this to be as it is, by the ultimate bodhichitta. This is the way of acknowledging the all-encompassing purity of all that appears and exists. All-encompassing purity abides within us.
According to the Dzogchen teachings, the state of primordial enlightenment has never been confused. The basic state of buddhas is like pure gold that is not covered by any dirt. Dirt is an example of the confused thinking that temporarily takes place. If the gold always remains pure, there is no cleaning to be done and there is no achievement of purity, because it already is like that from the beginning. The state of primordial enlightenment is analogous, because self-existing wakefulness was never confused. If there is no being confused, how can we use the phrase being liberated? It is impossible, because liberation is totally dependent upon having been confused. Since the awakened state of the buddhas is not confused, you cannot really say that buddhas become liberated either. We can clear up confusion because we’ve been mistaken. Unless there is confusion, it is not possible to be liberated.
We sentient beings have the same self-existing wakefulness as the buddhas. There is no difference whatsoever in our natures. However, the self-existing wakefulness of the buddhas, all the infinite qualities, never became confused, like the gold that never became tainted. Even though we possess the same gold, ours fell in the dirt. Not knowing this dirty gold to be intrinsically pure, we fell under the power of confused thinking. This is what obscured us: our thinking. The gold of the buddhas was known to be what it is. Buddhas do not have discursive thinking. It won’t help us sentient beings to act as if we were primordially pure gold, if we have already become confused and are now unaware of our own nature. It doesn’t become true. We have to apply the practice we have, of first recognizing the view, then training in meditation, and acting in accordance with that as the conduct—thus realizing it fully as fruition. This practice is like the special chemicals that clean away dirt from gold. In other words, view, meditation, and conduct remove the confusion.
In recognizing our nature, the confusion is liberated. For buddhas, neither the words confusion nor liberation apply. The word confusion connotes “bewilderment, being mistaken, deluded.” Confusion is nothing other than the expression of rigpa that has moved in a mistaken way. As long as you are confusing yourself by your awareness being extroverted, nobody else can ever solve that. There is only you, right? Otherwise, confusion goes on and on. That is exactly what samsara is, confusion going on and on. Even though we sentient beings are buddhas, we are like the dirt-encrusted gold; we don’t recognize the gold for what it is, due to deluded thinking. In our basic essence, there is no thinking; the essence is wakefulness that is pure from the beginning. By recognizing your buddha-nature, the three kayas become an actuality.
The empty essence is dharmakaya, and the cognizant nature is sambhogakaya—awareness and the expression of awareness. We need to allow the expression of awareness, of rigpa, to be liberated. It is said that nirmanakaya recognizes sambhogakaya, which in turn recognizes dharmakaya. In awareness itself, there is neither the word liberation nor confusion. It is the expression that has fallen into conceptualizing. If the expression of rigpa recognizes itself, it dawns as knowledge, sherab. This is not the ordinary knowledge that is the outcome of learning, reflecting, and meditating. It is the real prajnaparamita, “transcendent knowledge,” the expression of awareness recognizing itself. In that moment, the expression of awareness dissolves back into awareness, and there is only the state of rigpa, which is identical to the state of primordial enlightenment of all buddhas, the state that never strayed from itself.
A famous and important quotation describes this, “When the expression moves as thinking, it is confused. When the expression dawns as knowledge, it is liberated.” That doesn’t mean there was ever any difference in the state of the essence, rigpa. The state of rigpa, buddha-nature itself, is never confused and never liberated. The confusion and liberation can only take place in the expression.
The state of original enlightenment is the essence itself, where there is no confusion and no liberation. The state of sentient beings is to be constantly absorbed in confused thinking. It is the expression, the thinking that can be liberated again. Yet, all the time, the essence was never different from that of any other buddha. That is the important point: recognize your own essence. That is also the key point in the first samadhi of suchness. Real development stage practice is not possible without the samadhi of suchness, and this suchness is not recognized without first having the nature of mind pointed out.
Lineage Supplication
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
First of all, the foundation for the Vajra Vehicle of Secret Mantra is called “tantra, scripture, and instruction”—in Tibetan, gyü lung menngag. In this context, tantra means Mahayoga, scripture means Anu Yoga, and instruction means Ati Yoga. The way in which these are interconnected is called the “fourfold linkage” or the “fourfold relatedness.” Thus, the tantras are combined or contained within the scriptures, the scriptures are contained within the instructions, the instructions are contained within the application, and the sadhana is contained in the application. Application means the “way of chanting, the actual sadhana practice.”
Regarding sadhanas, there are different ways to practice a mandala. In tantra Mahayoga, the mandala is called the “mandala as a reflection or form that is external.” At best, it is made of colored sand; next best is painted canvas; and, at minimum, it is assembled from heaped grains. By taking the support of an external mandala, the practitioner accomplishes the deity. In scripture Anu Yoga, the mandala is internal, meaning it is “within the vajra body.” The vajra body mandala is called the “three seats of completeness,” the densum tsangwey kyilkhor. In instruction Ati Yoga, the mandala is mental, or the mandala of mind. Here, mind refers to “buddha-nature,” which is present in everyone. This is the mandala used to accomplish the deity. So the intent of Mahayoga is related to or contained within the application of Anu Yoga, while the intent of Anu Yoga is contained within Ati Yoga. And, then, Ati Yoga is contained within the application of a sadhana.
Within Ati Yoga, there are different aspects: the Mahayoga aspect of Ati, the Anu aspect of Ati, and the Ati of Ati. Using a sadhana practice from the Ati Yoga perspective is called the Mahayoga of Ati, or Maha-Ati. That is the practice of the peaceful and wrathful deities we have before us here. So this practice is a sadhana that belongs to the Mahayoga section of Ati Yoga. We combine the peaceful and wrathful deities, the Shitro, with Ati Yoga, because later on, during the practice of Tögal or Direct Crossing, these peaceful and wrathful deities will unfold within our vision. Moreover, at the time of death, while in the bardos, the peaceful and wrathful deities—the intrinsic mandala—will manifest. That is the purpose of combining the peaceful and wrathful deities within a sadhana practice.
There are different ways of practicing the Shitro, according to Mahayoga, Anu Yoga, and Ati Yoga. Chokgyur Lingpa had Shitro practices for each of the three levels of inner tantras. The Mahayoga version of the Shitro sadhana is called Gyutrül, meaning The Magical Net. Chokgyur Lingpa’s terma for this is extremely extensive and yet totally identical with that of the Kama tradition, the Nyingma oral tradition. The sadhana for the Gyutrül Shitro has separate practices for both the peaceful and wrathful deities, as well as one for the combined mandala of the forty-two peaceful and fifty-eight wrathful deities. Moreover, he had a terma for the Anu Yoga version of the Shitro, called Narak Dongtruk. The terma Chokling revealed for Ati Yoga is the Kunzang Tuktig.
This sadhana is extremely condensed, yet nothing is missing. It is identical with another Ati Yoga Shitro terma, the Karling Shitro, revealed by Karma Lingpa. This terma is quite famous, and the Bardo Tödröl comes from it. The Kunzang Tuktig differs from the Karling Shitro only in size, not in essence. In fact, you will have a difficult time finding any sadhana more condensed or shorter than this one. It’s only a couple of pages long, disregarding the major sections of confessions and mending and the lineage-masters’ supplication
