Tuesday, 30 November 2021

 Prajnaparamita Upadesa by Aryadeva


Through awareness free of artifice and corruption
Recognize your mind as the root of both samsara and nirvana.
It's not produced by causes or conditions,
Unborn, naturally serene, its nature is emptiness.
So with regard to all phenomena with form or formless,
Whether the karmic impact is positive or negative,
Don't turn anything into a fixed reference or support,
Not even so much as an atom.
The meaning of the Prajnaparamita
Is not to be looked for elsewhere: it exists within yourself.
It's neither real nor endowed with characteristics,
The nature of the mind is the great clear light.
Neither outer nor inner, neither god nor demon,
Not existent within samsara's cycles nor nirvana's beyond,
And neither manifest nor empty:
Mind is free from any such dual appearances.
This is the Buddha's true intention, his flawless view.
If looking for a simile, one could say it is like space.
The supreme method here to realize the nature of mind,
Is to unite space and awareness.
When thus mixing space and awareness,
You spontaneously purify all fixed notions
Such as a reality and characteristics, negating and establishing,
And you abide in the truth of suchness, dharmata,
Free from dualistic subject-object cognition.
With both body and mind thus in their natural state,
Without further intervention fresh awareness arises,
Extending just as far as the reach of empty space,
Within this vast expanse remain absorbed without constraints or limits.
At that time you will experience a state of consciousness
Free from any support or from any sort of foundation,
An awareness abiding nowhere,
Not absorbed in either the aggregates or any outer object.
Having moved to desolate places,
When magical displays of gods or demons, grasping or aversion arise,
Separate awareness from the gross material body.
The physical body is like a stone -- nothing can harm it
And mind has no real existence, being similar to space.
So who or what could then possibly be harmed?
Pondering this, remain in suchness, with no anxiety, no fear.
Attachment to a philosophical tenet is obscuration.
Non-dual, self-liberated is the ultimate nature of mind.
So take refuge in the essence of reality
And constantly generate the bodhi mind.



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