must be and are forever joined at the heart of reality. Here is the true inner meaning of the profound Yab-Yum symbolism of the phrase "the jewel (or diamond, i.e. upaya, vajra) is in the lotus (padma, s'unya, prajna)." In the terms of the Hindu Tantra, with its emphasis on the formative center and energy, S'akta and S'akti are forever united in a not indistinct, but rather in a dynamic polar union. Ed.]

24

With meditation-produced clairvoyance and other miraculous powers
May I ripen all the sentient beings and adorn Buddha's Pure Land
May I fulfill the compassionate vows of all Buddhas
And eventually achieve the highest enlightenment and perfections.

25

The power of the compassion of Buddha
The power of the loving Bodhisattvas
The power of all virtues and good deeds
May I bind these powers into one great force
By which the pure vow of mine
And the benevolent wishes of others may be readily fulfilled!

Footnotes

^296:* We most strongly disagree with the translation of the idea that there is nothing that is not Sunyata as "there is nothing that exists." Sunyata is by no means non-existence (see our comments on notes 55 and 96). Until this is clearly understood, Zen and Mahamudra will remain word-play, only sparkling but unenlightening. Without experienced knowledge of the nature of Sunyata no treatise on Mahamudra is very helpful, and with such experiences, such treatises are except as confirmation. The transcendental view is not that "nothing exists," but rather that it is not true to say either "nothing exists" or "everything exists." The view that there is that exists is the "Nihilistic Extreme" criticized in Tsong-kha-pa's text of Naropa. See note 95 and the text of page <page 238>. Ed.

^298:* Here the translator is repeating, and we fear incorrectly, a conversation between himself and the editor, who pointed out to him that in the true meditation of love (not "on" love, as it is a meditation without seed) there is a spontaneous awakening and melting of Bodhi Heart, distinctively characterized by the fact that no mental effort is required. The translator, in saying here that mental effort is required in the love-meditation, evinces that he did not apprehend either the editor's meaning or that meditation. Long before the Buddhist Mahamudra sect, the Hindu Tantra and the higher yoga practice of Patanjali taught the effortless meditation--become part and parcel of spontaneous living--"without seed" or partaking of the nature of the unconditioned.