Dzogchen Deity Practice. Padmasambhava

This signifies that empowerment brings us to maturity, while the instructions and reading transmission liberate us. The verse mentions Yeshe Tsogyal by name, but the prince and consort actually refers to the royal ruler, King Trisong Deütsen and his sons.

      The first of the next three verses supplicates Chokgyur Lingpa, the revealer of this terma. Wherever he resides is the wishfulfilling origin or source of the teachings honors him as the regent, or emissary, of Padmasambhava, indicating his mere presence in the world ensures the authentic transmission of the teachings.

      The next verse invokes the place of revelation, a mountain in Kham called Namkha Dzö, the Sky Treasury mountain. The Kunzang Tuktig teachings were revealed in a cave on the slopes of this mountain. Padmasambhava and his twenty-five close disciples flew through the sky, landing on this mountain. It is where he disclosed the mandala of Kadü Chökyi Gyatso, The Dharma Ocean Embodying All Teachings.

      The following verse is a supplication to the dharma protectors, especially the great dakini in wrathful form, who is the manifestation of Ekajati. Primordial purity and spontaneous presence, and the seventeen Dzogchen tantras are entrusted to this protectress of mantra. She is the wrathful form of Samantabhadri, who pervades all places and remains everywhere the wheel of dharma is turned.

      The next verse supplicates our dharma friends, wherever they may be. Their place of practice, the cave where luminosity continually manifests, is depicted as a place of “unceasing experience.” As in the past, with all the Kagyü and Nyingma practitioners, the guru foretells the place. Naropa told Marpa where he should practice to attain accomplishment. Marpa told Milarepa to go to such-and-such cave to practice. This is used as a model for a guru telling a disciple to go to such-and-such place to practice until they reach accomplishment. Later, this becomes a sacred place for followers. In this way, one supplicates fellow practitioners and their place of practice to receive blessings from those who will be future buddhas. The idea is also to develop some degree of pure appreciation for fellow practitioners, who have received teachings and practiced—whether they’ve just embarked, are firmly established, or have already reached fruition on the path to enlightenment. Fellow practitioners are incredibly precious. Thus, we pray that impartial pure perception may arise. All have buddha-nature, so there is no basis for impurity and wrong views. One needs pure perception for the path of mantra, in which all forms, sounds, and thoughts are deity, mantra, and samadhi.

      It is said that Vajrayana is the path of pure perception. This sacred outlook, or pure perception, is the special quality of Vajrayana. As it is said, “Simply through pure perception, or sacred outlook, half the path is already traversed.” This is not complete imagination. Sacred outlook refers to “seeing things as they actually are,” not in the ordinary deluded way, where we think earth is simply solid matter, water is merely water, wind is wind, and so forth. The five elements, as they appear to us in our ordinary experience, are actually the five female buddhas, the five aggregates are the five male buddhas, and so forth. Therefore, training in pure perception is not a way of convincing ourselves that things are what they are not; rather, we are training in seeing things as they truly are.

      That is not the case in the sutra teachings, where we merely think everything is perfect. The Buddha did not teach pure perception, meaning the “correct outlook” in sutra. He saw that people who gravitated to the sutra teachings would not trust the Vajrayana teachings in the same way. It is a special quality of Vajrayana, knowing things to be as they really are. In this sense, since our dharma friends possess buddha-nature, they are dakas and dakinis. It is said that we need to train in pure perception.

      Next, we pray to be blessed with faith and trust and to have the intelligence, firm understanding, and ability to take to heart the preciousness of the human body, impermanence, karma, the defects of samsara, and so forth.

      The next four lines deal with trusting in the Three Jewels and having compassion for all beings, my parents. Bless me to equalize life and practice. In short, there are three indispensable things: to have devotion upward toward the buddhas, to have compassion downward toward all beings, and to be diligent in-between.

      Next, we supplicate to realize the view of Trekchö. Within the mind-stream of all beings is the self-existing buddha-nature, in the form of the self-appearing peaceful and wrathful ones. The development stage is not something foolish. The second line refers to the fact that the outer world and the inner contents are all peaceful and wrathful buddhas, which is actually Tögal.

      In the third line of this verse, the main image of dharmadhatu is that of space—the space of all things, within which all phenomena manifest, abide, and dissolve. This is similar to physical space, which is like a container, within which the remaining four elements appear, abide, and disappear. These four elements do not come out of any other source; they emerge from space itself. They do not remain anywhere else other than within space; neither do they go anywhere outside of space. In the same way, dharmadhatu is the basic environment of all phenomena, whether they belong to samsara or nirvana. It encompasses whatever appears and exists, including the worlds and all beings. Everything takes place within and dissolves back into the state of dharmadhatu. Dharmadhatu encompasses all of samsara and nirvana. It doesn’t include only nirvana and exclude samsara; it’s not like that.

      External phenomena appear within space, remain within space, and disappear within space again. Is there any place where earth, water, fire, and wind can go that is outside space? Don’t they always remain within space? When they disintegrate, don’t they dissolve within space? Is there any place at all to go beyond or outside space that is other than space? Please understand very well this symbolic resemblance between dharmadhatu and physical space.

      The prayer says, within the realm of dharmadhatu, which encompasses all of samsara and nirvana. The relationship among dharmadhatu, dharmakaya, and dharmadhatu wisdom is like the relationship among a place, a person, and the person’s mind. If there is no place, there is no environment for the person to exist in; and there is no person unless that person also has a mind dwelling in the body. In the same way, the main field or realm called dharmadhatu has the nature of dharmakaya. Dharmakaya has the quality of dharmadhatu wisdom, which is like the mind aspect.

      We also need to clearly understand what is meant by the terms samsara and nirvana. Nirvana means the “fully realized buddha-nature that consists of body, speech, and mind aspects.” The body is the essence that simply is. Speech is its nature, the cognizant quality that is vividly present. Mind is the capacity, which is radiant. These three aspects comprise the basic presence of all buddhas, as their essence, nature, and capacity. All sugatas have this same identity. Similarly, samsara is the “body, speech, and mind of all sentient beings.” These are the deluded expressions of their essence, nature, and capacity. In this way, dharmadhatu encompasses all of samsara and nirvana.

      Dharmadhatu is adorned with dharmakaya, which is endowed with dharmadhatu wisdom. This is a brief but very profound statement, because dharmadhatu also refers to sugatagarbha or “buddha-nature.” Buddha-nature is all-encompassing: thus it is present, or basic, to all states, regardless of whether they belong to samsara or nirvana. Remember, nirvana refers to the body, speech, and mind of all the awakened ones. Body is the abiding essence, speech is the vividly present nature, and mind is the radiant capacity. These three, the body, speech, and mind of all buddhas, are also known as the three vajras.