The greatest challenge associated with “taking the mind as the path” is the many obscurations the mind contains.  All the negative karma that permeates upward from our unconscious, and the habitual tendencies we have accumulated during this and previous lifetimes, impede progress.  Work in shamatha and vipaśyanã is essential to cleanse these negative energies and kleshas.

In describing this Phase, Düdjon Lingpa takes us through a dialogue between the Bodhisattva Mahãsattva Sovereign Faculty Displaying All Appearances, and the Primordial Buddha, Samantabhadra:

“Bhagãvan Samantabhadra, King of Immutable Light, please listen and consider my words.  In order to completely liberate all of us [constituting] this apparitional display of disciples simultaneously in the great expanse of equality of the absolute space of phenomena, please reveal the resultant, unsurpassed yãna of the Great Perfection.”[1]

In response the Bhagãvan replies that the attainment of this aspirational state is not for everyone.  Only those who have accumulated sufficient good karma and developed vajra like faculties through the cultivation of bodhicitta.  He advises the assembled eighty-four thousand to move beyond cause and effect and to find that aspect of the self that abides in the three realms of samsãra (the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm).  Where did the mind come from, where does it reside in the present and where will it go when it departs.

[1]  Lingpa, Düdjom.  Heart of the Great Perfection (Book 1, The Vajra Essence):  The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra.  Translated by Wallace B.A.  Wisdom Publications, MA 2016.  p167 to 207.

Following on from his previous question the the Bodhisattva Mahãsattva poses another to Samantabhadra:

“Bhagavãn Omnipresent Lord and Immutable Sovereign, please listen and consider my words, please reveal the profound, authentic path to this apparitional display of disciples.” 

to which Samantabhadra replied:

“O Vajra of Pristine Awareness, the ultimate path, called the vajra essence, is unsurpassed.  No one will encounter this gateway without having accumulated great merit and karmic momentum of the power of fine prayers for incalculable eons in the past.  This is [rare] like udumbara blossom.  If the path followed by the buddhas of the past and entered upon by the buddhas of the present, and it is the only profound path that will be followed by the buddhas of the future.”[1]

The Bhagavãn goes on to explain that there are two kinds of pristine awareness:  path pristine awareness and pristine awareness that is present in the ground.  The first being awareness that develops as one pursues the path; its essential nature is clarity and wisdom.  The pristine awareness that is present in the ground is the unoriginated trikãya; the Dharmakãya, Sambhogakãya and Nirmanakãya.

[1]  Lingpa, Düdjom.  Heart of the Great Perfection (Book 1, The Vajra Essence):  The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra.  Translated by Wallace B.A.  Wisdom Publications, MA 2016.  p169.

In Phase 3 the Bodhisattva asks the Bhagãvan to explain the cause of our repeated wanderings in samsãra.  Samantabhadra responds by explaining that reification of the self, as an independent free-standing individual, is the root cause.  By designating such a self, the essence of duality emerges. The ‘I’ resides in the self and all other individuals and phenomena as non-self:

“Grasping at the identities of phenomena emerges from that [grasping at the ‘I’].  There are four approaches to this: (1) seek out the bases of designation of names. (2) destroy grasping at the permanence of things, (3) combat the fault of benefit and harm and (4) collapse the false cave of hopes and fears.”[1] 

I’ve spoken about the concept of an independent free-standing self elsewhere on this website.  But it’s worth re-visiting here.  That which we think of as the “I” is an abstraction.  It emerges early in our childhood when our parents give us a name and attribute certain characteristics to our being.  Really the name is an arbitrary label which seems to designate an “Identity”.  But this is an illusion.  The so-called self is an aggregate of many parts.  Grasping onto this self as the “I” is the root cause of samsara.  When we seek to find this illusive “I” it is nowhere to be found, as it is with all other phenomena.

[1]  Lingpa, Düdjom.  Heart of the Great Perfection (Book 1, The Vajra Essence):  The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra.  Translated by Wallace B.A.  Wisdom Publications, MA 2016.  p171.

In Phase 4 the Boddhisatva Vajra of Pristine Awareness asks the Bhagãvan to reveal the ground of buddha nature.  Samantabhadra describes this elevated state as the unsurpassed realisation of the emptiness of all phenomena; beyond samsãra and nirvãna.  It is primordial consciousness itself where the mind is imbued with an all-pervasive wisdom that is free from obscuration.  There is no grasping onto the “I” because egoic structures have dissolved into nothingness.

 This is the “Gateless Gate” described in the film, Samadhi 2.[1]  The mind has transcended ignorance.  It resides in primordial consciousness, the selfless self.  Beyond space and time and has no coming and going, no destination. 

“O son of the family, because the uniformly pervasive ground sugatagarbha transcends all biases and extremes, it is called the door of liberation of emptiness.  Because this ground cannot be indicated by words, analogies, or referents of any kind, it is called the door of liberation of singleness.  Because the ground of the sugatagarbha acquires confidence within itself, there is not the slightest desire for liberation by means of any other fruition, it is called the door of liberation of desirelessness.”[2]

In Phase 4 we revisit the inherent wisdom of the trikãya.  The mind is empty of existence.  It is without cognition or elaboration.  It is Dharmakãya.  Its fundamental essence is bliss and needs stillness and space for this bliss to emerge.  It is Sambhogakãya.  Whilst empty it possesses the infinite quality of buddha nature.  Naturally aware it possesses the glow of illumination.  It is Nirmanakãya.  The three aspects of the trikãya and not separate.  They are simply different ways of viewing its essential unity and oneness.  They are Svabhãvikakãya.

[1]  https://awakentheworld.com/film/samadhi-part-2-its-not-what-you-think/

[2]  Lingpa, Düdjom.  Heart of the Great Perfection (Book 1, The Vajra Essence):  The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra.  Translated by Wallace B.A.  Wisdom Publications, MA 2016.  p174.

Again, following the path set out in “The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra” the Bodhisattva Vajra of Pristine Awareness engages the Master:

“Bhagavãn, Omnipresent Lord and Immutable Sovereign, I have been obscured by ignorance, my eyes closed from sight.  For eons until now, I have collapsed in the bed of the darkness of ignorance, eased within the shell of sporadically arising patterns of habitual tendencies.  Without perceiving your face, I have been ensnared by dualistic grasping.  Now I am awakened from this bed.  By the power of the luminous rays of primordial consciousness, I am freed from the shell of habitual propensities, and I behold the face of the Teacher.”[1]

Perhaps the greatest challenge is to come to terms with the fact that all that surrounds us, in term of our human endeavour, is constructed by our thinking minds.  The concepts that we hold onto as precious have no ontological existence outside of our attribution of meaning to them.  How is it that we have become so deluded by these constructs and how can we move beyond samsara and find that frightening space behind awareness?  Previously I’ve I used the metaphor of “Crossing the Event Horizon” to describe a sense of liberation which comes from being free and leaving this earthly body behind.  This is opportunity to approach the substrate which is beyond the thinking mind. 

 Samantabhadra reminds the Bodhisattva that there are three types of substrate consciousness; the actual substrate which is mind free emptiness; the temporarily luminous substrate which enables the thinking process to take place and enables the reification of the “I”, and the substrate that gathers in configurations which enables the world of outer appearances to manifest in consciousness.

[1]  Lingpa, Düdjom.  Heart of the Great Perfection (Book 1, The Vajra Essence):  The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra.  Translated by Wallace B.A.  Wisdom Publications, MA 2016.  p181-182.

In Phase 6 the Bodhisattva Vajra of Pristine Awareness asks Samantabhadra about the pitfalls and ways in which the spiritual practitioner might go astray.  There are many possibilities, such as engaging in empty talk, being consumed by attachment and hostility, objectification of the path, and others.  The key is to prepare and enable oneself to be a suitable vessel for the many and profound teachings presented in the Vajrayana and Dzogchen traditions and to move beyond the grasping of samsãra.

“Such people, with the combined qualities of sharp wisdom, quick awareness, stable dispositions, single pointed wisdom, and unwavering commitment, are my emanations, nondual from me, and they will be liberated in one life and with one body.  This is the general presentation of the specific characteristics of suitable vessels.”[1]

The challenge of moving beyond samsãra in the West cannot be underestimated.  So much of our daily lives are devoted to the pursuit of material goods and services to ease the burden of life.  To most the austerity of the monastic life is unthinkable.

At this point the practitioner is close to realising primordial consciousness:

“Primordial consciousness has always been self-arising.  Once the defilements of ignorance have been cleansed in absolute space and conditioned consciousness has been purified in the ground, all sublime qualities of Buddhahood, as well as those specific grounds and paths, are magnificently self-emergent and self-arising, unlike the intellect, mentation, and concepts, which are bound in time, arising, passing, and changing.  This is also called primordial consciousness which perceives the full range of phenomena. The path of primordial consciousness is just the unimpeded arising of all manner of phenomena when the obscuring veils of the substrate are removed.  In short, the appearances and creative expressions of the radiance (of primordial consciousness) when the inner glow of primordial consciousness subsides constitute conditioned consciousness.”[2]

Movement beyond the conditioned mind in only for those who are prepared and able to take the mind as the authentic path.  Lingpa uses the analogy of the glow of light which appears in the east before the sun rises.  Once the sun has risen to the Mindstream the darkness of the night is washed away, and the essence of clear light illuminates our being.

1] Lingpa, Düdjom.  Heart of the Great Perfection (Book 1, The Vajra Essence):  The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra.  Translated by Wallace B.A.  Wisdom Publications, MA 2016.  p189-191.

2]  Lingpa, Düdjom.  Heart of the Great Perfection (Book 1, The Vajra Essence):  The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra.  Translated by Wallace B.A.  Wisdom Publications, MA 2016.  p189.

This is the culmination of the previous six stages on the path as Samantabhadra provides the final pith instructions for realisation of the direct crossing over:

“By the power of practicing with unflagging enthusiasm, great, fortunate individuals who are supreme vessels for the unsurpassed, profound secret teachings first gain understanding, then experience, and finally realisation.  Ultimately, they acquire confidence and actualise liberation.” [1]

Samantabhadra goes on to describe the process by which appearances to the mind begin to dissolve into clear light or radiant glow.  He uses the metaphors of ice melting or salt dissolving in water.  Here the Mindstream passes through the gateless gate and rests in clear light where the duality of self and other, object and subject, earth and heaven no longer exist. 

 With awakening comes the realisation, perhaps for the first time, that our previous mode of being in the world was delusional.  Now, all the artifice of constructed consciousness is let go and the mind can exist in a place beyond conceptual elaboration. 

Samantabhadra points out that there are three stages to awakening:[2]

1.         The preliminary practices,

2.         The main practice,

3.         The subsequent attainment.

They are referenced below for those who wish to study the full text.

The first stage involves the purification of body, speech and mind.  To purify the body Bhagavãn suggests we go into isolation, remove ourselves from everyday samsaric existence and pray to all the buddhas of the three times for deliverance into primordial consciousness.  The central practice is envisioning rainbow light entering through the crown chakra as a way of purifying the body and removing the negativity we all carry.  Then to imagine a ball of fire encasing a vajra symbolising at one end the essential nature of emptiness, luminosity and all-pervasive compassion and at the other the trikãya joined in nonduality. The Bhagavãn further advises that we carry out these practices of forty days in order to purify the body, which then takes on the characteristics of a vajra (pure and indestructible) body.

The second stage, to purify speech, Samantabhadra again advises that we allow rainbow light to enter through crown chakra and settle at the throat, thus purifying negative energies.  This is followed by chanting the Om Ah Hũm mantra for ten days.  This is an interesting piece of advice, and it took me a while to understand that speech is more than giving voice.  Speech is also about the constant narrative of mind.  The self-talk or dialogue which is part of our everyday mental process.  To allow this to dissolve in luminous rainbow light is a great challenge.

The third stage is purification of the mind.  Here Samantabhadra advises to allow the body to be still “like a corpse” while abiding in silence: 

“Let your voice be silent, like that of a mute, and rest your mind in an unmodified state, like a clear cloudless sky…………………..By practicing like this for twenty-one days, mental obscurations will be purified, you will see the self-emergent nature of pristine awareness, and you will traverse the great path.

Chanting the Om Ah Hũm mantra helps purify body, speech and mind.  The purple or blue Hũm influences and helps purify the heart and represents the wisdom of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times.[3]

 “Samaya:  This is sealed with the seals of body, speech and mind, and it is to be obeyed.  Behold, I am Samantabhadra, the Omnipresent Lord and Immutable Sovereign.  Here is the way to awaken from the ground of delusion.’

 “Having spoken these words, he is transformed into a blue-black bindu of light, whereupon the entire retinue appeared in an expanse of light and then gradually dissolved into light, like salt dissolving into water.  This light dissolved into suchness, and the space of awareness expanded limitlessly into the great bliss of the secret space of Samandabhadrĩ.

 “This vast expanse of the clear-light Great Perfection appeared as the illusory display of primordial consciousness by way of the space yogin Vidyãdhara Dűdjom Dorjé Trolő Tsal.”[4]

[1]  Lingpa, Düdjom.  Heart of the Great Perfection (Book 1, The Vajra Essence):  The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra.  Translated by Wallace B.A.  Wisdom Publications, MA 2016.  P194.

[2]  Lingpa, Düdjom.  Heart of the Great Perfection (Book 1, The Vajra Essence):  The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra.  Translated by Wallace B.A.  Wisdom Publications, MA 2016.  P202-212.

[3]  https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/om-ah-hum-meditation

[4]  Lingpa, Düdjom.  Heart of the Great Perfection (Book 1, The Vajra Essence):  The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra.  Translated by Wallace B.A.  Wisdom Publications, MA 2016.  P212.