Light of Wisdom:
A Selection from Khangsar Tenpa'i Wangchuk's commentary on Deshek Lingpa's root text
An Excerpt from The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind
A Treasure Tantra of the Great Perfection
By Khangsar Tenpa'i Wangchuk
By Deshek Lingpa
Translated by Padmakara Translation Group
About This Title
The Dzogchen tantra titled The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind teaches the advanced practices of trekchö, thögal, and bardo. This tantra is a mind terma, or treasure, of the modern tertön, or treasure revealer, Deshek Lingpa—recognized as an emanation of Yudra Nyingpo, a student of the great translator Vairotsana and one of Padmasambhava’s twenty-five disciples. Khangsar Tenpa’i Wangchuk’s commentary elucidates the finer points of the view and practice of this rich and profound text, which combines into one stream the Heart Essence teachings of Vimalamitra, Padmasambhava, and Vairotsana.
Deshek Lingpa’s root text and Khangsar Tenpa’i Wangchuk’s commentary are translated here for the first time, continuing an extended project to render the latter’s entire collected works into English. These teachings are considered advanced and secret, to be taught only to those who have received transmission from a qualified master.
A note to readers:
Due to the nature of this text, the following excerpt from Khangsar Tenpa'i Wangchuk's commentary was carefully selected with the intention to introduce readers to this precious text and commentary. Nonetheless we'd like to take a moment to reiterate the note of caution to readers found in the front matter of this text. It states:
"The practices in this book should only be performed under the personal guidance and supervision of a qualified Dzogchen teacher who is able to ensure that the practitioner has received the appropriate empowerments, transmissions, and practice instructions. Unless the proper conditions have been fulfilled, it is preferable to keep this book respectfully in a safe place until such a time as the necessary authorization to study it has been obtained."
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An Introduction to Deshek Lingpa's The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind
From Part Two, The Light of Wisdom, Khangsar Tenpa'i Wangchuk's Commentary on The Great Perfection Tantra, The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind from the Mind Essence of the Lotus Dākinī, page 27-35
namo guru
Samantabhadra, dharmakāya in the buddha field of the dharmadhātu,
Buddhas of the five families, saṃbhogakāya endowed with the five certainties,
Displays of the nirmāṇakāya in the realms where beings are to be trained—
Teachers of the three lineages, manifest within my heart.Garab Dorje, Mañjuśrīmitra, and Śrīsiṃha,
Jñānasūtra, Padmasambhava, and Vimalamitra,
Omniscient father and son, Deshek Lingpa, and the others,
With unshakable faith, I venerate you a hundred times above my head.That I, a simple-minded man, might explain a little
The key points of the Great Perfection’s Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind,
A tantra of the most secret and profound fruition aspect,
I beg the permission of the guardians of the teachings and owners of the treasure.
The text called The Great Perfection Tantra, The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind is the quintessence of the six million four hundred thousand tantras of the Great Perfection, bringing together the essential points of the seventeen tantras of the Heart Essence, a profound teaching that appeared as a mind treasure of the great treasure revealer, Deshek Lingpa. It is a pith instruction more precious than the eyes in one’s forehead or the blood in one’s heart. It is this text, which is like the excellent wish-fulfilling jewel, that I will explain here.
The explanation is divided into three sections: (1) a virtuous beginning, the introduction; (2) a virtuous middle, the text itself; and (3) a virtuous ending, the conclusion. The first of these has two parts: (1) the meaning of the title and (2) the homage.
I. Introduction, the Virtuous Beginning
A. Title
In Sanskrit: Mahāsandhyacittasvamuktatantranama
In Tibetan: rDzogs pa chen po sems nyid rang grol gyi rgyud ces bya ba
In English: The Great Perfection Tantra, The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind
The correspondence between the Sanskrit and Tibetan is as follows. Mahā corresponds to chenpo (chen po), meaning “great.” Sandhya and its Tibetan equivalent dzog (rdzogs) mean “perfection.” Citta, or semnyi (sems nyid), means “mind (itself).” Svamukta corresponds to rangdröl (rang grol), “natural openness and freedom.” Tantra is gyu (rgyud) in Tibetan, meaning “continuum” [but left untranslated as “tantra” in this context]. Nama, or chejawa (ces bya ba) in Tibetan, indicates that the preceding words form a title.
B. Homage
Homage to the primordial lord!
“Primordial lord” refers to the ground awareness free from extremes or the awareness that is the ultimate nature, the object of meditation. It is inseparable from the dharmatā, the nature of all phenomena, or the great dharmadhātu that is the mind of all the buddhas of the three times. In the present context of the path, when the path awareness that has been introduced by one’s teacher or the awareness that is cognizant power, the meditating subject, arrives at the awareness that is the ultimate nature, the object of meditation, the ground awareness and path awareness blend inseparably into one taste. It is to these ground and path awarenesses, inseparable as a single flavor, that homage (of the best kind) is paid by meeting with the view.
II. The Text Itself, the Virtuous Middle
The text itself is divided into (1) preliminaries, (2) main practice, and (3) conclusion. The first of these has five parts: (1) a description of the setting for this tantra; (2) the manner in which the key points of the infinite tantras are included within this tantra; (3) showing that this tantra is the essence of all the different teachings of the buddhas; (4) showing that it is the sole path trodden by the buddhas past, present, and future; and (5) showing how it outshines all the intellectual philosophical tenet systems of the eight vehicles. The first of these, the setting, is divided into a brief outline and a detailed explanation.
A. Preliminaries
1. The Setting
a. Brief Outline
In the sublime place free of limits and beyond extremes,
The dharmakāya teacher, Samantabhadra,
Teaches the entourage of vidyādharas and ḍākinīs
Who are his own manifestation
The teachings of the resultant secret mantras,
Ineffable and beyond expression,
In the fourth time, the time of primordially pure equality.
The setting for this tantra is as follows. The perfect location is the sublime place that is the unexcelled dharmadhātu, which is free of limits and beyond extremes—it is not in any way delimited neither does it fall into any extremes. In that place there dwells the perfect teacher, the dharmakāya teacher Samantabhadra, teaching the perfect retinue, an inconceivable entourage of vidyādharas and ḍākas and ḍākinīs who manifest unceasingly as the self-display of awareness, which is no different from him. The perfect teaching is the most secret resultant teaching of Ati, the quintessence of the three inner tantras of the Secret Mantrayāna. No words can describe it; it cannot be voiced or imagined. The perfect time is the nonconceptual time of primordially pure equality, the timeless fourth time transcending past, present, and future. It is with these five perfections that the tantra was taught.
b. Detailed Explanation
This tantra of the ultimate result
Is the life essence of all the lineages of transmission—
The mind transmission of the conquerors
From Samantabhadra, the dharmakāya aspect of the dharmakāya,
Through the great Vajrasattva, the dharmakāya aspect of the saṃbhogakāya,
To Garab Dorje, the dharmakāya aspect of the nirmāṇakāya;
And the transmissions by symbolic indication and through hearing.
This tantra is a tantra of the resultant doctrine, the Vajrayāna, which is superior to the eight graded vehicles. It is the highest of all the sacred teachings.
The perfect place for this is the realm of the dharmakāya, the buddha field in which the three kāyas of all the buddhas manifest. It is the place in which the ultimate expanse and primordial wisdom are of one taste, called Akaniṣṭha (The Unexcelled). It is entirely devoid of the conceptual elaborations concerning above and below, periphery or center. It is called The Unexcelled because it is above all phenomena and there is no other phenomenon higher than it. However, this is not the same as The Unexcelled that is the realm in which our teacher Samantabhadra Vajradhara taught the tantras.
It is within such a perfect place, The Unexcelled, that the perfect teacher, Samantabhadra, the dharmakāya aspect of the dharmakāya, beyond all conceptual construction, [“teaches”] his perfect entourage, which is no different from him. The perfect time is that of the utterly immutable ultimate reality. And the perfect teaching is this tantra, The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind (the mind’s nature, which never stirs from concentration), which arises in the continuum of his mind without any conceptual constructs in the form of words. This is mentioned in a tantra:
The tathāgata communicates in a special way with the tathāgatas.
This is the ground for the unfolding of the tantra.
Similarly, in the context of the saṃbhogakāya aspect of the dharmakāya, the perfect teacher is the saṃbhogakāya, emptiness and luminosity inseparable. The place is the uncontaminated state free of obscuration. The time is that of ultimate reality, beyond permanence or discontinuity. The teaching is that of the ineffable meaning. And the entourage is the teacher’s own empty exclusive self-experience.
Again, in the context of the nirmāṇakāya aspect of the dharmakāya, the teacher is the unimpeded ground for the arising of the nirmāṇakāya aspect of the dharmakāya. The place is present as the ground of arising that does not exist in any way. The teaching is that of meditative concentration, unceasing and luminous. The entourage is the three kāyas present in the state of awareness. The time is that of the manifestation of the fundamental nature, the quintessence. These are not the usual authentic perfections: they are conceptual ascriptions for distinguishing five aspects in a single emptiness. Thus, the teacher and entourage, which transcend the details of faces and attributes, refer to the great all-pervading equality of the ultimate expanse and primordial wisdom.
These explanations of the dharmakāya must be understood as referring only to the ceaseless radiance of the inner luminosity that is able to manifest as the display of the outwardly radiating luminosity. They should not be understood as referring to the outwardly radiating luminosity itself.
Thus, in the context of the dharmakāya, the nature, character, and cognizant potency or the dharmakāya, saṃbhogakāya, and nirmāṇakāya, along with the five perfections, need to be distinguished on the basis of a single empty nature, as is stated in Self-Illuminating Awareness:
Unchanging, unimpeded, all- pervading—
These three are the nature of the dharmakāya.
If you wish to go into this in greater detail, you should study Longchenpa’s Seven Treasuries. In brief, the manner in which the lineages of the dharmakāya, saṃbhogakāya, and nirmāṇakāya aspects are explained in the context of the dharmakāya is as follows. Since they are no different from the aspects of a single primordially pure awareness, the wisdom minds of all the conquerors extend evenly as a single taste in the expanse of the actual primordial wisdom of ultimate reality that does not exist in any way outside or inside, above or below, or of the great primordial wisdom that abides in the ground of the dharmakāya; and this is what we call “the mind lineage of the conquerors.”
In a similar vein, where the root verse says “Vajrasattva, the dharmakāya aspect of the saṃbhogakāya,” I think it is implying that Vajrasattva is the sovereign embodiment of all the hundreds of buddha families. Apart from that, in the context of the dharmakāya aspect of the saṃbhogakāya, the perfect place is the buddha field of the Dense Array. The teacher is the buddha Vairocana Mahāsāgara, whose entourage is no different from him. The teaching is that of the self-arisen primordial wisdom, his own self-experience. The time is that of the manifestation of realization.
Again, in the context of the saṃbhogakāya aspect of the saṃbhogakāya, the teacher is the lord of the family of whichever tantra is being expounded. The place is the Dense Array, the entourage is the assembly of deities of each of the five families, the teaching is that of the five kinds of primordial wisdom, and the time is that of the gathering in and spreading out of light. In the context of the nirmāṇakāya aspect of the saṃbhogakāya, the teacher is any one of the buddhas of the five families. The entourage comprises the inconceivable hundreds of thousands of male and female deities enjoying the self-experience of awareness. The place is the completely uncompounded Willow Leaf realm. The Willow Leaf realm in this case is said to be the realm of each of the five buddha families: it is not referring to the buddha field of Vajrapāṇi. The time is the time of the self-experience of awareness.
To sum up, it is taught that in the context of the saṃbhogakāya, one speaks of the saṃbhogakāya’s exclusive self-experience; it is important to be clear that it has nothing to do with what is perceived by other beings. As we read in The Precious Treasury of the Dharmadhātu,
The saṃbhogakāya nature
Is a character [of luminosity]
Spontaneously present.
Its display consists of the five families
And the five primal wisdoms,
Which appear and fill the whole of the expanse of space.
Now, for “Garab Dorje, the dharmakāya aspect of the nirmāṇakāya,” in the context of the dharmakāya aspect of the nirmāṇakāya, the teacher is Garab Dorje manifesting in the form of Vajradhara. The place is the realm of the thousand lotuses. The entourage comprises beings who take the four kinds of birth. The teaching is the Word-Transcending Root Tantra, which is the root of all the scriptural collections. The time is the time when beings’ lives last an infinite number of years.
In the context of the saṃbhogakāya aspect of the nirmāṇakāya, the teacher is Vajrasattva, the place is a billion billionfold universes, the entourage consists of bodhisattvas on the eighth level, the teaching is that of the vehicle of the definitive meaning, and the time is not fixed. In the context of the nirmāṇakāya aspect of the nirmāṇakāya, the teacher is Śākyamuni, the place is a billion Sahā worlds with their four continents, the entourage consists of celestial beings, humans, and the like, the teaching is that of the causal and resultant vehicles, and the time is the definite time for the clearing away of doubts. With regard to this, The Precious Treasury of the Dharmadhātu states,
The nature of nirmāṇakāya is cognizant potency,
Which is the ground of arising.
Its display appears according to the needs
Of beings to be guided
And has mastery of great enlightened action.
The nirmāṇakāya is endowed with enlightened body, speech, mind, qualities, and activities. Its body has all the major and minor marks. Its speech possesses the sixty tones of Brahmā. Its mind knows all that is to be known. It has all the excellent qualities complete.
And its activities are applied on a vast scale to benefit beings. These explanations are based on Omniscient Longchenpa’s Seven Treasuries.
To sum up, this text, The Great Perfection Tantra, The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind, was transmitted from the dharmakāya aspect of the dharmakāya Samantabhadra to the dharmakāya aspect of the saṃbhogakāya Vajrasattva, who in turn transmitted it to the dharmakāya aspect of the nirmāṇakāya Garab Dorje. Since the wisdom minds of the conquerors are of a single taste in the dharmadhātu, this constitutes the conquerors’ lineage of mind transmission. Then, teachers who appear as humans and nonhumans transmit all the teachings of the mind transmission lineage by means of symbols, and this constitutes the vidyādharas’ lineage of transmission by symbolic indication. Again, all the teachings of the mind and symbol lineages are transmitted from one individual to another through the lineage of transmission by hearing. This tantra is thus the secret quintessence of the instructions of the entire mind, symbol, and hearing transmissions, like the vital essence of life, the heart’s elixir, which, in terms of its perfect setting, is taught as being especially sublime.
Khangsar Tenpa'i Wangchuk (1938–2014) was a monk and tertön of the Nyingma school. A revered master of his own tradition, he was also learned in the rigorous Geluk scholastic curriculum. While imprisoned for twelve years during the Cultural Revolution, he continued his dedicated practice alongside other great masters. In his later years, he focused on teaching, writing, and restoring the monasteries of Khangsar Taklung and Panak in the region of Golok, Tibet.
Deshek Lingpa (1956–2020), also known as Tulku Lhatsam and Tertön Padma Jigme Dorje, was a tertön of the Nyingma school and served as the abbot of both Dogongma and Dogabma Monasteries in Golok, Tibet.
Related Books from This Series of Commentary by Khangsar Tenpa'i Wangchuk
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Modern scholar and Nyingma master Khangsar Tenpa’i Wangchuk composed this first and only commentary on the fourteenth-century Buddhist master Longchenpa’s essential text, The Precious Treasury of the Fundamental Nature. The root text establishes the definitive view of the secret class of pith instructions of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection. Tenpa’i Wangchuk’s word-commentary elucidates the nature of phenomena adhering closely to the internal structure of Longchenpa’s verses, clearly presenting the four vajra principles of the nature of phenomena: nonexistence, evenness, spontaneous presence, and single nature.