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Homage

Homage to glorious Samantabhadra!

Buddha from the first,
The ground of actual enlightenment,
Beyond all change and present of itself,
The space of adamantine essence, indestructible—
This is the nature of the mind,
The natural great perfection.
Nothing do I take and nothing do I cast aside—
Nothing comes and nothing goes.
Thus it is that I bow down in homage.

The expanse of the nature inexpressible of all phenomena,
The culmination of all views and different from them all,
The all-transcending meaning of the Great Perfection
I shall now explain according to my realization.
Listen!

The ultimate and quintessential view
Belonging to the mind, space, pith instruction classes
Lies in nonexistence, evenness,
Spontaneous presence, single nature.
Each of these four has in turn four aspects:
Their key points are revealed, essentialized, subsumed,
A clear conviction is then gained in their regard.

Nonexistence

1. First, I demonstrate the principle of nonexistence. Nonexistence means the absence of intrinsic being. In the great expanse of the enlightened mind, which is like space, Whatever may appear has no intrinsic being. 2. In the vast expanse, the womb of space, The universe, the beings it contains, And the four elements in constant flux Are simply empty forms without intrinsic being. The things appearing in the enlightened mind Are just the same. 3. Illusory reflections, however they appear, Are unreal, empty by their nature. Likewise, all things in phenomenal existence, In the very moment of appearing, Never stir from the enlightened mind. They have no real existence. 4. Dream visions, never stirring from the state of sleep, In the very moment they are seen, are utterly unreal. Likewise, all phenomenal existence, Both samsara and nirvana, Never stirs from the enlightened mind. It is unreal, devoid of features. 5. Although phenomena appear within the mind, They are not the mind and are not separate from the mind. They are nonexistent And yet, like illusions, clearly appear. They are ineffable and inconceivable. They defy expression. Understand therefore that all phenomena Appearing in the mind are nonexistent In the very moment that they are perceived. 6. Just as apparent objects are by nature nonexistent, So too the subject, the enlightened mind, Like space, has no existence by its nature. Ineffable and inconceivable and inexpressible— It’s thus that you should understand it. 7. Because in self-arisen primal wisdom, Ultimate quintessence, There is neither cause nor fruit, Samsara’s vast abyss is crossed. Because there is no good or bad, Samsara and nirvana are the same. Because there is no deviation and no obscuration, The three existences are clearly understood. 8. In the nature of the mind, enlightened, similar to space, There are no sides and no directions, no duality. Therein there is no view, no meditation, And no pledges to observe. There is in it no effortful activity; There are no veils obscuring primal wisdom. There is no training on the grounds, no path to be traversed. There is no “subtle thing”; Since [gross and subtle] are not two, There is no link between them. Ascription of existence and denial are both transcended; Thus there is no good or bad. All is an expanse in which, as on a golden isle, There is no differentiation. The self-arisen nature of the mind, Like space without existence, Defies description and expression. 9. Since the ultimate quintessence— Awareness, open, unimpeded— Cannot be contrived, It is not improved by virtue. It is unchangeable, So evil does no harm to it. Since there’s neither action nor its fruit, There is no ripening of joy and sorrow. Since in it there is no good or bad, There’s nothing to be taken or rejected— No samsara, no nirvana. Since there is no thought and no expression, Awareness is a space devoid of such elaborations. Since there are no past or future lives, A line of incarnations is but imputation. What birth is taken? Who is born and where? What action is there? What is its maturing fruit? Everything is similar to space. Think about this and reflect on it. 10. Even though you may investigate with reasoning, Pondering, reflecting time and time again, The parts of things have no reality. For not a single particle is found. There is no partless instant; There is no apprehended and no apprehender. In this very moment, everything abides Within the quintessential fundamental nature. When examined, things have no existence. Likewise, when left unexamined, They have no existence either. Even on the level of conventionality, Since nothing can be found, Phenomena in all respects and always Are without existence. Understand that they resemble magical illusions, Lacking all reality. 11. In the very moment they encounter Dreams and magical illusions, Childish beings ignorantly cling To their supposed existence And are taken in by them. But those who understand their nature Cannot be deceived thereby. In just the same way, those who do not know That things have no existence Cling to all such things as real, And caught by them, they circle in samsara. Yogis skilled in understanding suchness Resolve that things lack true existence In the very moment they perceive them. Therefore, they find freedom In the space of dharmatā beyond the law Of karmic cause and fruit. 12. The enlightened nature of the mind Is neither permanent nor discontinuous. It is the natural dwelling place of primal wisdom Devoid of apprehender and an object to be apprehended. Awareness, naked and devoid of causes and effects, Is the abode of that one sphere Wherein there is no virtue and no sin. Awareness, open, unimpeded, free of center and periphery, Is the natural dwelling of the wisdom mind Of the dharmakāya Samantabhadra. The essential core of nonexistence, Awareness, self-cognizing and enlightened, Is clearly revealed. It is completely pure and objectless, The primal wisdom of Victorious Ones. 13. In the case of yogis of illusion, The self-experience of awareness Arises as the ceaseless show of things without existence. Such yogis are convinced that in the moment of appearing, Phenomena have no existence. They therefore do not make the slightest effort— Accepting some, rejecting others. With spacious minds relaxed without a care, They rest within the state of leaving Everything just as it is. 14. Childish beings, taken in by nonexistent things, Resemble thirsty animals that look for water in a mirage. Expecting to find truth in false, mistaken theories, They are deceived by different tenets, Assuming their reality. Now if this error of the common intellect, Belonging to the gradual vehicles, eight in all, Is not removed, the ultimate quintessence is not seen. 15. Atiyoga is the ultimate expanse, Transcending every category. There is nothing whatsoever—just a space-like nature. In this very instant there is not the slightest movement From the fundamental stratum of the dharmakāya. When you rest in the primordial expanse, The natural great bliss is present of itself. 16. If awareness, wisdom’s secret state, You do not realize, You will not find freedom Through the virtuous deeds that you may fabricate. Don’t you understand? Conditioned things all pass, Are destined to disintegrate. How can this tight knot Of body, speech, and mind Come into contact with The ultimate and indestructible quintessence? 17. So if you wish to realize The sublime fundamental nature of phenomena, Leave aside all things that are like childish games, That fetter and exhaust you In your body, speech, and mind. The state of nonexistence, the expanse devoid Of mind’s activity, is the nature of phenomena. It is the dharmatā, the dwelling place Of natural great perfection. Within this all-pervading state devoid of action, Which goes beyond all thoughts, Behold the great and uncontrived equality. Decisive certainty will come that it transcends Causality and striving. 18. In awareness, there’s no outer object to be apprehended; There’s no inner apprehending subject. In awareness, there is neither time nor place. Awareness is beyond phenomena that arise and cease. It is pure like space— No vehicles can guide you to it. All thoughts about it are mistaken, For they invest phenomena with an identity. Cast away this ground for deviation and obscuring veils. Be convinced that everything without distinction Has the nature of Samantabhadra, The great and all-pervading state of emptiness. Keep to the state of dharmatā Beyond all change and movement. By doing this you soar amid the sky-like spaces of the view, The primordial expanse that rests in no extreme. All the key points of the nonexistence of phenomena Are herein set forth.

19. The key points of the nonexistence Of phenomena are thus revealed. Subsequently, in the state that’s free of meditation, Where all is left alone and uncontrived, just as it is, A state without acceptance or rejection of whatever happens, These same points are essentialized within awareness: The equality, the evenness of the vast expanse of mind. 20. Natural great bliss, The vajra space that’s indestructible, Is supreme absorption that is present of itself Without the need for cultivating it. It is there at all times like a flowing river. If you stay in evenness, within a state That’s free of all contrivance, It clearly and naturally manifests. 21. When you settle properly in space-like dharmatā, There is no change or movement. Therefore, there’s no wandering and no absence of the same. This ultimate expanse, supreme and infinite, Is inseparably present in all things. It is not some sphere that words can indicate. Those whose wisdom has burst forth, Those for whom awareness comes unprompted, Those whose minds are unencumbered, Even though they have engaged in study— Yogis who experience the ineffable and inconceivable— Are completely certain that this state Transcends both indication and non-indication. They find neither meditation Nor anything on which to meditate. And thus they need not slay The foes of lethargy and agitation. 22. Appearances and mind Are free and open from the outset— Nonexistence is their essence. Hallucinatory appearances Have as their natural state The vast expanse of evenness, the dharmatā. They constantly subsist within the dharmakāya, Seamlessly arising and subsiding, Remaining in the one expanse of bliss. Arising, they arise spontaneously, Keeping their own nature. Remaining, they remain spontaneously, Keeping their own nature. Subsiding, they subside spontaneously, Keeping their own nature. They arise, remain, subside Within the vast expanse of dharmatā. They come from nowhere else, Being simply the display of dharmakāya. They are the empty forms Of the self-experience of awareness. They are not different from each other; They are neither good nor bad, Abiding in their ultimate quintessence. 23. Whatever may arise, whatever may appear, Whatever states of movement or of stillness may occur— Five poisons and the rest, Arising from awareness’s creative power— When their nature is detected in their moment of arising, These same displayed appearances arrive at their exhaustion. They vanish without leaving any trace. When the mind perceives its objects, The key point is to leave all as it is In its equality. The key point is to leave all without trace— Just like the flight path of a bird— Within primordial wisdom, self-arisen. The key point is that all things And the ultimate expanse are one, Like water and its waves. All things are, from the very first, essentialized Within this one key point of the great secret. Simply knowing this brings freedom, For it is simply the nature of phenomena. 24. Constantly within the great expanse, Awareness, self-cognizing, All arises equal and as equal dwells. All is equal in subsiding, neither good nor bad. There’s nothing that’s not equal to awareness, Nothing that does not abide, And nothing that does not subside therein. All things are essentialized As being the immense primordial expanse Of the enlightened state. 25. Within awareness, uncreated and spontaneously present, The view of the immense and natural state Arises without effort. The key point of the enlightened mind, Which lies beyond the causal law, Transcending sin and virtue, Is essentialized as the unchanging dharmatā.

26. Nonexistence, which is space-like in its nature, Subsumes within it everything without exception. Just as space subsumes the world and its inhabitants, Phenomena, the experience of ordinary mind, Are all subsumed in great primordial emptiness. 27. Samsara is a mere name. It is beyond the causal process, Beyond all effort and all undertaking. Good and evil neither help nor harm; They are the state of emptiness. Liberation too is just a name, And there is no nirvana. There’s nothing to be gained or worked for By means of the ten elements. 28. Constantly to strive in what can only bring fatigue Is to be like children building castles in the sand. All is destined to collapse. All causes and effects, All virtue and nonvirtue, and all striving and exertion— Things are from the outset all subsumed in nonexistence. 29. Yogis of the quintessential Atiyoga Should be convinced that teachings based upon causality, Designed to guide the simple, Constitute the way for those of lesser fortune, Who progress upon the upward path in stages. They should subsume the nature of their mind, Transcending all phenomena, Into the space-like absence of all action. 30. Beings are misled by action— Look at the deceptive seemings of samsara. Beings are affected by their efforts— Think of the turning wheel of suffering. From sin and virtue comes a ceaseless Stream of pain and happiness. Through their actions, beings wander In samsara high and low. No occasion do they have to flee The ocean of existence. 31. If you break the stream of virtue and nonvirtue And dwell within the dharmatā and never part from it, You are a yogi of the ultimate great secret. Free of effort and of striving, you will reach The primal ground and take the royal seat Of ever-present dharmakāya. 32. In the very moment things appear, They are beyond all misconception And all language that expresses name and meaning. All acts and all exertion based on cause and its result, Adoption of the good, rejection of the bad— All are nonexistent things And nonexistent actions, just like space. Whoever knows this has subsumed All things within the state of nonexistence.

33. The clear conviction that phenomena are nonexistent Is reached essentially as follows. Because phenomenal existence, All things in samsara and nirvana, Is without intrinsic being, It transcends the status of existence. Since it is unceasing in the way that it appears, It transcends the state of nonexistence. Not existent and not nonexistent, It transcends the state of being both. Not being both, It goes beyond the state of being neither. Being neither both nor neither, Its ultimate quintessence Is beyond all thought and word, Beyond all indication. 34. The nature of phenomena is primordially pure, But childish beings, ignorant of this, Adopt some things, and others they reject. Clinging to their various views, they’re permanently fettered. Clinging to the features they perceive, how pained they are! Clinging to a self in what is nonexistent, how they are deluded! Clinging to the aspects of the aspectless, how they tire themselves! Drifting in samsara constantly, how pitiful they are! 35. The sun of ultimate reality, awareness, self-arisen, Is covered by white clouds of virtue And black clouds of sin. And it is overwhelmed by lightning bolts: Passionate endeavor in adopting and rejecting. Beings thus are drenched in pouring rains, The false appearances of happiness and sorrow. These bring samsara’s seeds to ripeness As the crop of six migrations. Beings are tormented, and how pitiful they are! 36. Just as ropes and golden chains bind equally, Virtuous and unvirtuous states Bind equally the ultimate, definitive quintessence. Clouds, black and white, enshroud the sky in equal measure. Likewise, virtue and nonvirtue equally obscure awareness. It is crucial thus to understand That yogis who have realized suchness See beyond the causal law of virtue and of sin. 37. Self-arisen wisdom wells up from within. The dark night of causality is scattered. The massing clouds of good and evil melt away. The sun of ultimate luminosity Shines in the sky of dharmadhātu— You gain a clear and final certainty. You come to this conviction Without need of the ten elements. All the causal vehicles are surpassed thereby. 38. You reach a clear conviction That awareness—self-cognizing, open, unimpeded, Free of all appearance, Beyond all concentrated meditation on an object, Devoid of all conceptual construction— Is the state wherein phenomena are all exhausted. They are all exhausted in awareness. Awareness, too, as a phenomenon, Itself comes to exhaustion. “Exhaustion,” “non-exhaustion”— Yogis understand them both to be unreal. They are convinced beyond all doubt That things transcend existence, nonexistence, Definition, and expression. Without a point of reference, thinking “It is this,” Yogis are enveloped in an all-pervading vastness. For them phenomena are all exhausted, The ordinary mind is passed beyond. And for such yogis what a joy this is, A joy that is a seamless state of dharmatā! In this, the yogis of the past, the future, And the present time are merged With the single ultimate expanse of wisdom mind. The realization of such yogis equals That of buddhas and vidyādharas. 39. This same expanse, unchanging, Unconditioned, indivisible, Is the space of self-arisen primal wisdom That transcends all effort and all striving. It is the same expanse wherein phenomena Transcend mere names, All thought and all expression. In this dimension of Samantabhadra, Which is free of action, Everything that there appears Is nothing but Samantabhadra’s vast expanse. And in Samantabhadra’s ultimate expanse, There are no appearances; there’s no emptiness; There is neither good nor bad. When what does not exist is taken as existent, Identifying labels are affixed To what is but a false hallucination. But even as the labeling takes place, There’s no hallucination and no absence of the same. clear conviction thus is reached That phenomena transcend all names. Such is the fundamental nature Of the natural great perfection. 40. Thus you’re clearly certain that all things Within phenomenal existence, samsara and nirvana, Are neither hallucinations nor are they not hallucinations, And that nirvana is not gained by shunning of samsara. You are certain that phenomena are neither born nor unborn. All the objects that you clung to—origin, cessation, Existence, nonexistence—all are now transcended. Convinced that things are neither pure nor impure, You see them as a space of evenness, As neither good, to be adopted, Nor as bad, to be rejected. You reach a clear conviction that all things Are within Samantabhadra’s vast expanse.

Those to Whom This Teaching May Be Given

1. This essence of the vehicle most profound Should be revealed exclusively To those who clearly have Both supreme fortune and intelligence. It should be withheld From those who bigotedly cling To lesser vehicles and to the causal principle, From those who are of lesser fortune and intelligence. 2. From those who criticize their teacher, Who show aggression to their vajra kindred, Who betray the secret, speaking of it openly, Faithless and tightfisted, of an evil disposition, Who are engrossed in temporal things— From all these keep the teachings secret. 3. Those of highest caliber, endowed with fortune, Are the proper vessels for the Great Perfection. They respect their teachers and possess great knowledge. They are joyful and broad-minded, Faithful friends and generous. They are without ambitious thoughts And have but little clinging. They give up all preoccupation for this present life And are intent on winning their enlightenment. Endowed with faith and diligence, They are able to maintain the secret. These are those to whom The teachings should be given. 4. With presents they should please their teachers, And in a spirit of commitment They should wholeheartedly request instruction. When the teaching has been granted, They should practice it correctly And reach the level of exhaustion of phenomena In the fundamental nature. 5. Teachers should be very learned, Possessing all required qualities. They should examine their disciples And gradually bestow on them the key instructions. But they should keep these teachings From unsuitable recipients. They should mark them with the seal of secrecy And hide them with the seal of their entrustment. 6. To the children of the teacher’s heart, The fortunate of high capacity, Essential teachings, definitive in meaning, Should be granted. 7. And they in turn must not divulge to all This essence, which is ultimate and free from all decline. They must keep it undiminished As the essence of their practice. If the secret door is compromised, Punishment is sure to come. Through misinterpretation, The essential teachings will recede. Disciples therefore must maintain the secret And keep their masters joyful company. They will reach within this very life The everlasting kingdom of the dharmakāya.

Conclusion

1. This teaching has disclosed
Directly, without hiding anything,
The view of the sublime and secret
Great Perfection.
May it naturally and without effort
Bring beings, leaving none aside,
To freedom in the space of the primordial ground.

2. This teaching, which completely covers
All the lower views,
Is the very peak of all the vehicles,
The vast space of the great garuḍa king.
May this teaching of the Atiyoga,
Superior to every other,
Be spread in all the ten directions.
May the banner of its victory be never lowered.

3. Three classes, nine expanses
All subsumed in the four principles.
The final view of all their sixteen sections
Is expounded in this Precious Treasury Of the Fundamental Nature,
Which Longchen Rabjam Zangpo
Has perfectly composed.

4. The final view that is contained In the five topics of The Treasury Of the Fundamental Nature
Is perfectly adorned with riches,
Both profound and vast.
It is made beautiful with the splendor
Of its words and meanings.
Let a host of fortunate disciples
Take great joy therein.

This concludes The Precious Treasury of the Fundamental Nature. It was composed by Longchen Rabjam, a yogi of the supreme vehicle.