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Heart Lamp: Lamp of Mahamudra and The Heart of the Matter

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Heart Lamp is the combined reprinting of two previously hard to find books by the remarkable 17th century Tibetan master Tsele Natsok Rangdrol; Lamp of Mahamudra, and The Heart of the Matter, translated by Eric Pema Kunsang at the request of H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, under the guidance of Tulku Urgyen and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoches.

As Tulku Urgyen succinctly explains in his introductory talk there are three modes of mahamudra (direct realization of nonduality); sutra mahamudra, mantra mahamudra and essence mahamudra. This last form, which is the subject of these translations, is identical to the dzogchen view of the Nyingma school, but approached a bit differently, with it's own set of terminology.

These texts thus make for very practical and completely reliable instructions for serious students of both mahamudra and dzogchen. Subtle, condensed, and comprehensive it was probably refreshingly direct and no nonsense in the 17th century, and still is today.

Of the two texts, I find the first, Lamp Of Mahamudra, very pithy, (although rather conventionally written, not unlike many other overviews of the view and stages of practice within Tibetan Buddhism), while the second and shorter, The Heart Of the Matter, covers the same material but is more poetic, experiential and lively (referencing the mahamudra view to various masters within the practice lineage, while never straying from it's simple, immediate nature).

"Although no defining characteristics exist in themselves,

The attempts to establish intellectually,

By scrutiny and conceptualizing,

The various claims that something is empty or not empty,

And with or without limitations,

Is never taught to be the view of Mahamudra and Dzogchen,

And to believe "It is free of limits!" or "It is emptiness!"

Is nothing other than straying from the view.

"Rather than holding a view of mind-made assumptions,

Realize your indescribable and unformed innate nature,

Through nakedly recognizing self-knowing wakefulness,

As the basic state of what is." (TNR, The Heart of the Matter, pg 102)

and;

"The basic state of originally pure natural awareness

Is unseen by oneself, like the treasure in a poor man's house.

Once you realize it through the guru's kindness,

You personally know the indivisible three kayas to be your own nature....

"...A person who understands that samsara and nirvana are both mind,

Is free from the basis for any occurrence

Of side-tracks, deviations and mistakes,

And will therefore possess the qualities of fruition, effortlessly and spontaneously." (pgs. 132-133)