From: The Tibetan Book of the Dead1
Confession in the Presence of the View
OṀ
How mistaken is the view which dualizes subject and object, When the expanse of reality is free from conceptual elaboration!
How deluded we have been by our grasping at characteristics! We confess this transgression within the expanse of supreme bliss, which is free from conceptual elaboration!
How debilitating is the view which dualizes good and evil, When Samantabhadra, [The Ever Perfect], is beyond good and evil!
How pitiful we are, clinging to purity and impurity! We confess this transgression within the expanse, which is free from the duality of good and evil!
How mistaken is the view which sees buddhas [as great] and sentient beings [as small],
When, in the state of sameness, there is neither great nor small! How deluded we have been in clinging to the dichotomy of great and small!
We confess this transgression within the expanse of supreme bliss, which is sameness!
How debilitating is the view which dualizes this life and the next, when the mind of enlightenment is free from birth or death! How deluded we have been in clinging to the dichotomy of birth and death!We confess this transgression within the deathless, immutable expanse!
How mistaken is the view which dualizes form and material substance, When the supreme seminal point is free from spatial dimensions!
How deluded we have been in clinging to the dichotomy of corners and angles!
We confess this transgression within the supreme seminal point, which is all-embracing in its symmetry!
How mistaken is the view which dualizes beginning and end, when the essential nature of the three times is unchanging! How deluded we have been in clinging to the dichotomy of transitional processes!
We confess this transgression within the expanse of the three times, which is unchanging!
How debilitating is the view which dualizes cause and effect, When the naturally present pristine cognition arises effortlessly!
How deluded we have been in clinging to the dichotomy of effort and attainment!
We confess this transgression within the naturally present expanse, which arises without effort!
How pitiful is the view which dualizes eternalism and nihilism, When the pristine cognition of [intrinsic] awareness is free from eternalism and nihilism!
How deluded we have been in clinging to the dichotomy of existence and non-existence!
We confess this transgression within the expanse of pristine cognition, which is beyond eternalism and nihilism!”
How debilitating is the view which oscillates between biased positions, when the pure expanse of reality is free from middle and extremes!
How deluded we have been in clinging to the dichotomy of middle and extremes!
We confess this transgression within the pure expanse of reality, which is free from a middle or extremes!
How debilitating is the view which dualizes outside and inside, when the celestial palace is free of outer dimensions!
How deluded we have been in clinging to the dichotomy of spaciousness and confinement!
We confess this transgression within the expanse [of the celestial palace] which is free from the duality of spaciousness and confinement, or of inner and outer dimensions!
How debilitating is the view which dualizes objects and mind, When the Buddha-body of Reality (Dharmakāya)2– Ed.)) is free from individuated distinctions!
How deluded we have been in clinging to the dichotomy between the environment and its inhabitants!
We confess this transgression within [the expanse of] the Buddha-body of Reality, which is unchanging!
How pitiful is this mind obscured by ignorance, which grasps immaterial phenomena as materially substantive! We confess this transgression within the expanse of natural pristine cognition!
Since we have failed to understand the nature of uncreated truth, how tormented is this intellect of a bewildered being, which apprehends the uncreated truth in terms of ‘I’ and ‘mine’!
We confess this transgression within the expanse of supreme bliss, which is uncreated! Since we have failed to mentally elucidate the nature of reality, we have not understood that phenomenal appearances are illusory, and thereby our minds have become attached to material wealth!
We confess this transgression within the uncreated reality, which is free from attachment!
Since we have failed to realize that cyclic existence is free from inherent existence, We have grasped at the self-existence of things and their characteristics, and thereby sought happiness through non-virtuous behavior.
How deluded we have been in clinging to the dichotomy between hope and doubt!
We confess this transgression within the expanse of enlightenment, which is untainted!
Since we have failed to understand the truth of sameness with true equanimity, we have mistakenly clung to the permanence of relatives and friends.
How totally mistaken is this mind of ignorant people [such as ourselves]!
We confess this transgression within the expanse of supreme bliss, which is sameness!
Since we have failed to encounter the true meaning of reality, we have forsaken truth and persevered in non-virtuous acts. We have forsaken the transmitted precepts of the Teacher and have been deceived by the vagaries of [mundane] human doctrines!
We confess this transgression within the expanse of supreme bliss, which is reality!
Since we have failed to experience the natural liberation of pristine cognition, which is [intrinsic] awareness, We have forsaken the modality of intrinsic awareness, and persevered in distracted acts.
Take pity on these sentient beings who are devoid of such truthful experience!
We confess this transgression within the expanse, which is free from distraction!
To the assembled deities of pristine cognition, to the protectors who uphold the commitments, and to those yogins who have fulfilled their commitments in accordance with the textual elucidation, We remorsefully confess all our own faults, all our deviations and obscurations generated by us.
- The Tibetan Book of the Dead, first complete translation; composed by Padmasambhava; Penguin Books ISBN-13: 978-0-140-45529-8; ISBN-10: 0-140-45529-9. p.143-147 [↩]
- Dharmakāya [from dharma law, continuance from the verbal root dhṛ to support, carry, continue + kāya body] Continuance-body, body of the law. One of the trikāya of Buddhism, which consists of 1) nirmanakāya, 2) sambhogakāya, and 3) dharmakāya. “It is that spiritual body or state of a high spiritual being in which the restricted sense of soulship and egoity has vanished into a universal (hierarchical) sense, and remains only in the seed, latent — if even so much. It is pure consciousness, pure bliss, pure intelligence, freed from all personalizing thought” (Occult Glossary p. 38). In the dharmakāya vesture the initiate is on the threshold of nirvana or in the nirvānic state. Sometimes the dharmakaya is called the “nirvana without remains,” for once having reached that state the buddha or bodhisattva remains entirely outside of every earthly condition; he will return no more until the commencement of a new manvantara, for he has crossed the cycle of births. Dharmakāya state is that of parasamādhi, where no progress is possible — at least as long as the entity remains in it. Such entities may be said to be for the time being crystallized in purity and homogeneity. This is, likewise, one of the states of ādi-buddha, and as such is called the mystic, universally diffused essence, the robe or vesture of luminous spirituality. [↩]
