Keeping a Good Heart

Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche was born in Tibet in 1951. He emigrated with his family shortly before the Chinese invasion in 1959. He was brought up by his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920-1995), considered one of the greatest Dzogchen masters of our time.

Tulku Urgyen sent his son to study at the seat of the Sixteenth Karmapa, where he served as the Karmapa’s private attendant. Later, his father arranged for him to receive teachings from Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991), the highly regarded head of the Nyingma order; he received the Dzogchen pith instructions from Tulku Urgyen himself. His friendly, inquisitive, and frank personality allowed him to cultivate close relationships with some of Tibet’s greatest masters.

Since 1976, at the Karmapa’s suggestion, Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche has turned his attention to Western students. He teaches throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, and the United States. In 1981 he established a school for international students in Nepal, the Rangjung Yeshe Institute, which is similar to a traditional shedra, or Buddhist college. This is one of the few places in the world where a Westerner has easy access to a traditional Buddhist education, taught in both Tibetan and English. A five-year program for translators, for instance, can cost as little as $75 a month. Rinpoche has also led Westerners through three-year retreats. As abbot of the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling monastery in Nepal, he has welcomed visitors from around the world to his famous “Saturday talk” for over twenty years. As one travel guide notes, “If you want to know something about Buddhism, you can go and listen to Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche talk.”

Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche is the author of Indisputable Truth (1996), Bardo Guidebook (1991), and Union of Mahamudra & Dzogchen (1986), all published by the imprint he founded, Rangjung Yeshe Publications (www.rangjung.com). Tricycle editor-in-chief James Shaheen conducted this interview on September 10, 2001, in central Massachusetts.

Tricycle: Does teaching Westerners present any particular challenges?

Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche: For people who grow up in a country where the Buddha’s teachings have flourished, Buddhist ideas have become second nature. For instance, these people just trust that there are consequences to one’s actions, and that they’ll form a part of their future lives; they don’t doubt that at all. For Westerners, on the other hand, this is unfamiliar ground, and they wonder, “Are there really repercussions to what I do? Does it really matter?” and also, “Have there been lives before this one, will there be more after?” Westerners are skeptical about these things. Because of their level of education in general, and because of their scientific methodology in particular, they like to intelligently scrutinize. Often, when they’re presented with the main view of the Buddha, which is shunyata—emptiness, or the essentially empty nature of phenomena—and dependent origination, which describes all phenomena in terms of conditioned causal relationships, they feel that they’re capable of understanding and accepting it precisely because it is consistent with their reasoning. The profound view of reality makes perfect sense to them. Then, implicitly, they begin to trust what the Buddha has said about other things. And, later, an understanding of what we call the Three Jewels—Buddha, Dharma, Sangha—comes slowly and as a side effect of that.

You’ve just pretty much described why many of us in the West have come to Buddhism—it all makes perfect logical sense. But in Indisputable Truth you write, “I think that getting the idea of emptiness is not difficult, it’s truly experiencing that all things are empty that’s difficult.” Many of us say we understand the concept, but can you say something about the actual experience of it?

The main view, in the sense of philosophical perspective, of how things are in Buddhism is called shunyata, emptiness, together with dependent origination. In order to understand this view, we can hold up what the Buddha said, and what enlightened masters in the lineage have said, to our own intelligent reasoning. If the two are perfectly compatible, then we can say, “Okay, now we feel convinced.” There’s some certainty of insight that can take place through first studying and then reflecting, and so the case becomes settled in our minds.

And yet this is all intellectual. In other words, we’ve got the idea, the theory of it, but that is not going to change how we are; we’re not liberated by means of the intellect. So that is why, according to the Mahayana, once you have gained a very clear understanding of shunyata and dependent origination, you need to bring it into your experience by means of the particular way of training in meditation which is entirely free of preconceived ideas. It is only through the actual experience of shunyata that our mindstream is freed. That’s Mahayana. And it is exactly the same with Mahamudra and Dzogchen see page TK). In the Mahamudra tradition, the original mind, ordinary mind, or intrinsic wakefulness, is pointed to as our basic nature. But just thinking, “Okay, that’s how it is,” speculating only, assuming that this is probably how our basic nature is, is not going to liberate us. It’s the same with Dzogchen. You may hear that the basic view of Dzogchen is one of primordial pure innate nature that is a self-existing, naked, empty awareness, but that’s also not going to do much unless you experience it.

You have written about starting study with the Theravadin teachings before studying Mahayana, and afterward Vajrayana, which includes Dzogchen and Mahamudra. Nowadays many Westerners are interested in Dzogchen and Mahamudra. But given your view of a student’s proper training, is Dzogchen or Mahamudra a good place to begin?

It has been the tradition in the monasteries of both India and Tibet that anybody who begins Buddhist studies and practice starts with the vehicle for shravakas, or Theravadin practitioners, then proceeds to Mahayana, and then to Vajrayana. If you look at the biographies of the great masters of India, the siddhas—like Tilopa, Naropa, Saraha—you’ll see that. But that is not to say that someone who has not studied shravaka teachings and Mahayana is not allowed to practice or cannot understand Dzogchen.

What do you suggest, then?

I think it would be excellent if people established some clarity about the Buddhist view by comparing what the Buddha said with their own intelligence. What I mean is that people who are interested in the view of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, would do well to gain some familiarity first with the general view of the Buddha and in particular the Mahayana view of the Middle Way. It will then be much easier for them to get a correct understanding of Mahamudra and Dzogchen.

Try to speculate about this: The view of the Middle Way is phrased like this: the nature of all things is beyond the four limits and the eight constructs. More simply, reality is beyond any attempt to formulate it in words or concepts. It does not exist; nor is it nonexistent; it is not both, nor is it neither. It doesn’t arise, it doesn’t cease; it doesn’t come, it doesn’t go; it’s not singular, it’s not multiple; it’s not identical, it’s not something other, either. That may not seem to make sense, and yet a certainty needs to be established that reality is like this. We can establish this certainty by means of our reasoning, logically, and relying on the words of the Buddha, eliminating any kind of false idea we might have. If we want to say, “This is how it is,” that’s eliminated. If we say, “It isn’t anything at all,” that’s also eliminated. There is an old saying: “If one holds the idea that reality is a concrete thing, then one is just like a cow; but if one holds the idea that reality is nothing, then one is even more foolish.”

According to Mahamudra and Dzogchen, in order for us to experience how reality truly is, what is called “the pointing-out instruction” is necessary. This particular instruction points out in actuality what the nature of this perceiving mind is: empty, awake, and free of clinging. Mahamudra and Dzogchen do this with exceptional skill. And when we experience it in actuality, when we recognize that the nature of this mind is empty, not a concrete thing, then there is no way we can hold onto the idea that it is something permanent or eternal, since it is empty. When we recognize that it’s awake and perceives, then there is no way we can hold onto the idea that it is nothing, as with the far worse nihilistic view. In other words, the experience of the view of Mahamudra and Dzogchen automatically eliminates the two extreme views of eternalism and nihilism. That’s pretty neat, isn’t it? And important, very important.

Listening to you, a question arises: your teachings are very logical. They bring us to a point, step by step, and they’re easy enough to follow. And then when you talk about the nonconceptual, I can’t find a logical argument for that, but perhaps there is something inside me that intuits that it’s true. I don’t experience it and yet I have a certain intuition that it’s correct. Should one rely on such intuition?

Very good question! You are allowed to dispute the truth of nonconceptual wakefulness, original mind, but when you cannot, then you can feel sure that it is the ultimate solution. You say it’s sneaking up inside, right?

Yes.

And since you are not a stupid person, it means that you actually do understand that there is a profound point there.

Buddhism is also known under another name, which is inner knowledge. We begin with learning about something. We analyze, we inquire, we investigate, we use our intelligence to figure it out, until we come to a point where we discover that the reality, or the nature of things, in our minds is something that is truly beyond thoughts, beyond words, beyond description. But this idea that reality is beyond thought, word, and description, is not enough. It’s just an idea, you’re still articulating it. So any kind of logical or intelligent answer that we can get to through thought is still not going to cut it. A theory is not the real view of Buddhism. The real view is the experience of that which is beyond thought, word, and description.

Listen to this quote from the Indian master Shantirakshita in his praise of prajnaparamita, or perfection of wisdom:

Transcendent knowledge is beyond thought, word and description.

It neither arises nor ceases, like the identity of space.

It is the domain of individual, self-knowing wakefulness.

I salute this mother of the Buddhas of the three times.

This knowledge is the mother of all the Buddhas, the insight through which all Buddhas appear. That’s what gives birth to all Buddhas.

But it’s not enough to understand the idea of nonconceptual wakefulness; that is not what really works. You need to bring it into your real experience. That is what’s going to matter.

Can you say how that is done?

First, there has to be some sense of being wary of confused states, an acute understanding that this clinging to “me” causes nothing but trouble, endless trouble. Second, you must cultivate love and compassion for all sentient beings, develop compassion to the point where you cannot bear not to help others. And third, there has to be some sincere interest in finding the real solution, the antidote to the root cause of confused spinning around in samsara, which is the attitude of blindly clinging to ego. In other words, we need with all of our heart to be interested in the knowledge that realizes egolessness, the wish to discover nondual original wakefulness—to have it acutely on our mind. That kind of sincerity is necessary. These three things need to come together. And then, along the way, it is necessary to persevere, and to go to competent, qualified masters.

And what is meant by competent and qualified?

It means someone who is personally liberated through realization and therefore has the capacity to liberate others through compassion. When you go to such a person, you say, “Please point out this original state.” And often, in order to bring oneself to that place, there are the general Buddhist practices that remove whatever hindrances there are, that bring about a more conducive atmosphere, which are called accumulation and purification practices; and practices that develop insight. These are helped along through study and through reflection. When you have a competent master, and you have a disciple or student who has brought him-or herself to the point of being really receptive to potent, effective instruction, then, as just mentioned before, the nonconceptual wakefulness can be brought into personal experience. Clear?

Yes.

So let’s say that someone really knows how to meditate correctly and practice correctly: well then, there’s no need to be told. One already knows. But take the example of a master cook, someone who gets a big job in a five-star hotel, who deserves to wear the big white hat. Does that happen without training somewhere? Is it just spontaneous insight into the art of cooking that makes people get a position like that? I don’t think so. It requires that you learn it from somewhere, so that you come out of the training knowing exactly, in an authentic way, how to cook. It’s actually like that with Buddhist training as well. When we connect with a true source, one who not only holds the authentic lineage of an intellectual understanding but also is competent in guiding one to an experience of it in a way that is truly in accordance with reality, authentic realization can spring forth in one’s stream of being. There’s no question about that. Otherwise, for sure we can be training by ourselves and meditating all alone, but I think that meditation means a little bit more than just sitting quietly with closed eyes, not moving for a certain number of minutes and thinking that this is meditation. [laughs] In the Buddhist tradition, from the time of the Buddha until recently, it hasn’t happened that people attained enlightenment without teachers. But maybe if there’s a new tradition that’s started, I don’t know. I will wait to see.

So the proof is in the pudding.

Yeah, exactly, we need to look and see.

Often we feel our everyday secular lives are in conflict with our pursuit of the teachings. How possible is it really for one who goes to work every day, has demanding familial obligations, lives among countless distractions?

Isn’t it human to pursue what is one’s main interest, whatever one considers most important, isn’t that what one often does? There’s a point connected to this I’d like to mention: A practitioner goes into the mountains secluding him or herself, lives in a cave, and at some point awakens to enlightenment. That is not so surprising because that’s what’s supposed to happen. When somebody goes to an office every day and works hard, gets a higher and higher position and finally becomes the boss, or the director of a department, that’s not so surprising, either, that’s what’s supposed to happen. Right? If somebody renounces the world, lives in a monastery, and studies the Buddhist teachings, they become learned and a very gentle, accomplished person; that’s also not very surprising. That’s their job; that’s what they spend all their time on. But if a layperson receives the pithy instructions on how to be able to practice the heart of the Buddha’s teachings during daily life situations, and then with sincerity and perseverance practices that, in every single moment, with mindfulness and with some kind of real integrity, and then achieves awakening while taking care of obligations, one’s duties, and one’s family, and so forth, that is truly surprising, because that’s difficult. And yet there are the profound instructions of Mahamudra and Dzogchen that are designed in such a way so that this is possible. As a matter of fact, there have been a huge number of laypeople in India and in Tibet who not only attained levels of enlightenment, in other words, became really accomplished, but also some who, at the time of death, left behind what is called the “rainbow body” as a manifest sign of complete enlightenment. That is surprising. That’s outstanding, as a matter of fact.

There is a saying that “the dharma has no owner; it belongs to whomever is most diligent.” [laughs] Sometimes people say, “I don’t have time to devote myself to practice, I’m doing a lot of different things and I am obliged to do them.” But honestly, it’s not that one has to go to some other place and close the door and be quiet in order to practice. That’s not the only way. It’s definitely the case that we can practice at any given moment. We can always try a little more to be kind, to be compassionate and be careful about what we do and say and so forth. And it’s not only the body and the voice that are supposed to practice; most important is the mind. How this attention, how this attitude is being employed. In other words, if we are intelligent enough to understand the instructions and if we have the perseverance, then we can remind ourselves about how to really practice at any given moment during the day. The skilled practitioner is someone who goes to work and then while working also develops spiritual qualities. And that requires reminding oneself how to practice, and then, if one understands how to practice, it’s perfectly to possible to mingle the spiritual training with everyday life activities. Especially when it comes to Mahamudra and Dzogchen. It’s not that one practices only in sessions and not in the breaks. When it comes to reminding oneself of what the experience of nonconceptual wakefulness, or the original mind, is, for sure it’s possible to practice at any given moment of the day.

What are the obstacles to such practice?

There are different kinds of obstacles. One is to be frivolous, careless; one is to be lazy; one is to be distracted; one is to be what is called disheartening oneself. Telling yourself, you can’t. And then there’s another one: postponing practice until another time. [laughs]

Rinpoche, you also mention in your writing three ways of working with “defiling emotions,” or selfish emotions. One way is renunciation; the second is transformation; and the third, which is probably very interesting to a layperson, I’m sure, is working with these defiling emotions. And yet you say the latter is very dangerous. First, could you explain a little bit about what working with the defiling emotions might be and two, why dangerous?

In Vajrayana there is a way to bring the five poisonous emotions into the path without rejecting them; they are used as part of the path, but one must be skilled enough to use them. The traditional analogy is that of the peacock, which eats certain poisonous substances but doesn’t die from doing so; rather, the poisons make the colors of its feathers even more resplendent. In this way, the peacock is able to effectively use what is poisonous. This is possible if one has already realized the view of Mahamudra and Dzogchen in actuality—not just as an idea. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have negative emotions; they still arise in our minds, but we do not have to be caught up in them involuntarily like we once were. Now there is a choice: the emotional involvement, rather than being something that disturbs the mind, can be recognized as a nonconceptual state of wakefulness. This is possible for an authentic practitioner of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. Every time a negative emotion arises it can become a moment of wisdom, original wakefulness. That is what is meant by the five poisons becoming the five wisdoms. But this is a topic that is not just a given; it is incorrect to say that because one practices Vajrayana, then it is like that. This practice is meant for very specific contexts. It is not taught that lightly.

How does working with the emotions differ then from transforming them?

When making use of the view of emptiness and dependent origination it is possible to transform the selfish emotional state into something other than what it first is. When the view of being totally free of preconceptions is also combined with original wakefulness, then the emotion becomes used as path.

I’d like to give just a little teaser: the ultimate view in Vajrayana, which is Mahamudra and Dzogchen, can be phrased in these words: “The true view is emptiness endowed with the supreme of all aspects, indivisible from unchanging great bliss and original wakefulness that encompasses all of samsara and nirvana.” That is not so easy to understand. The Vajrayana view is not so simplistic, so we need to discover its full depth; it requires some study. [laughs]

You said earlier that one does what one feels is truly important and yet so often although we sense something is important we avoid it.

Maybe because sometimes we’re a little too fond of fleeting pleasures and the spectacle of this life, so, although we are interested in being liberated or getting enlightened, we forget, get carried away. If we do what really is on our mind, then we will be like Milarepa, who practiced with one-pointed and wholehearted dedication.

Rinpoche, thank you for taking your time to speak with us. Is there anything you’d like to add?

Yes, there’s one thing: At all times and in all situations, try to keep a good heart.

For more information on the teachings of Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, visit www.shedrub.org.

From: tricycle Magazine

Swooping Down from Above

By Lama Surya Das

I'd like to read something by the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, whose name means the self-existent diamond. This Karmapa was a Dzogchen master. He was the Dharma brother of Longchenpa, the enlightened fourteenth century Dzogchen patriarch. This is a very important pith-instruction from the secret, oral pith-instruction lineage of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen tradition. It's called The Single Word of Heart-Advice.

The Single Word of Heart-Advice
Homage to all the sacred masters.
The heart-mind of all the Buddhas of the past, the present, and the future, widely renowned as Dharmakaya, as Mahamudra, as enlightened mind, is precisely your own mind, which thinks of this and that.

What kind of Buddhist teaching is this? Even with all the poisons and everything, today's mind is inseparable from Buddha Mind? This is what the Karmapa says; and, as you all know, the Karmapa is the big boss, so it must be true. (Just joking!) But let's find out for ourselves if it is true. It's possible.

The Karmapa says that the essential nature of your own mind, which thinks of this and that, is the Buddha Mind, is Dharmakaya, absolute truth, Mahamudra, Dzogchen. All the phenomena of Samsara and Nirvana appear within this unique awareness, your awareness. Samsara is not downtown somewhere, while Nirvana is uptown, or on the other shore. Karmapa says all the phenomena of Samsara and Nirvana fit within this unique awareness. This unique innate awareness is the heart-essence of all the sutra teachings, the tantra teachings, and all the commentaries and pith-instructions.
Yet, when you apply it in practice, there is nothing whatsoever to be meditated upon. It is an empty, luminous, spacious, unobstructed void.

Simply allow this unique awareness to rest vividly awake and present in its natural way.

This is Karmapa's teaching. That's what you have to do. There's nothing to meditate on. Just allow awareness to rest totally present and awake. That's why it's called mirror-like awareness, sky-like awareness. Not doing anything. Everything happens as if in that sky-like mirror of mind. The sky and the mirror don't do anything of their own volition, but simply accommodate transitory reflection, without essentially changing.

You don't need to worry or think, "Is this really it? Could this be Mahamudra?" Don't bother yourself with these doubts and questions. Don't hope for improvement or be afraid of degeneration.

How can we progress and develop spiritually if we don't hope for improvement? What kind of Dharma path is this? Karmapa says don't hope for improvement and don't fear going down. Don't chase such transient concepts, like improvement and degeneration. Just rest nakedly at home in this vividly awake present awareness. Relax loosely and rest. Beside this, you don't need anything to meditate on. So let that be the object of your meditation, of non-meditation. The non-meditation called sustaining present wakefulness.

By practicing in this extraordinarily simple way, again and again, you will definitely recognize the groundless, rootless open essence of all thoughts, appearances, and phenomena. When that happens, realization blooms naturally. All attachments, all habitual patterns, all conditioning is spontaneously liberated and released in this blossoming of realization.

This is called Buddhahood. This is what is meant when it says, "One moment makes all the difference. One moment of total awareness is one moment of perfect freedom and enlightenment."

That's why this practice is so profound. One moment is enough. One eternal instant. You don't have to build it up like an investment program, until it ripens. One moment includes it all. One moment makes all the difference. Why not this moment? What are we waiting for?

I swear there is not a more profound and ultimate instruction from all the holy and realized masters of the enlightened lineage that is more profound and more vital than this single word of my heart-advice. Please don't waste this. Don't squander it. Remember this teaching always. There is no mistake in it. Rely on the blessings of such a teaching, rather than on the blessings of others.

This was written by Karmapa Rangjung Dorje in the Yangon Hermitage. May all beings be happy. Sarva mangalam.

What, then, does this mean, that one moment makes all the difference? One moment of perfect awareness-pristine, primordial being-is one moment of freedom and enlightenment. Karmapa says that is called Buddhahood. Some people say you can't become a Buddha if you're a woman. Some people say you can only become an arhat. Some people say you can't become a Buddha without developing through the ten bhumis (Bodhisattva levels) for three endless eons. Some people say all kinds of things, but the practice lineage teachers say we are all Buddhas by nature. We only have to awaken to that. And that happens in the present moment, through total awareness, through a total moment of illuminated presence. We are far more Buddha-like that we think.

So that's the result of this kind of practice. But that's also the practice itself, isn't it? It's not different from what we are doing. It is the practice we're doing. This trekchod practice of cutting through, seeing through-perforating the solidity of ideas and things with this sharp, penetrating awareness in the present moment-that's the practice we are doing here. That's the path as well as the result. And not only that, it is also the basis, the ground where we are coming from. This innate or present awareness is where we begin, where we live, where we are coming from-not just where we are heading towards. It is the ground, our fundamental nature; it's the path, the way we practice; and it's the result, the freedom itself. That's why it is said that the ground, path, and fruit are one and inseparable.

The Dalai Lama said something once, which is often misunderstood. He said Dzogchen is the practice of Buddhas, not of beings. Some people think that means we can't practice it. But what he was saying is that it's the Buddha itself, the innate Buddha Mind called Rigpa, that is practicing it. It's not that we "beings," like lead dolls, are polishing ourselves until we polish it enough that we become like a diamond. He's not saying that. He's saying it's the Buddhas practicing it. It is Rigpa practice, not conceptual practice or mind-made meditation practice. That is why Trekchod is most often taught and practiced in the context of a guru yoga sadhana, in which it is no longer one's ordinary limited self that is practicing the meditation.

Rigpa is the basis, our true nature; it is the path, our practice; and also the result, Buddhahood, freedom, peace. That's why we say Dharmakaya or Rigpa, this innate awareness, this inner wisdom, is Nirvana. Nirvana is not somewhere else. Rigpa is Buddha. It is the ultimate refuge. It is the entire truth. It is the sublime Dharma. And it is the noble Sangha. It is all of us, whether we know it or not. Such exaltedness may seem far from us sometimes, but we are never apart from it.

I have a lot of faith in this practice. I've found, much to my surprise, that it is all true. When my beloved teacher Kalu Rinpoche used to tell us this twenty years ago, I couldn't believe it. My head was too thick. It seemed too good to be true. He said your very mind, thinking of this and that, is not apart from the Buddha-mind. It's not your mind, yourproblem. It's Buddha's problem; give it back to Buddha. Buddha already "got enlightened for your sins." You can relax. It's not your problem. It's Buddha-nature expressing itself as a rainy day, as a storm, or as a sunny day. It is Buddha-nature expressing itself as winter and also as summer. Also as fall, when we are dying, and as spring, when we are being born. Everything is an expression of Buddha-nature or suchness, tathagatagarbha.

There is nothing else happening. It's the beginning and the end. The alpha and omega, as we say in our own Western wisdom tradition. We are alpha and omega both. Nowhere to go and nothing missing. That's why Karmapa says that this very heart-mind is it; don't overlook it! It is too close, so we can't see it; we overlook it. It is innate, so we can't get it.

When my teacher Kalu Rinpoche used to say this to me twenty or more years ago, it seemed too good to be true. I couldn't believe it. It didn't make sense. Not possible! It must be something else, I thought: Self-improvement, enlightenment or bust, get better, transform, find something, understand something, learn something special, become different. We all think like that, don't we? But what about the other side? What about pure being, not our doings? Where we are coming from, not just where we think we are going towards on this highly touted express train to enlightenment. It seems too good to be true, but it is true. It is too close, so we can't see it, we can't get it. It's too obvious and too evident, so we don't notice it. It's too transparent.

Have any of you read Mount Analog by Rene Daumal? It is a spiritual allegory about many seekers seeking something special, the crystal mountain or the mystical jewels, the transparent diamonds of enlightenment. Actually it's an unfinished story, because what is happening is that they are walking on the transparent mountain. And every rock is the transparent jewel, but they can't recognize it because it is transparent. And because it's not just one thing that they have to find. It's everything. And it's the climbers too. So how to find something that's not separate from you? Moreover, how to become what we are?

It's very subtle, so it's hard to recognize. But we might start to look in this direction; towards the view, the ground of being: Towards where we are coming from, not just where we think we are going towards. Towards the goal, not just the present means or meditation technique. Then we can experience this incredibleness; what we would call in English perfection or completeness, illumination, realization, great peace, unconditional love and openness. Freedom. What was it that Kris Kristofferson wrote? "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." When we have no more illusions about enlightenment and Nirvana and when we have no more illusions about ourselves; when we're free of illusion, free of everything-Free! Not just getting into the right concrete castle or blissful, peaceful meditation state. Freedom is much bigger than that. Any state is temporary, is fabricated, so we can fall from it. Any seat, throne, or pedestal we can fall off of. But the ground we can't fall off of. It's like gravity. The Dharma is upholding us. Even if we jump up, there's nowhere to go. We don't need to stand or tiptoe to get higher. We just exhaust ourselves in that way.

We keep trying to tie knots in the vast, open sky, so we have something to hold onto to. We keep trying to jump up. We stand on tiptoes trying to get higher, keep reaching up, put a ladder up, climb a tower; but we can never leave the groundless ground. Even if we fly or are in orbit like an astronaut, it is the groundless ground of being that we are all based in. This is what we are looking into here. And this is what we are using and living and breathing every day, while hardly even knowing it because it takes so many different forms. We are lost in the myriad forms.

I love the vital teaching in the Heart Sutra, saying "Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form." Not just that all forms are empty, but also that emptiness takes form. Recognize the shapes of emptiness also, so we know what we are doing here. You should see through the window, but don't forget the window is there. Otherwise, you just break it, or crash into it like a bird. Did you ever see a bird flying into a window because it didn't see it? That's just seeing the emptiness of things, but not recognizing the forms, the karma, the interconnectedness, the interdependent origination. How things actually function and work. As we say in the Mahayana teachings, "See how things appear to be, as well as how they actually are." If you are having a dream or a nightmare, you could know that. You don't just say, "No, there's no dream." It's a dream. It's a nightmare or a good dream, but it's just a dream. Recognize the appearances as well as their nature. And ourselves, our own appearance, how we are and what we seem to need and how we work. This is variously called the two levels or aspects of truth: absolute and relative, or ultimate and conventional, essence and function.

Not just saying, "Oh, we're all just one. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters." When you start to hear "nothing matters," the red flag should go up. The bullshit detector should flash and beep! Be alerted to whatever self-justification or rationalization is there. "I don't mind. You don't matter. No mind, no matter." That's bullshit. It's rationalization. It's nihilism. It is a symptom of too much emptiness. Sage Nagarjuna said, "It's a pity that some people believe in concrete reality, but much more pitiful are those who believe in emptiness." It's easier to get stuck in emptiness. There's no way to get out; no steps. No exit, as Sartre said. No enlightenment. No hand holds, no helping hands. No anything. That's fine when you've experienced it; but until then, it's too soon to say that it doesn't matter, that everything is empty, like a dream.

Let's try to be very conscientious about our spiritual work. As we say in the Dzogchen tradition: Swoop down from above, with the vast view of everything perfect, as it is-absolute truth, emptiness-while at the same time, climbing up from below according to our capacity, through relative practices, relative truth.

Swooping down while climbing up from below. Let's broaden our minds a bit, so we're not stuck with just one perspective. Can we hold both at the same time? Can we see the forest while we are down on all fours in the trees, counting wild mushrooms? It is very important to be sensible and balanced in our spiritual work so we don't just space out, swooping down from above and having a crash landing. Skiing straight down the mountain is a good example of too much hubris. You can get out of control and crash right into the parking lot at the bottom or go through a guard rail and over a cliff. On the other hand, we don't want to be totally bogged down with schlepping up from below with all our heavy baggage, being so serious and grim about how far it seems to be to enlightenment and missing all the joy of the journey.

We need both the absolute picture-swooping down, with the effortless joy and the freedom of freefall flight-and the relative picture-carefully, meticulously taking care of all the details, climbing up from below according to our capacity through relative practices, including virtuous living, honesty, ethics, purification, and all the transcendental paramitas. Each of those Bodhisattva virtues is a practice: perfection of patience, perfection of generosity, perfection of effort, perfection of forgiveness, perfection of meditation, and so on. All those are practices to do. It doesn't just come because we read about it or believe in it. Buddhadharma is a do-it-yourself path. We have to actually walk the talk, not just verbalize it.
I find in my own life that although I'm always thinking about the highest truth, and inspired when I read about these things-and I hope you read them too, writings by poets like Longchenpa, Patrul Rinpoche, Shabkar, Rumi, Kabir, and Milarepa-yet when you really bring it down to your life, it must filter down to a very practical level, to how we actually live. Do we always take the best seat? Do we cut corners? Do we steal little things? Do we lie? (Just little white ones, right?) Maybe we keep the moral precepts. We don't hear much about the precepts here, because that's not really the emphasis of Dzogchen, but of course we understand that the training in virtue, restraint, nonharming, and morality is very helpful. "Of course, I don't kill." Maybe I forget that my speeding car kills a lot of moths and other insects; but, we might assert, at least I don't intentionally kill. I don't fish. I don't hunt. But maybe I eat meat, wear leather clothes, have ivory on my mala beads, millions of silkworms in my silk kimono. And maybe you do too. The precept is not just not to kill; it is about cherishing life. We ought to really look into what it means to respect and cherish life in all its forms.

Another important precept is not to steal. Well, maybe I don't steal formally; but maybe I invest in companies that steal, in companies that steal from other countries or that steal or destroy the environment. It's not just we shouldn't steal. It's that we shouldn't exploit. We don't need to take more than our share. You can apply this to any of the precepts. Maybe I don't lie (that's probably a lie, but maybe not); but what about slander, gossip, harsh words, and the little white lies we tell ourselves everyday along with our internal story line? You get mad sometimes at somebody, and you say harsh things, don't you? They count too. That's the principle of the precepts. The little lies, the deceptions, count karmically too. Self-deception also counts. How straightforward, forthright, and honest are we, really? You can say the same with the precepts regarding intoxication, sexual misconduct, and pride. It says in the Buddhist sutras things like "Don't sleep on a high bed." And you say, "I don't sleep on a high bed. I sleep on the floor-on my imported Japanese futon with silk sheets and duck featherfilled pillows." But who cares about inches and feet high and low? That's an old-fashioned manner of expression. The precept is about pride, about taking the higher place, about being above others. And it's about simplicity and contentment, rather than excess.

How much excess do we have? How many tape recorders, cameras, TVs, phone numbers, credit cards, and computers do you have? Maybe you have one of each, but I know a lot of us have more than one of each. We have last year's and this year's, and are looking for next year's. I personally have a Walkman, a dictaphone, and my partner has a stereo and also a Walkman and a CD player and two TVs. That's a lot between just the two of us and a dog. Excess. I read that 20 million children are dying every year in the Third World of diarrhea and malnutrition. And the Western countries are collecting the best from those countries, exploiting them, deforesting them. Of course, it's not just the Western countries. Now China is deforesting Tibet. The powerful often exploit the weak. I try to see if I am doing that. And if so, how? If we realize these profound mystical truths, that we are all Buddha, that everything is sacred, wouldn't we treat everybody like we treat our own bodies, like we treat ourselves and our most beloved family members, as a responsible, affectionate, caring guardian rather than as an exploiter?

If these teachings don't filter down from the highest level right into most aspects of our lives, into our relations, where it really counts-what use are they? So let's examine and see how it affects our life. Does our spiritual practice actually affect our life? Do our beliefs change our life? Does the Buddhadharma actually work for us? Because if it doesn't, who needs it?!

One of my friends who is a Buddhist teacher, Ken McLeod, who is a senior American lama in our Kagyu tradition, said, "It doesn't matter what you believe. It only matters what you do." I thought that was very profound for somebody who has been a full-time Buddhist "believer" for 25 or 30 years. I then asked whether it helps to believe that the practice you are doing will help you, and what's the use of doing certain Buddhist practices if you don't believe in them? Or of praying if you don't believe in it? He said that if you pray, it means you believe in it, whatever you may think you believe in.

So if you come here and meditate, you are already doing something. It is the actualization of a deeper belief, deeper than our conscious mind. I have a lot of faith in Ken, so it must be true! (Just joking!) Does it matter what we believe, or does it matter more what we do, how we live? That's why Gandhi said, when asked by a reporter what was the heart of his teaching, "My life is my teaching. How I live is my teaching." He tried to walk his talk, to practice what he preached. So look at how you live, and you'll know what your teaching is. (Your children are getting that teaching daily, by the way, so pay attention.) And it's not just your teaching, but it's also indicative of your realization. So look there; don't look at the gilded Buddha statue on the altar here. Look in the mirror. Have a good look every day. Reflect on what you perceive there. But please don't get too depressed!

There's nothing to get too depressed about actually, but there's also nothing to get too excited or elated about. Getting enlightened is just one more experience. The world will just keep turning.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately in meetings with other teachers. We've explored this with the Dalai Lama also: What is it that is most truly transformative? Eating oranges is supposed to be good for a cold, but what is in it really that is good for the cold? The vitamin C, maybe. So what is it in the various spiritual activities and practices and studies that we do that is most truly transformative? Some people say mindfulness. Some people say devotion, love, compassion. Some people say investigation, inquiry. Some people say meditation. There are many ideas. So what is it? Let's look at our own life. What is it? If we can refine that question, it's like a life koan. Let's try to delve more and more deeply into that question-what is truly transformative-and let go more and more of what is extra, so we can gradually learn to go more directly towards it. (By the way, the Dalai Lama answered, "analysis and meditation.") I personally have been thinking that what was most transformative for me was the longing, the aspiration, the passion for enlightenment. Keeping at it over a long time, in all parts of life. Not just in religious settings, but all the time, wherever life led me. This is probably part of bodhicitta, which means aspiration for awakening. I think each of us have our own piece of that active within our hearts and minds, whether we know it or not.

Any questions tonight? Please feel free. Anything left from this week? We've been here about seven or eight days together.

Do you still practice, meditate, pray, and study after becoming enlightened?

The Dalai Lama gets up at 4 every morning and meditates and studies and does his practices. But that can be said to be an expression of enlightenment itself. But I shouldn't use the word "enlightenment." It has too many imprecise interpretations. Dogen Zenji said, "Meditation is enlightenment." Not that you meditate to get enlightened, but rather that zazen or meditation is Buddha, freedom. That's the other side of the seeker's notion of spiritual climbing. Like in the tale of Mount Analog. You're climbing the mountain, but don't forget it's the mountain from the beginning to the end, not just the top. And all the rocks are the transparent diamonds of enlightenment. These are just poetic images. But if you can do practice from that place, rather than from an impoverished mentality of incompleteness; it's much more vast. For example, we could let Buddha do your sitting tonight. Let Tara do your chanting of the Tara mantra. Let Avalokiteshvara do your chanting of the compassion mantra. If you don't conceive that it's me and mine, and my distractions and my bad voice, and my weariness, then it all takes on a very different character. It's not just meditation in action. It's freedom in action. It's the view in action. Then every practice we do, even ringing the bell at the Hanuman Temple or bowing to idols, takes on a completely different meaning. You can light a candle to the Buddha and put some incense in front of the statue there, but you don't have to forget what your deepest practice is. You know it's not for that statue; Buddha statues don't need to be warmed or illumined by candles. But external observances can help us to be more thoroughly observant, inside and out.

Spiritual practice is a way of life. It's not just a means to an end. It's like living sanely or healthy. It's not to get some other goal. It is to be fully present here and now, not just to be high now and roll-your-own-dharma. It is to be totally one with all and everything, totally present here and now.

What does emaho mean?

Emaho is kind of a Dzogchen exclamation. It means wonderful, far out, amazing, yes! Emaho!

What is the meaning of the mantras we do?

We don't really chant mantras for their meaning, but the Sanskrit words do have a meaning.
The first chant on the practice sheet is simply "Ah." Ah is hard to translate. It's like Om, but it's ah. We'll just leave it like that. It's like the Buddha is the doctor. He gives you the medicine that heals you of all disease, all unease, all suffering. Just think that he is saying, "Ah!" and checking to see if anything is wrong, like when you open your mouth and say ah to a general physician who checks you.
Next is the mantra of Great Compassion of Avalokiteshvara: "Om Mani Padmé Hung." Om is the universal sound. Mani means jewel. Padmé, pema, means lotus. So it means the jewel is in the lotus. Then there's Hung, but that's not there for the meaning; it's there for the completeness of the vibrational tone. Hung is the consort of Om. It is the seed syllable of the five wisdoms. But the meaning is that the jewel is in the lotus, or wisdom and compassion are within us all, like pure seeds blossoming and unfolding within our own tender hearts.

The next one, "Om Ah Hung Benzar Guru Padmé Siddhi Hung," is the Vajra Guru mantra of Padma Sambhava, the Lotus-born Guru who brought Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century. He is called the Second Buddha, the Buddha of Tibet. First Om Ah Hung; then it says Benzar, or Vajra, Guru Padmé. It's like saying homage to the diamond master, born in the lotus. Padmé is lotus. Siddhis mean spiritual powers, like love, wisdom, compassion, forgiveness, enlightenment. So the meaning is homage to the enlightened powers of the Lotus-born Guru. It's a way of affirming that the lotus grows and flourishes out of the mud of one's own nature. Those enlightened powers grow in the mud of our own base nature. Human nature is like the tip of the vast iceberg of Buddha-nature.

The last one is "Om Taré Tutarré Turiyé Soha." That's the mantra of the female Buddha, Tara. Again, we start with the cosmic sound, Om. Taré is her name. It's an invocation that Tara is present and guarding and awakening us. Tutarré is her name again. So is Turiyé. Soha or swaha is like amen, or so be it. So it's her name mantra. Chanting it attracts her (our) attention, exhorts her swiftly enlightening activity, and brings down and brings out her bountiful blessings.

As I said, we don't really chant these mantras thinking of their meaning. When we chant it, we can feel the vibration on an energy level. Something happens, much more than just thinking or saying that the mantra means the jewel in the lotus. You can begin with the meaning, but then you go quickly deeper into it and experience it from the inside out by chanting and meditating on it. It works in your chakras and in your psychic energy channels, and so on, vibrating in different sacred dimensions. There are different kinds of mantras: softening mantras; energetic, generating mantras; peaceful and wrathful mantras; healing mantras; purification mantras; and so on.

These mantras are made up of seed syllables. Each of these syllables is called a seed, a bija in Sanskrit. Om is such a seed syllable. A mantra is a string of them, like a rosary. The string linking the beads is the breath and the attention. Each seed syllable germinates in a slightly different way. Just look at the different seed syllables. Like P'et! That's very sharp and cutting, so we call that a cutting syllable. Then there's Ah! A very softening, opening, spacious, relaxing, dissolving seed syllable. So we try to harmoniously balance different aspects. We balance the sharpness, the one-pointedness of the P'et with the spacious, expansive softness of the Ah. You can feel the different quality of the sounds. Mantric sounds have a lot of vibrations, and different levels that they vibrate on. These mantras are kind of a technology for awakening different energies and actualizing different qualities. It's not really like asking an external deity named Tara to do something. It's more like actualizing within ourselves that sacred feminine energy which Tara embodies.

With a mantra like Om Mani Padmé Hung, some lamas make a vow to do huge numbers of recitation practice, like 100 million times, which they count with their beads. They are always saying it. They try to say 20 or 30 or 50,000 mantras every day. They are always concentrating on compassion and loving-kindness, radiating and warming up and softening, seeing everybody as the Buddha and every place as a Buddhafield. They radiate blessings and light rays to all the different kinds of beings with Om Mani Padmé Hung. Kalu Rinpoche, for example: We took him once to the aquarium in Boston in the winter of 1976. There were some huge glass walls thick with little fish there. There were thousands of fish in huge tanks. Rinpoche would go up to the glass and, holding his bodhi-seed mala beads in hand, say Om Mani Padmé Hum again and again. He went up to each fish and individually, touched a finger gently to the window near its little face to get its attention, to make a connection, and said Om Mani Padmé Hung. We couldn't even walk around the aquarium, because he was busy, blessing and teaching the fish. He seemed to connect personally with each one. Nor was he the least bit self-conscious about it. It was marvelous.

If you do this kind of loving practice, it comes out naturally in many ways. Rinpoche used to say Om Mani Padmé Hung over bowls of rice or sand every morning. Then he'd throw them out the window or spread it as he walked, so all the ants and dogs and snakes would eat the rice grains or touch the sand and make a spiritual connection, be blessed and benefited. He did that every day of his life. He even suggested to us, his students, that we had to do that. I admit to not living up to his standard.
Mantras have power. Mudras, hand gestures, have power. Yantra, or visualizations, mandalas, have power. Of course, it is the power of the mind that invests in them such resonance. Buddha said, "Mind comes first. Before deed and words comes thought or intention. So guard carefully your own mind."

October 8, 1994


From: Dzogchen.com

Your Mind is Your Religion

By Lama Yeshe

WHEN I TALK ABOUT MIND, I'm not just talking about my mind, my trip. I'm talking about the mind of each and every universal living being. The way we live, the way we think-everything is dedicated to material pleasure. We consider sense objects to be of utmost importance and materialistically devote ourselves to whatever makes us happy, famous, or popular. Even though all this comes from our mind, we are so totally preoccupied by external objects that we never look within, we never question why we find them so interesting.

As long as we exist, our mind is an inseparable part of us. As a result, we are always up and down. It is not our body that goes up and down, it's our mind-this mind whose way of functioning we do not understand-not just our body, but our mind. Therefore, sometimes we have to examine ourselves-not just our body, but our mind. After all, it is our mind that is always telling us what to do. We have to know our own psychology, or, in religious terminology, perhaps, our inner nature. Anyway, no matter what we call it, we have to know our own mind.

Don't think that examining and knowing the nature of your mind is just an Eastern trip. That's a wrong conception. It's your trip. How can you separate your body, or your self-image, from your mind? It's impossible. You think you are an independent person, free to travel the world, enjoying everything. Despite what you think, you are not free. I'm not saying that you are under the control of someone else. It's your own uncontrolled mind, your own attachment that oppresses you. If you discover how you oppress yourself, your uncontrolled mind will disappear. Knowing your own mind is the solution to all your problems.

One day the world looks so beautiful; the next day it looks terrible. How can you say that? Scientifically, it's impossible that the world can change so radically. It's your mind that causes these appearances. This is not religious dogma; your up and down is not religious dogma. I'm not talking about religion; I'm talking about the way you lead your daily life, which is what sends you up and down. Other people and your environment don't change radically; it's your mind. I hope you understand that.

Similarly, one person thinks that the world is beautiful and people are wonderful and kind, while another thinks that everything and everyone is horrible. Who is right? How do you explain that scientifically? It's just their individual mind's projection on the sense world. You think, “Today is like this; tomorrow is like that; this man is like this; that woman is like that.” But where is that absolutely fixed, forever-beautiful woman? Who is that absolutely forever-handsome man? They are nonexistent-they are simply creations of your own mind.

Do not expect material objects to satisfy you or to make your life perfect; it's impossible. How can you be satisfied by even vast amounts of material objects? How will sleeping with hundreds of different people satisfy you? It will never happen. Satisfaction comes from the mind.

If you don't know your own psychology, you might ignore what's going on in your mind until it breaks down and you go completely crazy. People go mad through lack of inner wisdom, through their inability to examine their own mind. They cannot explain themselves to themselves; they don't know how to talk to themselves. Thus they are constantly preoccupied with all these external objects, while within, their mind is running down until it finally cracks. They are ignorant of their internal world, and their minds are totally unified with ignorance instead of being awake and engaged in self-analysis. Examine your own mental attitudes. Become your own therapist.

You are intelligent; you know that material objects alone cannot bring you satisfaction, but you don't have to embark on some emotional, religious trip to examine your own mind. Some people think that they do; that this kind of self-analysis is something spiritual or religious. It's not necessary to classify yourself as a follower of this or that religion or philosophy, to put yourself into some religious category. But if you want to be happy, you have to check the way you lead your life. Your mind is your religion.

When you check your mind, do not rationalize or push. Relax. Do not be upset when problems arise. Just be aware of them and where they come from; know their root. Introduce the problem to yourself: “Here is this kind of problem. How has it become a problem? What kind of mind feels that it's a problem?” When you check thoroughly, the problem will automatically disappear. That's so simple, isn't it? You don't have to believe in something. Don't believe anything! All the same, you can't say, “I don't believe I have a mind.” You can't reject your mind. You can say, “I reject Eastern things”-I agree. But can you reject yourself? Can you deny your head, your nose? You cannot deny your mind. Therefore, treat yourself wisely and try to discover the true source of satisfaction.

When you were a child you loved and craved ice cream, chocolate, and cake, and thought, “When I grow up, I'll have all the ice cream, chocolate, and cake I want; then I'll be happy.” Now you have as much ice cream, chocolate, and cake as you want, but you're bored. You decide that since this doesn't make you happy you'll get a car, a house, television, a husband or wife-then you'll be happy. Now you have everything, but your car is a problem, your house is a problem, your husband or wife is a problem, your children are a problem. You realize, “Oh, this is not satisfaction.”

What, then, is satisfaction? Go through all this mentally and check; it's very important. Examine your life from childhood to the present. This is analytical meditation: “At that time my mind was like that; now my mind is like this. It has changed this way, that way.” Your mind has changed so many times but have you reached any conclusion as to what really makes you happy? My interpretation is that you are lost. You know your way around the city, how to get home, where to buy chocolate, but still you are lost-you can't find your goal. Check honestly-isn't this so?

Lord Buddha says that all you have to know is what you are, how you exist. You don't have to believe anything. Just understand your mind; how it works, how attachment and desire arise, how ignorance arises, and where emotions come from. It is sufficient to know the nature of all that; that alone can bring you happiness and peace. Thus, your life can change completely; everything turns upside down. What you once interpreted as horrible can become beautiful.

If I told you that all you were living for was chocolate and ice cream, you'd think I was crazy. “No! no!” your arrogant mind would say. But look deeper into your life's purpose. Why are you here? To be well liked? To become famous? To accumulate possessions? To be attractive to others? I'm not exaggerating- check yourself, then you'll see. Through thorough examination you can realize that dedicating your entire life to seeking happiness through chocolate and ice cream completely nullifies the significance of your having been born human. Birds and dogs have similar aims. Shouldn't your goals in life be higher than those of dogs and chickens?

I'm not trying to decide your life for you, but you check up. It's better to have an integrated life than to live in mental disorder. A disorderly life is not worthwhile, beneficial to neither yourself nor others. What are you living for-chocolate? Steak? Perhaps you think, “Of course I don't live for food. I'm an educated person.” But education also comes from the mind. Without the mind, what is education, what is philosophy? Philosophy is just the creation of someone's mind, a few thoughts strung together in a certain way. Without the mind there's no philosophy, no doctrine, no university subjects. All these things are mind-made.

How do you check your mind? Just watch how it perceives or interprets any object that it encounters. Observe what feelings-comfortable or uncomfortable-arise. Then check, “When I perceive this kind of view, this feeling arises, that emotion comes; I discriminate in such a way. Why?” This is how to check your mind; that's all. It's very simple.

When you check your own mind properly, you stop blaming others for your problems. You recognize that your mistaken actions come from your own defiled, deluded mind. When you are preoccupied with external, material objects, you blame them and other people for your problems. Projecting that deluded view onto external phenomena makes you miserable. When you begin to realize your wrong-conception view, you begin to realize the nature of your own mind and to put an end to your problems forever.

Is all this very new for you? It's not. Whenever you are going to do anything, you first check it out and then make your decision. You already do this; I'm not suggesting anything new. The difference is that you don't do it enough. You have to do more checking. This doesn't mean sitting alone in some corner contemplating your navel-you can be checking your mind all the time, even while talking or working with other people. Do you think that examining the mind is only for those who are on an Eastern trip? Don't think that way. Realize that the nature of your mind is different from that of the flesh and bone of your physical body. Your mind is like a mirror, reflecting everything without discrimination. If you have understanding-wisdom, you can control the kind of reflection that you allow into the mirror of your mind. If you totally ignore what is happening in your mind, it will reflect whatever garbage it encounters-things that make you psychologically sick. Your checking-wisdom should distinguish between reflections that are beneficial and those that bring psychological problems. Eventually, when you realize the true nature of subject and object, all your problems will vanish.

Some people think they are religious, but what is religious? If you do not examine your own nature, do not gain knowledge-wisdom, how are you religious? Just the idea that you are religious-“I am Buddhist, Jewish, whatever”-does not help at all. It does not help you; it does not help others. In order to really help others, you need to gain knowledge-wisdom.

The greatest problems of humanity are psychological, not material. From birth to death, people are continuously under the control of their mental sufferings. Some people never keep watch on their minds when things are going well, but when something goes wrong-an accident or some other terrible experience-they immediately say, “God, please help me.” They call themselves religious but it's a joke. In happiness or sorrow, a serious practitioner maintains constant awareness of God and one's own nature. You're not being realistic or even remotely religious if, when you are having a good time, surrounded by chocolate and preoccupied by worldly sense pleasures, you forget yourself, and turn to God only when something awful happens.

No matter which of the many world religions we consider, their interpretation of God or Buddha and so forth is simply words and mind; these two alone. Therefore, words don't matter so much. What you have to realize is that everything-good and bad, every philosophy and doctrine-comes from mind. The mind is very powerful. Therefore, it requires firm guidance. A powerful jet plane needs a good pilot; the pilot of your mind should be the wisdom that understands its nature. In that way, you can direct your powerful mental energy to benefit your life instead of letting it run about uncontrollably like a mad elephant, destroying yourself and others.

I think you understand what I'm talking about. What I want is for you to check up. A simple way of checking up on your own mind is to investigate how you perceive things, how you interpret your experiences. Why do you have so many different feelings about your boyfriend even during the course of one day? In the morning you feel good about him, in the afternoon, kind of foggy; why is that? Has your boyfriend changed that radically from morning to afternoon? No, there's been no radical change, so why do you feel so differently about him? That's the way to check.

[Also] before you do anything, you should ask yourself why you are doing it, what is your purpose; what course of action are you embarking on. If the path ahead seems troublesome, perhaps you shouldn't take it; if it looks worthwhile, you can probably proceed. First, check up. Don't act without knowing what's in store for you.

Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935-84) was educated at Sera Monastic University in Lhasa, Tibet. After fleeing Tibet in 1959, he began teaching Buddhism to Westerners at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu and in 1974 began teaching around the world. He was co-founder of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition. This is an excerpt from Make Your Mind an Ocean: Aspects of Buddhist Psychology (1999). Used with permission of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, Boston.

From: Tricycle Magazine

On Cultivating the Mind - Chinul (1158-1210)

Confused Practice cannot Help

It is sad that people have been confused for so long.  They do not understand that their own minds are Buddha and that their own natures are Dharma.  They look for Dharma by searching for sages for a way.  They look for Buddha but do not observe their own minds.

If they aspire to Buddhahood while clinging to their opinion that Buddha is outside the mind and that Dharma is outside their own nature, then even if they burn their limbs and break their bones for a million kalpas to show their sincerity, even if they sit constantly and never lie down to sleep, write out sutras in their own blood, eat only one meal a day, and practice every austerity—it would be like  trying to cook rice by boiling sand, and in the end they will only wear themselves out.

The Same Enlightenment for Sages and Ordinary Beings.

If you see the nature of your own mind, gates to the Dharma as countless as grains of sand in the Ganges will open, and limitless subtle meanings will make themselves known.  The World-Honored One saw this and said, “Sentient beings everywhere are endowed with the wisdom and virtue of a Tathagata.”  And also, “The various illusory forms that sentient beings take all come from the Tathagata’s perfect enlightenment.” And so it is clear that Buddhahood cannot be attained apart from the mind.  All the Buddhas of the past were simply ordinary people who understood their minds.  Likewise, all the masters of the present have simply cultivated their own minds.  And all future practitioners will have to depend upon cultivation of mind.  So if you wish to follow the Way, do not seek for it outside yourself.

              The nature of mind is without blemish

              It is originally whole and complete.

              If you leave behind delusory karma

              You will be Buddha just as you are.

The Only Thing is Within Us, But We Do Not See It

Student:  If Buddha-nature is present now within the body, it is not separate from ordinary people. Then why can’t I see it?  Would you please explain this more?

Chinul:  It is present within your body; you just don’t see it.  Who is it exactly who feels hungry and thirsty during the day, feels hot and cold, angry and happy?  The body is a temporary compound of four elements: earth, water, fire, and wind.  Matter itself is lifeless and insentient, so how can it see, hear, feel, and be conscious?  But seeing, hearing, feeling, and being conscious are exactly your Buddha-nature.  This is why Lin-chi said:

              This corpse’s four elements

              Cannot speak or hear Dharma.

              Empty space

              Cannot speak or hear Dharma.

              Only the formless thing before your eyes,

              Clear and bright of itself,

              Can speak and hear Dharma.

This thing without any form is the Dharma-seal of all Buddhas.  It is your original mind.

Sudden Enlightenment and Gradual Cultivation

Student:  If enlightenment is by its very nature sudden, why is gradual cultivation necessary?  And if cultivation is necessarily gradual, how can we talk about sudden enlightenment?  Would you please clear up our doubts about sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation?

Chinul:  First, then, sudden enlightenment.  If you are an ordinary person, you mistakenly believe that your real body is the four elements and that your deluded thoughts are your mind.  You do not understand that your self nature is the Dharma-body, and that your own luminous mind is the Buddha.  As you wander around looking for the Buddha outside your mind, a wise mentor might point out to you the entry point.  If in one moment of thought you then turn the light around and see your original nature, you will realize that it is free from all delusion and is fundamentally complete. You will see that you are not a bit different from all the Buddhas.  This is why enlightenment is called sudden.

Now, gradual cultivation. Even after you have realized that your original nature is no different from that of the Buddhas, you still have to deal with the energy of your beginningless habits, which cannot be eliminated all of a sudden.  So you must continue to practice after enlightenment until gradually your efforts reach completion and you conceive a spiritual embryo.  Then, after a long time, you may become a sage.

It is just like when a newborn baby arrives, perfectly endowed with all its faculties but still weak.  It will take many months and years before it is a mature adult.

Looking for Techniques for Awakening is Wrong

Student: What technique can we use to reflect inward and awaken to our self-nature in one moment of thought?

Chinul:  Self-nature is just your own mind.  Why do you need some technique?  If you look for a technique to see your mind, you are like someone who because he cannot see his own eyes thinks that he doesn’t have any eyes and so looks for another way to see. But he does have eyes, and how could he see except with his own eyes? If he realizes that he never lost his eyes, that is the same as seeing his eyes. Then there is no notion that he cannot see, or of finding some other way to see.

It’s the same with spiritual awareness. It’s just your own mind.  How else could you understand it?

              If you look for your mind,

              You cannot find it.

              See that it cannot be found,

              And you will see self-nature.

Direct Apprehension of the Luminous Mind

Student:  A person of superior faculties will get this right away.  But those of us who are just average will still have some doubts. Could you describe some methods for those who are confused about how to get enlightenment?

Chinul: The Way has nothing to do with knowing or not knowing.  Just get rid of the mind that clings to delusion and wants enlightenment.  Listen to this:

              Each and every existent            

              Is like a dream, like a phantom.

              Deluded thoughts are originally calm;

              The sensory world is originally empty.

Where everything is empty, luminous awareness is not obscured, and this empty, calm, luminous mind is your original face.  It is also the Dharma-seal transmitted in direct succession by all the Buddhas, Patriarchs, and enlightened beings of the past, present, and future.  If you awaken to this mind, there are no steps in between, no stairs to climb. You go directly to the stage of Buddha, and with each step you transcend the three worlds.  You will return home, all doubts resolved.  Filled with both compassion and wisdom, you will become the teacher of Heaven and Earth.  It will be as if gods and humans offered you thousands of gold coins every day, with the promise of more.  You will indeed have finished the great work of life and death.

Zen Sourcebook: Traditional Documents from China, Korea, and Japan-Trans by Stanley Lombardo

From: DailyZen

Buddha right here

By Dudjom Rinpoche

Since pure awareness of nowness is the real buddha,
In openness and contentment I found the Lama in my heart.
When we realize this unending natural mind is the very nature of the Lama,
Then there is no need for attached, grasping, or weeping prayers or artificial complaints,
By simply relaxing in this uncontrived, open, and natural state,
We obtain the blessing of aimless self-liberation of whatever arises.

Natural Great Peace

By Sogyal Rinpoche

The teaching of the Buddha is vast. Just the ‘Word of the Buddha’ alone fills over a hundred volumes. Then the commentaries and treatises by the great Indian scholars fill another two hundred and more, and this is not even counting all the works of the great Tibetan masters. Yet at the same time, the teaching of the Buddha can be essentialized in a very profound way.

I remember my master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche used to say, “The teaching of Buddha is both ‘vast’ and ‘profound’: the ‘vast’ is the approach of the learned, the pandit, and the ‘profound’ is the approach of the yogi.” When Buddha himself was asked to summarize his teaching, he said,

Commit not a single unwholesome action,
Cultivate a wealth of virtue,
To tame this mind of ours,
This is the teaching of all the buddhas.

To say, “commit not a single unwholesome action”, means to abandon unwholesome, harmful and negative actions which are the cause of suffering, for both ourselves and others. To “cultivate a wealth of virtue” is to adopt the positive, beneficial and wholesome actions that are the cause of happiness, again for both ourselves and others. Most important of all, however, is “to tame this mind of ours”. In fact the masters, like Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, often say that this one line captures the essence of the teachings of the Buddha. Because if we can realize the true nature of our own mind, then this is the whole point, of both the teaching and our entire existence.

The mind is the root of everything: the creator of happiness and the creator of suffering, the creator of samsara and the creator of nirvana. In the Tibetan teachings, mind is called ‘the king who is responsible for everything’—kun jé gyalpo—the universal ordering principle. As the great guru Padmasambhava said, “Do not seek to cut the root of phenomena, cut the root of the mind.” That is why I find these words of Buddha so inspiring: “We are what we think, and all that we are rises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak and act with a pure mind and happiness will follow.” If only we were to remember this, keep it in our hearts, and keep our heart and mind pure, then happiness would really follow. The whole of Buddha’s teaching, then, is directed towards taming this mind, and keeping our heart and mind pure.

That starts when we begin with the practice of meditation. We allow all our turbulent thoughts and emotions to settle quietly in a state of natural peace. As Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche said:

Rest in natural great peace this exhausted mind,
Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thoughts
Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves
In the infinite ocean of samsara.
Rest in natural great peace.

How do thoughts and emotions settle? If you leave a glass of muddy water quite still, without moving it, the dirt will settle to the bottom, and the clarity of the water will shine through. In the same way, in meditation we allow our thoughts and emotions to settle naturally, and in a state of natural ease. There is a wonderful saying by the great masters of the past. I remember when I first heard it what a revelation it was, because in these two lines is shown both what the nature of mind is, and how to abide by it, which is the practice of meditation. In Tibetan it is very beautiful, almost musical: chu ma nyok na dang, sem ma chö na de. It means roughly, ‘Water, if you don’t stir it, will become clear; the mind, left unaltered, will find its own natural peace.’

What is so incredible about this instruction is its emphasis on naturalness, and on allowing our mind simply to be, unaltered and without changing anything at all. Our real problem is manipulation and fabrication and too much thinking. One master used to say that the root cause of all our mental problems was too much thinking. As Buddha said: “with our thoughts we make the world”. But if we keep our mind pure, and allow it to rest, quietly, in the natural state, what happens, as we practise, is quite extraordinary.

From: Ripga