The Path of Compassion: A Biography of Hor shul Khenpo Gelek Palsang Rinpoche — Part One: An Introduction to the Lineage of the Nyingma Tradition — The Mind-to-Mind Lineage of the Buddhas

The primordial buddha Samantabhadra arouses immeasurable compassion and manifests the pure lands, sacred places, progenitors, and four kāyas of the buddhas. His retinue consists entirely of vidyādharas endowed with the five kāyas, inseparable from him, an ocean-like gathering of buddhas. The wondrous Dharma is beyond words, action, and speech. The supreme guide’s compassion flows forth; wisdom is self-knowing and self-manifest, unaltered and unobstructed. The Buddhadharma is not transmitted through words, yet the entire retinue realizes the unsurpassed wondrous Dharma without error, transcending conceptual dualistic grasping at speech and thought. The wisdom of teacher and disciples is one and undivided. Although nothing is altered or contrived within this, the retinue manifests in the form realm the three siddhis: displaying emanations, speaking in accordance with each kind of being, and manifesting enlightened intent.

The display of emanations includes forms as guides of beings and many other emanations, all appearing in dependence upon the roots of virtue of the beings to be benefited and tamed.

Speaking in accordance with each kind of being: within the single essence of the Buddha’s three secrets, the unborn syllable “A” wondrously appears. Within “Ka” and “A,” the ground of the unborn and the capacity of the syllable “A” are of one undivided essence. Buddhas’ wisdom appears to benefit and tame beings, and its speech differs according to their kinds, imprinted within the wisdom minds of the five buddhas of the sixth dharmakāya. Guides appearing according to the perception of beings, such as Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi, teach the Dharma through sound. Laozhu Tadan and others gathered the alphabetic symbols. Through written symbols, the meaning in the guide’s mind takes form through sound, and the listener comes to know that meaning through the form of sound. Words gather subtly into one place and become the Tathāgata’s Dharma teaching. Manifestation of enlightened intent: the Tathāgata’s authentic wisdom is impressed upon another’s mind by means of letters, enabling even the distracted mindstream of one in whom direct realization has not yet arisen to enter suchness. Because the wisdom of the most secret unsurpassed vehicle is known within the mind, people capable of theoretical thought can also be led into the profound and vast wondrous meaning of the gradual path.