FINDING COMFORT AND EASE IN MEDITATION ON THE GREAT PERFECTION
BY LONGCHEN RABJAM
In Sanskrit: Mahasandhi dhyana vishranta nama
In Tibetan: rdzogs pa chen po bsam gtan ngal gso zhes bya ba
In English: Finding Comfort and Ease in Meditation on the Great Perfection
Homage to the glorious Samantabhadra!
Homage to the primordial nature, sphere of purity, equal to space,
Supreme Dharma, unfluctuating, utterly free of conceptual elaboration,
The clear light nature of mind, essence of awakening,
The perfect ground, beyond any transition or change!
In order that you might realize the wisdom of your own self-knowing awareness,
The exceedingly wondrous wisdom mind of all the victorious ones,
I have gathered the quintessence of tantras, oral transmissions, and pith instructions
And offer this explanation according to the way it is practiced. So listen well!
I. LOCATIONS FOR CULTIVATING SAMADHI
On mountaintops, in secluded forests, and on islands, and the like,
Places that are agreeable to the mind and well suited to the season,
Cultivate tranquil samadhi, which is single-pointed and unwavering—
Clear light, which is free from the slightest conceptual elaboration.
This is achieved naturally when three pure factors come together:
The ideal location, individual, and Dharma to be practiced.
First of all, the location must be one that is secluded and agreeable,
Somewhere conducive to spiritual practice in the different seasons.
In summer, meditate in cooler dwellings and cooler locations,
In places near to glaciers, or on mountaintops, and the like,
In simple dwellings made out of reeds, bamboo, or straw.
In the autumn, adjust your diet, your clothing, and your conduct,
And stay in a region and dwelling of moderate temperature,
Such as a forest, or a mountainside, or a building made of stone.
In winter, stay somewhere warmer at a lower altitude,
Such as a forest, a rocky cave, or a hollow in the earth,
And adjust your diet, clothing, bedding, and the rest.
In the spring, stay in the mountains or on the edges of a forest,
On a deserted island or in buildings with mild and even temperature,
With diet, clothing, and conduct all suitably attuned—this is crucially important.
There is an important interconnection between outer and inner,
So keep to inspiring and secluded places that you find uplifting.
High among the mountains the mind grows clear and expansive,
The perfect place to bring freshness when dull and to practice the generation phase.
Snowland regions help make samadhi clear and awareness bright and lucid,
Ideal for cultivating vipashyana and where obstacles are few.
Forests bring stillness of mind and help us develop mental stability,
So they are ideal places for cultivating shamatha with a sense of ease.
Below rocky cliffs a vivid sense of impermanence and disenchantment dawns,
Clear and inspired, helping us to achieve the union of shamatha and vipashyana.
On the banks of a river, our attention becomes well focused,
And the wish to escape samsara comes rapid and afresh.
Charnel grounds are powerful places for swift accomplishment,
Ideal for the generation or completion phases, it is said.
Villages, markets, empty houses, solitary trees, and the like,
Which are frequented by humans and nonhuman demons,
Are distracting for beginners and can bring many obstacles
But for stable practitioners, they are a support, regarded as supreme.
Temples and shrines, inhabited by gyalpo and gongpo spirits,
Can disturb the mind and incite thoughts of anger and aversion.
Caverns in the earth and such places, haunted by the senmo demonesses,
Cause passionate desire to arise and bring excessive dullness and agitation.
Solitary trees and other places, which are inhabited by mamos and dakinis,
As well as boulders and mountain spurs, where the mutsen and theu’rang reside,
Contribute, it is believed, to mental turmoil and bring all manner of obstacles.
The lands of outcasts, nagas, nyen, and local spirits,
By the lakeside or in meadows, forests, and such places,
Adorned with beautiful flowers, plants, and trees,
Are pleasant enough at first but later prove disruptive.
In short, all the areas and dwelling places that seem agreeable at first
But not so once you come to know them are sites of lesser accomplishment.
Whereas those that seem frightening and unpleasant at first
But prove agreeable once you have grown accustomed to them
Are powerfully transformative, bringing great accomplishments without obstacle.
And everywhere else in between is neutral, neither beneficial nor harmful.
As our minds are affected by the places in which we stay,
This can make our practice grow stronger or make it weaker,
So it is said that to examine locations is of crucial importance.
Moreover, there are four types of place based on the four activities:
Peaceful places, where mind naturally becomes focused and still,
Expansive places, delighting the mind, which are awesome and inspiring,
Magnetizing places, where mind feels captivated and develops attachment,
And wrathful places, where mind is disturbed by feelings of fear and dread.
Further divisions can be made, countless and beyond measure,
But in this context, for samadhi, peaceful places are the best,
And so, fearing an excess of words, I will elaborate no further.
In such a peaceful place, the meditation dwelling should be isolated,
As this will suit the development of concentration in the mind.
The ideal dwelling is one that is open at the sides and has a clear view.
For nighttime yoga, practice inside a circular “dark house,”
In a high place, and in the middle of the central chamber,
With your pillow to the north, lying down in the posture of nirvana.
The location for practicing the yoga of light during the daytime
Should be mild in temperature and should have an entrance
With a broad, unobstructed view onto glaciers, waterfalls, forests, or valleys,
And the vast and open sky, so that mind becomes clear and bright.
When cultivating shamatha, a solitary hut surrounded by a fence
Is the ideal place for stillness of mind naturally to arise.
For vipashyana, it is important to have a clear, inspiring view
And to be constantly cheerful and well attuned to the seasons.
Low-lying and shaded areas, such as forests and ravines,
Are ideal for practicing shamatha, whereas higher regions,
Such as among snowy mountains, are ideal for vipashyana—
It is important that you know these different specifications.
To put it simply, any region or retreat house,
Where renunciation and disenchantment arise, attention is well focused,
And samadhi grows in strength—any such place of virtuous activity—
Is said to be the equal of the place where the essence of enlightenment was attained.
Whereas any place in which virtues decline, mental afflictions increase,
And one is overcome by distractions and the affairs of this life,
Is a demonic haunt of evil actions, only to be avoided by the wise.
Since these points were taught by Padmasambhava,
They should be learned by all who wish for liberation.
This concludes the first section, being an explanation of the locations for cultivating
samadhi, from Finding Comfort and Ease in Meditation on the Great Perfection.
II. THE MEDITATOR
Secondly, as an individual who takes up the practice,
You must have faith, perseverance, renunciation, and a sense of disenchantment.
You must be saddened and wearied by samsara and strive for freedom.
Renouncing the concerns of this life and seeking eventual enlightenment,
You must leave distractions and busyness far behind, and have few mental afflictions,
Be easy-going and tolerant, and have pure perception and great devotion,
As well as stability of mind, and deep respect toward the teachings—
[Practitioners such as this will accomplish the supreme liberation!]
You must serve, in the best possible way, a noble teacher
And purify your mind through study, reflection, and meditation.
In particular, you should spend your days and nights
Diligently applying yourself to the essential instructions of the oral lineage.
Without becoming distracted for a moment by ordinary concerns,
Diligently apply yourself to the profound innermost meaning.
Never transgressing the precepts of shravakas, bodhisattvas, and vidyadharas,
With your own mind under control, help others in any way you can,
And take whatever you experience onto the path to liberation.
As a beginner, it is most important that you secure your own well-being,
Guarding your mind in solitude, abandoning distractions and busyness,
Avoiding unfavorable situations, and subduing the mental afflictions with appropriate
antidotes.
Ensuring that your view and conduct are in harmony, enthusiastically devote yourself to
meditation.
Whenever any of the ordinary five poisons arise, in that very moment,
Catch them with mindfulness and, without distraction, apply the antidotes.
With conscientiousness, introspective vigilance, self-restraint, and a sense of dignity, bring
your own mind under control.
See the equality of praise and blame, approval and disapproval, good and bad reputation,
For they are just like illusions or dreams and have no true existence.
Learn to bear them patiently, as if they were mere echoes,
And sever at its root the mind that clings to an “I” or a self.
In short, by never transgressing the Dharma in all that you do,
Bring your mind under control, do no harm to others,
And without succumbing, even for an instant, to the mental afflictions,
Devote your days and nights to virtue—this is crucial!
Nowadays, when people are so unruly,
It is vital that you first achieve your own well-being in solitude.
Just as a bird cannot fly without both wings,
The welfare of others cannot be accomplished without the higher faculties of perception,
So strive diligently for your own well-being, while mentally considering the welfare of others.
Without letting your mind be deceived by the devious maras of distraction and busyness,
It is vital that you apply yourself to the practice—
Do not cause yourself to suffer regrets at the time of death!
Therefore, inspect your mind, make it ready now,
And consider this: Were you to die now, what would become of you?
Without any assurance as to where you’d go or what might happen,
To spend your days and nights in the grips of confusion and distraction,
Is to squander and make meaningless the freedoms and advantages.
Meditate therefore on the essential meaning, alone and in solitude.
For it is now that a long-term strategy is really needed.
How can you be sure where you will go in future?
You must diligently apply yourself this very day!
These delusory appearances of samsara are like treacherous pathways.
Keep this in mind: You must find the methods to free yourself.
For if you remain deluded now, you’ll wander in delusion forever.
So arouse perseverance and keep this in your heart.
The ocean of mental afflictions and the sea of self-grasping are difficult to cross,
But now that you have the vessel of the freedoms and advantages, use it to reach the
distant shore!
Now, when through the force of your merit, you have gained this opportunity—
Access to the paths of liberation and enlightenment, so rare to find—
Strive from the depths of your heart to bring about benefit and happiness!
Life is impermanent and changes from one moment to the next,
And we expertly deceive ourselves with distractions, postponing virtuous practice.
When we have long become accustomed to delusion,
In each moment we’re naturally drawn into the mental afflictions,
And even if we apply ourselves to merit and virtue,
We find they do not easily arise.
Strive, therefore, to avert the miseries brought about by your own actions!
There is not the slightest joy to be found within the states of samsara.
The sufferings of conditioned existence, if you think of them, are impossible to bear.
Therefore apply yourself, right now, to the means for gaining freedom.
If you do not earnestly devote yourself to the essential meaning,
The state of leisure and intermittent Dharma will bring no benefit.
So develop a strong sense of weariness for all that is impermanent,
And, without being distracted even for an instant, generate enthusiasm for the practice!
If you realize this at the very outset,
You will swiftly achieve the state of a sublime one!
Accomplishing your own welfare, the welfare of others will come naturally,
And you will find the supreme path of liberation from the states of samsara.
When everything that you do is in accordance with the Dharma,
Then you are one who has the basis for attaining enlightenment.
This concludes the second section, being an explanation of the individual practitioner,
the meditator, from Finding Comfort and Ease in Meditation on the Great Perfection.
III. THE DHARMA TO BE PRACTICED
In this section there are three parts: the preliminary practices, the main practices, and the
concluding practices.
THE PRELIMINARY PRACTICES
The General and Specific Preliminaries
Reflection on impermanence and feeling disenchanted are the general preliminaries
That radically counteract our attachment to the things of this life.
And compassion and bodhichitta are the specific preliminaries
That transform all spiritual practice into the path of Mahayana.
Train therefore at the outset in both these preliminaries.
The Special, Supreme Preliminaries
Afterward, there are the special, supreme preliminary practices.
Having received all the empowerments, there are two aspects to the generation stage:
[1] Imagining your own body as the deity and the surrounding environment and sentient
beings also as the deity
Counteracts attachment to our ordinary perception.
[2] By practicing the profound path of guru yoga,
Blessings beyond measure arise through the force of realization,
All obstacles are dispelled and the two types of siddhi are achieved.
Therefore, after the general and specific preliminaries, practice the two supreme
preliminaries.
Boundless qualities arise as a result of these four preliminaries:
Your mind enters the unerring path,
You reach the supreme path of liberation,
Realization of the natural condition swiftly arises,
It becomes easy to train in the main practices, with no obstacles,
Accomplishments are readily achieved, and so on.
Therefore it is crucial to train in these preliminaries.
THE MAIN PRACTICE
The main practice is the recognition of the natural condition,
Through meditation involving bliss, clarity, and nonconceptuality.
The clear light primordial wisdom, free of conceptual elaboration,
Arises as the fundamental innate mind.
The Method of Great Bliss
Firstly, there is the introduction through the method of great bliss.
After practicing the preliminaries described above, consider this:
Through the center of the four chakras, the three channels rise like pillars:
The right channel white, the left red, and the central channel deep blue and hollow.
The top of the central channel is at the Brahma aperture, and its bottom is at the secret
place.
Inside the central channel at the level of the navel visualize an A,
Blazing with fire, and at the crown a Ham from which nectar descends,
Filling the four chakras and the whole interior of the body.
As your body becomes suffused with bliss, the nectar from the Ham
Flows continuously down into the syllable Bam at your heart.
Meditate on this until the experience of bliss arises.
Then the Bam becomes smaller and smaller,
Until your mind settles in a state beyond any conceptual imagery or elaboration.
Through this method attention is focused and calm abiding arises by way of bliss.
Then a state of awareness arises, which is utterly inexpressible,
Space-like, and beyond the ordinary mind.
This is the clear light great perfection of bliss and emptiness,
The nature of reality, radiant and inconceivable.
As you become familiar with this, four types of experience will arise:
All your perceptions will dawn as an experience of bliss,
You will never be separated from the blissful state, day or night,
Your mind will remain unperturbed by painful feelings of attachment, aversion, and the like,
And you will gain the wisdom of understanding the meaning of the words of Dharma.
As you continue to practice, limitless qualities, such as clairvoyance and other kinds of
extraordinary perception,
Will arise in your mind, just like the rising sun.
This is an exceptionally profound and crucial instruction.
The Method of Clarity
Secondly, for the introduction using the method of clarity,
Begin with the preliminaries just as before.
Visualize the three main channels, with the roma and kyangma channels curving and
entering the central channel
At their lower ends and their upper ends going directly through the nostrils.
Breathe out the stale air three times, expel all illnesses, destructive influences, negativity,
and obscurations.
As you slowly inhale, the entire world with all its inhabitants melts into light
And is drawn through the nostrils into the central channel by way of the roma and kyangma.
Then that light dissolves into an orb of light, one inch in diameter, in the center of your
heart,
As you hold your breath for as long as you can.
Joining the upper and lower wind energies together, hold your breath for a while and retain
a little air when exhaling.
It is very important that you allow your breathing to be slow and gentle.
Moreover, imagine all the sublime qualities of the buddhas and so on
Dissolving into your heart, without being distracted elsewhere.
With this technique, mental clarity, radiance, and stability arise.
Afterward, imagine light flowing out from the light at your heart,
Blazing inside the four chakras within your body
And extending out to fill the whole world with light.
By meditating on this day and night for several days,
Your dreams will cease and you will see everything, inside and outside,
Pervaded by the appearance of five-colored light and
The light of the moon, blazing fire, fireflies, stars, and so on.
By focusing your mind on the state of clarity, calm abiding will arise.
Then, as you draw the light back in, imagine the light at your heart
Growing smaller and smaller until your mind settles in a state of emptiness.
Without focusing on anything, an empty, clear, and radiant state of mind
Will naturally arise, free of the extremes of elaboration.
This fundamental wisdom of clarity and emptiness
Is the way of abiding of the natural great perfection.
When you grow familiar with this, four types of meditative experience will arise:
Everything that arises will seem intangible, unimpeded, and luminous;
Day and night, you will remain in a state of luminosity;
Your mind will be clear and radiant, unmoved by discursive thoughts;
And wisdom will overflow from within, free of any dualistic grasping.
In addition, familiarization with this practice brings extraordinary powers of perception
And the achievement of miraculous abilities and clairvoyance,
Including the ability to see unimpededly through solid objects.
This is an exceptionally profound and quintessential instruction.
The Method of Nonconceptuality
Thirdly, there is introduction through the method of nonconceptuality,
Which is preceded by the preliminary practices as before.
The three aspects of the main practice are
Projection, presence, and purification.
For projection, the clear light nature of your mind is visualized at your heart
As the syllable Ha or as an orb of light one inch in diameter. As you recite Ha forcefully
twenty-one times,
The object of your visualization emerges from the crown of your head and is projected far
out into space,
Where it ascends higher and higher until it is no longer visible,
And you rest with your body and mind deeply relaxed.
In that moment the stream of your thoughts ceases,
And you remain in a state that is inexpressible by speech or thought.
An experience arises that cannot be objectified and that is beyond the realm of ordinary
thought.
For presence, turn your back to the sun
And gently rest your gaze in the clear sky.
Breathe as softly as you can, hardly feeling the movement of the air.
Then a state of nonconceptuality, free of elaboration, will arise from within,
And a space-like experience will naturally occur.
For purification, direct your gaze undistractedly into the sky,
Settle your mind in a state of clarity, without projecting or withdrawing,
And imagine the entire environment, including earth, stones, and mountains, and all beings,
As transparent and merging with space.
While experiencing even your own body as insubstantial,
Rest in a state in which mind is indivisible from space.
With both body and mind deeply relaxed in this space-like state
In which there is no separation between outside, inside, and in-between,
And memories, thoughts, and mental activity are all naturally pacified,
Let the mind remain naturally, just as it is, without projecting or withdrawing.
At that time, there will arise a space-like realization of the nonduality
Of the nature of reality and the mind that is inconceivable and ineffable—
This is the essence of the victorious ones of the past, present, and future.
By familiarizing yourself with this, four types of meditative experience arise:
Your entire perception will seem even, lacking any coarser concepts or ideas;
Day and night, you will never be separated from a state of nonconceptuality;
The five poisons will naturally be pacified, making your mindstream gentler;
And you will experience all phenomena as being just like space.
By familiarizing yourself like this with the three types of nonconceptuality,
You will accomplish the sublime qualities of clairvoyance, extraordinary perception, and
samadhi.
Through the union of skillful means and wisdom and of calm abiding and insight,
You will accomplish your own and others’ temporal and ultimate well-being.
THE CONCLUDING PRACTICES
Thirdly, the concluding practices are of four kinds:
Meditative experience, enhancement, realization, and the fruition.
Meditative Experience
Of the two types of meditative experience, the flawless ones were explained above.
Flawed meditative experiences occur due to grasping and clinging to the respective
experiences—
Attachment to bliss, attachment to clarity, and attachment to nonconceptuality,
Involving clinging to extremes, compulsive thinking, and contamination from the ordinary
mental poisons.
Perverted bliss involves seminal emission, ordinary desire,
Unhappiness, and excessive laxity.
Perverted clarity involves disturbed wind energy, ordinary aggression,
Coarse thinking, and excessive agitation and proliferation of thought.
Perverted nonconceptuality involves ordinary delusion,
Mental dullness, sleepiness, and lethargy, as well as lack of discernment.
Should any of these flawed inverse experiences arise, recognize them
And correct them with the appropriate antidotes.
Enhancement
Enhancement includes methods for correcting errors and for improvement.
There are three methods for correction:
The superior method is to correct errors through the view, by recognizing how all
phenomena
Are mental designations, like apparitions without any identifiable essence,
Even and equal, like space, free from clinging and empty of inherent existence,
And in that state beyond grasping and fixation, to reach a final decision.
Errors and obscurations dawn as the great nature of reality,
Obstacles spur us on to virtue, and adversity aids enlightenment.
On the basis of fundamental bliss, mental well-being constantly arises.
The intermediate approach is to correct errors by means of meditation,
To make mind clear, transform one’s consciousness, and hold it with mindfulness
And, without distraction, to settle in a state of bliss, clarity, and nonconceptuality.
Since distraction and lack of attention are defects,
It is crucial to rest in a state that is undistracted even for a moment.
To counteract seminal emission, visualize a Hum in a vajra vase,
From which fire consumes all the elements inside the body,
And then meditate in a state of nothing whatsoever.
This is also a profound practice for cases of emission due to illness and harmful influences.
Once clinging to bliss has been eliminated, meditate on emptiness.
Look piercingly into the mind that is experiencing ordinary desire
And by resting in an uncontrived and uncorrupted state free of hope and fear,
Desire will be freed by itself, and the wisdom of bliss and emptiness will dawn.
Unhappiness is a problem that comes from degeneration of the vital essence.
To remedy it, practice the blissful meditation of blazing and dripping.
If mental dullness predominates, it is the fault of a failure to separate the pure essence from
impure residue.
To remedy it, sit upright in an erect posture,
Joining the upper and lower wind energies, hold your breath, and imagine the inside of your
heart filled with light,
And meditate on the universe, luminous and empty, being filled with light.
If you fall into clinging to clarity, train in great nongrasping.
If your mind is unclear and drowsy, meditate on radiance and clarity.
If your mind is excited and agitated, close your eyes and visualize inside your heart
Light, a syllable, a lotus, a sword,
Or a double vajra descending lower and lower
From the inside of your heart
Until it descends all the way down to the golden ground at the base of the universe.
This infallible technique is sure to dispel [agitation].
When your mind is caught up in ordinary hostility, direct your attention right at it,
And it will be released into the luminous and empty state of mirror-like wisdom.
When a state of nonconceptuality arises, purify it with the technique of nongrasping.
Recognize the mind of delusion and examine it directly.
In that instant, it will be freed by itself and dawn as the wisdom of the basic space of reality
(dharmadhatu).
When your mind is dull, lethargic, and undiscerning,
Visualize light inside your heart ascending and emerging through your Brahma aperture
And hovering in the space about a fathom above your head.
This is an exceptionally profound point of instruction.
In general, it is crucial not to grasp onto anything at all.
If you are without hope and fear, you will be free from all kinds of hindrance.
Rest in the radiant state of the empty and clear nature of mind,
Without mentally projecting or withdrawing,
And you will definitely be freed from the treacherous pathways of hindrances and flaws.
The lesser approach is to correct errors by means of three kinds of conduct:
Gaze, material factors, and interdependence.
The general gaze is practiced while sitting in the seven-point posture of Vairochana:
With legs crossed, the eyes unmoving, breathing slowly and evenly,
With the head inclined, the tongue touching the palate,
And the eyes gazing down toward the tip of the nose, so that wind energies and mind are
brought into a state of balance,
And flawless meditation arises without dullness or agitation.
Since all the defects occur due to imbalances in the body,
Which disturb the channels, wind energies, and essences,
It is important to rest evenly without any such disturbance.
Moreover, since qualities arise when the channels, energies, and essences
Are steady and functioning in the proper way,
It is ever so crucial to understand this vital point.
Even more than for other yogic exercises and physical training,
It is particularly important to practice this slowly, gently, and in a balanced way.
It is crucial that you practice according to your physical constitution,
Countering the gentle with the rough and the rough with the gentle.
Specifically, for bliss the crucial points are crossing your arms,
Lowering your gaze, and focusing your attention on the bliss itself.
For clarity, place your hands on your knees,
Breathe slowly, and gaze directly into space.
Nonconceptuality is achieved simply through sitting in the seven-point posture.
As for material factors, take the support of seasonal locations, companions,
Food, drink, and so on in order to help meditative experience.
As for interdependence, in the case of seminal emission,
By tying around the waist a three-stranded thread woven by a young girl
And consecrated by reciting mantras, the bindu can be retained.
If discursive thoughts proliferate, take pills made of sandalwood powder, saffron, and
melted fat,
And nonconceptuality will be achieved.
It is said in the tantras that when the mind becomes drowsy,
Samadhi will be achieved by ingesting pills of saffron, camphor, and bodhichitta.
To increase the experience of flawless bliss, clarity, and nonconceptuality,
It is said to be best to focus the attention on some object.
If at first you meditate by focusing upon an object,
Later you will naturally reach a state beyond focus.
This point is extremely profound and sublime,
So all you fortunate ones should take it to heart!
To reject a practice by saying, “It is conceptual!” is the path of fools,
A tendency of the inexperienced and something to be avoided.
In particular, a sublime practice for enhancing bliss entails drawing the lower wind energies
upward,
Pulling the essences (bindu) up from the secret place,
Dissolving them into the crown,
And resting in a state beyond any focus whatsoever.
After that, hold the upper and lower wind energies joined together,
And, while focusing your attention at the heart, rest in the unborn state.
This is to remain in the state of bliss and clarity free from conceptual elaboration.
From time to time, practice the crucial points of the yogic exercises in accordance with the
visual transmission,
Including descent and reversal, drawing upward and diffusion, and final resolution,
By shaking in the lion posture and so on.
Descent involves adopting the mudra of embracing
And shaking the upper parts of the body and pressing down on the lower parts.
Bodhichitta descends from a visualized syllable Ham,
And when it reaches the secret place attention is focused on the bliss.
Reversal means to draw it upward,
Pressing the hands down on the hollows and joining the “ocean” against the “rocky
shore.”
Drawing the lower wind energies upward, press your tongue against the palate.
Roll your eyes back and turn your head as if you were trembling.
For the visualization, imagine the bindus, strung together as if by a gossamer thread,
Dissolving one into another, up to the crown of the head.
Diffusion entails flexing your arms and legs powerfully as if drawing a bow,
Then exhaling with a hissing noise, the tip of the tongue pressed against the teeth.
Final resolution entails lying on your back, breathing gently with the mind at ease.
Not thinking of anything at all nor clinging to anything whatsoever,
Rest in the natural state, free from any conceptual elaboration,
And you will achieve the great bliss of enlightenment without any hindrance.
A sublime method for enhancing clarity with the breath
Entails alternating gentle and forceful breaths
And in particular to alternate breathing in and holding the breath and breathing out and
holding.
It is important to combine this with the crucial point of [the breath being] slow and gentle.
Although there are teachings on many techniques,
Including counting, color, touch, and shape,
This is an essential instruction in which one method accomplishes all,
So to train like this is the sovereign of all key points.
For the body, the crucial point is not to move, like before.
Let your breath be very slow, passing evenly through the mouth and both nostrils,
And rest effortlessly in a state of ordinary, natural release.
For the mind, the crucial point is not to grasp onto anything, but be natural.
Afterward, lie down on your back with your limbs outstretched.
Utter a forceful “Ha!” and direct your attention toward the center of the sky.
Undistractedly, without projecting or gathering your thoughts, rest gently and naturally.
By resting in the primordial state, in which breath and mind are released by themselves,
Boundless sublime qualities can arise without any hindrance.
The body feels light, there is no movement [of breath], and conceptual elaboration is
pacified.
The mind becomes very clear and radiant and extraordinary powers of perception arise.
“Speed walking” is accomplished, the body becomes lustrous, samadhi arises,
And the signs of the wind energies and mind entering the central channel arise.
This is a most profound and sublime crucial point and extremely secret.
As for enhancing space-like nonconceptuality,
Relax your body and mind from deep within and focus single-pointedly on the object of
meditation.
By focusing on that alone, without being distracted by anything else,
Other discursive thoughts will dissolve into that state.
Even discursive thoughts pertaining to the meditative object will be fully pacified,
And then realization in which there is no grasping onto appearances will arise.
This is a crucial point. Moreover, you should train like this:
At times, focus your attention outside, exhale,
And by holding your breath, nonconceptuality will arise.
From time to time, hold your breath inside and focus directly and without distraction,
On some object of meditation in the upper or lower part of the body.
At other times, allow your mind to settle by itself with no object
And remain in a state without grasping onto objective appearances.
This wisdom mind of the nonconceptual dharmakaya
Will arise naturally from within by relying on the key instructions.
As for the general enhancement of bliss, clarity, and nonconceptuality,
To gather the accumulations, purify the obscurations, cultivate the generation and
completion phases,
And practice the profound path of guru yoga is praised as supreme.
This, the ultimate and most crucial of instructions,
Should be taken to heart by all those fortunate ones who long for liberation.
Realization
The realization that arises from meditating in these ways
Is of one equal taste and cannot be differentiated.
The three approaches all come together in a single destination,
Just like separate rivers converging in the ocean.
Whichever of the three techniques you practice—whether you cultivate bliss, clarity, or
nonconceptuality—
When mind’s ordinary activity is pacified thoroughly and dissolves into
The space-like state of the unborn nature of mind,
Bodhichitta, which is free from the conceptual notions of existence or nonexistence,
The sun of natural clear light, will dawn from deep within.
This unchanging realization, in which there is nothing to achieve and nothing to eliminate,
Is the nature of the essence of the buddhas—the sugatagarbha—as vast as space.
At that time, in the ocean of samadhi transcending calm abiding and clear seeing,
One-pointed, radiant, clear, and immaculate,
Everything appears without bias or clinging, like reflections devoid of inherent nature,
All phenomena are inseparably united in the essence of realization.
And there is no grasping onto appearances, which are illusory and empty.
This inseparable unity, the vast expanse of realization,
Clear light arising through the crucial points, dawns from deep within.
Naturally arising wisdom, inspired by the blessings of the lama,
Is seen when you have transcended verbal expression and conceptual ideas.
What is seen in this way, at that time,
Is beyond the three times, beyond outer and inner, and beyond any division or exclusion.
It is the transcendent perfection of wisdom (prajnaparamita) and the Middle Way,
It is the pacification of conceptual elaborations and suffering, Mahamudra,
The essential nature of phenomena, the Great Perfection,
Primordial cessation in which all dharmas are exhausted, the fundamental nature of things,
And the clear light nature of mind, naturally arisen wisdom.
Although they are given different names, in essence they are one.
Bodhichitta, the nature of mind, which is beyond words and concepts,
Is the space-like nonduality of samsara and nirvana,
Beyond clinging to any position at all, and beyond the traps of philosophical constructs,
It transcends limitations and duality and is the supreme state of equalness and perfection.
This is to be comprehended thoroughly by the yogins
In the vast expanse of the wisdom mind of the victorious ones, free of extremes.
Fruition
As you reach the culmination of these practices, the stages of fruition are as follows:
In the shorter term, through the union of bliss, clarity, and nonconceptuality,
You will achieve clairvoyance, extraordinary powers of perception, and boundless qualities,
And ultimately, you will achieve the wish-fulfilling three kayas and all the qualities of the
victorious ones,
Spontaneously bringing about your own and others’ welfare.
This completes the third section, describing the stages of the samadhi to be practiced
from Finding Comfort and Ease in Meditation on the Great Perfection.
DEDICATION
Through the merit of explaining the vast and profound,
The essential meaning of this approach to the Dharma and tranquillity,
May all beings attain the two sublime aspects of awakening
And gain the limitless wealth of wish-fulfilling enlightened activity!
The heir to the victorious ones, Drimé Özer, composed this
Clear explanation for the sake of future generations,
By synthesizing the key points of his own practical experience,
On the slopes of Gangri Thökar.
All who seek liberation should apply themselves
To practicing in accordance with this text,
And, with abundant benefits on a temporal and ultimate level, for both themselves and
others,
They will swiftly find happiness and joy in the realm of supreme bliss!
This completes the text Finding Comfort and Ease in Meditation on the Great Perfection,
which was composed on the slopes of Gangri Thökar by the yogin Drimé Özer, a follower
of Tsokyé Dorjé, the great and glorious master of Oddiyana.
May it be virtuous! May it be virtuous! May it be virtuous!
[multilanguage_switcher]