The Vajra Essence

Dudjom Lingpa, B. Alan Wallace

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781614292760
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Buddhism

A systematic presentation of the path of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, by one of its most renowned proponents and rendered by a master translator. Düdjom Lingpa (1835–1904) was one of the foremost tantric masters of nineteenth-century Tibet, and his powerful voice resonates strongly among Buddhist practitioners today. The Vajra Essence is Düdjom Lingpa's most extended meditation on the path of Great Perfection, in many senses a commentary on all his other Dzogchen works. Dzogchen, the pinnacle of practice in the Nyingma school, is a radical revelation of the pure nature of consciousness that is delivered from master to disciple and perfected in a meditation that permeates every moment of our experience. Revealed to Düdjom Lingpa as a visionary "treasure" text in 1862, the Vajra Essence takes the reader through seven stages of progressively deeper practice, from "taking the impure mind as the path" up to the practice of "direct crossing over" ( tögal ). The longest of Düdjom Lingpa's five visionary works on Dzogchen, readers will find this a rich and masterful evocation of the enlightened experience. This is the first translation of this seminal work in any Western language, and B. Alan Wallace, with his forty-five-plus years of extensive learning and deep meditative experience, is one of the most accomplished translators of Tibetan texts into English.

Phase 1: Taking the Impure Mind as the Path

Identifying the Creator of All Phenomena as the Mind

BODHISATTVA BOUNDLESS GREAT EMPTINESS requested, “O Teacher, Bhagavān, please teach us the profound path that liberates disciples!”

He replied, “O son of the family, entrances to the city of great liberation appear as many avenues of skillful means and wisdom. But ultimately, taking the mind as the path is the quest for the true way. Then, once you have determined the ground, you may take ultimate reality as the path. Between these two options, first, here is the way to take the mind as the path.

“At the outset, disciples who maintain their samayas initially train their minds by way of the common outer preliminaries — namely, the four thoughts that turn the mind⁴⁰ — and the seven uncommon inner preliminaries.⁴¹ Subsequently, the way to follow the progressive path of the main practice is like this: First, retreat to a secluded forest, pray to your guru, and, merging your mind with your guru’s, relax for a little while.

“O Boundless Great Emptiness, among your body, speech, [21] and mind, which is most important? Which is the main agent? Tell me, which is the immutable, autonomous sovereign? Then, to the great benefit of disciples, the acts of teaching and listening and the nature of the instruction will become perfectly clear.”

Bodhisattva Boundless Great Emptiness responded, “O Teacher, Bhagavān, the body is created by the mind. When matter and awareness separate at death, the mind follows after one’s karma, and then it delusively grasps at the appearance of a body once again. Moreover, one’s body in the waking state, one’s body while dreaming, and one’s bodies following this life are all created by the self-grasping mind. They are temporary transformations that have never existed except as mere appearances to the mind. Therefore, since the mind is the all-creating sovereign, it is of the utmost importance.

“A mindless body is nothing more than a corpse, so it has no power. When the body and mind separate, experiences of joy and sorrow — reaching up to the state of enlightenment or down to the three realms of saṃsāra — are all due to mental consciousness delusively engaging with objects.⁴² Therefore the mind is certainly the agent.

“Likewise for speech: Whatever appears to be voiced is nothing more than appearances [22] to the mind. Speech has no existence other than the conceptualizing mind’s creation of the appearance of vocal expressions, so the mind is most important. When the body, speech, and mind are separated, one by one, the mind continues, the body becomes a corpse, and the speech vanishes altogether. Therefore the mind is definitely the most important.

“Here is the way the body, speech, and mind are established as indistinguishable: In the practice of the stage of generation, your own body, speech, and mind are regarded as displays of the vajra body, speech, and mind of your personal deity. In this way, you purify them and attain liberation. If they were separate, both the immutable vajra of the body and the unimpeded vajra of speech would be left behind when the mind was drawn away. Then, when the assembly of the three vajras disintegrated, wouldn’t the deity perish? Therefore, rather than being separate, the many are determined to be of one taste. It follows that these three are none other than the mind: they are ascertained to be the mind alone, and this is the best and highest understanding.”

Establishing the Mind as Baseless and Rootless

Again the Teacher asked, “Do you, as the all-creating sovereign, have form or not? If you do, what type of being’s form does yours resemble? Do you, the sovereign, have eyes, ears, a nose, a tongue, and a mind [23] or not? If so, where do they presently exist? What are they? Moreover, is your form round, rectangular, semicircular, triangular, many sided, or some other kind of shape? Are you white, yellow, red, green, or variegated in color? If you are, by all means let me see this directly with my eyes or touch it with my hands!

“If you conclude that none of these exist, you may have fallen to the extreme of nihilism. So consider saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, joys and sorrows, ­appearances and the mind, and all their substantial causes, and show me their real nature.”

Boundless Great Emptiness responded, “O Teacher, Bhagavān, the self has no form, so it is empty of form. Likewise, it has no sound, smell, taste, touch, or mind, so it is empty of each of these. It is devoid of shape and color, so it is empty of them. It is certain that the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and mind have no existence apart from lucid, clear consciousness itself. Without nihilistically reducing them to nonexistence, the indeterminate manifestations of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa [24] appear like an illusionist and his illusions. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that the agent has only the quality of being unimpeded.”

The Bhagavān asked, “O Vajra of Mind, tell me, when you first arose, what was your source? Did you come from the earth and water, from fire, and from air and space, or did you originate from the four cardinal directions, from the eight directions, or from above or below? Investigate whence you arose and that which arises, and analyze! Likewise, investigate where you are now and what you are, and analyze!

“If this so-called mind were located in the head, when a thorn pierced the foot, for instance, there would be no reason to experience a sharp pain. If it were located in the feet, why would there be pain even if the head and limbs were amputated? Suppose it were located in the body as a whole. In that case, if unbearable regret or misery were to arise in the mind when an external item, such as an article of clothing, a cup, a house, or some other possession, was taken away or destroyed by others, the mind would have to be located in it. If it were located inside the body, there would be no one who identified with things outside. If it were located outside, [25] there would be no one inside to grasp at and cling to the body. If it is presently located in the body, where will it be located when it separates from the body? On what will it depend?

“Directly point out the body, face, and location of the being who is present. Investigate the location and environment, along with the size and so forth, of this being who is in charge. Look! Finally, you must investigate the act of going and the being who goes. So observe the destination, path, and point of departure of the mind — the being doing everything — and watch how it moves. If you see the act of going and the being who goes, show me the size, form, shape, and color of the being who goes.”

Boundless Great Emptiness responded, “O Teacher, Bhagavān, I have no eyes, so there is nothing that appears to me as form. Likewise, I have no ears, so there is nothing that appears to me as sound. I have no nose, so there is nothing that appears to me as smell. I have no tongue, so there is nothing that appears to me as taste. I have no body, so there is nothing that appears to me as touch, either.

“Therefore, because I lack the five senses and their appearances, [26] there is no ‘I’ that arises. If the being who arises is not established as being real, then from this time onward, the so-called mind is not established as real either, and is therefore nonexistent. Until now, there should have been something bearing attributes called this being. Since I am unoriginated emptiness, the source of my origination is empty. As for seeking the source, earth is something I have created. Similarly, all phenomena, including water, fire, air, and space, are nothing other than apparitions of self-grasping alone. This implies that the ‘I’ that arises is nowhere to be found.

“I am the nonabiding nature of emptiness, so there is no place I dwell. As for the so-called body: Sores, swelling, goiters, ulcers, and so on may arise on the body that appears in the waking state, but they are not present on the dream body. And sores, swelling, goiters, and ulcers that appear to afflict the body and limbs in a dream are absent in the waking state. During the waking state, the body may be wounded or beaten as punishment by a king, but this does not appear on the dream body. If it happens in a dream, it is not present on the body in the waking state. Similarly, location, environment, and their possessor, whether they appear to be outside or are grasped as being inside, are all nothing more than my own appearances.

“Therefore, [27] I do not abide in either external or internal phenomena, nor do external or internal phenomena abide in me. They are apparitions of self-grasping, like conjury and illusions, but they are not created intentionally, as in the case of an illusionist and his illusions. The self arises, so external appearances arise automatically, but they have no location. Even if you investigate the agent and the destination, the being who moves and the destination have no objective existence, so they do not go with the nature of me and mine.

“All phenomena appear, yet they are not other than the domain of the self. Moreover, as the body, speech, and mind have never existed separately, their appearances are of the same taste. In all waking appearances, dream appearances, and appearances of the hereafter, the body, speech, and mind are indistinguishable from me. So this is certain: the being who goes and the destination are not established as real.”

The Bhagavān commented, “O Vajra of Mind, investigate the dimensions of your so-called mind; then determine and recognize its essential nature. Are external space and the internal mind the same or different? If they are the same, the essential nature of the mind must be space. If they are different, [28] you would have to agree that space in a dream, space in the daytime, and space after this life are not the same but different. If the earlier space ceases and the latter types of space arise, one after the other, each space would be subject to transformation, creation, and destruction. In that case, determine the causes and conditions from which they arise. If space actually appears in the daytime due to the sun rising in the morning, doesn’t the sun cause it to appear in a dream and after this life? Or is it the clear light of your own mind? Don’t just give this lip service; instead, penetrate it with certainty.”

Boundless Great Emptiness responded, “O Teacher, Bhagavān, the essential nature of my mind is defini...