All and everything emanates from me,
Excerpt from The Great Potency of Bodhicitta
so all and everything, whatever appears,
is revealed as transmission,
revelation of timelessly pure basic spaciousness.
A quick excursion of context here before sharing the teaching and reflections!
The Great Potency of Bodhicitta is a seminal Dzogchen text categorized under the Semde (Mind Series), one of the three primary divisions of Dzogchen teachings (Semde, Longde, and Menngagde). The most important Semde texts are part of a collection that goes under various names including “the Eighteen minor texts of the Mind“. Of these, first five are The Five Early Translations (sNga ‘gyur lnga) of Vairotsana, also known as the Five Bodhicitta Texts.
This Tantra is the second of the Five Early Translations of Vairotsana. We have already posted on the first, Vairotsana’s Cuckoo’s Song Of Awareness. This second text is a truly beautiful and direct pointing out instruction. In Keith Dowman’s translation he names the teaching Radical Creativity. Other translations refer to it as The Great Potentiality.
The Great Potency of Bodhicitta
Hey, Mahasattva, Magnificent Being, listen!
How beautiful it is – when what we truly are speaks of what we truly are, to that which may have lost sight of what we truly are!
Samantabhadra (Kuntuzangpo) points to our fundamental nature, both primordially pure, yet naturally perfect. Whilst lost in the hallucinations of expression we feel separate and battered by what arises and ceases in experience. Yet somewhere, sometime, we hear this call, this call back home, from deep, deep inside. Can we listen?
And seemingly paradoxically, that call to come home is also ‘you are already home’ – you are Samantabhadra. Look!
There’s no path, no discriminations to be made here – everything is luminous emptiness. How could it be anything other than this already? What do you need to change? Just recognise what is, and rest stably in that recognition.
All and everything emanates from me,
so all and everything, whatever appears,
is revealed as transmission,
revelation of timelessly pure basic spaciousness.
I’ve read that some people struggle with the first hand personification of Samantabhadra in these texts. Too much like Theism for their tastes. I know if you’ve grown up on Buddhist teachings then there’s something that jumps out here. For me, that’s almost the point. It makes you look again, and pay attention to what is being said, in a fresh form of expression.
Everything that arises and ceases is nothing other than Samantabhadra. When you recognise Rigpa and can rest in that recognition, you will come to see that not only is there this vast, spacious awareness, which is entirely groundless and free. Still and silent. Primordially pure, unborn and unchanging.
But more than that – all that appears to arise and cease is also none other than this too!
How extraordinary!
When lost in this and that we inhabit a world of solidity – me over here, these things – thoughts, feelings, world – over there.
Then we recognise this empty awareness, and vast spaciousness opens up. Self and other melt away. Just this … this … not even beingness.
But then we see these arisings as utterly transparent too – and not separate from the empty awareness. Nondual. Not different. Yet something seems to be happening!
Not the same, yet not different. Nondual display of appearance-emptiness.
Then we hear an astounding teaching – all of this is revelation. All that appears in experience reveals their true nature, if you but step aside and see.
All of experience is continually revealing it’s true nature. It’s teaching us. Yes, it’s a transmission of Dharma, of the nature of things, moment by moment.
No thought, however base, is not this nature, or a revelation of transmission.
Not thought, however beautiful, is not this nature, or revealing transmission.
How marvelous. How wondrous – it’s all right here, so no need to search, no need to endlessly cultivate. No need to make something happen.
Just look …
Just Samantabhadra. Just this field of reality. Just transmission of how things are. The momentary and referencial, pointing to the timeless and vast spaciousness. And their nondual inseparability.
Recognise. And rest.
All outer and inner is the timeless field of
spacious reality,
and in such an immaculate field of play,
buddha and sentient beings are not distinct—
so why try to change anything?
When caught up in our dualistic worldview we think that life consists of inner experience and then outer world. We think we inhabit both, and that they are entirely distinct.
Yet what do we have in this life of ours – an endless display of appearances, which dance and shimmer, endlessly creative. Which is inner, which are outer? There’s only appearances, empty appearances – not us and the world. Appearances which we say are the world arise in mind and cease in mind. Appearances which we say are ourselves arise in mind and cease in mind. Both are just a magical display – empty arisings, empty ceasings. Not this or that.
Nondual is experience, with what appears and that which knows emerging inseparably together – can you distinguish them. And what appears is neither inside or out, nondual is experience, one illusory display of expression.
Everything is the display of this marvelous Dharmadhatu, the sphere of reality, that is immaculate always, primordially pure. Naturally perfected.
Even the realised ones, the Buddhas, are not different in nature from any sentient being. Nothing in that nature needs to be corrected, or antidotes cultivated. It’s all as it is, spontaneous presence, timelessly pure. Why do we feel the urge to make it something different – or something better? Can we make the naturally perfect more perfect still?
There is no ambition in effortless, fully
potentiated creativity,
and such free-form spontaneous perfection is
always the same;
in the pure field of reality, where the conception
and the act are one,
however misguided, how can we innocents do any
wrong?
As we are not caught up in striving or desire, then we have no need to attain anything at all. Each moment, each moment in seeming time which is flush with the timeless ground of being is primordially perfect, so how could you seek attainment beyond what you already are?
What you already are, the primordial ground is already spontaneously presence and naturally perfect. This never changes – and this is the ultimate sameness or evenness of this luminous emptiness. Same taste.
In place of effort and striving to attain there is the free-form display of the magical illusions. What appears and disappears – a phantasmic dance of … ?
How can you differentiate between intending and the result of intention?
How can you differentiate between subject and object, when there’s only this luminous play of the ground, nondual, thoroughly nondual?
What amazing confidence can we gain by knowing we cannot err on this path, despite our best efforts?
This Dharmadhatu, this Primordial Ground remains undefiled and unconditioned, forever Primordially Pure.
The radical creativity of Samantabhadra. Rest here, and put down your burdens.
The pure-pleasure union of sentient behavior,
conceived by the deluded as a perverse path,
is identical to the pure modality of
Samantabhadra:
whoever understands such sameness is buddha, lord
of all.
Seeing things from the dualistic perspective leads people to view both the pleasure seeking of the Hedonist, and the Tantric Buddhist approaches to Karmamudra, with their use of sexual union to seek bliss and insight as deluded or even perverse. Conventional approaches to Buddhism criticise those pursuing pleasure as lacking renunciation, and on the Samsaric path. They also criticise the Tantric Karmamudra path as misguided, almost ‘wanting to have your cake and eat it’ approach to Dharma.
Yet the Dzogchen approach set out here says both these views are wrong and misguided. If we never true stray from Samantabhadra’s self expression, from our true nature being what it is, then what question can there be of a deluded path? When you choose to take an actual which is sexual, whether Hedonist or Karmamudra, then how might that action differ from your nature? It’s empty arisings.
Luminous Awareness.
Perfect Purity.
Natural Perfection.
It’s not just the expression of the nature of mind, the play of the Primordial Ground, it’s also Samantabhadra’s transmission. Can we hear that transmission?
From the perspective of Dzogchen here, there is no difference in these modes or activities. Can you see why?
Nobody is saying Ethics is not important, or non-existent. Or that there are not differences on one level between thoughts and behaviours. But from the highest view, that of Awakened Mind, there’s no difference here at all. There’s primordial sameness or equality here. The actions in Karmamudra are just skillful means, executed to facilitate those that would benefit from this exercise. Those who execute it from the highest view never stray from Rigpa in any case.
The exercise only brings you back to this Primordial Ground anyway, so why not just rest directly in Rigpa if you are able? Just rest in this Tawa, that view, and let go of conceptual judgements of these diverse ways of acting.
On the delusive, extremist path, thinking, “I”
and “mine,”
deluded innocents enter a structured path of
Dharma practice
with no chance to realize that it leads nowhere:
How can reality ever be found by seeking?
From my own personal view, I’m not sure I see how any path of Buddha-Dharma would emphasise an ‘I’ or ‘mine as part of its approach? I know how easy it is in the early stages to see Dharma practice as just one more way to shore up the self, this time with an image of spirituality. Just another vanity project which reinforces the sense of self. But the text here seems to point more to approaches to Dharma that are more structured and graduated, and that they therefore solidify the sense of self further? I’m not sure about this.
What seems crystal clear to me is how painful the whole process of spiritual seeking can be. Once you have truly been bitten, and can see that actually our ignorant approach to things is to play an unwinnable game, then it becomes super-urgent to get off that ride, and find a place of peace beyond the wheel of Samsara. Yet so often, however hard we try, our efforts lead to insights into just how mired in the game we are, and how often our desire to be ‘good’ or Dharmic lead us to further suffering and contraction. The urge for release can become so powerful that it’s as if there’s an existential bomb within. Unable to continue playing Samsara’s game. Yet unable to truly find the way beyond Samsara – we are in a Purgatory of in-betweenness. Neither in, or truly out. Samsara was painful. Seeking to transcend it becomes a new form of pain.
Yet these teachings point us back to what we already are, and show us that all we need to do is recognise what we are. Recognise it, be convinced by that recognition enough that we then line our lives up around that view of inseparable groundless timelessness and yet apparent unfoldment in time and space.
Here, there’s nothing to seek, nothing to become a seeker about. Not Millenia of cultivation. Just recognise and rest, and enjoy Samantabhadra’s Lila or play. Then, you can truly put down the burden of dualistic fixation.
The instruction of monkey-like masters who lack
direct insight
is fraught with false concepts of preparation and
technique;
so the master who cleans the tarnish from pure
gold,
the authentic teacher, the most precious
resource,
he is worth a ransom of any vast price.
So direct and to the point here. There’s truly nothing more precious than the vector of Pointing Out Instructions, of the pathless path of Dzogchen, whatever the form the Guru takes for you. Is it a person, a book, a building, a mood, a sight? All point to the ‘eternal’ Guru. Can you see what is being pointed to?
So why is title of the Tantra translated at The Great Potency of Bodhicitta? We haven’t mentioned Bodhicitta throughout these reflections? Why is that?
Well, this Tantra explores how Bodhicitta—the awakened mind or heart—arises as an unceasing display of Rigpa. It presents the ultimate Bodhicitta as not merely the altruistic aspiration to attain enlightenment for all beings, as in the Sutric context, but as the luminous expression of the ground itself. We are not directly talking here of the desire to liberate all beings from suffering. Of the arising of Compassion for sentient beings. Or of the Bodhisattva vow. This is all what is known as Relative Bodhicitta.
But here this is not about what arises and ceases in mind. This Tantra relates to understanding the nature of mind – and this is Ultimate Bodhicitta. Pointing us to the groundless ground, and its magical expression and so liberation available right in this very moment.
And this moment.
And this …..
Two translations of the Great Potency of Bodhicitta
I’ve used two different translations of the text. Once again comparing these translations you see how much variation there is in the translation, yet both from a single Tibetan text!
There’s a lot one could reflect on there. Not least the need to be pointed to a sound understanding of what the original says.
The Great Potentiality – translated by Mihai Derbac
From the very beginning, the sphere of reality consists of everything that is
outer and inner.
In this dimension of the original perfect purity
There is no distinction between the Buddhas and the sentient beings.
So, how could there be anything that needs to be corrected with paths and
antidotes?As there is no desire or striving, there is nothing to be attained;
The state of reality itself is spontaneously self-perfected and free from activity.
In the pure field of reality, concepts and analyses are non-dual.
So, how could this dimension be conditioned by the behavior of some foolish
people and their wrong views?The non-dual great bliss can be experienced by all sentient beings.
Even the wrong path as conceived by the deluded followers
Is not different from the universal path, as explained above.
Whoever understands this equality is the lord of the Buddhas.Thinking in terms of “I” and “mine” is the mistaken path of the heretics.
As the foolish [practitioners] are deceived, they enter the path of conceptual
activities
And never reach their goal, or attain any understanding.
So, how could they attain reality by searching for reality as-it-is?If one follows the teachings of the monkey-like masters who are devoid of
authentic knowledge,
One will certainly end up on the wrong path that is conditioned by concepts.
The one who can extract gold from minerals
Is an authentic master whose teachings are most precious;
A treasure worthy to be bought for any price.Mihai Derbac’s translation is notable for appearing to be a more literal than the Keith Dowman translation we have used in the post above (I cannot read Tibetan, so this is my impression, rather than factual view).
The Great Potentiality
Translation by Mihai Derbac
The “Five Early” (sNga lnga) Texts of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition rDzogs chen Sems sde: A Historical, Literary and Textual Study with Critical Edition and Translation of the Tibetan Texts
(Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada – 2019)
This translation from Mihai Derbac’s Doctoral thesis appears to be more literal than the one by Keith Dowman which I have shared above. I say ‘appears to be’ as I cannot read Tibetan, so cannot say this for sure. But that is what my instinct says.
It’s also notable that the opening exclamation and the first verse found in Keith Dowman’s translation are missing from this one. I have no insight into why this is so.
Radical Creativity – translated by Keith Dowman
Hey, Mahasattva, Magnificent Being, listen!
All and everything emanates from me,
so all and everything, whatever appears,
is revealed as transmission,
revelation of timelessly pure basic spaciousness.All outer and inner is the timeless field of
spacious reality,
and in such an immaculate field of play,
buddha and sentient beings are not distinct—
so why try to change anything?There is no ambition in effortless, fully
potentiated creativity,
and such free-form spontaneous perfection is
always the same;
in the pure field of reality, where the conception
and the act are one,
however misguided, how can we innocents do any
wrong?On the delusive, extremist path, thinking, “I”
and “mine,”
deluded innocents enter a structured path of
Dharma practice
with no chance to realize that it leads nowhere:
How can reality ever be found by seeking?The instruction of monkey-like masters who lack
Radical Creativity
direct insight
is fraught with false concepts of preparation and
technique;
so the master who cleans the tarnish from pure
gold,
the authentic teacher, the most precious
resource,
he is worth a ransom of any vast price.
Original Perfection – Vairotsana’s Five Early Transmissions
Translation and Commentary by Keith Dowman
One of the benefits of Keith Dowman’s book is that it provides a commentary with the text – which is very much based on his ‘Radical Dzogchen’ approach to these teachings.
I love having multiple translations of a text. Different facets of a jewel reflecting and pointing …
