Original Perfection

Vairotsana's Five Early Transmissions

Keith Dowman

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780861716807
• eBook ISBN: 9781614291350
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Mind & Body in Philosophy

These early, foundational Dzogchen texts--clear, lyrical, and rich in metaphor--were smuggled into Tibet in the eighth century on white silk, written in goat-milk ink that would become visible only when exposed to heat. These five texts are the root of Dzogchen practice, the main practice of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Vairotsana, a master among the first generation of Tibetan Buddhists, reveals here a truth that is at once simple and deeply profound: that all existence--life itself, everyone one of us--is originally perfect, just as is. Keith Dowman's sparkling translation and commentary provide insight and historical background, walking the reader through the truths encountered in this remarkable book.

THE ETERNAL VICTORY BANNER is the source of all transmission and pith instruction. More specifically, it teaches total nonaction, whereby all and everything is already perfect. In this great transmission, Samantabhadra reveals himself to Vajrasattva as his own nature. “I am you,” he affirms. “I am luminous mind and luminous mind is the vast space of Vajrasattva.”¹⁸

THE TIMELESS MOMENT OF REALITY

1

The vast space of Vajrasattva,

the all-good expanse of the field of reality,

this is an all-releasing and pure modality,

uncreated, unceasing, and unthinking.

The Sublime Teacher—Samantabhadra

Vajrasattva is the all-pervasive spaciousness of our unchanging being whose exaltation lies in his unalterable self-sprung awareness. His undiscriminating reality is Samantabhadra, the all-good, all-inclusive field of reality, the basic spaciousness that is the dharmadhatu. Everything dissolving into it and emerging from it in unimpeded and relaxed enjoyment, all buddha and sentient beings of the threefold universe (sensual, aesthetic, and formless) are released instantaneously into luminous mind. In this way, nothing substantial in the field of reality is ever created, nothing whatsoever ever comes into existence or ceases to be. Self-sprung awareness lies therein, unimpeded, in an unrelenting samadhi that has neither beginning nor end, conceiving nothing nor motivating anything at all.

Samantabhadra, who is luminous mind itself, is the perfect teacher of every situation. Disclosing his nature to Vajrasattva, he says, “You are the clear sky of pure awareness, and I, as the teacher, show you my undiscriminating reality. I am luminous mind, and all and everything simultaneously emanates from me and dissolves into me, and in that process lies ineluctable release.”¹⁹

Thus the reality of the teacher, Vajrasattva, is the nature of being.

2

Loving-kindness is already consummate,

so compassion is not pursued;

supremely vast and deep,

no quality exists to acclaim.

The Exaltation of Enlightenment Here and Now

Loving-kindness is the nature of the all-pervasive luminous mind, so it is love itself that has already fulfilled the ultimate goal, which is the ever-immanent reality of Vajrasattva. Compassion is then the nature of reality, as buddha affirms, and it is futile to focus and direct to any being what is already present as his or her nature. It is impossible to cultivate what is naturally already fully potentiated, and so any practice of compassion is redundant. It is counterproductive to allow compassion to become an affective response to extraneous pain, since that would create a dichotomy of inner and outer and an obstacle to spontaneous compassionate flow.

The exaltation of pristine awareness is its immaculate nature, and this can be neither improved nor altered nor conscientiously cultivated nor actualized. Such exaltation is profound because dualistic perception is transcended. In that ulterior nonreferential space where there is no imperfection or blemish, there is no fault to rectify and no flaw to acknowledge, so how can there be any particular quality to extol or any success to celebrate?²⁰

Thus Vajrasattva is shown as loving-kindness.

3

Intentions unstirring from their own nature

through nonaction are released and activate release;

unseeking self-sprung awareness,

liberating, reveals the modality of release.

Transmission Ultimately Resolving All Experience

Our identity—our individuality—is the unalterable reality of luminous mind. Not even our intentions and impulses, our aims and objectives, our reactions and responses, can ever escape their natural condition, which is this unalterable reality. By doing nothing at all, through no directed activity, free of endeavor, without striving—which is nonaction—the great perfection is recognized. Pristine awareness, contingent upon neither cause nor condition, liberates itself through its ungrasping natural state and reveals the liberating modality.

To resolve all experience as pure meaning is the purpose of the essential message of the transmission of The Eternal Victory Banner: release into the great perfection is inherent in every movement of the mind, whether of buddha or ordinary being, so long as there is no striving to attain it.²¹

Thus the ordinary mind is naturally liberated in the moment. Character and personality are never divorced from luminous mind.

THE TIMELESS MOMENT OF INTRINSIC PRESENCE

4

Vajrasattva is the great elements

intrinsically present in all beings;

even though false notions obsess us,

release is self-sprung—but only in him.

The Consummation of Mahayoga

The totality, Vajrasattva, is universally present as the five “great” elements of earth, water, fire, air, and space, and these elements are fivefold all-creating buddha. All the six kinds of mythic beings—gods, men, titans, hungry ghosts, animals, and hell beings—are composed of these elements. Thus Vajrasattva is a constant, all-embracing presence. We may conceive of the elements in any way—symbolically, personified, materialistically, or functionally—but regardless of any such notions, and despite any conceptualization of Vajrasattva, as fivefold buddha he is the place of ineluctable, spontaneous release.

In mahayoga the five elements are located in the mindstream and visualized as the mandala of fivefold buddha (Vairochana, Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, and Amoghasiddhi) representing the primordial purity of the five elements. This is a contrived process of goal-oriented meditation. But since the luminous mindstream is the great perfection, it encompasses all such enumerations and all such meditative techniques, and the moment of praxis arises spontaneously as Vajrasattva. Mahayoga provides a door into the great perfection itself when its meditative technique is recognized as embraced by luminous mind.²²

Thus Vajrasattva is intrinsically, naturally present in the here and now.

THE TIMELESS MOMENT OF NATURAL EXALTATION

5

Exalted pristine awareness, so elusive,

can be accomplished through means and insight;

although these appear as a supporting extraneous fiction,

real pleasure arises only spontaneously.

The Consummation of Anuyoga

Pristine awareness is impossible to locate because it has no reference, no address. The difficulty of access may be overcome through recognition of the intrinsic union of reality and pure presence. This would appear to imply a dependence upon an ineffectual nominal duality, but since the exaltation of pristine awareness—immediate pure pleasure—arises only from and in luminous mind, which is quite beyond cause and effect, its nature can only be spontaneity.

In the case of intractable ignorance of the intrinsic perfection of the nature of mind where pristine awareness remains elusive, recourse may be made to the anuyoga construct of means and insight (Tib: thabs dang shes rab), which provides a referential address to the pure pleasure of pristine awareness. Skillful means is pure presence (iconographically represented as Samantabhadra, the male principle) and insight is the spaciousness of the field of reality (Samantabhadri, the female principle). Pure pleasure is intrinsic to this timeless primordial union, and spontaneity is its nature. Anuyoga is fulfilled through the great perfection of mind.

All the skillful means of the lower, secondary approaches to mahabodhi arise out of the pure nature of mind, which is perfect and complete in itself and can never be divorced from the pure ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword by Bhakha Tulku
• Preface to the American Edition
• Translator’s Introduction
• The Cuckoo’s Song of Pure Presence
• Radical Creativity
• The Great Garuda in Flight
• Pure Golden Ore
• The Eternal Victory Banner: The Vast Space of Vajrasattva
• Notes
• Appendixes
• Select Bibliography
• Index
• About the Translator
• About Wisdom Publications