Four Stakes to Bind the Life-Force

srog sdom gzer bzhi - four stakes to bind the life-force; [detailed expl., Light of Wisdom, Vol. 2, page 108]. Furrthermore: To explain the 'four stakes to bind the life-force,' the object to be purified is the state of affairs of a sentient being's body, speech and mind as well as its activities. The result of purification is the Body, Speech, Mind, Qualities and Activities of buddhahood. Even though the basic state of affairs of a sentient being is primordially pure as these aspects of buddhahood, in the apparent state they are seen as being impure and involved in the cause and effect of samsaric existence. The means that purify are to apply the key points of instruction in the four stakes to bind the life-force and hereby you are able to realize the way it ultimately is. Thus, by binding samsara and nirvana with the life-force of their purity in being equality, both the basic and the apparent aspects - the practitioner's three gates and activities and the deity's Body, Speech, Mind and Activities - are brought into the path as the great primordial purity. This is therefore the extraordinary key point of the unity of development and completion and the special feature of the Old School of the Early Translations, Ngagyur Nyingma. [DILGO KHYENTSE] [RY]