“In actuality, we don’t want to change; we don’t want to see our life and our experiences as impermanent. According to the teachings of the Buddha and Guru Padmasambhava, this is called grasping and clinging. Nature’s true display is different—grasping and clinging always go against and obscure the nature. The result of grasping is difficulty, challenges, and sadness—all of this suffering comes from grasping. In reality, the nature itself is flexible; it’s a natural, transparent display that continually transforms itself into new displays, one after another. That’s how the nature is. Therefore as practitioners, we must look to the nature of our mind and accept its show and display.

 

The whole system of the universe is really just like a dream. It comes, moves, goes, and comes again. There’s nothing that we can grasp on to. Therefore, the Buddha always taught that grasping is unreal, untrue, incorrect, and that it only brings us more trouble and difficulty. Even if we try to cling and hold on to things, they won’t stay the same forever. The great Nyingma master Patrul Rinpoche gave the example of a very strong hailstorm suddenly appearing and raining down very big pieces of hail. During this storm, a young child finds a large ball of ice and picks it up, thinking, “How beautiful this is! I’d really like to keep it.” He likes the ball of ice so much that he carries it in his palm, holding it so tightly that it melts away. He wanted to hold on to this beautiful ball of ice to keep it safe and close, but soon it disappeared. Similarly, our grasping turns the world into something completely different than what it naturally is.

 

Whether it’s raining, storming, or very sunny outside, no matter what situations we go through in life, it’s all like a dream. Everything is a dream. We should think and see things in this way, and then relax without grasping and clinging on to the iceball of phenomena.”

 

Venerable Khenpo Rinpoches
The Essential Journey of Life and Death, Volume 2: Using Dream Yoga and Phowa as the Path (pgs 11-12)

www.padmasambhava.org/chiso/books-by-khenpo-rinpoches/essential-journey-of-life-and-death-volume-two

Photo of Padma Samye Ling on February 4, 2021.