Teaching the Specifics on Practice 4
Teaching the Specifics on Practice
Then this same Sattvavajra addressed him with these words:
Holder of the Secrets
Of the bodies, speech, and minds
Of all the Buddhas of the three times,
Treasure of the awareness of uncomplicated equality,
Non-dual self-luminescence,
Lord,
This is what I ask you:
It is certainly true
That there are no dualistic conceptions
In the perfect transmission of effortless yoga,
But please speak on the specifics for its practice.
Then the Tathagata Vajrasattva proclaimed these words:
O Mahasattva,
Dualistic conceptions do not apply
To non-dual self-originating wisdom,
But in order to exemplify a door of methods,
They are used.
So I will explain the practice.
Those who follow the trails,
Of the dominion of the sky,
Whose reality is an unstopping maintenance of methods,
Broadcast the blessings of their compassionate works.
Their virtues equal the end of the sky.
Everything is uncontrived self-luminosity for them.
They do not bear the filth there is in clinging to ideas.
This has no origin and is not to be engaged in.
It is not an object.
There are no holders who hold or conceptualize secrets.
In the practice of the vajra of the sky,
We discontinue our ideation.
We do not contemplate anything.
In the contemplation of this unsought calming of ourselves,
We are primordially removed from the filth of holding on.
Within this wisdom of luminescent purity
There is nothing at all.
It is pervasively luminous.
This naturally clear light
Is a dominion of bliss,
But we do not engage in holding onto it.
We do not seek this dominion.
Self-arising awareness transcends it.
It does not shake.
It does not think.
It does not dwell anywhere.
In the mirror of unceasing methods
There are no positions or preferences,
And our perspectives on positions
Are cleared away.
The sky is not to be held.
It is not a thought.
It is not to be visualized.
It is not to be designated.
Existence does not apply to it.
It does not dwell in an object.
It is not an understanding.
Nor is it both of them.
It is not complicated.
We do not engage in holding onto it.
It is non-dual.
On the mirror of secret wisdom
There are no markings.
It is a self-luminous dimension.
Appearances are wisdom
Appearing to itself
In its own dominion,
And are neither stopped nor encouraged.
If we do not dwell in self-luminous light
It will not matter which designated practices we may practice,
The result will be that we see our own level.
In the great bliss of unsought self-luminescence
There are no snares.
This is the path of completely pure awareness.
We do not travel over it.
It is primordial Buddhahood.
Wisdom that has no position or preference
Is non-dual.
It is free from the limitations of being solitary.
In the great bliss of interactive luminous light
There is no holding onto a duality or a unity.
In the vajra of the endless sky,
Unchanging wisdom shines naturally.
In the yoga of awareness as it is
There is no search or contrivance.
There is no yoga.
The awareness that enters the river is uncontrived.
It is obvious in everything.
It does not search.
It is the best awareness.
It has no origin or engagement.
It is luminous in its own dominion.
The Tantras use a mirror of methods
To worship the significance of self-luminescence.
They say: “Non-dual wisdom,”
But they are neither self-luminescent
Nor illuminated by others.
They do not understand the solution
Of self-arising wisdom being directly perceived,
And so they desire a structure,
As if they were seeking to track an elephant on the plains.
While they are in a state of non-duality,
They adulterate the state of self-luminosity
With other things.
The wisdom of self-awareness has no name.
Those who crave do not understand this,
So they spin in the three domains,
In the abodes of the six classes of living beings.
Those who have experienced directly perceived awareness
Use transmission, awareness, and inference
To obscure the meaning of self-arising non-conceptualization.
They use this for the river of their thoughts about it.
From out of the state of luminescent wisdom,
As if it were the end of the sky.
Great compassion is like sunlight.
It does not come or go.
It shines naturally.
This is how the physical mandala
Of the teacher for those who are to be trained
Dwells pervasively,
As if it were the sky.
Conventional awareness does not abide
In the bliss of the awareness of clear light.
While the differences
In our perceptions and thoughts about the way of the Dharma
Make the true nature of the three mandalas clear,
The true nature of our samadhi takes form
From out of the single true nature of this very dominion,
And makes the realization of the Bodhicitta clear.
This is the treasure of the awareness of uncomplicated equanimity.
What we may observe about
The heart-essence of primordial enlightenment
Is an uncontrived self-liberation.
It plays in our bodies.
The finest body of self-luminous awareness
Has a physique that encompasses the sky,
And making no search,
It joins with the light of the sun.
It encompasses everything.
It cannot be spoken.
The transmission of the baseless, rootless mind
Shines in everything.
It does not think about itself.
It appears to us as an embodiment
Of miraculously occurring playfulness.
Awareness is not fixed.
It cannot be visualized anywhere.
It does not think about itself.
It does not think about others.
Its clarity is hidden in a dimension that is not evident,
So knowledge, awareness, and wisdom
Shine out at one time.
Self-occurring dhyāna meditation
Pervades like the light of the sky,
And has been the identity of self-luminosity,
Since the primordial.
Self-luminescence is joined into one,
And does not hold on.
It appears to us
As a heart of miraculously occurring playfulness.
The three mandalas of uncontrived self-luminescence
Are places of happiness,
Where the uncontrived is placed at the highest.
The body of awareness has no form.
Unmoving clarity has no origin or applications.
We do not abide in any equanimity.
It is obvious that the sky is pervasive,
Without our understanding it.
The wisdom that does not hold on
Has no position.
Its nature is clear in its pervasion.
The finest body,
That of unmoving samadhi,
Is obtained through the transmission
We enter into its river,
Though it has no origin or application.
It shines like the heart of the sun.
We exemplify the cascading heart-essence
Of unspeakable intent
By ourselves.
We understand it ourselves.
We do not hear of unspeakable awareness
With our ears,
As if it had the sound of a coin,
But get it with our minds,
Like pouring water into water.
We do not seek the significance of awareness,
But understand it by just placing ourselves in equanimity.
We do not think about conceptualizations.
We leave objects behind.
This is the intent that is hidden in our cause.
The methods of self-originating self-awareness,
And the wisdom that has no objects,
Make this clear.
If we contemplate the significance
Of awareness placed within itself,
It is evidently at the heart-essence
Of unconceptualized appearances.
The technique of harboring no aware memories,
And the technique where our awareness has no applications,
Make this clear.
We see all the enumerations of definitions there may be
In the mirror of self-luminous methods
As being states of luminous wisdom.
This clarity touches on our undisturbed contemplations.
The uncontrived will be evident
According to how we look at it
In the specific concerns of our minds.
All the abundant appearances,
Without exception,
Whatever they appear to be,
Are self-liberating.
Out of them arises
The embodiment of the bliss of non-dual awareness.
The blazing light of this finest of bodies,
Is spontaneously formed clear light.
We seek it as if it were a wish fulfilling jewel,
While it accommodates all things,
And is invisible.
Has its compassion to protect us declined, or what?
It is because these kinds of things occur to us
That we are not omniscient in all things,
That we do not have the power to be of help,
That the river of our compassionate projects is dammed,
And that we have the problems there are
In falling toward a position of passiveness.
For those who understand the deeds of unceasing compassion
To have an origin,
Or to have no origin,
The sun of blazing jewels has set.
They have no freedom from the irons of samsara.
They are stuck in the mud of conceptualized samsara.
They will not get away from the vajra needle.
Non-dual wisdom is obvious.
It does not dwell in our grasping for definitions,
But they claim that the base[54] and the designated[55] are dual,
And on this reverted pathway,
They fall into samsara.
In reality this duality does not exist,
But they engage in the conceptions of their thoughts about everything.
They are debaters about extremes.
In reality, this has nothing to do with arguing.
We use the yoga of an awareness that engages consequences
To engage in the significance of self-luminous awareness.
Our works of compassion diffuse everywhere.
The significance of this is given to us
As if it were a precious jewel.
The inconceivable blessings there are in our works
Shine out,
Being the wisdom of knowledge itself.
They bring aid to living beings.
They are fair to everyone.
All of them have the form of the bliss of clear light.
The blessings of undeceived awareness,
While having no origin or applications,
Are obvious throughout.
This is apparent to us in everything,
As if we were drawn in by the conditions of the sea,
We are subsumed within ourselves.
While maintaining all understanding and awareness,
Does not overlap
Into the state of compassion.
This is taught in the same way that it is exemplified,
As are fire and heat.
A Victorious One that does not have compassion,
And a wisdom that has an awareness of clarity,
Are both useless things that bring no results.
Even if we find them,
They are boring.
They have no purpose.
The wisdom in which everything is self-luminous
Does not harbor conceptions about pairs or dualities.
Its blessings are like the light of the sun.
They do not come or go.
They encompass pervasively.
This is not compassion,
So it is impossible that the Dharma be in it.
The sky, earth, water, fire, and wind,
The five things we desire and all the good things we want:
The blessings of compassion are inconceivable.
They help.
They are able to do something useful.
All of them are great compassion.
The sorrows of hell may blaze,
But the compassion in the Victorious One’s words
Need not speak of a total equanimity
Regarding the happiness and sorrow of others.
This is what it is.
When we maintain the method
Of an awareness of clear light,
We do not contrive with dharmas,
For they are not self-appearing.
All the things that we may practice
Are practices of the magnificent method of clear light.
Just as a person whose awareness is inclusive of methods
May use a great poison as a medicine,
A yogin with an awareness of clear light
Will resolve that samsara is the heart-essence of wisdom,
And use a yoga of uncontrived methods,
So that whatever he contrives is also bliss.
The magical door of an awareness inclusive of methods
Holds heaps of self-originating jewels.
We open the door of this miraculously occurring awareness
With the key of self-luminous awareness,
And on a golden ground of precious jewels
There is the door to the elixir of jeweled awareness.
The stake of unchanging luminescence is planted there.
The illuminator[56] is presented as a blazing jewel.
We do not turn back.
We must hold to our resolve.
We join the words to the meaning
To find the meanings of the symbols.
Luminescent wisdom pervades the ten directions.
When it appears,
We encounter the symbols.
When it leaves,
We will be separated from them.
While we do not dwell on the particulars
In meeting or parting with this awareness that is not substantial,
Those who crave require a substance to see.
So it is that we have the teachings
Of upadeśa for both symbols and meanings,
In their true significance.
The path of words and the path of meanings
Both dwell in self-luminous light.
In the end,
The specific qualities of the words we use
Are shown to have the single significance
Of being non-dual.
Our eyes shine out naturally,
Without making contact,
Through the magic of self-apparent wisdom.
Once we have, in this way,
Settled ourselves into the uncontrived,
Our ideas will shine out
As being truly self-arising.
Those who crave
Do not have the methods of self-aware wisdom,
And do everything out of lust and hatred.
They will fall onto the vajra needle,
And be removed from the awareness of the Bodhicitta.
In this wisdom that is distinct from any entity,
We do not dwell in an area or among a class.
We do not practice anything that is free from lust and hatred,
So there is no need to talk about our practicing lust and hatred.
We will surely fall,
And be parted from the family of the Mahayana,
So it will be impossible to join the family of the free.
Anything we do
Through the practice of the luminosity of wisdom
Will appear to be the Bodhicitta.
We will attain the state of an awareness
Of the embodiment of the Dharma of clear light,
Without looking for it.
We will encounter the meaning of self-luminous wisdom.
We will know that samsara is the Buddha’s pathway.
We will blaze in the light of self-originating wisdom.
Unsought blessings will come to us of themselves.
We will hold the treasure of the dominion of the sky,
And dwell in the light that illuminates itself.
We will use an aware compassion that has no position
To be pervasive like the sky,
And appear everywhere.
We will attain the objective
Of an uncontrived calming of ourselves,
Then mount the level of the Wisdom Guru.
This wisdom of greatness is totally perfect,
So we surmount the levels in a single moment,
Without traveling over them.
To set the awareness of yoga apart,
We talk about: “Stages and paths,”
While material things are the self-appearance of wisdom.
There is no traveling over levels and paths.
The things we link up with the inconceivable,
And the ways that we hold onto them,
Have been taught for methods to guide those who live.
In reality,
The sky of the awareness of clear light,
The guide for self-awareness,
The embodiment of the supreme,
The mother of the dominion of secrets,
Subsuming all things,
Is not clear.
This uncontrived heart-essence
Is pure from the primordial,
But we do not find it.
So he spoke.
From the Great Tantra Equal to the End of the Sky, this is the twelfth chapter: Teaching the Specifics on Practice.
Self-luminousness that is Not Wild
Then that Sattvavajra addressed him with these words:
You are the mirror of self-luminescent wisdom
For all the Buddhas of the three times.
You have dwelt in the heart-essence of enlightenment
Since the primordial.
You dwell in a state of uncontrived awareness.
Lord,
This is what I ask:
The true nature of uncomplicated awareness
Has no separation between its core and its surroundings,
But I beg you to explain
The way that this is.
The Tathagata Vajrasattva proclaimed these words:
O Mahasattva,
The Tantra Equal to the End of the Sky,
The transmission of the mind of awareness
That subsumes all things,
The treasure of the uncontrived mind of awareness,
This dominion that does not transfer or change,
Is naturally obvious.
Without being generated in the mandala of a supreme awareness.
This blazing light of clarity,
Encompasses everything that is born and lives,
Outside us or inside us,
And just as all things dwell in the state of the sky,
The supreme empowerment of self-originating royal investiture
Is perfected in the treasure of awareness abiding in itself.
The total empowerment into the clarity of wisdom
Is a treasure of wisdom that has no position,
And has no roots.
It exists pervasively,
As do sesame seeds.
If someone does not have the awareness of royal investiture,
No matter how or why they are consumed in searching,
The things that they impart
Will not free us from the irons of samsara.
Those who have faith and keep their samaya
Would be students who are endowed with these things,
But they are not to be found
Even in three thousand worlds.
If one imparts the vase of royal investiture
On those who are uncommitted,
Are short on spirit, have no faith,
Do not listen, are self-important,
Have or do not have compassion,
Who broadcast the upadeśa,
And are deceivers,
They will lose their haughty attitude
About being the ones who have attained compassion,
And without concern for their bodies or their minds,
They will renounce the honors of the world,
And persevere toward the supreme heart-essence of enlightenment.
There may be many,
But do not show it to more than two,
About whom you have ended your doubts,
And you have examined with certainty,
So that they will maintain it well,
And it will not fail.
Designate someone to be the ascertained regent.
There will be sorrow in the Dharmas you perceive,
And your life will be over before its time.
After you have ruined your own spirit,
And those of others,
You will surely fall onto the vajra needle.
The royal investiture that is sure,
Is secret.
So once we have been imparted with
The empowerment of the Bodhicitta
It will shine out by itself
In an unsought fruition.
It is right at this moment that awareness dawns.
We will be wise in the Vajra Tantra.[57]
An awareness will arise within us
That we have been empowered with royal investiture.
We will immerse ourselves in the significance of self-luminous wisdom.
One who is skilled in methods,
And has compassion,
Teaches the significance of unborn awareness
To the self-luminous awareness of those who are fit recipients,
Then imparts the empowerment of the vase of royal investiture.
He must be earnest about what he has ascertained to be secret.
Gurus who take worldly fame to be primary,
Who do not have the transmission or upadeśa,
And who are stuck up in pride,
Will fall onto the blazing needle of the vajra.
They do not have the upadeśa of the aural transmission,
And they teach the upadeśa on secrets erroneously.
Their time of death will come quickly.
Need the Vajra Hell even be mentioned?
One who is just a child,
Who has been well examined,
Will make requests and work to please,
And upon examination
Will be taught a reliable vision for offering gifts,
And then be introduced to the significance of luminescent wisdom.
There is no duality between our methods themselves
And we may not have understood the two parts
That we have been imparted,
But when we are imparted with the empowerment
Of the vase of royal investiture,
We will encounter the significance of self-arising awareness.
The illuminator[58] is presented as a blazing jewel.
We use an explanation that does not employ sound
To give the upadeśa of truly holding to wisdom.
In the mirror of self-luminous awareness
We give the upadeśa for being undisturbed.
After we have reliably taught everything,
Without stopping,
We give the instructions for cleansing the awareness.[59]
After they have determined their object to be
The meaning of the self-luminescence of the mind,
We give the instructions on the spells[60] we do not part from.
Self-originating wisdom does not deceive,
So we give the upadeśa of being like a pond of water.
When they conceptualize the meaning of whatever they are doing,
We give the upadeśa of being like a flower born in the mud.
When they do not use conceptualizing definitions
To change the wisdom of self-luminescent wisdom,
They will themselves be perfected
In the supreme treasury of undeceiving awareness,
Without praying.
The supreme embodiment of All Good awareness
Is equal to the light of ten million suns.
It does not expand.
It does not contract.
Yet the heart-essence of enlightenment is right there.
The treasure of truly uncomplicated awareness
Holds the wheel of an awareness of miracles.
All the sounds that echo forth
Are the secret sounds of natural wisdom,
And are subsumed within the sound
Of self-luminous awareness,
As are light and light keepers.
The nature of this clarity is that it cannot be spoken.
Clear light does not have sound as its nature.
The natural condition of everyone that is born and lives
Is entirely obvious in the speech that does not make a sound.
The mandala of unspeakable awareness
Is a magnificent ornamentation of the mandala of awareness.
It is the supreme speech of self-originating luminous awareness.
The nature of this speech is to pervade the ten directions.
Through unspeakable and self-originating blessings
Awareness takes the form of sound.
The finest heart,
One not deceived by memories and ideas,
Is obviously this most excellent self-originating awareness.
Wisdom is visible in sunlight,
For it is uncomplicated and pervasive.
The vision of wisdom illuminates the ten directions.
It does not hold onto anything at all.
It cuts through complications made by extreme positions.
Those who give birth to ideas,
Whether subtle or coarse,
Do not recognize how the particular characteristics of the unborn mind
Are luminous.
So it is that self-appearance is all there is.
We do not engage in conceptualizations.
We do not seek an object.
We are happy with whatever way we live.
We do not cling to a structure.
We do not savor flavors.
We live in the flavor of clear light happiness.
The ambrosia of the sky has the finest of flavors.
We apply ourselves with the force of a light that remains secret,
Using an attitude in which we do not hold onto expectations,
But we do not understand the meaning
So he spoke.
From the Great Tantra Equal to the End of the Sky, this is the thirteenth chapter: Self-luminousness that is Not Wild.
The Countenance of Wisdom Teaches on the Vase of Royal Investiture
Then that Sattvavajragarbha[61] addressed him with these words:
Kye ma!
The Victorious Ones of the three times
Have perfected this treasure
Of an unchanging mind of awareness,
The effulgence of self-originating awareness,
And without imparting it,
Have placed us into the empowerment
Of self luminosity.
Lord,
This is what I ask:
Please explain to us
The drinking of the water with the taste of the sky,
And the Brahmanic empowerment[62] of the royal vase.
Then the Tathagata, the Great Vajrasattva, spoke on the king of empowerments, the Brahmanic empowerment of the vase:
O Mahasattva,
Through this Tantra Equal to the End of the Sky,
This finest ornament of self-luminous awareness,
This transmission of the supreme secret of wisdom,
This mirror to the heart of the aural transmission,
We do not obtain the highest empowerment.
Its method is recognition.
We request it perfectly,
Without it being imparted or our receiving it.
This lamp of self-arising wisdom
Is a perfect empowerment,
The vase of royal investiture.
This transmission of the perfect self-luminosity of awareness
Is naturally fluid,[63]
So the recipient and the time,
Our problems and our virtues,
Are perfect self-luminous awareness.
We grant the self-originating circumstance
Of being like the water
To those whose awareness
Follows after memories and understandings.
We grant the upadeśa on having no cognition of any object
To those who have completed their search
For some spontaneously achieved assistance for sentient beings.
We must give an introduction to symbols and meanings
To those who abide in unsought awareness.
So we employ the significance
Of parting symbols from meanings.
The self-originating three bodies are spontaneously formed.
Our meeting of hearts will be determined
Through our guru’s countenance.
This self-arising transmission is neither imparted nor received.
It is like pouring water into water that does not flow.
We will get the transmission of our Vajra Guru’s contemplations
By placing ourselves in this unspeakable natural state.[64]
The vase’s elixir melts into the vase.
This is how the significance of this contemplation
Is to be placed into a student’s mind.
Do not rely on students who have no commitment.
You must teach them the grim prospects there are in secrets.
If a guru who does not care about grim prospects
Imparts empowerments into the vase of royal investiture
To those who are not fit recipients,
Who are snared in the holiness of secrets,
And teaches them the significance of the Bodhicitta,
It is like finding a bad pot,
And pouring beer and yogurt into it.
It will make both of them unacceptable,
And they will be ruined.
This is how we turn into big pillars
That support the world.
For these reasons,
We do not consider bad recipients,
Even in our dreams,
Why mention gurus who retain the upadeśa
To support their holiness?
All the Buddhas of the three times,
And the Great Vajrasattva,
Have used this unsought Bodhicitta
To impart the transmission
Through which we understand an unspoken inspiration,
And the awareness empowerment[65]
Of the vase of royal investiture,
And for the part of the end of time,
Have truly passed away.
A vajra guru who has the transmission
Imparts the empowerment of the vase of royal investiture
On respectful students who are fit to receive it.
He understands that it is the end of time,
And suddenly teaches
That the embodiment of the self-luminescent Dharma
Is our abode,
And that those who live beneath the waterfall
Will, by their virtues,
Succeed in living naturally
In the great bliss of unsought clear light.
So it is that a person who has received the empowerment
Totally liberates themselves from the waters of searching,
Blazes in the light of self-luminescent awareness,
Attains the king of empowerments:
And has a fortune equal to Vajrasattva’s.
He will not be stained by karma or karmic tendencies,
As if he were a lotus.
As with the space of the clear sky,
We are confident in this magnificent wisdom
That does not cling.
We enter the space of self-luminescent wisdom,
And light rays like the sun’s
Shine for us.
So he spoke.
From the Great Tantra Equal to the End of the Sky, this is the fourteenth chapter: The Countenance of Wisdom Teaches on the Vase of Royal Investiture.
Placing Unprotected Awareness into Happiness
Then that holy Sattvavajra addressed him with these words:
From the primordial,
Of the Victorious Ones of the three times
Do not transcend self-luminosity.
Through an awareness of unprotected wisdom
We place ourselves into equanimity,
And wisdom shines.
Lord,
This what I ask:
That are not to be protected?
Lord,
Please explain to me
A significance to this that is not contradictory.
Then the Blessed One, the Tathagata, the Great Vajrasattva proclaimed these words:
O Mahasattva,
To protect or cleanse
The samaya of unprotected awareness
Is a reverted pathway.
Shining wisdom is the basis for the samaya,
Which we understand to have no protection.
It is perfected in its excellence.
In the unsought transmission of non-dual awareness,
The highest sky of uncontrived awareness,
This treasure of awareness that we neither join nor part with,
This self-luminescent light,
There is nothing to transcend.
It is one,
A magnificent pervasive clear light.
It encompasses everything,
And has no position or preference.
It is not any thing.
It is a dimension of pervasiveness.
We unite with the supreme awareness of wisdom
In the samaya of awareness that has no duality.
Our desirous thoughts are not to be protected.
In the samaya of equanimity that has no position
We do not engage in any thoughts about positions.
In non-dual awareness that has no thoughts,
We do not dwell on objects of thought or practice.
In the samaya of spontaneously perfected self-clarity
We do not dwell on the names
For searching and practicing.
This is nothing at all.
It is not light.
The transmission of the vajra method of self-luminosity
Retains an essence of unspeakable awareness.
In the wisdom of self-luminous awareness
There is nothing to protect or not to protect,
No position or preference.
We are perfected in the treasure of equanimous awareness.
We are perfected in the dominion of uncontrived awareness.
We use an equanimous attitude that has no position
To engage.
The samaya for secret wisdom
Is the transmission of the sky of the unmoving vajra.[66]
In the samaya of unspoken sound
We understand things
Using a supremely undisturbed awareness.
The Tantra that is clear without being written,
Without study or contemplation,
Is obviously self-awareness.
It throws our contemplation into an uncontrived natural state.[67]
The transmission of the thought-free awareness of what is
Has no connection with conditions of secrecy,
But this is not at all clear.
We dwell in the finest self-luminescent awareness.
The pervasive self-originating sphere of the sky
Is not to be defined.
It has no definition.
The transmission of the secret method of the vajra
Is the perfection of non-dual self-arising equanimity.
In the samaya of uncontrived luminosity
Contrivance is a way to remember
That there are demons in the sky.
In truly supreme non-dual awareness,
Protecting objects and the keepers of objects
Is reverted.
In immeasurable self-luminescence that is beyond counting,
To count or measure
Is like looking for the end of the sky.
There is nothing to protect.
We have already succeeded from of yore.
We will not get anywhere
By continuing to protect.
Protecting and not protecting
Are limitations made by words.
The awareness of wisdom is free
From the limitations of words.
In the samaya of clear light,
That has no position,
There is the path of protecting false positions.
In the samaya of spontaneous perfection,
That has no search,
We find nothing through searching.
It is meaningless.
In the holy transmission of perfection,
That has no tasks,
Anything we search for,
With words about applications and views,
Leads us into a river of ideas about definitions.
Seeking for definitions is a reverted Dharma.
It is a craving to put limitations
On the sun of self-arising wisdom,
And shadows us in darkness.
We are hindered by the density
Of this undesignated darkness.
We are parted from the light,
An awareness of luminescent appearances.
In the mirror of self-luminous wisdom,
The effulgence of self-originating awareness
Is hindered,
And we don’t see anything.
This is a destructive view,
So we fall on the vajra needle of Avici.[68]
It is extremely obvious
That non-dual wisdom that is beyond conceptualization
Has no position or preference.
It may be anything at all.
Everything is all right.
This is beyond the limitations
Of attributed existence and non-existence.
Existence and non-existence are attributions,
Attributions for wisdom itself,
Which has no limitations.
By constantly abiding in the transmission of self-luminescence
Both our attributions and our wisdom become clear.
Awareness that has no position
Is not anywhere at all.
While in the city of reverted grasping at positions,
We dwell in an equanimity that has no limits.
Non-existence and luck are the same,
While in magnificent spontaneously perfected awareness
There is one Dharma,
The essence of which is uncontrived.
Those who dwell in the way
Of conceptions about thoughts
Divide it.
The clear light of the sky has no position.
It has no preference.
Self-luminous non-conceptualization
Is primordial Buddhahood.
It is nothing at all,
So it is obvious in everything.
Our awareness abides in this dominion of self-clarity.
The supreme embodiment of the awareness of wisdom
Is nothing at all.
It is pervasively encompassing.
It has no conditions.
We do not contemplate
That anything is unclear.
The great bliss of non-duality
Encompasses those who fall into extreme positions.
The transmission of self-luminous bliss
Is not understood,
And our reality is an awareness
That we are not happy.
So we do not engage in an attitude about awareness,
And say it is: “This.”
There is no counter-argument to this,
So we do not lose.
Awareness resides in the highest clear light.
There are no Dharmas other than this one.
We do not break samaya that do not exist.
In the wisdom of the awareness that has no position
There is nothing called: “This and that”
To protect.
A person of greatness who has no position
Will, by being free of a single position,
Be free of all positions.
Self-awareness shines,
Like the end of the sky.
The river of magnificent wisdom that has no position,
The magnificent sky of clear light self-awareness,
Will not be seen
By looking into a position.
We apply the wisdom of an awareness that has no position
To self-luminous reality that has no position.
The equanimity in wisdom that is not limited,
The unsought abode of the way things are,
Encompasses everything,
Like the end of the sky,
But the solitary state of self-luminous awareness
Is beyond thought.
It is perfected in wisdom itself.
It is the unexcelled magnificent stomach.
Whatever appears and whatever exists,
Without exception,
Is obviously the unity in an awareness of wisdom.
This unity is beyond the objects of our thought and practice.
Unity and plurality are totally non-existent.
It is through the solitariness of the wisdom of awareness
That there is clarity
In dharmas that have neither border nor center.
We dwell on the significance of unified wisdom.
The ocean of wisdom has no shore.
This is clear to others,
More than to ourselves,
But everything is clear.
The circle of totally clear awareness
Has no circumference.
The wheels of the highest All Good
Are not counted as being one or two.
The wisdom that has remained since the primordial
Is just the same.
No matter how we might divide up
The river of oceanic teachings
Gathered into words,
There is no more than one.
We are free from samaya
Because the circle is one,
And we declare it to individuals
To be so.
The transmission of self-awareness
Maintains methods for discipline.
It turns the wheel of supreme awareness.
Listen to the meaning of unspeakable self-liberation.
Use the significance of being undisturbed
To understand.
The mind itself is a basis that maintains nine realities.
We take the transmission of the light of blazing jewels
Into our experience,
Happily,
Without a search.
We receive the samaya of solitary self-luminosity.
A treasure of abundant fruitions is perfected
In self-originating and spontaneously formed samaya.
Unsought spontaneously formed primordial Buddhahood
Is like a ground made of precious jewels.
Samsara is clearly the heart-essence of wisdom.
Like the crown jewel of Śakra,[69]
It is not to be acquired.
It has been spontaneously perfected
Since the primordial.
Like the light from the heart of the sun,
It shines out in a single moment,
Without gradations.
An awareness of definitions never appears
In the mirror of the teachings on spontaneous perfection.
By means of the wisdom that has no position or preference
We gain the true wisdom of spontaneously formed self-luminescence.
In wisdom that appears everywhere and is spontaneously formed
Where would there be anything to renounce?
If omniscient awareness did not shine out
Through spontaneously formed self-luminous wisdom,
What would be the difference between
The Buddha and sentient beings?
There is no difference.
What use is there in study, contemplation, and understanding?
We don’t see any at all.
What is there to say?
It is not wisdom.
It is not ignorance.
Our wisdom has been shadowed
By the dominion of darkness.
The Buddha has fallen
Into the dominion of sentient beings.
If the vision of luminescent wisdom
Were shadowed by adventitious darkness,
The erroneous implication would be
That the Buddha has fallen into samsara,
With no escape.
If the vision of luminescent wisdom
Had retained darkness since the primordial,
It would be permanent,
And we would not wake up from it.
There would be a dominion of inconceivable darkness.
Those who look for knowledge about positions
Do not understand the meaning
Of having no position.
They do not retain the objectives of the wise.
They will not fall upon the jewel treasure.
So he spoke.
From the Great Tantra Equal to the End of the Sky, this is the fifteenth chapter: Placing Unprotected Awareness into Happiness.
Becoming Successful without a Search
Then that holy Sattvavajra addressed him with these words:
For all the Buddhas of the three times,
The unsought appearance of light
Is a magical trove,
A self-luminous mirror,
A magnificent light,
A heart-treasury of vajra secrets.
Lord,
This is what I ask:
Please explain how to use the magnificent method
Of neither seeking nor working toward
The jewel trove that equals the end of the sky
To achieve it.
Then the Great Vajrasattva proclaimed these words:
O Mahasattva,
The stages of achievement
Will be understood clearly
Through the specific qualities
Of the basis for achieving the heart-essence of wisdom,
The path that makes us understand it,
And the fruition that has already been done.
The basis for the Dharma that is not to be achieved,
And not to be sought,
The transmission of luminescent wisdom,
Which is not to be acquired,
Is the non-duality of Buddhas and sentient beings.
Without our working on it,
Without any search,
Light blazes in the sun
Of the heart-essence of wisdom.
It is free from all things.
It shines in the heart-essence of wisdom.
It blazes in the light of the wisdom of awareness.
The desire for heaps of things
To bring us our self-luminescent desires
Is a blessing that comes by itself.
It does not come or go.
It pervades the ten directions.
The heart-essence of awareness
Is equally in everything,
Like the end of the vast sky.
It is luminous in its pervasiveness.
It is not a material thing.
The wisdom that abandons limitations,
And is free from all things,
Transcends the objects of our ideas,
Whatever they may be.
The definition that does not define
Is that wisdom is pervasive like the sky.
The light of the sky
Is free from ideas, applications, and visualizations.
It cuts through the complications
Made by extreme positions about origins and applications.
This is obvious to those who have knowledge.
There is noting that exemplifies
The transmission of self-luminosity.
It has no validations.
E Ma’o!
This is the mirror of clarity.
E Ma’o!
It is beyond the conventionalities of words.
Without our seeking it,
It shines out like the light of the sun.
It is uncontrived.
It does not abide.
It has no structure.
Without our seeking it,
It shines out like the light of the sun.
Those who dwell on the path that is not worked on
Are wise in the pathways of omniscience.
Our awareness is engaged
In the wheel of self-luminous awareness,
Without our desire or engaging in it.
Clarity and the uncontrived are non-dual,
So those with understanding will use
The way of non-duality
To succeed.
We don’t do anything.
We don’t contemplate anything.
We do not hold onto limitations.
We have no center.
Which has no borders,
We use the wheel of an unattached mind
To cut through ideas that cling to definitions.
Turn the prow of non-dual awareness!
Look at the Tantras that are not written!
Listen to the sound of self-luminous awareness!
The intent of unspeakable awareness
Is the way that self-luminosity abides in everything.
We use a wheel of exemplification
To join with the intent of equanimous wisdom.
The unsought and unpursued Bodhicitta
Abides like the light of our friend and protector,
The sun.
For the Dharma of Akaniṣṭa,[70]
Awareness is the basis,
Which is clarified to be a method
Towards self-originating awareness.
The wheel of primordially luminescent perfection
Is not for those with polluted attitudes
Devoted to origins and applications.
The dominion of the Dharma of self-luminous awareness
Has no width or narrowness.
It is the abode of all things.
Yogins who dwell on this, without searching,
Will succeed by placing themselves
Into this abundance,
Without being distracted.
This is how yogins who are clear
Will open the magical door of awareness
At the palace of the highest Dharma.
Insurmountable piles of jewels are there,
In the mandala of supremely luminescent light.
Such are the methodical stages.
They are the stages by which
Those who enter through the door of these things
Will be perfectly clear about the meaning
Of what they are working on.
As an analogy,
They bring him the things that he values.
If we gained control of them,
We would get anything that we wanted,
Just as we prefer it,
With the benefit of having no search or toil.
These stages of methods
Use exemplifications of material things,
And a knowledge that maintains positions and preferences,
To likewise attain a mere part of something wonderful.
Our awareness achieves self-empowerment
By dwelling in the way things are,
And not by searching,
And so we remain in the highest awareness
Of supreme bliss,
As if it were the unsought light of the sun.
We use definitions
To engage in this self-originating awareness
That has no definition,
While our true fruition
Is equal to the end of the sky.
We attain it with self-luminous awareness itself.
Awareness that has no position
Is pervasively encompassing,
But if we do not have the causes
That make wisdom clear,
We might travel and cleanse for innumerable eons,
But we will not see the light of secret jewels.
Just as a house of jewels makes its stores shine,
Self-luminous awareness shines from within.
Just as a gem-stone of great power makes things clear,
We will be done with our perspectives on reality.
The fruition of self-luminosity appears to us
In the way that the ocean’s waves appear to us.
Compassion that has no position or preference
Arises in those who live,
It does not maintain the six extreme positions,
And is a glory for all living beings,
Like the light of the sun that is not thwarted.
A king who has no concern for those who live
Has not appeared.
It is impossible that this happen.
There is no self-luminous fruition for the wise,
Who hold to the Tantras,
While they continue to maintain births and endings.
They will achieve their own level,
But will not make it to the end.
We may grant the empowerments of samadhi and of implements
To those who do not have the empowerment
Of the ultimate royal investiture.
It will truly place them
At the level of Buddhahood,
But it is like turning rocks into gold.
Once they receive the awareness empowerment of royal investiture,
They will shine out like blazing jewels.
When they receive the empowerment of luminous awareness,
And are introduced to the meanings of the symbols.
They will have no pride.
They will spin into unity with the wisdom of knowledge.
The mudra of playfulness will be clear to them
Without distortions,
And due to the specific qualities of unsought awareness,
They will shine out,
Like the jewel light of true attainment.
So he spoke.
From the Great Tantra Equal to the End of the Sky, this is the sixteenth chapter: Becoming Successful without a Search.
Teachings on Good Works that are Effortless
Then the holy Sattvavajra addressed the Tathagata Vajrasattva with these words:
The playfulness in the bodies, speech, and minds
Of all the Buddhas of the three times
Dawns on us without a search,
And our good works are spontaneously completed without work.
This is the substance of all self-luminosity.
Lord,
This is what I ask:
Please make it work with the way things are
That the good works we engage in
And the good work of unsought awareness
Are joined together.
Then the Tathagata Vajrasattva proclaimed these words:
O Mahasattva,
Spontaneously achieved awareness is not to be sought.
Having no position and being self-originating
Are not two things.
This is spontaneously completed good work,
Without origins or applications made by dualistic conceptions.
The blessings of awareness are spread forth
As if there were endings,
But the details of their non-existence
Are inconceivable.
Our minds are engaged in a luminous mirror.
Spontaneously perfected good work,
That is effortless,
Is a circle of bliss,
It exists just as it is luminous.
Whatever there may be
Is perfected in this single awareness.
The light rays of this heap of jewels
Spin into duality and then beam out again.
They don’t do anything.
Each and every thing
Is doing the good work of our awareness,
Which does everything.
The clarity of unsought wisdom
Is equal in all things.
It pervades everything.
The good works of effortless awareness
Are deeds that have no position.
They spread out like light.
Our deeds are primordially done.
There is nothing to do.
The work of the highest vajra sky
Is to stick our awareness
We use the way of self-apparent awareness
To open the door,
Of the methods of the mirror of wisdom.
Non-dual self-luminescence
The wisdom that we experience
Has no boundary or center.
It is the unspeakable mirror of our awareness.
The way that we look at it
Is the way that it is clear.
To those who open awareness’s door of coins
With a magical key,
We show a blazing heap of jewels.
We play in the treasure
Of the treasury of the sky.
The good works that are methods
For the doors to the vehicles
Are separate doors
Through which we rope in what we want.
An accounting of the ways of our preferences
Would be inconceivable.
No matter which methodical good works we have been taught,
This will be clarified at the door of self-originating awareness,
As if it followed upon the deeds we have done.
Whatever we engage in,
All good works without exception,
Are perfected in a single moment
In self-luminous awareness.
We dwell with the intent
Of self-liberating awareness.
Through the doors of awareness that seeks
We become engaged in this and that,
And employ ourselves on a path of ideas.
We become attached to definitions,
So the instructions of empowerment
Follow the trails of definitions for ideas.
We lose the intent of self-luminous awareness.
We engage ourselves in the way of word-sounds for symbols,
And we continue on through the nine renowned abodes of samsara.
When we engage ourselves along the trails
Of each and every thing,
We enter onto the pathway
Of samsara’s definitions.
With attachments to the left and right,
All our instructions
Turn us away from our objective:
Great happiness.
We lose the light of transcendent wisdom.
We are lost in the fog,
And are totally in the shadows.
Like blind men showing the road
To the blind,
We toss off the intent of self-luminous wisdom,
And then seek wisdom,
Wanting to succeed.
We attach duality
To the significance of non-duality.
We cling to visualizations
Of objectives that are not to be visualized.
To view the wisdom of awareness that has no position.
We are turned backwards.
We are in contradiction with the intent
Of the good works of unsought awareness
Not being achieved through searching.
Ideas that follow the trails
Of the clear light of equanimity,
Which is not to be engaged in,
Turn us backwards.
The shadows of our habits
Do not shine forth
From out of the oil lamp of unobstructed clarity.
To count and conceptualize
Good works that are countless and beyond thought
Is a work of reversion.
Nothing whatever is made in the mind,
So the conceptions we make up in our minds
Are delusions.
The good works of awareness play in everything,
And we are primordially aware of this cooperation,
Yet we do not understand
The meaning of self-luminous good works,
And do not use the light that makes things luminous
To signify it.
Everything dwells in self-luminous light.
This is the transmission of undistorted self-luminescence.
It abides as it is,
Without our action.
It is spontaneously formed.
The transmission of settling ourselves,
Without words and without a search,
Does not follow the trails of visualized objects.
It uses the methods of equanimous self-luminescence
To see.
The transmission of the method of vajra self-luminescence
Has nothing for us to do.
It is perfected in a single moment.
We use the upadeśa
Of pouring ourselves, like water,
Into self-luminous awareness,
Without a position,
To grant the upadeśa that introduce the meanings of the symbols
From out of the center of our secret heart space.
We use the upadeśa of being like the water in a vase
For the transmission of the supreme yoga of immovability.
Unpolluted playfulness is our natural abode.
We settle into it without holding on,
Without visualizing it.
This heap of self-luminescent jewels
Is something that is hidden by nine darknesses,
But will be seen by the lamp that illuminates them.
Our minds engage in the uncontrived abundance there is
When self-luminous awareness is settled in contentment.
Which has no origins or applications,
To be a palace of awareness,
The dominion of the Dharma,
A secret heart of certainty,
Then we teach the transmission
Of the Vajra Guru’s inspiration.
The way to engage in the unions we desire
Must be learned from our guru, personally.
After we have pleased our Vajra Guru
He will teach us the magnificent method
Of fluid awareness.[71]
The upadeśa for an uncontrived path of practice
Are called: “Looking the upadeśa in the face.”
The upadeśa that give birth to awareness
Appear by themselves
From out of the doors of the things we desire.
Look at your Vajra Master in the face!
The upadeśa for self-arising wisdom
Are born within the definitions that cling to conceptions.
We will know the measure of the time for certain
Through the transmissions of our Vajra Guru.
In the one place of undirected awareness
There is the yoga of sky meditation.
We will understand with certainty the teachings
On the way of the transmission of meditation,
Through the scattered magic words of our Master.
This treasure of awareness is a method for moving elephants.
We must study its way of practice.
The true measure of what our awareness experiences
Is to be learned from our guru, personally.
A Vajra Guru who continues to speak
Will not speak about granting the empowerment of royal investiture,
But the undeceiving transmission of royal investiture
Into our minds
Is an upadeśa on the awareness of blessings.
It is a self-luminous wheel.
Its applications are methodical good works.
Those who do not have the upadeśa of the aural transmission
May define anything,
With minds that they make up by themselves,
But they will not understand this transmission.
Those who lack the instructions of the ascertained transmission
Use masters who do not have the aural transmission,
Who lack the ascertained significance themselves,
And part themselves from others.
Both of these become causes for their downfall.
They will not turn out to be Vajra Gurus.
If we do not take the upadeśa respectfully
We will be decimated by the Vajra Lord of Secrets.
There is no need to talk about students who have no commitment.
So he spoke.
From the Great Tantra Equal to the End of the Sky, this is the seventeenth chapter: Teachings on Good Works that are Effortless.
There is Nothing to Travel towards or Study
Then that holy Sattvavajra addressed him with these words:
For all the Buddhas of the three times,
The true nature of the path
Is that it is not to be travelled on.
Where would we go by travelling?
This is the supreme level of primordial awareness.
Lord,
This is what I ask you:
Please explain to me definitively
The true nature of the levels and the paths
That is beyond our positions on engagement and travel.
Then the Tathagata Vajrasattva proclaimed these words:
O Mahasattva,
The Tantra Equal to the End of the Sky
Is by nature a path that is not to be travelled on.
We do not go on it by travelling over it.
When self-arising awareness truly appears to us,
We are there in a single moment,
Without going there.
On the path of going,
We have an objective,
So going by means of travelling
Is a very long road.
Self-originating awareness moves into unity.
It expands and contracts
In self-luminous light.
In self-originating awareness
We are Buddhas,
Free from the flow
Of samsara’s pathways.
Both nirvana and the river of samsara
Melt into self-luminous light.
Indivisible awareness is the best of embodiments.
The self-luminous transmission of awareness does not travel.
Through travelling and going
We reach ourselves.
There are no Dharmas that are not self-luminous.
The clear light of wisdom has no center or border.
We are free from all grasping.
We do not visualize anything.
The transmission of pervasive and shining great bliss,
Which brings us what we want,
Is a dominion of the Dharma that is non-dual,
And has no limits.
It is not nirvana.
It is not samsara.
We may travel everywhere in the ten directions,
But there is no objective
Other than self-luminous awareness.
This is different than anything we have experienced.
The wisdom of clear light is a space of happiness.
It is Vajrasattva’s great bliss.
It has no distractions.
It is apart from the causes we define.
This is the self-originating transmission
That is famed for being miraculous.
Once we have met up with the symbols
For self-luminescent wisdom,
We will be the equals of Śī Nalandra.
The dumb may savor the taste of delight,
But lack a method to exemplify it in words.
Everything is enveloped in the taste of great bliss,
And is not to be limited by: “Think of this,”
Or: “This is the measure.”
The path that has no going
Is not to be travelled over.
The ten levels and five paths are ideas.
Our state is the way we move through
The self-luminescence of the bountiful dominion of the Dharma.
Where will our travel to the palace of the self-apparent sky
Ever end?
We dwell forever in self-luminous light.
The way that this is so
Is obvious to our awareness.
The way it appears is how it is.
The way we perceive it
Is our dominion of the Dharma.
This is how we move into the state of self-luminescence.
It is the level of Buddhahood,
Which is not something to be travelled toward.
The heart of the path of self-luminescence,
Which is not to be sought,
Holds the wheel of an awareness of wisdom.
It spins around us,
And joins into us.
It has spokes of soundless speaking.
The transmission of the mind of the uniqueness of reality
Is a pervasively encompassing awareness
That has no position or preference.
It is pervasively diffused.
This clarity holds the heart-essence of wisdom.
Our awareness is perfected
In the dimension of self-luminosity.
Awareness of the luminous pierces and bores through
The dominion of wisdom we have placed ourselves within.
If we do not have the wisdom of self-luminous awareness,
This will not happen.
So it is that our path is to proclaim
The teachings of soundless awareness
Of self-originating awareness.
Awareness touches the end of the vast sky,
A dominion that does not expand or contract.
We use a supreme non-dual awareness
To hold the spokes of self-originating awareness.
We are stamped with the seal of self-luminosity,
Which has no limits,
And live in a way that we do not transgress it.
Ten thousand ideas about craving
Expand and contract in the dominion of clear light.
The transmission of the dominion of conceptualized wisdom[72]
Is obvious in its unity.
It may manifest as anything.
This is, itself, self-evident.
Don’t look anywhere!
Look at yourself!
You don’t see anything!
All the places we may travel
Will be full of things,
But there never was a second to gold.
Any stages or paths we may travel
Will part us from the travelling
Of self-luminescent wisdom.
Awareness is the dominion of the Dharma of Akaniṣṭa.
Awareness is a blazing abode of self-luminescence.
It is the secret dwelling of all the Victorious Ones.
There is no other.
This is the transmission of primordial self-luminescence.
Samsara is the miraculous occurrence of primordial Buddhahood.
It is like a baby garuda in an egg.
It expands and contracts,
Like the waters of the ocean,
Till it arrives at itself.
The self-evident wisdom of the heart
Is beyond all the shadows of limitations.
The mandala of self-luminous awareness
Resembles the primordial heart of the sun.
Those who live do not understand this,
But the basis of their delusion
Is made from the heart essence of wisdom.
Those who have the methods of self-luminous awareness
Understand this.
This is how they wake up.
It is merely adventitious,
But they discuss it broadly.
Both the maintenance of a basis and adventitious conditions
They are reverted Dharmas.
The conventionalities of delusion and reversion, however,
Are not in the minds of those who are truly empowered.
In the heart-essence of uncontrived enlightenment,
We cut through the conventionalities of all these things.
There are no limits.
There are no boundaries to a center.
There is no center.
Its boundaries are the same.
They are nowhere at all.
We use self-luminous awareness itself
To understand them.
When we divide up the ways of virtue and evil,
Making one thing into a duality
That we reject or acquire,
We will be born into a higher or lower abode
Among the realms of desire.
We will not achieve freedom.
This is a cause for our being shackled.
Through the practices of renunciation and adaptation,
We gradually travel toward an achievement of the basis
Until we abide in this basis.
This is of no use to the living.
Its result is the equivalent of death.
There are just a few practices of benefit to others
In the meditations on impermanence, change, dual designation,[73]
And the ways that dependent connections arise and are reversed,
But their results are childish,
As if there were none.
Once we accept the illusory way
Of there being two truths,
We take the false path
Of abandoning the world
For three immeasurable eons
To reach the end of the five paths and ten levels.
There is one,
But we take it as being higher or lower.
It is pure,
But we take it as being two or three.
We desire to be Vajra Holders,
With an understanding of the eleventh level,
And chase after it like a mirage.
We engage in duality,
While taking it to be indefinite.
Then, through the doors
Of the miraculous basis for our awareness
We want to be Vajra Holders,
And use magical forecasts
To get some level of definite result.
We take samadhi to be a type of awareness,
And set it up with a ritual of five branches,
To travel toward the level of Dense Array.
So we are forever in a shadow.
We use the emptiness of appearance,
To spin a mandala of three samadhis.
We cleanse ourselves on the paths of generation and perfection,
Be they twelve, fourteen, or sixteen,
And unite ourselves with inexhaustible insights.
Then we use sixteen hundred things
For the level of the great mass of letter wheels.
We get what we want personally,
But do not have the clear light.
We look at things in terms of a pure wisdom,
Where our dominion and our wisdom
Are a cause and a result.
The force of our awareness,
To broadcast the lights of innumerable deities.
We use a non-dual awareness
For the supreme level of Vajrasattva.
We achieve our own level,
But we do not achieve our ends.
The conditions are lacking,
And we contradict the intent of our own awareness.
All of these are bonds and fetters made by craving.
We have parted from the dominion
Of self-originating clear light.
The sun of self-luminescent wisdom
Has set.
We actually apply methods of engagement
To the clear light of self-luminescent wisdom,
And apply ourselves brilliantly to study, contemplation, and meditation,
Then we blaze in the light of self-luminescent wisdom.
We melt into the dominion of self-luminous awareness.
We abide in the one circle that is blazing light.
We must use our belief
In abandoning avariciousness
For the things we are attached to,
Those that please our hearts,
Those who are dear to us,
And all our stores,
We use the blessings of self-luminous awareness,
Faith, and the power of our purity
To cleanse the sky, the water, and the moon,
And they appear to us as if they were pure.
There are those for whom
The power of this luminescence
Is not visible.
This is because they use the way of non-existence.
But those who have the resolve of self-luminescent awareness
Guide these rude young boys,
And get a lot of extra blessings.
We do this with the resolve of self-liberating awareness.
This happens after we are wise and aware.
Those who have the transmission
Of the Victorious One’s contemplation
Are moistened by the waters they receive
From the faces of the aural transmission.
They open the door to the treasure of secret awareness.
They have received empowerment,
And are wise in the connections between symbols and meanings,
As well as in their immediate purposes.
This is not contrived.
It is a mind that has settled itself.
Compassion is taught to purify samsara.
Those who have given up on fame in the world,
Who are stable and who persevere,
Who do not hold onto their heads, bodies, or possessions,
Will open the door to the treasure of secret wisdom,
For they will open the door of the citta,[74]
And make designations about the particular differences
There are between the senses,
By way of the sounds of magical words.
For their application of methods,
They immerse themselves in contrived methods,
Then settle themselves into the significance
Of self-luminous awareness.
They have little reverence or learning.
They lack the strength to have self-luminescent ideas,
But they find the strength to immerse themselves,
And settle into the significance of self-awareness properly.
Those who examine the mandala of the mind well
Will be striving to get to the heights of the Dakinis.
If we explain the upadeśa of the aural transmission
To students that have faults,
And do not understand the grim prospects there are in secrets,
Our lives will be taken by terrible sorrows.
As quickly as a rapid motion,
In a way that is unobstructed,
We will fall into a vajra abode,
And be parted from the family of Bodhisattvas.
A mind that is immersed
Does not engage its awareness in anything.
It does not follow the trail
This is how we use the way of uncontrived awareness
To look into the mirror of self-luminosity.
Right when something appears
It is essentially empty.
Right when it is empty,
It is clear as light.
We use the way of non-dual meeting
To illuminate the dominion of the Dharma,
Without disturbing it or holding onto it.
As it is with an oil lamp and the darkness,
Being one in the way of non-duality,
We do not engage in any conceptions whatever.
We do not emit any degree of warmth whatsoever.
We settle ourselves where there are no memories,
In self-luminescence.
We dwell in our uncontrived true nature.
An analogy is that this resembles
A river that is both fierce and calm.
It is certain that by taking self-luminosity into our experience
We are engaging in the space of our awareness as it is.
If a prophesied guru should teach
The significance of this
To a student who has been ascertained to be a regent,
He will turn samsara into a path of enlightenment.
He will cast down the prisons
He will engage at the level of the gurus,
Which is not to be travelled toward.
By surmounting one level,
He will surmount all the levels.
The supreme level of Vajrasattva
Elucidates everything perfectly,
Using an omniscient wisdom,
Without confusion.
So he spoke.
From the Great Tantra Equal to the End of the Sky, this is the eighteenth chapter: There is Nothing to Travel towards or Study.
