A Ho Yé!
Appearance-emptiness, lama of the body of enlightenment, accepted me as a
disciple.
Sound-emptiness, lama of the speech of enlightenment, bestowed the
pith instructions.
Awareness-emptiness, lama of the mind of enlightenment,
has truly awakened –
These three inseparable, lama of enlightenment’s
wisdom, unfold in the center of my heart.
Self-awareness, which has never come into being as a material substance, is
beyond the extreme of being.
Immaterial, but not an empty void, it is beyond
the extreme of non-being.
Not dwelling in any extreme, it is the meaning of
freedom of formulation.
Recognizing this and coming to a firm conclusion,
may I attain the confidence of the view.
My own mind – free from contrivance, coming or going, and exerted practice –
In its natural state, awareness-emptiness, without meditation, the
fundamental nature,
Is self-arising wisdom, the intrinsically clear, naked
expanse.
May I perfect the power of meditation, natural rest within reality.
Free from the enclosure of acceptance and rejection based on attachment to
meditative experience,
All that arises intensifies the force of clear and
bright awareness.
Within the primordial state of simultaneous arising and
liberation,
May I train in the great enhancement of self-liberating conduct.
Within the primordial essence, there is enlightenment, and nothing else.
Confusion is primordially purified – I have no fear of cyclic existence.
The original basis is free from characteristics of the basis or result:
May I attain confidence in the result, the realization of equal taste.
Within the boundless expanse of unfabricated, undistracted awareness,
I
look back at my own mind, subjective experience,
And see the true,
fundamental nature, awareness-emptiness, free from extremes –
May I complete
the great cultivation of wisdom, the primordially pure inner nature.
When I look outward to objective appearances,
I see that the essence of
appearances is unreal and naturally empty.
Free from the bonds of attachment
of grasping self-radiance as separate appearances,
May I complete the great
cultivation of merit, the pure nature of appearances.
The accumulations cultivated with mental effort during an eon of time
Are
completed in an instant of self-arising non-action that transcends the
intellect.
The pith instructions to achieve this are rare in this world –
May I receive them and reach spiritual maturity through the lama’s kindness.
I dedicate all cultivation of virtue such as this, done during the past,
present, and future,
To beings whose numbers fill the infinity of space,
beginning with the one I have in mind.
May they accomplish their own goal by
waking as the body of ultimate enlightenment, Buddha Ever-Excellent,
And may
they appear as the form bodies of enlightenment, to accomplish others’ goals by
emptying the realms of sentient beings.
This has been written dedicated to the virtuous accumulations of my dearly loved and cherished nephew Kalsang Norbu, whose young life suddenly came to an end.
Situated in the western United States, Pema Osel Ling is a practice and study center based on the teachings of the Nyingma tradition’s great treasure, the Dudjom Lineage. This center’s principal sacred support is a precious statue that brings liberation on sight, a physical representative of Guru Rinpoché, a wish-fulfilling jewel. During the construction of a new wall behind the statue, I saw the inherent fault of all composite phenomena – impermanence. My intense sadness at this inspired this composition in verses equal in number to the nine ways of spiritual development (yanas). This prayer’s words express the aspiration to actualize that which has the constituent of invincible vajra qualities – changeless, eternal, sacred, self-arising ultimate great exaltation – the nature of the original basis, self-awareness, Buddha Ever-Excellent’s own face.
Tsédrup Tarchin, the uncle left behind, composed this text. By the
blessings of our lord, the illustrious lama, may it become meaningful.
Translated by Ngawang Zangpo, January 2001.