A Song of Amazement

A Song of Amazement Inspired by Practice Experience

by Sera Khandro

At the age of twenty-nine I was with my guru at the isolated retreat of Nyimalung in Amdo when a magical display of formless divine spirits and demons arose in my perception. As these beings displayed various behaviors to me, I told them, “You should respect your master as divine, as I have showed you the path.”

They said, “If you are a yoginī, what are you doing here? It is good to go to an isolated retreat.”

I replied, “I am in an isolated retreat.”

Then they said, “How is your isolated retreat? If we develop devotion, what kind of blessings will there be? Please tell us.”

“In my isolated mountain retreat of limitless appearances,
remaining in the practice where the world and beyond arise as ornaments,
I sustained the fundamental nature, free from fixating on hope and fear.
Gazing upon my own true face – innate luminosity –
I possess the instructions on self-liberation of appearances.

In my isolated mountain retreat of self-luminous detachment,
resting in the practice of luminosity without clinging,
I sustained the fundamental nature of self-emergent simplicity.
Gazing upon my own true face – carefree openness –
I have the teachings on self-liberation of destructive emotions.

In my isolated mountain retreat of self-emergent non-conceptuality,
remaining in the practice of self-liberation of conditioned appearances,
I sustained the fundamental nature of non-dual hope and fear.
Encountering the wisdom of natural self-liberation,
I hold the instructions for the self-release of whatever arises.

In my isolated mountain retreat devoid of fixation on hope and fear,
resting in the practice of self-liberating destructive emotions
I sustained the fundamental nature of the perfect on-going state of the three kāyas.
Gazing upon my own true nature – effortless dharmakāya –
I possess the instructions on the primordial liberation of cyclic existence and quiescence.

I have attained the fourfold assurance of freedom from abandonment and attainment,
and am liberated inseparably with ever-excellent great bliss.
This is the proper way a practitioner pursues isolated mountain retreat!

Hey, hey!
Just sleeping in the mountains is not being in an isolated mountain retreat;
Wild animals all sleep in the mountains.
Although far from butchers who kill,
they lack a single source of protection or hope.
Reflecting on this makes me sad!

If you do not pray with devotion to the wish-fulfilling master,
the requisite and desired accomplishments will not come,
so diligently cultivate a mind filled with devotion.

If you do not give rise to the four powers of devotion,
toward the master, the buddha of the three times,
the blessings of the wisdom mind transmission will not enter you,
so diligently give rise to devotion.

If you do not serve the master’s enlightened body with devotion,
your mind will not be liberated by blessings,
so diligently bring forth this devoted mind.

From the maṇḍala of the master’s enlightened speech,
when the nectar of pith instructions is bestowed,
if one-pointed devotion does not arise,
it will be difficult to tame a discursive mind like mine,
so diligently cultivate devotion.

From the maṇḍala of the master’s enlightened heart,
the entrance to the profound teachings of the secret treasury is bestowed.
If you are not inspired with devotion,
it is impossible for the accomplishments of your spiritual heritage to well forth,
so definitely give rise to devotion.

If you do not respectfully and in the threefold manner
please the master who is endowed with the three kindnesses,
you will lack even an atom’s worth of the essence of generation, recitation and perfection practice,
so diligently cultivate this devoted mind.

The guru is the actual buddha of the three times,
whose awakened mind is endowed with the wisdom of twofold omniscience.
His compassion is neither near nor far,
but if you do not pray with devotion,
it is difficult to be held by his compassion which can lead you,
so definitely inspire yourself with devotion.

Respectfully supplicating the master enables us
To cast away self-cherishing pride.
Devotedly praying to our masters enables us
To discard the aggression that comes from attachment and aversion.
Respectfully supplicating the master enables us
To cast away jealousy coming from competitiveness.
Devotedly praying to our masters enables us
To discard wrong views coming from our disturbing emotions.

My actual master is ever-excellent Padmasambhava,
the supreme representative of the victorious ones of the three times.
From the sublime guide Vimaraśmi (Drimé Özer), I pray never to be apart.
He transferred the blessings of the wisdom mind transmission to me
And the knots of my dualistic fixation released into basic space,
So I see the wisdom of wind-mind mastery.
Without the duality of buddha and sentient being,
pervading in the expanse of the primordially liberated dharmakāya,
various manifestations arise as the ornaments of space.
The core falsities of dualistic hope and fear exhausted,
gods and demons arise non-dual as the magical display of my mind.
I, the yoginī, am not afraid of the magical displays of illusion –
I am a fearless vajra yoginī!
I have the instructions to sever the root of the four māras.
Externally, I sever the magical display of illusory appearances
into the great nonexistence of hope and fear.
Internally, I sever the root of attachment – self-cherishing –
into the primordially liberated expanse of non-attachment.
I sever the all-ground – the gathering of body and mind –
with the sword of triple wisdom.
Secretly, I sever concepts based on five poisons
into the continuum of self-liberated disturbing emotions.
Into the expanse of the profound wisdom intent of Pacification,
I sever all phenomena of the world and beyond, non-dual.

This root of attachment to confused appearances stemming from disturbing emotions,
liberates in the dharmadhātu five-wisdom’s own expanse,
the ground of the great baseless wisdom mind expanse.
I sever into the space of dharmakāya evenness with PHAṬ!
“PHA” cuts the root of confused dualistic fixation,
and is thoroughly understood in all meanings of the pāramitās.
“Ṭ” is the perfection of non-dual saṃsāra and quiescence in the ground
and liberates non-dual avoidance and acceptance into the ever excellent dharmakāya.
May we attain the state unified with Vajradhara!”

Thus I sang, and they did prostrations and circumambulations and returned to their places.

Sukha Vajra (Dewé Dorje) put into words a visionary display.

| Translated by Christina Monson, 2015.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

kun bzang bde skyong dbang mo. "nyams kyis bslangs pa'i mtshar glu" In gsung 'bum/_kun bzang bde skyong dbang mo/. 6 vols. Chengdu: si khron dpe skrun tshogs pa/ si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2009. (BDRC W1PD108254) Vol. 3: 376–380

Version: 1.4-20240318