Opening the Nine Spaces with the Key of Explanation 2
Then the holy Sattvavajra presented a request to the great Vajrasattva with these words:
O Mind of the Victorious over all the Victorious Ones,
The secret of secrets in the Bodhicitta.
It is a house of jewels with many doors,
And is to be understood through its own luminescence.
There are methods for discussing this heart-essence of great bliss,
Which has no connection with any search.
They are discussed with reference to a result.
Self-luminescent awareness is perfect in itself,
So please explain its magnificent pervasion,
Its encompassment, and retention.
Then the Tathagata Vajrasattva gave an oration with these words:
O Mahasattva!
The Tantra on the Excellence of the Unwritten[26]
Is not written down.
It has no connection to colors and shapes.
This is the Tantra that is Equal to the End of the Sky.[27]
It is a treasure of every secret.
It is a description of a truly great perfection,
Through which we abide in the way
Of our base, path, and fruition.
This is the dearest reserve for all our contemplations.
It is described as being the way
Of a pervasive space of contemplation.
Are brought together in this,
So it is described as resembling
Upadeśa to shake off our books.
The nine spaces
Are the spaces of the root of the mind itself,
Yet they have no mind.
They are described as oceanic spaces.
The self-occurring playfulness
That comes from the empty clarity
Of the reality of the All Good
Does not stop,
So it is described as resembling
The display of planets and stars in the sky.
This is the finest of all the transmissions
On the mind that pervades the sky,
So it is described in reference to its five perfect stores.
The common things that we must understand
Are, in essence, either ordinary or extraordinary.
The way in which the ordinary are especially famous
Deviates toward fame,
And is an obstruction.
Our vow, practice, samadhi, samaya,
Our practices, good works, and highest empowerments,
Our mandalas, stages, and paths,
And the fruitions we enjoy,
Grasp at a self in what we take in and hold on to,
Out of ignorance.
We make categories out of the perfect truth.
We are chained by practices that are personal,
Or are for two,
That are either pure or spotty,
Things we take on or renounce that obstruct us.
All of them are deviations and obstructions.
This is how deviations and obstructions happen:
In the perfect secret
That we have personally sought out
Since the primordial,
There is a division between what is seen and what is unseen.
In the self-luminescence that is never visualized,
We are chained by holding on to ourselves and to others.
In the vajra that has no connection with birth or ending,
We err through holding on to connections between causes and results.
In the Great Perfection,
Where what is real is not dual,
We take a backward pathway
Through designations of differences.
In the treasure of non-dual reflexive awareness
We divide up two truths,
In contradiction with their unity.
In the emptiness of unvisualized self-luminescence
We build up an unvisualized purity,
Which is a contradiction.
The view that is free from chains
Has no planetary concerns,
But to hold onto being free from planetary concerns
Is a point of delusion.
In the self-luminescence of uncontrived wisdom
There are Dharmas that obfuscate our dominion and our wisdom,
While this jewel has been clear of them
Since the primordial.
Using the three purities to perform a search
Is a mistake.
That is unconnected to generation,
There is a great yoga of generation and graduated searching.
When we search
We are separated from this self-occurring treasure.
In the mounds of the precious jewels of wisdom,
There are the hopes and worries
Of wanting our blessings to appear.
The wheel of self-luminescence has a purpose.
This jeweled wheel is All Good.
It abides in the self-luminescent hearts
Of the six kinds of living beings.
Luminescent awareness does not hold on.
Its objective melts into its dominion.
It shines, but is not evident.
In the blessings of the self-luminescent sun
This unsought light encompasses the ten directions.
It is described as having fourteen specific qualities.
The Dharmas, in the essence of the mind,
Do not go to extremes,
Nor do we see them revertedly.
The entirety of all the Great Perfection,
Nothing excepted,
Is described as resembling
A solid mountain of luminescence.
Regardless of any apparent definitions
For permanence and cessation there may be,
The mind, in itself, maintains neither wide nor narrow Dharmas.
This is described as resembling
The space of the sky.
The luminescent equality of all the Dharmas
Arises without our searching for it.
The current of self-luminescent awareness is perfect.
This is described as resembling
Sentient beings, Buddhas, and others
Do not confuse happiness and sorrow,
So the Great Perfection is described as resembling
The ocean of self-clarity has no shore.
It is difficult to define,
And will not be penetrated through any search.
This is described as resembling
The bottom of a deep lake.
Unsought blessings arise by themselves,
With piles of spontaneously made jewels.
This is described as resembling
A jewel of great price.
Does the sun not appear to be one?
When it is completely clear that emotional problems are wisdom
This is described as resembling
How poison itself continues to be medicine.
When it is completely clear that reflexive awareness
Shines in everything,
We appear to play in spontaneous great bliss.
This is described as resembling
The waves of the great ocean.
The specifics of definitions may appear in any way
But they do not lend toward our remaining
In the unchanging embodiment of the Dharma.
This is described as resembling
The color black.
It happens by itself.
It is not something to work toward.
It is self-arising.
It may appear as anything.
It matures out of itself.
So it is described as resembling
The amra fruit.
On this king of self-arising vehicles
We brilliantly go everywhere,
Without traversing anything.
This is described as resembling
The soaring of a garuda in the sky.
The transmission of this self-occurring perfection
That has no limits
Overwhelms our cravings for limits.
This is described as resembling
A lion letting out a roar.
The playfulness of the wheel of the All Good
Is totally free from all appearances and descriptions,
All existence and absence.
This is described as resembling
The All Good having nothing to renounce or take on.
The mind itself
Is the reflexive awareness of all Dharmas,
And the mind itself
Is originally pure, from the primordial.
This is described as resembling
A golden isle of jewels.
There are three aspects of the Great Perfection
That are extraordinary:
Its unsought path,
Its comprehensive scriptures,
And its secret upadeśa, which we actually have.
The self-luminescence of its view
Has no connection with planetary concerns.
Without looking,
The self-luminescent eye of wisdom
Is free from the limitations there are
In both knowing and obstructing this luminescence.
The self-luminescence of awareness is perfected in this domain.
This playfulness of the All Good has no cessation.
Awareness, which is not to be stopped,
Arises from itself as perfect.
We use the practices of this uncontrived heart-essence
To play in space,
Which has no border or center.
We do not receive the supreme empowerment
Of the vase of royal investiture,
For we are perfect in ourselves,
And this is clear in all things.
The wisdom of awareness occurs to us
In a single instant.
The time allotted
Will be clarified through discussion with a guru.
The samaya for this magnificent circle[28]
Are jewels that dwell in the mind of the All Good.
These samaya are not to be protected,
For they continue without protection,
Being unconnected to any position.
This self-awareness has been spontaneously here
From the primordial.
It has no positions or preferences,
For it has already pervaded everything.
Our good works are not done as deeds,
And are without limitations.
So perfect wisdom is clear to us,
Without our doing anything.
It is like Takśaka’s jewel,
Or the king of the lights of the world.
Its blessings and compassion
Dawn on us by themselves.
They are not achieved by diligent practice,
Or by searching for them.
This samadhi of self-arising wisdom
Is a spontaneously formed self-luminescence
That is not disturbed.
It cuts through all seeking and disturbance.
The transmission of the self-luminescence
Of the heart-essence of wisdom
Is a mandala that has no border or center.
Within it is the inconceivable self-luminescence
Of the three embodiments.
It has no limits,
And is likened to its own heart-essence.
The circle is luminous in being perfect in itself.
It occurs by itself,
Is self-arising,
And is perfect in itself.
This is likened to the light of the sun and its heart.
Immeasurable fruitions ripen in it,
As if it were the sky.
Through offering our self-occurring belongings,
They melt into the dimension of spontaneous self-luminescence.
This spontaneous offering has no contingencies.
Through it we enjoy the self-luminescence of omniscience.
This is the significance of making real what is hidden.
The way to learn it is to recognize it gradually.
We understand our own minds to be jewels
Through the empowerment of the vase of royal investiture.
This is why the use of a view
To make our determination
Has been described.
We must immerse ourselves in this,
Without vacillating.
This is why the upadeśa
That have no connection to the meanings of symbols
Have been described.
Whatever we practice turns to emptiness.
Nothing binds us,
So the upadeśa on elephants entering the water
Have been described.
The general significance of the words
Is coalesced into nine spaces.
They are used to explain
The words that are published in all the Tantras.
Open things up with the key of the nine spaces!
Explain them to yourself!
Comment on them yourself!
Turn the wheel of wordless awareness
For people of the great vehicle that are not searching for it.
So he spoke.
From the Great Tantra that is Equal to the End of the Sky, this is the third chapter: Opening the Nine Spaces with the Key of Explanation.
The Treasure of Jewels that Must be Known
Then Sattvavajra addressed the great Vajrasattva with these words:
O Lord,
You hold the treasure
Of the bodies, speech, and minds
Of all the Buddhas of the three times.
You have the treasury of wisdom,
Perfect non-duality,
Where everything is self-liberated,
I am asking you.
My Lord,
Please explain to me
The treasure houses of totally liberated awareness.
Please use definitions as your essential method.
Then the Tathagata Vajrasattva gave an oration:
O Mahasattva,
The transmission of the Bodhicitta that equals the end of the sky
Is a method for coming into a wealth of jewels.
The dominion of the Dharma,
Has one essence,
But when we inquire into it,
There are three aspects.
The way that divides things between material things and thoughts
Uses analogies to demonstrate methods for faulting this essence,
Dividing them with reference to whether they chain or liberate us,
But according to Equal to the End of the Sky,
Which brings everything together,
We are perfected in the dimension of the self-luminescence of all things.
It does not stop.
It is not to be thought upon.
It is never considered.
It is the treasure of the wheel of awareness,
And it is not complicated.
It is not a Buddha.
It is not a sentient being.
It is neither of them.
This self-arising transmission
Cuts through exaggeration and denigration.
This heart-essence has no border or center.
It is a treasure of aware equanimity
That has no position.
It is like a mound of precious gemstones.
It shines in all things,
And has no position or preference.
It is a treasure trove that is equal to the end of the sky.
This wish-fulfilling wheel is there purely, by itself,
And one who opens the door of luminous total vision
Will find a trove of precious jewels.
The transmission of the wisdom of the essence of all things
Is luminous in this heart-essence.
It has no boundaries or center.
This luminescence has been proclaimed to be
The dominion of the Dharma of reflexive awareness.
The voice of awareness does not speak.
It makes way for itself,
Without our thinking about it.
It shines in a self-luminescence that occurs by itself,
And this is how reverted ideas are bound in knots.
When it is not luminescent in our dominion,
We may be liberated,
But we will not be free.
In the same way that we do not stay in the sky,
We do not stay in any misunderstanding
Of this self-occurring luminescence.
It occurs by itself.
It is self-luminous.
It is perfected in our dominion.
It pervades the space of unspeakable awareness.
It is difficult to designate it, saying:
“This is the essence.”
The significance of the symbols
For this inconceivable dominion of the Dharma
Is not complicated.
It is entirely definite.
The transmission of regency
Has a swift compassion,
And is profound.
It is not for profit or fame.
One who is empowered with the vase of royal investiture,
Who perseveres in revealing the specifics about the vehicles,
And who uses his speaking skills
To show the connections between words and meanings,
Is a master at joining meanings to symbols.
He abides in a dominion
In which we do not think of definitions.
His intuition is pervasive, like space.
He is wise
In the significance of what it is to be unconnected
To any boundaries or center.
He holds the transmission of a wordless contemplation.
It is said that when you meet him
You will be sure.
His reflexive awareness is luminescent.
He shows it in himself.
In the transmission of self-luminescence
He reveals this to himself.
He stabs himself with the giant spike
This is a description of the finest of Masters.
He has come down from the trails of the lion of certainty,
And lets out the roar of the lion who does not hunt.
His heart is glorious, omniscient, and liberating,
As if it were the sun that illuminates the world.
Self-occurring wisdom
Is a great light.
Self-luminescent awareness dawns on us.
The transmission that elucidates
Learning, contemplation, and meditation
Has been described as a condition for
An ascertained understanding.
This magic house of precious jewels
Holds a treasure that nothing will exhaust.
This is the occasion to acquire the key
To gradually open up a vehicle.
Any teachings there may be
On the specifics of the vehicles
Are surely subsumed within
The significance of the nine spaces.
The Tantra on the Nine Spaces that is Equal to the Sky,[29]
Upon investigation,
Is an encounter with a trove of precious jewels.
We use an understanding of three unsought transmissions,
On the mound of playful awareness,
And even though there is no place
For thought, practice, or applications,
The perfect Buddha used just these three.
He acquired the empowerment of the vase of royal investiture,
Then encountered the significance of self-arising wisdom.
He considered the four parts of time[30]
In which awareness moves
To be threefold.
The first is secret wisdom.
The time period will be determined in our guru’s heart.
He will use the mirror of transmitted methods
To unite us with all the truly luminescent wisdom
There may be.
He is pure.
He describes a method for leading the blind.
It is neither worked on nor not worked on.
We abide in an understanding of the middle way,
In which there is no holding on.
These are the upadeśa
For taking hold of wisdom,
Made presentable to the intellects
Luminosity does not develop right at the first,
But ultimately it develops,
While it has no connection
With the significance of the unborn.
This heart-essence,
Which has no boundaries or center,
Has been proclaimed to be
A direct encounter with perfection.
And from this time on,
Whatever may appear,
The unthought transmission
Of unsought visions of awareness,
A wisdom that is free
From everything we talk about together,
Will be like the taste of a woman’s delight.
The upadeśa on joining our bodies, speech, and minds
To the perfect experience of wisdom
In a unity
Have been elucidated,
While all of these are self-luminescent wisdom.
You will learn the measure of the time for this
From the lips of your guru.
There are thirteen upadeśa on the applications of methods.
They have been presented as training methods,
But the definitive presentation of our individual self-awareness
Is to be learned from the lips of a knowledgeable guru.
Each and every stage of these methods
Is to be applied just as it is,
And those who continue on without seeking anything
Will come to possess
A magical trove of precious jewels
That bring us our desires.
The self-luminous dominion of the Dharma
Is beyond speech,
And while its essence is luminous
It is not to be visualized.
The self-occurring space
That has no location,
And has no limits,
Is perfected in the unity
Is not affected by our opinions.
It is perfected in our dominion
In the unified perfection of untroubled samadhi.
We do not engage in holding on
In the uncomplicated equanimity of the uncontrived
We are primordially devoid
Of thoughts that hold to positions and preferences.
In this luminous heart-essence
That has no limits
We are free from a need to have opinions
About meditation and non-meditation.
In the perfect transmission
Of self-luminous self-awareness
We cut through opinions that are based on dualities.
In the proclamations on self-luminous awareness,
Which are not to be spoken,
We give up our opinions
About speaking and not speaking.
In self-luminous wisdom,
Which has no position,
This is the sole treasure that does not harbor opinions.
In the heart-essence of the total fruition of the self-luminous,
Siddhis arise,
The eye of wisdom has no knowledge
And does not see.
It is formed in the objectives
Of a heart-essence we do not contemplate.
The blessings of our every desire
Fall in a rain
From this heart-essence of unsullied knowledge.
Everything is perfect in this unspeakable space,
As if it were the space of the sky.
It is luminous,
It is perfected
In the dominion of self-luminous blessings.
It is like a mound of precious jewels
That brings us our desires.
It is a treasure of all things,
And has no position or preference.
We are like the lions
Who have completed their great hunt.
We are perfected in a unity
That overwhelms our searches and practices.
We surmount the levels instantaneously,
Without traversing them,
Like birds taking off into the sky.
This is not a planetary concern.
Awareness is perfect in its own dominion.
The luminescence and appearance of everything
Abides in our awareness,
Like the planets and stars arrayed in the sky.
It is self-luminous and unsullied,
Perfect in its own dominion.
The Tathagata Vajrasattva
And is not contrived.
What we must understand is that
Our own joys will come to us
Without complications,
For this is not based on causes and conditions.
The mighty force that arises in the sky by itself
Is none other than the one that occurs by itself
In our own dominion.
In any way that we may organize it,
Our dominion is self-luminous.
It is like the heart of the sun,
And has no limits.
Upon examination,
This luminescence is not to be visualized.
It is a treasure of equanimity
That is undisturbed and does not hold on.
The self-occurring teachings dawn on us.
The wheel of self luminescence rolls on us.
The treasure of the totality of the self-luminescent sun
Abides in everything.
This is a dominion that is not linked to our understanding.
So he spoke.
From the Great Tantra that is Equal to the End of the Sky, this is the fourth chapter: The Treasure of Jewels that Must be Known.
The Jewel Treasure of the Nine Treasuries
Then Sattvavajra presented a request to the great Vajrasattva with these words:
The supreme light of the self-luminescent sun
Holds the treasure of awareness
Of the nine treasuries
Within the perfect transmission,
Spontaneous and effortless,
In which the nine treasuries
Bring down a rain of our desires,
While emotional problems are seen as
One with wisdom.
Please explain how one thing
Is divided into nine.
Then the great Vajrasattva gave an oration with these words:
O Mahasattva,
A single circle is divided in two.
The one truth is presented with exaggerations and deprecations.
The six kinds of beings in samsara
Are one,
But are perceived to be separate.
This puts a shadow on
The treasure of the awareness of our nine desires.
In this circle that is entirely round
There has never been a samsara or nirvana.
In the heart-essence of enlightenment,
Is how sorrow dawns on us to be
The playfulness of the All Good.
It is not complicated.
It is luminescent in its circle.
It is luminescent,
But dissolves into the dimension of the unreal.
Lust, hatred, stupidity, pride,
And great jealousy due to things being secret,
Shine out without our seeking them
As the five wisdoms.
Wisdom pervades everything,
Like the sun.
It is a healer for the five regions of our five desires.
It is a self-arising compassion that heals everything.
The playfulness of reflexive awareness dawns on us personally.
The enjoyment of reflexive awareness
Is something we do for ourselves.
The lamp of luminescent wisdom shines naturally
On living beings who are darkened by ignorance.
Samsara itself is primordial Buddhahood.
Sorrow is an ornament of happiness and pleasure.
To designate the self-luminescence of primordial wisdom
To be dual
Is a pathway of delusion.
Our bodies, speech, minds, and every action
Shine in the dimension of luminous awareness,
Like the pathways of the birds in the sky.
They melt into the dominion of the sky,
And are no longer evident.
The treasure of equanimous awareness
Includes our dominion and lordship over provinces,
And our magical powers.
Our works, practices, and contemplation are inclusive,
While we remain in the state of self-luminescent wisdom,
Which is naturally non-dual,
And is pervasive like the sky.
The blessings this creates are arrayed like the stars.
The blessings of its compassion pervade, as does their light.
Nothing is joined with or separated from this state of self-luminescence.
The blessings of this single wisdom of awareness
Are like wish-fulfilling jewels.
The fruition of the gathered retinue,
The self-apparent six classes of living beings,
Falls like the rain from the sky.
Things occur just as we analyze or think about them,
In their non-dual and unified true nature,
So the magnificent light of this self-luminescent mirror
Is perfect in the dimension of a luminescence that has no objects.
Exaggerations and depreciations have been made
About this heart-essence of primordial enlightenment
Regarding its existence or non-existence,
But it does not abide in these things.
It is unlimited.
It is not associated with any material things.
An analogy is a needle falling from the sky.
It appears to the eyes of the deluded,
But is neither of these two kinds of conceptions.
Exaggerations are dharmas of casual attribution.
Depreciations are extremes in which clarity and emptiness do not exist.
But in the city where we turn away from all these things
We wish that there were gold in the stones.
In the same way,
When we crave a vision in which we define ourselves
We desire something that has no position and lacks self-clarity,
So how will we attain a fruition that is self-evident?
We engage in this self-luminous fruition
With a mind that has no awareness.
The wheel of unexaggerated awareness is transparent.
The transmission of undenigrated self-luminous awareness,
And the treasure of equanimous awareness that has no position
Are there, as they are and without adulteration,
Without our engaging them.
The Tantra Equal to the End of the Equanimous Sky[31]
Rests in a single circle,
But due to our not understanding this,
We perceive there to be six,
While all of them are obviously
The Dharma dominion of the circle.
Since anger is luminous as being an uncontrived dimension,
Even the blazing tongues of fire-light in hell
Do not cause any real suffering,
For they are none other than this uncontrived dimension.
When pride is luminous as a god that we actually see,
Our pleasures, happinesses, and sorrows are distinct,
But there is no duality in their uncontrived circumstance.
They are spontaneously perfected in a condition of non-duality.
The possessions of humans on the four continents
Are determined through applications of desire and craving.
Both happiness and suffering are the sorrows of samsara,
Even though they are non-dual in their self-evident conditions.
They are perfected in the heart-essence of self-luminous wisdom.
We may fall into life as an animal,
By force of being darkened and shadowed by ignorance,
But we do not live in any real suffering.
We are perfected in the wheel of this awareness.
Through the fruition of the bonds and attachments of avarice
We become impoverished with regard to food and possessions,
And the things that we desire are not attractive,
While, actually, things are not this way.
It is by force of the cruel viciousness of jealousy
That we suffer wars, disputes, and fights.
In their natural self-occurrence,
Things are not this way.
We are perfected in the wheel of self-luminous awareness,
In the dominion of the Dharma.
The unborn basis of all things,
The self-luminescence of awareness,
Is associated with the Nine Treasuries.[32]
The nine jeweled spaces[33] are luminescent in our hearts.
Self-abiding awareness is perfected in this treasure.
The Dharma treasure that is uncontrived and is not complicated
Is a mound of precious jewels that brings us everything.
The sky’s circumstance
Is to be without expansion or obstruction.
This is proclaimed in the Dharma Treasury on the Base of All Things.[34]
The five elements do not come about
Due to any essential reality.
Their reality arises from out of itself.
It is all-encompassing,
Totally active,
And abides in all things.
This is the treasury of the sky
Wherein the five elements are born and move.[35]
The embodiment of the Dharma is pure like the sky.
The river of its assorted blessings is undammed.
It brings everything together in a state of self-luminescence.
This is the treasury of the blessings of the embodiment of the Dharma.[36]
It is not to be seen.
It is self-luminous,
Its view is the root,
The basis of all things,
It is not connected to anything that we do not see.
It is solitary.
This is the treasury in which our view is equal to the vastness of space.[37]
This ambrosia is not associated with clingings or attachments,
And is not connected with hopes and fears about obstructions.
It is like an elephant entering the water.
This is the treasury of practice that does not reject things,
Or take them up.[38]
We attain this by ourselves.
It is the best of empowerments.
We do not traverse the paths and levels.
We are like the egg-born chicks of a garuda.
This is the treasury of the empowerment
Of the vase of royal investiture.[39]
There is nothing to do.
It has been done already,
From the primordial.
The good works of this self-luminescence,
Where there is nothing to do,
Are there by themselves,
Without our abandoning anything.
This is the treasury of spontaneously formed good deeds.[40]
Have been self-luminescent from the primordial,
And were not born into the mandala
Of the uncontrived self-luminosity of non-conceptual samadhi.
This is the treasury of the great mandala of the unborn.[41]
Wisdom that is knowledge is self-evident,
But we use the three ways of excellent understanding to engage it.
We hold the treasure of secret wisdom.
This is the treasury of uncontrived self-luminous wisdom.[42]
There appear to be nine,
But they are perfected as one.
There is a big difference.
The gathering of these nine precious treasuries
Is equal to a mound of jewels.
It opens up everything.
We have found the treasure of a trove of jewels.
Through the blessings of the pervasive and encompassing sky,
The mandala of a thousand suns appears,
And through this self-evident awareness that is solitary,
We have specific thoughts regarding our power of control.
It is like the smoke of a single fire
Coming out from the holes in a roof.
There is one,
But there appears to be many.
Our awareness links up with things
According to the intentions of their sphere.
An analogy is that the Buddhas of the three times,
For the sake of those who are wild about the meanings
Of things they do not understand,
Brilliantly seize hold of the books on the Great Perfection,
And sit down before their disciples
To present them with what they want,
As if they were bearing light.
Their compassion is pervasive like the ends of the sky.
They perfect non-dual wisdom into a unity,
Like a wish-fulfilling jewel that makes wishes come true.
People of heritage who have acquired empowerment
Into this magnificent treasure,
The nine treasuries of awareness,
Will progressively separate meanings from symbols,
And be liberated.
They will, all at once,
Take pleasure in the practice of desire,
And for so long as anything at all may appear to them,
They will have these enumerations that pertain to the mind,
But there is one by which we attain total freedom,
Fit for the intellects of magical people.
Our nine desires are like mounds of jewels.
It is obvious that none of them have positions or preferences.
A house of jewels has many doors,
But the door by which we enter their one objective
Is inconceivable.
So he spoke.
From the Great Tantra that is Equal to the Ends of the Sky, this is the fifth chapter: The Jewel Treasure of the Nine Treasuries
Analogies to Illuminate Awareness
Then Sattvavajra addressed the great Vajrasattva with these words:
All the Buddhas of the three times,
The lords of the sky-treasure that brings us our desires,
Play in the dominion of their bodies, speech, and minds,
And dwell in an awareness of their unchanging nature.
I ask you, My Lord,
To please explain the luminescence
That signifies this self-evident mound of jewels,
So that I may meet up with this trove of jewels.
Then the great Vajrasattva proclaimed these words:
O Mahasattva,
Just as the border of the vast sky
Joins the ends of the sky together,
Things will appear to us,
In this heart-essence that has no border or center,
Just as we think of them.
This ocean of secrets is a wealth of jewels.
It is an applicable method toward inconceivable self-luminescence.
It dwells forever in a self-luminescent light.
It is described as a trove of magic jewels.
Those who do not have the vajra transmission
Will not find the significance
Of this self-luminous wheel of awareness,
Even though they investigate for an eon.
Yogins who have the heart to apply their awareness
To this heart jewel of the aural transmission
Will take their guru to be a vajra life force,[43]
And please him with the essential requisites,
Taking an oath of service through their three doors.
He will introduce them to this trove of jewels,
Progressively liberating meanings from symbols.
He will use the pure empowerment
Into the awareness of royal investiture
To introduce them to instantaneous Buddhahood.
Once they have acquired the substance of a hundred happinesses
They will arrive at that very instant that is the end of time.
This will be particularly obvious
Throughout the regions of the ten directions,
As they cut through their exaggerations and depreciations
Regarding self-luminescent awareness,
And are perfected in a dimension where there are no conceptions.
We make up conceptions
To define something that is not complex,
While in the pure luminescence of our wisdom
The lack of clarity due to obfuscations made by limitations
Is removed.
When symbols are conjoined with meanings,
We do not apply definitions based on grammar.
As with the heart-essence of self-luminescent wisdom,
We have clarity,
While we continue to be without conceptions.
Just as the unchanging sky is forever,
The great eternity of unchanging space
Is the origin of all things.
Just as Vajrasattva is a god,
We are perfected in a dominion
That is not associated with meditation.
In keeping with the way of pleasure
In magical delights,
Self-luminosity manifests,
Transforming into our nine desires.
Like the crows on the ships at sea,
We circle round,
Then rise up into our own dominion.
As it is with the gemstone,
Whatever the Mighty Sage presents
Is the way that it is.
Unsought self-luminescence abides in its own dominion.
Like a treasure of wondrous jewels,
We remain luminous,
Undisturbed by expansion and contraction.
Like the light that shines on a dominion,
We cut through conceptions about unpolluted self-luminescence.
We see but do not touch
The dominion of the sky.
Like a mirror that illuminates the apparent world,
We are perfected in a dominion
Where differences are obvious.
Like those who live on the pathways of the kalabingka bird,
Wherever we travel,
Our dominion is not something we think about.
Like the taste of a delightful girl,
It is entirely obvious,
But we do not experience its savor.
Like the fundament of golden jewels,
Our dominion may illuminate anything,
And move anywhere.
It is not associated with material things.
Like the core that subsumes the oceans,
There are a variety of doors
That are identical as one.
Like the light that blazes from the sun and moon,
Self-luminescence shines
With no position or preference.
Like the essence of the sky,
We are free from the limitations
Made by investigating and holding onto things.
Self-luminescence cuts through complications.
It is not associated with visualizations.
It illuminates everything.
It brings everything together.
Like the waves of blessings in the ocean’s ebb and flow,
This treasure of fullness rises up out of itself,
Recedes within itself,
And has no position or preference.
The blessings of its clarity are inconceivable.
It shines on the three borders,[44]
And encompasses their dominion.
An analogy is that it resembles a jeweled golden isle.
It may appear as anything,
But is perfected in its unity.
Self-evident awareness does not contemplate anything.
The doors to this house of jewels are united,
So from any of them we reach any of them.
No matter which we go through,
The jewel is the same.
Through them we will acquire the trove.
Princes who are so fortunate as to be able
Will dwell in the self-luminescent light of totality.
It is a samadhi that decimates anger.
It does the same for great stupidity.
It does the same for lust, in all its applications.
It retains the three resolves of pride.
It does not engage in jealousy.
These five areas
Are subsumed within the light of self-luminescence.
Five things are presented to signify one thing.
This resembles the way our delight in one taste
Encompasses everything we taste.
We abide in the dominion of the Dharma,
Which does not require any understanding or practice.
With the resolve of the awareness of clear light.
We engage in the heart-essence of the sky,
Which does not require thinking,
With balanced minds that do not search.
We transform into invisible charioteers of awareness.
We perceive the meaning of the unwritten.
When we follow along the trails of definitions and grammar
We contradict the significance of uncomplicated awareness.
This unsought and self-occurring light is luminous.
It dissolves into a dimension
That has no boundary or center.
The secret, great secret, totally secret, and self-secret
Are subsumed into one: The complicated.
The light of the wisdom of self-luminous awareness
Has no position or preference.
It is equally in everything.
The true essence of equanimous awareness
Could be anything.
It takes all forms.
Self-awareness does not pass on or change,
And however obvious it may be to us,
There is nothing called: “This.”
The magnificent light of the mirror of total luminosity,
The essence of perfected wisdom,
And the great primordial circle,
For both ourselves and others,
Are perfected in the dominion of wisdom.
Like a lord over all the kings,
He is Vajrasattva truly present.
His magical words are a lamp for our awareness.
He opens the door of his breast,
A house of jewels,
And introduces us to the meanings
Of the symbols for the unborn.
He places us on levels that we do not travel to reach.
He shows us an embodiment of the Dharma that does not die.
Through the window of a knowledge that understands
That the self-luminous sun
Pervasively encompasses all things.
He opens the broad door of jewels,
And will confer on us Vajrasattva’s hearty elixir,
Throwing open the doors of awareness conjoined with method.
He teaches us the upadeśa on secret wisdom,
Using an awareness that has no verbal sounds
To place us in self-luminescent sunlight.
He introduces us to a fruition
That is not related to a search or practice.
This sort of teaching Master must not be abandoned,
Even though we must give up our bodies, lives, powers,
For an eon.
What need is there to mention
Our children, spouses, troves of wealth,
If we do not hold to what is holy and victorious,
We might become learned in innumerable Tantras,
But we will die,
And when our hearts are not connected
We will surely fall onto the vajra needle.
It moves quickly,
As if it were crossing a border.
Once we have fallen into the depths of samsara
There will be no possibility
That we have a chance to be free
Without our depending on this holy being.
According to the upadeśa
Of the aural transmission of the Great Perfection,
Those who do not have a guru’s upadeśa
Are practicing with an understanding
Built on false ideas.
It is certain that they will fall.
There is no doubt.
We may explain this upadeśa on our most secret hearts,
This Tantra that Equals the End of the Sky,
To people who are naturally evil,
Those with little learning,
Those who are not accustomed to grammar,
People of the inferior vehicles,
Those who ridicule vajra masters,
Those who insult their vajra kindred,
Those who ridicule the significance of self-luminosity,
Those who work toward sources of great profit and repute,
Those who are pleased with meaningless sounds,
Those who want the Master’s empowerment for no reason,
But we will be assembled,
Being summoned by a ḍamaru drum,
In the charnel ground of the land of Damshod,[45]
For the gathered conversations of the Dakinis’ ears.
Though it is not our time to die.
They prepare to actually eat our flesh and blood.
They use fierce and intolerable sorrows
To kill us and take our lives.
Then we must surely go on to the vajra needle.
Those who do not have an enlightened attitude
Will not be free.
They have no refuge.
Transmit this to someone
Who has been ascertained to be a prince,
Who has acquired the empowerment of certitude.
So he said.
From the great Tantra that is Equal to the End of the Sky this is the sixth chapter: Analogies to Illuminate Awareness.
