Eight perfect freedoms

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Eight perfect freedoms (Tib. རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ་བརྒྱད་, nampar tarpa gyé, Wyl. rnam par thar pa brgyad) — part of the twenty-one sets of immaculate qualities. In this context, 'freedom' is understood as a state of mind totally divested of the obscurations that block the subsequently listed realizations.[1]

  1. the perfect freedom of form observing form (Tib. གཟུགས་ཅན་གཟུགས་ལ་ལྟ་བའི་རྣམ་ཐར་, zukchen zuk la tawé namtar, Wyl. gzugs can gzugs la lta ba'i rnam thar)
  2. the perfect freedom of the formless observing form (Tib. གཟུགས་མེད་གཟུགས་ལ་ལྟ་བའི་རྣམ་ཐར་, zukmé zuk la tawé namtar, Wyl. gzugs med gzugs la lta ba'i rnam thar)
  3. the perfect freedom of observing beauty (Tib. སྡུག་པའི་རྣམ་ཐར་, dukpé namtar, Wyl. sdug pa’i rnam thar)
  4. the perfect freedom of infinite space (Tib. ནམ་མཁའ་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཐར་, namkha kyemché kyi namtar, Wyl. nam mkha' skye mched kyi rnam thar)
  5. the perfect freedom of infinite consciousness (Tib. རྣམ་ཤེས་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཐར་, namshé kyemché kyi namtar, Wyl. rnam shes skye mched kyi rnam thar)
  6. the perfect freedom of nothing whatsoever (Tib. ཅི་ཡང་མེད་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཐར་ , chiyang mé kyemché kyi namtar, Wyl. ci yang med skye mched kyi rnam thar)
  7. the perfect freedom of neither presence nor absence of perception (Tib. འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་མིན་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཐར་ , dushé mé min kyemché kyi namtar, Wyl. 'du shes med min skye mched kyi rnam thar)
  8. the perfect freedom of cessation (Tib. འགོག་པའི་རྣམ་ཐར་, gokpé namtar, Wyl. gog pa’i rnam thar), alternatively; the perfect freedom of cessation of conception and sensation (Tib. འདུ་ཤེས་དང་ཚོར་བ་འགོག་པའི་རྣམ་ཐར་, dushé dang tsorwa gokpé namtar, Wyl. du shes dang tshor ba 'gog pa'i rnam thar)

Groupings

Of these eight perfect freedoms, three concern the powers of miraculous manifestation and transformation (1-3), four refer to the formless states (4-7), and one to cessation (8).[2]

Alternative Translations

  • eight complete freedoms
  • eight emancipations

Further Reading

References

  1. Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kangyur Rinpoche and Jigme Lingpa, Treasury of Precious Qualities: Book One (Shambhala, revised edition 2011), note 299.
  2. Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kangyur Rinpoche and Jigme Lingpa, Treasury of Precious Qualities: Book One (Shambhala, revised edition 2011), Appendix 9.