Tuesday, December 10, 2019

The Realm of Dharmas, Chapter One






Homage to Total Good.

Homage
to these strange and marvelous dharmas,
naturally-arrived-at from beginningless time;
to this self-engendered full knowledge,
Sheer Luminosity Bodhicitta;
to this unmoving, undiffusive treasury,
source of all appearances/becoming,
material/vital, sangsara/nirvana.

Listen attentively as I explain these marvelous total vastnesses:
the peak of all peaks of Vehicles —
receptive centre of sun, moon & King of Mountains;
the Sheer Luminosity naturally-arrived-at —
receptive centre of Vajra Heart;
the unsought, unstriven for —
receptive centre of nature as it lies.




• • •




CHAPTER ONE
NIRVANA AND SANGSARA HAVE NEVER MOVED FROM THE REALM

[. . .and the totality of dharmas has never moved from the continuity of the sky-like Great Completion.]

Out of the naturally-arrived-at receptive centre everything comes.
On what ground?  It is substantially void, its nature unimpeded.
No thing is arrived-at/existent.                            Every thing appears.
While sangsara and nirvana display themselves
from the receptive centre of the Three Bodies,
still, they have never moved from the Realm, the Dharma Proper,
Buddhafield of Comfort.

˚

No things have ever reverted from being ornaments of the
ALL REALM—
the continuity of changeless space
(great receptive centre of Mind Proper),
the receptive centre of compassion’s miracles
(You never know what role it will play.).
Objective and subjective absorptions and projections
are Bodhicitta’s special powers.
Since whatever appears is no thing whatsoever,
marvelously amazing, these miracles of dharmas!

˚

Inner and outer comings and goings, all that appears in shapes,
are ornaments of the Realm, appearing as a physical wheel.
All heard sounds & languages without exception
are ornaments of the Realm, appearing as a verbal wheel.
Memory, awareness, flightiness, projections, misunderstandings, and thoughtlessness as well
are ornaments of the Realm, appearing as a mental wheel.

˚

The six classes of beings and the four modes of birth
have moved not one iota from the Realm of Dharmas continuity.
The worlds of appearances and becoming, the six spheres of sense,
the subjective and objective realms,
are a great vastness of Total Voidness.
“They seem to be missing from the Realm of Dharmas continuity,”
says the way of illusion.                                                  Baseless warbling!
In just the way they show themselves, they dawn as ornaments of the
Realm of Dharmas.

˚

[Dharmabody.]

The by nature level and unbudging Dharmabody that Bodhicitta is
is totally settled, self-Void, untransformed and untransported
in the great continuity of the realm of things seen and heard.
Hence all appearances are the continuity of the
Dharma Proper/self-engendered Full Knowledge
coiled up in a single, comfortable receptive centre
unworked for,
unstriven for.

˚

[Perfect Assets Body.]

Self-displaying and immovable, its Perfect Asset
is a nature naturally-arrived-at from exactly the way it appears.
There is no fixing or transforming it.
It is by nature evenly distributed.

˚

[Emanation Body.]

The meaning behind these self-produced phantom marvels
which have emanated by virtue of their dawnings as role-playings
(without being mixed up in the myriad things)
has never left their job of being
the unemployed   Total Good.

˚

[Body and Full Knowledge are perfected in the Awareness continuity.]

While in Bodhicitta (which has no pitfalls) itself
the unseekable Three Bodies are naturally completed,
they are unmoved from the Realm, naturally-arrived-at,
uncompounded.
While Body and Full Knowledge are a natural completion of
Buddha-activity,
They are the Total Completion of the Great Accumulation,
receptive centre of the great Total Dawn.

˚

[The Buddhafield as receptive centre of Awareness.]

Even though one were viewing the Dharma Proper in the Realm of Dharmas continuity,
the totally naturally-arrived-at, the unmoving, unchanging Field;
that knowledge would itself dawn unimpededly as an ornament of the Realm.
Having done nothing, looked for nothing, totally placed,
they’re like the sun and the sky it illumines.
These strange and marvelous dharmas!

˚

In this totally naturally-arrived-at Realm womb
Sangsara is Total Good.  Nirvana is Total Good.
In the Total Good receptive centre sangsara and nirvana are totally lacking.
Appearance is Total Good.  Void is Total Good.
In the Total Good receptive centre appearance and Void are totally lacking.
Birth and Death?  Total Good.  Pleasure and suffering?  Total Good.
The Total Good receptive centre has no birth, death, pleasure and suffering.
Self and others?  Total Good.  Eternalism and nihilism?  Total Good.
The Total Good receptive centre has no self, others, eternalism or nihilism.

˚

Because we hold on to being and nonbeing, we are bound to error.
How strange we want to attach appropriate labels
like ‘sangsara’ and ‘nirvana’
to something so dreamlike it won’t hold up!

˚

All is the great naturally-arrived-at Total Good.
There has not been, is not, and will not be any error.
The mere word ‘becoming’ tells us we are beyond extreme statements on ‘being’ and ‘nonbeing’.
No one has made an error about anything in the past.
Now there is no error.                                No error is to come.
This is the meaning behind, “The three becomings are pure from the letter ‘A’.”

˚

[You don’t get anywhere by merely being without error in regard to the word ‘illusion’.]

Since there is no error, there is no errorless Dharma.
The totally naturally-arrived-at, self-produced great Awareness
was, is and will be unliberated.
A mere word has never made anyone experience liberation in the past
and it will not in the future.                                   Bonds are totally lacking.
It is a sky-like purity;     unbelittlable, with no partial definitions.
This is the meaning behind, “Absolutely liberated from the letter ‘A’.”

˚

[The great vastness of the natural, level Realm does not experience the existence of nirvana and sangsara.]

In brief,
out of the Realm womb naturally-arrived-at and vast,
whether it be sangsara or nirvana that arises
as role-playing from the special powers,
still, there is no experience of sangsara’s or nirvana’s existence
on account of that arising.
Whatever dreams arise through the special power of sleep
are devoid of meaning;
so, spread yourself out to the limit on the great, vast natural smoothness,
the comfortable bed of Awareness.





Friday, November 22, 2019

12 ½ Crippled Verses





Twelve and a Half Crippled Verses 

Prostrations to the revered Lama and
to the Vajra Skygoers.

Human body: attained.
Sense faculties: complete.
Age: young.
Dharma: encountered.  What miracles.

Precepts: the best.
Lineage: good.
Compassion: mastered.
Master: encountered.  What miracles.

Directions: known.
Business: given up.
Retreat: staying.
Put into practice.  What miracles.

Staying alone.
Devoted to meditation.
Anxieties: few.
Preserving experiences.  What miracles.

Relaxed and unwound.
Immovably settled in meditation.
Dharmabody seen.  What miracles.

Nothing to meditate.
Made a habit.
Become real.
Meditation and post-meditation the same.  What miracles.

No root or foundation.
Doubts seen through.
Self-reification revoked.
Awakening attained.  What miracles.

Voidness realized.
Compassion arisen.
Aspirations achieved.
Benefit for others done.  What miracles.

Beggar-monk Zhang.
Directions: skilled.
Distracting doubts: cut off.
Words: abundant harvest.  What miracles.

Disciples and sons
Are very loving,
Listen to what I say,
And keep pure commitments.  What miracles.


Little Non Sequiturs

Prostrations to the revered Lama and
to the Glorious Vajra Skygoers.

For incomprehensibly many aeons
without leisure in body, speech and mind,
they tried to do all sorts of virtuous things
and meditated on the profundity of voidness.


But if they did not serve a Lama
it was all like churning water in hopes of butter.
With no one else to tell them about it
they would never find their birthright, The Innate.


“It is to be known through relying on the interventional 
methods of the Lama and through ones own merit.”



This ever-clear Full Knowledge
has been concealed in the vase of partiality.

This naturally-arrived-at precious quality
has been encased in the mud of inimical anxiety.

The horse of our muddied awareness
has been hobbled in quotidian activity.





  • The source of the first is Zhang G.yu-brag-pa, Bka'-'thor-bu, p. 576, while the second starts at p. 637, line 7.  For more about the author, see New Works on the Works of Lama Zhang. Before anyone complains about it, I'm aware there aren't even 12, let alone 12 and 1/2 verses. Thanks to Dominique Townsend who reminded me about them.  The photos were taken in the winter of 2013 in Himachal, at McLeod Ganj.




 
Follow me on Academia.edu