Explanation of the White Feast

A Song of Confidence in the View

An Excellent Explanation of the White Feast

by Degyal Rinpoche I, Pema Dechen Gyalpo

Namo guru krodhikālyai![1]

Āḥ! All appearance is the space of the mother,
All existence is the emanation of cognizant potency,
Saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are the play of the same great secret—
Tröma, treasure of the universally supreme, I bow to you!

Here I will explain the crucial points of visualization for relinquishing grasping to the physical body and transforming the aggregates into nourishment through the practice of the white feast. I will present my explanation in three stages: I) the preliminaries, II) the main part, and III) the concluding activities.

I. The Preliminaries

In the sky before you, amidst an inconceivable expanse of rainbows, balls of light, bindus, and drops is a seat composed of a lotus, sun disc, moon disc, and corpse. Upon this seat is your precious guru, the glorious guardian who embodies all buddhas of past, present, and future, the unequalled treasury of compassion, appearing in the form of Machik Tröma Nakmo (The One and Only Mother, Black Wrathful Goddess). She is blue-black in colour with one face and two arms. She holds a curved knife in her right hand and a blood-filled skull-cup in her left. Her mouth is open with her tongue curled up, baring her four razor-sharp fangs. From her moustache and eyebrows fire shoots out. With her three eyes, she gazes into the reaches of space. On the crown of her head is a black sow’s head that is arching up, emitting a piercing squeal that makes the entire trichiliocosm quake. Most of her orange locks flow up to the peak of cyclic existence, while a few remaining locks flow down her back. She stands with her two legs in a dancing posture and supports a trident in the crook of her arm. Her breasts are full, and her lotus is swollen. Her body is replete with the six bone ornaments and the eightfold charnel-ground attire. Visualize her like this amid a blazing mass of wisdom fire.

Above the crown of her head, visualize red Vajrayoginī and blue-black Samantabhadrī, together with the entire assembly of the accomplished vidyādhara gurus of the three transmissions of the Severance lineage. They are surrounded by a retinue of the ḍākinīs of the four families, the ḍākinīs of the four activities, the four blood-drinking ladies, and so on—a vast gathering of hundreds of thousands of ḍākinīs, surpassing count. These ḍākinīs are in turn surrounded by a host of both wisdom and karma teaching protectors, dharma protectors, and guardians. In this way, envisage that, throughout the infinite reaches of space in all ten directions, the objects of refuge are manifest as the elegant play of a merit-field of deities, such that in every atom there preside as many buddhas as there are atoms, a gathering of emanated mandala deities so vast that it defies description, all vividly present before you.

You stand before them together with all other sentient beings. With heartfelt faith and devotion, you entrust yourselves to them, the undeceiving Three Precious Jewels, and calling upon their compassion, you take refuge in them, saying:

Phaṭ![2] To Samantabhadrī, the primordial ground of original purity…[3]

Then think of all infinite mother beings throughout the reaches of space, headed by the gods and demons. Think of how they are wandering in saṃsāra with no end in sight, without a moment’s reprieve from its endless suffering. Contemplating this, cultivate immeasurable compassion and bodhicitta, and while recollecting the infinite wisdom and qualities of the Three Jewels (the objects of refuge and the field of merit), generate bodhicitta and recite the corresponding liturgy.[4] Then, relinquish all dualistic perception—all thoughts of perceived and perceiver—and, unstained by self-interest and its afflictions and willing to embrace hardships, exert yourself in the crucial points of the visualization. Remaining free of distraction, take this onto the path of illusion and equip yourself with the six perfections.

Then comes the maṇḍala offering, an extraordinarily skilful means for gathering the accumulations. To arrange in heaps the entire trichiliocosm in all its multiplicity is the outer maṇḍala offering of appearance and existence. To arrange in heaps your body, aggregates, and elements is the inner self-arisen maṇḍala. To arrange in heaps the basic element of the all-ground in which all thoughts subside in and of themselves is the secret maṇḍala of primordial perfection. When presenting these maṇḍalas with the corresponding lines of liturgy,[5] relinquish the conceptual mind that perpetuates self-cherishing and then offer them up to the field of merit, the pure realm of the trikāya guru.

Next comes the devotional practice of guru yoga, the gateway to blessings. With either the extensive or concise liturgy, supplicate with intense feeling and at the end when you utter “Phaṭ!”, think that your mind has merged with the guru’s mind, that you have now received the four empowerments, the four obscurations are purified, and the four kāyas are ripened, and then rest evenly in the fundamental nature. By practicing like this, illnesses, harmful influences, and all other obstacles will be conquered and realization of dharmatā will swiftly arise, and so you will reach full awakening in the primordial ground in this very life. Such is the purpose of guru yoga.

This concludes the first section, a general discussion of the preliminaries.

II. The Main Part

This section has four parts: A) visualizing the subtle channels, B) purifying and multiplying, C) partaking of the emanations, and D) the concluding dissolution phase.

A. Visualizing the Subtle Channels

Pha is the letter of skilful means (upāya) that gathers, and ṭ is the letter of insight (prajñā) that scatters. Combined together, they form the word phaṭ , an expression of yogic conduct. With the first phaṭ, identify the illusory body of habitual dualistic experience. With the second phaṭ, visualize the subtle channels. With the third phaṭ, manifest awareness (rigpa) from basic space. Thus, applying these crucial points, say phaṭ three times.

The visualization for the lines beginning ‘From the magical body of habitual self-fixation’ is as follows. Throughout time without beginning, due to a lack of awareness of the ground we have been fixating on self, the notion of ‘I’. Here in this realm, this illusory, or magical, body[6]—this aggregate of habitual dualistic experience—has been appearing constantly and unceasingly throughout the course of time. This being so, envisage that all your past bodies are complete within your current aggregate—this current body—making it enormous and resplendent, rich, gleaming, firm, and solid, filling the reaches of the sky of the entire trichiliocosm. In the centre of your body is the central channel, like a crystal pillar planted in an empty building. It is the size of a medium-sized bamboo arrow. Its upper tip reaches the crown of your head, its mouth widening at the top like an open skylight. Its lower tip reaches below the navel where it curls inward like a bamboo stem blocked by a joint. At the level of your heart centre is a joint made of light, on top of which is the pure essence of your consciousness, life energy, lifespan, and merit—self-cognizing wisdom—in the form of a five-coloured bindu the size of a masar bird’s egg. This bindu then shoots up into the sky, like an arrow shot by a champion archer, and transfers into the primordially pure ground—dharmatā, original basic space beyond fabrication, where it merges indivisibly. You then let be, openly and freely, in dharmatā, the innate condition.

B. Purifying and Multiplying

Instantly, like lightning flashing in the sky or a bubble emerging in water, awareness arises from within dharmatā—basic space beyond characteristics and description—and emerges and manifests as the form kāya, the illusory emanation[7] of wisdom. In this way, generate the self-visualization of Vajrayoginī of wisdom space. You are white in colour like a snow mountain lit up by the sun’s rays, with your three eyes gazing into space. You bear a peacefully smiling countenance and wear the six bone ornaments. In your right hand you hold a sword made from meteoritic iron. By merely intimating, the aggregate of the illusory body—the deluded form of habitual dualistic experience that has collapsed like a corpse—is chopped into pieces, scattered far and wide, and ground into atoms and sub-atoms. In your left hand you hold a fluttering white banner of wisdom wind. By waving this banner, you disperse all the flesh, blood, marrow, fat, bones, lymph, sinews, and organs of the physical aggregate into every direction in the world—the cardinal and intermediate directions, above and below—as far as space pervades.

The outer elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space are the illusory body of the physical world. Appearing objects—the five sense objects in between—are the illusory body of manifold emanated appearances. The inner aggregates of flesh, blood, and bones, as described above, are the defiled, perpetuating illusory body. These three illusory bodies are one—they are inseparable—and they spread out [in all directions], equally pervading [the entire world].

Then, from the natural illusory emanation—the pristine basic space of dharmatā—a rain of white, red, and blue light rays pours forth from the seed syllables of the body, speech, and mind of all the victorious ones. This rain—the distillation of undefiled wisdom—drenches the illusory body, thereby purifying all its impurities, the stains of dualistic experience, into emptiness and then multiplying it into a sky-like treasury—the great treasury of inexhaustible dharmatā—endowed with perfect colour, fragrance, taste, and potency.

In scale, it is as vast as the abundant array of desirable sense pleasures of External Manifestation,[8] or of the gods, that emanate vividly and distinctly. All vessel-like worlds—outer appearance—are divine pure realms; all beings inhabiting these worlds—inner existence—are emanations of bliss and joy, the natural expression of the mind; and all phenomena comprising appearing objects, the five sense objects in between, are like billowing white clouds arisen from basic space from which raindrops shower down, filling and covering the entire landscape. This is the nature of the white feast—a great mass of oceanic offering clouds that surpasses thought and defies description, that is emanated and transformed so that it becomes taller than the king of mountains, deeper than the ocean, more numerous than all the atoms in the world, more immense than the southern clouds,[9] brighter than the sun and moon, more expansive than the reaches of space, vaster than the entire environment.

In essence, these clouds of offerings are the undefiled amrita of bliss-emptiness that satisfies merely by being seen, that satiates merely by being touched, that liberates merely by being tasted. In form, they appear as natural springs rich with white grains, white foods, and elixirs such as the three whites, lacking nothing whatsoever. They appear as lakes, ponds, reservoirs and the like, as mountains, valleys, vast plains, grassy meadows and so on, as an emanated banquet of appearing objects surpassing thought. Moreover, they multiply into pleasure groves containing a cornucopia of inconceivable delights—everything you could ever wish for—such as mountains made entirely of the three sweets (sugar, molasses, and honey), as mansions, slates, slopes, moats, oils, and more. Likewise, they arise as forests containing every sort of medicinal plant—amalaki, bibhitaki, haritaki and so on—as groves, gardens, and meadows. This great mass of offering clouds containing riches beyond measure swells and spreads through this entire Saha world. In all directions, both cardinal and intermediate, countless fragrant light rays permeate, like mist lifting off a giant lake, like vapours rising from the ocean, like clouds gathering in the sky. In this way, an unsurpassable banquet of the perfect splendour, wisdom, and qualities of the sky-like treasury of dharmatā amasses and radiates out through the ocean of buddha realms in all ten directions.

Thus, until the objects of the six sense faculties of sentient beings (those to be tamed) dissolve into basic space, or until saṃsāra is emptied, all environments (the vessels), beings (the inhabitants), and sense objects will continue to be transformed into oceans of samadhi offering clouds. Until then, these offerings of unceasing dharmatā, this inexhaustible adornment wheel, will continue to be multiplied and distributed.

You then say “oṃ āḥ hūṃ” three times, the visualization for which was described above, and at the end you simultaneously roll the ḍamaru and ring the bell, blow the thigh-bone trumpet, and say phaṭ three times. With the first phaṭ, you invoke the Three Jewels, the guests of honour; the protectors, the guests of qualities; sentient beings of the six classes, the guests of compassion; and obstructers, the guests of karmic credit, and they all hear your call. With the second phaṭ, they set out, and with the third phaṭ they all arrive, convening in a great flurry, completely filling the whole of space and covering the entire ground like the unfurling of illusory emanations. They remain before you peacefully, free of rivalry and conflict, all filled with bodhicitta and seated joyfully with beaming smiles. In this way, imagine that all the guests have arrived.

C. Distributing the Emanated Appearances and Partaking of them in Dharmatā

This has three parts: 1) the ground, 2) the path, and 3) the fruition.

1. The Ground

This is covered with the section of liturgy beginning, ‘How astonishing! I am the Buddha and I am a sentient being’. ‘How astonishing!’ expresses wonder at having directly met the fundamental nature, the view. Once realization of the primordially pure great perfection—the true nature of mind, sugatagarbha—is made manifest, it is seen that in dharmatā, the state of great awakening, all the maṇḍalas of the buddhas and victorious ones are you yourself, for in the city of the vajra aggregates the display of the kāyas and wisdoms is naturally present, perfect and complete in an illusory and emanated manner, like the sun and its rays.

In the numerous abodes of impure saṃsāra, the many different types of sentient beings, inconceivable in number, each display a limitless and unfixed variety of diverse expressions and behaviours. These may appear and seem to be real, yet they are nothing more than deluded experiences caused by the distortion of ignorant mind that perceives and fixates on self. They occur like dreams; in actuality, they do not exist in any way whatsoever. Rather, they are spontaneously and unobstructedly perfected within you, the basic space of the great perfection. Likewise, the whole array of appearing phenomena—the environment and beings, appearing objects such as the five sense objects, and the internal phenomena of your body, aggregates, elements, and sense sources—are nothing other than the display of the great perfection—of you yourself.

This being so, the basis of emanation for all the phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa is you, dharmakāya Samantabhadra. Dharmakāya Samantabhadra, the ground continuum of sugatagarbha, pervades the whole of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa without qualitative distinction. It permeates everything equally. And so, when the dharmakāya’s true face becomes apparent to you, at the very same time you will see the faces of all buddhas; without searching for buddha elsewhere, you will come face to face with the dharmakāya. If, to this end, you generate intense diligence and willpower, you will naturally awaken to the buddha within, and thereby the three realms of saṃsāra will be shaken from their depths.

In this way, all phenomena are your creations. They are a magical display conjured by you—nothing more than this. So it is that all things depend on the interplay of conditions; all the phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are created by conditions and skilful means. The ground that is free of all fabrications—the basic space that is you yourself—acts as the cause, on the basis of which the movement of wisdom wind acts as the condition producing liberation and delusion and their entire dance of illusory emanations. All phenomena are mere projections onto this display, the manifestation of unobstructed skilful means.

The four types of guests mentioned above, the banquet that is offered and given to them, and the process of multiplying it and distributing it are all directed and transformed through intention by means of the samādhi of the profound view of the practitioner who has realized all phenomena to be illusory. There is not a single thing that is not shaped by intention. Therefore, through the yoga of illusion, the practitioner arranges the illusory market-like gathering of the four types of guests of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa and then emanates out and presents to them the illusory emanation of all phenomena of the external worlds and their inner contents as a banquet of offerings and gifts.

It is from you, the adamantine basic space of phenomena (the cause), and the power of mastery over samādhi (the condition) that all of this emanates—as unobstructed mere appearances arising in all manner of ways. It all emanates out from and is gathered back into the unborn—into me, the innate primordially pure state beyond characteristics and description. There is nothing that is not included and complete within me. By training in this, inconceivably powerful accumulations of merit (the cause) and wisdom (the result) are perfected. And yet in reality, the fundamental nature, profound and peaceful, is beyond projecting and absorbing. Dharmatā is ineffable; basic space transcends action and effort; the naturally luminous nature is nothing whatsoever, yet it is present in itself. This is the nature of the ground, sugatagarbha.

2. The Path

The path consists of a) the view, b) the meditation, and c) the conduct.

a. The View

With phaṭ, all appearances are gathered and dispersed, and thus, I am non-abiding emptiness!

Why is this? The entire multitude of appearing dualistic phenomena—everything encompassed by perceived and perceiver—is the display of emptiness, the great middle way, and you have united your being with the realization of this, the genuine nature. You have realized decisively that all phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are of a single nature—great emptiness, that they are all the phantasmagoria of great emptiness, that they are all the panorama of great emptiness. You have realized that all dualistic experience, all the habitual tendencies of saṃsāric existence, are like illusions for they arise from gatherings of causes and conditions; they are like mirages for they appear to exist when in fact they do not; they are like dreams for they are ephemeral and false impressions; they are like echoes for they abide neither inside, outside, nor anywhere at all; they are like hallucinations for they lack natural existence; they are like cities of scent-eaters for they have no location, abode, nor owner; they are like reflections for they appear yet cannot be pinpointed; they are like the reflection of the moon in water for they arise through interdependence; they are like bubbles for they appear yet lack establishment; they are like emanations for they arise as anything whatsoever, in unfixed ways. Thus, having realized decisively that all phenomena lack reality and are but false, subjective impressions, you take these ten analogies of illusory empty form as the path.

Without discriminating between appearing objects in terms of clean or dirty, better or worse, you multiply them into a mass of offerings and gifts with the samādhi of the sky-like treasury of dharmatā and distribute them as a banquet. From the past until now, due to misperception stemming from ignorance, you have reified the two types of self—the self of person and the self of phenomena. As such, you have been confused. But now, having realized the vital point that all things are unreal, you no longer reify a self in any phenomena whatsoever, neither internal nor external. Through this instruction on profound emptiness that severs reification into the basic space of equality void of self, you subdue rudra (the concept of self) into no-self, and thereby return to the basic space of dharmatā and sustain the fundamental nature in genuinely profound and vast ways. Thus, you come to recognize the ground, the fundamental nature that is the view, and so partake of the consummation of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. Such is the purpose of training in the view.

b. The Path of Meditation

I am unobstructed cognizant potency!

From the perspective of appearance, all phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa take the form of buddhas and deities of the victorious yidam maṇḍalas with faces, hands, implements, ornaments, and attire and exhibit these displays of awakened form. And yet in reality, every single one of these appearances is imprinted with insight, the fundamental nature, emptiness; these appearances are awareness, sugatagarbha, primordial purity beyond characteristics and description, the ineffable and inconceivable vast, reference-free, unrestricted state.

When you unite your being with the genuine nature, then, through the samādhi of the sky-like treasury of dharmatā, which can emanate illusory phenomena like a magician conjuring illusory emanations that appear yet lack reality and characteristics, everything that appears and exists dawns as the display of the divine maṇḍala. It is in this way that the four guests are arranged. All the materially present objects to be offered and given to them are an emanated banquet containing an inexhaustible treasury of sense pleasures—a great vajra offering that grants everything you could possibly desire. They are offering clouds of the inexhaustible adornment wheel partaking of objects (dharmin) as their innate nature (dharmatā) and exhibiting numerous guises in an unfixed dance. Thus, they are also the offering of great self-arisen spontaneous presence. As it is said:

Ema! This offering is a great vajra.
It’s the two accumulations as well,
Filling to the brim the expanse of space—
It knows no end!

Imbue your practice with this. In this way, with this exceptionally profound instruction that in one fell swoop severs the entire web of ensnaring fixation—the mistaken perception of perceived objects as entities and the reification of such entities as truly existent—into the basic space of great bliss, the rudra of saṃsāra (dualistic experience) and all the obstructing forces of no understanding and wrong understanding are subdued into nondual equality and thereby returned to the basic space of empty awareness, the great seal. Then, with offering clouds of the inexhaustible adornment wheel, the banquet is distributed and partaken of on the profound path of its innate nature, dharmatā.

What’s more, this is the path of the unity of generation and completion, the nature of primordial purity beyond characteristics and description, the great seal of bliss-emptiness. In general, the entranceway to the path of meditation in all the various vehicles of dharma is none other than referential meditation and non-referential meditation. And the root of both is by necessity the referential generation stage that pertains to the aspect of skilful means and the non-referential completion stage that pertains to the aspect of insight. These two stages must be practiced as a unity, whether it be on the expedient or definite level; they must be mutually endowed with one another. Otherwise, regardless of the practice you are doing, you will have failed to understand a crucial point of the path. This has been affirmed by the victorious ones of the past. Therefore, there is not a single path in the various vehicles of dharma that is not perfectly complete and contained within the unity of these two stages.

The way in which generation and completion are a unity is related to skilful means and insight. As for the aspect of referential skilful means, in this context multiplying the entire heap of dualistic experience into a great mass of offering clouds and arranging the appearance of the four types of guest is the generation stage. Sealing all of this with the one and only dharmatā is the completion stage. In this way, generation and completion are a unity. In the ultimate state of reference-free insight, the ground—the true nature of mind—is uncontrived great-bliss luminosity, ineffable and pure, the innate condition that is primordially pure and free of all fabrications. Within this innate condition, all appearances are the boundless, spontaneously present display of kāyas and wisdoms and the display of oceanic self-arisen unarranged offering clouds. In this way, generation and completion are a unity. Thus, the meditation serves the purpose of helping the practitioner master the unity of generation and completion.

c. Conduct: Taking [All Experience] as the Path of Dharmatā

I am the spontaneously present youthful vase body from whose display saṃsāra, nirvāṇa, and the path appear. These are all perfect, or complete (dzok), within the basic space of dharmatā as the display of kāyas and wisdoms, which is the king-like common ground of all vehicles and is therefore great (chen).

I will speak a little about the main points of practice taught in the Great Perfection, as they have been explained by my gurus: To begin with, by means of discriminating insight you must resolve that the self of the person and the self of phenomena—all phenomena comprised of perceived and perceiver—are emptiness, like the ten analogies of illusion explained above. The true nature of emptiness is empty awareness that is primordially pure, utterly open, and naked, a profound and peaceful state that is indescribable, ineffable, void of characteristics, and free of all fabrications. It is untainted by contrivance, doubt, and speculation. It is not involved in chains of thoughts of past, present, or future. To recognize this present, fresh fundamental condition as it is—pellucid, pristine, and awake—is the ground.

In the ground, the fundamental condition, all phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa —entities, attributes, true existence, large and small, above and below, the cardinal and intermediate directions, and so on and so forth—are inherently complete, or perfect, as the display of kāyas and wisdoms in the single spherical bindu of the basic space of phenomena. To know this and to directly realize this is called ‘the insight that realizes no-self’. If at this point, you continue to familiarize yourself with this by training day and night with intense diligence, you will attain confidence in the view and meditation. The practitioner who, through these instructions, unites their being with the genuine nature can certainly be described, and even proclaimed, as a practitioner of the Great Perfection.

One can also explain this in stages with reference to the framework of view, meditation, and conduct, and say that during the stage of the view dualistic perception is resolved, during the stage of meditation realization is made manifest, and during the stage of conduct one is liberated through confidence. Nevertheless, I have not made such distinctions. For ease of understanding, I have simply given a brief explanation of the pointing-out instructions in line with the Great Perfection, and I have done so here, in the context of conduct.

It is said that the practitioner endowed with such qualities realizes nakedly and wholly that all phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are none other than awareness, sugatagarbha, the embodiment of the four kāyas and five wisdoms—utterly open primordially purity. This is what is meant by ‘confidence in the view’. The practitioner has now transcended objects of offering and giving, for the three conceptual spheres of the object offered, the act of offering, and the recipient are originally pure within the primordial ground, dharmatā, and the activities of the twofold goal are fulfilled. Thus, the practitioner observes this conduct, ‘the conduct of universal victory’ or ‘the immeasurable conduct’, on the path and returns to the womb of the primordially pure display of spontaneous presence and wisdom, thereby arriving at the ground. Thereby, in the primordial nature, the embrace of luminosity that is inner basic space, the stains of the two obscurations are purified and you attain realization of the secret highway of the victors, in which the appearances of the kāyas and wisdoms are as pervasive as space. Thus, the conduct of taking all experience as the path of dharmatā serves the purpose of perfecting the profound path of the yogic conduct of universal victory.

Not only that, but the view, meditation, and conduct as cultivated in the context of the path are all, in reality, naturally pure and untainted by flaws and stains. Within the single basic space of dharmatā, the entire array of awakened qualities is effortlessly, spontaneously present—this is the secret mind of the victors, the expansive highway of dharmatā. The path that actualizes this is itself the nature of sugata.

3. The Fruition

This has two parts: a) the general fruition and b) the specific fruition.

a. The General Fruition

The four guests of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are in fact perfectly contained within dharmatā, the innate condition. This is actualized by uttering phaṭ three times. It is in the natural ground—Samantabhadra, the Ever-Excellent, whose nature is sugatagarbha throughout the three times—that the host of deities, the form kāyas of the Three Jewels and Three Roots, arise in manifold ways, vividly and distinctly, like the sun and its rays. Thus, the Three Jewels, the guests of honour, are vividly present in basic space.

Here, in the context of the path, through the compassionate power of the self-cognizing wisdom and qualities arisen from the experience and realization of the four visions, bodhisattvas abiding on the bhūmis appear as guardians and dharma protectors, like the moon displaying itself as a reflection in water. You dedicate to all these protectors, the guests of qualities, arisen from the ground.

How to present the offering of dharmatā—the fundamental nature of profound emptiness, undefiled co-emergent great bliss? The guests of spontaneously present appearances revel, without duality, in the immeasurable joy and bliss of inconceivable dharmatā. Thereby they are pleased. And by being assuaged in dharmatā, they are satisfied. Within the basic space of utterly open primordial purity, original radiance, the two obscurations and all habitual tendencies are purified, and the inexhaustible adornment wheel of kāyas, wisdoms, qualities, realms, and arrays are intrinsically perfected as spontaneous presence. With three phaṭs, it is sealed in this way.

In the past, due to lack of awareness, afflicted conceptual mind manifested as the three poisons, like bubbles emerging from water, and in this way the three realms of saṃsāra with the six abodes and types of beings and their respective experiences appeared. These six classes of beings, the guests of compassion, are intrinsically present in your mind. Thus, the guests of compassion are vividly present in your acknowledgement of this.

The plethora of coarse and subtle thoughts—the creative power of conceptual mind—produces a show of great hordes of obstructors and karmic creditors, comprising saṃsāric gods and demons of greater, middling, and lesser rank. All these gods and demons are merely manifestations of interdependence, like the hallucinations triggered by eating datura. Nevertheless, in reality, in the innate state of dharmatā, they have never existed nor occurred. Through the influence of the profound instructions for revelling in all dualistic experience as nondual equality, they are returned to their natural state—they are transformed without being altered. And so, the glorious banquet that is the naturally endless, inexhaustible adornment wheel of sense pleasures, the vast sky-like treasury of the basic space of dharmatā, is partaken of freely. Thus, it is given and bestowed. In this way, the fruition is free of aspiration and free of gain and loss.

If you do not understand these crucial points of practice, you can imagine sending clouds of offerings to the higher guests in the form of light rays. You can then visualize the hosts of victorious deities extracting and consuming the essence of the amrita with light rays that radiate from their tongues, which are marked with their personal insignia, like sun rays striking the ocean. Thereby, the deities’ body, speech, and mind are flooded with delight, and you attain all the supreme and common siddhis without exception. Likewise, you can imagine giving to the lower guests an inexhaustible adornment wheel of everything they could ever wish for, everything they enjoy, like a downpour of precious jewels raining down in glorious abundance. By receiving this, the lower guests are satiated and satisfied, and thereby they are ripened and freed. Visualize distributing the banquet in these ways while saying phaṭ three times.

2. The Specific Fruition

All the guests are grouped into the three categories of outer, inner, and in-between and then further divided into gods and demons—the objects of hope and fear.

Outer

From the perspective of sentient beings to be tamed, all these outer appearing objects are by their very nature either positive or negative, beneficial or harmful. There is not a single object that is of some other character. By viewing all these phenomena as perceived objects, as truly existent entities with attributes, beings are dragged along the confused path of hope and fear. As such, they really are none other than gods and demons.

All phenomena of dualistic experience are, from the very beginning, nondual—they are emptiness. And they are distributed as an emanated great treasury of inexhaustible offerings and gifts. Thus, by offering these lavish and glorious riches with an illusory banquet that manifests in manifold ways, all dualistic phenomena are undone in dharmatā, and you let be in nondual equality. This is the unsurpassable offering.

Why is that? Because all habitual appearances and the confusion that conceptualizes and fixatedly reifies objects are utterly pure in the ground of dharmatā. By nature, they are free of all fabrications. In the indestructible, ultimate nature—objectless, ineffable, utterly open, and unconfined dharmatā—saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are a single bindu. This is the great offering of the immeasurable. By partaking of this offering, you attain the wisdom of the victorious sugatas. This is actualized by uttering phaṭ three times.

Inner

The throngs of coarse and subtle thoughts that perpetuate the hope and fear of perceiving and reifying an inner self have been dragging beings down wrong paths from lifetime to lifetime. As such, these thoughts are gods and demons who haunt the element of mind. By gifting them the unceasing emanated banquet of the appearances of the six collections throughout day and night and the whole of perpetuated time—by presenting them with these glorious riches of the sky-like treasury, these lavish, inexhaustible riches, all of which appear yet lack reality—fixation is undone in basic space, and you let be in co-emergent empty bliss, whereby these throngs of thought dawn as wisdom.

The dense all-ground, which has become excessively rigid and entangled due to intense grasping at ‘I’ and the objects of self-conception, is purified into its fundamental nature and liberated. This is the great offering of the ineffable—the ultimate nature, the unestablished ground that is beyond word, thought, and description, that is rootless and free of the conceptual extremes of fabrication, bliss-emptiness supreme in all aspects, undefiled dharmatā, the basic space of tranquillity. By partaking of this, primordially pure, original inner space is perfectly realized. You take this onto the path by saying phaṭ three times.

In-between

In-between is the fundamental condition that has been solidified into saṃsāric existence tied up with the elements of perceived and perceiver. This in-between saṃsāra is haunted by the interdependent display of hordes of virtuous and evil gods and demons, the objects of hope and fear.

To these gods and demons, you present and give all the phenomena of saṃsāra—the twelve links of interdependence in their forward order, this emanated banquet of the habitual appearances of saṃsāric mind—whereupon you release all mental appearances into nonduality, thereby actualizing great, all-pervading primordial purity.

This occurs as follows: all objects comprising perceived and perceiver, all these confused appearances without exception, naturally collapse and are naturally purified, without acceptance and rejection, into dharmatā, the original ground. Thereby, within the ground, the primordially pure youthful vase body of the spontaneously present great perfection, the display of kāyas and wisdoms expands infinitely. By requesting the guests to partake of this great offering, you attain perfect mastery of subtle great wisdom subsumed within basic space. You say phaṭ three times, then rest evenly. Through this, you gain confidence, beyond hope and fear, in the fact that the fruition is beyond acceptance and rejection. Moreover, when empty awareness is freed in the ground, awakening then occurs directly within the original ground—this fruition is sugata itself.

D. The Concluding Dissolution Phase

Reality transcends something to be dissolved and the act of dissolving. Nevertheless, I will explain the so-called dissolution phase following the lines of the root liturgy that begin, ‘The phenomena of mind’s appearances as the three realms of saṃsāra…’. The concluding dissolution phase of this momentous act of perfecting the two accumulations is performed as follow. The objects of the offering clouds— the all-ground of the dualistic experience that is saṃsāra’s three realms, namely all appearing phenomena projected by the mind and mental factors of the eight collections—collapse, just like the magical display conjured up by a magician suddenly collapsing in space.

In the basic space of phenomena—the luminous nature beyond fabrication and possessing the three gateways to liberation, the fundamental nature, the utterly open expansive mother of insight, the bhaga of the consort of the ultimate great secret—now, and for as long as space remains, saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are pure—they are without qualitative distinction and untarnished by the two obscurations—and equal—they are the boundless, evenly pervading display of the spontaneously present all-knowing three kāyas. Thus, the supreme and common siddhis are attained—ah la la! How incredible! With this, the bhaga of the ultimate great secret—dharmatā—is made manifest.

With the first of the three phaṭs, envision yourself dissolving into nirmāṇakāya Tröma Nakmo’s mind, thereby perfecting the wisdom state of nirmāṇakāya. With the second phaṭ, envision yourself dissolving into the mind of sambhogakāya Khachö Wangmo, thereby perfecting the wisdom state of sambhogakāya. With the third phaṭ, envision yourself dissolving into the mind of dharmakaya Samantabhadrī, thereby perfecting within yourself the wisdom state of dharmakāya. With the realization of the three kāyas made manifest, rest evenly in the ineffable state.

Practitioners who have understood these crucial points of the Great Perfection will cast aside their native lands and keep to isolated mountain retreats in unfixed locations—solitary places where neither people nor dogs are found. If they then devote their entire lives to practice, applying themselves day and night to resting evenly in dharmatā, the state of the great perfection, their present bodies will dissolve into the undefiled rainbow body and they will attain full awakening in the original ground. This is the promise of dharmakāya Vajradhara!

In post-equipoise, when practitioners with samaya sing beautiful songs, drawing the melody out with modulations, all the mother deities, ḍākas, and ḍākinīs will assemble like clouds gathering in the sky. Therefore, while recalling both the words and meaning of dharmatā, the great perfection, like a gandharva maiden singing a song, the practitioner arouses a fearless confidence and, singing sweetly and slowly, drawing the melody out with many modulations, they sing this song of confidence in the view. By doing so, they attain perfect realization of Pacification, the profound Severance of Demons, and swiftly perfect the two momentous accumulations for themselves and others. This concludes the second section, the crucial main part.

III. The Concluding Activities

To dispel the extremes of permanence and nihilism, you should perform the giving of dharma, as follows. While resting free of conceptual references, as described above, instantly, like a bubble arising from water or lightning flashing in the sky, the pure realm appears in full array, vast as the basic space of phenomena. Like the palm of a child’s hand, the ground is perfectly soft, yielding slightly when trodden underfoot and springing back when feet are lifted. There are grass-covered mountains rich with medicinal plants and sweet with fragrant scents, and the entire land is carpeted with blooming lotus flowers of every colour. In all four directions are lakes, bathing ponds, and ambrosial springs whose waters possess the eight excellent qualities.

There are wish-fulfilling trees in full bloom. The soil is made of gold dust. The riverbanks are made of precious gems and the grassy plains of gleaming turquoise. There are all sorts of magical birds flying, perching, and strutting around, and deer, horses, and the like prancing up and down. God-, nāga-, and gandharva-maidens perform songs and dances that kindle the wisdom of great bliss. In the daytime the sky is full of rainbows, and in the nighttime it glows with light. The mere sight of this pure realm liberates the afflictions. By simply arriving here, you arrive at the bhūmi of Perfect Joy. The space is filled with vast offering clouds surpassing thought. The sky is adorned with parasols, victory banners, standards, canopies, and the like, the manifestation of bindus and basic space, forming criss-cross patterns and decorated with ribbons, streamers, small bells, and cymbals. Throughout the far reaches of the sky in all directions, assemblies of ḍākas and ḍākinīs, the display of wisdom’s illusory emanations, are performing song and dance.

In the middle of this blissful pure realm, on an enormous, high throne made of jewels and supported by lions, upon a cushion made of a lotus, sun disc, and moon disc, is the Blessed One, Buddha Śākyamuni, the manifestation of self-cognizing awareness. Gleaming like pure gold and radiating countless rays of light, his body is adorned with the thirty-two excellent marks and the eighty excellent signs, such as an uṣṇīṣa on his crown and wheels on the soles of his feet. He is wearing the three dharma robes and is seated in the vajra posture. With his right hand he makes the earth-touching mudrā and with his left hand he makes the mudrā of expounding dharma. This all appears yet lacks reality, like a rainbow in the sky or the reflection of the moon in water. Visualize like that.

Imagine that from the treasure-like tuft of hair between Buddha’s eyebrows and his entire body, an inconceivable multitude of form bodies radiates out in the form of light rays, filling the entire trichiliocosm, spreading as far as space pervades. These emanations expound the teachings of the three piṭakas and so on—all the dharma of all vehicles—to all sentient beings of the six classes, headed by gods and demons, in accord with their class, capacity, and language.

While envisioning this, say, ‘To Dharmakāya Amitābha, I prostrate….’ and perform the giving and taking of virtue and sin. Then, as you recite, ‘Homage! All phenomena emerge from a cause....’, while aware of the illusory nature of all things, filled with immeasurable love and compassion, and applying, free of distraction, the crucial points of the visualization, imagine that the twelve awakened deeds are enacted in the perception of all beings to be tamed and that, as a result, all are ripened and freed. Freed from the suffering of the specific karmic perceptions of the six classes, they each gain the body of a human or god and attain the state of male and female bodhisattvas.

Then imagine those radiated light rays gathering back and at the same time all sentient beings arriving instantly in a great flurry in the sky before you. By turning the wheel of dharma for them, they all perfect the ten bhūmis and five paths and the wisdom of perfect abandonment and realization and all awakened qualities develop in them. While visualizing that, recite, ‘Namo! On the path of accumulation….’, thereby giving the gift of dharma using the Buddha’s own words. Then seal the practice by aspiring for the liberation of all the beings with whom you are connected. Then, Teacher and retinue all transform into a giant sphere of five-coloured light, and you let be, openly and freely, in the basic space of dharmatā in the spontaneously present display of the three kāyas.

The contents of this text are bound by the seal of secrecy. Accordingly, this text should only be shown to those with the karmic fortune for such instructions. If you show it to those with corrupted samaya, you are likely to receive fierce punishment from the mother ḍākinīs, so observe the seal of secrecy with utmost care!

This explanation of giving the dharma completes the third and final part of this text.

Through the virtue of writing this, may I and all other wanderers
Traverse the swift path of the great secret aboard this chariot
And so cross the ocean of samsara’s suffering
To arrive at awakening in the expanse of basic space!

In the past, Venerable Lobzang requested me many times to compose such a commentary, and though I did make a start, he passed away before I could complete it. Later on, Venerable Pema Tadral and Venerable Sonam Norbu presented me with an auspicious offering scarf of pāñcālika, the priceless cloth of the gods, and requested me again and again to complete the commentary. In response, I, the humble monk Etarādza (Degyal Rinpoche I) composed this in the Secret Crystal Cave of the Ḍākinīs, a hermitage at the supreme site Pal Drakmar Namkha Khyung Dzong (Sky Garuḍa Fortress of the Glorious Red Rock). Sarva maṅgalam! Śubham! Jayantu!

| Translated by Laura Swan, 2025.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

E ta rā dza. "dkar 'gyed kyi ʼgrel pa legs bshad lta ba'i gdeng glu." gsung 'bum padma bde chen rgyal po, edited by Tshe dbang rdo rje. Delhi: Damchoe Sangpo, 1984–1985. Vol. 3: 421–452.

Secondary Source

Dudjom Rinpoche. Tröma Nagmo – Feast of Chöd with Commentary by Dudjom Rinpoche. Translated by Light of Berotsana, 2016.

Version: 1.1-20250506