perform the seven weekly sur rites after the death of our mother or father, along
with protection and offering rites, as much as we can.
The stages of instruction about the four bardos are now completed. The purpose
of explaining the four bardos after the detailed explanation of the main Dzogchen
praxis of view, meditation, conduct, and fruition is clarified by Longchenpa in The
Treasury of the Dharmadhatu,
These modes of being defy goal-directed endeavor;
They shine only while freely resting in the spontaneity of the now.
This supreme secret is disclosing itself in this moment,
And since we shall not be lured away from it, even in the bardo,
This apex approach of the vajra-heart
Towers, exalted, above all progressive, graduated approaches.This explanation of the stages of the four bardos in this fifth chapter is an
addendum to the main practice of Cutting Through to alpha-purity in Dzogchen. Its
stages accord with the various intellectual needs of those who cannot gain
immediate or direct release on the path. This step-by-step instruction on the four
bardos benefits the student—Dzogchen has many powerful, efficacious, skillful
means of instruction.
If we fully assimilate this Dzogchen teaching, for the best of us, all subjective
envisionment in this life will vanish into the matrix of reality, and we will
accomplish the dimension of great transference and the rainbow body as did the
rigzin Garab Dorje and Guru Tsokye Dorje. For those of lesser acumen, it is vital
that, at the time of death in the bardo, we should recognize the three lights—
effulgence, optimal effulgence, and penultimate attainment. Then, practicing
consciousness sublimation, we can take birth in the pure-lands of the trikaya. In
the bardo of reality, we should not be afraid of the sound, lights, and rays of the
assembly of wrathful and peaceful deities, but directly recognize our naked self-
envisionment as the natural creativity of pure presence. Like a child nestling into
its mother’s lap, the clear light that we have recognized through the lama’s
introduction unites with the basic clear light, and we are released into the ground
of being. If we have not been able to use any of these three opportunities to gain
release, finally, when we enter the bardo of becoming, if we can be sure that
whatever appears is delusion and if we remember our present root guru,
Amitabha, and the others, then, by the power of a single-pointed devotional prayer
to be sublimated to the nirmanakaya pure-lands, we can overcome all the
sufferings of that bardo of becoming. This advice is of crucial importance, so keep
it in mind.
Furthermore, in order that we should not waste this precious human body, first,
we should accumulate merit by practicing the four discursive meditations that
turn the intellect back upon itself: meditations upon the precious human body, the
impermanence of life, karmic cause and effect, and inexorable karmic retribution.
Then, through the preliminary practices of the five “hundred-thousand” exercises
and the graduated practice of the unique tantric teaching, we should obtain