A Complete Set of Instructions for the Bardos

Crucial Advice: A Complete Set of Instructions for the Bardos

by Longchen Rabjam

At the feet of the sacred master, respectfully I pay homage!

Although you have gained this life of freedom and advantage, it will not last,
So keep in mind these instructions for the moment of death.

Now, during this intermediate period of the bardo of this life,
Decide, with complete certainty, that the wisdom of your own awareness is dharmakaya,
And sustaining the ongoing experience of its self-radiance, the meditation which is naturally clear,
Everything will only enhance naturally arising wisdom!

During the bardo of dying, when the four elements dissolve,
There will be the illusory experiences of rising and falling, shaking, and haziness.¹
And the dissolution of earth, water, fire, wind and space.
 

The sense faculties too will cease to function. At that time, remind yourself:
“Now I am dying, but there is no need to fear.”
 

Examine: “What is death? Who is dying? Where does dying take place?”
Death is merely the return of borrowed elements.
 

In the face of rigpa itself, there is no birth or death.
 

Within the very form² of the dharmakaya of primordial purity, the union of rigpa and emptiness,
Examine: “What is death? Who is dying? Where does dying take place?”
 

As dying exists nowhere, it is absolutely unreal.
 

In the experience of this, generate courage and confidence.
The arising of rigpa is not obstructed in any way.
 

Earth, water, fire, wind and consciousness dissolve into space.
When space dissolves into pure luminosity,
The six consciousnesses dissolve into the basis of all, the dharmadhatu,
As awareness parts from the inanimate, there is an experience of pure awareness, devoid of phenomena.
 

Separated from the ordinary mind, the great primordial purity of dharmakaya dawns.
Through having recognized this here and now in training,
You will be freed directly, in a single instant.
 

And gain the dharmakaya of twofold purity.

Emptiness

"Since things neither exist nor don't exist,
are neither real nor unreal,
are utterly beyond adopting and rejecting -
one might as well burst out laughing."

--Longchenpa Rabjam

Empty Forms

“in the universal womb that is boundless space
all forms of matter and energy occur
as flux of the four elements,
but all are empty forms, absent in reality:
all phenomena, arising in pure mind, are like that.

just as dream is a part of sleep,
unreal in its arising,
so all and everything is pure mind,
never separated from it,
and without substance or attribute.

experience is neither mind nor anything but mind;
it is a vivid display of emptiness, like magical illusion,
in the very moment inconceivable and unutterable.
all experience arising in the mind,
at its inception, know it as emptiness!”

--Longchenpa

Freedom

“freedom attends reality:
free at the core, any effort is wasted;
timelessly free, no release is needed;
free in itself, no corrective is possible;
directly free, released in seeing;
completely free, pure in nature;
constantly free, familiarization is redundant;
and naturally free, freedom cannot be contrived.

yet 'freedom' is just a verbal convention,
and who is 'realized' and who is not?
how could anyone be 'liberated'?
how could anyone be lost in samsara?
reality is free of all delimitation!

freedom is timeless, so constantly present;
freedom is natural, so unconditional;
freedom is direct, so pure vision obtains;
freedom is unbounded, so no identity possible;
freedom is unitary, so multiplicity is consumed.

conduct changes nothing - our lives are already free!
meditation achieves nothing - our minds are already free!
the view realizes nothing - all dogma is freedom!
fruition demands nothing - we are free as we are!”

― Longchenpa

Pure Mind

“pure mind is like the empty sky,
without memory, supreme meditation;
it is our own nature, unstirring, uncontrived,
and wherever that abides is the superior mind,
one in buddhahood without any sign,
one in view free of limiting elaboration,
one in meditation free of limiting ideation,
one in conduct free of limiting endeavor,
and one in fruition free of limiting attainment.

vast! spacious!
released as it stands!
with neither realization nor non-realization;
experience consummate! no mind!
it is open to infinity.”

--Longchenpa