Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso's Articles on Lions Roar

In this commentary on a famed yogi’s spontaneous song of realization, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso explains why Mahamudra practice makes our view, meditation, and action free and unhindered, like a lance flashing free in the open sky. The Eight Flashing Lances is a song of realization sung by Gyalwa Gotsangpa (1189-1258), who was renowned as an emanation of the lord of yogis, Milarepa. Born in southern Tibet, Gotsangpa went to central Tibet where he met his two teachers, Drogon Tsangpa Gyare and Sangye On. He wandered then from one mountain retreat to the next, practicing meditation and bringing his realization to perfection. Gotsangpa made a commitment never to meditate in the same place twice. If he went somewhere and stayed for a few years, he never returned. He wandered continually to help himself abandon attachment to any particular place. The Homages. Namo Ratna Guru Gotsangpa begins the song with the Sanskrit homage Namo Ratna Guru, meaning “I prostrate” (Namo) to “the precious” (Ratna) “lama” (Guru). With body, speech, and mind filled with great devotion, Gotsangpa prostrates before the precious guru. Next he offers an homage in Tibetan, which when translated into English reads: To that paragon, the dharmakaya, treasure isle And the treasure too, sambhogakaya’s range of forms Who as nirmanakaya fills the needs of beings To the precious lord I bow respectfully In this opening verse, Gotsangpa pays homage to his guru, who is a paragon, a supreme being, an unsurpassable guide. In particular, he pays homage to the guru’s three kayas, his three dimensions of enlightenment. Gotsangpa compares the dharmakaya to a treasure isle, because the dharmakaya, the enlightened mind itself, is the source of all that one needs and desires. The sambhogakaya, the subtle light-form of a buddha that appears to pure disciples who are noble bodhisattvas, is like the gold, silver, diamonds, and all the other jewels one finds on this treasure island. The nirmanakaya, the buddha’s form that appears to ordinary disciples as well as to noble bodhisattvas, is what fulfills the needs of all wandering sentient beings. To the precious lord who embodies these three kayas, he says, I bow with body, speech, and mind filled with great respect. The dharmakaya is the ultimate dimension of enlightenment, the ultimate kaya. The sambhoga-kaya and the nirmanakaya are the relative dimensions, the form kayas. Thus, you can also divide the kayas into two, the dharmakaya and the form kaya. The dharmakaya, the true nature of reality, is inexpressible and inconceivable. The sambhoga-kaya and the nirmanakaya, therefore, are necessary because they appear in relative forms to be of benefit to all disciples who have not yet realized the dharmakaya. In this verse, Gyalwa Gotsangpa pays homage to his own root guru, Drogon Tsangpa Gyare, for embodying the three kayas. The Flashing Lance of View. Decisive understanding of your basic being No bias toward samsara or nirvana Conviction reached, you change your mind no more These are three which render view unhindered Like a lance that flashes free in the open sky The view that is like a lance flashing free in the open sky has three characteristics. The first is that you have a decisive understanding of genuine reality. Genuine reality is the actual, ultimate way things are; it is your basic, ultimate being. You know this essence as it is, free from negating or affirming, free from contrivance. You achieve this by applying unobscured intelligence to listening to and reflecting on teachings about the view. Reflection means that you analyze until you have doubt-free certainty about what the true nature of reality is. Here we are not talking about the true nature of outer things. It is not enough merely to determine the true nature of what is outside. You must ascertain the true nature of mind. What is the true nature of mind? According to the final turning of the wheel of dharma, the sutras that teach about buddhanature, this true nature of mind is explained to be luminous clarity, the essence of enlightenment itself — buddhanature. According to the Mahamudra tradition, the true nature of mind is clarity-emptiness mahamudra, or bliss-emptiness mahamudra. At the outset, it is important for you to ascertain mind’s true nature. The next characteristic of this view that is like a lance flashing free in the open sky is that you are not biased toward either samsara or nirvana. From the perspective of thoughts, samsara and nirvana are different: samsara is of the nature of confusion and nirvana is liberation from that confusion. So from concept’s point of view, samsara and nirvana appear to be opposites. But from the perspective of the true nature of reality, samsara is not something bad that needs to be abandoned, and nirvana is not something that needs to be attained. There is actually nothing to choose from between samsara and nirvana, because in their true nature, samsara and nirvana are undifferentiable. As the protector Nagarjuna writes in The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, Samsara is not the slightest bit different from nirvana Nirvana is not the slightest bit different from samsara It is important to be decisive in being unbiased toward samsara and nirvana. You can do this when you have gained certainty that samsara and nirvana are equality. The third quality of this view is unchanging certainty about the first two points. You have perfectly determined what the true nature of reality is and you are free from bias toward samsara or nirvana. You are doubt-free and have unchanging certainty about this. When you have these three qualities, your view is profound. It is like a lance flashing in the open sky, because when you twirl a lance in open space you never hit any impediment. You do not hit any obstacles and nothing stops you. This is what your view is like; it is free from any hindrance. The Flashing Lance of Meditation. Cutting through the root, it holds its own ground Sixfold consciousness unspoiled by artifice Free of effort aimed at recollection These are three which make meditation fully free Like a lance that flashes free in the open sky “Cutting through the root” means that in meditation that is like a flashing lance, you cut through mental confusion at its root. The way you do that is to realize that confusion is groundless. When you analyze the true nature of your own mind, you find not the tiniest basis for confusion. You do not find the tiniest source where confusion could possibly originate from. So you cut through confusion when you realize that you cannot actually find any confusion in the first place. You might have thought, “This or that is the source of my confusion,” but when you analyze it, you cannot find the tiniest bit of confusion or any source of it. “It holds its own ground” refers to mind’s true nature, clarity-emptiness undifferentiable, holding its own ground. This means you are able to self-settle1 within clarity-emptiness and sustain that. Whatever mind’s nature may be, however you find it to be, without negating or affirming it, you are able to settle naturally within it. The next quality of this meditation is that the six consciousnesses — the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness — are “unspoiled by artifice.” You leave the six consciousnesses just as they are, without trying to alter or improve how they are functioning or what they are perceiving. There is no flaw in the essential nature of the six consciousnesses’ experiences, so you can leave them just as they are. Leave your six consciousnesses to perceive just as they will and rest in the essential nature of that, free from trying to fix or change anything about it. The third point is “free of effort aimed at recollection.” Be free of mindfulness that is conceptual, that clings to the idea of needing to be mindful. Be free from mental contrivance and effort. Let your mindfulness be effortless and natural. Thus, when you realize confusion is groundless and you can rest in clarity-emptiness, when your sixfold consciousness is unspoiled by artifice and your mindfulness is free of effort, then you have meditation that is unhindered, like a lance flashing free in the open sky. The Flashing Lance of Conduct. Experiences just naturally unhindered Free of fear, depression, and anxiety The triumph over all perceived/perceiver split These are three which render conduct fully free Like a lance that flashes free in the open sky The first quality of this conduct is that the experiences you have are natural and effortless. You do not need to put effort into your conduct; it happens naturally and easily. At the same time, you are not afraid of anything. Nor do you get depressed or fall into despair. You never lose your courage and you do not get anxious over anything. You are triumphant over the duality of perceived object and perceiving subject. To triumph over duality means to transcend it by ceasing to cling to dualistic appearances as being truly existent. This does not mean that dualistic appearances disappear; it just means you do not cling to what appears as real. Then, dualistic appearances of perceived and perceiver are self-arisen and self-liberated, as in a dream when you know you are dreaming. Thus the point of practice is not to try to eliminate the appearances of perceived objects and perceiving subjects, but rather to realize that these dualistic appearances are the energy and play of the true nature of mind, which is luminous clarity, mahamudra, and therefore, they are self-arisen and self-liberated, like appearances in a dream when you know you are dreaming. That is how you should consider dualistic appearances to be: like appearances in a lucid dream. When you dream and you know you are dreaming, perceived and perceiver appear, but you are free from clinging to them as being truly existent; they are self-arisen and self-liberated. When your conduct has these three qualities, it is like a lance...

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