GENTLY WHISPERED
~ 16
recognizes that this body has the clarity of the rainbow, has the unimpededness of the reflection of the moon in water, and has the insubstantialness of the reflection in a mirror. In this recognition, one has realized the nature of the body as being devoid of form. Second, one recognizes that all speech and all sound is the sound of mantra. In hearing all sound as being mantra, one recognizes that all sound is devoid of substance, insubstantial like an echo. Third, one recognizes the mind with all the thought, concepts, cognition, awareness, emotion, etc., as being similar to a wavering mirage in the distance that the deer, thinking it is water, come to drink. One recognizes that all mind, all cognition, is like a mirage which is vacant of consciousness. If one realizes the form void, the sound void, and the consciousness void, then one has completely liberated clinging. This is the basis of the path of the vajrayana. If one applies oneself to this path in the same way as Jetsiin Milarepa and many others, then one can attain complete enlightenment in this very lifetime. Even if one does not realize enlightenment in this lifetime, the blessings of the yidam and the power of the mantra enable one to realize liberation in the after-death bardo state. In either case, enlightenment transpires because one has developed and established a good habit in the practice of recognizing all phenomena as having the true nature of the form, mantra, and samadhi of the yidam. This habit can quickly instill one with the ability to realize all visual phenomena as form void, all sound as sound void, and all levels of the skandas as being inherently void of causal reality. In the bardo state after death, the mind is exactingly potent and extremely powerful. By applying the vajrayana method, one can instantly accomplish a deep state of meditation and thus gain liberation from suffering in the six realms of samsara. One can end the cycle of karmic rebirth and gain the threshold of mastery of the three yanas, thus enabling one to move in and out of substantial phenomena at will. To illustrate the way vajrayana accomplishment has been demonstrated by a great teacher, I will now tell you a story about Jetsiin Milarepa.