Short Whispered Transmission Teaching

The Self-Manifestation of Primordial Wisdom

A Short Teaching from the Whispered Transmission[1]

by Longchen Rabjam

I bow at the feet of the guru who reveals
The essential meaning—unsurpassable, profound and vast.
From the three-part oral transmission of the supreme, secret essence,
I shall here set out Self-Manifest Wisdom as a guiding instruction.

Within the three series of the Natural Great Perfection,
The Instruction Series itself has outer, inner and secret cycles.
From the direct clear light associated with the Heart-Essence,
I shall write of the practice of the unwritten oral transmission.

This guide to the meaning of the secret essence cycle that is the summit of all vehicles has three parts: 1) a history of the lineage, 2) the instructions deriving from that lineage, and 3) sealing such a highly important teaching.

I. History of the Lineage

Glorious Samantabhadra taught Vajrasattva, who taught the great master Garab Dorje. He, in turn, taught Mañjuśrīmitra, who taught Śrī Siṃha. He taught Jñānasūtra, who taught Vimalamitra. He then taught Nyang Tingdzin Zangpo, who taught Bé Lodrö Wangchuk. He taught Dro Rinchen Barwa, who taught Neten Dangma Lhungyal. He taught Chetsün Senggé Wangchuk, who taught Shangpa Repa. He taught Zabtön Chöbar, who taught Dampa Gyerzhik. He taught Nyentön Sherab Tsemo, who taught the two peerless tulku brothers of Yönten Gang. They taught Lama Namkha Dorje, who taught the sublime guru Kumārādza. He then passed the teaching on to Longchen Rabjam.

II. The Instructions Deriving from That Lineage

This has three parts: 1) the practice of the preliminaries, 2) the main part, which is the introduction to one’s own essence, and 3) the conclusion, how to sustain the experience.

1. The Preliminaries: Sevenfold Mind Training

1. Training the Mind in Devotion and Guru Yoga, Which Opens the Door to Blessings

Sit on a comfortable seat, take refuge and generate bodhicitta. At your crown, visualize a lotus and sun-disc seat in the centre of which is your root guru into whom all the lineage gurus have dissolved, so that he (or she)[2] appears with a splendid smile amidst light and rays of light. Consider that he is surrounded by oceanic hosts of buddhas, bodhisattvas, ḍākinīs, and oath-bound guardians. Mentally perform prostration and offer outer and inner gifts. Confess misdeeds accumulated throughout beginningless time. Recite verses, such as "Precious guru, grant your blessings that I might recognize the nature of mind! Grant your blessings that I might overcome the delusion of self-clinging! Grant your blessings that luminosity might dawn from within!" Make prayers from the very depths of your heart and soul and the marrow of your bones. Then, you and the guru melt into light and become indivisible. Rest for a while in this experience. Then dedicate in the manner of a dream or illusion. This has the purpose of spontaneously bringing blessings, so that supreme and ordinary siddhis may be obtained.

2. Training the Mind in the Yoga of Maṇḍala Offering to Perfect Twofold Accumulation

Clean the maṇḍala plate three times and place one heap in the centre. Consider that the guru, the buddhas and all the rest are present in the sky before you, gathered like billowing clouds. Arrange five, seven or however many heaps. Then pile flowers in the centre. Offer this five times and consider that the whole world adorned with the four continents, Mount Meru and so on is filled with various precious substances, medicines, scents, flowers, and grains. Recite lines such as, "This precious maṇḍala with clouds of offerings like Samantabhadra’s, in which the whole expanse of space is filled with medicine, incense, flowers and grains—through this offering, may all beings gain all the riches of the Victorious Ones!" Finally, dedicate the merit in an experience of the indivisibility of self and other. This will perfect the twofold accumulation and bring swift attainment of the two kinds of siddhi.

3. Training the Mind in the Yoga of Vajrasattva, the Purification of Misdeeds

In an instant, you appear in the centre of a lotus and moon-disc as Vajrasattva, white, with one face and two arms. His right hand holds a vajra at his heart, while the left holds a bell against his hip. His legs are crossed in vajra posture, and he wears the silken and jewel adornments. In his heart, in the centre of a moon disc, is a thumb-sized white vajra, in the hub of which is a syllable hūṃ, surrounded by the hundred-syllable mantra. The light from these whitish yellow syllables, which blaze like a burning lamp, purify your own misdeeds and those of all sentient beings. Consider that all visible appearances have the form of Vajrasattva and all sounds are the hundred-syllable mantra. Recite the mantra as many times as possible: "oṃ vajrasattva samayam anupālaya vajrasattva-tvenopa-tiṣṭha dṛḍho me bhava sutoṣyo me bhava supoṣyo me bhava anurakto me bhava sarva-siddhiṃ me prayaccha sarva-karma śuca me cittaṃ śreyaṅ-kuru hūṃ ha ha ha ha hoḥ bhagavān sarva-tathāgata-hṛdaya-vajra mā me muñca vajrī-bhava mahā-samaya-sattva āḥ" Then consider that all appearances dissolve into the hūṃ at the deity’s heart. As the hūṃ becomes imperceptible, rest in that experience, and dedicate the merit. This has the purpose of purifying misdeeds and obscurations accumulated over the course of several hundred thousand aeons and restoring all impairments and breakages of vows and commitments, so that one might realize the nature of mind.

4. Training the Mind in the Yoga of Life’s Impermanence, Effectively Curtailing Plans and Speculations

Reflect on various forms of impermanence, such as the outer changes of the seasons, the inner transformation of the aggregates from youth to maturity, the momentary changes that occur throughout the course of the day and night, and how older and younger generations pass. With this, train the mind in the impermanence of your own life. Since nothing at all can last forever, this has the purpose of inspiring diligence that blazes like fire.

5. Training the Mind in the Yoga of Saṃsāra’s Suffering, Producing Disenchantment with Conditioned Existence

Reflect on various forms of suffering, such as the heat and cold of the hells, the hunger and thirst of the preta realm, the servitude of animals, the birth, old age, sickness and death of human beings, the conflict among the asuras, and the death, transmigration and descent of the gods. Think: "I have undergone such miseries myself many times already in saṃsāra, and unless I practise Dharma sincerely from the heart, I will experience them again. How terrible that all beings are trapped like this in a prison of sorrow!" Such heartfelt contemplation has the purpose of awakening disillusion with saṃsāra, which leads one to sincere practice.

6. Training the Mind in the Yoga of Bodhicitta, Proceeding with the Mahāyāna

Consider the sufferings and plight of all beings within saṃsāra, your own mother and father foremost among them. With the understanding that they are all your parents, think: "I alone shall lead them to enlightenment. Let my virtuous deeds bring happiness to all beings!" Meditate in this way on loving kindness like that of a parent, the compassion wish that beings may be free from suffering, and the bodhicitta wish to lead them to awakening. Through this, all that you do will become the Mahāyāna path, you will overcome even powerful misdeeds, cultivate great waves of virtue, and so on.

7. Training the Mind in the Yoga of the Natural Condition, Investigating the Genuine Nature of Mind

Consider all the various thoughts and impressions that presently arise within your mind. Where do they originate? What are they like as first appear? Where do they now remain? What are they like as they remain? Where do they finally go? What are they like as they disappear? Analysing the objects of perception down to the level of subtle particles, ask yourself whether mind arises from objects? Investigate the momentary mind that abides, and ask yourself whether it has an identifiable essence, distinctive marks and characteristics, colour or shape. As you investigate thoroughly, you will not find anything but will arrive at a state that is open and indescribable. This is what we call "primordially pure, self-abiding wisdom intent". Directly seeing this essence on the basis of the crucial points, you come to recognize all the phenomena of appearance and existence, saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, as unsupported and primordially free and to recognize your own mind as empty clarity, which is the purpose of the training.

As it is extremely important to train the mind proficiently in these preliminaries, focus on each one with care, devotion and great diligence. Ideally, you should devote seven days to each, five in the next best case, and three at a minimum.

2. The Main Part, Introducing One’s Own Essence

This has two parts: 1) introduction to unborn awareness and emptiness, and 2) introduction to spontaneously present luminosity.

1. Introduction to Unborn Awareness and Emptiness

This has four parts: 1) the view, which brings decisiveness, 2) the meditation, through which this is taken to heart, 3) the conduct, which eliminates restrictions, and 4) the fruition, in which hope and fear have been relinquished.

1. View

This refers to one’s own self-knowing awareness, empty clarity that is free from the elaborations of existence and non-existence. It is not found through analysis; it is not created through any causal process; and it is beyond any basis of expression concerning what it is or is not. Although it possesses no identifiable existence, it does not fall into vacuous non-existence but is vividly aware, clear, lucid and awake. It is ordinary awareness, left as it is, like the sky.

2. Meditation

This is divided into two: 1) introduction to the naturally present awareness, unspoilt by contrivance, and 2) introduction to the great self-liberation of self-arisen awareness.

1. Introduction to Naturally Present Awareness

While deeply relaxed, physically and mentally, one is introduced to the nature of mind, beyond outward dissipation and inward absorption, and to the radiance of awareness that arises from it unceasingly. Here, there are three analogies, five natural qualities and four signs of progress.

The three analogies are as follows:

1. Rest like clouds in the sky, without any support outside, inside or in between.
2. Rest like a water mill to which the water supply has been cut, with no effort applied to the activity of thought and awareness left to settle freely by itself.
3. Rest like someone who has completed a task, without the burden of hope or fear, effort or achievement, because you already know the self-abiding natural condition.

The five natural qualities are:

1. While resting in such a way, you abide by the ongoing experience.
2. This is embraced by mindfulness.
3. You do not stray into conceptualization.
4. Hope and fear have been interrupted.
5. There is neither dullness nor agitation.

The four signs of progress are:

1. While meditating in such a way, you have the impression that you possess neither mind nor body.
2. You have the impression of merging with, and blending into, space.
3. You sense that you could not bear to part from the joyous wellbeing that arises from samādhi.
4. You have a deep, decisive sense that the wisdom of the buddhas, the original condition devoid of hope or fear concerning saṃsāra and nirvāṇa and free from dualistic grasping, is present within you.

Through deeper familiarity with these, you will develop—whether you wish to or not—such qualities as enhanced vision, supernatural perception and miraculous abilities.

2. Introduction to Great Self-Liberation

This is the introduction to the traceless natural liberation of whatever naturally arises—the whole variety of thoughts and impressions that occur while resting in an experience of ongoing lucidity. Once again, there are three analogies, five natural qualities and four signs of progress.

The three analogies are as follows:

1. Rest as the play of lucid mind unfolds and this play is released back into the nature of mind, like waves that dissolve back into a body of water.
2. Rest as whatever arises disappears without trace upon arising, like writing on water.
3. Rest as natural liberation occurs by itself, like a snake uncoiling its own knots.

The five natural qualities are:

1. While resting like this, you recognize what arises.
2. Thoughts are not prolonged.
3. They vanish spontaneously without trace.
4. There is a crystal-clear lucidity.
5. There is no duality of movement and stillness.

The four signs of progress are:

1. Through familiarity with this, thoughts do not disturb the stillness of mind, and there is equality of thought and non-thought.
2. Since the five poisons are purified through liberation upon arising, there is a sky-like pacification of attachment.
3. Since whatever you encounter is liberated without trace, you can integrate adversity into the path.
4. Since meditative equipoise and post-meditation fuse without distinction, meditation continues like the flow of a river.

3. Conduct

This has two parts: 1) training in the openness of the six modes of perception, since perceptions and mind are liberated in non-duality when abiding by the meditative equipoise of lucid experience, and 2) training in the eight similes of illusion, liberating objects of perception as unreal, since post-meditative experience is recognized as unreal.

1. Training in the Openness of Perception

While meditating in an experience of lucidity and liberation upon arising, your own mind remains unborn, so that any grasping to objects of the six senses—sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures and mental phenomena—is naturally averted. You are spontaneously introduced to the state in which things appear as they are, without grasping or attachment.

2. Training in the Eight Similes of Illusion

This means that you understand whatever appears to be illusory, dreamlike, and so on.

The three analogies for such training are as follows:

1. Conduct like a crazy person, in which awareness does not become involved with objects of perception but remains without grasping.
2. Conduct like an illusion, in which there is no attachment to appearances.
3. Conduct like a small child, in which there is no adoption or rejection, and no hope or fear.

The five natural qualities are:

1. Comprehensive manifestation.
2. Non-conceptualization as objects.
3. Absence of adoption and dismissal.
4. Direct resolution.
5. Not being subject to circumstances.

The four signs of progress are as follows:

1. By acting in this way, perceptions unfold without any focus on anything in particular.
2. Craving is exhausted.
3. Rejection and cultivation collapse.
4. There is no parting from dharmatā.

4. Fruition

The introduction to the fruition, self-liberating and self-knowing awareness, is as follows. Although you meditate and analyze in the ways set out above, original awareness continues to abide just as it is, without distinction and liberating without trace. The three analogies here are:

1. Determining that awareness in its present state is the dharmakāya is resolution that resembles meeting an old friend.
2. The non-necessity of exertion is resolution that resembles the nature of space.
3. The natural dawning of ease and contentment is resolution that resembles a seafaring captain who found a jewel and now remains in his own home.

The five natural qualities are:

1. Abiding in the immediacy of freedom.
2. Being unspoilt by contrivance.
3. The exhaustion of deliberate effort.
4. Spontaneous ease.
5. Deep-seated bliss.

The four signs of progress are:

1. That you are free from the attitude of wishing for something.
2. That doubts as to what is or is not subside.
3. That you are never separated from limitless dharmatā.
4. That you are free from hope and fear and the pursuit of accomplishment.

These represent the core of practice in this life.

2. Introduction to Spontaneously Present Luminosity

This includes the primordial nature, how saṃsāra and nirvāṇa develop; how primordial wisdom is present within the body; how this is introduced as the three kāyas; how sounds, colours and lights and wisdom visions manifest in the bardo; and how, as the fruition, one is liberated in the primordial state and brings benefit to sentient beings. These are introduced according to the medium-length and longer whispered transmission texts.

3. The Conclusion, How to Sustain the Experience

This involves applying oneself to the practice as it has been introduced: meditating without becoming trapped in dullness, agitation or fixed ideas, and having confidence in the understanding that primordial wisdom abides within. It also involves training in bardo practice by perceiving everything as the bardo during the four sessions of the day and night, and training in recollecting the instructions.

III. Sealing this Highly Important Teaching

This involves placing an image of the yidam or a torma on the head and swearing an oath, such as, "I shall practise this at least once a day, and I shall teach the instructions and the meaning of the words to others." This is also performed as seal of entrustment for the benefit of suitable recipients.

Through extracting the heart, the essence of the secret whispered transmission,
And placing it in the palm in this way,
May fortunate beings come in contact with awakening
And attain the ultimate peace of buddhahood.

This concludes Self-Manifestation of Primordial Wisdom, a short teaching from the Whispered Transmission of the Supremely Secret Essence, composed by Longchen Rabjam, a yogin of the supreme vehicle that distills the wisdom of Vimala, on the slopes of Gangri Tökar. May it be virtuous! Virtuous! Virtuous!

| Translated by Adam Pearcey with the generous support of the Tsadra Foundation, 2024.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

klong chen rab 'byams pa dri med 'od zer. "snyan brgyud chung ngu ye shes rang snang" In snying thig ya bzhi. 13 vols. Delhi: Sherab Gyaltsen Lama, 1975. Vol. 2: 347–361

Version: 1.1-20250101