneself

In the base of the mind.

He who abides in these four

Is, in fact, the vital essence of a Blessed One.

In the uncontrived state of the All Good

There is no one

Among the living beings

Of the world and its contents

Who is not a Buddha.

The state of the All Good

Is expansive like the sky.

It is beyond the imagination,

This mind.

The many things are all delusion.

This is free from views!

It is not taken up or given up!

It is free from meditation!

It is emptiness!

It has no true nature!

It is thusness!

It is unsought!

It is the Body of the Buddha!

It is pure from the primeval!

It is expansive like the sky!

The true nature of the Bodhicitta

Is Body, Speech, and Mind.

This is the basis of equality.

It is not intuited,

So it is the supreme intuition.

The mind has not joining or separation

Throughout the three times.


The Blessed One then equanimously entered the samadhi of Profundity Beyond Imagination, and perceived that all the pronouncements on the profound view are, without exception, the space-ocean of this unimaginable perspective. Therefore all appearances, without exception, are the uncontrived natural clear light of the invisible Total Base of the Bodhicitta. The world and the living beings within it are enlightened, so nothing whatever remains to be purified. Everything without exception is a Buddha, so this is the great path of the Sugata.


Now all the dharmas of Samsara and Nirvana are not attained by a path, and are not purified by a remedy, for the three realms are clear light. There is no traversing of a path, so this is the close path to perfection in bliss. One abides in the result without needing to traverse the cause. The self-arising dimension of the true nature of the result, the vital essence of enlightenment, is where everything without exception is spontaneously perfect. Without classifying anything at all, the King of Equality, the reality of all dharmas from the primordial, peace, the Bodhicitta, the uncontrived space, the circle of enlightenment which is pure like the sky, is primordial Buddhahood in the space of being a remedy and a result.

Even the name of Samsara does not exist, for the three realms are the Buddha. This smashes the mountain of conceptions, for it destroys backward powers. This burns through the methods of ignorance, for it opens the windows on emotional obstructions.

Peaceful Abiding and High Seeing are primordially indivisible, for this is the vital essence of samadhi. The apparent world is clear light, for the four Maras are pure in the Dharmadhatu. Everything is the Bodhicitta, for the apparent world is primordially stamped with this seal. In the undistorted depths of the circle of all things Samsara is primordially pure.[310] All the three realms, with no exception, are expansive space, for the Dharmadhatu is completely pure.

This is not born and does not stop, so all things are already liberated into this totally pure domain, for all things are gathered into perfection. This is beyond the imagination or intuition of any extreme entity or indicator. The world and the living beings within it are, with no exception, primordially pure in this uncontrived domain. It is free from the conventionalities of words called: " domain " and "wisdom," for all things are beyond the imagination.


Enlightenment is pure in being stable and unchanging. It is free from taking up and rejecting. It is the Dharmakaya.

The four Maras are primordially pure in the space of this pure domain. It is beyond the imagination, for suffering abides naturally in it, and falls away, so that even its name does not exist. Therefore this is called: "The River of Great Bliss."


The Bodhicitta is pure from the primeval. All things are spontaneously perfected in the state of Bodhicitta's having no true nature. This is natural abiding. The uncontrived Bodhicitta remains without changing. It is hard and solid. It is beyond the imagination. It is a vajra.

All the Buddhas of the three times come forth from this uncontrived lack of true nature. Because all the Buddhas of the three times come forth from the understanding of the uncontrived mind, it is called: "The All Good Mother."

One does not leave behind the natural abiding of the uncontrived Bodhicitta, so this is commitment. One abides in this way, so it is also meditation. One abides in this way, perceives its meaning, and uses it as a view, so it is also the view.


Samsara and Nirvana are inseparably and spontaneously perfected in the natural abiding of the uncontrived Bodhicitta, so it is also a container.

All things without exception come forth from understanding the meaning of this, so it is also the Perfection of Giving. Awareness arises from the uncontrived dimension of the Bodhicitta and knows it to be uncontrived, so it is also the Perfection of All Knowledge. One abides in this knowledge without changing, so it is also the Perfection of All That Must be Thought. One abides in the knowledge and necessity to think about the uncontrived dimension of the Bodhicitta, without departing into any other thought, so it is the Perfection of Diligence. One does not leave this behind for anything else, so it is the Perfection of Morality. One abides without changing in the state where the uncontrived dimension of the Bodhicitta is spontaneously perfected, with patience for all things, so it is also the Perfection of Patience.

The primordially pure uncontrived domain of the Bodhicitta subsumes everything, so it is also space. This uncontrived dimension is naturally pure and is clear light, so it is also the Dharmakaya. One abides naturally in the state of the Bodhicitta, the self-arising dimension, the uncontrived reality, without turning to anything else, so even the name of the five emotional obstructions does not exist.

One abides where suffering is itself reality, so this is also the River of Great Bliss. One has the aware understanding that the Bodhicitta, the uncontrived Great Circle, the self-arising domain, comes out of and arises in thusness, and one knows that this is an uncontrived reality, so it is also Non-Dual Great Bliss. All the greatest benefits arise from this understanding, so it is also a precious wish-fulfilling Jewel. In the state of the Bodhicitta, one does not change throughout the three times, so it is also the Brave Heart Vajrasattva

It is pure from the primeval and beyond the imagination. It is free from taking up and rejecting. It is non-dual. The enlightenment of all the Buddhas of the three worlds therefore smashes the mountain of concepts. It kills all four of the Maras, for it is pure. The Dharmadhatu signifies the natural Dharmakaya, the Bodhicitta that is free from seeking, to be Nirvana. The self-arising Blessed One is primordially the essence of the ultimate. This is also called The Unintuited Vital Essence of Enlightenment.

There is nothing whatever that is not encompassed by the reality of all dharmas, the Bodhicitta, so it is The Inexhaustible Treasure of Great Pervasion. One abides where one does not separate the elements and where all things have a single essence, so it is also the Base of Equality. It goes beyond the conventions of words and letters and is not intuited, so it is free from the extreme of practice.

The uncontrived depth, the Total Base which is free from deeds and searching, the vital essence of the ultimate, the Dharmakaya, the glorious Great Bliss, the non-abiding great Nirvana goes beyond the extremes of exaggeration and depreciation, so it is The Great Wisdom of Non-Abiding.


The essence of great equality in the three realms, the three worlds, and the three times is the unembellished circle, so it is a river in which there is nothing that is not contained.

This is the unembellished circle!

To be equanimous in all things

Is to be even.

Marks are pure

When there is nothing in the imagination.

This is ineffable,

So it is free from speech.

It is without thought,

And without letters,

So there is nothing on which to meditate.


Then the Blessed One, the Blessed One who certainly has no conceptions, equanimously entered the samadhi that is called: The Great Bliss Which is Certain of Each and Every Thing, and taught the guru's certain words:

Do not wander in darkness!

Be adept in the meaning!

Words are joined to the meanings of signs!

This surely teaches the unborn domain.

When longing for sure counsel

Becomes a river,

It will never turn to anything else.

This is Generation,

Perfection,

And the Great Perfection!

These three surely abide in the meaning,

Yet the certain meaning is known by other pathways.


Be adept in the meaning

Of profundity beyond the imagination!

Join with the depths of the Great Perfection!

A guru is a Great Master!


O Precious Jewel of a Student,

Hold profound instructions to the depths!

There is no turning back after finding certainty!

Be diligent at study even if you are an expert!

Even if your knowledge is great, cut off doubts!

Carry your guru’s limbs,

As you do your own head!

Keep the instructions alive

As if they were fruit for your eyes!

Protect the commitments,

Like you do your own fields!

The profound view is expansive, like the sky.

Practice like a great elephant

Who is stuck in the mud!

Energy and practice have no birth or fatigue!

Be happy in the companionship of tantric friends!

Be delighted and diligent to take up the implements!

Strive to apply fearlessness to attainment!

Supreme knowledge is profound,

And likes to be given up.

After receiving a single word

Of this profound instruction

Even a young girl in the bewildering land of Samsara

Will make offerings,

Without giving anything up.

That student is a precious jewel!

One should give things to her,

And make occasion for teaching.

Seize the fully perfected benefits!

Supreme knowledge is profound,

So join the Great Vehicle!

Strive to give up the bewildering land of Samsara,

And cling to the certain instructions like a river!

Keep a mind that is like the ocean!

Hold the guru in the center of your citta!


To keep the mind of the unchanging sky

And not talk or spread rumors,

No matter what the guru does,

Is an offering to the guru and the Three Jewels.

When the Vajra Master Guru says: “I want it,"

He gives you eyes.

This is like not being able to touch a snake,

For those who hold profound instructions

Watch them like someone who is avoiding a snake.

Seize the Great Vehicle!

Meditate the Supreme Vehicle!

An intelligent one has great knowledge,

And is clear.

Hold the Tantra of secret mantra!

Cut off doubt!

You are not a fool,

So join with the meaning!

Regardless of what the mouths may send out,

This is none other than the Great Vehicle!

Those who are called Bodhisattvas

Are the family that has been assigned

Profound instructions.

If you abuse a guru,

Think of killing him,

Or think that a single word of the secret of secrets

Is not fit to be taught,

It is time to teach about going to hell.

To have a backward mind,

And think of killing a Master

Who teaches what is certain,

To speak unpleasant words with your mouth,

To fail to put what is entrusted to you

In a safe place,

And so lose it,

And not to do what you say you will,

Make it hard to trust you.

You perform slander,

And ignore what is going on.

Your samayas are cast in all directions.

You say foolish things,

And do not listen to advice.

You say: “He is not an adept,”

And: "I can compete with him in knowledge,"


But when you join with others,

You think of killing him!

This is something to cry and wail about!

It is not possible for you

To be liberated from hell.

Your life in this world will be stomped out!

Even if you are a Master Guru

Do not go against the advice of your parents!

The Yidam deity is defined

In the depths of the mind.

Perceive and practice the instructions

In your mind!

For a practice

Abide like the space of the ocean,

The view is the state of the All Good

Throughout the three times!

For a meditation,

Meditate on non-meditation!

If you do not fall from the space of reality,

The two hundred twenty-one commitments

Will be perfected!

All vehicles are spontaneously realized.

The three realms,

Without exception,

Are primordially the Buddha!

The world and the living beings within it

Are without exception primordially enlightened!

When you are a vital essence of equality

You are called a Vajra Master.


When a Master considers killing his student,

It is time to teach

The Vision of Birth in the Lower Realms.

What is called: "certain" does not stay in your mind.

You think about killing your student,

And take delight in the thought.

You cast blame on a person

Who has virtues.

You look at the words,

But do not look at the meaning.

After you have sent poison to your adversary

You will faint,

And be born in the hell of Black Lines.[311]

To become the associate of life destroyers

Is like the hell of Black Lines.

The revelation of the short mountains

Of this [[[hell]] of Black Lines]

Happens when you offer your life and body

With one word,

To a Master of the profound instructions

In the heaven of the Thirty-Three,

Over a hundred years,

And speak to praise his benefits.

This is because the Victor of Victors

Goes where the enumeration of problems

Has been ceased.

But when you advocate

The many bewildering lands of Samsara to your gurus

They may not give you [the instructions].

To so refuse is to fail in the perfect meaning.

It is to steal the wealth of the Three Jewels.

It is to be deceived by such gods as

Indra and Brahma.

This person will be born in a place

Of containment and destruction.

His life there will be short.

It will last a hundred years.

A Master of the profound instructions

Must offer his precious jewel of a student

Any consideration that he desires

When he says: “I want it."

The dead man who does not have the heart-power

To make offerings

Deceives the Buddha!

This causes the depletion of life-force.[312]

I do not teach the certain demonstration of hell.

Now is the time to teach the cause of death.

Not acting according to the Pronouncements

Is the cause of death.

To go against the advice of your parents

Is death.

If you engage in many backward practices

You will decline.

To disturb a benevolent mind

Is a quick death.

Oaths and curses cause the decline of life.

If you deceive a Master

Who teaches the profound instructions

Your life-force will decline.

To magnify the benefits of words,

While not joining with the depths of profundity,

Is a cause of life's decline,

Short life, and hell.

All the Buddhas of the three realms

Will never allow a person to attain enlightenment

Who has not made

The vital essence of the certain meaning

Into a river.

When you fully know the true nature of dharmas

You will be expert in the enlightenment of words.

Now for the things not to do:

You must not meditate on the Small Vehicle!

You must not sell the profound instructions!

Do not go against the instructions of the Vajra Master!

Perceive perfection in perfection itself!

Study the path of total liberation!

Without freedom you will not change!


Do not be vain, for you have doubts!

Your purpose will not be accomplished

Without trust!

Do not study anything that does not lead to expertise!


Do not become more of an expert than your guru is!

Do not drink the poison

Of leaving behind commitments!

You must not meditate,

For subject and object do exist!

Your mind is darkened,

And your knowledge is not clear.

Do not study anything that does not lead to expertise!

Do not be proud, for you have doubts!

Do not say things that are uncertain!

Your works are not accomplished,

For you have thought constructs.

If you have compassion,

You must not kill!

Attach yourself to people who teach profundities!

You must never teach the Great Vehicle

To small minded people!

At this point the eighth volume[313] of the Singhalese edition

Is finished.

The third volume of the Indian edition from the garden of Magadha

Is finished.

The thirteenth volume from the land of Otra is finished.

And the third volume of the Chinese edition is finished.

This shows the relative sizes of the volumes.


Then the Blessed One Glorious Great Bliss equanimously entered the samadhi of the Vital Essence, and gave instruction:

You need not liberate sentient beings

Through compassion,

For the three realms are the Buddha

From the primordial.

There is no traversing the path of liberation,

For the path is unborn and does not cease,

From the primordial.

In equality you are free from the base of actions,

For good and bad,

And taking up and rejecting,

Are indivisible.

No benefits are to be praised,

For all things are spontaneously perfected.

The Buddha is not sought

And not to be attained,

For the four Maras have been killed

And sent into the Dharmadhatu,

And the emotional obstructions

Are, with no exception, primordially pure.

The Victorious One does not seek his Buddha-field,

For the All Good Great Dharmadhatu

Has all benefits, with no exception.


Traversing levels resembles looking for a cause.

This is because the three realms of the world

And the living beings within it

Are enlightened!

This is the vital essence of the Sugata,

For self-arising wisdom is not to be sought.

The Buddha-field of the Victorious One

Is all the three realms,

For all dharmas are perfected spontaneously.

There is not even an atom

To be meditated upon,

For the vital essence, from the primordial,

Is enlightenment.

If you do not see the All Good of the mind

You will not find the All Good through words.

An adept will never find the Buddha

If he does not know

The vital essence of enlightenment.

There is no need to jump into

The burning cinders of a fire

When you are already in

The blazing fire of the three poisons.


If you take this milk from a white lioness

And draw it into a golden ladle,

Then draw it on into the ladle of dominion,

The ladle of dominion will crack,

And the milk will seep out.

Just so,

When your method of observance

And method of retention

Become mistaken,

Due to your holding onto the secret mantra

In this way

It resembles the milk of a white lioness.

There is no Buddha

Other than the mind!

There is not!

Even the celestial god realm Nothing Less

Is the mind!

There is no All Good Mother

Other than the mind!

He who sees the mind itself

Knows all dharmas, without exception!


Each and every dharma

Is free from speech,

For its vital essence is not to be thought on.

Thoughts of seeking do not move

The Dharmadhatu,

For it is primordially pure

In its self-arising domain.

The cause of weariness

Is purification and the traversing of a path.

The untraversed path is perfect.

This is the expansive base!

It is beyond the imagination!


You need not seek the Buddha field

Of the Victorious One!

If you do not understand

That the three realms are the Victorious One,

You will never find the Buddha,

Even if you search.

Buddhahood is the understanding

Of the mind itself!

Opinions are exhausted

When there are no analytic extremes.

The exhaustion of opinions

Is supreme bliss!

Reality is perfect in the mind!

It is perfect!

Not to envision what is sure

Is the supreme view!

Non-seeking is free from karma,

So it is bliss.

You need not attain equanimity,

For the apparent world and all that there is

Are indivisible!

The Victorious Buddha is not to be sought,

For the three realms are the Buddha

From the primordial.


There is no Bodhicitta to look for,

For the world and the living beings within it

Are enlightened, from the primordial.

The mind itself,

Which has no real base,

Is ineffable,

For it is free from speech.

There is bliss in this domain,

For it has no birth and does not stop.

It has no enumeration,

For it abides naturally.

Suffering is pacified in the Dharmadhatu,

Without healing,

For all things, with no exceptions,

Are perfected in bliss.

The Buddha Dharmas have no true nature.

There are no real things in this Dharma.

This Dharma is primordial peace.

The three realms are beyond the imagination.

Everything is emptiness,

And is empty,

So everything is beyond the imagination.

All Buddha Dharmas are there for you

If you understand these things.


Then the Blessed One equanimously entered the samadhi of Certainty, and it was time to teach the samadhi of Total Certainly:

The Bodhicitta is the Bhaga!

It is called: "The Way Things Are."

The way things are is pure,

From the primordial.

It includes all things, without exception.

The dimension of the sky,

Which contains all things,

Is totally pure.

I teach the inspiration of inspirations,

For Enlightenment

Is the vital essence of vital essences!

The four Maras of the Mahâyoga

Are pure from the beginning.

The supreme method is to know all dharmas

That are pure from the beginning,

With knowledge.

This is a non-dual method.


The four Psycho-Physical Constituent Maras

Are pure in the Dharmadhatu,

For method and knowledge are non-dual.

The pain of having problems

Is clear like the sky.

This is because all things, with no exceptions,

Are united to a god

In non-duality.

The Emotional Defilement Mara

Is pure in the Dharmadhatu,

For the three realms of the world,

And the living beings therein,

Are clear in the presence of the gods.

All things are mandalas of these god,

Therefore the Son of God Mara

Is a god.

This Mara who is a god

Is pacified in the Dharmadhatu,

For the unborn never ceases,

And all things are totally united,

Just as any two things are.

The Lord of Death Mara

Is pure in the Dharmadhatu,

For the five psycho-physical constituents

Are the Five Families.

Reality is clear,

For the psycho-physical constituents

Are the true nature

Of the Five Families of Victorious Ones.


The Psycho-Physical Constituent Mara

Is clear in the Dharmadhatu,

For the three poisons

Are clearly the Body, Speech, and Mind.

The five emotional obstructions

Are clear in the Bhaga,

For there is the blissful understanding

Of great enlightenment

That comes through the dharmas of mental events.

The Son of God Mara

Is clear in the Dharmadhatu,

For the state of equality

Of all dharmas, with no exceptions,

Is self-arising peace,

And is clear from the primordial.

It has no birth, death, transfer, or changing,

From the primordial.

The Lord of Death Mara

Is also pure in the Dharmadhatu.

This destroys the four Maras of the Anuyoga!

The perfectly pure great path

Of Vajrasattva of the Great Sky,

The All Good,

The expansive Dharmadhatu,

Liberates all.

Hence non-birth and non-cessation

Are never to be understood.


The Psycho-Physical Constituent Mara

Is completely pure,

For the three worlds have no birth or cessation.

Benevolence purifies your true purpose,

So great compassion is never to be practiced.

The greatest of the great profundities

Is never given praise for any benefit.

In the great bliss of total equality

All suffering becomes the Total Base.

Objectives do not depart from what is.

You are liberated by liberation,

Without any deeds!

The path of liberation is also taught after liberation,

For self-arising wisdom is not to be sought.

The Son of God Mara is therefore pure.

The Great Elemental,[314]

The Blessed One,

Is the Blessed One

Because he abides in perfection.

He abides naturally in all living beings.

There is nothing but self-arising liberation,

Even if you make backward designations.

The three realms of the world,

And the living beings therein,

Come forth from the Dharmadhatu.

They come forth from it,

And they remain in it.

The Psycho-Physical Constituent Mara

Is supreme bliss!


The greatest wisdom is difficult to find,

But is attained by relying on

Methods and knowledge.

To rely on anything else would be just a name.

Bliss actually comes forth from your own self.

The Lord of Death Mara

Is primordially stamped with this seal,

For the relative

Is the greatest bliss of all blisses.

"The bliss of the present

And the bliss of the future

Arise from what is before you now,

And what is behind you."

This has many problems,

And you must not rely on it.


The meditation that has great benefits

Is meditation itself,

And is not something to think about.

In unthinkable, unpurified, reality

Wisdom is born from out of conceptual constructions.

You give a name to the gate of subtlety,

And seek a path for the truth of the mind,

You hold exclusively

To the Tantras in the monasteries,

And meditate where designation

Becomes conceptual construction.

You are completely removed from both virtue and sin,

And so you say you have given a name

To the cause and to the result,

And say: “I have escaped from this world!"


You are eager to take things up,

And to reject them,

And believe this is the best there is.

Meditate on the non-abiding Great Vehicle,

And all dharmas will be pacified in their essence,

For you will enjoy the meaning of all dharmas

With the knowledge

That understands individual things.

There is no writing or engraving this.

It is free from the mental disturbance of letters.

Their two extremes are totally in the dark,

For this goes beyond the objects of speech and thought.

Do not imagine anything!

Do not construct conceptions!

And do not remain without constructing conceptions!

Many know that this is a delusion.

The perfect path is to know that this is delusion.


I hold the three realms to be Nirvana,

For the Great Middle Way[315]

Is perfected in this.

The mind deceived by impulses does not exist,

For the ultimate is beyond the imagination.

The ultimate view of the Middle Way

Is free from the collections of letters.

That which is the ultimate for the Middle Way

Is the relative for the Great Perfection.

Do not think about

The benefits of contemplation,

For all things without exception

Are totally perfect.

Remain in the Dharma

That does not think or purify!


Conceptual constructs are in fact

The Body of wisdom,

For non-conceptualization

Goes beyond conceptualization.

The subtle vehicle does not designate signs,

For both cause and result

Are spontaneously realized

Without division.

All conceptual constructs

Are pacified in the Dharmadhatu,

For the transmission of

The twelve-fold chain of connections

Is stomped out

In the Tantras at the solitary monastery

Of the Dharmadhatu.

Do not designate virtue and sin,

And cause and result,

For they are all a river of equanimity,

Which is uncontrived from the primeval.

This transcends words,

Which are eager to take things up,

And reject them,

For the previous world

And the future world

Are non-dual,

And all things, with no exceptions,

Are Buddhas.

There is no analyzing of individual things here,

For awareness is placed in thusness,

Which has no true nature, from the primordial.

The three realms are, without exception,

The primordial Buddha,

For dharmas are naturally at peace,

And to speak of them is a mistake.

Samsara and Nirvana are non-dual.

There is not even an atom

Of Nirvana,

Which is uncontrived from the primeval,

To be imagined or meditated upon

In nonconceptual, uncontrived reality.

When, without searching,

You place yourself in reality,

Which has no appearance,

That is meditation.

Do not conceptualize or dwell upon anything,

For non-conceptualization and non-dwelling

Are said to be the trailway through Samsara,

And are the Middle Way!


This Great Vehicle of ineffable reality

Is unexcelled,

And has no true nature,

So it cannot be embarked upon or parted from.

Nothing remains,

For this is spontaneously realized.

It goes beyond conceptualizations,

For it is primordial Buddhahood.


It is free from the mental disturbance of letters,

For it is not to be spoken and it transcends words.

Analysis of magnification of it

Is a cause for conceptual constructs.

Awareness abides like a river

In the Dharmadhatu,

Which has no extremes to be analyzed.

The Great Circle equanimously remains

As the circle of all the three realms,

So there is nothing to think about

Or to meditate on.

Over-doing the analysis

Of the unexcelled Circle

Is a cause for conceptual constructs.

He who gives up impulses towards

The extreme of analysis

Understands all dharmas.

He finds the Victorious Buddha!

This is the unexcelled perfect objective!

If you do not join with

The objectives of the Great Vehicle,

You are just putting gravel into the earth,

Even if you contrive to shave your head,

Like the Úâkya.

Even though you generate thoughts of rejecting things,

At last you will go into the ground.

Likewise even though you shave off your hair

With a razor,

Your connection to the river of conceptualization,

And the rules of conceptualization,

Is something you must protect,

And therefore will be destroyed.

The close pathway

Of the unexcelled Great Perfection

Will be far away,

For even if you traverse the stages for three eons

You will not see the depths

Of the Great Perfection!

It is not possible to find the Victorious One

By seeking him,

Which is a cause to obsess on

The analytic extremes.

Do not traverse the cause!

Give up on analytic extremes!

Contrive to wear a shaved head

Like the Úâkya!


The result

Of the vehicle that perceives the Great Vehicle

Is actual Buddhahood!

Therefore those who desire to attain enlightenment

Must look into the unexcelled Great Vehicle!

He who sees the unexcelled Great Vehicle

Finds all the Buddhas of the three times!

Úâkyamuṇi,

The Protector of Living Beings,

The Master of Sages,

Who has all virtues without exception,

Spoke this supreme transmission of transmissions,

This Root Tantra;

For this great Root Tantra

Of the transmission

Is a vehicle proclaimed by his own mouth.

He who desires the Buddha's enlightenment

Must look into the unexcelled Supreme Vehicle!

Students in the future who wish to study this,

And Masters who wish to teach it,

Must find an Bodhisattva who is on one of the levels,

And who has hair-pores.

He will not teach the meaning

Without explaining it.

Begin by giving this Root Tantra to him,

And he will explain that its meaning is liberation.

A person who will not teach

This Root Tantra

Will temporarily become wrathful,

And then die.

His life will run out,

And he will fall into hell.


Hold these instructions

Which I have taught

In your mind,

For they are life!

People who contradict this teaching

Will certainly appear,

And they will die.

This Root Tantra transmission was taught for the sake of the young lord.

The End.

U U U Raksika Iti Uhu.


Source