Kadamapa Precepts 7

"After Atisa passed into Parinirvana, the teacher Drom became his successor. One time his three disciples, the brothers Po-to-wa, Chen-na-wa, and Pu-chung-wa, asked Geshe Drom, "Please tell us the method of practice which includes the essence of all the paths to omniscient Buddhahood."
Geshe Drom answered, "Although there are an inconceivable number of precepts, each of which is an entrance to the path of enlightenment, there is, for one who has the necessary foundation for practice, only one thing to be obtained."
'What is that one thing?" the three brothers asked.
Possession of the essence of Voidness and Compassion. Let me explain this: Voidness is the absolute (don-dam) Bodhi-mind; it is the realization that all phenomena are by nature without truly existent birth. Compassion is the relative (kun-rdzob) Bodhi-mind; it is great compassion extended to all living beings who have not yet realized this fundamental birthlessness.
"Therefore those who practice the Mahayana path should first make effort in the method of generating these two aspects of Bodhi-mind. Once this Bodhi-mind has been attained, it should be diligently practised. By doing this, one is certain to manifest the Rupakaya and the Dharmakaya, the final effects of achieving both aspects of Bodhi-mind.
"There are many methods of generating the two aspects of Bodhi-mind. Should they be condensed into a way of practice, there are no more than three root methods, and sprouting from these, nine principal branch methods. The three root methods are mind-practice, the accumulation of merit and wisdom, and the search for samadhi. Each root method has three principal branch methods.
"The three principal branch methods of mind-practice are the meditation of impermanence,the meditation of love and compassion, and the meditation of the egolessness of all persons and phenomena. Among the various methods of mind-practice, these three are the only important ones; all others are included within them.
"The principal branch methods for the accumulation of merit and wisdom are to honour the Lama, to worship the Three Jewels, and to honour the Sangha. All other methods of the accumulation of merit and wisdom are contained in these three; thus they are the only important ones. 
"The principal methods of seeking samadhi are to maintain perfect moral practice, to pray to the Lamas of the lineage, and to maintain continual solitude. These three methods are the only important ones in seeking the highest samadhi of Abiding Tranquillity and Intense Insight; all others are included within them.
"By practising these nine methods, you will naturally produce the two aspects of Bodhi-mind. When you produce the absolute Bodhi-mind, you will spontaneously realize that all phenomena, whether inner or outer, are empty of real existence, from the beginning without truly existent birth, and totally free from ego-reflection. In this realization, you will find boundless joy. 
When you produce the relative Bodhi-mind, you will generate a deep love and
compassion toward all those living beings who have not realized absolute Bodhi-mind. Then, whatever you do will be for nothing other than the benefit of these myriad beings, and, because you have achieved Bodhi-mind, whatever you have done previously will be for their benefit also.
"There are two aspects to the conjoining of absolute and relative Bodhi-mind. At the time you generate absolute Bodhi-mind, you perceive the Voidness of all existence. You must at this same moment of perceiving Voidness, generate special compassion toward all living beings, who are not negated by your perception of Voidness. At the time of generating relative Bodhi-mind, deep compassion toward all living beings, you must also see the non differentiation of self and others.
"Appearances are like a magician's illusions; actually they are empty of self-nature. When you have successfully generated this unified realization of the two aspects of Bodhi-mind, you have correctly entered the Mahayana path. By practising that realization, you will come to the completion of meditation and will naturally obtain the Rupakaya and the Dharmakaya. The Dharmakaya arises from Voidness - the absolute Bodhi-mind; the Rupakaya arises from Compassion - the relative Bodhi-mind. From inseparable practice of the two aspects of Bodhi-mind, you will obtain the inseparable Dharmakaya and Rupakaya." 

Virtually the whole of Tibetan Buddhism is contained here. The whole of Mahayana
Buddhism, one could say. 
When the Sangha is mentioned separately it is usually the concrete Sangha,
especially in the form of the community of monks or those who are the full time followers of the path. 
He says 'possession of the essence of Voidness and Compassion', it is the essence which is the one thing. Suggesting that Voidness and Compassion are only in
appearance two things, that is to say unified at the highest possible level. And that which constitutes their unity, their essence, that is the highest thing. 
It is not two cosmic principles or two mundane principles that are being unified. In a sense, though only in a sense, this is the conditioned and the unconditioned, the mundane and the transcendental. Voidness standing for the transcendental, Compassion for the mundane.
You notice that Drom establishes first of all Voidness and Compassion as the highest, the most rarefied, also the most sublime of the, as it were, pairs of opposites. And then he traces those pairs of opposites at other levels or in other contexts. 
For instance in connection with the Bodhi-mind, the Bodhicitta. There are two Bodhi minds, the absolute and the relative, or you can say the intentional and the actual. Or you can say love and wisdom, or you can say Rupakaya and Dharmakaya, all these pairs of terms are related in the same sort of way. Or rather the terms which make up these pairs are related in the same sort of way. 
There shouldn't be a one sided realization. One can say that Enlightenment is the
unity of love and wisdom or compassion and wisdom on the highest possible level. 

And why do you speak of the essence of Compassion or the essence of Samsara or the
essence of Conditioned? Because it is not the conditioned as you experience at present, but it also says that the essence of the unconditioned and the essence of conditioned is one essence. So what you are trying to realize, what you want to possess is the essence of Voidness and Compassion, which is a common essence. Which is not the unconditioned as it appears to you now, or as you think of it, nor is it the conditioned as you actually experience it. But it is not the unconditioned as opposed to the conditioned, much less still is it the conditioned as opposed to the unconditioned, but the common essence of both; though not of both as you at
present conceive of both, both as they really are. 
So unless one has that positive emotional basis you are not likely to be able to develop any insight. The difference is that before the development of insight you have a mundane love or a mundane compassion and after you have experienced insight the insight transforms the mundane love and compassion into the Bodhicitta. But the idea that if you don't have any love or compassion or if you don't feel love and compassion, then you can develop insight and through insight develop love and compassion, this might sound theoretically plausible but actually it doesn't work. Just because for the actual development of insight you need that positive emotional basis. 

Energy, yes it mustn't be a cold neutral energy, but you need the psychic wholeness, as it were, and psychic healthiness which suggests love and compassion in a quite high degree. 
As you get into the metta and you actually feel it the experience of metta becomes, as it were dissociated from any particular object. It is just metta existing by itself, so that if you just happen to think of anyone, even if you don't know them at all the metta goes towards them. But the metta can exist without an object and you can just be experiencing metta without anybody consciously in mind. And this is, in fact, what should develop. 
We have to distinguish them now and think of the absolute Bodhicitta as distinct from
the relative. But the true absolute Bodhicitta is that which is the union of the relative
Bodhicitta and the relative absolute Bodhicitta. And that Bodhicitta could be called the absolute absolute Bodhicitta. 

When you are taking a study group you must be able to turn it into a precept. This is the point. The text is only your raw material, that is why you are there. You are the person who produces or creates the precept, which is link between what is said in the
text and where they are now. This is why you have study groups, to produce precepts out of texts which are only very general and abstract things, really, whatever they may be or whoever they might have been written by. You just have to manufacture precepts as you go along. But one can say, as an axiom, that unless one can provide people with precepts you shouldn't take a study group. There is no point in just going through it with them on a purely rational basis, no point in that at all. 

"Again the three brothers questioned the teacher Drom: "In order to work perfectly for oneself and others, which is more important, wisdom (lta-ba) or deeds (spyod-pa)?"

 I think this is vidya and carana, as we have in the salutation of the Buddha, 'vijja carana sampanno', the one endowed with wisdom, or knowledge it is usually translated and deeds.Or theory and practice if you like. 
 Vijja, that's the Pali version, and carana. The Sanskrit would by vidya.

"The teacher Drom replied, "One who has obtained the necessary foundation for practice and has entered the gate of the Mahayana must unify pure wisdom and pure deeds so that he may do perfect work for self and others. Wisdom alone or deeds alone is not enough."
"What, then, is pure wisdom, and what are pure deeds?"
"Pure wisdom consists in the realization that all existents are fundamentally free from the two extremes - eternalism, the extreme of existence, and nihilism, the extreme of non-existence. All phenomena have no actual existence; whether appearing inside or outside, their existence is merely relative. They are like dreams, illusions, and apparitions. Furthermore, pure wisdom is the understanding that all things are but a projection of your own mind. Understanding this, you do not seek out or have attachment to anything.
"Pure deeds are understanding the infallible effects of good and bad actions in this relative existence which is illusory and dreamlike. Further, they are striving with deep compassion, while being careful of the cause and effect of karma, for the benefit of all living beings who do not understand the nature of existence. 

"One who produces in himself the two aspects of Bodhi-mind will naturally produce pure wisdom and pure deeds."
"The disciples then asked, "Is it wrong to have pure wisdom alone or pure deeds alone?"
"Geshe Drom replied, "If you have pure wisdom but do not have pure deeds and lose yourself in impetuous behaviour, not being careful of the cause and effect of karma, you will be of no benefit to yourself and others, and even your pure wisdom will go wrong. Should you have pure deeds but lack the perception of the fundamental Voidness of all things, you will not be able to benefit yourself and others and your pure deeds will begin to go wrong. If you do not unify pure wisdom and pure deeds, you will inevitably fall into mistaken paths. Therefore, you must learn both." 

And 'Pure wisdom consists of the realization that all existences are fundamentally free from the two extremes, eternalism, the extreme of existence and nihilism the extreme of non existence' 

One shouldn't take this in a metaphysical sort of way, on a theoretical sort of way.
What it really means is one should approach existence, approach life if you like without preconceptions, without trying to categorize it or make it fit into your ideas about it, which of course are usually  in terms of the pairs of opposites. You shouldn't try to impose your categories on existence, impose your intellectual pattern on life itself. 

'Furthermore pure wisdom is the understanding that all things are but a projection of your own mind, understanding this you do not seek out or have attachment to anything'. 

One mustn't look at that as a doctrinal sort of proposition. It is not a piece of
philosophy, it means, as it were, being open and concept free in ones approach to reality, in ones approach to life. Not categorizing, not labelling in a one sided fashion and regarding those categories and labels as absolute. Almost determining the nature of existence. Using them if necessary, maybe but not being misled by them 
The confusion only arises when one loses touch with the actual concrete attitude that the teaching is trying to encourage. 
After all wisdom isn't a thing, it is just a way of behaving, it is just an attitude that you have. Wisdom is more like the attitude of your total being. You can't strictly speaking have pure wisdom and lose yourself in impetuous behaviour, so obviously wisdom is not being used here in the full sense or in thetrue sense even. 
The realization of the Voidness is wisdom and the observance of the law of cause and effect is deeds and you have these two together, you don't take a one sided view. 
The realization of Voidness is wisdom and the observance of the law of cause and effect, of conditioned co-production or karma is the pure deeds and these two are inseparable. There is not a principle of Voidness separate from a principle of relativity.