The Heart Advice from the Tibetan meditation master Nyakla Jangchub Dorje: A Concise Teaching on Seeing, Deepening, Responding and Arriving according to Dzogpa Chenpo Kadak Trekcho.

KYE HO!

dear children, listen closely!

what you call mind isn’t anything at all

allow your own mind to look at itself.

past thoughts are no longer here, and

the future’s not yet here

and whatever arises now

is beyond reckoning.

let all thoughts

the past, present and future

settle, right now,

and in this moment

see how it is

if you see

colors & shapes

this is a sign

you’ve wandered

into the house of delusion.

if you think “it’s nothing, there’s nothing”

you’re trapped

in the numb empty state

and the richness of your own nature

will not emerge.

you know,

you can investigate

meditate for a hundred years

and not be

moving towards freedom

great natural perfection

is present

awareness right now

no thoughts & conditions

clear & radiant, like the sky

this never changes

it is dharmakaya, the primordial

clear & radiant awareness

is unceasing in its splendor

it is sambhogakaya, the rapturous

the arising of all possible things,

an ever-present vibration

it is nirmanakaya, the magical

whatever

whenever something

happens

don’t do

anything

with it

let it

settle by itself

thoughts are fuel

flaring up &

toxic

let them come

and go

they will

dissolve into space

coming

going

no difference

when they come

look directly

how they come

when they go

look directly

how they go

it is

exactly

the same, no

favorites no

choosing

eating

sitting

walking

standing

sleeping

talking,

whatever

you do,

when

you do it

look directly

how you are

this is how

ordinary beings

become buddhas

nothing is more direct

than this

more profound

than this

teaching

& for those who rely

on this

teaching

causes & conditions are gone

this is the space

just this

directly know

every experience

is magical

the wisdom eye

is now open

clairvoyance

now here

your body is no longer solid

you can travel unrestrained

death time comes &

your material and vital forces break down

and your elemental energies transmute

into the blessings

of rainbow remains

never changing

it’s now dissolved

back into

the primal state

awareness settles back

into space

Dharmakaya, the primoridal

and it activates

all tangible dimensions

releasing enlightened activities

bringing benefit

to all who live

wide as space itself

this is how it is.

now bountiful benefits

will flow

BE HAPPY! GEY- O!

This one page text in Tibetan, entitled Nyag bla byang chub rdo rje’i rdzogs pa chen po ka dag khregs chod lta sgom spyod ‘bras don mdor bsdus bstan pa, was translated, at the urging of Lama Wangdor, on 25 June 2005 in Oakland, California. Disciple of Nyag bla Padma bdud ‘dul, Nyag bla byang chub rdo rje, whose dates are sometimes given as 1838–1953, was the principal Dzogchen teacher of the contemporary master Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche.

About the Author Steven Goodman Prof. Steven D. Goodman is co-director and core faculty in the Asian and Comparative Studies Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (San Francisco). He co-edited Tibetan Buddhism: Reason and Revelation (New York: SUNY Press, 1992), and studied Tibetan Poetics as a Rockefeller Scholar in residence at the Rice University Center for Cultural Studies. Board of director at Jonang Foundation, Working Committee at 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha and Advisor at Khyentse Foundation.

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This poetry appeared in Tibetan Literary Arts, Curated by Marit Cranmer, published By Shang Shung Institute, Neilson Library, Smith College, May 2007.