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1.THE TREASURE TEXT, ITS LINEAGE, AND EMPOWERMENT

Namo Gurave!

[600] Among the limitless modes of Dharma, both profound and vast, which belong to the mind, expanse, and pith instruction classes of the clear light Great Perfection, and which were held within the mind of the great master Vimalamitra, this sovereign of all pith instruction, the vessel of the vital essence that contains the unsurpassed, ultrasecret class of pith instruction, remained as a hidden treasure in the form of a textual tradition related to the profound accomplishments of Vimalamitra. That was bestowed on [601] Chetsun Senggé Wangchuk¹ by a glorious guardian of the Mantrayāna. When he was practicing this in secret, the primordial consciousness embodiment of Mahāpaṇḍit Vimalamitra actually came to him, not as if in a dream or a vision. The master remained together with his disciple for a long time and granted the complete [empowerments of] ripening and liberation. By meditating in accordance with [Vimalamitra’s] instructions, Chetsun manifested the vajrakāya of the great transference rainbow body.

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The vajra words of his final testimony, consisting of these three units of letters of pith instruction, [602] were given to the ḍākinīs. Then once a vast number of pure realms of vīras and ḍākinīs were reverently invited to places such as the land of Orgyen,² they rendered inconceivable service to myself and others, and continue to do so. Once again, this, which has been set forth by myself, Ösel Trulpé Dorjé,³ by way of recollection, is resulting in a variety of benefits for the world in accordance with the fortune of disciples. Now the excellent teaching for you also consists of three topics: (I) the introductory topic of the special title, together with the homage of the assembly of ḍākinīs, (II) the meaning of the text, namely, the three units of profound pith instructions, together with a song of realizations, the consignment to the treasure custodians, and prayers, and (III) the meaning of the conclusion, namely, the final ornament of vajra words, advice from the primordial consciousness ḍākinī.

I. The Introductory Topic of the Special Title, Together with the Homage of the Assembly of Ḍākinīs

Here there are two sections: (A) the meaning of the title, and (B) the homage.

A. The Meaning of the Title

Among the three distinctive features of the title, the first is “perfection.” Where is there perfection? There is primordial perfection, indivisible and 5of one taste, in the essential nature of the great, all-pervasive expanse of the absolute space of phenomena,⁴ which is free of all elaborations. What is perfected? [603] All phenomenal realities, without exception, included in saṃsāra, nirvāṇa, and the path, are perfected. In what manner are they perfected? How could it ever be the case that the “absolute space of phenomena” could be like a big empty container in which the many good and bad substances known as “phenomena”⁵ are inserted? Or how could it ever be that what are known as “phenomena” — as though they were individual substances — could have their own separate signs, as though each of them could be inserted into its corresponding actual nature,⁶ as if each were being put inside its own individual, empty container?

How is it, then, that they are perfected? To speak in terms of their ultimate, final mode of existence, everything that manifestly appears in the universe, including saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, the good and the bad, oneself and others, the physical world and its inhabitants, matter and consciousness, as well as every unimaginable, inexpressible, diverse variety of phenomena, is primordially and solely of the same taste and exists in the same manner as the absolute space of phenomena, free of elaborations. Apart from existing that way primordially, there has never been in the past, it is impossible for there to be now, [604] and in the future there will never be a place or a time when there will be even the tiniest particle that is different from that absolute space.

The final syllable of “perfection”⁷ signifies that the absolute space of phenomena, which is free of all partiality or bias and is pervasive, unchanging, and sublime, should not be sought anywhere else — as it is totally subsumed in the essential nature of a single instant of the actual nature of your own mind,⁸ naked awareness. So there is no need to discover any absolute space or primordial consciousness different in their essential nature from awareness.

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There are many ways of explaining the meaning of “perfection.” However, in this context it is explained as signifying that all kinds of specific phenomena, including appearances and consciousness, kāyas and facets of primordial consciousness, are subsumed in one taste within the essential nature of absolute space; and since that absolute space never consists of anything beyond awareness, all crucial points are subsumed in awareness.

“Great” signifies there is nothing else to be realized or to be revealed that is higher than this indivisibility of absolute space and awareness, the ultimate mode of existence of all phenomena. Thus the jinas and jinaputras of all directions and times see nothing and reveal nothing that is superior to this.

Thus what has been primordially present, without contrivance, is the basis. Realizing one’s own awareness directly, free of the intellect, [605] and familiarizing oneself with it, is the path. Taking possession of the everlasting kingdom of one’s own awareness, once one is completely purified of defilements, is the ultimate fruition. Everything is perfected in the essential nature of absolute space and awareness, and this is the great indivisibility in which one’s own nature is free of increase and decrease.

The supremely distinguished avenue on which disciples with faculties that are superior, [middling,] and so on may realize and actualize this method consists of the three classes of the Great Perfection. Among those, the foremost is the secret class of pith instruction, and within this there are the outer cycle, the inner cycle, the secret cycle, and the unsurpassed, ultrasecret cycle. Among those four, this here is the unsurpassed, ultrasecret one.

“Pith instruction” refers to amazing methods, difficult to evaluate with the intellect, through which great goals can be easily and swiftly accomplished with few causes and little hardship.

“Class” signifies something of great value that is manifold and extensive, beyond anything meager or small. These eighteen classes are as follows:

1.The Root Tantra on the Reverberation of Sound is the sovereign pinnacle atop the totality of the precious teachings of the Jina, 7and it is like the door and the key to all the essential, clear light tantras of the supreme vehicle.

2.The tantra that is like a river is the Self-Arisen Perfection [of Empowerment]. [606]

3.The tantra that is like the king of mountains is Without Letters.

4.The tantra that is like the ocean is the Self-Arisen Pristine Awareness.

5.The tantra that is like the sun is the Heart Mirror of Vajrasattva.

6.The tantra that is like the great garuḍa is the Six Expanses [of Samantabhadra].

7.The tantra that is like a lion is the Lion’s Perfected Power.

8.The tantra that is like a king’s treasure is the Mound of Jewels.

9.The tantra that is like a wheel is Beautiful Auspiciousness.

10.The tantra that is like a sword is the Mind Mirror [of Samantabhadra].

11.The tantra that is like molten gold is Studded Jewels.

12.The tantra that is like a garland of ornaments is the Pearl Garland.

13.The tantra that is like a charming damsel displayed in a mirror is Adorned with [the Jewels of] Identification.

14.The tantra that is like jewels blazing with light is the Blazing Lamp.

15.The tantra that is like a knotted snake unraveling itself is the Self-Liberating Pristine Awareness.

16.The tantra that is like a child coming onto its mother’s lap is the Union of the Sun and Moon.

17.The tantra that is like a king holding onto his territory is Flaming Relics. This makes seventeen.

18.The eighteenth, the tantra of the Wrathful Protectoress of Mantra, is like a razor.⁹

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The commentarial literature that explicates these properly, as well as the extremely profound and extensive pith instructions, were composed by many great vidyādharas, including the master Pramodavajra.¹⁰ These texts now remain, without limit, in the ḍākinī realms. Some of them, as appropriate, also exist in the form of profound hidden treasures. [607] In Tibet, too, the heart quintessence¹¹ of the glorious, great Orgyen¹² and the Mahāpaṇḍit Vimalamitra, which had arrived earlier, is still present now. There are also numerous superior individuals who preserve this teaching, who possess outstanding quintessential views and meditation. They are beyond compare with most spiritual people. One after the other, such individuals have appeared in the past, are still present now, and will come in the future as well. Without exception they arise from the pith instruction of the guru. Therefore, beginning with the glorious Samantabhadra, the progenitor of all the jinas, the precious teachings have appeared due to the kindness of the Teacher, and all the classes of those who hold the Teaching have appeared due to the kindness of the Teaching, and this is the only way it will continue to be.

The “vessel of its vital essence” is so named because the refined, vital quintessence of the classes of Dharma just mentioned have an extraordinary distinction that makes them so profound, namely, that they may be sown easily, joyfully, and swiftly within the mindstreams of students.

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“Pith instruction,” as it appears the first time in the title,¹³ indicates the supreme methods by which the profound points — regarding the sensory gateways, their objects, the vital energies,¹⁴ and awareness — are very easy to implement and can be followed with joy. The ability to establish with direct perception that the kāyas and primordial consciousness exist right where you are is not something that can be fathomed [608] through argumentation or the intellect.

The phrase “sovereign of all” means this. The greater and lesser causal vehicles that work with philosophical definitions, as well as all the outer and inner tantras, the oral transmissions, and the pith instructions of the resultant vehicle of secret mantra, whether directly or indirectly, are none other than methods that take you toward omniscience alone. So each one does have its distinctive pith instructions. Nevertheless, this one here surpasses the others. As an analogy, no matter how many aristocrats a royal province might have, and no matter how much military strength and influence it may wield, it cannot in any way contend with the single eminent presence of a wheel-turning world emperor. In the same way, whatever methods of practicing Dharma might come below this one — even the two profound stages [of generation and completion] — cannot contend with just this unit of pith instructions belonging to the supreme vehicle of the Great Perfection; for there is nothing like this swift and joyful path to omniscience.

The “five expanses” indicate a classification of absolute space in terms of the five facets of primordial consciousness that apprehend characteristics. This includes the realm that is the primordial consciousness of the absolute space of phenomena and so on.

Their “letters” are the six seed-syllables of the six types of expanse and liberation — this being the way in which the ḍākinīs assembled the final vajra testimony of Chetsun [Senggé Wangchuk]: (1) the short a is 10subsumed under a, so [609] (2) a is mirror-like primordial consciousness, (3) sha is the primordial consciousness of the absolute space of phenomena, (4) sa is the primordial consciousness of equality, (5) ma is the primordial consciousness of discernment, and (6) ha is the primordial consciousness of accomplishment. The [short a that is subsumed under a] is itself held to be the absolute space of the five expanses of primordial consciousness.

Later on, when I was twenty-four years old and the contributing circumstances of the place, time, and virtue came together, a trillion ḍākinīs of the emanated entourage of the noble Pelgyi Lodröma¹⁵ revealed their smiling faces. I was enchanted by the reverberations of the lovely melody of the six vajra letters, which are the intrinsic sound of the indestructible nāda. Thus aroused, there occurred in me a spontaneous, accurate memory of a past life. Therefore, although previously it had been sufficient to present the six vajra letters in symbolic form, out of necessity I made them into Tibetan letters and wrote them down, as was appropriate, within the first unit.

Here is a brief explanation of the reason for the fivefold classification of expanses. At the time of the ground and the path there are numerous sets of five, such as the five elements of the physical world, the five aggregates of its inhabitants, and the five sensory objects. At the time of the fruition, there are the five families [of buddhas], the five kāyas, the five facets of primordial consciousness, and the five buddha fields and so on. [610] In accordance with their individual characteristics and different functions, they appear without partiality or bias. From the very moment they appear they do not depart from the nature of the immovable, utterly supreme absolute space of phenomena, the great, vast, joyful expanse. Thus, in accordance with the mode in which the distinct, manifold phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa appear, there is the fivefold classification of expanses.

Concerning their letters: For the most part it seems as if the miracles of the methods of Secret Mantrayāna, including the forms and sounds of 11letters, arise solely because of temporary causes and conditions. However, in reality, they are simply specific emanations of supreme, immutable, great bliss taking on those forms. Thus the essential nature of all that is recalled in the mind, all that is presented in form, and all that is expressed in spoken words with respect to the sequence of letters included within the three units is nothing other than the great indivisibility of absolute space and primordial consciousness appearing in those ways.

“The three units” signify their division into separate sections.

Here is the meaning of the first¹⁶ part of the title: It is not as if this extraordinary final testimony given just before the nirvāṇa of Chetsun Senggé Wanchuk, who attained the vajrakāya of the great transference, is solely something self-revealed, which arose all of a sudden. [611] Rather, it is the ultimate, distilled, exceptionally profound, essential core that synthesizes the 119 profound pith instructions and so on, which were beautifully explained by the great master Vimalamitra, the crown jewel of 500 paṇḍits and siddhas. These pith instructions in turn explain the vajra words and their meanings that have come down without break from the dharmakāya Teacher, the glorious Samantabhadra.

B. The Homage

When this Teaching, given as [Chetsun Senggé Wangchuk] passed into nirvāṇa, was first assembled, the primordial consciousness ḍākinīs made reverent homage.¹⁷ Here is the meaning: The actual nature of the mind of all superior, inferior, and middling beings throughout all time and space is primordially pure, without reliance upon any other causes or conditions. Its nature is spontaneous; it is the great, all-pervading, self-emergent, connate 12clear light, never wavering from the essential nature of all the myriad threefold kāyas of the jinas. The infinite purity that forms the basis of the phenomenal world arises of its own accord in the manner of limitless circles of the maṇḍalas of primordial consciousness deities. All these are indivisible from the essential nature of a single instant of one’s own pristine awareness. This all-encompassing realization, depicted as the “sole bindu,” does not objectify even a trace of [612] a sign of a difference between the object to be realized and the subject that realizes. And they bow in the manner of knowing their “own face” as the nature of existence, directly perceived, without error, just as it is.

II. The Meaning of the Text, Explained according to the Tradition of Giving Guidance in the Profound Pith Instructions

Here there are three sections: (A) giving rise to confident belief in the Dharma and guru through an account of the lineage, (B) ripening the unripened mindstreams of disciples who are suitable vessels through the supreme, profound empowerment, and (C) liberating those who have already been ripened by means of the unique and extraordinary pith instructions.

A. Giving Rise to Confident Belief in the Dharma and Guru through an Account of the Lineage

Here there are two sections: (1) the way it appeared in the past, and (2) the prophecy about how it will appear later.

1. The Way It Appeared in the Past

The dharmakāya Teacher, the original Buddha, the glorious Samantabhadra, dwells in the great abode of Akaniṣṭha in the limitless absolute space of phenomena. From within his nonconceptual, profoundly clear, 13originally pure mind — the vajra of space,¹⁸ great suchness — he makes manifest the immaculate awareness and vital energies of self-appearing primordial consciousness, which dawn of their own accord. And he does so by means of that same pristine awareness, primordial consciousness. Thus he has always been pure, never having had to eliminate the many “adventitious defilements” so that they never arise again. The primordial consciousness of the dharmakāya, empty in its essential nature, never wavers [613] from perfect power as the pervasive lord of all families [of buddhas].

At the same time, the primordial consciousness of the sambhogakāya, whose manifest nature is luminosity, lights up spontaneously as the self-appearing, self-illuminating kāyas and as limitless oceans of pure realms. These then appear spontaneously to the bodhisattvas of the tenth ground, as limitless arrays of kāyas and pure realms, again and again, in an everlasting, continuous cycle.

The primordial consciousness of the nirmāṇakāya, which is all-pervasive compassion, reveals itself in every possible way, in a vast, unbroken stream of countless, immeasurable nirmāṇakāyas, in order to train everyone in limitless numbers of pure and impure realms, thereby fulfilling the various needs of disciples forever, pervasively and spontaneously.

To the sambhogakāya Teacher, the glorious Vajrasattva, the supreme family of the mind-vajra, the Teacher Samantabhadra himself directly revealed the inconceivable Dharma of the Great Perfection in the pure abode of Akaniṣṭha, such that the Teacher and the audience, their perspective and their behavior, were made indivisible.

Vajrasattva bestowed this upon the supreme nirmāṇakāya, the Vidyādhara Pramodavajra. His birthplace was the Land of Orgyen in the west, and he did not have a human father. Rather, [614] Vajrapāṇi himself came in the form of a yellow goose, and he placed the awareness of the devaputra Adhicitta, in the form of a red-and-white-colored syllable hūṃ, 14in the center of the mother’s heart, and from this he was born. Thus he is counted as a son of the glorious Vajrapāṇi.¹⁹

Pramodavajra granted the definitive secret of the complete ripening and liberation of the Great Perfection, together with the “Three Words That Strike the Crucial Points,”²⁰ practical instructions that were given at his passing to Ācārya Mañjuśrīmitra, a son of the Siṃhala²¹ brahman class.

He [Mañjuśrīmitra] granted the complete ripening and liberation [empowerments] of the sovereign supreme vehicle, together with pith instructions on the “Six Meditative Experiences,”²² given at his passing to the Vidyādhara Śrī Siṃha,²³ a son of the Chinese²⁴ householder class. To Jñānasūtra, a son of the Chinese²⁵ peasant class, together with the Mahāpaṇḍit Vimalamitra,²⁶ a son of the Kashmiri householder class, he [Śrī Siṃha] granted the Great Perfection up to and including the secret cycle, at which point Vimalamitra traveled to another region. Thereafter he [Śrī Siṃha] gave the complete, unsurpassed, ultrasecret ripening and liberation, together with the “Seven Spikes,”²⁷ pith instructions given at his passing, to Jñānasūtra. It is said that Vimalamitra later heard the complete, unsurpassed, ultrasecret [cycle] from Jñānasūtra, together with [615] the teachings given at [Jñānasūtra’s] passing, known as “Four Methods of Resting [in Equipoise].”²⁸ If this is so, Jñānasūtra must also be in this lineage. Since Vimalamitra’s vajrakāya rainbow body is still present now, there were no teachings given at his passing.

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Vimalamitra concealed many Great Perfection Dharma treasures in Tibet, and the Nyang Kadampa Tingdzin Zangpo,²⁹ Néten Dangma Lhün-gyal,³⁰ Trulku Gyalwa Zhangtön,³¹ and others have already brought some of them to light. But there is no need to list this lineage here. Vimalamitra gave [the teachings] directly to Chetsun [Senggé Wangchuk].

The Teachers Samantabhadra and Vajrasattva constitute the actual “lineage of the enlightened view of the jinas.” Vajrasattva transmitted to Pramodavajra the “meaning lineage blessed by the enlightened view.” Then from Vimalamitra onward there is the “symbolic lineage of the vidyādharas.” The manner in which he gave it to Chetsun [Senggé Wangchuk] is as explained before. Chetsun’s pith instructions given at his passing, which were solicited by the ḍākinīs, are even clearer than the Great Heart Essence.³² So, fortunate ones, this is something to believe in.

There exists an authentic account of Ācārya Padma³³ and Vimalamitra hearing the unsurpassed, ultrasecret [cycle] directly from Śrī Siṃha on another occasion. [616] If this is so, it accords with the lineage prayer composed by our lord, the Gentle Protector Guru.³⁴

Furthermore, this is the reason why, in the Complete Secrets of the Quintessence,³⁵ no other lineage of gurus is mentioned other than the one that goes from Samantabhadra to Vimalamitra. The kāya of primordial consciousness that unifies (1) the King of Form, Vairocana, (2) the King of Feeling, Ratnasambhava, (3) the King of Discernment, Amitābha, (4) the King of Mental Formations, Amoghasiddhi, and (5) the King of 16Consciousness, Akṣobhya — as these belong to all the sugatas, subsumed under the three kāyas, along with their countless dances as wrathful beings, female deities, and entourages — is none other than the pervasive Lord, the sixth family, the glorious Samantabhadra. It is permissible, indeed there is a purpose, in not listing other gurus prior to the birth of the Lord of Contemplatives, Siṃheśvara,³⁶ as he is the supreme Heruka himself, the great exalted one who already attained the sublime state of Samantabhadra.

2. The Prophecy about How It Will Appear Later

Now is the time indicated by the prophecy that comes at the end of the first unit. [617] As [Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo] explained: “In this era, which is more degenerate than the dregs, even to an individual more ordinary than the ordinary, who obviously has a multitude of faults of all kinds and only feeble virtues of any sort — to an individual like myself — the time of the Jina’s activity has not passed, but is extremely powerful. Thus, at a time when the ḍākinīs’ symbolic words aroused my mindstream from its depths, this inferior mind and lowly appearances were purified in their natural abode and transformed. Not even a trace remained, but everything vanished of itself. In their place there was a magnificent orb of the light of precious primordial consciousness, such that one could never tire of gazing upon it. There, a single instant of this present-moment awareness experienced itself in every way as the body, speech, and mind-vajra of the great Chetsun. Then a wonderful event occurred: The complete [empowerments of] ripening and liberation were revealed with great clarity, in a very brief time, to an ocean-like assembly of primordial consciousness ḍākinīs, karmic ḍākinīs, and mundane ḍākinīs. There was no contamination at all, whether from error in the meaning or else through missing or superfluous words. During the period after the meditative experience, [618] I wrote down letters that were like an illusion. But for thirteen or fourteen human years, I left them alone. 17Then, in accord with the prophecy given by the Jina, I opened the Dharma gate for the first time to Lodrö Tayépa³⁷ and his group of practitioners.

Thus, except for myself alone, the great vidyādharas of the past were only siddhas greater than siddhas, all of whom had attained the undefiled vajrakāya rainbow body. Over and over again they have blessed this Dharma. I think there may be value in revealing it and value in practicing it.”³⁸

B. Ripening the Unripened Mindstreams of Disciples Who Are Suitable Vessels through the Supreme, Profound Empowerment

A qualified vajra-king teacher properly sows the seeds of both ripening and liberation at the same time, bestowing both the empowerment of the creative power of pristine awareness and the essential, profound instruction as the marvelous, supreme, unified method, in complete accordance with the parts of the ritual treatise, including the place, time, and requisites. This is granted to disciples who yearn for Dharma and are suitable vessels of the sovereign, supreme vehicle, by force of having trained their mindstreams with the lower paths. Or else it is granted from the very beginning to certain fortunate individuals with sharp faculties, disciples who have little clinging to this life, who have great faith and aspiration — not mere lip service — for the essential Dharma and the guru, who are without pretense when it comes to guarding their samaya, and who are not frauds that, as if they were beguiled by Māra, broadcast what is a mere semblance of view and meditation or disdain the infallible law of actions and their results. [619] Rather, they are able to apply themselves to practice in accordance with the guru’s words. It is extremely important that the profound method for actualizing the 18ultimate fruition is exacted each time, in order to ripen the crucial points in accordance with the practice tradition of the lineage gurus.

Here are the individual phases of the superior empowerment.

Empowerment with Elaborations

In the version with elaborations, catalyzed by the water of the vase, one’s own body, objective appearances, and all clinging to the appearances of materiality vanish in their own place. Then [the guru] arouses the vital fluids and the cakras that are masses of light, along with their letters. By this power, the grasping mind, along with its karmic energies, either ripens directly — without being eliminated — into the essential nature of naturally liberated, connate great bliss, or else a special potency for such ripening is planted in the mindstream.

Empowerment without Elaborations

In the version without elaborations, the guru’s bodhicitta — the vital fluid that consists of the essential drops of indestructible ambrosia — [620] dissolves into the lamp of the empty bindu that resides naturally in the cakra of great bliss at the crown of your own body of light. Your essential, vital fluid of vajra primordial consciousness, indivisible from that of the guru, greatly increases, thereby completely filling the cakras formed from the channels of light, as well as the rest of your body, down to the tips of your hairs. This awakens pristine awareness, the nature of primordial consciousness — which has itself always been perfect — in the essential nature of an inconceivable experience of bliss, luminosity, and nonconceptuality. Within that state, your own creative power, together with the activity of the vital energy of primordial consciousness, is forcefully drawn inward. Thus the light of the vital fluids, along with your body, channels, and letters, spontaneously enter and dissolve into the single taste of the great, nonconceptual, absolute space of clear light. This causes all the gross and subtle movements — which relate to the conceptualization of signs, whether good and bad — to subside, 19without remainder, into absolute space. You are ripened solely into uncontrived nakedness, primordially free of elaboration, which grants you the fortune to be able to take hold of the everlasting kingdom.

Empowerment Entirely without Elaborations

The preliminary practices for the version that is entirely without elaboration are as follows. There is the vajra purification of the body, the hūṃ³⁹ purification of speech, and the purification of mind, which takes place through resting without focusing on any object and then rising up from that state. [621] The mind takes on the aspect of each of the six classes of sentient beings and culminates by resting in the absolute space of emptiness. Each of these is a method for severing the root basis of each [type of existence], and principally these constitute a subset of the methods for cutting the root basis of the mind. When, through this method, you are absolutely certain that all good and bad elements of the body, speech, and mind are without root or basis, you settle naturally, without contrivance, in a state of unimpeded nonobjectification, without engaging in hopes or fears about anything.

For the main event, [the guru] reveals the refracting crystal and utters the words of empowerment. These are extraordinary symbolic means for demonstrating the originally pure essential nature and the spontaneously actualized manifest nature of pristine awareness. What they symbolize is this: Due to the mystical force of the guru pointing out the enlightened view, superior disciples realize, through a single instant of pristine awareness, how it is that what is symbolized — or what is to be realized — is nothing other than one’s own awareness. The essence of what is symbolized is: (1) The great absence of elaboration, where the actual nature of the mind has an essential nature that is empty and without identity; (2) the great, all-pervasive luminosity, where the manifest nature shines primordially and automatically; and (3) the great union of this emptiness and luminosity, 20which were never, ever separate. So, regarding superior disciples’ realization (through a single instant of pristine awareness) of how this was never beyond the identity of their own awareness; regarding the birth, in middling disciples, of a wonderful experience with respect to their own condition; and regarding the fine understanding that comes even in lesser disciples; [622] for any of these to take place, the primordial consciousness that is the intent of the empowerment is absolutely indispensable.

Then the guru strikes the crucial points of the body, of the eyes, and of the vital energy and mind. The guru seals them with hūṃ, thereby instilling uncontrived, natural meditation in the meaning of the view. Thus is planted in one’s mindstream the fortune to be able to achieve the three kāyas swiftly, such that one can never again turn back from the path.

Empowerment Absolutely without Elaboration

In the preliminary practice for the version that is absolutely without elaboration, the body is nakedly cast off. This demonstrates that the actual nature of the mind is being set free from the covering of obscurations, and reveals in a symbolic way and with an auspicious portent that absolute space and pristine awareness will be laid bare.

The upright posture of the ācārya sitting cross-legged in meditative equipoise reveals in a symbolic way that if one is never separated from a straight posture of the body while cultivating the path of the view and meditation, extraordinary experiences and realizations will naturally arise.

The disciples focusing their attention on the blue letter a at the guru’s heart demonstrates the way in which the unborn, immutable mind-vajra of the guru is indivisibly united in one taste with the body, speech, and mind of the disciples, and it directly brings about the circumstances for that to occur.

[623] The guru utters hūṃ three times, and into the disciple’s mindstream there descends, by forceful means, the majesty of the three vajras, whose essential nature is the three facets of primordial consciousness. All the gross and subtle elements of the disciple’s body, speech, and mind are 21totally absorbed into the aspect of a deep-blue syllable hūṃ. With the forceful sound of phaṭ,⁴⁰ this instantly enters into its own place, the absolute space of the three kāyas. Or, if that does not quite happen, the knots in the disciple’s mind that make the mistake about subject-object duality are immediately cut. As a result, the obscurations and faults that cause body and mind to rove helplessly in the miserable places of rebirth within the three realms are dispelled. This is a method that creates the circumstances for them to be elevated to the pure realms of the three kāyas.

At that point, if you, the disciple, see your mind to bear the nature of emptiness, luminosity, and pristine awareness, then, without shifting from that experience, you should sustain uninterrupted familiarity with the realization that (1) the primordial consciousness of emptiness is “cutting through,” (2) the primordial consciousness of luminosity is the “direct crossing over,” and (3) both bear the essence of your own awareness. In dependence upon gaining uninterrupted familiarity with that realization, then within this very life you will take hold of your invulnerable royal throne in the essential nature of the original three kāyas, in their own place. Or else, by attaining stability in the perfection of creative power that comes when you either recognize (1) the dying process as the self-appearance of the dharmakāya, (2) the intermediate period as self-appearance of the sambhogakāya, [624] or (3) birth as the self-appearance of the nirmāṇakāya, you take hold of each of these in their own place.

Otherwise, if that does not occur, it is true that right now, outside of us, there exist those who have actually reached the manifest fruition, who are of one taste in the many dances of the infinite arrays of the ocean of pure realms. It is true that the actual nature of the mind of every being, including that of the disciples, remains in the essential nature of emptiness, luminosity, and pristine awareness. And without transgressing the manner in which this has both always been the case, and is also yet to come, it is true that all are of one taste in the actual nature of reality. There is also the truth of the profound Dharma of the Secret Mantrayāna, and the infallible 22truth of dependent origination, by which the extraordinary methods that carry the guru’s blessing will take you across the border [to the next life]. By the power of these truths, in the life following this one or else in some other lifetime, you will certainly pass through the door into rebirth within those pure realms.

During the main event, for the body,