Longchenpa

The great Garuda states, without cause, naturally free and not relying on conditions,

The unbiased, naturally pure view does not exist as some thing. The three hindrances that involve the limitations of ingrained opinions are dispelled.

The implication that sensory appearances and consciousness constitute a supreme, naturally occurring state of innate immediacy can be discerned within the interval between cause and effect, which arises naturally and is free of elaboration.

Another implication to be discerned is that things are timelessly free and that they are free of any basis. Even though there is the appearance of water in a mirage, it is already free in not being water.

for it has never existed as water. Similarly, all phenomena, having no independent nature, are timelessly empty and without identity, and so are timelessly free of having substance or characteristics.

In this way, whatever sensory appearances manifest outwardly and whatever states of consciousness arise inwardly, all of them are initially devoid of anything that could bring them into being.

And so they have definitely never known existence, even as they seem to come into being or arise.

What seems at present to abide in light of consciousness is devoid of any essence as something that could abide, and so is free of any constraint, being clearly apparent without truly existing.

Finally, what seems to cease is devoid of any essence as something that could cease. Because things are unborn, they do not abide.

and the fact that they have never existed as anything that could cease makes thinking about them in such terms similar to thinking that the water in a mirage has vanished or ceased to be. You should understand that since things are already free

and that they have never known existence. There is no need for anything that arises in light of ordinary consciousness to be freed by applying antidotes. The Pearl Garland states, freedom is not due to effort.

Rather, one abides timelessly in freedom.

The actual way to discern the implication of this key point and put it into practice is as follows. Even as sense objects manifest in light of consciousness, you understand that they have no basis and so release them into openness without contriving

or tampering with them in any way. Even as sensory appearances arise directly in and are directly encountered by your consciousness, they have no basis and so are released into a state of bare experience.

which is the direct encounter with awareness.

Your consciousness of sensory appearances is continuous, yet it does not reify or analyze them. Rather, you maintain what is simply an undistracted identification of naked awareness itself, pristine in its openness.

Even as you are conscious of sensory appearances, you identify bare awareness arising in the interval of resting imperturbably. I have focused on this point and explained it extensively because it is so crucial

Another implication to be discerned is that freedom in immediate perception is a supreme state in which ordinary perception vanishes.

That is to say, since awareness is uninterrupted, its dynamic energy is continuous. Even as you seem to be conscious of sense objects, thoughts do not go beyond any of their three phases arising, abiding,

or being freed, which is to say vanishing. Given that they can be likened to the flow of water, there is no opportunity for cause and effect to be reinforced in any single moment. Thoughts arise and vanish simultaneously