Aspirations for Mahamudra ***

Maitripa's Essential Mahamudra Verses ***

Maitripa's Concise Summary of Mahamudra ***

The Mahamudra Upadesa of Tilopa ***

Tilopa's Mahamudra Instruction to Naropa in Twenty Eight Verses ***

Ganga-Mahamudra-Upadesa of Sri Tilopa ***

The Royal Song Of Saraha ***

Saraha's Treasury of Songs ***

Song of Métripa (Advayavajra) ***

Zerbu Dunpa: Seven Nails ***

The Seven Nails of Acarya Sri Simha ***

The View, Concisely Put by Naropa ***

The Summary of Mahamudra by Naropa ***

How to Stop by Shabkar ***

Gurus and yidams, deities of the mandala,
Buddhas of the three times and ten directions and your offspring,
Consider me with kindness.
Pour into me your energy so that these wishes are fulfilled.

A river of virtue undefiled by the three spheres
Springs from the snow-mountain of pure actions and intentions-
Mine and those of all sentient beings without limit.
May this river flow into the ocean of the four expressions of full awakening.

Until I wake up to full presence,
Through all my lifetimes, birth after birth,
May not even the words for defilement and suffering be heard
And may I enjoy the wealth of oceans of happiness and virtue.

Having obtained this excellent free and well-favored life along with faith, energy and intelligence,
Having attended a worthy master and received the pith of the sacred instructions,
May I practice the sacred dharma properly
In all my lives without interruption.

The study of scriptures frees one from the veil of ignorance.
The contemplation of oral instructions overcomes the darkness of doubt.
Light born of meditation illuminates the way things are.
May the radiance of the three wisdoms increase.

The basic ground consists of the two truths, free from the extremes of eternalism and nihilism,
The excellent path, the two accumulations free from the extremes of assumption and denial,
The result obtained, the two benefits free from the extremes of existence and peace.
May I meet teaching which is free from error.

The ground of refinement is mind itself - indivisible luminosity and emptiness;
The refining - the great vajra composure of mahamudra;
What is to be refined - the incidental stains of confusion;
The result of refining - the unstained experience of being: may I know it.

Confidence in outlook cuts assumptions about the ground.
The key to cultivation is to maintain that without distraction.
The supreme expression is to exercise the sense of cultivation in everything.
May I have confidence in outlook, cultivation and expression.

All experience is the manifestation of mind.
As for mind, there is no mind; mind's nature is empty.
Empty and unceasing, mind arises as experience.
By looking into mind deeply, may I be clear about how it is.

Perceptions, which never existed in themselves, are mistaken for objects.
Awareness itself, because of ignorance, is mistaken for a self.
Through the power of dualistic fixation I wander in the realm of existence.
May ignorance and confusion be completely resolved.

It doesn't exist: even buddhas do not see it.
It doesn't not exist: it is the basis of samsara and nirvana.
No contradiction: the middle way is union.
May I know the pure being of mind, free of extremes.

If one says "it is this," nothing has been posited.
If one says "it is not this," nothing has been denied.
Unconditioned pure being transcends intellect.
May I gain conviction in the ultimate outlook.

Not knowing it, I circle in the ocean of existence,
Knowing it, buddha isn't anywhere else.
"It is everything", "It isn't anything": none of this.
Pure being, the basis of everything, may I see any misunderstanding here.

Since perception is mind and emptiness is mind,
Since knowing is mind and delusion is mind,
Since arising is mind and cessation is mind,
May all assumptions about mind be eliminated.

Unpolluted by meditation with intellectual effort
Undisturbed by the winds of everyday affairs,
Not manipulating, knowing how to let what is true be itself,
May I become skilled in the practice of mind and maintain it.

The waves of subtle and coarse thoughts return to their source.
Undisturbed, the river of mind flows naturally.
Free from the contaminations of dullness and torpor,
May I establish the still ocean of shamatha.

When one looks again and again at the mind that cannot be looked at,
And sees vividly for what it is the meaning of not-seeing,
Doubts about the meaning of "is" and "isn't" are resolved.
Without confusion, may my own face know itself.

Look at objects and there is no object: one sees mind;
Look at mind and there is no mind: it is empty of nature;
Look at both of these and dualistic clinging subsides on its own.
May I know sheer clarity, the way mind is.

Free from mental constructions, it is called the great seal.
Free from extremes, it is called the great middle way.
Because everything is complete here, it is also called the great completion.
May I gain the confidence that, in understanding one, I know them all.

The great bliss of non-attachment is continuous.
Sheer clarity without fixations is free of obscurations.
Passing beyond intellect, non-thought is naturally present.
May these experiences continually arise without effort.

Attachment to good and fixation on experience subside on their own.
Confusion and evil concepts are cleared away in the realm of ultimate nature.
In the ordinary mind, there is no control or alteration.
May I know the truth of pure being, complete simplicity.

While the nature of beings has always been full enlightenment,
Not knowing this, they wander in endless samsara.
For the boundless suffering of sentient beings
May overwhelming compassion be born in my being.

While such compassion is active and immediate,
In the moment of compassion, its essential emptiness is nakedly clear.
This conjunction is the undeviating supreme path;
Inseparable from it, may I practice day and night.

From the power of attention come eyes and direct knowing.
Sentient beings are ripened and domains of enlightenment refined.
Aspirations for the realization of all aspects of buddhahood are fulfilled.
May I complete these three - fulfillment, ripening and refinement - and become buddha.

By the compassion of the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions
And the power of whatever pure virtue there may be,
May my wishes and those of all beings
Be fulfilled in the way I am seeking.

To innermost bliss, I pay homage!

Were I to explain Mahamudra, I would say-
All phenomena? Your own mind!
If you look outside for meaning, you'll get confused.
Phenomena are like a dream, empty of true nature,

And mind is merely the flux of awareness,
No self nature: just energy flow.
No true nature: just like the sky.
All phenomena are alike, sky-like.

That's Mahamudra, as we call it.
It doesn't have an identity to show;
For that reason, the nature of mind
Is itself the very state of Mahamudra

(Which is not made up, and does not change).
If you realize this basic reality
You recognize all that comes up, all that goes on, as Mahamudra,
The all-pervading dharma-body.

Rest in the true nature, free of fabrication.
Meditate without searching for dharma-body-
It is devoid of thought.
If your mind searches, your meditation will be confused.

Because it's like space, or like a magical show,
There is neither meditation or non-meditation,
How could you be separate or inseparable?
That's how a yogi sees it!

Then, aware of all good and bad stuff as the basic reality,
You become liberated.
Neurotic emotions are great awareness,
They're to a yogi as trees are to a fire-FUEL!

What are notions of going or staying?
Or, for that matter, "meditating" in solitude?
If you don't get this,
You free yourself only on the surface.

But if you do get it, what can ever fetter you?
Abide in an undistracted state.
Trying to adjust body and mind won't produce meditation.
Trying to apply techniques won't produce meditation either.

See, nothing is ultimately established.
Know what appears to have no intrinsic nature.
Appearances perceived: reality's realm, self-liberated.
Thought that perceives: spacious awareness, self-liberated.
Non-duality, sameness [of perceiver and perceived]: the dharma-body.

Like a wide stream flowing non-stop,
Whatever the phase, it has meaning
And is forever the awakened state-
Great bliss without samsaric reference.

All phenomena are empty of intrinsic nature
And the mind that clings to emptiness dissolves in its own ground.
Freedom from conceptual activity
Is the path of all the Buddhas.

I've put together these lines
That they may last for aeons to come.
By this virtue, may all beings without exception
Abide in the great state of Mahamudra.

Homage to Great Bliss!

Mahamudra is knowing that
all things are one's own mind.
Seeing objects as external is just noetic projection.
The whole of "appearance" is as empty as a dream.

The mind as such is merely a flow of awareness,
without self-nature, moving where it will like the wind.
Empty of an identity, it is like space.
All phenomena, like space, are the same.

That which is termed Mahamudra,
Is not a "thing" that can be pointed to.
It is the mind's own nature
that is Mahamudra [i.e., the Absolute State].

It is not something to be perfected or transformed.
Thus, to realize this, is to realize
that the whole world of appearance is Mahamudra.
This is the absolute all-inclusive Dharmakaya [i.e.,the Ultimate Embodiment of Buddhahood].

Uncontrived and just as it is,
the inconceivable Dharmakaya,
is itself effortless meditation.
Trying to attain something is not meditation.

Seeing everything like space, like a magical illusion,
Neither meditating nor not meditating,
Neither separate nor not separate:
Such is the Yogin's realization.

All virtuous and evil actions
Become liberated through this knowledge.
The sinful defilements become the Absolute Gnosis itself;
becoming the Yogin's friend, this is a fire consuming the forest of trees.

Where then is going or staying?
Who then needs to run to a Monastery to meditate?
If one does not understand this point,
liberation will be but a temporary event.

When the true nature is realized,
one abides in the unwavering state.
Whether or not one is in the state of Integration or not,
There is nothing to be corrected by antidote or meditation.

Whatever arises is devoid of self-nature.
Appearances are auto-liberated into the Sphere of Reality (Dharmadhatu).
Conceptual creation is auto-liberated into Absolute Gnosis (Mahajnana).
The non-duality [of these two] is the Dharmakaya.

Like the flow of a great river,
Whatever occurs is meaningful and true.
This is the eternal Buddha state,
The Great Bliss, transcending the Worldly Cycle.

All phenomena are empty of self-identity,
Wherein even the concept of emptiness is eliminated.
Free of concepts, clinging not to mental projections,
is the Path of all the Enlightened Ones.

For those fortunate to connect with this teaching,
I have uttered these words of heartfelt instruction.
Thus, may all sentient beings
become established in Mahamudra.

Homage to the Co-emergent Wisdom!

Mahamudra cannot be shown;
But for you who are devoted to the guru, who have mastered the ascetic practices
And are forbearant in suffering, intelligent Naropa,
Take this to heart, my fortunate student.

Kye-ho!

Look at the nature of the world,
Impermanent like a mirage or dream;
Even the mirage or dream does not exist.
Therefore, develop renunciation and abandon worldly activities.

Renounce servants and kin, causes of passion and aggression.
Meditate alone in the forest, in retreats, in solitary places.
Remain in the state of non-meditation.
If you attain non-attainment, then you have attained mahamudra.

The dharma of samsara is petty, causing passion and aggression.
The things we have created have no substance; therefore, seek the substance of the ultimate.
The dharma of mind cannot see the meaning of transcendent mind.
The dharma of action cannot discover the meaning of non-action.

If you would attain the realization of transcendent mind and non-action,
Then cut the root of mind and let consciousness remain naked.
Let the polluted waters of mental activities clear.
Do not seek to stop projections, but let them come to rest of themselves.
If there is no rejection or accepting, then you are liberated in the mahamudra.

When trees grow leaves and branches,
If you cut the roots, the many leaves and branches wither.
Likewise, if you cut the root of mind,
The various mental activities will subside.

The darkness that has collected in thousands of kalpas
One torch will dispel.
Likewise, one moment's experience of luminous mind
Will dissolve the veil of karmic impurities.

Men of lesser intelligence who cannot grasp this,
Concentrate your awareness and focus on the breath.
Through different eye-gazes and concentration practices,
Discipline your mind until it rests naturally.

If you perceive space,
The fixed ideas of center and boundary dissolve.
Likewise, if mind perceives mind,
All mental activities will cease, you will remain in a state of non-thought,
And you will realize the supreme bodhi-citta.

Vapors arising from the earth become clouds and then vanish into the sky;
It is not known where the clouds go when they have dissolved.
Likewise, the waves of thoughts derived from the mind
Dissolve when mind perceives mind.

Space has neither color nor shape;
It is changeless, it is not tinged by black or white.
Likewise, luminous mind has neither color nor shape;
It is not tinged by black or white, virtue or vice.

The sun's pure and brilliant essence
Cannot be dimmed by the darkness that endures for a thousand kalpas.
Likewise, the luminous essence of mind
Cannot be dimmed by the long kalpas of samsara.

Though it may be said that space is empty,
Space cannot be described.
Likewise, though it may be said that mind is luminous,
Naming it does not prove that is exists.
Space is completely without locality.
Likewise, mahamudra mind dwells nowhere.

Without change, rest loose in the primordial state;
There is no doubt that your bonds will loosen.
The essence of mind is like space;
Therefore, there is nothing which it does not encompass.

Let the movements of the body ease into genuineness,
Cease your idle chatter, let your speech become an echo,
Have no mind, but see the dharma of the leap.

The body, like a hollow bamboo, has no substance.
Mind is like the essence of space, having no place for thoughts.
Rest loose your mind; neither hold it nor permit it to wander.
If mind has no aim, it is mahamudra.
Accomplishing this is the attainment of supreme enlightenment.

The nature of mind is luminous, without object of perception.
You will discover the path of Buddha when there is no path of meditation.
By meditating on non-meditation you will attain the supreme bodhi.

This is the king of views-it transcends fixing and holding.
This is the king of meditations-without wandering mind.
This is the king of actions-without effort.
When there is no hope or fear, you have realized the goal.

The unborn alaya is without habits and veils.
Rest mind in the unborn essence; make no distinctions between meditation and post-meditation.
When projections exhaust the dharma of mind,
One attains the king of views, free from all limitations.

Boundless and deep is the supreme king of meditations.
Effortless self-existence is the supreme king of actions.
Hopeless self-existence is the supreme king of the fruition.

In the beginning mind is like a turbulent river.
In the middle it is like the River Ganges, flowing slowly.
In the end it is like the confluence of all rivers, like the meeting of mother and son.

The followers of Tantra, the Prajnaparamita,
The Vinaya, the Sutras, and other religions-
All these, by their texts and philosophical dogmas,
Will not see the luminous mahamudra.

Having no mind, without desires,
Self-quieted, self-existing,
It is like a wave of water.
Luminosity is veiled only by the rising of desire.

The real vow of samaya is broken by thinking in terms of precepts.
If you neither dwell, perceive, nor stray from the ultimate,
Then you are a holy practitioner, the torch which illuminates darkness.

If you are without desire, if you do not dwell in extremes,
You will see the dharmas of all the teachings.

If you strive in this endeavor, you will free yourself from samsaric imprisonment.
If you meditate in this way, you will burn the veil of karmic impurities.
Therefore, you are known as "The Torch of the Doctrine."

Even ignorant people who are not devoted to this teaching
Could be saved by you from constantly drowning in the river of samsara.

It is a pity that beings endure such suffering in the lower realms.
Those who would free themselves from suffering should seek a wise guru.
Being possessed by the adhishthana [blessing], one's mind will be freed.

If you seek a karma mudra, then the wisdom of the joy of union and emptiness will arise.
The union of skillful means and knowledge brings blessings.
Bring it down and give rise to the mandala.
Deliver it to the places and distribute it throughout the body.
If there is no desire involved, then the union of joy and emptiness will arise.

Gain long life, without white hairs, and you will wax like the moon.
Become radiant, and your strength will be perfect.
Having speedily achieved the relative siddhis, one should seek the absolute siddhis.
May this pointed instruction in mahamudra remain in the hearts of fortunate beings.

Homage to the Eighty Four Mahasiddhas!
Homage to Mahamudra!
Homage to the Vajra Dakini!

Mahamudra cannot be taught. But most intelligent Naropa,
Since you have undergone rigorous austerity,
With forbearance in suffering and with devotion to your Guru,
Blessed One, take this secret instruction to heart.

Is space anywhere supported? Upon what does it rest?
Like space, Mahamudra is dependant upon nothing;
Relax and settle in the continuum of unalloyed purity,
And, your bonds loosening, release is certain.

Gazing intently into the empty sky, vision ceases;
Likewise, when mind gazes into mind itself,
The train of discursive and conceptual thought ends
And supreme enlightenment is gained.

Like the morning mist that dissolves into thin air,
Going nowhere but ceasing to be,
Waves of conceptualization, all the mind's creation, dissolve,
When you behold your mind's true nature.

Pure space has neither colour nor shape
And it cannot be stained either black or white;
So also, mind's essence is beyond both colour and shape
And it cannot be sullied by black or white deeds.

The darkness of a thousand aeons is powerless
To dim the crystal clarity of the sun's heart;
And likewise, aeons of samsara have no power
To veil the clear light of the mind's essence.

Although space has been designated "empty",
In reality it is inexpressible;
Although the nature of mind is called "clear light",
Its every ascription is baseless verbal fiction.

The mind's original nature is like space;
It pervades and embraces all things under the sun.

Be still and stay relaxed in genuine ease,
Be quiet and let sound reverberate as an echo,
Keep your mind silent and watch the ending of all worlds.

The body is essentially empty like the stem of a reed,
And the mind, like pure space, utterly transcends
the world of thought:
Relax into your intrinsic nature with neither abandon nor control -
Mind with no objective is Mahamudra -
And, with practice perfected, supreme enlightenment is gained.

The clear light of Mahamudra cannot be revealed
By the canonical scriptures or metaphysical treatises
Of the Mantravada, the Paramitas or the Tripitaka;
The clear light is veiled by concepts and ideals.

By harbouring rigid precepts the true samaya is impaired,
But with cessation of mental activity all fixed notions subside;
When the swell of the ocean is at one with its peaceful depths,
When mind never strays from indeterminate, non-conceptual truth,
The unbroken samaya is a lamp lit in spiritual darkness.

Free of intellectual conceits, disavowing dogmatic principles,
The truth of every school and scripture is revealed.

Absorbed in Mahamudra, you are free from the prison of samsara;
Poised in Mahamudra, guilt and negativity are consumed;
And as master of Mahamudra you are the light of the Doctrine.

The fool in his ignorance, disdaining Mahamudra,
Knows nothing but struggle in the flood of samsara.
Have compassion for those who suffer constant anxiety!
Sick of unrelenting pain and desiring release, adhere to a master,
For when his blessing touches your heart, the mind is liberated.

KYE HO! Listen with joy!
Investment in samsara is futile; it is the cause of every anxiety.
Since worldly involvement is pointless, seek the heart of reality!

In the transcending of mind's dualities is Supreme vision;
In a still and silent mind is Supreme Meditation;
In spontaneity is Supreme Activity;
And when all hopes and fears have died, the Goal is reached.

Beyond all mental images the mind is naturally clear:
Follow no path to follow the path of the Buddhas;
Employ no technique to gain supreme enlightenment.

KYE MA! Listen with sympathy!
With insight into your sorry worldly predicament,
Realising that nothing can last, that all is as dreamlike illusion,
Meaningless illusion provoking frustration and boredom,
Turn around and abandon your mundane pursuits.

Cut away involvement with your homeland and friends
And meditate alone in a forest or mountain retreat;
Exist there in a state of non-meditation
And attaining no-attainment, you attain Mahamudra.

A tree spreads its branches and puts forth leaves,
But when its root is cut its foliage withers;
So too, when the root of the mind is severed,
The branches of the tree of samsara die.

A single lamp dispels the darkness of a thousand aeons;
Likewise, a single flash of the mind's clear light
Erases aeons of karmic conditioning and spiritual blindness.

KYE HO! Listen with joy!
The truth beyond mind cannot be grasped by any faculty of mind;
The meaning of non-action cannot be understood in compulsive activity;
To realise the meaning of non-action and beyond mind,
Cut the mind at its root and rest in naked awareness.

Allow the muddy waters of mental activity to clear;
Refrain from both positive and negative projection -
leave appearances alone:
The phenomenal world, without addition or subtraction, is Mahamudra.

The unborn omnipresent base dissolves your impulsions and delusions:
Do not be conceited or calculating but rest in the unborn essence
And let all conceptions of yourself and the universe melt away.

The highest vision opens every gate;
The highest meditation plumbs the infinite depths;
The highest activity is ungoverned yet decisive;
And the highest goal is ordinary being devoid of hope and fear.

At first your karma is like a river falling through a gorge;
In mid-course it flows like a gently meandering River Ganga;
And finally, as a river becomes one with the ocean,
It ends in consummation like the meeting of mother and son.

If the mind is dull and you are unable to practice these instructions,
Retaining essential breath and expelling the sap of awareness,
Practising fixed gazes - methods of focussing the mind,
Discipline yourself until the state of total awareness abides.

When serving a karmamudra, the pure awareness
of bliss and emptiness will arise:
Composed in a blessed union of insight and means,
Slowly send down, retain and draw back up the bodhichitta,
And conducting it to the source, saturate the entire body.
But only if lust and attachment are absent will that awareness arise.

Then gaining long-life and eternal youth, waxing like the moon,
Radiant and clear, with the strength of a lion,
You will quickly gain mundane power and supreme enlightenment.

May this pith instruction in Mahamudra
Remain in the hearts of fortunate beings.

Homage to the Innate Gnosis!

Mahamudra is beyond all words and concepts.
But for your sake, O Naropa, my devoted disciple,
who is diligent in ascetic practice and exertion, this shall be said:
Alas! Impermanent is this world.
It is like a mirage or a dream.
Even the illusion of its existence
is not something that exists.

Therefore, abandon worldly pre-occupations,
renounce distinctions of caste and race,
the cause of attachment and aversion,
and meditate alone in forest, mountains and solitary places.

Abide without seeking;
loosely remaining in the natural state.
By attaining non-attainment,
you will quickly reach the stage of Mahamudra.

Know all the phenomena of Samsara as worthless;
just the causes of attachment and aversion.
All created phenomena are without real substance,
therefore seek instead the substance of the Ultimate.

That which pertains to consciousness is unable
to perceive the transcendent Gnosis (jnana).
That which pertains to action is unable
to perceive the truth beyond action.

If you would attain the transcendent,
that which is beyond consciousness and action;
then cut the root of consciousness,
and let the mind revert to nakedness.

The polluted pool of mental activity will clear
if simply left to settle, undisturbed.
Do not try to stop appearances as they arise,
for Mahamudra is beyond acceptance and rejection.

If you sever the root of a living tree,
the branches will quickly wither and die.
Cut off the very root of consciousness,
and all mental projections will immediately cease.

The darkness of long ages is dispelled at once
by the light of a single lamp.
One moment's experience of the mind of uncreate clear Light
will immediately rend the veil of ignorance.

One who wishes to attain this level of meditation
should first begin by practicing remembrance on the breath.
Through control of the gaze and such exercises,
the mind will be disciplined until it abides in its own state.

Just as when looking into the open sky,
fixed concepts of centre and circumference dissolve,
So if with mind one perceives the mind,
then mental activity ceases; Enlightened-mind is realized.

Clouds that arise and take form in the sky
pass away quite automatically according to natural law.
Likewise, the flow of thoughts arising in the mind
naturally pass away when mind perceives mind.

Space has neither colour nor shape;
changeless, it is not tinged by either white or black.
Likewise, mind has neither colour nor shape,
nor can it be stained by virtue or vice.

The burning stellar radiance of the sun
cannot be covered by the eternal darkness of space.
The luminous essence of mind
cannot be shrouded by Samsara's endless duration.

Though we say that space is empty,
the actual nature of this vacuity defies description.
Though we say that mind is Clear Light
it is actually beyond all words and concepts.

Space lacks any locality at all.
Likewise, Mahamudra rests on naught.
Without making effort, remain loose and natural in the primordial state,
and the fetters that bind you will simply drop away.

Since mind is empty like space, there is nothing which mind does not encompass.
Cease with bodily movement and sit relaxed;
close your mouth and remain in silence;
empty your mind and leap beyond the phenomenal!

Let the body rest at ease,
insubstantial like a hollow tube of bamboo.
Let the mind rest in itself,
spacious and un-preoccupied with thought.

When the mind is not possessed by aims,
that is Mahamudra.
Accomplishing this,
that is Great Enlightenment!

Once you let go of all objects-of-perception
the nature of the mind shines forth.
Not trying to meditate is the supreme path of the Buddha.
By the meditation of non-meditation Enlightenment is won.

Non-duality is the King of Views.
Resting the mind without flux is the King of Meditations.
Not choosing this or that is the King of Conduct.
When there is neither hope nor fear, this is the King of Results.

Since the fundamental ground (alaya) is unborn,
it can neither be obscured nor defiled.
Simply rest in that original unborn state and
without meditating or not-meditating, let appearances resolve back into Ultimate Reality (dharmata).

In being free of the extremes, one attains the King of Views.
Entering the vast and deep, one attains the King of Meditations.
Not making an effort, one attains the King of Conduct.
With non-seeking awareness, one attains the King of Results.

At first the yogi feels his mind to be turbulent like the upper course of a rushing river.
In the middle stage it becomes smooth like the broad Ganges.
In the end it is like the Ganges entering the ocean, meeting of son and mother.

Adherents of shamanic ritual and of the Mahayana
of the Sutra and Vinaya, and followers of The Religions
with all their various scholastic theologies and devotions
have no idea of the marvelous innate Mahamudra.

Not caught up in perceptions, nor caught in desire,
seeking nothing, abiding in the self alone, one simply lets
consciousness flow like a wave in the great ocean.
The light is hidden only by seeking to know it.

As to keeping the covenant (samaya), it is broken
by the very act of trying to adhere to rules.
Cease with rules and ritual, abandon volition, stray not from the Ultimate,
and then a true Precept-keeper will you be, a lamp illuminating the darkness.

If you slip not into conation,
if you hold to neither this nor that,
the real meaning behind all the Scriptures, will make itself clear.

In Mahamudra one is released from the prison of Samsara.
In Mahamudra all one's karmic impurities are burned away.
It is then that you shall be known as a 'Lamp' of the Dharma.

Even the ignorant who understand not the Teaching,
and fools who are lost for a time in Samsara,
can be saved if they but rely on a holy Lord (guru).
Through grace (adhisthana) they may be sure of deliverance.

Now concerning the practice of Karmamudra,
of causing Bliss-Emptiness to arise
through union of Wisdom (prajna) and Means (upaya):
drow down and blend thoroughly, and you shall manifest the actual Divine Pleroma (mandala) in your own body.

Following this path free of desire,
the experience of Bliss-Emptiness will carry you along.
Glowing inwardly, blessed with renewed vigour, with immortality, your power will expand like the waxing moon.
Thus, surpassing all worldly accomplishments (siddhi), the supreme goal, the Supramundane Accomplishment, shall you attain!

I bow down to noble Manjushri
I bow down to Him who has conquered the finite.

1
As calm water lashed by wind
Turns into waves and rollers,
So the king thinks of Saraha
In many ways, although one man.

2
To a fool who squints
One lamp is as two;
Where seen and seer are not two, ah! the mind
Works on the thingness of them both.

3
Though the house-lamps have been lit,
The blind live on in the dark.
Though spontaneity is all-encompassing and close,
To the deluded it remains always far away.

4
Though there may be many rivers, they are one in the sea,
Though there may be many lies, one truth will conquer all.
When one sun appears, the dark
However deep will vanish.

5
As a cloud that rises from the sea
Absorbing rain the earth embraces,
So, like the sky, the sea remains
Without increasing or decreasing.

6
So from spontaneity that's unique,
Replete with the Buddha's perfections,
Are all sentient beings born and in it come
To rest. But it is neither concrete nor abstract.

7
They walk other paths and so forsake true bliss,
Seeking the delights that stimulants produce.
The honey in their mouths and to them so near
Will vanish if at once they do not drink it.

8
Beasts do not understand the world
To be a sorry place. Not so the wise
Who the heavenly nectar drink
While beasts hunger for the sensual.

9
To a fly that likes the smell of putrid
Meat the fragrance of sandalwood is foul.
Beings who discard Nirvana
Covet coarse Samsara's realm.

10
An ox's footprints filled with water
Will soon dry up; so with a mind that's firm
But full of qualities that are not perfect;
These imperfections will in time dry up.

11
Like salt sea water that turns
Sweet when drunk up by the clouds,
So a firm mind that works for others turns
The poison of sense-objects into nectar.

12
If ineffable, never is one unsatisfied,
If unimaginable, it must be bliss itself.
Though from a cloud one fears the thunderclap,
The crops ripen when from it pours the rain.

13
It is in the beginning, in the middle, and
The end; yet end and beginning are nowhere else.
All those with minds deluded by interpretative thoughts are in
Two minds and so discuss nothingness and compassion as two things.

14
Bees know that in flowers
Honey can be found.
That Samsara and Nirvana are not two
How will the deluded ever understand?

15
When the deluded in a mirror look
They see a face, not a reflection.
So the mind that has truth denied
Relies on that which is not true.

16
Though the fragrance of a flower cannot be touched,
'Tis all pervasive and at once perceptible.
So by unpatterned being-in-itself
Recognize the round of mystic circles.

17
When in winter still water by the wind is stirred,
It takes as ice the shape and texture of a rock.
When the deluded are disturbed by interpretative thoughts,
That which is as yet unpatterned turns very hard and solid.

18
Mind immaculate in its very being can never be
Polluted by Samsara's or Nirvana's impurities.
A precious jewel deep in mud
Will not shine, though it has luster.

19
Knowledge shines not in the dark, but when the darkness
Is illumined, suffering disappears at once.
Shoots grow from the seed
And leaves from the shoots.

20
He who thinks of the mind in terms of one
Or many casts away the light and enters the world.
Into a raging fire he walks with open eyes--
Who could be more deserving of compassion?

21
For the delights of kissing the deluded crave
Declaring it to be the ultimately real--
Like a man who leaves his house and standing at the door
Asks a woman for reports of sensual delights.

22
The stirring of biotic forces in the house of nothingness
Has given artificial rise to pleasures in so many ways.
Such yogis from affliction faint for they have fallen
From celestial space, inveigled into vice.

23
As a Brahman, who with rice and butter
Makes a burnt offering in blazing fire
Creating a vessel for nectar from celestial space,
Takes this through wishful thinking as the ultimate.

24
Some people who have kindled the inner heat and raised it to the fontanelle
Stroke the uvula with the tongue in a sort of coition and confuse
That which fetters with what gives release,
In pride will call themselves yogis.

25
As higher awareness they teach what they experience
Within. What fetters them they will call liberation.
A glass trinket colored green to them is a priceless emerald;
Deluded, they know not a gem from what they think it should be.

26
They take copper to be gold. Bound by discursive thought
They think these thoughts to be ultimate reality.
They long for the pleasures experienced in dreams. They call
The perishable body-mind eternal bliss supreme.

27
By the symbol EVAM they think self-clearness is achieved,
By the different situations that demand four seals
They call what they have fancied spontaneity,
But this is looking at reflections in a mirror.

28
As under delusion's power a herd of deer will rush
For the water in a mirage which is not recognized,
So also the deluded quench not their thirst, are bound by chains
And find pleasure in them, saying that all is ultimately real.

29
Nonmemory is convention's truth
And mind which has become no-mind is ultimate truth.
This is fulfillment, this the highest good.
Friends, of this highest good become aware.

30
In nonmemory is mind absorbed; just this
Is emotionality perfect and pure.
It is unpolluted by the good or bad of worldliness
Like a lotus unaffected by the mud from which it grows.

31
Yet with certainty must all things be viewed as if they were a magic spell.
If without distinction you can accept or reject Samsara
Or Nirvana, steadfast is your mind, free from the shroud of darkness.
In you will be self-being, beyond thought and self-originated.

32
This world of appearance has from its radiant beginning
Never come to be; unpatterned it has discarded patterning.
As such it is continuous and unique meditation;
It is nonmentation, stainless contemplation, and nonmind.

33
Mind, intellect, and the formed contents of that mind are It,
So too are the world and all that seems from It to differ,
All things that can be sensed and the perceiver,
Also dullness, aversion, desire, and enlightenment.

34
Like a lamp that shines in the darkness of spiritual
Unknowing, It removes obscurations of a mind
As far as the fragmentations of intellect obtain.
Who can imagine the self-being of desirelessness?

35
There's nothing to be negated, nothing to be
Affirmed or grasped; for It can never be conceived.
By the fragmentations of the intellect are the deluded
Fettered; undivided and pure remains spontaneity.

36
If you question ultimacy with the postulates of the many and the one,
Oneness is not given, for by transcending knowledge are sentient beings freed.
The radiant is potency latent in the intellect, and this
Is shown to be meditation; unswerving mind is our true essence.

38
The buds of joy and pleasure
And the leaves of glory grow.
If nothing flows out anywhere
The bliss unspeakable will fruit.

39

What has been done and where and what in itself it will become
Is nothing; yet thereby it has been useful for this and that.
Whether passionate or not
The pattern is nothingness.

40

If I am like a pig that covets worldly mire
You must tell me what fault lies in a stainless mind.
By what does not affect one
How can one now be fettered?

The Brahmins who do not know the truth,
Vainly recite the Vedas four.

With earth and water and kusha-grass they make preparations.
And seated at home they kindle fire,
And from the senseless offerings that they make,
They burn their eyes with the pungent smoke.

In lordly garb with one staff or three,
They think themselves wise with their brahmanical lore.
Vainly is the world enslaved by their vanity.
They do not know that dharma's the same as non-dharma.

With ashes these masters smear their bodies,
And on their heads they wear matted hair.
Seated within the house they kindle lamps.
Seated in a corner they tinkle bells.

They adopt a posture and fix their eyes,
Whispering in ears and deceiving folk,
Teaching widows and bald-headed nuns and such like,
Imitating them as they take their fee.

The Jain monks mock the Way with their appearance,
With their long nails and their filthy clothes,
Or else naked and with disheveled hair,
Enslaving themselves with their doctrine of release.

If by nakedness one is released,
Then dogs and jackals must be so.
If from absence of hair there comes perfection,
Then the hips of maidens must be so.

If from having a tail there comes release,
Then for the peacock and yak it must be so.
If wisdom consists in eating just what one finds,
Then for the elephant and horse it must be so.

For these Jain monks there is no release, Saraha says.
Deprived of the truth of happiness, they do but afflict their own bodies.

Then there are the novices and bhikshus with the teaching of the Old School,
Who renounce the world to be monks.
Some are seen sitting and reading the scriptures,
Some wither away on the their concentration on thought.

Others have recourse to the great Vehicle.
This is the doctrine which expounds the original texts, (they say).
Others just meditate on mandala-circles.
Others strive to define the fourth stage of bliss.

With such investigating they fall from the Way;
Some would envisage it as space,
Others endow it with the nature of voidness,
And thus they are generally in disagreement.

Whoever deprived of the Innate, seeks nirvana,
Can in no wise acquire the absolute truth.

Whoever is intent on anything else, how may he gain release?
Will one gain release, abiding in meditation?
What's the use of lamps? What's the use of offerings?
What's to be done by reliance on mantras?

What is the use of austerities?
What is the use of going on pilgrimage?
Is release achieved by bathing in water?

Abandon such false statements and renounce such illusion!

Than knowledge of This there is nothing else.
Other than This no one can know.

It is This that's read and This that's meditated,
It's This that's discussed in treatises and old legends.
There is no school of though that does not have This as its aim,
But one sees it only at the feet of one's master.

If the words of one's master but enter the heart,
It seems like a treasure in the palm of one's hand.
The world is enslaved by falsehood, says Saraha,
And the fool does not perceive his true nature.

Without meditating, without renouncing the world,
One may stay at home in the company of one's wife.
Can that be called perfect knowledge, Saraha says,
If one is not released while enjoying the pleasures of sense?

If it's already manifest, what's the use of meditation?
And if it is hidden, one is just measuring darkness.
Saraha cries: The nature of the Innate is neither existent nor non-existent.

By means of that same essence by which one is born and lives and dies,
By means of that one gains the highest bliss.
But although Saraha speaks of these profound and mysterious words,
This stupid world seems not to understand.

If it exists apart from meditation, how may one meditate upon it?
If it is ineffable, how may it be discussed?
The whole world is enslaved by the appearance of things,
And no one apprehends his true nature.

Mantras and tantras, meditation and concentration,
They are all a cause of self-deception.
Do not defile in contemplation thought that is pure in its own nature,
But abide in the bliss of yourself and cease those torments.

Eat and drink, indulge the senses,
Fill the mandala (with offerings) again and again,
By things like these you'll gain the world beyond.
Tread upon the head of the foolish worldling and proceed!

Where vital breath and mind no longer roam about,
Where Sun and Moon do not appear,
There, O man, put thy thought to rest,
This is the precept taught by Saraha.

Do not discriminate, but see things as one,
Making no distinction of families.
Let the whole of the threefold world become one in the state of Great Passion.

Here there is no beginning, no middle, no end,
Neither samsara nor nirvana.
In this state of highest bliss
There is neither self nor other.

Whatever you see, that is it,
In front, behind, in all the ten directions.
Even today let your master make an end of delusion!
There is no need to ask of anyone else.

The faculties of sense subside,
And the notion of self is destroyed.
O friend, such is the Body Innate.
Ask for it clearly of your master.

Where thought is held and breath passes hence,
That is the highest bliss.
Elsewhere one goes nowhere.

Now it is a matter of self-experience,
So do not err with regard to it.
To call it existence or non-existence or even stage of bliss would impose a limitation.

How by meditation should one fondly gain release?
And why accept such falsehood?
Have confidence in the word of your good master.
This is the advice that I Saraha give.

The nature of the sky is originally clear,
But by gazing and gazing the sight becomes obscured.
Then when the sky appears deformed in this way,
The fool does not know that the fault's in his own mind.

Through fault of pride he does not see the truth,
And therefore like a demon he maligns all ways.
The whole world is confused by schools of thought,
And no one perceives his true nature.

They do not perceive the true basis of mind,
For upon the Innate they impose a threefold falsification.
Where thought arises and where it dissolves,
There you should abide, O my son.

For one who thus ponders the truth without its true basis,
A master's instruction would make everything clear.
Saraha says, O fool, surely know,
The diversity of existence is but a form of thought.

One own true nature cannot be explained by another,
But it is revealed by one's master's instruction.
There exists in it not an atom of evil,
Both dharma and non-dharma are cleansed and consumed.

When one's own mind is cleansed,
Then one's master's good qualities may enter the heart.
It is in knowledge of this that Saraha sings,
Paying no regard to tantra or mantra.

Men are bound by karma and by release from karma the mind is released.
And by this release of the mind they gain for a certainty this highest Nirvana.

Mind is the universal seed.
Both Samsara and Nirvana spring forth from it.
Pay honour to this that like a wish-granting gem
Gives all desirable things.

Thought bound brings bondage, and released brings release,
Of that there is no doubt.
By that with which fools are bound, the wise are quickly released.

When so bound it dashes in all directions,
But released, it stays calm.
Just consider the camel, my friend.
I see there a similar paradox.

Don't concentrate on yourself, restricting your breath.
Fie, yogin, don't squint at the end of your nose.
O fool, hold fast to the Innate,
And abandon the clinging bonds of existence.

Bring together in thought the restless waves of breath.
Then know the true nature of the Innate,
And this becomes still of itself.

When the mind goes to rest
And the bonds of the body are destroyed,
Then the one flavour of the Innate pours forth
And there is neither outcast nor brahmin.

Here is the sacred Jumna and here the River Ganges,
Here are the Prayaga and Benares, here are Sun and Moon.

I have visited in my wanderings shrines and other places of pilgrimmage,
But I have not seen another shrine blissful like my own body.

Lotuses in clusters with leaves and blossoms and fragrance and petals and tendrils,
Abandon this discrimination, O Fool, do not torment yourself and cling to such fondness.

As objects of desire mantras and treatises go to destruction.
Ask, O thou of no family,
For Brahmin and Vishnu and all the three worlds return here to their source.

Know the taste of this flavour which consists in absence of knowledge.
Those who recite commentaries do not know how to cleanse the world.

Listen, my son; this taste cannot be told by its various parts.
For it is free from conceits, a state of perfect bliss, in which existence has its origin.

It is the very last segment that remains of the creation of illusion,
Where intellect is destroyed, where mind dies and self-centeredness is lost.
Why encumber yourself there with meditation?

A thing appears in the world and then goes to destruction.
If it has no true existence, how may it appear again?
If it is free from both manifestation and destruction, what then arises?
Stay! Your master has spoken.

Look and listen, tough and eat,
Smell, wander, sit and stand,
Renounce the vanity of discussion,
Abandon thought and be not moved from singleness.

Those who do not readily drink the ambrosia of their master's instruction,
Die of thirst in the desert of multitudinous treatises.

Abandon thought and thinking and be just as a child.
Be devoted to your master's teaching, and the Innate will become manifest.

It is devoid of names and other qualities;
I have said it cannot be known by discussion.
So how may the Supreme Lord be described?
It is like a maiden's experiencing of bliss.

Completely devoid of the notions of being and non-being,
It is there that the whole world is absorbed.
For when the mind abides motionless,
One is released from the toils of existence.

So long as you do not recognize the Supreme One in yourself,
How should you gain this incomparable form?
I have taught that when error ceases,
You know yourself for what you are.

One should not think of molecules or atoms;
It is this supreme bliss that pours forth unceasingly as existence.
Error such as that is madness, says Saraha.
Know but the pure and perfect state!

He is at home, but she goes outside and looks.
She sees her husband, but still asks the neighbors.
Saraha says, O fool, know yourself.
It is not a matter of meditation, or concentration or the reciting of mantras.

"If one's master just speaks, would one know everything?
And without knowing everything would one gain release?"
So they wander about gaining experience,
But they know not the Innate. They just amass evil.

Enjoying the world of sense, one is undefiled by the world of sense.
One plucks the lotus without touching the water.
So the yogin who has gone to the root of things
Is not enslaved by the senses although he enjoys them.

One may worship a divinity, and (in trance) even his form may be seen.
But one is still oneself subject to death, for what can he do?
All this does not destroy the Samsara,
"Without perseverance", they say, "there is no escape."

"One fixes the eyes, obstructs the thought, restrains the breath.
This is the teaching of our lord and master."
But when the flow of his breath is quite motionless
And the yogin is dead, what then?

So long as one is in the sphere of the senses,
Desire pours forth of itself.
Who can deal with this awkward problem?
In so far as one is within something, once cannot see it (from without).

All these pandits expound the treatises,
But the Buddha who resides within the body is not known.
Comings and goings are not destroyed in that way.
But they shamelessly say: "We are pandits."

He who among living men never grew old,
Such a one would be free from old age and death.
(This is their impossible aim).
But at one's master's word the mind is cleared.
What treasure is there other than this?

He who does not enjoy the senses purified,
And practices only the Void,
Is like a bird that flies up from a ship
And then wheels round and lands back there again.

But do not be caught by attachment to the senses, Saraha says.
Consider the fish, the butterfly, the elephant, the bee and the deer.

Whatever pours forth from the mind,
possesses the nature of the owner.
Are waves different from the water?
Their nature like that of space is one and the same.

Who speaks, who listens, and what is confided?
Like the dust in a dusty tunnel,
That which arises in the heart goes to rest in the heart.

Evan as water entering water
Has an identical savour,
So faults and virtues are accounted the same
As there's no opposition between them.

Do not cling to the notion of voidness,
But consider all things alike.
Indeed even the husk of a sesame-seed
Causes pain like that of an arrow.

One thing is so, another is not so.
The action is like that of a wish-granting gem.
Strange how these pandits go to grief through their own errors,
For in self-experience consists this great bliss.

In it all forms are endowed with the sameness of space,
And the mind is held steady with the nature of this same sameness.
When the mind ceases thus to be mind,
The true nature of the Innate shines forth.

In this house and that the great matter is discussed,
But the basis of the great bliss is unknown.
The world is enslaved by thought, Saraha says,
And no one has known this non-thought.

There is one Lord revealed in many scriptures,
Who becomes clearly manifest at your wish.

Oneself is the Lord, and another is the enemy.
This is the notion they have in their houses.
In eating the one, he consumes all the other,
But she goes outside and looks for her master.

He is not seen to come,
Nor known to stay or go;
As signless and motionless the supreme Lord is known.

If you do not abandon coming and going,
How may you gain this rare one, this splendour?

Thought is pure when consigned to the forehead.
Do not then conceive differences in yourself.
When there is no distinction between Body, Speech and Mind,
Then the true nature of the Innate shines forth.

There how should another arise,
Where the wife without hesitation consumes the house-holder?
The yogini's action is peerless.

She consumes the house-holder and the Innate shines forth.
There is neither passion nor absence of passion.
Seated beside her own, her mind destroyed, thus I have seen the yogini.

One eats and drinks and thinks what occurs to the thought.
It is beyond the mind and inconceivable, this wonder of the yogini.

Here Sun and Moon lose their distinction,
In her the triple world is formed.
O know this yogini, perfecter of thought and unity of the Innate.

The whole world is tormented b words
And there is no one who does without words.
But in so far as one is free from words
Does one really understand words.

The same without as within,
Firmly established at the 14th stage,
The bodiless form is concealed in the body.
He who knows this is therein released.

I used to recite (the text-book, which begins with the words), "Let there be success."

But I drank the elixir and forgot it.
There is but one word that I know now,
And of that, my friend, I know not the name.

At the moment of the embrace does he then win the great bliss,
Who does not comprehend that everything is of his own nature?
He is like a thirsty deer that runs for water which is but a mirage.
It dies of thirst, and how should he obtain the divine waters?

The five skandhas, the five material elements, the twelve sense-fields, the six faculties of sense and their spheres, these with their various modifications are the water. In these doha-verses which are altogether new nothing is anywhere concealed.

So pandits, please have patience with me,
For here there is no hesitating.
That which I have heard by the word of my master,
Why should I speak of it secretly?

That blissful delight that consists between lotus and vajra,
Who does not rejoice there?
In the triple world whose hopes does it fail to fulfil?

This moment may be the bliss of Means or both (Wisdom and Means),
And by the flavour of their master and by merit it is known by a few.

It is profound, it is vast.
It is neither self nor other.
O know this self-experience
Of the Innate in the Fourth Moment!

Even as the moon makes light in black darkness,
So in one moment the supreme bliss removes all defilement.

When the sun of suffering has set,
Then arises this bliss, this lord of the stars.
It creates with continuous creativity,
And of this comes the mandala-circle.

See thought as thought, O fool, and leave all false views,
Gain purification in bliss supreme,
For here lies final perfection.

Question not with hesitation.
Release this elephant which is your mind,
That he may drink the river-waters
And stay on the bank at his pleasure.

Held in the trunk of the elephant that no represents the senses,
One may appear as lifeless,
But he yogin like a nimble rider slips away and goes.

As is Nirvana, so is Samsara.
Do not think there is any distinction.
Yet it possesses no single nature,
For I know it as quite pure.

Do not sit as home, do not go into the forest,
But recognize mind wherever you are.
When one abides in complete and prefect enlightenment,
Where is Samsara and where is Nirvana?

O know this truth,
That neither at home nor in the forest does enlightenment dwell.
Be free from prevarication
In the self-nature of immaculate thought!

"This is myself and this is another."
Be free of this bond which encompasses you about,
And your own self is thereby released.

Do not err in this matter of self and other.
Everything is Buddha without exception.
Here is that immaculate and final stage,
Where thought is pure in its true nature.

The fair tree of thought that knows no duality,
Spreads through the triple world.
It bears the flower and fruit of compassion,
And its name is service of others.

The fair tree of the Void abounds with flowers,
Acts of compassion of many kinds,
And fruit for others appearing spontaneously,
For this joy has no actual thought of another.

So the fair tree of the Void also lacks compassion,
Without shoots or flowers or foliage,
And whoever imagines them there, falls down,
For branches there are none.

The two trees spring from one seed,
And for that reason there is but one fruit.
He who thinks of them thus indistinguishable,
Is released from Nirvana and Samsara.

If a man in need approaches and goes away hopes unfulfilled,
It is better he should abandon that house
Than take the bowl that has been thrown from the door.

Not to be helpful to others,
Not to give to those in need,
This is the fruit of Samara.
Better than this is to renounce the idea of a self.

He who clings to the Void
And neglects Compassion,
Does not reach the highest stage.
But he who practises only compassion,
Does not gain release from toils of experience.
He, however, who is strong in practice of both,
Remains neither in Samsara nor in Nirvana.

To gain experience in the profound teachings brings happiness.
To gain no experience at all brings happiness.
To have a view without hope or fear brings happiness.
If it is spontaneously present, this brings even more happiness.
To meditate without dualistic clinging brings happiness.
To have no reference points brings even more happiness.
To engage in choiceless conduct brings happiness.
To have no hesitation brings even more happiness.
To use the mind to watch the mind brings happiness.
To cut off the mistaken path of hope and fear brings happiness.
To stay in retreat in the mountains brings happiness.
To have a view without hope or fear brings happiness.
To set aside homeland, friends, and relatives brings happiness.
To live on begged food brings happiness.
To eat the food of great bliss brings happiness.
To wear the clothes of luminosity brings happiness.
To practice the path of the messenger brings happiness.
To keep one's focus at the tip of the nose brings happiness.

I proclaim the perfection of primordial Knowing as the indivisibility of radiance and Openness. Awareness pervades all, is always open without sides.

Penetrating through the ground of immovability with these seven great nails through the narrow paths of the circuit of conditioned experience and freedom from it, the joy that is always so arises within my mind.

Nail together conditions and the unconditioned with the unobstructed clarity of Knowing.

Nail together intelligence and objects with inherent radiance.

Nail together mind and matter with the spontaneous stainless essence.

Nail together nihilism and eternalism with freedom from fixated views.

Nail together forms and the nature of forms with the transcendence of Awareness beyond forms.

Nail together excitation and torpor, liberating the totality of the senses.

Nail together appearances and Openness with the primordial perfection of the Body of Reality.

Homage to absolute Gnosis, [the unity of] uncreate Clear Light and Emptiness. This Gnosis of self-existent Awareness (svayambhu-vidya-jnana), which encompasses all and abides in all, is open and impartial. Therefore, nail the original immutable Ground (prakriti) by using the seven nails of the Path of the Nonduality of Samsara and Nirvana. Thus shall primordial Great Bliss (mahasukha) arise in the mind.

(1) Affix the juncture of Samsara and Nirvana with the nail of unimpeded effulgent Gnosis.

(2) Affix the juncture of Observer and Observed with the nail of the self-radiant Clear Light.

(3) Affix the juncture of Self and Other with the nail of innate pure Ipseity (vastu).

(4) Affix the juncture of Nihilism and Eternalism with the nail of liberation from all Views (dristi).

(5) Affix the juncture of Phenomena (dharma) and Ultimate Reality (dharmata) with the nail of absolute Awareness (vidya).

(6) Affix the juncture of meditative Passivity (laya) and Excitation (auddhatya) with the nail of abandonment-of-sense-stimuli.

(7) Affix the juncture of Appearance (abhasa) and Emptiness (sunyata) with the nail of primordial Dharma-embodiment [of the Absolute].

Sanskrit: Adhi Siddhi Sama Nama
Tibetan: lta ba mdor bsdus pa zhes bya ba (Tawa Dordupa)

Homage to the Vajra Dakini!

To the omniscient lord of refuge,
The protector of beings, I pay homage!

After pursuing statements and reasoning
I have condensed and established the true meaning.

All these apparent and existing phenomena
Are nowhere apart from mind, your own awarness.
Since it perceives and is cognizant,
It is like experience that is self-known.

If this mind was not like that
There would be no link and therefore no experience.
This is how I have established the relative:
"Understand that all phenomena are based on mind," as it is said.

The very basis of phenomena, which is mind essence,
Can be analyzed, dissected with reasoning, and so forth,
But this naturally luminous mind
And the momentary defilement of thought, these two,
Whether they are one or different
Is a topic of extreme profundity.
Because of this depth, scholars analyze.
Though they explain, I shall not write about it here.

This mind that knows emptiness
Is itself the awakened mind, bodhichitta.
The buddha potential is just this.
The sugata essence is just this.

Because of tasting what is,
It is also the great bliss.
The understanding of Secret Mantra is just this.
Means and knowledge is just this.

The vast and profound is just this.
Samantabhadra with consort is just this.
This space and wisdom, perceiving while being empty,
Is what is called 'knowing original enlightenment.'

This self-knowing, while one is still defiled,
Does not depend on other things,
So self-existing wakefulness is just this.

Being aware, it is cognizance.
A natural knowing that is free of thought.
This self-knowing cannot possibly form thoughts.

Without coneptualizing a 'mind,'
Since it is not something to be conceived,
This original wakefulness, congnizant yet thought-free,
Is like the wisdom of the Tathagata.

Therefore, it is taught, "Realize that luminous mind
Is the mind of original wakefulness,
And don't seek an enlightenment separate from that."

Nevertheless, this mind does become disturbed
By the defilement of momentary thoughts.
Like water, like gold, like the sky,
It may be either pure or impure.

But the naturally luminous mind
Is free from even a hair-tip of concrete substance,
Like the analogy of a sky flower.

It does not exist as it seems to be,
Therefore, it cannot be established to be nonexistent.
As everything is mutually dependent,
When one side is invalid, the other side also does not exist.

Mind is neither existent nor nonexistent,
Since each of these [constructs] is negated.
It is also not both,
Since existing and not existing are a contradiction.
It is not a living being
Nor other than living beings.

Therefore, it is free from all constructs.
This is how I have established the ultimate:
"Mind is based on space," as it is said.

Thus unconstructed self-knowing
Perceives while empty, and while empty it perceives.
Experience and emptiness are therefore indivisible,
Like the analogy of the moon in water.
This is how I have established nonduality:
"Space is not based on anything," as it is said.

The unconstructed self-knowing
Is itself the very basis of samsara.
Nirvana as well is also just this.
The Great Middle Way is also just this.
That to be seen is also just this.
That to train in is also just this.
That to attain is also just this.
The valid truth is also just this.

The renowned threefold tantras
Of basic cause, method, and result,
And what is known as ground, path, and fruition,
Are just different situations of this.

The basic consciousness, the all-ground,
And all possible aggregates in samsara,
Are known as the 'dependent,' and so forth.

Emaho!
The creations of this mind essence, while one is still defiled,
The six classes of beings, and so forth,
Extending to the bounds of space,
Are the magical machinery of suffering, which surpasses the grasp of thought.

The unconstructed self-knowing itself
Which is free from the defilement of thought,
Is the nondwelling nirvana.

The Vajra Being is also just this.
The Sixth Buddha is also just this.
The six families are also just this.
Manjushri Kumara is just this.
Vairochana is just this.

Dharmakaya, the great bliss,
And the state of unity are also just this.
This itself is the fourth empowerment.
Innate joy is also just this.
Natural purity is also just this.

All these and other different indicators
Known from the sutras and tantras,
Are for the most part based on this;
Simply combined with this in whichever way is suitable.

Emaho!
The creations of this undefiled mind essence,
What comprises the kayas of form:
The buddhafields of utter purity,
The magically created mandalas, and so forth--
All these creations of great wonder--
Appear, extending to the bounds of space.

The non-Buddhist Tirthikas,
In the ignorance of mind itself,
Are submerged in an ocean of erroneous philosophy
Involving a self, supreme godhead, and the like.

The schools of Buddhism, such as the shravakas,
The pratyekabuddhas, and the followers of Mind Only,
Maintain the duality of perceiver and perceived,
And conceptualize nonduality as being the true.
Moreover, thery get caught in the web of concepts
Such as whether the perceived is real or false.

By not mistaking the view in this way,
You attain enlightenment through the meditation training and conduct,
That are in harmony with the real,
Just like a well-trained race horse.

Unless you are in harmony with the real view,
Your meditation training and conduct will be mistaken
And you will not attain fruition,
Like a blind man without a guide.

How can my conceptual mind, [limited in its perceptions] like a frog in a well,
Discover the profundity by stirring up
The ocean-like depth of true meaning!
May all learned masters forgive my errors!

Through whatever goodness there is from writing this
May the stain of delusion be fully cleared away
In fortunate and worthy beings,
And may the knowledge of realization grow forth!

Sanskrit: Mahamudra Padametha
Tibetan: phyag rgya chen po tshig bsdus pa (Chagya Chenpo Tsig Dupa)

Homage to the great state of bliss!

First, stating the nature of the Mahamudra of perception:

Concerning what is called Mahamudra:
All things are your own mind.
Seeing objects as external is a mistaken concept;
Like a dream, they are empty of concreteness.

Second, stating the nature of the Mahamudra of awareness:

This mind, as well, is a mere movement of attention
That has no self-nature, being merely like a gust of wind.
Empty of identity, like space,
All things, like space, are equal.

Third, stating the nature of the Mahamudra of union:

When speaking of 'Mahamudra,'
It is not an identity that can be shown.
Therefore the mind's suchness
Is itself the state of Mahamudra.

Thus he taught the Mahamudra of the view through the threefold perception, awareness and union. Next, among the three points on the Mahamudra of meditation, first stating the nature of the Mahamudra of the basic state:

It is neither something to be corrected nor transformed,
But when anyone sees and realizes its nature
All that appears and exists is Mahamudra,
The great and all-encompassing dharmakaya.

Second, stating the nature of the Mahamudra of realization:

Naturally and without contriving, allowed to simply be,
This unimagined dharmakaya,
Letting it be without seeking is the meditation training,
But to meditate while seeking is deluded mind.

Third, stating the nature of the Mahamudra of indivisibility:

Just as with space, just as with a magical display,
While neither cultivating nor not cultivating
How can you be separate or not separate!
This is a yogi's understanding.

Once more, for the three points about the Mahamudra of conduct, first, stating the nature of the Mahamudra of self-liberation:

All the good deeds of harmful actions
Dissolve by simply knowing this nature.
The emotions are the great wisdom;
Like a jungle fire, they are the yogi's helpers.

Second, stating the nature of the Mahamudra of equal taste:

How can there be staying or going?
What meditation is there by fleeing to a hermitage?
Without understanding this, all possible means
Never bring more than temporary liberation.

Third, stating the nature of the Mahamudra of indivisibility:

When udnerstanding this nature, what is there to bind you?
While being undistracted from its continuity,
There is neither a composed nor an uncomposed state
To be cultivated or corrected with a remedy.

Once more, for the three points about the Mahamudra of fruition, first, stating the nature of the Mahamudra of what appears and exists:

It is not made out of anything.
Experience self-liberated is dharmadhatu.
Thinking self-liberated is great wisdom.
Nondual equality is dharmakaya.

Second, stating the nature of the Mahamudra of samsara and nirvana:

Like the continuous flow of a great river,
Whatever you do is meaningful.
This is the eternal awakened state,
The great bliss, leaving no place for samsara.

Third, stating the nature of Mahamudra of ultimate perfection:

All things are empty of their own identities.
The concept fixed on emptiness has dissolved in itself.
Free of concept, holding nothing in mind;
Is in itself the path of all buddhas.

To conclude, instructing and stating the dedication:

For the most fortunate ones,
I have made these concise words of heartfelt advice.
Through this, may every single sentient being
Be established in Mahamudra.