Is a meeting with one who is very rare to meet.
All your myriad mundane deeds
And all your possible deluded thoughts—
Let them be in the nondual state beyond concepts.
Free of the notion of seer and seen,
While you sustain the essence of your mind,
Meditator and meditated dissolve into space,
And there is not even the words ‘meditation beyond concepts.’
This empty bliss that is unceasing
Is the kindness of the glorious father guru.
I am a yogi who gladly accepts
Meat, wine and mudra.
Like the Indian peacock feasting on poison,
All the emotions, no matter which,
Are my great adornments, the five wisdoms.
If you want to share your father’s experience, follow me!
No matter which emotion I experience,
I am an untainted yogi who brings the five poisons to the path.
All of you benefactors, male or female, high or low,
Every link you make with me will be meaningful,
And surely, you will gain rebirth on the glorious island of Chamara.
To be free of doubt has inconceivable benefit.
I am a yogi who enjoys whatever arises.
This is the domain of the vajra vehicle.
Having crossed the lesser vehicle’s conceptual boundaries,
I am a yogi who delights in the greater vehicle.
By singing this song free of mental constructs,
May your minds enjoy the vajra vehicle
And may it bring you to the glorious island of Chamara.
In the sacred place known as Serkyam, as my worthy disciples Drodön Tsogyal and Döndrub Drölma provided the auspicious coincidence with precious gifts, this was uttered by Ngawang Tsoknyi (Drubwang Tsoknyi, the First) while taking as path the vajra vehicle of Secret Mantra by enjoying the spontaneity of whatever arises. May it be virtuous. May it be virtuous. May it be virtuous.
All the great teachers of the past have taught this same, identical message: Gather the accumulations, purify the obscurations, and receive the blessings of a qualified master. In the tradition I represent, the preliminary practices and the accomplishment of the yidam deity are considered very, very important. I do not think that the buddhas and all the past masters have created them just to lead us astray.
Vajrayana contains many methods for reaching enlightenment, while presenting relatively few hardships. Some of the easiest and most accessible of these methods are devotion and compassion, along with the recognition of mind nature. Combine these with the preliminary practices and you will progress quickly. While Dzogchen is the pinnacle, the epitome, of the vehicle that is Vajrayana, it does not make sense to grab at the highest teachings and reject the rest. Similarly, it is pointless to invent your own private, personal idea of Dzogchen to train in. To do that makes your “Dzogchen” something fabricated, something you have made up. Calling your own theories Dzogchen is a foolish pretense that has nothing to do with the genuine, authentic teachings.
You see, Dzogchen is not made up of bits of information that you can collect and take home. Dzogchen is about how to be free. It is not sufficient merely to receive the Dzogchen teachings: you must apply them, live them. Right now we are still enveloped in deluded experience. We have created a cage for ourselves out of our own emotions and our sense of duality, and here we sit, day in and day out. Once we clearly understand our situation, we have a choice: either we can remain in this cage or we can use the Dzogchen instructions to break it open and become free.
With the openness of devotion, the blessings can enter our stream of being. When we fully let go with a sense of deep trust, it is possible to recognize the state of original wakefulness. This practice is not some new philosophical position, not a new concept that we acquire, but a way of completely and fully letting go of all conceptual attitudes.
To arrive at thought-free wakefulness is not impossible, nor is it necessarily very difficult. However, it does require us to accumulate merit, purify obscurations, and make a connection with a qualified master. These three extremely important conditions are repeatedly emphasized in the teachings.
Sure, we can be told, “Sit down and let go completely; just be natural.” But can we really do this? We try to let go, but actually we do not. We are still holding on—keeping hold of the letting go. We grip something else; then again we try to let go. We are always holding on to something, putting up resistance. Actually, we do not really want to let go. It is against our nature, so to speak. We prefer to retain ego control, which is a very strong habit. It does not matter how many times we are told to drop everything and be 100 percent uncontrived and natural; we still hold on to the letting go. We keep hold of what we are recognizing: “Now, now I recognize the nature of mind.” We cling to the natural state, holding on to the concept “This is it.”
In other words, although we try to let go, a part of us is still holding on. Therefore, it is never the genuine natural state. Something is needed to completely shatter this conceptual attitude, to smash it to pieces. The atmosphere of devotion provides one essential way. When we thoroughly open up in the moment of devotion, it’s as if all the coverings of our philosophical ideas, all of the wrapping, all of the concepts that we use to compartmentalize reality are totally stripped away. To be full of genuine devotion is one of the purest conceptual states. Then, if we have received the essential instruction in recognizing mind essence, we can recognize self-aware original wakefulness.
Being full of genuine compassion offers a similar possibility. When you feel sincere empathy toward all sentient beings, the purity of this emotion disperses conceptual mind. Simultaneously, your mind becomes wide open. And again in that moment, there is the opportunity, if you have received the essential instructions, to apply them. You can recognize self-knowing original wakefulness and genuinely and authentically arrive in the natural state.
Otherwise, it appears that we just refuse to be in the natural state. Certainly it is our habit not to be, and that is a very hard habit to break. This is why there
