Employing the Crucial Point

Employing the Crucial Point

from The Profound Instruction of Tendrel Nyesel 

revealed by Tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa

The root of all faults and defects is nothing other than ignorance.

This ignorance is like mistaking a heap of stones on the horizon for a human figure; it has no basis whatsoever, which means that the root of faults and defects does not even exist!

Ignorance is simply the failure to recognize the natural state, the essence of the absolute truth, namely the wisdom of rigpa.

This is how, when the ‘face of rigpa’ is not recognized, ignorance will suddenly appear; but since there is ultimately nothing at all that is outside the nature of rigpa, the pure, natural state, then even if you were to search for faults and defects, you would not be able to find any. This is what is known as ‘transforming failure to recognize into direct self-recognition.’

Now, when a person of superior capacity receives the introduction, everything arises as enlightenment, within the vastness of all-encompassing wisdom. Delusion is purified and liberated in the Ground, and they discover a deep confidence, free of any fear or anxiety about impure causes and results (emotions and karma) in the future. They are completely victorious on the battlefield of saṃsāra.

Even when individuals who are not of superior capacity are introduced directly to the natural state, they recognize all phenomena as its display, and so for them everything arises as appearances which are pure, and without clinging to things as being ‘good’, in any solid, intrinsic way, everything is liberated by itself in the state of equality. For once you have an unmistaken realization of the natural state, it is simply impossible for you not to be liberated!

So when you realize that the ignorance which is the root of faults and defects is no other than the wisdom of rigpa, then:

• the five poisonous emotions created by that ignorance will be no other than the five wisdoms, and
• all suffering will be none other than the union of bliss and emptiness.

Since all causes and effects are completely pure, and there cannot be anything impure in the pure natural state, so there is not even anything to ‘be transformed’.

Even so, sentient beings are overwhelmed by delusion, and negative emotions and suffering arise beyond their control, but in so far as they can recognize these risings as ‘purity’, they will have transformed them there and then. Then, since there is nothing pure to search for, they are free from hope. And since there is nothing impure to search for, they are free from fear.

Once you have seized the stronghold of this natural state, which is free of all hope and fear, this is actually the unchanging truth of dharmatā, from which there is no turning back. This crucial point is the final state of the Great Perfection, which is quite unlike what is explained in the ordinary practices of the generation stage (kyerim) and perfection stages (dzogrim). It is the ultimate—nothing could be more profound.

Otherwise, what we call ‘pure’ and what we call ‘impure’, are simply emptiness and egolessness, grasped as ‘I’ and ‘mine’. So, knowing that all clinging to an ‘I’ is really nothing other than egolessness, whenever a thought of ‘I’ arises, do not follow after it, but remember the truth of egolessness.

What we call ‘pure’ is by nature emptiness. What we call ‘impure’ is a delusion with respect to the truth. Therefore, even when something arises which looks as though it’s true, because in fact it is emptiness, then do not follow after it with even the slightest trace of grasping at it as real, but recognize that its nature is emptiness and rest naturally in that state of vivid clarity.

Ultimately all phenomena are primordially empty and without identity, and therefore there is not anything to be transformed. It is only the appearance of things as real in the minds of those who are deluded that can be ‘transformed’. What we call ‘complete purity’ is the maṇḍala of the wisdom body, speech and mind of the deity. What we call ‘impurity’ is the five skandhas, the five elements, and the six senses of the six classes of beings. Although they do arise as skandhas, elements and senses, in fact they are nothing other than the maṇḍala of the three vajras, so do not follow wrong thoughts about them being impure, but instead recognize that ‘complete purity’ as the self-display of primordial wisdom, and rest in that state of vivid clarity.

In reality, all phenomena possess the nature of the three maṇḍalas from the very beginning, so there is nothing to be transformed. Only inasmuch as they arise as the phenomena of saṃsāra of those who are deluded is there any question of transformation.

These skilful means are known as ‘practices for all that we encounter during post-meditative awareness’, and a beginner cannot afford to be without them.

If you completely master the Great Perfection, then whatever appears will be naturally freed through the three kinds of self-liberation, and so there is no need for any complicated effort. Whatever arises is already, from the very beginning liberated, and delusion simply does not exist in that natural state: so what is there to liberate? On the level of appearances, whatever arises in the mind, all thoughts of good and bad, are self-liberated directly, upon the rigpa.

These then were the ultimate pith instructions for: the elimination of faults and defects, the prevention of their arising, protection against them, and transforming them, and there is nothing that surpasses this.

“Listen Tsogyal! A skilful method, a mengak, as profound and rare as this is exceptionally rare and precious. Its qualities are quite unique. It is truly like a wish-granting gem!

“If a yogin who has obtained this instruction takes it to heart by practising it, and teaches it correctly to others, then all their true aspirations will swiftly be fulfilled.

“And in particular, in the final five-hundred-year period of this dark age, those fortunate ones who have been empowered with the profound termas of Padma, when faults in interdependence endanger their lives, when the door of Dharma is closed and the need for termas ignored, if they take these instructions to heart and practise them, will find enormous benefit. Then their power to benefit beings will increase, and their lives will reach their natural span. This is my promise, the promise of Padma.”

| Translated by Rigpa Translations. First published on Lotsawa House, 2025.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

"rten ʼbrel nyes sel gyi gdams pa zab mo." In las rab gling paʼi gter chos. Bylakuppe: Pema Norbu Rinpoche, 1985. Vol. 1: 745–883.

Version: 1.0-20251125