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This Will Be a Union of Teaching and Practice, and So Let Us Begin by Settling Body, Speech and Mind in the Natural State

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This Will Be a Union of Teaching and Practice, and So Let Us Begin by Settling Body, Speech and Mind in the Natural State This will be a union of teaching and practice, and so let us begin by settling body, speech and mind in the natural state. Now we seek to practice this sadhana from the perspective of the inner-inner, our own pristine awareness. We turn to the title, "The Heart Essence of the Lake Born Vajra, a Secret Sadhana of the Mahaguru, by His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdral Yeshe Dorje." "Om. The immortal Vidyadhāra Tötreng Tsal, is the supreme all-pervasive lord of an ocean of mandalas. The ways of approaching and actualizing are successively revealed as the preparation, main practice, and conclusion. Samaya." So the Vidyadhāra Tötreng Tsal, of course is simply a personification of our own pristine awareness. It is not some other being, a human being, or a deity. We begin the sadhana by going for refuge. "Namo. In the state of natural rest, I take refuge, in the primordial indestructible nature of existence, the great absolute space of the bindu of clear light, the indwelling deity who is beyond transition and change." So we begin on that theme of, “do not look outside yourself for the Buddha.” We take refuge in our own pristine awareness, the indwelling divine. And then classically we turn to arousing Bodhicitta, but now in a Dzogchen approach. "Ho. To unrealized beings, the forms created by the confusion of duality, although nonexistent, are apparent as the realms of beings. With great self-knowing awareness, the taste of equality, I arouse Bodhicitta as the naturally free, all-pervasive mind." This is the equality, the one taste of Samsara and Nirvana. It is ultimate Bodhicitta primordial consciousness itself, from which relative Bodhicitta emerges naturally like cream from milk, spontaneously emergent from pristine awareness. So do not look outside pristine awareness for Bodhicitta. And to accumulate the collections of merit and knowledge with the ten branches of devotion, "May the all-pervasive guru of pristine awareness and emptiness approach! Remain present beyond transition and change. I bow down with the enjoyment of equality. I offer the world of all possible appearances emerging from the ground of being. I acknowledge and confess my nonrecognition of my own essential nature. I rejoice in what is without convergence or divergence. I beseech you to turn the wheel of Dharma, the nada, empty of sound. (Nada is the very sound of dharma itself). Please remain spontaneously actualized. I dedicate my accumulated virtues in the absolute space of original purity, may I awaken as a youthful vase body." So we see how the classic seven-limb devotion is incorporated into this, but now all from the perspective of Dzogchen. And then to protect our practice, to create a wheel of protection, each of us now having received the empowerment, we take on this divine pride. "Hri. I am the primordial ferocious sovereign. The world of all possible appearances arises as the blazing mudra of Hayagriva. Listen hosts of obstructive forces of the view of inherent identity! Accept the self-emergent ornamental ransom torma, and vanish into unborn absolute space. The great primordial protection boundary is established. Om Shri Vajra Khroda Hung Hung Hung Dharmadhatu Raksha Ah." So in this way, you create a sacred space for your practice that is protected from the evil forces of reification. The view of inherent identity. And then we call for blessings, "Hung. From the self-appearing pure, glorious mountain, the pure land blazing with great bliss, (this would be Padmasambhava’s own pure land), may the immortal self-emergent Lotus Face together with an oceanic assembly of the three roots, arouse your enlightened perspective from nonmanifest absolute space. Please grant the great empowerment that brings down vajra blessings in this marvelous secret supreme place, and dispel unfavorable obstructive forces and obstacles. Reveal amazing signs and portents, and bring about the fruition of the practice. Om Ah Hung Vajra Guru Pema Deva Dakini Jnana Abhishaya Ah Ah." Visualizing Guru Rinpoche, the Lakeborn Vajra in this space in front of you, in union with the divine partner, Mandāravā, imagine white rays of light from the Om at the forehead, red from the Ah at the throat, blue or indigo from the heart. Light rays of these three colors entering your own three places, as well as the fourth, which is the chakra at your navel. And thereby take self-initiation, self-empowerment. Again, "Om Ah Hung Vajra Guru Pema Deva Dakini Jnana Abhishaya Ah Ah." Make the outer and inner offerings: "Ho may the clouds of outer, inner, and secret offerings, emanations of the treasury of the space of samadhi, the wonderful sensory enjoyments of samaya substances arise as the play of ornaments of primordial consciousness. Jnanachakra Sparana Kam." So imagine all appearances arising as outer, inner, and secret offerings, and offer them to the deity. So that is the preparation. And then the main yoga. We visualize the samaya mandala by first of all dissolving all phenomenon into emptiness in the sadhana. The one syllable Ah symbolizing emptiness is set forth. We may elaborate, "Om Svabhava Suddha Sarva Dharma Svabhava Suddho Ham. The nature of all phenomena is pure. The purity of phenomena am I." That purity being the indivisibility of primordial consciousness and dharṃadhātu. I am that. "Ah. The unmodified absolute space of phenomena is free of extremes. Unimpeded great bliss arises as clouds of compassion. The causal seed syllable Hri blazes with light." So this Hri spontaneously arises out of emptiness, blazes with light, red and white merged, or white with a reddish tinge. "Light spreads forth purifying the concepts that cling to physical worlds and their sentient inhabitants, purifying all reification, all that actually appears is Lotus Light. And within this open space, saturated by the light of Hri, in the center of the great citadel of pure great bliss, the palace of Padmasambhava replete with all its dimensions and characteristics, is a variegated lotus." Right beneath you, a multicolored lotus. "In its center are sun and moon seats of skillful means and wisdom," the Lotus, the sun, and then the moon. "Upon them the syllable Hri instantly transforms into myself as Pema Tötreng Tsal, arising as the immortal Lakeborn Vajra. White with a reddish hue, symbolizing undefiled bliss and emptiness, I appear as a young sixteen-year-old with the charm of youth. My radiant face arising as the bindu, free of extremes, with a frowning expression, of ferocity and affection. My two hands symbolizing the union of appearances and emptiness hold a vajra that overwhelms samsara and nirvana, and a skull cup of unwavering samadhi." Recall the vajra is held at your heart, the skull cup on your lap, in your left hand, inside of which is the vase of longevity. "On my lap, I embrace my own light, Mandāravā, holding a silk ribbon arrow in her right hand, and the vase of longevity, in her left. My two legs symbolizing transcendence of the two extremes are crossed in the vajra asana and we revel equally and the joy of great bliss. My plaited hair is bound up on the head in a the spiral with a jewel on top, and I'm adorned with all the ornaments of the saṃbhogakāya, including silks, jewels, and bone ornaments." So as you continue this practice on your own, it is good to immerse your awareness in the visual representation of the Lake Born Vajra and Mandāravā. Noting all the details, the silks, the garments and so on, and then apply this to your practice. "In the expansive of clustered rainbow light, all aggregates, elements, sense bases, and sensory objects are unproduced and primordially self-arising as circles of deities, of primordially, equal purity, perfected as great, spontaneously actualized mandalas. Om Ah Hung. Om Hung Tram Hri Ah Abhishinsha Atmako Ham." Now view yourself, your divine partner, and the entire surrounding environment, all with pure vision. As equal displays of pristine awareness and dharṃadhātu. Then we recite the seven limb prayer, I shall do so in English, "Hung. On the northwest border of the land of Orgyen, in the midst of a lotus flower, with a wondrous supreme siddhi, you are renowned as Padmasambhava surrounded by a host of many dakinis. As I practice, following in your footsteps, please come to bestow your blessings." So in this way we invoke the guru. "Hri. From the palace of the glorious mountain of Chamara in the realm of lotus matrices of great bliss, great master Tötreng Tsal, with your own oceanic host of dakinis, when you are fervently invited by the lineage holders, through your miraculous power of unobstructed compassion, please come to this place in this very instant and grant empowerment, blessings and siddhis. Vajra Samaya Abhishaya Ah Ah Ah." Once again, imagine receiving empowerment, blessings and siddhi. "Ho. Within the luminous, samaya mandala, may you deities, purified and empty primordial consciousness, firmly remain in blissful equality, in the state of union, free of convergence and divergence. Vajra Samaya Tishta Ham." Free of convergence and divergence means free of coming and going, timeless in the fourth time. And to render homage offering and praise, "Namo. To the unmodified, unconditioned, basic nature of existence appearing as symbolic embodiments of great bliss, ornaments of pure, limitless absolute space, I bow to the deities of the maṇḍala. Ati Pu Ho Pratichha Ho.” “Om. The primordially pure physical worlds and their sentient inhabitants are spontaneously actualized as a massive offering, a great wheel of the supreme enjoyments Experience the ornaments of great bliss. Maha Sarva Puza Ho." The great offering of great bliss. "Hung. The stream of ambrosia of limitless primordial consciousness, the blood of the collected detachment to the three realms and the blended up balingta vital essence of the phenomenal world—enjoy these as the great samaya of sensual enjoyments." This is the supreme ganachakra, tsok.
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