Song of Experiential Certainty

Song of Experiential Certainty

by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Aho! In the vast city of existence
The child of mind became drunk on delusion.
After wandering along many winding paths
It arrived at the plains of great bliss.
For it is there that the heroic king of awareness resides.
He bestows the jewel of dharmakāya liberation in the ground,
Which is not separate from him even though it appears so.
This is not to be found externally but dwells within oneself.
In the past the veil of unknowing kept me in confusion.
But now the sun of naturally occurring awareness has risen;
The knots of the eight consciousnesses have been undone.
There is no searching as to where they have gone,
Since the state of primordial freedom has been reached.
Any thought of wishing to meditate is now cast aside.
This awareness extends throughout boundless space.
Appearances settle as they are, free and unrestrained.
Appearances and mind merge as one in non-duality.
There's no necessity for mindfulness to stand guard.
All cognitive veils, such as talk of fixating and relaxing,
Have simply faded away within basic space.
And the dharmakāya that is and always has been pure
Pervades the whole of appearance and existence.
This pervasion is instantaneous, total within the vast expanse,
Perfect within the great, all-encompassing sphere of clear light.
The presence of the three buddha-bodies is stark,
Beyond deliberate focus or notions of concreteness,
Free from the extremes of singularity and multiplicity,
Perfect within the great inner space of the three kāyas.
This is seen with the eyes of insightful knowledge,
In which knowing is not separate from what is known.

In the state that is indwelling yet not dull—Hūṃ!
In great self-luminous, primordial wisdom—Āḥ!
In great self-manifest, outward radiance—Oṃ!

This song that is an expression of realization,
Empty sound played upon the instrument of the throat,
Is offered by the crazy child Yeshe Dorje
As a gift to delight the guru of his own awareness.

Through the virtue of this may saṃsāra be emptied from its very depths!

On the seventh day of the tenth month of the Water Snake year.

| Translated by Adam Pearcey with the kind assistance of Alak Zenkar Rinpoche and with the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation and Tertön Sogyal Trust, 2020.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros. "rang nyams nges pa'i do ha/" in ’Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros kyi gsung ’bum. 12 vols. Bir: Khyentse Labrang, 2012. W1KG12986 Vol. 8: 440–441

Version: 1.2-20231016