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Monday 5 August 2013

SHABKAR, THE GREAT TIBETAN YOGI

A great Tibetan yogi with a big heart - he did a lot for monks and lay people; also had deep realizations as this poem indicates too. One well-known work of his i enjoyed is called 'The Flight of the Garuda', talking about Dzogchen practice, especially Treckchö

One day, to refresh my spirits, I walked to a summit of the Machen Range and, relaxing my mind completely,
I looked around in all directions. My mind opened up, becoming clearer and clearer.
I sat, keeping my back straight, and looked straight ahead into the infinite expanse of the sky.
My mind blended with the sky, becoming indistinguishable from it.
Completely at rest in the natural state of mind—empty, luminous, without taking things as real -
I sang this song, in a state like space, an unlimited, transparent, all-pervading expanse:
Without a center, without a border, The luminous expanse of awareness that encompasses all -
This vivid, bright vastness:
Natural, primordial presence.

Without an inside, without an outside,
Awareness arisen of itself, wide as the sky,

Beyond "size", beyond "direction"
beyond "limits" -

'This utter, complete openness:
Space, inseparable from awareness.

Within that birthless, wide-open expanse of space,
Phenomena appear - like rainbows, utterly transparent.
Pure and impure realms,
Buddhas and sendent beings,
Are seen, brilliant and distinct.

As far as sky pervades, so does awareness.
As far as awareness extends, so does absolute space.

Sky, awareness, absolute space,
Indistinguishably intermixed:
Immense, infinitely vast
The ground of samsara,
The ground of nirvana.
To remain, day and night, in this state -
To enter this state easily—
this is joy -

Emaho!

Yogin!
In this state,
You must simply remain:
Resting loosely -
Letting yourself open -
Attaining dharmakaya -
Letting nlrmanakaya come to pass -

Phet!
A!
Ah!

Then, I rested one-pointedly in the evenness of a sky-like emptiness.
All mental wildness and dullness, gross and subtle, vanished naturally, like clouds vanishing in the sky.
Like the sun shining in a clear autumn sky, luminous emptiness that is the true nature of mind was laid bare.
In a state without center, without limits, empty like space, all phenom-forms and sounds—were present in spontaneity, vivid as the sun, moon, planets and stars. Mind and phenomena blended completely in a single taste.
Friend and enemy—no difference; gold and stone—no difference;
this life and the next—no difference;
mind and sky—no difference.
Having seen this for myself,
I was ready to sit among the glorious sky-like yogins.


From 'The Life of Shabkar' 


Shabkar - the Great Tibetan Yogi

1 comment:

  1. A great Tibetan yogi with a big heart - he did a lot for monks and lay people; also had deep realizations as this poem indicates too. One well-known work of his i enjoyed is called 'The Flight of the Garuda', talking about Dzogchen practice, especially Treckchö.

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