This piece features an extract of the profound terma known as “Buddhahood Without Meditation: Advice for Making One’s Own True Face Evident as the Great Perfection That is the Inherent Nature”. It’s most commonly known among Tibetans as Nang-Jang, which might be rendered: “Refining Apparent Phenomena”. The work was revealed by the Terton Dudjom Lingpa (1835-1904).
In the center I’ve included the Tibetan syllable “Ah” encircled with gold leaf. In Tibetan Buddhism, the “Ah” syllable signifies the unborn, unceasing nature of mind and phenomena. It points directly to emptiness inseparable from luminosity, the primordial purity of awareness before conceptual elaboration. Meditating on “Ah” functions as a direct introduction to non-arising, cutting through grasping at effort, meditation, and meditator. It is often associated with the dharmakaya and the spontaneous presence of rigpa, where appearance and emptiness are not two. Rather than cultivating a state, “Ah” reveals what is already the case: awareness resting in its own ground, self-knowing and self-liberated, beyond affirmation, negation, or gradual fabrication.
Dudjom Lingpa’s account in the Nang Jang is in the form of a journal describing a number of visions and dreams that he experienced throughout his life. Indeed much of the text consists of Dudjom Lingpa quoting the deities and masters he encountered on these occasions. The knowledge he gained during his experiences spans the range of teachings on the “View” of the Great Perfection approach of the Nyingma school. It is a direct transmission so powerful that just hearing it read aloud ensures that the listener will escape the suffering of cyclic existence.
Chagdud Tulku offered the following words in the introduction to the book “Buddhahood Without Meditation”, which I wish to echo.
“Dharmakaya, the entire vast array of atemporal and pristine purity;
sambhogakaya, the entire vast array of an unceasing display of peaceful and wrathful deities;
nirmanakaya, the entire vast array that tames any being in any way necessary:
I bow with devotion to Dudjom Lingpa, tamer of beings.”
Frame not included.
Size: 43″ x 18.25″
Medium: Calligraphy Pen
Please note that each work is made to order which makes each one unique. Your piece could show some slight variation from the one which is pictured here.
