The Kusāli's Instruction on the Nature of Mind 

By Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö











JKNM-Source 

JKNM-Translation 

Kongtrul.jpg


འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་


༄༅། 

[JKNM-T] ཀུ་སཱ་ལིི་སེམས་ཁྲིད

The Kusāli's Instruction on the Nature of Mind

༄༅།  

[JKNM-H] ན་མོ་གུ་རུ 

Namo guru!


[JKNM-1] ལྟསྒོམབཤད་ཚུལམང་ལགསཀྱང རང་སེམསངོ་བོ་སྐྱོངའདུས 

Although there are many ways of explaining view and meditation, 

They all come down to sustaining the essence of one's own mind.


[JKNM-2] སེམསཞེསགཞན་དུ་ཡོད་པམིན ད་ལྟའིརྣམ་རྟོགའདི་ཀཡིན 

What we call 'mind' is not something that exists elsewhere

— It is the very thought that you are experiencing right now!


[JKNM-3] དེ་རྗེསཕྱི་རུམིའབྲང་བ ཁོ་རངརང་ངོབལྟས་པི་ཚེ བལྟ་བྱ་ལྟ་བྱེདགཉིས་སུ་མེད སྟོང་པཡིན་པདངོས་པོ་མེད གསལ་བཡིན་པརང་གིསརིག  

So without being swept away and following wherever it leads,

Look directly into its face, its very own essence,

At that time, there's no duality of 'looker' and 'looked at'.

As it is empty, there's no real substance.

As it is clear, it is aware of itself.


[JKNM-4] ཐ་དད་མ་ཡིནཟུང་དུ་འཇུག ཅི་ཡང་མེདལསཅི་ཡངའཆར 

These qualities are not separate—they are a unity.

Out of nothing at all, anything at all can arise.


[JKNM-5] དེ་ཉིདརང་ངོ་ཤེསཙམགྱི མི་བརྗེདདྲན་པབསྐྱང་བལས བསྒོམ་བྱགཞན་དུམིའཚོལཞིང

You need only sustain this with the mindfulness of never forgetting

This bare and simple recognition of the nature itself—

There's no need to search for some other object of meditation!


[JKNM-6ཡིན་མིནབཟོ་བཅོསརེ་དོགསཀྱིས མ་བསླདརང་སར་བཞག་པཡིན 

Untainted by fabricated hopes and anxieties— 'Is it?' or 'Is it not?'—

Allow the mind to settle, directly, just as it is.


[JKNM-7] ཐ་མལ་ཤེས་པབཟོ་མེདའདི ཆོས་སྐུ་འོད་གསལམཐར་ཐུགཡིན 

This unfabricated and 'ordinary' knowing

Is the ultimate clear light of dharmakāya.


[JKNM-8] ཕྱག་རྫོགསཆོས་སྐདགྲངས་མངཡང ཉམས་ལེནརྩ་བའདི་རུའདུས 

Although many special terms exist in Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen,

The real root of the practice boils down to simply this.


[JKNM-9དེཡིསམི་ཆོགསངས་རྒྱསཞེས བཟང་པོགཞན་དུའཚོལ་བདེ རེ་དོགསའཆིང་བཡིནཕྱིརསྤོངས 

Not content with this, seeking 'Buddhahood' as some other excellence

Is merely to be bound up in hope and fear – something to avoid!


[JKNM-10] དེ་འདྲཇི་བཞིན་རྟོགས་པི་ཐབས མོས་གུསཚོགས་བསགསགལ་ཆེ་བ 

As a means of bringing about realisation in this way,

Devotion and the accumulations are of the utmost importance.


[JKNM-11] རྟག་ཏུབླ་མཨོ་རྒྱན་རྗེ མོས་གུསགནད་དུ་བསྣུན་པདང སྒོ་གསུམདགེ་ལ་འབདར་ཚལ 

So always emphasise devotion for the guru and Lord of Orgyen,

And strive to practice virtue with your body, speech and mind.


[JKNM-Dསྒ་སྟོད་ཁྲི་འདིུ་རིག་སྔགས་འཆང རངསློབ་པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལངོར བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡསཀུ་སཱ་ལི བདེ་ཆེན་འོད་གསལ་གླིངནསབྲིས དགེ་ལེགས་འཕེལ །།

In response to the request of my own student, Pema Chöpel,

A holder of awareness mantras from Gatö Trindu,

I, the kusāli Lodrö Thayé, wrote this from Dechen Ösal Ling.

May virtue and positivity abound!


Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2015.