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by José Argüelles/Valum Votan

from Part 3 the Cuckoo of Awareness, Ornament for Acquiring Realization Known as the Six Diamond Stanzas

(Translation of commentary to the Tun Huang Cave Manuscript)

Dzogchen and the Self-replicating Cosmology of Enlightenment Meditation.
Svasti! Holy of Holies! Homage to the Body-Speech-Mind of the All-Beneficent Lord,
The Diamond of Great Bliss!

Even though that which is usually called “mind” is widely esteemed and much discussed,
Still it is not understood or it is wrongly understood or it is understood in a one-sided manner only.
Since it is not understood correctly just as it is in itself,
There come into existence inconceivable numbers of philosophical ideas and assertions.
Furthermore, since ordinary individuals do not understand it, they do not recognize their own nature.

Padmasambhava, ‘Self -Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness, sec. 5

Dzogchen, also called Maha Ati, means the Great Perfection. It is a teaching first presented on this Earth by Pramodavajra ca. 665- 730 AD, of Uddiyan. According to Namkhai Norbu (The Crystal and the Way of Light), this planet is the thirteenth to receive this teaching. Born as Akasavajra - Thunderbolt Fallen from Space - at age seven, Pramodavajra sought out the masters of wisdom of Uddiyan, who were so impressed by his knowledge that he was immediately recognized as a skilled master and a special divine emanation (avatar). He was then named Prajnabhava, “One who is the Source of Peerless Wisdom.” After ordination as a Buddhist monk he became known as Pramodavajra or in Tibetan, Garab Dorje - Regent of the Divine. Note that his birth occurred when Pacal Votan was 62, and that Pramodavajra was 18 in AD 683 when the Great Pacal disincarnated.

When he was 32 (AD 697) Pramodavajra came face to face with the divine presence (Vajrasattva - Indestructible Diamond Lord) and attained complete enlightenment. In his mind Pramodavajra contained all of of the wisdom of the Dzogchen teaching - 6,400,000 lines of sanskrit verse. Note: That number is a fractal of 64 - the life code. Word that Pramodavajra was presenting a new, heretical teaching, a non-causal doctrine in which everything is declared divinely pure from the outset of things, and that therefore mind and phenomena, creature and Creator are always indivisibly One, brought about an effort to assassinate him. He gave up the robes of a monk and took on the white garb of the yogi and wandered into India south of Uddiyan. On Mount Malaya, he was assisted by three enlightenment women (dakini) disciples in transcribing the complete teachings of Dzogchen. The text was then left for safekeeping in a cave known as the “Dakini’s Source of Manifestation.”

He then departed for Bodh-gaya, site of Buddha’s enlightenment, with his mystic consort Lady Suryakirana. At Bodh-gaya they both settled at the cremation ground known as the “Cool Grove.” Here Pramodavajra essentially spent the rest of his life giving teachings. It was also here that he met his chief disciple, Manjusrimitra, to whom he passed on his lineage. Before his disincarnation, Pramodavajra left Manjusrimitra his final teaching, three brief lines which summarize the essence of Dzogchen:

Three Statements Pointing to Intrinsic Awareness

1. Direct introduction to one’s own nature.

2. Direct discrimination of that unique state.

3. Direct continuation with confidence in liberation.

Generally, the first statement means that a skilled teacher or guru must introduce you to the nature of your own mind, and that without the skilled presence of such a master you might not be able to see the nature of mind itself which is nothing that can be grasped and which is already self-enlightened. The second statement refers to developing skillful means in applying the practice of seeing the mind as intrinsic awareness and simultaneously experiencing everyday reality as no different than the nature of your own mind. The third statement refers to the effortless effort at maintaining this practice, knowing that liberation does not come from the ego but from divine grace.

This teaching was transmitted to Padmasambhava through Sri Simha. After a long and adventurous life which led him to Tibet, Padmasambhava transmitted all of his teachings including the Dzogchen to his consort and spiritual heir, the Princess of Karchen, Yeshe Tsogyal  It was Yeshe Tsogyal who then  transmitted the Dzogchen teachings as well as concealed the hidden teachings (terma) in numerous locations, both in Tibet and around the world. It is said that Padmasambhava  implanted into the “psychic continuum” of 108 especially great disciples the mystical keys for the revelation of all the hidden treasure texts. The finders of these texts are referred to as tertons.

The essence of Padmasambhava’s Dzogchen teaching is to be found in a terma, the “Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness,” a text of 28 stanzas. The tenth line to the fourth stanza reads, “Yet with respect to the real meaning, there are three statements that will introduce you to your own intrinsic awareness.” These are the three Statements of Pramodavajra listed above, but which are not explicit in Padmasambhava's text.

Suffice it that in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition, Dzogchen - the Great Perfection, Maha Ati - is considered the ninth and highest “vehicle” of the Buddhist teachings. In recent years its knowledge has flourished greatly, thanks to the popularizing efforts of lamas like Namkhai Norbu, Tulku Thondrup Rinpoche, or Gyatrul Rinpoche. Nowadays, you can even find specialized sections on Dzogchen in larger New Age bookstores.

For us the value of Dzogchen is that it is a perspective that greatly enhances meditation practice, that is Zen-style sitting meditation without an object. While the purpose of this form of meditation can be said to enable one to enter into a state of samadhi - a prolonged state of no concept in mind -the Dzogchen teaching is that the Absolute is already complete in itself. Enlightenment is the nature of intrinsic awareness and intrinsic awareness is the nature of your own mind. In some ways, the Zen teaching is no different, but in Zen there is more emphasis on the form of the practice, while Dzogchen the emphasis is on the enlightened view of doing the practice. Both go together.

However we presenting these teachings in the context of Closing the cycle and the coming of UR - the Universal Recollection - and not in the context of a Buddhist meditation hall or Zen monastery. The tendency in traditional Buddhist teachings, even Dzogchen, is that you don't have to worry about changing your karmic stream or the world - which maybe true in an absolute sense, but which may also tend to contribute to an apathetic or even cynical view about the world.

We are concerned with developing a kind of being who is engaged in the ongoing transformation of the world through the codes of the Law of Time, but who must know her or his own mind to be truly effective. The fact is that the world is changing -dramatically- and  that evolution is occurring. Global Warming is already changing the face of the earth. We must be ready for what is soon to come. The teachings of the Buddha or Pramodavajra are universal teachings. They cannot really be confined to particular traditions, but must be universalized, especially now at the Closing of the Cycle. We can be thankful for the purpose of tradition in having maintained these teachings in their purity until the present moment. But now we are going into the UR - a new evolutionary human is being evolved. That evolutionary human will not necessarily be a Buddhist monk, a Muslim Sufi, or a even a Hare Krishna - but as a universal noospheric chip, all of them and none.

In this context we seek to present the highest and the best of what has been transmitted through tradition, and to present it in its pure form, but without the trappings of tradition, so that it may be accessible to a greater number of humans in order that they might be brought up the evolutionary ladder with all due speed. The Closing of the Cycle is a time of enlightenment, and in the light of 2012, Dzogchen experienced as a Self-replicating Cosmology of Enlightenment Meditation may be of great usefulness, especially if we are to pursue a yogic discipline based on a transformation of self-and-world.

Seen in this way, we herein present a commentary to a six lined text found in the Tun Huang Caves of far Western China, and which is doubtless an early Dzogchen text. This translation and much of the information in the foregoing text comes from or is based on the efforts of lama Kunzang Palden Rinpoche.

Here, first, are the “Six Diamond Stanzas of the Cuckoo of Awareness, an Ornament for acquiring Realization.”

1. The intrinsic nature of diversity is non dual, since
2. Singularity is unintelligible, i.e. reality is irreducible and there is nothing you can ultimately say about it.
3. Facticity (that-which-is) is non-conceptual, since
4. the totality of created appearance is all-beneficent.
5. Already having abandoned the disease of striving,
6. just remain in effortless abiding.

While these six points could be elaborated on endlessly, it is far better to view them as points upon which to meditate. In essence, what this text  communicates is that all of reality in its diversity is inseparable from the mind that perceives, hence non duality. The root of all reality is One. Inseparable from the mind of the perceiver, the perceiver is also one with the root or ground of reality. Whatever one has to say about this reality is unintelligible in the sense that a rock is called a rock, but to itself the rock has no name. Names are merely a diversion of our mind. At the same time the totality of all that exists - the phenomenal world of appearances - is all-beneficent; it is not bad, it is not striking out to hurt or kill you or anything like that, but is actively manifesting as a basic, ever-changing goodness. You will find in it no ego or self, so therefore, there is no point in striving with your ego for anything. So abandoning ego-striving, remain in effortless abiding, which is the true nature of your self and mind. Then you will have insight, and divine grace, with waves of bliss, will give you your next message or script to follow.

The point is not to placidly accept what might be an ultimate relativity, but to realize a return of the Absolute. Non duality is absolute. And a monistic or monotheistic world view is Absolute. Evolution of the soul is absolute, and the transformation of matter is absolute. We need to see the nature of mind as an absolute truth of all-abiding awareness so we can embody this Absolute and become standard bearers of a new reality, one that redeems the present world order and is in line with the revelation of the Second Creation. In the new creation the degree to which we know our true selves, while our minds are realized in their essential nature as intrinsic awareness, that is the degree to which we are able to experience a creative transformation of our selves and our world. In this transformation we are the actual agents or embodiments of a divine command to evolve and transcend, reshaping our environment as we do so.

In the interest of assisting the embodiment of the Absolute, in the traditional commentary to the third point of the Tun Huang text - “Facticity (that-which-is) is non-conceptual” - there is a list of 20 categories of “Absolute that is already complete in itself.”  We here present this “already-ness” of the Absolute according to the Law of Time as a Self-replicating Cosmology of Enlightenment Meditation that utilizes the 0-19 code or 20 solar seals as a means of comprehending these enlightenment teachings in a new light. The value of seeing the Absolute as already complete is that it reorients our perceptions to the already existing perfection of the Second Creation.

Self-replicating Cosmology of Enlightenment Meditation 20 categories of the Absolute Already Complete in itself.

1. Dragon: The Compassion for sentient beings has “already been performed since the beginning.” Dragon nurtures compassion for all beings. 

2. Wind: The Mandala has “already been laid out since the beginning.” Wind communicates spirit, the essence of which is the mandala of the original cosmic order. 

3. Night: The Offering (puja) has “already been made since the beginning.” Night dreams abundance heaped up as the limitless offering to the Divine One. 

4. Seed: The Spiritual Conduct has “already been done since the beginning.” Seed targets the flowering of intrinsic awareness as the basis of  Spiritual Conduct. 

5. Serpent: The Dzogchen View has “already been realized.” Serpent manifests the view of cosmic life force as the self-realized instinct of original mind. 

6. Worldbridger: The Meditation has “already been developed.” World-bridger equalizes perception of self and other into the meditation that need not be created. 

7. Hand: The Covenant has “already been kept.” Hand accomplishes the self-existing covenant binding all knowledge for the healing of the World Soul.  

8. Star: The Spiritual Practice (sadhana) has “already been accomplished.” Star Beautifies the spiritual practice as the Elegance of Enlightenment. 

9. Moon: The Attainment (siddhi) has “already been acquired.” Moon purifies the universal water of all the siddhis placing them in the flow of all mind-streams. 

10. Dog: The twofold Accumulation of Merit has “already been completed.” Dog shares love universally as the accumulation of merit, both for himself and for all beings. 

11. Monkey: The Attainment (siddhi) has “already been granted.” Monkey’s magic is in your being as all of the siddhis ready to dispel lower illusion whenever necessary. 

12. Human: The highest Degree (bhumi) has “already been ascended to.” Human, uplifted to the highest Degree, dispenses wisdom impartially from atop the ladder of free will. 

13. Skywalker: The Empowerment (abisheka) has “already been received.” Skywalker explores space as the empowerment of all-abiding wakefulness. 

14. Wizard: The Obscuration has “already been cleared.” Wizard, enchanted by timelessness, is incapable of being obscured by anything. 

15. Eagle: The Mahamudra (Great Symbol) meditation has “already been accomplished.” Eagle sees all reality as a sign of enlightenment. 

16. Warrior: The Mantra has “already been recited.” Warrior’s intelligence is in the sacred syllables that are recited through him. 

17. Earth: The Union-Practice has “already been done.” Earth, the indivisibility of all-evolving time and consciousness, is the Synchronicity (union-practice) of knower and known. 

18. Mirror: The Distraction has “already been overcome.” Mirror reflects reality perfectly without distortion or distraction. 

19. Storm: The Sign of Success has “already appeared.” Storm catalyzing energy is the success of the field needing the rain. 

20. Sun: The Heat of meditation “has already been generated.” Sun enlightens life as the universal fire of self-generating meditation. 

Since the 20 solar seals repeat continuously thirteen times every 260 day cycle ad infinitum, to follow this practice on a daily basis is to participate in a self-replicating cosmology of enlightenment meditation. The practice has already been perfected, but without practice you will not know that.

The foregoing text has been presented for the benefit of all beings at the Closing of the Cycle. It is one of a series of documents dealing with the nature of mind and consciousness which constitutes ongoing research of the Noosphere II Project of the Galactic Research Institute of the Foundation for the Law of Time.

Many thanks to lama Kunzang Palden Rinpoche of Santa Cruz, for his Texts, The Golden Tradition, A History of the ancient Lineage of the masters of Wisdom, the Holders of the Supreme Yoga Tradition, in Continuous Succession from the Seventh Century down to the Present (1995), and for his translation and commentary of the Cuckoo of Awareness, an ornament for Acquiring Realization known as the Six Diamond Stanzas.

Galactic Research Institute
Self-existing Owl Moon of Form, Alpha 5, Kin 87, Blue Solar Hand
Blue Crystal Storm Year