THE WAKING PRACTICE by Jigmey Lingpa Oh my, oh my! What a mess! Fortunate son of the family, Don’t let yourself be oppressed by deluded ignorance, Instead, arouse intensg perseverance and get up now! And look, from time without beginning till now You’ve been content with a long sleep of ignorance; Now instead, put some effort into virtue with your three doors! Can’t deal with the sufferings of birth, sickness, old age, and death? There’s no better opportunity for beginning than this very day! The time has come to arouse perseverance for accomplishment! This is your one chance for a final and easy accomplishment” So it is not a time to sit around in a state of procrastination. Think of death and let that escort you to the end of practice. ‘8 In the Buddhist tradition, the path is described as the one that is both accomplished easily and leads to the ultimate ease of a definite, final peace.2 THE LONGCHEN NYINGTHIG PRELIMINARIES There’s no guaranteed lifespan and there are inconceivable numbers of circumstances for death, So when the time comes, if you haven’t obtained a profound ability for it not to harm you, Please, you tell me ordinary being, what about it will be all right? Dharmas lack a self; they are empty and free of elaboration. Live them as though they were illusions, mirages, Dreams, reflections, gandharva’s cities, and echoes’*. You should know that the dharmas of sarnsara and nirvana Are like the ten examples of illusory knowables— A moon in water, bubbles, visual distortions, emanations, and so on. Dharmas are not produced with a nature; They have no abiding, no cessation, no coming and going. They are referenceless and concept-token-less'’, and so are beyond thought and verbal expression. The time has come for you to get on with realizing that meaning! Namo GURUBHYAH, NAMO DEVABHYAH, NAMO DAKKIBHYAH™’. Oh my, oh my! Oh my, oh my! The impermanent dharmas of samsara '* These are several examples of emptiness from among the set of thirteen examples given by the Buddha in the Prajnaparamita sutras. Gandharvas are like the fairies of European tradition and their cities are like the fairy citadels; apparent to those who can see them but just an apparition put in place by the fairy’s themselves, 5 See concept tokens in the glossary. ‘© This Sanskrit says, “Homage to the guru, homage to the personal deity, and homage to the dakinis”. It is a homage to the Three Roots.THE WAKING PRACTICE 3 Are a karmic ocean from which there’s no release, which migrators have stayed in for a long time”; How I have compassion for the migrators tormented by karma! Grant your blessings so that the ocean of suffering can dry up! Migrators tormented by ignorance and karma Because of wanting happiness act out the karmas which bring suffering; How I have compassion for the migrators who have no skill in method! Grant your blessings that their obscurations of afflictions and karmas be purified! Here in this prison of being trapped by desires and grasped- grasping", They are like forest creatures who keep on re-entering the trap; How I have compassion for these ones having the delusions of ignorance! Grant your blessings that they be shaken out of the pit of samsara! "” Migrators is a very commonly-used word for sentient beings. The term in Sanskrit and Tibetan literally means “goers”. The term gives the specific sense of beings who are in a constant state of migration as they go from one existence to another. The example given when this word is explained is that beings in samsara are like flies buzzing around in a jar, zooming from one place to another and resting for a moment before zooming off again. The term is often avoided these days and replaced with “being” but doing so is short-sighted because it loses the image that is being presented of the condition of sentient beings. '8 See the glossary.