The Heart of Definitive Meaning

The Heart of Definitive Meaning

by Longchen Rabjam

Homage to glorious Samantabhadra!

The awakened mind of awareness, pure from the beginning,
Does not come or go but is universal and all-pervasive.
To that which is limitless, impartial, without basis or origin,
Beyond adoption and loss, coming and going, I pay homage.

Pure and simple, thought-free and unspoilt in any way,
Primordial, naturally empty—the key to the Great Perfection
Is the genuine character of the natural freedom of awareness.
Listen, as I explain this in accordance with my own realization.

Since primordially pure, naturally occurring wisdom
Is beyond being and non-being, it cannot be identified as this or that.
Since it is beyond limits, it is unelaborate, inexpressible, inconceivable.
Since it transcends observation, it involves neither meditation nor non-meditation.
Since it is beyond acceptance and rejection, it is free from striving based on good and bad.

Ever pure and ever consummate,[1] the Great Perfection
Does not reject anything but transcends all.

Just as amidst the vast expanse of space
Whatever appears and exists, be it the environment or its inhabitants,
Manifests clearly without ever staying from this space,
All the phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are clear within awareness.

In foundational rest, primordial rest, simply leaving things as they are,
With nothing to do, all is spontaneously perfect, abiding in natural dharmakāya.
If we do not conceive of anything and do not grasp at anything at all,
Such is the true state, such is the primordial, such is the Great Perfection.
Phenomena fade away in primal purity, the original enlightened perspective.
In that experience of empty lucidity, settle spontaneously without wavering.

The risings of responsive awareness, rigpa’s own self-expressions,
Are freed by themselves as they dawn in pure and simple dharmakāya.
They fade naturally without trace in the plain exhaustion of phenomena—
Naturally arising and naturally freed within the primordial ground.

When you see this, there is no need for deliberate meditation.
There is no admission to or withdrawal from kingly meditation,
Uncultivated and spontaneous, as dharmakāya is right there.
You have reached the level at which thought and non-thought are the same.

Whatever it might be, don’t alter or spoil it.
Avoiding labels, don’t hold to biased positions.
Avoiding formulae, don’t suppress or cultivate.
In untargeted awareness without any fixed reference,
No matter what arises due to outer or inner circumstances,
Don’t reject it! Don’t change it! Don’t cling to it! Happily let it be!
It will dawn as dharmakāya realization, self-awakened in the ground.

This, just this, is the great secret, definitive instruction.

Through the virtue of this, may all beings find total freedom in non-abandonment!

This concludes The Heart of Definitive Meaning composed by the yogin Natsok Rangdrol on the slopes of Gangri Thökar. May it prove virtuous! Virtuous! Virtuous!

| Translated by Adam Pearcey with the generous support of the Tsadra Foundation, 2025.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

klong chen rab 'byams pa dri med 'od zer. "nges don snying po" In snying thig ya bzhi. 13 vols. Delhi: Sherab Gyaltsen Lama, 1975. Vol. 12: 293–295 (1.5 folios)

Version: 1.0-20250605