CHAPTER 2

The Prfmordial
Buddha Kuntu Zangpo

The Primordial Buddha

According to traditions of Bon, just as is the case with the Nyingmapa
tradition of Buddhism, the ultimate source for the revelation of the
Dzogchen teachings is the Adibuddha, or Primordial Buddha (thog-
ma'i sangs-rgyas), who exists beyond time and history, dwelling in
eternity at the center of existence. Both of these old, unreformed
schools, the Bonpo and the Nyingmapa, designate the Primordial
Buddha in their scriptures by the name of Kuntu Zangpo (Kun tu
bzang-po, Skt. Samantabhadra). On the other hand, in the New Tantra
system (rgyud gsar-ma) of the later Tibetan schools, namely, the
Sakyapa, the Kagyudpa, and the Gelugpa, the Primordial Buddha is
known as Vajradhara (rDo-rje 'chang). [ l] This Adibuddha in the Old
Tantra system (rgyud rnying-ma) should not be confused with the great
Bodhisattva of the same name, Samantabhadra. Unlike a Bodhisattva,
this Primordial Buddha has never had to attain enlightenment and
li beration from Samsara because He has been fully and perfectly
enlightened from the very beginning. He has never even entered into
the delusions of Samsara in the first place. He has nothing to attain or
realize; He simply is what He is from the very beginning and never
otherwise. This Primordial Buddha is called the entirely (kun tu) good
(bzang-po) because He has never been afflicted with ignorance and the
negative emotional defilements, nor mixed up in the rounds of
Samsara. Therefore, He represents "the ultimate good" that transcends
the relativities of good and evil, which belong to Samsara.
Kuntu Zangpo, the Primordial Buddha, the Buddha from all
eternity, has been awake and enlightened from the very beginning by
 18 - The Oral Tradition from Zhang-Zhung

virtue of possessing the full understanding of the Natural State of the

Nature of Mind (sems-nyid gnas-lugs). He is, therefore, like a clear
mirror that can reflect whatever is 5et before it, whether beautiful or
ugly, light or dark, good or evil , without having its nature in any way
changed or modified thereby. The Primordial Buddha knows and
reflects all of existence, but He has never been touched nor changed
nor corrupted by the kleshes or emotional defilements that represent
the actual causes of the Samsara that is cyclical existence. He has
never been touched nor moved by a sense of ego identity (bdag- ' dzin)
nor caught up in entanglements with the illusions of Samsara, that
mode of cyclical existence exemplified by historical time and by the
thought process itself. Kuntu Zangpo is beyond mind and its
operations. Therefore, He represents a state of total primordial purity
(ka-dag chen-po) and is the very embodiment of the Dharmakaya
(bon-sku), the ultimate aspect of Buddhahood and enlightenment. [2]
Like the Buddhists, the Bonpos also use the Tibetan term sangs-
rgyas, which translates the Sanskrit Buddha, "the enlightened one,"
" the awakened one," for both the historical and the tran scendent
sources of their respective traditions. This term is also used in both
schools to designate the principle of enlightenment that is immanent
within every individual sentient being. Literally, a Buddha (sangs-
rgyas) is an individual who has purified (sangs-pa) the mind-stream
and awakened to the nature of Reality, thereby coming to unfold and
expand (rgyas-pa) one's innate potentialities that manifest as the
qualities of enlightenment. This unfolding may be compared to a lotus
blossom opening its petals when touched by the rays of the sun in the
early morning. As the aspect of total enlightenment known as the
Dharmakaya, Kuntu Zangpo is without boundaries, without
limitations, without definitions, without any divisions, being like the
infinity of the sky. He is totally all-pervading and all-encompassing,
like the nature of space itself. Never having undergone the evolution
and the morphogenesis we know as rebirth in Samsara, Kuntu Zangpo
has been the Dharmakaya from the very beginning and never
otherwise. He embodies, therefore, the very principle of enlightenment
itself. [3]
Although Kuntu Zangpo represents the Primordial Buddha in the
transcendent sense of being completely enlightened from the very
beginning (ye nas sangs-rgyas-pa) and never having been mixed up in
Samsara, He is, nevertheless, equally present in the heart of and at the
core of every single sentient being as the Primordial Base (ye gzhi) or
the Primordial State of the individual (kun-bzang dgongs-pa). Thus,
 The Primordial Buddha Kuntu Zangpo - 19

this name Kuntu Zangpo is also employed to designate the principle of

enlightenment, or the Buddha-nature as such, that is immanent within
every individual stream of consciousness and is synonymous, in the
Dzogchen context, with the Bodhichitta. Therefore, the Primordial
Buddha is simultaneously transcendent and immanent, as paradoxical
as this may seem to common sense.
Metaphorically, the texts appear to speak of Kuntu Zangpo as a
particular Buddha, as if He were a person or an individual personality.
Although one may speak of Him as a Buddha, He did not need to work
His way up like the other Buddhas through the ranks of the
Bodhisattvas over the course of countless aeons in order to attain
realization of Buddhahood, but had been enlightened from the very
beginning. Therefore, He is called the Adibuddha or "the primordially
enlightened one" who has been awake and enlightened from the very
beginning. [4] However, it should be understood that this way of
speaking is only symbolic and metaphorical , in the same way that the
iconography of Kuntu Zangpo is symbolic and not something actual.
This anthropomorphic representation is only a concession to a limited
human understanding. [5] The name Kuntu Zangpo indicates the
transpersonal dimension of enlightenment, which has been beyond
Samsara or cyclical existence from the very beginning. Nor is Kuntu
Zangpo a substance, not even an imperishable divine substance,
because all phenomena lack inherent existence and are, therefore,
empty and impermanent. The Primordial State of Kuntu Zangpo (kun-
bzang dgongs-pa) represents a transpersonal state of being, the
Primordial State of the individual, which lies beyond personality and
the transitory operations of the mental processes called mind . At the
same time, this transcendent state is perfectly immanent as the very
ground and matrix (gzhi) for the activities of the individual mind-
stream and thought process.
Indeed, the very thought process itself, the multifarious operations
of the discursive mind, manifest the nature of Samsara, even creating it
and bringing it into visible manifestation, wherein everything is
conditioned by time and causality. In contrast to this process, the name
Kuntu Zangpo indicates not the mind (sems), but the Nature of Mind
(sems-nyid), and this should always be understood as embodied within
an individual stream of consciousness. Just as the mirror is not the
reflections that appear in it, so Kuntu Zangpo is not the mind or the
thoughts that arise in it. Nevertheless, without the presence of this
Nature of Mind, there would be no awareness or consciousness at all in
the universe, just as, without the presence of the sun in the sky, the
20 - The Oral Tradition from Zhang-Zhung

world would lie below in total darkness. Therefore, one must carefully
distinguish between these two, the mind and the Nature of Mind. This
distinction is crucial to the understanding of Dzogchen. However, the
de1,ignation Kuntu Zangpo usually refers to the Dharmakaya in a more
general and universal sense, that is to say, the Dharmakaya as
representing the aspect of dimension or spaciousness (dbyings-cha) and
the aspect of emptiness (stong-cha) in terms of the Nature of Mind and,
therefore, it is compared to the vast, open, limitless space of the sky.
It is said in the Dzogchen texts that this Dharmakaya is the same
in essence wherever it is found, whether in an enlightened being or in
an ignorant sentient being, even a lowly worm. It is the same empty
space found inside each of the clay vessels set in a row. The only
difference in the quality of the space is the individual shape imposed
by the form of each clay vessel. Break these clay vessels and it is all
the same space. Indeed, the Dharmakaya has been primordi ally present
within the mind-stream of each and every sentient being as the Nature
of Mind itself. Not only the Dharmakaya, but also the entire Trikaya,
or the three supreme aspects of Buddhahood, have been equally
present from the very beginning, without any increase or decrease, in
both the enlightened Buddha and the deluded sentient being. Just as the
nature of the mirror is neither altered nor changed by any of the images
it reflects, so the Nature of Mind is neither increased by enlightenment
nor decreased by delusions. Nirvana and Samsara are merely reflected
images. (61
But if everyone, every sentient being, has been Buddhas from the
very beginning, why is it necessary to practice the Path? Here the
Dzogchen texts have been speaking only from the standpoint of the
Base. Yes, Buddhahood has been wholly present from the very
beginning, but this Buddhahood has gone unrecognized and is not yet
manifest. This primordial enlightened nature has gone unrecognized
because it has been obscured by ignorance, delusion, and karmic
traces, just as the face of the sun in the sky may be totally obscured by
the thick layers of clouds. The sun has been there all the time, present
in the sky above, but its radiant face has gone unseen and unrecognized
because of the persistence of the heavy clouds. It is the same with the
Bodhichitta, one's inherent Buddha-nature. Therefore, it is necessary
to practice the path in order to purify and remove the thick layers of
obscurations, both emotional and intellectual, [7] so that the face of
one's Buddha-nature comes clearly into view. The practicing of the
path is like the winds dissipating the clouds that conceal the face of the
sun.