Foreword by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche

The nature of the mind is the ultimate sphere, like space.

The nature of space is the meaning of the innate nature of the mind.

In truth they are not separate: oneness is the Great Perfection.

Please, you must realize it at this very moment.

—LONGCHEN RABJAM

AWAKENING OF intrinsic awareness (rig pa), the innate nature of the mind as it is, is

the realization of the ultimate nature of everything and the attainment of
buddhahood. That is the great secret of the mind.
Each person is composed of body and mind. The body is precious, but like a
hotel, it is a temporary abode of the mind—a collection of gross elements destined
to dissolve into the earth.
Mind is a stream of consciousness produced and functioning by grasping at
mental objects as if they had a truly existing “self” or entity (bdag ’dzin) with the
passion of emotions—creating positive and negative deeds (karma) and causing
joyful and painful reactions. Mind, not the body, is the identity of who we are as
an ordinary person.
According to esoteric Buddhist teaching, such as Dzogpa Chenpo (rdzogs pa chen
po; mahasandhi) or Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, mind has two aspects: the
conceptual or relative mind (sems) and intrinsic awareness, the true nature of
mind (sems nyid), which is buddhahood. Intrinsic awareness is the ever-present
unity of the ultimate sphere (dbyings) and primordial wisdom (ye shes) as one
taste.
Through training in meditation, we purify the two obscurations—emotional
afflictions (nyon sgrib) and intellectual duality (shes sgrib)—of the mind, and we
perfect the twofold accumulation (tshogs)—meritorious deeds (bsod nams) and
realization of wisdom (ye shes).
As the result of such meditations, we realize the intrinsic awareness of the mind,
the essence of which is openness (or emptiness—stong pa nyid) and the nature of
which is clarity (gsal ba) and compassionate power that is ceaseless and all-
pervasive. Then, naturally, we attain the threefold buddha-body: the perfection of
twofold purity is the ultimate body (chos sku) of buddhahood. The ever-present
pure forms (sku) of the five classes (rigs) of buddhas and the pure-lands (zhing
khams) with fivefold wisdom (ye shes) and five certainties (nges pa) are the
enjoyment body (longs sku). The emanation of infinite appearances to serve
ordinary beings is the manifestation body (sprul sku). Kunkhyen Longchen Rabjam
says,

Having perfected the skillful means [merit] and wisdom,

You accomplish buddha-bodies, wisdoms, and actions.^1