Dear noble Sangha,
It is amazing and a great joy to me to see Rinpoche’s dharma activities flourishing everywhere. Best wishes to all of you in your endeavors.
Because Rinpoche has been so kind and Lama Chökyi Nyima and the translation committee have worked so hard to produce Longchenpa’s great Seven Treasuries, please study them. Since the Chöying Dzöd, including its commentary, has come into print, I have been captivated by, devoted to, and supported by it. That such texts are appearing in English is our unbelievable good fortune. When I began searching for the dharma in the early seventies, I was only able to find books like The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. Wow, if the Treasuries had been available then! And what a wonder that some of them are here now for young people searching for the dharma in the West.
Ideally, before even opening the Chöying Dzöd, you would have completed the preliminary practices, or ngondro, and received a Great Perfection empowerment, pointing-out instructions into the nature of mind, oral transmission of the text, and teachings on the text from a realized master. Then you would study it on your own, returning to your teacher to clarify difficult points. Going about this in the appropriate way is like tilling the earth deeply, cultivating the soil, planting at the appropriate time, and tending the crops properly. In these fast-paced times, many precious texts are circulating freely. Some people read them too casually and make quick judgments about their contents, thinking they’ve understood the minds of the buddhas. Then the next week they get lost in some melodrama and wonder what happened to their great realization. Inadequate preparation is like scratching the surface of a patch of crusty ground with an old rake, tossing out a handful of seeds, and hoping for a bountiful harvest.
It is difficult at first to enter into the deep meaning of the words while you’re in the midst of life’s activities. In any case, don’t read the text casually, like a novel, or go over it with your critical mind, finding fault with Longchenpa and the tantras. You won’t get far that way. Occasionally I will ask someone, “Have you read the Chöying Dzöd?” and they will say, “Oh, yeah, I read it,” as though they’re talking about last year’s best-seller. It seems they didn’t quite get it. Some say to me, “There are so many words. Awareness is so simple. Why does Longchenpa make it so complicated?” Well, if it’s so simple, have you stabilized your recognition of awareness so that you never lose it during the entire day and night? Are you free of fixation?
One reason there are so many words is that we have so many ways of misunderstanding what is so simple. The view of the Great Perfection is spacious, the meditation is natural, the conduct is effortless, and the fruition is suchness itself. However, our view tends toward extremes, our meditation is flawed by our effort, our conduct is rigid because of our acceptance and rejection, and we miss the fruition altogether. So it was out of compassion for all the ways we err that Lonchenpa wrote so extensively. Think of all the hardships he endured to gain the realization that enabled him to compose this book. At the very least, have enough patience to learn some of the unique language of the Great Perfection so that you can enter the deep meaning. Scholars study for years in order to fathom such a text, and yogis meditate for years to experience the meaning of the words. We in the West, who lack years of both study and meditation, tend to be too quick to judge such profound writings.
Ideally, you should ask your lama if it is a good time for you to read the text. Reading it at the wrong time can confuse you; reading it at the right time will support and enhance your practice. Jigme Lingpa was so inspired by Longchenpa’s writings and felt such unshakable faith in and devotion for Longchenpa that when he prayed fervently to him, Longchenpa appeared and granted him the empowerments and teachings of the Longchen Nyingtik cycle, which includes the Tiglei Gyachen guru sadhana that we practice today.
When you do read the book, approach it as if you were going to Longchenpa for teachings. Reflect on how, currently, your mind is lost in the dream of this life, ceaselessly riding the waves of hope and fear, of joy and suffering, so preoccupied with countless variations of self-clinging that you are barely able to truly help others. Pray to Longchenpa, inseparable from your own kind root guru, “Please correct my wrong views, explain the unerring path of meditation, and advise me on authentic conduct, so that the fruition which is beyond attainment becomes evident.”
If you feel drawn to the practice of guru yoga and meditation, and you truly have glimpses of awareness, you will find this book to be like medicine that cures the illness of wrong view, shattering your concepts and freeing your small-mindedness. Longchenpa will point out flaws in your ideas about Great Perfection meditation and advise you on the key points, so that your practice will be renewed. He will tell you what is meant by conduct, or activity, that will free you from pretense, and will show the nature and benefit of the goal-less goal, should you choose to follow such a path. When you feel stuck in your practice or burned out by your karma, he will lighten your heart and bring you back to what truly has meaning.
When you are gripped by the five poisons, he will expose their weakness, showing how they are naturally free, so that you won’t waste time toying with antidotes. When you are feeling like a know-it-all and puffed up over your own experiences, you will be humbled by the grandeur of Longchenpa’s vast knowledge and realization. When you realize that your own understanding and experience are relatively insignificant, deep admiration and respect will arise. When you doubt your own experience, Longchenpa will encourage you and advise you on how to proceed. When you feel bereft, he will, like a kind parent, make you feel cared for and nurtured. Once you become familiar with the entire text, it will become a kind of transcendent map that will enable you to find your bearings and know where you are on the path.
I could write for pages praising just this one text, but you might as well read Patrul Rinpoche’s praise at the back of the book; it’s far superior to my fumbling words.
Traditionally, out of respect for their sacred content and origins, the holy texts of the dharma are covered with cloth, so make a lovely cover or case for the Chöying Dzöd. Also keep it in a high place. The words of a buddha are the relics of the dharmakaya, and to honor their preciousness, texts are often put on a shelf above the statues on a shrine. In that way, you can make offerings to the statues as representations of enlightened form, as well as to Longchenpa’s enlightened speech and that of all buddhas. Making offerings increases your merit and deepens your awareness, which will help you to understand the text. Alternatively, you may place the book somewhere over your bed, so that Longchenpa’s blessings are above the crown of your head when you sleep. I remember Rinpoche having me build him a shelf during a retreat so that his texts could be above his crown at night. Longchenpa himself said, “To those of you fortunate enough to have a devoted interest in this sublime spiritual approach, my earnest advice is: this text will serve as your eyes, so treat it with the highest respect.”
But of course the book is not meant to be read once and then beautifully covered and left on top of your shrine for the next ten years. It seems to be a Western habit to read a book once, be done with it, put it on a shelf, and get another. Some people amass amazing libraries of dharma books that way! If you have a particular sadhana practice that you are devoted to, think of how many times you’ve turned those pages and read those same words—ideally until you’ve memorized them and have realized that you and the deity are inseparable. It’s the same with the Chöying Dzöd. You should read it again and again, year after year. The great Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, who was Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s previous incarnation, said that one should devote whatever intelligence one has to reading these texts over and over, for they are the repositories of the dakinis’ secrets and are beyond compare.
Whenever you read the text, you can formulate your own prayers based on your heart’s wishes and devotion, or you can recite the “Prayers before Teachings” while visualizing Longchenpa, inseparable from your root guru, in front of you. After a session of reading, dedicate the merit to all beings, using the “Prayers after Teachings” or any other that you wish, praying that they might awaken to their inherent buddha nature.
It would be excellent if you could go into retreat, for a short time or a long period, setting aside everything else and focusing your mind by studying the Chöying Dzöd, practicing the Tiglei Gyachen guru sadhana, and meditating. These are all aspects of guru yoga practice, and they support each other. Guru yoga is the simplest and most expedient way to free the ordinary mind from its self-created delusions, which are rooted in dualistic fixation. To visualize and meditate on yourself as Longchenpa is to rely on his enlightened form; to read the Chöying Dzöd is to rely on his enlightened speech; and to rest in the recognition of awareness is to rely on his enlightened mind. By practicing in this way, you will come to directly perceive that the ineffable, spontaneously present nature of all forms and thoughts that arise are no different from the guru’s enlightened form, speech, and mind. This is what it means to “see everything as the display of the guru.” Then you will rely on this pure vision as the path.
When you actually study the Chöying Dzöd, including its commentary, read it through once to get an overview. As you read, keep notes on the pages and sections that inspire you, so that you can find them easily and go back to them later. As your meditation practice deepens, so will your understanding of the text. Over time, you will find certain passages that are especially helpful to you—write these down. Memorize some of them, so that you can bring them to mind at any time or place. Some great practitioners memorize whole sections or the entire root text. Reading the Chöying Dzöd is very similar to reciting mantra; it protects the mind by guiding it in a positive way. Think of all the mantras you recite mindlessly every day while thinking of other things; you might be better off reciting a passage from the book mindfully, with devotion, and meditating on the meaning.
After reading through the whole text once, go back to Chapter 10 (the root text with its commentary) and take that as the core of your study for a while—particularly the four ways of settling. It’s not enough to just read about them. To develop confidence, you need to devote a lot of time to formal practice. There are a number of key points or pith instructions, advice that Longchenpa gives you directly. Use these one by one as they appear in Chapter 10, memorizing those that are most helpful. Work with just one for a number of days or weeks, until you feel that it has really taken effect—you are one with the meaning and you can place your mind in that way at will, whenever you want. Then go on to the next, and so on. In this way, you will begin to take the words to heart, going beyond intellectual understanding.
Once you have gone through Chapter 10 in this way, put the book on your shrine and don’t read it for a while. Just practice guru yoga and formal trekchö, and see now where your practice is at, what you’ve really got. To support your meditation, you may refer to the passages you have written down or memorized, but for the most part, let go of words and rely more on the essence of awareness, which is totally free of concepts.
After a time, you may feel you’ve hit the limits of your practice, thinking, “Longchenpa help me!” Or you may come to doubt your experience, thinking, “Longchenpa save me!” In some way, your own efforts will fall short. At that point, read the book from the beginning again, more slowly this time, really contemplating each passage. Continue to intuitively weave the three aspects of guru yoga, study, and meditation together so that your practice doesn’t become mindless, but is always fresh.
You may bring your questions to your teacher, but you may not always find that a verbal answer will resolve them. If your guru yoga is working, then just being in your teacher’s presence can answer questions and open your mind, but if you have doubts and are critical of your teacher, the door to understanding will be blocked.
As great as the Chöying Dzöd is, never make the mistake of thinking that it can replace your guru yoga practice with a living teacher. In an instant, with a gesture or a few words—at any time and in any place—the guru can show you awareness, your own true face, and that moment will be forever imprinted in your mind. You need to have that initial experience through the guru’s grace in order to practice authentically, and you can’t get it from a book, no matter how profound the book is. This direct experience is like the master key that unlocks all doors. Once you have had it, you will find that the entire Chöying Dzöd relates to that experience, helping to nurture it and filling out your understanding.
Once, when we were in the early phases of construction at Rigdzin Ling, I was deep in the trenches, literally, working on the main plumbing lines going across what we call moonland. I had a question about some building details, so I rode my bicycle to the mechanics’ shop to talk to Rinpoche. When I got there, he was sitting on the floor with a few people, sculpting in cement. The building wasn’t fully enclosed, so I just straddled the bicycle while I asked Rinpoche my question. He was spooning cement into a bowl as he answered me, and didn’t bother to look up. As I looked at him, listening to his answer, there was something about seeing his gesture of moving the cement—my ordinary mind’s fixation on everything fell away, and awareness became evident. Nothing changed, but everything was like a reflection on water. I hadn’t come to ask about practice, and he didn’t say, “Okay, everyone, stop joking around; put down your tools and sit up straight. I’m going to give pointing-out instructions on the nature of your minds.” He just was the view, he was meditation, and he was conduct. There was total transmission in this ordinary instant. It was so utterly simple and so mind-shatteringly profound, I was speechless. So I simply thanked him for the “answer” and went back to plumbing with a literally opened mind. He was always transmitting the meaning of the Great Perfection like that, in the shrine room or wherever else he was, to anyone who was open to him.
Now that Rinpoche has left his body, how can you continue to connect with him, your precious root teacher? An excellent way is to pray to him, meditate that you are receiving the four empowerments, and blend your mind with his every day, using the guru yoga in your ngondro practice. You may also have realized that he is inseparable from Tara, Tröma, Vajrakilaya, or whoever your chosen deity is, and that to rely on your deity practice is to rely on him. When compassion, the foundation of the path, leads you to benefit others, you may remember that it is because of Rinpoche that bodhichitta has arisen in your mindstream and you will feel connected to his heart-mind. And when the recognition of awareness dawns within your mind, you will see that on that level there is no coming together or going apart, only the magical display of the teacher–student relationship as the radiance of awareness itself.
Whether he has a human form or not, his blessings are always with us, but it is essential that we hold dearly all his dharma advice and practice persistently to make it and our lives one and the same.
Best wishes for your study, contemplation, and meditation.
Love,
Lama Drimed
Dear noble Sangha,
It is amazing and a great joy to me to see Rinpoche’s dharma activities flourishing everywhere. Best wishes to all of you in your endeavors.
Because Rinpoche has been so kind and Lama Chökyi Nyima and the translation committee have worked so hard to produce Longchenpa’s great Seven Treasuries, please study them. Since the Chöying Dzöd, including its commentary, has come into print, I have been captivated by, devoted to, and supported by it. That such texts are appearing in English is our unbelievable good fortune. When I began searching for the dharma in the early seventies, I was only able to find books like The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. Wow, if the Treasuries had been available then! And what a wonder that some of them are here now for young people searching for the dharma in the West.
Ideally, before even opening the Chöying Dzöd, you would have completed the preliminary practices, or ngondro, and received a Great Perfection empowerment, pointing-out instructions into the nature of mind, oral transmission of the text, and teachings on the text from a realized master. Then you would study it on your own, returning to your teacher to clarify difficult points. Going about this in the appropriate way is like tilling the earth deeply, cultivating the soil, planting at the appropriate time, and tending the crops properly. In these fast-paced times, many precious texts are circulating freely. Some people read them too casually and make quick judgments about their contents, thinking they’ve understood the minds of the buddhas. Then the next week they get lost in some melodrama and wonder what happened to their great realization. Inadequate preparation is like scratching the surface of a patch of crusty ground with an old rake, tossing out a handful of seeds, and hoping for a bountiful harvest.
It is difficult at first to enter into the deep meaning of the words while you’re in the midst of life’s activities. In any case, don’t read the text casually, like a novel, or go over it with your critical mind, finding fault with Longchenpa and the tantras. You won’t get far that way. Occasionally I will ask someone, “Have you read the Chöying Dzöd?” and they will say, “Oh, yeah, I read it,” as though they’re talking about last year’s best-seller. It seems they didn’t quite get it. Some say to me, “There are so many words. Awareness is so simple. Why does Longchenpa make it so complicated?” Well, if it’s so simple, have you stabilized your recognition of awareness so that you never lose it during the entire day and night? Are you free of fixation?
One reason there are so many words is that we have so many ways of misunderstanding what is so simple. The view of the Great Perfection is spacious, the meditation is natural, the conduct is effortless, and the fruition is suchness itself. However, our view tends toward extremes, our meditation is flawed by our effort, our conduct is rigid because of our acceptance and rejection, and we miss the fruition altogether. So it was out of compassion for all the ways we err that Lonchenpa wrote so extensively. Think of all the hardships he endured to gain the realization that enabled him to compose this book. At the very least, have enough patience to learn some of the unique language of the Great Perfection so that you can enter the deep meaning. Scholars study for years in order to fathom such a text, and yogis meditate for years to experience the meaning of the words. We in the West, who lack years of both study and meditation, tend to be too quick to judge such profound writings.
Ideally, you should ask your lama if it is a good time for you to read the text. Reading it at the wrong time can confuse you; reading it at the right time will support and enhance your practice. Jigme Lingpa was so inspired by Longchenpa’s writings and felt such unshakable faith in and devotion for Longchenpa that when he prayed fervently to him, Longchenpa appeared and granted him the empowerments and teachings of the Longchen Nyingtik cycle, which includes the Tiglei Gyachen guru sadhana that we practice today.
When you do read the book, approach it as if you were going to Longchenpa for teachings. Reflect on how, currently, your mind is lost in the dream of this life, ceaselessly riding the waves of hope and fear, of joy and suffering, so preoccupied with countless variations of self-clinging that you are barely able to truly help others. Pray to Longchenpa, inseparable from your own kind root guru, “Please correct my wrong views, explain the unerring path of meditation, and advise me on authentic conduct, so that the fruition which is beyond attainment becomes evident.”
If you feel drawn to the practice of guru yoga and meditation, and you truly have glimpses of awareness, you will find this book to be like medicine that cures the illness of wrong view, shattering your concepts and freeing your small-mindedness. Longchenpa will point out flaws in your ideas about Great Perfection meditation and advise you on the key points, so that your practice will be renewed. He will tell you what is meant by conduct, or activity, that will free you from pretense, and will show the nature and benefit of the goal-less goal, should you choose to follow such a path. When you feel stuck in your practice or burned out by your karma, he will lighten your heart and bring you back to what truly has meaning.
When you are gripped by the five poisons, he will expose their weakness, showing how they are naturally free, so that you won’t waste time toying with antidotes. When you are feeling like a know-it-all and puffed up over your own experiences, you will be humbled by the grandeur of Longchenpa’s vast knowledge and realization. When you realize that your own understanding and experience are relatively insignificant, deep admiration and respect will arise. When you doubt your own experience, Longchenpa will encourage you and advise you on how to proceed. When you feel bereft, he will, like a kind parent, make you feel cared for and nurtured. Once you become familiar with the entire text, it will become a kind of transcendent map that will enable you to find your bearings and know where you are on the path.
I could write for pages praising just this one text, but you might as well read Patrul Rinpoche’s praise at the back of the book; it’s far superior to my fumbling words.
Traditionally, out of respect for their sacred content and origins, the holy texts of the dharma are covered with cloth, so make a lovely cover or case for the Chöying Dzöd. Also keep it in a high place. The words of a buddha are the relics of the dharmakaya, and to honor their preciousness, texts are often put on a shelf above the statues on a shrine. In that way, you can make offerings to the statues as representations of enlightened form, as well as to Longchenpa’s enlightened speech and that of all buddhas. Making offerings increases your merit and deepens your awareness, which will help you to understand the text. Alternatively, you may place the book somewhere over your bed, so that Longchenpa’s blessings are above the crown of your head when you sleep. I remember Rinpoche having me build him a shelf during a retreat so that his texts could be above his crown at night. Longchenpa himself said, “To those of you fortunate enough to have a devoted interest in this sublime spiritual approach, my earnest advice is: this text will serve as your eyes, so treat it with the highest respect.”
But of course the book is not meant to be read once and then beautifully covered and left on top of your shrine for the next ten years. It seems to be a Western habit to read a book once, be done with it, put it on a shelf, and get another. Some people amass amazing libraries of dharma books that way! If you have a particular sadhana practice that you are devoted to, think of how many times you’ve turned those pages and read those same words—ideally until you’ve memorized them and have realized that you and the deity are inseparable. It’s the same with the Chöying Dzöd. You should read it again and again, year after year. The great Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, who was Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s previous incarnation, said that one should devote whatever intelligence one has to reading these texts over and over, for they are the repositories of the dakinis’ secrets and are beyond compare.
Whenever you read the text, you can formulate your own prayers based on your heart’s wishes and devotion, or you can recite the “Prayers before Teachings” while visualizing Longchenpa, inseparable from your root guru, in front of you. After a session of reading, dedicate the merit to all beings, using the “Prayers after Teachings” or any other that you wish, praying that they might awaken to their inherent buddha nature.
It would be excellent if you could go into retreat, for a short time or a long period, setting aside everything else and focusing your mind by studying the Chöying Dzöd, practicing the Tiglei Gyachen guru sadhana, and meditating. These are all aspects of guru yoga practice, and they support each other. Guru yoga is the simplest and most expedient way to free the ordinary mind from its self-created delusions, which are rooted in dualistic fixation. To visualize and meditate on yourself as Longchenpa is to rely on his enlightened form; to read the Chöying Dzöd is to rely on his enlightened speech; and to rest in the recognition of awareness is to rely on his enlightened mind. By practicing in this way, you will come to directly perceive that the ineffable, spontaneously present nature of all forms and thoughts that arise are no different from the guru’s enlightened form, speech, and mind. This is what it means to “see everything as the display of the guru.” Then you will rely on this pure vision as the path.
When you actually study the Chöying Dzöd, including its commentary, read it through once to get an overview. As you read, keep notes on the pages and sections that inspire you, so that you can find them easily and go back to them later. As your meditation practice deepens, so will your understanding of the text. Over time, you will find certain passages that are especially helpful to you—write these down. Memorize some of them, so that you can bring them to mind at any time or place. Some great practitioners memorize whole sections or the entire root text. Reading the Chöying Dzöd is very similar to reciting mantra; it protects the mind by guiding it in a positive way. Think of all the mantras you recite mindlessly every day while thinking of other things; you might be better off reciting a passage from the book mindfully, with devotion, and meditating on the meaning.
After reading through the whole text once, go back to Chapter 10 (the root text with its commentary) and take that as the core of your study for a while—particularly the four ways of settling. It’s not enough to just read about them. To develop confidence, you need to devote a lot of time to formal practice. There are a number of key points or pith instructions, advice that Longchenpa gives you directly. Use these one by one as they appear in Chapter 10, memorizing those that are most helpful. Work with just one for a number of days or weeks, until you feel that it has really taken effect—you are one with the meaning and you can place your mind in that way at will, whenever you want. Then go on to the next, and so on. In this way, you will begin to take the words to heart, going beyond intellectual understanding.
Once you have gone through Chapter 10 in this way, put the book on your shrine and don’t read it for a while. Just practice guru yoga and formal trekchö, and see now where your practice is at, what you’ve really got. To support your meditation, you may refer to the passages you have written down or memorized, but for the most part, let go of words and rely more on the essence of awareness, which is totally free of concepts.
After a time, you may feel you’ve hit the limits of your practice, thinking, “Longchenpa help me!” Or you may come to doubt your experience, thinking, “Longchenpa save me!” In some way, your own efforts will fall short. At that point, read the book from the beginning again, more slowly this time, really contemplating each passage. Continue to intuitively weave the three aspects of guru yoga, study, and meditation together so that your practice doesn’t become mindless, but is always fresh.
You may bring your questions to your teacher, but you may not always find that a verbal answer will resolve them. If your guru yoga is working, then just being in your teacher’s presence can answer questions and open your mind, but if you have doubts and are critical of your teacher, the door to understanding will be blocked.
As great as the Chöying Dzöd is, never make the mistake of thinking that it can replace your guru yoga practice with a living teacher. In an instant, with a gesture or a few words—at any time and in any place—the guru can show you awareness, your own true face, and that moment will be forever imprinted in your mind. You need to have that initial experience through the guru’s grace in order to practice authentically, and you can’t get it from a book, no matter how profound the book is. This direct experience is like the master key that unlocks all doors. Once you have had it, you will find that the entire Chöying Dzöd relates to that experience, helping to nurture it and filling out your understanding.
Once, when we were in the early phases of construction at Rigdzin Ling, I was deep in the trenches, literally, working on the main plumbing lines going across what we call moonland. I had a question about some building details, so I rode my bicycle to the mechanics’ shop to talk to Rinpoche. When I got there, he was sitting on the floor with a few people, sculpting in cement. The building wasn’t fully enclosed, so I just straddled the bicycle while I asked Rinpoche my question. He was spooning cement into a bowl as he answered me, and didn’t bother to look up. As I looked at him, listening to his answer, there was something about seeing his gesture of moving the cement—my ordinary mind’s fixation on everything fell away, and awareness became evident. Nothing changed, but everything was like a reflection on water. I hadn’t come to ask about practice, and he didn’t say, “Okay, everyone, stop joking around; put down your tools and sit up straight. I’m going to give pointing-out instructions on the nature of your minds.” He just was the view, he was meditation, and he was conduct. There was total transmission in this ordinary instant. It was so utterly simple and so mind-shatteringly profound, I was speechless. So I simply thanked him for the “answer” and went back to plumbing with a literally opened mind. He was always transmitting the meaning of the Great Perfection like that, in the shrine room or wherever else he was, to anyone who was open to him.
Now that Rinpoche has left his body, how can you continue to connect with him, your precious root teacher? An excellent way is to pray to him, meditate that you are receiving the four empowerments, and blend your mind with his every day, using the guru yoga in your ngondro practice. You may also have realized that he is inseparable from Tara, Tröma, Vajrakilaya, or whoever your chosen deity is, and that to rely on your deity practice is to rely on him. When compassion, the foundation of the path, leads you to benefit others, you may remember that it is because of Rinpoche that bodhichitta has arisen in your mindstream and you will feel connected to his heart-mind. And when the recognition of awareness dawns within your mind, you will see that on that level there is no coming together or going apart, only the magical display of the teacher–student relationship as the radiance of awareness itself.
Whether he has a human form or not, his blessings are always with us, but it is essential that we hold dearly all his dharma advice and practice persistently to make it and our lives one and the same.
Best wishes for your study, contemplation, and meditation.
Love,
Lama Drimed
Dear noble Sangha,
It is amazing and a great joy to me to see Rinpoche’s dharma activities flourishing everywhere. Best wishes to all of you in your endeavors.
Because Rinpoche has been so kind and Lama Chökyi Nyima and the translation committee have worked so hard to produce Longchenpa’s great Seven Treasuries, please study them. Since the Chöying Dzöd, including its commentary, has come into print, I have been captivated by, devoted to, and supported by it. That such texts are appearing in English is our unbelievable good fortune. When I began searching for the dharma in the early seventies, I was only able to find books like The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. Wow, if the Treasuries had been available then! And what a wonder that some of them are here now for young people searching for the dharma in the West.
Ideally, before even opening the Chöying Dzöd, you would have completed the preliminary practices, or ngondro, and received a Great Perfection empowerment, pointing-out instructions into the nature of mind, oral transmission of the text, and teachings on the text from a realized master. Then you would study it on your own, returning to your teacher to clarify difficult points. Going about this in the appropriate way is like tilling the earth deeply, cultivating the soil, planting at the appropriate time, and tending the crops properly. In these fast-paced times, many precious texts are circulating freely. Some people read them too casually and make quick judgments about their contents, thinking they’ve understood the minds of the buddhas. Then the next week they get lost in some melodrama and wonder what happened to their great realization. Inadequate preparation is like scratching the surface of a patch of crusty ground with an old rake, tossing out a handful of seeds, and hoping for a bountiful harvest.
It is difficult at first to enter into the deep meaning of the words while you’re in the midst of life’s activities. In any case, don’t read the text casually, like a novel, or go over it with your critical mind, finding fault with Longchenpa and the tantras. You won’t get far that way. Occasionally I will ask someone, “Have you read the Chöying Dzöd?” and they will say, “Oh, yeah, I read it,” as though they’re talking about last year’s best-seller. It seems they didn’t quite get it. Some say to me, “There are so many words. Awareness is so simple. Why does Longchenpa make it so complicated?” Well, if it’s so simple, have you stabilized your recognition of awareness so that you never lose it during the entire day and night? Are you free of fixation?
One reason there are so many words is that we have so many ways of misunderstanding what is so simple. The view of the Great Perfection is spacious, the meditation is natural, the conduct is effortless, and the fruition is suchness itself. However, our view tends toward extremes, our meditation is flawed by our effort, our conduct is rigid because of our acceptance and rejection, and we miss the fruition altogether. So it was out of compassion for all the ways we err that Lonchenpa wrote so extensively. Think of all the hardships he endured to gain the realization that enabled him to compose this book. At the very least, have enough patience to learn some of the unique language of the Great Perfection so that you can enter the deep meaning. Scholars study for years in order to fathom such a text, and yogis meditate for years to experience the meaning of the words. We in the West, who lack years of both study and meditation, tend to be too quick to judge such profound writings.
Ideally, you should ask your lama if it is a good time for you to read the text. Reading it at the wrong time can confuse you; reading it at the right time will support and enhance your practice. Jigme Lingpa was so inspired by Longchenpa’s writings and felt such unshakable faith in and devotion for Longchenpa that when he prayed fervently to him, Longchenpa appeared and granted him the empowerments and teachings of the Longchen Nyingtik cycle, which includes the Tiglei Gyachen guru sadhana that we practice today.
When you do read the book, approach it as if you were going to Longchenpa for teachings. Reflect on how, currently, your mind is lost in the dream of this life, ceaselessly riding the waves of hope and fear, of joy and suffering, so preoccupied with countless variations of self-clinging that you are barely able to truly help others. Pray to Longchenpa, inseparable from your own kind root guru, “Please correct my wrong views, explain the unerring path of meditation, and advise me on authentic conduct, so that the fruition which is beyond attainment becomes evident.”
If you feel drawn to the practice of guru yoga and meditation, and you truly have glimpses of awareness, you will find this book to be like medicine that cures the illness of wrong view, shattering your concepts and freeing your small-mindedness. Longchenpa will point out flaws in your ideas about Great Perfection meditation and advise you on the key points, so that your practice will be renewed. He will tell you what is meant by conduct, or activity, that will free you from pretense, and will show the nature and benefit of the goal-less goal, should you choose to follow such a path. When you feel stuck in your practice or burned out by your karma, he will lighten your heart and bring you back to what truly has meaning.
When you are gripped by the five poisons, he will expose their weakness, showing how they are naturally free, so that you won’t waste time toying with antidotes. When you are feeling like a know-it-all and puffed up over your own experiences, you will be humbled by the grandeur of Longchenpa’s vast knowledge and realization. When you realize that your own understanding and experience are relatively insignificant, deep admiration and respect will arise. When you doubt your own experience, Longchenpa will encourage you and advise you on how to proceed. When you feel bereft, he will, like a kind parent, make you feel cared for and nurtured. Once you become familiar with the entire text, it will become a kind of transcendent map that will enable you to find your bearings and know where you are on the path.
I could write for pages praising just this one text, but you might as well read Patrul Rinpoche’s praise at the back of the book; it’s far superior to my fumbling words.
Traditionally, out of respect for their sacred content and origins, the holy texts of the dharma are covered with cloth, so make a lovely cover or case for the Chöying Dzöd. Also keep it in a high place. The words of a buddha are the relics of the dharmakaya, and to honor their preciousness, texts are often put on a shelf above the statues on a shrine. In that way, you can make offerings to the statues as representations of enlightened form, as well as to Longchenpa’s enlightened speech and that of all buddhas. Making offerings increases your merit and deepens your awareness, which will help you to understand the text. Alternatively, you may place the book somewhere over your bed, so that Longchenpa’s blessings are above the crown of your head when you sleep. I remember Rinpoche having me build him a shelf during a retreat so that his texts could be above his crown at night. Longchenpa himself said, “To those of you fortunate enough to have a devoted interest in this sublime spiritual approach, my earnest advice is: this text will serve as your eyes, so treat it with the highest respect.”
But of course the book is not meant to be read once and then beautifully covered and left on top of your shrine for the next ten years. It seems to be a Western habit to read a book once, be done with it, put it on a shelf, and get another. Some people amass amazing libraries of dharma books that way! If you have a particular sadhana practice that you are devoted to, think of how many times you’ve turned those pages and read those same words—ideally until you’ve memorized them and have realized that you and the deity are inseparable. It’s the same with the Chöying Dzöd. You should read it again and again, year after year. The great Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, who was Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s previous incarnation, said that one should devote whatever intelligence one has to reading these texts over and over, for they are the repositories of the dakinis’ secrets and are beyond compare.
Whenever you read the text, you can formulate your own prayers based on your heart’s wishes and devotion, or you can recite the “Prayers before Teachings” while visualizing Longchenpa, inseparable from your root guru, in front of you. After a session of reading, dedicate the merit to all beings, using the “Prayers after Teachings” or any other that you wish, praying that they might awaken to their inherent buddha nature.
It would be excellent if you could go into retreat, for a short time or a long period, setting aside everything else and focusing your mind by studying the Chöying Dzöd, practicing the Tiglei Gyachen guru sadhana, and meditating. These are all aspects of guru yoga practice, and they support each other. Guru yoga is the simplest and most expedient way to free the ordinary mind from its self-created delusions, which are rooted in dualistic fixation. To visualize and meditate on yourself as Longchenpa is to rely on his enlightened form; to read the Chöying Dzöd is to rely on his enlightened speech; and to rest in the recognition of awareness is to rely on his enlightened mind. By practicing in this way, you will come to directly perceive that the ineffable, spontaneously present nature of all forms and thoughts that arise are no different from the guru’s enlightened form, speech, and mind. This is what it means to “see everything as the display of the guru.” Then you will rely on this pure vision as the path.
When you actually study the Chöying Dzöd, including its commentary, read it through once to get an overview. As you read, keep notes on the pages and sections that inspire you, so that you can find them easily and go back to them later. As your meditation practice deepens, so will your understanding of the text. Over time, you will find certain passages that are especially helpful to you—write these down. Memorize some of them, so that you can bring them to mind at any time or place. Some great practitioners memorize whole sections or the entire root text. Reading the Chöying Dzöd is very similar to reciting mantra; it protects the mind by guiding it in a positive way. Think of all the mantras you recite mindlessly every day while thinking of other things; you might be better off reciting a passage from the book mindfully, with devotion, and meditating on the meaning.
After reading through the whole text once, go back to Chapter 10 (the root text with its commentary) and take that as the core of your study for a while—particularly the four ways of settling. It’s not enough to just read about them. To develop confidence, you need to devote a lot of time to formal practice. There are a number of key points or pith instructions, advice that Longchenpa gives you directly. Use these one by one as they appear in Chapter 10, memorizing those that are most helpful. Work with just one for a number of days or weeks, until you feel that it has really taken effect—you are one with the meaning and you can place your mind in that way at will, whenever you want. Then go on to the next, and so on. In this way, you will begin to take the words to heart, going beyond intellectual understanding.
Once you have gone through Chapter 10 in this way, put the book on your shrine and don’t read it for a while. Just practice guru yoga and formal trekchö, and see now where your practice is at, what you’ve really got. To support your meditation, you may refer to the passages you have written down or memorized, but for the most part, let go of words and rely more on the essence of awareness, which is totally free of concepts.
After a time, you may feel you’ve hit the limits of your practice, thinking, “Longchenpa help me!” Or you may come to doubt your experience, thinking, “Longchenpa save me!” In some way, your own efforts will fall short. At that point, read the book from the beginning again, more slowly this time, really contemplating each passage. Continue to intuitively weave the three aspects of guru yoga, study, and meditation together so that your practice doesn’t become mindless, but is always fresh.
You may bring your questions to your teacher, but you may not always find that a verbal answer will resolve them. If your guru yoga is working, then just being in your teacher’s presence can answer questions and open your mind, but if you have doubts and are critical of your teacher, the door to understanding will be blocked.
As great as the Chöying Dzöd is, never make the mistake of thinking that it can replace your guru yoga practice with a living teacher. In an instant, with a gesture or a few words—at any time and in any place—the guru can show you awareness, your own true face, and that moment will be forever imprinted in your mind. You need to have that initial experience through the guru’s grace in order to practice authentically, and you can’t get it from a book, no matter how profound the book is. This direct experience is like the master key that unlocks all doors. Once you have had it, you will find that the entire Chöying Dzöd relates to that experience, helping to nurture it and filling out your understanding.
Once, when we were in the early phases of construction at Rigdzin Ling, I was deep in the trenches, literally, working on the main plumbing lines going across what we call moonland. I had a question about some building details, so I rode my bicycle to the mechanics’ shop to talk to Rinpoche. When I got there, he was sitting on the floor with a few people, sculpting in cement. The building wasn’t fully enclosed, so I just straddled the bicycle while I asked Rinpoche my question. He was spooning cement into a bowl as he answered me, and didn’t bother to look up. As I looked at him, listening to his answer, there was something about seeing his gesture of moving the cement—my ordinary mind’s fixation on everything fell away, and awareness became evident. Nothing changed, but everything was like a reflection on water. I hadn’t come to ask about practice, and he didn’t say, “Okay, everyone, stop joking around; put down your tools and sit up straight. I’m going to give pointing-out instructions on the nature of your minds.” He just was the view, he was meditation, and he was conduct. There was total transmission in this ordinary instant. It was so utterly simple and so mind-shatteringly profound, I was speechless. So I simply thanked him for the “answer” and went back to plumbing with a literally opened mind. He was always transmitting the meaning of the Great Perfection like that, in the shrine room or wherever else he was, to anyone who was open to him.
Now that Rinpoche has left his body, how can you continue to connect with him, your precious root teacher? An excellent way is to pray to him, meditate that you are receiving the four empowerments, and blend your mind with his every day, using the guru yoga in your ngondro practice. You may also have realized that he is inseparable from Tara, Tröma, Vajrakilaya, or whoever your chosen deity is, and that to rely on your deity practice is to rely on him. When compassion, the foundation of the path, leads you to benefit others, you may remember that it is because of Rinpoche that bodhichitta has arisen in your mindstream and you will feel connected to his heart-mind. And when the recognition of awareness dawns within your mind, you will see that on that level there is no coming together or going apart, only the magical display of the teacher–student relationship as the radiance of awareness itself.
Whether he has a human form or not, his blessings are always with us, but it is essential that we hold dearly all his dharma advice and practice persistently to make it and our lives one and the same.
Best wishes for your study, contemplation, and meditation.
Love,
Lama Drimed
Dear noble Sangha,
It is amazing and a great joy to me to see Rinpoche’s dharma activities flourishing everywhere. Best wishes to all of you in your endeavors.
Because Rinpoche has been so kind and Lama Chökyi Nyima and the translation committee have worked so hard to produce Longchenpa’s great Seven Treasuries, please study them. Since the Chöying Dzöd, including its commentary, has come into print, I have been captivated by, devoted to, and supported by it. That such texts are appearing in English is our unbelievable good fortune. When I began searching for the dharma in the early seventies, I was only able to find books like The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. Wow, if the Treasuries had been available then! And what a wonder that some of them are here now for young people searching for the dharma in the West.
Ideally, before even opening the Chöying Dzöd, you would have completed the preliminary practices, or ngondro, and received a Great Perfection empowerment, pointing-out instructions into the nature of mind, oral transmission of the text, and teachings on the text from a realized master. Then you would study it on your own, returning to your teacher to clarify difficult points. Going about this in the appropriate way is like tilling the earth deeply, cultivating the soil, planting at the appropriate time, and tending the crops properly. In these fast-paced times, many precious texts are circulating freely. Some people read them too casually and make quick judgments about their contents, thinking they’ve understood the minds of the buddhas. Then the next week they get lost in some melodrama and wonder what happened to their great realization. Inadequate preparation is like scratching the surface of a patch of crusty ground with an old rake, tossing out a handful of seeds, and hoping for a bountiful harvest.
It is difficult at first to enter into the deep meaning of the words while you’re in the midst of life’s activities. In any case, don’t read the text casually, like a novel, or go over it with your critical mind, finding fault with Longchenpa and the tantras. You won’t get far that way. Occasionally I will ask someone, “Have you read the Chöying Dzöd?” and they will say, “Oh, yeah, I read it,” as though they’re talking about last year’s best-seller. It seems they didn’t quite get it. Some say to me, “There are so many words. Awareness is so simple. Why does Longchenpa make it so complicated?” Well, if it’s so simple, have you stabilized your recognition of awareness so that you never lose it during the entire day and night? Are you free of fixation?
One reason there are so many words is that we have so many ways of misunderstanding what is so simple. The view of the Great Perfection is spacious, the meditation is natural, the conduct is effortless, and the fruition is suchness itself. However, our view tends toward extremes, our meditation is flawed by our effort, our conduct is rigid because of our acceptance and rejection, and we miss the fruition altogether. So it was out of compassion for all the ways we err that Lonchenpa wrote so extensively. Think of all the hardships he endured to gain the realization that enabled him to compose this book. At the very least, have enough patience to learn some of the unique language of the Great Perfection so that you can enter the deep meaning. Scholars study for years in order to fathom such a text, and yogis meditate for years to experience the meaning of the words. We in the West, who lack years of both study and meditation, tend to be too quick to judge such profound writings.
Ideally, you should ask your lama if it is a good time for you to read the text. Reading it at the wrong time can confuse you; reading it at the right time will support and enhance your practice. Jigme Lingpa was so inspired by Longchenpa’s writings and felt such unshakable faith in and devotion for Longchenpa that when he prayed fervently to him, Longchenpa appeared and granted him the empowerments and teachings of the Longchen Nyingtik cycle, which includes the Tiglei Gyachen guru sadhana that we practice today.
When you do read the book, approach it as if you were going to Longchenpa for teachings. Reflect on how, currently, your mind is lost in the dream of this life, ceaselessly riding the waves of hope and fear, of joy and suffering, so preoccupied with countless variations of self-clinging that you are barely able to truly help others. Pray to Longchenpa, inseparable from your own kind root guru, “Please correct my wrong views, explain the unerring path of meditation, and advise me on authentic conduct, so that the fruition which is beyond attainment becomes evident.”
If you feel drawn to the practice of guru yoga and meditation, and you truly have glimpses of awareness, you will find this book to be like medicine that cures the illness of wrong view, shattering your concepts and freeing your small-mindedness. Longchenpa will point out flaws in your ideas about Great Perfection meditation and advise you on the key points, so that your practice will be renewed. He will tell you what is meant by conduct, or activity, that will free you from pretense, and will show the nature and benefit of the goal-less goal, should you choose to follow such a path. When you feel stuck in your practice or burned out by your karma, he will lighten your heart and bring you back to what truly has meaning.
When you are gripped by the five poisons, he will expose their weakness, showing how they are naturally free, so that you won’t waste time toying with antidotes. When you are feeling like a know-it-all and puffed up over your own experiences, you will be humbled by the grandeur of Longchenpa’s vast knowledge and realization. When you realize that your own understanding and experience are relatively insignificant, deep admiration and respect will arise. When you doubt your own experience, Longchenpa will encourage you and advise you on how to proceed. When you feel bereft, he will, like a kind parent, make you feel cared for and nurtured. Once you become familiar with the entire text, it will become a kind of transcendent map that will enable you to find your bearings and know where you are on the path.
I could write for pages praising just this one text, but you might as well read Patrul Rinpoche’s praise at the back of the book; it’s far superior to my fumbling words.
Traditionally, out of respect for their sacred content and origins, the holy texts of the dharma are covered with cloth, so make a lovely cover or case for the Chöying Dzöd. Also keep it in a high place. The words of a buddha are the relics of the dharmakaya, and to honor their preciousness, texts are often put on a shelf above the statues on a shrine. In that way, you can make offerings to the statues as representations of enlightened form, as well as to Longchenpa’s enlightened speech and that of all buddhas. Making offerings increases your merit and deepens your awareness, which will help you to understand the text. Alternatively, you may place the book somewhere over your bed, so that Longchenpa’s blessings are above the crown of your head when you sleep. I remember Rinpoche having me build him a shelf during a retreat so that his texts could be above his crown at night. Longchenpa himself said, “To those of you fortunate enough to have a devoted interest in this sublime spiritual approach, my earnest advice is: this text will serve as your eyes, so treat it with the highest respect.”
But of course the book is not meant to be read once and then beautifully covered and left on top of your shrine for the next ten years. It seems to be a Western habit to read a book once, be done with it, put it on a shelf, and get another. Some people amass amazing libraries of dharma books that way! If you have a particular sadhana practice that you are devoted to, think of how many times you’ve turned those pages and read those same words—ideally until you’ve memorized them and have realized that you and the deity are inseparable. It’s the same with the Chöying Dzöd. You should read it again and again, year after year. The great Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, who was Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s previous incarnation, said that one should devote whatever intelligence one has to reading these texts over and over, for they are the repositories of the dakinis’ secrets and are beyond compare.
Whenever you read the text, you can formulate your own prayers based on your heart’s wishes and devotion, or you can recite the “Prayers before Teachings” while visualizing Longchenpa, inseparable from your root guru, in front of you. After a session of reading, dedicate the merit to all beings, using the “Prayers after Teachings” or any other that you wish, praying that they might awaken to their inherent buddha nature.
It would be excellent if you could go into retreat, for a short time or a long period, setting aside everything else and focusing your mind by studying the Chöying Dzöd, practicing the Tiglei Gyachen guru sadhana, and meditating. These are all aspects of guru yoga practice, and they support each other. Guru yoga is the simplest and most expedient way to free the ordinary mind from its self-created delusions, which are rooted in dualistic fixation. To visualize and meditate on yourself as Longchenpa is to rely on his enlightened form; to read the Chöying Dzöd is to rely on his enlightened speech; and to rest in the recognition of awareness is to rely on his enlightened mind. By practicing in this way, you will come to directly perceive that the ineffable, spontaneously present nature of all forms and thoughts that arise are no different from the guru’s enlightened form, speech, and mind. This is what it means to “see everything as the display of the guru.” Then you will rely on this pure vision as the path.
When you actually study the Chöying Dzöd, including its commentary, read it through once to get an overview. As you read, keep notes on the pages and sections that inspire you, so that you can find them easily and go back to them later. As your meditation practice deepens, so will your understanding of the text. Over time, you will find certain passages that are especially helpful to you—write these down. Memorize some of them, so that you can bring them to mind at any time or place. Some great practitioners memorize whole sections or the entire root text. Reading the Chöying Dzöd is very similar to reciting mantra; it protects the mind by guiding it in a positive way. Think of all the mantras you recite mindlessly every day while thinking of other things; you might be better off reciting a passage from the book mindfully, with devotion, and meditating on the meaning.
After reading through the whole text once, go back to Chapter 10 (the root text with its commentary) and take that as the core of your study for a while—particularly the four ways of settling. It’s not enough to just read about them. To develop confidence, you need to devote a lot of time to formal practice. There are a number of key points or pith instructions, advice that Longchenpa gives you directly. Use these one by one as they appear in Chapter 10, memorizing those that are most helpful. Work with just one for a number of days or weeks, until you feel that it has really taken effect—you are one with the meaning and you can place your mind in that way at will, whenever you want. Then go on to the next, and so on. In this way, you will begin to take the words to heart, going beyond intellectual understanding.
Once you have gone through Chapter 10 in this way, put the book on your shrine and don’t read it for a while. Just practice guru yoga and formal trekchö, and see now where your practice is at, what you’ve really got. To support your meditation, you may refer to the passages you have written down or memorized, but for the most part, let go of words and rely more on the essence of awareness, which is totally free of concepts.
After a time, you may feel you’ve hit the limits of your practice, thinking, “Longchenpa help me!” Or you may come to doubt your experience, thinking, “Longchenpa save me!” In some way, your own efforts will fall short. At that point, read the book from the beginning again, more slowly this time, really contemplating each passage. Continue to intuitively weave the three aspects of guru yoga, study, and meditation together so that your practice doesn’t become mindless, but is always fresh.
You may bring your questions to your teacher, but you may not always find that a verbal answer will resolve them. If your guru yoga is working, then just being in your teacher’s presence can answer questions and open your mind, but if you have doubts and are critical of your teacher, the door to understanding will be blocked.
As great as the Chöying Dzöd is, never make the mistake of thinking that it can replace your guru yoga practice with a living teacher. In an instant, with a gesture or a few words—at any time and in any place—the guru can show you awareness, your own true face, and that moment will be forever imprinted in your mind. You need to have that initial experience through the guru’s grace in order to practice authentically, and you can’t get it from a book, no matter how profound the book is. This direct experience is like the master key that unlocks all doors. Once you have had it, you will find that the entire Chöying Dzöd relates to that experience, helping to nurture it and filling out your understanding.
Once, when we were in the early phases of construction at Rigdzin Ling, I was deep in the trenches, literally, working on the main plumbing lines going across what we call moonland. I had a question about some building details, so I rode my bicycle to the mechanics’ shop to talk to Rinpoche. When I got there, he was sitting on the floor with a few people, sculpting in cement. The building wasn’t fully enclosed, so I just straddled the bicycle while I asked Rinpoche my question. He was spooning cement into a bowl as he answered me, and didn’t bother to look up. As I looked at him, listening to his answer, there was something about seeing his gesture of moving the cement—my ordinary mind’s fixation on everything fell away, and awareness became evident. Nothing changed, but everything was like a reflection on water. I hadn’t come to ask about practice, and he didn’t say, “Okay, everyone, stop joking around; put down your tools and sit up straight. I’m going to give pointing-out instructions on the nature of your minds.” He just was the view, he was meditation, and he was conduct. There was total transmission in this ordinary instant. It was so utterly simple and so mind-shatteringly profound, I was speechless. So I simply thanked him for the “answer” and went back to plumbing with a literally opened mind. He was always transmitting the meaning of the Great Perfection like that, in the shrine room or wherever else he was, to anyone who was open to him.
Now that Rinpoche has left his body, how can you continue to connect with him, your precious root teacher? An excellent way is to pray to him, meditate that you are receiving the four empowerments, and blend your mind with his every day, using the guru yoga in your ngondro practice. You may also have realized that he is inseparable from Tara, Tröma, Vajrakilaya, or whoever your chosen deity is, and that to rely on your deity practice is to rely on him. When compassion, the foundation of the path, leads you to benefit others, you may remember that it is because of Rinpoche that bodhichitta has arisen in your mindstream and you will feel connected to his heart-mind. And when the recognition of awareness dawns within your mind, you will see that on that level there is no coming together or going apart, only the magical display of the teacher–student relationship as the radiance of awareness itself.
Whether he has a human form or not, his blessings are always with us, but it is essential that we hold dearly all his dharma advice and practice persistently to make it and our lives one and the same.
Best wishes for your study, contemplation, and meditation.
Love,
Lama Drimed
Dear noble Sangha,
It is amazing and a great joy to me to see Rinpoche’s dharma activities flourishing everywhere. Best wishes to all of you in your endeavors.
Because Rinpoche has been so kind and Lama Chökyi Nyima and the translation committee have worked so hard to produce Longchenpa’s great Seven Treasuries, please study them. Since the Chöying Dzöd, including its commentary, has come into print, I have been captivated by, devoted to, and supported by it. That such texts are appearing in English is our unbelievable good fortune. When I began searching for the dharma in the early seventies, I was only able to find books like The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. Wow, if the Treasuries had been available then! And what a wonder that some of them are here now for young people searching for the dharma in the West.
Ideally, before even opening the Chöying Dzöd, you would have completed the preliminary practices, or ngondro, and received a Great Perfection empowerment, pointing-out instructions into the nature of mind, oral transmission of the text, and teachings on the text from a realized master. Then you would study it on your own, returning to your teacher to clarify difficult points. Going about this in the appropriate way is like tilling the earth deeply, cultivating the soil, planting at the appropriate time, and tending the crops properly. In these fast-paced times, many precious texts are circulating freely. Some people read them too casually and make quick judgments about their contents, thinking they’ve understood the minds of the buddhas. Then the next week they get lost in some melodrama and wonder what happened to their great realization. Inadequate preparation is like scratching the surface of a patch of crusty ground with an old rake, tossing out a handful of seeds, and hoping for a bountiful harvest.
It is difficult at first to enter into the deep meaning of the words while you’re in the midst of life’s activities. In any case, don’t read the text casually, like a novel, or go over it with your critical mind, finding fault with Longchenpa and the tantras. You won’t get far that way. Occasionally I will ask someone, “Have you read the Chöying Dzöd?” and they will say, “Oh, yeah, I read it,” as though they’re talking about last year’s best-seller. It seems they didn’t quite get it. Some say to me, “There are so many words. Awareness is so simple. Why does Longchenpa make it so complicated?” Well, if it’s so simple, have you stabilized your recognition of awareness so that you never lose it during the entire day and night? Are you free of fixation?
One reason there are so many words is that we have so many ways of misunderstanding what is so simple. The view of the Great Perfection is spacious, the meditation is natural, the conduct is effortless, and the fruition is suchness itself. However, our view tends toward extremes, our meditation is flawed by our effort, our conduct is rigid because of our acceptance and rejection, and we miss the fruition altogether. So it was out of compassion for all the ways we err that Lonchenpa wrote so extensively. Think of all the hardships he endured to gain the realization that enabled him to compose this book. At the very least, have enough patience to learn some of the unique language of the Great Perfection so that you can enter the deep meaning. Scholars study for years in order to fathom such a text, and yogis meditate for years to experience the meaning of the words. We in the West, who lack years of both study and meditation, tend to be too quick to judge such profound writings.
Ideally, you should ask your lama if it is a good time for you to read the text. Reading it at the wrong time can confuse you; reading it at the right time will support and enhance your practice. Jigme Lingpa was so inspired by Longchenpa’s writings and felt such unshakable faith in and devotion for Longchenpa that when he prayed fervently to him, Longchenpa appeared and granted him the empowerments and teachings of the Longchen Nyingtik cycle, which includes the Tiglei Gyachen guru sadhana that we practice today.
When you do read the book, approach it as if you were going to Longchenpa for teachings. Reflect on how, currently, your mind is lost in the dream of this life, ceaselessly riding the waves of hope and fear, of joy and suffering, so preoccupied with countless variations of self-clinging that you are barely able to truly help others. Pray to Longchenpa, inseparable from your own kind root guru, “Please correct my wrong views, explain the unerring path of meditation, and advise me on authentic conduct, so that the fruition which is beyond attainment becomes evident.”
If you feel drawn to the practice of guru yoga and meditation, and you truly have glimpses of awareness, you will find this book to be like medicine that cures the illness of wrong view, shattering your concepts and freeing your small-mindedness. Longchenpa will point out flaws in your ideas about Great Perfection meditation and advise you on the key points, so that your practice will be renewed. He will tell you what is meant by conduct, or activity, that will free you from pretense, and will show the nature and benefit of the goal-less goal, should you choose to follow such a path. When you feel stuck in your practice or burned out by your karma, he will lighten your heart and bring you back to what truly has meaning.
When you are gripped by the five poisons, he will expose their weakness, showing how they are naturally free, so that you won’t waste time toying with antidotes. When you are feeling like a know-it-all and puffed up over your own experiences, you will be humbled by the grandeur of Longchenpa’s vast knowledge and realization. When you realize that your own understanding and experience are relatively insignificant, deep admiration and respect will arise. When you doubt your own experience, Longchenpa will encourage you and advise you on how to proceed. When you feel bereft, he will, like a kind parent, make you feel cared for and nurtured. Once you become familiar with the entire text, it will become a kind of transcendent map that will enable you to find your bearings and know where you are on the path.
I could write for pages praising just this one text, but you might as well read Patrul Rinpoche’s praise at the back of the book; it’s far superior to my fumbling words.
Traditionally, out of respect for their sacred content and origins, the holy texts of the dharma are covered with cloth, so make a lovely cover or case for the Chöying Dzöd. Also keep it in a high place. The words of a buddha are the relics of the dharmakaya, and to honor their preciousness, texts are often put on a shelf above the statues on a shrine. In that way, you can make offerings to the statues as representations of enlightened form, as well as to Longchenpa’s enlightened speech and that of all buddhas. Making offerings increases your merit and deepens your awareness, which will help you to understand the text. Alternatively, you may place the book somewhere over your bed, so that Longchenpa’s blessings are above the crown of your head when you sleep. I remember Rinpoche having me build him a shelf during a retreat so that his texts could be above his crown at night. Longchenpa himself said, “To those of you fortunate enough to have a devoted interest in this sublime spiritual approach, my earnest advice is: this text will serve as your eyes, so treat it with the highest respect.”
But of course the book is not meant to be read once and then beautifully covered and left on top of your shrine for the next ten years. It seems to be a Western habit to read a book once, be done with it, put it on a shelf, and get another. Some people amass amazing libraries of dharma books that way! If you have a particular sadhana practice that you are devoted to, think of how many times you’ve turned those pages and read those same words—ideally until you’ve memorized them and have realized that you and the deity are inseparable. It’s the same with the Chöying Dzöd. You should read it again and again, year after year. The great Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, who was Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s previous incarnation, said that one should devote whatever intelligence one has to reading these texts over and over, for they are the repositories of the dakinis’ secrets and are beyond compare.
Whenever you read the text, you can formulate your own prayers based on your heart’s wishes and devotion, or you can recite the “Prayers before Teachings” while visualizing Longchenpa, inseparable from your root guru, in front of you. After a session of reading, dedicate the merit to all beings, using the “Prayers after Teachings” or any other that you wish, praying that they might awaken to their inherent buddha nature.
It would be excellent if you could go into retreat, for a short time or a long period, setting aside everything else and focusing your mind by studying the Chöying Dzöd, practicing the Tiglei Gyachen guru sadhana, and meditating. These are all aspects of guru yoga practice, and they support each other. Guru yoga is the simplest and most expedient way to free the ordinary mind from its self-created delusions, which are rooted in dualistic fixation. To visualize and meditate on yourself as Longchenpa is to rely on his enlightened form; to read the Chöying Dzöd is to rely on his enlightened speech; and to rest in the recognition of awareness is to rely on his enlightened mind. By practicing in this way, you will come to directly perceive that the ineffable, spontaneously present nature of all forms and thoughts that arise are no different from the guru’s enlightened form, speech, and mind. This is what it means to “see everything as the display of the guru.” Then you will rely on this pure vision as the path.
When you actually study the Chöying Dzöd, including its commentary, read it through once to get an overview. As you read, keep notes on the pages and sections that inspire you, so that you can find them easily and go back to them later. As your meditation practice deepens, so will your understanding of the text. Over time, you will find certain passages that are especially helpful to you—write these down. Memorize some of them, so that you can bring them to mind at any time or place. Some great practitioners memorize whole sections or the entire root text. Reading the Chöying Dzöd is very similar to reciting mantra; it protects the mind by guiding it in a positive way. Think of all the mantras you recite mindlessly every day while thinking of other things; you might be better off reciting a passage from the book mindfully, with devotion, and meditating on the meaning.
After reading through the whole text once, go back to Chapter 10 (the root text with its commentary) and take that as the core of your study for a while—particularly the four ways of settling. It’s not enough to just read about them. To develop confidence, you need to devote a lot of time to formal practice. There are a number of key points or pith instructions, advice that Longchenpa gives you directly. Use these one by one as they appear in Chapter 10, memorizing those that are most helpful. Work with just one for a number of days or weeks, until you feel that it has really taken effect—you are one with the meaning and you can place your mind in that way at will, whenever you want. Then go on to the next, and so on. In this way, you will begin to take the words to heart, going beyond intellectual understanding.
Once you have gone through Chapter 10 in this way, put the book on your shrine and don’t read it for a while. Just practice guru yoga and formal trekchö, and see now where your practice is at, what you’ve really got. To support your meditation, you may refer to the passages you have written down or memorized, but for the most part, let go of words and rely more on the essence of awareness, which is totally free of concepts.
After a time, you may feel you’ve hit the limits of your practice, thinking, “Longchenpa help me!” Or you may come to doubt your experience, thinking, “Longchenpa save me!” In some way, your own efforts will fall short. At that point, read the book from the beginning again, more slowly this time, really contemplating each passage. Continue to intuitively weave the three aspects of guru yoga, study, and meditation together so that your practice doesn’t become mindless, but is always fresh.
You may bring your questions to your teacher, but you may not always find that a verbal answer will resolve them. If your guru yoga is working, then just being in your teacher’s presence can answer questions and open your mind, but if you have doubts and are critical of your teacher, the door to understanding will be blocked.
As great as the Chöying Dzöd is, never make the mistake of thinking that it can replace your guru yoga practice with a living teacher. In an instant, with a gesture or a few words—at any time and in any place—the guru can show you awareness, your own true face, and that moment will be forever imprinted in your mind. You need to have that initial experience through the guru’s grace in order to practice authentically, and you can’t get it from a book, no matter how profound the book is. This direct experience is like the master key that unlocks all doors. Once you have had it, you will find that the entire Chöying Dzöd relates to that experience, helping to nurture it and filling out your understanding.
Once, when we were in the early phases of construction at Rigdzin Ling, I was deep in the trenches, literally, working on the main plumbing lines going across what we call moonland. I had a question about some building details, so I rode my bicycle to the mechanics’ shop to talk to Rinpoche. When I got there, he was sitting on the floor with a few people, sculpting in cement. The building wasn’t fully enclosed, so I just straddled the bicycle while I asked Rinpoche my question. He was spooning cement into a bowl as he answered me, and didn’t bother to look up. As I looked at him, listening to his answer, there was something about seeing his gesture of moving the cement—my ordinary mind’s fixation on everything fell away, and awareness became evident. Nothing changed, but everything was like a reflection on water. I hadn’t come to ask about practice, and he didn’t say, “Okay, everyone, stop joking around; put down your tools and sit up straight. I’m going to give pointing-out instructions on the nature of your minds.” He just was the view, he was meditation, and he was conduct. There was total transmission in this ordinary instant. It was so utterly simple and so mind-shatteringly profound, I was speechless. So I simply thanked him for the “answer” and went back to plumbing with a literally opened mind. He was always transmitting the meaning of the Great Perfection like that, in the shrine room or wherever else he was, to anyone who was open to him.
Now that Rinpoche has left his body, how can you continue to connect with him, your precious root teacher? An excellent way is to pray to him, meditate that you are receiving the four empowerments, and blend your mind with his every day, using the guru yoga in your ngondro practice. You may also have realized that he is inseparable from Tara, Tröma, Vajrakilaya, or whoever your chosen deity is, and that to rely on your deity practice is to rely on him. When compassion, the foundation of the path, leads you to benefit others, you may remember that it is because of Rinpoche that bodhichitta has arisen in your mindstream and you will feel connected to his heart-mind. And when the recognition of awareness dawns within your mind, you will see that on that level there is no coming together or going apart, only the magical display of the teacher–student relationship as the radiance of awareness itself.
Whether he has a human form or not, his blessings are always with us, but it is essential that we hold dearly all his dharma advice and practice persistently to make it and our lives one and the same.
Best wishes for your study, contemplation, and meditation.
Love,
Lama Drimed
