Dzogchen: Precious Garland | Longchenpa | 4
Dzogchen:
The Four-Themed Precious Garland
Longchenpa
(1308–1364)
(4) Purifying Confusion into Deep Awareness
1. Provisional Purification
(78) Next is purifying your confusion into deep awareness.
Of the stages for (this) point, the provisional and ultimate, the first is the provisional (purification, dealing with) the time (when you have) a pathway of mind of practicing (to actualize the goal).
By familiarising yourself by means of profound methods, whatever disturbing emotions arise totally purify into the sphere (of deep awareness).
To make manifest (the underlying) deep awareness which is the natural clarity (of the mind) is called "purifying conceptual thoughts of confusion into the sphere of deep awareness."
(79) That (provisional stage) can be divided into shared, special and unsurpassable (methods) according to the methods on which you rely:
(These are respectively) cleansing away (the confusion of disturbing emotions) with their antidotes; transforming (them) with methods; and having them purify into the sphere (of deep awareness) without (need for) abandoning them, (since) they automatically liberate themselves in their own place.
Regardless of how you train with whichever (method) you like, stopping (the disturbing emotions) comes to the same point as the disturbing emotions (automatically) purifying themselves.
(80) When you recognise the natural ground for the arising of longing desire, hostility, naivety, pride and jealousy, (you see that) they automatically settle and automatically liberate themselves, purifying into the 5 aspects of deep awareness.
This is called “provisionally purifying the confusion of the 5 poisonous emotions into the (5) major deep awarenesses” – individualizing, mirror-like, sphere of reality, equalising and accomplishing.
2. Ultimate Purification
(81) The ultimate (purification) is the parting of (all) fleeting stains from the source:
In other words, when you discover the purified state that is stilled and parted from any speck (of defilement), you make manifest the functional nature of the sphere just as it is and discover the deep awareness of the 3 Enlightening Corpuses of a Buddha as being of one taste in Dharmakāya.
(This) is called the Corpus of the Sphere Possessing Double Purity. It is not a cognitive object (knowable) by anyone other than the Triumphant (Buddhas) themselves.
(82) The 3 Enlightening Corpuses (of a Buddha), namely
a) a Corpus Encompassing Everything (Dharmakāya),
b) a Corpus of Full Use (Saṁbhogakāya) and
c) a Corpus of Emanations (Nirmāṇakāya),
together with deep awareness, are incorporated into a Corpus of Essential Nature (Svabhāvakāya), which is static, all-pervasive, unaffected and without shift or change.
(83) It remains in the sphere of Dharmakāya, which is a wish-fulfilling gem, and, within that state of its real nature, its Deep Awareness Corpus of Enlightening Influence, as a glittering play of Corpuses of Full Use and of Emanations, appears (respectively) to those with (ārya Bodhisattva) levels of bhūmi-mind and to other wandering beings.
(84) Further, it appears like that from the purifying (power) of the combination of the strengths of the Enlightening inspiration of the Triumphant Ones and the positive force of the disciples to be tamed.
Because (of that purifying power, the attainment of) the Enlightening influence (of a Buddha) fulfilling the hopes (of all limited beings), like a wish-granting tree or gem, without any break for as long as compulsive existence endures
– this is called “the (ultimate) purification of confusion into deep awareness.”
(85) May the 7-horse-drawn (sun), which is the heart-essence of the profound meaning (explained) like that, shed thousands of light-rays of its various words and their meanings on the world of disciples through the pathway of the sky of their minds and clear away the darkness of unawareness from all wandering beings.
This (concludes) the fourth chapter of A Precious Garland for the Four Themes, “Purifying Confusion into Deep Awareness.”
3. Author’s Colophon
(86) This spread of a banquet (laid out) for the sake of both myself and others
from the magnificent mansion of the broad intelligence of these (Dharma) methods, and garnished with a lavish amount of hearing, thinking and meditating,
has been arranged in accordance with the meaning of the sūtras, tantras and heart-essence quintessence teachings.
(87) By the constructive (force) of this, may I and all wandering beings level the mountain of compulsive Saṁsāra existence in this lifetime and attain a supreme purified state that is stilled and parted from any speck (of defilement)!
May we become Buddhas, completely fulfilling the aims of both ourselves and others!
(88) And then in a land beautified with expansive snow-mountains of clear meaning, may (the sun of our) lustrous good qualities, which extends to the limit of (all) directions, highlight the heart-essence points on the precious gems of the scriptures and (thereby) bring joy to the masses of people with belief in what’s fact!
This work, called “A Precious Garland for the Four Themes,” has been composed by the yogi of the Supreme Vehicle, Longchen Rabjampa,
illumined by the crystal moon in the magnificent mansion of Samantabhadra in a garden called “A Cloud of Flowers” on the slopes of Limestone Mountain and completed in one sitting.
May a rain of great bliss fall for all times and in all directions as in the (golden) age of a complete eon, granting everything hoped for in everyone’s wishes!