"Igniting the Beautiful Nature of the Teachings in Your Heart & Mind" by the Venerable Khenpo Rinpoches

"Since meditation is so important for us as Dharma practitioners, we’d like to discuss the essential points of meditation practice in more detail.

Whenever we do any kind of Dharma practice, including meditation, the recitation of mantras, and sadhana practice, we should always begin with a great sense of joy and appreciation, along with awareness of the preciousness of time. This is very important. Presently, we’re enjoying very beautiful circumstances and situations and, for the most part, everything is quite good. Of course, we also experience difficulties and rough situations. But it’s important not to focus too much on these troubles and hardships. Instead, we should ignite more positive thoughts and attitudes by recognizing our many opportunities, as well as the preciousness of time, with joy and appreciation.

Our time in this world is not going to last forever; it will eventually run out. So there must be a sense of appreciation and urgency in our practice. Right now we have the wonderful opportunity to practice. We have time to practice. To some degree, appreciating this good fortune is part of renunciation. It touches very close to the truth of how we exist in the phenomenal world, the situations and circumstances in which we find ourselves. Therefore, all of us should maintain joyous thoughts of appreciation very strongly in our hearts and minds. This is one of the best ways to sharpen our practice.

The second attitude that will restrengthen our practice is bodhichitta. Bodhichitta is the sense of concern, caring, and consideration for all living beings, and it embodies the thoughts of love, compassion, and wisdom. Therefore, it’s essential to bring forth the dense power of bodhichitta in both our hearts and minds. In his teachings, the Buddha often said, “Without compassion, the root of Dharma is rotten.” Without compassion, the essence of the teachings is lost. In other words, bodhichitta is the very essence of the Dharma: compassion is the essence of our practice. Along with love, kindness, and compassion, the teachings often speak of the Four Boundless thoughts, which are sympathetic joy and equanimity, in addition to this love and compassion. Bodhichitta is truly one of the most important aspects of our practice. Practicing in this way will definitely sharpen all our Dharma activities.

The third necessary attitude to develop our practice includes devotion and faith. This is also known as taking refuge, which is the foundation of all schools of Buddhism. Our practice will not activate without these two closely linked qualities. “Devotion” refers to both trust and confidence, along with a feeling of comfort and closeness towards the Three Jewels, the Three Roots, and one’s innate nature. Devotion and faith will make us feel happy and joyful towards practice. We have all received authentic practices, so we have everything we need. We can be confident that nothing is missing from the teachings we’ve been given, and there is no shortage of practices we can do!

Although we already have everything we need to progress along the path, our practice is lacking. Why? Because we’re not using what we already have. We’re not activating our renunciation, bodhichitta, devotion, and faith. Therefore, we should continue to develop our close connection with the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, as well as with Guru Padmasambhava and the lineage. This connection takes the form of a strong feeling of devotion, joy, closeness, and warmth. Trust and confidence are also very important. For all these reasons, devotion—which actually includes trust and confidence—will really help to strengthen our practice of meditation, as well as enhance all our activities, quickly bringing results. We could say that devotion is almost like adding Miracle Grow to our practice! Truly, it is essential for our growth.

The next important attitude that will restrengthen our practice includes mindfulness, alertness, and attentiveness, or thoughtfulness. These qualities are all extremely important. One of the aims of Dharma practice, and Buddhism in general, is to improve ourselves. This means we need to improve and enhance our love, compassion, and wisdom. At the same time, we’re trying to reduce the strength and degree of our ego-clinging and negative emotions. The only way to do this is to look at ourselves. We are not the monitors of other people. As Buddhist practitioners, instead of always watching others and judging what they do, we have to watch our own minds and actions. This is known as mindfulness and alertness.

Simultaneously, we must develop our patience. We shouldn’t immediately place blame on others thinking that we are completely perfect. Putting others down and pointing out their shortcomings is a sign of weakness in a practitioner. Rather than clinging to this narrow view, we should activate our patience, alertness, and mindfulness. This will help us settle down so that we can really grow and develop. This is the next important technique that will strengthen our practice—treating both ourselves and others with patience.

In order to increase our patience, it’s necessary to examine our own errors and faults with the intention of removing and purifying them. We should think, “I’m not the perfect one here. I’m not perfect.” With this motivation, we’re trying to develop our good qualities and inner perfection so that we will eventually become good examples to others and be able to benefit them. By generating these qualities ourselves, we will become good practitioners. Patience and mindfulness are also excellent ways to increase our awareness in post-meditation and expand our bodhichitta.

Next, joyful effort is one of the most important qualities we can cultivate in order to sharpen our practice. It’s truly so important. Joyful effort isn’t something to generate only once in awhile, or every now and then. We cannot limit our practice to those times when we’re feeling good, when things are going our way. Neither should we practice only when we experience difficulties and are going through rough times. It’s crucial that we continue to practice until we fulfill the goal of complete enlightenment by fully developing our love, compassion, and wisdom.

Achieving the goal of supreme enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings is only possible by removing each and every one of our negative emotions, which serve only to harm ourselves and others. Therefore, we must continue to practice until we are free from all afflictive emotions and are no longer bothered by adverse circumstances. For example, we must practice until we don’t become the slightest bit upset or irritated when somebody criticizes us. Similarly, we should practice until we have developed perfect equanimity, no longer clinging to either pleasure or pain, seeing them both as equal. Maybe we can slow down a bit once we reach this state! Until that time, we should always practice diligently with joyful effort and appreciation.

The teachings often warn us that we shouldn’t just be practitioners when we’re feeling good about ourselves and enjoying pleasant circumstances, boasting, “Oh, I am a good practitioner!” If we fall into this way of thinking, we’ll lose our identity as practitioners the moment we undergo difficulties  we are having fun, and then totally stop being bodhisattvas when we’re experiencing difficulties. It doesn’t work that way. A true bodhisattva is always consistent, whether he or she meets with pleasant or unpleasant circumstances.

Since this point is so important, we are going to explain it again: we have to continually apply joyful effort, courage and commitment, perseverance and joy. In this way, our practice will not fluctuate to extremes based upon changing circumstances. Lacking joyful effort, we will be “good practitioners” only when our tummies are full, the sun is shining beautifully, and everything is quite okay. In other words, we will be “good practitioners” only as long as circumstances are moving along nicely, according to our wishes. Otherwise, the moment a small disturbance arises we completely lose our tempers, becoming even worse than ordinary beings! This is not what it means to be a practitioner. The teachings definitely say this and it is really true. Perhaps we’re having a good time on the beach and everything is nice—then we are really good practitioners! But when we’re stuck in a traffic jam, it’s really hot, and the air conditioner isn’t working, we lose our practice. We must strive to be good practitioners in the traffic jam and on the beach.

This is why the teachings emphasize the importance of taming the mind. The true signs of accomplishment are when the mind continually remains gentle, peaceful, and content. In Tibet, it’s often said that it’s wonderful if you can put a handprint or footprint in rock, but even more wonderful if you are always patient, loving, gentle, and peaceful. This is the greatest sign of achievement, the sign of a true practitioner. If you begin to experience these qualities more and more, it’s a sure sign that your practice is working. So, patience, courage, and commitment are very helpful ways to restrengthen our practice.

Next, we can enhance our practice by continuing to reduce the power of our attachments, which means letting go of our grasping and clinging. Visualization and dissolution stages of sadhana practice, Shamatha and Vipashyana, are all designed to lessen our grasping and clinging so that we come to perceive all existing phenomena as dream-like. These dream experiences themselves are also empty. So it is always important to apply these practices in order to lessen our grasping and clinging at the level of both subject and object.

Along with these techniques, acknowledging both our virtuous and non- virtuous deeds is always very beneficial to our practice. We should feel happy and joyful whenever we’re able to perform even a small meritorious activity. Likewise, we must acknowledge and purify even the smallest negative activity. Small causes can bring about very powerful results. The teachings of the Buddha advise us to immediately acknowledge and confess our negative actions as soon as we become aware of them. Think to yourself, “Oh, I did something bad. What I did was negative.”  Acknowledging non-virtuous activities as non-virtuous is itself considered to be virtuous and good, and will lead to wisdom. It implies that we are going to stop ourselves from performing negative actions next time. As we said, even this acknowledgement itself is meritorious and should be dedicated.

In ancient times, there was a householder named Chemdhag Palche. The Buddha explained that thousands and thousands of lifetimes before his birth as Chemdhag Palche, the man took rebirth as a pig. One day, the mud- covered pig was chased by a wild dog. During the chase, the pig brushed up against a stupa, filling up some of its cracks with mud. The Awakened One taught that even this small, unintentional act was virtuous, helping the pig accumulate merit. Therefore, it’s good to acknowledge and purify all negative activities, while also acknowledging, rejoicing in, and dedicating all positive activities. We should use our negativities as opportunities to purify our afflictive habit patterns, and our virtuous activities to inspire ourselves. These are additional methods for developing our practice.

As we mentioned earlier, the Buddha often taught that we should dedicate the merit of each one of our positive actions to all living beings, without partiality. This means we should dedicate even our tiniest virtuous and beneficial activities to the larger vision of enlightenment for all sentient beings. At the present time, our bodhichitta is very limited when it comes to actualizing this love, compassion, and wisdom in a tangible way in the service of living beings. However, our aspirational bodhichitta is completely unimpeded. Therefore, we should dedicate every one of our meritorious actions to the benefit of all living beings, without discrimination, with the wish that our dedications immediately free them from all suffering and difficulties. By doing so, we make our small actions part of the big picture, which is enlightenment for all parent beings as vast as space. While dedicating, we should not feel like we’re joking, or that our dedication is ineffective. Sincerely wish that your dedication benefits everyone from the bottom of your heart. Each practice that we’ve discussed so far is virtuous, so dedicating all of these beneficial actions to the benefit of others will both secure our meritorious activities and help increase our realization.

In terms of the Vajrayana creation and completion stage practices, we might wonder how we can connect more with the three vajra states during creation stage practice. How do we see all form as the body of the deity, hear all sound as the recitation of the deity’s mantra, and experience all conceptions as the play of the deity’s wisdom mind?

It’s true that we can experience doubt and hesitation during creation stage practice. Doubt can easily and naturally arise since this is the normal, mundane way we think. At these times, however, we should investigate the one who is visualizing the deity, such as Vajrasattva or Vajrakilaya. This person is none other than mind itself. And we should ask ourselves, “Where is this mind?” Upon looking, we cannot pinpoint any location, since mind is emptiness. Therefore, all arising conceptions such as, “I am not really the deity,” come from this empty mind. Thoughts can come in many different forms, since the arising energy of mind is not regulated by anything. But during practice, we’re not going to follow the movement of any conceptions, including doubt and hesitation. These are mere appearances of the emptiness of mind. Instead, we are going to bring forth confidence, thinking, “I am Vajrakilaya. Emptiness mind is the nature of Vajrakilaya.” From emptiness mind we arise as the deity and we therefore perceive all phenomena as inseparable from the deity. In this way, we usher forth our vajra pride, or natural confidence, and actually abide in the wisdom state. This is known as “connecting with the nature of mind.”

We are allowing emptiness mind—our own awareness—to arise in the form of Vajrakilaya, which is also empty. Therefore, the entire universe of form and everything that we perceive is none other than the display of our own minds. Our minds are inseparable from Vajrakilaya, so we see everything from Vajrakilaya’s perspective, unobscured by duality mind and unregulated by grasping and clinging. By practicing in this way, we’re going to immediately stop our habitual thought patterns of grasping and clinging, allowing the emptiness of mind to arise as the new, fresh perspective of Vajrakilaya.

Because there is no division between Vajrakilaya and our own minds, everything we hear is the sound of Vajrakilaya, and our awareness itself is the mind of Vajrakilaya. As the teachings say, the purpose of this visualization is to destroy and uproot the solidity of our habitual patterns. Free from doubt and hesitation, practice the generation stage with confidence and with recognition of the nature of mind.

What should we do if we have doubt about being able to truly relax in the completion stage? In general, “completion stage” refers to going beyond all grasping and objects of thought. The essence of the completion state is Dzogchen meditation. To use the example we just gave, we should investigate where the visualization is coming from. Once again, these visualizations arise from emptiness mind. Yet, when we investigate the location of mind itself—where it arises, where it abides, and where it ceases—we don’t find anything, since there is no substantially existing mind. This “not-finding” is Dzogchen. When we don’t find mind, the not-finding itself is actually the state of Dzogchen. Simply relax and rest in this state without any second-guessing, free from doubt and hesitation. This is a brief discussion of the mind.

We should also examine external objects. Following the logic of Madhyamaka, we can analyze the nature of the objects of our perception. For example, “Where is this table?” When we break down the table in an attempt to find its essence, we eventually reach the atomic level. However, even the atoms themselves do not exist in a substantial or solid way. Actually, the entire universe is in this state: there is nothing substantially or solidly existing, no intrinsic core within any phenomena. Everything we normally perceive is a combination of causes, conditions, and hallucinations that combine to form our present perceptions. When we examine in this way, we discover the empty nature of phenomena.

According to the teachings of the Vajrayana, during the dissolution stage, everything dissolves into the deity, who then dissolves into the heart syllable of the deity. The heart syllable itself finally dissolves into the state of the true nature. This means that every focal point we were previously holding in our awareness, including all the aspects of the visualization, dissolve back into the ultimate state of the true nature. There is nothing to focus on, and even our focus itself completely dissolves. Relax in the fresh, original, unfabricated state of the nature of mind. This is Dzogchen, the ultimate state of the completion stage. Resting in this state, there is no need for doubt, because mind has released all thought fabrications. We have reached the zero point, where even zero has disappeared. Just relax in this state. This is the completion stage of Dzogchen."

Venerable Khenpo Rinpoches

The Essential Journey of Life and Death, Vol. 1 (pgs 123-132)

www.padmasambhava.org/product-page/essential-journey-of-life-and-death-volume-one-the-indestructible-nature-of