Chapter Eighteen: ESTABLISHING THE NATURE OF REALITY
Once you have completed such contemplations,
You should develop experiential wisdom in your process.
Among the three paths of transcendence in the three Vehicles,
Here you enter the unexcelled, essential import.
First, devote yourself to understanding the nature of reality.
Although this takes many forms, depending on the Vehicle,
The definitive essence is the indivisible reality
Which is the secret treasury of the Buddhas.
It is the natural transparency intuition
Beginninglessly peaceful, free from perplexity.
Like sun and sky, spontaneous and uncreated.
Since its natural great purity is primally present,
It is vision and voidness inseparable,
Free of proof and rejection, going and coming.
Beyond the realm of superficial determinations and distinctions,
Beyond dual-reality notions, it resolves all perplexities.
Its indivisible reality is neither proven nor unproven,
Experientially vision and voidness are naturally nondual;
This reality is called "indivisible."
When analyzed by the conventional two realities,
All things in cyclic life are mistaken appearances;
Untrue and deceptive, they are superficial realities.
Things of Nirvana are profound peace of translucency,
Accepted as ultimate reality, changeless in nature.
This manifold appearance is thus superficial.
Illusion, like the reflection of the moon in water,
It lacks the intrinsic reality it appears to have.
When examined, it lacks basis, root, and substance,
Free of intrinsic identity, empty as space.
When unexamined, this illusory, enticing diversity
Evolves as a relativistic distortion of instinct.
Thus, just like a datura hallucination,
These things are selfless and unreal.
Since that, in reality, is their way of being,
The "ultimate" appears but superficially,
Though appearing, in reality it is unborn;
So naturally its reality is indivisible.
Its natural primal purity
And its transparent ultimacy are nondual,
So the life-cycle and liberation are nondual,
And its reality is indivisible.
Since the life-cycle appears while lacking reality,
In that ultimate realm of intrinsic realityness
Nothing can be distinguished as separate and distinct,
And life-cycle and liberation are taught as equality.
Other ideas are false intellectual notions,
Quite confused about the nature of reality.
Causality exists as it appears to deceptive experience,
So cherish understanding of ethical choice.
The changeless nature of ultimate reality
Is transparency, the Bliss Lord essence, spontaneity,
Natural indivisible awareness of clarity-void.
This is the mandala of natural spontaneity
Primal nature perfection, essence of enlightenment,
Purity, unfabricated, free from partiality,
Profound peace, body and wisdom inseparable.
It has examples known to all beings;
Known by the wise as like underground gold,
A lamp in a vase, a body in a lotus.
Just as a pauper has a treasure underground
But doesn't know and so stays poor,
Though you possess natural enlightenment,
It is hidden by the earth of body, speech, and eightfold mind,
So you stay poor, impoverished by the ills of life.
Just as a clairvoyant person can see
And find a way to take out the treasure
To perfect the wealth of self and other,
So the holy ones teach that reality
And show how enlightenment can be found within,
The wish-granting gem that fulfills both aims.
Just as a lamp in a vase might be bright
But cannot illuminate, blocked by the vase,
So the essential Truth Body abides within
Yet does not show, blocked by the vase of obscuration.
But it does show when the vase is broken,
Just as the world lamp illumines all the lands,
When all obscurations are removed.
Though the Bliss-Lord is in the lotus,
It does not show when the lotus is closed
So the thousand petals of subjects and objects block
One's vision of the self-luminous Lord of Victors.
When the petals open, it is clear,
There is great liberation from the lotus of duality.
The three Buddha Bodies become naturally evident.
Thus please understand the reality
That ultimate realm translucency
Exists within yourself!
This reality has names of many different kinds.
It is "the realm" that transcends life and liberation
And the primally present "natural spontaneity,"
As the "essential realm" obscured by defilements,
As the "ultimate truth" the condition of reality,
As the originally pure "stainless translucency,"
As the "eternal reality" that dispels extremisms,
As the "transcendent wisdom" beyond fabrications,
As the "indivisible reality" clear-void purity,
As the "Suchness" reality free from death transitions.
Such names are accepted by the clear-seeing wise.
Not understanding this, one adopts a nihilistic voidness,
Though claiming to avoid extremes of being and nothing.
Since one does not know the ground of freedom
And longs to escape to the peak of existence,
One falls outside this profound teaching,
Sits empty-minded, fit to rub with dust!
The Teacher taught the treasury of Dharma,
The path of the pinnacle, clear light, essence of all,
The "reality of the ground of spontaneity."
Understanding this ultimate profound view,
Liberates one from resistance and obscuration,
Frees from all absolutism and nihilism.
One's practice is fruitful, one soon becomes enlightened,
One gains the eye to see all Sutra and Tantras.
Therefore be sure to realize the reality of clear light!
- Kunkyen Longchen Rabjam
Once you have completed such contemplations,
You should develop experiential wisdom in your process.
Among the three paths of transcendence in the three Vehicles,
Here you enter the unexcelled, essential import.
First, devote yourself to understanding the nature of reality.
Although this takes many forms, depending on the Vehicle,
The definitive essence is the indivisible reality
Which is the secret treasury of the Buddhas.
It is the natural transparency intuition
Beginninglessly peaceful, free from perplexity.
Like sun and sky, spontaneous and uncreated.
Since its natural great purity is primally present,
It is vision and voidness inseparable,
Free of proof and rejection, going and coming.
Beyond the realm of superficial determinations and distinctions,
Beyond dual-reality notions, it resolves all perplexities.
Its indivisible reality is neither proven nor unproven,
Experientially vision and voidness are naturally nondual;
This reality is called "indivisible."
When analyzed by the conventional two realities,
All things in cyclic life are mistaken appearances;
Untrue and deceptive, they are superficial realities.
Things of Nirvana are profound peace of translucency,
Accepted as ultimate reality, changeless in nature.
This manifold appearance is thus superficial.
Illusion, like the reflection of the moon in water,
It lacks the intrinsic reality it appears to have.
When examined, it lacks basis, root, and substance,
Free of intrinsic identity, empty as space.
When unexamined, this illusory, enticing diversity
Evolves as a relativistic distortion of instinct.
Thus, just like a datura hallucination,
These things are selfless and unreal.
Since that, in reality, is their way of being,
The "ultimate" appears but superficially,
Though appearing, in reality it is unborn;
So naturally its reality is indivisible.
Its natural primal purity
And its transparent ultimacy are nondual,
So the life-cycle and liberation are nondual,
And its reality is indivisible.
Since the life-cycle appears while lacking reality,
In that ultimate realm of intrinsic realityness
Nothing can be distinguished as separate and distinct,
And life-cycle and liberation are taught as equality.
Other ideas are false intellectual notions,
Quite confused about the nature of reality.
Causality exists as it appears to deceptive experience,
So cherish understanding of ethical choice.
The changeless nature of ultimate reality
Is transparency, the Bliss Lord essence, spontaneity,
Natural indivisible awareness of clarity-void.
This is the mandala of natural spontaneity
Primal nature perfection, essence of enlightenment,
Purity, unfabricated, free from partiality,
Profound peace, body and wisdom inseparable.
It has examples known to all beings;
Known by the wise as like underground gold,
A lamp in a vase, a body in a lotus.
Just as a pauper has a treasure underground
But doesn't know and so stays poor,
Though you possess natural enlightenment,
It is hidden by the earth of body, speech, and eightfold mind,
So you stay poor, impoverished by the ills of life.
Just as a clairvoyant person can see
And find a way to take out the treasure
To perfect the wealth of self and other,
So the holy ones teach that reality
And show how enlightenment can be found within,
The wish-granting gem that fulfills both aims.
Just as a lamp in a vase might be bright
But cannot illuminate, blocked by the vase,
So the essential Truth Body abides within
Yet does not show, blocked by the vase of obscuration.
But it does show when the vase is broken,
Just as the world lamp illumines all the lands,
When all obscurations are removed.
Though the Bliss-Lord is in the lotus,
It does not show when the lotus is closed
So the thousand petals of subjects and objects block
One's vision of the self-luminous Lord of Victors.
When the petals open, it is clear,
There is great liberation from the lotus of duality.
The three Buddha Bodies become naturally evident.
Thus please understand the reality
That ultimate realm translucency
Exists within yourself!
This reality has names of many different kinds.
It is "the realm" that transcends life and liberation
And the primally present "natural spontaneity,"
As the "essential realm" obscured by defilements,
As the "ultimate truth" the condition of reality,
As the originally pure "stainless translucency,"
As the "eternal reality" that dispels extremisms,
As the "transcendent wisdom" beyond fabrications,
As the "indivisible reality" clear-void purity,
As the "Suchness" reality free from death transitions.
Such names are accepted by the clear-seeing wise.
Not understanding this, one adopts a nihilistic voidness,
Though claiming to avoid extremes of being and nothing.
Since one does not know the ground of freedom
And longs to escape to the peak of existence,
One falls outside this profound teaching,
Sits empty-minded, fit to rub with dust!
The Teacher taught the treasury of Dharma,
The path of the pinnacle, clear light, essence of all,
The "reality of the ground of spontaneity."
Understanding this ultimate profound view,
Liberates one from resistance and obscuration,
Frees from all absolutism and nihilism.
One's practice is fruitful, one soon becomes enlightened,
One gains the eye to see all Sutra and Tantras.
Therefore be sure to realize the reality of clear light!
- Kunkyen Longchen Rabjam
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