"Self-liberation" is like being bound in iron chains in a dream. If you do not know you are dreaming, your bondage appears to be real, you think it is real, and your experience seems to confirm that it is real. But if you know you are dreaming, you know that the iron chains do not truly exist, and so you are not really bound by them. The bondage does not truly exist. In the dream, nothing needs to come along and set you free - you are free just as you are. The dream experience, even though it appears to be an experience of bondage, is in fact self-liberated.

Dzogchen Paltrul Rinpoche composed verses on the five poisons' self-liberated in connection with Chenrezik practice. These verses are excellent because they combine profound view with meditation on Chenrezik, the deity who embodies all the Buddha's' compassion. Therefore, by doing this practice, you develop your wisdom realizing the true nature of reality as well as your compassion for sentient beings.

NOTE: Paltrul Rinpoche's verses and some of Khenpo Rinpoche's commentary will follow in the coming weeks.

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, Bodhi Magazine, Volume 8  No. 1, page 6.  Translated by Ari Goldfield.