Monlam Pavillion, Bodhgaya
February 3, 2025
On the second day, Rinpoche offered instruction on Pointing Out the Three Kāyas along with a masterfully guided meditation. Due to Rinpoche's largesse, thousands of people got a rare opportunity to not only receive the instructions but also have a glimpse of an intimate understanding of yogic training.
Introduction and Synopsis of the Previous Session
With a request to rouse bodhicitta, Rinpoche reminded the participants of the reason for listening to the Dharma - the wish to bring all our mothers, the sentient beings throughout space, to the state of completely perfect buddhahood.
From the time of Marpa the translator, the Kagyü lineages (the four elder and eight younger) have spread widely throughout the land of Tibet. While all these lineages taught Mahāmudrā, the particular manner of delivery has been somewhat diverse. Among all these teachings, within our lineage of Karma Kagyü, the Gyalwang Karmapa had an extraordinary and superior way of teaching. This is the teaching on Pointing Out the Three Kāyas.
Gyaltsab Rinpoche then gave an abstract of yesterday's teaching on this text when he spoke about the four points, the "Wheel of Dharmatā."
The structure of the text is threefold:
• The four preliminary dharmas for individuals with lesser minds
• The four points, the “Wheel of Dharmatā”, for individuals of medium acumen
• The instantaneous (due to pointing out) mahāmudrā pith instructions on pointing out the three kāyas.
The First Point – Posture
The first of the four points, the “Wheel of Dharmatā”, for individuals of medium acumen is the instruction on body posture, depicted in the previous session.
The Second Point – Devotion
The principal of the four points is the point of devotion and supplicating the guru. If we do not supplicate the guru well and our devotion is feeble, then the practice won't work, it won't arise in our being. Or, supposing we manage to develop some practice, we will not be able to bring it to completion. Therefore, the crux of our practice is having devotion for the guru and supplicating him.
The practice of guru yoga develops such devotion, and the Four Session Guru Yoga by the Eighth Karmapa, Mikyö Dorje is particularly helpful. A historical event illustrates this:
During the time of the Sixth and Seventh Karmapas, there were indeed very many great meditators in the Kagyu tradition. But then came a time when their numbers began to grow smaller. When the Gyalwang Karmapa Mikyö Dorje wrote the Four Session Guru Yoga and people took up this practice, it brought about a revival and the number of great meditators magnified. Many people were able to develop the practice within their being. This testifies to the momentous value of this practice.
There is another excellent practice for this purpose, a short guru yoga composed by Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche called "Continuous Rain of Nectar that Nurtures the Sprouting of the Four Kāyas: A Guru Yoga of the Sixteenth Lord, Rigpe Dorje." The term "four kāyas" in its title is another designation for the term "three kāyas" and covers the same meaning as Pointing Out the Three Kāyas. Thus, combining the understanding of these two practices brings great benefit. Once more, Rinpoche underlined the high relevance of this point on devotion.
Further, the manner of teaching itself within the passage on the four points, the "Wheel of Dharmatā," is also pointing out the three kāyas albeit not so explicitly.
The Third Point – Winds (Skt: prāṇāyāma)
It is through meditating on the winds that we are able to achieve the saṃbhogakāya. When the winds have been purified, they become the saṃbhogakāya. This is taught in all tantras of the Secret Mantra Vajrayana and it is a way of manifesting the saṃbhogakāya within your being.
As the functions of the impure winds weaken, the functions of the pure winds can become more evident. The function of the pure wisdom winds is actually the same as the buddha nature naturally present within all sentient beings.
The Fourth Point – Exercise, Physical Training
Here, you are advised to sit up straight, with your feet crossed in the vajra posture. The upper part of your body is straight, chin slightly tucked.
As taught in all tantras of the Secret Mantra, within your body there exists the central channel (Skt: avadhūti). This channel is essentially buddha nature.
When you sit up straight, the nature of the mind becomes evident, clear. Along with that, its function—faith, compassion, prajñā, and a myriad of virtuous minds —can become manifest.
During our impure phase, it happens that our minds are disturbed by the afflictions. In such instances, each of these afflictions has a particular physical expression.
For example, when we feel hatred, there is a particular expression evident in our body. When we feel desire - there is a different expression in our body that reflects it. Similarly, when we feel pride - there is a particular expression of it in the body. This is not something we need to learn or train in. It simply happens naturally due to imprints from beginningless time.
In the same fashion, when we are doing the things that are the function of buddha nature - such as feeling faith for the Buddha and Dharma - there is a particular physical expression accompanying that. When we are doing something virtuous and being generous - there is a particular physical expression that goes with that. When we have given up the afflictions and are practicing discipline - there is another particular expression that goes along with that.
Thus, following our mind, there is an expression of our body, and that, in turn, produces virtuous mind states.
In one way or another, the body comes down to the mind. When you are resting relaxed and loosely, without altering your mind, then the body connately rests and just naturally comes to settle. When the mind is dwelling in the body, there are various occurences inside the subtle channels and so forth.
There are some great meditators from Burma whom scientists have examined during meditation using electrocardiograms. The electrocardiograms clearly register a difference in the pattern in their heartbeats. The pattern of the waves of the heartbeats is different when they are meditating. This is widely accepted knowledge.
In this way, the points of the bodily posture are ways to point out the saṃbhogakāya and the nirmāṇakāya. At the same time, there is the way the mind rests, and that is a method to point out the dharmakāya. This is a manner of teaching the pointing out of all three kāyas, except that here, it is taught concisely and implicitly rather than explicitly.
Tummo
The topic of the following passage is the basis for all four points, and that is the practice of tummo. As Rinpoche explained on the previous day, it is a function of the nature of the mind, a function of buddha nature. It is not a function of an impure mind.
Rinpoche elucidated with an esoteric but clear metaphor:
Now, impure fire, in an impure state, burns wood, grass, fuel, and so, it transforms them. But that is the function of an impure wind. When the wind is the pure wisdom wind, it burns up all of the impure afflictions, and so, it purifies them. This is the function of the pure wind.
The impure wind burns and exhausts the fuel, but the pure wind burns away the afflictions. This is because the nature of the pure wind is the buddha nature. As it burns all the afflictions, it purifies and cleanses all of the impurities and obstacles in the channels and winds.
So, when our bodies come into contact with impure fire, they are burned or scorched, and it hurts. But the pure wisdom fire doesn't cause any suffering. In fact, it brings bliss. This is because it is an expression of buddha nature. It allows us to feel the bliss of the buddha nature, the naturally present wisdom.
In Tibet, the greatest at the practice of tummo was Lord Milarepa. Through showing the signs of accomplishment in tummo practice, he was actually able to melt glaciers and ice on mountains. Furthermore, there is a story that the First Karmapa, Düsum Khyenpa, was able to melt rock through the heat of his tummo practice.
This passage clearly states that you should visualize yourself as Vajravārāhī. Apart from Vajravārāhī, other yidam deities, like Gyalwa Gyatso (Skt: Jinasāgara) or Hevajra or any other, are all the same in being pure bodies. They are the same as Vajravārāhī. It is implicit in this text that visualising yourself as another deity such as Hevajra, Gyalwa Gyatso or Vajrapāṇi is also valid.
With this, Drung Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche concluded his synopsis of the previous teaching session and moved on to the second part where the three kāyas are pointed out very explicitly and very clearly.
The Instruction on Pointing Out the Three Kāyas
The Bhagavan Buddha taught in the tantras that all appearances are the nature of the three kāyas.
The agency of three realms
In the Abhidharma the world is explained by means of three realms:
• The formless realm, where there isn't even any form.
• The form realm where forms do exist where the gods of the form realm abide.
• The desire realm where we have the form, sounds, scents, tastes, touches and so forth that we get attached to and fixated on. For that reason, this is the desire realm.
All of the three realms are, in fact, confused appearances. When the impure is purified into its pure nature, then:
• The formless realm is the dharmakāya.
• The form realm is the saṃbhogakāya.
• The desire realm is the nirmāṇakāya.
The agency of stages of life and death
As is the case with our human body or with an animal body, from the time of birth through growing up, getting older and older, until that body is finished, you engage in various worldly activities. When that is in its pure form it is the nirmāṇakāya - from birth until the time of death. The period of the bardo is the saṃbhogakāya, and the moment of death is the dharmakāya. At that time there is no body, the mind has temporarily ceased functioning, and you faint into blackness.
The agency of stages of wakefulness and dream
Our waking period is the nirmāṇakāya, the dream state is the saṃbhogakāya and the deep dreamless state of sleep is the dharmakāya.
There are numerous renditions of the three kāyas, various profound elucidations of various levels of which we really shouldn't speak in public.
Pointing Out the Three Kāyas - Introduction
When we practice the Dharma, we're certainly not creating the three kāyas anew. Instead it's pointing out the nature of the impure as being the three kāyas. So it's pointing out or showing.
When the perfect Buddha taught the true Dharma, he taught the three kāyas in manifold ways, at times pointing them out in a very distant manner and other times he pointed them out as if they're very close, in very direct ways. The great many distinct methods he employed really depended upon the mental faculties of disciples - some people are able to see things which are far, and some are able to see things that are near more easily. The method really needs to be paired with the capabilities of the disciples owing to the fact that pointing out the three kāyas to the people who don't recognize it can take a dangerous turn.
Rinpoche shared a story:
There was a demon called Matamuta who actually received the instructions but didn't realize them. Not having understood them, he developed many misconceptions. He followed a guru from whom he received the instructions but not having comprehended them (he must have not had the proper fortune to do so), his afflictions actually grew stronger. Instead of decreasing, his afflictions increased. This led to him transforming into a terrible demon able to gain control over all the gods and demons. He gained power over the entire world and caused many difficulties, and no one was able to overcome him. This happened due to his inability to realize the instructions.
But still, there are people who have the right fortune and it's fine to teach these instructions directly to them because they'll recognize it and won't develop wrong views. These are the people with enough merit.
There are stories told in the namthars of Gampopa and the 2nd Karmapa, KarmaPakshi about a person from a kind of wasteland – a desert region between Tibet and China. He didn't have any qualities or education, he was in fact illiterate. Nevertheless, when he was given the instructions on pointing out the nature of the mind, he was able to meditate on them and became a great meditator. This means that, on the worldly level, they had no merit. And yet, on the Dharma level, they had the merit in terms of recognizing the nature of mind, even though it was not evident in worldly terms.
Contrastingly, some people have plenty of qualities, a lot of education in various fields of knowledge but they're not able to realize or know the nature of how things are. That shows that, externally, their merit is vast, but in terms of recognizing the nature of the mind, they lack the merit.
We can witness it within our Kagyu lineage. In general, this is a time of degeneration, a time when people's lifespans are shorter, when there are more illnesses, more difficulties and more afflictions. In many ways, this is truly a very poor time to be born. Nonetheless, there are people who, though not born in a more fortunate age, have been able to receive instructions, recognize the nature of the mind and become siddhas - and quite a few, at that.
Pointing Out the Nirmāṇakāya - Instruction
It is a common practice to teach the dharmakāya first and then point out the two form kāyas. But here, the rationale is that, since the three kāyas are naturally present from the very beginning, they are taught alongside each other, introducing the two form kāyas, nirmāṇakāya and saṃbhogakāya, first, followed by the introduction to dharmakāya.
The text dictates sitting in the same physical posture as taught above in the four points, the 'Wheel of Dharmatā’, and visualize yourself as the Bhagavan Śākyamuni, golden in colour on a lotus and moon seat.
Now, the first step is to meditate on the breaths and winds (though this is taught later in the text, we should do it in the beginning as well). There are many distinct degrees of breath meditation. There is the great breath and the lesser breath. Meditating on the greater breath can be somewhat dangerously counterproductive, so Rinpoche would not teach it in a large public setting. Instead, meditate on the gentle, very subtle winds and rest in equipoise within that, as was described in the previous session.
The text further depicts yourself as the perfect Buddha adorned with the marks and signs. Note that the perfect Buddhas are rather different from ordinary people. Their eyes, faces, arms, teeth and so forth are all different to a certain extent. If you can, you should visualize yourself in the form commonly taught in the texts.
The Buddha's body always has an aura of light and miraculous powers. Accordingly, while meditating on yourself clearly in the aforementioned way, from the mandala of this body emanate 1002 buddhas and innumerable other nirmāṇakāyas in forms of light. Other texts explain further that these emanations go out and teach Dharma to other sentient beings. They perform the 12 deeds of the Buddha leading sentient beings to achieve the results. Thus all sentient beings become buddhas. The entire universe and all of its inhabitants in entirety become nirmāṇakāya buddhas.
At this time, hold a gentle breath and breathe in and out gently and evenly, clearly seeing that you are the nirmāṇakāya Buddha Śākyamuni (though the text does not mention it overtly).
While visualizing that, you practice the prāṇāyāma, the point of the breath. While inhaling, you imagine that the consciousnesses of all sentient beings become nirmāṇakāya Śākyamuni Buddhas who all gather and dissolve into you through your nostrils and through all the pores in your body.
Rest in samādhi, meditating with your awareness directed towards the center of your navel. The sentient beings who have become nirmāṇakāya Śākyamunis gradually all come to you and dissolve into you like falling rain. Rest in equipoise. Stabilise it, never without inseparable emptiness and compassion. There is compassion, but it cannot be established as something, as existent. So, it is emptiness. Within that inseparable emptiness and compassion, you can bring benefit to sentient beings.
Now, they all dissolve into the central channel which is, by its nature, buddha nature. As you exhale, you imagine that all sentient beings become the nirmāṇakāya Śākyamuni and when you inhale, their consciousnesses are all gathered and dissolve into you, their physical forms falling upon you like snow. Rest while directing your awareness to your navel. Meditate like this repeatedly, many times.
The text explains that this meditation will lead you to realize all appearances are the nirmāṇakāya. By realising this, you will arise as a billion nirmāṇakāyas capable of benefiting beings.
While this text mentions yourself only as the nirmāṇakāya Śākyamuni, other instructions on pointing out the three kāyas, such as the one by the Seventh Karmapa, state that you may visualize yourself as the nirmāṇakāya Avalokiteśvara, white in colour, or as the nirmāṇakāya Gyalwa Gyatso, red in color. In this case, when you breathe out, you also emanate Avalokiteśvaras to teach Dharma to infinite sentient beings who are then brought to the state of Avalokiteśvara. As you breathe in, they all dissolve into you like snow, like falling rain, and then they dissolve into your central channel, becoming inseparable from it.
The text further instructs, as is taught in all teachings of the Secret Mantra, that your own five aggregates, eighteen elements, twelve sense bases and so forth, have all been nirmāṇakāyas from the very beginning, by nature. Because of this and through meditating on this, when you achieve stability, you will arise as a nirmāṇakāya. From a single body, you will be able to emanate manifold nirmāṇakāyas who will benefit sentient beings.
To paraphrase a quote from the Guhyasamāja-tantra:
In summary, the five aggregates are the five Buddhas. The sense bases, elements, faculties and so on are all different bodhisattvas, such as Mañjuśrī, Avalokiteśvara and so forth. They are the supreme retinue of the bodhisattvas.
There is another method. As you inhale the air (in whichever manner is fine), think that it brings all the blessings of all of the buddhas of all the realms. There are innumerable perfect buddhas. There are innumerable nirmāṇakāyas in the impure realms. There are countless saṃbhogakāyas in the pure realms. There are countless nirmāṇakāyas in the pure realms. All these blessings dissolve into you and all sentient beings, who have become the form and the nature of nirmāṇakāyas, also gather and dissolve into you.
In this way, not only do you receive the blessings of the buddhas, but due to the power of this, all beings of the six realms become nirmāṇakāyas as well and are also gathered into you.
An alternative method of performing this meditation is to visualise each of the six realms of sentient beings separately: with one breath, all the hell beings become nirmāṇakāyas, with another breath all the hungry ghosts become nirmāṇakāyas, with the following breath, all animals become nirmāṇakāyas, with another breath, all humans become nirmāṇakāyas and with the next breath, all gods become nirmāṇakāyas.
Another way of meditating (explained in other instructionl manuals ) is that as you exhale, all of the misdeeds and obscurations in your mind, all dualism, all confusion, impurities and faults within the winds and channels are expelled, and channels purified. Your entire body comes to be utterly pristine.
When Marpa the translator was receiving these instructions from Naropa, he imparted his words in songs. It is a form of pith instruction.
In the lower house of Pullahari, nirmāṇakāyas fell in an unimpeded rain.
Pullahari is the place where Naropa lived and the lower house is the temple or shrine hall at Pullahari where nirmāṇakāyas fell in an unimpeded rain. As he breathed out, all sentient beings became buddhas. As he breathed in, they all gathered falling like rain. He did so over and over again. This is the way Karma-Pakshi explained these two lines.
It is taught in the tantras that there is a connection between the external universe and the internal body. The central channel within the body is actually Bodh Gaya within our body. It is the indivisible mind and Buddha nature. Since Bodh Gaya is within our body and all other sacred sites stem from it, then all of the other sacred sites are also within our body. All of the sacred sites in Tibet, in India and in other foreign countries - all of them are inside our body. Thus, the phrase 'in the lower house of Pullahari' refers to the navel and the navel is the source of the nirmāṇakāya.
Now, we are incredibly fortunate, Drung Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche said joyously, we have a great deal of merit seeing that, in the external world, we are at the sacred site of Bodh Gaya and in the internal world, we are also at the sacred site of Bodh Gaya. We should recognize this great merit of ours.
Pointing Out the Nirmāṇakāya - Guided Practice
What follows is the guided yogic practice. Rinpoche led the practitioners in a long session of in-depth meditation. He rationalised this somewhat unusual structure of the lesson by saying that Pointing Out the Three Kāyas is not a teaching for study but for practice, meditation. Before anything else, he reminded everyone once again of the incredible merit of having Bodh Gaya within, while standing at this sacred site of Bodh Gaya externally. Not many people know this.
Rinpoche began with the instruction to meditate on your body as the nirmāṇakāya Śākyamuni Buddha or as Avalokiteśvara, according to your preference.
Imagine that your body shines, radiating light of various colours. Then, innumerable buddhas emanate from your body which go to all the multitudes of realms. For each of the different universes, there is a buddha who goes there and benefits countless sentient beings, bringing each of them to the state of buddhahood. They become either Śākyamuni Buddhas or Avalokiteśvaras and then their consciousnesses are all gathered back into you, dissolving into you through your nostrils. When they enter you, they go into your central channel, the avadhūti, descending lower to the navel. Focus your attention at the navel. This is an important point because the navel is the site of nirmāṇakāya.
Now, visualise that the body, speech, and mind of all sentient beings become the nirmāṇakāyas and gather into you as you inhale. Imagine that, as you inhale, all the buddhas of the ten directions gather into you and dissolve into your central channel. Then you direct the meditating mind to the navel. This is an important point.
Now imagine that all appearances become the nirmāṇakāya and direct your attention towards them.
As you breathe out, emanate innumerable Śākyamunis who go out and all sentient beings become Śākyamunis. As you breathe in, they dissolve into you. We will meditate in this way three times.
Next, as you inhale, imagine that all the buddhas in the form of kāyas and light dissolve into you.
Now meditate that as you breathe out, all your misdeeds and obscurations are expelled through your body, through your nostrils and through all your pores, and that your body becomes the pure body of a buddha.
Visualizing again yourself as either Śākyamuni or Avalokiteśvara, imagine that, as you exhale, you issue forth many emanations that teach innumerable sentient beings. Immediately upon being taught, they, too, become either nirmāṇakāya Śākyamunis or Avalokiteśvaras.
As you inhale, the consciousnesses of all sentient beings in the form of the nirmāṇakāya Śākyamuni are gathered into you. All sentient beings’ body, speech, and mind become nirmāṇakāyas in their entirety and gather back into you.
Next, as you inhale, think that all the blessings of the buddhas are gathered into you.
As you exhale, all your misdeeds and obscurations are expelled through your nostrils and pores and you become a completely pure nirmāṇakāya.
Pointing Out the Saṃbhogakāya - Instruction
Start with the points of the body and rousing bodhicitta. In this text, on the lotus and the sun and moon discs, above the crown of your head is Avalokiteśvara but the Seventh Karmapa’s text states that you meditate on yourself as Avalokiteśvara. Either way is suitable.
Avalokiteśvara, the Bhagavan Great Compassion, has one face and four arms, white in colour. His first two hands are joined at his heart while his lower right holds a pearl mala and the lower left a lotus. He sits with his legs crossed in vajra posture.
Alternatively, you may visualize Gyalwa Gyatso instead, red in colour, holding the mala and vajra and so forth. He sits with his legs crossed.
Visualise this in a flash as you inhale like described previously on the point of breath.
As you exhale, you emanate innumerable Avalokiteśvaras who go to strike all sentient beings, bringing them all to the form of a saṃbhogakāya.
Further, as you inhale, imagine that the body, speech and mind of all sentient beings become saṃbhogakāyas who come and dissolve into your body through your nostrils and you become a saṃbhogakāya.
As the light radiates out, it strikes all sentient beings and they all become the Buddha of Great Compassion, Avalokiteśvara.
The text affirms that, by meditating like this, you realize that all phenomena are the saṃbhogakāya and you will also develop innumerable qualities.
Now please do this meditation with yourself as the saṃbhogakāya and as you inhale, all sentient beings, in the form of saṃbhogakāyas, are inhaled and dissolving into you.
As you exhale, all sentient beings are transformed into Avalokiteśvara.
As you inhale, all sentient beings in the form of Avalokiteśvara gather and dissolve into your body.
As you exhale, all sentient beings are immediately established on the level of a saṃbhogakāya.
It is stated that, meditating in this way, with yourself as saṃbhogakāya, you will be able to see the hosts of saṃbhogakāyas and you yourself as saṃbhogakāya will become able to benefit beings.
We should meditate like this repeatedly and over and over, with inconceivable diligence.
Thus far in the text, the instructions were directed to those of middling and lowest capacity. Among those of the highest faculties, there are also gradations of middling and lowest. This is aimed at accomplishing the two form kāyas.
While the section on nirmāṇakāya instructs to direct your attention towards the navel, the instruction on saṃbhogakāya implies that you should direct your attention towards the throat centre because the throat is where the saṃbhogakāya originates.
In the middle house of Pullahari, the saṃbhogakāya was shown through signs.
Naropa’s instructions to Marpa were given in symbolic form. Just as the earlier mention of the “lower house” referred to the navel as the site of nirmāṇakāya, the term “middle house” implies the throat (it is in the middle between the head and the body) which is the site of the saṃbhogakāya.
Pointing Out the Dharmakāya - Instruction
In general, the core of all instructions on practicing the essence of Dharma is the point of pointing out the dharmakāya. This is the culmination, the ultimate Dharma practice.
The text distinguishes two aspects. The first is recognising that all appearances are the dharmakāya and the second is resting within it, unaltered, without changing it. This is crucial since merely having it pointed out is not enough, rather, you need to be able to rest in it without altering it. Thus, meditating like this repeatedly, many times, bringing them to perfection, you will awaken in a single instant. This, too, is an important point.
This is, in effect, a general meditation on all Dharma, because both saṃbhogakāya and nirmāṇakāya are dharmakāya by nature. Therefore, they are included and complete within the dharmakāya.
It should be understood that there is no referential practice included in this. There is no meditation on a form kāya, no lights or anything akin to that. Instead, the meditation on dharmakāya is non-referential.
Pointing Out the Dharmakāya, First Part - Pointing Out and Recognising
What follows are the liberating instructions for those of the highest acumen - pointing at the dharmakāya, it is meditation on the dharmakāya.
In general, it is taught that the dharmakāya is not this, not not this, and cannot be shown.
You basically can't say: "Oh, the dharmakāya is here, the dharmakāya is there." "This is the dharmakāya, this is not the dharmakāya." Dharmakāya cannot be shown or be spoken of. Tilopa said:
Mahāmudrā cannot be shown. Just as what would space rest on?
Mahāmudrā is not something we can show, we can’t talk about it. It is like space. Space doesn't dwell on anything. It doesn't rest on anything. You can't say that there is anything it rests on.
Equally, there is nothing your mind, mahāmudrā, can rest on.
Likewise, within our own mind, mahāmudrā, we can't say: "This is it. It is over here. It is like this." There is no way for us to express it in words.
Nonetheless, there exist manifold pointing out instructions on mahāmudrā. There are many big tomes, large volumes of texts teaching about pointing out the mahāmudrā. So, what are they?
While mahāmudrā cannot be taught or shown, it is itself hidden by all the obscurations. The instructions are to remove, destroy the obscurations.
The mind, the nature of mind itself, dwells within all the obscurations. As the obscurations are destroyed, the mind is released. Liberated. Thereby, the Dharma teachings and all the empowerments are directed towards destroying the obscurations. It is because the nature of mind dwells within them.
At first, we don't know, we don't recognise the mind. We receive teachings, we listen to them, we understand them. We think that we don't quite understand them. We don't quite get it. Then we get more and more instructions. And then, there is a certain point, one point when you get it. You feel like, ah, you recognize it. And when you do, that destroys some unknowing, some ignorance. We say: this is recognising. Because of that, you destroy the obscuration. You know something. That is how you recognise the nature of mind.
Relax and rest in the unaltered basic nature.
When, by this recognising, obscurations are destroyed, you just rest in the basic nature as it is. Resting in that without altering it is what we call by the name of “recognizing it”.
However, this is still merely a relative manner of pointing it out. These are just relative instructions on pointing it out. The dharmakāya is a phenomenon that does not come from anywhere. There is no place from which it comes. It does not go anywhere. There is no place where it goes. It is not conditioned. It doesn't depend on any phenomena. It just is from the very beginning. Always spontaneously present. It is just naturally there from the very beginning. For that reason, it is compared to space.
Space has no edges. It has no limits. It has no centre. It doesn't rest on anything. It isn't supported by anything. Because of this, it is an unchanging phenomenon. There is no distinction within it. It doesn't become better. It doesn't get worse. It doesn't change. It's unchanging. And that is called the dharmakāya.
In the words of Tilopa:
Just as when you look in the center of space, seeing stops,
When you keep looking in space, you look and you look and you look, and you can't see anything else. There is nothing you can see there. So, seeing stops.
Equally, when the mind looks at mind,
thoughts cease, and unexcelled awakening is achieved.
When the mind looks at mind, the thought process ceases. When the thought ceases, then you need to rest in the nature of mind as it is.
The thought ceasing on its own - that doesn’t help. The mere cessation of thoughts does not necessarily mean you are resting in the nature. You might be asleep, for example. When you sleep, thoughts cease but you're still obscured and so you're not resting within the nature. When the mind looks at mind and thoughts cease, then you rest in the unaltered nature. At that point, the unexcelled awakening is achieved.
This means that you find the state of awakening, the great awakened state, the ultimate awakened state. You can understand it in that way - as achieving the state of perfect buddhahood. There are many ways this can be understood.
The intent of this is that you should meditate in an isolated mountain retreat.
This can refer to staying in a remote, solitary place, but it can also mean internally, inside your body, just like Bodh Gaya exists inside your own body.
Without your mind wandering anywhere, meditate by letting it rest on any support to hold a focus.
Choose a point of support and rest your body in any place since the “isolated place” could be understood as the place of the nirmāṇakāya at the navel, or the place of saṃbhogakāya in the throat. You can direct your attention there.
And then, you can let your mind rest on any support to hold a focus. That can be a yidam deity, a Buddha statue or even your own thoughts could be the point of focus.
When the awareness merely rests without wandering anywhere
This means that you don't let your mind wander to anything impure or confused. Instead, just let your mind rest. You can't stop the thoughts. You don't need to stop the thoughts. You just let it rest. Instead of wandering off to what is impure or confused - just rest in the purity.
look in the expanse of space and an understanding that all phenomena are empty will arise.
This instruction is rather formulated as an analogy. When you're looking at space, there's nothing to look at. In the same way, when you're looking at the nature of mind, you see that you're looking at the empty and infinite nature of all phenomena.
When you realize this, rest evenly without your awareness wandering in a clear and vivid state.
The nature is clear and vivid. Thus, the nature of thoughts, the essence of thoughts, is clear and vivid. For that reason, you do not need to stop thoughts. You do not need to block them. When a thought arises, direct your awareness towards its essence and rest in the clear and vivid essence. You needn’t block thoughts but simply direct your awareness at the essence and rest in that. Please meditate on this for a few moments.
Through meditating like this, awareness would arise that all phenomena are the mind itself. At that time, rest in the nature where even the mind itself is not observed. As you rest there, you can't even find a meditator or any essence of the mind. This is what great Kagyu mahāsiddhas have said. They said that the experience of there being no meditator arose. So now meditate like this for a few moments.
With regard to the two-fold instructions on pointing out the dharmakāya and resting in it without altering it, thus far Gyaltsab Rinpoche has been teaching on the first part - the instructions on pointing it out. Meditate on this for a few moments.
Pointing Out the Dharmakāya, Second Part – Resting the Mind Without Altering It
This teaches the point of the mind resting unaltered. Regarding that, ultimately, what is called the unaltered mind is also called mahāmudrā. The Buddha taught this in the sutras and tantras.
In mahāmudrā, form, sound, scent, taste, touch, phenomena and so forth are all present in the expanse of mahāmudrā because there's nowhere else they could be. They are there, within the essence. However, they're there - but they cannot be established. They do not truly exist.
Hevajra-tantra explains it thus:
By essence, there is no form, no seer.
There is no sound, no hearer either.
There is no scent, no smeller, either.
There is no taste, no taster, either.
There is no touch, no one who touches.
There is no mind, no mental factors. [no thoughts that emanate from the mind]
This is resting in the unaltered nature of mahāmudrā.
Similarly, it is not that it has always been nothing,
It’s not that it's nothing or non-existent. It can appear. It does appear. But that appearance is not something. It does not truly exist as something. It does not not exist as something.
Within the nature of things, everything can appear. The mere appearances can occur. But, it's not as if it's sometimes existent and sometimes non-existent, or sometimes nothing and sometimes something
It's not that it exists as something nor is it non-existent as nothing. It is something that is empty, beyond all extremes.
The appearances in the empty expanse, they are not something. They're not existent. They're not nothing or non-existent. They're not outside. They're not inside. They aren't anywhere at all. They are something empty that is beyond all extremes.
In the Summary Verses, it reads:
It is a dharma that is neither existent nor non-existent. It is not an existent dharma that exists, nor is it a non-existent dharma. It is not both or neither of these. For this reason, in mahāmudrā, there's nothing there. There's nothing there at all. There's nothing to be meditated on. Since there is nothing to meditate on, all you can do is just rest in the nature without altering or changing anything. Thus, it cannot be negated and it cannot be established. Mahāmudrā is not something that needs to be negated. It's not something that needs to be established. The only thing you can do is just to rest in it without altering it.
The Summary Verses also states:
That which is not existent is called non-existent.
You can't say that mahāmudrā is existent, but you can't say it's non-existent either. You can't say that this is it, it exists. You can't say it's not, it doesn't exist. Instead, you just have to rest in the unaltered nature as it is.
“Meditation” can't be established. A “meditator” can't be established. “Deities” cannot be established, and the mantras connected with them cannot be established either.
You cannot say that deities, such as Vajrapāṇi, Mañjuśrī or Avalokiteśvara, exist. It's not that they exist, it's not that they don't exist.
Similarly, the mantras are just interdependent connections. In the essence, they do not really exist. They're just interdependent. And since they're interdependent, reciting them, of course, does have some benefit, but they don't exist, they can’t be established as anything. So, you can’t establish them as something. Simply let them rest within the nature of mahāmudrā. There's nothing else that can be done. You just rest. Not in any of the extremes, but evenly, in the nature as it is.
The Hevajra-tantra says:
No meditation and no meditator.
There is no deity and no mantra either.
This is also taught in the tantras. These are the stages of practicing the infinite realisation of mahāmudrā, self-arisen wisdom. Whatever thought occurs, there's nothing to do. Without altering, you just rest in the nature. Whatever external appearance occurs; there's nothing to do. Rest without altering it in the nature.
These are the stages of practicing this infinite realization written by the 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje. The Lord of Dharma, Rangjung Dorje wrote these pith instructions in the 4th month of the monkey year.
It concludes with the word "virtue." Here, it refers to the particular virtue specifically within this context - the virtue of bringing all sentient beings to the three kāyas.
I received these pith instructions from the Sixteenth Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, while we were staying at the old Rumtek Monastery which was built by the Tenth Karmapa in the 16th century. Whenever he was reciting prayers or teaching, His Holiness would say that the mind is the three kāyas, appearances are the three kāyas. I heard him say these words over and over again. In this way, I received these instructions many times from him.
So, as the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa asked, I have now completed a short explanation of the Pointing Out the Three Kāyas,
Rinpoche concluded this profound teaching with these words and a prayer.
