



Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche







The Mirror of Essential Points

Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche





A Letter in Praise of Emptiness

From Jamyang Dorje to his Mother













I pay homage at the lotus feet of Tenpey Nyima,

Who is inseparable from lord Longchen Rabjam

And who perceives the natural state of emptiness

Of the ocean-like infinity of things.







A letter of advice I offer to you, my noble mother Paldzom.

Listen for a while without distraction.

Staying here without discomfort,

I am at ease and free from worries

In a state of joyful mind.

Are you well yourself, my mother?







Here, in a country in the west,

There are many red and white-skinned people.

They have all kinds of magic and sights,

Like flying through the skies

And moving like fish in the water.

Having mastery over the four elements

They compete in displaying miracles

With thousands of beautiful colors.

There are innumerable spectacles

Like designs of rainbow colors.

But like a mere dream when examined

They are but the mistaken perceptions of mind.







All activities are like the games children play.

If started, they can never be finished.

They are only completed once you let them be,

Like castles made of sand.







But that is not the whole story.

All the phenomena of samsara and nirvana,

Although thought to be permanent, do not last.

When examined, they are but empty forms

That appear without existence.

Although unreal they are thought to be real.

But, like an illusion when examined, they are found to be unreal.







Look outward at the perceived objects.

Like water in a mirage

They are more delusive than delusion.

Unreal, like a dream or a magical apparition,

They resemble a rainbow or the reflection of the moon.







Look inward at your own mind!

It seems quite exciting when not examined.

But when examined there is nothing to it.

Appearing without existing it is nothing but empty.

It cannot be identified, you cannot say, "that's it,"

Because it is evanescent and elusive like mist.







Look at whatever appears

In any of the ten directions.

No matter how it manifests,

The thing in itself, its very nature,

Is the sky-like nature of the mind

Beyond the projection and the dissolution of thought and concept.







Everything has the nature of being empty.

When the empty looks at the empty,

Who is there to look at something empty?

As it is illusion looking at illusion

And delusion watching delusion,

What is the use of many classifications

Such as `empty' and `not empty?'







Whatever you do is all right.

However you rest, you are at ease

In the effortless and sky-like nature of the mind,

The vast expanse of awareness,

The natural state of all things.

This was said by Jetsun Padmasambhava

And the great siddha Saraha.







All conceptual thought constructions

Such as duality or nonduality,

Leave them to be spontaneously dissolved in themselves

Like the waves on a river.







The great demon of ignorant and discursive thought

Causes one to sink into the ocean of samsara.

But when freed from this discursive thought

There is the indescribable state beyond conceptual mind.







Other than mere discursive thoughts

There are not even the words `samsara' and `nirvana.'

The total subsiding of discursive thought

Is the suchness of dharmadhatu itself.







Not made complex by complex statements

This unfabricated single sphere

Is emptiness, the natural state of mind.

Thus it was said by the Sugata.







The essence of whatever may appear,

When simply left to itself,

Is the unfabricated and uncorrupted view,

The dharmakaya mother of emptiness.







All discursive thoughts are emptiness

And the observer of emptiness is discursive thought.

Emptiness does not destroy discursive thought

And discursive thought does not obstruct emptiness.

The mind nature of fourfold emptiness

Is the ultimate of everything.

Profound and quiescent, free from complexity,

An uncompounded, luminous clarity

Beyond the mind of concepts.

This is the depth of the mind of the victorious ones.







In this there is not an object to be removed

Nor something that needs to be added.

It is merely the natural

Looking naturally into itself.







In short, when the mind has fully severed

The fetters of clinging to something

All the points are condensed into one.

This is the tradition of the supreme being, Tilopa,

And of the great pandita Naropa.







Such a profound and natural state as this,

Among all the different kinds of bliss,

Is the one known as the wisdom of great bliss.

Among all kinds of delights

It is the king of supreme delight.

Among all the tantric sections of the secret mantra

It is the supreme fourth empowerment.

This is the ultimate pointing out instruction.







The view of samsara and nirvana as inseparable,

And that of mahamudra, dzogchen, the middle path and others,

Has many different titles,

But only one essential meaning.

This is the view of Jamgon Mipham.







As an aid to this king of views

One should begin with bodhicitta

And conclude with dedication.







Through skillful means, in order to cut off

The fixation of ego, the root of samsara,

The king of all great methods

Is unsurpassable bodhicitta.







The king of perfect dedication

Is the means of increasing the root of virtue.

This teaching is the specialty of Shakyamuni,

Which is not taught by other teachers.







More than this is not necessary

To accomplish complete enlightenment,

But less than this will be incomplete.

This swift path of the three excellencies

Called the `heart, eye and life force'

Is the approach of Longchen Rabjam.







Emptiness, the wishfulfilling jewel,

Is unattached generosity.

It is uncorrupted discipline.

It is angerless patience.

It is undeluded exertion.

It is undistracted meditation.

This emptiness, the essence of prajna,

Is the meaning of the three vehicles.







Emptiness is the natural state of mind.

It is the nonconceptual refuge

And the absolute bodhicitta.

It is the Vajrasattva who absolves evils.

It is the mandala of perfecting accumulations.

Emptiness is the guru yoga of dharmakaya.







To abide in the natural state of emptiness

Is the `calm abiding,' shamatha.

To perceive it vividly clear

Is the `clear seeing,' vipashyana.







The view of the perfect development stage,

And the wisdom of bliss and emptiness in the completion stage,

The nondual great perfection,

And the single sphere of dharmakaya

Are all included within emptiness.







Emptiness purifies the karmas

and dispels the obstructing forces.

Emptiness tames the demons

And accomplishes the deities.







The profound and natural state of emptiness

Dries up the ocean of passion.

It crumbles the mountain of anger

And illuminates the darkness of stupidity.

It calms down the gale of jealousy,

Defeats the illness of the kleshas

And is a friend in sorrow.

It destroys conceit in joy

And conquers in the battle with samsara.

It annihilates the four Maras,

Turns the eight worldly dharmas into same taste

And subdues the demon of ego-fixation.

It turns negative conditions into allies

And turns bad omens into good fortune.

It causes true and complete enlightenment

And gives birth to the buddhas of the three times.

Emptiness is the dharmakaya mother.







There is no teaching higher than emptiness.

There is no teaching swifter than emptiness.

There is no teaching more excellent than emptiness.

There is no teaching more profound than emptiness.







Emptiness is the `knowing of one that frees all.'

Emptiness is the supreme king of medicines.

Emptiness is the nectar of immortality.

Emptiness is spontaneous accomplishment beyond effort.

Emptiness is enlightenment without exertion.







By meditating on emptiness

One feels tremendous compassion

Towards the beings obscured by belief in a self

And bodhicitta arises without effort.







All the qualities of the path and levels

Will appear naturally without any effort,

And towards the law of the unfailing effect of karma

One will feel a heartfelt conviction.







If one has but one moment of certainty

In this kind of emptiness

The tight chains of ego-fixation

Will shatter into pieces.

This was said by Aryadeva.







It is more supreme to meditate on emptiness

Than to offer all the infinite buddhafields,

Filled with the wealth of gods and men,

To the sugatas and their spiritual sons.







If the merit of resting evenly,

Just for an instant in this natural state,

If it would take on concrete form

The element of space could not contain it.







Shakyamuni, the peerless lord of the Munis,

Threw his body into pyres of fire,

Gave away his head and limbs

And performed hundreds of other austerities

For the sake of this profound emptiness.







Although one fills the world with huge mounds

Of gold and jewels as offerings,

This profound teaching on emptiness,

Even when searched for, is hard to find.

This is said in the Hundred Thousand Verses of the Prajnaparamita.







To meet this supreme teaching

Is the splendid power of merit

Of many aeons beyond measure.







In short, by means of emptiness

One is, for the benefit of oneself,

Liberated into the expanse of the unborn dharmakaya,

The true and complete enlightenment

Of the four kayas and the five wisdoms.

Then the unobstructed display of rupakaya

Will ceaselessly manifest to teach whoever is in need,

Stirring the depth of samsara for the benefit of others

Through constant, all-pervading and spontaneous activity.

In all the sutras and tantras this is said

To be the ultimate fruition.







How can someone like me put into words

All the benefits and virtues of this,

When the Victorious One with his vajra tongue

Cannot completely elucidate them all, even if he speaks for an aeon?







The glorious lord, the supreme teacher,

Who gives the teachings on emptiness,

Appears in the form of a human being

Though his mind is truly a buddha.







Without deceit and hypocrisy

Supplicate him from your very heart.

Without needing any other method

You will attain enlightenment in this very life.

This is the manner of the all-embodying jewel

Which is taught in the tantras of the great perfection.

When you have this jewel in the palm of your hand

Do not let it go to waste meaninglessly.







Learning, like the stars in the sky,

Will never come to an end through studies.

What is the use of all the various kinds

Of teachings requested and received?

What is the use of any practice

Which is superior to that of emptiness?







Do not aim at many disciplinary costumes,

Such as carrying a staff, wearing braids and animal skin.

The elephant is already in your house,

Do not go searching for its footprints in the mountains.







Mother, meditate on the essence of mind

As it is taught by the master, the vajra holder.







This is the quintessence of the essence

Of all the eighty-four thousand teachings.

It is the heart substance of a billion

Learned and accomplished ones.

It is the ultimate practice.







This advice from the core of the heart

Of the fallen monk Jamyang Dorje

Is the purest of the purest essence

From the bindu of my life blood.

Therefore keep it in your heart, mother.







These few words of heart advice

Were written in a beautiful countryside,

In the palace of the spacious blue sky

That competes with the splendor of divine realms.







To the devoted Chokyi Nodzom,

My dear and loving mother,

And to all my devoted students

I offer this letter of advice.







This letter to my students was composed by one who goes by the name Khenpo, the Tibetan Jamyang Dorje, in the Dordogne herbal valley of great bliss, in the country of France beyond the great ocean in the western direction. May there be virtue and auspiciousness!Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche's book: The Fearless Lion's Roar: Profound Instructions on Dzogchen, the Great Perfection