In Tibet's ancient shamanistic tradition the cuckoo was a magical 
bird, the king of birds.  As the cuckoo's first call is the harbinger 
of spring, so the six verses of the Cuckoo's Song of Total 
Presence introduce the total presence of the nature of mind.  

    The six lines of the Cuckoo's Song  are also known as the Six 
Vajra Verses.  They are considered to be the root text of the 
Dzogchen Mind Series tradition out of which the entire view, 
meditation and action of Dzogchen may be extrapolated. If the 
meaning of the verses in Tibetan is simple, the expression of 
that meaning in English is no simple matter.

Turned into prose, based on the Dochu commentary, it says:

All experience, the entire phantasmagoria of the six senses, the diverse multiplicity of existence, in reality is without duality. Even if we examine the parts of the bodhi-matrix in the laboratory of the mind, such specifics are seen to be illusive and indeterminate. There is nothing to grasp and there is no way to express it. The suchness of things, their actuality, left just as it is, is beyond thought and inconceivable and that is the here and now. Yet diversity is manifestly apparent and that is the undiscriminating, all-inclusive sphere of the all-good buddha, Samantabhadra. Total perfection has always been a fact and there has never been anything to do to actuate this immaculate completion. All endeavour is redundant. What remains is spontaneity and that is always present as our natural condition.

Chogyel Namkhai Norbu and Adriano Clemente rendered the 
Six Vajra Verses like this: in The Supreme Source:

The nature of the variety of phenomena is non-dual
Yet each phenomena is beyond the limits of the mind
The authentic condition as it is does not become a concept
Yet it manifests totally in form, always good
All being already perfect, overcome the sickness of effort 
And remain naturally in self-perfection: this is contemplation.

Chogyel Namkhai Norbu's commentary divides the six verses 
into three verses of two lines.  The first couplet describes 
the ground of being and the view, relating to the Mind Series 
of instruction and to Garab Dorje's first Incisive Precept 
which is introduction to the nature of mind.  The second 
couplet describes the path, the nature of meditation, 
relating to the Space Series of instruction and Garab Dorje's 
second incisive precept which is conviction of the reflexive 
function of liberation.  The third couplet describes the 
product, which does not differ from the ground and relates 
to the Secret Precept Series and to Garab Dorje's third 
incisive precept which is confidence in the process.  

Based on Chogyel Namkhai Norbu's commentary, John Reynolds 
(Vajranath), Nyingma scholar and yogi, made this discursive 
translation:

Even though the nature of the diversity (of all phenomena) 
	is without any duality,
In the terms of the individuality of the things themselves, 
	they are free of any conceptual elaborations.
Even though there exists no thought or conception of what 
	is called the state of being just as it is,
These various appearances which are created are but 
	manifestations of Samantabhadra.
Since everything is complete in itself, one comes to abandon 
	the illness of efforts
And thus one continues spontaneously in the calm 
	state of contemplation.

Professor Samten Karmay found a version of the text 
amongst the cache of material that Sir Aurel Stein found 
in Tun Huang and which was concealed in the tenth century, 
thus validating its age and form  His rendering is this:	
	

All the varieties of phenomenal existence as a whole 
	do not in reality differ one from another.
Individually also they are beyond conceptualization.
Although as "suchness" there is no mental 
	discursiveness (with regard to them)
Kun-tu bzang po shines forth in all forms.
Abandon all the malady of striving, for one has 
	already acquired it all.
One leaves it as it is with spontaneity.

The first Tibetan Dzogchen master, Pagor Vairotsana, received 
the Six Vajra Verses in the eighth century from Shri Singha, 
his Indian Guru, in the land of Uddiyana.  This text was amongst 
the first translations he made at King Trisong Detsen's court at 
Samye in Tibet.  It is considered the root transmission text of the 
Mind Series of Dzogchen instruction and is the first in the list of 
the eighteen transmission texts of the Mind Series tantras.  The 
copy of it found amongst the stash of Tun Huang manuscripts 
hidden in the tenth century and recovered earlier this century, 
authenticates its age and form.

Here is the Tibetan text:

sNa tshogs rang bzhin mi gnyis kyang
Cha shas nyid du spros dang bral.
Ji bzhin pa zhes mi rtog kyang
rNam bar snang mdzad kun tu bzang
Zin bas rtsol ba'i nad spangs te
Lhun gyis gnas pas bzhag pa yin.

OM SWASTI!

LITERARY SOURCES

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