Ultimate Wish-Fulfilling Essence

The Ultimate Wish-Fulfilling Essence

by Longchen Rabjam

I pay homage to the sovereign of Oḍḍiyāna
And the ḍākinīs and three-stage lineage.
The supreme Ultimate Wish-Fulfilling Essence
I shall now explain for the benefit of beings.

"At which time, look at the sublime Radiant Youth residing in Lotus City." By applying the meaning of this statement whenever you encounter particular circumstances, you can find liberation in natural clarity in which no trace of the encounter remains. Then, through the experience of unsullied lucidity, bliss will naturally arise. This has the following eight aspects.

1. Liberation Upon Encountering Fundamental Reality

At any time, whether during movement or stillness, the naturally arisen state of pristine wisdom beyond the ordinary mind is present but goes unrecognized. The effective means of recognizing it is to look directly into the face of the mind, whether arising or abiding, and to lay bare the vivid, clear awareness that is neither scattered nor inert. Having recognized this wide-open, all-pervasive state that is free from judgement and arises unimpededly, by remaining without straying from this essence, you will discover what is called "the naturally occurring dharmakāya in which conceptualization fades into basic space".

2. Liberation Upon Encountering Meditative Experiences

As experiences of bliss, clarity, non-conceptuality and inconceivability arise through such training, you might become attached to them, so, just as before, look directly into the essence of any such experience. Through this, as you see without any notion of clinging to extremes, recognition of the nature will free you from conceit and fixation upon suppression or cultivation.

3. Liberation Upon Encountering Negative Circumstances

As you purify negative actions, adverse outer circumstances may befall you. You might be subject to assault, robbery, theft, loss, criticism, and all manner of unwanted things. With harshening circumstances, the pain of adversity gradually develops. Therefore, by turning your attention within and looking directly at the full consciousness of the pain, it is naturally pacified in the very same instant. Then the naturally occurring wisdom of emptiness and clarity arises as great clarity and purity.

4. Liberation Upon Encountering Apparent Objects

On occasion, when the mind is distracted by its fondness for the five objects of the senses, if you look directly with alertness into your awareness of that object, this will develop into natural lucidity without obscuration or veil. This is known as "liberation in the nature of the six sensory objects".

5. Liberation Upon Encountering Sickness

Should you experience something like a multitude of illnesses, take the acute pain of sickness as the basis of spiritual practice. Look directly into the awareness of pain. This will bring about a naked, uninhibited state in which there is neither sickness nor someone who is sick—and this is what you then recognize.

6. Liberation Upon Encountering Spirits and Demons

At such times, obstructing forces, owing to their intolerance, will display their tricks. No matter what trickery unfolds, recognize and look into the essence. As a result, there will be liberation in the encounter between the one who is afraid and the object of fear, and panic will arise as the wheel of dharmatā.

7. Liberation Upon Encountering the Five Poisons

When thoughts of desire and such like gradually arise, recognize them once they have reached their full strength. By looking at them directly and with alertness, afflictive thoughts will arise as wisdom, and bliss, brilliant clarity, and non-conceptuality will arise with even greater intensity.

8. Liberation Upon Encountering Thoughts of Death

On occasion, various doubts may arise concerning the Dharma or your own meditation, and you might have thoughts of anxiety about death. By looking directly into the outer and inner objects of doubt and the doubting thoughts themselves, you will see that they are as baseless as the sky. Have no doubts about anything at all. Banish them through an understanding of baselessness and rootlessness. Look directly into the essence of thoughts of death, and you will see that they are naturally clear and empty and leave no trace behind. Even though the atoms of the body must be left behind, there is no death for insubstantial, self-luminous awareness. By looking into the essence of awareness you will see the great freedom from any basis of birth or death. You will see the deathless fundamental wisdom and discover the great confidence that holds no fear of death.

With these, all the conditions for a single individual’s path are complete.

In naturally arisen awareness, boundless and unconfined,
Undo the knot that retains the aspects of ordinary mind.
Through this virtue, let all beings attain primordial awakening,
The state of vast expansiveness, spontaneous and even.

This concludes The Ultimate Wish-Fulfilling Essence composed by Longchen Rabjam, a yogin of the supreme vehicle. Let 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. "mthar thug yid bzhin snying po" In snying thig ya bzhi. 13 vols. Delhi: Sherab Gyaltsen Lama, 1975. Vol. 2: 309–313 (2 folios)

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