Kalu Rinpoche | Stages in the Path of Illusion | Lesson 1 (Part 4)

༄༅། །སྒྱུ་མ་ལམ་གྱི་རིམ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ།

༄༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། མ་ཡ་དྷ་ན་ཀྲ་མ་ནཱ་མ།
བོད་སྐད་དུ། སྒྱུ་མ་ལམ་གྱི་རིམ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།
སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

“In the Path of Illusion”, so that’s the title. The meaning of the “In the Path of Illusion”, does not mean that being chaotic. “In the Path of Illusion” means the illusion is seen as the state of the Buddhahood. Let’s put it like this. Nothing in between. The state of illusion is seen as the objective goal. Objective goal or ultimate goal.

So that is the meaning of the illusion. Illusion, illusion, illusion. It does not mean being chaotic, chaotic, chaotic. Meaning of illusion means that is our objective goal to reach, or ultimately over the time.

So understand that correctly, then you will understand the rest of the teachings more easily. Otherwise you will feel little bit like, kind of squeezed.

སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

So there is the teaching taught by Niguma herself, translated by Lotsawa Landhama Lodro. Landhama, that’s the name of the translator. And then Khyungpo Naljor received that translation text and then brought back to Tibet. And over the time, this teaching was spread in Nepal, and also Tibet, in China, Mogolia, and then in the rest of the world. So that’s that.

གདོད་ནས་རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་བ། །
དགོས་འདོད་མ་ལུས་འབྱུང་འགྱུར་ཞིང་།
ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུ་ལྟ་བུ་ཡི། །
སེམས་ཉིད་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

So it’s saying that, from the beginning itself, it’s a clear light, it does not need any sense of needs, and it fulfills by itself, and that, like a Cintamani Stone, I make the prostration to the Cintamani Stone like the nature of the mind, or the nature of the mind like the Cintamani Stone.

རྒྱལ་བ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་བཅུད། །
བརྗོད་བྱའི་སྙིང་པོར་གྱུར་པ་ཡི། །
སྒྱུ་མ་ལམ་གྱི་རིམ་པ་འདི། །
གཞན་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་བཤད་པར་བྱ། །

So now this is a commitment from the Niguma that I will write this teaching. The first is prostration, refuge, and then I will write this teaching. So, it’s a very traditional way of starting the topic.

སྒྱུ་མ་ལམ་གྱི་རིམ་པ་འདི། །
གཞན་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་བཤད་པར་བྱ། །

So, Niguma is saying that, the essence of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, is the nature of the mind. And eventually that is the essence. And the path of the illusion, in order to benefit the sentient beings, with that in mind I will write this down.

Kalu Rinpoche
Teaching on Stages in the Path of Illusion, Lesson 1, Part 4
7th Aug. 2021