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BUDDHA VAIROCANA
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By TSELE NATSOK
RANGDROL
Born 1608 Tibet
Born 1608 Tibet
HIS FINAL HEART
ADVICE JUST BEFORE DEATH
THE ORAL
INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN BY THE GREAT VIDYADHARA OF IMMORTALITY WHEN HIS PHYSICAL
BODY WAS ABOUT TO DEPART
INTO DHARMADHATU
INTO DHARMADHATU
____________________________________________________
The ultimate and essential heart advice is precisely this !
And my last words at Death are also none other than this ! _________________________________________________________
At all times and in all situations, I bow to
and take Refuge in the sublime qualified Master endowed with boundless
Compassion who is like a wish-fulfilling Jewel !
To attain the state of unexcelled
Enlightenment, upon entering the gate of the precious BuddhaDharma, you must
give up concerns for this life !
Your parents ,
family, friends and other people lead your mind towards the fleeting goals of
this life’s activities, and offering all kinds of seemingly affectionate
advice.
Fooling yourself
with all this will only result in various hindrances for Dharma practice; so it
is essential not to listen to their words !
Besides a qualified
Master you won’t find anyone who can give genuine spiritual advice. If you want
to truly practice Dharma you must quickly make preparations for Death.
Besides that,
someone who entertains many temporary and ultimate plans will not be able to be
a Dharma practitioner.
People nowadays may outwardly pretend to try and please everyone but that only proves they are possessed inwardly by Mara.
People nowadays may outwardly pretend to try and please everyone but that only proves they are possessed inwardly by Mara.
Place your trust in
Dharma and your Master !
Take mountain
retreats and un-peopled valleys as your dwelling place !
Give up clinging to
the short lived pleasures of food, clothes and the like !
Cut your ties to
close family members !
Cast away all
hypocritical flattery and manipulation !
Focus one-pointedly
on whatever your Master says !
By doing so your
Dharma practice will be pure.
In general, people
nowadays fall under Mara’s reign. In particular, fickle and indolent women
don’t follow the advice of their teachers and instead take guidance from their
family.
By doing so they
postpone doing what they definitely should be doing now: studying and training
in Dharma practice.
They seem to be primarily caught up in pointless worldly
activities,
kowtowing to family and friends, and the like.
Therefore take hold
of the “rope to your nose” and don’t listen to others !
Sincerely take to
heart the fact that the time of Death lies uncertain.
Then knowing that there
is not time to waste, diligently apply yourself
to spiritual practice !
Your parent’s
kindness can only be repaid through Dharma practice, there is no benefit in
repaying them in with mundane attainments.
Your teacher’s kindness can only be
repaid by practicing meditation,
nothing else will do.
You can only benefit
sentient beings through the Bodhichitta resolve and by making aspirations; comparatively any other immediate action is of little benefit.
As for your vows and
samayas, unless you take your own conscience as witness, you will only become a
hypocrite even though you may maintain
a superficially virtuous morality and
exterior.
Remain in secluded
valleys and mountain retreats, because any
spiritual practice done among the
masses will only get you caught
up in one situation after another.
If you fail to take
control of your own mind, even though you may
make many promises and take many
vows, they will result in
hardly any benefit at all.
Unless you realize
the key point of Natural Awareness
~~~ That Knowing One Thing Liberates All ~~~
you won’t find any certainty in pursuing endless seemingly
“important”
information.
To summarize all
vital points: with the thought “I will surely die !”
hasten your plans to practice
the Dharma !
Since a Master is
your only hope, supplicate him/her from your Heart !
Since all pleasure
and pain, whatever befalls you, is a repayment
from the past, don’t entertain
many plans !
Treat good, evil and
impartial people as being above you and always
take the lowest seat !
Train in impartial
pure perception and do not belittle others !
Acknowledge your own
faults and don’t meditate on others’ shortcomings !
Since the vital
point of all the Teachings lies in your own mind,
always scrutinize its nature
!
Cast away the
fixation of rigidly meditating upon a reference point
and instead release your
awareness into carefree openness !
Decide that whatever you experience is the playful expression
Decide that whatever you experience is the playful expression
of Awareness;
don’t try to improve good or correct evil !
All experience is your
own Mind and this Mind,
free from arising and ceasing, is the identity of the
Trikaya Guru.
This Guru is indivisible from your Natural Awareness.
This Guru is indivisible from your Natural Awareness.
Its cognizant Radiance
encompasses all that appears and exists.
Since all of
appearance and existence is the magical display of this
single expanse of
Awareness, the “ultimate view” is to see your
Mind in utterly naked naturalness.
“Meditation training” is to remain in this continuously.
Mind in utterly naked naturalness.
“Meditation training” is to remain in this continuously.
“Ensuing cognition” is when a thought is projected.
“Post-meditation”
(Ensuing attainment) is to recognize that projection.
“Conduct” is to
mingle walking, sitting and all other activities with
the state of awareness.
The indivisibility
of meditation and post-meditation is to be
continuously free from even a second
of distraction or confusion,
uninterrupted by gaps of stillness or thought
occurrence.
When perfected it is
the indivisibility of appearance and Mind,
of self and others, of pleasure and
pain, enmity and friendship,
and of love and hate. In short;
“Fruition” is to
have perpetually exhausted all kinds of duality fixating concepts.
When this has
happened, samsara and nirvana are purified into the
space of Dharmadhatu and
you have realized the
spontaneously present three Kayas.
This is called
“attaining Buddha-hood”,
the “exhaustion of phenomena and concepts” or
“becoming a Siddha”.
This is the time of
gaining mastery over Birth and Death
and the physical elements, and when
effortless Compassion and
activity spontaneously occur throughout the entire
universe.
In brief, the basic
cause of everything is nothing but your
Present Natural Awareness.
Therefore,
the Sublime Key Point is too continuously maintain
your Natural Awareness
throughout both day and night
without any separation.
without any separation.
As for all the
thoughts that do occur as the expression of this
Natural Awareness, be they gross or subtle,
don’t analyze them and don’t follow them either.
Natural Awareness, be they gross or subtle,
don’t analyze them and don’t follow them either.
Don’t try to bring
them back into your meditation or obstruct them.
If you succeed in simply
recognizing the sudden occurrence of a thought,
then let it be in
just that.
When it happens that
you do get involved in thoughts that recollect the
past or entertain the
future, then let be directly in Awareness.
If a thought pattern
continues, there is no need for a separate antidote
since whatever takes place
is liberated by itself.
What occurs
spontaneously is the Radiance of your own Mind.
To See it with Vivid Clarity is
the Essential Instruction !
It is your mind’s
natural disposition to spontaneously reflect.
Consequently, spend
your life within this state of carefree and pervasive openness, of undistracted
nonmeditation, of knowing
~~~ One Thing That Liberates All ~~~
...in which all that
appears and exists is
Dharmakaya, Samsara and Nirvana are indivisible,
and arising and liberation are simultaneous.
Dharmakaya, Samsara and Nirvana are indivisible,
and arising and liberation are simultaneous.
If you spend your
entire life in spiritual activities within this kind of state,
in which the thinker and the object of thought are an undivided Unity,
there is not a single doubt that you will capture the
“Stronghold of Non-regression” in this very life !
in which the thinker and the object of thought are an undivided Unity,
there is not a single doubt that you will capture the
“Stronghold of Non-regression” in this very life !
Wherever the person
stays who has abandoned all activities, that very place is the Buddhafield.
If you can supplicate without duplicity, all that appears and
exists is then the Guru’s Mandala.
If you can supplicate without duplicity, all that appears and
exists is then the Guru’s Mandala.
As soon as you Cut The Root of the Demon Ego-Clinging,
you are permanently free from obstacle, misfortunes and Mara.
The moment you understand that the Guru is indivisible from you own Mind, the falsehood of seeming meeting and separation spontaneously collapses.
you are permanently free from obstacle, misfortunes and Mara.
The moment you understand that the Guru is indivisible from you own Mind, the falsehood of seeming meeting and separation spontaneously collapses.
Once you resolve
that Samsara and Nirvana are the display of Awareness,
who is there to experience the pain of any lower realm ?
who is there to experience the pain of any lower realm ?
When realizing that
your
Natural Awareness is the Primordially Free Dharmakaya,
what is the point of entertaining hopes and fears about
the paths and bhumis ?
Natural Awareness is the Primordially Free Dharmakaya,
what is the point of entertaining hopes and fears about
the paths and bhumis ?
In the meeting of
the already acquainted Mother and Child Luminosities, what is the use of
fearing the collapse of the
illusory body?
illusory body?
When dying, die
within the primordially pure space of Luminosity !
While alive, there
is nothing more important than training in meditation with unflagging constancy
!
You may compare all
the Sutras, Tantras and oral instructions,
but the essence of Realization is nothing other than this !
The ultimate and essential heart advice is precisely this !
but the essence of Realization is nothing other than this !
The ultimate and essential heart advice is precisely this !
And my last words at
Death are also none other than this !
All worthy ones who
are devoted to me, don’t pay lip-service to this, but assimilate its meaning !
The experience of
Original Wakefulness will then dawn from within your hearts, and you will
arrive at Buddhahood in a single instant !
By whatever merit
which might arise from this advice, may all my old mothers, sentient beings
filling all of space,
be Liberated !
be Liberated !
Mangalam.
Translated by Erik
Pema Kunsang
© 1994 Rangjung Yeshe Institute,
Ka-Nying Shedrup
Ling Monastery
Boudhanath, Nepal
P.O. Box 1200, Kathmandi, Nepal
