Old Man Basking in the Sun

The First Theme: Absence The Disclosure of Absence
First let me tell you about `absence',
the absence that is essentially emptiness:
in the super-matrix of pure mind that is like space
whatever appears is absent in reality.
In the universal womb that is boundless space
all forms of matter and energy occur as flux of the four elements,

but all are empty forms, absent in reality:
all phenomena, arising in pure mind, are like that.
Magical illusion, whatever its shape,
lacks substance, empty in nature;
likewise, all experience of the world, arisen in the moment, unstirring from pure mind, is insubstantial evanescence.
Just as dream is a part of sleep, unreal gossamer in its arising,
so all and everything is pure mind, never separated from it,
and without substance or attribute.
Experience may arise in the mind
but it is neither mind nor anything but mind;
it is a vivid display of absence, like magical illusion, in the very moment inconceivable and unutterable. All experience arising in the mind,
at its inception, know it as absence!
Just as the objective field is absent in reality, so `the knower'-in actuality pure mind, in essence an absence, is like the clear sky: know it in its ineffable reality!
In the heart-essence that is self-sprung awareness,
the absence of causality closes the abyss of samsara,
the absence of discrimination integrates samsara and nirvana, and in the absence of glitches and veils the triple world coalesces.
In total presence, the nature of mind that is like the sky, where there is no duality, no distinction, no gradation,
there is no view nor meditation nor commitment to observe, no diligent ideal conduct, no pristine awareness to unveil,

no training in the stages and no path to tread,
no subtle level of realization, and no final union.
In the absence of judgement nothing is `sacred' or `profane', only a one-taste matrix, like the Golden Isle;
the self-sprung nature of mind is like the sky,
its nature an absence beyond all expression.
The actual essence, pristine gnosis,
cannot be improved upon, so virtue is profitless, and it cannot be impaired, so vice is harmless;
in its absence of karma there is no ripening of pleasure or pain; in its absence of judgement, no preference for samsara or nirvana; in its absence of articulation, it has no dimension; in its absence of past and future, rebirth is an empty notion: who is there to transmigrate? and how to wander? what is karma and how can it mature?
Contemplate the reality that is like the clear sky!
Constantly deconstructing, investigating keenly, not even the slightest substance can be found;
and in the undivided moment of nondual perception we abide in the natural state of perfection.
Absent when scrutinized, absent when ignored, not even an iota of solid matter is attested;
so all aspects of experience are always absent-know it as nothing but magical illusion!
During the empty enchantment of dream ignorant babes are entranced,
while the wise, disillusioned, are undeceived; those unaware of the truth of absence, clinging to their identity, wander in circles, while the wise yogin, fully present,

knowing the zing of reality,
convinced of the absence in that very moment, is liberated in the non-contingent reality-matrix.
In total presence, the indeterminate nature of mind,
lies the timeless pristine awareness of nondual perception; in sheer naked, non-contingent, gnosis,
lies the nondiscriminatory holistic seed;
in the holistic transparence of zero-dimensional gnosis, lies the contemplation of Dharmakaya Samantabhadra; in essential absence, the intrinsic gnosis of total presence, nonreferential, immaculate contemplation is shining.
In the yoga of enchanting illusion, the play of gnostic vision, empty experience arises as evanescent, uncrystallizing, display, and convinced of absence in the moment of its inception, without the least urge to control, to cultivate or reject, we remain open, at ease, carefree and detached.
A fool deceived by magical illusion is like an animal pursuing a mirage in his thirst for water;
expecting his delusive hopes to be realized,
trusting in his dogma, he is trapped;
losing his way on the eight-fold gradation of intellect, he fails to see the real meaning.

The spaciousness within and beyond the atiyoga precepts is a complete absence, nothing whatsoever, like the sky:
in the very moment, in the natural disposition of pure being, as the original hyperspace that we cannot abandon, the natural state of pure pleasure is spontaneously arisen.
If secret gnosis, the actual buddha-dynamic, eludes us, to attain release by any purposeful action is no option. `Everything is impermanent and bound to perish'
how can a tight mesh of body, speech and mind reach out to touch its own indestructible core?
So if we aspire to the supreme state of being
we should cast aside all childish games that fetter
and exhaust body, speech and mind;
and stretching out in inconceivable nonaction,
in the unstructured matrix, the actuality of absence,
where the natural perfection of reality lies,
we should gaze at the uncontrived sameness of every experience, all conditioning and ambition resolved with finality.
In the absence of outside and inside, subject and object, intrinsic gnosis, being out of time and space,
supersedes all finite events that seemingly begin and end; pure as the sky, it is without signposts or means of access. Any specific insight into gnosis is always deluded,
so that any spiritual identity, always delusive, is abandoned; and convinced that the space of undifferentiated Samantabhadra
is the all-encompassing super-emptiness of all samsara and nirvana, the natural state obtains as the reality without transition or change. Breaking out of the brittle shell of discursive view
into the hyperspaciousness that is nowhere located,
in the experience of absence the crux of the matter is fully disclosed

 

Assimilation of All Experience to Absence
Once the existential crux of absence has been disclosed, in the gnosis of carefree detachment, in nonmeditation,
the nondiscriminatory space of whatever occurs is assimilated, gnosis congruent with the nondual super-matrix of mind.
Pure pleasure left alone in vajra-spaciousness,
gives uncultivated, spontaneous, hyper-concentration;
with the yogin settled in uncontrived sameness,
it shines forth easily, a constant, like a river's strong current.
Authentic sky-like reality in its utter simplicity, unchangeable, admits no gradation,
and its ineluctable all-suffusing spaciousness
has no language to express itself.
Yet insight bursting through, gnosis self-arising, uninhibited by his learning, without any pedantry, the yogin in whom mental silence supersedes ideation gains conviction in signlessness, without sign or no sign, and since there is no meditator nor object of meditation, lethargy and agitation need not be confronted as foes.
Essential absence has already released dualistic perception, so delusion falls naturally into the matrix of sameness-we live without interruption in pure being.
Inception and release are simultaneous entwining in the single blissful matrix:
whatever arises appears spontaneously as its pure nature,
as it abides it exists spontaneously as its pure nature,
when it vanishes it dissolves spontaneously as its pure nature.
Whatever arises in the reality-matrix, release is reflexive, always a play of pure being, never shifting into anything other, a timeless vision, another form of emptiness
we live in nondiscriminatory essential reality.
Whatever occurs in the mind, quiescent or proliferating, as one of the five `poisons' or any other gnostic potency,
in the very peculiarity of its arising and in that very moment,
it recognizes itself, fully potentiates, and vanishes without trace: the crucial carefree detachment at the subject/object junction, the crucial self-sprung awareness as a bird's traceless trajectory,

the crucial all-inclusive spaciousness as a unitary billowing ocean, and even the crucial focus upon the sublime mystery itself, are assimilated from the beginning in every experience, and mere recognition of this crux is the reality of release.
In the intrinsic gnostic dynamic of the super-matrix,
everything the very same at inception, in existence and upon release, nothing unequal, nothing fixed, nothing unreleased, total integration in the ultimate total-presence matrix is assured.
Involuntarily, in spontaneous gnosis
the free buddha-dynamic is naturally present,
and the pure mind that supersedes moral conditioning is one with unchanging reality.

The Ineluctable Bind of Absence
The dynamic of space that is the nature of absence binds all experience without exception;
just as matter and energy are bound by elemental space, so all events, self-imaged, are bound by super-emptiness.
Samsara merely a label, goal-oriented endeavor is undermined; and in the emptiness that cannot be improved or impaired, freedom is just another word, and there is no nirvana: striving in the ten techniques accomplishes nothing.
Exhausting exercises exacting struggle and strain,
with short-lived product, like a child's sand-castle,
and, moreover, all moral endeavor,
all experience is caught from the beginning in the bind of absence.
Now, the ati-yogin, the yogin of essence, forsakes all provisional techniques
designed for straight cause and effect babes
on the lesser, laddered, path,
and binds the gnostic dynamic
that supersedes all clever technique to the yoke of the nonactive sky.
Deliberate action deceives-look at treacherous samsara! Diligence corrupts-consider the vicious cycle of suffering! Neither virtue nor vice can stop the turning of the wheel, and accumulated karmic propensity may lead up or down but it gives no chance of release from existence.
For the person in whom the flow of good and bad ceases there is no duality of union with and separation from reality, and that hyper-yogin, certain in the great mystery, effortlessly reaches the natural state of original perfection and abides forever in the royal citadel of pure being.
In the very moment, therefore, of an event occurring, whoever recognizes the language of biased projection and morally discriminating goal-directed endeavor as unreal, like the nonactive sky,
he catches all experience in the snare of absence.


Resolution in Absence
Resolution in absence is the very heart of the matter: all the various events of samsara and nirvana in their inherent absence belie their existence,
in their unceasing appearance belie their nonexistence, neither existent nor nonexistent, being both is belied, and since both are absent, being neither is also denied. In the intrinsic absence of assertion and negation,
reality, indefinable, cannot be indicated as any one thing

So reality is alpha-pure,
yet the babes who are careless of that
stay attached to their various ideas and opinions.
What mania to believe in concrete ideas!
How sad to believe in an `I' that is actually absent!
How disheartening to make an argument out of nothing!
How we love those fervent believers, eternal migrants in samsara!
White or black, virtuous or vicious,
all clouds equally obscure the sun of intrinsic gnosis.
Stressed by the lightening of frustrated discriminating endeavor an incessant downpour of delusive satisfaction and grief
waters the seeds of samsara, ripening the harvest of the six realms, and we love all the tormented beings!
In the ultimate definitive analysis
just as golden chains and hempen ropes are equally binding, so the sacred and the profane do both enslave us;
and just as white and black clouds are equally enshrouding, so virtue and vice alike veil gnosis:
the yogin or yogini who understands that
fosters release from moral conditioning.
As self-sprung awareness arises from within
and the dark night of causality dissolves
the clouds of moral duality melt away
and the sun of nondual truth dawns in the field of reality. This is final, ultimate resolution,
induced by the absence of the ten techniques,
exalted above all progressive approaches.
The intangible samadhi that lacks any field of meditation, pristine, simple, intrinsic gnosis,
consumes all events in consummate resolution,
and all experience spent, itself is consumed.

Since the consuming or non-consuming is resolved in absence, its existence as ineffable is never in question.
What is a vast nonreferential panorama,
all experience consummate, `no mind!'
and that is the yogin's delight!
A single field of dynamic space
integrating past, present and future,
an unbroken holistic field of reality,
that is the arena shared by all buddhas and masters of gnosis.
The unchanging and indivisible, non-composite matrix, the matrix of self-sprung awareness beyond endeavor, the ineffable matrix where labels are a joke,
this is the nonactive space of Samantabhadra,
where everything is the spaciousness of Samantabhadra, where empty appearances are neither good nor bad.
Absence reified as some `thing' is delusive projection; but in the very moment of projection
there is neither delusion nor non-delusion
and everything is resolved in hyper-namelessness: that is the way of natural perfection.
In all experience of samsara and nirvana, inner and outer, convinced of the absence of both delusion and freedom from delusion, we do not seek to abandon samsara to attain nirvana; with conviction in the absence of birth and birthlessness belief in life and death, existence and nonexistence, is suspended; with conviction in the absence of right and wrong, there is equanimity in the absence of value judgement, and all experience is resolved in Samantabhadra's matrix.
The first theme of The Treasury of Natural Perfection, showing conclusively that all experience is beyond thought and expression, is concluded.

 

The Second Theme: Openness
The Disclosure of Openness
Now that you have sussed absence as the natural way of being I shall show you the nature of openness.
The transmission of atiyoga, the apex approach, like space, is without center or boundary;
higher than the highest, it is Samantabhadra's vast mind, an immense seamless super-sameness.
All inner and outer experience manifest and unmanifest pure mind,
unstirring from unstructured reality, ineffable, zero-dimensional,
remains open, constantly, without interval.
In the moment, all things in the objective field,
in the absence of any substantial aspect, are open to infinity, and intrinsic gnosis, wherein past and future are indivisible, likewise is open wide to sky-like infinity;
the past closed, the future unbegun,
the present is indeterminate pure mind,
and signless, rootless, without foundation or substance, it is an untrammeled openness at the boundless center.
In essential reality, which lacks all bias and partiality,
view, empowerment, mandala and mantra-recitation are absent, and levels, paths, commitment, training and progress are unimaged; all are wide open, unfounded, boundless vastness,
everything embraced by pure-mind reality.
All experience, however it may appear, is hallowed in its unoriginated nature;
'arising spontaneously, never fixed or crystalized, immaculate in its ontological indeterminacy,
it opens infinitely into the reality of natural perfection.
Gnosis, the essential reality of total presence,
with a 360 degree perspective, free of quantitative bias, unsubstantiated by language or logic,
unsigned, neither eternal nor temporal,
subject to neither increase nor decrease,
without directional movement or pulsation,
immaculate in the immensity of immanent hyper-sameness, it is seamless openness unconfined by space and time.
The gnostic dynamic lacks any intrusive hope or fear, so nothing can happen to rupture seamless openness; in such autonomous, genuine, unrestricted freedom we can never be caught in a cage of belief
All and everything reverted to openness,
its nature is beyond denial or assertion;
just as all worlds and life-forms open into interior space, so emotion and evaluating thought
melt into hyperspaciousness.
Now here, now gone, thoughts leave no trace, and opened wide to seamless gnosis
hopes and fears are no longer credible,
the stake that tethers the mind in its field is extracted, and Samsara, the city of delusion, is evacuated.
Whosoever recognizes the events appearing in the external field and the internal mental emanation, all that play of energy, all alike, as utterly empty openness,
to him is disclosed everything as this key-this crucial openness.

Assimilation to Openness
The endless facets of reality are now assimilated
to the brilliant emptiness of intrinsic gnosis
which is the pristine awareness of openness;
the perceiver unloosed, the field of perception dissolved, with nothing to hold on to, yet with full awareness,
this is the contemplation of consummate undistracted mindfulness: open like the sky, neither meditation nor nonmeditation, it is the super-matrix of Samantabhadra's contemplation.
In the vast gnostic super-matrix of brilliant emptiness, no matter what evanescent particularity shows itself
the direct sensory perception of gnosis illuminates its reality and the image unconfined, cognition is pure pleasure;
the six sensory fields relaxed in the pristine-awareness matrix, clear light, unobstructed, without outside or inside,
in artless super-relaxation-spontaneity!
With the carefree mind of an idler,
neither tight nor slack, we rest easy;
here gnosis is infinitely open, like a crystal-clear sky,
and we linger gratefully in spaciousness without anticipation.
With spacious intuition of the brilliant emptiness of reality, unconfined gnosis is a seamless infinite openness,
and free of belief all ideation dissolving,
all things converge in the matrix of the gnostic dynamic. The blissful ground and a happy mind blended,
inside and outside is the one taste of pure mind:
this is the vision of reality as the consummate way of being.
At the moment of engaging with a sensory object,
the mind is opened to infinite, blissful vision,
and free of belief, as its luminous expression, its natural clarity, it is assimilated to super seamless openness.

The Bind of Openness
In the clear sky wherein dualistic fixation has dissolved, free of the turmoil of compulsive thought,
gnosis is bound in naturally luminous openness:
the vajra-dance of seamless unconfined reality,
pristine awareness of the hyper-sameness of the here-and-now, enjoys the natural seal of Samantabhadra's timeless dynamic.
Sleep entraps our dreams
as unreal and empty images;
experience of samsara and nirvana is caught in mind, evanescent in the pure-mind super-matrix.
Just as all worlds and life-forms in the matrix of elemental space are a seamless openness without center or circumference, so all dualistic appearances within the gnostic matrix
are bound as empty images, open inside and outside.
This is the bind of pure mind that embraces all things
revealed as nondiscriminatory openness free of perceptual duality.
The pure mind that binds all things is also bound, bound by nonspatial, atemporal, super-openness; like the vast space that binds all matter and energy, it is without extension, utterly ineffable.
In gnosis, inclusive nonspatial sameness,
experience of samsara and nirvana never concretizes;
in the very moment no mind nor event can be specified: everything is bound by wide open reality.
Out of time, the unbreakable pure-mind seal
is affixed for all in Samantabhadra's hyper-expanse;
reinforced by the dynamic of the lama, master of beings and truth, it is naturally confirmed in the timelessly purified vajra-heart.

Accessible only to the most fortunate-not for all,
the sublime mystery of definitive truth,
the bind of the vajra-point beyond transition or change, the dynamic super-matrix of gnostic clear light,
though innate, is difficult to keep in mind:
recognized by the grace of the lama, master of beings and truth, it is known as `the all-inclusive bind of seamless openness'.


Resolution in Openness
Here is the essential meaning of resolution in openness: coming from nowhere, abiding nowhere and going nowhere, external events, unoriginated visions in empty space, are ineffable; internal events, arising and released simultaneously,
like a bird's flight-path in the sky, are inscrutable.
Mind in its field, just as it is, is surely self-sprung gnosis, beyond any identity in its ineffable simplicity;
like the sky lacking any dynamic, it is an empty scope;
in the absence of deliberate action, it is beyond moral distinction; and in the absence of causality, it is unattainable by the ten methods. This ineffable matrix of vast untrammeled openness, neither something nor nothing, utterly empty,
an inconceivable and ineffable reality,
this is resolved in no-mind natural perfection.
The second theme of The Treasury of Natural Perfection, showing conclusively that all experience is seamless openness, is concluded.

 

The Third Theme: Spontaneity
The Disclosure of Spontaneity
Timeless spontaneity,
forever present, is created by no one;
it is the pure mind that like a wish-fulfilling gem is the origin of all our samsara and nirvana.
Just as all environments and beings float in space,
so samsara and nirvana never crystallize in pure mind; just as a variety of dreams occur in sleep,
so the six realms and the triple world manifest in mind: all events, at their arising, within the scope of gnosis, are the cosmic gestalt of empty spontaneity.
The gnostic ground and its gestalt emanation, neither identical nor different from each other,
occur in the medium of timeless gnostic spontaneity; as the potency of the display samsara and nirvana appear impure or pure, respectively,
but in the moment-nondiscriminatory spaciousness!
In the unimpeded diffraction of a crystal's spectrum the five colored lights are separately distinguished,
yet the potency of the one crystal prism is undiscriminating: basic intrinsic gnosis diffracts like the crystal.
Its emptiness is the dimension of pure being,
its intrinsic brilliance is the dimension of perfect enjoyment, and as the indeterminate medium of its emanation it is the magical dimension of gnosis:
these are the gnostic dimensions of spontaneity
in the spacious ground.

Even while gestalt imagery arises in that ground
whether as the masters' pure three dimensional display,
or as impure experience of samsaric worlds and life-forms¬as empty essence, clarity and unimaginable diversity,
it is the play of pure being, enjoyment and magical being:
all display is the gestalt imagery of the potency of the three dimensions which is nothing but spontaneous gnostic envisionment.
With a clear understanding of these fine distinctions, all experience of samsara and nirvana is realized
as the three dimensions of spontaneity in pure mind.
The pure being and pristine awareness of buddha,
the creatures of the three realms' physical, energetic and mental complexes and the karmic-emotional tangle of their inner and outer worlds-there is nothing but pure mind!
The matrix of spontaneity is the source of all and everything: insofar as all external and internal, animate and inanimate forms occur as unpatterned buddha-body, a circle of ornamentation, and insofar as all frequencies and volumes and qualities of sound occur as unpatterned buddha-speech, a circle of ornamentation, and insofar as all unrealized mind and realized pristine awareness occur as unpatterned buddha-mind, a circle of ,ornamentation, and insofar as ideal conduct and quality are also unpatterned, spaciousness is the precious wish-fulfilling gem,
and because it is unsought, everything arising by itself,
it is called `the spontaneous creativity of self-sprung awareness'.
Multifarious events in their ground of spontaneity
are pure mind, perpetual spontaneity,
so the three gnostic dimensions, unsought, are naturally present; since moral discipline is thus redundant,
relax into the authentic yoga of nonaction
the matrix of spontaneity requires no discipline
so do not try to gild the lily.

The total presence of buddha past, presence and future is achieved spontaneously in natural pure pleasure; so eschewing low level, graduated, causal techniques, watch the nonactive sky-like nature of mind!
Uncontrived, timeless, magical super-spontaneity, just as it is in the here-and-now, cannot be contrived;
jumping through all the hopes and fears of the strobe-like mind, recognize unsought super-spontaneity in spaciousness.
Every experience, whatever it may be,
is the uncontrived triad of essence, nature and compassion, the display of pure being, enjoyment and magical emanation; since samsara and nirvana are the three-dimensional matrix of pure mind, spontaneously perfect in uncontrived hyper-sameness, samsara is not to be rejected here, nor nirvana attained. All evaluation silenced, we abide at the heart of reality where every experience is pure mind,
and timeless spontaneity is disclosed as the key.

The Assimilation of All Experience to Spontaneity
All experience is assimilated to spontaneity:
the five elements, matter and energy, all appearance, arise to demonstrate timeless, unthought, spontaneity; self and other deconstructed, as pure intrinsic clarity
the elements are assimilated autonomously as ordinary mind. Let the six senses relax in the amorphous perceptual field!
Gnosis, the universal source, is luminous spontaneity,
and unmodified by the five senses, by projection or concentration, the empty gnosis of pure being is spontaneously perfect contemplation. With incisive recognition, just leave things alone in simplicity!

In the fertile unconfined super-matrix of intrinsic gnosis, whatever appears in the field of mind through sensory perception, as a crucial locus of seamless sameness, is assimilated to spontaneity's natural concentrated absorption.
Always, incessantly, like a great river's flow,
uncultivated spontaneously-arising awareness uninterrupted, all things, in essence self-sprung in the primordial matrix, reach fulfillment in Samantabhadra's contemplation.
All experience is grounded in pure mind,
and pure mind is like space, that universal simile.
Just as everything is contained in the matrix of space, through the very lack of exertion, naturally pure,
so all inner and outer experience is spontaneously assimilated in the crucial nonaction that supersedes all intention and ideation, and with the vital zero-attachment to whatever appears.
Timeless-unborn and unceasing,
motionless-without coming or going,
the master's contemplation is all-inclusive, so spontaneity is a pure unwavering samadhi and all events are assimilated to nonaction.

The Bind of Spontaneity
All and everything is caught in the bind of spontaneity: all inner and outer worlds are spontaneously imaged,
the whole of samsara and nirvana is a spontaneous display, and pure mind is primordial spontaneity
there is nothing other than spontaneous perfection.
Since the nature of mind is timeless spontaneity,
pure mind contains the ground, the source and the essence: because spontaneity is unattainable through the ten techniques, forced concentration upon view and meditation is redundant,
extraneous support, like goal-oriented technique, is superfluous, and egoistic ambition and apprehension is dispensable, spontaneity is alpha-pure being here and now!
In the unchanging sky of the matrix of mind's nature, in the matrix of the three gnostic dimensions, samsara and nirvana indeed occur adventitiously, yet they never move from this threefold matrix
the display is a treasury of equivocal, compassionate magic.
Since all and everything at once is Samantabhadra's spontaneity, samsara and nirvana are overwhelmed by their own spaciousness; since everything is all-good, including the bad,
all is spontaneous perfection, the spaciousness of the vajra-essence; and all experience is held in its ineluctable bind.

Resolution in Spontaneity
Resolution is spontaneously accomplished:
within nonspatial spontaneity, lacking inside or outside,
all experience is indisputable, motionless, auto-envisionment; an all-embracing matrix, without top or bottom,
it is utterly ambiguous, nowhere restricted,
beyond indication, inconceivable and ineffable.
Since experience is alpha-pure in essence,
and spontaneity is its very nature,
free from the four extremes
existence, nonexistence, eternity and annihilation-it is nondual pure mind.
Alpha-purity, in essence, is nowhere attainable,
its sky-like nature primordially pure;
spontaneity, in essence, can be contrived by no one,
its emanation never crystalizing, it can appear as anything;

the source of all samsara and nirvana,
it is without past or future, beginning or end.
Unborn spontaneity is the indeterminate ultimate ground: its timeless emanation is inexorable,
its empty empirical mode is nonreferential,
its intangible mode of release is uninterrupted;
in the place of its arising, its resolution is inevitable, and that is dissolution into pure being,
the all-consuming spaciousness of the ground.
Like clouds evaporating into the sky from which they emerged, like colored light retracting into a crystal prism,
the archetypal imagery of samsara and nirvana
that arises in the ground of spontaneity
recoils into the alpha-purity of the essential ground.
This convergence in the spaciousness of spontaneity,
this is the ultimate super-resolution of all experience,
all structure deconstructed, naturally dissolving into spaciousness.
In the here-and-now, whatever appears,
all objective appearances, melt into pure being,
into the natural disposition of the six sensory fields; thereby outside and inside are instant by instant resolved in the interfusing spaciousness of spontaneity.
Similar to resolution in manifest buddhahood
as total presence of the ambiguous gestalt of samsara and nirvana, when the flicker of inner-outer imaging naturally settles in the matrix of clarity in an unthought, unstructured, natural state,
immediate resolution in the crystal clarity of brilliant emptiness is known as `settling in the cavern of jewels'.

Resolution in natural spaciousness occurs in the moment-there can be no subsequent liberation into the present ground; obsessive concentrated absorption imprisoning basic space provides no occasion for freedom from divine trance.
Cherish, therefore, every instant of resolving intrinsic samadhi in the interior spaciousness of the here-and-now!
Each and every experience resolved in the spontaneity of gnosis, spontaneity resolved in the natural state of original hyper-purity, and alpha-purity resolved in the inconceivable and ineffable that is the ultimate resolution of spontaneous perfection.
The third theme of The Treasury of Natural Perfection, showing conclusively that all experience is timeless spontaneity, is concluded.

 

The Fourth Theme: Unity
The Disclosure of Unitary Self-sprung Awareness
And now let me tell you about unity:
gnosis alone the experiential ground,
`appearing as multiplicity yet unmoving from unity', self-sprung awareness is the unitary source.
In the one cat's eye gem, under different conditions, distinct images of fire or water appear;
just so, in the one source, intrinsic gnosis,
illusions of both samsara and nirvana appear, one of recognition, the other of ignorance,
both based in the single nondual pure mind.
Samsara and nirvana, all gnostic vision, as it appears, is one in its empty face;

like dream, enchantment, reflection of the moon in water, like the four visions and evanescent celestial space,
one in ultimate emptiness, total emptiness, it is simplicity itself Since everything is a single field, pure from the beginning, there is no `duality', everything contained in a single seed that is zero-dimensional pure being. Ho!
The five elements manifested in pure mind,
unoriginated, cannot escape unitary sameness;
though appearing to exist, the six types of beings are empty form, they are archetypal images, unstirring from the gnostic scope; though pleasure and pain are surely felt, they do not move from essential total presence, sole self-sprung awareness: know all experience as the one spaciousness, as emptiness, the same unborn reality of pure mind!
Actual spaciousness is the super-matrix of intrinsic gnosis where lies the sole dynamic of all buddha;
multiplicity unimaged, without any fragmented structure, it is the unshakeable palace of total presence:
it is nothing but self-sprung awareness.
A wish-fulfilling gem, a cornucopia of precious experience,
the three gnostic dimensions of spontaneity are the buddha-fields.
Within the sole holistic matrix, made by no one,
the entire gamut of multifarious experience is projected;
yet causality reverted, experience is one in its projective base as the brilliant emptiness of the vastness of reality
shining in the timeless, nonspatial, pure sky.
All of samsara and nirvana is created spontaneously, but basic gnosis itself, uncreated by anyone, like the sky, lies beyond endeavor;
in accord with that simile
unitary spaciousness, the vast super-matrix, stills the concretizing exigencies of multiplicity.
At the heart of the matter, beyond affirmation and negation, the display of indeterminate events, whatever they may be, are the matrix of the ineffable nature of mind
that lies beyond all conventional words and expression.
In total presence, the essence where everything happens, there is no duality, yet an incalculable multiplicity;
buddhas and sentient beings, matter and energy, are resplendent all unmoving from the one immediate reality.
Interconnected in unity, everything is perfect and complete and that is the exalted quality of pure mind;
whatever manifests, in that very moment,
all conventional imputations are resolved.
As luminous expression of the empty nondual nature of mind, both external phenomena-objects of knowledge,
and all internal phenomena-bare pristine gnosis,
in the reality that is neither one nor many,
are disclosed here as a single field of gnostic realization.

Assimilation of All Experience to the Singularity of Self-sprung Awareness
The assimilation of all experience to the one taste: in the imaged field of empty delusive appearances, whatever appears, let it rest in its uncontrived singularity, and in that moment it dawns only as brilliant emptiness.
In the empty scope of myriad self-dissolving thoughts and visions, whatever moves, relax and let it alone, just as it falls,
and contemplation of reality arises within the movement.
In the moment when mind and objective field are seamless sameness, relax into its aimless, traceless, natural purity,
and internal luminosity shines as heightened pristine awareness.
When those three key functions are assimilated to a single essence, realization and non-realization are always the same,
mind and its field are one in pure being,
glitches and veils are one in the dynamic of sameness,
and without intermission, we enter upon the natural state, without tightness or looseness, we discover the definitive essence, without a break, we abide in the reality-dynamic,
and willy-nilly there's no transition or change.
Vast! spacious! the mind of the masters is the same as the sky; ineluctable! it is the matrix of the holistic seminal seed;
released as it stands! with neither realization nor non-realization; experience consummate! no mind! it is open to infinity. On the pinnacle of the forever-unfurled victory banner the rising sun and moon illuminate the microcosmic realms.

The Bind of Unity
The one intrinsic gnosis binds all experience:
environments and life-forms, infinite and unconfined, whether of samsara or nirvana, arise in spaciousness; spaciousness, therefore, embraces all experience at its origin.
Whatever multifarious appearance arises in the moment, inalienable, it is never anything other than gnosis, bound in the matrix of self-sprung awareness.
Even in simultaneous inception and release,
fading into spaciousness,
since it does not become anything other than pure mind, it is bound by the one all-consuming original reality. Thus, all events are bound by unitary gnosis
and indeterminate gnosis, the essence of total presence,
is bound by the heart of reality without transition or change-instantaneous unconditioned fulfilment!


Resolution of All Experience in Self-sprung Awareness.
There is only one resolution-self-sprung awareness itself, which is spaciousness without beginning or end; everything is complete, all structure dissolved,
all experience abiding in the heart of reality.
So experience of inner and outer, mind and its field, nirvana and samsara,
free of constructs differentiating the gross and the subtle, is resolved in the sky-like, utterly empty field of reality. And if pure mind is scrutinized, it is nothing at all
it never came into being, has no location, and has no variation in space or time,
it is ineffable, even beyond symbolic indication
and through resolution in the matrix of the gnostic dynamic,
which supersedes the intellect-no-mind! nothing can be indicated as `this' or `that', and language cannot embrace it.
In the super-matrix-unstructured, nameless,
all experience of samsara and nirvana is resolved;
in the super-matrix of unborn empty gnosis
all distinct experiences of gnosis are resolved;
in the super-matrix beyond knowledge and ignorance all experience of pure mind is resolved;
in the super-matrix where there is no transition or change all experience, utterly empty, completely empty, is resolved.


The fourth theme of The Treasury of Natural Perfection, showing conclusively that all experience is basic gnostic awareness alone, is
concluded.