CyzPadmakaraRoot

Title

In Sanskrit: Dharmadhāturatnakos˙anāma
In Tibetan: Chos dbyings rin po che’ i mdzod ces bya ba

Introduction

Homage to glorious Samantabhadra! (pmkr)

Marvelous wonder,
Present of itself from the beginning,
Primordial wisdom,
Luminous and self-­ arisen,
The enlightened mind!
This is the treasure mine from which arises
All phenomenal existence,
Samsara and nirvana,
The world and its inhabitants.
I bow in homage to this unmoving freedom
From conceptual elaboration. (pmkr)

The supreme peak, the Sumeru of all the vehicles,
The radiant expanse of sun and moon,
Luminous and present of itself—This
is the vast expanse of vajra essence.
Beyond all effort and all practice,
It is the vast expanse,
The natural state beyond all fabrication.
Listen to me now, for I shall tell you
Of this wondrous and primordial immensity. (pmkr)

Chapter 1

1. Samsara and Nirvana Do Not Stir from the Ultimate Expanse

1. The vast space of spontaneous presence Is the ground whence all arises. Empty in its nature, Luminous in character, unceasing, It does not exist as anything at all, Though anything at all arises from it. Samsara and nirvana both emerge unbidden In the space of the three kāyas. Yet from this ultimate expanse they do not stray, The field of blissful ultimate reality.

2. The vast expanse, the nature of the mind, Is changeless like the sphere of space. Indeterminate is its display: The vast expanse of manifest appearance of cognizant power. All things are inexistent Except as ornaments upon the ultimate expanse. The outer and the inner and the to and fro of consciousness Are the creative power of the enlightened mind. Not anything, yet giving rise to everything, It is a marvelous prodigy, endowed with wonderful display.

3. The outer and the inner, The world together with its beings, All the things that manifest as forms Are but adornments of the ultimate expanse, Arising as the wheel of the enlightened body. All reverberation, sounds and language, As many as there are without exception, Are but the adornments of the ultimate expanse, Arising as the wheel of the enlightened speech. Memories, awareness, mental movement, Proliferation, no-­ thought—All mental states in number past imagining—Are but the adornments of the ultimate expanse, Arising as the wheel of the enlightened mind.

4. Beings in the six migrations And four ways of being born Stray not a single atom from the sphere of ultimate reality. Phenomenal existence—Six objects, apprehended-­ apprehender—All indeed appears. It is a magical illusion in the dharmadhātu, Perceived but not existing. Unsupported, substanceless, A vast expanse primordially empty, It is luminosity itself, Adornment of the dharmadhātu.

5. However things appear, however they resound Within the vast and ultimate expanse, They do not waver from spontaneous equality, The dharmakāya, the enlightened mind—The primordial natural state that, in and of itself, Is empty and devoid of movement and of change. No matter what appears, it is the dharmatā, Primordial wisdom, self-­ arisen. Free of effort, free of striving, It is gathered in the one expanse of bliss.

6. Unwavering luminosity is the sambhogakāya. Everything appearing, in the moment of appearing, Is present of itself as luminous character. Uncontrived, unchanging, It is all-­ pervading and spontaneous equality.

7. Arising as a manifest display, Appearing in distinct diversity, The nirmāṇakāya is a self-­ arisen emanation, Marvelous and illusory, Beyond the scope of action, Never stirring from Samantabhadra.

8. In the enlightened mind, free of pits and chasms, The three kāyas are complete all by themselves, Without the need for striving. Not stirring from the ultimate expanse, The kāyas, wisdoms, and enlightened action, Spontaneous and unconditioned, Are naturally complete therein. They are the great accumulation, Complete from the beginning In the vast expanse primordially arisen.

9. From the outset present of itself—Such is the buddha field free of change and movement. The vision of the dharmatā within the dharmadhātu25 Is a knowledge unimpeded that adorns the ultimate expanse. Not created, not achieved, but present from the first, It is like the sun arising in the sky, A wonderful and marvelous prodigy.

10. Within the womb of ultimate expanse, Present of itself from the beginning, Samsara is Samantabhadra, Nirvana is Samantabhadra. And therefore from the very first, Within Samantabhadra’s vast expanse, There has never been samsara and nirvana. Appearance is Samantabhadra, Emptiness is Samantabhadra. Therefore from the very first, Within Samantabhadra’s vast expanse, There has never been appearance and emptiness. Birth and death are both Samantabhadra, Joy and pain are both Samantabhadra. Therefore from the very first, Within Samantabhadra’s vast expanse, Birth and death and joy and pain have never been. Self and other are Samantabhadra, Permanence, annihilation are Samantabhadra. Therefore from the very first, Within Samantabhadra’s vast expanse, No self and other, no permanence and no annihilation Have there ever been.

11. To grasp existence in the nonexistent—This is called delusion. Samsara and nirvana In their nature are like baseless dreams. How strange to cling to them as real existent things!

12. All things are Samantabhadra, Great, spontaneous presence. There is no samsara That is now, or has been, or will be, hallucinatory. It is just a name; it is beyond The extremes of both being and nonbeing. No one anywhere has been deluded in the past, No one is deluded now nor will be in the future. Such is the primordial purity Of the three worlds of existence.

13. Since there’s no delusion, There’s no absence of delusion. Vast awareness, self-­ arisen and supreme, Is from the outset present of itself. It never was, nor is, nor ever will be freed. In a past that’s just a name, No one has been freed. There will never be a state of freedom Since there never was a state of bondage. All is pure like space, Unrestricted, unconfined—The utter openness and freedom Of primordial purity.

14. Briefly, in the womb of ultimate expanse, Immense and present of itself, Samsara or nirvana—Whichever is displayed by the creative power—Has no existence from the moment it arises. Whatever happens in one’s dreams Through sleep’s creative power—None of it is real. There is just awareness self-­ cognizing, Blissful in its fundamental stratum, An all-­ encompassing immensity That’s even, present of itself.