I Don’t Believe in Samsara… 1

Spiritual Advice
by Sera Khandro Dewé Dorje

Oh my!
I don’t believe in samsara.
If I did,
what “nirvana” could there be?

I don’t believe in mind itself.

If I did,
what “awareness” could there be?

I don’t believe in a view.

If I did,
what primordial emptiness
beyond all conceptual construct could there be?

I don’t believe in meditation.

If I did,
what ongoing flow of my innate nature could there be?

I don’t believe in conduct.

If I did,
what effortlessness could there be?

I don’t believe in the appearances of the ground.

If I did,
what primordially pure original ground could there be?

I don’t believe in the appearances of the path.

If I did,
what unity of luminosity and emptiness could there be?

I don’t believe in a result.

If I did,
what unimpeded state beyond expression could there be?

I don’t believe in relative reality.

If I did,
what unity of appearance and emptiness could there be?

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Nothing truly exists.
Everything is empty.
Nothing is non-existent.
Everything is very clear.

When I just rest

within empty lucidity,
the false cavern of all things of samsara and nirvana implodes,
and everything dawns as the ornamentation of ultimate reality.

Empty awareness free from conceptual elaboration

is a luminous glow beyond clarity or obscuration
that pervades all samsara and nirvana.

I don’t expect any result apart from primordial perfection.

Mingled with the expanse of great, blissful, self-knowing awareness,
I rest within the indivisibility of threefold space.

This is the fanciful writing of a beggar lady,

the unspiritual prattling of a parrot.
If seen by others, it will cause embarrassment.

In my spiritual tradition, that of a beggar lady,

all phenomena of samsara and nirvana appear as they are.
How can someone who practices samsara
understand the doings of nirvana?

These words are false, my divine friends!

Written by Dewé Dorje.

| Translated by Christina Monson, 2022.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition
kun bzang bde skyong dbang mo. "zhal gdams phyogs bsdus mthong ba don ldan" In
gsung 'bum/_kun bzang bde skyong dbang mo/. 6 vols. Chengdu: si khron dpe skrun
tshogs pa/ si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2009. (BDRC W1PD108254) Vol. 5: 210–
211

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Version: 1.0-20221214

1. The original is untitled; this title has been added by the translator. ↩

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