A ho!

Don’t place your trust in this saṃsāra—

If you place your trust in this saṃsāra,

How could what is called nirvāṇa ever be?

Don’t place your trust in mind itself—

If you place your trust in mind itself,

How could what is called awareness ever be?

Don’t place your trust in this view—

If you place your trust in this view,

How could primordial emptiness, free from elaboration, ever be?

Don’t place your trust in this meditation—

If you place your trust in this meditation,

How could the natural state, arising of itself, ever be?

Don’t place your trust in this conduct—

If you place your trust in this conduct,

How could effortlessness ever be?

Don’t place your trust in this ground display—

If you place your trust in this ground display,

How could primordially pure ground ever be?

Don’t place your trust in this path appearance—

If you place your trust in this path appearance,

How could the union of luminosity and emptiness ever be?

Don’t place your trust in this fruit—

If you place your trust in this fruit,

How could unobstructed freedom from expression ever be?

Don’t place your trust in this conventional truth—

If you place your trust in this conventional truth,

How could the union of appearance and emptiness ever be?

Not existent—everything is empty.

Not nonexistent—everything is luminous.

When simply resting within emptiness-luminosity,

The illusory cave of all things—saṃsāra and nirvāṇa—collapses,

And everything arises as the ornamentation of dharmatā.

The luminous radiance of awareness-emptiness, free from elaboration,

Pervades saṃsāra and nirvāṇa without brightening or dimming.

Do not hope for some other fruit: it is primordially complete.

Merged with the expanse of great bliss, self-knowing awareness,

Rest in the indivisible state of the three expanses.

This is but the beggar woman’s false sketch,

The chatter of a parrot, out of keeping with the dharma—

If others were to see it, it would be a cause for shame.

Yet this is the beggar woman's own dharma tradition:

All phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa appear just so.

For one who takes saṃsāra as their practice,

Why should they know what is called nirvāṇa?

These are but deceiving words, O divine friends!

Written by Dewe Dorje.

COLOPHON

None

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kunzang Dekyong Wangmo (kun bzang bde skyong dbang mo). Dbus mo bde ba’i rdo rje’i rnam thar. In Gsung ’bum, vol. 5 (pod dang po), pp. 226–227. BDRC W1PD108254.