Life Vein of the Path to Omniscience

Counsel on the Life Vein of the Path to Omniscience[1]

by Khenchen Ngawang Palzang

I bow at the feet of my guru—peerless protector!

It is so rare to find such exquisite grace as this body blessed with the freedoms and advantages.[2]
Only merit we gathered before makes it ours;
Not luck, not magic.
So, right now, let us commit ourselves to Dharma!

Impermanence and death, those redoubtable enemies,
Bring the powerful powerlessly to their demise.
At that time, there are no companions,
Only the good and bad karma previously piled up.
If this is how it is, then engage in what is sure to benefit you—the holy and divine Dharma!

Those who take refuge with trust,
In the undeceiving protectors—the guru and the Three Jewels—
Never go astray. But taking refuge
With an ambitious or insincere motivation
Geared toward your own peace alone—
Such a mindset is an obstacle on the path to enlightenment.

So, now, understand that the ideation behind your selfish attitudes and behaviors
Is an enemy, a ghoul sure to ruin you!
The drive to attain buddhahood for the benefit of others—
If you have this, what more virtue do you need?
Results will come, like fruit from a healthy seed.

Lofty discourses about emptiness and simplicity
Do not help our minds in these degenerate times.
Just as medicine becomes poison when the dosage is not adhered to,
Most people these days ruin themselves with “emptiness.”
A virtue that would help in this and future lives,
When hollowed out by notions of emptiness, loses its potential.[3]

Therefore, now that you have the support of this body
And the good fortune of being cared about by a spiritual friend,
Striving for what is meaningful with body, speech, and mind, dedicate yourself to the Dharma.
Carefully examine what is positive and negative, what to cultivate and what to give up.
Apply antidotes to the thoughts floating in your mindstream.
Avoid selfish attitudes and behaviors as if they were poison.
The mind that wants to attain buddhahood by helping others
Must never be lost.
So, don’t let go of the life vein of the path to omniscience!

Naturally settled mind, the nature of things, your innate character—
These are never seen through the investigations of the busy intellect.[4]
Nor do they do appear to a mind imploded in dullness.
The spontaneously present ground of being, empty naturalness,
Is the naked nature of mind’s character
That shows itself in the state of lucidity where the intellect’s objects and agencies are nowhere to be found.

You will connect to it through the path of guru yoga,
And, fueled by the accumulations of merit and wisdom, which are its cause,[5]
You will find certainty deep in your soul.[6]

These days, in their fascination with irrelevant, verbose, and exotic discourses,
Most people pretending to be Dharma practitioners are led astray.
In short, in the present time and circumstances,
A person must scrutinize their own mindstream
With mindfulness and vigilance,
Subtly investigate what is to be cultivated and abandoned,
And realize the unified life vein of the paths of sūtra and mantra!

In Dalung, on an occasion of moving beyond logic, this advice was given by one with the title of a Kathok Khenpo. May it be good!

| Translated by Joseph McClellan with editorial assistance from Nyinjyed N.T., 2024

Bibliography

Source Texts

mKhan po ngag dgaʼ. gSung ʼbum ngag dbang dpal bzang, vol. 2, pp. 93–96. Khreng tuʼu, n.d. BDRC W22946.

mKhan po ngag dgaʼ.* gSung ʼbum kun mkhyen ngag gi dbang po*, vol. 1, pp. 138–140. sNga ʼgyur kaḥ thog bcu phrag rig mdzod chen moʼi dpe tshogs. Khreng tuʼu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2017. BDRC W4CZ364088.

Secondary Sources

Ngawang Pelzang, Khenpo. A Guide to The Words of My Perfect Teacher. Translated by Dipamkara with the Padmakara Translation Committee. Boston: Shambhala, 2004.

Version: 1.0-20240926

The catalog title is gdams pa dal 'byor drin bzang, which might be translated as "Counsel on the Exquisite Grace of the Freedoms and Advantages." This title, however, is simply based on the first lines, indicating that it was likely originally untitled. We have, therefore, supplied a slightly more capacious title based on another line in the text. ↩
The eight freedoms (dal ba brgyad) are not finding yourself (1) as a being in hell, (2) as a hungry ghost, (3) as an animal, (4) as a long-lived god, (5) as part of an uncivilized community, (6) at a time when the buddhas are unknown, (7) as someone convinced of wrong views, (8) as someone with disabilities that preclude understanding and communication. The five personal advantages (rang 'byor lnga) are (1) to have a human body, (2) to be able to live in a land where the doctrine prevails, (3) to have unimpaired faculties, (4) to not be trapped in a toxic lifestyle or livelihood, and (5), to have faith in in the teachings and enlightened beings. The five circumstantial advantages (gzhan ‘byor lnga) are to be alive at a time when (1) a buddha has appeared, (2) a buddha has taught the Dharma, (3) the teachings remain, (4) there are followers of the teachings, and (5) there are teachers with the kindness to teach. For an extensive discussion on these topics by Khenpo Ngaga himself, see his Guide to the Words of My Perfect Teacher. ↩
“Loses its potential” translates go skabs med—lit., “has no chance.” ↩
This line renders blos spros pas dpyod pas…, which might be, more literally, “Through investigations made by the embellishing mind.” The older, undated edition reads blo spros pas spyad pas—lit., “by an intellect engaged through conceptual proliferation.” ↩
In discourses on ultimate meanings (don dam bden pa) or definitive meanings (nges don) we would not find the claim that the accumulations of merit and wisdom are the cause of “the naked nature of mind’s character,” which is uncaused, unborn, non-abiding, immutable, non-perishing, etc. However, in line with the Khenpo’s earlier statement that “These days, most people are ruined by ‘emptiness,’” he is here emphasizing the provisional meaning that claims that the accumulations of merit and wisdom are the cause of the ultimate ends of the path. This is because, without those accumulations at the level of relative truth, there is no way we will be able to access the ultimate truth. ↩
Here, “soul” translates blo, one of several words for mind that must be translated according to context. In general, it denotes the aspect of mind that dualistically judges, weighs, analyzes, and orients. In lines above, it has been translated as “intellect” and “attitude.” In other contexts, it is appropriate to translate it as “mentation,” “intellection,” “ratiocination,” “ordinary mind/consciousness” or nearly any other synonym that covers the active aspect of mind functioning within the framework of subject and objects. None of those more common translations sound quite right here given the prepositional phrase kho thag nang nas (“deep inside”). Therefore, here we use the term “soul,” not in the metaphysical sense of a permanent personal essence, which is doctrinally inadmissible in Buddhism, but in the sense of that part of yourself that thinks a lot, which we often call our “soul,” colloquially. ↩