Tuesday, March 17, 2015

from "The Life of Shabkar"



"Handsome body-
Like a rainbow in space.

Sweet Voice -- Like Brahma's song.

Vast Mind -- Like the wide expanse of sky: To the manifestation of the timeless teacher's (guru's) body, speech, and mind, I bow down.

Look with stainless wisdom-eyes on myriad beings, each one once our mother. Grant your blessing that, having swiftly realized the absolute body, I may manifest the true body of form.

I, the yogin Tsogdruk Rangdrol, will now sing some essential advice: Fortunate one's, who wish to achieve buddhahood in this very life, with this very body: Listen with respect.

The root of all that exists, Samsara and nirvana, is one's own mind. Primordially, mind is emptiness.

Merge then into the sky-like absolute expanse,
Empty, luminous, beyond clinging.

Outside, inside, eyes open or closed,
Day night; asleep, awake:
No difference

During practice, after practice,
Mind, appearances;
blend them.

Continuously, without wavering.
Merge completely with this vibrant, sky-like state.

Even if you died right now, you would have no regrets. Death is release into the luminosity of dharmakaya;
Out of the expanse of the absolute body, the body of form arises.

Although on this path, there can be no mistakes,
It is still wiser to avoid complacency.

Once you have achieved stability in meditation, do not remain satisfied with that alone.

If you persist, practicing the instructions to transmute the body of this life into a body of light, you will become like deathless Lotus Born One (the Primordial Buddha).

Therefore, fortunate heart-son, practice the development stage of the yidam deity. Then consider your body as the yidam, apparent, yet empty;

Consider the outer world as a Pure Land, a celestial palace, and ALL beings as gods and goddesses.

In the center (sushumna) of your divine body, visualize the three channels and the chakras, the Ah and the Hung [syllables].
Holding prana in the vase, practice the Tummo meditation [consisting of the synchronization of pranayama and visualization), the main practice of the completion stage.

Abandoning the nine actions of the three doors, utilizing the postures [asanas] and crucial points of the sense doors, the sense-fields, energy and awareness, meditate on the Dzogchen practice of Thoegal.

The distance covered by a great ship pulled on land by a hundred men for a hundred days, can be covered in just one day when it is put to sea.

In the same way. a single day of meditation performed with real stability of mind brings more progress than a hundred days practicing the development and completion stages before stability of mind has been reached.

If you persevere in practice, your skandhas will be freed in a body of rainbow light in this very lifetime, in this very body.

If you lack diligence, even though you do not achieve the rainbow body in this life, your death will occur without suffering and be accompanied by marvelous signs and [so-called] miracles." Pages 275-276




... and again


"Like a magician transforming one thing into another, you must learn to exchange non-virtue for virtue, and for the sake of all beings release the great waves of Bodhisattva activity. If you accomplish this perfectly, the fruit of the rupakaya will open....

The alchemy of the development stage will transmute the iron of your three doors into the gold of deities, mantras, and samadhi. The tummo fire [kundalini heat] of the completion stage will refine time again and again the rough ore of the skandhas and cast it as the golden image, non-duality.

Having clarified the butter churned from the milk of the Sutrayana and the mantrayana, enjoy with pleasure the medicinal milk of the Mahamudra. If you taste the dakinis' profound and secret heart-essence, in this life you will achieve the rainbow body.

Train the fledgling wings of your mind to fly through the fontanelle window of your body's house. Continuously let mind bask in the sun --
Luminous emptiness free from mistaking thought [objects] as [solid, separate, or] real -- Then, lasting bliss will [be allowed to] arise [naturally by itself]..."

~~~~

From "The Life of Shabkar: An Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogi" translated by Matthieu Ricard, and published by SUNY, 1994.




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