Nang-jang is the name given to a visionary text of the Tibetan Dzogchen

Dzogchen

According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of the mind, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by...

 tradition, in which the Dzogchen master, Dudjom Lingpa

Dudjom Lingpa

Dudjom Lingpa was a great 'meditation' master, visionary and terton of the Nyingma tradition of 'Mantrayana' and a Dzogchen master of the modern era of principal importance, particularly in the area of 'refining perception' or Nang Jang...

, experiences visionary visitation from fourteen awakened beings, including Avalokiteshvara and Longchenpa

Longchenpa

Longchen Rabjampa, Drimé Özer "Longchenpa" was a major teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Along with Sakya Pandita and Je Tsongkhapa, he is commonly recognized as one of the three main manifestations of Manjushri to have taught in Central Tibet...

, who teach him of the illusionality of all things and their ultimate dependence upon a universal 'ground of being'.

Some Basic Ideas of the Nang-jang Text

According to the teachings bestowed upon Dudjom Lingpa by the highly advanced spiritual beings who visit him in this text, all phenomenal, sensible things are empty and illusory. Yet there is that which is not separate from them, nor they from it, and which can be described as the 'ground of being'. Orgyan Tsokyey Dorje (one of the spiritual visitants) states:

'All sensory appearances are not other than the ground of being, but are of one taste with that ground itself, like the reflections of all the planets and stars in the ocean that are not other than the ocean, but are of one taste with the water itself.'

The text also tells of how the Buddha nature, the heart of awareness, is utterly pure and lucid and constitutes the very life essence of all things, both samsaric and nirvanic. Ekajati declares:

'Since the fundamental nature of awareness, buddha nature, is pristine and lucid, free of sullying factors, it is "utter lucidity". Since it is endowed with the seven indestructible vajra [diamond / adamantine] attributes, it is "vajra". And since it abides as the vital essence of all phenomena of samsara and nirvana, it is "heart essence".

This is ultimate reality, a state of truth beyond ordinary mundane consciousness and beyond the power of words to describe. It is designated by Zurchhung Sheyrab Dragpa in the text as 'a supreme and inexpressible state', the 'fundamental nature beyond ordinary consciousness'. The practitioner of this spiritual path is urged to strive for the obtention of an ultimate all-knowingness which transcends time:

'Hold this to be the most excellent key point - to practice with intense and unflagging exertion until you attain supreme timeless awareness [jnana], which is total omniscience.'