H.E. Chagdud Rinpoche gave the following teaching, interpreted by Lama Rigdzin Dorje (Chris Taylor) during the Essence of Siddhi drubchen in July 2002 at Khadro Ling, Brazil.
As humans we need to recognize that we have the power to change our experience, because whether we are suffering or happy, we have created that experience. Suffering is caused by our previous negative thoughts and actions, whereas happiness is caused by our previous positive thoughts and actions. In this way, karma is infallible.
Now that we have the conditions necessary to purify our negative karma, we should not waste this precious opportunity. Not only that, if we apply the methods of the Buddhadharma, we have the potential to become a source of benefit for other beings— not just temporarily, but in the long term. We all have this opportunity, and have come together here because of our karma, so together we need to make enlightenment our goal.
Until we find liberation, we will strive in whatever way we can to help beings. We will engage in the development and completion stage practices of the Vajrayana, using our body, speech, and mind to be of benefit. Whenever an opportunity to serve others arises, we won’t waste that chance, but will fully apply ourselves to it.
Recognizing that this opportunity to create virtue passes swiftly, we need to seize it with urgency. This life, with all of its favorable conditions, is as impermanent as a candle flame in a strong wind—at any moment it could be extinguished. Things constantly change. Think about how many people you have known who have died. So we must take this time to practice and remove our obstacles. We must decrease our negative thoughts and actions, and in that way close the door to suffering.
At the same time, we should practice virtue. Fully focusing our body, speech, and mind, we need to develop positive qualities such as faith, compassion, and love. We should always try to cultivate positive thoughts, words, and actions. We should remain vigilant in order to avert negative thoughts. No matter how insignificant they may seem, they can cause big problems, just as a spark can ignite a whole forest. We can’t ignore them. In the same way, we should never deny the significance of the smallest virtuous thought; virtue accumulates like drops of water filling a bucket.
Remember that non-virtue is the cause of suffering and rebirth in the lower realms; recognize the potential of your own mind to perpetuate suffering. Our goal is to go beyond suffering and remove its causes. The root of most negative karma is clinging to self and samsara; such clinging is liberated through the path of bodhichitta.
In their omniscience, enlightened ones know that all beings have at one time been our mothers. We can’t see this because of our obscurations, but if we have faith in what these buddhas tell us, we will recognize that all beings have shown us the kindness of a mother for countless lifetimes. And when we see how all of these mothers suffer because they hold to dualistic concepts, clinging to their experiences as permanent and solid, we feel tremendous compassion for them.
The combination of ignorance and dualistic perception causes the six realms of samsara to arise. Beings experience happiness and sadness, good and bad, going up and down like a roller coaster. Because we are so attached to our experiences, we suffer profoundly.
When we contemplate this, we develop great compassion, and rather than focus on ourselves in our habitual way, we practice in order to free others from their suffering. As we arouse this selfless and compassionate wish day after day, we reduce the self-clinging that is the cause of our own suffering. In many previous lifetimes, we have had good health, wealth, and favorable conditions, but have never found freedom from samsara. In many other lifetimes, we have found ourselves in lower realms. Now we need to establish our altruistic motivation to attain enlightenment in order to liberate all beings. This motivation puts us firmly on the path. But if it does not remain pure and selfless, then no matter how much we practice we won’t make any progress.
If we have the pure motivation of bodhichitta, whatever we do benefits others, and when we increase this benefit through our aspirations, it becomes a source of inexhaustible virtue. If we don’t have pure motivation, one moment of anger can destroy all the virtue we’ve created.
Our perception of the environment results from individual and group karmic patterns. Consider our dreams. Both during the day when we are awake and at night when we are dreaming, our environment seems solid and real. In our dreams, the sky is above us and the earth lies below. Friends and enemies seem real. In the same way, our waking experience seems real.
When this life is over and our next life has not yet begun, we pass through an intermediate state called the bardo. Our experience in the bardo is similar to a dream: we have a body, speech, and mind. An outer environment appears to exist and different situations arise— some difficult, some frightening. If in this lifetime we become accustomed to visualizing pure appearances through development stage practice, then we will experience pure beings and purelands in the bardo.
“If we have the pure motivation of bodhichitta, whatever we do benefits others, and when we increase this benefit through our aspirations, it becomes a source of inexhaustible virtue.”
These appearances can be compared to beings’ differing perceptions of water. To gods, water is nectar. To human beings, water is something that quenches their thirst and cleanses them. To hungry ghosts, it is blood and pus. To beings in the hell realms, it is molten lava. For each being, appearances are reflections of the mind.
If the predominant poison in someone’s mind is anger, and if during his lifetime he causes great harm, his mind will reflect that anger as the experience of hell. In the same way, someone whose mind is dominated by greed can manifest an environment where he won’t encounter even a drop of water or a morsel of food for years. It’s not as if an architect designed these realms; our minds have created them.
If our mind is pure, pure experiences arise. The absolute nature of the mind is emptiness. Emptiness doesn’t mean that nothing is there, nor does it mean that something is there. It is beyond these two extremes, beyond any conceptual elaboration. It is essential for us to directly experience emptiness—beyond object and subject, beyond dualistic concepts—because we can- not understand it with our dualistic mind.
The true nature of all phenomena is empty awareness. If we don’t experience this, it is not because awareness has gone somewhere. It’s inherent in us— we’ve just forgotten it. It is our habit to see things in an ordinary way.
Consider a small child who has had a bad dream. She runs to her mother and father, who tell her that she has nothing to be afraid of. She’s only been dreaming, and dreams aren’t real. They repeat this again and again until her fear is gone. In the same way, we believe that our everyday experience is solid and real. But Shakyamuni Buddha taught that it is just as illusory as a dream, mind’s nature is emptiness, a rainbow, a mirage, or a reflection of the moon in water. Just as a parent teaches a child that dreams are illusory, the Buddha introduced us to the empty nature of experience.
As vivid as our dream experiences may be, when we wake up, we realize that nothing actually occurred. However, we can’t deny that we did have the dream. Our waking experience is similar to this. Phenomena do appear to us; this is relative truth. But though they arise, we can’t prove that they have inherent existence; this is absolute truth. We don’t embrace absolute truth by denying relative truth. Samsara does arise, just as a good or bad dream arises, but if we examine this relative experience, we find nothing solid, singular, permanent, or true about it. The habits of the mind that make our dreams seem real— that make the ground seem solid, fire seem to burn, and water seem wet— also make our waking experience seem real. We shouldn’t deny that experiences constantly arise, but we need to understand that their true nature is emptiness, beyond extremes. We need to recognize the absolute nature of both our waking and dream experiences. This recognition is called wisdom, or awareness.
The sky is a metaphor for the true nature of mind. There is nothing solid about the sky. Sometimes it is clear; sometimes clouds arise, or rain falls, or lightning flashes. Sometimes rainbows appear. Regardless, the sky has no substance. Similarly, the mind's nature is emptiness, yet it has an unceasing clarity that arises as a pure display.
In development stage practice, we use visualization to transform our ordinary habit of seeing things as solid or permanent, and to recognize their illusory nature. We visualize the details of the palace and the deity—the many implements, colors, and forms—understanding that they are made of light. Eventually, with diligent and consistent practice, we begin to perceive the purity of the display, simultaneously recognizing its empty nature.
At first, it may be difficult to experience this inseparability of emptiness and its pure display. So it is necessary to pray with great faith and receptivity to enlightened beings like the Buddha, asking for their blessings. This can create the interdependence that leads to great realization. Try to recognize the inseparability of your own mind’s essence and theirs. We have the same potential as the buddhas, but it is veiled by our obscurations. We practice in order to remove these obscurations.
As beginning practitioners, we pray to enlightened beings as if they were separate from us. This is fine if we haven’t yet experienced the inseparability of the deity and ourselves. But it is best to understand that the form, speech, and mind of the deity are inseparable from our own pure nature.
The space inside this room appears separate from the space outside. But in essence they are the same. The walls that seem to separate them can be likened to our obscurations, which keep us from seeing that the nature of enlightened beings and our own true nature are the same.
A great Nyingmapa treasure discoverer, Ngala Sogyal, said that the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings is to maintain recognition of the pure nature of experience. It can be difficult for beginning students to maintain or even to encounter this kind of recognition. When you receive empowerment, you are introduced to the true nature of phenomena. If you recognize it, that’s wonderful. If not, that’s okay— pray with faith to enlightened beings that you will eventually be able to do so; also pray that your own suffering and that of all beings be alleviated.
Every aspect of this drubchen practice has profound meaning. The liturgies, songs, images, and mandala all have the power to liberate the practitioner by being heard or seen. Likewise, the teachings have the power to liberate by being heard and con- templated. Focus your mind on practice at whatever level you can. When difficulties arise, keep going and remember that you are creating virtue. Don’t waste this opportunity to practice by trying to make things easier for yourself.
If your knees hurt or your back is stiff, think about the beings in the six realms, whose suffering is hundreds of thousands of times more intense than yours. Empathize with them and increase your compassion. Then aspire to purify their karma through the pain you experience while sitting, so that eventually they will find more fortunate conditions. In this way, you will purify your physical karma.
Sometimes it’s difficult to maintain the mantra and chants. Your voice may get hoarse or your throat sore. Concentrate on the prayers and the words, pronounce them correctly, recite the mantra correctly, and project your voice. Have patience with the process because it will purify your speech karma.
Focus your minds on the practice. Rejoice in creating this virtue, and then dedicate it to all beings with the aspiration that their obscurations will be removed and they will attain enlightenment, beyond suffering. If you haven’t been practicing as strongly as you might, renew your commitment and apply yourself even more diligently. Try always to create virtue and eliminate all non-virtue. Resolve not to waste your life pursuing worldly pleasures. Every day, when you wake up, rejoice that death didn’t take you during the night. You have one more day to live, practice, help beings, and create merit, all of which make the best use of this life.
H.E. Chagdud Rinpoche gave the following teaching, interpreted by Lama Rigdzin Dorje (Chris Taylor) during the Essence of Siddhi drubchen in July 2002 at Khadro Ling, Brazil.
As humans we need to recognize that we have the power to change our experience, because whether we are suffering or happy, we have created that experience. Suffering is caused by our previous negative thoughts and actions, whereas happiness is caused by our previous positive thoughts and actions. In this way, karma is infallible.
Now that we have the conditions necessary to purify our negative karma, we should not waste this precious opportunity. Not only that, if we apply the methods of the Buddhadharma, we have the potential to become a source of benefit for other beings— not just temporarily, but in the long term. We all have this opportunity, and have come together here because of our karma, so together we need to make enlightenment our goal.
Until we find liberation, we will strive in whatever way we can to help beings. We will engage in the development and completion stage practices of the Vajrayana, using our body, speech, and mind to be of benefit. Whenever an opportunity to serve others arises, we won’t waste that chance, but will fully apply ourselves to it.
Recognizing that this opportunity to create virtue passes swiftly, we need to seize it with urgency. This life, with all of its favorable conditions, is as impermanent as a candle flame in a strong wind—at any moment it could be extinguished. Things constantly change. Think about how many people you have known who have died. So we must take this time to practice and remove our obstacles. We must decrease our negative thoughts and actions, and in that way close the door to suffering.
At the same time, we should practice virtue. Fully focusing our body, speech, and mind, we need to develop positive qualities such as faith, compassion, and love. We should always try to cultivate positive thoughts, words, and actions. We should remain vigilant in order to avert negative thoughts. No matter how insignificant they may seem, they can cause big problems, just as a spark can ignite a whole forest. We can’t ignore them. In the same way, we should never deny the significance of the smallest virtuous thought; virtue accumulates like drops of water filling a bucket.
Remember that non-virtue is the cause of suffering and rebirth in the lower realms; recognize the potential of your own mind to perpetuate suffering. Our goal is to go beyond suffering and remove its causes. The root of most negative karma is clinging to self and samsara; such clinging is liberated through the path of bodhichitta.
In their omniscience, enlightened ones know that all beings have at one time been our mothers. We can’t see this because of our obscurations, but if we have faith in what these buddhas tell us, we will recognize that all beings have shown us the kindness of a mother for countless lifetimes. And when we see how all of these mothers suffer because they hold to dualistic concepts, clinging to their experiences as permanent and solid, we feel tremendous compassion for them.
The combination of ignorance and dualistic perception causes the six realms of samsara to arise. Beings experience happiness and sadness, good and bad, going up and down like a roller coaster. Because we are so attached to our experiences, we suffer profoundly.
When we contemplate this, we develop great compassion, and rather than focus on ourselves in our habitual way, we practice in order to free others from their suffering. As we arouse this selfless and compassionate wish day after day, we reduce the self-clinging that is the cause of our own suffering. In many previous lifetimes, we have had good health, wealth, and favorable conditions, but have never found freedom from samsara. In many other lifetimes, we have found ourselves in lower realms. Now we need to establish our altruistic motivation to attain enlightenment in order to liberate all beings. This motivation puts us firmly on the path. But if it does not remain pure and selfless, then no matter how much we practice we won’t make any progress.
If we have the pure motivation of bodhichitta, whatever we do benefits others, and when we increase this benefit through our aspirations, it becomes a source of inexhaustible virtue. If we don’t have pure motivation, one moment of anger can destroy all the virtue we’ve created.
Our perception of the environment results from individual and group karmic patterns. Consider our dreams. Both during the day when we are awake and at night when we are dreaming, our environment seems solid and real. In our dreams, the sky is above us and the earth lies below. Friends and enemies seem real. In the same way, our waking experience seems real.
When this life is over and our next life has not yet begun, we pass through an intermediate state called the bardo. Our experience in the bardo is similar to a dream: we have a body, speech, and mind. An outer environment appears to exist and different situations arise— some difficult, some frightening. If in this lifetime we become accustomed to visualizing pure appearances through development stage practice, then we will experience pure beings and purelands in the bardo.
“If we have the pure motivation of bodhichitta, whatever we do benefits others, and when we increase this benefit through our aspirations, it becomes a source of inexhaustible virtue.”
These appearances can be compared to beings’ differing perceptions of water. To gods, water is nectar. To human beings, water is something that quenches their thirst and cleanses them. To hungry ghosts, it is blood and pus. To beings in the hell realms, it is molten lava. For each being, appearances are reflections of the mind.
If the predominant poison in someone’s mind is anger, and if during his lifetime he causes great harm, his mind will reflect that anger as the experience of hell. In the same way, someone whose mind is dominated by greed can manifest an environment where he won’t encounter even a drop of water or a morsel of food for years. It’s not as if an architect designed these realms; our minds have created them.
If our mind is pure, pure experiences arise. The absolute nature of the mind is emptiness. Emptiness doesn’t mean that nothing is there, nor does it mean that something is there. It is beyond these two extremes, beyond any conceptual elaboration. It is essential for us to directly experience emptiness—beyond object and subject, beyond dualistic concepts—because we can- not understand it with our dualistic mind.
The true nature of all phenomena is empty awareness. If we don’t experience this, it is not because awareness has gone somewhere. It’s inherent in us— we’ve just forgotten it. It is our habit to see things in an ordinary way.
Consider a small child who has had a bad dream. She runs to her mother and father, who tell her that she has nothing to be afraid of. She’s only been dreaming, and dreams aren’t real. They repeat this again and again until her fear is gone. In the same way, we believe that our everyday experience is solid and real. But Shakyamuni Buddha taught that it is just as illusory as a dream, mind’s nature is emptiness, a rainbow, a mirage, or a reflection of the moon in water. Just as a parent teaches a child that dreams are illusory, the Buddha introduced us to the empty nature of experience.
As vivid as our dream experiences may be, when we wake up, we realize that nothing actually occurred. However, we can’t deny that we did have the dream. Our waking experience is similar to this. Phenomena do appear to us; this is relative truth. But though they arise, we can’t prove that they have inherent existence; this is absolute truth. We don’t embrace absolute truth by denying relative truth. Samsara does arise, just as a good or bad dream arises, but if we examine this relative experience, we find nothing solid, singular, permanent, or true about it. The habits of the mind that make our dreams seem real— that make the ground seem solid, fire seem to burn, and water seem wet— also make our waking experience seem real. We shouldn’t deny that experiences constantly arise, but we need to understand that their true nature is emptiness, beyond extremes. We need to recognize the absolute nature of both our waking and dream experiences. This recognition is called wisdom, or awareness.
The sky is a metaphor for the true nature of mind. There is nothing solid about the sky. Sometimes it is clear; sometimes clouds arise, or rain falls, or lightning flashes. Sometimes rainbows appear. Regardless, the sky has no substance. Similarly, the mind's nature is emptiness, yet it has an unceasing clarity that arises as a pure display.
In development stage practice, we use visualization to transform our ordinary habit of seeing things as solid or permanent, and to recognize their illusory nature. We visualize the details of the palace and the deity—the many implements, colors, and forms—understanding that they are made of light. Eventually, with diligent and consistent practice, we begin to perceive the purity of the display, simultaneously recognizing its empty nature.
At first, it may be difficult to experience this inseparability of emptiness and its pure display. So it is necessary to pray with great faith and receptivity to enlightened beings like the Buddha, asking for their blessings. This can create the interdependence that leads to great realization. Try to recognize the inseparability of your own mind’s essence and theirs. We have the same potential as the buddhas, but it is veiled by our obscurations. We practice in order to remove these obscurations.
As beginning practitioners, we pray to enlightened beings as if they were separate from us. This is fine if we haven’t yet experienced the inseparability of the deity and ourselves. But it is best to understand that the form, speech, and mind of the deity are inseparable from our own pure nature.
The space inside this room appears separate from the space outside. But in essence they are the same. The walls that seem to separate them can be likened to our obscurations, which keep us from seeing that the nature of enlightened beings and our own true nature are the same.
A great Nyingmapa treasure discoverer, Ngala Sogyal, said that the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings is to maintain recognition of the pure nature of experience. It can be difficult for beginning students to maintain or even to encounter this kind of recognition. When you receive empowerment, you are introduced to the true nature of phenomena. If you recognize it, that’s wonderful. If not, that’s okay— pray with faith to enlightened beings that you will eventually be able to do so; also pray that your own suffering and that of all beings be alleviated.
Every aspect of this drubchen practice has profound meaning. The liturgies, songs, images, and mandala all have the power to liberate the practitioner by being heard or seen. Likewise, the teachings have the power to liberate by being heard and con- templated. Focus your mind on practice at whatever level you can. When difficulties arise, keep going and remember that you are creating virtue. Don’t waste this opportunity to practice by trying to make things easier for yourself.
If your knees hurt or your back is stiff, think about the beings in the six realms, whose suffering is hundreds of thousands of times more intense than yours. Empathize with them and increase your compassion. Then aspire to purify their karma through the pain you experience while sitting, so that eventually they will find more fortunate conditions. In this way, you will purify your physical karma.
Sometimes it’s difficult to maintain the mantra and chants. Your voice may get hoarse or your throat sore. Concentrate on the prayers and the words, pronounce them correctly, recite the mantra correctly, and project your voice. Have patience with the process because it will purify your speech karma.
Focus your minds on the practice. Rejoice in creating this virtue, and then dedicate it to all beings with the aspiration that their obscurations will be removed and they will attain enlightenment, beyond suffering. If you haven’t been practicing as strongly as you might, renew your commitment and apply yourself even more diligently. Try always to create virtue and eliminate all non-virtue. Resolve not to waste your life pursuing worldly pleasures. Every day, when you wake up, rejoice that death didn’t take you during the night. You have one more day to live, practice, help beings, and create merit, all of which make the best use of this life.
H.E. Chagdud Rinpoche gave the following teaching, interpreted by Lama Rigdzin Dorje (Chris Taylor) during the Essence of Siddhi drubchen in July 2002 at Khadro Ling, Brazil.
As humans we need to recognize that we have the power to change our experience, because whether we are suffering or happy, we have created that experience. Suffering is caused by our previous negative thoughts and actions, whereas happiness is caused by our previous positive thoughts and actions. In this way, karma is infallible.
Now that we have the conditions necessary to purify our negative karma, we should not waste this precious opportunity. Not only that, if we apply the methods of the Buddhadharma, we have the potential to become a source of benefit for other beings— not just temporarily, but in the long term. We all have this opportunity, and have come together here because of our karma, so together we need to make enlightenment our goal.
Until we find liberation, we will strive in whatever way we can to help beings. We will engage in the development and completion stage practices of the Vajrayana, using our body, speech, and mind to be of benefit. Whenever an opportunity to serve others arises, we won’t waste that chance, but will fully apply ourselves to it.
Recognizing that this opportunity to create virtue passes swiftly, we need to seize it with urgency. This life, with all of its favorable conditions, is as impermanent as a candle flame in a strong wind—at any moment it could be extinguished. Things constantly change. Think about how many people you have known who have died. So we must take this time to practice and remove our obstacles. We must decrease our negative thoughts and actions, and in that way close the door to suffering.
At the same time, we should practice virtue. Fully focusing our body, speech, and mind, we need to develop positive qualities such as faith, compassion, and love. We should always try to cultivate positive thoughts, words, and actions. We should remain vigilant in order to avert negative thoughts. No matter how insignificant they may seem, they can cause big problems, just as a spark can ignite a whole forest. We can’t ignore them. In the same way, we should never deny the significance of the smallest virtuous thought; virtue accumulates like drops of water filling a bucket.
Remember that non-virtue is the cause of suffering and rebirth in the lower realms; recognize the potential of your own mind to perpetuate suffering. Our goal is to go beyond suffering and remove its causes. The root of most negative karma is clinging to self and samsara; such clinging is liberated through the path of bodhichitta.
In their omniscience, enlightened ones know that all beings have at one time been our mothers. We can’t see this because of our obscurations, but if we have faith in what these buddhas tell us, we will recognize that all beings have shown us the kindness of a mother for countless lifetimes. And when we see how all of these mothers suffer because they hold to dualistic concepts, clinging to their experiences as permanent and solid, we feel tremendous compassion for them.
The combination of ignorance and dualistic perception causes the six realms of samsara to arise. Beings experience happiness and sadness, good and bad, going up and down like a roller coaster. Because we are so attached to our experiences, we suffer profoundly.
When we contemplate this, we develop great compassion, and rather than focus on ourselves in our habitual way, we practice in order to free others from their suffering. As we arouse this selfless and compassionate wish day after day, we reduce the self-clinging that is the cause of our own suffering. In many previous lifetimes, we have had good health, wealth, and favorable conditions, but have never found freedom from samsara. In many other lifetimes, we have found ourselves in lower realms. Now we need to establish our altruistic motivation to attain enlightenment in order to liberate all beings. This motivation puts us firmly on the path. But if it does not remain pure and selfless, then no matter how much we practice we won’t make any progress.
If we have the pure motivation of bodhichitta, whatever we do benefits others, and when we increase this benefit through our aspirations, it becomes a source of inexhaustible virtue. If we don’t have pure motivation, one moment of anger can destroy all the virtue we’ve created.
Our perception of the environment results from individual and group karmic patterns. Consider our dreams. Both during the day when we are awake and at night when we are dreaming, our environment seems solid and real. In our dreams, the sky is above us and the earth lies below. Friends and enemies seem real. In the same way, our waking experience seems real.
When this life is over and our next life has not yet begun, we pass through an intermediate state called the bardo. Our experience in the bardo is similar to a dream: we have a body, speech, and mind. An outer environment appears to exist and different situations arise— some difficult, some frightening. If in this lifetime we become accustomed to visualizing pure appearances through development stage practice, then we will experience pure beings and purelands in the bardo.
“If we have the pure motivation of bodhichitta, whatever we do benefits others, and when we increase this benefit through our aspirations, it becomes a source of inexhaustible virtue.”
These appearances can be compared to beings’ differing perceptions of water. To gods, water is nectar. To human beings, water is something that quenches their thirst and cleanses them. To hungry ghosts, it is blood and pus. To beings in the hell realms, it is molten lava. For each being, appearances are reflections of the mind.
If the predominant poison in someone’s mind is anger, and if during his lifetime he causes great harm, his mind will reflect that anger as the experience of hell. In the same way, someone whose mind is dominated by greed can manifest an environment where he won’t encounter even a drop of water or a morsel of food for years. It’s not as if an architect designed these realms; our minds have created them.
If our mind is pure, pure experiences arise. The absolute nature of the mind is emptiness. Emptiness doesn’t mean that nothing is there, nor does it mean that something is there. It is beyond these two extremes, beyond any conceptual elaboration. It is essential for us to directly experience emptiness—beyond object and subject, beyond dualistic concepts—because we can- not understand it with our dualistic mind.
The true nature of all phenomena is empty awareness. If we don’t experience this, it is not because awareness has gone somewhere. It’s inherent in us— we’ve just forgotten it. It is our habit to see things in an ordinary way.
Consider a small child who has had a bad dream. She runs to her mother and father, who tell her that she has nothing to be afraid of. She’s only been dreaming, and dreams aren’t real. They repeat this again and again until her fear is gone. In the same way, we believe that our everyday experience is solid and real. But Shakyamuni Buddha taught that it is just as illusory as a dream, mind’s nature is emptiness, a rainbow, a mirage, or a reflection of the moon in water. Just as a parent teaches a child that dreams are illusory, the Buddha introduced us to the empty nature of experience.
As vivid as our dream experiences may be, when we wake up, we realize that nothing actually occurred. However, we can’t deny that we did have the dream. Our waking experience is similar to this. Phenomena do appear to us; this is relative truth. But though they arise, we can’t prove that they have inherent existence; this is absolute truth. We don’t embrace absolute truth by denying relative truth. Samsara does arise, just as a good or bad dream arises, but if we examine this relative experience, we find nothing solid, singular, permanent, or true about it. The habits of the mind that make our dreams seem real— that make the ground seem solid, fire seem to burn, and water seem wet— also make our waking experience seem real. We shouldn’t deny that experiences constantly arise, but we need to understand that their true nature is emptiness, beyond extremes. We need to recognize the absolute nature of both our waking and dream experiences. This recognition is called wisdom, or awareness.
The sky is a metaphor for the true nature of mind. There is nothing solid about the sky. Sometimes it is clear; sometimes clouds arise, or rain falls, or lightning flashes. Sometimes rainbows appear. Regardless, the sky has no substance. Similarly, the mind's nature is emptiness, yet it has an unceasing clarity that arises as a pure display.
In development stage practice, we use visualization to transform our ordinary habit of seeing things as solid or permanent, and to recognize their illusory nature. We visualize the details of the palace and the deity—the many implements, colors, and forms—understanding that they are made of light. Eventually, with diligent and consistent practice, we begin to perceive the purity of the display, simultaneously recognizing its empty nature.
At first, it may be difficult to experience this inseparability of emptiness and its pure display. So it is necessary to pray with great faith and receptivity to enlightened beings like the Buddha, asking for their blessings. This can create the interdependence that leads to great realization. Try to recognize the inseparability of your own mind’s essence and theirs. We have the same potential as the buddhas, but it is veiled by our obscurations. We practice in order to remove these obscurations.
As beginning practitioners, we pray to enlightened beings as if they were separate from us. This is fine if we haven’t yet experienced the inseparability of the deity and ourselves. But it is best to understand that the form, speech, and mind of the deity are inseparable from our own pure nature.
The space inside this room appears separate from the space outside. But in essence they are the same. The walls that seem to separate them can be likened to our obscurations, which keep us from seeing that the nature of enlightened beings and our own true nature are the same.
A great Nyingmapa treasure discoverer, Ngala Sogyal, said that the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings is to maintain recognition of the pure nature of experience. It can be difficult for beginning students to maintain or even to encounter this kind of recognition. When you receive empowerment, you are introduced to the true nature of phenomena. If you recognize it, that’s wonderful. If not, that’s okay— pray with faith to enlightened beings that you will eventually be able to do so; also pray that your own suffering and that of all beings be alleviated.
Every aspect of this drubchen practice has profound meaning. The liturgies, songs, images, and mandala all have the power to liberate the practitioner by being heard or seen. Likewise, the teachings have the power to liberate by being heard and con- templated. Focus your mind on practice at whatever level you can. When difficulties arise, keep going and remember that you are creating virtue. Don’t waste this opportunity to practice by trying to make things easier for yourself.
If your knees hurt or your back is stiff, think about the beings in the six realms, whose suffering is hundreds of thousands of times more intense than yours. Empathize with them and increase your compassion. Then aspire to purify their karma through the pain you experience while sitting, so that eventually they will find more fortunate conditions. In this way, you will purify your physical karma.
Sometimes it’s difficult to maintain the mantra and chants. Your voice may get hoarse or your throat sore. Concentrate on the prayers and the words, pronounce them correctly, recite the mantra correctly, and project your voice. Have patience with the process because it will purify your speech karma.
Focus your minds on the practice. Rejoice in creating this virtue, and then dedicate it to all beings with the aspiration that their obscurations will be removed and they will attain enlightenment, beyond suffering. If you haven’t been practicing as strongly as you might, renew your commitment and apply yourself even more diligently. Try always to create virtue and eliminate all non-virtue. Resolve not to waste your life pursuing worldly pleasures. Every day, when you wake up, rejoice that death didn’t take you during the night. You have one more day to live, practice, help beings, and create merit, all of which make the best use of this life.
H.E. Chagdud Rinpoche gave the following teaching, interpreted by Lama Rigdzin Dorje (Chris Taylor) during the Essence of Siddhi drubchen in July 2002 at Khadro Ling, Brazil.
As humans we need to recognize that we have the power to change our experience, because whether we are suffering or happy, we have created that experience. Suffering is caused by our previous negative thoughts and actions, whereas happiness is caused by our previous positive thoughts and actions. In this way, karma is infallible.
Now that we have the conditions necessary to purify our negative karma, we should not waste this precious opportunity. Not only that, if we apply the methods of the Buddhadharma, we have the potential to become a source of benefit for other beings— not just temporarily, but in the long term. We all have this opportunity, and have come together here because of our karma, so together we need to make enlightenment our goal.
Until we find liberation, we will strive in whatever way we can to help beings. We will engage in the development and completion stage practices of the Vajrayana, using our body, speech, and mind to be of benefit. Whenever an opportunity to serve others arises, we won’t waste that chance, but will fully apply ourselves to it.
Recognizing that this opportunity to create virtue passes swiftly, we need to seize it with urgency. This life, with all of its favorable conditions, is as impermanent as a candle flame in a strong wind—at any moment it could be extinguished. Things constantly change. Think about how many people you have known who have died. So we must take this time to practice and remove our obstacles. We must decrease our negative thoughts and actions, and in that way close the door to suffering.
At the same time, we should practice virtue. Fully focusing our body, speech, and mind, we need to develop positive qualities such as faith, compassion, and love. We should always try to cultivate positive thoughts, words, and actions. We should remain vigilant in order to avert negative thoughts. No matter how insignificant they may seem, they can cause big problems, just as a spark can ignite a whole forest. We can’t ignore them. In the same way, we should never deny the significance of the smallest virtuous thought; virtue accumulates like drops of water filling a bucket.
Remember that non-virtue is the cause of suffering and rebirth in the lower realms; recognize the potential of your own mind to perpetuate suffering. Our goal is to go beyond suffering and remove its causes. The root of most negative karma is clinging to self and samsara; such clinging is liberated through the path of bodhichitta.
In their omniscience, enlightened ones know that all beings have at one time been our mothers. We can’t see this because of our obscurations, but if we have faith in what these buddhas tell us, we will recognize that all beings have shown us the kindness of a mother for countless lifetimes. And when we see how all of these mothers suffer because they hold to dualistic concepts, clinging to their experiences as permanent and solid, we feel tremendous compassion for them.
The combination of ignorance and dualistic perception causes the six realms of samsara to arise. Beings experience happiness and sadness, good and bad, going up and down like a roller coaster. Because we are so attached to our experiences, we suffer profoundly.
When we contemplate this, we develop great compassion, and rather than focus on ourselves in our habitual way, we practice in order to free others from their suffering. As we arouse this selfless and compassionate wish day after day, we reduce the self-clinging that is the cause of our own suffering. In many previous lifetimes, we have had good health, wealth, and favorable conditions, but have never found freedom from samsara. In many other lifetimes, we have found ourselves in lower realms. Now we need to establish our altruistic motivation to attain enlightenment in order to liberate all beings. This motivation puts us firmly on the path. But if it does not remain pure and selfless, then no matter how much we practice we won’t make any progress.
If we have the pure motivation of bodhichitta, whatever we do benefits others, and when we increase this benefit through our aspirations, it becomes a source of inexhaustible virtue. If we don’t have pure motivation, one moment of anger can destroy all the virtue we’ve created.
Our perception of the environment results from individual and group karmic patterns. Consider our dreams. Both during the day when we are awake and at night when we are dreaming, our environment seems solid and real. In our dreams, the sky is above us and the earth lies below. Friends and enemies seem real. In the same way, our waking experience seems real.
When this life is over and our next life has not yet begun, we pass through an intermediate state called the bardo. Our experience in the bardo is similar to a dream: we have a body, speech, and mind. An outer environment appears to exist and different situations arise— some difficult, some frightening. If in this lifetime we become accustomed to visualizing pure appearances through development stage practice, then we will experience pure beings and purelands in the bardo.
“If we have the pure motivation of bodhichitta, whatever we do benefits others, and when we increase this benefit through our aspirations, it becomes a source of inexhaustible virtue.”
These appearances can be compared to beings’ differing perceptions of water. To gods, water is nectar. To human beings, water is something that quenches their thirst and cleanses them. To hungry ghosts, it is blood and pus. To beings in the hell realms, it is molten lava. For each being, appearances are reflections of the mind.
If the predominant poison in someone’s mind is anger, and if during his lifetime he causes great harm, his mind will reflect that anger as the experience of hell. In the same way, someone whose mind is dominated by greed can manifest an environment where he won’t encounter even a drop of water or a morsel of food for years. It’s not as if an architect designed these realms; our minds have created them.
If our mind is pure, pure experiences arise. The absolute nature of the mind is emptiness. Emptiness doesn’t mean that nothing is there, nor does it mean that something is there. It is beyond these two extremes, beyond any conceptual elaboration. It is essential for us to directly experience emptiness—beyond object and subject, beyond dualistic concepts—because we can- not understand it with our dualistic mind.
The true nature of all phenomena is empty awareness. If we don’t experience this, it is not because awareness has gone somewhere. It’s inherent in us— we’ve just forgotten it. It is our habit to see things in an ordinary way.
Consider a small child who has had a bad dream. She runs to her mother and father, who tell her that she has nothing to be afraid of. She’s only been dreaming, and dreams aren’t real. They repeat this again and again until her fear is gone. In the same way, we believe that our everyday experience is solid and real. But Shakyamuni Buddha taught that it is just as illusory as a dream, mind’s nature is emptiness, a rainbow, a mirage, or a reflection of the moon in water. Just as a parent teaches a child that dreams are illusory, the Buddha introduced us to the empty nature of experience.
As vivid as our dream experiences may be, when we wake up, we realize that nothing actually occurred. However, we can’t deny that we did have the dream. Our waking experience is similar to this. Phenomena do appear to us; this is relative truth. But though they arise, we can’t prove that they have inherent existence; this is absolute truth. We don’t embrace absolute truth by denying relative truth. Samsara does arise, just as a good or bad dream arises, but if we examine this relative experience, we find nothing solid, singular, permanent, or true about it. The habits of the mind that make our dreams seem real— that make the ground seem solid, fire seem to burn, and water seem wet— also make our waking experience seem real. We shouldn’t deny that experiences constantly arise, but we need to understand that their true nature is emptiness, beyond extremes. We need to recognize the absolute nature of both our waking and dream experiences. This recognition is called wisdom, or awareness.
The sky is a metaphor for the true nature of mind. There is nothing solid about the sky. Sometimes it is clear; sometimes clouds arise, or rain falls, or lightning flashes. Sometimes rainbows appear. Regardless, the sky has no substance. Similarly, the mind's nature is emptiness, yet it has an unceasing clarity that arises as a pure display.
In development stage practice, we use visualization to transform our ordinary habit of seeing things as solid or permanent, and to recognize their illusory nature. We visualize the details of the palace and the deity—the many implements, colors, and forms—understanding that they are made of light. Eventually, with diligent and consistent practice, we begin to perceive the purity of the display, simultaneously recognizing its empty nature.
At first, it may be difficult to experience this inseparability of emptiness and its pure display. So it is necessary to pray with great faith and receptivity to enlightened beings like the Buddha, asking for their blessings. This can create the interdependence that leads to great realization. Try to recognize the inseparability of your own mind’s essence and theirs. We have the same potential as the buddhas, but it is veiled by our obscurations. We practice in order to remove these obscurations.
As beginning practitioners, we pray to enlightened beings as if they were separate from us. This is fine if we haven’t yet experienced the inseparability of the deity and ourselves. But it is best to understand that the form, speech, and mind of the deity are inseparable from our own pure nature.
The space inside this room appears separate from the space outside. But in essence they are the same. The walls that seem to separate them can be likened to our obscurations, which keep us from seeing that the nature of enlightened beings and our own true nature are the same.
A great Nyingmapa treasure discoverer, Ngala Sogyal, said that the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings is to maintain recognition of the pure nature of experience. It can be difficult for beginning students to maintain or even to encounter this kind of recognition. When you receive empowerment, you are introduced to the true nature of phenomena. If you recognize it, that’s wonderful. If not, that’s okay— pray with faith to enlightened beings that you will eventually be able to do so; also pray that your own suffering and that of all beings be alleviated.
Every aspect of this drubchen practice has profound meaning. The liturgies, songs, images, and mandala all have the power to liberate the practitioner by being heard or seen. Likewise, the teachings have the power to liberate by being heard and con- templated. Focus your mind on practice at whatever level you can. When difficulties arise, keep going and remember that you are creating virtue. Don’t waste this opportunity to practice by trying to make things easier for yourself.
If your knees hurt or your back is stiff, think about the beings in the six realms, whose suffering is hundreds of thousands of times more intense than yours. Empathize with them and increase your compassion. Then aspire to purify their karma through the pain you experience while sitting, so that eventually they will find more fortunate conditions. In this way, you will purify your physical karma.
Sometimes it’s difficult to maintain the mantra and chants. Your voice may get hoarse or your throat sore. Concentrate on the prayers and the words, pronounce them correctly, recite the mantra correctly, and project your voice. Have patience with the process because it will purify your speech karma.
Focus your minds on the practice. Rejoice in creating this virtue, and then dedicate it to all beings with the aspiration that their obscurations will be removed and they will attain enlightenment, beyond suffering. If you haven’t been practicing as strongly as you might, renew your commitment and apply yourself even more diligently. Try always to create virtue and eliminate all non-virtue. Resolve not to waste your life pursuing worldly pleasures. Every day, when you wake up, rejoice that death didn’t take you during the night. You have one more day to live, practice, help beings, and create merit, all of which make the best use of this life.
H.E. Chagdud Rinpoche gave the following teaching, interpreted by Lama Rigdzin Dorje (Chris Taylor) during the Essence of Siddhi drubchen in July 2002 at Khadro Ling, Brazil.
As humans we need to recognize that we have the power to change our experience, because whether we are suffering or happy, we have created that experience. Suffering is caused by our previous negative thoughts and actions, whereas happiness is caused by our previous positive thoughts and actions. In this way, karma is infallible.
Now that we have the conditions necessary to purify our negative karma, we should not waste this precious opportunity. Not only that, if we apply the methods of the Buddhadharma, we have the potential to become a source of benefit for other beings— not just temporarily, but in the long term. We all have this opportunity, and have come together here because of our karma, so together we need to make enlightenment our goal.
Until we find liberation, we will strive in whatever way we can to help beings. We will engage in the development and completion stage practices of the Vajrayana, using our body, speech, and mind to be of benefit. Whenever an opportunity to serve others arises, we won’t waste that chance, but will fully apply ourselves to it.
Recognizing that this opportunity to create virtue passes swiftly, we need to seize it with urgency. This life, with all of its favorable conditions, is as impermanent as a candle flame in a strong wind—at any moment it could be extinguished. Things constantly change. Think about how many people you have known who have died. So we must take this time to practice and remove our obstacles. We must decrease our negative thoughts and actions, and in that way close the door to suffering.
At the same time, we should practice virtue. Fully focusing our body, speech, and mind, we need to develop positive qualities such as faith, compassion, and love. We should always try to cultivate positive thoughts, words, and actions. We should remain vigilant in order to avert negative thoughts. No matter how insignificant they may seem, they can cause big problems, just as a spark can ignite a whole forest. We can’t ignore them. In the same way, we should never deny the significance of the smallest virtuous thought; virtue accumulates like drops of water filling a bucket.
Remember that non-virtue is the cause of suffering and rebirth in the lower realms; recognize the potential of your own mind to perpetuate suffering. Our goal is to go beyond suffering and remove its causes. The root of most negative karma is clinging to self and samsara; such clinging is liberated through the path of bodhichitta.
In their omniscience, enlightened ones know that all beings have at one time been our mothers. We can’t see this because of our obscurations, but if we have faith in what these buddhas tell us, we will recognize that all beings have shown us the kindness of a mother for countless lifetimes. And when we see how all of these mothers suffer because they hold to dualistic concepts, clinging to their experiences as permanent and solid, we feel tremendous compassion for them.
The combination of ignorance and dualistic perception causes the six realms of samsara to arise. Beings experience happiness and sadness, good and bad, going up and down like a roller coaster. Because we are so attached to our experiences, we suffer profoundly.
When we contemplate this, we develop great compassion, and rather than focus on ourselves in our habitual way, we practice in order to free others from their suffering. As we arouse this selfless and compassionate wish day after day, we reduce the self-clinging that is the cause of our own suffering. In many previous lifetimes, we have had good health, wealth, and favorable conditions, but have never found freedom from samsara. In many other lifetimes, we have found ourselves in lower realms. Now we need to establish our altruistic motivation to attain enlightenment in order to liberate all beings. This motivation puts us firmly on the path. But if it does not remain pure and selfless, then no matter how much we practice we won’t make any progress.
If we have the pure motivation of bodhichitta, whatever we do benefits others, and when we increase this benefit through our aspirations, it becomes a source of inexhaustible virtue. If we don’t have pure motivation, one moment of anger can destroy all the virtue we’ve created.
Our perception of the environment results from individual and group karmic patterns. Consider our dreams. Both during the day when we are awake and at night when we are dreaming, our environment seems solid and real. In our dreams, the sky is above us and the earth lies below. Friends and enemies seem real. In the same way, our waking experience seems real.
When this life is over and our next life has not yet begun, we pass through an intermediate state called the bardo. Our experience in the bardo is similar to a dream: we have a body, speech, and mind. An outer environment appears to exist and different situations arise— some difficult, some frightening. If in this lifetime we become accustomed to visualizing pure appearances through development stage practice, then we will experience pure beings and purelands in the bardo.
“If we have the pure motivation of bodhichitta, whatever we do benefits others, and when we increase this benefit through our aspirations, it becomes a source of inexhaustible virtue.”
These appearances can be compared to beings’ differing perceptions of water. To gods, water is nectar. To human beings, water is something that quenches their thirst and cleanses them. To hungry ghosts, it is blood and pus. To beings in the hell realms, it is molten lava. For each being, appearances are reflections of the mind.
If the predominant poison in someone’s mind is anger, and if during his lifetime he causes great harm, his mind will reflect that anger as the experience of hell. In the same way, someone whose mind is dominated by greed can manifest an environment where he won’t encounter even a drop of water or a morsel of food for years. It’s not as if an architect designed these realms; our minds have created them.
If our mind is pure, pure experiences arise. The absolute nature of the mind is emptiness. Emptiness doesn’t mean that nothing is there, nor does it mean that something is there. It is beyond these two extremes, beyond any conceptual elaboration. It is essential for us to directly experience emptiness—beyond object and subject, beyond dualistic concepts—because we can- not understand it with our dualistic mind.
The true nature of all phenomena is empty awareness. If we don’t experience this, it is not because awareness has gone somewhere. It’s inherent in us— we’ve just forgotten it. It is our habit to see things in an ordinary way.
Consider a small child who has had a bad dream. She runs to her mother and father, who tell her that she has nothing to be afraid of. She’s only been dreaming, and dreams aren’t real. They repeat this again and again until her fear is gone. In the same way, we believe that our everyday experience is solid and real. But Shakyamuni Buddha taught that it is just as illusory as a dream, mind’s nature is emptiness, a rainbow, a mirage, or a reflection of the moon in water. Just as a parent teaches a child that dreams are illusory, the Buddha introduced us to the empty nature of experience.
As vivid as our dream experiences may be, when we wake up, we realize that nothing actually occurred. However, we can’t deny that we did have the dream. Our waking experience is similar to this. Phenomena do appear to us; this is relative truth. But though they arise, we can’t prove that they have inherent existence; this is absolute truth. We don’t embrace absolute truth by denying relative truth. Samsara does arise, just as a good or bad dream arises, but if we examine this relative experience, we find nothing solid, singular, permanent, or true about it. The habits of the mind that make our dreams seem real— that make the ground seem solid, fire seem to burn, and water seem wet— also make our waking experience seem real. We shouldn’t deny that experiences constantly arise, but we need to understand that their true nature is emptiness, beyond extremes. We need to recognize the absolute nature of both our waking and dream experiences. This recognition is called wisdom, or awareness.
The sky is a metaphor for the true nature of mind. There is nothing solid about the sky. Sometimes it is clear; sometimes clouds arise, or rain falls, or lightning flashes. Sometimes rainbows appear. Regardless, the sky has no substance. Similarly, the mind's nature is emptiness, yet it has an unceasing clarity that arises as a pure display.
In development stage practice, we use visualization to transform our ordinary habit of seeing things as solid or permanent, and to recognize their illusory nature. We visualize the details of the palace and the deity—the many implements, colors, and forms—understanding that they are made of light. Eventually, with diligent and consistent practice, we begin to perceive the purity of the display, simultaneously recognizing its empty nature.
At first, it may be difficult to experience this inseparability of emptiness and its pure display. So it is necessary to pray with great faith and receptivity to enlightened beings like the Buddha, asking for their blessings. This can create the interdependence that leads to great realization. Try to recognize the inseparability of your own mind’s essence and theirs. We have the same potential as the buddhas, but it is veiled by our obscurations. We practice in order to remove these obscurations.
As beginning practitioners, we pray to enlightened beings as if they were separate from us. This is fine if we haven’t yet experienced the inseparability of the deity and ourselves. But it is best to understand that the form, speech, and mind of the deity are inseparable from our own pure nature.
The space inside this room appears separate from the space outside. But in essence they are the same. The walls that seem to separate them can be likened to our obscurations, which keep us from seeing that the nature of enlightened beings and our own true nature are the same.
A great Nyingmapa treasure discoverer, Ngala Sogyal, said that the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings is to maintain recognition of the pure nature of experience. It can be difficult for beginning students to maintain or even to encounter this kind of recognition. When you receive empowerment, you are introduced to the true nature of phenomena. If you recognize it, that’s wonderful. If not, that’s okay— pray with faith to enlightened beings that you will eventually be able to do so; also pray that your own suffering and that of all beings be alleviated.
Every aspect of this drubchen practice has profound meaning. The liturgies, songs, images, and mandala all have the power to liberate the practitioner by being heard or seen. Likewise, the teachings have the power to liberate by being heard and con- templated. Focus your mind on practice at whatever level you can. When difficulties arise, keep going and remember that you are creating virtue. Don’t waste this opportunity to practice by trying to make things easier for yourself.
If your knees hurt or your back is stiff, think about the beings in the six realms, whose suffering is hundreds of thousands of times more intense than yours. Empathize with them and increase your compassion. Then aspire to purify their karma through the pain you experience while sitting, so that eventually they will find more fortunate conditions. In this way, you will purify your physical karma.
Sometimes it’s difficult to maintain the mantra and chants. Your voice may get hoarse or your throat sore. Concentrate on the prayers and the words, pronounce them correctly, recite the mantra correctly, and project your voice. Have patience with the process because it will purify your speech karma.
Focus your minds on the practice. Rejoice in creating this virtue, and then dedicate it to all beings with the aspiration that their obscurations will be removed and they will attain enlightenment, beyond suffering. If you haven’t been practicing as strongly as you might, renew your commitment and apply yourself even more diligently. Try always to create virtue and eliminate all non-virtue. Resolve not to waste your life pursuing worldly pleasures. Every day, when you wake up, rejoice that death didn’t take you during the night. You have one more day to live, practice, help beings, and create merit, all of which make the best use of this life.
