Chapter 1 — Lamp of the Far-Reaching Lasso

From the Tibetan language:

Called “The Precious Beautiful Golden Flower, the Tantra of the Blazing Lamp.”

Homage to the Blessed One, the Glorious Self-Arisen Appearance.

At one time, when I taught this:

Within the maṇḍala of immeasurable clarity, upon the ground of emptiness, the great mode of taming, indivisible, neither separate nor distinct, was perfectly arrayed as the great appearance.

From the expanse of the ground of great self-clarity from the very beginning, where the activity of great self-appearance arises unobstructedly, unobstructed rigpa arose, and this inexpressible meaning was spoken.

It was spoken. It is spoken. It will be spoken.

Thus have I heard at one time:

In the palace of dharmatā that makes the lamp shine forth, upon a ground of diverse precious substances, adorned with the eyes of the five aspects of wisdom, brilliant with great clarity of color, there was a vast appearance upon an immeasurable ground, spacious at its center, its boundaries perfectly clear, its summit completely open and unobstructed, shining forth without obstruction throughout the ten directions, perfectly arrayed upon a ground with neither outside nor inside, beautified with every ornament—the nature of phenomena completely open and unobstructed from whichever of the ten directions it was viewed.

There, the Great Vajradhara of completely pure appearance gazed with the compassion of the Great Natural Illuminator upon Vajradhara of the pure continuum. From his mind, gathered within the expanse of nondual wisdom, he brought forth this unsurpassed great secret of the heart essence, beyond the ordinary. Gathering it into the vessel of his vast throat and spreading it to the faculties with the tongue of extraordinary means, he spoke these three utterances that make the vajra lamp shine forth.

Vajradhara of the naturally pure continuum,
I, within unobstructed awareness,
have the mind of experience arise everywhere.
From the direction where there is no appearance,
in order to cut through mind, thought, and recollection,
I, the summit of all the vehicles, shall explain; listen!

Throughout all the realms of the world,
although unobstructed rigpa is self-appearing,
none of this is seen by anyone.
This great wisdom that is beyond seeing—
by which the beautiful flower is [mthos], dharmakāya and rigpa—
within the wisdom of what is not seen,
as the very wisdom of the lamp,
because from the very beginning it is self-appearing,
it arises as the vajra essence itself.
From the very moment it arises, it never sets.

This great treasure of wisdom that never sets—
fortunate is whoever experiences it.
The fortunate one possesses the nature of bliss.
In this there is not even a particle of nonvirtue.
It is self-knowing awareness itself, free from dust;
it is beyond conventional designations and words.

Through all these—the four lamps—
the appearances of all sentient beings are held.
By the Water-Lamp of the Far-Reaching Lasso,
forms and the like are gathered into their very essence.
By the Lamp of Self-Arisen Wisdom,
the doubts concerning the vehicles are cut through.
By the Lamp of the Empty Bindu,
the boundary where saṃsāra and nirvāṇa mingle is joined.
By the Lamp of the Pure Expanse,
the yogi's experience is brought to further development.
All these are distinctive appearances.